@Count:
Your first post was about how Brook didn't want to get recognized by Big Mom, which would only make sense if he were scared of her. That post seemed to be at least half-joking, but I still wanted to cover all my bases. Linlin can charge him on sight if she wants to be an idiot and forget about Luffy and Jimbei.
Checks to when Brook's double worked. Yes, she is an idiot. Sure it can be scared, but Big Mom loves~ Brook. So its more like trying to avoid your ex. Jajaja.
All stealing the Poneglyphs proves is that Brook is extremely capable with stealth roles. Making him a prime candidate for a stealth trick like he pulled in the latest chapter. Which makes me think that we need to see the planning scenes focus on at least hinting Brook's value in stealth even more by other people lol. Nobody has said that they think Brook is great for stealth roles afterward, it's only left to our assumption that they may or may not do that. And I doubt it since it's not like Sanji gets charged with pulling a Mr. Prince as an official thing, he just does wings it when he has the chance.
I may be misunderstanding, but are you saying that Sanji can get away without the recognition but not Brook? What if Brook winged it?
I don't disagree that the rest of the Straw Hats cover Luffy's blind spots. But they always do so in an organic way. Where if they see Luffy in trouble, they help out. But if not, they focus solely on their own thing. If Luffy needs special attention, scenes beforehand make a point that someone will keep an eye on Luffy. Here, nothing is indicated before the plan starts that someone is acting as Luffy's backup to break the picture or be a decoy.
We were told that Jimbe and Pedro were acting as backup. I assume that Pedro would have gone for the picture if Jimbe and Luffy were captured.
If the plan involves a disguise when there hasn't been anything shown to indicate that somebody needs a disguise, then yes, I want some planning for that. Brook breaking the picture was improvisation, but the mask is too random and useful to be an intuitive solo thing in my eyes. Katakuri answering Jimbei was never an issue since he has foresight and/or can tell Jimbei knows his weakness from seeing the water attack, the translation was just weird.
It was not you, but someone else did, just pointing the fact that we all have different parts of the story we wished were more focused on. I see, so the issue was the mask. Would it have been better if Brulee used her power on him instead? I think Oda was just trying to be funny. Like Brook used a mask, instead of just asking Brulee to change his appearance. It's a subtle type of ridiculous. And I honestly, see it in character.
And honestly, I'm getting sick of using the excuse that "Oda will have more time show things in more detail later on". Because realistically speaking, it hardly happens. Unless it's Luffy's fight with an arc antagonist, pieces of plot threads are going to get skipped to fit post-timeskip pacing from beginning to end. I know it won't change soon, but I'm still going to make note of the lost potential if I really like where the story could have gone. And these things he skips out on, at least in this arc, only need one or two chapters (and I think even that is a stretch) at most to get delivered. That is hardly much.
Ah my friend, I wasn't really trying to put it up as an excuse for Oda. I am really hoping that he is given himself enough time to do so. And that he doesn't start hating his own work, or feeling sick about it like Togashi did with Yu Yu Hakusho further down the line. That even though he wants to show us all of this in detail if we had infinite time, that he is making some sacrifices to still show us Big Mom's arc (while he could have just have the marines take her full on, or be an after thought like the Revolutionaries' base raid by the Blackbeard pirates.) making it engaging, and so far he has kept the tension up with all of us wondering how are things going to get resolved, even though Linlin cannot be dealt with in the old fashion way. That way he can fully flesh out the intricacies of dealing with an emperor with Kaido in Wano.
I hope Luffy yells at him and says something like he ruined his big entrance lol.
Yes, it would be really funny.
Oda didn't need to worry about Smoker being a strong opponent since plot circumstances would make them be allies. And Luffy can still be stronger than him, it would just be preferable for him to not be treated as a joke. Smoker got stronger on his own in those two years too, and he's been hyped as Luffy's rival for years. This is the first time where we can actually see Luffy get a fair fight with him, and Smoker gets left to dry. It's embarrassing.
I think considering that he was never going to be seen as an actual opponent ever until the end of the story, Smoker did pretty well. For a scrub that is.
The thing is, if they were going to have any serious fight were the stakes could go to either side not from a reader's perspective, then it would have to be the war. Because the only thing that made Smoker sort of a rival, was the fact that Luffy couldn't touch him for so long. Considering he dealt with Crocodile, if Luffy could touch Smoker, then a pre time skip fight would have been a fierce, but I think by the time Luffy developed the gears he was more than ready to take on Smoker. Luffy only needed to touch him. Once that was resolved, compounded to the training Luffy did, Smoker couldn't be in the picture anymore. The only way would have been if Smoker showed up after in the later half of the New World.
And, I did not deny Smoker getting stronger. But I also added that there is a difference between what Smoker would be doing in his routine as a marine and what Luffy did with Rayleigh. So if we consider that Luffy and Smoker could have fought evenly during the war and then Smoker left the marines to go train, instead of trying to get a position in the New World, then yeah he would be a lot stronger.
From Hunter x Hunter:
! Just think of Netero's training, and how it progressed given that his entire attention was dedicated to his training. While for example, the people at the dojo might still have a social life, the master was teaching, so he could not spend 18 hours a day training. Although everyone is getting stronger at their own pace. The focus done by Netero and Luffy would yield a lot more results don't you think?