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AlthoughOne Piecehas become a massive series where the balance of world order is threatened on a consistent basis, it didn’t always start like that. In the beginning,One Piecewas a much more casual, slow-stakes, and relatable adventure about the journey of a group of friends on a quest to become great pirates. While, at its core, the series is still the same, at times it feels that the original pre-time skip feel is buried under world-ending plots and massive lore reveals.
At the same time, the characters themselves, who were once much more down to earth, have become incredibly strong compared to how their former selves. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, the stronger a character gets, especially withunique abilities like Hakiand Devil Fruits, the less relatable they become for the audience. In many ways, One Piece characters, specifically Haki and Devil Fruit users, are becoming too strong to be relatable to the audience anymore.
One Piece Shifted More Towards Massive Powers As The Series Continued
Devil Fruits And Haki Became More Prevalent
Although Devil Fruits existed in the early stages ofthe East Blue Saga inOne Piece, the fruits themselves seemed incredibly rare. During the adventures through the East Blue, the Straw Hats only encountered four characters who possess Devil Fruits. Although this number shifted greatly upon entering the Grand Line, before this, Devil Fruits felt almost like a mythical concept.
Only Haki can transcend all! - Kaido
At the same time, Haki, despite being a hugeexample of foreshadowing inOne Piece, wasn’t even a concept. Characters without Devil Fruits had no unique ability, save for their creative techniques, to combat the seemingly insurmountable power of Devil Fruit users. While Haki did level the playing field a bit, before, it was more of an underdog story to see a non-Devil Fruit user, like Zoro or Nami, take down an incredibly strong Devil Fruit user opponent.
Weaker Characters Without Power Are Much More Relatable
Zoro Is A Great Example Of Losing Relatability
However, these characters, who lack incredibly destructive powers, despite being weaker, in many ways felt more relatable. While it is cool to see Garp decimate a mountain with a single punch, being one ofthe Navy’s strongest soldiersis far from relatable to the average person. On the other hand, a character like theOne Piecenavigator, Nami, who to this day lacks both a Devil Fruit and Haki, despite arguably being the weakest in the crew, feels more like a surrogate for the audience. Her lack of powers, and cunning utilization of the tools around her, including hijacking other characters’ Devil Fruit abilities, give Nami a sense of humanity facing off against unbelievably powerful characters, which includes her captain, Luffy.
Another way of looking at this concept is to examine the character ofthe Straw Hat swordsman, Zoro, throughout the series. While the character himself has always been incredibly powerful, in the early stages of the series, his swordsmanship felt more like natural swordfights. Additionally, many of Zoro’s pre-time skip fights were incredibly close, leaving him as a relatable underdog who barely manages to win against a stronger opponent. After time skip, however, Zoro’s mastery over Haki has turned him into a massively powerful character who rarely seems to struggle with most of his main fights, often ending them in a single strike.
One Piece Needed To Evolve From Its Small Beginnings
Battles And Fights Needed To Get Bigger
At the same time, as a series,One Pieceneeded to evolveto keep running. If the show had stagnated at the East Blue power level, it’s highly unlikely that the series would still be running to this day. Due to this, making at least the stronger Straw Hats into unbeatable monsters was almost necessary for the longevity of the show.
If you think I’m just another cute girl, you’re dead wrong! - Nami
In the end, while it’s nice to reminisce aboutthe older days ofOne Piece, the series has grown well beyond this point. Characters are far stronger than they once were, and while this does create amazing fight scenes and high-stakes wars, it removes a human element the characters once had. However, the series still has a few non-Devil Fruit, non-Haki users, like Nami, that prove that there still are relatable characters left inOne Piece.
