The country of Wano is a dangerous place, filled with thieves and cut throats looking to pass their days by robbing and murdering their fellow citizens. However, the country also has given us some of the most noble characters to appear in the One Piece franchise to date, with the samurai of Oden standing above the rest. With the current arc giving us a look into the past of the Daimyo of Kuri, Oden’s sacrifices for his country and the people within it is laid bare as he is sentenced to a public execution that entails him being boiled alive!
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Warning! We’ll be diving into some serious spoilers for Chapter 971 of One Piece‘s manga, so if you’re looking to avoid spoiler territory, you may want to avoid the rest of this article!
As Oden holds his vassals above his head, as he burns alive in a giant white hot cauldron, Shinobu reveals all the sacrifices that the wandering samurai has made for his people. After returning from his exploration of the world aboard the ships of Whitebeard and Gol D. Roger, Oden returns home to change the future of his homeland and instead, encounters the tyrant Orochi who has taken the chair of Shogun for himself.
In previous chapters of the manga, we saw that Oden had left his inital encounter following a mysterious conversation with the current Shogun, dancing through the street as the “village idiot” begging for money. While we didn’t know this reasoning initially, Shinobu had overheard the conversation between Orochi and Oden, revealing that the current Shogun wanted nothing but pain for the country as a whole. Vowing to take his vengeance, Orochi reveals that he’s been kidnapping hundreds of citizens and threatens to murder them all if Oden doesn’t do what he says!
When Oden leaves the castle initially, he begins dancing through the town square, painting himself as an idiot as he begs for spare change. Needless to say, the citizens lose confidence in his abilities and role as a potential leader, as they don’t realize just what Oden is doing. What makes it all the more fiendish is that Orochi promised Oden that he would leave after five years, a promise he was never actually willing to make!
Oden’s sacrifices for his countrymen were brave ones, and it makes his eventual death all the more tragic!
What do you think of Oden’s sacrifices made during the Wano Arc? Is he the most noble hero introduced in the franchise of One Piece? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and UA Academy!
