I also dont think Katakuri is a Top Tier villain but I still love him to death and he's awesome. It's more of a testament to Oda's writing quality and the awesomeness of his villains that Katakuri doesnt even crack the top 10 despite being such a great villain.
Oh and he is yet another character I didnt feel anything for in the manga but the anime elevated to one of my favorites. Even if I dislike a certain thing from the anime about him that I wont spoil.
Edited by AegisP on May 9th 2023 at 7:42:58 AM
As long as this flower is in my heart. My Strength will flow without end.![]()
Spandam's amazing. I think you needed a villain like him for the Nico Robin stuff to hit as hard as it does.
I don't think it would work as well if Robin was being carted away by someone like Lucci. It had to be someone pathetic, and weak. It's infuriating that this nepotistic shit destroyed ennies lobby via his own incompetence, and yet he STILL almost got away with Robin.
I do think Moriah is the blueprint for my favourite type of One Piece villain though. Conceptually. He's appropriately strong for when he's fought in the story, but he's also VERY pathetic and sad as a character. He walks a line between being a joke and being threatening/thematically interesting.
Edited by GNinja on May 9th 2023 at 2:57:00 PM
Kaze ni Nare!My top 5 are Buggy, Katakuri, Moriah, Doflamingo, and Arlong, with Spandam and Big Mom being very close honorable mentions and Kuzan being an expected addition once all questions are answered. One member climbed from 3rd to 1st this very week, but he'd have been on the top 5 either way.
Your Moriah comment is really perfect, but Katakuri's appeal isn't really similar. The thing with Katakuri is that he's a really obvious archetype but he somehow still manages to be the only one of his kind in One Piece. He surprises with how it took this long for his type to appear and shows off the lowkey fascinating ways Luffy engages with this kind of personality.
Funnily enough, Koala's position given in her Odabox when first introduced was something like "Assistant Fishman Karate Teacher." She seems to have authority vastly transcending that mundane description, though - she almost always has direct contact with Sabo, and a seat at The Big Table.
Edited by HamburgerTime on May 10th 2023 at 12:57:32 PM
It sure is funny how Thriller Bark keeps relating to the Emperors. Moria's backstory is tied up in Kaido and Wano... We meet Lola, our first child of Big Mom, here and Nami receives her Vivre Card... Absalom gets killed by Blackbeard and his Devil Fruit given to Shiryu... Obviously, Moria got his shit rocked by Luffy... The armband that Luffy takes from Moria's treasure is a map he gives to Buggy (I believe we still haven't followed up with that, have we?) I wonder if Moria or anything else related to Thriller Bark has ever had involvement with Whitebeard or Shanks?
Edited by diddyknux on May 12th 2023 at 8:29:49 AM
Luffy's armband was a map marker for Captain John's treasure, so Moria probably got it from Captain John's corpse. The real connection there is that Captain John is a former member of the Rocks Pirates, which meant he was crewmates with Whitebeard, Kaido, and Big Mom.
Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on May 12th 2023 at 7:53:29 AM
Also, that marker makes the second time Nami unknowingly let a priceless treasure go. She gave it to Luffy because she thought it was a useless trinket. The first time was when she tried to "steal" gold from from Skypeia, totally unaware that they don't value gold up there and would happily have given her 10 times more if she just asked for it.

To be clear, I don't think EVERYTHING in Whole Cake worked. I've mentioned before that I didn't really like the entirety of the "Sanji leaves the crew" bit in concept, and seeing it in full context hasn't really changed that opinion. But I think outside of that, the stuff with his family was great and the stuff with Pudding is also pretty great. I guess I can see people being upset that his big climax of the arc is just making a cake, but I can't even say I was really bothered by that.
Hmm... I think Katakuri's a good villain. The best villain? That might be a little far.
Edited by diddyknux on May 9th 2023 at 9:21:30 AM