Alrighty. Let’s get this over with.
I did get emotional.
No lie. I did. Oda does a great job of writing emotional scenes. But, at the end of the day, this is the story of a… fool of a lord who had the opportunity to save his country but decided to listen to his father’s murderer instead.
There’s just so much crap you have to ignore to like this flashback. I won’t go over it in detail again. The short version is Oden made some VERY bad decisions when handling Orochi but all that is tossed to the side to give a fake emotional impact of him being a hero by protecting Wano for years. It’s forced drama. Sure, the drama is good in places, but it’s all built on a foundation of stupid. I just can’t get over it.
Well, at least Shinobu got to free Oden’s fanboys from their chains. That’s something. And, no, I’m not going into how Oden can die from a bullet to the head yet survive boiling oil for an hour. That’s shonen power level BS and it’s the least of this flashback’s problem.
Look, I really want to love this arc. I want to love every One Piece arc, but Oden is too much of a bad character for me to enjoy. I can’t stand how Oda writes him. How he makes him out to be this too-cool-for-the-room guy, this ultra-powerful guy, this super manly guy, this awesome guy, ALL without seemingly earning it. Oda just says that’s the way he is and we, the audience, are supposed to accept it straight up. Well, I’m not. Oden didn’t earn anything. He’s just a big dumb jock who isn’t dumb whenever the story calls for it.
It’s mostly telling and no showing. Most everything with Oden is about other characters telling us he’s cool. Telling us he’s manly. Telling us he’s noble. He’s a discount Luffy. But, whereas we’re seeing Luffy’s journey through his actions, here, we’re mostly hearing Oden’s great feats through others. And, if it’s not that, he’s doing stupid crap that makes him out to be a martyr when he doesn’t have to be one. It’s as if Oda wrote out how he wanted the story to go, then forced in a character to accomplish what needed to be done, all while hoping no one stops and thinks about the inner workings of the plot for more than 5 seconds.
I’m glad this flashback’s ending. Or, is ending soon. I don’t know. Feels like we’re missing some important post-Oden information like Oden’s castle burning, and seeing Toki use her devil fruit power. Despite my feelings about Oden, I want the complete flashback story before moving on.
Again, I admit I got emotional at some parts, but this was a bad chapter. A chapter, just like the previous one focusing on Oden, I have no intention of reading again. Later, y’all.
…Wait! How did Oden know about the Marineford War? How could he possibly know they’d be a war like that and his country would be affected by the events of that war? Since when has Oden been astute about stuff like that? See? This is what I’m talking about. The plot is moving the story, not the characters. Oda’s trying to be deep but is falling flat on his face. Or, maybe I’m the dumb one and just don’t get it.
I mean, it’s possible. I’m not exactly the smartest guy. Look what I named my blog for goodness sake! Has One Piece gone crazy or just me? Guess I better stop licking my armpits and find out.
Mammoth Base Opera Castle 