One Piece: Balancing Tone and Stakes

Certain stories bring with them an almost tangible brightness. It’s hard to describe, but something about them just seems unbeatably optimistic, even if the characters themselves face challenges, heartache, and even grief. These stories are heartwarming and often glorify adventure, romance, or friendship, using these elements to brighten the story. Despite the darker themes and elements, they somehow manage to rise above them and create a tone that is both optimistic and resilient.

Just two weeks ago, we talked about how powerful it can be when a comedic or lighthearted story concludes in a climax that is consistent with the rest of its tone, as well as how disastrous it can be if a story like that tries and fails to execute a high-stakes climax. But that doesn’t mean that these stories are excluded from having meaningful climaxes across the board. 

If you’ve decided you want your lighthearted story to end with a more serious note, you may be asking how you can do that without wrecking your story’s tone. And it’s a legitimate question. We don’t want to end up in the same place as Migration, but at the same time, stories like this are so powerful that sometimes the risk is worth it. 

So how can we ensure that our gut-punch climax doesn’t come across as unnecessary or worse, ruin the entire book’s tone?

The live-action One Piece series just so happens to have the answer.

One Piece

One Piece is a retelling of the anime and manga series by the same name. It’s set in a fantasy world mostly made up of strings of small islands, which was flung into a pirate and seagoing era after the Pirate King Gol D. Roger announced he had hidden a priceless treasure called the One Piece, whose location would die with him. Now the ocean is teeming with boats of pirates and their crews — some are good, others bad. One of them, Monkey D. Luffy, is a skinny teenager with dreams of becoming the Pirate King and the determination that with enough hard work (and a crew) nothing will be able to stop him from finding the One Piece. He brings an upbeat optimism to everything he touches, and remains undaunted by the tragic circumstances he often finds and sets out to help. 

Throughout the first season, Luffy builds his crew with individuals from all sorts of backgrounds and goals: from Zorro, a mercenary assassin typically hired to kill pirates; to Nami, a teenage cartographer with an unusual knack for drawing. Luffy is determined not only to fulfill his dream of becoming the king of the pirates, but also to help his crew fulfill their personal goals. His most deeply held belief is that dreams are a core part of a person’s identity and always worth pursuing, so he would do anything to let his crew achieve their goals. 

The result is a show that, despite its rating, occasional violence, and truly evil antagonists, maintains a remarkably upbeat tone. Luffy’s optimism is contagious, and it sets the tone for the rest of the series, even through a climax that packs an unexpected punch.

Nami ends up betraying Luffy and the rest of the crew, running back to Arlong, the  pirate that burned down her village and killed her adoptive mother. Luffy is sure that there’s more to the story than what he can see, and so his crew sets out to hunt her down and stop  Arlong, who they discover has manipulated and controlled her since childhood. The next few episodes reveal Nami’s miserable past, and paints an absolutely terrible picture of the extent of Arlong’s crimes. 

The result is a climax in which Luffy — without his characteristic smile — faces a battle with incredibly high stakes and terrible odds. If they lose, he and his entire crew will die, along with the dreams he idolizes. But if they succeed, Nami becomes truly free for the first time in almost a decade, and his crew can set out for the One Piece unhindered.

Balancing Tone and Stakes

Although I have never seen the original One Piece manga or very much anime in general, this series instantly drew me in with its expert character work and storytelling. Not only was its worldbuilding flawless and its characters well-rounded and relatable, but the series also did an amazing job at balancing dark elements in a show that overall carried a bright and optimistic tone.

A climax like the one I described, with stakes as high as they were, seems like it would completely ruin the show’s upbeat tone. While it’s true that higher stakes, more dangerous risks, and darker evil can taint the tone of any story, it absolutely doesn’t have to. Over and over again, optimistic, upbeat stories have proven that they are more resilient than we often assume. 

But it has to be done carefully.

I like to imagine stories like this as a glass of clear water. You can add one or two drops of paint to it without changing the clarity very noticeably. But any more than that and your entire glass becomes tainted. It’s the same way for stories. It’s completely possible to write a bright, upbeat story with a highly emotional climax or more mature, serious tone at its crisis, but that should only be for a few scenes. Any more than that, and your tone for the entire work will suffer. 

Another story that mastered this technique is Abbie Emmons’ 100 Days Of Sunlight. Despite dealing with depression, grief, and disability, the book maintains the bright attitude first communicated by its sunny cover. Similarly, Disney’s 2017 DuckTales concludes in a climax with stakes far higher and tension much greater than expected for a children’s animated show. Yet it managed to balance both its optimistic tone and one of the most compelling climaxes I’ve seen from a cartoon aimed at children.

The writers involved in all three of these stories were able to achieve this balance because they were highly intentional about how many of the darker, more emotional scenes they wrote. The vast majority of the scenes were upbeat, lighthearted, or more closely fit the overall tone of the book. But the writers weren’t afraid to deliver a climax with a serious tone. 

Another way all three of these stories kept their tone anchored is through a central character who was defined by optimism and held to it no matter what happened throughout the plot. These characters often have a flat arc, or at the very least not change at all when it comes to their upbeat, sunny attitude. Although they might become less naive or more experienced, for a character like this to work, they have to stand by their convictions no matter what happens.

Although Luffy has experienced suffering and knows as well as any of them how high the stakes are, he refuses to let fear or anxiety control him, and consistently encourages the others to do the same. That resolution is strong enough to define the entire show.

In 100 Days of  Sunlight, Weston (the golden-retriever love interest) refuses to let tragedy and difficulty control him. He has  an “obnoxious optimism” that doesn’t  change or suffer  from the book’s emotional climax or premise. Similarly, although the children in DuckTales grow and mature, they never  lose the youthful optimism that they spread to the rest of the series. 

If you want your book to remain bright despite high stakes and deep emotional investment, ground its tone in a character whose optimism is undeniably resilient. That consistency will bring a strength to your tone that is difficult to achieve without this type of character, allowing you to end your story with the same tone you started with.

When Luffy and his crew sail off into the sunset in the final episode, the tone is essentially the same as it was in the beginning. Although the characters have been through much together and have become more mature and experienced, Luffy’s attitude hasn’t changed, and that allows the show to end on the same note it started, creating the sort of cozy satisfaction that is perfect for stories like these.

That said, none of these are fool-proof methods for keeping an emotionally compelling story optimistic and bright. Tone is one of the most difficult things to master in writing, mostly because writers themselves have such a hard time viewing the tone of their own works objectively. It can be hard to evaluate the atmosphere of your work as a whole when you’re the one who’s written every scene, every line of dialogue, and often spent much time planning and perfecting the most emotional parts.

That’s where beta readers come in. They are truly indispensable in sensing when the tone is off or giving feedback on what particular scenes, plot devices, and elements make your work too dark or too bright. Often they can pinpoint exactly what alters your tone for the worse, giving you a chance to fine-tune your work. They have the ability to see your entire book far more objectively than you ever will, and for that they are especially helpful when defining your book’s theme.

Earlier this month, I wanted to take an article to praise low-stakes climaxes, which aren’t acknowledged enough in modern media. They can be worthwhile and incredibly rewarding. But that doesn’t mean they are the only option. Bright, optimistic, or even comedic stories can bring a climax with uncharacteristic impact and do it well. They walk the thin line between writing a comedy too light-hearted to land and a drama so meaningful that it feels heavy, and for that reason they have the potential to become some of the best and most uplifting stories in fiction.

Let us know in the comments:

Have you read or watched other stories that have a high-tension ending, even though the overall tone is brighter?