#metanarriative

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 takes a deep breath

Okay, so I think everyone who reads One Piece knows that Hiliruk’s final speech is pretty important. It’s perhaps the single most important monologue given in the entire series, and what’s more is that it’s not something Oda pulled out of his ass. There’s a famous line in the Hávamál that echos the sentiments presented here pretty closely:

“Wealth dies. Friends die. One day you too will die. But, the thing that never dies is the judgement on how you have spent your life.”

Oda has said in many interviews that he was inspired by Vikings, and I think on a structural level One Piece most closely follows Norse mythology. Not only are there places like Elbaf and various giant world trees, the world at large is barreling toward an inescapable war that’s promised to reshape the earth--perhaps literally. But at the same time the world is promised to be reborn into something else. Hopefully something better. 

I’m pretty adamant about interpreting One Piece through the lens of the Romantic tradition, but a case could also be made for calling it a Norse-style epic. Not that I am in any way qualified to do that, but the point stands. 

And it all hinges on this speech. When we finally hear Roger’s last words to Rayleigh (I won’t die, partner) the reader automatically makes the connection to Hiliruk’s speech. This entire story wouldn’t exist if Roger didn’t feel the same way Hiliruk does here. Or perhaps it’s the other way around, and the thief who admired pirates so much took note of the fallout surrounding the Pirate King’s execution. It’s hard to say. 

And really, this is what the World Government is trying to do in regards to the Void Century. They are literally trying to make the world forget the existence of the Kingdom that existed before them. Then, and only then, can they truly be victorious. Which is why they’ve been so ruthless hunting down anyone with the knowledge of the poneglyphs, and why it’s so important that the Ancient Kingdom’s final message was written on unbreakable stone.

So much of the One Piece world is inspired by the generation that came before it. The instances can be small, such as Usopp’s desire to go to sea, or they could be very large indeed, if the theories connecting Blackbeard and Rocks D Xebec are true. 

But inheriting a person’s will does not make you a carbon copy. Luffy is not Roger. Chopper is not Hiliruk. Jinbe is neither Otohime nor Fisher Tiger. They each have their own distinct powers, personalities, and ways of accomplishing their goals. 

But their wills...their dreams...that’s something that can’t be changed, whether for good or ill, and I think that’s a fascinating way to set up a story.   

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Can you go more in depth about the characters you think had a lot of potential that just wasn’t utilized?

Broadly speaking, over the coarse of a narrative the author of a story will make certain promises to the reader. We can expect that Luffy will become the Pirate King, or that Zoro will fight Mihawk. We know, because Oda has established that explicitly through the narrative. 

Now, expectations can be subverted. For example, there’s a fairly popular fan theory that Zoro won’t ever fight Mihawk because Shiryu will kill him before he gets the chance. But you have to be careful that this subversion of expectation serves a purpose—either narratively or thematically—or else you’ll get things like the writers for Game of Thrones pulling out plot twists and surprises out of their ass for the sole purpose of blindsiding their audience. 

Note to writers: It’s not inherently bad if your readers guess what’s happening next. All that means is you’ve laid a good foundation for your story.

What frustrates me is when the author doesn’t make good on the promise he’s given (either explicitly or implicitly) for no reason whatsoever. Rebecca, for example, was introduced as wanting revenge for her mother’s death, and later her father being turned into a toy. She learned to fight and sought after the flame-flame fruit for the explicit purpose of defeating Doflamingo. 

We the audience knew that she wouldn’t be the one to fight Doffy. As the protagonist, that fight will always go to Luffy. But Diamanté, being an officer and the man that killed her mother, was presented as a sort of substitute. The entire narrative was written in such a way where Rebecca had every reason and ability to fight him, only for that to be taken away at the last moment by Kyros and Robin. 

Something similar has happened with Smoker and Tashigi. They were established as rivals for Luffy and Zoro respectively, the Javert to their Val Jean, but what have they done since the timeskip? Smoker was outclassed by both Law and Doflamingo, a character Luffy later defeated, and Tashigi has never had a chance to hold her own against anyone, let alone Zoro. Oda promised that they would be important to the story, but they’ve faded to irrelevancy. Maybe they pop up later, but as far as I’m concerned its too little too late. The damage has been done. 

There are some other characters I feel this way about, but the general gist is the same.

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I love that Rainbase is the “City of Dreams’. In-universe, it’s a good nickname for a gambling town, but on a meta level this is Crocodile’s stronghold. His dreams, specifically, have their genesis here

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So after Chess, Kuromarimo, and Wapol beat up on the lapins there’s this bit where they’re all surprised at how strong they are, how they didn’t expect to use their special powers on a bunch of rabbits, yadayadaya, after which Chess reminds Wapol (who really should know this already, since he’s the freaking king) that lapins are the most savage and ferocious beasts in Drum, to which Wapol replies with the immortal line “Nonsense”. 

Guess who shows up two panels later, all framed in ominous shadows?

It almost feels like Oda is using the meta to imply that Chopper is the most dangerous beast on Drum.

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dun dun DUNNN

In all seriousness, Oda’s ability to weave short- and long-term plotlines is one of his greatest strengths. We saw it a little in Logue Town with Dragon (fitting for the end of a prologue. No, I will not let that go) but here, right at the foot of the Grand Line, we get our first whispers of the metanarriative that ties the entire story together. 

The East Blue was largely a series of disconnected events. That changes now, and 20 years and 900 chapters later we still don’t know what Roger was hoping to find in his successor. 

What’s even better, is that you always have the sense that Oda has answers for the questions he’s asking. He doesn’t fall in the JJ Abrams approach of setting up empty mystery boxes that so often end up leading to unsatisfying conclusions. It’s taken a long to time to get there, but there’s always that feeling that the Straw Hats, and by extension the reader, are making progress

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I know Fishman Island isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but when combined with Arlong Park it truly becomes some of Oda’s deepest writing. The parallels/comparisons between Koala and Nami, Luffy and Fisher, Luffy and Arlong, Arlong and Fisher, Arlong and Jimbe, Nami and Arlong, Otohime and Fisher, Arlong and Shyarly, and Arlong and Hody (side note, Arlong is apparently a good character to compare others too lol) are almost endless, and the more you ponder it the more nuance reveals itself. 

What struck me on this particular read through was how both Nami and Koala had their symbols of their oppression violently removed -- with Nami’s cartography room being destroyed and Koala rebranding -- allowing both the emotional vulnerability to be able to cry without having to be afraid of the consequences of expressing the emotion they’re truly feeling. There’s no reason for either of them to hide who they are any more.  

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Go watch this video on the significance of the sea in the world of One Piece. I promise you won’t regret it. For those who don’t have the time or inclination, the important thing to know is that the unpredictability of the sea is an important recurring motif within the series

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Here’s the entire point of this fight summed up in a nutshell. Just as Mihawk is talking to Zoro, Oda is telling his audience: Buckle up, kiddo. You ain’t seen nothing yet.