@Riddler:
And sorry, thats just bullshit in my eyes. The war just happened, Luffy lost battle after battle, his crew was separated from him, his brother, whom he tried to save, died because Luffy was defenseless and Luffy cried out that he is too weak to become Pirate King. He has literally just gone through the biggest character developement in the whole show and now you are complaining that he just beats everybody?? The hell?. Whom did he beat? Hody. Thats one…...aaaaaaaaaaaand? That fight was tough enough that he needed a blood transfusion afterwards. He lost to Ceasar Clown, because he was reckless, and he was scolded for that by Zoro. He still has flaws, you even complained that he hasnt learned enough during the time skip and is still so reckless and goofy! Luffy doesn
t need major character developement every arc, he never had that. He had it in what, Water Seven and Enies Lobby....after he lost to Crocodile maybe....when he bowed down in Drum.....and when he didn`t fight Bellamy in that bar for a meaningless reason. Everything else, same old goofy, strong-willed Luffy.
Well yeah, I know that Luffy went through his character development arc. He also pissed on any attempt made by Wadatsumi, proved he would be too powerful for Vander Decken, he defeated and even tamed Surume, Monet wasn't able to hold him down, none of the centaurs were a challenge for him (or anyone else), he also beat up Noah, iirc he one-shotted a Pacafista(wouldn't complain about that one though), Caribou was no big deal, it wasn't til Casesar Clown that he found his match(which I want to see more of soon, their fight a couple of chapters ago was nice to read). He did need a blood transfusion, but that was more of a case of where there needed to be a reason for the memorable blood transfusion scene to take place than Hody was actually a threat.
What exactly was the character development for Luffy in Drum, Jaya, and Water 7? I feel like in Water 7 we could take him more seriously. He was a goofball, but he was a goofball who could take things seriously. Now we see him smiling while going UFO on a bunch of mooks. My point with Luffy is that he went through that hellish arc of not being able to save anyone he cared about, and now he's ditzier than ever and takes damn near nothing seriously.
@Riddler:
This is the only site where I have seen so much blind hate and rage against this character….but its not like I cared enough to look elsewhere xD Sanjis always been hit and miss with me. I loved him and his interaction with Usopp in Water Seven and Enies Lobby, he was awesome in the Sea Train especially, I think he has the potential to be very cool and very funny (he was hilarious during the Davy Back Fight in the Groggy Ring). But, I just get tired of his love sickness. It
s weird, other funny character traits, like Zoro getting lost and Nami being money hungry still manage to amuse me after all this time. Maybe its because Sanjis behaviour in his love mode is so over the top, and as some have said, obnoxious. It can be sometimes funny, when Oda is being a bit more creative than just having be all love eyes, swirling around, like when Nami and the others were kidnapped in Skypiea and he was all "Oh no!......Nami put on a shirt!!" xD He was getting on my nerves abit in Thriller Bark, but in retrospect, I find his fight with Absalom pretty funny. I don
t go "Oh god, hes a pervert creep, I hate him" I think it
s funny acts all chivalrous and is such a pervert inside. I mean, Brook is too, and so is Muten-Roshi, where is all the complaining about them xD
I disliked the nosebleed gag, didnt find it funny at all and Oda spent too much time on it. It
s hard to come back form that, but I don`t think Oda is doing a bad job in Punk Hazard. Sanji in Namis body could have been disastrous, but it was handled well; I saw a lot of fans falling in love with this badass, chain-smoking version of Nami. And him accidentally grabbing her chest and getting a power boost from that is, in my eyes, funny, especially with Zoro commenting what kind of bullshit power up that is.
Also, there was a point in time when Sanji held a gun to Robin head, then saw her face and immediately got heart eyes and swooned over her.
lol yeah I've run into a fair share of Sanji hate on several sites, usually with me having no part of it. Even saw a good series of tumblr posts talking about how it's good to talk about the direction Sanji has gone and not ignore it, but it's still okay to like him despite any problems. Not gonna lie, Sanji was among my favorite characters. I think he was my favorite for a long while when I first got into the series. He's just made to be so over-the-top now, much more than any other character. There was a scene in the Sea Forest where he was lovey dovey and brought Shirahoshi a cup of tea, which was actually reminiscent of Sanji at a good level of lovey dovey. Not turning to stone or nosebleeding or groping things. Wouldn't mind him being like that more often. I didn't even mind him in Thriller Bark at all. I thought the reason for his fighting of Absalom was kinda funny. At the time it seemed like it would be a one-time pervert thing.
Still not a fan of his Punk Hazard behavior. Some people enjoy it, some people despise it. Nami didn't really want him to smoke in her body, and she shoulda stayed firm on that. And I do think he was way too excited about being in her body. Nami thought so too considering she had Zoro go along with Sanji and Brook just to make sure he stays in fighting mode. Was really happy when the two finally switched back and Nami delivered a well-deserved punch to Sanji, even if she herself did it under a wrong assumption. Aside from all these pervy moments and stuff(and that really feels like 80% of his character), he actually isn't that terrible. He's just never given a chance to be normal for long. His interactions with Kinemon have been fine. It's just…. he really needs to be toned down. Now that the body switch has finished and the nosebleed stuff has been ditched, maybe just maybe we'll start seeing him be toned down.
I feel like Sanji pointing a gun to Robin's head was a sign that he was willing to harm a woman for his crew, though it got dropped a few pages later. Oh well, don't really have a comment for it. I do want him to have to hurt a woman in the future though, learn that he has to put his crew above a female enemy, instead of letting them beat him like Kalifa.
@Riddler:
Always been that way and Oda handles it usually pretty well. The Prince siblings suffered from rushed story telling, but since you already thought that arc was slow, I dont know how he could handle their characters better without writing them out completely. And that would have been pointless, it
s not like they distracted much and atleast they had that nice moment in the backstory….so, better a little than nothing, right? And what over-abundance of characters do we have right now in Punk Hazard? The only villains were having right now are Ceasar, Monet and Vergo, the Cool Brothers are already defeated (I didn
t like them that much either, but as I said: Shonen). Supporting characters, we have Law, Smoker, Tashigi, Kinemon, the G-5 marines and the children. That may seem like a lot, but compare it to arcs like Sykpiea, Alabasta, Water 7 etc., its nothing special, and all characters are treated well by the story so far. Showing us DoFlamingos and Big Moms crews is called set-up. Both are being set-up as major villains in the foreseeable future, just like characters like Kidd are being set-up for future roles. If you really think they won
t play a role in the story, then you should think again. Thats like saying that Blackbeard or Buggy will ever play roles in the story after their first appearance.
And who cares if these New World captains will have a role to play? That wasn`t the reason to have them there, it was to show Whitebeards power and influence, to show how many powerful and interesting figures are willing to fight for him. The War was supposed to be clash of a lot of majorly strong figures, thats why it was sof rantic and chaotic and why Luffy felt like an ant in comparison. Would it really have been impressive if Whitebeard showed up alone against the Shichibukai, the three admirals and the whole Marine force? We needed to see that he had an army of his own.
Characters in the Punk Hazard arc: 9 Straw Hats, Kinemon and Momonosuke whenever he shows up, a bunch of kids with Mocha and Sind being the main ones, Yarisugi or whoever who went to the cover story, Caesar, Monet, Vergo, Law, the Yeti Bros who we still don't know whether or not they'll reappear, a bunch of centaurs including Brownbeard, all those fodder characters, Smoker and Tashigi plus their marines, Doflamingo and his crew were seen, and Baby 5 and Buffalo will apparently be joining the scene sooner or later as well. That's a lot of characters to see, and unlike Skypiea and such, there's a lot of storylines to have to remember. You got the Straw Hats helping Law, Kinemon looking for his son, Monet and Vergo working for Dofla with more on the way, the children needing to get home, Casesar doing his thing, Law doing whatever the hell he's up to, Smoker and Tashigi I'm not even sure anymore. In Skypiea it was the Straw Hats wanting to ring the bell for Cricket, Enel and his minions going HAM, Shandians trying to take on Enel, Gun Fall/Conis/Pagaya trying to aid the crew, and everyone else just trying to survive pretty much. There wasn't as much to keep track of there and there was a lot more breathing room. Of course I think these characters are playing a role, but it's getting crowded.
And I know that's why the New World captains were included in the first place. But it's gonna be weird if we go the whole New World and start to wonder wtf happened to them if they don't appear at all. Having a bunch of powerful pirates just kinda vanish would be strange. That's my gripe with it.
@Riddler:
Come on. Oh, so they didnt have a challenge outside of Ceasar (and Vergo might I add. Heck, even Monet is pulling her weight) so far? So, out of the **two** arcs we had so far since the timeskip, you
re really just complaining about one, which you admit had the purpose of showing their new fighting strength? Thats ridiculous. How did they get too strong?? Because they curbstomped some stupid fishman noobs who were on the level of, lets say, Baroque Works, and thought they were all that? What do you expect? There will never be such a big power boost for these characters again. Sure, they will still grow like they did before, but they have to be able to hold their own with very strong foes now. How will they ever defeat people, like, Akainu, if they can
t hold their own against Vice Admirals now? Sorry, but your expectations are both unrealistic and unreasonable.
No non-combat challenges in PH? What about the killer gas they´ve been running away from that much and very nearly reached some of them a couple of times? That doesn´t count?
Also, I don`t care about Haki much, I agree.
Hmm, yeah, not much too say about the rest, pretty much agree on the whole "everybody can be the new nakama" bullshit. I dont agree with your viewpoint that this forum idolizes One Piece and Odas storytelling too much, every week I see people bitching here, bitching there, too much fighting in this chapter, too little fighting in this one, blablabla. If these people are right, I
m ok with being wrong
With Fishman Island, I try to be less critical on this aspect because it was meant to more-or-less show off how strong the crew is now. It was like very easy mode of a video game where your party is already at max levels. But even in Punk Hazard, when they're officially in the New World, it's still easy mode. That one Cool Brother got taken out with ease, and the other got his ass handed to him by Law. Monet hasn't been a real threat to anyone yet, though she's about to confront some of the Straw Hats it seems. None of the centaurs were a threat, nor any fodder from any side. The dragons weren't even close to threats. Smiley wasn't a threat to the important characters. Shinokuni wasn't bad either. They were just a threat to the fodder characters, and I was admittedly touched by the scene where some marines sacrificed themselves for Tashigi. But there was never a point where I felt like the main characters were in any real danger, no real suspense in that regard. Til Caesar. That's where I think this is getting better. He's able to take on the crew members. Even now that Luffy knows his trick, he still hasn't been able to take him down with ease and had a rather equal fight. I like that.