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This week’s chapter is the exact reason why this blog is on hiatus. The longer One Piece has gone on, and the more closely I’ve looked at the series, the more disappointed I’ve gotten.
So many people were thrilled to finally have a character like Pudding in One Piece. A female character who starts out acting like an innocent, helpless damsel in distress but who turned out to be a unscrupulousness and cruel villain? She seemed like a deliberate attempt by Oda to subvert and change the predictable pattern he had fallen into. You know, the one where Dressrosa had 5 different damsels in distress on it, and not a single woman who defeated an important enemy during the entire 100 chapter arc. The pattern where Nami, Vivi, Robin, Hancock, Viola, Baby 5, and Reiju are all female characters who Oda took and went “Look at this dangerous female villain! Lamo jk they’re actually all victims who were either actually good the whole time or who switched sides.”
Not only that, Pudding seemed like a female character who might actually be used to address some of the problems with Sanji’s character and force him to develop and change. Some people were hoping that Pudding would cause Sanji to go from his “All women are innocent and sweet delicate little flowers who need men to protect them” mentality to, you know, seeing women as actual people who deserve to be viewed and treated according to their actions.
However, despite the big, exciting twist of Pudding turning out to be evil, I still couldn’t—wouldn’t—get my hopes up precisely because of Oda’s track record. And sure enough, what do we get?
We get, “That confident and malicious queen of deception? Guess what! She’s actually a sad girl who is insecure about her physical appearance and just needs to be told by a gross man who she hates that she’s beautiful!”
The only reason I’m not disappointed is because I never got my hopes up in the first place. Oda’s handling of the female characters in One Piece ranges from outstanding to depressing to infuriating. But on the whole, Oda has left me distrusting and disillusioned. I’ve long since lost my respect for how Oda writes/treats women. I’m still reading, but so much of the passion I used to have for the series is gone, and I am perpetually on my guard now so that I won’t be hit by the same intense disappointment that I’ve been hit by too many times already.
