D: Nice to meet you. I’m always reading One Piece. Here’s my question: when I reread from volume 1, I noticed that Luffy doesn’t have a lot of thought bubbles. Why is that? Thanks for your answer. -Mizuiro Ribon

O: I see~ You’ve noticed something interesting in the 54 volumes we have. Just like how I write “ore” in hiragana, I’ve just been doing it for so long that it’s become something like my policy. I decided this in the beginning. For Luffy, it would be something like,

This is the kind of stuff that goes on in Luffy’s mind. For the readers, I wanted to make him a straight shooting kind of man, so I wrote him thinking like, “If he’s thinking it, he’ll say it” and “Action speaks louder than words”. In the Sky Island arc, he dealt with the Montblanc Cricket situation by saying thing in his heart, but he’s saying it with the same voice, so I decided that it was OK. From, here on, Luffy will act before he thinks!!

Zoro leaving the SH crew has been brought up from time to time, but never have I agreed with any of it because it just seemed….unlikely. Like what is the point of Zoro leaving? After re-reading a couple opf chapters, I came to the realization that Zoro defect is highly plausible. So much so that I think his defection has foreshadowed for a while. Everything I found has led me to believe that Zoro and Luffy will have a fallout in Zou. Why in Zou?

Because that is where the grave of Ace is located. Things are bound to get emotional and Luffy and Zoro has some flaws that might lead to a fallout.

Luffy vs Zoro

Chapter 112-113 for those who don’t know. As you can obviously tell by the scans, Zoro beat up 100 people at Whiskey Peak because he discovered they were assassins. Angry, Luffy attacked Zoro out of the blue without even listening to Zoro’s side of the story. Even when Zoro was finally able to tell Luffy the truth, Luffy said he was a lair because “people who feed you aren’t bad.” Luffy was dead serious about brutally assaulting his own crew member over a simple misunderstanding. Luffy is lucky Zoro didn’t defect then because of his naïve and unreasonable thinking. Luffy was entirely at fault.

Luffy vs Usopp

The theme of Water 7 and Enies Lobby is leadership. Water 7 shows that Luffy is somewhat of a poor leader as he couldn’t even calm a dispute. In fact, Luffy made it worse. Usopp was visibly upset and in denial about the Merry but instead of taking things slow and come to some kind of agreement, Luffy kept adding salt on Usopp’s wounds by saying that the Merry is dead, that there is nothing Usopp can do and that he should leave if he doesn’t agree with his captain. The last part is something Luffy should’ve never said as it drove Usopp to leave the crew and challenge Luffy to a fight. Luffy pretty much told Usopp “The Merry is going to die and you are powerless to stop it. If you have a problem with that then get the hell of my ship.” However, Usopp was more at fault because he knew all along that the Merry was done for but yelled at Luffy anyways because he couldn’t let go.

Zoro in Water 7

Zoro here explained that there is respect and dignity that comes with being a captain. A crew who’s captain has lost his dignity will surely collapse. Zoro directly that if Luffy continues to humiliate himself, then he will be the next to leave the crew. Power, respect, pride and dignity is what makes a pirate captain. Of course the crew members respect their captain but at the same time, the captain should respect and appreciate his crew members’ dignity in return.

Zoro also believes Luffy is too careless.

Zoro isn’t necessarily wrong……

Luffy vs Bellamy

The reason I bring up Luffy’s naivety and carelessness is because that might be brought up in their dispute.

Of course its not like Zoro’s any better with emotion. His seemingly uncaring nature makes him come off as insensitive or harsh.

What can we conclude with everything I’ve said so far? That not only is Luffy naive and careless, when emotional, he says anything and everything and is prone to getting violent. Zoro is too serious and harsh.

In Zou, Luffy may get sentimental at Ace’s grave and Zoro may something that Luffy misinterpts as insensitive and gets pissed off. As things get heated up, Luffy may say something unforgivable. For me, I think Luffy may spit on Zoro’s dignity and pride by saying something like “What have you sacrificed!? What have you lost!!” Zoro sacrificed his pride, self respect and dignity but bowing his head and begging his greatest enemy for power all for Luffy’s sake. What Luffy just said is unforgivable and he just destroyed some of his own repsect and dignity. Luffy just humiliated. Tired of Luffy’s carelessness, Zoro will leave the crew and of course, everyone else will be devastated. Luffy will be the one mainly at fault. Zoro is the SH who is closest to Luffy and that is exactly why he left. The closer you are to someone, the more likely you are to hurt them. No matter how close you are to someone, there are some things you should NEVER do or say.

Zoro will become a SHs again of course but that won’t be until after Kaidou is beaten. In the meantime, Zoro will decide to go after Kaidou by himself. Kaidou is a dragon zoan and Zoro is represented by the tiger. In Japan, the only crrature that can stand equally with the dragon is the tiger. Not saying Zoro will beat Kaidou, but Zoro will save Wano from his forces and will become Wano’s gratest hero. In the meantime, Luffy’s experience with Zoro will cause him to become more serious and when Kaidou is beaten, both will have a heartfelt reunion and apology.

*Theory by Vandenreich

D: Greetings, Odacchi sensei. Good afternoon(?). This is a question, but the marks on the hat Portgas D. Ace was wearing; do they mean:

☹: Was it okay for me to be born into this world?

☺: Meeting Pops, Luffy, and loving me so much, I’m glad I was born. Thanks.

…or something like that to indicate Ace’s question and the “Answer” he found? No, it’s gotta be that! When Ace said his quotes before dying, his expressions were the same as his hat. P.N. Nara’s K(Kuuki) Y(Yomeru) (Can read atmosphere)

O: Hmm, I see. I’ve received quite a number of postcards on this one. Those “marks” and “the last expressions”, hm. They are the same. I, also, was shocked when I had this pointed out at first. (Haha) What’s funny is that much to coincidence, that happened to become true. Back then, when Ace made his first introduction, there was sort of an idea of what this dude’s destiny would be inside me, but those marks were just plain old accessories, and so I never thought of a deep meaning. And the expressions of Ace when he was dying, well I just thought that would be relevant and drew those two panels next to each other. Realistically, the face of pain, burning, hurting, feeling bad, and not wanting to die. Still, the feeling of having no regrets. He probably tries to tell that is how he truly feels to Luffy. And that’s what his smile is. When a person cradles a crying baby, he/she always smiles, right? Same as that. Because he wants the person to smile, he dies with a peaceful smile in the end, and I think that shows us his kindness. Thinking that, I drew those panels. Ah- the explaination got kinda long-. Well anyhow- it’s amazing, how you all notice this stuff.

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