This has been an interesting arc, that's for certain. As my first arc being part of a forum to discuss chapters, quite a bit of heated debates and split opinions, ranging from outright hate to one of the best arcs. All my feeling about the various aspects of the arc aside, there is one thing I learned this arc (also got this from some of y rereading of the series so far). Except for some of the CP9 fights and the Paramount War stuff, I'm not really keen on the fights of One Piece.
Now I'm not saying they are bad. The fights play out well, and are necessary. All the build-up in each arc lead to fighting these various antagonists, so not having the fights would be a bad idea (being a Shonen Manga not being part of the equation). In all the arcs, it's nice to see these villains get knocked down a peg. Arlong getting pummeled, Enel getting hit, Doflamingo being overwhelmed has that great feeling. However, once we got to the actual fighting part of this arc, I lost some of my excitement for the arc, and I figured out why.
The best part of this Manga for me has been the world building and the set-up of the arc and overall story. When we first started, we had the scheming going on, learning about these new characters, seeing how many factions were at play, and learning how things got to this point. We learned that Doflamingo was a CD, and about Fujitora's ambition. While Law's own plan didn't go the way he expected, other factions at play allowed Usopp to take out Sugar. After that, while there was a lot of running, we got some more backstory about Law and Doflamingo. Tension was rising and questions arised of who was going to do what with all these people.
The problem for me with the fighting is once it starts, development is over and story basically comes to a halt. Sure, each person taken out means it's closer to the end, but usually there's no development. I think that's why in some ways I like Dressrosa more compared to other arcs. Even if they were minor characters, we got development of some characters, such a Baby 5, Sai, Senor Pink, and Bartolomeo. During the Doflamingo fight we got a little more development of how he became a spoiled adult. This helped with the long period where you usually don't get any kind of development for the most part.
Last chapter and this chapter confirmed this for me. At the end of last chapter, I was more excited than I had been since the fighting began, because I knew the world development aspect was going to start. Then this chapter came out and delivered even more than I could've hoped for. Of course, I can't discount this one fact about the fighting. If we didn't have that gap of the arc development and then world development, this wouldn't be nearly as rewarding. It's all about that patience for waiting for the pay off.
Anybody else learn something from this arc. Whether about yourself and certain aspects you like/dislike overall in the series, or feeling personally about the current future of the series?