Melontee is one of those One Piece fans just like you who bring a unique take and perspective to the table, rather than constantly comparing characters or arguing who's stronger than who, you two and a couple of others make sure to appreciate the storytelling and character details more and we absolutely love it!! need more ppl to do this!!

This week has been tough. A video on pain seems appropriate.

MelonTeee shoutout! LET'S GOOOO!

One of the showrunners for the Live Action, Matt Owens, said he told Oda the same thing. If you haven't seen him talking on the community Reverie about meeting Oda, definitely check it out. Matt said "One Piece is a story about how everyone has tragedy, pain, and sadness in their life. But that's not what defines you. What defines you is how you use that to motivate your future, and you don't have to do that alone... I told him I believe One Piece saved my life."

So glad to hear you're also a melontee viewer, I had recommended her character analysis vids in a comment waaaaaay back and I am very glad to hear you actually checked these vids out. I think you're the best at explaining the themes of each arc but melontee's character focused analysis is also enjoyable.

Melon tee and merphy colab a dream come true

Learned from jaydlegend is that I will never demand a backstory from Oda again💀 But in all seriousness, great video

Boa's backstory is one of the most tragic in the series. Like what mom piece (The Drawk Show) said; it's so dark that Oda can't show it to us. I didn't know you follow Melontee as well. Her, Mom piece as well as Dawn and Dusk are some of the underrated OP youtubers I know.

Aww...you follow Melon too!! Her insight and takes on OP are incredible And yeah, someone from our crew told us that they would've given up a long time ago in Brook's shoes. Brook also said that he would've too, but he had a promise. Him coming to finally just being glad for being alive, was so heartwarming For Moria, I think its a bit unfair, like Luffy would've and still would absolutely crumble if he lost his crew. His crew was the reason he was able to gather himself back to begin with after marineford One character that struck a chord with me on similar lines is Gentle Criminal from manga- My Hero Academia. Most of the fandom absolutely hated his whole arc, but he is one of my most fav villains in all of fiction

The thing that makes Kuma stand out for me is his outlook. It's summed up perfectly in the moment when Saturn lays out his conditions for allowing Vegapunk to heal Bonney. After everything Kuma had been through up to that point, he could easily have become indignant at Saturn now wanting to take his very identity from him, but he didn't. Instead, he wept tears of joy and relief because it was a cost that he was actually able to pay, when he'd been terrified Saturn would demand something impossible of him. The fact that Kuma was not only willing but was indeed HAPPY to give up everything he had left in the world in order to ensure his daughter would live shows that he doesn't allow himself to be ruled by the trauma he's suffered, but rather by the hope that others will live well. That one moment elevated him from a moderately interesting background character to one of my favorite characters in the series.

I always see how people make fun of Oda for his artsyle, yet his cartoonish character designs convey grief and pain like no other manga I've read, it's the uppercut after the punch that is his story that delivers the knock out (I'm bad with sport metaphors)

I sometimes feel like a side character but what Oda has show me is that you can also have an impactful story to share

3:00 Oda's first editor has hammered the lesson of building a character first into his brain. And now, one of Oda's method of writing is to let the character take the wheel instead of just bending a character over to make them fit his plot. This is shown with Senior Pink's character. His backstory was already there but it wasn't supposed to be shown because its not important to the narative but Oda's current editor though it was so good that he needs to show it. So nearly every character has their own backstory that explains why they do their quirky stuff, its just haven't been shown in the manga (like how Kidd and Zoro's backstory is not shown in Wano but it's already planned and their characters reflect that. If Oda wanted to put Kidd's or Zoro's backstory in Wano it wouldn't change the plot whatsoever)

Melontea and you are definitely my favorite voices in the community, thank you for all you do, think, feel, and share ❤

😭😭 thank you so much Merphy!! I jumped a little bit when I heard my name lmao really really love and appreciate everything you're doing and these awesome insights on One Piece 🫶🫶

The story that really touched me which a bit overlooked is Baby 5’s. Her mother doesn’t even bother to name her, Her own mother abandoned her, can you imagine the kind of terror and trauma she witnessed! I can’t even continue 😅😢

I started reading One Piece about a year ago, basically binged through the whole manga in a month or two and fell in love with it. Discovering your channel and watching your arc reviews alongside reading it myself only enhanced the experience further. But ever since I've been caught up, I just can't get into the manga the same way. There's been so much great stuff in Egghead and I'm sure it'll blow me away on a reread, once the arc is finished, but I'm just the type who can't engage as well with a story - be it a TV show, a novel series or a manga - on a weekly episode/chapter basis as opposed to watching/reading it in huge chunks. So I'm super happy that creators like you or Melonteee or Totally not Mark keeping providing great One Piece content to help keep me engaged with the series as a whole. Thank you for that! (And also for helping me discover many great fantasy and sci fi novels besides, lol).

I love that you’re watching the anime. I wonder what your thoughts are on how voice acting, music, color, and movement add to the story.

apart from melonteee, mompiece (the drawk show) and meanie mosey are also very good channels with different perspectives. meanie mosey is still the only one, that I at least remember linking thriller bark with depression. mom piece sometimes just comes off the top rope with her guesses but ultimately lands them which is amazing when thinking of how early she puts them out there. it's cool to be an english literature professor familiar with japanese literature and knowledge and seeing how that can help read into one piece. and melonteee is just amazing

I knew oda was a master writer with the noland flashback

I love the fact that luffy and Zero are the only ones who don't have so much pain in their past, they the the strongest and the dumbest in the crew.

You and mama Melon are my favorite sources of one piece stuff.

The voice actors just do such phenomenal jobs portraying the pain and rage. Luffy's voice when Ace died was one, but Nami begging for Luffy's help in Orange Town just hit so hard too

I would like to give it to the, Japanese voice actors too. You can feel the weight of the pain when they cry. I will never recover from sanji apologizing for being born weak

Fisher Tiger's story is perhaps one of the most poignant examples of how trauma can utterly reshape a person against their will. It's a stark reminder that the scars left by traumatic experiences can run so deep, they overpower our very sense of self, causing it to *_undulate_* in ways that we could never expected. Imagine being subjected to such unimaginable cruelty and injustice that it warps your entire worldview. The pain and anger become so all-consuming that they eclipse everything else, even your own values and beliefs. That's the insidious nature of trauma - it can make us cling to ideas we don't truly want to embrace, simply because they've been seared into our minds by the intensity of our suffering. In Fisher Tiger's case, the atrocities he witnessed and endured as a slave under the World Nobles left him understandably filled with rage towards humans. Despite his innate sense of compassion and his desire for equality, he found himself unable to fully trust or forgive humans, even those who showed him kindness. His trauma had become a prison he couldn't escape, dictating his thoughts and actions against his better judgment. It's a heartbreaking reality that so many people in the real world face as well. Trauma can make us feel like strangers to ourselves, as if our own minds have been hijacked by the pain of our past. It's a constant battle to break free from those mental shackles and reclaim our identity.

Agree I also think that the emotional writing is the key selling point of OP. After that comes the mystery and world building. Then the intertextuality and after that, for me, the writing.

Love to see the MelonTeee shoutout.

Check out Hidden island as well. His theories are out there, but so creative and he finds enough evidence to make them make sense . He’s one of my favourite one piece creators . But yes like others have mentioned Mama Drawk, vinlan d Ragnar both also offer great perspectives

I've been yelling the praises of Oda and the way he writes trauma so I'll echo those hear too!! I'm a 39 year old dude who is just recently realizing he has been traumatized and One Piece and it's writing is one of the paths that lead me in that direction. Sanji/Robin/Law all hold a special place in my heart because a lot of how they processed their trauma seems to have been the same way I processed mine: limerence and self-sacrifice/isolation/the need to prove your worth and plan for all outcomes. After learning of my own trauma and working through it it becomes clear that Oda understands the same pathways to healing that are recommended to me now and uses that as a foundation for all his characters.

Can we have more vids like this pretty please?? The chapter takes are great, but your insight into different literary points in One Piece are super unique to Merphy!

I always looked at Brook's skull jokes as self deprecating. He hates the way he looks and he's painfully aware of it so it always mentions it to kinda beat other people to the punch.

Melon tree shoutout let's go😂 And sanji is love❤😊

ohh wow, you just had to make a video compiling all the moments that bring us to tears. Why? Why? Why? And I'm crying right now while typing this comment.

One Piece and pain seem to only exist in connection to each other.

Pain that Shapes but does not Define. Kuma: "Hold my terminally ill non biologial daughter, watch this"

MELONTEE MENTIONED RAHHHHHHHHHH🦅🦅🦅

Some notes just hits in the anime

Thank you Merphy

I love your content Merphy and also love the shoutout of my other favorite OP creator MelonTeee, can’t wait for more great stuff from both of you!

You know, back when Merphy was first making videos, way before Egghead, I never understood why she liked Kuma so much. I was always like, "that's such an obscure character to latch on to with that much passion." .....boy was I dead wrong! How does Oda do it? Taking someone who (to me) was towards the bottom of the list of relevant characters and turning them into one of the top 10 best characters in the story to 99.999999% of the community. Only Oda

melonteee and merphy napier collab when??

There's a big focus on individual trauma shaping an identity, but I think it's worth looking at the islands, whole societies and how the society's pain shapes everyone who shares that trauma, and how different people in those societies may share a trauma, but may react to that trauma in different ways. The long constant nightmare that is Wano hit me so hard, and Oda just kept throwing one nightmare after another right to the very end of that tale. Wano may be the most emotional trauma I've experienced in the series.

I relate to all those characters that you talked about

Sanji and Pain are such fundamentally linked subjects to me, but I relate so thoroughly to his own pain, trauma, and the way it's shaped him in his life so maybe that's why... He's just such a Sad Boy and I cannot help but relate as a former Sad Boy and hope he can come out of the closet and transition into whomever she is meant to be (jk jk,,, well... Unless... Deffo some closeted Queen vibes in our sweet boy) But really, I think Sanji's two back stories really reflect the role that *different* kinds of pain will be impactful and carried in different ways by a person. You can see the scope of Sanji's full trauma as early as his first backstory and the East Blue but it was his experiences with Zeff that controlled him for the time being (definitely having to feel like he constantly needs to prove himself//is a failure because of the trauma he carries from his bio family in there, too) and fully took away his ability to hunt for his dreams since in his eyes why should He, a Failure and a Freak, be the one to go off and freely search the world for Romantic adventures and chasing dreams when all he's any good for is cooking and supporting Zeff? But it's only after he's able to receive support from the Straw Hats that hes able to move past this one traumatic hiccough in his life, and immediately we see that beneath *that* theres an even deeper layer of self sacrifice and abjectly low self worth to his actions that all stem from the abuse and neglect he suffered at the hands of his father and siblings. That nuance and ability to tie one trauma response to the lens that was made through that past trauma... it just feels so *genuine* and it feels so *rare* but it's the kind of emotional depth that Oda writes into his work, almost constantly and makes me forever appreciate this series and its depth.

5:51 "Second chance at life" Badum tss

I love melonteee’s videos!

I would love a huge Sanji character video, he or Luffy are the better-written characters with the most depth in One Piece so far

Fire ass video title right here, you outdid yourself Merphy

Now I need to see Melontee's video.

Hope all OP yt creators keep uploading I must survive this 3 wk break

This is an amazing video title

Pound had the chance to be incredible. A forgotten husband, exiled from his family, with only the wish to see his daughter. He achieved his wish and even saved her life, and she never even knew he was there. He did so, accepting it would cost his life. Then accepted death as a proud father, straightening his tie with a smile on his face. And then Oda ruined it because he's not dead...

Law’s past 😢

Read that as “paint that shapes” first 🙃

Thanks for another cool one piece video, you delivered again Napier 😁✌

Dope content

I personally think that Luffy would have become like Moria if his crew had died at Kuma or Kizaru's hands and he lost Ace at marine ford. After all Moria lost his whole crew or at least a majority of it while Luffy still had people to pick him back up. I think Moria recovering as much as he has, willingly going out to sea again, risking his life to challenge a yonko speaks to his recovery. That's all just my option tho :)

You only called put Kuma's name and I started crying in public... 😭 That's crazy..m

Wait, what was the stream you talked about Kuma & Bonney on???

I a man a vice versa I started with the one piece anime then the manga currently I am caught up on both

kuma inspired me to keep going no matter what ive lost or what happens to me. despite all that happened to him he never lost his character. i used to not be a fan of the shibuya arc in jjk, but after going through a tough time at the same time as its animation's release, i started to see how yuuji's repeated loss and suffering is something that happens in life, and i cheered for him, cause seeing him keep going, even if it required help from others, is what i want to see from myself. i want to be like kuma. i want to be like yuuji. despite the worst, they still keep moving. i wanna be like that

LESSS GOOO

Brook definitely is somewhat crazy.

Is the Baratie discussion gonna be posted again? I never finished it

My top 5 favorite back stories are Kuma, sanji, robin, Odin and law and I can't stand law but corazone made it so enjoyable

I love MelonTee's videos !

Might have been better to just wait foe the remake imo but then again that would take forever.

Murphy Napier you are a total babe

❤

I think like many I relate most to Robin. I like how chill she and mysterious she was, but I was still iffy because of how she joined the straw hats and later what happened in Water 7. Then I watched her backstory and heard what she said to Luffy before he pulled her around. For me this arc was right in the depths of the pandemic and I was losing connection with my friends, family and myself. I'm not going to say it pulled me back from the brink, no single event can do that, but it resonated with me something fierce. And Robin's been my favourite character since.

Please please read Tower of God! It’s just as good as One Piece (I believe) and includes plenty of great characters!!

Melontee mention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One piece movie 6 all openings and endings

Day 40 of asking Merphy to review Bleach

I was so happy when Sanji got his own arc aka WCI but it now only reminds me of Zoro fans laughing coz Sanji didn't get any Charcater development.

tfw zoro and usopp are too mild compared to other crew members. they're still tragic but relatively normal

You would love x men comics

Day 42 of asking Merphy to review Bleach

Yes, Sanji is the best OP character. No further questions.

Day 41 of asking Merphy to start Bleach

If I had one wish I would wish the lord to let all your pain be mine and all my happiness be yours merphy....

When it comes to the themes of pain, I would relate more to Nico Robin 🖤⚡✨ my personal favourite arcs where she was an MVP were Water 7/Enies Lobby (there her backstory hit me hard 😭🌊), Wano Country (her big fight as a demon child with Black Maria was legendary 😏🎃🖤) and Egghead Island (those reveals from Shaka about the will of Ohara were emotional and mindblowing 😱😭💖)

Ru watching subbed or dubbed

Merphy thanks for this video but we do not need this coz kuma's backstory really sucks ya know he beats sanji's backstory by far...

How spoilerish is this? I'm on chapter 435.

why you do this to me🥲

Would you be interested in hearing about the real-life anime city I am trying to get started? It may be more interesting than you might think.

Would you be interested in hearing about the real-life anime city I am trying to get started? It may be more interesting than you might think.