Big Mom in Wano
It’s like we’re being served a different version of Big Mom. A Big Mom that we now refer to as Olin who actually wants to share her food out of the kindness of her heart. How exactly did we get to this point? We know she had Amnesia which resulted in the loss of her memories of her identity and her past.
The question I pose to you now is… is this a new Big Mom or the same Big Mom we met at Whole Cake Island?
Going back to Big Mom during her childhood. She’s always had good intentions. She disciplined a bear for misbehaving (for killing a wolf whom she tried to make friends with the bear), and it resulted in its death. While Big Mom as a child here is shown to have good intentions, her innocence and simplistic reasoning results in disasters that deem her dangerous.
Here, we see her pulling the limbs of a long-armed individual thinking that pulling off this extra limb was doing him a favour, but in reality, she was hurting him without realising it.
Big Mom has a comically overly simplistic mindset; this mindset conflicts with her intentions because it 9/10 times deviates from the course of action that will make said intention good. Her actions unfortunately do not complement these intentions. Her mindset is such that should someone be suffering in insomnia (inability to sleep), she may well kill them thinking that she’s put them to sleep, and therefore, to her is a good thing.
This behaviour is borderline psychopathic that children harbour until they’re educated emotionally to be sympathetic and empathetic to the perspective of others. It’s a the end justifies the means ideology so to speak. Those who are moral know the end doesn’t justify the means.
Though, Big Mom’s intentions are good given that she wants to repay the favour of the hungry kind people that fed her, she’s attacking Luffy. He had no idea she wanted to some people, but Big Mom is unable to see from the perspective of others. This is a trait she’s harboured for decades that was never corrected, and it’s seeped up all the way into her adulthood.
What she should be doing here is trying to understand the situation first before taking action such as understanding Luffy was imprisoned, he’s being subjected to death, etc. She’s however unable to take into consideration others in regards to their perspective.
We come to learn that Big Mom’s ambition stems from Mother Carmel’s “apparent” ambition. Big Mom with her simplistic mindset took this wish literally and is implementing it. She’s literally trying to turn people into giants thinking that is what it means to see eye to eye when it’s a metaphor or saying denoting ability to see things from the perspective of others which she’s ironically unable to do.
As has always been the theme of her character, she thinks in a dangerously simplistic manner and that makes the otherwise good intentions appear evil and sinister.
Conclusion
Big Mom is what we all become without being disciplined. While Big Mom has good intentions, her lack of discipline and maturity in that respect has stunted her development as nothing more than remaining a big child with no other perspective other than hers and therefore, making her come across as psychopath which she fundamentally is at this point.
This is ultimately what makes Big Mom dangerous. She’s a good person who just doesn’t know and wasn’t raised to understand others and the effect her actions have on others thanks to Mother Carmel and Streusen who were only exacerbating her childish nature by enabling it and taking advantage of it.
Big Mom (Olin) in Wano seems to be a character that’s different to the Big Mom we were apparently introduced to. Shockingly, she’s the same Big Mom who has always had good intentions, but has no concept of carrying things out in a way that’s ethical or fair as she lacks empathy.
The reason for this is her lack of discipline as a child. She had no one to reprimand her and educate her on how to understand and see from the perspective of others. She’s only able to see things from her own perspective and is therefore unable to tell when she’s doing the wrong thing or a bad thing.
This is the exact mindset that kids have until they’re taught to be more considerate of others, to be more understanding and to learn to see things from the perspective of others. It’s at this point kids understand what’s good, what’s bad, what’s kindness and what’s mean.
Though she has amnesia, the same fundamental principles she’s lived by is still what is propagating her current behaviour. Only difference is that she’s forgotten her past and her intentions, and is simply behaving in a way that disregards her goals until she remembers everything she’s learnt from Streusen.
*Theory by HPsyche
