one of the core themes of the Egghead island arc is free will no matter what you do living beings have a will of their own that cannot be eliminated we see this from the very beginning with the sea shark that Rebels as vegapunk explains that no matter what they can't breed Free Will out of their Creations we see this with the seraphims with Hancock rebelling to help the one she loves Luffy we see this with Kuma who a kind who realizes cannot be controlled and who refuses to remain a Mindless puppet any longer and finally
do we see a glimpse just a glimpse of this in the self-proported Cog in the machine Admiral kizaru a man who up till this Arc seemed like an obedient unquestioning weapon of the world government yet is now being forced to Grapple with his Duty versus his personal bonds with centimaru and vegapunk throughout all of One Piece this is the first time that the primary Arc antagonist is going through a moral dilemma during the arc itself health because throughout one piece pretty much every main opponent that Luffy goes up against is always set in their goals
and is a hundred percent driven to execute their plan from curro to arlong to crocodile to NL to Caesar to doflamingo takaido it doesn't matter the antagonist always wants to do what they have set out to do but the man Luffy is fighting right now is for the first time someone who wishes they could be doing anything else juxtaposed between chapters featuring Admiral aokiji the man that saw the light and broke free of the world government and Admiral Akainu the man that firmly and willfully adheres to the world government's Dogma here we have the tragic
Admiral kizaru the man who was solemnly walking down the path that he doesn't seem to have the guts to deviate from at least maybe not quite yet today we're going to pull back the mask to look at the deeply burdened man borsolino who's been hiding under this veneer of casual nonchalance for so long now we all all know that kizaru is the fastest man in the world but you you could probably be in better shape yourself couldn't you I mean look at yourself maybe you want to lose a few pounds but it's such a pain
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lose weight without having to do anything you can try Factor today for 50 off just head to factor75.com or click the link below and use code morgue 50 to get 50 off your first Factor box that's factor75.com codemorge 50 for 50 off Link in the description below so that aside to begin with kizaru is beginning to turn into a fascinating case of flipping readers expectations of a character one of my absolute favorite tropes in writing is an author leading us to believe that a character is relatively simple and straightforward at first and then unveiling much
greater depth and complexity underneath and of course this is one of one piece's absolute Specialties so initially out of the three Admirals kizaru was kind of the odd man out Akainu and awakiji were both written as multi-dimensional characters with aokiji having this and the character storyline as he matured and evolved in his own philosophies and views on Justice while a kind who contrasted him sharply with this deeply held unyielding absolute philosophy on Justice both of them represented two different paths and ideologies in one piece and ultimately their differences came to a head with their battle
to determine the future of the Marines but amidst all this there was a third wheel hizaru an admiral with seemingly No Agenda and no philosophies of his own kizaru just does whatever he's supposed to do some supernovas are causing trouble at saboti no worries kazara will just pop over and take care of it new enemies keep showing up throughout the Marine Ford war no big deal just some more work to be done for kizaru samyanko might be forming an alliance no problem kizaru doesn't mind heading over to deal with it all the while we never
get much of a read on the character himself other than that he'll just go ahead and do whatever it seems like his bosses need done he's kind of a blank slate and his only real personality trait that seemed to become apparent was that he was pretty easy going and a bit of a lighthearted troll now none of this was bad writing by any means not every character needs the depth of abokiji if anything kizarro seemed to be perfect as this simplistic yet deadly weapon of the Marines and absolutely broken ability in the hands of a
man who didn't hesitate to use it for whatever the world government wanted him to do he didn't take any sadistic satisfaction out of it like Luchi he wasn't living out some deep-seated sense of justice and righteousness like Akainu kizarro just seemed like a straightforward tool at the world government's disposal and then we get this line in Egghead Island that suddenly shifts that perception of him ever so slightly opening the door to something potentially far more complex all along we viewed kizaru as just this guy with nothing going on upstairs he's used in the story however
he needs to be used and yet kizarro himself seems to be strangely aware of it I'm just a cog in the machine that's an important statement in recognizing that he's just a cog in the machine he in fact stands out from all the other cogs in the machine out of all the Marines that we've had so far almost all of them from top to bottom have some sort of their own sense of self-righteousness good or bad weak or strong there is no Marine I can think of that has expressed such an empty view of themselves
and their role as kizarro has just expressed with this line our entire concept of kizaru changes the simplistic surface level view we had of him is stripped away as it's now clear that he isn't just some trolley weapon there is a real person underneath he's just buried that deep down because he's chosen to be a cog in the machine rather than his own man and that choice is all too important in a series like one piece where Free Will is everything and especially in an arc-like egghead where we've been bombarded with ideas regarding Free Will
and Rebellion again the idea that was preached is that no matter how much you want a living being to obey Free Will tends to get the best of them and that's what's been so fascinating about kizarro's writing this Arc there is absolutely no need for Oda to have honed in on this connection and bond that he has with Santa Maru there is absolutely no need to write in this flashback showing us exactly all the memories and emotions that kizaru is recalling as he is forced to fight Santa Maru but it's important because what we're being
shown is that when it comes to someone that he deeply cares about someone that he raised like a protege maybe like a sun even the normally obedient kizaru is torn even to a member of the gorosei the highest Authority in existence kizaro is actually asking to be allowed to do things in his own way rather than just following orders kizaru has never had his own way before he's never expressed an opinion or even a personal desire before he's only ever offered to do exactly what his superiors want done but with Santa Maru there is in
fact something sentimental there that is moving him and it doesn't just stop at Santa Maru vegapunk is someone that kizaru is shown to have a history with a friendship with even someone that for once kizarro does not want to kill even with Bonnie there is some sort of reluctance and regret there what do all these emotions mean for him because what we were showing is that even for those who are literally programmed to follow orders love can move them to Rebel is that what is in store for kizaru or is this meant to play out
with him simply falling deeper into this role as a tragic figure who has so completely abandoned free will that he will continue down this sad path of placing his orders over his own desires and losing his bonds with his loved ones in the process this is not a theory video I'm not voicing which route is more likely I'm just pointing out that the conflict of Free Will obedience and personal bonds is clearly a central thematic focus of this Arc and kizaru has been become the focal point of that thematic conflict it's interesting how this is
developing with his literal conflict against Luffy in particular Luffy's opponents are usually the antithesis of Luffy in some unique way and kizaru is the first opponent we've ever had who contrasts Luffy's brand of freedom in this particular way because normally Luffy is fighting for Freedom against those who would oppress the freedom of others but here against kizaru Luffy is fighting as the freest man on the sea against someone who has chosen to ignore their own free will to obey another the freest Man versus the man who does not know how to be free that is
the symbolism that is set to play out over the course of Luffy vs kizaru and finally and maybe most importantly this entire storyline of kizaru and santamaru in fact parallels the other major Marine storyline of Egghead Island the one that we just closed out GARP and awakiji we have GARP and aokiji hisaru and santamaru a mentor and their Protege the mentor on the side of the Marines the Protege having abandoned the Marines to choose the side of pirates the mentors GARP and kizaru cannot understand their protege's decisions why do you choose to side with pirates
the proteges aokiji and santamaru have discovered that there are reasons more important than blindly obeying orders they have both chosen to follow the path that they believe is truly the right thing to do thereby exercising their Free Will instead of Simply following what they are supposed to do and so the two pairs fight amid flashbacks and emotional Memories the mentors failing to understand what drives their Protege to make the choices they have made and yet where is the story of GARP and aokiji concluded with GARP never understanding aokiji's motives with kazaru there is yet potential
for growth and understanding kizaru has bonds to centimaru just as he has bonds to vegapunk there is potential there for him to change his mind in some way by the end of the Ark and maybe finally choose to follow his own desires in that regard I think there is no one better for kizaru to have to fight than Luffy the embodiment of Free Will itself if kazaro began this Arc as a self-proclaimed Cog in the machine well it's entirely possible he sadly ends it that way as well but the fact is that for such a
seemingly simple-minded character the question has been raised what does he actually want what does he actually believe does kizaru truly hold the world government and its orders above his own personal bonds and loved ones and if so why I think it's particularly telling that the one thing we know about kizaru's philosophies is that ultimately we're not yet supposed to know his philosophy his Justice is stated to be unclear Justice by the end of this Arc I wonder if that will stay the same the potential for a far deeper character to be uncovered has been set
up for Egghead Island and the driving question for the the rest of this storyline is whether kizaru will ultimately adhere to the law or whether his own sense of self will take over after all free will cannot be eliminated so let me know in the comments below what you think is aru's final decision will be and if you enjoyed this video then definitely like And subscribe and if you want my predictions of how kizaru's Arc will play out you can get access to my weekly podcast by supporting me on patreon link in the description below
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