I am officially cutting myself from the One Piece fandom.

Honestly, this is something I should've done ages ago, but I guess I felt...indebted, I guess, to the idea that I could "change" it. Honestly, though, that was never happening, and it should've been obvious it never would.

I want to say I was a One Piece fan, but now even that I'm not sure about that. In a way, a strong part of me thinks about how I only thought One Piece as a series was great because the fans told me about it, not because I actually judged its worth in its latter half as fiction.

The One Piece fandom, from my observations at least, is a community so wrapped up in the idea that their series is the "best" that it the belief overtakes reality. An actual critical discussion of OP as a work of fiction is impossible because so much of it is wrapped in the fans.

There's really no point in discussing the series because, ultimately, no one in the fandom will listen. They won't listen, because all they care about is the endless "hype" moments. The crazy ways they can create theories and powerscaling. Never about the story or characters.

Perhaps the One Piece fandom doesn't truly love the series. Because, if they did, they'd care about the characters stories, their journeys. Not how strong Zoro is.

Emotional connections are what makes fiction in my perspective. I can name plenty of works which taught me that.

Frankly, unless someone in the fandom is actually willing to emotionally grow up, go beyond some imaginary "hypetrain", and discuss things in a genuine matter, I'll never see the One Piece fandom as more than children.

Goodbye, I guess.