General & Others Would One Piece be better if it was just a pirate story?

[ShinichiMugi]

Imagine One Piece if there wasnt the big mystery around the Void Century and Imu-Sama. Imagine it if it was just a story about the Strawhat pirate crew,who has their rivals for the treasure (Blackbeard,Shanks,etc.) and the World Government/Marines as enemies,a corrupt governement that has both good members and evil members.
So,basically,One Piece like it was at the beginning. There was this race for the treasure,there was a morally ambiguos Marine,but there wasnt all this focus on the mysteries of the past,Nika,etc.
Oda had probably this Void Century story planned from almost the beginning,or at least from Skypea,but still,sometimes i think that even without this Void Century/Nika/Imu lore,One Piece would be cool anyway with just being a "pirates story" where pirates fight each other for the One Piece and the Marine hunts them. No chosen ones. The cool characters would all be there anyway. What do you think about it?

 

[Hamlette]

The way Oda crafted the world of One piece made it impossible not to eventually go down the route that it did. Devil fruits/ D. Family/ Red line/Celestials/Poneglyphs/VOAT/Ancient weapons/Vegapunk/Ancient Kingdom/Different races etc etc. I mean you'd have to remove so much of the stories lore/mystery and world building, which is central to making One piece what it is, to just make it a grounded pirate story. But with the existence of the aforementioned elements that need an explanation, it was always going to go down the route of a larger than life tale, which is what One piece is, a larger than life, aspirational hero in a fantastical world. All Oda is doing is taking the themes of the story and creating a fairy tale, a mythos from them.

 

[Roo]

No. One Piece started getting better once we got the idea that it was more than a pirate story

 

[vikas]

I would have preferred it to be pirate adventure story more...

 

[Charlie]

So,basically,One Piece like it was at the beginning

So before Alabasta?

 

[JoNdule]

Yes

One Piece was better when it was about piracy
Now it's all about agenda and mythical whatever

 

[ShinichiMugi]

So before Alabasta?

Like i said in my full comment,Oda started to show us hints about the past and Void Century probably since Skypea altough there was Robin in Alabasta thats true

 

[Sir Yasheen]

No. The lore of the story has always been what’s given it the most traction and intrigue.

 

[MonsterKaido]

Personally I prefer the route oda is going. I like world building and mythos. Harley text was very hype.

As for better it completely depends on execution.

 

[Thaidakar]

I would have preferred it to be pirate adventure story more...

Have you watched Monster Rancher

 

[ElderOnitar]

Water 7/Enies Lobby is the most common response when you ask someone what their favorite arc is.

And it's the arc with the least focus on pirates.

 

[Yoho]

No

 

[moreha9685]

Water 7/Enies Lobby is the most common response when you ask someone what their favorite arc is, and it was the arc the least focused on pirates.

Eh, debatable.
Pirate crew goes to the City of Boats to get a new ship, gets in trouble with a company of shipbuilders, and rides an innovating train to a governmental island to stop the plans for a special battleship to fall into the wrong hands. An arc bookended by the first gaming challenge between pirate crews in the story, and by the first island-wide battleship attack in the current timeline.

 

[Bisoromi Bear]

Yes

One Piece was better when it was about piracy
Now it's all about agenda and mythical whatever

Imho things went downhill when Oda started to turn haki into a laser show

 

[Charlie]

Like i said in my full comment,Oda started to show us hints about the past and Void Century probably since Skypea altough there was Robin in Alabasta thats true

i mean yeah, void century plot point starts the second we see Robin

remove that and like, OP would get really old, really fast

 

[Rumble]

I still think preskip is pretty much a flawless masterclass in adventure storytelling, and I've been very mild on most of the postskip, but this is the most excited I've been about One Piece in years.

Egghead was the first arc since the skip that I loved as much as one of the preskip arcs.

Elbaph is off to an amazing start.

 

[thisnewtechnique]

It was set on chapter one, the search for the One Piece itself would reveal the mysteries...

 

[OneHater]

Water 7/Enies Lobby is the most common response when you ask someone what their favorite arc is.

And it's the arc with the least focus on pirates.

Survivorship bias. If you're still reading OP then you probably like the direction in which it's gone and those changes happened at the end of Alabasta and W7/Ennis Lobby.

I think OP would be much better without the lore crap but most of the folks who still read/watch the series watch it because of the lore dumps and the blueballing.

 

[Konstantis]

No, because it never was. It gives pirates story vibes at jaya but that's it

 

[Welkin]

Would be too boring imo

I think Oda could’ve blended both aspects a little better but I like that he’s leaning into the Void Century

I think removing it entirely would completely alter and ruin the story for many anyway

If you remove the Void Century and the past completely then there’s no D/ancient history that some characters are entirely built upon (Law, Robin, etc) and there’s no real overarching mystery besides the treasure

One of the main draws of the series is figuring out what happened during the Void, what the D means, who Joyboy was, etc

Without that it wouldn’t even be the same series