Break Week Separating the Strawhats for WCI was Narratively Unnecessary

[stairs-kun]

Oda explained this didn't he? Zoro being there would've directly resulted in an actual war.

I think they say it twice in the arc that they didn't come to fight or else they would've brought Zoro along.

Zoro can't be in a fighting arc and not fight. And if we assume Luffy still fights Cracker and Katakuri, Zoro would clear out Smoothie and like Perospero or Daifuku and at that point its an actual war. Also thats like an extra 20 chapters of fighting

Secondly, Zoro in Zou was directly established to have way too strong opinions on the Sanji business. The entire point of WCI would have gotten derailed because Zoro wouldn't just keep quiet or cry like Nami and the rest did. Zoro has a very specific personality and Oda actually goes out of his way to prevent Zoro's personality from clashing with the story he wants to tell. For example in DRessrosa, do you remember that ODa went out of his way to have Zoro doing nothing and getting lost so that Luffy could enter the tournament for the fire fruit? do you realise what would've happened if ZOro was left to enter that tournament? It literally could've easily devolved into aa Luffy vs Zoro fight and its very hard to say that either one of them would just let the other win and already the story has turned upside down.

Notice that anytime Oda has Zoro actively participate in plots, its for very serious situations where a lot of power is needed besides luffy or Zoro's forceful personality is changing something important.

For WCI to stay the same when Zoro is there, you would need to have Zoro just captured in MOnt D'or's book prison from the start to the very end of the arc. Like Film Gold, which is one of the movies supervised by Oda himself. EVen in that movie, the writers knew that Zoro's personality plus how actually strong he is can easily derail any story that isn't actually focusing on combat and so ZOro gets removed from the story so that the strawhats can dick around for an hour instead of like Zoro telling luffy not to fuck around and the two just blitzing the casino and beating everyone up.

Yeah I'm focusing on Zoro and not the other wano strawhats because its obvious that he's the one the plot has to bend over backwards the most to accomodate so the story would have to change the most to have him there but doing nothing

Love the way you explain this. The Grandmaster's aura and stronkness is so potent that even the author has to be careful. This why Zoro is stronger than Luffy. Even Nami knows if they wanted to fight Big Mom, Zoro would be the necessity. He is basically the Backbone of the strawhats.

 

[thedarkdragon11]

Not gonna dig any deeper here, it's a plot armor in favor mostly of BM... Look, even just including Robin alone can make a difference, BM would die... When Jinbe threw BM away from Sunny, Robin can do the same she did in Onigashima...

 

[Hereforthesalt]

Frankly WCI narrative placement itself was all an elaborate scheme to get BM and Kaido allied in the same place so Oda can kill 2 yonkou birds with 1 stone. WCI could've come at any other point in the story but it was inserted prior to Wano for that purpose.

I don't agree with it, but if the series is gonna end before 2100 it had to be done.

 

[HopOnTheHype]

Why does it matter? The strawhats are side characters besides luffy, and it was a sanji arc, nami being there is obvious cuz it being a sanji arc as well. Brook was there cuz he could hurt big mom's intangible (even with buso) creations, etc.

Zoro, Franky, Robin, and Usopp not being there was a good thing, we literally didn't need to spend another 40 chapters in wano to give them panel space, when we didn't even get enough time spent with the vinsmokes, capone, etc, who were only there for the arc. I'd rather have had the extra time to develop the big mom pirates commanders, than watching some half assed franky comedy, robin just chiming in on stuff, zoro drinking and sitting around going "eh?" and usopp....... well usopp can come.

 

[Lifeismeh]

the arc would've been too long imo

beside in the end WCI is just a set up arc, in Elbaf Zoro and the rest will interact and fight against the BM pirates, so in the end Zoro and the rest didn't miss much by not participating in WCI

 

[Electricmastro]

the arc would've been too long imo

beside in the end WCI is just a set up arc, in Elbaf Zoro and the rest will interact and fight against the BM pirates, so in the end Zoro and the rest didn't miss much by not participating in WCI

I’ve come to think that arcs feel longer the more they stay in one location. Imagine if everything like Robin’s proclamation of wanting to live and Luffy’s fight with Lucci had taken place entirely on Water 7 instead of Enies Lobby for example, that would have probably made that hypothetical Water 7 feel much more repetitive despite how good the characterizations and drama were otherwise. I suppose something similar could be said for Dressrosa.

 

[HopOnTheHype]

I’ve come to think that arcs feeling longer the more they stay in one location. Imagine if everything like Robin’s proclamation of wanting to live and Luffy’s fight with Lucci had taken place entirely on Water 7 instead of Enies Lobby for example, that would have probably made that hypothetical Water 7 feel much more repetitive despite how good the characterizations and drama were otherwise. I suppose something similar could be said for Dressrosa.

I mean that's cute and all, but if those characters were in the arc, time would have had to be devoted to them, so either the arc would have had to be objectively longer, or the big mom pirates, capone, the vinsmokes, etc would have had to get less than they already did, and those characters already didn't get enough time.