So I was re-reading Dressrosa earlier and I just kinda blew my own mind.
First I need to get something out of the way, otherwise the thing I’m proposing will sound very controversial.
Rebecca’s gladiator outfit. It’s fanservice, bad fanservice. It’s skimpy, it’s not tactical. Hell, it’s not even realistic female armor. It’s just Oda trying to show as much of Rebecca’s body as possible, which is gross considering she’s 16.
We’re on the same page, yes? Yeah? Cool. Now with that out of the way, I’m going to say something almost entirely contradictory.
What if I said there’s an in-story explanation. A reason outside of fanservice that she’s dressed like this?
You see, something that struck me a bit odd while re-reading this chapter is that Kyros’s statue is described as “a half-naked man”. Not really the first thing I notice about him, but ya know, whatever. It’s an accurate description.
Except this is how his statue’s described several times. A nearly-naked man.
I’m thinking to myself “ok, Oda clearly wants me to view the statue with this imagery. But why?” And that’s when my brain made the connection:
Rebecca idolizes this statue. Even though she can’t remember Kyros is her father, she is subconsciously drawn towards his figure and is fascinated. The same can be said for all the people of Dressrosa. Even though they can’t recollect Kyros, or even verify the information on the statue is correct, they’re inclined to not remove it.
She is clearly trying to- without even realizing it -match her father’s image. It’s quite an interesting use of symbolism.
Let’s come back down to Earth real quick. Is this a bit of a stretch? It’s a huge stretch. Should she have had better designed armor? Absolutely. But that fact that there’s even a semblanceof in-story justification for her armor blows my mind, and I’m baffled that I didn’t make the connection any of the other times I’ve watched or read Dressrosa.
