Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 9341314" data-attributes="member: 6801228">Your friend gave you a bad explanation. One Piece is a story about dreams and freedom in the face of a totalitarian government. Doesn't take itself seriously? Nami - An orphan who watched her adoptive mother shot and killed in front of her, because she refused to deny that she was her mother, and they were too poor to pay the tax to be allowed to "live". Kidnapped by the man who killed her mother, forced to wear his mark and work for him for over a decade, all for the money to buy her villages freedom. Which he tricked her out of, making her forever his slave. Sanji - Born to a family who did genetic experiments on him, beaten bloody by his siblings, mocked for caring for his sick mother who died because she took poison trying to protect her children. Was such a disappointment to his father that he was locked away in the dungeon and declared dead. Escaped, only to end up on a ship that was attacked by pirates. Marooned with a pirate on a rock, and nearly starved to death. Only survived because that pirate tricked him into taking all the food, and ate his own leg so the kid would survive. Robin - Grew up an orphan, called a monster for her abilities. At the age of 8 she passed the test to become an archeologist, as the archeologists on the island were the only ones she cared for. Met a giant who washed up on shore, made a friend. Days later the Government comes, because the archeologists discovered a secret history the government is covering up. They murder everyone, blast the island to a barren wasteland, destroy all the books. Robin watches her only friend killed in front of her, but is allowed to escape on a whim from the man who did so. She is labeled a demon and hunted for over a decade as they try to kill her for what she might know. The culmination of her character arc was declaring that she wanted to live, that she no longer was just waiting for death and wanted to live her life. Sure, One Piece has jokes and silly moments. Their powers do tend into the epic with the designs meant to invoke a sense of power and awe. But I would argue that a series that deals so heavily in such deep, traumatic themes, slavery, racism, child soldiers, child experimentation, government corruption, religious corruption, bio-weapons, weapons of mass destruction, war and rebellion, torture, assassination... they kind of need to have the lighter, sillier moments. When facing Arlong who brutalized a young girl after murdering her mother in front of her own eyes, who terrorizes a village because he hates all humans and sees them as inferior (which we later find out is a reflection of the racism against his own people) it kind of helps soften things to see a giant sea cow with a dopey cow face. It is still a monster capable of ripping buildings apart, but it least it looks kind of silly</blockquote>

Verification