@Sea:For your original argument, yeah Shanks coming to end the war was anti-climatic, but it made logical sense. Marines were exhausted from fighting the war and would have to deal with Blackbeard's men as well. It was more like "we can't fight big name X after all this" rather than "Shanks is that awesome"
Blackbeard would've just ran away given all the enemies he was facing.
Whitebeard pirates had no reason to fight anymore. Your main point was that they were cowards and fleeing but they failed their original goal, and just wanted to live to see another day. Honor/pride is nothing without life, and they're all not samurais that live by the honor code. Ace died with that "pride/revenge" mindset and I thought it was pretty dumb IMO. I do agree they were all disappointing given their involvement with the war though.
@Sea:
Luffy is saved by Law, not them. The WB pirates looked even more pathetic because if they focused all their might to fight the Marines instead of fleeing to save their lives, some of them might have prevented Kizaru and let Law flee safely.
They couldn't even protect Luffy properly by themselves because they were fleeing. How pathetic is that?
If I remember correctly, the Whitebeard pirates were facing Akainu to stop him from hurting Luffy after Jinbei saved him. The only dumb move was that they didn't spread out their forces which allowed Kizaru to have an opening.
@Sea:
if there was no Beckman, Marco would have let Luffy die. How could he face his father in heaven then?
@Sea:
That was no excuse to make Marco look absolutely pathetic. Oda could have made him a cooler character.
Marco was generally a disappointment about One Piece. Or at least, underwhelming. Yes, he is. I think that's something we can all agree. I however doubt that was Oda's intention to make him look pathetic. He could have saved Marco's character and giving a more satisfying ending for the war.
Don't know why I'm nitpicking since I do agree the commanders in general were pretty underwhelming during the war. Really, nobody except Whitebeard, Akainu, and Luffy really did anything that "changed" the flow of the war.
Marco wasn't any more "disappointing" then anybody else during the war. It's just he was more of the scapegoat for showing off the Marine's "success"/"threat level" than other Commanders.
Same can be said about Joz who ended up frozen halfway through the war but was shown to be able to harm logias. Yet, nobody seems to give Joz a hard time for being just as "useless".
And I like to point out at least Marco had the valid excuse of being in seastone cuffs when Ace died. Why didn't anybody else try to stop Akainu/save Ace when he died? They all just watched like it was a show.
He went toe to toe with an Admiral, which is more than 90% of One Piece characters in the war can say they did. Plus, he saved Luffy from a fatal blow from Aokiji. Whitebeard said to make sure he didn't die, not to coddle him like a baby. He's a pirate after all.
The whole scene with Crocodile seems to signify that if Crocodile didn't save Ace, then Marco would've done something similar to stop the execution.
Plus, he did try to save Ace, but Garp stopped him. The point being that at least he put in an effort to save Ace.
@Sea:
Who said that anyone touching a member of WB pirates won't get away alive with it? All talk. Didn't they they come there risking their life not only to save Ace but also to protect the name of the WB pirate? And where was that spirit when they flee before assuring Luffy's safety, which was the task WB gave them?
By that logic, Jinbei failed in the war too because he didn't protect Ace and Whitebeard by risking his life.
And that wasn't really directed at you but I wanted to put in another disappointment in One Piece I have. Why didn't Jinbei protect Ace/Whitebeard like he did with Luffy against Akainu?
Davy Back fight was utter stupid.
:sad: I can't wait for Davy Back Fight to become vital to the story.