My Unessay project is a plot outline of what the story of Yde et Olive would look like in the world of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece.
[Warning: Click hyperlinks at your own risk! They will likely contain huge spoilers!]
Without further ado…
Aragon is an island kingdom located in the Paradise part of the Grand Line and is a part of the federation that constitutes the World Government. King Florent of Aragon’s wife passes away during the birth of Yde, Florent’s only child and the kingdom’s princess. Florent begins preying on Yde when they are a teenager, and when he decides to marry them, Yde runs away. They disguise themself and flee the island, taking with them the best naval ship of the country. In order to avoid being caught by their father, Yde enlists in the Marines as a man. The World Government perpetrates strict gender norms, meaning that those standards of gender roles and norms follow into the Marines, leaving Yde to choose only between the identities of woman or man during the enlistment process. Of the philosophies around the concept of justice in the Marines, Yde would follow Admiral Fujitora’s principle of “Humane Justice”, prioritizing protecting the innocent and opposing corruption above the pursuit of criminal activity. Yde spends some time in the Marines and quickly proves their merit, resulting in them being sent to serve in the New World. They chase down pirates looking to poach a Devil Fruit – the process of killing someone in order to obtain their Devil Fruit abilities — from King Oton, the king of the island kingdom of Rome in the New World. Yde successfully saves Oton’s life and captures the pirates. As an expression of his gratitude, Oton offers Yde his daughter’s hand in marriage. His daughter, Princess Olive, agrees to this happily. Yde’s protests are heard on deaf ears and eventually they cave. After fifteen days of their engagement, Yde spills the secret of their assigned gender at birth to Olive, something that they had been anxious about in terms of their marriage, as a queer marriage could threaten the political stability of Rome’s place in the federation of the World Government. Olive says she loves Yde regardless and vows to keep their secret. Their conversation is overheard by someone who works in the castle and it is reported to King Oton, who vows to have them both exiled if true. To determine if this is true, Oton summons Yde to bathe with him. After receiving word of this, Yde sends an alarm to a trusted higher up in the Marines through a transponder snail. Yde, being duty-bound, follows Oton’s orders and meets him for the bathe. At the last minute Oton receives a message via transponder snail from the Supreme Commander of the Knights of God and one of the Five Elders who publicly head the World Government, Saint Figarland Garling. This message tells Oton not to doubt Yde, and Oton’s doing so was an insult to the World Government’s authority. Oton immediately backs down and apologizes, but the message continues, stating that Yde is a man with all the legitimate authority of the World Government and that Oton will die in eight days. Eight days later, Oton is mysteriously assassinated by Cipher Pol, and Yde is elevated to the status of king of Rome with Olive as the queen. The two eventually have a child named Croissant.
Reflection:
For my second Unessay Project, I created a plot outline of Yde et Olive but if it were set in the world of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece.
I set the kingdom of Aragon, where Yde is from, in the Paradise section of the Grand Line. Paradise is the first part of the Grand Line, a band of the sea that wraps around the world. It is rumored that the legendary treasure, the One Piece, was found in the island of Laugh Tale at the end of the second part of the Grand Line, the New World. All of this being said, this leaves Aragon as an island kingdom in a part of the world known for conflict but certainly not on the scale that exists in the New World. I feel like that aligns well with Aragon in the original text in comparison with the conflicts Yde comes into within and around the kingdom of Rome, as I chose to place Rome in the New World section of the Grand Line due to the higher level of conflict in the region. Both Aragon and Rome would be island kingdoms within the federation of the World Government.
The beginning portion of the plot of Yde et Olive remains the same, except when Yde runs away, they take Aragon’s best naval ship rather than the destrier warhorse. While a ship is a lot more expensive (I assume, I’ve personally never purchased a naval ship nor a horse), it fulfills the same function of a combat-oriented tool for travel.
I had Yde enlist in the Marines rather than be a lone fighter for the next part of the plot. While this takes place before their arrival to Rome, Yde does wind up enlisting as a soldier in the original text. The protection that the Marines could provide Yde from their father would likely cause Yde to join. The interesting thing about the Marines is that they, thanks to the World Government, have fairly strict gender norms, meaning Yde would further solidify themself in the box of “man” when choosing their identification during enlistment. This is directly opposite of the Revolutionary Army, which tends to play with gender expression and norms as a means of individual protest alongside their fight against the tyranny of the World Government. I didn’t have Yde join the Revolutionary Army because Yde, in the original text, adheres to societal norms and excels within those boundaries rather than defying them. The solidification of themself in the role of “man” during enlistment in the Marines also pairs well with Yde’s claiming of masculine gender roles and norms in the original text.
On the note of the Marines, I chose for Yde to align themself with Admiral Fujitora’s philosophy of “Human Justice” in the Marines. Fujitora’s ideals of protecting the innocent and putting an end to corruption reflect well with Yde’s.
I had Yde arrive to Rome – now an island kingdom in the New World – on a mission to hunt down Devil Fruit poachers. King Oton, as the king of a larger kingdom in the New World, could very well have a Devil Fruit…meaning that there would be pirates who would want to kill him in order to steal his Devil Fruit powers. This practice is referred to as poaching. I felt this was a way that made sense within the world of One Piece for Yde to enter into the part of the plot that takes place in Rome. Yde saves Oton and he offers them Olive’s hand in marriage, and they have the conversation where Yde tells her about their assigned gender at birth.
I made it so Yde was anxious about this because a queer marriage could threaten the political standing of Rome within the World Government. That’s something that hasn’t really been posed in One Piece, but considering the discrimination against queer and gender non-conforming people, it would be a valid concern for someone romantically involved with royalty.
I also shifted King Oton’s threat, which was originally the execution of Olive and Yde, to one of exile. This is because King Oton might worry about the World Government getting involved with the affairs of his kingdom if he had them executed since Olive is also royalty and Yde is a Marine.
I included the use of transponder snails rather than divine messages as a nice little touch, but also as a commentary on the idea of divinity within One Piece.
The existence of divinity in One Piece is a constant question as much as it is in our world, with varying thoughts and beliefs. Some people in the world believe that divinity is tied to Devil Fruits, others that there’s no such thing, etc… With past cultures and mythologies utterly wiped out by the World Government, the only sense of real religiosity left is the religious rhetoric that the World Government uses to enhance the status of its oligarchs.
Speaking of! We don’t need angels when we have the Knights of God! The Knights of God, the elite group of warriors from the Holy Land Mary Geoise (it’s where the oligarchs, the Celestial Dragons, live, you can guess who named it). Recruits automatically join the ranks of the World Nobles, aka the Celestial Dragons, and gain the title of “Saint”. They are colloquially referred to as divine and are privy to the biggest secret of all, the largest conspiracy there is within the World Government (of course, I’m not going to just tell you this…). But who needs Archangels when you have these guys?
And I make Saint Figarland Garling play the part of the angel who saves Yde! I chose this vile man (I won’t spoil but man, does he love war crimes and violating human rights) for his political power and brutal, manipulative tendencies. And considering Yde’s role as a young Marine who has quickly gained rank and is hiding their royal status, that combination of skill and class might make Garling keep an eye on Yde as a potential recruit for the Knights of God. I’m sure Garling, with his political status, would know about Yde’s hidden royalty.
And, keeping in line with Garling’s characteristic cruelty, he would have Oton killed through the use of the secret spies and assassins employed by the World Government known as Cipher Pol. Garling would likely see this as a nice little cherry on top for Yde, and Yde’s following placement as King of Rome as a return to Yde’s rightful class.
Works Cited
Abbouchi, Mounawar, editor. Yde and Olive. Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality, 2018. Subsidia Series.
“One Piece.” TCB Scans, https://tcbscansmanga.com/one-piece/.
One Piece Wiki. https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/One_Piece_Wiki.
Sprockets and Springes 