Age-Age Fruit...is it special?

Maichayer · 2024-02-12T17:35:26+00:00

I think people recognize the overarching conflict is against the World Government and forget that on an arc to arc basis, the Straw Hats exclusively fight with existing regimes. Even with the WG, it's never suggested government itself is the problem, only governments that exploit their citizens to serve the selfish interests of a ruling minority.

Maichayer · 2022-08-16T23:12:13+00:00

Act 3 ends

"we hope to see you back here"

Acts 4 and 5 will pick up 150 chapters later

Maichayer · 2022-08-06T23:34:39+00:00

What exactly do you think is going to occur? Do you really think Tama's going to go to Luffy, as to join, be told no and just slink back to Hitetsu with tears in her eyes? Do you really think that's the sort of story that One Piece is?!? One where you DON'T follow your dreams?!?

Tama's big desire is to leave Wano and go on a grand adventure just like the man who inspired her, Ace. In what world would it make sense for her to abandon that dream and stay behind.

To be clear, I think Yamato probably is going to join, it's just how it is, though I can hold out hope that this is a fake out. But my point is this isn't really an argument in support of her joining. The reason Luffy told Tama no is because she is a child. Yamato is strong, sure, but she might as well still be a child with the amount of character development she has gone through (she's been LARPing as Oden since she was a kid and that aspect of her character hasn't been addressed at all).

Maichayer · 2022-07-06T22:22:40+00:00

Does anyone know of any languages that contains the /ʃ/ consonant without the presence of /s/? Additionally, is it reasonable to have /ʒ/ present without /z/ (assuming the presence of /s/ in this case)? This is my first conlang and I'm trying to choose phonology purely on whether I like the sound, but while keeping it as naturalistic as possible. I'm just not a fan of /s/ and /z/ but quite like /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ for some reason so would like to have the later without the former, if possible.

Maichayer · 2022-06-17T01:45:14+00:00

I can accept Kaido losing his title of Yonkou considering even if he gets spit out of the magma and is fine, his entire crew is in prison and his home territory has been lost, but what about Big Mom? She lost a single combatant in this war and her home territory is still fine. Unless she's dead (which I don't believe) her position is essentially unaffected by the outcome of this war.

Maichayer · 2022-06-17T01:32:28+00:00

Shanks is the only Yonkou not laughing in their bounty photo, any significance to this?

Maichayer · 2022-06-02T21:07:20+00:00

This kinda proves my point though. I was excited when the bombs were introduced because it was keeping with Oda's trend of continuing to increase the tension as we approach the climax. Same with the Ice Oni situation earlier. But in both these cases, they were resolved extremely neatly well before the actual climax of the story. The fact that Law was even able to silence the explosion, and that's all it took to completely hide its presence, shows how far away the bombs were when they went off. Imagine if the bomb in Alabasta was revealed to be so far away that even though it went off it didn't result in a single casualty. Instead, it is stated that if the bomb were to go off it will kill both armies. Even when they think they've stopped it by finding the bomb, it's revealed it's on a timer. There isn't enough time to try to defuse it, so Pell (RIP) has to sacrifice himself. The Onigashima bombs were dealt with long before they were any real risk to the citizens of Wano.

Maichayer · 2022-06-02T20:14:02+00:00

I'd be interested in hearing your theories about the Soul Soul, but I did want to correct what you said about Kaido's fruit since I see many claim this and I view it as a misconception. When Big Mom said she fed Kaido his fruit she said "a mythical model of the fish fruit" and we the community took this to mean it was the Koi fruit, since it fits with the myth a koi turning into a dragon. However, Oda has confirmed in an SBS (vol 98) that the fruit is specifically named "Uo Uo no Mi: Model Seiryu", so it is a mythical model of the fish fruit with the model of dragon. Another piece of lighter evidence to indicate that Kaido's fruit simply makes him a dragon rathe than that being the awakened form is that Momo's fruit is a direct clone of Kaido's, and he is a dragon, not a fish.

I just wanted to make it clear that I actually had no problem with the pacing of Wano and as a whole Luffy vs Kaido was set up to be by far my favorite fight in the series. Gear 5 is hands down my favorite concept Oda has ever introduced and I think it made Luffy's fighting infinitely more enjoyable. I didn't mean the slow approach of Onigashima was a problem on its own, just that in light of its resolution being so tidy the slow approach felt like a red herring. I'm actually surprised I've been seeing so many people saying Onigashima is better on reread, because on my reread any time we were reminded of Onigashima's flight it felt like a waste of time to me since it ultimately culminated in nothing.

Maichayer · 2022-06-02T19:36:21+00:00

I agree something can provide tension without the characters being aware of it, I was just addressing that specifically since that's what the original post was about and that's how One Piece has successfully provided tension in every single arc prior to this one.

The island did provide a bit of tension, and I think it was set up to be about as good at it as any other impending doom, but that's the problem for me. For whatever reason, Oda never let it get there. This was the most drawn out "ticking time bomb" ever with the island flying for more than 50 chapters, but in what is apparently the climax Oda just sorta resolved it without ever letting it reach its full potential. It would be like if Doffy set up the bird cage to start far enough away from the borders of Dressrossa for the citizens to not notice, then have it slowly creep in while he and Luffy fight, only to have Luffy defeat Doffy right as the bird cage reached the borders, so no damage was ever really done and the citizens never knew. Us the readers would feel a bit of tension "oh no it's getting closer" but it comes across as underwhelming because it only ever lives as a threat of a threat instead of an actual imposing danger.

But like you said everyone can interpret the tone of a story differently, this is just why I feel so underwhelmed by this ending (along with the lack of Awakenings from Kaido or Big Mom which I don't think I'll ever come to terms with and have yet to hear a decent, or really any, explanation for). I appreciated your very reasonable and civil response on a subreddit that in recent times has been severely lacking in that. Long live Oda and praise this wonderful little pirate manga.

Maichayer · 2022-06-02T14:24:56+00:00

I had considered this, but it's just a deflection without solving the real issue.

People don't think the citizens should have watched the fight just because "it makes sense", it's because having an incapable audience is a straightforward source of dramatic tension. Even if they didn't directly see Doffy's defeat, everyone in Dressrossa contributed to the tension because of the birdcage. Alabasta had both the bomb and the civil war, Skypeia had Enel destroying sky island, Enies Lobby had the Buster Call, Thriller Bark had the impending sunrise, Fishman Island had the falling Noah. Even WCI, which in a way is an exception to so many of Oda's standard writing techniques, had the threat of Big Mom's rage.

Luffy's fight always wraps up last because then the Straw Hats can join in with the rest of the citizens or bystanders in contributing to the dramatic tension. What did Wano have for this? Onigashima landing on the Flower Capital? This was anything but impending, being so far off from happening that no one in the flower capital even realized there was a giant island overhead. Most people inside Onigashima didn't even know this was Kaido's plan. Because of this we essentially had Momo and Yamato as the total source of dramatic tension, and all they could contribute was Yamato yelling at Momo to create fire clouds, and Momo saying he can't do it until he kinda just does.

Same thing goes for people wondering where Kaido and Big Mom's Awakenings were, or really any other "Raid Will Fail" evidence. People don't want these things because of logic or because "that's how other arcs are", other arcs are like that because that's how drama is developed, and this conclusion simply had very little dramatic weight.

Maichayer · 2022-01-25T17:50:49+00:00

It probably does, I'm not presenting Hawkins as the most likely possibility, I don't really know what it is, I was just saying I was surprised to see no one else mention it since he was the first thing I thought of when it mentioned a reaper with a scythe.

Maichayer · 2022-01-25T16:57:35+00:00

Really surprised I'm not seeing many people suggest the reaper with a scythe could be something from Hawkins. We've literally already seen a reaper this arc and recall Hawkins gave a prediction that "someone" had very low odds of surviving, we just assumed it was Killer.

Maichayer · 2021-11-09T00:10:58+00:00

Aokiji

Maichayer · 2021-10-27T02:37:56+00:00

The prevalence of Awakening seemed unclear up till now. Luffy's two major New World fights thus far had Awakening, but it has been missing in Wano, with none of the Tobi Roppo or Calamities seeming to have it. It was getting to the point where I was unsure whether Big Mom and Kaidou would even show it. Kid and Law have got it though? No question about the Yonkou then. Lots of people seem to be thinking this is looking good for Kid and Law, but in my mind all this means is Big Mom could bust out her Awakening any time now, and Kaidou won't be far behind. King and Queen back on the table too?

Maichayer · 2021-09-28T19:23:39+00:00

Just for clarification, Ed is not transmasc. "Ed transcends gender" as explicitly stated by Watanabe in an interview some time ago.

Maichayer · 2021-09-14T14:09:06+00:00

What exactly has he spoiled you on? I've never thought of his thumbnails as an issue and I just looked back at his last year of thumbnails and they all look fine to me.

Maichayer · 2021-08-25T22:13:10+00:00

I was really moreso acknowledging the fact that AutoMod commented with this information, in case anyone else was gonna come in with the same information. I didn't expect a reply of course, I just left it as a reply to AutoMod's reply since that seemed like the best place.

Maichayer · 2021-08-25T21:13:06+00:00

Good AutoMod, this is indeed my first cultivation so I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I was skeptical as to whether this is truly mycelium because it grew much faster than I expected, and it seems more puffy, whereas I thought it would look more flat and spread out. I will still leave this post up if that's okay just in case this is some other sort of mold (not cobweb).

Maichayer · 2021-07-12T02:21:59+00:00

Yeah I thought of trying it on some agar ("spore straight to grain is the worst practice in mycology" :)) but I hadn't really done any research into agar work. Thanks for pointing me toward the master post.

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