Hi,
Quick thread on worldbuilding and storytelling (this thread was supposed to be just one little paragraph lol). I saw someone mentionned the various foreshadowings and the idea that they were probably not thought of early... and I thought it would be a good idea to bring this up:
>> Contrary to what most people may think, foreshadowings and other clues that Oda delivers are the low end of his skill range.
As an analogy, I will use this Magic act from Ryan Hayashi (please watch until the end):
One Piece in this analogy would be the entire act.
But it would be an error to believe foreshadowings are the major skill required in itself to do the act. In reality, the foreshadowing, in this analogy, is more alike the voice acting distributed by the magician. Their performance is what sells the trick to most audiences, with the choice of music, it puts stars in our eyes and blinds us with epicness !
BUT this magic trick is on Fool Us. A show made by two very skilled and known magician (Penn and Teller) who know very well that the voice acting and the music are just the icing on top of the cake. What they are interested in is the skill of the magician, the hand movements, the diversions, the hidden method, the technique etc. And as we can see here, it's so good that they simply decided to give up trying to understand and let themselve be invested in the epicness of the trick.
This is what core storytelling is. Not the magic powder that explodes and makes big "boum", an epic music or someone feeling very engaging. The core of storytelling is the entire skillset deployed to make us invested in the story. I often use the "Raizo is safe" twist as an exemple:
What is really interesting in this twist is the fact that it is one of the most risky twist of the story, but also one that is crafted so precisely and thoughfully that it can only deliver a strong emotionnal impact, even when we guess it. Because it is completely possible to anticipate this twist with a single question "what if they are lying to us", but Oda crafted the entire Zou arc in order to make you avoid this question. As such, unless you have a mind that likes to take into account all the possibility with a great memory for details, pretty much everyone gets bamboozled.
But the twist in itself is just the final punch, it's the "icing", the delivering. The REAL skill is the work ahead. For example, it's kinemon wondering if the mink will welcome them, thus renforcing our potential fear of a clash ( this is a case of subversive affirmation btw ;) ), it's the strawhats being made aware by Brook that the minks are probably not happy with samurais. It's the sidlining of Momo, reenforcing the idea that Momo doesn't really felt welcomed. It's the hammering of the sufferings of the mink, the constant portrayal of their apparent distress and incomprehension (that is actually hidden bravado), this is the seclusion of the mink tribe and the rumor that they don't really hate humans, making us believe that what happened on them is like a "drought" they had no control over, something that happened on a random population just because they happened to be an ancient race living at the wrong time and the wrong place. And to finish us, Oda added Bariete, a mink whose quirk is to always look like he is in a panic to hammer this feeling of panic relative to the return of the samurai.
In other words, the entire twist was build to make us believe that Mink had no agentivity in this massacre that happened to them. Like animal being trapped by the grips of human destruction.
But it was just a magic trick. Hidden beneath the surface lie all the elements to understand the situation completely, the fact Inu and Neko are both a cat and a dog, two of the most loyal animal on the planet with humans. The fact that at no point the mink actually said they were mad about Samurai, the fact that we don't see bariete angry at Kinemon or Kanjuro, the fact that Nekomamushi is literally wearing a samurai outfit... etc.
Anyway..
What I want to convey is that most people in this fanbase are actually missing the real skill of Oda by focusing on these foreshadowing. Of course they are amazing but really, they are not that difficult to create. Frankly, they are actually the basic layer of Oda's skillset.
I know that a lot of you don't agree when I say that things like gear 5 are probably something creating LONG before even Alabasta. You will often laugh at me trying to make me say that it is impossible for Oda to have thought of that this early, but really... it's not that difficult and it would have been reckless of him to go into the story without thinking about it.
Let me explain ; we will do a little bit of worldbuilding and storytelling in the process:
What do you need when you create a character ?
A goal ? Ok, you make the final treasure, the One Piece, Yes but it's not enough. We are talking about a shonen character with powers. So what do you need to create first?
> A power system ? Yes, that a way to start. You would create the system THEN create the power of your protagonist. Why not?
But there is another path. You could also start from your character. In this case I believe that it is a bit of both. So.. how do you do that? Let's say that you want to make a funny, smily, and very entertaining character and let's say that you already have an idea of what type of story you want to create : something goofy that looks like old cartoon, with a very hopefull message, something about freedom and the joy and romance of adventure. Well.. easy, you look for a power that will suit the character in a goofy way!
People don't know that, but during the years that you are slowly cooking your story in your head. At the same time your master (Toriyama) is finishing his Buu Saga. Buu is a funny stretchy looking character that can move completely freely. And who knows... it might completely resonnate with this idea that you have about fights that you want to create. Something goofy, funny, fulll of joy.
Luckily, you are also remembering these old Tom and Jerry cartoons that you used to love when you were a kid.. or I don't know, something like Roger Rabbit... and it hits you... what about creating a power that could create things out of the imagination or better, a power that makes you have "cartoon powers" .. funny right? But then you reflect, wait.. it's a little OP.. but it would make so much sense. So what if you use Buu and Goku's stick as an inspiration? And I don't know perhaps you will probably want to find a way to make this power more "grounded" at first.. and you remember that you want your character to fight stronger and stronger opponants and never give up. A character that will literally "bounce back" at every obstacles.. and you have it:
Rubber.
Obvious. Right? It just makes sense, and you remember that there is a character like that : Mr Fantastic. So why not use him as an influence and develop new power over it?
You don't need to actually give your protagonist the Toon force right away, but you can create the condition for it to be always present, hidden in the rubbery ability of your character, like a shadow. The Toon force would be the ULTIMATE depiction of the freedom of your character, perhaps not his final transformation, but something that will completely flip over the story and synchronize both what you want to tell as a story and who your protagonist really is : Joy, smile, freedom.
So how do you make sure that it appears slowly but surely?.. Well this is a shonen and Dragon Ball Z paved the way of these narrative tricks.. So you only have to find clever ways to hint at this "ultimate freedom force".
So you need to know how this form would look like ? The lore behind it perhaps ? It's really important. You protagonist is such a sunny character you may already have the signification of the sun in mind. Perhaps you had a yellow transformation at first like the Super Sayan.. but then you reflected and it was perhaps too obvious so why not make it completely white ? To represent the light of the moon too? Perhaps you would even make your protagonist shine at night ? Why not ? It would be cool!
So you create the look, perhaps just the basic shape or color, the "big picture" and perhaps you draw the big shape of your lore around the character, something godly. Like the gods of the japanese ancient arts with scarfs around their necks but it would be smoke !! Wait ! you could use this "smoke to hint" at this godly appearance. Perhaps first your character need agility or speed and will therefore "overheat". Then perhaps he will need strenght so why not go big like the cartoons. You already have the work done for you in Tom and Jerry in fact !
But wait ! This is only one power ! What is the state of this power in the power system of your universe ? What is the power system, what does it look like ?
What is the biggest wall that your character could face in term of power very early ? Well if your character is just a physical browler then you have to put him against someone he can't touch. And here you have a new set of power: the elements. Light, smoke, fire. Perhaps you even think about how goofy it would be for your antogonist to be just electricity at one point. Fire is supposed to be cool so why not give that to someone very close to Luffy.. and why not use the metaphor of the passing of the torch by killing this person and giving the power to someone else.. and here you have it, a way to gain the power, perhaps you need to fight a certain artefact or a treasure to get the power! But what if the treasure is just one rotten fruit, something that most people wouldn't touch ? And here you have it : devil fruit.
But wait ! At one point you will need a way for your characters to fight intangible powers ? So how do you do that ? Well.. your story is about the will to live and the will to fight so why not do the same thing that you thought of with the toon power and "materialize the will to hit" the power user?
And you give birth to Haki.
Of course you will need a crew, you already have a character with sword, so you will add various characters with various powers, all representing a form of god or better, a "demon like" entitity like your main character.. with each their own skillset and stories. Skillset that will represent their own psyche and development.
And you get the early draft for the strawhats.
And frankly, you are pretty much ready to go. Now, you just have to make sure to create a good main antagonist, a real story about freedom or adventure, and joy
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
What I just gave you is what you could call a burst of creativity. This is not something special, this is actually something that happens to every author who live with their stories in their heads. Usually, we only need a little trigger to start this train of thoughts, something very exciting that we saw in a movie or a book or some little idea that suddenly completely unlocks our creative potential for a hours, two hours, sometimes entire days without stopping. It's so exciting that the idea pop up like crazy, you don't even have to search for them, they just "flow".
It usually happens to me when a few ideas are converging to create a "whole" new idea much more exciting. It's a process that can push us to build entire world and universes.
But as you can see.. it's really not that difficult. And really, most of the time, it's useless. A good way to know if your idea is good is to think about it before sleeping, and seeing if you still remember it in the morning. If that's the case, it's the testimony of a certain "potential" in the idea. BUT these are STILL just ideas. A flow of thoughts that I simplified here. In reality, it's much more organic and it can take different form (for example, you could very well start with your power system first and create haki just as a way to counter it) but it's necessary
Without all the basic elements the story will not work and you would probably launch yourself in a very risky endeavor. When you got a magic system, you absolutely need to create limits and counter power like Haki or the synergies of ability like the Rubber of Luffy and the Electricity of Enel. It's the first step in the creation of a coherent world and a good system.
Same, you need to make sure to have a good idea of the ENTIRE potential of your character VERY EARLY. If not, you are simply creating something without thinking just hoping that your power system will work out. For your story to work, you need to make SURE that the power and skills of your character align with their personnality (or don't, but it needs to be intended like a feature).
As such, things like Shanks Coc Haki at the beginning or the Gear 5 are NECESSARY to be thought EARLY to make sure your story holds.
But what is "good" in your skillset will not be the ideas in themselves, it's the way you will make sure to craft something that will resonnate with your story, your thematics, your philosophical conflicts, the desire of your characters and the ways you will deliver the impact of the revelations.
As such Oda made history. NOT because Gear 5 was much probably already ready before the very first draft of the very first chapter, but because of the way Oda crafted this power to craft something so unique and so powerfull for both the story and the character. He managed to make the entire thematics of the story AND the lore AND the character AND the fight resonate in one specific transformation and skillset. In the context of the odyssey that is One Piece, it's incredible. It's so simple yet, masterfull.
In other words if you create a story, your ideas are just ideas, they are cool, but a bit useless on their own.
The real magic lies in the way you control the flow of your creativity.
Quick thread on worldbuilding and storytelling (this thread was supposed to be just one little paragraph lol). I saw someone mentionned the various foreshadowings and the idea that they were probably not thought of early... and I thought it would be a good idea to bring this up:
>> Contrary to what most people may think, foreshadowings and other clues that Oda delivers are the low end of his skill range.
As an analogy, I will use this Magic act from Ryan Hayashi (please watch until the end):
One Piece in this analogy would be the entire act.
But it would be an error to believe foreshadowings are the major skill required in itself to do the act. In reality, the foreshadowing, in this analogy, is more alike the voice acting distributed by the magician. Their performance is what sells the trick to most audiences, with the choice of music, it puts stars in our eyes and blinds us with epicness !
BUT this magic trick is on Fool Us. A show made by two very skilled and known magician (Penn and Teller) who know very well that the voice acting and the music are just the icing on top of the cake. What they are interested in is the skill of the magician, the hand movements, the diversions, the hidden method, the technique etc. And as we can see here, it's so good that they simply decided to give up trying to understand and let themselve be invested in the epicness of the trick.
This is what core storytelling is. Not the magic powder that explodes and makes big "boum", an epic music or someone feeling very engaging. The core of storytelling is the entire skillset deployed to make us invested in the story. I often use the "Raizo is safe" twist as an exemple:
What is really interesting in this twist is the fact that it is one of the most risky twist of the story, but also one that is crafted so precisely and thoughfully that it can only deliver a strong emotionnal impact, even when we guess it. Because it is completely possible to anticipate this twist with a single question "what if they are lying to us", but Oda crafted the entire Zou arc in order to make you avoid this question. As such, unless you have a mind that likes to take into account all the possibility with a great memory for details, pretty much everyone gets bamboozled.
But the twist in itself is just the final punch, it's the "icing", the delivering. The REAL skill is the work ahead. For example, it's kinemon wondering if the mink will welcome them, thus renforcing our potential fear of a clash ( this is a case of subversive affirmation btw ;) ), it's the strawhats being made aware by Brook that the minks are probably not happy with samurais. It's the sidlining of Momo, reenforcing the idea that Momo doesn't really felt welcomed. It's the hammering of the sufferings of the mink, the constant portrayal of their apparent distress and incomprehension (that is actually hidden bravado), this is the seclusion of the mink tribe and the rumor that they don't really hate humans, making us believe that what happened on them is like a "drought" they had no control over, something that happened on a random population just because they happened to be an ancient race living at the wrong time and the wrong place. And to finish us, Oda added Bariete, a mink whose quirk is to always look like he is in a panic to hammer this feeling of panic relative to the return of the samurai.
In other words, the entire twist was build to make us believe that Mink had no agentivity in this massacre that happened to them. Like animal being trapped by the grips of human destruction.
But it was just a magic trick. Hidden beneath the surface lie all the elements to understand the situation completely, the fact Inu and Neko are both a cat and a dog, two of the most loyal animal on the planet with humans. The fact that at no point the mink actually said they were mad about Samurai, the fact that we don't see bariete angry at Kinemon or Kanjuro, the fact that Nekomamushi is literally wearing a samurai outfit... etc.
Anyway..
What I want to convey is that most people in this fanbase are actually missing the real skill of Oda by focusing on these foreshadowing. Of course they are amazing but really, they are not that difficult to create. Frankly, they are actually the basic layer of Oda's skillset.
I know that a lot of you don't agree when I say that things like gear 5 are probably something creating LONG before even Alabasta. You will often laugh at me trying to make me say that it is impossible for Oda to have thought of that this early, but really... it's not that difficult and it would have been reckless of him to go into the story without thinking about it.
Let me explain ; we will do a little bit of worldbuilding and storytelling in the process:
What do you need when you create a character ?
A goal ? Ok, you make the final treasure, the One Piece, Yes but it's not enough. We are talking about a shonen character with powers. So what do you need to create first?
> A power system ? Yes, that a way to start. You would create the system THEN create the power of your protagonist. Why not?
But there is another path. You could also start from your character. In this case I believe that it is a bit of both. So.. how do you do that? Let's say that you want to make a funny, smily, and very entertaining character and let's say that you already have an idea of what type of story you want to create : something goofy that looks like old cartoon, with a very hopefull message, something about freedom and the joy and romance of adventure. Well.. easy, you look for a power that will suit the character in a goofy way!
People don't know that, but during the years that you are slowly cooking your story in your head. At the same time your master (Toriyama) is finishing his Buu Saga. Buu is a funny stretchy looking character that can move completely freely. And who knows... it might completely resonnate with this idea that you have about fights that you want to create. Something goofy, funny, fulll of joy.
Luckily, you are also remembering these old Tom and Jerry cartoons that you used to love when you were a kid.. or I don't know, something like Roger Rabbit... and it hits you... what about creating a power that could create things out of the imagination or better, a power that makes you have "cartoon powers" .. funny right? But then you reflect, wait.. it's a little OP.. but it would make so much sense. So what if you use Buu and Goku's stick as an inspiration? And I don't know perhaps you will probably want to find a way to make this power more "grounded" at first.. and you remember that you want your character to fight stronger and stronger opponants and never give up. A character that will literally "bounce back" at every obstacles.. and you have it:
Rubber.
Obvious. Right? It just makes sense, and you remember that there is a character like that : Mr Fantastic. So why not use him as an influence and develop new power over it?
You don't need to actually give your protagonist the Toon force right away, but you can create the condition for it to be always present, hidden in the rubbery ability of your character, like a shadow. The Toon force would be the ULTIMATE depiction of the freedom of your character, perhaps not his final transformation, but something that will completely flip over the story and synchronize both what you want to tell as a story and who your protagonist really is : Joy, smile, freedom.
So how do you make sure that it appears slowly but surely?.. Well this is a shonen and Dragon Ball Z paved the way of these narrative tricks.. So you only have to find clever ways to hint at this "ultimate freedom force".
So you need to know how this form would look like ? The lore behind it perhaps ? It's really important. You protagonist is such a sunny character you may already have the signification of the sun in mind. Perhaps you had a yellow transformation at first like the Super Sayan.. but then you reflected and it was perhaps too obvious so why not make it completely white ? To represent the light of the moon too? Perhaps you would even make your protagonist shine at night ? Why not ? It would be cool!
So you create the look, perhaps just the basic shape or color, the "big picture" and perhaps you draw the big shape of your lore around the character, something godly. Like the gods of the japanese ancient arts with scarfs around their necks but it would be smoke !! Wait ! you could use this "smoke to hint" at this godly appearance. Perhaps first your character need agility or speed and will therefore "overheat". Then perhaps he will need strenght so why not go big like the cartoons. You already have the work done for you in Tom and Jerry in fact !
But wait ! This is only one power ! What is the state of this power in the power system of your universe ? What is the power system, what does it look like ?
What is the biggest wall that your character could face in term of power very early ? Well if your character is just a physical browler then you have to put him against someone he can't touch. And here you have a new set of power: the elements. Light, smoke, fire. Perhaps you even think about how goofy it would be for your antogonist to be just electricity at one point. Fire is supposed to be cool so why not give that to someone very close to Luffy.. and why not use the metaphor of the passing of the torch by killing this person and giving the power to someone else.. and here you have it, a way to gain the power, perhaps you need to fight a certain artefact or a treasure to get the power! But what if the treasure is just one rotten fruit, something that most people wouldn't touch ? And here you have it : devil fruit.
But wait ! At one point you will need a way for your characters to fight intangible powers ? So how do you do that ? Well.. your story is about the will to live and the will to fight so why not do the same thing that you thought of with the toon power and "materialize the will to hit" the power user?
And you give birth to Haki.
Of course you will need a crew, you already have a character with sword, so you will add various characters with various powers, all representing a form of god or better, a "demon like" entitity like your main character.. with each their own skillset and stories. Skillset that will represent their own psyche and development.
And you get the early draft for the strawhats.
And frankly, you are pretty much ready to go. Now, you just have to make sure to create a good main antagonist, a real story about freedom or adventure, and joy
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
What I just gave you is what you could call a burst of creativity. This is not something special, this is actually something that happens to every author who live with their stories in their heads. Usually, we only need a little trigger to start this train of thoughts, something very exciting that we saw in a movie or a book or some little idea that suddenly completely unlocks our creative potential for a hours, two hours, sometimes entire days without stopping. It's so exciting that the idea pop up like crazy, you don't even have to search for them, they just "flow".
It usually happens to me when a few ideas are converging to create a "whole" new idea much more exciting. It's a process that can push us to build entire world and universes.
But as you can see.. it's really not that difficult. And really, most of the time, it's useless. A good way to know if your idea is good is to think about it before sleeping, and seeing if you still remember it in the morning. If that's the case, it's the testimony of a certain "potential" in the idea. BUT these are STILL just ideas. A flow of thoughts that I simplified here. In reality, it's much more organic and it can take different form (for example, you could very well start with your power system first and create haki just as a way to counter it) but it's necessary
Without all the basic elements the story will not work and you would probably launch yourself in a very risky endeavor. When you got a magic system, you absolutely need to create limits and counter power like Haki or the synergies of ability like the Rubber of Luffy and the Electricity of Enel. It's the first step in the creation of a coherent world and a good system.
Same, you need to make sure to have a good idea of the ENTIRE potential of your character VERY EARLY. If not, you are simply creating something without thinking just hoping that your power system will work out. For your story to work, you need to make SURE that the power and skills of your character align with their personnality (or don't, but it needs to be intended like a feature).
As such, things like Shanks Coc Haki at the beginning or the Gear 5 are NECESSARY to be thought EARLY to make sure your story holds.
But what is "good" in your skillset will not be the ideas in themselves, it's the way you will make sure to craft something that will resonnate with your story, your thematics, your philosophical conflicts, the desire of your characters and the ways you will deliver the impact of the revelations.
As such Oda made history. NOT because Gear 5 was much probably already ready before the very first draft of the very first chapter, but because of the way Oda crafted this power to craft something so unique and so powerfull for both the story and the character. He managed to make the entire thematics of the story AND the lore AND the character AND the fight resonate in one specific transformation and skillset. In the context of the odyssey that is One Piece, it's incredible. It's so simple yet, masterfull.
In other words if you create a story, your ideas are just ideas, they are cool, but a bit useless on their own.
The real magic lies in the way you control the flow of your creativity.
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