Sussy Duck

I feel with most Netflix adaptations, the writers know how to hit story beats, but not character beats. If you don't have the same character beats, the story doesn't feel the same.

I can put up with a bad story, if I love the characterisation and world building. If a story premise is really cool, but the characters are flat, I'll drop it.

I suppose Arlong Park is the part that everyone loves the most so they had to get to Arlong Park to hook people.....

And since the current trend with Netflix is to make easily digestible content, they had to spell everything out and fit the story and characters into established models and remove as much complexity as possible

We have to make clear that Luffy is a Good Pirate(tm) so the audience doesn't get confused by the fact that the mc is a criminal, and we can't have him being mean to people who aren't villains and his whole thing just becomes dreams and supporting everybody's dreams all the time like it's his activation word or his hyperfixation

And of course his story ends up becoming all about proving himself to his grandpa, who just sorta let's him become a pirate I guess???? Because he laughed kinda like Roger or something???? What the fuck

Either way why does Luffy need Garp's blessing for pirating, what's the point of that plotline? Okay I know what the point is, the point is that they wanted to include Garp and give Koby and Helmeppo extra screentime but they couldn't just have the marines be an unrelated sideplot, because that's Bad Writing(tm), so they had to force them into the main plot.

Because Netflix shows are not tv shows, they're eight-hour movies. Instead of just embracing the format of an episodic adventure with a serialised plot developing in the background, they have to force it into a model where there is a clear main plot and everything has to build on that main plot and we can't just have independent episodes

And that's why the marines kinda end up becoming the Main Plot, because they're the thing that's always there... except the conclusion to that plot falls so flat and undermines the finale and muddles all the messages and all the characters' stories

Season 2 is less bad because they actually gave themselves more time and actually did something with the side characters, but it also ends up having an even less satisfying finale because they still tried so hard to turn it into an overly long movie and there just isn't conclusion to it because the conclusion doesn't happen until Alabasta. So the big conclusion ends up just being that Vivi finally accepts the Straw Hats' help and tells them the true identity of Mr. 0 which is... a guy who has never been mentioned before.

I just don't think One Piece (or A:tLA for that matter) fits into that format of an overly long movie. It's a story that's about the journey and the characters and the themes more so than the plot.

It's not that the format is fundamentally bad or anything, it's just not the right format for One Piece (or A:tLA). It's not that you can't make a One Piece movie, but it pretty much has to be a self-contained adventure. But these days nothing is allowed to just be a self-contained adventure, especially not if there's a popular IP to exploit.

And they could have used the 8 episodes differently, it's actually not a bad amount of screentime, if they had just spent it on focusing on the Straw Hats (and the actual cast of the East Blue so the Straw Hats could make some actual personal connections to the people they meet and the places they visit instead to the entire East Blue feeling like just a backdrop to pirates and marines running around fighting each other). And if they had cut out the pointless marine subplot entirely.

But I guess they couldn't justify the budget they would need for all this without making it more epic and cinematic and more like one big movie... because episodic stories are unpopular nowadays

And I mean I guess it did succeed regardless, although I truly don't understand why. I still don't know why people liked OPLA, it baffles me

... sorry about the incoherent rant, I just can't get over it because I keep hearing people praise OPLA and I keep hearing people talk about how it "improved" things... and I don't get it. For the most part at least, I guess there are a handful of things that I did like better about OPLA (like actual variation in skintones for example), but they aren't enough to save it for me, and constantly hearing about it and needing to be polite about it is driving me insane

I have too many friends who like it and this blog is basically my only outlet for expressing my OPLA hatred orz

I never got Garp being in the show. It doesn't make that much sense narratively and is massive spoilers for anyone that used the LA to get into the animanga. He did not need to be there to drive the plot forward. It can do that perfectly well on its own.

Luffy hears about Zoro and Coby wants to be a marine-> group goes to Shell Town

Luffy gets caught by giant bird (showing just how dangerous the seas are) -> Zoro cases after him and ends up in Orange Town

Too many people on tiny boat-> Go to Syrup village to get bigger boat

Need a cook after Yosaka, almost dies of scurvy-> go to thr Baratie

Nami steals the Merry-> go to Arlong Park

None of this needed the Marines to push the plot forward. Garp was not needed. He was not wanted by Oda. Oda was 'persuaded' into allowing the team toinclude him. The Marine are the bad guys in the East Blue. They are shown to be corrupt, yet the LA seems determined to have Coby around, as a look guys, he is one of the good guys. I always felt it was One Piece version of copaganda. If they wanted to include Coby more, his little cover story in the manga, should have been adapted into end credit scenes and Garp hinted at as an easter egg for fans.

With the marine subplot gone, more time could have been focused on the crew.

Mihawks introduction was weaker, I felt. Having him be ordered to follow Luffy, made his appearance at the Baratie underwhelming. Mihawk followed Don Krieg from the Grand Line to the East Blue, as he was bored. That is terrifying. It shows you just how dangerous the Grand Line is.

Also, just thought. Did Garp do all this for Ace too? What ever the answer is, it messes up Marineford.

Hate it when people say that Zoro is the first mate of the crew as the LA said so. Well, the Japanese dub changed that line. He is not the first mate in the LA in Japan.

Sorry I am all over the place here.

I'm going to say something probably very controversial here. I don't think the LA did Arlong Park well. The 'help me' scene was good and I think that did most of the lifting. When people tak about Arlong Park in the LA, I mainly see them talk about the 'Help Me' scene and not much else.

Water is very hard to work with, especially filming. A huge chunk of the fight was missing, as it takes place in/on water. (Why adapt a show that is about pirates who will be around water, a lot) There were character beats in those fights. They were cut without the character beats being replaced. Same with the Don Kreig fight, a lot of it takes place on water. It was probably cut because it would have been too difficult to shoot the fight. (I get people not liking that fight in the OG, but this was LA chance to make it more interesting) But they didn't replace the character beats. (I will never forgive Sanji causally telling Luffy his backstory on the rock, as a leadership lesson for Luffy. Og Sanji only explained his connection to Zeff, as he thought he was about to die and needed Gin to understand why he was not going to back down and needed to kill him. He literally only told it,as he had a gun to his head) the character beats were off in Arlong Park, so it didn't hit as hard for me. I was sitting there, thinking the village was stupid, as none of them apparently questioned why a little girl would suddenly 'willingly' work for the people that killer her mother.

Luffy doesn't care about being the good guy, he just protects people he cares about. He just happens to save islands in the process.

I didn't see season 2, but I don't like what I heard. They added mutant soilders for the crew to fight in Drum Island? Was that just to give Zoro an action scene? I know he fights some soilders in the OG, mainly as he wanted a coat. Most of the fight was off screen.

Not all the crew members are as involved with stuff in arcs. That's fine. Sanji wasn't that inloved in Whiskey Peak and Little Garden, but played a big part on Drum Island. It levels out. It would have leveled out too in the LA.

Notices that most of Wapols fight got changed to inside, as it's easier to have CGI blend in dark area, than in the snow.

Noticing a lot of fights are brought inside, as it's easier to control lighting than outside.

LA takes time to show that Zeff ate his leg, which was not included in the anime. Does not show Usopp getting shot by Merry and still chosing to fight for his village, earning Zoro's and Luffy's respect, also like the anime. (From what I remember) Like come one! That should have been included. Give Usopp his flowers. That is my brave terrified boy.

The thing about the LA needing to stream line the East Blue, is that there is already had the East Blue Movie that they could have used as a blue print. There is one for Aalabasta too.

It might just be my algorithms, but I don't really see character analysis for the LA cast.