I know I've already brought this up but I feel like saying it again, I really like the way Oda is deconstructing the Elbaph myth that he's spent so much of the series building up. It's made very apparent in this flashback that back then Dorry and Brogy were actually exceptions to the rule in their fair treatment of humans. The spirit of Elbaph we see in them that inspired Usopp and caught the reader's fancy turned out to be more of a reflection of who they are as people, though their kindness does better represent what kind of country Elbaph wants to be now. Harald himself even says that they have an "unusual disposition" in that regard, which I think is really interesting. And it makes what they've been turned into even more tragic with that in mind. Like I've mentioned before, Oda doesn't seem to be saying that there's anything wrong with having a warrior culture, or enjoying a good fight, but he's no longer separating that idea from the reality of violence and its consequences when used selfishly and needlessly. Dory and Brogy are violent and rambunctious and loud and irreverent, to each other, because they know the other is fine with it and reciprocates, but they were always gentle and kind and respectful to Luffy's crew. Their violence is controlled, purposeful even when it seemed frivolous to others. We've only seen them using it against other people in order to protect someone. Harald's violence, and by extension Elbaph's, wasn't controlled, not originally. It spilled out to other countries, other people, and caused a lot of harm.
Another thing that's interesting in this arc is the way Oda is depicting adherence to tradition here:
These panels are so jarring because in all the other panels the Elbaph citizens are depicted as jolly and boisterous, their faces individually drawn and visible, and while they're a bit confused about Harald's sudden change in personality they're still open to his ideas. But in these moments where an obsession with tradition rears its head, suddenly they become these faceless and jagged horned shadows.
This theme actually contrasts quite well with Egghead, because Oda is clearly trying to strike a balance between two extremes. In Egghead we got to see the very real dangers of progress with Vegapunk and the things he wrought in his desperate search for knowledge and innovation. I've made a meta post about it before but the reason why York ended up being the traitor was because Vegapunk's greatest weakness and vice was his desire for more, more funding, more knowledge, more discoveries, and more progress at all costs. In the end his greatest regrets came from that hunger for more, and so his hunger was what betrayed him to the government and got him killed. In his own words, "In my desire to push the world forward into the future, I flew too close to the sun."
Elbaph seems to be representing the other extreme, the dangers of staying too stuck in the past and not being willing to move forward, as well as the importance of people choosing to move forward towards a more peaceful future. But even then there is still an emphasis on the importance of a culture's history.
Oda has never depicted traditions as inherently good or bad, but he definitely leans towards leaving harmful traditions behind. It's actually an interesting parallel to the situation with Calgara and Norland. Norland didn't disrespect the Shandian's culture as a whole, but he also didn't believe that people should be harmed for the sake of maintaining tradition and he harshly denounced the act of human sacrifice, calling it barbaric. But when he found out that the trees he cut down to stop the spread of the plague were sacred ancestor trees, he felt terrible and said that the Shandian's were completely justified in their anger because what he'd done was unforgivable even if he'd just been doing what he thought was right. He recognized that he should have told the Shandian what the issue was and discussed it with them because he does respect their culture and their feelings on the matter.
But the Shandians do forgive him once they learn it was for their own sake, and importantly the way they show that forgiveness, the way they connect with Norland, is through another tradition. Ringing the bell of Shandora so that Norland may someday find his way back to them, lead home to them the same way their ancestors are. So It's not that traditions are treated as inherently bad, just the ones that are destructive, that hurt people, that ruin or end lives. The good traditions are ones that connect people, and make them happy, and tie them to their history and the history of others.
Similarly, chapter 1153 is all about the importance of those differences and the importance of learning about and experiencing other cultures and exchanging with them. But when their traditions become harmful, destructive, that's when they become a problem. Especially when they start to encorporate discrimination.
In the end it always comes back to the importance of the people, without whom there would be no culture and no traditions to begin with. And while I do hope it can still be saved, Elbaph deciding to burn everything down to save their kids is actually a perfect culmination of this narrative thoroughline, even more so because this time it's the good kind of history and culture being burned. And it fucking hurts because it doesn't deserve to be destroyed like that. But because of that it puts emphasis on what is most important. As Norland said, "people's lives are more precious."
With that in mind it's worth noting that Nika is meant to be a god of the people. Oda has typically depicted rulers and kings and gods as 2 kinds of people. The bad ones believe that people should serve them, and the good ones believe they should serve their people. Enel vs Gan Fall. Wapol vs Dalton. Doflamingo vs Riku. Orochi vs Oden. Kaido vs Momo. Etc. But Nika, and Luffy, are never depicted as ruling over anyone and never serving them either, just saving them, freeing them and bringing a smile to their face. Luffy even says he doesn't want to conquer anything, despite having a conqueror's will. What he's conquering is himself. I think that's part of why he doesn't want to be seen as a hero, because he doesn't want to tie others down or be tied down himself. It's funny because he's the kind of guy who doesn't really plan for the future, and doesn't care about anyone's past. He is the ultimate example of living in the present. In a way he's arguably struck the perfect balance between the two extremes by simply not engaging with them and just doing his own thing, which in light of everything I've said is kind of hilarious and very typical of Luffy. He's irreverent towards both tradition and progress, but he does care about people.
Anyway I'm just really enjoying the themes of Elbaf so far and how well they've resonated throughout the story and I just had a lot of feelings about it that I wanted to try to put into words lol. Oda is always great at packing a lot of meaning into relatively short flashbacks and this chapter was a really good example of that. Also Ida is great and Harald had good taste in women (fuck Estrid all my homies hate Estrid).
