@HaxeyeMihawk:
Lucci stuff
Sorry, not trying to be rude, but you don't understand what I mean, and I don't care to explain.
As for Squardo, I understand your meaning but at the same time you're underestimating the sheer significance of what we're told about Squardo from the scene of WB wanting to hand the authority over the fleet to him.
IMO, you're placing too much importance of that statement. Vice Admiral Tsuru is supposed to be a great strategist is she not. If Sengoku were pressured, I'm sure he'd use her. No.
"Why does WB trust Squardo?" Answer: Because he's probably the strongest and smartest of the allied NW captains and because he's allied with WB they obviously have a history. "What made Squardo betray this trust?" Answer: We'll find out soon enough but you know that.
Again, too much emphasis on one statement. Your best response is that we don't know and will find out soon.
Now as I said I know what you're getting at, you just wish that there were more early examples to build Squardo up, maybe you desired flashbacks.
Now we're getting somewhere. Yes, something as simple as one panel with Whitebeard thanking Squardo for something, or anything to establish why WB puts so much trust in Squardo. Having the fact revealed after a betrayal just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Well I'm saying that that one scene of WB handing over command to Squardo says a lot about Squardo to build him up, almost in a similar fashion to how WB and Mihawk had significant build up and hype just from their respective titles of World strongest man and the World's strongest swordsman, the expectations were apparent even before WB or Mihawk fought anyone, all due to the title.
These scenarios are not the same. If you don't understand why, then we're definitely not on the same page at all. WB handing over command does not equal Squardo is capable of stabbing him through the abdomen without WB even having time to flinch. If WB had said, have Squardo lead the NW Captains, that man is fastest most accurate pirate I've come across.
Similar to Sengoku when he was happy that Boa Hancock was joining. He stated why he was happy about. "That woman is strong".
So for Squardo to be the guy that WB puts in charge after him and considering all that entails, it says a hell of a lot. It's for all intents and purposes is saying that Squardo is the smartest and strongest NW captain on the pirates side, because those would be the prerequisites of anyone who would be put in charge of not only other NW pirates but of their captains as well.
In that one scene Oda pretty much told us significant information about Squardo and kept with focused and concise pacing that he has established in this war arc through avoidance of long drawn out fights in favor of brief skirmishes (not Bleach fights for sure), as well as with focused flashbacks that only last a few pages and those are only in chapters about the one character that the chapter is focused on. Not only did that scene imply through subtext that Squardo is the top dog of the NW captains but it also told us that something was amiss because he was noted to be absent.
Didn't you just say this
Then the points that one could assume through the subtext of that particular scene were driven home when Squardo actually stabbed WB, because he showed his intelligent/devious nature in how he played WB through his talk which allowed him to get close to WB, but also his power considering that even the element of surprise isn't a guaranteed free hit when it comes to WB.
Ok, if that's what you take from it. I take, how the hell did this guy just stab WB through the chest without WB even flinching. Perhaps WB will have a delayed reaction tomorrow. But I know my intial thoughts other than WTF (Wresting Takedown Federation) were definitely, is Squardo that fast? WB that arrogant? or did this attack really not do anything to WB?[
This war is all about subtext and foreshadowing, all the little details that can be easily ignored or missed if a chapter is read too quickly.
Sorry, but I'm majorly confused here. I thought the war was about executing Ace and potentially taking down a mass of pirates, including the infamous WB.
I did discuss it before but I responded that way to you because you said, "All in all, I'd like to see what the strongest man can do, and I just hope this "stabbing" isn't a coup out to make us wonder just how "strong" WB would have been if he had not been injured." To which I just said that the cop out probably came before the stabbing considering that WB was shown to be hooked to IVs ages ago, and that must mean something, but at the same time it's not a cop out like how Kishi made Itachi sick from a random disease in his fight with Sasuke.
All of which are reasonable theories based of the possible implications of the scene.
I didn't think I had to explicitly state that my bolded statement is in the context of "if this attack turns out to critical to WB's health". But that was the intention, and part of the reason for me being concerned about how it has been and will be handled.