To understand why something is broken, you need to know why it fell to pieces. Trafalgar Law's long hidden pain is finally revealed.
The Good
People have often complained about how Oda lets characters live when they by all rights shouldn't survive. Even I've on occasion rolled my eyes in the way Oda seems so incredibly reluctant to kill off a character during the present day plot. People can go through absolutely ridiculous levels of personal injury with no repercussion. It took me about a month to realize Ace's death was going to be permanent. However, the past in Oda's world is utterly stained in blood.
This origin story of Trafalgar really hits for the gut, and it's almost shocking how much the creator gets past his editor. We see Law's parents shot, his terminally ill sister burns alive, then a nun and a slew of children are massacred by an army. The only thing missing was a dead puppy. To be honest with you, I saw the death of the children coming a mile away, but I never thought we'd actually see the bodies in such graphic detail. After witnessing all of that within the span of twenty minutes, who could blame Law for turning into a child nihilist?
This story just comes at a rather remarkable time for the U.S. So many are absolutely terrified that Ebola, a predominantly African virus, will spread across the country like wildfire because one person in Texas is diagnosed. All of this despite people who actually know what they're talking about explaining that contracting it is difficult. It just doesn't help that our media is pretty much based around spreading fear and "worst possible case" scenarios. That's exactly what I was thinking about as I saw how Buffalo reacts to Law's White Lead Disease, then Doflamingo, of all people, setting the record straight and scolding his crew for such intolerance. Yet you'll notice that knowing the truth does nothing to dissuade Buffalo's paranoia. People hear the word "incurable disease" and any other detail falls on deaf ears.
The Bad
Where I think this chapter falters is in a rather clumsy exposition dump. I understand that the audience needs to be taught this story about Flevance, White Lead, and the World Government's manipulation of the facts. It just comes across as odd that this is being told to Baby 5 in turn by separate members of theDoflamingo Family. It's the way new members keep popping up at different times to chime in with with the next bit of information, as if they have this story rehearsed.
I also find it strange that something called White Lead could be mistaken for anything other than toxic. It would have been different if it was originally called "White Gold", before its true nature was revealed. Although, I wonder if Oda was just drawing historic comparisons with how educated, ancient civilizations at one time used lead to create dinnerware and water aqueducts.
Verdict 4/5
The ONE PIECE creator never really seems to falter when it comes to the emotional impact of a character's past origin. They all end in tears for someone, and the audience is likely not far behind. I definitely come out of this with a better understanding of Trafalagar Law. By that token, the chapter does a superb job. This also left me shocked by seeing how graphic the deaths were in this one. Remember that this shows the images of multiple dead children in a magazine marketed to kids of a similar age group. I have to imagine this one inspired some overly sensitive parents to write some angry letters to the publisher.
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About the Author
 | Kristoffer Remmell (FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek. Follow for news updates:@AnimeVicers/@FoxxFireArt / http://kristofferremmell.tumblr.com/ |
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