Sanji does everything in his power to serve others. He serves all women, all who are hungry, and all who have treated him kindly. This does not stem completely from a place of kindness (although sanji genuinely is kind), but from a lack of self worth.
He does not believe that he is worthy of any kindness; that’s the entire reason sanji refuses luffy’s help in whole cake island — because he doesn’t think that he deserves it. Every hint of kindness that he has received in his life, he aims to repay back because he simply can’t fathom the idea of being at the receiving end of anything good without it coming at a cost.
Ever since he was a child, it was instilled into him by his siblings and biological father that his inherent value was tied to his physical strength (which in comparison to them, he did not have much of). Which means that to both everyone else and to himself, he meant nothing. This is why the kindness shown to him by his mom (and his sister to an extent) meant so much to him.
To him, it was as if they were gods because in a world full of individuals who only see value in people when they can be used, only a being such as a god would be benevolent enough to show someone as lowly and worthless as him any kindness when he (as a child), neither ‘deserved’ it nor had anything to offer back in repayment.
Religion, regardless of the specifics, brings comfort to people. Whether it makes them feel less lonely, or provides a feeling that there will always be somebody who accepts and loves you regardless of how little you have or how flawed you are, the warmth people receive from faith is undeniable. This comfort, for sanii, was given to him by women. And as a result, he views and treats all women as if they’re goddesses, because to him they really are.
Luffy is a man who doesn’t care about what other people think. He acts purely out of his own desire, doesn’t consider other people’s feelings, thoughts, or even wishes, and does whatever the hell he wants. By all means he’s the epitome of selfishness, and yet how does he manage to be so well loved by the people not only in the one piece universe, but also in real life?
It’s because selfishness isn’t inherently a bad thing. People are all selfish by nature, it’s how we’ve kept ourselves alive up to this point and yet people are afraid to be selfish. They’re afraid to take, to dream, to want more; all of these thoughts leading them to suppress their desires and choosing to live forever dreaming of a life they’ll never take action to achieve.
But what happens when you have a person who just doesn’t think? Someone who only feels, and acts accordingly. Well here we have Luffy, whose selfishness takes form in wanting to have fun, protect his friends, and most of all to be free from other people’s control. What’s so special about luffy’s selfishness compared to others', is that he doesn’t want wealth, fame, or power — he just wants to be free. His desire for freedom is extended to anybody he considers a friend, and he saves people whether they want it or not which is especially shown during enies lobby and whole cake island. Robin and sanji ‘betrayed’ the crew, practically begged for luffy and the strawhats to abandon them and yet luffy never once cared about what they said or wanted because of his own selfish desire to save them.
Robin and sanji’s selflessness led them to sacrifice themselves for the betterment of the crew, and luffy wouldn’t stand for any of that. He saved them despite everything they did, and for once in their lives made them feel like they were allowed to be selfish. Robin was able to admit her desire to live, and sanji was able to admit that despite everything, he still wanted to go back to the sunny.
Just by being so openly selfish, he influences cowards like koby or shirahoshi that were stuck living under someone else’s control; to become cowards who despite being scared, now have the will to stand up for what they want.
Luffy shows us that it’s not a bad thing to be selfish, that it’s ok to desire, and it’s ok to go against what other people want if it’s for the sake of your own happiness.
Why does luffy equate being king of the pirates to being more free than anybody else? I never really questioned it much until rather recently, when I got to wano and we got to learn a bit more about roger.
We got to see more glimpses of what he was like in the past and it makes you wonder — how could a guy like this be the most wanted criminal in the world? Just what did this guy do to make the entire world government deem him of all people the highest threat to them, even going so far as to label him the king of the pirates?
From what we can see, roger was just a carefree guy who was strong sure, but pretty much all he did was hop from island to island, make friends with people around the world, and partied with his crew. He had never done anything genuinely evil, was well loved by everyone, and even liberated hundreds of people himself. He really was just a guy who liked to have fun and did whatever he wanted — and that was his crime.
Roger was so strong that the world government was unable to stop him whenever he set his mind on something. Even if he had no harmful intentions, the fact that he was a person unable to be controlled by the world government, made him the ultimate threat to their absolute rule. This man’s crime, the crime so heinous it made him the king of the pirates far worse than anyone else, was being free.
Roger being able to do whatever he wanted, go wherever he wanted, help whoever he wanted, infuriated the WG as roger was a man who simply could not be controlled or contained in the little box they wanted to place him in. It was like he ripped a big gash along that box, freeing himself and then continuing to free and liberate everyone else he came across that were also stuck while inspiring others to break free themselves at the same time.
This is why luffy considers being king of the pirates to being the person more free than anyone else in the world, because roger got that title by being free.
One piece all in all, is a story about freedom. It’s something that’s been made clear from the very beginning, but freedom comes in many different shapes and forms; one piece in particular, has a great way of showing it in the form of forgiveness.
Take nami for example. A girl who had everything taken away from her and was forced to work every single day for the people who killed her mother, enslaved her entire island, and slaughtered them on a whim. For 8 years straight up until luffy came along, she was practically in a living hell. Despite him allowing her and her people to regain their physical freedom, did this mean they were mentally free from the years worth of traumatic experiences built up? Obviously not.
But then what happens later on when nami meets someone who used to be part of the former group that had practically enslaved her? She forgives him. This isn’t a decision made by oda for the sake of teaching kids to simply ‘be the bigger person and just forgive’; it was to show how at that point, nami was already free from the mental shackles her past had given her.
She didn’t have to forgive hachi; even he himself knew it was beyond unreasonable to even ask her to consider it, but she did just because well — she could. Nami never forgot about her past, but she saw the good that her suffering had brought her. She was able to meet luffy, liberate her people, join the strawhats, follow her dream, so much more and in her own words, “I’m fine with my past, because I’m happy with my present!”
Nami forgiving hachi while not holding it against any other fishman just goes to show how forgiveness isn’t just about letting something go, it’s about being alright when you look back at it.
But what if you don’t have it in you to forgive? What if your hatred runs so deep, it goes against every logical reasoning you have no matter how hard you try to get past it. Inheritance is one of many recurring themes in one piece. Whether it’s the inheritance of the will of D. or the inheritance of dreams, but what people don’t typically touch upon is the inheritance of grudges.
In fishman island, we witness just how easy and destructive it is for future generations by passing along resentment like a torch, highlighted by the main antagonist of that arc who harboured such hatred for humans even without any personal negative experience with one.
This is what made fisher tiger such a standout character for me. Knowing that there were so many kind and compassionate humans out there — having met so many himself — yet he still having so much hatred in his heart towards them because of everything they’ve done to not just him but to his entire race throughout all of history up until the present day. He hated humans so much he quite literally would rather die than have their filthy blood in his veins, and yet he didn’t let it show until his very end.
His belief that only the future generations who are untainted by old blood can pave the way to a harmonious future, and his lack of forgiveness not being an excuse to discriminate against all humans (like koala) is a very ideal example of how to behave as an adult.
With fisher tiger and the queen putting so much emphasis on refusing to spread their own personal hate and grudges towards others (especially the children) is telling of how people spreading hate only perpetuates the cycle where someone hurts you, you hurt them back, then they hurt you back, and so on. What you teach your kids is what they teach their kids in the future, so why choose to teach them hate?
One piece shows you that it’s liberating to forgive, but also that it’s ok to not be able to. As long as you don’t pass along your resentment onto other people, you’re free to do whatever the hell you want really. Nobody is entitled to your forgiveness, you forgive others for your own sake not for theirs. And isn't there just such a freedom in forgiveness being your choice, not an expectation?
One piece is in every shape and form of the word, a fantasy. In a world where there are mermaids, fruits that give you funky powers, and even islands in the sky you can reach, nothing about this is realistic so then why do I consider one piece to be one of the most “connected to reality” pieces of media ever?
Just to list a few of the things that one piece tackles; there’s the corruption of the government, abuse of power, racism, slavery, discrimination, oppression — very relevant topics yes, but a lot of other media cover these topics too, so what does one piece do different that makes it more ‘realistic’?
Well to start, one piece really doesn't pull any punches on the points it tries to make. While lots of media do tackle these issues, they often do it in a roundabout way or paint them in a more lighthearted tone in order to prevent viewers from being uncomfortable and keeping up their vibe as a silly goofy show made to entertain and not spread awareness. One piece, however, manages to do both at the same time.
The WG(world government) is built on and sustained by plunder, colonialism, imperialism, and all other forms of exploitation. It provides protection and basic rights for citizens, but these rights can be trampled on at any time, and ultimately it is the wealthy ruling class who take priority. (Sound familiar?) They are considered the largest and strongest group by the general public and countries are able to ally themselves with the WG, however, in exchange for their protection they expect great deals of money regardless of the economic state the country is in.
Being unable to pay the Heavenly Tribute (basically yearly taxes) is the most common reason why a nation does not join the WG because those who lack the funds, simply do not exist to them. And even if they are able to make the payment, the outrageous costs often take a toll on poorer countries, with the people on the island that the donquixote family moved to often starving to death from the loss of resources. With or without the WG’s protection, people die regardless.
On sabaody, we literally witness active slavery being practiced along with the existence of multiple slave auctions that the WG simply looks past with a bit of money. We see how brutally they’re treated, how easily replaceable they were, and just how normalized it was. I could go on and on with the extreme examples one piece gives us, but more important than how they present these problems, is how they portray the trauma that comes with it.
Oda makes it clear the lasting effects actions have on people, whether it’s in a large society or in an individual. Fishman island as an arc displays it well, with the fishmen who had experienced horrible things at the hands of humans forming a negative opinion on them as a whole, and passing down this negative perception of them from generation to generation until every single fishman was weary of humans despite not all of them having experienced any personal wrongdoings.
One piece doesn't just finish that arc with the fishmen forgiving humans for everything they did and have them all just suddenly get along. Oda did not treat their trauma as a problem to solve, because their mindsets and perceptions of humans were extremely justified considering what they’ve gone through and it would be extremely unfair to simply expect them to ‘get over it’ just because they met a few good humans.
What did happen though, was that as a byproduct of the strawhats saving their island, their perception of humans and belief that they were all evil naturally wavered (just a little bit). The strawhats weren’t even trying to accomplish this whatsoever, but their actions even made the children look up to them which brings potential on the start of a new outlook towards how they view humans as a whole. What you teach your kids is what they teach their kids, and in that regard, the hatred that was currently being passed down like a torch down generations could slowly turn into neutrality and maybe even friendliness over the course of hundreds of years.
Luffy does not magically fix or speed up progress, but instead kickstarts the beginning of it. He gives people an opportunity to change, and it’s entirely up to them whether they want to because ultimately, it’s their fight not his. One piece doesn’t treat issues as something to just solve and move on, they treat it as an issue that’s deeply rooted and will likely take a very long time to make any notable progress.
This is how oda portrays trauma for a large-scale population, but what about for an individual? For this, boa hancock is the person who immediately pops up in my mind. Boa is introduced to us as a person who quite literally kicks puppies and kittens that are in her way, looks down on people so much she looks up, and says it’s all ok because she’s beautiful. (It’s true though)
Boa is an example of someone who’s built up walls so high she refuses to have any chance of anyone or anything climbing over. Her experiencing the living hell that she did led her to developing the need to never be seen as vulnerable ever again, wearing her pride and arrogance as armour. In order to maintain the image of her being untouchable and ruthless, she shows no sympathy or kindness to anyone even going so far as to trash a sculpture made by children in her own image.
Trauma does not justify behaviour, but it does explain it. Many people do not like boa because of how she behaves or at least behaved when she was first introduced, but personally I love how oda didn’t make her a ‘likeable’ character. After meeting luffy, boa does change for the better, being able to show care for people other than her sisters after years of being closed off, but even that took hundreds of episodes to see. She didn’t change drastically and still appears exactly the same to the public eye, but the change was clear to those closest to her and to us who can easily compare how she acted in the beginning vs how she acts now.
Oda shows us that trauma is not pretty, it's not supposed to be. In a sea of media which romanticizes trauma and creates perfect characters who simply have it but don't act like it, nearly every character in one piece has their own reasons to act the way they do. They do not just ‘move on’ from it, being unfazed by their past and acting like it was never that deep to begin with.
All these characters have flaws, fears, and emotional scars that don’t just disappear by getting saved by a big strong man. It takes time to heal, and while scars can’t disappear, they can fade. These characters are not perfect nor are they supposed to be because what these characters are, are traumatized individuals who need help in order to get better — and there's just something so real about that.
Having been run for over 28 years (and still going strong as of today) with well over a thousand episodes, people like to ask, “what is one piece even about?”. While the standard answer might be simply to find the one piece, I would like to disagree.
Luffy isn’t after the one piece. Well technically he is, but I don’t think that finding it is his actual motivation to be a pirate. After all, Luffy doesn’t even care about what the one piece is. He sets sail for it without a clue of what it could be long before having any confirmation that it even exists in the first place. What luffy is after, is the freedom that comes with becoming king of the pirates which he achieves by finding the one piece, meaning that it’s nothing more than a means to an end for him.
Well if the point of one piece isn’t to find the one piece, then what is it supposed to be about? One piece is about many things, with how many arcs it has it covers almost everything under the sun. But because one piece has been ongoing for so many years, people often forget about its beginning — that it all started with just one single boy. A child, with a dream.
If you ask me, I believe that one piece is about dreams. Or rather, having the freedom to dream and the will to chase after it. Wealth, fame, power, gol d. roger king of the pirates attained everything the world had to offer and all it took was, well, a dream. The one piece we know and love only exists because of this one boy who had a dream, and was willing to do anything for it. Roger who kickstarted the great pirate era is practically the reason luffy even exists as himself.
Luffy’s dream is freedom. In his own definition, the pirate king is the person who’s more free than anyone else in the world, making pirates an embodiment of freedom with the pirate king standing on top. It wouldn’t be a stretch to call it an impossible dream to have considering that people weren’t even sure if it was real, and even if it was, how could some random kid with no experience even dream of accomplishing such a thing? But luffy being well.. luffy, was born with the natural ability to easily disregard whatever others said while also having the physical strength to simply punch away anyone who got in his way. Anybody who isn’t luffy though, typically aren’t as blessed with such a strong body and mentality. Similarly, there are many people who have dreams but not the will to chase after them, along with others who don’t even have the freedom to dream. That’s where luffy comes in.
Luffy hates cowards more than anything and even says it outright. When first meeting koby, in one single sentence he calls him stupid, spineless, wimpy, and literally tells him ‘I don’t like you’ to his face with a big smile. Luffy absolutely can’t stand people who don’t have the guts to take the reins over their own life, especially if they have a dream that they chose to give up. Luffy being luffy™️ though, even cowards like koby and shirahoshi get inspired by just watching him in action — constantly and so easily fighting with his life on the line for a dream nobody believed he could achieve. For the cowards who have a dream but not the will to chase after it, luffy’s simple but determined existence sparks a flame for them and ignites their will to fight for the future they want.
But what about the latter type of individual, people whose circumstances don’t even allow them to dream. Nami who had always dreamed about making a map of the entire world, but had to completely set it aside in order to focus on saving herself and her people when they were under arlong’s rule. And then robin who only ever wanted to attain knowledge about the void century, but was targeted for it and had to live just trying to survive. It was luffy who came along and gave them back the freedom they lost, so that they could dream once more.
Sanji is a special case where he had a dream along with the will to chase after it, but chose to bury it for the sake of others. In order to repay zeff for his kindness, he was committed to spending his entire life in the baratie even against zeff’s own wishes. Adding the fact that his dream to find the all blue was regarded by everyone else as nothing more than a childish fantasy only made him bury his dream down deeper until he was fully convinced he’d never actually follow through with it. That is, until he met luffy and zoro.
Luffy who openly talked about finding the one piece with such determination and certainty even though his dream was considered just as childish and crazy as his own invoked sanji to tell luffy about the all blue and his desire to find it; something he hadn’t admitted to anyone ever since he was a child, and yet luffy didn’t make fun of him one bit and wholeheartedly supported him.
Zoro too played a huge role in sanji overcoming his reluctance to set sail, when he witnessed how zoro would much rather die than run away and let his own dream escape him — his display of sheer conviction inspired sanji and made him realize just how much of a coward he’d been all this time. With a fully reignited passion, sanji broke his imaginary shackles and allowed himself to dream once more.
One piece is all about dreams. What do himbo swordsmen, money loving gremlins, cowards, women slaves, history nerds, freaky exhibitionists, even freaker skeletons, and fish have in common? Nothing at all. But on luffy’s crew, they still have nothing in common except for one thing, they all have a dream. To dream is to be free, and to be free is to dream. Dreams connect people and push you to do extraordinary things, but they also mean nothing if you don’t have the will to do anything about it.
Many people are too scared to take the first step, but if you wait until you’re ready then you’ll be waiting for the rest of your life. To that, luffy exists as a punch to your face and encourages people to just shove what everyone else says up their asses and to do whatever you want, the pirate way.
