I feel like these critiques of Judge not having the foresight to predict Big Mom would betray him wouldn't be as notable if we learned about the betrayal twist at the same time they did instead of as far back as Pudding's reveal, in which we've had a lot of time to digest that it's going to happen. There's really no concrete reason to expect that Big Mom would betray them unless you have hindsight bias. She has allied with many crews, including the Firetank Pirates and Sun Pirates, and is known to have a racially harmonious kingdom. The only potential clue to a shady betrayal would be the escort soldiers/guards not being permitted into the wedding, but you can easily argue that complying with this stipulation is a necessary sign of respect for making a personal mafioso-style deal. Desiring protection in what is supposed to be a civil negotiation or celebratory gathering, even if it is on a powerful person's home turf, would be considered rude and untrustworthy.
@Kaido:
Given what Daifuku and Oven are doing, I'd say that's expremely unlikely. Yes, a major aspect is the size, since most of the Big Mom Pirates are your usual New World pirates. Luffy, who's a step above that, would be stronger than a lot of them, and people who are closer in strength to him would likely be able to defeat most of her crew members. We're not going to get a crew where all the members are as strong/stronger than Luffy individually. But they are most certainly a threat together, given the ride of hell they put Luffy through with their Devil Fruit powers during his fight against a ton of them. And that's not even mentioning the Sweet Commanders, who can actually give Luffy a tough one on one fight.
It's just like Kaido and the Beasts Pirates; we know that Kaido and his Disasters are the top echelon, way above most New World Pirates. In his employ, though, are average New World pirates. Look at "Iron Boy" Scotch, the first member of the crew we ever saw. He's a competent New World pirate, able to wreak havoc on islands like, say, Randolph, Diesel, and Amande, with his sick machine gun. But Super Rookie Caribou managed to eventually defeat him. Same with the Red Hair Pirates, they got a guy named Rockstar who's far below the standard New World bounty and whom no one has even heard of. And who knows how many Whitebeard lackeys got their asses killed in Marineford.
I completely agree with this. Let us also not forget how Brook clashed with Sheepshead in Zou, and the latter immediately getting one-shotted by Sanji afterwards.
@desa:
I say screw Oda for his way of portraying woman. So now Pudding is suddenly a character to be saved and charmed by Sanji gentleman charm.
The chapter ended in a weird way
I'm just glad that she is at least still hesitant to help the Straw Hats instead of immediately switching to the other side like Vivi, Viola, and Baby-5, even though they all had understandable reasons for defecting to the other side revealed afterwards.
@Koliber:
I know we have 1587.13 characters in this arc, but damn, where are Smoothie and Tamago? Tamago has been one of the most prominent BM pirates, and Smoothie's a commander. They should have gotten at least a panel showing where are they in this whole mess. Unless Oda is preparing something with them (that would make Count Mario pretty mad though :ninja:).
You know me so well. :ninja: lol I wouldn't really mind that since they're villains and this is their home turf. One Piece isn't told from their perspective. But that all depends on what type of twist Oda has in store for them. Although I'm still pretty sure that Smoothie's either going to do nothing or only contribute in being an obstacle for Nami, Chopper, and Carrot with Galette and Amande. Oda making all of the females arbitrarily act as a group unit would be so like him.
@desa:
I guess we are not getting Punk hazard cover story.
Why can't we just have it confirmed already in an SBS or two-page length cover story or something? I'm sick of the unnecessary debates…
@andre:
It's not. Would you prefer him cling to his pride? Yet, essentially experiencing everything he built crumble in less than a minute during what was to be his biggest triumph, ya know, death of his dream and junk. That along with the impending death of his children, who he actually care for.
I think it should actually highlight how he's actually more like Sanji, and that seeming weakness is what led him to create his kids as he did.
I've always been thinking that Judge's mentality stemmed from insecurities of his own weakness, so I'm on board with being a corrupt parallel of Sanji.