I don't want to be a downer, but this chapter, man…
There are a lot of obvious ways to be doing things better than how they are being done - for example, Zoro just trying to cut bird-cage, succeeding, but it doesn't matter cause it just regenerated instantaneously. Now, of course, Oda likes to do things that are unpredictable, but the problem with Zoro (and everyone) just pushing the birdcage is it isn't unpredictable qua creative; it is unpredictable qua unbelievable/inane/problematic. It is unbelievable that Zoro wouldn't even TRY to cut it after his "I can cut everything" speech. It is inane in that people who could do something about Doffy (even Zoro, though he doesn't get involved in Luffy's fights, does stand up when he is down, but there are countless others too) are choosing to push on the birdcage instead. It is problematic because it leads to power level discussions, which one piece is not supposed to be about.
How cool would it be if the problem wasn't just "Birdcage > Everyone on the island, including Fuji, Zoro, and other strong bros", but instead that the power itself functions in weird ways? How cool would it be if Zoro could cut it, but it regenerates instantly? If it couldn't cut or move barto's barrier, but instead it just wound itself around/over it? How could would it be if it was malleable and fuji's gravity just pulled it down a little? And how cool would it be if, all these things the birdcage does to work around its problem, all that effort expended to get around each characters unique ways of dealing with it, slowed the birdcage down? How could would it be if regenerating strings, moving around barriers, etc. slowed Doffy down?
More importantly: How One Piece would that be? How One Piece would it be for different characters to unite under a common goal, but in their own ways, instead of everybody - including Roronoa "Sliceman" Zoro - just pushing on strings together? How One Piece is the Zoro and everyone else just pushing on strings together? Not very, imo.
And now everything is a goddamn timer. Luffy needs 3 minutes, but Birdcage will take only 2, but Dandelion tears take 2.5 (or what the hell ever). Instead of weird creative limitations and powers, we're just getting time limit after time limit after time limit tempered with out of character inanity.
The last few chapters I have had mixed feelings about, but I think it was mostly just due to arc fatigue. Now, though, problems are really coming together, and I think I can honestly say that this is the first chapter of One Piece I have seriously disliked. I will keep reading, and I hope that it gets better, and I absolutely 100% think Oda can do that, but at the time time, post-time skip just isn't feeling right to me, and this chapter really made that feel worse.
Can i just nominate this post as the worst post of 2015 ? Jesus Christ people sure are desperate for attention in this part of the forum .