Aaaand, stop. Further discussion is pointless. What is your credibility? Are you some kind of a professional critic? Are you Oda's assistant? You have somehow a deeper insight into Oda's plans and thought process? Or are you a self-proclaimed internet forum user with "credibility"? Oh, come on!
Because I've done this song and dance a hundred times already here, and been right like 80-90% of the time. And most people here will agree so it's not really my imagination.
People can say "Hey, that guy, he's got pretty good instincts and sense on this matter. His opinion has some weight.". There's a fair number of such people whove popped up over the years obviously.
Point being, a guy who thinks REBECCA will join lol, is just another dullard with NO sense, and NO instinct, and NO opinion of weight. And we've seen thousands of you.
The funniest part is we've seen thousands of people show up before to declare "omg OP is getting maturerr finally :D"….directly proving your idea about this sense of yours being new...being old lol.
It's so old it's become a joke around some parts of this place "DARKER ONE PIECE", literally a meme lol.
I agree with the second epithet though, but I do notice a slight mood and story complexity change whenever we entered a new arena. Events during East Blue, even if they did have a strong impact on the reader, were still somehow (and at this point I can't even define how) different than the Paradise. Compare the arcs for yourself, even in the summary of yours.
Oh please DO detail the mood change when we entered the Grand Line from East Blue. I'm sure we'd all love to hear about that nonexistent thing.
What? I just SAID New World is supposed to be a harsher sea for the protagonists. It's like you're trying to shit all over me just because you feel like it. But you're wrong. Also, I might've worded it wrong, valiantt got the part right. The rest is just my personal assumption.
Please, do you even think you're the first to assert this? When you say the New World will be harsher, you try to sneak in the implication that this means darker things will happened, Oda will kill people etc. I know exactly what you're trying to say. And it's wrong.
I did not miss the earlier tones, I'm just saying they differ from each other, are you saying a mangaka's style does not change over the course of years? It's still a human, humans change, the style evolves, the author tries new ideas, experiments, you name it.
Tell me what has gotten moodier and darker.
Experience reading a manga? What the hell are you talking about? Especially if the difference in our span is like 2 years.
2003 is when I started. 2007 is when you started. That is not two years.
See the first sentence of mine.
I believe there are lots of people who got some things more the right way than you or me AND they have started reading the series more recently than us. This argument of yours is just silly.
Like who.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
Actually, you're not quite right here. Regular weaklings normally aren't as powerful (remember Jonny and Yosaku, or whatever their names?).
Given that the reconnaissance dwarf we saw isn't even a full-fledged soldier (supposedly), they're quite powerful for their stature. And Oda stressed Zoro's surprise for a reason - one just wouldn't expect that from those little guys.
Could be we'll see what the more powerful dwarfs are capable of.
We had Kuro's guys smashing cliff walls when hypnotized by Jango, a weakling himself.
We had Mohji kicking Luffy through two houses and into the next street through them.
Probably Jonny and Yosaku could have cracked the ground too. East Blue thugs under placebo effect could do it. C'mon.
And of COURSE Zoro is surprised that something that small and weak looking isn't.