Does Gear 5 Ruin Tension?

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Timestamp:
00:00 Intro
3:39 Bad Argument #1: “No Tone Change”
5:49 Bad Argument #2: “It’s Always Been This Way”
9:39 Bad Argument #3: Bajarang Gun
12:59 Why Breaking Tension Can Be Good
14:51 Why Gear 5 Has Worked So Far
17:24 The Future Of Gear 5

[RudeSnipe]

Oda is making a serious statement by showcasing a wacky MC: the idea that joy is a radical response to evil and injustice. Yes, outrage is defiant, but joy is overwhelming. Or as Albert Camus said, to be so absolutely free that one's existence is an act of rebellion. That is what Luffy brilliantly depicts.

[Cookiemario]

Next episode: “Does Gear 5 Have Motion?”

[O.G.]

As someone who likes Gear 5 overall, i cant imagine Luffy fighting Akainu while laughing the whole time. I hope in the future Luffys "freedom" in Gear 5 lets him channel other emotions, not just joy

[dtheartist]

I leave the room, and Morj is talking about gear 5th.

I walk back in, and he's asking me honestly, how often do I shave "down there?" 😮

[nihili]

It's hard to tell if Gear 5 is hard to create tension.

Because yes, comedy is always defusing tension. But only one kind of tension. The tension you feel when you're reading the story and get swallowed by it so you can't be bothered to analise it in terms of clishes or tropes, and you just feel things, that tension is gone.
But meta tension you feel by analyzing where story is going by looking at tropes and how writer writes is not at all gone, at least yet.

On the one hand so far there has been the only one fight where Luffy wasn't absolutely dominating everyone once he entered it. But on the other hand there has been only like, three fights with it.

We know that Oda is not against making Luffy lose, so his fights from meta perspective are never sure to finish with him being victorious.
He's not like Zoro who can't ever lose, so his options are tie or win.
So there is always a tension as to if G5 is enough to win.

I would argue that G5 is attempt at making you smile or at ease not by removing tension, but despite it. It doesn't remove it, as much as makes you forget about it, from meta perspective, that is.


That being said, it is goofy and idiotic as hell. It's nothing new, Luffy is known for having goofy attacks, but this doesn't mean he's not capable of being serious.
I mean, Arlong's fight was first really serious fight in the story, and we've had so many goofy scenes.
Gear 5 is essential part of One Piece, but so is seriousness.
Oda is not a god, he has more writing flaws than i can be bothered to list, but he can mix seriousness and goofyness both really well.



Let's just let Oda cook this time, we need few more examples of the use of it to tell whenever G5 was good or bad idea

[qb]

I don't know why people are shocked that a guy named joyboy isn't an edgelord...

[greatestcait]

What I love about Gear 5th is how Oda really does everything he can to crank up the tension, featuring someone as truly vile and despicable as, say, Saturn, and then Luffy comes to the rescue and lightens the mood. When Luffy is in Gear 5th, he just radiates the aura that everything will be okay, and I think that's incredibly powerful.

[justaway]

When Luffy acts silly during fights in Pre-timeskip, he is actually serious on what he is doing. What he is doing just looks silly and hence the comedy. He was not laughing like a crazy maniac.

[ThePizza]

Man, having studied script writing I can confirm having to explain the opposition of comedy and tension is insane but unfortunately necessary when you see how confidently incorrect lots of OP fans are. I actually wondered if you had any personal passion/experience in writing when I discovered your channel because you often have extremely well informed predictions about storytelling that contrast with a lot of the nonsense fanfictions we see a lot, and more often than not Oda follows those storytelling guidelines which makes predicting certain aspects of the story rather simple.

[Dushnn]

u forgot one thing: Comedy being the oppisite of tension and comedy bein a tool to cut tension, can also work the other way around. what i mean is: Imagine gear 5 - the always funny laughing guy all of a sudden break out of character and just stop smiling all of a sudden cuz of sth that happens - that would create hell of a lot of tension too.. there is not only a way for comedy to cut tension but for comedy to create or at least fuel tension aswell

[upopkzq]

I don’t think Bajrang Gun is the only way that an attack from Gear 5th can be played seriously. Some of the named moves we saw against Lucci and Kizaru (Dawn Bazooka, White Star Gun) aren’t really THAT out there in terms of silliness when compared to the rest of Luffy’s moveset, and I can easily imagine a context where they’re framed in a more dramatic light.

One of Oda’s biggest strengths is his ability to derive drama from exaggerated imagery (i.e. Luffy’s face after Ace’s death.) I’d be surprised if he conceived Gear 5th with a limited tonal range with this in mind.

[acetofresh]

The argument One Piece is always silly and something I’ve had problems with people like GrandLineReview implying it’s solely escapism, when One Piece is one of the most dramatic and complex entries in the shounen canon. With that said, I’ve come to appreciate how Luffy’s strange demeanor in Gear 5 has come to actually affect the narrative and also add future philosophical questions. Does he have true free will in it, especially since he cannot seem to stop Nika’s persona and he isn’t aware of its nature. Vegapunk highlighted how Lucci ( and Kaku by extension) are in awakening and seem to be unaffected by the animal, but he didn’t say this for Luffy, and it is clear Nika’s persona affects him. He cannot truly remain serious in the form. I’m interested to see how this develops.

[dariuslegacy]

The tone of the story is likely about to get darker than it’s ever been. Gear 5th is a narrative compliment for this, if handled properly, it can be a really good balancing tool for just how messy things are about to get.

[TheMasterd]

I think a better example of a "serious" moment for G5 was in the middle of the Kaido fight when Luffy lost the transformation and then restarted his heart while claiming how death would just leave his bones behind, listing the reasons that he's fiighting for and dropping Pedro's name.

[James_Wisniewski]

It's been explained that, when a Zoan user awakens, it can be intoxicating as the fruit's personality starts to take over. You can clearly see that at work when Luffy goes into Gear 5. In part, you have to learn to regain control over it so you don't end up like the Impel Down jailers, just completely mindless. That may be a bit easier with a Human-Human fruit since you're already starting at a familiar base level of lucidity. Maybe he'll gain more control over it as he uses it more. That probably won't dial down the zaniness entirely, nor should it. Just make it a bit more manageable.

[yogrannybae]

Gear 5 feel like a whole new character

[marcelbeans]

i can imagine luffy refusing to use gear 5 against akainu because he wants to be serious because of his rage and hatred but in the end he breaks free of his hate and realizes that joy and liberation is more powerful than hate

[dantecrottogini]

One of Oda's greatest strength has always been to mix comedy and drama

[Panch_Villa]

I believe in Oda he's had all these years to think about how he's going to handle this. I can't wait to see what will come!

[jackarthur]

Something people miss is that gear 5 is Luffy fighting like he's always wanted to fight so if he had gear 5 since the beginning of the story he would have fought more like how he fought kaido in the serious fights. Luffy demonstrates his personality and confidence in himself when fighting in gear 5 and it causes his allies to build confidence and even be inspired/reassured (joyboy) when watching him. So if he had gear 5 even when rescuing robin he would have been more lighthearted due to his self confidence and he'd expect his allies to feel the same.