Character Discussion Should villains in One Piece deserve better treatment?

[serkeara]

Villains in One Piece are very static. They have fix range of skills and can't go beyond that.

At the same time, Luffy and Co can unlock new skills and grow infinity. Since Villain in OP can't kill, I really empathize them as they just wait to get beaten by the hero side.

If we look at Manga like HxH, Jujutsu and Hero Academia, the antagonists can grow as well and that makes the fight much better.

What do you think?

 

[ZenZu]

Facts. For example Haki bloom only exists for Luffy really.

 

[Tyki_Mikk]

If we look at Manga like HxH, Jujutsu and Hero Academia, the antagonists can grow as well and that makes the fight much better.

What do you think?

Aren´t One Piece doing the same?
One Piece start since 20years, the most villians just have one arcs, the one who keep in story growing up, as example the two main villians, BB and Akainu. Or Crocodile, the other mangas do the same, you have few characters who grow up, the others get the same threatment like the most OnePiece villians. HxH was really a unique case with II agree.

 

[Warchief Sanji D Goat]

Apparently Luffy‘s haki can blooms but not Katakuri?

 

[ZenZu]

Aren´t One Piece doing the same?
One Piece start since 20years, the most villians just have one arcs, the one who keep in story growing up, as example the two main villians, BB and Akainu. Or Crocodile, the other mangas do the same, you have few characters who grow up, the others get the same threatment like the most OnePiece villians. HxH was really a unique case with II agree.

Nah he means in the heat of battle. The villains are just cardboard cutouts waiting to be surpassed. They're never optimizing the way they fight either.

Offpanel events for easy growth just so Luffy can defeat them later the same way he always does, is not what he means I think.

 

[Lifeismeh]

I would say overall main villains in One Piece always come out looking impressive when it's all set and done, even after defeat

Rarely people complain that a main arc villain was disappointing as a combatant

Except for Kaido and Big Mom, but they didn't lose yet so they can't be judged yet

 

[Ballel]

It's easy, One Piece is bot a character driven story
Oda don't care about developing characters
He devlops them before the current timeline which he usually shows in a flashback towards the end of their appearance

 

[Herrera95]

Aren´t One Piece doing the same?
One Piece start since 20years, the most villians just have one arcs, the one who keep in story growing up, as example the two main villians, BB and Akainu. Or Crocodile, the other mangas do the same, you have few characters who grow up, the others get the same threatment like the most OnePiece villians. HxH was really a unique case with II agree.

You forgot Smoker/Tashigi and probably Aokiji unleashing awakening with Akainu at their battle. We could even count Coby and Helmeppo.

Now that you said, I guess Meruem and Madara are the only villains getting power up during his fights. And only Meruem hitted well.

In fact I complain about villains not getting power up during fights like MC's get but villains usually doesn't have drawback too like MC's have. And some times when a villain uses something to become stronger sometimes is made pretty bad on One Piece because the villain is usually already winning, then he uses a power up and starts to loses like in Stampede film and it similar to what Kaido is doing now.

In Dragonball it works pretty well villains having power ups. Look at Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Buu.

 

[TheAncientCenturion]

Fully agree. Antagonists are video game bosses and you just need to go through their phases to win. There's no risk of losing because Oda doesn't let a losing fight go on for more than 1 chapter.

I think this is more of a post time skip issue though. In part 1, the series was much more adventure focused so the antagonists served a good, secondary purpose. And in some cases with exceptions like Ennis Lobby, Oda put out a really good story that again made the antagonists and their inevitable defeat pretty palatable.

But post time skip has been veering more and more into the action territory with Wano almost fully cementing it as that for me. So having a giant war where the antagonists follow the same, predictable formula can definitely exhaust some of the hardcore fanbase (internet / forum fans).

 

[Dragomir]

One Piece is structured differently. There's a different villain in each for the protagonists to defeat and once they do, the story moves on to the next island and thus new antagonists. The other mangas you've mentioned all have their villains introduced super early and the manga follows their side of the story as well so we can see their growth until the eventual clash with the main characters. Different structures, different writing for antagonists. Though, One Piece does incorporate the "villain strength growth" element too. Fleet Admiral Sakazuki > Admiral Sakazuki, Yonko Teach > Yami Teach. Pretty clear how these two have gotten stronger as the story continues. They're exceptions from arc villains since they function as main villains. You have Crocodile as well, but he doesn't really count as he clearly changed to Luffy's side when he returned and more likely than not will stay as a Strawhat ally. I assume this thread is talking about villains who stay as villains whilst getting stronger.

 

[Finalbeta]

I just wish they were nerfed less and also that the most protected characters received less favors when it came to unjustified power creeping.