One Piece - Chapter 669 [manga]

[james0246]

^If Luffy wasn't labeled as a pirate, then he would be labeled as a revolutionarie or rebel/traitor due to his actions. The WG is an organization that has killed entire groups of people simply because they might posses knowledge that the WG wants controlled, so any adventure based group would, of course, eventually be targeted simply because they are bound to learn something the WG doesn't want known.

So, no matter Luffy's label he would still have been targeted.

[ronin myael]

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.

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?

[Jouten]

Luffy is a pirate because he has a pirate flag

[Randrak42]

Originally Posted by Jouten

Luffy is a pirate because he has a pirate flag

Luffy is a pirate...cause he says he's a pirate.

People should stop over analyzing things...

[paradox13]

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.

They do not follow the law. They are criminals.. which is not to say that they are the 'bad guys', but in the eyes of the World Government they are enemies.

The OP world consists primarily of ocean and (small) islands, not continents like ours. Thus most of the more powerful characters in that world do not primarily stay in a single place because each place is so limited in scope (think a Caribbean island).. and so as outlaws become more powerful they will inevitably seek their fortunes by boat. An outlaw on the ocean can be called a pirate.

If Luffy and Co paid any respect to WG laws, they would indeed be bounty hunters.

You are right though that before the Arabasta arc, their actions were that of mere adventurers. Their classification as pirates was the result of two factors: 1) the fact that they called themselves pirates and they had a jolly roger and 2) the actions of the corrupt Marine Nezumi.

[andy]

Originally Posted by paradox13

You are right though that before the Arabasta arc, their actions were that of mere adventurers. Their classification as pirates was the result of two factors: 1) the fact that they called themselves pirates and they had a jolly roger and 2) the actions of the corrupt Marine Nezumi.

You forget that in one of the first arc in OP Luffy went into a marine base , free Zoro and then beat up the Captain for the base.
Yeah Axe-Hand Morgan was corrupt and then get send to jail but you can't go beating up the marines just because you feel like it .

So from very early at least Luffy would have been called a outlaw.

[paradox13]

Originally Posted by andy

You forget that in one of the first arc in OP Luffy went into a marine base , free Zoro and then beat up the Captain for the base.
Yeah Axe-Hand Morgan was corrupt and then get send to jail but you can't go beating up the marines just because you feel like it .

So from very early at least Luffy would have been called a outlaw.

You are right..I had forgotten about the very first arc.

My bad.

[golgo13]

It's pretty interesting that zoro fell asleep last (most like bc he is able to drink heavy amounts of alcohol) and nanji (nice name btw whoever came up with that one) woke up first. I wonder if the fact that nanji didn't have a head wound/bump had something to do with that.

Is it just me or does it seem like the samurai doesn't really know what a devil fruit is? Calling it magic and the consequences of eating it as if people don't already know. If that is the case it seems like wano country is pretty isolated from the rest of the world and i'm really interested to see how the kid was kidnapped. Also someone mentioned about nanji being the closest to the samurai, this makes sense bc he took original responsibility for the head.

So Law has "a certain problem" and can't analyze the drugs, keep thinking: where are the heart pirates??

[golgo13]

Originally Posted by The Small One

Of course. As it was shown it was him (her?) who knocked the others to wake up.
Wouldn't make much sense to hit oneself when you're already awake.


Though the power to cause the other crewmembers head bumps seem to be bound to Nami's body and not to her mind.

Oh I thought the wound was from falling..

[james0246]

I deleted the off-topic nonsense. Please refrain from ego trips in thread. The next comment on the matter will result in an immediate infraction.

[james0246]

As an aside, and to get partially back to the previous discussion, part of the reason I first started reading One Piece a decade ago was for the irony of the situation. Specifically, I received some minor amusement out of the fact that I was helping to pirate a manga about pirates. Since then, I've always wondered if Oda was somewhat prescient in choosing to create a manga about pirates right when internet piracy was becoming such a big issue...

[marvelB]

It's been near a decade since I started OP myself, though I first read it through the American SJ issues. However, I discovered through the nets that the original Japanese release was FAR ahead of the American ones, so I did a bit of digging around, found some scans, and.... well, the rest is history. Boy, that sure takes me back....



Anyhow, just putting up the usual reminder that the next spoiler should be out by early Wednesday....

[yakumo-chan]

Top-Selling Manga in Japan by Series: 2012 (First Half)

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...012-first-half

[Randrak42]

It never ceases to amaze me how OP volume sales are so overwhelming compared to the others. First and second place aren't even close to each other, there's almost an eleven million difference.

[yakumo-chan]

last year was better, it had 23 million

[james0246]

Originally Posted by yakumo-chan

last year was better, it had 23 million

To be fair, last year involved the end of the Whitebeard war as well as Ace's death. So far this year has featured fake-Strawhats, mook Fishmen, and other minor annoyances. In other words, very little of actual interest (beyond some great comedy and a few great setups for future chapters).

[marvelB]

It's new thread time!

[Hidfe]

Originally Posted by james0246

To be fair, last year involved the end of the Whitebeard war as well as Ace's death. So far this year has featured fake-Strawhats, mook Fishmen, and other minor annoyances. In other words, very little of actual interest (beyond some great comedy and a few great setups for future chapters).

This is not it.
When Strong World came out there was a sudden hype around OP. Old readers who stopped at some point and new readers came together. The readership rose in a very short amount of time from 2 Million to 3 Million. A lot of those “new” readers bought the old Volumes. So around 500 000+ people bought around 55 “old” volumes. Those back door sales caused the insane numbers of last year.
Fact is that the fishman island arc volumes sold better than the Marineford war arc volumes. The reason why it has sold less than last year is simple because the hype has lessened. Less people are buying the old volumes and therefore the sales are not as high as the ones from last year.

[james0246]

^Thank you for the info. It is always nice to know the context of a situation.

[marvelB]

^Yeah, that was rather enlightening, wasn't it? In fact, I even remember learning from somewhere (pretty sure it was AP) years ago that a bunch of fans had dropped the series around the time of the Skypiea arc (supposedly they found it too boring and dragged out..... which is a shame that they felt that way about such an excellent storyline). But if those same fans were the ones who returned to it.... well, that's great to hear! Though I'm definitely wondering how well-received the current storyline is over in Japan.....