Getting Attached in One Piece Is a Mistake (Reading One Piece as a Writer)

追加: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Oh, as the crew are sailing away, they say goodbye to the whale. And Crocus says to himself, "Out into the air, maybe to the heavens, could that bunch be the pirates we've been waiting for all this time? That boy has a strange air about him." Hey, Roger.

[00:00:29]There's this belief and I think it actually comes from China but people in Japan also talk about it where you are when you're born you are destined to end up with somebody. It's soulmates basically. How it works is the red string of fate is tied around your pinky and the pinky of the person you're supposed to be with and you're both just released into the world. And so no matter what happens, you two will eventually, even though there are tangles, even though there are distances apart and things in the way, you will come together and you will be together. So I'm using the red string to graph in one piece the connections of fate and destiny because I do believe that this is a story of the chosen one. I feel like, you know, Luffy's destiny is tied to the One Piece in some kind of way.

[00:01:21]So, I just want to use this red string to visually mark up where I think those connections exist. So, of course, we're going to start with the one piece and the only person who has ever been known to be in possession of it, Gold Roger.

[00:01:37]This connects to Shanks.

[00:01:42]Because I feel like I feel like the whole reason why actually I don't know, but I think the only reason why Luffy knows about the pirate king and the one piece is from Shanks and hanging out with Shanks.

[00:01:58]I might be wrong about that, but okay.

[00:02:00]Even if Shanks isn't the reason that Luffy knows about the One Piece, I feel like it's a big reason and he's a big catalyst for why Luffy decided to go after the One Piece and become the pirate king, which of course connects to Luffy, our golden boy, next to be the pirate king. I feel like from there from there Buggy I hate to say it but I feel like Buggy is gonna because Buggy is connected to Shanks. I feel like there's just like a big plot here and almost if Buggy is going to be a big push in Luffy getting to the One Piece or a big hindrance keeping him from the One Piece. I don't know how much the crew is destined. Like, were they all meant to be? Did it have to be these crew members? I'd like to think so. If I romanticize it, then yeah. But the reality is I think Luffy is the Luffy is the center point and they all have joined in. But I don't think that they were all destined to be there, if that makes sense. But I do think that the seven warlords of the sea, like that's probably a huge one piece fate connection, which brings me to dragon, whoever the four key is. Which brings me to the Marines, but I don't really have a great maybe Smoker is a good example of one of the Marines and he was also in Log Town. And finally to Crocus, Laboon's caretaker. And that is where we ended last episode. And that is where we're going to continue with the story of One Piece. My name is Lisa. I am an aspiring writer. I'm studying the One Piece with the wall to tell better stories. So far, Destiny Ends here. Yeah. I wish I wish you guys could see it better, but I bought a really thin string. So, back to chapter 105.

[00:04:10]We have just finished up with Leoon and we learned about the log post. Thank you guys so much for hanging out in the comments. I read all of them, even though I don't I try to respond as much as I can, but I don't get to all of them. But you guys have been giving me some spoiler-free insights that have been really helpful, including Rafel not being Rafel, but actually it's Laughtale, which is a huge miss because knowing what we know about Odisan and how much he loves his word play. Come on translators, we can't be making mistakes like that. So, at this point, we have the Straw Hat crew and Miss Wednesday and Mr. Nine, who Sorry about the squeaking. Leia has a toy. Um, she really wants to play right now.

[00:04:56]Go get it. And the tables have turned because Mr. Nine and Miss Wednesday were enemies because they were trying to attack Leon and all of a sudden now they don't have their log pose, which means they don't have a way to navigate to the next island and they don't have a way to get home. They don't have a ship either.

[00:05:11]So, they're asking the Straw Hat crew, "Please, please, please take us back to our home, Whiskey Peak." And the crew is kind of like, "Why would we want to help you? we don't even know who you guys are. And they're like, I'm sorry, we can't tell you, but we promise to repay you. Please, just please, please, please help us get home. And Luffy says, "It's okay.

[00:05:30]You can come with us."

[00:05:33]Which is really interesting. Is Luffy the forgiving type?

[00:05:43]As the crew are sailing away, they say goodbye to the whale. And Crocus says to himself, "Out into the air, maybe to the heavens, could that bunch be the pirates we've been waiting for all this time? That boy has a strange air about him." Hey, Roger.

[00:06:08]What? Wait, what does this mean? Wait, that changes everything. He said pirates. Could this be the pirates we've been waiting for this whole time? The boy has a strange error. So, yes, obviously something about Luffy because we heard that from other characters too early on, especially like Log Town and things like that. Like, there's something about Luffy that's very special. But he's also saying, "Are these the pirates that we've been waiting for?" So, actually, I was wrong.

[00:06:38]I think the string of one piece fate does connect to every single member of the Straw Hat crew as well and that they all play a role and that they are all destined to be the crew that helps Luffy become the king of pirates. And also there's so many things Crocus knows Roger. But this kind of makes sense because if you think about it, Log Town was before reverse mountain and Log Town was where Gold Roger was born and also where he was executed. So he would have had to come from Log Town through reverse mountain maybe meeting Crocus. I don't know how long he's been here, but he also said he was like a doctor. So maybe they met in the Grand Line. I don't know. But hypothetically, Gold Roger was Crocus on Roger's crew.

[00:07:29]Is that why he knows about laughter? Is that why he know um um um um um I mean there's so many possibilities.

[00:07:39]I'm going to need a flashback, please.

[00:07:43]Back story. Where's Crocus' backtory?

[00:07:46]Huh? Huh? How do I recover from this?

[00:07:48]Nami. All destinies lead back to Luffy, then lead back to the One Piece. Oh no, I'm out of tape. Okay, I'll have to do the rest later. And although their travels just started, we're starting to realize that the the Straw Hat crew has a lot to learn, including how the log post works and how the Grand Line works.

[00:08:08]It's incredibly unpredictable. The weather changes from minute to minute.

[00:08:11]And if you're not paying attention, your boat might be going the exact opposite direction that you wanted to go in, like it is now for the crew. And Zoto finally realizes that Miss Wednesday and Mr. Nine are with them on the boat. And Luffy says, "We're sailing to their town." And Sodto doesn't really understand why. He's like, "You're not really taking them home, are you? We don't owe them anything." To which Luffy agrees, "We sure don't." But maybe that doesn't matter. Luffy isn't doing this because he feels like he owes them something and he's not doing this because he wants something in return. I think he's purely just doing it because he's excited to get into the Grand Line.

[00:08:44]So this Mr. Mr. Nine and Miss Wednesday gives him the opportunity to keep moving forward in the path that he wants to go.

[00:08:51]It's really for him. And right as Nami is declaring that her navigation skills are useless here, they see an island of cactuses and they now know that they are approaching Whiskey Peak. And of course, Odasan includes another mechanic that conveniently makes it so they have to stay at this island for a little bit.

[00:09:10]They need time for the log post to measure the magnetic field before it can guide them to the next island. So, guess we'll have to have a little side adventure on Whiskey Peak. But lucky for them, there's a group of people that are so excited to see them. They're like, "Welcome pirates. Welcome to the Grand Line. Welcome to Whiskey Peak." So maybe they're like used to pirates coming through here. I feel like for the most part out in the East Blue, most villages do not have a positive feeling towards pirates. So it's really interesting that these people, maybe because they're in the Grand Line and it's like a different vibe, are more open to pirates.

[00:09:50]Maybe it's good for the economy. And we meet up boy who is the mayor of Whiskey Peak. Usopp Luffy Sanji are super excited to drink ale and celebrate with these people that um are throwing a party basically for them. They want to pay a tribute even though they don't know anything about them and they haven't done anything to deserve a tribute or a celebration. Knowing that the Grand Line is full of pirates, I would be very wary of anything that seems too good to be true. They're having drinking competitions that of course Nami is winning. Luffy is inflating with all of the food that he's consuming. He's a giant balloon full of food. This almost feels like I don't know what it is, but you see it a lot in like Greek mythology or like biblical stories where it's like you get to indulge in your greatest like lusts and gluttony and your greatest sins, but it's like an illusion or a trap or a test. Somebody's surrounded by 20 women. And then we see that Mr. Nine and Miss Wednesday, like Zora said, he was like, "There's something suspicious about you guys and also your names sound familiar." And he would be right because they are up to something. They are writing a letter back to their boss saying that they succeeded in bringing this group of pirates to the cactus town and then maybe that will restore their honor. So there's something brewing in the side and these two are a big part of it and also something called the Barack and they have their own little Jolly Rogers.

[00:11:26]So it seems like they're also a group of pirates and um I feel like they're up to no good.

[00:11:35]Everyone in the Straw Hat crew has passed out and I feel like this is the perfect moment for the bad things to start happening. It seems like the island is actually starving. So, I don't really understand why throwing a big celebration to lure them into a trap.

[00:11:51]Feel like you don't have to invest that many resources and still achieve the same goal. Oh.

[00:11:58]Oh, I see. They'll steal from their ship. That makes sense. But not only that, the mayor knows that Luffy has a giant bounty on his head. And if they get rid of the pirates, then the bounty drops by 30%. So he's like, "We need to bring them to the government. The government wants to execute them publicly." I see. I understand now. Uh, is that what they mean by they're in the business of pirates? Maybe they're bounty hunters kind of. And then cool guy moment.

[00:12:27]We need like an alert for this cuz there are so many times so far that Zoro has showed up in a cool guy moment. He is awake. He says, "Sorry, but would you let them sleep a while longer? They're tired from the voyage." Cuz Zoro slept the whole trip while everybody else was dealing with snow and navigating and stuff. But it's okay cuz now Zodto is wide awake exactly when he needs to be.

[00:12:50]A true swordsman never drinks himself into a stouper. And a den of bounty hunters can be a dangerous place. You trick pirates into celebrating their passage on the Grand Line.

[00:13:00]Looks to be about a hundred bounty hunters. I'll take you on Baroque Gorks.

[00:13:05]He knew it. Long ago when I was in your line of work, your organization tried to recruit me. Naturally, I turned you down. And then we realized that this is a crazy detail from Odasan. The island is not made of cactuses. If you look closely, the little spikes or thorns on a cactus, they're actually tombstones, like cross tombstones of all the people that they eliminated on this island that they got rid of. So now Zoro is in a one v at least 100 in the middle of the night. He is defeating them, taking on these isolated 1v ones and winning every single fight. And even the mayor is saying that, oh, the government got it wrong. That fat kid that ate himself to sleep is not the real captain. This must be the real captain. And Zoro basically beats all of them up and he sits down to have a drink. And then something else gets revealed and we get two new names, Mr. Five and Miss Valentine. And they reveal that their cover has been blown, that the Baroque works motto is mystery. And now the identity of their leader has been revealed. And that's a huge threat. So he's come to get rid of the threat. And the threat is a spy who came from Alabasta. The monarch of Alabasta. So a royal figure from a different island has joined Barack Works as a spy and has revealed the name of the leader. And this is when the mayor speaks up and says, "I will never let you touch her."

[00:14:40]So his cover is being blown too. And Zoro was just watching all of this happen. So we see that Iam, the real name of Igor by the mayor, is protecting who we thought was Miss Wednesday. So they both must be from royalty from Alabasta, which is a different island. And they have revealed the real name of the leader of the Baroque works. So if you kind of do the mental math, maybe they're good guys.

[00:15:10]And Miss Wednesday is revealed to be the princess of Alvasta. Neilaryi nephilari.

[00:15:17]Ne I don't know. Vivi. Oh my god. This guy's destroying them with his burgers.

[00:15:22]And now people are starting to wake up.

[00:15:24]Our crew members are starting to wake up. And we have Miss Valentine, Mr. 5 fighting, trying to I think get rid of Igaram and Vivi. Earam begs, "Please, I'll pay you anything. Please just make sure that um Vivie gets out of here safe, that you save Vivie. And Nami, Nami, the opportunist, she goes, "We'll do it for a billion berries." And turns out Nami was not even drunk this whole time.

[00:15:56]She said, "I wouldn't even let myself get tipsy in a random island like this."

[00:16:00]See, she's smart. She's got a good head on her shoulders. But also, where was she this whole time that Zoro was fighting? It's very classic Nami. She's savage. She says, "Will you pay us a billion or not, Chief? Cuz without our help, it looks like your princess is going to die." She hates pirates more than anybody else on the crew, but she's more pirate than any of them are to me in my opinion. Viv's life is very important. And Iam states that if she doesn't make it back to Alabasta, then the kingdom would crumble. The stakes are high. And then you even see other agents that were part of the Barack Works helping Vivi get out. Um, I won't get emotional this episode. Vivi is riding on Kadu, who looks kind of like a chocobo or like a duck thing, trying to escape, get to the boat as fast as she can. And then one of the Barack Works agents, Miss Monday, um, actually lets her go and says, "If I'm going to die, I'd rather die helping a friend." which says a lot about Vivie.

[00:17:03]Even though she betrayed them, even though she was undercover, something there was some kind of connection, something where Miss Monday was touched, Vivie must be a very, very good person or a very, very likable person, maybe a helpful person, I don't know, but it does speak a lot to her character. And so now Zoro is rescuing Vi. And we start to kind of understand how Barack works works. And we know that there's somebody at the very top named Mr. Zuro. The lower the number, the more powerful you are. Mr. Zero, his identity is unknown to everybody, unknown to even the people in the organization. But his whole thing is to create a utopia through means of assassination, bounty hunting, pillaging, things like that.

[00:17:44]And he even offers high positions to his agents in this utopia once it's made.

[00:17:50]And around this time, Luffy wakes up and is very confused. Another great big misunderstanding. These are great. I love Zoro and Luffy. If anything, I'm shipping them. You know, the Zoro and Luffy brotherhood is fire.

[00:18:06]Um, Luffy wakes up to all of these agents destroyed. And when he, "What happened? Who did this to you?" They said, "Your friend, the greenhaired swordsman guy." And so Luffy is on a rampage with his big old belly. He's come up to confront Zoro. He's like, "How could you do this, you ungrateful jerk?" The town's people welcomed us.

[00:18:23]They fed us. They showered us with kindness. And you went and chopped them up. And Zoro's like, "Yeah, but and Luffy is actually trying to off Zoro." Like, he's serious. He has this rage, the same rage that he had when he was standing up for Shushu, when he was standing up for Nami, when he was standing up for others. He truly believes in this moment that he is standing up for innocent people and he is willing to destroy his friend to get justice. And Miss Valentine and Mr. boogers are like interrupting them and they're like, "Shut up. You're interrupting our fight. What does it show here? What's the point of this fight? You What do you guys think?" And the one to end it, of course, is Mommy Nami punching them both in the face and being like, "Get your [ __ ] together. You guys are costing me berries." And finally, this intense fight is settled and everything is all good. Luffy's laughing. He's like, "Why did you just tell me?" Oh my gosh. And Vivie doesn't understand. She's like, "Uh, you can't help me. There's nothing you can do."

[00:19:27]And she starts to tell them about Alabasta. Alabasta was once the most civilized nation on the ground line and the most peaceful one. But now they're fighting against each other. There is civil unrest and a lot of it has to do with the Barack works infiltrating and causing stirring up trouble for the citizens. Then she as the princess wanted to save her civilization. And so she tried to do everything that she could to figure out who was in charge, who was at the root of all the problems in her nation. And so she infiltrated Barack Works so that she could find out who was pulling the strings and learned their intentions with the hopes of stopping them. And she discovers that the leader, Mr. Zuro talks about creating a utopia as a way of gaining followers, but his real intentions are the conquest of Alabasta. And she has to return to Alabasta and stop the rebellion before they throw themselves in the hands of Mr. Zur. And she kept the secret for so long, but then accidentally she says the name of the leader. She's like, "You guys don't stand a chance against Crocodile."

[00:20:33]Bringing us to the wall. Well, we got a lot of things that we got to add to the wall, including Vivi and Crocodile. Oh, Baroque works. I almost left out the most important part.

[00:20:48]She also reveals that Crocodile is one of the seven warlords.

[00:20:54]Crocodile. Is he another fishman? Are they all fishmen? And then we see the unluckies again. And it's like a vulture and an otter and they're just sitting there overhearing everything and they're like they fly away probably going to go tell Crocodile. He just told us the secret. Yeah. So now they're all in danger. Great. Meanwhile, Zoro was like, "Wow, we're going to get to meet him soon. I wonder what he's like." Luffy's like, "Yeah, we're so lucky."

[00:21:21]And Nami's like, "You two shut up." And Nami decides to dip. She's like, "Crocodile has no idea what I look like.

[00:21:27]I'm out of here. Bye." But then the otter draws portraits of every single one of them and Nami's like, "Wow, you're good." And Eigaram comes dressed as Vivie.

[00:21:37]He has a plan. It's probably involves pretending to be Vivv, being a decoy.

[00:21:43]That's my guess. He also does warn them that Mr. Zero doesn't have a bounty on him right now, but once upon a time, he had a bounty of 80 million berries on his head. Uh, so he's a pretty dangerous guy, which is four times what Arlong was worth. And then we're uh introduced to an eternal log pose. A regular log pose guides you from one island to the next across the Grand Line. The eternal pose remembers one location forever, and he's asking Vivi to give him the eternal pose of Alabasta. Is there an eternal pose for Ra Ltail? and he says he's gonna go be a decoy and lead people to Alabasta. I don't know what his plan is what once he gets there. And Vivie will take the regular route with Luffy and his crew.

[00:22:30]And he says, "May we meet again in our homeland." And I really hope they do.

[00:22:50]Hello.

[00:22:55]What?

[00:23:01]Because I can't trust Odasan anymore. I am now a One Piece conspiracy theorist.

[00:23:07]Um, it looks really bad cuz I've never I don't know how to make a tin foil hat.

[00:23:10]And also, I don't know what this is for, but I always see them on tinfoil hats. I don't know anything about the tinfo hat.

[00:23:17]I just know that it's associated with conspiracy theories. If you know what it is, what it does, and what it's used for, please let me know in the comments.

[00:23:25]But I figured it was appropriate cuz I can no longer trust this man. So, they just blow out of the ocean. And Nummy takes a switch. I think this is very relatable to her. She's like, "It's going to be okay. You're a strong girl."

[00:23:41]She hugs her. She's like, "We're going to get you out of here. we'll get you to Alabasta. And she even tells them those four, they survived the East Blue all by themselves. Seven Warlords of the Sea, no problem. And I don't know if she really truly believes this or she's saying it to give to comfort Vivv. But either way, it's very Mommy Nami.

[00:24:04]So, they hurry up onto the boat. They get Kadu the duck on boat. The log post sets sail for the next island. and they all hurry up onto the merrygo so that they can get out of here. They understand that now probably they're going to have a lot of Barack agents coming after them and that they should anticipate things like this happening or other islands similar to the cactus island. Um, so I'm sure they will proceed with much more caution now. And then we actually get a glimpse of who blew out of the ocean. The smoke clears and we see a woman with a hat, a shadowy figure. And she says, "A decoy.

[00:24:50]How silly." And then she ends up on their ship and she says, "Nice ship."

[00:24:56]And Zoro's like, "Who the freak are you?" Vivy confronts her. Did you kill?

[00:25:01]And Luffy's like, "Get off my ship." And Vivie says, "What are you doing here?

[00:25:06]Miss all Sunday." And Odasan gives us the hint that she is Barack Works vice president and supreme commander. So probably right hand to Mr. Zero or Crocodile. And she was actually the one that Vivie was following so that she could get closer to Crocodile. But then Miss Alunde says, "I let you follow me."

[00:25:30]And so now we're all just really confused cuz Viv is like, "Okay, so you wanted me to follow you. You wanted me to find out who Crocodile was, but then you snitched that we found out who Crocodile was. Like I don't understand.

[00:25:42]Are you good? Are you bad?" And Miss Alunde said, "I'm curious. You seem so earnest. I just had to help you." So I don't know. She It feels kind of like she's like toying with her. A princess declaring war on Barack works to save her country. How pathetic.

[00:25:55]Or it's like pity. It's like ultimate evil. I don't know. She's giving me some emotional whiplash.

[00:26:01]She's saying all these things. She's like, "The next island is Little Garden.

[00:26:06]You'll never make it to Alabasta. You'll never see Crocodile's face. Like, you guys are hopeless and your protection is a bunch of silly pirates." She knows Luffy. She says, "Ah, Monkey Duffy." And not only that, we see her use her devil fruit powers. She seems to have kind of like telekinesis except it's it's with her mind but she can like create body parts at a distance and control them with her mind. I don't know. It seems really uber powerful though. And she even gives them a pose and she says that's an eternal pose. It points to the island of nothing which is one stop before Alabasta. Not even our agents know about it. So no one will follow you. And everyone's like are you a good person? like why are you helping us which Zodto says is probably a trap to which Miss All Sunday says who knows.

[00:26:55]So then they have the option to keep going on the route that takes them to Little Garden which Miss All Sunday says is pretty dangerous or take this pose from Miss All Sunday that will bring them to the island next to Alabasta.

[00:27:11]Luffy shatters it. Nami is like are you crazy? should just give us an easy route. What if she was actually trying to help us? And Luffy says, and this is the theme of freedom, freedom, free will, doing things your own way, which Shanks would say is what it means to be a pirate. He says, "She's not deciding what course we take. She does not decide our fate is basically what he's saying."

[00:27:41]And she says, "I see. That's too bad."

[00:27:43]He says, "We'll meet again if you survive." And he says, "I hope not."

[00:27:47]Fair. And we get a little glimpse of Little Garden and we see giant footsteps. And that's where we'll end it for today. So, what did I learn about this as a writer? There are so many storytelling aspects from Laboon and Crocus into Whiskey Peak. And a big shift I feel like as we've entered the Grand Line is that we've gone from episodic adventure to a more world system. I feel like so many of the conflicts in East Blue were localized.

[00:28:20]Although they did reveal things about the Grand Line and maybe have some connection, a lot of them are open and closed. Now we're entering a living ecosystem, a world building where everything is connected and everything is going to start leading us from one thing to the next down the line all the way to Ltail and inevitably the One Piece. This creates narrative inevitability, right? So the inevitability of they are going to encounter the seven warlords and they are going to find the one piece and all of the things that have been foundationally laid down for us in the east blue are going to start really coming to light unraveling themselves and the little red string of destiny is going to pull us inch by inch along the way. We also have geographic tension.

[00:29:13]Um, also I think political tension. I have so many things to say about Crocus, but he's basically an early example of like legacy storytelling or legend storytelling. You have Crocus being kind of the gatekeeper of all this information and a witness to Roger's era, right? He seems to have known Gold Roger. He seems he has seen the king of pirates and his legacy. I don't know to what extent, like did he spend time with him on his ship? Cuz that's going to change a lot of things. And if he did, why didn't he tell Luffy and his friends more things, but that's okay. He probably has his reasons.

[00:29:54]um and the symbolic handoff of destiny of the mission the legend of the one piece you know eventually once the new person next person finds the one piece and becomes the next king of pirates it's that handoff right and so this is like a symbolic handoff where Crocus somebody from the old generation has kind of passed the baton on to the new generation. And I wonder if him telling Luffy and his friends the story of Leoon has anything to do with that. I wonder if it is a key or a piece. I wonder if there is like a strategic reasoning for him to tell them about Leon. I don't know. Um but I think this also plays into the theme of inherited destiny. He is inheriting this destiny perhaps from Gold Roger because they have all been waiting for some group of pirates. Is there a legend, a prophecy somewhere in the Grand Line that like a secret society knows about or something? I don't know.

[00:31:05]and dragons a part of it like a rebellion like a like a rebel like the white lotus and avatar and then whiskey peakan teaches us as a writer don't trust tone and he creates tonal whiplash by using whiskey peak and he shows that the ground lines not only physically dangerous but psychologically dangerous and that there are going to be mind games that things aren't what they seem. And by doing so, he weaponizes reader expectations and basically shows us that surprises only work after the audience emotionally relaxes. In my own book that I'm writing, which is a Japanese learning adventure, I have a character. I I don't really want to reveal too much though.

[00:31:55]I I want you guys to be a part of the journey, but also like if I share too much and you end up do wanting to take a look at the project yourself.

[00:32:05]Maybe it ruins it, but also maybe just you guys will know, you know, the real ones. I don't know. What do you think?

[00:32:13]Let me know in the comments. That is all for today.

[00:32:17]I will meet you there. And as always, that subscriber plaque up there is cardboard, and I would love for it to be real someday. And that's only something that you guys can do. So, if you are subscribed, thank you so much. If you type in the comments, I really super appreciate it. And if you're not, but enjoy the content, please do subscribe. And I'll see you on the next one. Bye.