What’s sad about Nami’s backstory is that Bellamere could have lived if she just let Along believe she had no daughters. But given what had just happened with Nami saying Bellamere wasn’t her mother and that they weren’t a real family, she chose to prove her love and commitment to her daughters with her life. Her letting Arlong believe she lived alone would have told Nami and her sister that Nami was right. Instead she told Arlong that the money was for the lives of her two daughters. Her death follows along with the story’s main theme that it is better to die than to betray your dream (Bellamere’s dream was to raise her two daughters as get own and give them a life worth living).

The other sad part was that for 8 years, the village put their hopes of freedom on Nami’s shoulders. And when they were finally close, Arlong betrays his word. Nami wanted Luffy to leave because she thought she could solve all her problems without violence, and she didn’t want Luffy and his crew to suffer or die when she already had everything worked out. It was only when she had no other choice and was mangling her own arm to remove proof of her allegiance to Arlong that she was willing to accept Luffy’s help. It was kind of similar to Vivi believing she only had to risk her own life and not the rest of the Straw Hats’ lives to save her country until Luffy set her straight and said that if she wanted to save her country, she would have to risk all their lives, and that they were fine with it because they were friends.

Live action? Sure. I knew what was coming and they didn’t make Bellemere anywhere near as heroic (pinning Arlong down with her gun drawn) and her death wasn’t anywhere near as brutal (getting her arm crushed, showing her actually get shot).

But the anime version gets me every time.