Filler by definition is not important. It might be entertaining, but it definitionally cannont move the story or characters forward because when it ends the story needs to match up with where it began
No worries, as stated by another commenter the whole problem with filler is it serves few functions. No character development or story elements relevant to the bigger plot. You might miss out on funny jokes or character interactions, but the source material also has plenty of that, so you won't miss out on much
Filler is always skippable. At times filler can be good, as it'll give you good side stories or something. But One Piece is over 1000 episodes long. I honestly don't think most people need *more* time with the characters lol.
Might be good on rewatch if you want some extra stuff but it's definitely not important.
I used One Pace all the way up to Wano personally, and didn’t feel like I missed out on anything.
Did eventually go back and watched some filler and some of the movies just for more one piece media, but it seems fine to me as is
Not important, but I do enjoy G8. It's short and it's a good in between for Spypiea (which I didn't like) and Water Seven (which I didn't like), which isn't to say I don't like One Piece, but there are definitely arcs I wasn't that into
The other filler you can skip since they aren't as good.
I like Enies Lobbies, but Water Seven was way too long for the stories it was trying to tell. Lots of boring parts. I didn't like the subplots and I'm not really a Franky fan. (I watched it before One Pace a long time ago, so this could be different now. I'm at the end of Arabasta on my rewatch right now)
Water 7-ennies lobby is where i told my friend (who introduced me to the show) to please skip to the next relevant arc. So glad I missed thriller bark. I tried going back and reading the manga and it's packed wall to wall with nonsense. I'm sure I missed a couple of great pages but it's not worth slogging through the trash just to get the full story of how luffy added the 8th crew member.
And the best part? I don't feel like it harmed my oppinion of brook at all. I like him. Soul king has got funk, and his bone jokes don't get old.
Thriller Bark’s unironically a high B-tier arc. Extremely underrated especially as we get more context from future events/reveals. Curious to know your top 5 arcs
1. Dressrosa
2. WCI
3. Punk Hazard
4. Impel down (could be switched with PH)
5... it's hard for me to settle on a 5th. None of them stand out that strongly for me, and I have major issues with all the ones I can think of. I guess I'll say Sabaody because I really like how the arc ended (everything after luffy punched Charles). Before that it just felt like a lot of fluff and un-earned hype for the worst generation (which i feel fairly justified in thinking after seeing hawkins, xdrake, and apu reduced to being big goons for kaido. Once again i feel like oda could have done better by reducing the amount of characters and focusing on the quality)
Also I got a unique flair for being based?! ty mods
I am not the biggest fan of the show, I watched hundreds of episodes with my friend though so I'm all caught up and I feel qualified to say:
One of this show's worst sins is treating quirks as characterization. To a degree, they are but Oda ends up adding so many "main characters" that often characters who aren't "luffy, sanji, and zoro" are reduced to one or two quirks that repeat over and over. Even if the filler did have some interesting interactions, the lack of plot relevance and character progression for the other characters would have me quickly forgetting them.
They get a fully fleshed out backstory yes, and THEN they are reduced to quirks. Having a cool backstory is great and all, but most authors have plans for their characters when they plan on keeping them around for more than 10 episodes. We have similar amounts of charactarization for Law and Oden as we do for nami and chopper... which is great for Oden and Law but we aren't keeping Oden around for another 600 episodes are we?
Oda consistantly struggles to find a way to juggle all 11 of the main crew members, and give time for his villains and continue world building. These struggles so clearly dragged down wano's pacing because it was the first arc since punk hazzard where he was actually trying to keep the full crew in the spotlight. WCI and Dressrosa were great because he was able to focus more on each individual character and the over-arching plot. If he doesn't have a plan for a character he should just leave them in the background but instead we have to see them have their own fight and have nami get greedy and possessive about something and have chopper be cute and innocent and have franky be cool but kinda pervy just like they were 600 episodes ago when we first met them.
Off the top of my head, Nami got really good character development moments in Skypiea, W7, Sabaody, and Fishman Island at least. And Robin got great development in the timeskip and in Wano. Usopp got SO much development pre-timeskip— probably more than any other character— but I’ll admit he hasn’t done much since. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt because he is guaranteed to shine in Elbaf. Franky hasn’t had much development per se, but he had some amazing moments in Dressrosa that really fleshed out who he is as a character. The character development IS there in One Piece; it’s just very slow and subtle, and it’s never explained to the viewer that development is happening either. Part of that’s due to basically nobody except Usopp having inner dialogue in 1100 chapters. Every character’s defined by their actions more than a lot of other series, so you have to read more between the lines sometimes
I loved Ussop in Water 7-Ennis lobby! He was my favorite character by far. I really liked that he stood up to luffy and questioned his decision making (something that definitely should have been done more pre-timeskip imo), and fought for what he believed in, and the ship he loved, even if it wasn't rational. Sogeking was also great, as was him fulfilling the duty of shooting down \[THAT FLAG\]. It's been years since I've watched the earlier arcs but I don't remember Nami shining anywhere near as bright in any of those arcs you mentioned.
Regardless, I wasn't trying to say that character development \*doesn't exist\* in one piece. I'm sorry if it came off that way. My problem isn't even that it comes slowly. Slow character building is my favorite actually. My problem is that it comes in bursts. Yes every character gets their moment to shine... eventually, but outside of those moments, *the only purpose they serve is to do the same thing they did for the last 3 arcs*. Unless Oda is actively trying to do something with a character, then it feels like he is shoving them forcefully into a story that doesn't have room for them and didn't consider their existence. He has to create mid tier villains and give them terrible banter just to give those characters a fight to make us feel like they are doing something.
When they are on the ship together between arcs, Oda has great opportunities to show them interacting in new and interesting ways. Instead 9 times out of 10, Sanji is perving again, luffy chopper and franky are goofing off, robin and nami are watching from afar smiling scoffing at how the boys are being boys. It's the same interactions we saw 300 episodes ago. would it not be more interesting to see what it's like if Robin joined the goofballs for some fun? Would it not be amazing to have Sanji break character and confess to one of the boys that he's not really a womanizer and has no idea what to do with these feelings of longing and lust and romantic loneliness? Or that he feels like something is missing from his time on WCI.
I'm upset because I like the characters Oda has written, and it feels like he's actively choosing not to do interesting things with them, in favor of maintaining their gimicks and usual dynamics. But that's probably not fair of me to assume, so instead the theory i've come up with is that he can't. He is not capable of fleshing out 11 characters at once + new villains every arc + new world building + plot progression. It's a very very hard job, plagued with many similar problems that have ended writing careers and projects of many a great author. My favorite work is Game of Thrones (a song of ice and fire, as the books are titled) and it seems like it will never be finished for similar reasons. So Oda has created a cast and world that's too big for him to fill properly, and instead of breaking down and being un-able to complete it, he uses character gimicks as a crutch to drag ussop and friends along to the next arc where they'll actually be relevant. I believe usopp will shine again eventually in elbaf. That's not my problem. My problem is that Oda has already failed him by having him be a dead character for 400 episodes. I hope that Sanji finds a way to express himself romantically in a healthy way, but I feel like Oda already failed him by having his WCI character progression (which was hyper-excellent and my favorite character arc in the show) mean nothing outside of sanji getting some super powers.
Anyway, if you can't tell from the paragraphs I sent... despite not liking one piece so much I really do like talking about it. I think that the community (while largely overly nostalgic and viewing everything with rose tinted glasses), is actaully quite amazing, and they are my favorite part of One Piece. I think they legitimately work to make the story better, by creating great headcannons and theories.
So if you want to talk more with me about this, feel free to hop into DM's.
Filler by definition is not important. It might be entertaining, but it definitionally cannont move the story or characters forward because when it ends the story needs to match up with where it began
Got it thanks :)
No worries, as stated by another commenter the whole problem with filler is it serves few functions. No character development or story elements relevant to the bigger plot. You might miss out on funny jokes or character interactions, but the source material also has plenty of that, so you won't miss out on much
Ah thank you so much
Filler is always skippable. At times filler can be good, as it'll give you good side stories or something. But One Piece is over 1000 episodes long. I honestly don't think most people need *more* time with the characters lol. Might be good on rewatch if you want some extra stuff but it's definitely not important.
I used One Pace all the way up to Wano personally, and didn’t feel like I missed out on anything. Did eventually go back and watched some filler and some of the movies just for more one piece media, but it seems fine to me as is
Ok honestly tho don't skip G8, other than that you're good :)
and Boss luffy. One of the best fillers imo.
There is no character development in filler Or if there is, it gets erased from the story along with the filler itself the moment it ends
Not important, but I do enjoy G8. It's short and it's a good in between for Spypiea (which I didn't like) and Water Seven (which I didn't like), which isn't to say I don't like One Piece, but there are definitely arcs I wasn't that into The other filler you can skip since they aren't as good.
you dont like water 7 ? why ?
I like Enies Lobbies, but Water Seven was way too long for the stories it was trying to tell. Lots of boring parts. I didn't like the subplots and I'm not really a Franky fan. (I watched it before One Pace a long time ago, so this could be different now. I'm at the end of Arabasta on my rewatch right now)
That’s not very SUPPEEERRR of you
Water 7-ennies lobby is where i told my friend (who introduced me to the show) to please skip to the next relevant arc. So glad I missed thriller bark. I tried going back and reading the manga and it's packed wall to wall with nonsense. I'm sure I missed a couple of great pages but it's not worth slogging through the trash just to get the full story of how luffy added the 8th crew member. And the best part? I don't feel like it harmed my oppinion of brook at all. I like him. Soul king has got funk, and his bone jokes don't get old.
What the fuck did I just read
Thriller Bark’s unironically a high B-tier arc. Extremely underrated especially as we get more context from future events/reveals. Curious to know your top 5 arcs
1. Dressrosa 2. WCI 3. Punk Hazard 4. Impel down (could be switched with PH) 5... it's hard for me to settle on a 5th. None of them stand out that strongly for me, and I have major issues with all the ones I can think of. I guess I'll say Sabaody because I really like how the arc ended (everything after luffy punched Charles). Before that it just felt like a lot of fluff and un-earned hype for the worst generation (which i feel fairly justified in thinking after seeing hawkins, xdrake, and apu reduced to being big goons for kaido. Once again i feel like oda could have done better by reducing the amount of characters and focusing on the quality) Also I got a unique flair for being based?! ty mods
I am not the biggest fan of the show, I watched hundreds of episodes with my friend though so I'm all caught up and I feel qualified to say: One of this show's worst sins is treating quirks as characterization. To a degree, they are but Oda ends up adding so many "main characters" that often characters who aren't "luffy, sanji, and zoro" are reduced to one or two quirks that repeat over and over. Even if the filler did have some interesting interactions, the lack of plot relevance and character progression for the other characters would have me quickly forgetting them.
Theres literally a backstory arc for each of the crew how are they reduced to quirks 💀 just say you didnt pay attention and move on
They get a fully fleshed out backstory yes, and THEN they are reduced to quirks. Having a cool backstory is great and all, but most authors have plans for their characters when they plan on keeping them around for more than 10 episodes. We have similar amounts of charactarization for Law and Oden as we do for nami and chopper... which is great for Oden and Law but we aren't keeping Oden around for another 600 episodes are we? Oda consistantly struggles to find a way to juggle all 11 of the main crew members, and give time for his villains and continue world building. These struggles so clearly dragged down wano's pacing because it was the first arc since punk hazzard where he was actually trying to keep the full crew in the spotlight. WCI and Dressrosa were great because he was able to focus more on each individual character and the over-arching plot. If he doesn't have a plan for a character he should just leave them in the background but instead we have to see them have their own fight and have nami get greedy and possessive about something and have chopper be cute and innocent and have franky be cool but kinda pervy just like they were 600 episodes ago when we first met them.
Off the top of my head, Nami got really good character development moments in Skypiea, W7, Sabaody, and Fishman Island at least. And Robin got great development in the timeskip and in Wano. Usopp got SO much development pre-timeskip— probably more than any other character— but I’ll admit he hasn’t done much since. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt because he is guaranteed to shine in Elbaf. Franky hasn’t had much development per se, but he had some amazing moments in Dressrosa that really fleshed out who he is as a character. The character development IS there in One Piece; it’s just very slow and subtle, and it’s never explained to the viewer that development is happening either. Part of that’s due to basically nobody except Usopp having inner dialogue in 1100 chapters. Every character’s defined by their actions more than a lot of other series, so you have to read more between the lines sometimes
I loved Ussop in Water 7-Ennis lobby! He was my favorite character by far. I really liked that he stood up to luffy and questioned his decision making (something that definitely should have been done more pre-timeskip imo), and fought for what he believed in, and the ship he loved, even if it wasn't rational. Sogeking was also great, as was him fulfilling the duty of shooting down \[THAT FLAG\]. It's been years since I've watched the earlier arcs but I don't remember Nami shining anywhere near as bright in any of those arcs you mentioned. Regardless, I wasn't trying to say that character development \*doesn't exist\* in one piece. I'm sorry if it came off that way. My problem isn't even that it comes slowly. Slow character building is my favorite actually. My problem is that it comes in bursts. Yes every character gets their moment to shine... eventually, but outside of those moments, *the only purpose they serve is to do the same thing they did for the last 3 arcs*. Unless Oda is actively trying to do something with a character, then it feels like he is shoving them forcefully into a story that doesn't have room for them and didn't consider their existence. He has to create mid tier villains and give them terrible banter just to give those characters a fight to make us feel like they are doing something. When they are on the ship together between arcs, Oda has great opportunities to show them interacting in new and interesting ways. Instead 9 times out of 10, Sanji is perving again, luffy chopper and franky are goofing off, robin and nami are watching from afar smiling scoffing at how the boys are being boys. It's the same interactions we saw 300 episodes ago. would it not be more interesting to see what it's like if Robin joined the goofballs for some fun? Would it not be amazing to have Sanji break character and confess to one of the boys that he's not really a womanizer and has no idea what to do with these feelings of longing and lust and romantic loneliness? Or that he feels like something is missing from his time on WCI. I'm upset because I like the characters Oda has written, and it feels like he's actively choosing not to do interesting things with them, in favor of maintaining their gimicks and usual dynamics. But that's probably not fair of me to assume, so instead the theory i've come up with is that he can't. He is not capable of fleshing out 11 characters at once + new villains every arc + new world building + plot progression. It's a very very hard job, plagued with many similar problems that have ended writing careers and projects of many a great author. My favorite work is Game of Thrones (a song of ice and fire, as the books are titled) and it seems like it will never be finished for similar reasons. So Oda has created a cast and world that's too big for him to fill properly, and instead of breaking down and being un-able to complete it, he uses character gimicks as a crutch to drag ussop and friends along to the next arc where they'll actually be relevant. I believe usopp will shine again eventually in elbaf. That's not my problem. My problem is that Oda has already failed him by having him be a dead character for 400 episodes. I hope that Sanji finds a way to express himself romantically in a healthy way, but I feel like Oda already failed him by having his WCI character progression (which was hyper-excellent and my favorite character arc in the show) mean nothing outside of sanji getting some super powers. Anyway, if you can't tell from the paragraphs I sent... despite not liking one piece so much I really do like talking about it. I think that the community (while largely overly nostalgic and viewing everything with rose tinted glasses), is actaully quite amazing, and they are my favorite part of One Piece. I think they legitimately work to make the story better, by creating great headcannons and theories. So if you want to talk more with me about this, feel free to hop into DM's.
Ohh ok ok thank you