- [Narrator] Resurrection, a very questionable
and often horrifically abused literary device.
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in order to resurrect your attention
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Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review
your source for everything in One Piece,
and today I would like to discuss
the rather well heavy topic of death.
Now being death in the world of anime and manga anyway,
and most specifically characters who have seemingly achieved
the impossible and overcome the sweet embrace of demise
through one reason or another, or perhaps even no reason.
And I'd like to do this because one of my personal gripes
with storytelling in general is anytime that the characters
quote unquote death is used for dramatic context
only to eventually be revealed to be alive
and thus undercutting any drama
that they're perceived death created in the first place.
Which not only goes on to impact that specific moment,
but an entire series going forward.
And that occurs through a very simple phenomenon
whereby if one character is shown to return
from a quote unquote death,
then that idea of death amour
can then be applied to every other character in the series.
And from then on, it becomes very difficult
to create any perceived danger
which can very much hinder dramatic impact.
One Piece is a horrendous offender of abusing the concept
of death outside of flashbacks,
and of course, outside of the Marineford, in which it
was rather uncharacteristically used masterfully.
Marineford and flashbacks do not represent
the majority of the series
and today I'm going to present to you
five counting five characters who I believe
would have been better off left dead.
So the criteria for this list is very simple.
To qualify, a character needs
to have had a heartstring tugging death scene
only to not have actually died.
And of course, every character on this list
must be canon because you cannot kill a character
who never existed in the first place.
Much less bring them back from their non-existent death.
So with that out of the way, let's begin.
Welcome to the top five characters
who should have died in One Piece.
Number five, Sabo, all right, starting out strong
with what I feel is a fairly predictable entry.
And if you've been watching this channel
for any amount of time, then you will probably
be quite familiar with my feelings regarding Mr. Sabo.
For the purposes of today though,
Sabo serves as a fantastic example of how death
can be used to impact and change the surrounding characters.
As well as how a narrative resurrection
can revoke any sense of drama it may have produced
when the subject of death
turns out to be alive all along.
Now a lot of people will take issue with me bringing this up
primarily because they don't think
there was a manga reader or anime watcher
who actually believed that young Sabo was killed
after setting sail from the Goa Kingdom.
And that brings us to a very interesting point.
Nobody believed it, because by this point in the series,
the concept of death had been so abused by Oda
that fans needed very strict rules
to accept the passing of a character.
And one commonly cited rule is being able to see the body.
It really is as if we as a fan base
need to take communal trip to the Grand Line morgue
and identify the corpse of a character for ourselves
before we are allowed to accept it in any way
because that's just what One Piece has become.
And in many cases, including this one,
it just makes you wonder why even bother
pretending to kill Sabo.
This is a death that was supposed to be felt hard
by Ace and Luffy and the conduit to their growth
into this harsh world.
If Sabo had actually died on this day,
then this would probably be remembered
as one of the most iconic scenes in the entire series
alongside Ace's eventual death.
But instead the inevitable specter of narrative resurrection
may as well have been literally drawn in every panel
and it makes it harder to empathize with Ace and Luffy
because Sabo's death here is very vapid and empty.
As his reintroduction to the series
because it was 1,000,000% expected.
It's just a fantastic example of devaluing
not only the drama of the quote unquote, death
and yes, it is a death scene
because that is how we would have to played it,
but also devaluing the character that it was applied to.
Number four, Moscato, yes, the Minister of Gelato
and the 16th son of Charlotte Linlin.
Moscato was a character who I would actually credit
as the being who put the true fear of Big Mom into me.
Because he served as a tragic example of what would occur
if you stood in the way of her hunger pangs.
And that example was a ruthless,
non-discriminatory and swift death.
Death style effect.
And this is really one of those moments
where you just go why Oda, why?
Moscato was a character who was both introduced
and quote unquote killed in the very same chapter.
He served a technical purpose
within the Whole Cake Island dock
to demonstrate both Big Mom's abilities and personality.
He was a miss stepping stone for her character,
which is fine.
Minor characters are good like that.
And when he had 40 years of his life stolen
and was for all intents and purposes portrayed as dead,
I was left in a state of shock.
Like after more than a decade of reading the series weekly,
Oda finally summoned up the courage
to do smackdown a side character like this,
highlighting how absurdly brutal the new world could be,
except then he just turned up again alive and well,
and all of that drama was completely undercut.
There really was no reason whatsoever
to bring Moscato back into the story.
He played his role perfectly during his initial tenure,
and bringing him back feels very akin
to a lot of for kids as it's to me.
You know, the whole oh, dear isn't this a bit dark
for the children?
Can we just edit him into another scene
so that the children don't get scared or feel sad?
In fact, I really do wonder
if this was Oda's decision or not,
or if it was some sort of mandate from Shueisha or an editor
who suggested that maybe this whole Moscato situation
had gone just a little bit dark.
We'll probably never know.
But what we do know though, is that Moscato
from a narrative standpoint would be better served
in this series, if he had just died.
Number three, Pagaya was stepping back in time now
to the Skypiea era and I should say that even by this time,
it had been pretty well established
that it was practically impossible to die in this series
unless you were caught in a flashback.
With that said, this part of One Piece got me.
Pagaya and Conis a very much forgotten about,
and underrated features of Skypiea.
However, they do have a collective of fantastic moments,
one of which is Pagaya's sacrifice.
And to set the scene this starts out
by having both Pagaya and Conis questioning
a member of God's Militia who provides them
with crucial information regarding Enel's ultimate plans.
And all of a sudden there are extraordinarily high stakes
put onto this father-daughter duo and Enel waste no time
in attempting to rectify the situation
by calling down a mighty burst of lightning.
Then in a mixture of parental love and desperation
to make sure that word gets out regarding Enel's plans
Pagaya's final action in this world
was to push Conis out the way of the blast
and save her life.
Leaving Conis with the fate of Skypiea
and possibly the world on her shoulders.
As well as the inherited will of her father,
very classic One Piece there.
Or not because Pagaya didn't die,
because why would that ever be the result
of any heroic sacrifice.
But the best part is that Oda was very aware
of what he was doing here, and Pagaya even gets called out
within the series itself by the Straw Hats for being alive.
Like this is a scene where it shows
that Oda is very much in on this,
and he's going to the audience, yeah, I did it again, whoo.
And once again, Pagaya is just such a minor character,
that there really is no benefit to bringing him back
beyond the gag that was played out by the Straw Hats.
On the other hand, if he had died right then and there,
once again, he would join the ranks
of some of the most memorable
and incredible characters of One Piece.
And not only that, but it would have served to develop Conis
who would now be left in the situation
where she has to embark on a new journey through life
without her father and grow into her own person.
But hey, I guess drama and storytelling
is a pretty overrated feature anyway.
Number two, Igaram, so here we have a very rinse and repeat
situation from Pagaya, well, because this occurred first,
I guess Pagaya is the rinse and repeat of Igaram.
Mmh, food for thought.
In any case, Igaram had a pretty fantastic character rock
that played out over the course of nine chapters
on Whisky Peak, whereby he went from detestable enemy
to trustworthy ally and all the way to achieving
the title of hero by using himself
to allow Princess Vivi to escape safely.
In doing so, Igaram kind of hilariously dressed up as Vivi
with the intent of acting as decoy, which did work.
Because Igaram did catch the attention of Baroque Works
until ship was blown up.
By a certain Miss All Sunday, leaving us with the impression
that this charming old Igaram was no more.
Until he all of a sudden showed up
on the island of Alabasta after somehow getting there.
I mean having survived a deadly explosion
and having no ship to actually set sail.
And not only that, but he actually reached Alabasta
pretty much the exact same time as Straw Hats did.
Despite these numerous disadvantages.
So this really is a case of making it
just a little too difficult to suspend our disbelief.
Especially when there is no actual explanation
for his survival.
I guess one could make the argument
that because Robin was responsible for the explosion,
she somehow purposely catered it not to kill Igaram,
and yeah, I can see the logic there,
but narratively it's an incredible stretch.
And in any case, it would still leave Igaram with no ship.
And potentially no returnal post Alabasta
unless that was just somehow magically unharmed
in the explosion as well.
And I guess since it is a magic explosion
we're talking about which left Igaram unharmed
then that's entirely possible.
Or you could get even more convoluted
and propose the problem colluded with Igaram
to stage the explosion.
But, like, what, and all of my confused noises aside
in the end, that's not even the point.
The point is that Oda played this as a death scene,
and he milked every last drop of it
before undermining the situation by having Igaram
appear alive and well on Alabasta,
once again, somehow.
And actually, you know what, he did actually show up
with a single band aid, so I guess that explosion
did do its fair share of damage to him after all.
In the end though, Igaram does not serve enough of a purpose
to justify ruining his moment of heroic sacrifice
simply to have him continue to exist
on the occasional cover story in One Piece.
However, I will say that neither Igaram
nor anybody else I've spoken about,
could even hold a candle to number one, Pell.
So here in the number one spot
is the absolute worst example of death abuse.
I'm pretty sure in all of media.
As well as the moment where the entire concept of death
became utterly meaningless within One Piece.
And it's such a shame, because Pell sacrifice
is one of the most heartfelt emotional scenes
you will ever see in this series.
The first time you watched anyway, no more times.
Because it loses all of its impact upon reread and rewatch,
but that first time oh man, is a gold.
He has this brief moment of reminiscence
before ultimately deciding to take it upon himself
to save the entirety of Alabasta by removing a bomb
designed to destroy the whole city.
I repeat the whole city.
And Dick goes off at point blank range
engulfing Pell right then and there.
And there is surely no way that he could have survived this,
because we saw the bomb go off right in his bud face.
But no as it turns out, explosions in One Piece
actually scale very poli.
The one that Igaram got caught in
was solved with a single band aid
and as for Pell like us who just needed a few days
in Desert hospital to recover
from ACT destroying explosion.
I mean, thinking back on it,
why was anyone even afraid of that explosion.
The worst thing that it was ever going to do
was like knock everyone out for a while
though sending the entire wall
which is exactly what Vivi wanted in the first place.
So in many ways,
Pell doing this is completely counter productive.
But being serious again in a series
that is so profoundly wonderful
in almost every aspect of storytelling,
this event is a gigantic stain on One Piece.
And I have seen people argue that,
well, Pell's death wouldn't have contributed
anything to the story, so Oda did not kill him.
And I don't understand because it's the exact opposite.
The way I see it, Pell being alive
doesn't contribute anything to the story,
whereas his death would have provided a meaningful sacrifice
to save an entire kingdom.
As well as leave Vivi with some inherited will,
which she could use to grow and inform her leadership
of the nation.
You know, maybe make a resolve like
nobody will ever need to sacrifice themselves like Pell did.
Or I'm doing this for you, Pell or stuff like that.
But what does Pell being alive actually achieve?
I guess it provides a nice feeling of that's lovely,
I liked him he's a bird.
But it single-handedly undermines the entire concept
of death going forward in One Piece,
and it would take such a grand action of killing Ace
just to balance this idea out.
And it doesn't do Pell any favors as a character either.
I mean, for some comparison, every time I think of Pedro,
I remember him fondly in a very bitter-sweet sort of way.
As a guy who lived life on his terms
and made the impossible decision to sacrifice himself
for the sake of others.
That is exactly how Pell should be remembered.
But instead when I think back on Pell,
he's just some bad dude who made a sacrifice
but not really because of reasons.
You can actually make a solid argument
for every other character on this list
to have survived their experience.
But Pell is just impossible unless he transcends this world
and did some sort of genuine spirit.
But right now that is just a bit of a stretch.
Longer than Luffy could possibly stretch.
In fact, under such Pell's, quote unquote sacrifice
is going to be crowned as the ultimate contender
of this list.
But what do you guys think?
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