YMMV / One Piece Final Saga Alternative

• Ass Pull: Some of the elements in this fanfic while handled moderately well, have some introduced elements that come straight out of nowhere.
  • The revelation that it was the Devils that taught the races the use of Haki. Nothing in the story had indicated that it was a possibility since Minerva's explanation portrayed the race as being inherently antagonistic to all races and the leaps in logic that would have to justify said decision Even in-universe, Usopp finds this too absurd to take at face value and assume he's lying at first.
• Catharsis Factor: Several throughout the fanfic, both in how villains are defeated, but also in how certain events are achieved.
  • Brook and Sanji through miraculous means find their respective dreams, finding Laboon and the All-Blue. In the case of the former, it was very emotionally resonating due to how lonely and long it was before both reunited.
  • Usopp being declared a Brave Man of the Seas by Odin. After the trauma that Leviathan put him through by killing his father and destroying his home island, Usopp proceeds to gain Nerves of Steel to hold off increasingly dangerous enemies literally one after another to protect his comrades after years of being a coward in canon.
    • Earlier when he starts to take a stand, teleports to Shanks, calls him out, and proceeds to take back Luffy's hat to give it back to his captain, both emotionally resonating and satisfying after enduring Luffy being in a wretched condition for over 20 chapters.
  • After Shanks aka Am proved to a well-intentioned yet utterly murderous prick who in his backstory had proven to be always this way for a long time in spite of his tragic backstory. In the chapter of his final defeat, Luffy proceeded to give him a well-deserved Humiliation Conga involving both a literal and metaphorical beating of his body and beliefs for everything he's ever done including the events within Elbaf.
  • Through miraculous events, Luffy right after defeating Shanks, gains Roger's One-Piece via Buggy's unintentional intervention and is declared by Odin as The King of the Pirates. After so much hardship in this arc alone and his adventures, he more than deserves it at this point.
• Fridge Brilliance: Shanks regenerating his missing arm seems like standard Healing Factor, but it demonstrates two symbolic things- how little Luffy actually knew about Shanks's past let alone what he's like as a person, how deceitful Shanks can be, and how Shanks is going back on his promise to bet his missing arm on Luffy becoming King- it's a literal arm and hand to show his revelation of being evil.
• Harsher in Hindsight: It's mentioned that one of the Five Elders, the one with the dreadlocks, is a monster that experiments on people. Turns out that this is exactly his canon self, with the main difference being that the fanfic doesn't call him Jaygarcia Saturn.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Shanks has three potential moments when he crosses it, which is revealed in the final chapter of his fight with Luffy resulting in his death. Allowing most of the crew of his mentor murdered just for being aware of One-Piece's actual existence, causing the events leading to the son of his beloved mentor Roger, Ace's death out of sheer spite, and deliberately trying to get his own daughters Uta and Nami killed just for being Ancient Weapons either directly by his own or indirectly via other people.
  • Farbuit/ Rogberi revealing he murdered the original Farbuit to get his Devil Fruit and proceeding to engage in a heinous plan to start a war that would lead to the utter devastation of civilization with only he remaining.
  • Leviathan crosses it when he kills Yasopp and proceeds to destroy countless populated villages in his fight with Usopp.
  • Imu crosses it in his son, Shanks' backstory through his horrific abuse of his own child, culminating in threatening to have his son's lover, Makino killed in nasty ways and threatening to eat Shanks' son, who happens to be Imu's own grandson.
• Nightmare Fuel: Given that it's an interpretation of the final arc of One Piece, it's bound to be Darker and Edgier with plenty of unsettling moments.
  • The revelation of Shanks's evilness, given how it leads from a stark change of the emotional atmosphere when Luffy and he share their bond like they never change, and how it contrasts heavily with how he usually acts. Culminating in Shanks giving Luffy the briefest and worse beating of his life so far.
  • Shanks' appearance as Am, his hair turns blue, but more strikingly, he has the weird ripple eyes like Imu, which even within narrative give off an unnatural vibe, especially on a character whose eyes normally don't look like that.
  • Shanks starts his fight with Luffy literally stabbing him with his seemingly missing arm...except it actually was missing prior to this moment and he regenerated it. Given that he's the son of Imu, whose humanity is already mysterious and creepily questionable, what exactly is Shanks/Am and by extension, Imu.
  • Shanks destroying Luffy's right arm, leg, and eye to end the fight. Luffy has managed to dodge the likes of Mihawk, the best swordsman in the world and has come out of fights- including literally dying at one point, but wasn't able to react to Shanks, demonstrating how dangerous the latter was and giving Luffy a brutally sound defeat. This only hints at how much more violent fights will get later on.
    • Shanks taking back Luffy's Straw Hat, which on paper, seems fairly mild compared to the literal dismemberment of Luffy's right half of his body, but it's psychologically terrifying on two levels- one is Shanks saying he has no trust in him to keep the hat- which is emotionally abusive, but also the hat has been with Luffy since the beginning of the story, so it was like tearing a crucial part of his identity akin to metaphorical Mind Rape.
  • From Luffy's perspective, the whole situation is his worse fear- Shanks, his mentor not only reveals himself to be someone ruthless enough to fully intend to kill a woman for vague reasons but also physically/verbally attacks Luffy in a way that demoralizes him for almost the entire arc. Given that Shanks was the closest thing to an actual father to him, the implications of these actions become far more disturbing.
• Tearjerker: Given that is One Piece and an interpretation of the final arc, it is bound to be sad.
  • Chapter 7- It starts off with Luffy being happy to be reunited with Shanks with the two initially acting like they used to do, but the moment he reveals his intent to kill his new potential crewmate, Minerva, Shanks flips a literal switch from friendly to hostile, which Luffy, genuinely divided between his idol and his new comrade enters a futile fight with Shanks, And that he's actually Imu's son, Am, who joined Roger's crew to initially infiltrate it before befriending the man.
  • Chapter 8- Shanks cuts off Luffy's right arm, his right leg, destroys his right eye, and takes back his Straw Hat. While crippling Luffy in such a manner was cruel, taking Luffy's hat and saying he wasn't worthy of having it. It's little wonder that Luffy spends over 20 chapters angsting over the defeat.
  • Odin's entire flashback, narrated by his friend, Alviss, the man loses his father and grandfather to the Government tricking them into killing each other unaware to prevent a war, he's made an outcast by his own brother- whom he initially assumed dead during Big Mom's rampage, shanghaied into a crew of mostly sociopathic monsters with an even bigger sociopathic monster that mostly treats him like a useful tool at best/crap at worst for nearly twenty years, and when he finally gets home, his wife is killed by their brainwashed son, Thor, his newborn daughters are taken in the service of the government, and he's turned into a non-speaking crow, trapped underneath Yggdrasil for over 30 years.
  • Oimi and Kashii's deaths, they finally manage to get to Elbaf, only to be immediately shot down and only managed to land ashore before dying on their feet like the warriors they are. Brogy and Dorry immediately attempt to avenge their lost comrade before almost immediately dying at the hands of their crewmates' killer's associate.
  • Shanks destroying Fishman Island, fulfilling the prophecy of Madam Shyarly and leaving with Shirahoshi with his intention to go to Arabastia. Given all the sacrifices made to save it, seeing all ruined as the survivors, who all thankfully make it out alive, are forced to watch their homeland destroyed by who seemed to be the most benevolent of the post-Blackbeard iteration of the Four Emperors at the beginning of the time skip, is a hard pill to swallow.
  • Shanks' final death invokes both an bittersweet and utterly tragic feeling given while his actions are unforgivable, he had lived his entire life being under the thumb of a literal monster of an abusive parent that cared for him as a tool at best or something to torment at worst. His only reprieve was being on Roger's crew and once Roger was gone, Imu proceeds to have Shanks literally ruin his one moment of happiness by forcing him to oversee the murders of almost his entire crew aside from the few survivors and Buggy, and makes him occasionally commit atrocities with the worst being when he threatens Makino with death to get him to fight Luffy after being revived temporarily as a revived corpse. At that point, it seemed not only a fully cathartic moment of victory, but also a relief for a character metaphorically and later literally controlled like a puppet almost his entire life.
    • Luffy's reaction to the killing of Shanks. While it was absolutely necessary given how determined he was and how unforgivable his actions were, he was still a man who inspired his dream and saw as a potential father figure. Luffy is understandably conflicted after doing it.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Certain characters have this trait, making them very off-putting to look at.
  • Shanks/Am's real eyes, which have the same hyper-realistic, ripple eye designs as Imu, are described in-story to look unsettling and unnatural on his face given that they're usually small black pupils like everyone else.
  • Imu is depicted as its shadowy silhouette form with eerie ripple eyes but is given additional descriptions to add to their apparent inhumanity such as gliding on the ground rather than walking, a spontaneous grin wider than humanely possible, and an inhuman-sounding voice that goes from airily soft-spoken to a harsh rasp complete with a reverb whenever they speak. Which raises even more questions how human Imu actually is or what exactly Imu is.
• Wangst: While understandable, given the traumatic circumstances, Luffy's over 20-chapter-long Heroic BSoD whenever Shanks is brought after losing his arm, legs, eye, and his iconic hat is called out by a frustrated Odin to be inappropriate whining, especially given that everyone including Odin has suffered worse in their backstories, not to mention Luffy has suffered worse with the events leading to and after the death of his brother Ace are still canon within the story. And Luffy has suffered defeats that left him on the brink of death beforehand and none of them have had the same effect of making him emotionally break down.