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See, that seems like weak writing to me. Going back and finding a random character from episode 1 and suddenly saying "Hey guys, remember this guy? He's actually the main villain/the new crew member/whatever" doesn't seem that creative or as "mindblowingly epic totally planned out Oda is a genius" as people are saying. I don't see as "brilliant" or "masterpiece writing". It's kind of easy to recycle/retcon things if you do that, so I don't see the big deal. Like the Laboon/Brook thing.. who cares? Does it affect the story? People say it's "obviously planned out" (which is so debatable) but how is it different than saying Brook is Coby's dad. It would make just as much sense and have just as much foreshadowing as the Laboon thing did. Brook mentions Laboon by name, but the guy with Laboon never mentions Brook by name, so it's more like a retcon foreshadow. The pirate crew Laboon talked about could have been Shanks or someone else just as easily if Oda felt like it when the time came to retouch on that subject. It was pretty open.

well since everything is pretty much replied to by everyone else here, i 'd just reply to this one.

TitanXL wrote:

See, that seems like weak writing to me. Going back and finding a random character from episode 1 and suddenly saying "Hey guys, remember this guy? He's actually the main villain/the new crew member/whatever" doesn't seem that creative or as "mindblowingly epic totally planned out Oda is a genius" as people are saying. I don't see as "brilliant" or "masterpiece writing". It's kind of easy to recycle/retcon things if you do that, so I don't see the big deal. Like the Laboon/Brook thing.. who cares? Does it affect the story? People say it's "obviously planned out" (which is so debatable) but how is it different than saying Brook is Coby's dad. It would make just as much sense and have just as much foreshadowing as the Laboon thing did. Brook mentions Laboon by name, but the guy with Laboon never mentions Brook by name, so it's more like a retcon foreshadow. The pirate crew Laboon talked about could have been Shanks or someone else just as easily if Oda felt like it when the time came to retouch on that subject. It was pretty open.

Let me just leave this here.



don't try to cheapen his writing skills by calling it retconning and recycling. Oda takes notes of details. Another example is, when Rayleigh first appeared in Buggy's mini flashback, he specifically told the anime staff to NOT refer to the guy ordering them around as captain. Give credit where credit is due. Oda is nothing short of a great storyteller.

also,

> Does it affect the story?
are you listening to yourself? the reason brook joined them is because he had a reason to go through the grand line, a.k.a. Laboon. He wouldn't be part of the main cast if it weren't for that backstory.