Once Law gets to that other island ( was it called Kou?) he will exit at some point there….Kinemon will be around a little longer though.
Dressrosa must be long...longer then Alabasta.
Wasted opportunities of One Piece
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Hmm.. to contribute to my own thread.
I think that the biggest missed opportunity is… Lack of significante character development for Straw Hats.
And a big HA! to all the people that thought I was going to bring marines up... no, no, no, no. That's for later, because that's a minor, personal preference.
No, the biggest thing, in my opinion, is how little consequences and changes there are for the crew. Stuff happens to them... but they do not evolve because of it.
The biggest one, in my opinion, is how unchanged by Ace's death Luffy is. That one just hurts me. Even if I love the way Ace's death was presented (And magma fist. Cause one can never have enough magma fists in manga), I still think that what came out it was... disappointing.
Lack of suspense in the story also hurts me deeply.
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I think Hadi's lamenting the sense of danger I mentioned earlier. After what we got in PH, you simply don't buy it anymore when the bad guy is about to do evil deeds. You know that at the end of the day everything will be fine again.
But that's something everybody has to cope with themselves. After all it's not us who Oda is targeting with his work. It's the young boys and girls who still fall for it. Who hold their breath when Law is being shot; who sigh with relief when Law's alive. You know, kids.We can either accept that Oda will rarely kill his characters and concentrate on the adventurous part of the story, or move on to manga more suited to our tastes. Or, and this is clearly more fun, keep reading and complain about Oda keeping everyone and their moth- nope, the mothers don't have much luck in OP… uhm, everyone and their dogs alive.
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I agree that something just feels off about the New World.
If I were to change something, honestly, I'd get rid of haki (or at least tone it down a bit). I miss when fights were based on the chemistry between two completely different powers and if a character was in a tight spot, it would require said character to rely on a decent strategy (for example, Luffy vs. Crocodile) to win. Even though haki was foreshadowed a little bit before Shanks met up with Whitebeard, I still kinda feel like the idea sorta just came out of nowhere and Shanks using haki to scare off the Lord of the Coast was a bit of a retcon. I think haki literally takes away interesting fights because most of the main brawlers have it and as long as they equip it, it makes it much easier for them to land a hit on their enemy, despite their foe having interesting powers.
I also don't like that Robin has been taken a back seat so much lately. I don't really like her slight change in personality, either. I remember in Thriller Bark when Brook first appeared and everyone freaked out, except Robin, who just had a blank stare on her face. I think that said a lot about her character. Now, she goes around reacting like this…:
I know it's for comic relief, but it just makes me feel like it's a bit out of character. One could say she changed due to having character development, but I don't think it's a good thing that she's reacting the same way as the rest of the characters are. It doesn't make her stand out anymore. Maybe I'm just making a bigger deal out of this than it really is.I would also decrease the amount of fanservice the series currently has.
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The biggest one, in my opinion, is how unchanged by Ace's death Luffy is. That one just hurts me.
Tell me about it. Luffy is even more childish and careless than before. Not that I don't like that part of him but yay it makes zero sense after seeing his brother dying infront of him. A bit of change Oda, come on. Not to mention that he has become that cheesy hero who wants to protect everyone and take care of everything. At least back on Alabasta he was a bit more mature when he said to Vivi that "people die" speech.
It woud have been cool if Oda chose to pick that Luffy at the end of Romance dawn:
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After what we got in PH, you simply don't buy it anymore when the bad guy is about to do evil deeds. You know that at the end of the day everything will be fine again.
Since Punk Hazard? Really? Have we been reading the same series?
Oda hasn't regularly killed even minor characters since Alabasta. 12 years and 50 volumes ago. (that's the entire lifetime of some of his reader base!) Merry/Ace/Whitebeard being the major dramatic exceptions. That's a reeeeally old complaint. That you're only just now noticing within the last arc means Oda's done a really good job of keeping the tension strong despite the lack of death, don't you think?
(and he till makes us freak out when say, Zoro was hit with Luffy's pain or whisked away.)
Character's being wounded and collapsing in defense of their dreams is as far as it goes. The entire theme of the series is that dreams never die. Character's with any sort of screen time can't be killed unless they've passed their dream on and are smiling. Just how it works.
Not to mention that he has become that cheesy hero who wants to protect everyone and take care of everything.
Did you miss the Fishman Island speech where he specifically said he DOESN'T want to be a hero?
He's protecting one or two of his friends, beating up a badguy because he makes his friend cry, like he always has. And if he happens to save an entire island population while beating up said badguy, that's collateral. Like he's been doing since the start. Against Arlong, Wapol, Crocodile, Lucchi. That is nothing new.
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Oda hasn't regularly killed even minor characters since Alabasta. 12 years and 50 volumes ago.
Get over it already. It's just not in the dna of the series. Character's being wounded and collapsing in defense of their dreams is as far as it goes.
I know, but people are capable of shrugging off practicaly anything nowadays. At least have them faint, damn it, with those blank white eyes, for a significant period of time. Even that doesn't happen anymore. Even to bloody villains, because they are up and running in no time…
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I know, but people are capable of shrugging off practicaly anything nowadays. At least have them faint, damn it, with those blank white eyes, for a significant period of time. Even that doesn't happen anymore. Even to bloody villains, because they are up and running in no time…
When was the last time you seriously thought even a minor character might be dead from battle damage before your suspense of disbelief in Oda's no-kills got to you? The killer bunnies in Drum? The Franky family off camera falling off a bridge? Bon Kurei goign against Magellan? The guy who bit off his toungue in Sabondy? Hachi being shot? Hachi being stabbed? Soldiers being turned to stone on punk hazard?
It's been that way for a LONG LONG time.
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When was the last time you seriously thought even a minor character might be dead from battle damage before your suspense of disbelief in Oda's no-kills got to you? The killer bunnies in Drum? The Franky family off camera falling off a bridge? The guy who bit off his toungue in Sabondy? Hachi being shot? Hachi being stabbed? Soldiers being turned to stone on punk hazard?
It's been that way for a LONG LONG time.
When Pell survived I gave up all hope on any character dying ever. Marineford proved me wrong…
But I don't even need that. I want them to stay unconcieus for more then two minutes. Have you noticed that since we Punk Hazard, even when enemies are defeated, they don't faint? They are capable of speech and minor action literaly panels after being heavily beaten. That takes away even little suspense that was left.
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Vergo and Monet have stayed "dead" long enough and violently enough that people actually think they might be dead.
…and since Punk Hazard, they haven't really beaten up all that many enemies? We're at what... Baby 5 and Buffallo? (Where were "decapitated" and tied up the next time we saw them.) Jora? Sugar? Who have all stayed down? Heck, Sugar staying down is a plot point.
And aside from maybe Arlong there was never suspense about the villains being dead?
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The Flying Dutchman being Vander Decken's ship and the Kraken being a pussy.
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A skeleton with a scythe is not exactly uncharted territory, either.
Besides, how would he play his violin with a big scythe?
The scythe is just an idea, just something other than a sword. Kinnemon uses swords too and its starting to feel overplayed. Also if he just used that violin wand (whatever its called) as a sword instead of a sword cane, I think that would of been more intresting too imo.
Also, Fujitora doesn't use a cane sword. It's just a normal katana with a wooden sheath and handle and without the hilt. He doesn't even use it as a cane, but to tap the ground in front of him.
That is the definition of a cane o_0 He is a blind swordsman so a cane sword makes sense for him though.
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That is the definition of a cane o_0 He is a blind swordsman so a cane sword makes sense for him though.
Oh right, forgot that english has the same word for both the walking stick and the aid for blind people.
On a side note, this made me remember this hillarious article (not that hillarious for the blind guy, obviously):
Police Taser blind man mistaking his white stick for a samurai sword -
Since Punk Hazard? Really? Have we been reading the same series?
Oda hasn't regularly killed even minor characters since Alabasta. 12 years and 50 volumes ago. (that's the entire lifetime of some of his reader base!) Merry/Ace/Whitebeard being the major dramatic exceptions. That's a reeeeally old complaint. That you're only just now noticing within the last arc means Oda's done a really good job of keeping the tension strong despite the lack of death, don't you think?
(and he till makes us freak out when say, Zoro was hit with Luffy's pain or whisked away.)
Character's being wounded and collapsing in defense of their dreams is as far as it goes. The entire theme of the series is that dreams never die. Character's with any sort of screen time can't be killed unless they've passed their dream on and are smiling. Just how it works.
Did you miss the Fishman Island speech where he specifically said he DOESN'T want to be a hero?
He's protecting one or two of his friends, beating up a badguy because he makes his friend cry, like he always has. And if he happens to save an entire island population while beating up said badguy, that's collateral. Like he's been doing since the start. Against Arlong, Wapol, Crocodile, Lucchi. That is nothing new.
Since PH was the first island in the NW, I applied different standards due to all the hype the second half of the GL had received previously. If you come to a sea as dangerous as the NW (supposedly), things should change accordingly to it and a real sense of danger should be introduced. Or that's at least what I thought. And I kept believing that till the end of the arc when all those petrified guys were healed by disappointingly simple means. Now I've learned to think differently, or let's say, I went back to my 'Paradise' mindset, and try to enjoy the story's other positive aspects.
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Sabondy, and the War, was the level of danger the New World is at, where the Strawhats were utterly destroyed.
Then they trained for two years.
You really expect them to be slaughtered again right out the gate? For Oda to change his overall style or target audeince?
They'll hit tougher challenges as they go. They're still clearing out the final enemies of the first half at the moment.
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Maybe you're right, Robby. Maybe it's just too early for the real dangers to appear. Maybe even Doffy is a minor threat compared to the big boys of the NW. And maybe even the NW has yet to show us what makes it so terrifying.
But for now I can only judge what we're being shown. And so far the NW hasn't really impressed me. Unfortunately, I may add.
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Sabondy, and the War, was the level of danger the New World is at, where the Strawhats were utterly destroyed.
Then they trained for two years.
You really expect them to be slaughtered again right out the gate? For Oda to change his overall style or target audeince?
They'll hit tougher challenges as they go. They're still clearing out the final enemies of the first half at the moment.
Yeah, I never really got that. It's like people really didn't get the point of the training. It wasn't just to survive in the new world (Because we can see the other supernovas are alive and well), it was to survive without making a ton of sacrifices, and to survive when its the strawhats who would inevitably go after big names as soon as they got there (Like they're doing right now).
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Maybe you're right, Robby. Maybe it's just too early for the real dangers to appear. Maybe even Doffy is a minor threat compared to the big boys of the NW. And maybe even the NW has yet to show us what makes it so terrifying.
That's exactly what Kaidou is being described as. Who utterly destroyed Moria, evenly matched Shanks, and who the mere threat of completely ruins Doflamingo's day. Who needs an entire coalition of crews to think about having even a chance of surviving against.
Fishman Island-only peaceful because of Emporer's protection, still almost destroyed by a maniac. Punk Hazard-off to the side science experiement full of monsters, only survived due to intervention of several strong guys helping out. Dresserosa- Conquered and under a warlord's control and full of strong fighters.
And again, we're nowhere yet. I'm sure Wano and Elbaf will be a bit nastier, plus whatever places haven't been foreshadowed yet. (Similarly, anyone bothered by Kinemon's lack of activity, his role is next arc. Vivi was sidelined in Drum as well. Not their part of the story.)
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can't believe people don't like Luffy's performance post-timeskip
Franky and Luffy have been the only Strawhats who have just been absolutely stellar since the crew reunited
I'd also say Zoro has been really good despite that awkward Monet shit
Robin and Brook have been mediocre
rest have been sort of bad -
Robin just feels like a waste these days. Past few arcs her chance for fights have been pushed aside, usually for some ridiculous reason. Can we not have Zoro get knocked out and give Robin two fights next arc instead?
I second this greatly! What a waste indeed. :(
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I think pretty much every One Piece fan is hit with a serious, serious case of tunnel vision when it comes to One Piece. Myself included.
yeah we can talk all about Alabasta and previous arcs because they're finished. We can examine those arcs and what they did to the story, but we're already talking about Dressrosa and things like danger and suspense when the arc isn't even over. I remember reading something once. Take your absolute favorite movie in the world. Now pretend you're watching it for the first time, but you can only watch one minute of it every day. Taking the story in that format, your understanding of it will be completely different than if you watched it all at once. As the minutes/days go by you'll find yourself questioning pretty much every directoral decision you see because you don't have the full picture (literally).
One Piece by nature is a weekly thing. Things often don't fall into piece until hindsight kicks in. Even I found myself thinking Skypiea dragged on for far too long when I watched it the first time, but that's because it took me a few weeks to get through it. When I re-read it in one sitting (the manga), I found that the pacing actually wasn't as bad as I thought. But the problem with One Piece fans is we feel the need to dissect everything. Oda has not lost his touch. When I see someone like Law getting shot, yeah I know nothing will probably come out of it, but I think everyone's missing the point. The point wasn't that he got shot, it was more about the emotions going on at the time and Doffy's position of superiority.
Why did Doffy even shoot him? Why does he even have a gun considering how great his DF powers are? The gun's not important. It's that he had him in a position of superiority and he wanted to wound him. He could have easily done that with strings, Law's not even a logia. But the point was Law lost, the plan went totally awry, he got incapacitated and then Doffy took him back to base. I've loved pretty much all of Dressrosa so far, despite being in the boat of most one piece fans and having a few issues with PH myself. Alabasta was 63 chapters. That seems to be roughly the same amount of Chapters every huge arc like this gets, right? Dressrosa's basically only had 49 so far, so give it time.
As far as danger with the New World goes, they're really only on the second island so far. We're basically just at the front door of the New World. Again, give it time. We saw so much dangerous crap with the other Supernovas with the New World stuff, I really don't think Oda would have forgotten that.
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Btw, i also find it a waste to see Usopp defeating Sugar with a needless gag after getting his ass handed to him after making that epic speech. I was honesty has hoping he would kickass with his new and improve sniper skills but to see him saving the day with a mere gag was just disappointing.
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As I had pointed out before, I don't think Usopp taking out Sugar with sniping skills is necessary. We already know he's a master sniper because even pre timeskip he was shooting Marines from the Tower of Justice against the wind so far away that they couldn't even shoot him back_._
Also, considering where was, he was in pretty close range anyway, so what would he have done? Snipe the tobasco grape or whatever right into her mouth? He took her out the same way he's always gotten things done. In his own style. Even if it was unintentional, he was literally the only straw hat who could have pulled it off, and he did. "mere gag" is his entire character, he's always been like that and that's what's so amazing about him. When push comes to shove he can honestly fight, and do some real damage with his pop greens, but this wasn't that kind of situation since Sugar is basically a non combatant. She doesn't really have any fighting skills aside from turning people into toys, unlike previous opponents he's fought.
He got it done in a manner that's consistent with the character, and now he's considered God by the gladiator fighters and the most wanted person by Doffy. It's what I love and have always loved about Usopp.
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As I had pointed out before, I don't think Usopp taking out Sugar with sniping skills is necessary. We already know he's a master sniper because even pre timeskip he was shooting Marines from the Tower of Justice against the wind so far away that they couldn't even shoot him back_._
Also, considering where was, he was in pretty close range anyway, so what would he have done? Snipe the tobasco grape or whatever right into her mouth? He took her out the same way he's always gotten things done. In his own style. Even if it was unintentional, he was literally the only straw hat who could have pulled it off, and he did. "mere gag" is his entire character, he's always been like that and that's what's so amazing about him. When push comes to shove he can honestly fight, and do some real damage with his pop greens, but this wasn't that kind of situation since Sugar is basically a non combatant. She doesn't really have any fighting skills aside from turning people into toys, unlike previous opponents he's fought.
He got it done in a manner that's consistent with the character, and now he's considered God by the gladiator fighters and the most wanted person by Doffy. It's what I love and have always loved about Usopp.
This guy gets it. Great posts
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As I had pointed out before, I don't think Usopp taking out Sugar with sniping skills is necessary. We already know he's a master sniper because even pre timeskip he was shooting Marines from the Tower of Justice against the wind so far away that they couldn't even shoot him back_._
Also, considering where was, he was in pretty close range anyway, so what would he have done? Snipe the tobasco grape or whatever right into her mouth? He took her out the same way he's always gotten things done. In his own style. Even if it was unintentional, he was literally the only straw hat who could have pulled it off, and he did. "mere gag" is his entire character, he's always been like that and that's what's so amazing about him. When push comes to shove he can honestly fight, and do some real damage with his pop greens, but this wasn't that kind of situation since Sugar is basically a non combatant. She doesn't really have any fighting skills aside from turning people into toys, unlike previous opponents he's fought.
He got it done in a manner that's consistent with the character, and now he's considered God by the gladiator fighters and the most wanted person by Doffy. It's what I love and have always loved about Usopp.
Even so, I felt that this incident was one of those times where the gag wasn't needed, plus I honestly though he has unlocked his haki judging from the way the shurikens struck trebol at the end of chapter 741 and seeing what happened to him in the following the chapter was a huge letdown to me.
But hey, maybe I was expecting too much out of him despite how much I hate the mofo so whatever.
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No it's not. When I see characters in One Piece doing things normally even after getting shot/stabbed/slashed/killed a couple of times it detracts from my enjoyment a little. Don't really give a shit about Frozen (if that's what you're talking about).
FICTION is a story that is not real. The are bound by the imagination of the writer. Nothing in OP is real. It's like you all struggle with this concept.
IF YOU DIE, I'LL KILL YOU….
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FICTION is a story that is not real. The are bound by the imagination of the writer. Nothing in OP is real. It's like you all struggle with this concept.
That's very nice and all, but still does not mean the story should ignore parts of storytelling that are recognised as necessary and good. Like character development.
It is, as you say, fiction. Fiction needs drama, suspense, conflict. Lack of danger hurts all of those things. It's bad for the narrative, and not because it isn't realistic.
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I think there's a bit of a spiraling effect that has happened since Sabaody with danger in One Piece. Sabaody took things to eleven with the first ever complete and total Straw Hat defeat. From there, it was constant danger through Impel Down and Marineford, culminating with Luffy realizing he has to get stronger.
Cue the Timeskip. Post timeskip, Fishman Island was a joke, which makes sense and it should be like that. It's possible that pre-timeskip, Hordy and his boys would have been a real threat to the SH's, but afterwards they're cake. We needed this to get a good grasp on how much the Straw Hats had powered up collectively in preparation for the New World. In Punk Hazard Ceaser wasn't really a problem, but then again he wasn't really designed to be. As a scientist, I didn't expect him to have really good fighting ability in the first place, cause the narrative didn't suggest that Ceaser put effort into that field. Despite using his ability in some pretty clever and unique ways given that he's a scientist.
The problem with Dressrosa is that, given the pacing of the arc itself, we really haven't seen a true fight yet with Luffy, or have him be in any real danger. The Battle Royale had him beat Chinjao which was pretty sweet and I would argue there was some suspense there because Chinjao actually wanted to kill him. After that, though, Sabo takes over. If Luffy had still fought as Lucy in the final fight, I'm sure there would have been a crap ton of danger and suspense involved due to Burgess and Diamante. Hell, Sabo didn't even fight, he chose to break the Arena and run away with the fruit pretty much.
My point is Luffy hasn't really had a true fight yet and so the immediate danger isn't really felt. But he has tango'd with Doflamingo briefly already, and he basically got his ass kicked. He's not in immediate peril, but the threat of Doflamingo has been all over this arc with him wiping the floor with Law and Sanji basically not even being able to touch him. Now it seems we're finally getting into those last fights with Zoro vs Pica, I expect that suspense and danger One Piece fans are so hungry for ever since pre-timeskip will finally be felt. It's a deal with pacing. We needed FI to be a cakewalk, and Punk Hazard didn't have a villain that could have truly been a threat. But Doffy is, and I expect serious things to come for the final chapters of Dressrosa.
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As I had pointed out before, I don't think Usopp taking out Sugar with sniping skills is necessary. We already know he's a master sniper because even pre timeskip he was shooting Marines from the Tower of Justice against the wind so far away that they couldn't even shoot him back_._
Also, considering where was, he was in pretty close range anyway, so what would he have done? Snipe the tobasco grape or whatever right into her mouth? He took her out the same way he's always gotten things done. In his own style. Even if it was unintentional, he was literally the only straw hat who could have pulled it off, and he did. "mere gag" is his entire character, he's always been like that and that's what's so amazing about him. When push comes to shove he can honestly fight, and do some real damage with his pop greens, but this wasn't that kind of situation since Sugar is basically a non combatant. She doesn't really have any fighting skills aside from turning people into toys, unlike previous opponents he's fought.
He got it done in a manner that's consistent with the character, and now he's considered God by the gladiator fighters and the most wanted person by Doffy. It's what I love and have always loved about Usopp.
@red: Really? He was literally the only one?
Robin could very well have done it herself if she hadn't done the stupid mistake of grabbing Sugar on the wrists. If she had grabbed her on the elbow area of the arms then Sugar would have been unable to turn her into a toy. -
I think her problem is that she got careless cause she underestimated Sugar. Sugar got careless cause she underestimated Usopp. Even Franky said he was counting on Usopp to get it done. I guess Usopp wasn't the only person who could have done it, but out of all the SH's he's one of the better ones to bet your money on to handle it.
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That's very nice and all, but still does not mean the story should ignore parts of storytelling that are recognised as necessary and good. Like character development.
It is, as you say, fiction. Fiction needs drama, suspense, conflict. Lack of danger hurts all of those things. It's bad for the narrative, and not because it isn't realistic.
The story is dramatic enough as it is and it does have lost of suspense. Where people have issues with is death. Someone typed it few post ago that Law took 3 shots to chest and didn't die. Death is not the point of that scene, the point is Law was defeated. Why does death have to show the presence of danger?
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I think her problem is that she got careless cause she underestimated Sugar. Sugar got careless cause she underestimated Usopp. Even Franky said he was counting on Usopp to get it done. I guess Usopp wasn't the only person who could have done it, but out of all the SH's he's one of the better ones to bet your money on to handle it.
Or you know, she could have just make her passed out herself with her powers like she always do. Only Usopp could do it? Don't make me laugh, that was Robin job, she had the perfect powers for that. But yay, everything was badly handled in this "fight" so let's just move on.
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Or you know, she could have just make her passed out herself with her powers like she always do. Only Usopp could do it? Don't make me laugh, that was Robin job, she had the perfect powers for that. But yay, everything was badly handled in this "fight" so let's just move on.
I still feel the whole Sugar thing was less about who actually dispatched her, and more about the consequences. I think the reason he had Usopp do it was so that he could end up being revered by the other colosseum members. We need to get them on our side so this is a pretty great way to do it. And it echoes Buggy's messiah moment when he got all the Impel Down members on his side. It just wouldn't feel the same if all the gladiators rallied behind "God Robin" as opposed to Usopp. It may have been a nice change of pace for it to have been Robin instead, but she gets her stuff with Koala so I'm fine with it.
Plus would you have ever expected Usopp to be the one who Doffy gives 5 stars to? The whole star thing is pretty arbitrary in the first place, but the humor comes from everyone else getting 1-3 stars and Usopp getting hit with 5. Doffy even says "There is one man who has angered me more today than any other…He is the very reason why you are all forced to take part in this twisted game". Just doesn't have the same impact if it was Robin instead of Usopp.
So yeah, it's less about who actually takes out Sugar. She just needed to get dispatched, end of story. But the consequences of that, seeing all of Dressrosa getting turned on its head from toys getting turned back into humans, and all the Corrida fighters banding together to take down Doflamingo under the name of "God" Usopp? That's what it's really about. Moments like that are what make One Piece great in the first place.
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Of course Oda wanted Usopp to shine so he made Robin 10x stupider than her normal self. But still, that whole stuff could have been handled a lot better. On top of that, Usopp has no merits for that victory, even when it's a gag he always do some stuff that will lead him to the victory. In this fight he did literally nothing, it was pure luck (but yay, that's Usopp, he is funny you love him I get that part).
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Of course Oda wanted Usopp to shine so he made Robin 10x stupider than her normal self. But still, that whole stuff could have been handled a lot better. On top of that, Usopp has no merits for that victory, even when it's a gag he always do some stuff that will lead him to the victory. In this fight he did literally nothing, it was pure luck.
Pretty much this IMO. I didn't mind Oda giving Usopp time to shine, but I don't find it necessary for him to make Robin dumber than usual to make that happen since there were other ways.
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I'm willing to admit it could have been handled differently, maybe even better. But I love what we've got. It was consistent with the character, and luck and gags are par for the course with Usopp. His strength as a character isn't that he can dispatch characters with brutal efficiency the way that the monster trio do. It's that he's constantly been underestimated by all his opponents and he's always shown them up. Whether it's through psychological intimidation, his own inherent attributes (like getting the negative ghosts to become negative), or dumb luck, it's all part of what makes Usopp so great.
With pop greens he can really do a number on someone considering how powerful and dangerous they are, when push comes to shove he can actually fight opponents. But with him it's less about traditional fighting. Even his role as a sniper suggests someone who's more tactically prepared and strategic than your normal crewmember. I do agree that it was pretty much out of his control, and that he literally did nothing, but as I've said before none of that is the point. The point is that he ran away, and he came back. The point is he stood up for the Tontatta despite being scared out of his mind. The point is he got her in the end, and now he's 5 star wanted and basically has an army behind him. Everything else isn't as important, and we shouldn't focus on how he dispatched Sugar, but rather the situation around it and what happens because of it.
Well that's what I think, anyway, and I could very well be wrong.
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- No pirate betrayals (Pirates were mostly known for their scum nature)
- Fishman Island's lack of opponents worthy to even put a match on
- After an amazing arc of Ennies Lobby , the end was a ship coming to save them which was kind of dull. It would be much more awesome someone else saving them(for example dragon using the wind to stop the ships pursuing)
- Last but not least, in every arc Oda has a chance to kill a villain or a character but does not do it. Piracy also leads to death. We don't have any death that is not on the past, or just described etc. This amazing story needs to live up to its' name and make most duals fatal. (Wounding someone with a sword that is able to pierce through a giant rock SHOULD be able to finish someone.
(I hope this doesn't go a lot out of topic in regards to the wasted opportunities, but i think it was needed to be said :D)
You can't take the king on your first turn
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The point is that he ran away, and he came back.
Yay, but we were already getting that stuff at Arlong Park 700 chapters ago.
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@marc0.:
- No pirate betrayals (Pirates were mostly known for their scum nature)
- Fishman Island's lack of opponents worthy to even put a match on
- Blackbeard betrayed the Whitebeard Pirates, and Law betrayed Doflamingo.
- The purpose of the FI fights were to show how strong the Straw Hats got over the timeskip. If the New Fishman Pirates presented a legitimate challenge, their training was in vain and they wouldn't stand a chance in the New World.
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Yay, but we were already getting that stuff at Arlong Park 700 chapters ago.
I see where you're coming from, but that tends to happen with One Piece. Taking Luffy for example, Alabasta, Skypeia, Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark, even Dressrosa after Sabo took over have all had Luffy gun for the main villain, have a cat-and-mouse chase with them, then finally catch up or corner them and defeat them. This is merely a storytelling device though. The really important thing is the emotions of the characters at the time. What defeating that villain entails for the Straw Hats, the world, the people who are wronged by the villain, or all of the above.
I see what you mean. You could be right in all your arguments, but i still feel you're focusing too much on the wrong aspects of the story and the characters. I have no doubt Usopp will eventually become the brave man of the sea like his dream is to be. We just got into the NW, give it time. When he does do it, itll be in his own way.
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Of course Oda wanted Usopp to shine so he made Robin 10x stupider than her normal self. But still, that whole stuff could have been handled a lot better. On top of that, Usopp has no merits for that victory, even when it's a gag he always do some stuff that will lead him to the victory. In this fight he did literally nothing, it was pure luck (but yay, that's Usopp, he is funny you love him I get that part).
Well, he tried to fight in the first place. He never had a chance though.
The way he "won", however, allows Trebòl to retain some credibility in terms of competence as he is still an enemy to be beaten and puts Sugar's defeat entirely on her own fault.
So yeah, in the end, I guess Oda wanted Usopp to shine, but not at the expense of one of Doula's top subordinates, so he needed Sugar to defeat herself somehow.
Hell, people complain about the lack of danger when Usopp just faced an enemy that he couldn't beat in anyway but sheer luck.
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@marc0.:
- No pirate betrayals (Pirates were mostly known for their scum nature)
Aside from all of the Shichibukai, especially Crocodile and Blackbeard? Buggy? Mr. 3? Bon Kurei? Usopp leaving the crew?
- Fishman Island's lack of opponents worthy to even put a match on
Did you miss the entire point of the timeskip? First enemies after that HAD to be pushovers or all the training would have been moot.
- After an amazing arc of Ennies Lobby , the end was a ship coming to save them which was kind of dull. It would be much more awesome someone else saving them(for example dragon using the wind to stop the ships pursuing)
The entire argument between Luffy and Usopp was about the abandoning of a useless comrade (the boat) and then that comrad giving their all one last time to help. The boat having a soul was set up way in advance.
The other point of the arc was the strawhats could deal with anything that came their way in order to protect their friends, so being saved by a completely outside source would have entirely undermined their rescue of Robin and curing her fear of the Buster Call.
- Last but not least, in every arc Oda has a chance to kill a villain or a character but does not do it. Piracy also leads to death. We don't have any death that is not on the past, or just described etc. This amazing story needs to live up to its' name and make most duals fatal. (Wounding someone with a sword that is able to pierce through a giant rock SHOULD be able to finish someone.
Go read a seinin series if bloody death is all you want.
OP is a comedy at heart with some serious stuff in it. It's never been about the death, but the shattering… or passing on... of dreams.
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Yay, but we were already getting that stuff at Arlong Park 700 chapters ago.
I see a difference in the situations. Yes both Arlong Park and Dressrosa have same formula= Usopp gets scared -runs off- gets ashamed-turns around to fight, but the overall situation underneath it is different.
Arlong Park= Usopp never had a real one-on-one fight before. Everything with the Kuro Neko pirates were with the Strawhats, even when his sniping took out Jango, Zoro was there. Against Chew, it was his very first one-on-one fight.
Usopp was not sure if he could win but he decided to try and he did win.Dressrosa= Usopp has more experience and some training. As such he knew more about his own strength and weaknesses. And he knew he was far out-classed. Usopp knew he wouldn't win in defeating his opponent. He was determined to try to succeed in the mission -K.O. Sugar- but Usopp knew he would not win a one-on-one fight. But he decided to go ahead in order to try to fulfill the mission
So while the formula was the same, the situation was still different. First one had Usopp finally show courage just to try to fight, 2nd one had Usopp fight even when he knew he would be beaten just to try to achieve a goal. It takes more courage to fight for something when you know you will not win your round, but trying can help out to over-all fight.
So yes, I agree in that it was in AP (700 chs before now) had Usopp take the first step to showing courage, but I disagree in that Dressrosa is a repeat, I think of it as the "next big step"
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Nami in general. She had that fight against Miss Doublefinger (which was excellent), but unlike Usopp, she's barely been developed aside from getting a shiny new climatact (I'm not counting that laughably bad Califa battle for obvious reasons).
Robin too. Her power is the coolest thing, yet Oda barely utilizes it in battle. She could WRECK SHIT like a mofo but noooooo.
Oda's treatment of women in general has been subpar (and has only gotten worse over the years). Tashigi's grown stronger over the two years? Lolno she needs Zoro to save her. Rebecca's a gladiator who hasn't ever lost? Yeah right look at how much she needs to be saved. Violet's a villain with a weird-ass power? Ha… Haha...
Chopper's monster point had the potential to be a key for character development, but that plot point was solved over the time skip. Gotta wonder what else is keeping Chopper from getting his "The 5th" chapter.
There's still hope for Sanji kicking a lady someday, but at this point I'm not counting on it.
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I said it many times already, but I'll keep saying it:
The severe lack of noteworthy bounty hunters. Where the heck are they? Did they all explode at Whisky Peak? We have Jean Ango and…um...Johnny and Yosaku...and um...Zoro I guess.
We've had countless characters hunt after people for their bounties but hardly any label themselves as full-fledged "Bounty/Pirate Hunters".
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Hakuba the Clown
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Hmm.. to contribute to my own thread.
I think that the biggest missed opportunity is… Lack of significante character development for Straw Hats.
And a big HA! to all the people that thought I was going to bring marines up... no, no, no, no. That's for later, because that's a minor, personal preference.
No, the biggest thing, in my opinion, is how little consequences and changes there are for the crew. Stuff happens to them... but they do not evolve because of it.
The biggest one, in my opinion, is how unchanged by Ace's death Luffy is. That one just hurts me. Even if I love the way Ace's death was presented (And magma fist. Cause one can never have enough magma fists in manga), I still think that what came out it was... disappointing.
Lack of suspense in the story also hurts me deeply.
How unchanged Luffy is because of Ace's death? It's been two years, since Ace died. What where you expecting? For Luffy to turn into some little emo pansy, and just mope around crying about how much his life sucks because his brother died two years ago? If you have ever lost someone in your life, then you would pretty much realize the whole concept behind the saying "Life goes on". I've had a couple deaths in my family, and yes although I was sad, and I mourned the loss, it never "changed me" So I really don't understand your whole point about Luffy being "unchanged" by Aces death.
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@GraphicNature:
How unchanged Luffy is because of Ace's death? It's been two years, since Ace died. What where you expecting? For Luffy to turn into some little emo pansy, and just mope around crying about how much his life sucks because his brother died two years ago? If you have ever lost someone in your life, then you would pretty much realize the whole concept behind the saying "Life goes on". I've had a couple deaths in my family, and yes although I was sad, and I mourned the loss, it never "changed me" So I really don't understand your whole point about Luffy being "unchanged" by Aces death.
Wait, you wanna talk realism? Because if you wanna talk realism, then I shall point out that there is a difference between losing someone to natural causes, or even accidents, and them being brutaly murdered in front of your very eyes, and the dying in your arms. That is traumatic experience.
There is no way, from psychological point of view, to walk completly unchanged by it… unless you are a psychopath, and Luffy is not.
