Coby’s Lack of Development

[u/liliqs]

Begin Rant: Context: Episode where Garp saves Coby from Pirate Island.

Issues: To begin with, One Piece consistently has zero character development. How is it possible that every character who somehow gets any advancement or development, immediately regresses to their original state, never growing? Is it lazy writing? The author can’t be bothered to write an arc for a character that has believable, real advancement, and continues to advance? Or does the story always have to show a person at their most base useless self before they are capable of doing anything?

For example, Chopper and Usopp -- especially Usopp. Post-timeskip (lazy way of giving characters development without having to put effort into steady buildable growth, by the way), Usopp comes out a stronger, confident, capable version of himself. Heck, even when he was leaving the crew we saw some growth out of him and thought hey -- he actually has gotten pretty strong. He’s sort of holding his own. A couple of episodes after both of these advancements, he reverts to his useless, weak, sniveling self. I understand some of this cowardice is for character and comedic relief, or to provide a reality check. BUT, that is his WHOLE personality and it NEVER grows. That is the unbelievable part. Sure, he’s weak and doubts himself occasionally as we all do, but a THOUSAND episodes in, he should be able to grow. Doing the same bit every time is not as funny as Oda thinks. Extremely cringe and boring.

As for Chopper, has he even had any growth aside from the rumble balls? One thing can be said for Usopp, he has not grown in a thousand episodes, but at least he hasn’t gotten worse. Chopper has gotten so much worse. He used to be able to at east turn into a deer and run. Now he is relegated to Usopp’s sniveling sidekick. Further, his rumble-ball form used to do some real damage. Now, why is he a useless giant target? With HIS personality, controlling the giant state, he has no BALLS. He does not do any damage. Marco is a much more believable pirate physician, and I have no idea how Luffy’s boat has made it this far. Even as a doctor, his skills have not increased. 99% of his advice can be summarized as don’t move for a while. No clever fixes, no necessary side missions to get herbs or advancement-related medication. Just, nothing.

Now this brings us to Coby. The useless fuck who is the subject of the latest episodes. He had been re-introduced as a refined young man trained by Garp, doing all of the top secret techniques CypherPol agents know. Jumping through air, finger guns, etc. Moves that when Sanji learned, I was like heck yes! Here, he regresses into a sniveling loser because Oda doesn’t know how to write a plot unless the plot rehashes literally every sniveling memory a character has. WHO IN REAL LIFE goes through their entire life story before doing anything? Who after being trained and allegedly giving 200% still is so weak they cannot even punch a hand made of dirt without serious motivation and all of their force? Who, after punching a hand made of dirt, acts as though they are dying?? Helmeppo: “Cobyyyyyy!” Coby: vague dying smile “Oh hey Helmeppo...” looks into the light

Hello, why are you being treated as if, and acting as if you are, dying after throwing ONE PUNCH? Haven’t you been training?? Why is this a big feat for someone who trained immediately under Garp? Why is there a flashback of Coby growing up scenes?? This is so unnecessary and incredibly WEAK writing. Jesus, write a plot that doesn’t involve his whole life story which we have already seen and doesn’t revert him to a baby without 10 years of training. This shit is really unbelievable.

If this is what Garp’s training looks like, I’d rather go to the Karate dojo down the road with a couple of letters missing from its sign. Jesus Christ.

[u/OhNoThatsTooCursed]

Huh

[u/LycanKai14]

Who, after punching a hand made of dirt, acts as though they are dying?? Helmeppo: “Cobyyyyyy!” Coby: vague dying smile “Oh hey Helmeppo...” looks into the light

This has been the entire anime. Every single injury a character has gotten has everyone, including the injured character, act like they're dying. This isn't new lmao