Arabasta: One Piece Analysis
This article discusses the Arabasta saga of One Piece, which begins with the Straw Hats entering the Grand Line and ends with their departure from Arabasta. You can find my analysis of the East Blue saga here.
A broadening of horizons
At the beginning of the saga, we know little about the history of the world beyond Roger’s execution 22 years ago. Most islands look similar to one other. Most factions are not particularly fleshed out. While the world has its charm, it doesn’t feel grand.
With the Arabasta saga, the One Piece world expands outward in space and time, and grows in diversity and color.
Multiple narratives emerge on a larger timescale than the 22 year long Great Pirate Era that’s the focal point of the story. The Straw Hats encounter Laboon, who has been waiting for a pirate crew for fifty years. They meet Dorry and Brogy, two giants who’ve been engaged in a sacred duel on a prehistoric island for a century. We learn of Nico Robin’s quest to find the Rio Poneglyph and uncover the ‘true history’ of the world.
Oda also unleashes his creative energy in character and world design. Over the course of this saga, we meet a panoply of creatures, imaginative devil fruits and memorable character designs.
Unlike East Blue, islands in the Grand Line have a unique identity and design — Little Garden, Drum Island and Arabasta feel completely different from one another. Oda’s world-building comes to life, and the Grand Line lives up to its reputation as a mystical ocean where anything can happen.
On Leadership
The contrast between Wapol and Vivi establishes what makes a good ruler in the world of One Piece. Wapol is greedy, cowardly and believes that the kingdom exists to elevate him. Vivi is selfless, courageous and serves the kingdom.
When Drum Kingdom is pillaged by the Blackbeard pirates, Wapol flees and disguises himself as a pirate. He returns only when the pirates have left. When Vivi realizes that Arabasta has a dangerous adversary, she also leaves, but to go right into the enemy’s mouth. Mirroring Wapol’s journey, she too becomes a pirate during her exile (by sailing with the Straw Hats), but only to come to her country’s aid. While Wapol sails away from danger, Vivi sails toward it.
In One Piece, worthy rulers confront danger and undertake sacrifice for their people… not unlike what a worthy pirate captain would do for their crew.
A good leader should also know when to pick a fight. Luffy typically solves problems by punching them. When they approach the hostile residents of Drum Island, Vivi teaches him that there’s more to captaincy than that.
Later during their argument at Arabasta, Luffy tries to teach Vivi the opposite lesson — sometimes, violence is the only answer, and victory requires sacrifice.
Idealism and Strength
In an illuminating conversation before Luffy and Crocodile fight for the first time, they discuss Vivi.
Luffy: The thing about Vivi is… she tries to help everyone along her way, no matter how weak she is. […] She thinks that no one needs to die in this rebellion.
Crocodile: Nobody needs to die? There are many peace-loving fools like her. Those are people who have never seen true battle. Don’t you agree?
Luffy: Yup.
They share the belief that Vivi’s idealism is naive and foolish. When Luffy and Vivi argue earlier, he says as much to her face.
Later in the arc, Vivi has an opportunity to tell the rebellion that a bomb is about to go off. Doing so would kill many because of the stampeding chaos as the crowd evacuates, but likely save many more from the bomb itself. She chooses to not sound the alarm, instead hoping to stop the explosion from going off. Crocodile mocks this decision ruthlessly.
But it’s not that the idealism itself is foolish. Crocodile sums it up neatly:
Only those with power can afford to have ideals!
- Sir Crocodile
The world of One Piece is cruel and unforgiving. To have ideals, you must have strength.
Vivi never gives up on her ideals, but Tashigi does. Lacking strength, Tashigi is unable to even inconvenience Crocodile’s plans. As a consequence, she doesn’t take Straw Hats captive even though they were easy pickings in that moment . Without strength, she felt that her justice was meaningless.
Despite the distance between them in years and experience, Luffy understands the way of the world just as well as Crocodile does. His common ground with Crocodile makes him a fascinating protagonist. One gets the sense that he doesn’t feel strongly about Vivi’s cause one way or another — his motives have little to do with heroism.
Friendship and Death
When the Straw Hats need to make it to Rainbase ahead of the rebellion, it kicks off a singular sequence of events. They need a fast mode of transportation, and Chopper arrives atop a giant fast-moving crab to help. It turns out that the camel ‘Eyelashes’, whom they’d rescued earlier, was friends with the crab.
Next, while crossing the river, they run into a Sandoran catfish who would eat them. But the Kung Fu Dugongs, whom the crew had befriended when arriving at Arabasta, jump in protect them. At the other side of the river, Karoo and his Duck squad stand ready to take them to Alubarna. In short, the Straw Hats make it to Alubarna in time because of the friends they’d made earlier in the story.
The One Piece world is one of unlikely friendships, where humans can be friends with whales, camels, dugongs and ducks. A doctor can befriend a reindeer, a camel can be friends with a crab, and two giants can be best friends whilst fighting each other for a hundred years. And… pirates can be friends with a princess. Friendship is a central theme of the saga.
Luffy: Vivi’s always putting her own life in danger to save other people. If we don’t help her, she’ll die! You people will kill her!
Crocodile: I don’t get you. All you have to do is cast her aside and —
Luffy: I don’t want her to die! ’Cause she’s my friend! As long as she refuses to give up on her country… we’ll be right there fighting beside her.
Luffy simply fights because he doesn’t want Vivi to die. He would rather be dead than lose a friend, just as Vivi would rather be dead than give up on her country. Just as Laboon would rather ram his head against the Red Line endlessly than accept that his pirate friends are gone forever. Some things are worse than pain or death.
From Crocodile’s frustration with Luffy’s philosophy, one can speculate that something once drove Crocodile to a different conclusion: having no friends is better than having them and then losing them. Instead of a pirate crew, he assembles a criminal organization where no one knows each other or him.
Crocodile has strength, but he has nothing to die for. And this is the decisive refutation of his philosophy. If Vivi’s a fool because she would die for her ideals, Crocodile’s a greater fool, because he has nothing worth living for. And Luffy says as much before their first fight:
Crocodile: You’re the biggest fool of them all. […] You get close to someone and then die because of it. I’ve forsaken tons of people like that.
Luffy: In that case… doesn’t that make you the fool?
Earlier in Drum Kingdom, we’re introduced to the idea that true death occurs when you’re forgotten — not when your heart stops beating.
Hey… When do you think a person dies? When a bullet from a pistol pierces his heart? No. […] A man dies when he is forgotten!
- Dr. Hiriluk
Crocodile will be forgotten soon after his defeat. If Vivi or Luffy’s life had ended, they would have been remembered. Friends remember you after you’re gone.
The final word on friendship is from Bon Kurei. After they first meet, he departs the Straw Hats with the following words:
To true friendship, how long you’ve known each other means nothing!
- Bon Kurei
Later, Bon Kurei sacrifices himself to let the Straw Hats get away. The Straw Hats could escape on their own but don’t — because it would mean they miss their appointment with Vivi. Bon Kurei initially dismisses them as fools, but when he learns they’re keeping a promise to a friend, he jumps into action.
This is a microcosm of the thematic dialogue we’ve seen play out in the saga. This time, it’s the Straw Hats who pursue a foolish goal while lacking the strength. But to Bon Kurei, the foolishness and irrationality of friendship is what makes life beautiful! He sacrifices himself for his friends, and for the ideal of friendship itself. The last thing we hear the Straw Hats say of him is that they’ll never forget him. If we believe Dr. Hiriluk’s words, regardless of the outcome of his fight with the marines, Bon Kurei will not truly die as long as the Straw Hats live.
With Bon Kurei, Oda underscores the point of the saga by pushing the limits of friendship to the point of disbelief — a former enemy sacrificing himself for friends he’d known for an absurdly short amount of time. But the Straw Hats hadn’t known Vivi for very long either. Certainly not long enough that it would be ‘rational’ for them to risk their lives for her. What Bon Kurei does for the Straw Hats is not so different from what they do for Vivi.
As readers, we’re invited to follow along with the Straw Hats’ adventures with this understanding their irrational embrace of the beauty of friendship. It is the very fabric of this entire crew. In this saga, Oda lays down a foundational idea: in One Piece, friendships can be formed in mere moments, yet be more precious than life itself.
The First Epic Saga
Oda’s characters live off and on the page. They seldom exist simply to satisfy a narrative purpose, only to be cast aside once used. In Oda’s imagination, their stories stretch backward and forward in time. This adds dynamism to the story where seemingly secondary characters become significant in unexpected ways. Consider the role of Mr. 3’s wax abilities in freeing the Straw Hats from Crocodile’s cage, Bon Kurei’s outsized thematic presence, and Karoo’s essential contributions in the war against Baroque Works. Through cover stories, Oda continues developing characters such as Jango, Fullbody, Buggy, Alvida and Koby, though the purpose of these, if any, is unclear.
Oda leaves no characters behind. This can harm the story, as we see with the cardinal sin of not letting Pell die when he sacrifices himself for the kingdom. Igaram is also ‘resurrected’. Often, great strengths come paired with weaknesses, and such is the case with Oda’s love for his characters and his unwillingness to let them die even when it undercuts the narrative and makes the reader feel cheated.
Despite this flaw, in the Arabasta saga Oda comes into his own as a master storyteller. He brings to life vivid character designs and diverse geographies; weaves a complex story of espionage and civil war; provides meaningful arcs for dozens of characters; orchestrates some of the most engaging battles yet; and lays down foundational themes for the overarching story.
Crocodile is also the first truly compelling villain of One Piece; boasting a tortured yet self-consistent philosophy, commanding presence, formidable battle prowess and endless cunning. When he is finally brought down, it feels earned. And it feels exactly as difficult as it should be for a rookie crew to take down a Warlord of the Sea. With Arabasta, Oda offers a rich tapestry of storytelling, and sets the Grand Line in motion with the first epic saga of One Piece.