User:Joekido/Literary Techniques

"Literary technique": or literary device, is an identifiable rule or structure employed in writing which can be identified and used for literary analysis. These tools are used by the author "to enliven and provide voice to the writing".

Oda however may had thrown in literary bits, he is known to never to expand them deeply, some of the techniques are rare while he would heavily use some of them.

Coincidence
Is a sequence of events that seems to be accidental but is actually planned or arranged. Oda sometimes does this.


 * Brook was Laboon's friend. He was a crewmember of the Rumbar Pirates and became a musician of the Straw Hat Pirates.


 * Hatchan who was the enemy of Straw Hat Pirates. Later he would end up befriending them.


 * All of Usopp's lies becoming true.

Irony
A technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.

Juxtaposition
Is an arrangement of two opposing ideas, characters, objects, themes etc. that are in contrast with one another but still have an unifying undertone.

Redshirts
They are characters who only appear for a short time and will eventually get killed off. Oda often does this. Starting with the Alabasta arc, there will always be a pirate who will show up for a few panels only to be killed off. Most red shirts are pirates.


 * The pirate that was blown to bits by Buggy


 * The pirate that was shot by Don Krieg


 * Puppu
 * Tsumegeri Guards


 * Roshio


 * Eraser Pirates


 * Fanged Toad Pirates


 * Mikazuki


 * Devil Dias


 * Albion


 * Lip Doughty

Archetype
An archetype is a method for the analysis or writing of stories and mythology. Archetypal analysis claims that all mythologies have the same basic structure with respect to their characters, and their storyline.

Unseen Characters
Unseen characters are a category of stock characters, and one of the important recurring elements in One Piece. They are characteristically shadowed, masked, shown from the neck down, having their eyes (or face) obscured, or simply hidden. They are often given a name, and turn out to be important figures in the story.


 * Gol D. Roger's eyes were shadowed in all of his scenes early in the story.


 * Crocodile was shadowed in Little Garden arc and was fully revealed by the beginning of Alabasta Arc.


 * Miss All Sunday and Mr. 3 were briefly shadowed.


 * Franky was wearing a mask in his first appearence.


 * Campacino's (filler) face was shadowed up until Episode 331.


 * Gekko Moriah was first shown in shadows, so that only his eyes were visible.


 * Duval was masked when he first appeared.


 * Kizaru's face was only shown from the mouth down during his first appearance in Mariejois.


 * Humandrills were shadowed when Zoro encountered them.


 * Portgas D. Rouge appeared as a shadow.


 * Kong was covered by a speech bubble.


 * Goa King's face was covered by a speech bubble.


 * Shichibukai as depicted by Yosaku in Chapter 69 were shadowed random silhouettes.


 * Yonko were shadowed when depicted by Garp in Chapter 432 (though two of them were already known by the reader).


 * Dadan was first only named, then wasn't shown in the panels.

Plot Twist
Unexpected change ("twist") in the direction or expected outcome of the plot.
 * Miss Wednesday being a princess
 * Robin joining the crew
 * Some of Galley-La Company shipwrights being secret CP9 members.
 * Kokoro being a mermaid
 * Luffy's and Ace's fathers' identities
 * Doflamingo not actually quitting the Shichibukai

Cliffhanger
The narrative ends unresolved, to draw the audience back to a future chapter for the resolution.

Exclamation
Largelly used by Oda, when someone says or does something considered stupid or stunning by the figurants around, they repeat the sentence said or the say action done, everyone at same time in some sort of chorus, followed or not by an exclamation. Its mostly seen in the anime and every single arc have it done at least once.

Chekhov's Gun
Connected to coincidences. This is a literary technique where the author mentions something that appears to be insignificant that turns out to be significant to the story later on. An example is Laboon's lost crew, which Brook ends up being a part of.

Flashback
A flashback is a story device where an interjected scene takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached.

Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is where a writer drops subtle hints about plot developments to come later in the story.

Deus Ex Machina
This device is used as an unexpected and/or improbable solution to a previously unsolvable problem. Deus ex Machina is Latin, it means: God from the Machine, aka unexpected miracle to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem.

Regularly Spoken Phrases
A catch phrase (a memetic phrase) is a word, phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Some catch phrases become the de facto "trademark" of the character with whom they originated.

Ticking clock scenario
Threat of impending disaster—often used in thrillers where salvation and escape are essential elements.

Ticking clock scenario was used in One Piece for:


 * Rescuing Luffy before he drowns in the Arlong Park Arc.
 * The bomb explosion countdown in the Alabasta Arc.
 * The time limit for Enel's Survival Game and destroying Skypiea in the Skypiea Arc.
 * Saving Robin before she passes the Gates of Justice in the Enies Lobby Arc.
 * Defeating Gekko Moriah and retrieving their shadows before dawn in the Thriller Bark Arc.
 * Ace execution in the Impel Down Arc and the Marineford Arc.
 * Zoro, Usopp, and Brook in a flooding room and Vander Decken IX throwing Noah at Fishman Island in the Fishman Island Arc.
 * Escaping the poisonous gas Shinokuni and PH-006 (Caesar's Research Institute) within the time set by Traflagar Law during the Punk Hazard Arc.

Symbolism
Symbolism is the applied use of symbols: iconic representations that carry particular conventional meanings.

Unreliable Narrator
The narrator of the story is not sincere, or introduces a bias in his narration and possibly misleads the reader, hiding or minimizing events, characters, or motivations.