Any long-running story will be subjected to retcons and continuity errors, and One Piece is no exception. Despite how often things are planned years in advance, between how certain characters act and how Haki and Devil Fruits are presented, it’s clear that certain elements do change to fit the story’s needs, even if it ultimately causes continuity errors.
That being said, there are many times when something in One Piece will be labelled a retcon when, in reality, the explanation is fairly simple, and people only call it a retcon because they weren’t paying attention. One Piece chapter #1167 is a particularly egregious example of that, and seeing it happen is nothing short of frustrating.
One Piece chapter #1167 expanded on Fisher Tiger breaking into Mary Geoise to free slaves, and it did so by revealing that Shanks, now a Devoted Blade of God, broke him out of his chains and directed him to the armory, and that made people believe that One Piece retconned Tiger’s story so that he was simply always a slave.
That idea, however, couldn’t be more wrong. The Fishman Island arc explicitly stated that Fisher Tiger returned to Fishman Island 16 years before the present and then returned to Mary Geoise a year later to free slaves, something supported by Hancock’s age at the time and chapter #1167’s timeline, so nothing about Tiger’s story has been retconned in the slightest.
As for why Fisher Tiger was in chains in chapter #1167, considering how he attacked Mary Geoise all by himself, it’s not unreasonable that Tiger was simply recaptured and needed to break out of slavery again. At the very least, it’s more reasonable than his entire story being retconned, yet that’s what many fans believe, oddly enough.
The debate over whether Fisher Tiger’s story was retconned is especially frustrating because it’s nothing new for the One Piece fandom. Anytime something seems to contradict previously established lore, fans will almost immediately jump to it being a retcon; things like Rocks’ character and the true nature of the Gum-Gum Fruit were like that, and Tiger’s backstory is no different.
The problem there ends up being two-fold; not only do fans not trust the idea that things don’t have to be taken at face value, but they also lose track of the smallest details when focusing on lore and power scaling, all of which is an extremely shallow way of looking at One Piece.
The very first page of Fisher Tiger’s arc solves the timeline issue, and so many people willingly ignoring it shows how selective fans are with what they engage with. One Piece’s massive length does make it hard to keep track of certain things, but the entire situation with Fisher Tiger shows that, unfortunately, the fans don’t make it any easier.
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