One Piece and 'The Shonen Binary'

There's a fair deal of internet discussion on One Piece about it's 'moral' complexity which it uses to wave away mischaracterisation such as Shanks and Yassop shooting Bartolomeo despite his surrendering and in general bad writing like the marines being status quo defenders and Koby and the rest of them still being portrayed as morally up right.

What's more this 'moral complexity' extends to other characters like Oden who despite being irresponsible and a pretty wack leader is still lauded and the infamous Koruzumi was meant to burn line being genocidal in character despite what happened to that clan in Wano.

This discussion baffles me because ultimately people defend this crappy writing because of moral complexity and the infamous 'they're pirates/ One piece is about misfits' defence.

This is highly contradictory because of the nature of One Piece. Owing either to the fact that it's a kids manga or that Oda isn't as good a writer as people think he is that everything Luffy does is GOOD and everything Luffy hates is BAD.

Something I call the 'Shonen Binary' which I define as above that due to the nature of One piece being a kids show, the characters can't be morally complex or make bad decisions because everything associated with the main character has to be portrayed as good constantly. Lemme explain

Garp will maintain the slavery status quo despite hating the Dragons will be brushed over because Luffy likes him. Garp will be 'good' because Luffy likes him.

A character like the Celestial Dragons and could have a harem of women like Oden or burn villages but because Luffy thinks Oden is 'good', he uncharacteristically listens to his whole story despite not doing so for Vivi and other characters and despite Odens daughter saying the Koruzumi was meant to burn is brushed off because she's 'good'.

That's why I find it funny that defending Shanks ooc action in killing Bart as pirates being pirates is stupid and baffling because throughout the entire story, Luffy acts like the most non pirate/ generic shonen hero in the world betraying the idea that any of the ideas of one piece is complex. Shanks by nature of being liked by Luffy can't be complex because Luffy sees him as 'good'. A phenomenon I dub the Shonen Binary

The Shonen Binary extends to other manga and video games. Though as I haven't read as much shonen manga I'd like to illustrate an example from Final Fantasy 7 Remake where Jessie bombs a reactor leading to the deaths of many but oh no, actually shinra manipulated it behind the scenes to frame Avalanche because Cloud and the rest of the characters are 'good' and therefore can't act morally grey

An example of good moral complexity is Gon's character where his uncharacteristic need to fight Hisoka and push himself is seen as self destructive and we see that self destruction expressed in his fight with Pitou in Chimera Ant 🐜 Arc.