Character Discussion Straw Hats dynamic got better or worst?

which Version of Crew you like the most?


  • Total voters
    95
#22
This seems like an easy smash topic to pool together all the people who bitch about timeskip every week (the timeskip was like ten years ago at this point ofc).

But bonds are the number of members multiplied by the length of time. Sanji and Zoro see each other for the first time in forever and you get the execution stand chemistry. Every time after that, when they cross paths there's a gag no matter what they're doing. You have the scene where Franky tries to take Robin on a ride, only for Brook to hop on and Robin and to go walking with Jinbe (that cover where they're pretending to want a piece of Momo was cute). You have the masculine Straw Hats drawing a line against Drake switching sides in unison. You have big bro Sanji coming in to give Chopper hope, Nami and Usopp sticking together to survive, etc.

In short it doesn't matter what you take them through, they are the Straw Hat crew and it only means more when they get together now after separations and stories packed with so many other characters and moving parts.
 
#23
After time skip ,everything started to be about Luffy.
Before time skip , when ı read manga , ı feel ıam reading straw hat pirates. But right now , just ı am feeling Luffys advanture.

Also , most of character balance lost.

Luffy - while waiting more mature in the new world , even more stupid . He spent more time with the side characters than the crew. And he became a captain ignoring the crew.

Zoro - The main point in my love for Zoro was his wise attitude before time skip. He was hanging out crew . and he was funny. It was the embodiment of the impossibility of achieving success without suffering and enduring difficulties. After the time skip, Zoro was transformed into someone who never laughed, was always serious, and was never touched in a fight.

Sanji - Sanji was a slightly perverted, funny character who interacted with every member of the crew and could be cool and serious when needed. And there was a wonderful balance to it all. After time skip, Sanji has been made mostly perverted and even if cool moment was given , Oda has been not succeed about it. Laws cool and strategic character design totally was stolen Sanji.

Nami - Nami was a balanced character between Sanji Zoro and Luffy. It was always the person who brought the crew safety zone and represented the rational side of the crew. Now, as Luffy makes his own decisions, Nami is increasingly trivialized. Zeus was given Nami and she playing with him what a pathetic.

Usopp,Robin,Chopper,Brook does not change so much. I dont feel still Jimbei is strawhat . when ı read manga , just ım feeling he is guest in the ship
 
#24
After time skip ,everything started to be about Luffy.
Before time skip , when ı read manga , ı feel ıam reading straw hat pirates. But right now , just ı am feeling Luffys advanture.

Also , most of character balance lost.

Luffy - while waiting more mature in the new world , even more stupid . He spent more time with the side characters than the crew. And he became a captain ignoring the crew.

Zoro - The main point in my love for Zoro was his wise attitude before time skip. He was hanging out crew . and he was funny. It was the embodiment of the impossibility of achieving success without suffering and enduring difficulties. After the time skip, Zoro was transformed into someone who never laughed, was always serious, and was never touched in a fight.

Sanji - Sanji was a slightly perverted, funny character who interacted with every member of the crew and could be cool and serious when needed. And there was a wonderful balance to it all. After time skip, Sanji has been made mostly perverted and even if cool moment was given , Oda has been not succeed about it. Laws cool and strategic character design totally was stolen Sanji.

Nami - Nami was a balanced character between Sanji Zoro and Luffy. It was always the person who brought the crew safety zone and represented the rational side of the crew. Now, as Luffy makes his own decisions, Nami is increasingly trivialized. Zeus was given Nami and she playing with him what a pathetic.

Usopp,Robin,Chopper,Brook does not change so much. I dont feel still Jimbei is strawhat . when ı read manga , just ım feeling he is guest in the ship
I think the trend is kinda switching finally. Wano focused its attention on many SH dynamics and we even got such a huge hypey plot involving Zoro's deeds in particular.
 
#25
I think the trend is kinda switching finally. Wano focused its attention on many SH dynamics and we even got such a huge hypey plot involving Zoro's deeds in particular.
we waited 12 years almost for that :)
Also , Adding SN , Big Mom , Marco messed up wano again. ı wısh we could watch very clear Kaido vs Straw Hats . Right Now , so many character, most of fights off screen , and fights creativitiy is so low unfortunately. I hope at some point , ı expect , strawhats come together before luffy go Kaido .
 
#26
It isn't even debatable. Pretime skip Straw hats are objectively better than post time skip. For those people who voted "the same" are talking out their ass. It is fact that it isn't the same.

Chopper has been reduced to solely being a merchandise seller character now post time skip.
Nami has been reduced to solely a fanservice character now post time skip.
Robin has been completely neglected post time skip.
Zoro has no personality and has become just a meat head post time skip.
Sanji annoying simpness has drastically increased post time skip.
Luffy has become more cringe with every passing hero moment.
Post automatically merged:

to me Oda sacrificed his characters for world building

can't blame him but the old times hit differently
Huh? Pretime skip has MORE world building than post time skip. Just because Straw hats go to an island doesn't mean that is world building.
 
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#27
Huh? Pretime skip has MORE world building than post time skip. Just because Straw hats go to an island doesn't mean that is world building.
but Oda clearly needs FAR MORE characters and plot line to handle an arc like wano ...
something like EL had at most 40 effective(ish) characters
Wano easily have +200

I won't judge Oda for what he did
I doubt any writer alive can pay attention to main characters and a grand plot in a weekly story

but he COULD have done better
I mean ... even ANIME is doing a better job in this regard
 
#28
Post Time Skip.

- Franky and Nami's relationship is for the better
- Robin and Brook with just about everyone ( They only had one arc which was Thriller Bark where Robin dropped her always on guard personality. And Brook got only one arc before timeskip
- Granted though that Oda shifted to focus on the world building more than the strawhats like pre ts‚ which I really like . Oda is really avoiding Naruto's mistakes. Almost all of the akatsuki were just beaten by the leaf. How is that a good world building when the akatsuki where targeting all the jinchuriki from all the villages
 
#31
Since FI we didnt get a Arc focused on the SH and their crew relation, and the ship was filled with other characters that get more screen time than the crew.(Momo, Kin, Kanjuro, Law, CC, Carrot, Pedro)

Even now in Wano, they are finally reunited, but there are soo much side characters that they have to share they time to shine with Law, Kid, Killer, all the Wano boring people, Marco, Yamato, etc.

We really need a Arc like Skypea where they go to a adventure by themselves to improve the crew dynamic. If the Davy Back Fight against the RHP happens in Elbaf that could be a cool moment for Oda to develop more the crew, because besides the RHP, probably the only other characters relevant to Elbaf would be Prince Loki and pehaps Mihawk.



And the Laftel Arc probably will be the one like Skypea, with no other characters besides the SH taking part in the Arc until they get to the OP, besides FB characters from the Void Century FB of course.
 
#32
Since FI we didnt get a Arc focused on the SH and their crew relation, and the ship was filled with other characters that get more screen time than the crew.(Momo, Kin, Kanjuro, Law, CC, Carrot, Pedro)

Even now in Wano, they are finally reunited, but there are soo much side characters that they have to share they time to shine with Law, Kid, Killer, all the Wano boring people, Marco, Yamato, etc.

We really need a Arc like Skypea where they go to a adventure by themselves to improve the crew dynamic. If the Davy Back Fight against the RHP happens in Elbaf that could be a cool moment for Oda to develop more the crew, because besides the RHP, probably the only other characters relevant to Elbaf would be Prince Loki and pehaps Mihawk.



And the Laftel Arc probably will be the one like Skypea, with no other characters besides the SH taking part in the Arc until they get to the OP, besides FB characters from the Void Century FB of course.
I think after Wano we’ll be done with alliances and it’ll just be the Straw Hats
 
#34
Basically there has been almost no dynamic in the post timeskip. The crew got separated in Dressrosa, then half of the crew in WCI and "reunited" in Wano. This cover a lot of years. Anyway even if they are together there is basically no dynamic since they are always separated interacting with the ton of secondary charcaters/villains each arc offers. Just to make an example, the Zoro-Sanji dynamic which is probably the most famous and recognizable, we had now Sanji say some jokes with cross-Zoro, their reunion when Yasu was executed then the next one which comes to mind is Zoro mocking Sanji in Sabaody calling him with the number of his arrival in the island, bragging he was the first to arrive (which was laughable, it was a gag in itself, and indeed we later discover it was Perona who brought Zoro to Sabaody, also that, Sabaody part 2, was the last place good and funny interactions happened between the crew).
 
#35
Basically there has been almost no dynamic in the post timeskip.
Lol people really think this


It pretty much falls to whether you like one more than the other, which could be a million of your own reasons. But since we're talking about a serial, we're talking about a unique advantage for later material: addition. If the relationship between Zoro and Robin stops developing, you can say it's been replaced but not deleted or regressed. All of the old relationships are there, many are still being developed, and many dynamics are new. I mentioned Robin twice already and in one case her relationship with Jinbe, but let's look at another he already has going:

Fire and water, punches and kicks, cook and fish. I'm sure Oda didn't deliberately try making this work.

And for another mention of Sanji:

Let's look at another old one intensified:
Check the parallels thread and others, these two are more of a duo than ever. The plot simply wasn't big enough pre timeskip to have Luffy and Zoro side by side as frequently, and yet they couldn't really get the distance between them to miss each other or catch up.

Speaking of falling back into place, Chopper is in the mix but Nami and Usopp have had a special relationship since East Blue. It was so good how Oda brought this to the front of the reunion because the truth of the narrative is that they can't help it.

I mean even when you pick two names out of a hat, there's something that builds on the past. Like when you think of Nami and Robin past similarities and how they handled the crew respectively in Arlong Park and Enies Lobby, becoming a pair of castle spies only makes sense





New development on the other hand: Brook is a clutch assist

And bringing it back to Sanji for one last point, you'd better believe that Usopp and Chopper (as well as Luffy and Franky) have something to say when the dude gets a Sentai upgrade:
Long live the boyish side of the crew
And to Sanji's credit, we just had him smiling about how Franky would like those repeating lasers.

Going back to the idea of addition, Law in that Raid Suit part is added without changing the fact that this is the Sea Train trio dynamic. You don't have to know or recognize that, but Oda has that in their history for reference because that's just how stories build.
 
#36
Oda shouldn't have separated the SHs for the second time.

The crew dynamic was still nice to see at FI. It was gone the moment Kin and Momo entered the story.

Hopefully the crew dynamic will be restored post-Wano, when the crew is just the crew without any stowaway.
Exactly this...

At this point we can't really say what happened to their dynamic as a crew... We often see them with other people right currently: Law, Kin, Momo, Kanjuro, Viola, Rebecca, Kyros, Raizo, Carrot, Wanda, Pedro, Shinobu, Kiku and Tama... So often that the crew members interact with them more than each other... The Dressrosa-WCI didn't help either...

Even the NW log pose is irrelevant at this point, after PH they never followed the log pose (even Nami somewhat complained because of this)...

So yeah, hopefully the crew will have a solo adventure again after Wano...
 
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