#topic: basics

[onepiece-oc-archives]

Oda-approved questions to help build your OC

If you head to the One Piece Wiki page of the Straw Hats and take a look at the Miscellaneous section, you'll find a lot of trivia questions about the Straw Hats that Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, has answered in the Q&A portion attached to some manga chapters, called an SBS. I like to call those answers "Straw Hat Fun Facts" and I love them, because they work really well if you want to flesh out your OC and give them a bit more life and depth.

So, even if you're not planning on making your OC a Straw Hat, these questions might still be helpful for you to think about.

The way I'm gonna structure this post for the sake of avoiding spoilers is I'm gonna list all current LA Straw Hats with their facts and all future confirmed Straw Hats will have their facts mentioned without their name, if it makes sense to mention them. That way you can avoid duplicates within the crew if you want to do that and still have no clue about who's gonna join. I'm also gonna comment on how the various fun facts apply to the live action adaptation wherever applicable.

If you're looking for people's birthdays, I'm gonna make another post about them, don't you worry. But you won't find them here.

Animal Resemblances

Luffy: Monkey

Zoro: Shark/Tiger

Nami: Cat

Usopp: Armadillo/Chameleon

Sanji: Duck/Bighorn Sheep

Others: Reindeer, Red Panda, Crane, Falcon, Bull, Rhinoceros, Horse, Giraffe, Whale Shark, Bear

I don't think any of them were mentioned or referenced just yet in the live action, aside from Luffy's name having the word Monkey in it, but that doesn't count. I'm pretty sure we'll get some hints in the future though since these just have such great potential for easter eggs.

Specific Numbers

Now, this is a category that's a bit more complicated because each Straw Hat has at least two signature numbers, for very different reasons. Everyone has a main number based on when they joined, with Luffy being number 1. The second number is the same but it skips Luffy, making Zoro number 1, but this version is rarely used, if ever at all. Then there's the possibility of a Straw Hat getting a number assigned to them based on a pun, whether that be based on their name, their devil fruit, or something entirely different. I'll explain pun numbers in a bracket.

Luffy: 01, 56 (go-mu)

Zoro: 02/01

Nami: 03/02, 73 (na-mi)

Usopp: 04/03

Sani: 05/04, 32 (san-ji), 59 (ko-kku = cook)

Others: 06/05 - 10/09, 110, 87, 26, 43

Now, you may ask: "Evie, I wanna have a pun number for my OC, how do they work?" I got you, buddy. You can make your own pun numbers using a technique called goroawase, using this handy chart I made based on a Wikipedia chart. Everything I added is in (brackets) and consists of variants that would technically be possible due to my own understanding of goroawase, but might not be commonly used.

On a very basic level, all you have to do to create your pun number is to grab the readings from this table and glue them together. I took some work off your shoulders by adding the phonetic changes you can use, indicated by the arrows. You can also only use the first syllable of a reading or add or remove an n at the end of readings that end in vowels or n's. As you can see whith Sanji's ko-kku, you can duplicate consonants, and you can also turn short vowels into long vowels (tsu -> tsū, for example), both for spelling reasons. If you need to transcribe a c, either use an s or a k (or whatever else fits), depending on the pronunciation.

Here are some examples with my OCs:

Cora: 96 (ko-ra) or 25510 (a-ka-i-to - would be very unusual due to its number of digits, but I think I'll use this as a plot device in a future fic!)

Luna: 67 (lu-na/ru-na)

Inari: 576 (i-na-ri) or 53 (ka-mi)

Create away!

Specific Colors

This was in the live action! And I think we'll definitely see something similar again later.

You can't really see it that well but here are Luffy, Nami and Zoro lit up in their respective colors - red, orange and green respectively! I tried to take a better screenshot but, alas, Netflix will not let me.

Luffy: red (aka)

Zoro: green (midori)

Nami: orange (orenjī)

Usopp: yellow (kiiro)

Sanji: blue (ao)

Others: pink (pinku), purple (murasaki), light blue (mizuiro), white (shiro), black (kuro), ochre (ōdoiro)

As you can see, we pretty much have the whole rainbow here, which makes picking a unique color for your OC pretty hard, BUT it's completely allowed to use different shades of the same color (see: blue vs light blue), which is why I listed the Japanese color names for you. I did some digging and it turns out that these are the names of some of Japan's traditional colors. Those traditional colors don’t always match up with what my impression of the character's color is, BUT I made this handy little graphic for you:

In case there are any animal-related characters around and for those of you who like describing smells in their fanfic (me too, me too), this might be very useful!

These are all of the Straw Hats' specific colors (top row) according to the overview of Japanese traditional colors I linked for you above, their color names underlined with my perception of what color Oda might actually have been referring to, in modern terms. As for the grey names beneath orange and pink, those are the traditional colors from the overview that I used to replace the romanized English colors, based on what the first translation that popped up was. The columns directly underneath are a selection of different shades of the same color, also with their names. It just goes to show that you have a huge variety of colors to choose from for your OC - Japan's traditional colors alone are about 1,000 different colors and you can definitely play with hex codes some more. So, go wild!

Specific Smells

Luffy: meat

Zoro: steel (and probably blood, let’s be honest)

Nami: mikan (tangerines, essentially) and money

Usopp: gunpowder

I'd say everyone smells of the sea at least a little bit, realistically speaking, since they are pirates.

Sanji: cigarettes and seafood (and I'm willing to bet he wears some type of cologne or aftershave or something)

Favourite Type of Island and Season

Luffy: summer but he also loves snow, basically everywhere with meat

Zoro: autumn on an autumn island

Nami: summer on a spring island

Usopp: summer on an autumn island

Favourite Food

Sanji: a spoilery gag, so get creative!

We either directly see some of these in the live action or can easily guess.

Luffy: any kind of meat

Zoro: white rice (specifically in the shape of onigiri aka rice balls), sea beast meat, any food that compliments sake (though he's also pretty fond of beer, at least in the live action)

Nami: mikans (tangerines) and most other fruits

Usopp: pike from an autumn island and other fish of the season

Sanji: spicy sea food pasta, food that compliments black tea

Others: not really relevant but maybe interesting; cotton candy, chocolate, sweet stuff in general, sandwiches, not-too-sweet cakes, food that compliments coffee, basically anything that you can find at McDonald's, curry, mozoku seaweed with vinegar and fruits

Basically, Sanji gets to juggle around a whole lot of different flavours and cultural influences - and he does it really well and finds a way to make everything special, by the way! He generally favors the ladies in his cooking though.

Least Favourite Food

Even Sanji can't make them like everything. Their reasons for not liking something are very different, so they probably still eat it, especially if it's used in something Sanji prepared because he's their cook

Luffy: Cherry pie

Zoro: Chocolate (yes, chocolate! Adds a lot more depth to the scene of him eating Rika's rice balls, doesn't it?) - it's too sweet

Nami: orangette (candied orange peels) - she prefers actual fruit

Usopp: mushrooms - he got sick once

Sanji: konjac (Japanese konjac gel is usually made by mixing flour from the konjac plant with seaweed; it pretty much tastes like nothing and is used mainly for its texture) - it's not nutritious

Others: anything spicy, chewing gum, marshmallows, lemons, parfait

As a Family

This is part of the reason why Oda said there would be no romances within the crew in canon - but this is fandom, he has no power here. Feel free to ignore any of these roles and substitute canon with your own

Luffy: fourth son

Zoro: first son

Nami: daughter

Usopp: third son

Sanji: second son

Others: another child, parents and grandparents

Real-world Nationalities

Now, this is interesting, because these played a part in how the Straw Hats were cast for the live action!

Luffy: Brazilian (Mexican in the live action)

Zoro: Japanese

Nami: Swedish (her actress is American, but she was kept as white)

Usopp: unspecified African (his actor is Jamaican-American, so it sort of checks out)

Sanji: French (Sanji's actor is very international, but he's not French - I do believe Sanji is still supposed to be at least part French in the live action though, at least he still has an affinity for the language and he may very well have grown up multilingual)

Others: Canadian, Russian, American, Austrian, Indian

Inner Brain

Basically: What are the five words their brain/subconscious circles around?

Luffy: meat, meat, meat, meat, pirate king

Zoro: sword, sword, strength, train, sleep

Nami: money, money, money, money, beauty

Usopp: warrior, lies, lies, run, run

Suited Flower

Sanji: You guessed it, it's a spoiler-y gag. But, to summarize, he thinks about cooking and women

These were actually answered by one of the voice actresses for the anime (except for Luffy and Zoro's alternates) but they're Oda-approved! I know fanfic writers love flower language, so rejoice!

Luffy: cosmos, sunflower

Zoro: thistle, wisteria

Nami: sunflower

Usopp: daisy

Sanji: delphinium

Others: tulip, casablanca, anemone, rose, peony

Blood Type

-> this is a topic for another post since it's more of a life fact than a fun fact, isn't it? Maybe, I'll put the blood types in with the birthdays and make a sort of Straw Hat info post?

How often do they bathe?

Bathe, not shower, I would assume. Zoro showers after training... right?

Luffy: once a week

Zoro: once a week

Nami: every day

Usopp: once every three days

Sanji: every day

Typical Hours of Sleep

The only reference to this we have in the live action is Zoro's habit of napping. An interesting thing to note is that the Straw Hats' sleep schedules largely coincide in just such a way that someone is always awake - except for during one hour. Maybe this really is a coincidence or maybe this is a habit they built while travelling together. They do still have night watches though, I believe. But that means there's usually always someone to keep the night watch company :)

Luffy: no set time, but usually sleeps around 5 hours

Zoro: 4am to 7am (3 hours) + naps

Nami: 11pm to 7am (8 hours)

Usopp: 1am to 8am (7 hours)

Sanji: 12am to 5am (5 hours)

In conclusion, more than half of the crew has no idea what a healthy sleep schedule is. This is a pattern that's gonna continue, by the way...

Suitable Careers

Basically what careers they would have if they weren't pirates. Their actual careers in-universe also don't count.

Luffy: firefighter

Zoro: police officer (I will not accept this slander)

Nami: childcare worker

Usopp: graphic designer

Sanji: beauty salon worker

Others: elementary school teacher, cabin attendant, pilot, detective, train station attendant

Cooking Specialities

What are they best at cooking? According to Usopp in the live action, none of the guys besides Sanji can even boil water, so I'm willing to assume Sanji may have taught them a little. A lot. Not Luffy though. He's still a disaster.

Luffy: raw meat on a plate

Zoro: sashimi - a dish consisting of variously cut raw fish and meat

Nami: roasted duck with mikan sauce

Usopp: fish and chips

Sanji: literally anything, but he prefers seafood

Who would win a 50m sprint?

Only the current Straw Hats count here.

Fifth: Nami

Fourth: Usopp (he's already fairly fast, mind you)

Third: Zoro, slowed down because he got lost (but I still don’t think he could beat the people ranked higher than him, I'm sorry, Oda)

Second: Luffy

First: Sanji

Alcohol Tolerance

Another very useful one for fanfics! Tolerance doesn't equal how much they like drinking, by the way. I'd be willing to bet that the Straw Hats' alcohol tolerances got toned down in the live action, or at least Zoro's, judging by him stating how he woke up under a table once. With his manga-level tolerance, he would have had to drink gallons worth of alcoholic beverages before that happened. Still, I think the ranking holds up.

Fifth: Luffy

Fourth: Usopp

Third: Sanji

Second: Nami

First: Zoro

And finally one last bit that doesn't really fit anywhere else:

Sanji is currently the most qualified to give the crew a haircut. This makes sense if you read about his alternative career choice earlier and due to him generally putting a lot of thought into appearances.

So, that's it! Hope these help you!

[onepiece-oc-archives]

Heyy, any tips for dressing OCs? I struggle a lot coming up with outfits that look unique while looking like it fits in with the rest of the characters and the world.

Hi, thanks so much for your ask! Boy oh boy do I have tips for you, so buckle up! I'll try to keep this as straightforward as possible, but if you get lost on the way, I'll give examples at the bottom of the post.

First of all, it's important to have a feel for the character's personal style. One of the first things I do for every new OC I create is usually to hop onto Pinterest and make an aesthetic board for them because it just helps with so many things. Sometimes, you'll just stumble across the main design detail of your OC on accident! For example, my OC Aurelia's signature claws just showed up when I searched "gold aesthetic", and I decided that this was the way to go.

But let's go back: How do I even know what to search for? Well, you might want to have a basic concept for your character. What are their inspirations? What is their background? Do they prefer clothes that are more practical or more stylish? Do they have any signature colors? How do they come off in the eyes of other people and does that match their fashion sense? How rich are they?

The last point may be helpful to get a basic idea but, in the end, it doesn't have to be the deciding factor. Let's take the Straw Hats, for example. At the start of the story, they're not exactly rich. Still, both Sanji and Nami are walking around with nice clothes. Nami steals her clothes or bargains with (or threatens) the vendor until they give her a huge discount. Sanji, meanwhile, probably had a good bit of money before he left Baratie since it was a fairly successful restaurant, and I'm willing to bet that he probably only has one or two good jackets, so he might look high-end, but he's actually not very rich at all.

What I'm trying to say is: Knowing how your OC acquires your clothes can be a huge help both for their character design and for fleshing out their story.

Otherwise, just throw anything about your OC you can think of into Pinterest's search bar, glue "outfit" or "aesthetic" to it, and you'll probably find some good inspo for your OC's clothing style.

Now that you have an idea of their fashion sense, time to make it fit in!

I'll be the first to admit, the early animanga art style doesn't really leave a lot open for detailed character design, but once you get further into the story, you can practically go completely wild.

The first thing I'd think about is: What's your OC's place in the world? Are they a Marine? Great! You can draw them in uniform! A noble? What culture is their kingdom inspired by? A pirate? What are their crewmates dressed like? After all, some crews practically have their own version of a uniform or at least a theme.

In the end, someone's clothes "fitting in" probably isn't as much of an issue as you think. Yes, the Straw Hats' outfits look pretty simple in the early animanga episodes, but... take one look at OPLA or even try imagining their outfits in real life and you'll figure out at that isn't necessarily the case. They're just simply drawn because it's a simple art style. One Piece is such a diverse world that almost anything goes. You can go surprisingly far into sci-fi or steampunk or historical, whatever you like, if you play around with it a little.

A thing that I like to do is to take inspiration from the characters that my OC is close to. The Straw Hats are especially great here because, for a lot of story arcs, their clothes collectively have a theme, but they still manage to be individual and unique. How?

The details. It's all in the details. Even if your OC is a Marine, you can make them unique through the details. Think about Coby! How is Coby unique? Pink hair and those signature glasses! Most of the Straw Hats have one design detail that carries on throughout pretty much all of their outfits, be it an accessory, a color scheme, a pattern... Luffy has his straw hat, obviously. Zoro has his swords, earrings and bandana. Nami has circles and stripes. Usopp loves himself some overalls and, in the animanga, his goggles. Sanji almost always wears a suit or at least a dress shirt and, if he doesn't, the outfit is most likely blue. Think about how this works for your OC. What's the one detail that carries on throughout all of their outfits? That's what makes them unique and recognizable.

But details can also help tie your OC into the greater world. Remember that you are an artist making character design and you're free to throw in as many easter eggs as you want. They can really add to an outfit. Adopt an accessory from a character that your OC is close to! Make the pattern of their clothes a nod to someone or something or someplace else! That's what brings your OC to life because it's what people do. We steal each other's clothes, we buy matching outfits, we unintentionally and subconsciously pick up on or play off of other people's sense of style... It's a natural process, maybe even a sign of love, and it's one of my favourite things to see in art or character design.

To maybe put this all into perspective, let me walk you through how I came up with the outfits for two of my OCs, from two different backgrounds and parts of the world.

OC no. 1 is my beloved Akaito Coraline. Cora is a tailor of considerable fame throughout the East Blue and ends up joining the Straw Hats because she's childhood friends with Sanji. Finally, she ends up dating both Sanji and Zoro.

Practically the first design detail I had about her was a nod to her family, because her family and their tailoring tradition is a very important part of Cora's character. So, it was decided that she would have a sewing needle pierced through her ear. Her profession as a tailor also made it pretty self-explanatory to me that she would prefer clothes that are, well, tailored, and she most likely makes all of her clothes herself. So, she could wear fitted blouses and other fairly intricate or expensive stuff without actually being rich or being able to go shopping often because she can sew those clothes herself - which is also a lot cheaper. It also occurred to me that Cora would have a love of fashion and would probably put fashion over functionality in her outfits. Because of her backstory, I also knew that she would keep her back covered. Lastly, as a pirate, she would have to have some kind of weapon, and I decided on a rapier, because it's elegant, feminine, fashionable, and long and pointed like a sewing needle.

In the end, I threw all of those things together, picked reference images from Pinterest, slapped them into my drawing program, and, through trial and error, came up with this:

Base by Hevis-Swan on DeviantArt by the way - use and credit bases, kids, it really helps!

We've got the sewing needle through the ear and one of Zoro's earrings to link her to him. We've got a form-fitted blouse and vest where I made sure to actually draw the different panels so you could have an idea of the sewing process. The black things on her sleeves are sleeve garters, which are meant to hold your sleeves up while you work, and I figured Cora might wear them as one of the few things she wears for practicality's sake - but they're also made of lace because she loves her fashion. The idea to have her wear pants was more of an afterthought because I absolutely wanted the holster for her scissors, but the pants are based off a pair that I own myself! The belt is based off of historically accurate belts used to hold rapiers in the 16th and 17th century. Those boot covers are extremely impractical to button up, showing Cora's "fashion over function" principle. Finally, she wears heels because she's short and likes the extra height, and the anklet is a gift from Sanji, hence the blue and silver.

On a different note, we have OC no. 2: Dracule Aurelia, the wife of Dracule Mihawk. If you've ever seen Mihawk, you know that he's one fancy man, and the same applies for Aurelia. She is rich, filthy rich, and she's an incredibly powerful pirate. Her vibe is that of a mafia boss, a femme fatale, of power and deadliness through beauty. Her epithet is "Black Widow" because all of her lovers keep dying one way or another. Either by her hand or through other mysterious circumstances.

With those things in mind, I was already pretty sure of how I wanted to draw Aurelia and what clothes she should wear. "Aurelia" roughly means "the golden one" and, combined with her incredible wealth, that already guaranteed that she'd be wearing a lot of gold. Secondly, I knew her clothes had to be sexy. There's no other way to put it; she had to be turning heads. She also needed to be able to kick people in the nose. And lastly, I wanted it to be easy to see that her and Mihawk were married, so I took a lot of inspiration from him.

Bases by Fluffy-foxgirl and Alex-Hime on DeviantArt

This outfit is essentially one big easter egg hunt. The flower symbol is found on Mihawk's sleeve, the long coat is inspired by Mihawk and the collar is both a reference to him and Aurelia's father (whom I will not name here for spoiler reasons), she wears crosses just like Mihawk, the feathers on her headpiece are a nod to the feathers on Mihawk's hat, the petal-like sleeves are a nod to the island she's from... But the outfit is still 100% her! The way everything is very revealing, the gold chains, the claws, the high slit, the dagger with the spider in its pommel...

So yeah! I hope this helped at least a little. Hope you're having a wonderful day! ^^

[onepiece-oc-archives]

is is ever mentioned when you're officially an adult in the one piece world? because Luffy sets sail at 17 and Koby joins the marines with 16, so perhaps you're considered an adult by that age? But according to Sabo you become a world noble at 18? (aren't you one either way if you're born into a noble family?) But then again, if Sabo wasn't (as some say) planned from the beginning, perhaps one should not place much value in this reasoning - idk. It rather feels like you're considered an adult at 16/17... since the other younger strawhats were also more or less on their own out their (or in Sanji's case having an actual job)... and then again there's Bonney who is 12 by the time she arrives in Sabaody with her own crew so... then there's that^^ (but she might be an expection since she usually looks like she's an adult)

Hi, thanks a lot for your question!

I don't think there's a set age for when you're an adult and in a lot of cases it probably doesn't really matter. Why? Because we're in a world of pirates and many children and teenagers have to learn how to fend for themselves early on, that's just the cruel reality. I'll try to give some ideas regarding the examples you gave and then name my headcanons for what I think the more "official" age limits might be.

First of all, I'd say Bonney is outright disqualified because of her devil fruit. One Piece doesn't really have a form of ID, so they can't check her age, but even if they could... you can't tell me Bonney wouldn't have a fake ID or get her way either way because she's a pirate.

Luffy setting sail at 17 is most likely because Ace sat sail at 17. Also, Luffy is Luffy, so he probably doesn't care about age limits.

I wouldn't say that Sanji having a job is really an issue here because cabin boys are common amongst pirates and so are kids helping out chefs in kitchens. Also, he begged for that job on his first ship and then got given the job by Zeff when they opened Baratie. They did open Baratie together, even though Sanji was a kid, so I can't see him not getting a job here. Who knows if he actually got paid either. I don't think we can apply our definition of what constitutes a job in this case.

Now with Sabo and Koby is where it gets interesting, so this is where I'm gonna get into my own headcanons.

I think the One Piece world might be working with similar age limits/requirements as we do here in Germany. That means you're legally considered of age when you're 18, but you already get to make some important legal decisions when you're 16, very rarely also as early as 14, usually with a legal guardian's approval.

Why do I think this is the case? Being of age with 18 lines up with what you said about Sabo and becoming a Celestial Dragon. Yes, you're born a Celestial Dragon but you probably only get the full privileges of one when you're of age - so, most likely 18. Koby joining the military 16 wouldn't work here in Germany, but it's only one year off and I'm pretty sure the bar used to be lower - which, One Piece takes place in a more historical-esque setting, so we can probably assume 16 would be the minimum age requirement. Especially with the Marines being this present in day-to-day life and supported by the Government.

Why did I say Germany instead of any other country with the same age limit? Well, on one hand because I live here, but also because of one specific reason: Alcohol. Usopp (at least in the live action) got completely wasted at Baratie and I'm pretty sure Baratie is a place that would check your ID if you wanted a drink (at least if it's running normally, not like when Koby and Helmeppo showed up). Usopp is 16 but he still managed to get wasted, most famously off that huge bowl of fruit punch or whatever that was. I'm very sure that that stuff would fall into the category of drinks you'd be allowed to get at 16 in Germany. Light alcohol like wine and beer at 16, hard stuff at 18. Some more hints towards it being like that in the One Piece world too are that Zoro and Nami had no problems getting rum, which is hard alcohol, and they're 19 and 18 respectively. Helmeppo was also easily able to order shots for himself and Koby and he's 20 at that time. What we can definitely be sure of is that the limit isn't 21.

Whatever the age requirements are, I believe that, while they would be universal for anything involving the Marines or the Government and probably be enforced too, in the realm of pirates they don't really matter. Like, as a bartender, are you really going to deny a pirate crew some vodka for their 14-year-old cabin boy? It's either you give alcohol to a kid and maybe pay a fine or you lose a limb - I think the answer is very clear. Different kingdoms could probably adjust the age requirements to their liking, but I don't think they could lower them too much. But I don't know, that's just speculation at this point.

All in all, being in adult in the world of One Piece probably depends a lot more on the respect people have for you and how independent you are than your age.

I hope these rambles helped at all - have a lovely day!

[onepiece-oc-archives]

is there a timeline for the op universe? like, if i wanted something to happen on my oc’s island 150 years before the present canon, what would that year be called? and when did the world government/the marines start and what year would that be? (thank you for all the work you do on this blog btw!!)

Oh boy...

First of all, thanks for your question!

Yes, there is a One Piece timeline. It's run by a website called The Library of Ohara and currently updated until Chapter 1103 - so very spoiler-riddled. If you don't mind that, you can find the full version here. I've been thinking about maybe making a spoiler-free version (for OPLA) of the simplified timeline, but I just don't have the time and capacity for that amount of work right now.

So, I'll just stick to answering your questions from this ask for now.

First of all, the One Piece world most commonly uses the Sea Circle Calendar. In terms of months, weeks, days etc, it works just like our Gregorian Calendar, so birthdays can be translated between one and the other 1:1.

The World Government was created roughly in the year 700, or at the very least in the early 700s. I can't find any information on whether the Marines were also founded at that time, but another "police force" of the World Government that's somewhat related to the Marines was founded alongside the WG, so I'd just assume the Marines were too. It would also make sense for their creation to be at the same time as the World Government, considering the surrounding political events.

The events of OPLA (and thus the early arcs of One Piece) take place in the year 1522. Thus, Roger was executed in the year 1500, which was 22 years ago, and this started what's known as the Great Pirate Era.

If you wanted something to have happened 150 roughly years ago, that would be in the 1370s.

Thanks for your question! I hope this helped somewhat. Have a lovely day!

[onepiece-oc-archives]

what's something you would not recommend when creating one piece ocs?

Thanks for your question!

Honestly, there aren't many things I don't recommend, simply because One Piece is THE fandom for going absolutely wild. If there are things that I don't recommend, there's a whole lot of personal preference involved, so don't take everything in this post as law or something.

First of all: DO NOT get your first and last names mixed up. This is the one thing that I would make law if I could because I have a feeling that some people just... don't notice that they're doing it, maybe? Maybe there's also a dub out there that does it? But canonically, and in 99% of OP-related media, the family name comes first and any given names follow after that. Please keep that in mind. The Straw Hats aren't calling Roronoa Zoro by his last name all the time, they're calling him his given name. Zoro is his given name, Roronoa the family name.

Next, sticking with the names, I wouldn't recommend naming your OC after a famous pirate, simply because there's a high chance that that name might already be taken.

Also, don't overuse the "D." - I know I always say that and I can't tell you why because it's spoilery, but trust me, the D. should be reserved for certain characters only.

Alright, moving on from the names: Try to keep an eye on the setting you're in. For the most part, One Piece is light-hearted and colorful. You can absolutely give your OC a dark backstory! That's not what I'm saying. You can absolutely go dark on the backstory. But try not to make the character design too dark. Not as in "don't make them goth" but rather: Don't make them an eldritch monster with gore and body horror and whatnot (maybe with the exception of if it's their devil fruit power to turn into said monster). It would just be a huge contrast to the overall world of One Piece in terms of themes. Similar things apply to sci-fi (but you can easily get around that by making it a cartoony sci-fi) and other things that are based on a different time period. You most likely wouldn't have a full-on medieval wizard walking around the East Blue, but you could definitely make your OC medieval-wizard-inspired. Full-on Baroque-era dress with the huge skirts and wigs? Probably not a good idea unless it's your OC's formal wear as a noble. Baroque-inspired clothing? Sign me the hell up!

Power scaling time! I'm not saying you shouldn't create Mary Sues. This is One Piece, go wild if you want. But maybe think about whether it would work for the story you're trying to create in your head. If you're making a Straw Hat OC who can sink an entire Marine warship with a snap of their finger, it would trivialize the journey of the entire crew and take away opportunities for them to get stronger or go through character development. The Straw Hats are all about getting through danger together, getting stronger together, beating enemies through teamwork and loyalty and trust instead of just raw power... So, if you want to keep your OC as that powerful person, think about making your OC a Warlord or otherwise powerful pirate instead OR give them a handicap that means they can only use said ship-shattering power under very specific circumstances. For example, think about how certain spells or skills in RPGs take certain amounts of mana/energy/etc. to execute. Maybe the attack needs to be charged? Maybe it takes specific materials to prepare? You'll figure something out.

So yeah, I think that's it for now! I hope this helped and please remember that these tips aren't laws but suggestions. You don't have to listen to anything I've written here, but if you think that my recommendations make sense, feel free to apply them.

Hope you have a great day! ^^

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Is there a naming pattern or process for naming new characters for the one piece universe?`what should one consider when naming their oc? what can be done, what should not be done? i generally struggle with names and the one piece universe is no exception.

Hey, good question! I sort of answered this in this post I made before I even started this blog, but it's not very detailed, and it's mixed in with a lot of other stuff, so here's a little naming guide:

First of all, the family name comes first! I see a lot of people confused about this, but, in the Japanese naming scheme (which is what One Piece uses), the family name comes before the given name. So, if you have the name Roronoa Zoro, then Roronoa is the family name, and Zoro is the given name. Simple! You just have to pay a bit of attention to it to not get it mixed up. Another great example comes with Monkey D. Luffy and Monkey D. Garp. Luffy is Luffy and Garp is Garp. The "Monkey (D.)" part is their family name, which they share.

So, what's the D.? The D. is... well, we don't exactly know. All I can tell you without spoilering stuff is that giving your character the D. in their name is a decision that comes with a lot of lore implications and consequences, so consider it well. If you were to add a D. or any other letter of meaning to your character's name, it would be "Familyname X. Givenname".

If your character has more than one given name, you just glue them to the name at the end, so "Silvers Mary Jane" for example. The character is called Mary Jane and her family name is Silvers.

Aside from that though, you're 100% free. In the world of One Piece, anything can be a name. It doesn't really matter what culture it's from - you can probably make it work. I would say most names are either Japanese or based on a Western language, most commonly English, - or just entirely made up. You can name your OCs normal human names, fantasy names, name them after foods or weapons or tools... whatever you like! This goes for given and family names by the way. Also, a person's perceived real-world ethnicity does not determine what names they're "allowed to have". Nothing does. Just look at the live action! Nami and Sanji both have Japanese names, for example, but they aren't Japanese.

As a general piece of advice, I would avoid giving your OC the name of a famous pirate, because that name is most likely going to be taken.

Speaking of names being taken, if you want to check whether a name is taken or not, you could hop onto the One Piece Wiki starting page, and search for that name. Do not click on the articles you may stumble across if you want to avoid spoilers, otherwise your search should be relatively spoiler-free. I can't guarantee that it will be, but it most likely will be.

Generally, for naming OCs I use Behind the Name. It has a lot of names for pretty much every culture I could think of, including names from mythology, pop culture, literature etc. They also have a page for surnames, but it's not as detailed or extensive. With One Piece though, your surname doesn't even have to be or even sound like a surname. One Piece names can be very whacky, so feel free to go wild!

I hope this helped! If you run into any more trouble, let me know ^^

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since i’ve seen them referred to as both the navy and the marines, which is the right term? or the preferred term within the fandom?

I don't know if there's necessarily a right term - whether they're called the Navy or the Marines probably depends on which translation of the manga/anime you're reading/watching. But the wiki calls them Marines and that also seems to be the more common term amongst fans, at least as far as I know. Navy is also occasionally used, but Marines is just more practical in my opinion. You can have one marine, two marines etc. to name off the members of the organization and the organization is called the Marines, whereas with the Navy, the members are... what? Members/soldiers/sailors of the Navy? That's a bit of a mouthful.

Also, in the live action, which has English as its orginal/base language, they're called Marines, so I'll just take that as the most "canon" version of the English term you can get.

I call them "Marines", so that's the term that's gonna be used on this blog, but you're free to pick whichever