 The level of detail in One Piece is one of the series' greatest strengths where the mangaka, Hiro Oda, dedicate so much planning to create such a logical and tight story with numerous callbacks and foreshadowing moments. However, how much of the beloved story is actually the result of changes made along the way. Hello my Nakamitachi, this is Joygirl and today we're going to be discussing some of the changes that were made to One Piece since its initial inception. And I welcome everyone to watch this video as it is absolutely free of spoilers. And I also emphatically welcome everyone to subscribe to the channel because here is where we frequently hold discussions of One Piece and as such an absolutely brilliant use of your time. Something Oda knows very well about because 23 years into the series, Hiro Oda has spent half of his lifetime creating and executing his story of one rubber boy and his goal to become the pirate king. And one of the greatest things about One Piece is how meticulously detailed Oda is. Characters and plotlines are well developed and practically seamless and the careful planning that Oda has done well in advance of events actually occurring is evident through the various foreshadowing and callbacks which are sprinkled generously throughout the series. So it may come as a surprise that not everything within One Piece is the result of prior planning. In reality, in this great expansive story, there are elements and developments which he has changed whether it be following advice from his editors or simply his own enjoyment of a character that he created. The latter reason being exactly how Vivi's character was developed. In the 21st logbook, Oda revealed that Vivi's role as the princess of Alabasta was the decision made later in the story. Having already designed Miss Wednesday, the mangaka drew the baroque agent with her hair down and discovered she looked like a princess. With the Alabasta arc already in the works, Oda then decided that Miss Wednesday or Vivi as she became to be would be a good fit to be the representative of Alabasta. Thus changing her character from being a minor villain to an honorary straw hat member. And considering how popular the Alabasta princess is amongst fans, even ranking in the top 10 at one stage in the Japanese fan polls, this late decision by Oda was definitely a success. Whilst with Vivi, Oda changed his mind regarding her character's role after she was already created, the mangaka has also been known to redevelop a character in order to fit the performance of a voice actor used for previous characters. This was the case for another straw hat member, Frankie. If we look at Oda's original designs for the straw hats, we can see that a few of our current crewmates were not part of his original plans, which in itself is interesting. I mean the straw hats without Robin? Scandalous. And Chopper definitely seems a lot more threatening than the cute mascot that he's become now. But one of the greatest changes since Oda's original concept is the straw hat's shipwright. It seems that the mangaka initially thought of having a small clobber tolman as a part of the crew. And I guess this still did happen through the will of the going merry, but the current straw hat crew has a very different shipwright on board. And as Oda revealed during Jump Festa 2008, Frankie was specifically created with the voice actor Kazuki Yao in mind. Yao, who performed the voice of Django and Bond Clay earlier in the series, must have impressed the mangaka so much that he developed Frankie to be the hentai eccentric character he is today. And as an avid Frankie stan, boy am I glad. Speaking of shipwrights, Frankie isn't the only character whom Oda changed. As revealed in the 22nd logbook, Rob Lucci, who was undercover as a shipwright at the Gallila Company, wasn't originally one of the CP9 agents. According to the mangaka, after drawing the various shipwrights present in the Water 7 arc, he wanted which characters to make villains and decided that the weird guy with a pigeon on his shoulder was a suitable choice and thus came the birth of secret agent Rob Lucci. Considering what a highlight Lucci was as a very compelling villain in the Water 7 saga, I'd say choosing him to be Luffy's main foe was a very good choice. Another unplanned decision made to a character is that of Rebecca from Dressrosa. According to Oda in the One Piece magazine volume 2, the mangaka had around 30 different names planned for this Dressrosa princess. Whilst Oda ultimately settled on Rebecca, a name of Hebrew origins, Oda was contemplating another Hebrew word, Shalom, which means peace or harmony. Interestingly enough, one of the other names which Oda was considering was Violet. Perhaps the mangaka decided against this name because he wanted to keep the relationship between Rebecca and her Auntie Viola a surprise. Whilst we're in the arc of Dressrosa, in an interview with Oda's editor, Suguru Sugita, it was revealed that the backstory of Senor Pink was not originally going to be shared with readers in the manga. Though Oda had developed a character's past, it wasn't going to feature in the story itself. However, after Oda shared Senor Pink's story with his editor, who became very moved with its storyline, Senor Pink's backstory eventually found its way onto the manga page. And I'm sure that the entire fanbase is very glad about it. Senor Pink's backstory is one of the greatest across all side characters, and how it added more emotional weight to the comical battle with Frankie, as the two hard-boiled men fought for their dignity was epic, and personally, one of my favorite moments in the entire Dressrosa arc. And continuing our discussion of changes made during the Dressrosa arc, you may also be surprised to know that Rosinante and Doflamingo were not originally brothers. According to Oda in the third volume of the One Piece magazine, Rosinante was going to be simply one of Doflamingo's subordinates, rather than the two sharing a blood relationship. I can say that I'm glad that Oda made the change to make them brothers. It added another layer to Doflamingo's character, especially his ruthlessness in ability to dispense of his own brother, once he learned of Rosinante's double-agent nature. I think it also added to Lore's development. Lore could have very well turned out like Doflamingo. Bitta and Vengeful at the rest of the world held back to unruling it himself. Indeed, that's what Doflamingo recognized in the young boy when he took him under his wing. However, Lore also witnessed the flip side and saw the good in Rosinante. Though the two were brothers and experienced the same exile by the world nobles, the younger brother still saw the good in life, showing Lore it was possible to do the same. According to Lore, the worst-generation member is the result of another unexpected decision made by Oda. Actually, all the supernovas were initially unplanned and the group was only introduced in Saabodi Archipelago after Oda's editor told him that the arc was boring. According to the mangaka in the 27th lock book, the supernovas were created right before the chapter in which they were introduced. Oda himself is surprised that they have survived until now, having expected most of them to be unable to survive the New World as they were only included to spice up the Saabodi Arc. Which does mean that One Piece became an even longer story than originally planned. But hey, who's complaining? We really have to commend Oda for his ability to develop nine unique characters to such degree and detail in such a short amount of time. They each have distinct appearances, personalities and powers, which is really a testament to the mangaka's talent. Moreover, out of the nine additional characters, Lore's importance is particularly unexpected. Whilst Oda knew Kid would become important to the series, he didn't expect Lore to become such a central figure. And I'm sure the fanbase is plenty glad about the unexpectedly large role Lore has come to play. In the sixth Japanese fan poll, Lore was ranked fourth, making him the most popular non-straw hat character. The Heart Pirates Captain even placed second in the fifth fan poll, thus making him the only other character who has ever come second in the polls with Roro no Azoro always ranking second in these popularity polls. Personally, I love Lore's larger involvement in the series because I think he works perfectly with the straw hats. Watching the contrast between his series demeanor to the chaotic, rowdy straw hat bunch has been a treat. The worst generation, however, wasn't the only group that was an unplanned decision in One Piece. Despite being introduced a much longer time before the supernovas, the shichibukai as one of the former pillars of world balance is actually also a relatively unplanned addition to the series. As he explained in the 23rd Lockbook, Oda originally planned for One Piece to be completed in five years with the straw hats main foes to be the Yonko. Now at over 20 years into the series, Oda attributes this extension to the Seven Warlords whose introduction to the story resulted in multiple additional arcs. With compelling villains like Crocodile and Dothlomingo, the she-bad-assness of Mihawk, intrigue of Kumar and the important addition of strong female presence in Hancock, I don't know anyone who would be disgruntled by Oda's decision to lengthen the series for the creation of these characters. The introduction of the Seven Warlords system to the story isn't the only plot-related change that Oda has made. Moving on from just characters, there are other intriguing decisions made by the mangaka which were different to his original plans. Most surprising to me was the fact that Ace was not always created with his parental lineage in mind. According to a One Piece editor's talk show back in 2017, Oda asked this editor for his thoughts on the possibility of Ace being Goldie Roger's son. Upon the editor's surprised response, the mangaka was pleased and decided on adding this relationship between Luffy's brother and the former pirate king. This detail was added solely for the purpose of Oda wanting to exceed his reader's expectations which I have to say, the mangaka has done so very successfully. More than just exceeding my expectations however, developing this side of Ace's background added so much depth to his character. The montage prior to his death and the young pirate's final acceptance of his own existence is one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful moments in the series. Furthermore, the fact that Luffy's sworn brother is actually the son of the former pirate king adds a brilliant layer to the notion of inherited will. This piece of relationship history ties in the concepts of inherited will along with fate as we find out that the title our protagonist has been chasing is one that once belonged to the father of his older brother. And I just really appreciate Oda going that extra distance to always create more intrigue and twists for readers in order to make the series such an enjoyable experience. Continuing the discussion around the events surrounding Marineford, another plot development which was unplanned is that of Shanks' arrival at the end of the Paramount War. Whilst Oda has a plan for the basic course of actions before each arc even begins, Shanks' appearance at the end was not one of Oda's original intentions. Which does have me wondering whether there was another way in which the war was supposed to be stopped because it did seem like all hell was going to break loose and it was going to become an even bloodier battleground than it already was. Also, Shanks' ability to stop the war added much to the enigma of this redhead pirate and so it's interesting to consider that we may never have witnessed this. There's also another change which Oda made with Shanks which is the loss of his left arm. In the one piece Grand Countdown in 2010, it was revealed that the Manga card did not originally plan for Shanks to lose his arm. However, after his editor told him that the story was not interesting enough, Oda included Shanks' sacrifice of his arm to save Luffy. So this seems to be at least partly what has led to that confusing question of how a man as strong as Shanks lost an arm to a sea monster, one that even a young pirate Luffy had no trouble defeating later. Nevertheless, Shanks losing his arm added gravity to that scene and the relationship between Luffy and his friend would just not be the same without this sacrifice. So, despite the controversy that Shanks' lost arm may have caused, I'm glad that Oda chose to include this plotline into the story, but an explanation of why and how would be appreciated. Another unplanned moment is the ending of Drum Island. Drum Island was based off Drum Rock in Canada with a mountain even called Drum Rocky in the series. According to Oda in the 25th Lockbook, he started Chopper's Ark without clear finalized plans on characters or their designs. The Manga card just decided to draw what he wanted to draw and as he began to wonder on how to finish the Ark, Oda was reading a book regarding environmental pollution where he discovered that snow can become coloured such as yellow as a result of factory dust. On a much brighter night than dust and pollution however, this is when Oda came up with the idea that having the snow coloured pink fall on Drum Rocky could make it look like a cherry blossom tree. This also fit other designs Oda had drawn such as Dr. Kuraha's cherry blossom shirt and Chopper's cherry blossom shaped hooves. Thus resulting in that beautiful finale of the Drum Island Ark where Dr. Hero looks dreams of creating cherry blossoms in snow came to life. To know that such beauty was spawned out of unplanned developments is truly a wondrous surprise. And now, for a change made to the series but instead of an unplanned edition, this time here's a panel or line that didn't make Oda's final cut. During the envious Lobby Ark, Oda planned to include a meaningful line in which Luffy would say to Robin, Robin, keep laughing. There's nothing to be afraid of, I'm with you. To which Robin would shed tears as Luffy's words would remind her of Sol's words to laugh when you are in hardship. This is a really sweet quote that I wish did make its way into the series. Robin having been robbed of her childhood hasn't had a chance to be free until her rescue by the Straw Hats and Luffy's words would have hit the nail on its head. In saying that, we have had other beautiful quotes with the Straw Hats reassuring Robin such as that poignant moment between Usopp who was Saga King at the time from despite having left the crew himself at that point reaffirmed to Robin that she should trust in Luffy and that everything would be alright. Which is a very underrated moment in my opinion but we can talk about that another time. Plus, that moment where Luffy makes Robin admit to herself that she wants to live is such an iconic scene. Perhaps Oda thought that too many of these moments would only detract from the gravity of the lines rather than add to it. And at the end of the day, Oda has proven that whether pre-planned or last-minute his decisions always work out for the best. No matter the situation, we can trust our favorite series in his very talented hands. And that brings us to the end of today's video. Please let me know whether there was a new fact about the series you learnt throughout this discussion and please do share if there are any other unplanned changes which Oda made not mentioned in today's video. Please also don't forget to like and share the video and if you would like to discuss more of One Piece, please subscribe because we would love to have you become part of our crew. This is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.