That was incredible. I am nearly speechless. The way Oda builds his world is like no other, he makes it so interconnected and believable. This was easily my favorite revelation we've gotten yet.
Hundreds of episodes ago we met with Arlong. He, to me, appeared as a despicable, horrible racist who hated humans due to their weakness. At the time I did not pay attention to their markings. However, it was established that fishmen are discriminated against and treated as subhuman. That alone already gave him sympathy to me, he's not the racist, he's the radical fighting against the racists. But, now it deepens even further. Arlong, who hated humans, did so because he and his crew were possible slaves, all branded, and treated as the scum of the earth, and they were saved and brought aboard the crew of Fisher Tiger who fought against this oppression with his all. Once he died they split up into smaller groups and one of which was the Arlong Pirates. Arlong and his men, like Boa, projected their hatred on an entire group. He projected it on humans and he tried to make his way up the system using dirty navy men and taking over human villages. He wanted his species to rule and he wanted, imo, to get revenge on humankind. He even went as far to brand Nami, so to speak, as one of the Arlong pirates, like a claw mark that told her she was his, like the very humans did to him. Boa on the other hand projected her hatred on men because they were the ones who did everything to her and her people. I'll go more into her later. Arlong over the course of 400+ episodes has been contextualized through natural world building and that's crazy. Those branding marks were something I didn't think twice about and they are a huge plot point now. I'm amazed and this natural characterization of Arlong throughout the series is something I've never seen before. It's quite sobering honestly. It's made him probably my favorite One Piece villain and one of my favorite anime villains. His hatred of humans, his "branding" of Nami, and his love for his people all make so much sense now. They all went through this struggle together, if his brethren don't love each other then they have no one. It's quite touching and it's one thing that always stuck out to me about him, that he has a true sense of the word nakama. Knowing Oda, Arlong will come back into play eventually and I'm so excited for it.
Boa on the other hand has some severe PTSD over her trauma. God knows all the horrible stuff that occurred to her and her sisters. She grew to hate men over this experience and it's why she tried to bring out Luffy's true, selfish character, one that prioritized himself over human life, and when he rejected it she was shocked and moved. It showed her in that action among some others that not all men are the way she believes they are and she was able to open up to him. A side effect of this was as touched on above, she was taught that weakness of any kind is bad. That she can never leave herself open to other people, I did notice small moments of duality, where she seemed to appreciate the clay doll of her before putting on her tough character and shattering it. If even the claw on her back was seen no one could be by her side any longer as it would be an act against the Celestial Dragons. Further, it's why she despises the World Government so much. She won't work with them even if it means having her village attacked. I understand why people like Boa now.
Are Arlong or Boa justified in their improper projected cruelty? No, but they were taught to behave that way to protect themselves. They were blinded to the kindness of others when they were treated as "subhuman", as property. It certainly makes these two incredibly sympathizable to me. And like my friend in this thread said:
Unyversu said:Don't judge a book by it's cover...
Ever since the beginning not judging a book by its cover has been a key theme of One Piece, the first episodes were all about the idea "not all pirates are bad, and not all navy are good". We shouldn't judge people on face value, we should judge them by their actions, but like Luffy could sense in Nami, or Robin's betrayal, or even in Boa here, that sometimes their actions come from a misguided place and if they're good people you should help them past that, not hate them for it. If Luffy did kill the sister it would have only made this cycle worse and made her hatred of men worse. By showing ill-will to these people would simply only make things worse.
And now, Luffy has a personal reason to fight the world government, his friends have been treated horribly by them~! Woo! Awesome. :D And he's made a wonderfully strong friend in Boa.
Oda is a genius.
P.S. there is something beautiful about how both Arlong and Nami changed the marks that enslaved them into their own symbol. Wow. I wonder if eventually Boa will do the same thing. |