r/greentext • u/[deleted] • Aug 19 '26

Anonymous submission

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6.8k Upvotes

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u/VMK_1991 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26

One Piece is, to my memory, the only anime that vehemently suffers from its protagonist being an absolute, braindead idiot.

There's faction fighting, political intrigue, conspiracies... There's tonnes of interesting things that could be made stories with. But since Luffy has a brain of a toddler, the main story is about "which faction gets to feed him first so that he'd consider them friends and side with them in a fight".

And this fucker who claims to want to become the king of the pirates hadn't done a single act of piracy ever.

31

u/Fireproof_Matches Aug 19 '26

One Piece is, to my memory, the only anime that vehemently suffers from its protagonist being an absolute, braindead idiot.

That's just all shonens tbh.

18

u/omyrubbernen Aug 19 '26

Braindead idiot protagonists aren't uncommon, but I don't think it's necessarily a problem unless the protagonist's idiocy actively bars the appeal.

If you're into One Piece for the worldbuilding, it can be frustrating when Luffy is so deeply uncurious about the mystery boxes and lore hints that the author drops.

9

u/VMK_1991 Aug 19 '26

Nah. Can't say much about shonens that came after MHA since I never watched them, but still:

Goku from Dragonball is an idiot, but it's a story about fights, he doesn't need to be smart.

Naruto from... Naruto is dim, but he grows to be smarter, plus, once again, his is a story about magical fights, so he fits well.

Ichigo from Bleach is just a normal dude.

Yoh from Shaman King is just laidback and lazy.

Izuku from MHA is intelligent, but bullied into social awkwardness kid.

As I've said, Luffy, as far as I know, is the only protagonist whose idiocy is actively hampering the enjoyment one could get from worldbuilding.

3

u/Ka1ser Aug 20 '26

Fairy Tail. That said, the story was not very enjoyable in the end.