Madison here - a lotta folks on YouTube expected the Nami backstory to break my heart. While it was incredibly sad, Nami’s is different in a few key ways (to me).
I want to preface that I don’t hold the “not my real mom” thing against young Nami. Young kids experience feelings and say things that are hurtful or ungrateful. That’s normal. And once I saw the plates, I knew she (Mama) was going to die. I was in no way prepared for Zeff’s leg so the element of surprise combined with the extremity of the action 🥁.
Here’s where Nami loses me:
Nami sought Arlong out after he killed her mom. She extorted her home village for years on his behalf; even after their “don’t be deceptive or steal, come talk to me first” flashback. She lied to them for years and - from what I can tell - her village was at risk either way; Arlong didn’t spare them, he extorted them for years. And Nami was complicit.
Then, after all of that, she never actually apologizes for that allegiance. The VILLAGE apologizes to HER, which is wild to me.
It felt so bass ackward that I just am not seeing what people expected me to.