One Piece Ch 1044: A Community Divided

As of writing this, the most recent chapter of One Piece has been released and with it has started many discussions from fans about their current feelings of what has happened. 

From what I've seen the whole community has become divided on the contents of the chapter and so id like to discuss some of the reasons why people like or don't like what they read to thoroughly look at both sides. 

Major Spoilers for One Piece

What Was In The Chapter?

I can't emphasize this enough, but major spoilers for One Piece, so if you're not caught up do not read. 

In this chapter, we get a lot of expository dialogue that recontextualizes many aspects of the series. Like the fact that zoan fruits in fact have a will of their own, or that the gum gum fruit has been sought after by the world government for 800 years.  

Of course, the biggest things that have been revealed are that first, Luffy's devil fruit is in fact not the gum gum fruit, but the human human fruit model Nika. A mythical zoan fruit that gives the users the power of a god, and lets them do whatever they can imagine.  Secondly, Luffy's awaking turns him into the next joyboy. 

What Did People Like? 

I can confidently say that everyone is in agreement that people like Luffy's new abilities that gear fith gives him. The way he fights and what appears to make both him and his opponents gain old cartoon physics. Or how his new design looks very interesting with his big grin and fiery hair. 

His new abilities are very in line with how he traditionally fights, being very goofy, unlike how Goku in his Super Saiyan form turns very serious unlike how his carefree attitude. This leads to one of the main gripes people had with this chapter.

Overall, even though it is bizarre to reveal his fruit to be a mythical zoan this late into the series. It isn't to much of a far fetch considering Mythical zoans are uncharted territory and depending on some explanations we get in later chapters might still work. 

What People Didn't Like?

One of Luffy's defining traits is that he has both ingenuity and creativity. Both are what (this might change in the upcoming chapters) contribute to how Luffy has come up with new abilities for his otherwise simple and weak devil fruit. This ties into one of the themes that people love about the series and make it different from the rest of the battle shonen out there. Luffy is making the best out of his situation and using his creativity to "make" his devil fruit viable in fights. 

But, now that we learned that his devil fruit is in fact an actual god, it seems One Piece is following its peers and Luffy is a chosen one, with powers that were given to him that were strong from the start. 

To make matters worse, we are already 1000 chapters into the series, but only around chapter 1018 have we been given clues to the true nature of Luffy's power. It feels very much forced and not at all planned, a slap to the face to people that are reading this series since it directly conflicts with a cherished aspect of the series. 

The fact that this form was not at all known to or trained by Luffy and for a lack of better words, make it an asspull. It isn't earned and to make matters worse it is explained that with this new awakening he can pretty much do whatever he wants. Which ruins any future tension of battles in the future.  

Another big contention people have with the chapter is that if the Gorosei knew all along with the importance of Luffy's fruit, why have they not done anything about it? Did Shanks know about it when he first got the fruit?

Or, now that we know that devil fruits can be completely different than what they were introduced as, are there any other fruits like Luffy's?

The big problem is that the execution of all of these reveals are very jarring and comes from seemingly nowhere and breaks a lot of preconceived notions. 

Keep In Mind

I think a lot of people are jumping to the conclusion that up until this point Luffy has always had these overpowered powers and he wasn't making the best out of the worst powers. 

But, that is far from the case, it is stated in the chapter that the overpowered god abilities unlock when the user awakens the ability. As we see Luffy is only now awakening his abilities. So up until this exact moment, he has been using a subpar devil fruit and making it strong, just as we have known for years. 

This doesn't take away from the story that we all have come to love, however, that might not be true for the foreseeable future. (ultimately that is up for you to decide)

Take-Aways

• Think very carefully about retconning your series and if it flys in the faces of what your fans like about your series. 
• If you do retcon something can you make it make sense in context to the rest of the series?
• Ask yourself if you're jumping the shark?

That's all I have, for now, have a great day!