The more I think about it, the more I feel like Rayleigh needed to be in wano, and that him not being in wano was not only a wasted opportunity, but actually crippled the story.
I think Rayleigh being in wano makes sense from multiple angles
He does virtually the same thing as Rayleigh, but he isn't nearly as strong or as knowledgable. The problem with doing this is that it makes it harder for audiences to feel invested in the story. Rayleigh is a character the audience is very familiar with. He was introduced in sabaody, he played an integral role during the timeskip, he was roger's right hand man. People would care infinitely more about wano if these pointless side characters were replaced with more well established ones.
Another one of Oda's issues is his reliance on plot armor and plot convenience. Big Mom is coming to wano but she's too strong, so what do we do? Well, lets make her retarded for half the arc. Because surely turning one of your main antagonists into a joke is good for the story, right? Kaido's haki is way stronger than Luffy's, so lets just let him go from having no ACoC to not only unlocking it, but also mastering it just by having him get KO'd a couple of times.
Bringing in Rayleigh would have solved all of this. Advanced haki would have a better set up, and villains can be allowed to be real villains. The SHs would seemingly have some shot at winning without PIS.
But beyond everything, Rayleigh would have given wano a vital piece it has been missing. An emotional core. I found it utterly impossible to be emotionally invested in the onigashima war. The characters just weren't written well enough for me to care. I think Rayleigh would have created the possibility for better written arcs, specifically for Luffy and as well as the yonko. Kaido and Big Mom have a past with Rayleigh and as well as with Roger. Rayleigh was Luffy's mentor, the one who trained him over the timeskip. He's also a milestone for Luffy to surpass, a legend that Luffy needs to overcome in order to be PK.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Anyways, this idea came to me after watching the finale of the Obi wan Kenobi series. I couldn't help but notice how Rayleigh basically plays the same role as Obi wan did in star wars. Except, Obi wan was an extremely well developed character in both in the original trilogy and the prequels, and Rayleigh was basically used and thrown away by Oda. He came, he taught Luffy haki, now its been 500 chapters since he's actually done anything.
And it came to me how shallow and impersonal OP feels nowadays. Wano is just Luffy going to another arc, befriending some more useless fodder, and said useless fodder turning into the crux of the entire arc. I'm sorry, you can't just use utterly replaceable female characters(Tama, rebecca, ect.) to drive the conflict. Conflict needs to be personal to the MC, that's how you get the audience invested. Izo and Ashura's deaths were horrible and absolutely nobody cared about it. Especially since we the readers needed to wait months for actual confirmation on their deaths.
You know what readers would have cared about? Imagine if Rayleigh 2v1ed Kaido and Big Mom, and died in the process. Imagine Rayleigh seeing Luffy step up to the yonko in his final moments and in those last seconds of life, seeing Roger in Luffy. He dies happy, knowing Roger's will has been inherited. Imagine we get a funeral for Rayleigh post wano and it is in the midst of this sadness that Shanks finally meets Luffy after all these years, acknowledging him as a great pirate.
I know, I know, I'm basically writing fanfic. But these are the types of beats One piece has failed to hit ever since marineford. Who knows, maybe Oda has something better planned for Rayleigh. But honestly, Wano had a decade's worth of set up and imo Oda completely squandered its potential. With how many characters Oda is still yet to cover, I truly wouldn't be surprised if Rayleigh never does anything important again. And that's a shame, because he's far more important than these Tama princess type characters Oda keeps shitting out every single arc.
I think Rayleigh being in wano makes sense from multiple angles
- he was Oden's nakama
- he fought the rocks pirates
- he is Luffy's mentor and this is the arc where Luffy masters CoA, CoC, and surpasses Rayleigh
- there are 2 yonko in wano and in act 1, the alliance was grossly unprepared to deal with this
- Rayleigh's hypothetical death in wano would have boosted the stakes, hyped the yonko, and created a much greater personal reason for Luffy to beat kaido
He does virtually the same thing as Rayleigh, but he isn't nearly as strong or as knowledgable. The problem with doing this is that it makes it harder for audiences to feel invested in the story. Rayleigh is a character the audience is very familiar with. He was introduced in sabaody, he played an integral role during the timeskip, he was roger's right hand man. People would care infinitely more about wano if these pointless side characters were replaced with more well established ones.
Another one of Oda's issues is his reliance on plot armor and plot convenience. Big Mom is coming to wano but she's too strong, so what do we do? Well, lets make her retarded for half the arc. Because surely turning one of your main antagonists into a joke is good for the story, right? Kaido's haki is way stronger than Luffy's, so lets just let him go from having no ACoC to not only unlocking it, but also mastering it just by having him get KO'd a couple of times.
Bringing in Rayleigh would have solved all of this. Advanced haki would have a better set up, and villains can be allowed to be real villains. The SHs would seemingly have some shot at winning without PIS.
But beyond everything, Rayleigh would have given wano a vital piece it has been missing. An emotional core. I found it utterly impossible to be emotionally invested in the onigashima war. The characters just weren't written well enough for me to care. I think Rayleigh would have created the possibility for better written arcs, specifically for Luffy and as well as the yonko. Kaido and Big Mom have a past with Rayleigh and as well as with Roger. Rayleigh was Luffy's mentor, the one who trained him over the timeskip. He's also a milestone for Luffy to surpass, a legend that Luffy needs to overcome in order to be PK.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Anyways, this idea came to me after watching the finale of the Obi wan Kenobi series. I couldn't help but notice how Rayleigh basically plays the same role as Obi wan did in star wars. Except, Obi wan was an extremely well developed character in both in the original trilogy and the prequels, and Rayleigh was basically used and thrown away by Oda. He came, he taught Luffy haki, now its been 500 chapters since he's actually done anything.
And it came to me how shallow and impersonal OP feels nowadays. Wano is just Luffy going to another arc, befriending some more useless fodder, and said useless fodder turning into the crux of the entire arc. I'm sorry, you can't just use utterly replaceable female characters(Tama, rebecca, ect.) to drive the conflict. Conflict needs to be personal to the MC, that's how you get the audience invested. Izo and Ashura's deaths were horrible and absolutely nobody cared about it. Especially since we the readers needed to wait months for actual confirmation on their deaths.
You know what readers would have cared about? Imagine if Rayleigh 2v1ed Kaido and Big Mom, and died in the process. Imagine Rayleigh seeing Luffy step up to the yonko in his final moments and in those last seconds of life, seeing Roger in Luffy. He dies happy, knowing Roger's will has been inherited. Imagine we get a funeral for Rayleigh post wano and it is in the midst of this sadness that Shanks finally meets Luffy after all these years, acknowledging him as a great pirate.
I know, I know, I'm basically writing fanfic. But these are the types of beats One piece has failed to hit ever since marineford. Who knows, maybe Oda has something better planned for Rayleigh. But honestly, Wano had a decade's worth of set up and imo Oda completely squandered its potential. With how many characters Oda is still yet to cover, I truly wouldn't be surprised if Rayleigh never does anything important again. And that's a shame, because he's far more important than these Tama princess type characters Oda keeps shitting out every single arc.
