And it's a necessity. The slow character development, I mean. My old post was lost in the mud, but in any case (and in case you want to rebate me, Velk, sent a PM because people seems a bit tired of this), One Piece is limited in how character development can affect characters behaviours because of how the character interactions work.
I said before they are similar to a gag manga. In those character's personalities are fixed, and you see them fall in the same dumb mistakes for the same reasons a lot of times for humour. In One Piece isn't as exaggerated, but at the end of they day you still want Usopp to be a coward, Luffy to scream "Let's go on an adventure!" (which has kickstarted some arcs like Skypiea or Punk Hazard) or Sanji to lose his shit whenever Nami and Robin ask him to do something. Because that's one of the things people like about One Piece, and it wouldn't be the same if their personalities changed too much.
It's just how humor works in the series. Compare it to Deadpool in last year's movie. It's got a sequel. At the end of the first movie, we see that he has his girlfriend back, has killed the man that turned him into a freak and has more or less returned to his previous life. You'd think those events would turn him in a better man. But they won't. Because people didn't go to watch Deadpool looking for a redemption arc or some action scenes. They went to watch a psycho that breaks the forth wall and explains things using his amazing drawing skills. That's what people like about the character. So, no matter what happens, he'll always be a psycho that breaks the forth wall and explains things using his amazing drawing skills.
That doesn't mean that those type of characters can't suffer any changes. Their views of the world can change, they can react differently to some external elements (as we've seen with Nami). But the "core" of the characters will always remain the same. Because their roles in the crew are set in stone and you need them for the humor to work.
In any case, I won't answer to anybody using this thread, just wanted to share my view and expand Cloud views with my own opinion because I think it was an interesting idea. If anybody is planning to write any new wall of texts, PM me!
