 Hello and welcome to the ground line review your source for everything one piece So recently I did a list featuring my top five least favorite characters in the entire series and to the shock and chugrin of many That list included a certain Sabo now while I did briefly state my reasoning as to why he made an appearance on such a list Many of you demanded the full story behind my thoughts like a lot of you So here we are today I am going to comprehensively explain the full breadth of my feelings regarding Sabo and know for the most part They are not positive But before we begin I have to make this incredibly clear because apparently last time I didn't say this enough that or people just didn't listen But just because I don't necessarily like Sabo does not mean that I am judging you as a viewer personally if you do I know a huge amount of people love Sabo and he's many people's favorite character and that is great I'm not here to complain about his popularity and it is not my place to judge anyone for their personal preferences Nor would I ever want to however as this is the internet it is apparently your place to judge my personal preferences So go ahead just be civil about it and please do not be a stupid fanboy who just reads the title and then Mercilessly holds down the shift key and then types furiously as if I just made a video essay on why nobody will ever love them That's enough of that. Let's get into this Sabo business Why do I consider him one of my top five least favorite characters? Well, it's a combination of his prominence in the story alongside how he was reintroduced the impact He had on events before that and what general purpose he serves so everything I guess there's a lot to delve into here However, first and foremost, I'd like to say that there is nothing inherently wrong with Sabo as an isolated character He has a cool enough design and a generally lackable personality with some good on-screen and on-page charisma I mean, I'd certainly argue that he is a bit flat compared to the depth of most characters in one piece But comparing Sabo which shown in general he does a decent job of existing The problem I find is that his existence comes at a cost to the story of one piece So Sabo came into the story at a very late stage at least for a character who was supposed to have such an outrageously strong bond And yes, Sabo was introduced in Luffy's flashback and I have no problems with how he was used there In fact that flashback was perfect and Sabo served as the tragedy needed for Ace and Luffy to grow and mature Setting them on the path that we would find them at in modern day. If Sabo had stayed dead I think that he'd be remembered quite fondly by me along with all of the other brilliantly written flashback figures But he didn't and this is one of my initial annoyances I absolutely hate when a story tries to have its cake and eat it as well with characters by soaking up all of the Traumatic impact of killing them and I said killing in quotation marks there only to bring them back at a later date This happens so so often in media in general and it's frustrating to me because it completely ruins the impacts of their death in the first place It makes the drama that was generated by it entirely pointless in retrospect And one piece specifically is guilty of doing this in other portions of the story as well With at least one much worse offender than Sabo actually during the alabaster arc with Pell But to give the Sabo thing some comparison Imagine if during the next dark after 1-0 Belle Maire just showed up out of nowhere having survived her encounter with Arlong and Reintroduced herself to Nami as I don't know a high-ranking member of the Marines This storytelling decision would have horrific ramifications on Nami's flashback in retrospect And quite possibly ruin the character of Belle Maire altogether Because the thing that really defines her in one piece was her heartfelt sacrifice And this goes for any character whose death has been played as a major impact on our main cast So instead of Belle Maire coming back imagine Tom, Dr. Hero look or Nico Olvia Just casually doing the same thing and strolling into the story after the very act of their deaths had impacted everything Their reintroduction into the series would cause more harm than good And that is exactly what happened with Sabo at least for me His supposed death was your classic one piece tragedy and his will was seemingly inherited by his brothers And not only them but Dragon as well who encountered a young Sabo and solidified his ideals in regards to overthrowing the Nobility of the world as a result of seeing Sabo's pain And Sabo being alive just makes all of that look not pointless but much less powerful in retrospect However, that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the damage He's caused in my mind because Sabo being alive didn't just ruin his own death But arguably the most impactful death in the series being Ace Whatever your feelings are in regards to Ace This is probably one of the most monumental and iconic moments in all of one piece Oda had made the decision to kill Luffy's brother forcing him to endure heavy loss for the first time that we as an audience Had experience with him anyway And it was a new side to Luffy and dealing with Ace's death was one of his greatest trials After which he became so so much stronger mentally He evolved as a result of the experience which was fantastic And one piece was set to go in a new direction from here Was going to go in a new direction past tense Because then out of nowhere it was revealed that Luffy still had an older brother And the whole ace thing is just kind of ruined for me I've used this analogy a couple of times in videos before But it's as if Luffy's older brother with a trademark hat and fire powers died And so instead of moving on what we did was go to the pound and get Luffy a new older brother With a trademark hat and fire powers It really does make me wonder why Oda bothered killing our face in the first place If he was just going to be replaced by someone with the same premise But for a funky comparison Let's imagine what would have happened if this had occurred to any other character But the purpose of this argument I'm going to choose Zora If during the paramount war Zora had been with Luffy And it was him who sacrificed himself in front of Akaina Then just as with Ace this would be one of the most iconic moments in the series And serve as an eternal memorial of Zora However then imagine that we get to the new old portion of the story And Luffy recruits another swordsman who just so happens to practice Santorio And he inherits Zora's three swords As well as takes up the role of swordsman of the straw hat pirates In the same way that Sabo inherited Ace's devil fruit And the role of Luffy's older brother You'd start to question exactly why Oda bothered to kill Zora in the first place Just to replace him with a character of the same premise And not only that but it would be a huge narrative insult to Zora In the same way that I feel Sabo's modern existence takes something away from Ace And here is where the argument about Sabo being a revolutionary With an entirely different goal to Ace come in Which is great because that is legit the only thing that stops him from being a full on Ace clone in my eyes But that is not anywhere near enough As it is I don't really see what Sabo brings to the table Because if it's the purely story driven plot purpose of being a revolutionary Then that could have been accomplished with any character And if it's to fill the void of Ace Then why bother getting rid of Ace in the first place What the whole Sabo thing makes me feel is that Oda made a bold decision And once he'd actually killed Ace He felt like he made a mistake That or his editors or what not felt he'd made a mistake And encouraged him to introduce another cool older brother to fill Ace's role And now cue the arguments of nah, ah bro Sabo was banned from the very beginning I mean just look at the sake cups and the tattoo And to that I say The sake cups proved nothing Because sure this late stage Oda clearly had Sabo planned for the eventual Ace Luffy flashback But that does not mean that he was planning on bringing him into the modern day And as for the tattoo Sure it could mean that Oda always had Sabo in mind Or it could have been just a cool tattoo design That became something much more meaningful 10 years down the line When Oda all of a sudden had a brilliant idea of how to incorporate it Stuff like that happens in long running series all the time And it's entirely possible that Sabo was even named Sabo So that he could match the Ace on Ace's tattoo And not the other way around But the biggest thing that makes me think that Sabo was not originally planned to be reintroduced Is the clunky way in which he was inserted into the story And the actual plot holes caused by his continued existence in the series A series that has worked so hard for two decades now To ensure a tight story and solid world And first up let's talk Amnesia This is one of the worst devices to use in any form of story Because it's generally used as a lazy solution to a problem Which is exactly what the Sabo situation is Oda needed an explanation as to why Sabo had not made his presence known To either Luffy or Ace And there was pretty much only one option, Amnesia Very convenient And this is not where the plot holes begin But it's such a lazy writing device that it left a really bad taste in my mouth Because Oda is usually so damn good at explaining away crazy things like this But in this case it felt like he'd written himself into a corner That was impossible to cleanly escape from But even once you're out of that corner Sabo just existing causes problems And it's because of his role in the world as the chief of staff of the Revolutionary Army Essentially the number two man of the entire organization With a bounty of 602 million berries on his head So with that in mind Sabo has Amnesia, yeah? Cool, that explains why he never recognized Luffy or Ace in newspapers But that explanation does not work the other way around How did Ace specifically never come across Sabo? He was a pirate for three years and rose to become a division commander On one of the largest and most infamous pirate crews in the world Are you seriously going to try and tell me that in all of that time With those incredible connections That Ace never stumbled across the bounty or even the name Of one of the most infamous criminals in the world And remember Ace is not Luffy He actually pays attention to the world around him And there is no excuse whatsoever For Ace remaining ignorant about Sabo being alive When he's perfectly capable of stumbling upon minor bounties like Luffy's And Ace isn't the only one either Another problem arises when we consider Garp Who remember actually knew Sabo back in the dawn island days When he'd come to visit and terrorize the three of them Now Garp has even less of an excuse for Ace Than not knowing that Sabo was alive Because as an emissary of the world government They would be tapped into the pulse of the Revolutionary Army More so than most individuals of the world Now an explanation for this maybe that Garp did know And simply did not want to tell Luffy or Ace about Sabo But that doesn't really make any sense either Because he willingly told Luffy that his father was Monkey D Dragon The most wanted man in the world And leader of the Revolutionary Army So what harm would telling him that Sabo is also a member Of their organization do at that point It's inconsistent And that's not even it because we also have Robin She spent two years with the Revolutionary Army During the time skip and became good friends with Sabo Why didn't she tell Luffy that Sabo was alive And before anyone tries to tell me that Sabo told her not to This has never actually been said And is only used as reasoning by the fan base Because there is no actual explanation Yeah Robin keeps to herself But this is a monumental revelation It's almost cruel to keep it for Luffy for so long But yes I could accept that Sabo wanted to encounter Luffy himself I just wish it wasn't up to the readers and watchers to assume that It should never be the job of fans to fill the holes of writers But of course we do know the narrative explanation as to why And it's so that Sabo could have his surprise reveal in Dress Rosa But do you see the plethora of issues that Sabo's mere existence causes And to me the wild inconsistencies and lack of logical or even any explanations Just isn't worth it for me One piece minus Sabo is such a well crafted piece of story It is tight and solid Even though a lot of improvisation does occur But it simply could not handle Sabo Which either means that he was not planned And had to be hastily planted into things Or that he was planned and his reintroduction was entirely botched Either way it does not result in a character that makes their presence worth it for me And after all this negativity I'd like to reaffirm that I do not hate Sabo As a character I feel just nothing for him whatsoever What I hate is his impact on the series Now a lot of people were also a bit shocked that I could place someone like Sabo on my top 5 least favorite characters And not place people like say Spandam or St. Charles And the reasoning for that is pretty simple Yes these two characters are engineered to be hated But they do so in small doses And you know what to a certain extent It's actually really fun to see them being beaten up So that makes their presence in the story worthwhile I mean Charles in particular was so much of a dick That he provided us with one of the greatest punches in the history of media There is no way he comes anywhere near close to the least favorite character to me on those grounds But then there's Sabo Who is not a minor character like Spandam or Charles He is quite possibly one of the most important figures in the story today And from my perspective that position feels unearned His basic premise is the same as Acer's Older brother, thunky heart, fire powers He ruins the retrospective impact of his own death by being alive He minimizes the impact of Acer's death And he rips logical holes in the fabric of the series Through a very poor explanation as to how he is alive And what he's been doing all of this time And on top of all of that there's just not much to his character He's a classic cool shounen dude for the sake of being a classic cool shounen dude And maybe this will change in time as his absurdly important role in the story evolves But as it stands right now Sabo is a giant vat of meh to me And it doesn't matter how cool his design is What he is just isn't worth it right now And I have trouble figuring out what might make him worth it in the future I mean what is his role going to be going forward? Is he going to be captured by the world government? Is he going to die? Because if so the parallels to Ace will only get stronger However at the same time if he doesn't have that sort of high impact on the future of the story Then his character may as well not exist outside of Luffy's flashback So to me he's in a very lose lose situation But you know knowing Oda he could pull out something amazing And I eagerly await the day when my opinion on Sabo has completely changed Knowing how he was used in the story If that happens And just to reiterate to everyone who loves Sabo Good on you I'm glad you take joy from this character Because the last thing I want would be a universally despised figure In such an important position in One Piece Sabo is hugely popular and he's here to stay And I've long since come to terms with that But it's more than likely the case that he will remain One of my least favourite characters in the series For every reason that I've mentioned here today But that pretty much does it for my personal problems with Sabo If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general Then please do consider donating to the Grand Line Review Patreon Because the support of all of your amazing people Is what continues to make this channel possible And if you'd like to see more videos like this But applied to other anime manga series Then please do check out my second channel New World Review For all of your wider needs 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 own thoughts on Sabo This has been the Grand Line Review And I'll see you next time No that's not what's happening to him He has a face like mine What? Who's my face?