@blindjustice:
Well said Daz. Just because Momonosuke refers to Momotaro legend, expectation that Tama's DF should work on Smile fruits is a stretch and a convenient plot device. The complete Yonko Saga starting from PH to now has been focussing on production and distribution of Smile, all of which has been rendered moot with a single girl with her dangos which we should have expected because of momotaro reference? If we go by references, then all the previous and current admirals are connected to the Momotaro story. I am sure nobody expects Akainu to come and fight with Luffy against Kaido?
Again it won't be seen as a plot convenience if Kaido or some of the beast pirates' all stars made precautions against this particular DF. Its not like they don't know it exists. We even see them trying to take Tama away at the start of this arc but somehow that's forgotten after bakura town arc. Whats the point of building your army for years when it can all be turned against you in a single battle. I don't feel the high stakes battle where everyone is fighting for their life like its implied. It feels easy. When Zou was almost destroyed by a single Yonko commander, that showed the terror of Yonko. It also showed terrific effects of chemical weapons. But within their base, Queen creates a plague as a game and watches from afar, when the antidote was developed thereby rendering this entire chemical weapons thing useless. Why would he not chase after Chopper and try to kill him and stop him from developing the antibodies? Why Oda does not show those things to develop far more tension when he clearly can is confusing me. Chopper getting infected could have been used as a great effect.
Ever since the Yonko saga started, it feels like the story has made it clear that Luffy will become pirate king by sheer fate and things happening at the right time in right places. Tamate box blowing up at the right moment, Brook countering Big Mom's DF, finding Tama and her abilities and on top of it all is this 20 yr prophecy. Would Luffy have become the pirate king if he had even started a year earlier in his voyage? Like Tsuru says to Doflamingo, its useless to think of what if. Whatever happens in the story is the reality but I can't help but think if you remove Tama and Brook what would have happened to SH pirates.
Eh, SMILE itself was rendered moot in both Punk Hazard and Dressrosa. They took away Kaido's ability to create more, leaving him with a paltry 500, which is not nearly enough for what Kaido actually wanted in regards to taking over the world or whatever he was planning. He wanted thousands of them, not a mere 500. The subplot introduced in those arcs was only ever about provoking Kaido to kill Doffy, which in turn turned into Kaido directing his rage at Luffy and Law.
Not sure how they're supposed to take precautions either, when this entire war that's currently happening is because they were taken by surprise to begin with. But more importantly, no Beast Pirate is even aware that Tama's ability works on SMILE users. They kidnapped her because they thought it'd be useful to control actual animals, like the giant baboon.They didn't see her use it on Speed, and assumed that she was being blackmailed. And as we know regarding Udon, no one knows about what transpired there either. And even disregarding those facts, I thought Speed's lie that it came from Queen was pretty clever given his role as an inventor.
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@blindjustice:
I don't think anyone is saying that they have not seen this coming. This was obvious but the question is on how it is executed and does it feel little too convenient.
Well, I'm not really sure how else one would execute it. Her power is pretty straightforward, and stuff like the prediction of Usopp utilizing it also came to pass.
But like I said, my only real concern would be if it was used on actual top tiers, the Zoan users. If that was how a fight was won, or if we had a scenario where say King is dealing with Queen for us, yea I wouldn't like that at all. But evening the odds by dealing with characters the whole fanbase considered to be fodder anyhow? Yea that's no problem for me personally.