@Monkey:
That's like the most meaningless statement ever lol.
We've only had three finished arcs since the timeskip.
One of which wasn't really an arc so much as a prologue. So it's not even trying to compete.
One of which is widely acknowledged as the biggest let down arc in the entire series by all different types of fans from fight junkies, to plot people, to world builders.
And the other one is Punk Hazard.
And a short lived statement it is too, since Dressrosa is already beating the shit out of it.
True, though I disagree with you about Dressrosa. But my thoughts on the current arc are well none: Non-tourney parts = yay! Tourney parts=dragging it down.
Everything since Water 7 except maybe Amazon Lilly is easily better.
And at least Amazon Lilly was polite and finished up nice and quick, which is more than can be said for Punk Draggard.
You really thought Punk Hazard dragged? It was a relatively short arc all things considered. Something like 41-45 chapters depending on when you consider it to have ended.
Virtually everything to some extent.
Nothing except Tashigi was out and out badly done, but nearly everything else was annoying in some respect, and since it was everything it added up into one big first break for me from following the series since I started following at oh…what was it.
Oh that's right.
2004 during the very start of the Davy Back Fight.
Funny, I've been reading weekly since 1999 when my dad got stationed in Japan, and I've never once felt inclined to take a break. Not even during Skypiea. To each their own.
Like what? The body switch thing?
Nah, that was okay. I was thinking more along the lines of Caesar and Vergo.
We had like six new prominent characters show up. One was Monet who was boring. One was Ceasar who was offputting and is NOW enjoyable as a hostage I admit. One was Vergo who was neat fight material I guess. And uh the kids were ok I guess.
Brownbeard was there too. Yeah, and those stupid Yetis.
Smoker and Tashigi showed up again, and were both poorly handled in almost every respect.
Law is an eyesore since the timeskip.
Only Kinemon and Momonosuke are actually really good new character introduced in Punk Hazard.
Completely the other way around.Monet was bad, and Tashigi was poorly used, but I absolutely love Caesar; he's my favorite villain since Foxy, I absolutely adore Vergo and all his quirks, Kinemon and Momo are great, Smoker was Smoker, and PH made me like Law for the first time.
You seriously need to reread FI. Mostly because I would have agreed with you the first time through.
The whole flashback and accompanying themes was the one real strong point of FI.
Punk Hazard had the kids thing, which much like Punk Hazard, is the most overrated thing in recent OP memory not named Law.
Brownbeard had a sob story thing fly by too I guess.
And the main conflict had virtually no emotional investment whatsoever behind it's main thrust, just a side story that Chopper and Nami were focusing on, the kids.
Otherwise it was Luffy and Law capturing the crazy man. How emotional.
It was a ridiculously drawn out Whiskey Peak in the final analysis. It should have been HALF as long as it was.
Funny, you and I have discussed FI several times, one of which was in the least favorite arc thread (which I can't find for some reason) I think. Many times on this forum I have launched a defense of FI, and every time I say "It's better when read straight through." But my defense fell on a personal level during Punk Hazard. The blinders of having the crew back together fell off and I realized how meh FI really is. It's still not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be, but quality wise, especially on an emotional level (except, oddly, the To Zero chapter– that one chokes me up every time I read it) it's just not there.
Punk Hazard had me invested completely in the emotional. And, honestly, it had more to do with Kinemon trying to find his son than it did the kids. Though once we learned Caesar was drugging them, I was completely invested on an emotional level. The Mocha chapter got me good.
I also came to care for the G5 crew. Their "sacrifice" gets to me, as does their disbelief at Vergo's betrayal.
I'm going to throw your advice back at you now: reread Punk Hazard. You'll see that it's rather impeccably paced.