Gotta admit the whole "you can't get out of the Colosseum, it's 100% impossible, no one could do it, no way! Unless you're a member of the family, then you can just get in and out as many times as you want easily. C'mon, I'll get you out" was. . .very dumb.
It wouldn't have hurt Oda one bit to show what made it so impossible to get out. A labyrinth? Ok. Show the labyrinth in question being devilishly crafted.
People complaining about the Seducing Forest being too long, I think that's the right way to go. You claim something is very difficult to escape, and then you show why it's actually difficult to escape. Saying "this is undoable!" but never showing WHAT makes it undoable is NOT the way to do things, even more when apparently just going with Bellamy solved the issue.
Yeah, but remember that Elizabello turned out to be close friends to Riku and Tank would have known about that friendship. It could be that Tank was lying about money being his motivation and instead his reason for agreeing to Dagama's strategy was so that he could help an old friend of Riku (Elizabello).
You know, in the end it's just a matter of execution and presentation. Everything can be explained in hindsight, and that's good, but the execution during the moment stuff does happen is important. And during that moment, Oda used Tank's greed and "I don't care, just give me moar money!" attitude to contrast with Bellamy's "I've change, I won't mock you anymore!" newfound attitude. Remember that 2 chapters later, Luffy was cheering for Bellamy against Barto!
@Medical:
I just noticed the Funniest Post award in your signature. Can I have a link to the funny post?
There you go. It's not that funny, but it's my first award in this forum and I'm gonna show it to the world.
@Bartholemew:
After all, Doffy turned out to be a piss-poor strategist. Amongst many other stupid decisions, he made even BASIC mistakes such as the order to get rid of Bellamy. Those who say he didn't underestimate his enemies, how is this one decision justifiable? Every semi-decently intelligent person would have postponed Bellamy's execution until after the whole conflict is settled.
Again playing devil's advocate but it was slightly presented as Dellinger just spilling the beans beforehand about dealing with Bellamy, probably because he's a psycho and was eager to kick him to death. "Doffy said if you fail I have to deal with you. Ooops! Said that too early!".
Still, you're right. It wouldn't have hurt to let that wait a bit. And, in the end, Luffy and Bellamy DID end up fighting, so. . .