I expect the whole Sanji ordeal to end with a gag situation, I mean it's Sanji, it's Oda, this is how they work. . .but all these moments, so far, seem pretty serious, so I want to believe something deeper is gonna happen. Like, to end it all with a gag AGAIN at Sanji's expense. . .expect it, but don't really want it.
I think the cliffhanger is legit in the sense that I'm totally wondering what's the deal with Sanji (and Brook). Turned to something inanimate, Han Solo style, is what I'd like to envision now: petrified or something like that. Something that's only reversed if you defeat the one that used the technique on them. We know Luffy and co will have to do something about the situation, so there's got to be an option left for them to act in order to save their friends.
This chapter was weird in the sense that not much happened, yet at the same time it was pretty cool in how organic it felt. Dressrosa's arc start was too frantic, with very little time to really set things up, layout and island wise. These first 3 chapters have basically been a huge layout setting: things in this country work like these, they have this forest with a huge whale where you can't get to and is protected by some guardians, this town that was half destroyed, this fortress in the middle of the forest, they use the crocodiles as a transportation means cause they can swim when the rain eruption happens, they have a system to drain the water from the town and get food from it. . .it's like a very organic way of telling how things work in Zou AND, at the same time, slowly tell us what happened a week ago that left the country in tatters.
Props to Oda for the whole Jack build up. From that moment someone in the shadows said "won't it be bad news to call Jack?" up till now, we haven't even seen him, and yet he's been involved in a ton of shit, he's both dealt a lot of damage (that scene where he's torturing ¿Pedro? puts all the destruction in a more personal, cruel light) and been defeated while maintaining a credible threat level (sinking 2 out of 4 marine ships and still being left alive after facing Fuji, Sengoku, Tsuru, Bastille, Maynard and who knows how many captains, commodores and more?). Also, it seems like we can more or less see what he's all about, again, without even seeing his character model.
Definitely hyped for what's going on. Again, it's not the kind of frantic, "oh my god oh shit oh look at that" arc start, it's a more subdued, organic and, overall, different way to set up an arc, but so far, for me, it's working.