If there's a thesis statement for this fight, it's this. Hogback isn't judged for generally being a shit stain of a human being, but for taking away the freedom of others, and life without freedom isn't really life.

Bowling pin man WHOM, Cindry is the obvious star of Thriller Bark!!

My second piece for @opblondebombshells ! Please go check out this free zine full of great blonde content!

Viking 'Hogback' Stone Photoset 1, Govan Old Stones Collection, Govan Old Parish Church, Glasgow

The Curtain of Thriller

The Thriller Bark arc is one of story arcs of One Piece, taking place between chapters 442 and 489. It is most remembered for being the story arc where the living skeleton and Straw Hat Pirate “Humming” / “Soul King” Brook debuted. It is named for the floating island turned pirate Thriller Bark

One thing about Thriller Bark is how it revolves around nightmares and illusions, and how they can both empower someone and weaken them. But it also shows how important it is to have layers to these illusions. Take the titular ship, and the people running it.

On the outset, Thriller Bark is obviously a haunted island. It’s creepy to look, full of zombies and ghosts! Ooh, there’s an invisible man! And yet…

The zombies aren’t shambling wrecks hungry for brains. They’re lively, personable, silly. And the ghosts are kinda cute, and, oh, isn’t it a gas how they make the guys flop over depressed? The invisible man is just a juvenile prankster. The mad scientist is verbally abused by his own maid. Once you get over the creep factor, this isn’t so bad, right?

Actually, it’s worse. Those silly zombies? They won’t tire, and won’t give up. You can knock them down but they’ll get back up. The only way to put them down is to either purify their “Soul”/the Shadow animating them or break their bodies completely. And they’re essentially puppets with no free will. Watching Hogback boss Cindry around, can you keep laughing?

And the ghosts, those ghosts, they’re not floating about for the fun of it. It’s actually a surveillance system, and the ease with which they can take the fight out of even the toughest fighter makes for some severe tension.

And Absalome, the Invisible Man, his antics cease to be silly when he uses his powers to molest Robin and Nami, even abducting the latter to force her into marriage.

Thriller Bark is very much like the ship-version of the evil clown, luring people in with its silliness. As Zoro later points out, the real threat comes from how the island twists people up and deceives them, catching them off-guard with their tricks. It says something that the first three of the Straw Hats to be caught and lose their shadows are their strongest fighters.

But as powerful as the deceptions are, that is also their weakness. Illusions are only useful as long that veil is maintained. What makes the zombies so terrifying is their immortality, but the minute Brook figures out how salt can free the entrapped shadows, he becomes a fearsome figure in his own right. And as powerful the Special Zombie is, once Chopper starts using his medical knowledge to figure out Oars’ weakpoints, the battle starts turning in the Straw Hats’ favor.

Similarly, the people running Thriller Bark are also exposed. Absalome is dangerous, and while his fight with Sanji is funny, it also goes a long way of showing just how pathetic the Invisible-Man is; Sanji easily sees through his techniques, countering them, and once Nami stops running away and fights back Absalome is beaten (He had already been weakened by Sanji, but she didn’t know that).

Perona the Ghost Princess, initially seems to be an easy opponent for Usopp (The only one immune to her ghosts), but midway she suddenly gets a huge power-up and starts dominating. Usopp is only able to win once he figures out her abilities and locates her real body. She ends up being beaten by Usopp’s own brand trickery, to further twist the knife.

And of course, our central antagonist, Gecko Moria. With his Shadow-Shadow powers, he gives Luffy a lot of grief, being able to fight from a distance and even escape. Moria, like Foxy, gets a lot of milage out of using his powers to fight smart. However, once he is cornered and forced to fight directly, he goes down in one chapter.

Of course, the curtain gets swept away even further when you consider their personalities. Each of the Mysterious 4 are introduced as powerful figures, but as the arc goes on they’re insecurities and ignoble qualities are exposed; Absalome is not just a pervert, but also a bully hiding behind his Clear-Clear powers and transplanted muscles. Perona is very much a child in mind, easily scared (Something Usopp notes) and she ends her fight crying for her teddy bear. Hogback can’t even control the zombies properly and his refusal to acknowledge the truth of their existence leads to his defeat. And Moria, for all his posturing, is shown to be utterly broken by the deaths of his previous crewmates.

And so, we leave you with Sanji’s summation of Thriller Bark and the workings of the Mysterious 4;

“All the weird creatures and creepiness we encountered since arriving on this island were an illusion created by Moria. Now that he’s been destroyed, there’s nothing left!! It’s like waking up from a bad dream.”

Veil redraw trend

(Original under cut)

Such an... Interesting arc 🦇 👻🎃

Love small details like these. In chapter 450, it starts raining when Luffy and the others stop outside Hogback's mansion. Eventually this makes the Risky Brothers' zombies slip and drop the coffin in which they're carrying Nami, Usopp and Chopper.

Weather Queen Nami saved by the weather.

Hogback (One Piece)  » December 19

One Piece Most Hated

One Piece Thriller Bark Saga spoilers

Favorite character/s: Luffy; Franky; Brook Favorite villain/s: Gecko Moria Least favorite character/s: NA Least favorite villain/s: Absalom; Hogback Cry moment/s: The Rumbar Pirates' last song; Brook is happy to be alive

Govan Old Church - hogback viking tombstones

cred: viking.archeurope.info

I'd forgotten that Chopper calls Hogback work monstrous. That's such a loaded word for him, and a huge chunk of his character development is coming to terms with his own monsterness that it's a little bit surprising that he directs it at the zombies instead of Hogback himself. That said, given the themes of One Piece, stripping a person of their personality and will is one of the worst things you can do for them, worse than even killing them, and that's one of the reasons Hogback is treated as the most villainous villains of the arc over even Moriah. So by One Piece logic the zombies he helps create are outright abominations. To call someone a monster is pretty much the worst insult Chopper could say, and it speaks volumes for what Hogback's done that it's 100% warranted.

CINDRY. KILL THIS CLOWN

Terrible Writing Advice On Smart Characters: One Piece

How nice this episode of Terrible Writing Advice drops while we are on Egghead Island because it brings up how not to do a smart type of character. And I realized how in many ways that the Strawhats has many types of smart characters. Not one is an expert in everything and is disciplined in a certain field. For the strawhats who are disciplines here is the list: Chopper-medicine; Nami- navigation/weather; Franky-machinery/shipwright; Robin- archeologist; tinkering- Ussop. A lot of their skills have been used for exposition and for combat as well. Look at how Ussop makes weapons for many people, Franky as well. Chopper made the rubble balls and Nami again uses the climatact and her knowledge of weather science and later weather sorcery to help her fight. Again their fields help them achieve their goals and serve as a theme of how each one brings something to the table to make their crew succeed. It shows how being the smart guy can be versatile. 

As for the mad scientist part, we have tons of mad scientists in One Piece which includes the likes of Caesar Clown, Judge, Queen, and Hogback. One interesting thing is that many have expertise in a field or two. For instance, Judge is focused on cloning, genetic engineering, and super weapons, Queen has focus on bio-weapons, cybernetics, and machinery, Caesar Clown on chemistry and biogenetics,  and Hogback is on medicine. Of course, as shown here the mad scientist part is because of how unethical they can be but it is shown again these people have a focus on a field and know how to really use it and usually stick to their field of knowledge when you see how they work. And again all these people seem to be skilled in a certain discipline instead of instantly being an expert in all fields unlike other scientists in other media. 

Another thing noticed is that again cut Luthor a check is averted because they do sell their skills to others. With Caesar Clown being the most prominent, since he’s part of the Smile’s operation and sells his bioweapons. While Judge doesn’t sell his stuff, he does use his expertise to sell his services as assassins. Queen and Hogback don’t do that type of stuff but just serve their masters. With Hogback, he already made money off from being a doctor and was just obsessed with mastering death to bring back the woman he lusted over. Queen himself is less focused on profit since he was a Calamity under Kaido, but also the fact he’s a sadist who wants to put new ways to do warfare. So, in a way, he doesn’t need money to really enrich himself

I do notice that of them all Caesar Clown tends to be the one who is both a hack when he tries to imitate Vegapunk but an expert when it comes to what his field is. I do think the reason why he’s second rate is because stuff like the artificial devil fruit are out of his field since Vegapunk is a rather versatile scientist who is beyond regulars. So Caesar set himself up for failure by trying to imitate Vegapunk’s mastery and it’s actually kind of a deconstruction of how a scientist can fail hard if they don’t know the mastery or expertise behind recreating another’s scientists work if they don’t have the skill. 

And of course, we get to Vegapunk a character who until recently has finally revealed after being played up for many years. Of course, as we see he’s the embodiment of the archetype of the brainy scientist and is acknowledged as being ahead of his time so much that he’s said to be 500 years ahead. He does seem to be one of the few depicted omnicdisiplinary scientist which is a scientist who is presented as being able to do any science. And in a way, it also makes him a dangerous asset because he can create so much that it can become more and more a threat to the government’s standing. Another thing I notice from here that even though he’s multidisciplinary there are stuff he can’t know or do because of the difficulties replicating results. And another thing mentioned why he can’t sell his ideas is because of lack of funds and because it would be difficult for common people to replicate what he’s created. And again it’s a good look into what being a multidisciplinary scientist can be. It’s an aspect of a scientist I notice not utilized much for his archetype but it’s very interesting that Oda noted. 

not the soup!!!