@Nubtro:
To me it seems like like Oda is making fun of a portion of One Piece´s the fans in a cute way through Barto, which is hilarious. I sometimes feel like he´s reading forums and reacting to some discussions like there was the Zoro first mate (?) one recently, also the thing with Jora "having to" clarify she´s not the toy user and stuff like that.
This chapter was really good but I liked last week´s more. In particular, there´s two issues that slightly bug me:
1. The whole Sanji situation.
Don´t get me wrong, the double-page at the end was an amazing action sequence (although I personally liked Sanji´s PH entrance vs Vergo more). The problem is the reaction of Nami, Chopper and Brook before that. I understand that Dofla is a scary powerful person but it´s getting a bit too much for basically half of the future PK´s crew to be frozen in fear all the time, even after the time-skip.
I just wished they had recovered from the initial shock within a short amount of time and then instantly created some sort of defensive formation to at least not seemingly get slaughtered within seconds (jumping point-mirror images-leaving body for example). The the imminent doom situation was created to signify the lightspeed-Sanji-coming-to-the-rescue-solution.
Which brings me to the second issue.
2. Zoro and Kinemon before the colosseum.
I understand that this was mainly a comedy situation, but on one hand we had the Sanji part later where he covered a lot of distance in a very short amount of time (note that Law only managed to run through a small portion of Green Bit within the same time frame) for the sake of the plot. On the other hand, Zoro just stood there wondering if he should cut a way open or not, which is kind of ridiculous and quite out of character for him, who previously destroyed a ship he slept on "just because". This seems like plot device, to give more room for block D to finish and stuff (like comedy) but for me, for a moment, the story lost a bit of the time pressure suspense created just a page before that and then suddenly jumped to code red later. I actually liked the Dofla part where he just instantly went after the SHs, props to him as an antagonist.
Btw. where are the marines who were surrounding the Colosseum a few chapters ago? Are they only gathering at the main gate for some reason?
Anyway, it´s just nitpicking. Overall, I really enjoy what´s going on, a lot
Great post. My only core disagreement is in the end of the Zoro analysis. Sure, it's vexing how little coverage is made for them vs Sanji, but keep in mind that Zoro is being tempered by Kin'emon. If left to his own devices, I'm sure Zoro would cut the whole damn coliseum apart, but Kin'emon's sense of logic (i.e., sense of not being as stupid as Zoro) keeps him from cutting any holes in it. I feel like the scene is conveyed in a way that's consistent with Zoro's character.
That said, to Hell with all this "we're weaklings so we'll cry" stuff, for sure. It's such a far cry from A) taking on the World Government back in Enies Lobby, and B) literally staring death in the face back at Thriller Bark.
