The War With Whitebeard

BakaWoof

Whitebeard's overly manliness and toughness made some ~~shallow~~ people forget how uncomfortable they used to feel when they see a man getting stabbed and still walking. Hope they don't need to get stabbed and feel the experience themselves to regain their common sense. Not even the Sh, not even Zoro, ever fought while having a sword through their stomach.
Manlybeard was too much of a man to show any emotion of suffering, so some ~~hollow~~ whiners failed to get the ideas of how terrible his pain was.
Most of characters I've seen getting stabbed, are either dead or lost of consciousness or incapable to walk normally. So from what that sick Wb did, I am deeply impressed.

"Whoa whoa… the old man... he got stabbed by Squardo... wasn't that too much for him? Shouldn't get any more injures than that, otherwise how will he fight? He is already sick. Look like he is going to collapse at any moment... Wait... What the fuck is this? He gets shot, frozen, lasered, magma-fisted, stabbed and he is walking yet?"

and he died standing >_>

Cyan D. Funk

@BakaWoof:

and he died standing >_>

And what would be the icing on the cake would be learning that the disease killed him, not Blackbeard's cheap shot.

Sheep

You know, there is really no point in discussing this, since It's only a thing of personal expections someone set for himself. Some people (like me) were deeply impressed by him and some other expected him to murder all three admirals at once, slaughter all marines with one swipe and rip Sengokus head of.

Cyan D. Funk

@iSheep:

Some people (like me) were deeply impressed by him and some other expected him to murder all three admirals at once, slaughter all marines with one swipe and rip Sengokus head of.

Those were Luffy and Garp's jobs.

DooMinator

What I dislike most:

After both Ace and WB are gone now, we still don't know their bounties. WB as the strongest man alive (ehm, well, no longer :ninja:) and Ace as the living son of the PK (at least he was living :ninja: ); these two numbers would really give an impression of the bounty Luffy might get one day.

1000sunny

Who knows if NW pirates still have bounties, Ace had his but I don't think Yonkous have theirs anymore because they are famous enough for even the average marine or civilian who sees them to be like "Oh, shit call the higher ups…." The need for bounties is for people to recognize them and give them inspiration to capture them; but if they are already known enough to be recognized on sight and strong enough that only Admirals can compete with them, there are no longer any use for bounties..

Alen

@iSheep:

You know, there is really no point in discussing this, since It's only a thing of personal expections someone set for himself. Some people (like me) were deeply impressed by him and some other expected him to murder all three admirals at once, slaughter all marines with one swipe and rip Sengokus head of.

Why would you expect that.

I mean really. I think beating Akainu like a red-headed stepchild after getting mangled is good enough.

Wisshard

@1000sunny:

Who knows if NW pirates still have bounties, Ace had his but I don't think Yonkous have theirs anymore because they are famous enough for even the average marine or civilian who sees them to be like "Oh, shit call the higher ups…." The need for bounties is for people to recognize them and give them inspiration to capture them; but if they are already known enough to be recognized on sight and strong enough that only Admirals can compete with them, there are no longer any use for bounties..

But WG/Marines could have extremely high bounties on the Yonkou's to attempt to compell other powerful (NW) pirates to attempt to take them out and earn a few billions. Pirates do seem to be a greedy loot after all, always after treasure.
While the Yonkou's undoubtedly is the four most powerful pirate captains, an alliance of ambitious rivaling crews may be able to take one out.

I see no reason why Oda wouldn't continue with bounties in the New World, it's a nice touch that the Straw Hats gains new bounties after (almost) every arc and slowly climbing to the pirate summit.

Cyan D. Funk

@Alen:

I think beating Akainu like a red-headed stepchild after getting mangled is good enough.

I think being able to run let alone walk after getting stabbed in the stomach through the back should've been enough.

Fire-Fist

5-wO8YAh7kU

i'll leave this here

1000sunny

The Marines were scared shitless when Shanks and Whitebeard met and even more freaked when Shanks and Kaidou "fought" so I don't think the Marines want anyone or group to become as powerful as a Yonkou and start a war of epic proportions. The WG has tolerated the Yonkous because one, they are strong and two, they keep the peace in the NW. No one wants to mess with an island owned by one of them or they will feel their wrath. The Yonkous effectivley eliminated a lot of the up and coming pirates going to the NW so in a way they helped the WG out. And the race to take the position of a fallen Yonkou will create a lot of chaos the WG doesn't want so I doubt they actually would like any pirates to overthrow one.

Now, they did indirectly kill Whitebeard off but they went into the war with the intention of killing him themselves to strike fear in all of the WG and Marines power…but that kind of backfired when WB went all "One Piece exists" and BB, a pirate, killed him..

Anyway, I doubt the WG wants anyone but themselves to take down a Yonkou. Also I think rookie pirates like the SHs bounty will keep rising but when they eventually reach that summit, Luffy's bounty at least will probably stop going up..

Puertopollo

@Fire-Fist:

5-wO8YAh7kU

i'll leave this here

Nice one, i like it :)

king haki

Epicbeard certainly did live up to his name and title in my opinion, from what (oda) showed, he didn’t really have to kill for me to approve. Before the war started i said i would like it if oda could kill some guys on both sides i.e. marines and pirates, i think we all knew WB would die, since it was being foreshadowed slowly by slowly.

Infact i would say oda weaken WB even more during the war, which started when Squadro stab him, even though WB said it was nothing, that’s where the bleeding, started and you know the rest more nose bleed, until he died.

The old man practically could have destroyed HQ, since he did shake the whole place up, and besides, if oda would have made WB win and rescued ace, most would have said, we knew that would happen, because his the strongest man alive etc…

Oda was showing us, what the world strongest man can do and did, before he pave the way for the next genaration, the old man needed to go for the rookies to start dreaming even harder.

Let me stop before i write a long essay.:ninja:

dark knight

@Captain:

I think people don't even read what I post. They just flip out when people say a negative thing about Whitebeard… I hate having to clarify myself, yet I can't resist doing it...

What was his reputation? What did people call him? Strongest Man in the World, that's right. Now, when his formal rival's number 2 fought an Admiral, how did it go? He did pretty well, that's right!

Now, when Whitebeard, former rival of Gold Roger, the captain of the man who held his own against an Admiral, went against an Admiral, how did it go?

Well, he fought Aokiji, and… well, one of his commanders had to save him after Aokiji was about to freeze him, because Whitebeard's Ambition couldn't beat Aokiji's logia defense.

Then he fought Kizaru... Who held him off with such little trouble he was able to snipe a small key from Luffy's hand while dealing with him. Not looking so great.

Okay, okay, but then he... got falcon punched in the gut by Akainu. But he had a second chance! And he was pissed, then too! I mean, he... lost half of his head... and Akainu was fine afterward...

Well shit.

Well, he did kick Blackbeard's ass! Except, Blackbeard got right back up, and he and his men promptly killed Whitebeard. Wait, doesn't Blackbeard take more damage than normal?! How did the Strongest Man in the World fail to KO someone with no defense to speak of?! That, my friends, was the final nail in the coffin of hype.

And then Blackbeard promptly power-jacked him.

I don't care about his personality, frankly, because there was nothing special about it. Romanticism and friend-lust aren't exactly new concepts in OP, a character can't be based around those things alone. There were a few cool things about him here and there, but nothing meriting the hype he's riding, and he certainly did not live up to his in-story reputation in the least. Hell, all his fruit power managed to do was take out one guy with a name (who wasn't able to establish himself as an impressive person to KO), and cause alot of collateral damage. His matches against actual characters did not go well.

The winner is captain shcmekie

LightningAce

@Captain:

Well, he fought Aokiji, and… well, one of his commanders had to save him after Aokiji was about to freeze him, because Whitebeard's Ambition couldn't beat Aokiji's logia defense.

Joz did not have to save him. Ao Kiji froze WB and yet failed badly. WB had no trouble against him.

Okay, okay, but then he… got falcon punched in the gut by Akainu. But he had a second chance! And he was pissed, then too! I mean, he... lost half of his head... and Akainu was fine afterward...

He was coughing up blood…and Akainu took advantage of that and attacked him. WB took those attacks like they were nothing and mowed everyone down

He KO'ed Akainu 2nd time around.....he survived...but he took him out even for a brief few moments.

Well, he did kick Blackbeard's ass! Except, Blackbeard got right back up, and he and his men promptly killed Whitebeard. Wait, doesn't Blackbeard take more damage than normal?! How did the Strongest Man in the World fail to KO someone with no defense to speak of?! That, my friends, was the final nail in the coffin of hype.

Yes. He owned BB, just moments before he died. WB was on the verge of death and yet he owned BB like a bitch. Then BB like the coward he is, summons his minions to gang up on WB to finish him off.

Not bad for a 72 year old man who was already sick and dying.

Tijnn.

Hey, doesn't Blackbeard have like extreme durability. He took those attacks from Ace during their fight with no problem, I can't see why he should be killed in one hit from a 72 year old, almost dead guy, who is no longer the strongest man in the world.

Mr.Ammar

Shmeckie, is there a character(in any manga) greater than Epicbeard?

if there is, then tell me who he is and I'll rip him apart and make him a normal character by using your fucked up logic.

Thatanas

@Tijnn.:

who is no longer the strongest man in the world.

Only because he isn't in the world anymore.

LightningAce

@Tijnn.:

Hey, doesn't Blackbeard have like extreme durability. He took those attacks from Ace during their fight with no problem, I can't see why he should be killed in one hit from a 72 year old, almost dead guy, who is no longer the strongest man in the world.

Yes, he has an amaing durablity….which shows frm the fact he got slashed by WB's bisento and got eq'ed in the head.....

WB forever > blackbeard. If BB had been there at the start...WB woulda torn him a new a-hole

1000sunny

Whitebeard would have probably beaten anyone in the war one-on-one but I think 2 or more Admirals would beat him and the Garp, Sengoku combo would have KOed him too

He was 72 and not anywhere close to his prime, if he was in his prime, that would have been scary and now imagine Roger in his prime if he was stronger than WB….How could he ever lose?

Johnny B. Decent

@LightningAce:

Then BB like the coward he is, summons his minions to gang up on WB to finish him off.

So, it's OK for the Straw Hats to gang up on a dangerous opponent like Oars or a Pacifista, but when Blackbeard's crew does the same with a very dangerous guy, it's bad?

Double standard.

Alen

WB was beating BB with ease while missing a good portion of his face. BB didn't even land a single hit when they had their duel.

LightningAce

@S.C.:

So, it's OK for the Straw Hats to gang up on a dangerous opponent like Oars or a Pacifista, but when Blackbeard's crew does the same with a very dangerous guy, it's bad?

Double standard.

Yes. BB by his nature is a coward. He does not deserve to be Pirate King. He needs to DF powers to get him to the top and even then, he wasn't able to do away with Sengoku & Garp..who both probably woulda kicked the crap outta him regardless.

Alen

Blackbeard wasn't able to do away with the Fleet Admiral and Gold Roger's greatest enemy among the Marines who was also good enough to be eligible for Admiralship.

What a failure indeed.

Johnny B. Decent

@LightningAce:

Yes. BB by his nature is a coward. He does not deserve to be Pirate King. He needs to DF powers to get him to the top and even then, he wasn't able to do away with Sengoku & Garp..who both probably woulda kicked the crap outta him regardless.

Like Luffy also isn't dependent on his DF? Or are you still just mad he killed Whitebeard?

onemoment

@S.C.:

Like Luffy also isn't dependent on his DF? Or are you still just mad he killed Whitebeard?

One does not need to be made of rubber to commit acts of super strength that Luffy does. There's a good difference between dependent on a power and just using it. Also note Whitebeard's last encounter with Blackbeard, how he gutted him with his spear with his powers were disabled, then smashed him in the face with an earthquake when his powers came back. I'm pretty sure that entire scene was meant to say that Whitebeard is more then a gimmick, and to dissuade people who think he's dependent on his DF (in this case, Blackbeard who once called all DF users arrogant).

Oh, and Whitebeard is pretty awesome be the way. The fact that he inspires such strong feelings and so much controversy should be a testament to that. You only try to convince other that something is lame or weak if there's a chance they'll get the opposite impression.

Johnny B. Decent

@onemoment:

One does not need to be made of rubber to commit acts of super strength that Luffy does. There's a good difference between dependent on a power and just using it. Also note Whitebeard's last encounter with Blackbeard, how he gutted him with his spear with his powers were disabled, then smashed him in the face with an earthquake when his powers came back. I'm pretty sure that entire scene was meant to say that Whitebeard is more then a gimmick, and to dissuade people who think he's dependent on his DF (in this case, Blackbeard who once called all DF users arrogant).

Oh, and Whitebeard is pretty awesome be the way. The fact that he inspires such strong feelings and so much controversy should be a testament to that. You only try to convince other that something is lame or weak if there's a chance they'll get the opposite impression.

By the same token, Blackbeard's DF doesn't really do that much for besides the power nullifier as Darkness really isn't much for hurtipng people like magma or lightning, and he seems to have some punch behind him, as well. And besides, in the OP world, if someone had the chance to obtain two Devil's fruit powers, most probably would.

And I like both White and Blackbeard, I just get tired of people demonizing Akainu and him for killing people in a large-scale battle.

onemoment

@S.C.:

By the same token, Blackbeard's DF doesn't really do that much for besides the power nullifier as Darkness really isn't much for hurtipng people like magma or lightning, and he seems to have some punch behind him, as well. And besides, in the OP world, if someone had the chance to obtain two Devil's fruit powers, most probably would.

And I like both White and Blackbeard, I just get tired of people demonizing Akainu and him for killing people in a large-scale battle.

Ya know, I wanted to mention BB again but forget. Yeah…there's actually a small list of people who overly depend on their fruit in this series.

I'd demonize Akainu a lot more for killing lesser targets while clearly more important fighters where being ignored. Even if we all agree that Akainu has a right to kill Coby for what he did, is that any excuse not to be helping Sengoku with Blackbeard? That a weird thing about the guy, it's like he doesn't care so much who he fights and eventually kills so much as how many people he can can burn. It does, however, make him a great villain since actually killing someone means he's currently the most dangerous man in the One Piece world.

Johnny B. Decent

Akainu has a one track mind, to be sure. Unless Sengoku got shot with a poisoned bullet or something off-screen, it's probably a good thing Akainu won't become Fleet Admiral, or pretty much everybody will be screwed because of his brutal, somewhat ignorant nature.

Sea

Look like Oda hold back pretty much in the war. So the potential for New World, imho, is high.
However, according to what I collected from Ivotas's post, he thinks Oda has lost his mojo. And he seem to think One Piece won't be as good as before. Some of his points, if you want to know. I just think this is the appropriate thread to post them, because it concerns the future quality of One Piece.

http://apforums.net/showpost.php?p=1717628&postcount=2274
http://apforums.net/showpost.php?p=1613696&postcount=82
http://apforums.net/showpost.php?p=1710738&postcount=1949
[hide]
@Ivotas:

This is a shonen manga. So it's fair game to assume that the leader of one of the two forces enters the battle sooner or later especially if he is one of the remaining big names of the old era.

That was a completely different battle that followed right after Whitebeard, the world's strongest man and most likely an old adversary of his died without Sengoku ever giving him the honor of one last fight (assuming that they had one before). That's lame and anticlimatic for a character of that status especially if you consider who the enemy was.

@Ivotas:

I repeat Sengoku was the counterpart of Whitebeard in this war. Newgate himself mentioned him in a respectful manner during his chit chat with Shanks indicating that he was an old adversary. That's why it is lame and anticlimatic that Sengoku didn't lift even one finger against Whitebeard in his last fight. Especially in a fighting manga.

It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to comprehend why guys like Dobermann, Yamakaji or Strawberry doing as much on screen (or even less) as Sengoku doesn't have the same quality.

@Ivotas:

No matter what he does in the future, the chance of giving his old adversary the honor of a last match before he died is gone for good. His lame performance during the war is thus a historic fact.

@Ivotas:

It's fair game to assume that he's been having a history with Newgate when a) the latter mentions Sengoku in a respectful manner during his chit chat with Shanks when he was going on about big names of the old age and b) Whitebeard is directly adressing Sengoku two times by saying "how many decades has it been Sengoku?" and "you've still got it in you, eh Sengoku?"

I see no way how in a shonen manga of all places this is not supposed to indicate a common fighting history.

[/hide]

Some problems with the war I think Ivotas may has:
-How Ace was rescued by Mr.3
-No good 1vs1 fight shown.
-How the war end abruptly.
-How war strategies sucked.
-How Luffy just spent chapters running forward.

The man is gone now anyway.
Ivotas, Zik, Zephos, hm….

Vepe

Yeah, I've started to see the flaws in OP slowly too… It is what comes with age. One Piece really should be something between seinen and shonen. It is greatly limited right now :/

And Oda, he is a god, but even he does mistakes. The war sucked. It was one of his weak points, but had to be done. Now all we can hope for is that he'll make it up somehow.

herr_sebbe

There was another big flaw in this war, and that is how much hype was created around the world. See the first pages in Ch.550 for good reference.

Tsuru said at one point that even she ran, there would be no place in the world that she could call safe, which in my opinion sounded like utter crap. The war spanned Marineford, and Marineford only. Ok, some tsunami hit Sabaody and a few islands in the New World were invaded by pirates afterwards, but man was it overhyped. It was no where near the World War scale that it had been hyped up to be.

However, looking past that and regarding the war as more of an Enies Lobby kind of thing, it looks decent. :P

Bucephalus

I actually really was not a fan of the war arc.
Pretty boring to be honest.

But chapter 591 is fucking great, and it shows a ton of promise for the upcoming arc.

Unbreakable

@herr_sebbe:

There was another big flaw in this war, and that is how much hype was created around the world. See the first pages in Ch.550 for good reference.

Tsuru said at one point that even she ran, there would be no place in the world that she could call safe, which in my opinion sounded like utter crap. The war spanned Marineford, and Marineford only. Ok, some tsunami hit Sabaody and a few islands in the New World were invaded by pirates afterwards, but man was it overhyped. It was no where near the World War scale that it had been hyped up to be.

that was because of WB himself, who can destroy the world if he wants.

It is greatly limited right now :/

huh? how is that? I see the exact opposite!

-How Ace was rescued by Mr.3

how is this a problem?

-No good 1vs1 fight shown.

it was for a better pacing and saving for the future. No problem here whatsoever.

-How the war end abruptly.

it was logical.

-How war strategies sucked.

he has a point there.

-How Luffy just spent chapters running forward.

didn't notice that.

anyways Oda didn't lose anything, he is obviously improving, just see how much happened and how many excellent character we've introduced to and how much the story got bigger in the past 90 chapters or so and compare it to the early OP.

Bucephalus

The war was just slow for those who were following it week by week. Read it in one sitting and you'll be a lot more satisfied. I just felt underwhelmed mainly by the poor strategies. As opposed to having good military formations and backup artillery, everyone just ran around attacking people for five seconds and then running off again.

The only remotely intelligent strategies were from Sengoku, but even they weren't that fantastic. ILL RAISE A HUGE WALL

Maki707

@Vepe:

And Oda, he is a god, but even he does mistakes. The war sucked. It was one of his weak points, but had to be done. Now all we can hope for is that he'll make it up somehow.

I agree with this the war did'nt turn out as well as Oda thought and was disappointing considering the hype(I would'nt quite it say it sucked) but yes it had to be done and it's events are important for the story and now we can move on with it. In fairness not every arc is going to be fantastic.

@Sea:

Some problems with the war I think Ivotas may has:
-How Ace was rescued by Mr.3
-No good 1vs1 fight shown.
-How the war end abruptly.
-How war strategies sucked.
-How Luffy just spent chapters running forward.

I would tend to agree with all these except the first one, i mean it was very cheesy when it happened but i personally enjoyed the feeling of it and the human aspect to Mr.3's character. I don't mind this as mr.3 has never been shown to be overly evil, just being oportunistic.

But a character that annoyed me in that arc was Crocodile, a character that was shown to be very evil and yet during the arc acted very out of character for no properly explained reason.
It's just, to me a character that openly laughed and revelled in a country's civil war and thousands of men killing each other and enjoying the despair of it's princess as she tries in vain to stop the war, should'nt be shouting about protecting something as a man and getting upset and protecting Luffy because WB(the man he wanted to kill) was dying. He even went as far to form a front with the WB pirates.
It's disappointing as it ruined one of the story's greatest villains. Yes he is still cool, but he won't be a villain anymore, oda can't go back from this and to me at least the best days of crocodile are gone.

But for the arc as a whole I think the biggest problem was that luffy was on his own for too long. The story is about the whole crew and they combine thier strenghts to defeat foes and generally add a lot of variety and colour to the arcs(and the story in general) with thier unique skills reaction and general personalities. With it just being Luffy ideas were limited and it showed, the longer it went the more and more it became about 'Haki' superpowers and a select few being far too overpowered compared to the rest and other such concepts you would find in series such as bleach and fist of the north star for example.
I beleive it will be fine again once we get the whole crew back.

Local-chan

@Bucephalus:

The war was just slow for those who were following it week by week. Read it in one sitting and you'll be a lot more satisfied. I just felt underwhelmed mainly by the poor strategies. As opposed to having good military formations and backup artillery, everyone just ran around attacking people for five seconds and then running off again.

The only remotely intelligent strategies were from Sengoku, but even they weren't that fantastic. ILL RAISE A HUGE WALL

I hate to agree with you but it was pretty much this.

Not to mention the whole theme on it. A load of guys we've never seen before along with WB vs the Admirals and Shichibuki (well. Some) over a gary stu char whom I cared not for. Even with Oda's last minute revelation of 'ACE IS ROGER's Son! CARE ABOUT HIM NOW!' prior to that he was just some guy who claimed he was Luffy's brother and is weak against BB.

Not to mention half of the marine cast such as Smoker, Tashigi, Hina, Jango and Fullbody whom we saw being built up from the start ended up being little more than fodder chars. Even Sentomaru and the Pacifista seemed pointless.

Retsudo

Yeah, I can't say the way Sengoku was handled in the war was perfect.

Okay fine, I get that Oda clearly wanted to save him for some later purpose. But eh, the way he was handled throughout the war rubbed me the wrong way. What with how Oda apparently made a big deal of how he was finally going to enter the fray only for him to do nothing until Luffy was making a beeline for Ace.

Although, the Marineford Arc wasn't bad like the Pain Arc from Naruto. It had Sakazuki, Newgate, and Teach doing things swell. It's decent at worse.

OnePieceUnleashed

Yeah, it's been on my head for awhile now, but I didn't realize other people felt the same way. In my opinion, the War Arc wasn't very good. Too much hype, underwhelming, disorganized, lacked the charm (and Luffy's crewmates), and too many characters felt like fodder, including the Pacifistas.
Also, it just seemed kinda rushed at the end with Shanks and all.

JERK DISEASE

@herr_sebbe:

When this war ends, what do you think will become of One Piece?

I know Oda is a very talented writer, but right now, all the big characters are being thrown at each other and many of them are likely to have their roles played out before the war ends.

Meanwhile, the epicness of this arc is above any ratings and will be extremely hard to surpass in the future. When the crew reaches the New World, will there still be room for such epicness with characters whom we don't know?

I'm relating this to Death Note and how that series fell after L died. Most main characters were pushed into the background and the series really lost most of it's charm. Is there a possibility the same will ever happen to One Piece.

I have faith in Oda, but I just worry he's driving himself into a corner here.

Discuss.

So did you think OP was doomed before we even knew about the war, because in case you forgot it hasn't always existed.

Which makes your comparision to the L thing in Death Note completely bogus.

It disturbs me that you have placed the war in such importance when it's a sideshow to what OP's main momentum is.

Unbreakable

I don't know why everyone who didn't like the war arc consider the crew disappearance as a disadvantage, whereas it was clearly a good decision by Oda.
sigh, people just want repetition.

Mugiwara_no_Ice

I think the people are/were having the wrong idea about the purpose of this war.

This war had only 2 purposes:

-Ace's death = Luffy's development.
-WB's death (and speech about one piece) = new age.

Battles, abilities, etc etc… are best shown in small 1vs1 battles, not in a war.

Bucephalus

I was expecting Sengoku to fence in the pirates better. If he could have built that huge wall on the battlefield, why couldn't he've built one behind the pirates, ensuring they couldn't escape. Not to mention, putting all the fodder marines in front of the strong pirate was really retarded too.

This is what I had pictured the battlefield to look like prior to the war:

gray lines = steel walls

Keo2309

@Mugiwara_no_Ice:

I think the people are/were having the wrong idea about the purpose of this war.

This war had only 2 purposes:

-Ace's death = Luffy's development.
-WB's death (and speech about one piece) = new age.

Battles, abilities, etc etc… are best shown in small 1vs1 battles, not in a war.

Agreed with this. People fail to realize this is simply just a manga a lot. It's not meant to demonstrate grand war strategies like the post above me shows. Of course Sengoku is going to try something, but he's not there to show the world's greatest strategy. Just something that people who read manga will find cool, and interesting. This war arc served it's main 2 purposes, and gave all of the OP fans a chance to see the higher tier characters showing off a bit.

Some people expected too much.

yadayada

@Bucephalus:

I was expecting Sengoku to fence in the pirates better. If he could have built that huge wall on the battlefield, why couldn't he've built one behind the pirates, ensuring they couldn't escape. Not to mention, putting all the fodder marines in front of the strong pirate was really retarded too.

This is what I had pictured the battlefield to look like prior to the war:

gray lines = steel walls

that's surprisingly good, i was trying to pick holes in that strategy but it actually works quite well, even if some slip past the admirals they have to face the vice admirals and the shichibukai

anyway on topic i quite liked the war, but it was very different from anything we've seen before, no crew, no happy ending and lots and lots of focus on powerfull side characters. but that was kinda the point, to show that luffy was now entering a world where he was very much a small fry,
where as before even when people considered him insignificant and weak luffy always proved them wrong and gained more power, in this arc he was unable to do that.
in terms of the future of one piece, i think its safe, the crew will reunite soon ,luffys already regained some of his happy go lucky attitude, even though things wont return to completely the way they were before the war a lot of the things people have been missing will return

Nekketsu

What will become of One Piece? Awesomeness keeps increasing!!!

omy785

@yadayada:

that's surprisingly good, i was trying to pick holes in that strategy but it actually works quite well, even if some slip past the admirals they have to face the vice admirals and the shichibukai

Well, I have found a hole. The Admirals in that position are taking a lot of risks…if by any chance they'll fall into the water, than bye bye...

Cauterize

Oda's already said he knows how he wants One Piece to end. I think he'll know how to steer it towards what he already wanted.

yadayada

This post is deleted!

yadayada

@omy785:

Well, I have found a hole. The Admirals in that position are taking a lot of risks…if by any chance they'll fall into the water, than bye bye...

yes but what are the chances of them being pushed into the water, the main problem is that if all the heavy weight players teamed up, which they did they could bypass one of the admirals and after that everyone else is fair game, the soldiers should be put closer to the front toserve their purpose, ie. as cannon fodder

but i didnt thinkthe war was bad, it was different for me though cus i only started reading one piece this year, so i read nearly the entire arc in one go so it wasnt slow or dragged out for me