Why Whole Cake Island Was Underrated: The Complete Arc Analysis

okay colin has been one of the most divisive arcs of the entire series while some viewed as one of the greatest one-piece arcs ever written others call it a mess if nothing else whole cake island was different it was unique and in my opinion a much-needed breath of fresh air for a series that had begun to fall into patterns before we even get into the story the themes the issues and generally the substance of the arc I want to focus purely on hoecake Island from a creative standpoint Oda's imagination absolutely ran wild this arc artistically and conceptually but it's important to appreciate what we got to read before getting into anything deeper first and foremost you're not going to find a more unique blend of genres and influences anywhere else in this series we had a science-fiction theme at a Disney theme we had the gangster genre mixed it we had Nazism and even a bit of Power Rangers inspiration all packed into one Ark Girma big mom and Capone beige all bring very distinct very different flavors to the story but the variety makes it fun to read rather than jarring in many ways hoecake island is the epitome of everything one piece can be because one of the most brilliant aspects of one piece is that it can be about anything samurais angels zombies gladiators it doesn't matter the story can go in any direction oda imagines and hokey garland is the ultimate melting pot of various fiction worlds being brought together as such this art was filled with creative concepts we see an empire where each island is made out of food with a rivers flow with juice and syrup where we can find almost each race in the one-piece world where shadowy figures take the citizens lifespans and spread their souls throughout the country we see a traveling Kingdom carried by giant snails where each part of the kingdom can separate to move on its own and even climb mountains but still reform and become whole again wherever it chooses we see a mirror dimension and the world of books hoecake island itself is fantastical even by one-piece standards never before have the straw heads visited a location as surreal as this it whimsical fairytale land where everything is brought to life with the hills the trees the flowers are all prone to break out into song we read the story largely for the plot the action the characterization but it's nice to take a moment to just enjoy how imaginative this series is there were so many small this park that are just cool to think about seeing the sunny stuck in the frozen sea of syrup at night with the scene lit by torches as they try to thaw it out a dinner scene where all the food is demanding to be eaten a panel where we have a carriage carrying the royal family of a futuristic nation on one side a giant talking tree on the other side and a backdrop of smiling mountains observing in the distance in an already weird world hokey Colin takes the weirdness to a level beyond anything we've seen so far and with an art with so many possibilities we were treated to some of the best imagery in the series I would go so far as to say that visually this may be the greatest arc in one piece just thinking back through hoecake Island there were so many moments that were memorable specifically because of the artwork even just looking at some of the smaller more forgettable panels it's clear that there are many more stylized shots throughout hoecake island that we definitely wouldn't have seen a few arcs back on the other hand there are also panels like the meeting with beige which is easily one of the most stylish shots in the entire series the Tea Party in particular was the highlight of the arc with panels that are absolutely filled to the brim with i popping imagery as we get wallpaper shot after wallpaper shot of this dreamlike scene and of course it's impossible to talk about hoecake islands art without mentioning character designs with the underworld brokers the fully assembled Grima 66 and of course the big mom pirates themselves there's no question that hoecake Island features the largest assortment of bizarre character designs we've ever had it's almost as though Oda gave big mom 85 children just as an excuse to create as many distinct looks as possible even beyond the art music has never been utilized like this in one piece before but I went all in on the Disney team trying to infuse the art with song to capture the twisted Alice in Wonderland vibe whenever he could we had an unsettling opening number that gave us our first real look at the young crew big mouth and set the tone for the rest of the arc the climax of the arc turns out to be an extended musical number and as one of the most ambitious scenes Oda has ever we have no dialogue at all we only watch as the overwhelming forces of one of the emperors of the sea close in on the protagonist the sinister lyrics accompanying the sequence highlight the contrast between big mom's dreamy hallucination playing out on one side and a straw hats a nightmare scenario playing out on the other and while the resolution to this songs cliffhanger was disappointing the scene itself in isolation was easily one of the highlights of hoecake Island finally the closing number was a nice way of wrapping up the art effectively capturing the mixed emotions felt by the main characters at the end of it all the bottom line is that creatively visually stylistically hoecake Island was some of the best this series has to offer and too often this aspect of the arc is ignored in all the criticism all that being said let's get into the storytelling hoecake Island begins normally enough with the straw hats splitting up as they do at most one piece arcs for the first type of whole cake we get a nice mix of entertaining storylines that we can bounce around between we have Luffy and Nami on the fantasy adventure route we have broken Pedro as a pair of swashbucklers on an espionage mission we have chopper and carrot on the run in the mirror world and we have Sanjay carrying the dramatic end of the story with his family conflict but we quickly learned that this is not going to be an ordinary adventure things are not as simple as they seemed at first the straw hats have essentially walked into the devil's playground and they really have no idea what sort of unless they're getting into as such the refreshing spin we get on the typical one piece formula is an arc filled with schemes mysteries and backstabbing all around there are a lot of plots at play here and nothing is going to go as expected the underlying sense of mystery is in full effect from the get-go with pekoms as kidnapping and ominous message from there on the questions keep piling up what happened to Peckham's what's the deal with pudding what exactly is big mom's plan what's beiges plan who shot ray jus who shot bobbins here we had the standard one piece adventure infused with a healthy dose of Noir and intrigue taking heavy inspiration for the gangster genre and crime thrillers the main event follows this team as well as all the events of the arc are leading up to a large criminal wedding between two villainous families with all heads of the underworld in attendance at the same time as big mom is trying to double-cross the Girma 66 beige and his gang are trying to overthrow their parent family and take apart the organization from the inside and so going into the climax we have a setup we've never had before the straw hat pirates are planning an assassination plot it's a completely new situation and most importantly we have absolutely no idea how it's going to play out this unpredictability is one of hoecake Island's greatest strengths for major twists like the pudding reveal two smaller surprises like crackers real form and stassi's identity we were consistently left guessing throughout the arc part of the stem from the fact that it was hard to read characters true natures or their motivations rage ooh seems kind at first but seems to betray Sanjay only to ultimately be revealed to be helping him pudding seems to be a perfect character than a terrible character then finally a tragic character beige seems like a bad guy then still a bad guy but at least with some values and as a result we generally had no idea where the story would go because we couldn't predict how characters would act we can't tell how the sanjay pudding romance is going to play out we are led to believe that beige is one of the main antagonists of the arc but he turns out to be the straw hats primary allied government ecigs who we assumed would be getting a beating from Sanjay by the end altum Utley end up mending their conflict with him and becoming allies as well from start to finish most of the storylines of this arc want a route that we did not expect in particular the assassination plot was basically uncharted territory for this series this is not at all how the straw hats operate so we knew from the start that this carefully conceived plan was going to go off the rails we just didn't know how and as such we generally couldn't predict how the arc would end Oda is great at surprising the reader but usually we do have a general guess of what will happen by the end of an arc in hoecake island it's up in the air from start to finish is Luffy supposed to beat big mom this big mom actually going to die will they even escape toddle and Eve until the final chapters the reader can't tell if big mom will go down the start and even by literally the final chapter we still don't know who made it out alive and while the ending of the arc may have grabbed a little too long and I will discuss this later at the very least the Tea Party and its immediate aftermath were a series of unexpected developments one after another the reversal of puddings character Luffy and the gang crashing the wedding big mom squashing the assassination plot with just the force of her anger beiges transformation into a castle and whole cakes chateaus collapse all made for a tea party that met the hype but just when we think we've at is satisfying finale the real twist is that things are just getting started now that the assassination plot has gone up in flames the situation is spiraling out of control suddenly we have big mom on an unstoppable rampage just when we thought everyone was safe Pedro dies just when we realized that Luffy is not ready to fight a young coup yet we end up getting an alternative boss fight that we never even realized we wanted what makes the final stretch of whole cake island so exciting at least on reread is that it feels like the threat level has been amped up many many levels beyond what we've seen so far in the new world this isn't a fight to beat the bad guys like usual they're just scrambling to make it out a lot ok Garland's climax is purely a fight for survival at every turn the sprites are met with greater and greater opposition just as they get past one obstacle stronger and stronger enemies just keep coming out of the woodwork from all corners of the Empire to top it off the big bad of the arc is too strong to even be defeated and rather than even trying to challenge her head-on their only hope is to try to get away from her as she runs berserk essentially it's as though this tiny crew is running from an entire empire and Godzilla at the same time while their captain is stuck in one-on-one combat against someone who is stronger than him in nearly every way and with that let's take a moment to discuss Big Mama and kata Kamini and how they're a different breed of villain from what we've come to expect from one piece so far big mom is basically a variety of bad guy ideas wrapped into one insane package she's an evil queen a witch a cannibal a crafty schemer but a crazed psychopath and above all else she's an overgrown child who nobody was ever able to discipline my favorite aspect of this character is that she's such a unique twist on one of the fundamental ideas of the series in one piece willpower is strength those with the strong wheels rise to the top characters like dragon and acai new with their weighty ideals or Luffy with his drive to surpass everyone but big mom shows the flip side of what a strong will can mean we've all seen little kids throw tantrums when they don't get what they want what if you had a kid who literally would not stop until she gets what she wants as insane as it sounds this five-year-old brats absolute refusal to wait even one more day to eat the sweets that she wants right now makes her incredibly strong by the laws of the one-piece world if she won't stop till she gets what she wants then it doesn't matter if her goal is something as silly as a cake that uncompromising childlike will makes her a freak of nature in this series because willpower is strength it's also this childish nature of hers that makes her a different brand of evil than we've seen so far in one piece as she goes on her hallucinogenic trip while eating the cake we get a look into big mom's mind this really is how she views the world she's created as a joyous magical Wonderland where everyone's happy because she wants everyone to be happy and she always gets what she wants so you better be happy or else we've seen plenty of villains who think they're creating a perfect world but big mom is an interesting spin on it in that her vision of a perfect world is what a little kid would imagine it's an irrational child's fantasy where everything is singing and smiling and all the citizens live together in harmony because she demands it all of tada land is ruled by an insanely powerful child who no one ever dares disagree with which in a way makes her more terrifying than traditional villains now since an opponent like this can't be defeated this arc hoecake island again goes an unexpected route by giving us an alternative villain than the big bad that we expected think about category for a moment a quiet low-key character who watches over everything from the shadows but runs the show when big mom isn't around he's smart he's pragmatic he has the ability to see the future and be all-knowing his devil fruit trades flashiness and power for versatility even his clothing his dark and masks his face everything about this character fits the notion that he the hidden boss hoecake island it's a very clever design oda came up with luffy can't fight big mom yet but any villain luffy does fight this arc would pale in comparison to her so the solution was to create a villain that was the complete opposite of big mom making category seem extremely formidable in a completely different way even though category is not as strong as his mother instead of seeming like a lesser threat he feels just as dangerous the fight between luffy and categories of course one of the greatest fights of the series and one of the best aspects of it is we didn't know it was going to happen in almost every single one piece arc we know from a very early stage exactly who Luffy's final opponent will be there's not much room for surprise sometimes it can be almost tiresome as the story stalls and drags on and on before finally getting to this inevitable fight but category was a character only hinted at early in hoecake Island and who has only even introduced near the climax we had no idea what Oh does plans for this character were we just met a badass new villain who seemed more and more impressive with each passing chapter on top of this we had no idea what to expect from the tea party in general the entire time we were left speculating are there going to be any major fights by the end of this is category potentially being saved as a future opponent for Sanji he seems really strong I wonder if Luffy could beat it and then just when it seems like the story is wrapped up and it's time to go just when we're ready to say goodbye to hoe cake island and we're looking forward to seeing more of category someday we discovered there's a lot more action to come now category is talking about killing Luffy and how he's on the ship now all of a sudden they're actually going at it and seemingly out of nowhere we're getting the Luffy vs. Lucci of the new world that we had no idea was coming it's such a fresh surprise to get an epic final battle that we never expected to see category himself is different from all the villains Luffy has fought in the past he's like a shadow version of our hero both are burdened with great responsibility to protect their weaker loved ones and they both possess similar abilities in a different world they may even have gotten along because category really isn't a bad guy like Goofy's past opponents it's just that his family comes first and he is duty-bound to eliminate any threat to the family as such their fight is simply an unfortunate matter of circumstance now not only does he fight very similarly but Luffy he is a step ahead of Luffy in nearly every way Luffy is essentially fighting a better version of himself and fittingly this mirror match takes place in the mirror world nothing in Luffy's arsenal can beat this guy right now they're stuck in an alternate dimension so no one is coming to save him meaning Luffy has to improve during the fight or die essentially this was a challenge Luffy had never faced before and as such this was also a rare situation where we really didn't know for sure if Luffy would win or not because this was a fight we never expected because we can't tell what direction this arc is headed we don't know if Luffy is supposed to win is this supposed to be a learning moment where Luffy has his first big loss in the new world is this supposed to end in a draw between two evenly matched fighters or is Luffy really going to pull off the impossible even till the final moments of the fight it seems as though category may have come out on top and the moment category collapses is a surprise as well what I love is this entire fight subverted our expectations repeatedly when we realized that Luffy needs to improve to beat category the simple guesses are unlocking awakening or inventing a new gear but to see Luffy improve his observation haki instead was not the route most readers had in mind observation that never seemed to be Luffy strong suit in the past so to see him transform into a man who could see a bit of the future was a welcome development over the course of the fight it quickly becomes clear that category is unlike any villain Luffy has ever fought before and may be unlike anyone he will ever fight again most other arc finales in the series have Luffy beating someone who's the worst of the worst but there's no animosity between Luffy and category they're simply bound by their respective responsibilities for the first time Luffy and his opponent have genuine mutual respect for each other they both want this to be an honest fight despite what Luffy claims about pirates Luffy doesn't actually want to win through trickery he wants to beat category at his best similarly category completely shatters the one piece formula of what a villain is supposed to be when he performs one of the most honorable acts in the entire series brutally handicapping himself to fight Luffy on grounds out of respect for his opponent even the manner in which the fight was won was different from any other one-piece fight as I've said willpower is strength in one piece and this was the ultimate battle of wills from start to finish Luffy didn't necessarily win because he was the superior fighter it was only towards the end that he started fighting somewhat evenly and even in snake-man he was taking more hits than he was dishing out people say that luffy won because he has better durability and sure this is probably partly the case since category has never taken a hit before but that wasn't the point it didn't come down to physical stats in the end that's not what this fight was about Luffy one because Luffy's will was greater even after giving everything they had even after fighting for 24 hours straight even after taking each other's finishing moves both of these guys were still ready to go another round the battle only ended the moment that catagory realized that luffy is literally never going to drop the final blow of the fight was not King Cobra it was Luffy's declaration that nothing was stop him from reaching his goal that made Category finally give in as luffy's will have proven impossible to break categories will was not so resolute as by the end of it all he's questioning whether it would be so bad if Luffy got past him and one day defeated big mom and we see that a small part of him was even okay with the fact that Luffy got away whereas luffy's will to beat category and get past him never wavered till the end the last thing I want to talk about from a storytelling perspective was what a fantastic job Oda did with the character debts this art before I get into it I think it's important to touch on the fact that hoecake Island was darker than the average one-piece arc the plot centered around assassination and murder the imagery was frequently creepier than we are used to I've already discussed the musical numbers and this arc also has the largest number of chapters that take place during the evening or night even big mom's backstory is surprisingly dark for one piece this isn't the type of series where we would expect a child to cannibalize her mother and all her orphan friends considering all this it's fitting that whole cake island doesn't end with a clean victory compared to the final pages of something like a nice Lobby with the straw hats joyfully escape after rescuing their crewmate hoecake island ends on somber note so many characters are left with their fates uncertain characters who have put everything on the line just to give the straw hats a chance to escape and of course there have been some sacrifices along the way there were two instances and Hoka cabin where characters gave their lives just for some small victory Pedro's death will never be the most memorable of the series and that's partly what makes it so tragic the sunny is stuck in candy at a crucial moment and Pedro decides to blow himself up to free the ship in the grand scheme of things the impact wasn't that great the explosion killed Pedro while Paris Faro only lost an arm while the strats were able to escape momentarily they were in hot water again almost immediately afterwards Pedro essentially died just to remove one obstacle so that the crew could move on to the next obstacle in a long series of obstacles before finally making their real escape he gave everything he had for a moment that certainly won't stick with the readers the way past care of your debts did but that's what Pedro's life was being told by the greatest pirate of all time a man larger than life a living legend that even if we can't all be great everyone has some part to play Pedro accepted that he wasn't one of the heroes who would bring the dawn of this world but he dutifully lived his life with the mentality that no matter what he had to survive till he could make a difference in any way possible even through losing his comrade through losing his eye through losing 50 years of his life all he ever thought about was how he had to live on til the day when he could be of some small help to the people that were destined to bring the dawn of this world and finally he gets his chance he doesn't get an epic death like white beard or ace or even an epic fake-out like pal it's just one sudden spur-of-the-moment sacrifice that leaves no time for mourning or praise but it's all he ever wanted to be able to give everything he had just to be the foundation of the world that the minks are awaiting but if Pedro's death was underappreciated there was an even sadder casualty that most of the main characters don't even realize the Kurd hound is essentially this forgotten character with a story as sad as anyone's but who none of the characters care much about one of the countless insignificant husbands of big mom hound had his children taken away from him at birth and he was discarded and abandoned in the seducing woods for 26 years he stayed alone in the forest his only wish being simply to meet his daughters once when Luffy and Nami first run into him it seems like this character exists purely to give the heroes some background information on big mom and a whole cake island and as soon as they exit the seducing woods the reader quickly stops caring about poundin just as everyone else stopped caring about pound and that's partly the point bound is just this minor character that has quickly forgotten but he doesn't go away so easily he has his own story and his own goal that he is pursuing his running storyline continues in the background as the arc progresses as he is still set on meeting his daughter's other characters hardly take notice of his existence and his final moment is one that no one even recognises he gives his life trying to stop oven from attacking his daughter and he dies without anyone he saved even being aware of or even really caring about who he is or what his story was the moment is made bittersweet by the fact that pound seems genuinely happy with the way things turned out it doesn't matter to pound if his daughter knew or cared he was happy to give his life to have the smallest impact on the person he cared about and so he was able to happily face death with a beat-up smile tightening his tie one last time as he mentally congratulated chiffon on how her life turned out and now he's disappeared from everyone's consciousness forever in a way he's the only character to ever have died in one piece in a series where we've come to expect grand final moments Pedro and pounds debts were not at all typical of one piece but as I've said okay Calvin was not a typical one piece arc now moving on from hokey Colin's storytelling I want to focus on some of its themes to begin with as the lyrics say at the end of the are there's nothing so terrifying in the world as sweetness if we think back on this idea falling prey to sweetness was a running theme throughout the arc hoecake Island was largely about people being lured into a trap when our heroes casually set off for Tata land they have no idea what they're getting into what seems like such a fun adventure at the beginning turns into a fight for survival with the crew only narrowly avoiding death in the end everyone was lured in one way or another Girma was lured in by big moms promises Sanjay was lured in by puddings act Luffy and the crew were lured in because they wanted to get Sanjay back the idea of toddle and itself is a nation where people are lured in with the promise of a perfect life but they are unknowingly caught in a trap as no one is ever allowed to leave candy on the entrance but the guillotine on the exit while everyone involved underestimated what they were getting into the straw hats ultimately managed to survive and get out but we still don't know who else survived the arc or how much of the victory this was exactly it's easy to miss but this dangerous sweetness is a recurring theme throughout hoecake Island now a theme that's a little more obvious is the importance of being yourself I'll focus on three of the main characters of this arc I haven't talked much about pudding so far so let's give her some love some people believe oh I did a messy job handling puddings character but the idea was that she was moreso a puzzle that needed to be pieced together initially we are led to believe that she is a perfect angel and then she is revealed to be an evil murderess it seems like a simple enough twist but in that case what did these flashbacks in the rain mean why show these harsh memories of big mom and a positive memory of Lola if pudding really is just bad to the court how does she really feel about her mother how does she really feel about her situation in general we don't truly know what she is thinking but when the initial twist occurs we already have a hint that even this may not be the real pudding this pudding was fake and this pudding was fake she's not an angel and she's not a demon the real pudding is complicated when the next reversal occurs it feels jarring at first but only because we are still piecing her character together we discovered that puddings murderous personality was born out of shame the shame of her third eye that she has always tried to hide as she has been treated as a monster because of it even by her own mother voting has no problem being cruel to others because others have only ever been cruel to her eventually we see that she has disbelief so ingrained in her mind that she could not imagine that Sanji would be any different she only mocks him as a defense mechanism to cope with her insecurities about her own appearance this is not who pudding truly is and this is not who she wants to be but years of being forced to hide her true self years of self-loathing have made her jaded inside not only does pudding hate having to hide her true appearance big mom makes it puddings entire role in the crew to be a perfect little actress and fool people by hiding her true personality as well this is of course a role that pudding secretly despises but she pretends she's comfortable being big mom's puppet she pretends to take pride in how horrific her third eye is everything about her is one big act that takes the reader to the end of the arc to unravel as Sanjay was the only person to see through the act and liked her for who she is hopefully her days of being big mom's actress are over and hopefully she no longer feels shame over her third eye knowing that there is someone out there who considers it beautiful category was another case of a character who seemed somewhat inconsistent at first but we were able to piece together who he truly is by the end why would a man like category even care about his appearance why did he hide his mouth in categories case he hid his true self out of responsibility and I don't mean just his appearance the entire persona that category puts on isn't his true self as I talked about earlier he is very similar to Luffy in many aspects but unlike Luffy who got to grow up protected by his older brothers category had to be that older brother in reality category wants to be carefree and chow down on donuts like he used to as a kid but he forced himself to become this calm collected always vigilant Guardian because that was the identity he believed he needed to take on in order to keep people from harming his family if his appearance led to his younger siblings getting hurt then he would hide his face forever if that's what it took perhaps he's been inspired by Luffy a little bit to drop the act as he fights the entire second half of their battle without caring about his appearance and he sees that Luffy is able to protect his crew just fine being himself finally we have Sanjay Sanjay also had pressured be someone he's not but unlike the Charlotte children Sanji always remains true to who he is throughout the arc despite the fact that his family shames every aspect of his character Sanji never stops being himself and that pays big dividends for him by the end a more in-depth analysis of what I mean is covered in my video hoecake Island Sanjay's arc but the simple difference is Sanjay is a proud member of the straw hat crew where everyone is free to be themselves whereas kata Korean pudding have been born into the nightmare that is the Charlotte family now maybe the most obvious theme of hoecake Island is food as a soggy centric arc this only makes sense and the story begins with a simple issue of who will cook we are reminded that Luffy has little to no skills outside of fighting as his attempt at cooking results in him setting the kitchen on fire creating the worst dish imaginable and ending up on the verge of death after eating a poisonous fish out of starvation luffy's need for a chef is put into perspective and we are shown that louf he really does need all of his crewmates if he is ever going to become a Pirate King from there on the value food is heavily emphasized Sergei's philosophy is that no food should ever be wasted and we see this mentalities reflected in Luffy as well making Luffy the perfect match for Sanjay the chef in his fight against cracker luffy's near bottomless appetite is taken to its limits but as the future Pirate King supposedly his hunger is limitless ultimately Luffy doesn't let a single biscuit go to waste and he actually wins the fight literally because of the power of a full stomach on the flipside hoecake island also forces luffy to deal with hunger luffy's gluttony has always been more of a joke than a serious issue but it has theoretically been a weakness of his from the beginning of the story Luffy says that he wouldn't be able to handle starvation so totally natural that a food theme dark would make him face that challenge for the first time Luffy pushes himself to ignore his need for food Luffy has always been extremely strong-willed but this is an entirely different test of willpower for him first he refuses to eat anything till Saji returns and then during the 24 hour long battle with category we realized that Luffy has been suppressing his hunger at this entire time it's the first time Luffy has complained about hunger during a fight but it makes sense that for such a long battle he has had to push through his need for food even during the flashback of Luffy's training least Mufi forcing himself not to eat til he has mastered the technique he's supposed to we are shown that luffy can in fact restrain himself when it really comes down to it and that his willpower extends to every type of challenge he faces what's interesting is that the villain of this arc is also a glutton and we get to see her face starvation as well luffy and big mom go through a parallel experience of nearly shriveling up from hunger disorder as they're both refusing to eat anything except for the one meal that they desire ironically what they both want is sanjay is cooking big mom just doesn't know that's what she's pursuing but we're his big mom demands to eat the wedding cake because that is the only thing in the world that tastes good enough to satisfy her Luffy demands to eat only Sanjay's cooking simply because he wants to eat his friends cooking the quality is irrelevant we are reminded that while Luffy is obsessed with food often to the point that it makes a seriously questioned his priorities at the end of the day he is nothing like big mom just in case we ever needed this confirmed for us in hoecake island we see that people matter much more to Luffy than food but besides just dealing with hunger what was the running theme of this arc with regards to Luffy it spelled out for us in Chapter 830 he who gets bet on Jen Bay who knows exactly how strongly Anwar is placing his bets on Luffy instead Pedro is betting his life on the belief that Luffy is the man that the minks have been waiting for and of course the straw hat crew have followed Luffy all the way to the New World because they believe Luffy will be the Pirate King now we're finally at a point where Luffy has to prove he really has it in him when the crew sets off for hoecake island they believe it's just a side quest but in reality this is the first step for Luffy in his trials to become Pirate King by entering in yonkers territory and starting a conflict with her he has officially begun to challenge the emperors from here on out all that talk of becoming Pirate King is no longer just some far-off dream that he's chasing by walking into big mom's territory Luffy has to start proving he can actually do this everything he's been saying since chapter 1 everything his crew believes in is now finally being put to the test as brûléed tells Nami there are countless people who foolishly believe that their captains would become Pirate King we learn of each per Nova that was crushed in the seducing woods we see a dawning on the straw Hut's that they've completely underestimated the yongku and cracker outright tells Luffy that he is about to hit a point where he will realize that there are people out there he just won't be able to be as such the climax of the arc puts Luffy in a situation where he has to prove that he is a man worth betting on the crew are all counting on him to meet up with them at cacao Island but the only way for Luffy to make it there is if he overcomes his greatest most difficult opponent yet there will be no more training to get stronger there will be no more running from opponents he has to surpass if he really is worth betting on to be Pirate King if he really is different from all those other captains who have come up short against the young coup then he has to start by defeating category and making it out from this mirror world where anyone else would have failed it seems impossible but if Luffy can't pull it off then he may as well give up on being Pirate King forever because from here on out he's going to have to do the impossible over and over and over again till he reaches the top even against an opponent who is superior to him in practically every way Luffy just refuses to go down because he knows his crew is believing in him he knows that even against a supposedly invincible opponent with a billion very bounty they are still betting on him to win and it's not just his crew that is betting on him the most important part of luffy's final declaration to category said even after everything he's been through this fight even as he struggled and been taken to the limit even knowing that beyond category there are still far greater opponents such as big mom even through all that Luffy is still betting on himself to overcome it all and become tired King the wall finally Falls and lets him past and with this victory Luffy proved that while he's not strong enough yet he has the spirit just like that he's passed the first test on the path to pirate cake it's no mistake that this is the first arc where Luffy's feats are compared to Roger himself from this victory on it's no longer justice comrades who believed in him by the end Morgan's is betting on it even category seems to believe Luffy will be Pirate King because this arc Luffy proved he is a man worth betting on this was the birth of Luffy the man who could actually become Pirate King and it's marked by his emergence as the fifth emperor of the sea Luffy has been saying since chapter one that he will be king of the Pirates and now 900 chapters later the world is starting to believe it too finally let's talk about criticisms I think a lot of issues people had such as inconsistent characterization of putting in category poor treatment of Sanji and an unsatisfying end to the fight are things are just plain disagree with and I think I've covered my opinion on all these topics pretty thoroughly between this video and my others but the biggest criticism of this arc that I do understand is the pacing lots of times people can't clearly identify what they mean by poor pacing so let's talk about it as I discussed earlier the first half of hoecake Island has a lot of different storylines and subplots going on at once this is standard four at one piece arc and the story actually moved along pretty nicely during this half no storyline ever felt like it was dragging and about 30 chapters in it looked like we had resolved a lot of the existing conflicts on top of that from the start of the arc it seemed as though everything was building to a climax at the tea party so when we got to this point where all the subplots seemed to naturally converge and all the characters were together preparing for the main event the arc finale was perfectly set up however as it turned out the final act had only begun the tea party arguably was the perfect finale of the arc as it was one climactic event that ended the conflict that all the momentum of the story had been building - but instead the action continued on for 30 more chapters not only did the story stretch out far longer than we expected but suddenly story lines started to split up again inevitably slowing down the pace on top of that we no longer had a clear finale that we were building towards usually luffy's victory tends to mark a conclusive finale to the arc but Luffy beading category was an isolated event after that we went through Sanjay's rescue attempt Irma's rescue big mom finally eating the cake and multiple rescues by the Fishman pirates instead of going out with a bang whole cake islands finale was more of a marathon which may have been frustrating to read when it felt like we missed the perfect opportunity to end the arc with a bang like usual on the other hand it was necessary for the story Oda was trying to tell to include this final act of whole cake island the significant points of the arc that Oda was leading to all happened after the tea party we needed big moms rampage to lead to Sanjay's crowning moment as a chef we needed Luffy versus category to put Luffy in the fight of his life and have him come out as an emperor and we honestly needed a sacrifice to give the arcs and consequences ultimately I believe Oda is a victim of his own ambition while some writers may hit writer's block and can't think of new ideas Oda has too many ideas there's too much story he wants to tell too much he wants to fit into a given art he wants to show us more of the big mom pirates he wants to give us an epic extended battle he wants to include as many near-death scenarios as possible he wants to give highlight moments to every single character and even include short stories that aren't crucial to the plot at a certain point one can put their foot down and say he's lost sight of a coherent vision it's gotten to be too much I believe hoecake island is just toeing that line and so it will always be a polarizing arc I will say I think a lot of its problems are lessened on reread and reread the final act of hoecake island plays out a lot better and it feels more like the action-packed naval chase across a young cooze empire spliced with an epic battle that oda likely intended it to be from the start while I understand the pacing issues people had I think that's just one very basic point of criticism that ignores all the other areas in which this arc was phenomenal and overall I believe the good heavily outweighed the bad if you enjoyed this video then please like share and subscribe you can also follow me on twitter at mr. Moore's Man for future video updates linked in the description below

Channel: Mr Morj

Views: 891,997

Keywords: Best One Piece arc, whole cake island arc review, whole cake island review, whole cake island arc summary, why one piece is the best, why one piece works so well, why one piece is so popular, why one piece is good, why one piece is great, one piece foreshadowing, oda foreshadowing, one piece chapter 906 spoilers, whole cake island analysis, best one piece arcs, one piece best arc, whole cake island underrated, whole cake island trash, whole cake island problems

Id: OOE38gROfh8

Length: 38min 31sec (2311 seconds)

Published: Tue May 29 2018