Quote:
Originally Posted by holypanl
People are saying that they "do not trust Law". I'm not sure what there is or isn't to trust about Trafalgar Law: he hasn't ever been presented as a fairy godmother to any of the Mugiwara, and he never purported to want anyone's co-operation on the basis of trust.
I think lots of readers have forgotten that this manga is about Pirates -- pirates are criminals, fugitives from the law and unscrupulous opportunists. Why are people trying to hold Law to the light of a moral candle? That said, Oda has not much been keeping the plot very "pirate themed", so the Mugiwara crew is mostly a group of daring seamen, and not pirates at all. Had they not declared themselves to be pirates, even after the penetration of Enies' Lobby, they would still not be pirates; they are really just Insurgent Sailors.
Not once have they cornered, boarded and looted a single merchant vessel, or held a small port to ransom, or robbed a vessel owned by the crown of any state. They're not pirates, so I suppose having been reading the story from the point of view of these mostly benign insurgent seamen, the readers are assuming that every other crew that has been classified as "pirates" is also nothing but a rogue seafaring clique which doesn't actually do "bad things".
EDIT: TBH, it has always bothered me that Oda allowed the Mugiwara crew to be classified as "pirates" from day one. That was really bad logic on his part, IMHO. IIRC, the Strawhats were first reported to the World Government after the Arlong Park arc, when a marine official bitterly sent a photograph of Luffy to the Marines, claiming that he was a very dangerous pirate. Now, that could have been used as a really nice plot device. If Luffy had just set off as an "Adventuring Treasure Seeker", and then a Marine called him in as a villain unjustly, then the story wouldn't be so inconsistent. Tbh, so far all the Mugiwaras have done is hunt other pirates (Bounty Hunting; not a crime), accept large masses of gold from grateful sovereign states (not a crime), and go looking for One Piece (Treasure Seeking; not a crime).
I re-assert that had they not been calling themselves pirates for no reason, then after the Enies' Lobby incident, they would have still not been seen as pirates, and just a set of renegade seamen.
TL;DR: Trafalgar Law is a real pirate. Stop thinking he won't, or shouldn't do pirate things. All things considered, the Strawhats really do not qualify to be called pirates.
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if you really think about it, the whitebeard and the red-haired pirates are pretty much in the same boat as the straw hats. i mean, whitebeard and shanks don't/didn't demand tributes from those under their protection when the other two yonkou would ravage and destroy their own territories if they so much as failed to pay tributes. no doubt blackbeard is doing the same. have shanks, whitebeard or even roger ever really done anything that's considered to be remotely pirate-like besides maybe raid marine ships, and fight marines and other pirates? i doubt they engaged in slave-trading or plundered and laid waste to islands and cities.
if we go back to the origins of piracy, pirates were mere folks who were forced to go off to sea and raid other ships because they were starving. they mostly stole food and other goods, not gold. one of the earliest known pirates were the vikings. they were masters of the seas, explorers as well as hunters. treasure-hunting and plundering pirates came later and they were heavily romanticized in books and films.
perhaps oda's view of pirates is more similar to the earlier versions, just a band of brothers in search of adventure and maybe a better future. oda's op-verse is a dystopian world where the people are no more than slaves to an almighty controlling government. the rich are insanely rich, they enjoy all the privileges that money and stature could bring, but there are so few of them. while the poor are neglected, despised, shun and even starving. the world government controls everything, including the seas, and those who dare cross them without permission are considered criminals and therefore hunted by the marines. i suppose they passed this law to prevent people from discovering the truth behind the void century. exploration leads to knowledge, knowledge is power and that power could bring down the world government. they simply could not allow that. not to mention that the one piece could possibly be a key figure in this so-called government conspiracy. if it is, then searching for it is a huge crime in the eyes of the WG. besides, i think oda used the concept of pirates to symbolize rebellion. and of course, he thought that pirates are cool and there wasn't a manga that had pirates as protagonists so he figured why not?
