Character Discussion What considered as a good "chosen one" character?
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Luffy is a bad chosen one because he has literally zero flaws. That moment where he had trauma from Ace's death was the only point in the entire manga where Luffy seems like an actual human being.
Otherwise Luffy basically defies logic. He fights kaido, gets defeated multiple times, and yet somehow magically gains massive power ups after being defeated.
Does any other character gain power ups simply for catching Ls? nope. Luffy is just chosen by plot.
Otherwise Luffy basically defies logic. He fights kaido, gets defeated multiple times, and yet somehow magically gains massive power ups after being defeated.
Does any other character gain power ups simply for catching Ls? nope. Luffy is just chosen by plot.
Lol, Luffy refuses to break, that's why he gets stronger. You have tons and tons of examples of people who refuse to take the chances he takes, and they're generally older, so I'm not sure about being surprised. Especially in the shonen mold where the main character getting stronger is usually less explicable.
At the same time, he'll take an L when it comes. He doesn't delude himself or get into denial; look at the execution in Logue Town.
Luffy is unique in that he is macho, assertive, and competitive without those being his defining features. He's below-average sized, nose picking babyface in a world of buff hairy giants, and he'll spark anyone without thinking twice. From Vivi to Aokiji, anyone can get it. In fact the fight with Aokiji is a great example of character because the latter is like, "...did you really think you could win?" Luffy clearly understood the gap in power, but he just knows that if he ever gets into a fight, he's gotta better fight with the full confidence of winning no matter what. And yes his bloodline is part of the reason he got off easy... but that's not at all something he'd think about or care about.
No, he's not the same as Kid or Oden. Kid's ambition is self centered and ultimately his aim can change based on what suits him. Fight Kaido again? Maybe... but he'll settle for tag teaming Big Mom because he's better off. Oden fights for others and like Luffy will prostrate himself for the benefit of others, but this n1gga had Kaido dead to rights and said "don't come back!"
Luffy on the other hand was no match when he challenged Kaido, and so he wasn't a threat worthy of death. That worked in his favor because each and every one of the people who can't be certain they'd beat Kaido pipes down. Look at the gorosei right now. Look at Doflamingo shitting himself at the idea. Luffy has bigger balls plain and simple, and he never asks for special treatment.
Ah but let's go back to Kid if I'm gonna address your comment in order. Didn't this man meet Rayleigh at the same time? Wasn't he in the jail with Hyo before Luffy? Did he get turned down, or did he actually fail to make a good impression on them?
Because personality wise Luffy always makes a good first impression. Actually no. Ace, Hancock, Whitebeard, Shanks, Zoro, Kaido, Kid, Katakuri... those are just the conquerors, for the sake of making my point.
I didn't read the other responses yet but rest assured I can keep going about this without dragging Zoro, my favorite character lol
At the same time, he'll take an L when it comes. He doesn't delude himself or get into denial; look at the execution in Logue Town.
Luffy is unique in that he is macho, assertive, and competitive without those being his defining features. He's below-average sized, nose picking babyface in a world of buff hairy giants, and he'll spark anyone without thinking twice. From Vivi to Aokiji, anyone can get it. In fact the fight with Aokiji is a great example of character because the latter is like, "...did you really think you could win?" Luffy clearly understood the gap in power, but he just knows that if he ever gets into a fight, he's gotta better fight with the full confidence of winning no matter what. And yes his bloodline is part of the reason he got off easy... but that's not at all something he'd think about or care about.
No, he's not the same as Kid or Oden. Kid's ambition is self centered and ultimately his aim can change based on what suits him. Fight Kaido again? Maybe... but he'll settle for tag teaming Big Mom because he's better off. Oden fights for others and like Luffy will prostrate himself for the benefit of others, but this n1gga had Kaido dead to rights and said "don't come back!"
Luffy on the other hand was no match when he challenged Kaido, and so he wasn't a threat worthy of death. That worked in his favor because each and every one of the people who can't be certain they'd beat Kaido pipes down. Look at the gorosei right now. Look at Doflamingo shitting himself at the idea. Luffy has bigger balls plain and simple, and he never asks for special treatment.
Ah but let's go back to Kid if I'm gonna address your comment in order. Didn't this man meet Rayleigh at the same time? Wasn't he in the jail with Hyo before Luffy? Did he get turned down, or did he actually fail to make a good impression on them?
Because personality wise Luffy always makes a good first impression. Actually no. Ace, Hancock, Whitebeard, Shanks, Zoro, Kaido, Kid, Katakuri... those are just the conquerors, for the sake of making my point.
I didn't read the other responses yet but rest assured I can keep going about this without dragging Zoro, my favorite character lol
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I can give you a good example of a "chosen one" being a good character and a great idea for a story:
Percy Jackson in the original five books "Percy Jackson and The Olympians"
In that story, Percy is the son of Poseidon and there's a prophecy where the first kid of one of the Big Three Gods (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) to reach the age of 15 could bring about either the destruction or safety of the Gods and Olympus.
But here's the thing about prophecies in the Percy Jackson Universe: The Prophecy only determines the end goal, but the ways you reach there can be numerous.
So for example, if i said there's a prophecy like "a person with a straw hat will destroy fishman island"
That means, that people that know about this prophecy, can try to manipulate it for their own gain, so for example you could make a fake straw hat and try to become that person in the prophecy, or you could go steal the original straw hat. You can try to do many things so that you fit the criteria of the prophecy to achieve it.
So in Percy Jackson, because of this propechy, both the heroes and the villains go after ways of turning the prophecy in their favor.
For example, the villain manipulates the heroes into bringing back to life a child of Zeus that had "died" just a few months before achieving 15 years old, older than Percy, which made her the likely option for the prophecy.
But later on, she decides she doesn't want to be the chosen one and makes a deal with a goddess that makes her immortal / ageless ( just before hitting 15).
This is just one of the examples of how this propechy was used, there are many more in the five books.
(I recommend reading the original series of five books, the rest of the series not so much...)
Percy Jackson in the original five books "Percy Jackson and The Olympians"
In that story, Percy is the son of Poseidon and there's a prophecy where the first kid of one of the Big Three Gods (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) to reach the age of 15 could bring about either the destruction or safety of the Gods and Olympus.
But here's the thing about prophecies in the Percy Jackson Universe: The Prophecy only determines the end goal, but the ways you reach there can be numerous.
So for example, if i said there's a prophecy like "a person with a straw hat will destroy fishman island"
That means, that people that know about this prophecy, can try to manipulate it for their own gain, so for example you could make a fake straw hat and try to become that person in the prophecy, or you could go steal the original straw hat. You can try to do many things so that you fit the criteria of the prophecy to achieve it.
So in Percy Jackson, because of this propechy, both the heroes and the villains go after ways of turning the prophecy in their favor.
For example, the villain manipulates the heroes into bringing back to life a child of Zeus that had "died" just a few months before achieving 15 years old, older than Percy, which made her the likely option for the prophecy.
But later on, she decides she doesn't want to be the chosen one and makes a deal with a goddess that makes her immortal / ageless ( just before hitting 15).
This is just one of the examples of how this propechy was used, there are many more in the five books.
(I recommend reading the original series of five books, the rest of the series not so much...)
Oda's issue is that he drives the series with mysteries, so he couldn't reveal things that would otherwise make complete sense to reveal early on, because that would mean he can't write OP for over 1000 chapters.
Like take Dune. In Dune, we learn that Paul could be the kwisatz haderach in the first chapter. And the rest of the book is about him growing into that role.
Imagine if instead of telling us all this upfront, Frank Herbert introduced Paul as some random desert boy and Dune was about Paul's stupid desert adventures. We only learn that Paul is the son of Leto in book 3, we learn about the voice and spice induced mental powers in book 4, and we don't learn anything about the kwisatz haderach until the penultimate book where Paul 1v1s a sand worm and magically becomes a god.
Also, becoming a god has real side-effects for paul. It makes him a cruel and hinders his ability to relate to normal people. Luffy's godhood just makes him even more perfect.
Like take Dune. In Dune, we learn that Paul could be the kwisatz haderach in the first chapter. And the rest of the book is about him growing into that role.
Imagine if instead of telling us all this upfront, Frank Herbert introduced Paul as some random desert boy and Dune was about Paul's stupid desert adventures. We only learn that Paul is the son of Leto in book 3, we learn about the voice and spice induced mental powers in book 4, and we don't learn anything about the kwisatz haderach until the penultimate book where Paul 1v1s a sand worm and magically becomes a god.
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Also, becoming a god has real side-effects for paul. It makes him a cruel and hinders his ability to relate to normal people. Luffy's godhood just makes him even more perfect.
There's nothing inherently wrong about a chosen one character. You wouldn't read a novel about Bob the Perfectly Average Villager from Nowheresville. Problems only arise when authors overwank their MC, refuse to allow them to suffer the consequences of their actions and give them absolutely nothing to learn from an intellectual or moral standpoint. For example:
1. Ace gets killed by turning back and responding to Akainu's provocation. Luffy turns around to punch Big Meme in WCI, suffers zero consequences.
2. Luffy's fruit went from being undesirable and goofy to being the rarest class in the series, while also somehow breaking internal story logic by having no defined Zoan form, giving passive immunity to electricity and blunt force, and also exhibiting the abilities of an awakened Paramecia.
3. Everyone and their third cousin's bootycall dickrides Luffy to the ends of the earth and back. Even during Reverie, an arc he's not even physically in, he somehow becomes the centre of everyone's attention, eclipsing a good portion of lore that readers would have been interested to learn.
4. Luffy's training arc in Udon was forced, contrived and asinine. Queen just stands there like a retard because no one is ever allowed to act like a rational being in the presence of our lord and saviour. Queen even gets taken out by the empresses of plot convenience Olin and Otama.
The fact that Luffy has zero meaningful struggles, never needs to learn from his mistakes and is always gifted the greatest opportunities on a silver platter (often to the detriment of the story and plot consistency) is turning the audience against him.
1. Ace gets killed by turning back and responding to Akainu's provocation. Luffy turns around to punch Big Meme in WCI, suffers zero consequences.
2. Luffy's fruit went from being undesirable and goofy to being the rarest class in the series, while also somehow breaking internal story logic by having no defined Zoan form, giving passive immunity to electricity and blunt force, and also exhibiting the abilities of an awakened Paramecia.
3. Everyone and their third cousin's bootycall dickrides Luffy to the ends of the earth and back. Even during Reverie, an arc he's not even physically in, he somehow becomes the centre of everyone's attention, eclipsing a good portion of lore that readers would have been interested to learn.
4. Luffy's training arc in Udon was forced, contrived and asinine. Queen just stands there like a retard because no one is ever allowed to act like a rational being in the presence of our lord and saviour. Queen even gets taken out by the empresses of plot convenience Olin and Otama.
The fact that Luffy has zero meaningful struggles, never needs to learn from his mistakes and is always gifted the greatest opportunities on a silver platter (often to the detriment of the story and plot consistency) is turning the audience against him.
lol lifespan is meaningless for Luffy. He can destroy two Yonko territories in what, a week? He can jump from YC to Yonko level in a couple days. His growth is off the chart. Kaido and BM look stupid in front of Luffy. They have 50-60 years training but can just go this far.
Luffy just need another day to be BB & Imu level and conquer the world.
Your essay is spot on
Luffy just need another day to be BB & Imu level and conquer the world.
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Your essay is spot on
imo the powerups cycle also applies for the opposite stuff. Luffy's past struggles had no consequences.
- Luffy wrecked his brain to learn FS in a short time. But FS instantly ecame obsolete in Rooftop fight since Oda seemingly wanted the Rooftop 5 to have similar powerlevel portrayal, degrading Luffy's powerlevel back down to theirs at Rooftop moment, when it absolutely should never be the case for FS users.
- Luffy trained Internal Destruction, the type of CoA no one else in the alliance had but him. But what was the result? Obsolete and wasted powerups. Kaidou screamed from Law and Kidd's attacks not just Luffy's, Kaidou was penetrated by Killer and Zoro's attacks not just Luffy's. The powerups Luffy gained were nulled just for other characters who didnt even share the struggle.
- Luffy had learned to control his basic CoC for 2 years. And he had to both learn CoA flow and feel Kaidou's attacks to finally figure out that CoC can apparently be infused to attacks. And finally figured out CoC infusion after all these years of practice. Doesn't matter. Zoro get basic CoC in the same hour he was given CoC infusion.
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So powerup-wise, Luffy get the most amount of advanced powerups but those are definitely wasted powerups with no consequence. So Oda played that both ways to the extremes for Luffy, no consequence for punishments and no consequence for rewards. This is what i think about Luffy's powerups.
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But still, Luffy is not a good chosen one imo, since we don't see Luffy's uniquely creative process or uniquely intensive effort, or a different or more original mentality, that differ him from the other characters.
Imo if only Oda emphasize in writing Luffy as more - more physically struggling, mentally relentless, and more importantly never-endingly creative on his approach and internal process to get stronger, and most importantly always mentally bloom and develop by each struggle -compared to everyone else...
...then imo Luffy's powerups and luck are more or less justified since his efforts are the main factor contributing to those lucks and powers.
But thats not the case here. His fruit is a myth zoan from the start, his first teacher was his own grandpa who's a bigshot hero forcefully training him by constantly throwing him into wildlife since childhood, his second teacher is literally Pirate King's First Mate (with CoA flow amnesia and CoC infusion amnesia tho), his father is most dangerous person in the world, etc so many were given to him. Luffy's starter pack was heavier than everyone else so like how can he not be the strongest when thats the case? If he doesnt become the strongest even with so much being granted to him he's surely an extremely lousy weakling.
- Luffy wrecked his brain to learn FS in a short time. But FS instantly ecame obsolete in Rooftop fight since Oda seemingly wanted the Rooftop 5 to have similar powerlevel portrayal, degrading Luffy's powerlevel back down to theirs at Rooftop moment, when it absolutely should never be the case for FS users.
- Luffy trained Internal Destruction, the type of CoA no one else in the alliance had but him. But what was the result? Obsolete and wasted powerups. Kaidou screamed from Law and Kidd's attacks not just Luffy's, Kaidou was penetrated by Killer and Zoro's attacks not just Luffy's. The powerups Luffy gained were nulled just for other characters who didnt even share the struggle.
- Luffy had learned to control his basic CoC for 2 years. And he had to both learn CoA flow and feel Kaidou's attacks to finally figure out that CoC can apparently be infused to attacks. And finally figured out CoC infusion after all these years of practice. Doesn't matter. Zoro get basic CoC in the same hour he was given CoC infusion.
---
So powerup-wise, Luffy get the most amount of advanced powerups but those are definitely wasted powerups with no consequence. So Oda played that both ways to the extremes for Luffy, no consequence for punishments and no consequence for rewards. This is what i think about Luffy's powerups.
---
But still, Luffy is not a good chosen one imo, since we don't see Luffy's uniquely creative process or uniquely intensive effort, or a different or more original mentality, that differ him from the other characters.
Imo if only Oda emphasize in writing Luffy as more - more physically struggling, mentally relentless, and more importantly never-endingly creative on his approach and internal process to get stronger, and most importantly always mentally bloom and develop by each struggle -compared to everyone else...
...then imo Luffy's powerups and luck are more or less justified since his efforts are the main factor contributing to those lucks and powers.
But thats not the case here. His fruit is a myth zoan from the start, his first teacher was his own grandpa who's a bigshot hero forcefully training him by constantly throwing him into wildlife since childhood, his second teacher is literally Pirate King's First Mate (with CoA flow amnesia and CoC infusion amnesia tho), his father is most dangerous person in the world, etc so many were given to him. Luffy's starter pack was heavier than everyone else so like how can he not be the strongest when thats the case? If he doesnt become the strongest even with so much being granted to him he's surely an extremely lousy weakling.
Baam was good in earlier chapters but i don't think that's the case in later chapters. He becomes someone who is able to absorb and get 10 powerups each hour lol.
You should check out Zephyr from The Record of Suicidal Battle God, Gang Ryong from Gosu, and Chung Myung from Return of Mount Hua Sect then. Imo these three are good examples of a chosen one with good character.
You should check out Zephyr from The Record of Suicidal Battle God, Gang Ryong from Gosu, and Chung Myung from Return of Mount Hua Sect then. Imo these three are good examples of a chosen one with good character.
