one piece essay: boa hancock

Oct 09, 2008 20:12

((So by "Monday" I apparently really meant "Thursday night". But whatever; this thing takes up 7 pages on MS Word so I hope you've got a nice big mug of tea.))

Disclaimers and Notes: this post contains spoilers for the most recent arc, especially chapters 516, 517, and 518. Questions, comments, discussion, and arguments are welcome; statements ( Read more... )

wine-swirling faux intellectualism, one piece

Leave a comment

sparkestra October 10 2008, 03:40:14 UTC
I can see why you wanted to write this: the fandom's reaction to Boa Hancock has been excessively negative considering she's only been featured in three chapters so far. The fact that she's female seems to have impounded this reaction further. I'm rather loath to judge her entirely at this early stage but I still can't help but feel a tad disappointed about her appearance. I agree with you when you say that "she walks the walk of being a leader in terms of competence, intelligence, decisiveness, and distribution of wealth" and also that some of her strength lies in the fact that she exploits the susceptibility to beauty that those around her express. As Alvida as already shown, beauty is an exceptionally good means of making people take the women of One Piece more seriously, as is often the case in the real world.

So any issues I have with Hancock so far are more to do with the means that Oda has used to characterise her. To me, the plotline for this latest arc has seemed a little rushed. The Eleven Supernovas, the World Nobels and Kizaru, all seeming to be major players for the future, have been mercilessly crammed in, to lead up to what I presume will eventually be the finale of One Piece. Oda is probably under pressure to start tying the series up as it has been running for so long. In that line of thought, Hancock's initial characterisation seems like a quick and easy way of getting readers to side against her and yes I agree, it's "a playful, semi-satirical nod to establishing villainy in characters" but compared to the character development of the other characters you mentioned, (Crocodile, Enel and Rob Lucci) this just seems like the easy and slightly lazy option. By having her kick kittens and old ladies and destroy children's artwork, Oda has gone for the emotive juglar, rather than pace things and allow us to decide for ourselves why to dislike Hancock. For example, the villiany of Rob Lucci does not become clear until far later on in the Water 7/Enie's Lobby arc and whilst being on a far more horrific scale than Hancock, is blurred with warped motives of justice. The full extent of Crocodile and Enel's tyranny also does not become clear until much later into their respective arcs and does not seem to say so starkly, "Here I am, I am the villian, here is why you should hate me". It disappoints me that Oda makes it so easy for his readers to label her as an immediate villian when so far most of the Luffy's enemies and opponents have been given some prior context or build-up. Perhaps the fandom's been a little too easily played in its reaction to Hancock. *Dodges the rotten tomatoes*

I'm reserving my judgment on Hancock for until we know a little bit more about her and Amazon Lily but you've made some excellent points and I do enjoy reading your fandom essays. =)

Reply

pikabot October 10 2008, 03:48:57 UTC
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Oda's said that One Piece is only half over. And editors rarely put pressure on writers to end something that's still wildly popular. Quite the opposite, in fact. See: Dragonball.

Reply

doggiewoggie October 10 2008, 17:32:56 UTC
No, you're right, there hasn't been any further official comment about the remaining length of the story. For a general estimation help, people usually cite that at first Oda expected the series to last something like 4 to 7 volumes. Then, during Skypiea arc he apparently hinted that a crew member will leave the story in the near future, which turned out to be Going Merry... about 17 volumes later! Now I think it was around that time (vol.45) that he mentioned the story was about half over... on the other hand Oda said he doesn't want One Piece to be the only thing people remember him for.
That means OP won't last forever, but it will probably go on for way longer than Oda himself thinks.

In any case, I think the quick and lazy introduction of Hancock as a villain was essential because an arc that focuses on Luffy alone cannot last for longer than one or two volumes. We have to read Amazon Lily as a detour from the more important plot points: What happened to the other crewmembers, how will they rejoin and how will they escape into the New World, what will happen to Ace... These kinda things.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up