My thoughts and impressions:
1. X-Drake is obviously an underling of Kaido and it fits perfectly with his DF and the whole beast theme of "K". We know how Luffy enjoys dealing with monsters and beasts of all sorts so I´m looking forward to the conflict.
I personally like this development as we have an example of a different approach to deal with the New World beside opposing the Yonkou and most likely failing in the process.
It´d be better if Drake was loyal to Kaido and opposed Luffy + Law instead of being just (no offense) a relatively positive supernova and switching sides at the first opportunity.
2. Rebecca uses an advanced level of surviving this free-for-all by utilizing the strength of an oponent to beat other participants and I´m honestly rooting for her.
People should try to imagine how tough it is to be in her shoes right now, actually since she lost her mom. She grew up as a fugitive and later had to endure the scorn of the population every day of her life. No offense, but compare that to how many of low-esteem young girls today break under the slightest pressure. Hell, the majority of us males would crumble.
Yes she cried and seems to struggle, so what? She still gives her best despite being under immense pressure as most of the audience still boos her (despite Cabbage´s recent speech). This is not about her winning the tournament, it´s about her being brave enough to fight against all odds.
I think her character is admirable and today we came to understand that solving conflicts by avoiding to spill blood until the very end is a somewhat extreme Riku family trait. I get that to most people this concept is very tough to grasp in the current age we live in. This is the author telling us that the world is not just pure good or pure evil. I like that.
3. My opinion at this point is that Toy Soldier is not a Riku. Oda could´ve easily solved this "mystery" by now, but he decided to purposely ignore Usopp pointing to that version in this very chapter, twice.
Also, him willing to lead a revolution against the current leadership might show a slight difference in views compared to Rebecca. Yes there are counter-arguments that it was him who taught her to fight that way and she claimed to want the fruit to defeat Dofla (active opposition), but still. Maybe this is a bit of wishful thinking on my part - that there will be a direct conflict situation where she´s incapable of a "finishing blow", further confirming her innate pure nature and innocence. Becca is actually a "fighter" Shirahoshi who was also pure beyond reason but Shira was the "absorbing" type (not sure how to express what I mean).
4. I didn´t expect this lengthy of a flashback this chapter and my initial reaction wasn´t very joyful, but what needs to be done needs to be done - even after many years, it´s sometimes difficult to accept the "weekly" release schedule with chapters like these were the present plot doesn´t seem to move forward.
5. Talking of tidbits, the whole situation with the audience´s blood lust comes to show how easily the masses are manipulated to a different level of morality within a relatively short time frame.
A very important panel in the chapter showed how an old man responded to his child asking for more food by telling it yes we´re not very rich but we don´t lead wars and enjoy seeing people kill each other. The same kind of people probably sit in the audience asking for blood.
6. That being said, the part with actually collecting the 10 bil didn´t really make much sense to me, it seems like a defeatist way of acting, but it´s mainly because we didn´t know the extent of the king´s knowledge about Doflamingo and his influence.
I think the main problem here for most people is that they didn´t feel the imminent threat of Dofla-caliber individual showing up at your window all of a sudden and threatening your country, even telling you to not ask for aid from other nations.
My issue with the dialogue is that from the past we know that Shichibukai may get a pardon for many things, but as far as I am concerned, their main duty is to dispatch of pirate crews in return for immunity from being targeted by the marines.
From the whole Croc situation (putsch) we know that claiming/overturning countries is a huge no-no. Basically from the WG point of view, I´d say this is no different from what Dragon does (freeing countries from WG´s rule) and we know he´s the most wanted man.
The way I understand it and correct me if I´m wrong, but Dressrosa is part of the WG, so the king should have asked for protection by the marines.
Which brings me to the next point.
5. Doflamingo. We´re getting bits by bits of info about him, but for me it´s still not enough to understand his main goals and motivation.
We learned that he basically blackmailed his own kind to get his position, probably mainly because of his knowledge about how the world works. It´s kind of cheap but in a way brilliant and we know he can back it up by actual fighting prowess.
The part with Dofla puppeteering the king was too obvious that I almost felt like it was unneeded to make the point. Also, way, way too similar to Alabasta and a DF user making the king do atrocious things (really felt like a deja vu). But OK, asking for money all of a sudden without any reasons and then going on a killing spree makes the whole "mad king" story a bit believable.
Well, one thing´s sure. Doflamingo is one of a kind of underworld boss who kept everyone in check (Tenryuubito by stealing their money, marines through the Vergo infiltration and Kaidou through SMILEs). I´m really not the type to praise antagonists, but Dofla definitely knows his s…tuff. He does have a right to own a big co... counqueror´s haki.
That being said, I´m probably among the very few readers who wish that Law, who I´m not a fanboy of, beats him because of their history, so that Luffy doesn´t have to always deal with everyone himself. And no, I´m not ignoring the build up of Doflaming, it´s just that I wish Oda wasn´t forcing himself into a corner to give Luffy a reason to fight every big name. It was already very obvious against CC who Luffy was like oh I´ll catch him just because I was asked to and eventually Oda even made Brownbeard be a motivational factor of all things. I mean, I´d be happy if Luffy destroyed the smug Colosseum "hero" alongside the factory beneath it, keep his promise to himself to protect the fruit from Burgess/BB and then be the main fire-power against Kaidou.
Looking forward to some Barto & Luffy interaction, the reveal of the plan of the counter-attack and initial encounters in the following chapters.