This was never going to be the case; it’s obvious from literal page one that such a voyage necessitated Luffy to become a major mover in the world. If anything, the story theming that most exemplified Luffy’s humble origins that actually got abandoned once they entered the Grand Line was the idea of what makes something a treasure, and this is more a consequence of Oda not wanting the One Piece to be the friends we made along the way. And if this is what fans want they make a poor showing of it, because every time Oda has emulated the types of stories from the East Blue in the Grand Line (Skypiea, Davy Back Fight), it gets maligned en masse.
Let me put it another way.
Yes, Luffy would have to become a big name to become pirate king. And at a certain point he knew his actions would get people’s attention.
My thing about it is that we could have just had a throwaway line or panel to explain what the one piece is or isn’t way before “he laughed” (and maybe we still can), and beyond that, maybe some people don’t want things to be where the treasure will be found by “somebody carrying the weight of history challenging the world to a fight” that Roger is seemingly waiting for from the other side because He was “too early”. Or have it be that the treasure is something that the government is afraid of somebody finding because of how it’ll change the world, and it may or may not be connected to a kingdom, whose existence down to its very name makes the government shit bricks, if not an entire house of bricks, which made them wipe away a whole century of history with censorship that’d put Stalin manipulating pictures to shame. And they probably don’t want the government to have some shadow ruler either.
The thing Oda has done is have it where Luffy looks to be the chosen one of prophecy to do many things talked about in the lore, or be the key to them, but he doesn’t know or care.
So the most we get of Joy Boy after Fishman Island and his broken promise is Zunesha saying Joy Boy has returned after Gear 5 starts to be unlocked. And the mentions of the sun god is the Gorosei talking about how it’s connected to the devil fruit he has (the name of which they also censored and manipulated), while talking about their frustrations in failing to not get their hands on said devil fruit, like the fruit has a mind of its own. Or how Vegapunk talks about Nika while the SHs whose dreams don’t require beating people up to achieve them look at him and go “What? You’re telling us Luffy has a literal GOD MODE?” And I honestly think that speaks to Oda’s skills as a writer.
In the end, I think some want the stakes to be a lot lower, and these are just a few reasons why.
Just keep in mind the only reason they entertain this thought about Yamato because she’s a woman with giant tits, and they only entertain the idea of Kiku being trans because he passes enough to get hit on by Yokozuna (conveniently ignoring that this whole thing is a punchline regarding Kiku being male).
I thought the reason for the trans justification was the dedication to the Oden LARP and folks being cool with it, even with Kaido referring to Yamato as his son.
The real trans representation are literally the Okama, who are predatory and physically ugly with the sole exception for the former is Mr. 2.
Good luck with that, Netflix.
