The Most Disappointing Arc in One Piece transcript

I think wano is a good one piece Arc after having had a lot of time to reflect on it while I don't think it's amazing it's far from the worst one but with that being said I also think it is the most disappointing Arc in all of One Piece by far and how does that make any sense well the thing about wano was that it was the thing in one piece that had been foreshadowed for the longest amount of time in the whole story aside from of course the one piece it first got mentioned in chapter one 143 in drum Island that's 766 chapters and the thing about setting up something earlier in your story is that the longer time goes between the time it was first foreshadow to the point where it actually happens in the story the more the audience's expectation and anticipation will grow the bigger the buildup the bigger the payoff needs to be let's take the one piece itself for example I can't think of anything in any piece of fiction that has been built up to and foreshadowed for as long and as much it's it's been almost 30 years and we still do not know what it is now let's say we finally get there we've gotten to the last Island we're about to uncover the one piece and it turns out to be just like a random juice box that would suck that would be the lamest thing ever and no one would like it now Oda is a talented writer so I'm sure he could make this work somehow and give this Juice Box some profound meaning that would make for a satisfying reveal but like probably not everyone's expectation of what the one piece is is massive it has to be something incredibly fulfilling and rewarding not that it has to be something big and fancy but it has to be something that meaningfully ties together the entire Journey themes of the story and growth of the characters and a way that feels earned let's take a Attack on Titan for example the biggest reveal built up to in that story was the basement and when we finally got there it was just filled with like some books but just one single sentence that was written in one of those books was enough to evoke an overwhelming sense of catharsis wano gets name dropped time and time again we meet several characters that basically join the straw hats crew for almost half the story so we can take them to wano where kaido do flamingo's boss who had him shaking in his boots and also one of the four Emperors of the sea lives and after we finally get to wano and go through the ark it's like fine again it's not bad but also doesn't fulfill the implicit promise it made this this is just my opinion though of course you might think wano is the best Arc ever and if so it obviously delivered on that promise but for me it certainly didn't and why is that well before I go into everything I absolutely despise about this Arc let's start off with all of the things I actually liked firstly I think Odin slashback is top tier and one of the best ones in one piece Odin himself is a really well realized character his death was probably my favorite part in the whole art I also Al really like Sanji asking for Robin's help it's awesome to see him finally get past this character flaw of his it's a rare case of character development for the straw hats that I feel like we hadn't had in a while and this dude's character design is sick he looks so freaking cool the fight between Ling kid versus bigon was surprisingly pretty damn solid I mean I'm a sucker for law and his abilities and just teleportation abilities in the first place but his devil fruit abilities got used in new and cool ways that we hadn't seen before the other characters devil fruit were a big aspect of the fight too and I like when the powers of the world feel like they have a real purpose and um yeah that's about it okay there are obviously more positives in this Arc than these but these are the biggest and most important ones in my opinion and unfortunately they get heavily overshadowed by all the negatives which a lot of the issues that I have with this Arc has to do with the things I talked about earlier so let's start with MOS and the aasaya N like I said before MOS and Kenan joined the story and the straw had 6 50 chapters into the story then leave them at chapter 150 that is about 40% of the whole One Piece story that's not normal your average Joe can't just hop on the straw hats boat and sail with them the last person who did that was all the way back in alabasta with viie she was only with them for a 100 chapters but still gave us some of the most memorable and fulfilling moments in the story period now what does kenon have to show for himself after 400 chapters uh he like lost the kaido I guess he had like a few moments here and there but did we really need him to be a part of the story for that long just so he could do that he doesn't really grow much as a character no real standout character moments there's one moment that could have been solid as he's trying to stop kaido from taking Momos but instead of actually dying we just get a fake out death instead now okay kenon isn't the star of the show I guess Momos is the real star here and honestly I kind of wanted to mentioned him at the start of the video where I talked about all the things I liked because him exclaiming that he's the new Shogun and leader of wano is one of the best moments in the arc this is character development and growth but with all the things I like in this Arc I find myself putting an asterisk afterwards so what disappointed me with moske well while I think this was a pretty solid character Arc I also think it was a character Arc that could have been told in a much shorter time and I can say this for certain because his journey was actually told in a pretty short span of time yeah sure he gets introduced in the story relatively early as a scared kid with no confidence in himself but he doesn't actually take steps towards becoming a more confident person who accepts his role in the world until we get to the later stages of wano the Crux of his character Arc comes down to the raid on anig gashima when he declares himself as the son of Odin in front of kaido facing his Fierce head on turning himself into adult and his interactions with Luffy after that but before that he really made no efforts towards becoming a different person it wasn't a steady character Arc that took place since we first met him so considering that and the fact that he didn't really do anything important in the story before wano except for like sing over Nami and Robin why exactly did we need to get introduced to him so early why couldn't we have met him in so or hul cake I guess because we weren't I was expecting more and even once we get to wano again it doesn't really focus on him until the end because of how many other characters that has to focus on like carrot which yeah I was wrong when I said only Momos kenam and Viv were a part of the straw hat crew temporarily because we have [ __ ] carrots genuinely what is the point of carrots listen to me when I say this you are trash why does she exist she didn't join the straw hats as early as the others but she was still with them for a while only to leave them in wano but again why once again she doesn't have a character Arc she doesn't develop she doesn't even even do anything important she's just there and I think this highlights a big issue that I have with wano this Arc just has two much [ __ ] in it wano is an extremely long Arc the longest Arc in one piece by far at 150 chapters that's longer than a lot of manga and yet I don't really feel like that much happened in this Arc which obviously isn't the case as a bunch of stuff happened but I think because there was so much going on nothing really got the time to be fleshed out too much like we get introduced to a ton of new characters but I really couldn't tell you much about a lot of them there are so many of them that none of them really get a chance to be properly explored like does anyone actually like Riso I legitimately couldn't tell you anything about him I couldn't tell you anything about Ash R doji either the story somehow manages to be so incredibly long while still stretching itself too thin and this becomes very apparent when there actually are interesting characters or ideas introduced that quickly get dropped or just are never prop explored like this guy who's actually a fox collecting weapons and protecting the graves of the Samurai there's this real mystery of who he is and why he's doing this and it's actually really cool then we find out why and he's gone he just disappears from the story he doesn't even join the raid he's just gone or kawamasu who like I said has a sick character Des sign and protected hiori as a kid wow okay that's kind of cool I'd like to see how that went and he gets put in jail for 13 years and never really does anything interesting in after getting released oreno who experienced so much sadness and rage after Odin died that his entire appearance changed and became so fixated on Revenge to the point where his whole personality changed to a more cold calculated and ruthless one all to defeat kaido that is so [ __ ] cool show me more of that go into detail please he's the only one of the aasai 9 that had a backstory death stood out after Odin died but no we don't get to focus on that he literally just returns to his older personality as soon as the raid starts it literally has no time to focus on these characters because of how much shited ass going on to the point where all the Samurai and people who live in wano particularly the aasai and N just kind of feel like the same character they all have the same motivation kill kaido they keep going on about how much he deserves to be brought to Justice and that's it like these guys or this dude or this guy as much as Odus strives to painstakingly give every single new character he introduces a unique and distinct person ality if you're not going to do anything with them beyond that they're just going to blend into the same character I really like yam for example he's a character that actually stands out and is pretty fun but he doesn't do anything for him to get introduced at the end of the story like after the raid has even started and the only thing he does is hold off kaido like come on man do something you could cut out half of these characters and the story would be the same and other characters would get the chance to shine like Marco I love Marco he is one of the coolest [ __ ] out there but the only reason for me saying that is like a few chapters during Marine Ford other than that he like never shows up so I was actually pretty excited when I realized he was going to have a role to play in this Arc but here's the thing he doesn't have a role to play he doesn't do anything he throws some attacks at some strong opponents I guess but that's kind of it I just feel like if he's not going to do anything significant then just don't include him and again I can say this for about half the characters in this Arc one where I particularly felt this was the case was this CPO dude this guy had been lurking in the background for so goddamn long only to die to kaido without even putting up a fight he had no impact on almost anything that happened in this Arc wasn't an interesting character when it really came down to it and just died without accomplishing anything he had been around for so long and he seemed so important so for him to just die like that again it's disappointing and speaking of dying I think death was handled pretty poorly in this Arc one piece is pretty controversial when it comes to characters dying and the way it seems like no one ever really dies and I can say that I don't really have a big issue with this personally but with this Arc it's really apparent first off the fake out thefts are way too [ __ ] much I'm okay if it happens like once or twice but come on man how is kinamon even alive but my biggest issue are the characters that actually die I already mentioned the CBO dude that was a terrible death but it just so happens that he himself killed someone and that was ISO why genuinely why on [ __ ] Earth did he have to die what was the purpose of that it's a death that feels like it was added purely to make the battle feel like it has Stakes which is so incredibly ironic there's also this dude dying and you know I'll be the first person to tell you I don't give a [ __ ] about arer DOI genuinely who even is that but I actually felt really sad when he died I felt sad that this Arc is so damn disappointing and I hate the way he died because it reinforces what I've been talking about any of the aasan N9 could have taken his place and it would have been the exact same the two most Bland and underdeveloped characters were chosen to die just so we could have some stakes and you know what this does it really makes it seem like the main characters didn't even care about these guys in the first place because they all go to Such Great Lengths to ensure that everyone is okay they put in their maximum effort every time someone is injured or about to die but these two no one ever makes a not about them we don't see their bodies get found heck Marco doesn't even check on ISO you know the guy who used to be on the same crew as him one of the best doctors in the world isn't that insane does Luffy ever mention the two of their deaths like ever does he even know they existed I am having a very bad day I am in no mood again this is clearly a case of Oda having way more characters than what he was able to handle which it feels weird to critique a one piece Arc for being bloated because one piece in a sense is a very bloated story like I feel like one piece takes the concept of less is more and then it's like okay but what if we did more though but all the more stuff is good and fun but the difference is that with the previous arcs even when there were tons of characters and plot threads they would always weave together seamlessly and the characters seem like they were there for a reason you think an arc that is 150 chapters long would take its time to do this too but to an even more satisfying degree but no instead there are just more characters more stuff the paneling and pacing is somehow worse than it's ever been because we need to shove 10 different characters onto the same panel and this is also the case when it comes to the villains I've already talked about why I don't like king queen and big mom in a different video but the one I have the most beef with by far is kaido and here's the thing about villains if you're going to have your arv this long then that villain better be damn good like like top tier if there anything less than that it's going to be really disappointing I've also talked about kaido before but it seems people misunderstood what I meant so I figured I'd explain myself again because kaido is genuinely the most mid character I have ever seen in my life oh but kaido is subtle he's the best character in one piece because of how subtle he is and sure kaido is subtly written but also who gives the [ __ ] I'm here to tell you right now we don't care let me tell let me tell we don't care just because a character is subtly written doesn't mean he's written well or a good character that's like saying a story is good because it has good themes themes of their own are just ideas it all depends on how those themes are explored in the story and in that same way just because the character is subtle doesn't mean they're automatically good the subtle aspects of the character still needs to contribute in the story in a meaningful way because if it doesn't well then what's the point in those subtle aspects kaido has a lot of subtle aspects to him but if we we remove those aspects the story would be the same let's take Luffy for example he is one of the most subtle characters in the whole story but if we were to remove his subtle traits one piece would be an incredibly boring story and it would have played out a lot differently one of my favorite moments in the whole story when Nami asks Luffy for help probably wouldn't have happened one of Luffy's main subtle traits is his emotional intelligence most people's idea of Luffy is this loud obnoxious dumbass dude but throughout the story he place a deep understanding of other people's feelings these moments aren't flukes or rare cases of Luffy trying to be serious they would play out the exact same way every single time because this is who Luffy is he is acting perfectly in character what makes this a subtle trait and not an explicit one is that he doesn't explain his understanding through words but lets his action speak for him he doesn't lecture or confront Nami with words instead he remains silent letting her Express her pain and ask for his help and after she does that he s simply places his hat on her head if his emotional intelligence was explicit instead of subtle he probably would have said something like I know you're hurting but we'll fix this together and he probably wouldn't even have put his hat on her head this would have been a much worse version of this moment because it tells instead of showing when Luffy gives her his hat he tells us everything we need to know without having to say anything we know how much that hat means to Luffy this shows us how much Luffy trusts Nami and sees her as a companion and by staying silent and allowing Nami to speak speak it allows her to ask for Luffy's help which fulfills her character art and again this manages to keep Luffy in character because like I said most people's idea of Luffy is that he's an impulsive dumbass if he was to all of a sudden start yapping a bunch of introspective deep wordss to Nami that would have been out of character that's not the type of person Luffy is he communicates through actions so that's what would have happened if his trait wasn't subtle the story would play out in the same way more or less but it would have been way worse and less enjoyable but what if he didn't have this trait at at all what if he didn't have emotional intelligence again the story would be completely different we probably wouldn't even get to this moment in the first place even just rewinding time a little bit when Nami told them that she didn't want them there and that they should leave Luffy would probably have just accepted that and left failing to see through her words and read her true feelings they would have sailed away and Nami would have never joined the straw hats and the same would be the case for pretty much every other straw hat but let's say we actually did get to this moment well again Luffy wouldn't let her speak he would ask what's wrong reassuring her that he'd go beat up arlong and quickly go do that without speaking to her anymore or giving his hat to her Nami would never have asked for help thus not fulfilling her character Arc and still probably wouldn't have joined the crew the story doesn't function without this character traed without it Luffy probably would have been dead early on in the story without being able to recruit anyone to his crew and that's only one of Luffy's subtle character traits if he had none of them we would have known what the one piece actually was ages ago when rayley says that he knows what the one piece is Usopp asks if he can reveal what it is Luffy gets extremely mad at Usopp and tells him to shut the [ __ ] up shut the [ __ ] up this is because Luffy values the journey over the destination he likes Mysteries and has a big respect for dreams he doesn't want to find out before he gets there these aren't things that Luffy explicitly stat but you can tell based on his actions and personality if he didn't have these traits he would have just agreed with Usopp and heard from rayy what the one piece was right then there again I say all of this to say that if your character has subtle traits that doesn't automatically make them a good character those traits need to interact with the story or characters in a meaningful way and I really do not think kaidos do that at all his nihilism his desire for a correct death and respect for strength and willpower never place a factor in the story in a meaningful way these things never influence his decisions or make him do things he wouldn't have done if he didn't have these traits if kaid of was just a generic bad guy who wanted control and power and to defeat his enemies the story would have played out in the exact same way he would have taken over Rano because he's an evil bad guy he would have fought Luffy because he's an evil bad guy during his fight Steve would have fought and acted in the exact same way because he's an evil angry bad guy and this is incredibly frustrating because there are so many moments in the story where these traits could have had a role to play and made kaido make decisions he otherwise wouldn't have if he was just an evil bad guy like him wanting to have a correct death if the story hadn't told us he wanted this it would have seemed like he wanted wanted to survive no matter what and never wanted to die because he has so many chances to achieve this goal but always chooses the opposite when Sor attacks him instead of looking satisfied or excited and taking the attack head on he looks scared and Dodges the attack even though that was one of the strongest attacks we had seen thus far in the story or when he fights Odin who is literally the perfect opponent for him to fight instead of fighting him fair and square he Abes him in his Samurai killing him in a cheap way I mean the world of One Piece has tons of strong opponents I could l think of 10 people off the top of my head that would be a close fight for kaido but he doesn't go out and fight any of them and this is when people say oh kaido doesn't seek out strong opponents because of his nihilism and depression he's scared to not leave a big enough impact so he doesn't want to die and like yeah this excuse does technically make sense but it's still really unsatisfying like let's say there's this character in a different story that wants to make a bunch of money they want to be a billionaire and they just so hungry for money but he spend the whole story on the toilet [ __ ] because he's constipated is that a fair excuse to not go out and get money well yeah but does it make for an interesting story no no no it doesn't once again his subtle character traits do not impact the story at all they literally oppose each other and make sure he doesn't act on any of them I want to go out and die a glorious death great so you're heading out no I'm already the strongest guy here nobody can kill me so I'm just going to chill here oh uh but what about these guys over there there I heard they're pretty strong yeah but I'm scared that I'll die without leaving behind a big enough impact so I'll just chill here oh uh okay well uh didn't you say you were going to start like a great War yeah but not right now oh uh well when uh I don't know sometime later I mentioned in my other video how this idea has been done so much better with other characters like isoka or kimachi those are both characters that love to fight and seek out strong opponents constantly throughout the story hisoka's every decision that he makes is based off what will give him the stronger opponent to fight and it leads to some unique dilemas does he fight people now or wait for them to get stronger he has to manipulate and carefully think out everything he does to ensure he gets to fight the strongest opponents possible while fighting back is urges to just fight any somewhat strong person he sees the only person kaido is actually interested in fighting is Luffy he wants to die a glorious death but the only person in the whole One Piece World he's interested in fighting is the main character to the point where his deeper motivations almost feel like a contrived excuse to fight Luffy kaido again doesn't really do anything in the story he's known as the strongest creature in the world but they never actually show us that they keep telling us how strong and powerful he is and how everyone's terrified of him but he never does anything that makes me believe him the only person he fights is Luffy again doflamingo was terrified of this guy which is so ironic because doflamingo is so much scarier and the reason for that is because he shows us firsthand how scary he is time and time again he bodies the other characters tricks people we know exactly how scary do Flamingo is I mean just look at the way he took over dress Rosa compared to the way kaido took over wano kaido is just like some strong dude and so the final fight between him and Luffy ends up being kind of boring I think my biggest issue with this fight is just how repetitive it is once the other Pirates have disappeared and it's only Luffy left it turns into one of the most same fights ever Luffy uses a super strong attack and hits kaido right in the face kaido makes her face and flies backwards only to get up and be totally fine this repeats like a bunch of times both when Luffy and the other Pirates fight when Luffy fights him alone and after he unlocks gear five it's just really boring and not very creative I actually like gear five it's a pretty good idea and is executed well enough but you still have to go through the most boring fight with the most boring antagonist before you get to it again this isn't the worst one one piece Arc definitely not I mean it has some top tier stuff in it but it's probably one of my least favorites just because of how much it disappointed me just in general the Post Time skip has been pretty disappointing for me so make sure to check out this video to find out why that is