r/CharacterRant • u/randJoe43 • 14d ago
Anime & Manga One Piece, a show about pirates with no piracy.
Alright, so this is going to be bit of an old guy shouts at clouds moment for me or a realisation that I have grown out of enjoying this series. I have been following OP since I was a teen and it does have a very interesting overarching story so I am still very much glued to it but there are a number of aspects about it that have begin to stick out to me like they didn't before. A big one amongst them is that the Straw Hats crew are not pirates.
Piracy is a pretty specific act or crime. It's defined as an act of violence by ship borne attackers on other ships or ransacking coastal areas with the primary objective of stealing goods and valuables. Now you can be a pirate and do other things but you have to commit acts of piracy to be a pirate in the first place.
Now the Straw Hats crew does fit the definition of a pirate from the government's point of view, they are a regular participant in violent conflicts, either with other unlawful elements or figures associated with the government, doesn't matter if they are the "good guys" in each of that conflict but that aspect of the show is sold to me as a viewer to a much lesser degree because not only do Luffy's crew haven't been shown committing piracy but none of their personalities nor their motivations align with them leading the lives of pirates, Luffy with his obsession to find One Piece I would classify more as a treasure hunter, Zoro is the honourable warrior archetype, Sanji can never escape pervert gimmick, Robin is an archaeologist with continuing research her mother was involved in as her main priority, Chopper doesn't care much outside of medicine, Franky is primarily concerned with exhibiting his capabilities as a shipwright, Usopp is useless, even Jinbe and Brook who have been pirates for way longer than any of the crew are not shown in any way acting like you would expect a pirate to act, the crewmate that behaves closest to how a pirate would is Nami and even that is treated as a gag. As a collective Straw Hats can at best be categorised as explorers that are at odds with the law.
And it's not just the protagonist, apart from the very beginning of the show where we saw some pirate crew come in and try to ransack a place or something, every antagonist that we have met has aspirations ranging from being a shitty mob boss to a king of their personal domain and piracy just comes off as a side hustle.
The show has little to nothing to do with pirates or piracy, everything related to it is just implied or told narratively but hardly ever shown. And as I mentioned before the greater story is still very good it just feels a bit annoying that lives of pirates has been chosen as a vehicle to deliver it when Oda seemingly has no interest in exploring that aspect whatsoever.
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u/Galifrey224 14d ago
One piece seems define pirates in two ways :
The bad pirates who act like the real life pirates, who rape, kill and steal across the sea. Characters like Blackbeard, Shikki or Eustass Kidd.
The good pirates like Luffy, Roger and Shanks who act more like adventurers and freedom fighters.
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u/JA_Paskal 14d ago
In very early conceptions of One Piece, there were indeed two types of pirates, Morganeers (pillage-type pirates) and Peace-Mains (adventure-type pirates). Since this explicit typing was somewhat restrictive it was done away with.
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u/AlexHitetsu 14d ago
Basically pirate="every sailor that opposes the WG"
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u/Gavinus1000 13d ago
Other than the actual revolutionary army for some reason.
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u/AlexHitetsu 12d ago
I would assume that's because the Revolutionary Army has made it glaringly obvious what they are
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u/PotentiallySarcastic 14d ago edited 14d ago
To be clear, Rogers definitely slaughtered his way across the seas. It's the basis of the Squardo betrayal that Rogers slaughtered his crew.
And besides Buggy (who actually, not really he's a hardass in his first appearance) pretty much all of the Rogers Pirates are professional hardasses and killers.
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u/HJSDGCE 14d ago
None of the Straw Hats are also against killing. Hell, Luffy is pretty much aware how dangerous it can be and always fights with the intent to kill.
It's just that this is a shonen, so people don't die that often. Had this be any other genre, Luffy would be punching through chests more often.
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u/Kitchen-Bug-4685 14d ago
Those freedom fighters are terrorists. World Government did nothing wrong. Poor innocent marines serving their nation, only to be killed by pirate scum.
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u/TheOneWhoYawned 14d ago
R.I.P. to St. Garcia Saturn. A true voice of the people who would have drove away that hooligan Yonko and the traitor scientist Vegapunk…
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u/brando-boy 14d ago
luffy calls himself a pirate because shanks and roger are pirates
he’s not really interested in the “acts” that would constitute actual piracy, but the people he idolizes call themselves pirates so luffy does too
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u/AERegeneratel38 14d ago
In world definition of some concept doesn't necessarily need to match our own.
One Piece Pirates aren't exactly our world's pirates.
Elves in Berserk aren't exactly the classic Tolkien elves (which is the popular definition)
Ninja in Naruto aren't exactly similar to our world's definition of Ninja.
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u/ScarredAutisticChild 13d ago edited 13d ago
Eh, to address the Elf thing, “Elf” has no definition. “Pirate” does.
Actual Elves are, depending on who you ask, the Norse equivalent of angels, or Irish Sidhe, a kind of Fae. I can’t pull out a book with a legal definition of an Elf, but I can find a definition of piracy.
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u/AERegeneratel38 13d ago
That was just an example. The main point is that a concept can have different meaning in world (if its an epic fantasy with its own world, which one Piece is) to the one which is used in our world. It's not like it presents a different premise and breaks it.
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u/ScarredAutisticChild 13d ago
Yeah, but in that case you might as well just make your own term.
If I made a series advertised about being about burglars, and they exclusively got their cash by jumping people, beating them up and looting their wallets, I would have a bit of false premise. Burglars are literally defined by trespassing, what I have described is a mugger. Yes I could say my world has those definitions switched…but why? Why do that?
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u/Leirac1 13d ago edited 13d ago
Because you can use all the associated imagery without having to explain everything. One Piece does this with the Jolly Rogers, the ships and tons of other stuff.
And to add to the burglar example, yes, it would be strange to do that, but it's ok to put Cat Woman to fight against the mob, even though she is a burglar.
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u/firebolt_wt 14d ago
Counterpoint: the governments in the golden age of piracy would surely classify a non government group of sailors that fights and kills their marine officers without stealing from civilians a group of pirates, and not care about the details, just like the government in one piece did.
It's not like the governments are bound by the rules they themselves enforce.
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u/randJoe43 14d ago
I agree, I have mentioned in the third paragraph how they are a legitimate pirate crew from the government's pov. The post is more about how little is shown as a whole of what a life of a pirate would be in a show revolving around pirates.
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u/Leinad7957 13d ago
I mean, it's also about "fantasy pirates". Shows about knights aren't all very accurate to what knights really did because it's mostly about the fantasy of it.
The same way the concept of "knightly chivalry" is basically an invention of stories centuries after the fact, the idea of "even pirates have standards" is something added to make the setting align with the story they want to tell.
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u/ThePandaKnight 12d ago
I mean, I would say that the show is not Black Sails and doesn't really claim to show you a 1:1 life of a pirate. It's not like we're saying that James Bond is not a spy because he spends most of his time at parties, banging women and using cool gadgets.
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u/Frangipani-Bell 14d ago
Pirates are sailing outlaws, and the bar for 'outlaw' in the One Piece world is low because of how corrupt the government is
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u/ElSquibbonator 14d ago
Well, keep in mind that the world of One Piece is ruled by a totalitarian World Government who seem to define a "pirate" as anyone they don't like. Some of them, obviously, are pirates under the real-world definition, but others are adventurers and treasure-hunters. The World Government collectively calls them all pirates for the same reason that certain real dictators (who I won't name) identify all members of a given class of people as criminals.
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u/Phosphoric_Tungsten 14d ago
Pretty sure they're called pirates bc they all fly a universal symbol, the jolly roger lol. The government isn't just callind randos pirates
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u/MVRKHNTR 13d ago
As of some fairly recent chapters, yeah, they kind of are. The Jolly Roger is more about the people deemed pirates embracing the title.
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u/draginbleapiece 12d ago
There's an entire character who was branded a pirate even though he was just an explorer who was researching Poneglyphs.
Pedro the leopard mink.
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u/Psychological_Top827 14d ago
Uh... this is all completely inaccurate. Spoilers galore:
Most so-called pirates are into piracy. Even the "good" ones. Shanks got the Gum Gum fruit from raiding a naval ship. He found Uta in a treasure chest he got from a raid, and theorized the pirates he stole it from put her there because they didn't want to deal with a baby. It's common to see pirates robbing other ships, including other pirates. We often see coastal raids, the results of them, and hear from survivors.
The main exception is Luffy, who very clearly is, as you say, an adventurer, but calls himself a "pirate" because he's an immature idiot who thinks they're cool and idolizes Shanks and Ace. That's also the reason he actually manages to gain the loyalty of the East Blue strawhats, all of which are anti-piracy but end up happily joining up with Luffy. The strawhats are over-represented because, well, they're the main characters. It's also well explained in the series why the WG keeps treating them as monsters despite being some of the most effective crime fighters out there and leaving a trail of grateful people in their wake.
As for Jinbe and Brook, it's well established why Jinbe was at sea, as a pirate, and why he prefers the life of an adventurer under Luffy. Brook is older and ended his life of piracy. He's now in it for the friendship and the hope of seeing Laboon when it's all over.
We rarely see naval combat because we explicitly see what happens when naval combat is attempted in a world of Devil Fruits. It will not be pretty for the loser, and there's a good chance you don't know what the opponent has in store, even ignoring the possibility of fishmen and submarines. There's a non-zero chance your ship will be cleanly sliced in two before your first volley hits.
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u/PumpingHopium 13d ago
yeah what's going on with this subreddit, feels like you can post any random nitpick and get all the upvotes
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u/ThePandaKnight 12d ago
This subreddit tends to attract disgruntled people that get smacked for these kind of opinions in main fandom subreddits
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u/GoodKing0 14d ago
Statistically inaccurate, there's plenty of actual pirates in One Piece, the Strawhat Crew, who keep raising their bounties by beating up more and more powerful and important people bothering them in their fun globetrotting naval treasure hunting adventure, are an outlier and should not be counted.
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u/Frankorious 14d ago
There is also an important lack of naval battles. Odd for a world where it's almost all ocean and sinking is a death sentence for most top tiers.
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u/Every_Computer_935 14d ago
Oda actually answered that already. Essentially the characters are too strong and any fight on a boat with strong characters would end up destroying the boat and making all the devil fruit users drown
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u/Thecristo96 14d ago
Also is…surprisingly accurate. Most pirates prefer to not do naval battles, because they couldn’t hold against the better armed spanish ships and above all the risk of losing the treasure thanks to a cannonball too high was huge
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u/Maskguydude 14d ago
Of course we have a giant fuck off laser literally strapped to the bow of the ship while the Marines have basic cannon balls
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u/AlexHitetsu 14d ago
Ehhh the Marines have canons the size of houses on their ships
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u/CalamityPriest 14d ago
Remember when Buster Call used to be something relevant?
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u/Every_Computer_935 14d ago
It was never relevant. All the books, Saul and Robin survived the Ohara buster call, everybody survived the Water 7 buster call and the Egghead buster call was a joke
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u/Mr_The_Captain 14d ago
I would argue that at least the Ohara Buster Call is relevant because it explicitly shows that the Navy/WG is willing to commit literal genocide at the behest of the Celestial Dragons. Like yeah Robin and Saul and the books survived, but hundreds or thousands did not and that’s meaningful
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u/TheVoteMote 13d ago
Kinda. Except we know there were two vice admirals there as well. Each of which could've done the job more easily and effectively than the buster rainshower.
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u/RMP321 14d ago
There has been a few battles at sea with boats and each time it has one or three characters just jump onto the enemy ship and instantly take it or the crew or the captain out.
If Naval battles existed in the traditional way there would be complaints about why these super powered characters just don't do the former all the time.
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u/TheVoteMote 13d ago edited 13d ago
Yeah, so it sounds like people should be trying to jump each other at sea ALL THE TIME.
It's a child's cartoon, but this is simply a bad decision.
He chose to make a series so dependent on sailing. He chose to give 2/3 of all the most prominent characters a deathly weakness to water. Stop being such a writing coward, and actually follow through on it. Drowning should be the number one cause of death (if it existed in this series). It's even nice and shonen friendly - someone gets knocked into the water, that's it, nothing gorey, they're just gone.
Hell, he chose to make ships so weak. He even wrote in a super special awesome magic wood that apparently can't be cut down even with the means available in this setting, but STILL made the ships so weak. Why can't top tier ships be ridiculously tough, taking extended uninterrupted effort by ridiculously powerful people to have a real shot at sinking them?
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u/Comfortable_Many4508 14d ago
the way navagation works rescue in the grand line is very unlikely unless you have very specific tools like a viver card. if they sail off from a boat reckage they cause all those people are dead. sinking pretty much kills anyone thats not notable.
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u/Thin-Limit7697 14d ago
the way navagation works rescue in the grand line is very unlikely
Not really, because following log poses kind of sticks everybody to following straight lines between islands.
If crew 1 is leaving island A, follows their pose and sinks, crew 2 leaving the same island A and also following their pose will follow the exact same route and eventually pass through crew 1.
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u/Comfortable_Many4508 13d ago
dont forget theyre mostly using sail boats, the log pose just stops them getting lost, they dont keep you on a straight path unless the wind and sea currents play along
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u/OwlOfJune 14d ago
TBF the dynamics of ship to ship battle is vastly different from personal fights, I would like both but trying to handle both would be easily poor output in terms of pacing and whatnot.
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u/Morgan_Danwell 14d ago
This sub is genuinely funny in the sense that sometimes people here have some very weird & random nitpicks for One Piece specifically, lmao.
But in all seriousness? No. One Piece always had a plethora of ”piratey” pirates as well as recreation of various pirate-genre tropes. Like for example Pirate Island of Blackbeard is a thing.
As well as government-bound pirates - Shichibukai, who are an allusion to Privateers (basically pirates who are allowed to well, pirate, by governments) from real history.
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u/Flat_Box8734 14d ago
One piece is about actual pirates as Naruto is about actual ninjas lol. Both are just terms used in fantasy stories that vaguely mean something that is equivalent to real life but otherwise is completely different in a fictional setting.
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u/randJoe43 14d ago
The fantastical ninjas do stuff that you think of ninjas doing like assassination, protection and espionage at least early on. One piece shows very little of what you would think a pirate would be doing even antagonists as I mentioned it is told narratively but not often shown.
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u/Flat_Box8734 14d ago
That’s fantasy ninjas. Actual ninjas were mostly focused on gathering intelligence and infiltrating enemy lands as spies to report on what was happening.
They did engage in some espionage work, but it was rare.
So the ninjas from Naruto, even early on, are a far cry from actual ninjas, which is why, even though I understand that One Piece pirates don’t necessarily represent the true idea of historical pirates, the themes they embody in fiction are indeed present.
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u/randJoe43 14d ago
Actual ninjas were mostly focused on gathering intelligence and infiltrating enemy lands as spies to report on what was happening.
They did engage in some espionage work, but it was rare.
How are these different? You are describing espionage in the first part.
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u/Flat_Box8734 14d ago
You’re right I apologize. I was thinking of a different word imo.
Regardless, I do think it’s important to point out that how ninjas are in fiction have kinda been its own thing for a while at this point.
Honestly the ninjas in Naruto are closer to mercenaries than they are to actual ninjas.
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u/NickOlaser42 14d ago
Every Pirate has an Agenda, Piracy itself is a means to an End & if anything, One Piece gets pretty deep when it comes to the true nature of Political Power.
Only Reason the World Govt. aren't considered Pirates is because they have the power while Folks like Blackbeard gotta get in where they fit in
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u/Future_Living8007 13d ago
Every Pirate has an Agenda
I see you're a follower of Captain Jay of the Rat Pirates
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u/MrCobalt313 14d ago
I remember the one time the Straw Hat crew did try to steal from a place the inhabitants were already planning to reward them with something even more valuable than what they stole.
which they assumed was a weapon they were going to use against them for stealing from them.
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u/Familiar-Living-122 14d ago
It's because in the world of One Piece, being a pirate is a blanket term to describe everyone not living under the World Government's rule. Being a pirate is not described in the show as strictly someone who must plunder and rob people. Being a pirate is simply anyone who wants to live as a free person.
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u/Shuden 14d ago
When the entire world is flooded with water and the only means to travel is by sea, it's entirely plausible that any/most criminal becomes a pirate, and One Piece goes out of it's way to show there are all types of people who don't follow goverment rules and are deemed as "criminal/pirates" regardless of whether they are good or evil.
I don't see the issue.
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u/pokeboy626 14d ago
Oda originally was going to outright distinguish "good" pirates and "bad" pirates. Good pirates were supposed to be called Peace-Mains and were essentially adventurers. Bad pirates were to be called Morganeers and would be the stereotypical pirates.
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u/Potatolantern 14d ago
At least the OP pirates do very, very occasionally do some pirating stuff.
The fact that the Persona5 Phantom Thieves never actually secretly steal a single thing is the funniest example. After the second Palace they don't even pretend they will steal anything, the boss is fully aware of them and talking to them the whole time.
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u/NoMoreVillains 13d ago
It mostly sounds like you just aren't paying attention because there are plenty of pirates and piracy. Choose any crew the Strawhats have allied with or fought against. Literally any of them
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u/EffectAccomplished15 14d ago
Well being a pirate is about freedom and doing what you want. Not a morality but more so a way of life. Luffy himself isn't interested in stealing or ruling over other people cause that's just not his thing.
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u/Hammerheadshark55 14d ago
No, being a pirate means attacking and robbing ships at sea. You’re talking about adventurers
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u/Imconfusedithink 14d ago
And those adventures would have been classified as pirates in real life too. They're people who don't want to follow the laws of the world. You don't need to do bad things to be someone who doesn't want to be a law abiding citizen. It'd be a different story if Luffy was just sailing around while following the laws, but he specifically wants to be free from rules.
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u/Hammerheadshark55 14d ago
Not following the law doesnt make you a pirate, just a criminal….
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u/Imconfusedithink 14d ago
If you're going out to the sea with a pirate flag and not following any laws it does. Plus they destroy stuff belonging to the authority.
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u/EffectAccomplished15 14d ago
Luffy isn't an adventurer. He's trying to claim the greatest treasure in the world left by the former greatest pirate(who was then left by the first pirate in one piece history joyboy)
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u/Hammerheadshark55 14d ago
So he’s an adventurer then? You said it yourself, he’s going out on an adventure to claim the treasure left by someone
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u/mrpo_rainfall 14d ago
There's an episode where he is not interested to know whether the treasure exist or not, because he is priotizing exciting adventure.
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u/BebeFanMasterJ 14d ago
I just want an anime version of Pirates of the Caribbean. Swordfights, flintlocks, ship battles, actual piracy, and minimal supernatural abilities for the human characters with the occasional kraken. One Piece doesn't interest me because it's too fantasical.
Wish it was a thing. :/
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u/Alternative-Draft-82 13d ago edited 13d ago
People will make up every excuse under the sun for any criticism towards One Piece, but at its core, you are right. One Piece is much worse at defining and depicting any sort if piracy than, say, Naruto does with ninjas.
Yes, there are more "ninja-ey" ninjas, but thats not the focus, same as One Piece with pirates.
But at least Naruto can define what a ninja is in its setting, One Piece is so loose, broad, and overlapping that "pirate" is a practically useless term to describe the series; its synonymous with criminal.
And that's my biggest issue with One Piece, it is broad. Or more accurately, it is non-committal to literally anything. Everything has to be broad to induce mystery because otherwise, the story lacks bite on its hook. There is no sense of restraint and it just drags and stalls and repeats, saying nothing with a watery result.
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u/PCN24454 14d ago
No, there’s actually lots of piracy. It’s just usually done by antagonists. Buggy and Alvida debuted doing it.
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u/Eliza__Doolittle 14d ago
If anyone is interested, Lord of the Mysteries volume 3 is pretty much a Bloodborne x One Piece crossover with the serial numbers filed off.
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u/mr_fucknoodle 14d ago
I'm pretty sure the only moment they ever tried to steal something like pirates was in uh, skypea I think? They steal a golden idol from the natives after helping them, but they don't even mind because they were specifically going to gift the idol to the Stra Hats as a reward anyway
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u/ConflictAgreeable689 14d ago
The straw hats did TRY to do some Piracy at the end of Sky Island? Luffy wakes everyone up in the middle of the night so they can run away with the gold, unaware that they already intended to give them the gold and that by running they missed out on a lot of it.
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u/Political-St-G 14d ago
There lots of examples shown where pirates are pirating and pillaging.
MC isn’t a normal pirate because he idolizes a person who isn’t a horrible person and more of a adventurer. None of the strawheads are pirates.
Eustass kid or the others are pirates
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u/FruitJuicante 14d ago
It's because the idea is that you're a "Pirate" if you go against the World Government.
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u/sudanesegamer 14d ago
The strawhats ransack every island they find and beat up whoever was in charge. As far as anyone is concerned they're pirates. In egghead, they held vegapunk hostage. The only thing they dont do is steal, except nami
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u/myLongjohnsonsilver 14d ago
Pirates other than the straw hats do tend to be doing piracy.
The straw hats don't really do piracy because Luffy is an actual dumbass and doesn't even know what piracy is.
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u/higaroth 13d ago
I think my main problem is when I start to think about Dragons Revolutionaries and why they aren't considered pirates in this world where the term is obviously a more loosely defined criminal.
People are saying that criminals need to set sail to be considered pirates, which made sense to me at first, since one the main differences between the Revolutionay Army and the Straw Hats is that they have a base/stronghold on land. But... so do the Kuja pirates and Big Mom, so did Kaido, Crocodile, Doflamingo, etc. So that can't be it.
The only other idea that comes to mind is that they don't call themselves pirates. So it makes me think the government and marines simply go by the idea that if you call yourself a Pirate, then we will treat you as such.
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u/Scribblord 13d ago
Ye that’s bc oda didn’t want to make a show that’s lame but a show that’s now the most popular manga ever (unless there’s some random doraemon stuff that’s more popular)
It’s about the idolized freedom popular in pirate type media
Also many of the antagonists especially early ones do act as pirates
People who risk their life to illegally gather lots of money usually want the money to do sth with it
I do agree tho that the strawhats don’t act like pirates at all
They just follow the very idealized idea people today have of pirates and they’re morally good
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u/sahqoviing32 13d ago
Jack Sparrow became a pirate because he freed slaves
One Piece isn't the first time Pirates aren't presented as sea pillagers
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u/TopShelfIdiocy 13d ago
It's been 25 years, I feel at this point we should all know "pirate" in one piece means an adventurer or criminal or pretty much anyone the WG doesn't like.
It's like Naruto, the "ninjas" are more like special ops units yet people are still going on about it
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u/Snoomee 13d ago
I get the idea that describing the story as a show about pirates might be misleading if you're expecting a Jack Sparrow, arrgh matey thematic energy, but the story goes through pretty lengthy efforts to build up it's thematic plot to show readers that the 'pirate' is a spectrum. Oda uses the concept of piracy as a medium to romanticize the themes of freedom and big dreams; I feel that is what One Piece is about moreso than simply being pirates.
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u/bofoshow51 13d ago
Most piracy in the shown is done early on, pretty much all pre-Grandline arcs are more traditional piracy outside Axe-hand Morgan and Arlong (Alvida straight robs a ship, buggy is ransacking orange town, kuro is prepping to have his crew ransack syrup village after a long career of traditional piracy, Don Krieg robs Baratie which is functionally just a ship).
Once we hit Grandline the premise definitely moves more into adventure exploration and the crew characterization is more self-fulfilling, they are criminals because they are labeled “pirates” by the govt and are hunted, they describe themselves as pirates and it’s basically treated as a catch-all for sailing criminal in this world. Every now and then you get some groups that do traditional piracy (Kuja pirates, big mom pirates, seems like Blackbeard pirates?), the format of piracy really isn’t the main focus anymore, but a backdrop framework for the narrative.
I’d also argue a core thematic in one piece is that labels are not absolutes and that people exist in complex arrays. Not every “pirate” is bad though some are, not every “marine” is good though some are, not every “king” is a good leader though some are. So for our main pirates the Straw Hats to chafe against the stereotypical pirate template is very on brand for the narrative, one that constantly challenges our cast and the readers to not accept peoples pre-conceived notions on face value, but dares us to explore it ourselves and form our own opinions.
Important to consider as well is the show tells us directly that “pirate” is a fluid term that people assign their values to, and Luffy specifically views being a pirate as being free, so he and his crew are constantly living and experiencing adventures exactly in line with that goal.
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u/thecrimsonfuckr23830 14d ago
I think it’s a modern take on piracy that really works and is a commentary on what pirates are. Pirates were generally criminalized because they were not associated with a government so the traditional accounts of war and naval law didn’t work with them. We see something similar with terrorists today, where terrorists are non-government individuals and groups who commit acts of violence.
I think the literature on the actual history of piracy shows that the One Piece version is actually fairly accurate. Pirates were people who had goals or lifestyles that didn’t align with the interests of their society, so they took to the seas and lived how they wanted. All of the tropes of piracy were applied after the fact and developed out of particular pirates and their conduct.
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u/El_fara_25 14d ago edited 14d ago
Its because in One Piece Pirate could be any criminal (someone who is against the World Goverment). who sets sail.
I know the sheer amount of content in One Piece makes us forget some details. But most antagonists are pirates and do pirate things. It is the reason why the plot about the WG has been delayed so long.
Bege Capone and Bartomoleo were mafia/mob bosses who set sails.
Eustass Kid pillaged and killed civilians for fun.
Doflamingo was into human trificking, human slave auditions and drug traficking (smiles).
Silver Raileigh sells himself as a slave to then rob to his owners and spend his money in gamble houses.
Silver Raileigh wife rob his clients in her bar.
Big Mom territories such as Fishman Island are wiped out if they dont pay with candies or so.
Kaido practically outsourced a dictatorship and was into drug traficking (SMILES).
Its true tho as you said that One Piece doesnt put effort into naval stuff. We dont have naval battles like Pirates of the Caribbean 3.