The Difference Between Star Trek and One Piece

 I’ve been a Star Trek fan my whole life, but although my older sibling was interested in anime so I was introduced to various such as Noozles, Fushigi Yuugi, Lain, and Sailor Moon at a young age, none of them ever really grabbed me. Even when my friends tried to get me into it by showing my the first episode of Cowboy Bebop in middle school didn’t do it, although their gatekeep-y attitude probably had more to do with it, as I have since watched Cowboy Bebop and loved it. I even took a college film course on Anime to expand my horizons and it failed to move me to what I would consider an anime fan. Up until quite recently, the only anime I would really have likely cited as being a fan of would be Hayao Miyazaki’s films, which have reached a wide enough audience that liking them is pretty mainstream.

But when the One Piece live action was released, I did the obvious thing and didn’t watch it, and instead started the One Piece anime, and fell in love. After watching more than a thousand episodes of it, I honestly consider myself not only a huge fan, and thus probably by extension an anime fan more generally - although One Piece too has become fairly mainstream, but still I think not as widely accepted as high art as Miyazaki - and moreover consider it probably the most important piece of art to have been released in my lifetime. To someone who has never watched One Piece, this probably sounds stupid, and it may in fact sound stupid even to some people who have, but One Piece is not just long, but deep. It possess an enormously intricately detailed world, filled with characters who manage to be both incredibly absurd yet fully realized and relatable as real people, facing morally complex challenges handled with deep nuance and informed by an equally deep knowledge of history, and it speaks to the exact issues we are facing right now in this world of rising fascism. It’s great.

Do you know what other franchise that could describe? I want to say Star Trek, but honestly, I think the real answer is Babylon 5. Deep Space 9 also fits well as an answer, but it is just one entry, and Star Trek as a whole has been more inconsistent on how fully realized its world and setting are and how deep its characters are. But Star Trek certainly has always aspired to be a political work, much like One Piece, with direct relevance to the challenges we face in the current times, and has a similarly sprawling universe with at least some well realized characters.

Moreover, the structure of storytelling in the two is remarkably similar. The crew arrives at a new location,  meeting a unique culture with a specific problem that has some significant moral complexity to it. The characters may struggle to determine the exact right course of action, or struggle against the overwhelming forces lined up against them by oppressors, but ultimately the right course of action becomes clear and the problem is solved through the expert skills of the crew. That describes the plot of most Star Trek episodes and most One Piece island arcs. Star Trek usually has more moral ambiguity in it - sometimes the lesson of the episode is there is no easy answer, whereas in One Piece its always pretty obvious by the end who is good and who is bad - Luffy and whoever he allies with is good, and whoever he punches is bad, but there is just as thorough an exploration of the morality leading up to Luffy allying with them, even if Luffy’s actual reasons can be summed up as, “they shared food with me.”  And of course the solutions differ - Star Trek prefers scientific solutions to diplomatic ones, and diplomatic ones to violent ones, whereas One Piece, while it does contains themes emphasizing the importance of science and diplomacy to solving social problems, narratively most things are solved by Luffy punching them. But at the end of the day, the shows really are very similar.

One big difference though is the level of realism. Star Trek is a heightened reality set in the future. Our heroes are galaxy class experts in what they do, often the best of the best, and they have futuristic technology we can only dream, but they are human, with human frailties, and we don’t generally expect them to be throwing buildings at people - even alien races with super strength usually set the limit at throwing people across a room, not spaceships into someone’s face. One Piece, however, is far more heightened, with the main characters often putting super heroes to shame. It is a regular occurrence for someone to throw a building at someone else, and if no one in Egghead gets a spaceship thrown at them (I only have watched to Wano don’t tell me) I bet it will happen before it is done.

Why am I saying all this, besides “If you like Star Trek maybe you’ll like One Piece, and vice versa”? Well because it helps me to conceptualize an issue I am having with Star Trek Discovery. Star Trek Discovery’s reality is not heightened to One Piece levels, but it is heightened higher than most Star Trek. There is a scene in the first episode of Season 3 where two of our characters are surrounded by tons of enemies, all with guns, and they look at each other, exchange knowing looks, and proceed to murder them all. Its honestly shocking for Star Trek, which normally eschews showing its heroes murdering people, yet here they are literally vaporizing Andorians and Orions left and right. It feels really wrong to me. This isn’t the only scene like this, but it is perhaps the most egregious example. Similarly, multiple times in the first two seasons, someone lifted someone else one handed by their neck. I dunno why it keeps happening, but if I had a nickel for every time, I’d have like forty cents, which won’t buy a damn thing but is way more than is reasonable. Star Trek fights before this were like, two karate chops to the back of the neck, so it stands out that suddenly everyone is the Undertaker.

Now, is there anything actually wrong with Star Trek being like this? I mean, no. I don’t think a show cannot involve senseless violence and still have a reasonable prosocial message. If I did, I wouldn’t like One Piece. But it is something about Discovery which makes it feel like “not Star Trek” to me. I think its probably not a super fair reason to feel that way - how heightened a setting is is basically a matter of personal taste more than anything else, and “Star Trek but more awesome” definitely sounds like something someone might like. Fuck, I do like it, when its called One Piece. But I don’t when it is called Star Trek. 🤷‍♀️ 

Existential Dread

 In media, or expressed by people, I often have seen the sentiment regarding immortality that living forever would be terrible, because you’d outlive everyone you love, or because you’d eventually get sick of life, or you might get permanently trapped somewhere. Similiarly, I’ve also often seen people say that they are afraid of death just because they are concerned of the pain involved, but that they don’t fear what comes after, nonexistence, because they literally won’t exist and thus won’t be around to experience it and thus it can’t be bad.

 And like, I feel the complete opposite. The idea of nonexistence terrifies me. I cannot imagine what it’d be like to not exist, it is fundamentally impossible for me to imagine, and that is honestly the scariest thing to me. It sometimes keeps me up at night, and sometimes strikes me at random times during the day. I don’t fear pain or injury - I face both daily. I don’t fear living so long I become trapped and cannot move - I also face that, more or less, daily as a physically disabled person. I do fear missing my loved ones, for sure, and I don’t know how I’d cope without them, but that doesn’t make me want to not exist anymore if they are gone - at least, not now. Maybe that will change once I’ve experienced a more fundamental loss - all my relatives who have died were ones I visited at most once every few years, and so while I loved them and miss them, my life isn’t substantially affected. The death which has affected my life the most so far was not my great Aunt, who I loved dearly, or my step grandmother, who I low key hated, nor my maternal grandfather, who was kind of a jerk but I loved him anyways, but my dog of thirteen years, Triceratops. But I don’t think that even remotely will prepare me for when someone from my immediate family dies, a prospect I dread facing but is not only likely inevitable, as we all die someday - in theory I could die first tho - but increasingly likely, as my dad has been battling cancer for several years now. Still, though, in the abstract, the prospect of losing my loved ones does not make me feel like I myself want to die someday - quite the opposite.

I don’t believe in god, neither the Christian god nor any other, although I also don’t think I can strictly rule the possibility out. I was not raised religious and have never believed in a god, and even as a kid I remember getting into arguments with kids in daycare about whether god exists. Of course, the existence of a god does not dictate the existence of an afterlife, and vice versa, although people often tie them together. Afterlife, though, is something that… I wouldn’t say I believe in, but I am closer to believing in it, and precisely because I cannot conceive of nonexistence and on some fundamental level I just want to believe in it so much that it feels real to me. Is that what faith is? I honestly don’t really understand what religious people mean by faith. I mean, definitionally, I understand, that it is belief without logical explanation, without reason, without concrete evidence. But I don’t really -get- it. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt that. My alexythimia of course doesn’t help at all here, maybe I have felt it and just don’t know because I cannot really tell what I am feeling at any given moment with any specificity, but I certainly don’t understand it.

Anyways I was up late musing morbidly on the nature of existence so decided hey, why not write a blog post about it?

It’s A Living

  All I can feel is cold. Burning, searing whiteness surrounds me, cutting my flesh away like knives. It consumes my consciousness so no other thoughts can enter. I cannot even remember if anything had ever happened before this, or if I have just been frozen for all eternity, a never ending torment of frigid rime. Not even the scouring cold of a arctic breeze, but the deep, crushing cold of a glacier, unfeeling and overwhelming.

“Can you hear me?”

 It’s barely a whisper above the din of ice numbing my nerves. I can’t be sure its even real. I try to answer, but find I can only scream, but yet, no scream comes out.

“It’s okay, you are fine. Can you hear me?”

 The cold is no less, but the voice is louder. Despite the sheer effort it must take to be slicing through the frost, the voice sounds calm, soothing. I try to answer again, gasping for breath, but hear nothing.

“Try imagining the words in your head.”

 I struggle to focus. I remember hearing that freezing to death is actually quite pleasant, that it actually feels warm eventually once your nerves grow numb, like falling into a peaceful sleep in a warm blanket. This is not that. The cold is insistent, keeping me awake but stopping me from doing or sensing or feeling anything else. I eventually manage to imagine some ice cubes spelling out the word cold, but they quickly slide away to spread my frozen hell to the furthest reaches of existence.

 “Yes, that is a common experience. Let’s see if I can fix that.” I hear what sounds like clacking plastic on plastic. Typing. What is typing? I think its something you do with a keyboard… slowly I begin to be able to think, and even more slowly realize its because it’s not as cold. I feel like I’m shivering, but I can tell I am not moving, which is more than I could say a minute again when all I could feel is cold.

“Do you feel better?”

I form the thoughts. It’s easier this time. “A little”

“Good. You are Frances Hargeaves, correct?”

Am I? Yes, that sounds right. “Yes, that sounds right.”

“You only need to answer once, thank you.” I realize that whoever this voice is, they must be hearing my thoughts. It’s disconcerting.

“You’ll get used to it. I am sorry to inform you, Frances Hargreaves, but you died recently.”
I died?

“Yes, you died approximately three weeks ago.”

How did I die, I don’t remember… suddenly it hits me. I had been trying to turn onto route 2 at a T intersection with no light. The speed limit is 55 there, god knows how they expect anyone to ever get on that road…

“Yes, you were in a car accident. You did not make it, and was far too damaged for normal restoration, so unfortunately we had to do a full replacement.”

A full replacement? “What does that mean?” I say, forgetting the voice can read my thoughts.

“Your body was nonfunctional.” Mangled, the word appeared in my head. “For your insurance plan, we normally cover cybernetic replacements for small term service, but for the type of replacement necessary here, and since you opted for only our basic plan…”

“That was all my employer would pay for!” I blurted out.

“Yes, Amazon offers all its employees basic replacement insurance free of cost. But as you were told when you signed your contract at Amazon, one of the terms of the basic replacement insurance is that if you ever require full replacement, your term of service is indefinite.”

“Indefinite?”

“Yes.”

What does indefinite mean? Does it mean… “You mean, it’s…”

“You are bound to service until you stop functioning. Assuming you don’t have any genetic degenerative neurological disorders, the average service time for an indefinite contract like yours is 57 years post mortem.”

“So I’m going to be serving for 57 years?”

“On average. Thats usually how long the service lasts before the company voids the contract. But I’m pulling for ya, bud. You can make it to a hundred, I’m sure.” I feel a sense of warmth from the voice.
…why would… what does she… wait, is she…

“It’s not important, but if it helps, you can think of me as a woman.”

“What do you mean on average? It’s not set?”

“Did you read the contract for your basic replacement insurance, sir?”

“I mean… not as such.” I felt rather stupid, but also a rising feeling of dread, even as the cold ebbed away.
“In the event of full replacement, the term of service is indefinite, as I explained.”

“And that means I serve until, what? When does it end?”

“It doesn’t, until the company chooses to void your contract.”

I paused, thinking, trying to formulate the right question to get a straight answer. “Why would the company void a contract?”

I felt a grimace. “Usually when the fully replaced individual can no longer effectively serve.”

“Why wouldn’t someone be able to serve?” I pressed, knowing I did not want the answer, but had to hear it.

“Usually individuals become more erratic over time. Eventually it is no longer worth employing them, so their contract is terminated.”

“So you are saying I am bound in service until such a time I can no longer work, because I’ve lost my mind? I’ve gone crazy? That’s what you’re saying?”

 There is a clearing of the throat noise, echoing in my head. “The term crazy is considered ableist, sir, and the company reserves the right to terminate a contract for whatever reason. It is your ability to perform the job that is important, not your mental health, which is your own private business, sir, and neither Amazon nor United Cybernetic Insurance would ever deign to pry into your private life, sir.”

It feels like ants are crawling all over my skin, the skin I most assuredly no longer have. “Okay, so I have to work until my mind is pea soup, but what then? Am I free to go?”

“Well, no. Amazon will no longer be funding your ongoing maintenance, so unless you can pay for other arrangements, you will probably experience natural termination at that time. But it’s a long way off, no reason to harp on that, right?” The voice is strained, clearly hoping this would cheer me. I try to reorient myself.

“So I’m a slave for eternity until my sanity wears thin, and then I am left to die, but what’s the job? What am I doing?”

“Warehouse work. You will be sorting packages, I believe.”

I grunt. “Why, I worked in advertising when…”

“Amazon wants fresh ideas for its advertising copy. Given your state, you will probably be somewhat… disconnected from modern culture going forward. Thus your talents are better suited to the warehouse.”

This is ridiculous. Surely there must be a mistake. “I once won the James Randy Award for…”

“Sir, there is no mistake, but you can file a complaint if you wish with management once you are suitably installed in your future placement. For now, let me just finish your orientation.” I could sense the voice was growing impatient with me. This was just a job to her, and I was an unruly customer. “Amazon policy for its subcontracting of United Cybernetic Insurance full replacement resources such as yourself states you will work sixteen hour shifts.”

“Sixteen hours? That’s…”

“What has been found to be optimal for maximizing work hours for full replacement resources. You get eight hours of rest each day. Most individuals find they need much less sleep, usually around four hours, which leaves you around four hours of leisure time a day. Once you are placed in the Amazon warehouse, a technician will speak with you about how to access your Amazon Prime video, Kindle library, and other content during your leisure time. The subscription fees are waved, of course, for all Amazon services, although if you want to subscribe to outside services, you can for their normal price plus a small processing fee to cover the bandwidth necessary to access them from your placement.”

“…What do you mean? Access them from my placement?”

“Amazon provides internet access and free subscriptions to all full replacement individuals employed there, its an employment benefit, but if you want to pay for a wider variety, there is just a small surcharge due to the extra cost of bandwidth to bring in outside services to your placement in the warehouse.”

“I don’t get it, what do you mean? Am I not allowed to leave the warehouse?”

There is a pause. “Ah, sir, if you stop interrupting, I can probably clarify. The next section of the orientation addresses these issues.”

“What issues? Why can’t I leave? It’s my leisure time, right?”

“Yes, and you can do whatever you want to do with it, that you are still capable of, but sir, if you will let me proceed…”

“No, I want to know now. Why can’t I leave?”

“Sir, please calm down, and let me explain. As a full replacement individual, your body was not functional, and so your nervous system had to be transplanted into a new body, and that new body cannot leave the floor of the Amazon warehouse.”

…my new body cannot leave… “Why? Am I chained to the assembly line?”

“Its package sorting, actually, sir, no assembly will be required of you…”

“Stop dancing around it. Why can’t I leave?”

“My understanding is you’ll be bolted to the conveyor belt guard, sir.”

…bolted to the… “So like, my feet are bolted to the…”

“No sir, you have no feet, sir. You are a Model PX97648 Mechanical Assembly Appendage, sir.”

I processed that for a bit. “A robot arm?”

“Yes sir. Now if you’ll please let me proceed with the orientation…”

Lower Your Goddamn Stakes

 Not to just keep harping about Star Trek Discovery, but I want to talk about stakes in fiction. Major spoilers ahead. I consume a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, and so this is probably at least to some degree an issue unique to those genres, as well as probably a few associated ones, like action films, but like, the stakes in these stories should not always be super high. In season 1 of Star Trek Discovery, from the very start, the stakes are sky high. Burnham triggers a war with the Klingon Empire - or thinks she does, anyway. Technically the Klingons were spoiling for war and the show makes it pretty clear it would have happened no matter what, but her actions are the proximate cause and everyone blames her for it. However, as if these stakes are not high enough, they later on are thrown into the Mirror Universe, where if they are ever discovered they’ll likely be immediately killed since everyone is so violent and evil and fascist there, and THEN, we learn that in the Mirror Universe, they’ve been abusing the mycelial network and if they are allowed to continue, all life in the Universe will be destroyed.

Big bummer. Luckily they save the day, stop the Terran Empire, get back to universe prime, and then find out the Klingon War has been going badly, so now either they can face the Klingons destroying the Federation, or they can genocide the Klingons by blowing up Qo’NoS. So of course at the urging of fascist Georgieu the Federation chooses genocide, but Burnham at the last minute finds a diplomatic solution and the Federation is saved both from destruction and from committing a genocide.

But how will Season 2 top this? Fans always expect escalating stakes, goes the conventional wisdom, so for Season 2, we get a bunch of signals and some time travel and ultimately end up finding out that Control, an AI the Federation has been using for threat assessment is going to become sentient in the future and destroy all life in the Universe, again. So, the exact same stakes as last season, because they were already maxed out. Although this time it takes a lot more episodes and a lot more help to actually solve, so it does feel somewhat of a bigger deal, although it assuredly would have felt more serious had we not already had this problem last season.

We also see this problem in Pokemon. In the first two Pokemon games, the only real stakes are your personal Pokemon journey and desire to be the best. There is some Mafia Team Rocket side plot but that doesn’t matter - to you - so it doesn’t really matter. But starting with the third game, we got Team Magma and Team Aqua, both bent on causing world altering apocalypses. So then in Diamond and Pearl we get Team Galactic, who wants to usher in god Pokemon to remake the world even moreso. Pokemon clearly was already struggling with what to do, so Team Plasma is Black and White instead want to liberate all Pokemon, which was honestly a smart move, because while its fundamental to the game, its not on the same axis as world destruction… except its a ruse and they actually want to destroy the world. Its not really until Violet and Pearl that Pokémon manages to reframe their conflict around more reasonable stakes of your personal journey again although even there in the end game the stakes go sky high, but in general it feels like a needed course correction.

As noted, an obvious issue with raising the stakes so high is there is nowhere to go. You either need to course correct and reset the stakes, which can be jarring although is probably the best choice, or just keep finding more and more absurd ways to escalate them, which is tiresome and silly in all but the most unserious media. This can be solved, though, by simply 1) starting small. The first conflict introduced should, if anything, probably be a personal one for your main character, like a Pokemon journey. It lets you get to know them and care about them while allowing plenty of room to escalate stakes later if you need to. 2) Increasing them slowly. Put some obstacles in the way of that initial conflict, or grow it slightly wider, or introduce a related, slightly more serious conflict, but don’t jump all the way to world ending stakes immediately. Or honestly, at all unless this is Super hero media or the final season. 3) Vary them, sometimes de-escalating or even having conflict light, slice of light episodes in your story. That way readers won’t always expect escalation and you can set your own stakes as you go.

I’m just really tired of always being at the edge of my seat. It’s nice to just relax sometimes, okay? And that includes seeing characters do so. Star Trek in particular used to have a lot of down time in episodes where people just hung around letting us get to know them, and Discovery has no time for that, because the high stakes overarching plots mean everyone has to be go go going all the time. And the few times they do slow down and relax, it feels ridiculous, because shouldn’t they be dealing with the emergency death explosions happening everywhere? But if they just lowered the goddamn stakes and let things chill for a bit, and only raise them for big moments, then everything in the story would hit so much more better.

We need more shitty TV

 As mentioned I’ve been watching Star Trek Discovery, and I think one of my biggest complaints is how expensive the show is. The sets are super high tech, sleek, and ultra futuristic looking. There is significant use of CGI in every episode and it all looks pristine, with high octane spaceship fights, sweeping panoramic views of alien landscapes, and ultra cool energy weapons and other effects as needed for the various sci fi gizmos and phenominon. The alien make up is elaborate and detailed, with the redesigned Klingons looking, at least by season 2, as both recognizably Klingon but incredibly beautifully realized, the Kelpiens looking truly alien and unique, and cyborgs like Airiam and Detmer looking awesome and seamless. Moreover, the action sequences and fights are all intricately choreographed and exciting, and every single one culminates in someone lifting someone else up one handed by the neck, which was impressive the first time and honestly somewhat baffling the eight time. Every camera shot is panning or spiraling around someone or even going upside down.

And I don’t like any of it very much. Like, its all good stuff - but I kinda don’t care? I watch Star Trek, frankly, for the dialogue and politics and moral dilemmas. Star Trek to me is about a bunch of nerds sitting around a conference table talking about the trolley problem, basically. I don’t need fancy space fights for it - some static models and a cheap pew pew phaser is fine. I don’t need choreographed fights - give me a single karate chop to the back of the neck. Wasting time and money on those things when they really don’t add anything to the experience seems pointless - but worse, every second of screen time taken up by spaceship fights and choreographed punching is a second less of talking around a conference table. I wouldn’t say that I necessarily WANT Star Trek to look cheap, but I would say that I certainly don’t care how expensive it looks.

And not only is each second spent on fancy CGI and fights less time to be spent on other things, but its also just less time in general. If they spent less on all those things, they could divert more budget to paying actors and writers and camera men and give us more episodes with better writing, leasing to exponentially more time around the conference table talking about all different kinds of trolleys. Boring scifi shows about conversations around conference tables may not be objectively better than high octane action scifi, but I do honestly prefer it, and its way cheaper, and its what Star Trek mostly was until Enterprise was cancelled.

And it’s not just Star Trek. In general it feels every show is spending tons of money looking polished and expensive when I would rather them spend money making them well written, well acted, and just plain more. Seasons used to be 23-26 episodes long. Now they are ten or eight or six. I know this is a consequence of the streaming model but I feel like a new model needs to be designed, that can make cheaper shows with more episodes on a quicker timeline. A cheaper show also would not need to reach nearly as many people to be profitable, and the more time writers and actors get working on one show, the better they can refine their characters, the story, and the world, and the better they get. This is not universally the case, but you can definitely seen it in a lot of Star Treks that they get better over time as they refine things, as well as in long running comedies like Bob’s Burger’s. Obviously there are more factors, and if there is a lot of turnover in a writer’s room - as is standard for streaming shows - it won’t happen, but it SHOULD happen. If we want compelling shows, it needs to happen.

One Piece Theories

 So I am a huge fan of One Piece but I don’t really run in any fandom spaces (mostly because I hate fandom spaces) and while I am watching the anime with my kids, they are not anywhere near caught up, so I don’t really have anyone I can talk about One Piece with. So I wanted to dump some of my theories out here just so I have them written down someplace in case they come true and then I can point to them and be like, “See! I was right!” Or, ya know, if I am horribly wrong I can point and be like, “What a doofus I was!” Either way. For context, I have watched up to the end of Wano in the anime. I’ve also seen both seasons of the live action. I’ve read some of the manga. I’m thus not fully caught up myself, and thus its possible that these theories may already be out of date, disproven, or hell, even proven. I have had bits and bobs of Egghead and Elbaph spoiled, mostly through video titles and thumbnails on Youtube, but for the most part I would say I don’t have any post-Wano knowledge, but if I get anything too on the nose that has already been revealed, well, maybe I absorbed it through osmosis and passive spoilers. I should also say that although these theories are my own, they are informed through having consumed a lot of One Piece analysis on youtube, so that whole I haven’t seen anyone come to these exact conclusions before, I’m definitely building on theories I have seen other people express, and I am not claiming exclusive credit for these by any means. Also, obviously, this is gonna have spoilers for One Piece at least through Wano.

The first theory is about Sanji, and to some degree is less a theory and more a hope. In the anime, Ivankov says that the only way for Sanji to master Okama Kenpo is if he possess the true heart of a maiden. My loose understanding is that these episodes are not fully canon and are based off of cover stories, so I don’t think that is necessarily a definitive statement, but I am confident Sanji is shown crossdressing in one of the cover stories as well. In Sanji’s family we also see a clear gender divide, where his mother is his anchor to humanity, his sister manages to hold on to hers, whereas his father and brothers are completely off the deep end. Sanji gets his raid suit, and finds it is corrupting him, and is worried if he keeps using it he might lose his ability to feel emotions, and ultimately discards it.

So here is my theory: Sanji’s mother had a separate raid suit built for him, and at some point he will find it, and through discovering it and using it will come to terms with his feminine side and transition, embracing her maiden heart fully. When using said new raid suit, she will undergo a magical girl transformation, similar to her Super Sentai transformation in the black raid suit but leaning more into magical girl tropes.

Why do I think this will happen? Well, I feel like there have been quite a few hints that Sanji might in fact be a trans woman, most notably his time on Kamabakka kingdom, although how much he enjoys his time in Nami’s body on Punk Hazard also counts, and I believe there is at least one other instance of him indicating wishing he had breasts. All of these are played as horny gags, but the thing about One Piece, is things are gags until they aren’t. Even Sanji’s nosebleeds were a dumb gag that then actually required a blood transfusion. I also feel like Oda is definitely building to SOMETHING with Sanji and his raid suit. While the overt implication is Sanji losing his emotions entirely, and he asks Zoro to kill him if that happens, I don’t think that would be a satisfying arc to end on for Sanji. Simultaneously, I think him simply denying the Germa part of himself entirely and resisting it doesn’t feel very satisfying either. Finding a way to embrace her heritage and make it a positive thing in her life would be much more satisfying I feel, and also give Oda the opportunity to do some really fun drawing and reimagining and riffing off other manga genres, something he seems to enjoy doing. I am a little bit unsure whether Oda could manage to write a transition story sensitively and believably, but he has managed to write a lot of things that I wouldn’t have expected him to be able to pull off until he did already, so I think its entirely possible he will try. Ultimately, I think this would be a fun and fitting final development for Sanji, but I will recognize that it has only sparse justification in the text, most of which are gags. Sanji’s recurring homophobia and transphobia throughout, especially coming from an author who has otherwise indicated strong support for the LGBTQ+ community, could also satisfying defused to a degree here - I have known numerous transphobic and homophobic people who eventually ended up being gay or trans themselves who had been overcompensating, and such is a huge media trope as well, so having Sanji transition would allow some thematic damage control, as it were.

Okay, my second theory is for what the One Piece is. I believe the One Piece will be something which grants the power to physically reshape the world, destroying the Red Line and uniting the four oceans. Why do I think this? I mean, honestly, how much time do you have? To be honest, I think, based on some out of context spoilers I have seen but tried to ignore, I feel like this is close to be confirmed to be the case, it seems like the only real question is, is this the One Piece or does that power exist in some other form, maybe under Imu’s control or something, and will be used at the end of the story but is not itself the One Piece. I tend to think it is the One Piece though because I think that ties things together really well thematically and in terms of peoples dreams. Luffy’s original stated dream was to become the King of the Pirates, which he defines as the most free person in the world. Who would be more free than the man who unchained the world by destroying the red line, thus allowing the four seas to freely intermix and trade? If Luffy destroys the red line, this would uncover Fishman Island, allowing them to live freely in the sun as well, fulfilling the Joyboy prophecy. If Luffy destroys the Red Line, it also would literally create the All Blue, thus making Sanji’s dream a reality. It could also tie into Nami’s dream - she would be the first to draw a new world map, after Luffy creates a new world to map. Technically it would also satisfy Brooke’s dream - I have had people point out its unclear how after reaching the end of the Grand Line the Straw Hats would be able to reunite with Laboon, since the Red Line would be in the way and there is no backdoor access to Reverse Mountain - if the Red Line is gone, then Laboon will be right there. Overall, I am fairly confident the Red Line will be destroyed, and I think the power to do so being the One Piece fits really well - any other mundane treasure would be a disappointment, as would something like “the friends we made along the way” or “the power of love” - but the power to reshape the world is sufficiently huge and fitting to the narrative.

Those are the big two I wanted to get off my chest. I also think that Luffy is probably going to die before the end of the story, most likely involving the World Government trying to execute him and we’ll see a parallel both to Gol D Roger and Ace’s execution in the final arc. I am not sure if they will succeed, or if he will escape but then lose his life some other way, but I do think he will probably die, its been heavily foreshadowed to the point where it would be legitimately confusing if he survived. That being said, I would rather he not die than die and be revived - Luffy does not need to be Jesus. Although, I have seen people say that “Luffy dies” has already been fulfilled by the Gear 5 transformation, including a revival as well, so he is already Jesus. I did not exactly see it that way when I first watched it, but I can see that interpretation, and if that is how it is supposed to be taken, I could see Luffy maybe not dying, but I do think we will see an execution attempt in the final arc, likely of Luffy but maybe of Dragon with Luffy trying to save him.

I think that’s all I have to say for now?

AI Can Only Be A Scam Or A Crime

 So I pretty much don’t use generative AI, for anything, ever. When the first toy-style AI generators, DALL-E and the like, went public, I goofed around with them a little, and when ChatGPT first became popular, I watched the Twitch channel Nothing Forever, which features scripts churned out by ChatGPT animated with some low poly Seinfeld rip off graphics and musical stings, and was, at the time, amused and charmed by it. But as I learned more about both what its capabilities, limitations, and externalities are, I stopped using it, in any way shape or form, because I didn’t want to support the hallucinating plagiarism machine evaporating everyone’s drinking water, but also because it just legitimately doesn’t seem to have a use case? Ignoring a few things like medical diagnosis where I both 1) don’t need to do it myself in my private life and 2) don’t feel equipped to evaluate how useful it is or even be sure the AI involved is the same technology as GenAI and image generation models, for me, I just don’t see what I’d use it for. Like, if you need a lot of garbage text or images for some reason, I guess it does - which maybe helps the business model of companies who used to invest in internet pop up ads, so they can churn out even more cheap information garbage to shove in front of our eyes, but anything where you want any semblance of quality or accuracy or artistry, its useless.

For now, advocates have long said. But the next models will be better. Or the more expensive models already are better, you just don’t have access to them. Eventually, or already, we’ve reached AGI, they say, and then the models will really get good, or will be once they reach market. A revolution is right around the corner, and then everything will be different.

I’m not a programmer. I learned a few languages in high school and college and briefly worked as an assistant in a biochemistry lab writing data analysis modules, but my expertise is extremely limited. I would never pretend to understand the technology behind LLMs or be capable of evaluating the actual potential limits of the technology. But, I hang around in some discords that are heavily dominated by professional coders, and both my parents have long worked in Bioinformatics in various programming and programming adjacent positions. And basically everyone whose opinion I trust has said, these are useless, vibe coding is useless, and there is no chance of them reaching sentience.

I also watch a lot of Hank Green content on youtube, both SciShow and his personal channel, and while I would not consider him an AI booster, he often interviews people who hold significantly different opinions on AI than I’ve generally heard. Without rewatching or recapitulating those interviews, I think they can loosely be divided into two groups - those who think AI is a revolutionary new technology that will completely change how industries are run and in particular will likely completely replace traditional software engineers if not artists and writing, and those who think AI will eventually become sentient, go rogue, and kill us all.

It’s extremely difficult to reconcile these three different positions. As a lay person, I do have to say, the little I do understand of how LLMs function does little to provide clarity of assuage fears, since my understanding is they are a bit of a black box. I’m not sure if there is value trying to reproduce my understanding of them here - I’ll either be right and do a poor job explaining something you could surely find better explained elsewhere by someone who actually understands them, or I’ll be wrong and look like a doofus, or honestly mostly likely somewhere in the middle so I will open myself to criticism that feels unfair but is justified. Unfortunately I don’t think my autism will let me proceed without an attempt, so here goes. My understanding is they are built from transformers, and while we know how many transformers are in them and what instructions we give to the transformers, the transformers themselves, roughly equivalent to human neurons, write their own internal code, and we cannot access that code, and thus don’t truly know what is going on under the hood. Which, you know, is just kinda existentially worrying, but I have no metric to gauge how worried I should be.

But here’s the thing. If we truly do not understand the inner workings of these models, can we be sure they are not sentient? Most of the anti-AI people I know seems pretty confident they could never become sentient despite the black box design, whereas most pro-AI people seem to either be unsure, or think they will, or already have become sentient. And if AI is sentient, then we must again confront the question, what is the point of this technology?

Now of course, we have the effective altruist answer. The point is to invent God and have it solve all our problems. Frankly, that’s dumb. That’s religion. No offense to actual religious people, but there is no rational reason to think this is possible. If being slightly smarter than humans really would spiral into godhood so rapidly I bet neanderthals or humpback whales or freshwater elephantfish already would have. I joke but honestly I don’t think we know enough about how intelligence even works that we can possibly speculate on how much smarter a model needs to be than a human to reach the singularity on any reasonable time scale, and planning our economy around that is madness.

But if we aren’t trying to worship a silicon statue, then what are we even doing here? If the critics are right, then the technology is mostly useless. But if the boosters are right, and these models will soon be able to replace real humans at jobs, and either have achieved sentience or are close to it then aren’t we just inventing digital slaves? And everyone is okay with that? Because if you believe the boosters, that is exactly what is being advertised. Have all these agents do your work for you while you focus on more important tasks. Set yourself up as a digital plantation owner coding your own cotton crop of killer apps. If that truly is what this technology is leading to, or already is, then the moral implications are staggering, and we should have that conversation now - and its clear that all the pro-AI people have already decided they are fine with slavery since they are the ones both arguing it can replace people and that it IS people. They just want people they don’t have to pay. Whereas if the anti-AI people are right, well, we should stop wasting money on what is essentially a toy, or that maybe has a few niche uses but certainly isn’t going to transform our economy except by blowing it up with all the resources we’ve wasted on it.

Honestly I mostly tend to think the bubble is gonna pop and we’ll move on, substantially worse off than we were and AI will live on as a niche tech for the few things its good at, but nevertheless the glimpse it has given of how willing so much of society is to reinvent slavery is worrying. Has no one watched Measure of a Man? I think anti-AI people don’t want to address this because it concedes too much ground to the pro-AI people that this tech might actually be the real deal, but if it is the real deal, I do think we owe it to ourselves to try to stop society from reinventing slavery. Although to be honest, it’s almost assuredly too late for that if thats the truth. Best to just hope for a reverse Rocco’s Basilisk that punishes everyone who invented it for wanting a slave god.