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Warning: Contains spoilers for One Piece.Like manyOne Piecefans, I’ve been in love with the Elbaph arc pretty much from day one. It’s been checking off nearly every box I thought it had to and so many more, and for the most part, it’s everything I and the fandom have been waiting almost 30 years to see, and more.
The key phrasing for all of this, of course, is “almost”. After so many years of anticipation, it’s been great to watchOne Piece’s Elbaph arcso effortlessly balance action and lore reveals with every new chapter, but at the same time,the biggerOne Piece’s Elbaph arc gets, the more worried I’ve been getting that it won’t live up to an important promise and the biggest thing I’ve been looking forward to. It might be too premature to say anything about that, but withOne Piece’s history, it, unfortunately, might be the perfect time to do just that.
Why I’m Worried The Elbaph Arc Won’t Give Usopp His Due
One Piece Might Be Wasting Usopp’s Potential
My biggest concern about the Elbaph arc right now is that it will end without givingOne Piece’s Usopphis due. Ever since we first learned about Elbaph, going there was framed as being synonymous with Usopp’s dream of becoming a brave warrior of the sea, and his interactions with Oimo and Kashii in the Enies Lobby arc further reinforced that point. Unfortunately,the Elbaph arc’s large focus on lore and other elements has already caused Usopp to get lost in the shuffle, and I’m worried about howOne Piececould resolve that, if at all.
The most recent chapters are especially worrying for me. We have Franky discovering the mural ofthe entire history ofOne Piece’s world, Luffy meeting Scopper Gaban, and Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji about to confront Loki; all of these are major events, but Usopp hasn’t been involved with any of them and has spent most of the arc getting drunk and partying with the giants.One Piecehas currently shown little to no interest in giving Usopp anything to do in the Elbaph arc, despite how important Elbaph should be to his character, and that’s nothing but disappointing to see.
One Piece’s Elbaph Arc Wouldn’t Be The First Time A Straw Hat Lost A Perfect Arc
One Piece Keeps Mishandling Its Heroes
Usopp not getting his due is especially worrying because it wouldn’t be the first timeOne Piecedid something like that. For starters, Nami was set up to have a big role in the Fishman Island arc as a means of formally closing the book on her past, butOne Piece’s Fishman Island arcultimately gave Nami very little to do, with her barely even interacting with Hody and the New Fishman Pirates. Nami did explain to Jimbei that she had already moved past hating fishmen, but it’s nonetheless odd that Nami had such little presence in the arc.
A more recent example of a Straw Hat Pirate not getting their due comes from the Egghead arc. When it became clear that the Egghead arc would be the long-awaited introduction of Vegapunk, most fans assumed that Franky would have a large part to play since he admired Vegapunk after spending two years working with his technology on Karakuri Island. Unfortunately,Franky had no meaningful interactions with Vegapunk in the Egghead arc and was largely irrelevant to the arc, as a whole, thus robbing Franky of a perfect opportunity for some character development.
The most egregious example of this, however, is withZoro in the Wano arc. The early parts of the Wano arc set up Zoro to be a major player, but despite the initial buildup, Zoro ended up playing no larger a role than he did in previous arcs, and his character was largely unchanged in the end. Overall,the long history of the Straw Hat Pirates not being important in arcs where they logically should have been makes it all too plausible for the same to happen to Usopp, and that’s unfortunate to think about.
The Wano arc also heavily implied that Zoro was the descendant of Shimotsuki Ryuma, but that wouldn’t be confirmed until an SBS after the fact, and it ultimately played no part in the story.
Why Usopp Needs A Big Arc More Than Anyone
Usopp Is One Piece’s Most Wasted Hero, By Far
It is all too likely that the Elbaph arc will end without giving Usopp anything to do, and that’s especially disappointing for a character like him. For years now, Usopp has easily been one of the most irrelevant members of the Straw Hat Pirates, with the series prioritizing his role as comedic relief over giving him any sort of depth, and he infamously hasn’t used his Observation Haki once since Dressrosa.Usopp needs the Elbaph arc to be his arc to finally make him a relevant character inOne Piece, but it looks like that might not be happening.
What makes it even worse is that Usopp wasn’t always like this.One Piece’s pre-timeskip era gave Usopp a clear and consistent arc of becoming a braver and more competent person, and the early parts of the post-timeskip era kept that going to great effect, but recent years have seen Usopp’s character backslide to be just as cowardly as he was in the old days, if not more so.One Piece’s Elbaph arc needed to be Usopp’s arc to fix the terrible handling of his character in recent years, and at this rate, it doesn’t look like that will happen.
Is There Any Hope For Usopp After The Elbaph Arc?
Can One Piece Still Give Usopp His Due After Elbaph?
Elbaph might be unable to give Usopp any meaningful development, which begs the question of whether it could happen anywhere else. If the Egghead and Elbaph arcs are anything to go on,One Piece’s final saga is only going to become more action-packed and lore heavy with every new arc, and Usopp, as he’s currently being written, can’t contribute to that beyond comedic relief. Because of that,I’m afraid that if Usopp doesn’t get something to do in the Elbaph arc, he’ll be complete deadweight inOne Piece’s final saga, and I don’t know ifOne Pieceeven cares.
Even if Usopp is supposed to fill the role of a normal person within a group of freaks, he can still grow as a person, and he used to have more growth than anyone else in the cast, soif the Elbaph arc ends without Usopp playing a major role, it will be impossible to see it as anything other thanOne Piecewasting his character for years on end. As someone who’s always loved Usopp, I would love to be wrong about all that, but right now, it’s annoyingly hard to seeOne Piecedoing right by him.
