One Piece fan discussion exposes major missed opportunites in Oda's writing

A recent tweet from Twitter user and One Piece fan @oddjob_sush (Sush) recently asked what Twitteratis think are the problems with Oda's series. The tweet, first posted on Thursday, May 25, 2023, has since reached a wide audience on the site, causing many to share their bonafide issues with the series.

The answers are certainly interesting, with many sharing similar answers such as length, fake-out deaths, and how the New World saga is somewhat bloated in terms of characters. While these are the predominant answers that were given, they’re far from the only criticisms being lobbed One Piece’s way.

In fact, two specific replies to the tweet stand out as being intriguing and legitimate criticisms of mangaka Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece thus far. With both being insightful and almost pointing out a no-brainer direction for the series, fans are starting to wonder if Oda has missed a major opportunity in his world-building and writing.

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One Piece fans point out the lack of bounty hunters and team fights in the series as major missed opportunities

The first tweet, which lobbies a fair criticism of One Piece, comes from Twitter user and series content creator @Geo_AW (Geo). In their tweet, Geo expresses how the lack of “formidable and widely recognized bounty hunters in a series that values itself on bounties is astonishing.”

Geo goes on to discuss how it’s unrealistic to believe that no one besides the Marines are catching pirates with significant bounties on their heads. While Roronoa Zoro is introduced as a pirate bounty hunter, as are his friends Johnny and Yosaku, there are essentially no other canonical bounty hunters ever seen in the series.

It highlights a major missed opportunity in Oda’s writing, one which could give the lesser Straw Hats more opportunity for fights and exciting action sequences. Likewise, it could add some drama to the moments between the arcs where the Straw Hats are sailing the seas. While one could argue this would unnecessarily delay the start of the next arc, there are undoubtedly ways to write it into whatever major story beat is next.

The second intriguing piece of One Piece criticism comes from Twitter user @PhantomPiece16 (FELI). They share their desire for more team fights in the series, which brings up yet another intriguing missed opportunity in the canonical series’ writing. While the non-canon films for the series do feature plenty of team fight moments, there’s only one in the series during the Thriller Bark arc.

While there are certain 2-3 member teams that will fight together, this unified effort in the Thriller Bark arc is the only full-team fight in the canonical series. Although the Straw Hats’ bond is solidified enough from an emotional perspective, showing the group working together as one, cohesive unit when it truly counts could show just how close they really are.

As aforementioned with the bounty hunter critique, it creates an opportunity for some of the lesser Straw Hats to still have defining combat moments, even in the New World. Unfortunately, Oda can’t go back and rewrite these moments into his series, making them some of the biggest missed opportunities in all of One Piece.

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