out of all the straw hats usopp's journey is the most unique and the most human whereas every other straw Hat's goal is an external objective accomplishment finding the one piece becoming the world's strongest swordsman learning the true history and so on Usopp is the only Straw Hat whose journey is internal and subjective to his own feelings about himself what does it mean to become a brave Warrior of the sea is it something that can be measured a title to be attained by all accounts most people would say that by virtue of overcoming so many battles
and risking his life so many times and making it so far through the new world Usopp has already been a brave Warrior of the sea for a long long time now but that's the beauty of usopp's Journey it's not about what we the reader think it's not about what the other characters in the world of One Piece think usopp's Journey comes down to what he thinks of himself essentially Usopp is on a journey to change his own perception of himself and finally we are at the end point of this journey that was marked out for
us 1,000 chapters back elff is the island that Usopp felt from the beginning would be the measuring stick for himself as to whether or not he truly has become a brave Warrior of the sea and that means that something absolutely beautiful is going to happen in elath a piece of character writing that may be the best in all of One Piece because if Usopp went through fighting superhuman monsters with nothing but a slingshot and booze and if Usopp put his life on the line just to defend his friend's dream and if usup had to take
on some of the strongest pirates of the grand line single-handed and if Usopp declared war on the entire world and if Usopp is already regaled as the legendary hero for an entire Kingdom and none of that has made Usopp himself feel like he is a brave Warrior yet then that means that what we are missing for Usopp is a piece of writing for his character that goes to something fundamentally far deeper than any of that something even more meaningful something so profound and unprecedented that it would finally finally change his perception of of himself whatever
Oda has been saving for Usopp and elath for so long is likely the single greatest character storyline in one piece history and the keys to understanding what the storyline likely looks like begins with the fact that yasa usopp's father is waiting on the island the fact that there are two key setups related to the lore of elb that tie directly to usopp's character the fact that usopp's hockey development began in dress Rosa and finally the fact that usopp's final greatest character shortcoming that he needs to overcome was actually already revealed to us in the wano
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one piece fan cares about when do you think one piece will end it genuinely feels like I'm getting to interact with real one piece characters I even asked law if he would admit that he and kid never actually defeated big mom the random TNT did do you admit that TNT defeated big mom and that you and kid got lucky but if you want to hear his answer you have to try it out for yourself and this isn't even just limited one piece I'm talking all anime all manga all TV show characters all movie characters comic
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on one test out what it feels like having a conversation with the character you will not be disappointed and in fact you'll probably get addicted real fast so that aside to begin with even before the island of elbaf was introduced into the story you must understand that usopp's character Concept in the first place was always intrinsically tied to the concept of giants the idea of a brave Warrior wielding a slingshot most famously goes back to David the hero who faed the Giant Goliath this has always been the starting point point for usopp's character he's always
been the simple human Underdog wielding a humble slingshot having to fa Giants everywhere that he goes even before elb was ever mentioned usopp's storyline from conception was likely always planned to lead up to an island where an Usopp would finally literally be among giants and have to stand just as tall as any of them as an equal even all the while still being a simple human with a simple slingshot I don't necessarily mean Usopp will have to defeat a giant in elath it's possible but more so I'm talking about the idea that Usopp with his
slingshot can stand just as tall as any giant seems to have been the point of planning usopp's storyline to be tied to an island of giants from the start Oda himself has talked about how Usopp is supposed to be the most relatable and human of the straw hats so placing Usopp in a setting where everyone is a superhuman Giant and Usopp himself is the only ordinary man that feels like a perfectly planned ending point for his personal character Journey but beyond David and Goliath another important lore reference already set up in elb is the giant
Prince Loki as everyone knows in North mythology Loki is a God who is not a traditional Macho Viking Warrior but rather a God who relies on trickery and Mischief which is interestingly similar to Usopp this makes me feel that a pivotal theme that may be dissected in elbaf is what it means to be a brave Warrior because if you remember a large part of the point of little garden was that it was shameful that Mr 3 relied on cunning and trickery to win a fight against the Giants who fought so honorably and directly and yet
this cunning trickery based combat is also Usopp fights despite Usopp aspiring to be as Brave as the Giants the reality is that no matter how Brave Usopp aims to be no matter how much he wishes to emulate the spirit of the Giants he physically can't fight like them he will always have to fight in his own style of trickery and cunning could it be possible that Loki of elb may end up being a kindred spirit to Usopp someone who also wishes to emulate The Bravery that he sees around him but is not able to fight
in the manner that everyone else fights having Usopp connect with a character who is an outlier among the elbaff Giants may have significant potential for exploring the idea of Bravery in general and what it means to be brave even if one cannot fight with the same direct means that other stereotypically brave warriors can interestingly there's also a very different angle that will likely be explored when it comes to the question of what it means to be a brave Warrior which is through usopp's father yaso yaso and the red-haired Pirates are clearly going to be pivotal
characters in The elff Arc and remember even though the Giants of elb have been usopp's recent Idol of Brave Warriors of the sea the original Brave Warrior of the sea that Usopp fantasized about following in the footsteps of was his father yasa the fact that all of usopp's Idols of Brave Warriors that he's been chasing are being written into the very same Arc means that the upcoming story line was likely planned from the initial conception of usopp's character which makes sense because interestingly if we Trace back the roots of why Usopp is who he is
today a lot of his core issues likely stem from his father we know that Usopp is proud of his father we know that Usopp admires him for having risked his life to take to the Seas and become a pirate and yet isn't there something really important here that Usopp often chooses not to think about the fact that yaso in choosing to be a brave Warrior of the sea abandoned Usopp and his mother see a lot of Uso's unhealthy character traits such as his obsession with lying began because usopp's mother was dying and usopp's father who
abandoned them certainly wasn't returning anytime soon Hup's final words to his mother were lies about how his father would one day return this has to have been a deeply painful memory for Usopp as much as Usopp admires his father for being a stereotypical Brave Warrior of the sea is there not something Twisted about the fact that yasa chose this Pursuit over his wife and child and the fact that Usopp has developed this obsession with being a brave Warrior of the sea to emulate his idealized Rose tinted vision of his dad while simultaneously ignoring the pain
that his father caused him is a classic case of a child idealizing a form of masculinity that would be considered considered highly unhealthy so some pieces are beginning to click into place here Usopp has objectively been acting as a brave Warrior of the sea for so long by anybody else's standards and yet he himself never seems to believe that he is one could we be approaching a storyline where we get to actually examine the meaning of being a brave Warrior of the sea and how Usopp may have actually had it all wrong in his head
to begin with after all the fact that Usopp relies on tricks and cunning to win fights unlike The Honorable Giants of elb that is something that has to be reckoned with soon the potential of connecting with a character like Loki who may be a bit of a misfit among the Giants as a similarly non-traditional Warrior may also hold great importance there in terms of examining what it means to be brave and most importantly Usopp finally reuniting with his father the man that first imprinted upon Usopp this obsession with becoming a brave Warrior along with every
other unhealthy trait that Usopp has his incessant lying his poor self-image maybe even the fears of Abandonment that we saw surface in the water 7 Arc all of that will likely come to a head as well as such I believe it's very likely that Oda has a deeper examination planned as to the meaning of being a brave Warrior as well as some introspection for Usopp and his dream maybe even reframing his understanding of what it means to be a brave Warrior but that's just the tip of the iceberg setting that aside looking at Usopp in
the Post Time skip there are two key pieces of character writing setup that have been planted for him that are likely set to pay off in elbaf first usopp's development in hockey and second usopp's fear of death the dress Rosa Arc was the last heavily Usopp Centric Arc with Usopp arguably being the third major protagonist of the Ark along with Luffy and law in this Arc Usopp took huge steps forward as this was the first Arc where Usopp acted as a hero for a large group of characters who he had no personal connection to and
it's also the first Arc where we saw Usopp set aside his desire for Glory and his need to exaggerate his accomplishments with a much more humble acceptance of his true role on the crew as the quiet unseen sniper in the background these personal strides rewarded Usopp with a hockey Bloom observation hockey specifically this is absolutely huge as it made Usopp actually the third straw hat ever to have a hockey bloom in battle and so far Usopp has yet to have any further development at all in this area meaning that this is a lingering point of
development that's perfect as that gives us a lot of room for something exciting to develop in elb Oda has likely been waiting to progress usopp's hockey development to go hand inhand with usopp's next bout of character development and the fact that Oda has saved usopp's most significant character development ever for elb makes me believe that we may see a huge step forward in usopp's hockey here maybe he gets future sight or maybe just maybe even conqueror hockey after all in all of One Piece the three characters that Oda most frequently likes to write extremely powerful
displays of transcendent willpower for are Luffy Zoro and Usopp it's easy to forget because usopp's lows as a character are very low but usopp's Highs are just spectacular iconic Larger than Life displays of will spirit and resolve I believe there is a reason that Usopp is a character that Oda goes back to for these types of moments again and again because the point is that having conquerors hockey isn't just about strength rather there's a fundamental type of character writing that is associated with conqueror's hockey and while Usopp would certainly be the most cowardly conqueror's hockey
user ever that strangely isn't contradictory for him as usopp's moment of resolve are all the more Grand precisely because Usopp perseveres and stands his ground through such intense fear it's also interesting that having conquerors hockey was one of usopp's many lies as usopp's lies do often have a tendency to one day come true there's also one significant way in which Usopp is written fundamentally differently from the rest of the straw hats that is tied to this as well but you can get my extended thoughts on that in my weekly podcast by supporting me on patreon
link in the description below but regardless whether it's conqueror hockey or just more observation hockey usapp having some major growth in hockey in elff is almost guaranteed the bigger question is what scenario would cause usopp's hockey to bloom and this this is where we come to the fundamental internal conflict that was set up for Usopp back in wano the fear of death wano was usopp's most cowardly Arc ever by far from the very beginning where USA bragged about how he would sell out his friends right away if he was captured to talking about how death
isn't worth supporting your friend's dreams to proudly telling the samurai how he runs away from Death at every opportunity to basically being a sniveling wreck during the entire onig gushima finale while everyone else around him was being brave wano just wasn't a good look for Usopp see while it's not uncommon for Usopp to say a lot of cowardly things in an arc usually if usopp's being extra cowardly in an arc it's actually a setup for him to have an extremely Brave moment of redemption and growth in that same Ark but wano is the first Arc
where Usopp laid on the cowardice extremely thick from start to finish and then had no redeeming moments or moments of growth by the end of the Ark while I don't think that's good for the wano Ark in the long term that works if it's setting up in advance what Usopp needs to overcome in elath even though throughout the story Usopp has put his life on the line many many many times it seems as though it was important to establish in the wano arc that despite having risked his life in the past there is still room
for Usopp to grow in fully overcoming his fear of death now at this point I cannot give a definitive guess as to how Oda could possibly demonstrate Usopp overcoming a fear of death in a new way that is somehow more conclusive than everything Usopp has already done but one idea I have voiced before and broken down in depth in a past video is the possib ability of Usopp sacrificing himself and actually dying a hero after all just as far back as usopp's dream of becoming a brave Warrior like the Giants of albos so too was
that accompanied with Usopp explaining that his hypothetical moment of self-fulfillment would be being able to proudly die in a manner befitting a brave Warrior of the sea in usopp's mind that sort of death would be the one where he could truly feel that he has finally achieved his dream of being a brave Warrior now that's really really interesting because because this fantasy directly conflicts with usopp's most recent low point of how he avoids a proud Warrior's death at all costs so setting up usopp's big character flaw being intense fear of death shortly before the long
awaited elb Arc where usopp's character Journey seems set to complete with the completion of usopp's character journey in the first place having been framed around Usopp wanting to be able to proudly die as a brave Warrior is well it seems more than coincidental there's a lot more detail in this video if you want to click it but I also want to be clear here that I'm not necessarily saying Usopp will die in elb I feel like if Usopp dying is even remotely possible in the story it would happen later on unless elap turns out to
be a much bigger Arc than we expected and the Blackbeard Pirates are also involved it just feels way too early for even the possibility of Usopp dying however what I am saying is that at the very least the character development of Usopp conquering his fear of death in some way makes sense for the elff arc as just one Arc prior this was the sorry picture that Usopp was painting which is a far cry from the standards of the Giants of elff that Usopp dreamed of being able to reach as such the elff arc will likely
involve Bridging the Gap for usopp's character between this to this although that doesn't necessarily mean Usopp having to actually die and if Usopp is able to take this next step in terms of Bravery overcoming his fear of death it would likely be the greatest character moment for Usopp ever one wherein Usopp would finally feel like he's a brave Warrior of the sea thereby completing his internal journey of shedding his perception of himself as a coward I also believe that this type of moment conquering his fear of death however that may happen will be the one
where we get to see usopp's next hockey Bloom similar to what happened in Dr Rosa but simply on a much more dramatic level again in this case conqueror hockey certainly wouldn't be out of the question considering conqueror hockey blooms can often be in the face of death and even Zoro just unlocked conqueror's hockey specifically by recklessly giving in to killing himself with enma for the sake of winning the battle however if Usopp instead blooms further in observation or even Armament that would be great as well of course so ultimately what is the story that is
shaping up for Usopp and elff well it's likely one that first examines what it means to be a brave Warrior of the C and usopp's own motivation to become one with the figures such as Loki and usopp's father yasa likely playing a pivotal role second whatever development Usopp makes in this Arc will likely be accompanied by some substantial step forward in hockey for him either furthering his observation hockey or even unlocking conqueror hockey and finally whatever usopp's core character conflict is this Arc it will likely involve him overcoming his deep-seated fear of death that was
set up in wano thereby fulfilling usopp's desire that was set up all the way back in little garden to be able to face death bravely as a warrior of the sea we have all the ingredients here for a masterful character Arc for Usopp and really it has to be his greatest character Arc ever as all of his previous big moments of character development were factually not enough for him to feel that he had completed his internal journey and considering how iconic so many of usopp's past moments of character development have been if what we are
about to get in elff will Top even those well then we are likely getting one of if not the best pieces of character writing ever in one piece so let me know how you think usopp's character storyline will play out in the comments below and if you enjoyed this video then definitely like And subscribe and if you want to hear the fundamental way in which Usopp is written differently from the rest of the straw hats you can get my extended thoughts on that in my weekly podcast by supporting me on patreon link in the description
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