- [Narrator] Now, if you watch a lot of my videos,
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Well, just like the lid
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So yeah, you weren't expecting that, were you?
Hello, and welcome to the GrandLineReview,
your source for everything One Piece.
And today I'd like to dive into
one of the greatest strengths of the series,
which is its tendency to be wildly unpredictable
in terms of basic plot,
the act of which could be called some sort of plot twist.
And these have been
such an incredibly necessary feature in the series
because a story simply cannot maintain strong interest
for well over two decades,
if it's basic narrative isn't highly predictable.
Eventually, no matter how great
the characters of the world are,
people will get bored of going through the motions.
And I know that there are some who would argue
that One Piece is guilty this to some degree,
and, yeah, sometimes it does have a standard arc structure,
which is a past name discussion I'd like to get into
during another video.
But at the same time, anybody who claims
that they saw all of the twists and turns
of One Piece coming in advance is simply lying.
I have no nicer way of putting it than that.
Which isn't to say
that you would have been fooled by every twist,
but there are some very key moments
that I would like to highlight here today.
But first up, because the internet is a semantic minefield,
I am going to define what a plot twist is,
which for the sake of this video
is going to be an unexpected narrative development
that goes on to change the course of the story.
Plot twist can, of course, be technically defined
as much less impactful events than that,
but I'm looking for the ones that seriously threw a wrench
into everything we knew of as One Piece,
and changed the theories forever going forward.
And as we go through these events,
please do let me know in the comments,
how many of these twists caught you off guard?
Because think I'm about to cover effectively blew my mind.
So I'm quite keen to hear your experiences as well.
But with that out of the way, let's begin.
Welcome to the top five greatest plot twists in One Piece.
Number five.
Raizo is safe.
So despite the fact that this may be
a less than memorable twist in the series
compared to other earth shattering ones yet to come,
I quite vividly recall my reaction
when this chapter came out.
And just to give this moment
some very, very important context,
throughout the entirety of the Zou arc thus far,
there had been background tensions displayed
between the Mink tribe and the samurai of Wano.
There were all sorts of hints
that if the samurai were to be discovered,
then there would be trouble.
A lot of trouble.
Quite possibly leading to a gigantic conflict
within the arc,
which I feel is very much what we expected to play out.
You know, a more standard One Piece arc.
But Zou went on to be unique in so, so many ways.
But it was stuff like purposely ensuring
that Momonosuke stay in his dragon form,
as well as the monkey Mink thing
who discovered Kin'emon and Kanjuro,
and then immediately rushed to tell the rest of the tribe,
as if to issue them with a dire warning.
But the biggest thing that really threw me off the mark here
was the entire flashback featuring Jack
invading the Phantom Island on the hunt for Raizo,
a ninja of Wano.
And just watching the Mink tribe continue
to brutally combat Jack and his forces
for five whole days and nights,
whilst adamantly denying that Raizo was there.
And so, as a result, there was this overwhelming impression
that the people of Wano were responsible for this tragedy
that had befallen the poor Mink tribe.
That would only have deepened whatever grudge
these two groups seemingly had.
So, when Inuarashi and Nekomamushi fell to the floor
and exclaimed that Raizo was safe,
well, my personal reaction to this can be summarized
with this look from Zoro.
This was such a masterfully set up plot twist
that hits so hard, because at this very moment,
you realize all of the pain and suffering
that the Mink tribe went through
was for the sake of a bond rather than a grudge.
And so it was a bit of a hot pot of emotions.
At once, heartwarming and soul destroying.
But also, narratively, it completely reshaped
the structure of the Zou arc,
which was looking like it was building to a conflict.
But instead this moment served as its climax,
or at least its emotional climax.
And this is one of those things
that just seemed so obvious in retrospect,
but at the time this completely blew me away.
And it is certainly one of the greatest plot twists
that I have had the pleasure of experiencing
within One Piece.
Number four.
Cipher Pol nine.
To which I specifically mean the betrayal on Water seven,
where we saw Rob Lucci, Kaku, Kalifa and Blueno
each declare their allegiance
to the secret cell of the World Government.
And I really don't want to undersell this moment at all
because it should be noted that betrayal
is such a difficult thing to pull off
in any kind of satisfactory way.
It comes with quite a few problems,
namely that you need to make the betrayal logical,
which usually results in dropping hints along the way
that very much blatantly telegraphs
the betrayal to the audience,
thus making the ultimate moment much less potent.
Or the alternative
is that it completely comes out of nowhere
and becomes an unsatisfactory twist.
But I think in this case, Oda really nailed betrayal.
Firstly, by introducing us to four quite charming
and unassuming characters.
Like take Kaku for example.
He played a big part in assisting the Straw Hearts
with the evaluation of the Going Merry.
And he just seems like such a joyful carpenter,
living his best life.
And Kalifa was also introduced to us
with a nice comic sense,
and even Lucci had this cool ventriloquist quirk
with Hattori.
Blueno, on the other hand, well, he was just kind of there,
but that's what a bartender would do to be fair.
Very unassuming.
So it was both shocking and quite crushing actually
to discover that these four were actually going to become
primary antagonists of the saga.
And not only that,
but the fact they were infinitely more powerful
than any of them have led on.
But I also think that this worked really well
because One Piece, prior to this moment,
had not seen an awful lot of core betrayal.
And whenever it did happen,
it was generally something obvious,
like, oh, Crocodile betrays Robin on Alabasta,
which, sure, who could have predicted that?
So betrayal as a huge dramatic device
was not built into the fabric of One Piece at this time.
Which made this particular plot twist
hit ever so much harder.
And I do think that it would be nigh on impossible
for Oda to pull off the same effect again.
Cause you know, fool me once shame on you,
as well as the rest of the saying,
although that has certainly not stopped Oda from trying.
But I don't think that any act of betrayal
is ever going to be as much of an effective plot twist
as this brilliantly implemented piece of story
that took place on Water seven.
Number three.
Daddy dragon.
Sticking with the Water seven saga for now,
we have another blatantly impactful plot twist
in the series,
when it was very casually revealed by Monkey D. Garp
that the mysterious man we knew only as Dragon
was, in fact, the biological father of our protagonist
Monkey D. Luffy.
And all I really had to say when this happened was,
"What the hell?"
I mean, yes, it makes a lot of sense
in terms of pieces falling into place retrospectively,
like why Dragon acted on Loguetown,
saving Luffy from Smoker, and such.
But to this day, it is still incredibly bizarre
to think of this man as Luffy's father.
Because I mean, look at him,
he's like an antithesis of everything that is Luffy.
All stern and serious,
although I guess they are similarly driven.
And he does have his goofy moments,
very rare moments that is.
But standard storytelling theory would have one believe
that Luffy's father would be a man, I guess,
more similar to Garp,
who is an individual prone to Luffy's comical quirks
with a big smile.
But I guess that's why this twist works so well, doesn't it?
Because then there's this frowning, intense, force of aura.
And yeah, like I said, Dragon does do some weird stuff.
But overall, the impression of him gives off
a more Mihawk style of permanent sternness.
I do have to say though,
a lot of that is probably just because
throughout the course of the series,
we still have not had the chance
to properly get to know Dragon,
like we have Garp, and obviously Luffy.
I'm sure that the second we do,
then all of this will fit very nicely into place, probably?
But back in the Water seven days,
and well, even to this day,
the fact that Dragon was revealed
to be the father of our protagonist
was one of the grandest plot twists
that One Piece could have possibly thrown at us.
Number two.
The Straw Hat separation.
All right, next up is quite probably the twist
that changed the series in the most radical manner
that we will be examining here today.
All catalyzed by a certain Bartholomew Kuma
during the initial Sabaody arc.
And as always, context is everything.
So cast your minds back.
At this point in time,
we have had just over 500 mighty chapters of One Piece,
which was over a decade of storytelling.
And at any given time,
it had always featured the Straw Hats
operating as a cohesive group.
During various arcs,
that group would be split up into some subgroups,
but the crew were always together.
And that, this time way back in 2008,
it seemed absolutely inconceivable
that One Piece could survive without that dynamic.
So, the idea of removing every Straw Hat
except for Luffy from the story was on nobody's mind.
And then it happened.
Luffy punched a World Noble,
called down a force far greater than they could handle,
and desperate action had to be taken.
Which resulted in just over two years
of both in-world and real world time
where we had a story that focused solely on Luffy
and his adventures going through Amazon Lily,
Impel Down, and Marineford.
And this came in various waves of shock
because I remember the preceding chapter
ended with Zoro disappearing, thanks once again to Mr. Kuma.
And that in it of itself was a gigantic plot twist
because, you know, what's that going to lead to?
Like a rescue Zoro arc?
But then the next chapter rolled along.
And one by one, they each vanished
right in front of our eyes, until it was just Luffy.
And I simply did not know how to feel,
because everything that I knew of as One Piece
had been shattered.
And stepping into the next chapter,
in fact, stepping into the next handful of arcs,
was going to bring a complete unknown.
It was as if we were starting an entirely new series.
And of course we now know that this would bring
some of the greatest arcs that we've experienced,
as well as the finale to part one of this mammoth adventure.
But back then, there was this genuine sense of,
"Oda, what the hell have you done?"
When it first happened, that was.
And yeah, there just really aren't that many moments
that I would describe as pure shock
that gets showcased in One piece.
But this is certainly one of them.
As is our ultimate contender here today.
Number one.
The death of Portgas D. Ace.
And now the end is near.
With the crowning example of a plot twist,
emerging in yet another entirely unpredictable
and shock inducing event.
And this was incredibly shocking,
because there was so much going on here
that led to Ace having this perception
of plot armor about him.
Like I highly doubt there was anyone who seriously thought
that Ace was going to die.
And the most obvious contributing factor for this
was how Oda had handled the concept of death
outside of a flashback in the series to this point.
Which was, well, he didn't.
People just didn't die.
Even if they were the recipient of a point blank explosion
to destroy an entire capital city,
they still didn't die.
And that is far from the only example of death
being heavily ignored in the series.
And everything went to create a perception
that still does exist to this day,
that everything will be fine.
Always fine.
And while I have a lot of issues with that,
from a narrative perspective,
it did give Oda one shining opportunity
to completely abuse our expectations, which he took.
And, my God, did it land.
And here's how you know exactly how successful
the decision to kill Ace was.
Because after the chapter was released,
where said death occurred,
there were very few people who actually believed
that this was the case.
There was a really strong sense of,
"Uh, this is just Oda screwing around with us again,
and we'll get to the next chapter, and he'll be fine."
With all sorts of theories
about how this death was going to be more symbolic.
And I think that's because the chapter was titled
"The Death of Portgas D. Ace."
And so there was this idea floating around
that I actually subscribed to,
which was that the next chapter would be titled
"The birth of Gol D. Ace."
So something wonky along those lines.
You know, with him being Roger's son and everything.
But, well, the next chapter came around,
and it was titled "Anger Without Words."
And I think that this was the moment
where it really sank in amongst readers,
and became one of the greatest plot twists in the series.
It was like the fan base
was in this collective state of denial,
which to be fair, Oda had given us very, you've heard,
good reason to feel that way from his past actions.
But then we were hit with this wave
that changed One Piece forever.
Because as much as we know that death is not likely,
under any circumstances,
we do now know that Oda is not afraid to use it
in very dramatically potent situations,
which we have gone on to see in the New World era.
Although not quite to the same effect that this had.
Not at all, actually.
And so with all of that in mind,
it is pretty difficult to deny
that the death of Portgas D. Ace belongs right here
at the top of the greatest plot twists in One Piece.
But what do you guys think?
Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below,
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But for now this has been the GrandLineReview,
and I'll see you next time.