In the Final Saga of One pieceEiichiro Oda pays special attention to the likes of the Monster Trio of the Slam Hat Pirates, consisting of Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji. The Monster Trio are the three strongest fighters in the crew who always continue to fight the strongest enemies no matter what. Their power is immense, and their rewards, all of which are over a billion, show for it. It is undeniable that the Monster Trio is crucial to the crew's survival in the New World.
However, sometimes in One pieceOda was guilty of focusing specifically on the Monster Trio and neglecting the other members of the Straw Hat Pirates. This was seen in arcs like Wano, and in the Final Saga, so far both Egghead and Elbaf. Because of the Monster Trio, the supporting cast of the Straw Hat Pirates has been neglected and as such they don't get to develop as much.
Eiichiro Oda has a strong bias towards the Monster Trio
It's no surprise that Eiichiro Oda has a very strong affinity for the Monster Trio of the Slam Hat Pirates. The trio first settled before the timeskip in the story and always took on the strongest of the enemy group. In Arabasta, the Monster Trio engaged the three strongest fighters of the Baroque Cannons, with Luffy pitted against the strongest, Zoro the second strongest, and Sanji the third strongest. This trend continued in One Piece and lives on to this day. However, before the timeskip, Oda balanced the Monster Trio with the rest of the crew.
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For example, in the Arabasta arc, each Straw Hat got their own moment to shine, and the Monster Trio clearly didn't overshadow anyone. In Skypiea, the Monster Trio didn't even get into individual fights and the likes of Nami and Robin were far more important. Similarly, the Water 7 arc focused on all the Straw Hats together, and in other arcs the Monster Trio and Straw Pirates did equally well.
Has the Monster Trio been removed? That's bad! — Nami
However, as the Straw Hat Pirates grew and the enemies grew stronger, Odo's bias towards the Monster Trio only grew. In a way, this is understandable, considering that only these three fighters are capable enough to take on One Piece's strongest enemies. However, with Oda focusing so much on them, it ends up neglecting the other members of the Straw Hat Pirates and preventing them from further developing their own power.
Oda's bias towards the Monster Trio grew even stronger from the Wano Country Arc, where Zoro and Sanji were officially designated as the Pirate King's Wings. Basically, they are the two strongest and most important members of the Straw Hat Pirates after Luffy, as well as others in command. This dynamic reasserted itself in the Final Saga, particularly in Elbaf, where their roles were compared to those of Rayleigh and Gaban. It's clear that Oda's interest in the Monster Trio is growing, as is fan frustration with the lack of focus on the rest of the Straw Hats.
The Monster Trio stops the other Straw Hats from getting stronger
Oda can't juggle all the straw hats at the same time
The Monster Trio continued to grow in strength throughout One Piece, and it stands to reason that they will become even stronger in Wano, likely learning Conqueror's Haki like Zoro and Sanji. However, their growth will most likely come at the expense of other straw hat growth, which is unfortunate. Because the Monster Trio is always ready to save the day and fight against the strongest enemies at all times, the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates never grow up in battle. As made clear in One Piece, Haki is a power that blossoms when one's back is against the wall and pushed beyond all limits.
The existence of the Monster Trio prevents the Straw Hats from getting into such situations, which is one of the main reasons why the vast majority of Straw Hats don't have access to Haki at all. If the Straw Hats were put in more dangerous situations, they might have developed even more, and one of the reasons that never happened is the Monster Trio. To be clear, the Monster Trio itself is essential and Straw Pirates cannot function without it. He also needs to develop with each passing arc, but Oda needs to find a better way to throw some highlights on some of the supporting characters as well.
Oda must find the perfect balance between the Monster Trio and the other Straw Hats
The supporting characters need more attention
If One piece They have to have a perfect main cast, Oda will have to balance the importance of the Monster Trio and Pirate King Wings with the rest of the crew. So far, only the Monster Trio has experienced important moments in Elbaf. The rest of the Straw Hats were taken down by one Holy Knight with relative ease and were rather useless for most of the fight. Similarly, Elbaf was supposed to be Usopp's arc for the most part, but so far has been completely overshadowed by the likes of Zoro and Sanji.
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The monster trio saving the day is great and also very necessary for the straw pirates to come out on top. However, One Piece clearly failed at times when it came to paying proper attention to the rest of the straw pirates. For context, Nico Robin still hasn't learned Haki, Usopp hasn't had his moment in the Elbaf Arc, Jinbei has been embarrassed by the likes of Gunko, and the likes of Nami and Chopper haven't had a moment of shine in years. These are things that Oda needs to fix in the Elbaf Arc, and if they don't fix it, the Straw Hat Pirates can't be called a successful bunch.
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Once Oda starts focusing more on the supporting cast of Straw Pirates, the Monster Trio itself will automatically become more likable, and the vast majority of complaints fans have will be immediately addressed.
At the end of the day, the Monster Trio will always be the strongest and most important fighters of the Straw Hat crew, but since Oda is extremely dependent on them, it can stunt the growth of the rest of the crew. Hopefully the second half of the Elbaf arc will change that, balancing the growth of the Monster Trio, which is absolutely essential, with the growth of the other members of the Straw Pirates, which is essential for Luffy to truly establish himself as the captain of the strongest crew on the seas.
One Piece is available to read on Manga Plus.
- Release date
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October 20, 1999
- Network
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Fuji TV
- directors
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imayomura, Yashiôhiro Mayuū Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
- Writers
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)
