Characters of One Piece
Good vs. Evil?
Good vs. Evil?
I’ve had surprisingly many people tell me things like ”so One Piece is basically a story where Pirates are good and the Government is bad, huh? How original.” And I guess (if you want to be an ignorant arse and not actually fact-check anything before spouting nonsense) it can seem that way at the very start. And obviously One Piece does the traditional shonen good vs. bad, but not in an obvious way.
The man who is being built up as the main antagonist of the series shares the very same goal as Luffy: to become the Pirate King. He wants it for different and more devilish reasons, sure. But from the first moment we see him he is cemented as a sort of Anti-Luffy, sharing a lot of our beloved character’s traits while managing to be the total opposite.
Even his ideological stand-point is very similar to Luffy’s.
There are a lot of traditionally evil pirates in this series, of course. Blackbeard has grown into that role more, as well. But listen, these people are pirates after all. They're supposed to be evil, right? Even Luffy isn't really a hero-type good guy and he doesn't see himself as one. This is where Luffy diverges from being a typical shonen protagonist (I know he absolutely is in many other ways though, but hear me out).
Usually, a shonen protagonist knows what's evil and unjust, and will do everything they can to fight it. Luffy doesn't simply pound away on his enemies to make them see the wrongs and evil of their ways. I'm going to quote self.Onepiece from reddit a bit:
Indeed, Luffy doesn't see himself as a hero. He does what he wants, and that is the very reason he became a pirate even though he knew that would technically make him a criminal. He's no hero because heroes are selfless. Luffy will selfishly keep going until he reaches his goal, but if something pisses him off, like someone hurting or threatening his friends or people he generally thinks are nice guys, he'll try to (as worded in the quote) "change the course of nature" not because he thinks he's on the side of the good and just, but because of his childlike "I don't like this and I can stop it" way of thinking.When faced with a problem or an enemy, the first thing most 'normal' protagonists usually do is condemn the enemy.
"You can't say that! That is mean!"
"You can't do that! That is unjust!"
"You are wrong because..." [of how they don't align with the protagonist's moral compass]
Then they proceed to battle it out.
This kind of stuff does strike a chord with many people, but I feel like it's too... Pride based? Like it's sort of masturbatory in some way. You're imposing your beliefs on the enemy, and trying to force them to submit through words or fists, and justify your own beliefs.
Like the protagonist inherently believes they are correct/ just in their actions, and must go through any means necessary to enforce their moral compass.
Now let's hop back to One Piece: The world themed around pirates. In the series, the world is dictated through strength. Nothing is ever fair, and just like real life just because person A has a strong moral compass doesn't mean they can change it.
...
Here's where Luffy comes in.
If you saw my previous description of protagonists, you're wondering if Luffy is among them or not.
I say he isn't, and here's why:
Luffy is willing to let the enemy condemn his "honor." Luffy looks lanky, he looks stupid, he smiles like a dumbass and has an optimistic heart of a child. (Whether any of these things are choices made by him or inherently the way he is can also say a lot about his character)
He's not imposing or strong in a typical physical sense.
Mind you, another character we know, Shanks, is this way as well for some time.
If you pay attention to his fights/ battles, he doesn't 'condemn' the enemy like other protagonists may.
All Luffy does is give his best to change the course of nature, and prove his might.
THAT is what being a pirate is about.
That's what I like about Luffy! He's not "full of himself" and argues the finer points of morals and obligations. He fights his battles without complaining or without being "self-masturbatory".
The difference between the pirates in this series is that some will do more traditionally bad/evil things to achieve their goals, whatever they be. But even the traditionally evil villains are often incredibly charismatic and with some really likable features (by villain standards), and given a detailed back story to show how they were shaped into that evil person. Charlotte LinLin aka Big Mom would be the most recent example. Doflamingo would be another. These both had the tendency toward evil from early on in life, and we get to see how those tendencies grew due to their personal circumstances. We're rarely left in the dark when it comes to why a character acts the way he/she does, and that all goes along with the incredible World Building I mentioned in my previous post.
Then there’s the other side of the coin, with the World Government and the Marines. Most of the characters on this side share the same creed: ”Justice”. But Justice in One Piece’ is a pretty loose term.
There’s followers of ”Absolute Justice”. I.e. ”all pirates/criminals/sympathizers of such need to die to make the world better”. This is our favorite (heh) current Fleet Admiral Sakazuki/Akainu. He will do anything to execute it. An example of this was during the Ohara incident, where Akainu destroyed an entire ship that carried civilians of Ohara, just because he thought there was a possibility a Scholar escaping from Ohara. He even served his Justice to Marines who were too scared to fight Whitebeard in the War of the Best.
Others see the world more for what it is. Smoker, Garp, Coby and Fujitora are examples of people who follow their own brand of justice. They’ll devote their lives to stop people of injustice, but know this does not necessarily exclusively mean who the WG deem to be criminals.
The world is corrupted. There's no "good side" or "bad side". What makes us love One Piece's characters is they (mostly) don't blindly abide to what is good or bad, but to what they themselves think is the right course of action for their goals.
All the types of Justice displayed in the series are based on this. They want Justice in the world, but while Akainu and others think this means only who the Marines and WG consider criminals, people like Fujitora see further than that.
It's also the foundation for why pirates do what they do. Some want to rule the world or underworld, or become the most powerful. Some want freedom. They're all selfish people with selfish goals and dreams, and there really are no heroes in One Piece (except Sogeking, obviously). There are just a whole bunch of people with different 'wills', and in the end the strongest 'will' will win and decide what is right, as it were. And because of this, the traditional "good vs. evil" never feels as forced as it does in so many other stories. You understand where each character is coming from, whether you agree with them or not.
And I'm not saying One Punch Man doesn't have a great variety of good characters as well, but we don't get nearly as much background and 'fleshing out' (how many times have I used that phrase now?) as in One Piece, at least imo. When it comes to main characters, I'd say Luffy and Saitama are pretty much tied in my head. Genos is a completely uninteresting deuteronimist to me, but I absolutely love King and many of the other heroes. I just wish we got to see and learn more about them. And the closest you'll get to a morally grey / "not just evil for the sake of being evil" villain is Garou, and that's pretty ironic since being evil for the sake of being evil (a monster) is exactly what he strives for. But anyway, the purely "good vs. evil" thing fits OPM so that's not a point I'm going to stress further.
I guess in the end I'm saying I do like the many, many characters that both series have to offer, but One Piece goes out of its way to really let us understand each and every character's motives better than One Punch Man does.
(And I personally am of the unpopular opinion that One Piece's character design is much more characteristic and distinguished, but that's for a possible other post.)
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(And especially not openings from the official worst dub company which ever cursed the earth, 4kids. The original Japanese One Piece has some friggin' great openings so don't even try, @Jammin.)
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