i love one piece theories i know that's a pretty bold statement given the title of this video and i
don't want you to feel mislead so let me explain in every community that involves a progressing
story fans of that story are always prone to making assumptions about where the future is
headed this is not inherently a bad thing speculation the formulation of thought yet
to be realized in the actual story is a part of the experience however some people like myself
enjoy taking it a step further we like to break down our knowledge of the story through analysis
and reoccurring themes to try and better predict what could happen in the future this is known as
a theory the thing about theories is they're fun however they can be equally as dangerous
to those who find themselves a bit too deep into what they think should happen to the story now i
want to restate how much i enjoy theories but it's also good to understand the gray areas in which
theorization can become toxic and harmful to a community and how to point these things out within
yourself and others it's also good to understand for those who enjoy formulating theories that 99
of the time you are going to be wrong in some form or another and you should never expect for
your theory to be exactly right it is important to have confidence in your theory especially when you
have a really good one and if you have a good track record however it's just as important to
humble yourself when you get one wrong and not let it ruin your enjoyment of the story i'm going to
keep this video spoiler free but a very big event did just occur in the series and there were a lot
of theories surrounding that specific event before it happened some theories got it much closer than
others due to their immense attention to detail and consistent credibility some theories were very
solid theories but they still got it wrong and some were just playing off the bandwagon there
is probably somebody out there who guessed it correctly but no one on the live playing field was
exactly correct to what actually happened in the story the funniest thing is that so many of the
theories that were close were just missing one crucial detail that another person had already
considered if they had combined their respective theories they would have hit it right on the money
so you see what i mean no one is ever going to predict exactly what the author has planned to
a t you may get closer than others but the vast vast majority will be wrong and that's okay and
should not take away from the fun of theorizing nor the enjoyment of reading the story in order
to better understand what constitutes healthy theorization and toxic theorization i formulated a
list of characteristics to become more self-aware of for those who enjoy making theories i think
it's very important to understand the nuance of these terms we've already established what the
difference between speculation and the baseline theory is speculation being a quick idea based
on a recent event and a baseline theory is a formulation of past events and running themes
that could potentially lead to another event yet to happen so now let's go ahead and get a little
bit more detailed i've broken down the baseline theory into four subsets external theorization
internal theorization hybrid theorization and tinfoil theorization external theorization is
the collection of properties outside the realm of the story in order to predict something within the
story a great example being the application of greek mythology to form theories one piece is
obviously not greek mythology but greek mythology is used as inspiration constantly throughout
the series thus in order to predict things that haven't been revealed to us yet we pull from other
stories and characters within greek mythology to try and create connections to predict a future
reveal in the story the interesting thing is how insanely accurate these theories can be
since mythology is such a huge inspiration for a series like one piece however the dangerous thing
is that when dealing with external properties there are a huge amount of things that can sound
or be interpreted to mean the same thing so it's less accurate than internal theorization based on
the fact that external properties are not created by the author who can change them into whatever
way he thinks will fit the story best the fact that there are so many similar things out there
a theorist can draw connections to leads this form of theorization to get a little bit messy
internal theorization is theorizing purely off what information we already have in the story
this type is usually used for people who power scale but can also be used more as a concrete way
of predicting future events internal theorizing tends to be more accurate than external theorizing
since the predictions being made are based off of the story itself rather than a vast amount
of external properties that one can pull from examples being the narrative consistent themes
character personalities events in the story quotes made by certain characters and even the chapter
devil fruit number based theories are a part of this category as you can see the accuracy
in which internal theories can have is definitely on a spectrum but generally formulating theories
based on the story will lead to a more accurate theory so as you can probably tell by the name
hybrid theorization is a combination of the two internal theorization and external theorization
where one pulls from external properties as well as internal properties to formulate a theory this
is probably the most common type of theorization out there in regards to one piece hybrid theories
are great and probably my favorite type of theory this is because i love external theorization if it
makes sense within the internal properties of the story i think that hybrid theories allow for the
most amount of creativity and wiggle room when it comes to generating ideas it can make completely
insane concepts sound incredibly accurate and with a story such as one piece where insane things
are always happening the limitations of hybrid theorizing can be endless however there are still
things that separate a good theory from a bad theory and that's how we get our fourth category
of theorizing the tinfoil theorization tinfoil theorization in a nutshell is basically what it
sounds like it can be external internal hybrid but the fundamental core of the theory is closer to
speculation rather than an outcome reached through extensive analysis research and understanding it's
basically the flat earth of one piece theories examples being zkk zorro kills kaido annel healing
the scabbards odin still being alive etc there is definitely a gray area in there too with theories
like momo being joy boy and croco mom type theories where you can create convoluted points
to make the theory sound more accurate but in the end they just aren't credible theories and there
are so many things to quickly shut them down like luffy having way more joy boy characteristics than
momonosuke and oda literally saying that luffy's mom is not relevant to the story and i'm really
not trying to attack anybody directly because i know a lot of people enjoy tinfoil theories they
can be really fun sure but tinfoil theories are the most common way to fall into the self-serving
theory fallacy that i'm about to explain which is the true and most pressing theory issue affecting
the one piece community today the self-serving theory fallacy is a hard topic to discuss
which is why i spent so much time diving into the nuance of theories before explaining this concept
a lot of people out there create really good theories and a lot of people out there create
really bad theories and please don't get this construed because both the good theorists and
the bad theorists could still end up with the same problematic mindset leading them towards
less enjoyment of the series or dropping it entirely basically the self-serving theory
fallacy is a fallacy in which the theorist takes on the mindset that if the theory they created
is not realized then the author has ruined the story that their theory was the only way the
story could have gone in order to be good due to how attached they became to their own idea
of where the story should go now don't get me wrong an author can still write in a way that
the majority of a fan base considers bad writing however this is not the case in the one piece
community where we constantly see an influx of people creating theories good or bad and then
getting upset and turning away from the series because their theory was wrong getting a theory
wrong does not validate criticism inconsistent narratives themes bad pacing bad paneling bad
story structure these validate criticism even if your theory is well thought out extremely
analytical based on common storytelling principles like consistent narratives but the author goes in
a different direction still inclined with those things just not the way you want it this does not
validate criticism however if the author goes in a direction that completely goes against the running
themes narratives and core ideas of the story that validates criticism not because what you wanted to
happen didn't happen but because the direction the author took with the story was inconsistent
and the vast amount of fans of the series are now extremely disappointed in the change in direction
in other words just because one has a really detailed super thought out analytical theory
does not automatically constitute the direction the story must go in order to be good granted
the person's theory could still have the potential to be a great direction for the
story to go in but the author can still go in a completely different direction and still produce
a good story and if the person who formulated that theory is disappointed in the direction
that the author took purely because it's not the direction they predicted then that's not
a flaw on the author's part but a fallacy of the theorizer thus we have the term the self-serving
theory fallacy again i really don't want to come across like i'm attacking any individual person
this is an issue expressed in many individuals and i think it's important to become more aware of it
especially if you yourself have done it because the more self-aware you are of this issue the
less likely you are to ruin your own enjoyment of the story and i know i've already said this
a couple times but theories are fun i think the majority of us will agree that you know theorizing
is just a fun thing to do we love creating ideas we love speculating we love theorizing
some of us more than others and that's okay just remember to be careful to not let it ruin your
enjoyment of the series theorizing in a community like one piece with other youtubers and other
people in the community fans of the series it's it's honestly some of the most fun i've ever had
on my life and that's really the true goal of a community right a community is supposed to
increase your enjoyment of a series like one piece all of the people who enjoy the same thing coming
together brings an extra layer of excitement to the series and it's something i've really
grown to appreciate that's why i started creating these chapter reaction mashups every chapter drop
to present the excitement to you the viewer if you want to relive that excitement again
like the last chapter 1044 click this video right here within the next three seconds