What is Fifth Business?
To quote a character from the book (as she talks to the narrator about the roles in an opera company):
Liesl
The Prima Donna - Always the Soprano, Always the heroine, often a fool;
and a Tenor who always plays the lover to her;
and then you must have a Contralto, who is a rival to the Soprano, or a sorceress or something;
and a Basso, who is the villain or the rival or whatever threatens the Tenor
But you cannot make a plot work without another man, and he is usually a baritone, and he is called in the profession Fifth Business, because he is the odd man out, the person who has no opposite of the other sex. And you must have Fifth Business because he is the one who knows the secret of the hero's birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody's death if that is part of the plot. The Prima Donna and the Tenor, the Contralto and the Basso, get all the best music and do all the spectacular things, but you cannot manage the plot without Fifth Business! It is not spectacular, but it is a good line of work, I can tell you, and those who play it sometimes have a career that outlasts the golden voices.
and a Tenor who always plays the lover to her;
and then you must have a Contralto, who is a rival to the Soprano, or a sorceress or something;
and a Basso, who is the villain or the rival or whatever threatens the Tenor
But you cannot make a plot work without another man, and he is usually a baritone, and he is called in the profession Fifth Business, because he is the odd man out, the person who has no opposite of the other sex. And you must have Fifth Business because he is the one who knows the secret of the hero's birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody's death if that is part of the plot. The Prima Donna and the Tenor, the Contralto and the Basso, get all the best music and do all the spectacular things, but you cannot manage the plot without Fifth Business! It is not spectacular, but it is a good line of work, I can tell you, and those who play it sometimes have a career that outlasts the golden voices.
My question to you folks, do you know who is the Fifth Business to the other characters in one form or another? It doesn't have to be exact, it could be a bit loose.
For starters, I think Usopp is the Fifth Business in One Piece.
Not exactly, at the beginning of Luffy's story, but near enough for us, the audience. He has made certain things possible to help move the story forward, like blowing up what was thought to be an uninhabited island, "dying" at Arlong Park, addressing the need to repair the ship bringing us to the attention of the Saruyama Alliance wrecking the Merry-Go, and later reinforcing as well as refitting it with wings, and his engineering of Nami's Weather Staff which was her Trump Card.
Not only that, but his tie to Luffy is that Usopp's Father works with Shanks, whom Luffy marvels.
He also doesn't really get that glamorous of a role, and ends up playing the comedy relief.
