What do you think of One Piece's non-backstory character development?

Warmmedown

Elite
Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
9,304
Age
30
One Piece is one of the best shounen for character development during backstories or death scenes. But a common criticism of fiction is poor character consistency when characters go against their established development or after character change revert back to their old ways without explanation or commentary. Sometimes this can be waved away as realism (because the same thing happens with people irl), sometimes not and in those cases it's probably the author forgetting, not knowing how to write the new version of the character, not knowing how to fit the new character in with the other characters (eg if they're both a similar archetype. Probably not a great idea to rely on archetypes in the first place) or just being lazy and falling back to the character's old tropes either because it's less work (eg so they don't have to come up with a new flowchart for the character's thoughts and actions or so they don't have to find a new way to bring whatever the old version of the character was bringing to the story eg a new way of introducing comedy if comedic characters becomes very serious) or because it appeals to fans.

How do you feel OP does in this regard? Are there examples of characters going against their own character development? Characters who feel hollow after their initial development?
 

Yoshi

Elite
Ultimate
Joined
May 30, 2015
Messages
8,150
Age
30
It’s actually pretty weak. Naruto literally has more character development than Luffy for example, despite Luffy being a more consistent character and a better character overall.
 
Top