Okay so as that other anon said, there’s a lot of “hurr-rurr Oda makes bad decisions about the female characters” thing going on now, and I’m like… uh, can you just… not…
Like that Baby 5 thing, that shit really, truly warmed my heart. I absolutely loved it. A girl with attachment and abandonment issues leaves a criminal gang for a guy who loves him? And gets a happy ending? FUCK YEAH, give me more of this! And people dare critcize it with the “uh.. no stronk wemen…” argument? As if the “strong independent female character who don’t need no man” trope wouldn’t be boring and annyoing to begin with. Same with Pudding, instead of being happy that one less completely 1D evil in the world, some people really want her to be a bitch just because… it’s progressive to be evil if you’re a female? What?? I honestly don’t get this mindset.
Or like how Kyros beat the Sunflower guy instead of Rebecca, it was so good! I’d want my husband to protect my daughter from having to shed scums’s blood! Let Rebecca be happy and carefree who doesn’t have to fight! I loved this scene so much too, because sure, pirates like our protagonists choose to fight all the time, but she was forced into a position like that. Let her dad protect her, for fuck’s sake.
And I know Robin gets a lots of criticism too over her lack of fights, and listen, I’m saying this from the bottom of my hear. If I was her, with monsters like Zoro or Luffy aboard, I’d 1000% leave the majority of fights to them too. I woudn’t even consider not to. She might have a powerful devilfruit, but she have never been obsessed with fights like those two. She’s an archeologyst first, second and third. Why in the everloving fuck would she get off on trying to flex on random brutes??? I just don’t get it. I mean sure, it’d look cool, but that’s all. Honestly, I liked her breaking necks a lot more than those big limb-stomps she’s been doing nowadays, it was much more elegant and fitting in stlye. Fighting is just not her primary role on this ship, like would you want Zoro to suddenly cook too? I don’t think so. It’s just imposing more roles to the girls again, in the name of being progressive.
And of course there is the fanservice debate. Like sure, I’m not gonna lie, sometimes the Sanji thing can get annyoing but listen. There are so many, an irrealistic amount of hot guys in this story it’s just ridiculous. Zoro, Sanji. Luffy got buff nowadays too, hell, Usopp did! Ace and Sabo are everyone’s eyecandy. There’s Katakuri, Kidd and Law for the goths, but I could have said a dozen of others from Lucci to Crocodile to Shanks, every one of them are convencionally attractive. Pretty much all the guys are ripped as fuck, even Buggy is!! Buggy! 70 year old men like Rayleigh are ripped too, let’s just ignore the fact that how many people want to fuck Garp, grandpa or not.
And at the same time, there’s much, much less hot female characters overall so… what is the problem? Does it really that painful that Miss Doublefinger has a bitchin’ figure? I just don’t get it. It’s especially hypocritical when people cry about Nami’s boobs in one post then thirst over Zoro or Law in another, and I see this a lot, like… you really don’t realise that the girls have it so much better here, don’t you. I don’t see anyone complaining how Zoro’s fighting abs and tits out for literally no reason all the time, yet Nami wears a short dress and people act like it’s the end of the world.
An anyway, there’s this 920+ chapter epic with complex political commentary, brillaint writing and character arcs, the net of hundreds of connected characters and you pick on one thing just to have something to bitch about? Really?
I really hate how it’s conscidered for female characters to have actual real-life feminine traits like being more compassionate, less crazy or fight-happy like a typical cool male character to be “not progressive” or bad writing because what these people basically say that a female character is worth less if she doesn’t act like a male would. It’s such a bad and boring mindset, and I also feel like this is a very… bad, strictly US-centric point of view that ignores any culural differences between countries. I personally just love small moments within the crew when this difference comes out, like any time Franky shoots a laser out of his ass and while the guys are like “*-*” the gals just go “:|”? It’s such a mood asdfghjk. Or just a lot of Zoro-Nami interaction, honestly, they are so much fun to watch.
when i tell people how i got good with drawing, i get the same reaction that saitama gets when he told genos how he got super powerful. when I first started drawing i couldn’t draw for shit. i traced printed dragon ball z posters everyday until one day…i realized i wasn’t tracing anymore, i was doing it from memory.
Yeah, Zoro with Conqueror’s Haki would be super cool! (He’s known for being extremely intimidating as it is, and besides Rayleigh also had it, so…)
Yes!!! All of this. Seriously, my biggest suprise after catching up to One Piece after like a 5 year hiatus was how he still hasn’t shown it.
Like his parallel writing with Rayleigh alone would demand it, but it’s also not an accident that pre-Marineford he was so often mistaken for the captain of the crew. It’s no wonder he awakened his observation haki before anyone else back in Alabasta either. He’s aslo much more of a leader type than Katakuri is, and even he has conqueror haki too, so it’s not only reserved to people in actual leader positions. And the way he scared Monet shitless?
Also, I think it’s and important part of his dynamic with Luffy too, because as first mate it’s his job to do what Luffy can’t, and to warn him to get a grip if the situation demands it, like at Punk Hazard or Water 7. And he has to have the power and will to back it up. It’s not on accident how when these two got into a fight in Whiskey Peak Nami stopped a fight before it came to its conclusion, and they were shown to be pretty equal before it. I’m not saying they are equally strong, and it’s hard to compare a punchy guy to a swordguy anyway, but it was a
conscious
writing choice for the reasons above.
And remember the Fishman Island scene where Luffy takes out the mob with his haki, and Zoro says something like “we’d have to get another captain if he couldn’t even do that”? This really implies he has one. It really rhymes with that Water 7 converstation where he said since Luffy’s the only man he consideres above himself, he expects him to act like it, so if Zoro could do it but Luffy couldn’t, that’s be really akward.
And I also get why he hasn’t used before, I mean not like he really needed in in the New World anywhere, but he usually lets Luffy do the flashy “captain stuff”, like showing off the conqueror’s haki. So the only situation I can see him using it is when Luffy’s not there or he’s too injured/whatever to do it, and since he’s in jail now in Wano, it’s really the perfect opportunity.
Oh yeah, I’ve seen posts about it, but I don’t know why people “predict” that. Thankfully, it definitely will not happen. I don’t think it’d be a progress at all, it’d be really ugly, uncomfortable and out of character. Like congratulations, Sanji beats up women now, the world truly is a better place.
I know a lot of people don’t like this about Sanji, and not gonna lie, with Kalifa it was really annyoing at the first watch because I was so stressed out(ya know, the general Enies Lobby experience) but I like it this way. Like… would you really want to watch Sanji to kick a woman bloody? To kick her teeth out too, like he does it to his opponents sometimes? It’s just.. uh. It’s like when the virgin dudebros on 9gag post gleefully about how “it’s okay to punch women now bc equality haha gotcha.”
Like if we take Usopp or Luffy, they’re not those typical manly-man™ characters like Zoro or Sanji, but with them it’s good how they actively avoid hurting women if they can. Like the only thing the annoys me is about Sanji that how obvious he’s about it, like tactically it’s just not a good decision the announce in the beginning of a fight that you won’t hurt your opponent.
I like Zoro’s philosophy the best, because while he’s a lot like Sanji in this regard, he’s not vocal about it, and tries to hide if from his opponents. Like no wonder Kalifa was pissed, I’d have been too, even if I generally agree with his philosophy. Also, Zoro has the common sense to forget this rule when the situatuon calls for it. The Monet scene with with him was excellent, because it showed that he’d have hurt her if the crew really depended on it, just didn’t want to.
But some people here are actually saying that Zoro should have killed Tashigi back in Rougetown bc “equality”, which is??? what?? a hero, in One Pice?? should have killed an innocent woman who was a much weaker opponent just to prove how much of a feminist he is??? What??? Yikes.
The thing is, like it or not, it’s just worse to watch women get hurt, even for other women, let alone men. If we take Nami’s or Zoro’s Alabasta fights, Zoro got injured a lot worse, yet most people were like “whatever that bitch can pull through it”, but watching Nami being chased around by Miss Doublefinger affects you a lot more. And would you really want to watch this scene, but this time it’s a man toying with and hunting Nami? Like how Spandam dragged Robin around by her hair? This is what a progressive mindset is? I know I wouldn’t like it, and I don’t want to watch male charaters I like do this. Generally, at least, since I love Zoro’s Whiskey Peak scene and Luffy yeeting Miss Valentine away, but these were scenes were construced in a way so that you don’t really see tha actual violence.
And it’s really funny how this site is so eager to call out specifically male on female violence, even if it’s not justified, and how there’s a lot of talk about emotional and physical abuse going on in general, yet sometimes the very same people would want to watch female charaters get beaten bloody by male ones?? I think a lot of them don’t really think about how it’d acually look lmao.
Honestly, if this is what “girl power” is I think I’m good without it, we stan chivalry in this house.
Sure, I know it’s hard to admit it’s “different” for a male to hurt a female in a political climate where everything and everyone pushes for the genders being completely identical in every way, but we’re just wired this way.
It’s understandable, even if not fair. I think willfully trying to ignore this feeling just so that you can feel like it fits your ideology or philosophy is unhealthy, as willfully suppressing things generally are. It’s just lying to yourself. It’s no different how no one’s really bothered by
literally thousands of men getting maimed and killed in Game of Thrones, but when Sansa gets hurt once, everyone’s furious and the whole Internet’s loud with it.
And though I haven’t thought of this before, I honestly like the message behind it. If I had a son reading One Piece I’d be happy that he has role models like Zoro or Sanji that teach him not to hurt women. Imagine how many litte boys read this in Japan, and all over the world! How many little girls get the messege that good.guys.don’t.hurt.women!! It’s so important! If this gets to just one kid it’s already a win in my book. I mean it’s not like other media like to hurt its female characters for the same reason, because everyone feels and knows it’s bad, but it’s great that One Piece explicitly says it.
But back to the original question, I really love how Sanji’s deep love and respect for Zeff and what he stands for is portrayed, it’s so rare to see male characters to express their emotions so openly and without trying to understate them. One Piece really aces this in general, like anywhere else someone like Zoro would be just another semi-emotionless tough guy, but we really see all the guys openly expressing their emotions here. The fact that out of the crew it’s a cool guy’s, Sanji’s, most defining characteristic is kindess is amazing.
tldr: no, Sanji kicking in a woman’s face is not progressive and I don’t want to watch it
okay so here’re the movies I’ve watched so far, best to worse.
Moive 4: a canon mini arc between Jaya and Alabasta, amazing little crew interactions and moments, the most pirate-y One Piece ever got, A BAR FIGHT(what’s sexier than a good bar fight? and with PIRATES?? they’re finally in a bar! eatin’ drinkin’ fightin!!!) a bounty hunter guy who’s Irish Ace with pink hair, Navarone, the good old animation and a great villian. It’s amazingly in character, like Zoro and Nami being the ones to notice the suspicious event™, Sanji and the gals sipping tea while Zoro and Luffy tear up the bar, etc. Amazing, canon, flawless, everyone should watch it.
Z: It also feels a lot like canon, I like Z’s story, Kuzan, it also has a lot of great crew moments, the way the it’s about Luffy a lot, the clothes being justified, etc. but it’s not as good as movie 4. Definitely worth watching. I wrote more about it here, but keep it in my that was before I watched 4. i definitely recommend it!!
Baron Omatsuri(movie 6): it not really in charater or canon in a way that I don’t see it actually happening, with the in-crew fights, walking into the biggest trap ever and all, but it’s like a dark AU that’s definitely worth watching once. It’s visually STUNNING, dark, twisted, and the animation is wow. It’s a dark psychological trip down the rabbit hole with Luffy at our side. Tbh I didn’t like it at first bc of the OCC stuff but if you put that aside it’s interesting to watch.
Gold: it’s just a mess, honestly. walking into a trap again, the villian pulls the fakest Tenryuubito sob story card ever, like Hancock would personally kill him, logic whomst, terrible clothes even by movie standards. Top moments: Nami’s galpal and Zoro’s thot hat look and no sword stlye. No god, nor mercy.
attack that looked almost effortless. He knocked Luffy straight out of his Gear 4 and his consciousness flat on the ground. The most apt comparison to this fight is honestly either Luffy vs Belami the first or any fight from One Punch Man that involves Saitama. I honestly think that Luffy will not be able to defeat Kaido in combat. (2)
I’m really interested how Oda will write himself out of this, because it’s true that Luffy’s at a really tough spot now, like sure, even Lucci yeeted him away at their first eccounter, but this rwally wasn’t like that. Though I woudn’t compare it to Bellamy, as he was just being a little bitch while Luffy had haki coming out of his ass even when unconscius.
The thing about Luffy is, he’s at least 2 decades younger than all the other Emperors who’ve already maxed out their potentials years ago, and won’t be getting any stronger anymore. If we take Lucci, he was a 30-something already established agent when the 17 year old, fresh-off-the-East Blue-Luffy beat him, so even if he got a bit stronger after TS, he just didn’t have much room left to grow. Like I’m pretty sure Sanji could beat him now. The same with the Emperors, half of them are over 60 and they’ll only be getting weaker with time.
Luffy though, he’s barely 19, and he’s already in the finishing race for the crown. He beat 40 something-awakened df-Doflamingo, he beat Katakuri(!!), he gets stronger with pretty much every breath he takes. He still has almost infinte room to grow, he can pull a Gear-whatever, he can strenghten his haki, he can awaken his devil fruit too, hell, he hasn’t even stopped physically growing.
So given time, a few years, I think he could even beat Kaido even on his own, but that’s obviously not an option here. Fortunatley it doesn’t have to be one-on-one, keep it in mind that they have a lot of allies getting together for the fight now, and since Nidai Kitetsu and Shuusui are in the game too, I’m pretty sure Zoro will have a greater role in slaying the dragon.
I think it’ll be a tricky buisness, I don’t know a lot about Japanese mythology, but there’s a lot of European legends and tales where you can pierce the inpenetrable scales of the dragon/other creature once you do x or y? Like bloodying your sword or whatever the legend demands. And surviving a jump from Sorajima or not, Kaido has a bigass scar on this chest, so it can probably be done, we just don’t know the how yet. And once his defenses are down, I think he’ll be feeling that Gear 4 punch too.
chococum 