- [Announcer] Yes, there was a lot of tragedy in One Piece.
And every major arc does tend to really pull on those
heartstrings through some of those amazing acts and figures.
But the greatest One Piece space tragedy of all
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- [Announcer] Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review
your source for everything one piece
and today we are going to be turning our sight into the far
well maybe not so far, but future of the current talk
in the series and most specifically to discuss the potential
and or inevitability of death that may occur
as a result of Wano.
And I've explored a lot of potential
in this area in my chapter reviews
but I thought it would be a good idea
to collate all of that into one topic.
Which yes means anime only watches this is your warning.
I will be discussing incredibly key developments
in the manga that take place during Act Three of Wano.
And if you don't want to be spoiled to them, okay,
I completely understand and please do feel free
to come back to this video another time.
However for everyone else,
we are going to rather swiftly proceed.
So death is one of those things that gets talked about
quite commonly in the One Piece fan base,
which is very interesting,
actually given how profoundly uncommon death
actually is in the series,
although I guess that's why it's such an endearingly
fascinating topic though,
because when it does happen outside of a flashback,
it is generally a pretty massive event.
And ever since the times of marine food,
which sold the departure of one Portgas D. Ace
Oda has been much less timid
about including death in his arcs
And despite clear examples
that prove that statement otherwise,
like Pound miraculously surviving because
we do still have cases like Pedro whose noble sacrifice
gave Whole Cake Island a whole new level of weight to it.
And given that we are now in what is increasingly
looking like the longest arc in the series dealing with
the climax of the entire new world era,
I think that we would be pretty naive
to believe that we are going to make it out of this
without at least one similar act.
And there are several key candidates to explore
when it comes to death.
And I want to stress that this does not have to be purely
on the protagonistic side of things,
although most of them would be.
But before we hop into that properly, though,
I would be remiss not to mention that Wona
has already had, what would be by any other rock standard
considered as a healthy dose of tragedy,
and by that, I mean Oden flashback, Yasu in the modern day,
and assumably, but not at all confirmed lady Toki.
And that would generally be enough to form
the heart and soul going forward into a grand
satisfying action conclusion.
But with the sheer scope of Wano lm just, you know,
not too sure about that,
especially if this mega rock does it here,
to what is widely speculated to be a five-act structure,
which is the traditional method of Kabuki plays
a concept that Wano seems to strongly parallel.
And the thing about that is that another common feature
of said plays is that act three is usually characterized
by sped up action, leading to a great moment of tragedy.
And that's why Oden's flashbacks
sits kind of weirdly with me,
because you could theoretically
attribute his death as that moment of tragedy.
However, it occurred right at the beginning,
because act three is still well and truly ongoing.
And I think that very much opens up the potential
for another incredibly tragic event to occur
to cap things off here under the assumption
that it is of course a five-act structure.
If not, then act three is just going to be wildly huge
because It's already close to equaling out to size
and while we still have an awful lot left to deal with,
but enough of that speculation,
let's move on to other speculation because like I said,
we have a whole host of candidates who could be
issued their death orders at the hands of Retro Oda.
And I'm going to start with a fairly
standard thought being Jinbe.
And Jinbe is a strange existence.
He's been an unofficial straw hat
ever since the end of fishermen Island really.
And even after officially joining on Whole Cake Island,
he was removed from the story temporarily
and even after officially joining on Wano
Oda has now very purposely decided not to add
the final stamp of approval in the form of a crude toast.
Not yet anyway, and as time goes on,
I'm becoming less and less sold on the idea of
Jinbe perishing tragically on Wano
because he just seems so perfectly set up to become
one of, if not to the very final straw hat.
At this point, losing him would leave a pretty big
like whale-shark sized gaping hole in my heart,
but I have to admit, maybe that would be Oda's
intended purpose. I mean, there is of course very little
point in killing a character who we have no emotional
attachment to whatsoever
and my investment in Jinbe is pretty paramount at the stage.
So that would be a pretty grand tragedy
and it would explain why Oda has not gone so far
as to conduct the toast yet.
I mean Luffy's reasoning of waiting until everyone
can celebrate together is pretty sound in bold
that is narratively though, it's just a storytelling delay
and as much as this does sometimes in fact often burn me,
I have to assume that it was done intentionally
and those intentions may very well be
to kill the whale shark
because after the toast has happened,
and Jinbe is fully ticked there is no way he is dying,
not before the very end of the series anyway,
because all of our Straw Hats have something of an immunity
from death except for Brook I suppose.
But then again, he died before he joined the crew.
So that only goes on to emphasize my point,
but that's enough Jinbe for now.
I do think there's potential however, at this stage,
I also suspect that there are much more likely candidates,
one of which they've only just begun
to think about is Kinemon.
And the more I consider it,
the more I begin to see just how much this guy
is made for potential tragedy.
I mean, kinemon was portrayed as more or less a jerk
for the majority of his tenure in the series.
You know that perverted samurai
with a lowbrow sense of humor,
whole kinemon and all that, but as Wona has unfolded
Kinemon has undoubtedly become a center
of emotional focus here.
He is the acts specific character
who gets saddled with conveying
the grand expressions to the audience.
Through Kinemon, we feel the sheer drive
and desperation to defeat Kaido at all costs.
Much more so the Momonosuke or the rest of the Vassals.
Kinemon is the leader, and oftentimes it falls
to the leader to make a grand act of sacrifice
for the good of those who are following them.
Just like Oden did. And I have no doubt that Kinemon
would use his life in an instant,
if it would signal the change in tide of this battle.
And not only that, but I also suspect he's the best possible
Vassal to do so because we, as an audience
have a very long standing connection with him.
I mean, we've known him for almost a decade now.
So I think that losing him would affect us far more
than we anticipate at this stage.
Plus the fact that he's just such a goofy character
would only make that hit ever so much harder
because he had been portrayed as so likable
and recently very empathetic.
So I quite legitimately fear for Mr. Kinemon because
I can see him very much following in Oden's footsteps,
and leaving an extra degree
of inherited will with Momonosuke.
Plus maybe giving the kid that final push he needs.
To a lesser degree. I'd also like to bring up
the possibility of Denjiro as well though,
although I don't think he'd be anywhere near
as good a choice as Kinemon,
but he still would be quite effective in his own right,
because he and Kinemon were the OG
members of the Kozuki Oden stalking crew.
So Denjiro has every right
to be that center of emotional focus as well.
It's just that we haven't spent
as much time with him as we have with Kinemon.
But in terms of character framework,
he has almost everything that Kinemon has.
A primarily goofy exterior, with some great emotional depth
and easily generated empathy
but the big impact that Denjiro would have though
would not be on Momonosuke, but on Hiyori.
Which I find to be a very interesting idea,
which would in the same vein provide Hiyori
with an extra boost of inherited will to rise up
and become whatever future figure
it is that she is destined to be.
And that might be even more important to Momonosuke,
because Hiyori was extraordinarily young when Oden died,
I think she was six at the time actually.
So maybe just a bit more tragedy
is needed in order to forge her character.
And one last thing about Denjiro there would be
another tragic lay within him
because he was one of the Vassals who has had to live
throughout the last 20 years rather than
being time skipped like Kinemon.
So his passing may very well be a great combination
to an incredibly difficult journey.
Let's step away from that for a bit now, though,
because I did say before that these deaths
don't necessarily need to be amongst our protagonists,
and I think that there is a pretty decent chance
that Big Mom, Kaido or both will meet
the ultimate end on Wano.
In terms of Kaido we still know criminally
a little about him as character,
but death is intrinsically linked
to what he represents in One Piece,
or I guess more accurately,
he's seemingly strict immunity to death.
And I know that in recent times,
we have seen a grand spectrum of Kaido's emotions,
which include happiness very surprisingly,
but even then, as it stands,
he still seems like an especially tortured soul.
And with all of that in mind,
I could very easily see his character arc ending in death.
And furthermore, I can see us as an audience being affected
by it, in a very, very surprisingly emotionally punchy way.
Once we learn more about his backstory
and how he came to be, I suspect that the very at least,
I will be empathizing with him on a similar level
to that a Big Mom, after seeing her flashback,
I really do feel sad for her twisted existence
and tang demons aside, I really don't think it's her fault
that she traveled down the path of being a villain.
Under the right guidance, basically meaning non stress,
I think that things would have turned out very differently.
And that brings us to Charlotte Linlin
and the possibility that she may die,
which I currently find to be a much more depressing idea
than that of Kaido and it's because
as undeniably evil as she is, what Big Mom represents
is this weird brand of innocent evil.
She's a twisted child and I can imagine
that in her final moments,
we'd see a glimpse of all of the orphans and mother Carmel
and it will be a real tear jerker
if she does perish that is.
But the greater reasoning to which I point
to the potential death of these two emperor's is because
it's a very difficult thing to see how the story proceeds
without putting a full stop on these characters.
I mean, imagine for a moment that Luffy
and his allies do defeat Kaido and Big Mom on Wano, so what,
they are still the two most powerful figures in the world
and they will pursue Luffy endlessly for revenge,
which is what Big Mom is already doing,
they are unrelenting forces that will never be stopped
so long as they are living and don't mentally sound.
So death almost seems like the only real option.
Although in Big Mom's case, it might be possible for her
to revert back to a permanent stage of amnesia
or even become one with the olden personality
and then perhaps forgive the straw hats
and maybe even become an ally of them.
Kaido though he's a much tougher nut to crack
than a bit of the old death.
More on tragedy now and I will briefly mention
the possibility of a Mako related sacrifice.
This fan favorite has very recently
made his presence known on Wano.
And while I think that Mako would be one of the more
unlikely candidates to fulfill a tragedy quota,
I will admit that he is quite well positioned for it,
a remnant of a former Emperor following in the footsteps
of his former captain and sacrificing himself to ensure
the dawn of a new age like the blazing Phoenix he is.
It's not an unlovely idea at all.
But that also does bring up the idea that Mako
is indeed a phoenix which gives out a very usable out
given that these creatures are famously known
for their ability to engage in rebirth.
So in that way Mako can both die
and then have his double free take effect
in a similar manner to that of Brook
and perhaps Mako will indeed be reborn into this world.
Finally, though I've already mentioned it,
but I'm going to do it again because
we still have not resolved the existence that is Toki.
The woman who has time traveled
all the way from the void century is in desperate need
of some expansion because she spent
all of Oden flashback very much on the sidelines,
which is fine because we were focusing on him.
But this could very much be the key to another one
or related catastrophe because let's say that we get
a second flashback only this time we focus on seeing
the events of the past from Toki's perspective,
which culminates in Hadaf and at that point,
we would have both Oden and Toki in mind going forward
as well as he also actually and then seems pretty damn solid
for the largest mega rock in one piece,
the tragedy of a couple rather than having
a singular emotional focal point.
And look, I don't know I just think that Wona really calls
for that extra amped up peace of heart
because this time around, I'm not so sure that
we're going to cut the climax with what we currently have.
But what do you guys think?
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