 Hello and welcome to the groundline review your source for everything one piece except for today because we're going to go on a bit of a meta tangent here and have a bit of a discussion on a particular area to do with one piece on YouTube and on the internet in general I guess and this is because I do often get questions about whether or not I will ever make theory videos actually more often than not what I get our suggestions on speculative topics to cover and if you've been following me for a while you know that I did very very briefly try the whole theory thing out and think I made like five videos in the very very early days of the channel when I didn't quite have a clear vision of what I wanted it to be but I very quickly came to the conclusion that theories are not for this channel now this isn't to say that I have anything against theory videos made by others because there's quite a lot of merit to be had in the art of engaging your mind to look ahead and use the clues we've been given to predict a particular outcome and there are some very good theorists out there who come up with some very interesting stuff but why don't they work for me personally well there are two main avenues of thought both of which make theory videos as equally unappealing to me and the first is the more boring business oriented view which is the fact that the large majority of one piece channels on this platform are almost exclusively theory based and that oversaturation is very difficult to overcome when you're trying to break into a market as a small channel because your choices are that you need to adopt one of two strategies both of which I learned about in retrospect after initiating the channel actually so either you embrace what's called product leadership which means doing the same thing all of your competition is doing in this case making theory videos but furthermore you need to do it better which is a big ask for smaller channels and especially people who are just starting a channel to have them produce similar or even greater quality content than people who have been on this platform for the better part of a decade it's an unappealing idea for me anyway but there is another option to pursue which is what I rather subconsciously invested in and that is product differentiation which is the idea of offering something unique that immediately sets you apart from everyone else because what you're doing is just so different and as a result it's a lot harder to have a direct comparison meaning that the quality of your work is more likely to be forgiven in the early stages of your channel so in my case while the rest of the youtubeverse is making their theories I'm just sort of over here making a video on the top five moustaches in one piece or dogs or feeble old men random devil fruits that have only had a one panel appearance in the manga or just something that nobody else would ever think or you know want to touch really I say almost entirely because they do still make more standard videos as well like chapter reviews but for the most part I try to give the viewers of this channel something that they really cannot get anywhere else but it's not purely a marketing decision though because I have a more personal problem with theories than that especially when it comes to making them and that's because from my perspective there are only two outcomes once you've made a theory video the first is that your theory is wrong and once it's been proven wrong that video then loses any sense of value because the potential and the mystery of the future have completely vanished and the fact that it didn't really happen the way you speculate it just makes you look kind of foolish in retrospect there's really no point to watching the video at all from the perspective of the audience so I'd much rather have spent my time making a hundred One Piece 101 videos that can still be viewed rather than 100 theories the large majority of which are likely to be wrong and there's also a secondary detrimental factor to having a wrong theory and that is what happens when you actually craft an amazing theory well thought out and would fit into the story beautifully but then what actually happens is just completely underwhelming in comparison you're then left with this artificial sense of disappointment in the series because things didn't play out to your own personal expectations after having spent so much time crafting your masterpiece theory One Piece just kind of ignored it and did its own thing which isn't the fault of the series at all but hey that doesn't stop people from blaming it and you see this a lot when delving into the forum culture of the One Piece fan base almost without fail there will be a legion of complainers for every new chapter because things did not pan out the way they'd been talking about for the past week or several months or even years there's a very real danger with theories and speculation because it opens up an alternate universe of canon that becomes popular and essentially accepted in fan culture and as a result a lot of those people aren't open to any other ideas even the ones from Oda himself but you know what believe it or not the second outcome of having your theory be correct brings up an even worse scenario for me and that rather simply is because by accurately predicting something you've actively spoiled that part of the story for yourself for example I do some speculation in my chapter reviews because it makes a lot of sense to put that sort of future stuff in there but every time I've been right about something I've been incredibly disappointed because One Piece really is at its best when it is shocking and unpredictable so seeing exactly what you anticipated playing out is almost quite boring and it really reduces the enjoyment of reading a chapter weekly because as phenomenal as this story is if you really examine it you can for the most part pick up on where things are going through all the cues that are being planted not with anywhere near 100 accuracy and there are of course an incredible amount of left field ideas from Oda that get thrown into the works along the way but the floor plan is there and you can more accurately envisage the structure that is going to come from it but with both of those outcomes in mind for me to be spending time formulating theories is counterproductive to both the Grand Line Review channel as well as my own personal enjoyment of One Piece and get that a lot of people do receive a sense of satisfaction from predicting things you know the old oh damn I called it but at the same time those people are usually the same ones who have the most over-the-top blown away reactions to the stuff they did not predict so I do think they're still kind of shooting themselves in the foot there and ruining some of the enjoyment of the series for themselves but at the same time it's very hard to blame people for wanting to go down that path because theory videos gonna extraordinary views from the fan base even the ones that are just a slideshow of text and music just to be clear that's not me hating on text and music videos there are definitely some creators out there who have some great ideas and research to back it up but the overwhelming majority of them are a bit meh but in the end this lust for theories occurs because the fan base is simply desperate for more One Piece we are captivated by weekly chapters and want to know more immediately afterwards and so this extreme focus on the future has developed and I think that's a shame because One Piece is a series that has been running for over two decades now it has given us so much more than any other manga I can think of we've been to so many fantastic locations met hundreds of colorful characters and explored an entire human history's worth of ideas so I think it's a huge shame that for the most part we are so hyper focused on the future at all times although yes the future absolutely has a place in discussion as do theories and in fact they are an integral aspect of any fandom of an ongoing series I just wish they didn't make up the overwhelming majority of One Piece content out there there is so so much more to discuss and my advice to you if you're thinking of getting into YouTube and covering One Piece specifically is don't do theories do not even touch them because there is an entire fan base out there completely starved for other content do what One Piece itself does best and try to expand the world beyond what we have rather than adding to the pile of theories but if you insist and you are going to do them well you better make sure that you are damn good at them you need out-of-the-box ideas impeccable research and professional quality production anything less and you will fall into the vast pit of unknown theory channels and there are hundreds perhaps even thousands of them out there that just never got off the ground because they could not deliver those integral things but here at the ground line review we're going to leave that to the rest of the internet and yes from time to time videos will explore the future like random segments in chapter reviews or even stuff like my light discussion on why carrot might become a straw hat however for the overwhelming majority of this channel's content it's going to continue to do its own thing with the endless world that has already been built for us to explore and that pretty much does it for my personal problem with One Piece theory videos if you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general then please do consider donating to the ground line review patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible also do check out my teespring store if you're interested in shirts what is another miscellaneous items with the proceeds going directly to support the channel as well and if you'd like to join the fun at any time then please do head over to my discord server where a wide array of shenanigan retakes place on a daily basis and finally please do comment with your thoughts on One Piece theories this has been the ground line review and i'll see you next time scrolling scrolling scrolling there are many theories joy bonnie gear for sorrow karakuri oh holy crap that's my theory what do you know 22 000 views in one whole year you know what that's probably about as much as it deserves i apologize to anyone who's seen that video i promise i won't do it again