Official Dressrosa Thread

[Kaptayn]

If we consider that Dressrosa started on chapter 700 and finished at about chapter ~800 (or 801), it means that it lasted 100 chapters, which is an eight of the total story. That's a lot. This makes me think that One Piece really isn't 70% through at all, since bigger arcs are to be expected in the future. Truth is, nobody knows what Oda has in mind. The last chapter with Sanji's mysterious bounty proves that. I'm not entering in an other debate about the 70% thing, but to me, it seems unlikely.

Dressrosa was good. If I were to rank it, I would give it a 7/10. I would put it below Skypiea and Enies Lobby, but above Fishman Island, Punk Hazard, and even Marine Ford (I didn't really enjoy that arc, except for Impel Down that was great, but that's it).

Back when Dressrosa started, I wasn't yet reading the scans, but the volumes. It's way better that way ; you don't really get the impression that Dressrosa is just stretching out.
I don't really get why people hate the Tonttatas that much. I found them cute, brave, and they do seem to be related to the Void Century somehow. And here's a rule : Anything that's related to the Void Century is good.
Maybe their appearance "broke" the arc's continuity, but I have the feeling that Oda wanted to introduce them now, and there's a reason behind that.

If there was really someone to hate in Dressrosa, it would be Rebecca. I really hated her, throughout the entire arc. Even with the sad flashback, I just can't like her. Kyros was fine, Violet was fine… but her ? She had absolutely no development at all. I expected her to do something cool against Diamante, at least hurt him or something, show him that she has changed. Even if she had lost, if at least she would have fought against him, I would have respected her. What was the point of her being in the Coliseum anyways ? Probably fanservice. Hate to say that, but it's true guys. 'Gotta face it.
Well, at least she was quite nice in the last few chapters, when she reunites with her dad, though the thing that gave me the feels was more Kyros than her.

Speaking of the Coliseum, I was expecting something cooler. What I would have liked (my personal opinion, you don't have to agree) would have been something like :

• 4 blocs with tons of fighters, the last 4 of each bloc stay in the tournament.
• Then, we have 1v.1 fights, which would mean that 8 people would stay.
• Another 1v.1, call it semi-finals.
• 4 people would stay, so we could have something similar to the final w/ Sabo, Diamante, Burgess, Rebecca, Bartolomeo (Diamante would be added).
  But once again, that's how I see it. Since it's Oda's manga, his choices will always be the best, that's how it is.

Sabo's introduction was fine. He didn't really have to appear now. What really disappointed me is that he turned into a 2.0-Ace, and I don't like that. Same fruit, same appearance, same relation towards Luffy…
His flashback was good. The amnesia thing wasn't the best thing Oda could come up with, but it's still coherent towards the story, so it's fine.

I'm gonna stay on the revolutionaries ; I loved Koala, liked Hack. The crows are weird, I hope we'll get more explanations on that. Luffy got a Vive Card ; do we have to expect a rescue arc around Luffy ?
So the revolutionaries are opposed to the Cipher Pol. It seems that a war is preparing between these two ; just like the Pirates are the Marine's natural enemies, the Revo. are the CP's natural enemies too ; both of them are preparing for a war, or at least a battle. After all these years of being hidden in the shadows, the revolutionaries may step up. I mean, they did steal a massive stock of weapons (weapons that the CP0 seems to be wanting too, take a look at this page :)
http://i.imgur.com/ysLqp6s.png

I think that the CP0's member have an equivalent strength to the revolutionaries "big guys".
Lucci may take on Sabo. That's to be discussed, though.
I think that there are 5 other members. Kaku, maybe, though I don't know who he would fight against. Maybe the guy that's next to Dragon in the "revolutionary" panel :
http://imgur.com/I6Oa0cP

There would be a "boss", stronger than even Lucci. He would be as strong as Dragon. His identity is yet to be revealed.
Now this is just a theory, nobody knows if they're even going to fight each other. We don't even know how many members there are. Just hoping there won't be Khalifa, Fukuru, Blueno and the other idiots.

Not going to talk about the Marines that much, all I have to say is that Issho is a great and honorable character. Tsuru and Sengoku were cute too.
I don't really know what Issho's going to do now… I mean, he's not going to go after Luffy and Law now, is he ? He may just capture pirates and leave his men bring them to a Marine base / prison.

The Doflamingo Family was okay. If I had to compare, I would say that I liked Baroque Works better.
Really loved Señor Pink, Rosinante, Baby 5. That's it... Though I have to admit that Gladius was good, same for Vergo and Monet, and of course Doflamingo. I didn't like these guys, though.
The fights against them were absolutely amazing.
Franky v. SP was heart-warming. Dropped a tear for SP's past.
Bartolomeo v. Gladius was so cool, I still have the chills when I think about the Bari Bari no Pistol.
Diamante v. Kyros was bad though. Too short, not cool.
Even though they weren't the major characters of this arc, let's not forget the Straw Hats that stayed on Dressrosa.

Zoro :
Was cool, as always. His little interactions with Issho really reflect his power ; being able to hold back an admiral (even for a ~short amount of time) is a great feat. The Shishi Sonson attack was magnificent. I liked the way that Oda actually started cutting the panels too, as Zoro was attacking Pica. Zoro seems to have a considerate armament haki, as shown against Pica. His bounty is perfect ; it's what, honestly, he deserves. Too bad Franky's and Sanji's bounties didn't follow, though I do think that they will have a huge increase in the futur.

Robin :
Or the girl that speaks twice in 100 chapters. She really wasn't put forward here. Her speech about Luffy (don't touch my captain !) was badass, but that's 'bout it. I really hope she'll appear more, and maybe (maybe !) have a fight.

Usopp :
THE star of Dressrosa. Do I even have to talk about him ? Thanks to this guy, Luffy now has a considerate fleet. Thanks to this guy, Luffy and Law didn't get transformed by Sugar. I do have to say that this Usopp~Sugar gag was quite annoying. "God Usopp" was funny, but not Usopp~Sugar. No, no, no. His bounty got really, really high, but why didn't it get up to 500M ? I mean, his bounty obviously is a gag, so why isn't he even higher ? It would have been funnier, in my opinion. By the way, one of his famous lies has nearly become true (the 8k men myth). We should expect his other lies turn into realities too…

I loved the allies, like nearly all of them (let's not count Jeet and Abdullah). The page were they all drink together in chapter 800 was one of the bests in the entire arc. Special mentions to Bartolomeo, Hajrudin, Don Saï.
I'm not going to talk more about all these guys, because it would take too long. Hopping on to Luffy v. Doflamingo.

The beginning of the fight was messy. I'm going to consider that the fight starts when Law gets wrecked. You know what, it's the perfect time to talk about his perfect flashback.
Law's flashback was one of the best thing that happened in Dressrosa, in my opinion. Rosinante was so freaking cool ! 'Gotta love him. Young Law's evolution was fabulous, though tragic. He learned to love life, and that, my friends, was something that brought up feels. Somebody has to explain me why he's always so damn moody though. We want to see a smile on your face, Law ! And not a psychopath-smile. I think that I posted my detailed opinion on the flashback, I'll try to find it later.

Okay, so back to the fight.
G4 was well introduced ; the cliffhanger really made the forums nervous. The design is all right, and it's super-strong so what more can we say ? Luffy does have to learn how to deal with the counter-hit though, otherwise he'll get his ass kicked badly by Kaido, and anyone as strong or stronger than Doflamingo, really.
The awakening, though, was poorly introduced. What was the point ? Did Doflamingo have to have it ? I have the impression that it was rushed too much, and the awakening is like the third power. Let me explain.
Devil Fruit = first power
Haki = second power
Awakening = third power.
It has to be developed and better explained in the future. By the way, this may lead us to a second timeskip, who knows ? Also, did Chopper awaken his fruit thanks to the Rumble Balls ? Is Kaido going to be interested by these Rumble Balls ?

The fight is over, everything is great, we get an "around the world" chapter (which was great, by the way), everybody is happy, classic.
Issho fights with Sakazuki. That was intense as f*ck.
Capone seems to be with Big Mom, etc., etc.
Already talked about that previously, so I'm not posting all that again.

Chapter 795 was amazing, though the Swirly Hat's re-introduction could have been cooler.

Chapter 800 :

! This chapter was so good, I'm literally shaking right now.
! Where do I even start ? With freaking Lucci ? Damn that was so unexpected !! I nearly had a heart-attack when I saw the bottom of his face. Should we expect the two other members to be Kaku and Jyabura ? Or someone completely different maybe ?
! Then, we have beautiful Violet, Dressrosa, the statues, peace and everything. I really enjoyed the frame describing New-Dressrosa, really beautiful.
At least we have the confirmation that Reverie isn't now, so that's good, I was really scared about it being skipped. Hope it's not the case for Tea Party.
! Doflamingo's speech was so damn good. Once again, I nearly wet my pants there (well, actually, no, but you know what I mean). We have a tiny little picture 'bout Big Mom, though I hope she won't look like that, she's fucking horrible.
Damn, this page :
http://imgur.com/oURRRck
Is priceless.
! We then see Captain Jack. Now I don't know if his face got messed up by Kaido or something, because it seems that he is bleeding. I think that Kaido sent him to bring Doflamingo back, and beat him up too. Though it could be shadows, and then I'm just pushing it too far.
A great battle is incoming, guys. I hope Issho-san will stomp these idiots.
! A tiny~little part "bout Bellamy, guess he's not joining the crew, or maybe not now. Bellamy's Mini-Adventure, maybe ?
! AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST.
The bounties. Oh. My. God.
(nobody cares 'bout Traffy-kun, screw him).
! Zoro went up to 320M. Didn't see that coming, AT ALL. That's great for him, I guess.
Robin and Franky have big-ass bounties too, but the most shocking one (well, actually, saw that comin') was Usopp's one. Sanji's gonna be soooo mad at him.
I guess It'll be like, his new gag. Getting high bounties for nothing.
! And finally… Sanji.
Honestly, I screamed of joy when I saw that. Joy and excitement, yeah that's quite it. I've never been that hyped since... Oh well, chapter 795 actually. But apart from that and G4, I haven't been so hyped since at least 100 chapters. One Piece, people. One Piece is life.
! "Only Alive"... "Only Alive..." Since this morning (at school), I've been thinking about this, and sharing it with my fellow One-Piece-Fan friends. This is making Sanji suddenly so relevant. Goodbye trolls ! :happy:
! Now nobody knows what he is, clearly, but I would see him being related to the World Governement somehow, he may be the son of an important guy or something. I hope someone intelligent, like Robin, will ask him about this. Or maybe Zoro. Yeah, that would be great. Really.
! If I had to give this chapter a mark, I would give it 11/10. I loved it. I adored it.
Oda really did an amazing ending for Dressrosa's arc.

I'm not going to develop my theory about Sanji's "only alive" thing, Reviewers have done it already so repeating would be useless. If you're interested, here are some links :
_Sawyer7Mage'_s review :

_Alpha2Late17'_s theory :

_RogersBase'_s theory :

_KingRecon'_s theory :

(I believe it is the oldest one)

In conclusion, Dressrosa's ending was great. The rest was okay. I think that only Oda can write a series of chapters that hype you so much.
801 (best)
795
793
800
(only counting the last 10)

[Martine]

@Kaptayn:

I'm not going to develop my theory about Sanji's "only alive" thing, Reviewers have done it already so repeating would be useless. If you're interested, here are some links :
_Sawyer7Mage'_s review :

_Alpha2Late17'_s theory :

_RogersBase'_s theory :

_KingRecon'_s theory :

(I believe it is the oldest one)

In conclusion, Dressrosa's ending was great. The rest was okay. I think that only Oda can write a series of chapters that hype you so much.
801 (best)
795
793
800
(only counting the last 10)

I can't wait until the Sanji part turns out to be a gag. Still, must be fun to make money out of stupid theories and have thousands of sheeps believing everything you say.

[Sick_Fool]

@Martine:

I can't wait until the Sanji part turns out to be a gag. Still, must be fun to make money out of stupid theories and have thousands of sheeps believing everything you say.

Wow, that's harsh. You seem to be jealous of them making money out of those stupid theories.

[GetsugaZoro]

@Martine:

I can't wait until the Sanji part turns out to be a gag. Still, must be fun to make money out of stupid theories and have thousands of sheeps believing everything you say.

So you want it to be gag just because you apparently don't like people having theories? thats what I get from your latests posts.

I don'«t watch those people channels, I've watched that Sawyer guy and Rogerbase once or twice but they read mangapanda versions of the chapters and do make dumb comments all the time so thats why I dropped it but I don't see whats dumb about speculating what the being alive means and I think that someone who rules over the marines like someone from WG or the Celestials dragons makes a lot of sense.

Wanting something to be a gag instead of it being character development for Sanji just because you don't want a bunch of youtubers(and forum users here) to be right is pretty damn pathetic.

[Kishido]

I won't say anything about Dressrosa… Glad it is over... But just one last rant...

What the fuck was the point of Burgess there besides being a hype device for Sabo.

Yeah I got he should show us that BBs are after DFs... But still... It hurted him more after all.

Same goes for Bellamy. What was the point of his whining if the end of him just leaving off-panel without saying anything about his future plans?

[uniaka ikuzakas]

@Kishido:

I won't say anything about Dressrosa… Glad it is over... But just one last rant...

What the fuck was the point of Burgess there besides being a hype device for Sabo.

Yeah I got he should show us that BBs are after DFs... But still... It hurted him more after all.

Same goes for Bellamy. What was the point of his whining if the end of him just leaving off-panel without saying anything about his future plans?

I imagine we will get to see something about Burgess, maybe not now, maybe a bit later when he goes back to Blackbeard. He was left too much in the air like that. Marines didn't capture him for sure, they would at least hint that they have a yonkou top commander with them.

[herpdat]

@Kaptayn:

If there was really someone to hate in Dressrosa, it would be Rebecca. I really hated her, throughout the entire arc. Even with the sad flashback, I just can't like her. Kyros was fine, Violet was fine… but her ? She had absolutely no development at all. I expected her to do something cool against Diamante, at least hurt him or something, show him that she has changed. Even if she had lost, if at least she would have fought against him, I would have respected her. What was the point of her being in the Coliseum anyways ? Probably fanservice. Hate to say that, but it's true guys. 'Gotta face it.
Well, at least she was quite nice in the last few chapters, when she reunites with her dad, though the thing that gave me the feels was more Kyros than her.

Unfortunately, Oda placed Rebecca muddy moral character territory. From the way she was presented, the reader is meant to take her morals (non-violence and pacifism) as truth. This means that Rebecca can't develop, because she already has the highest moral maturity of any character in the arc. A key aspect of her characterization is her innocence; she has unsoiled/clean hands. Each of her scenes tried to preserve her purity in some form. Her ideals are meant to be the best, but impossible to uphold in the world of One Piece; and so it's up to characters capable of getting dirty to defend the purity and moral good that Rebecca represents.

Of course, like many others, I am not a fan of this kind of storytelling. No character should have this kind of impervious/pristine standing that means they don't need to change. I prefer human characters that are, you know, human: capable of error, prone to insecurity and change. I would have loved for Rebecca to fight Diamante alongside Kyros. It would have been a touching reconciliation ~ Rebecca using what her father taught her and Kyros accepting his influence on his daughter. But instead we got what I described above: the protection of purity. Meh. :ninja:

Of course, I'm still a huge fan of Kyros' story.

[maxterdexter]

I feel like if Rebecca was portrayed (or at least given a more) younger, as in 12-13 (with the apropiate clothings) most of the themes of her arc would work a lot better. Also actualy giving her a dream other than "kill doflamingo, live with my father", things that she needed to be a strong fighter to acomplish. Add a "i want to be a chef, a doctor, a carpenter" or something here and there, if not she ended being just a daughter.

She shouldn't fight because she's just a kid yet. How is she? 15-17? The age where Luffy defeated a Shichibukai and Chopper defeated multitude of assassins?

[Kaptayn]

@herpdat:

Unfortunately, Oda placed Rebecca muddy moral character territory. From the way she was presented, the reader is meant to take her morals (non-violence and pacifism) as truth. This means that Rebecca can't develop, because she already has the highest moral maturity of any character in the arc. A key aspect of her characterization is her innocence; she has unsoiled/clean hands. Each of her scenes tried to preserve her purity in some form. Her ideals are meant to be the best, but impossible to uphold in the world of One Piece; and so it's up to characters capable of getting dirty to defend the purity and moral good that Rebecca represents.

If that was the case she wouldn't be fighting in the Coliseum in the first place. Remember that her goal was to kill Doflamingo thanks to the Mera Mera. No purity or whatsoever here, don't over-analyze stuff like this.
Though you could be right… That would be the message behind the character, but it was poorly written, I guess.

Rebecca was just a character that brutally changes personality.
"Here Straw Hat, eat this food."
"Urr Durr, die Straw Hat !"
"Oh no I can't kill you Straw Hat"
"I'm gonna kill Doflamingo !"
"Oh no save me Kyros, Diamante is attacking meee~ !"
I may be exaggerating a bit, but that's pretty much it.

-- EDIT --
Rebecca representing purety while being dressed that way is kinda ironic though.

[Johnny B. Decent]

@Kaptayn:

If that was the case she wouldn't be fighting in the Coliseum in the first place. Remember that her goal was to kill Doflamingo thanks to the Mera Mera. No purity or whatsoever here, don't over-analyze stuff like this.
Though you could be right… That would be the message behind the character, but it was poorly written, I guess.

Rebecca was just a character that brutally changes personality.
"Here Straw Hat, eat this food."
"Urr Durr, die Straw Hat !"
"Oh no I can't kill you Straw Hat"
"I'm gonna kill Doflamingo !"
"Oh no save me Kyros, Diamante is attacking meee~ !"
I may be exaggerating a bit, but that's pretty much it.

Wasn't she captured then condemned to fight in the Coliseum?

[CrazyMerlyn]

@Kaptayn:

If that was the case she wouldn't be fighting in the Coliseum in the first place. Remember that her goal was to kill Doflamingo thanks to the Mera Mera. No purity or whatsoever here, don't over-analyze stuff like this.
Though you could be right… That would be the message behind the character, but it was poorly written, I guess.

Rebecca was just a character that brutally changes personality.
"Here Straw Hat, eat this food."
"Urr Durr, die Straw Hat !"
"Oh no I can't kill you Straw Hat"
"I'm gonna kill Doflamingo !"
"Oh no save me Kyros, Diamante is attacking meee~ !"
I may be exaggerating a bit, but that's pretty much it.

Rebecca was fighting in the Colosseum in order to win the freedom of the gladiators.
And she was against hurting others. Which she didn't do in the Colosseum anyways, at least not directly.

Of course, even if you are against violence or hurting others, it's hard to get over the feeling of wanting revenge.
Rebecca wanted to kill Doflamingo, and Diamante too after learning he was major culprit despite not liking hurting others.
What I like is how Kyros was exactly the same. He wanted revenge for his friend's death and killed a couple of people.
But that didn't bring him any happiness. Instead, he started hating himself to have become a killer.
Which is why Kyros wants to prevent Rebecca from falling into the same situation.

As for changing personalities:
She was bringing the food to Luffy to trick him. She stopped trying to kill him because of Luffy's personality and the sheer difference in their strength.

And I don't remember Rebecca asking for help that much. It was others who forced the help on her.
Rebecca for the most part wanted to fight against Diamante as well as Doflamingo.

[Vectorkov]

@Kaptayn:

Robin :
Or the girl that speaks twice in 100 chapters. She really wasn't put forward here. Her speech about Luffy (don't touch my captain !) was badass, but that's 'bout it. I really hope she'll appear more, and maybe (maybe !) have a fight.

I hope Oda does somehing with her ability to neutralize fast moving opponents. In this arc he made sure to make a point of how quick Hakuba and the tontattas were and she managed to stop both.

[Wintermute]

@Vectorkov:

I hope Oda does somehing with her ability to neutralize fast moving opponents. In this arc he made sure to make a point of how quick Hakuba and the tontattas were and she managed to stop both.

I wonder how she did it? Maybe she is used to be always full aware of her environment, because of her past. Or she could spread only her fingertips on the ground around her to detect movement she can't see? Like a secret detecting attack with no announcement.

[Kaptayn]

@Wintermute:

. Or she could spread only her fingertips on the ground around her to detect movement she can't see? Like a secret detecting attack with no announcement.

That, my friend, is a brilliant idea.

[Vectorkov]

@Wintermute:

I wonder how she did it? Maybe she is used to be always full aware of her environment, because of her past. Or she could spread only her fingertips on the ground around her to detect movement she can't see? Like a secret detecting attack with no announcement.

Neat idea, maybe that combined with observation haki… and eyes in the back of her head.

[Kdom]

@Vectorkov:

I hope Oda does somehing with her ability to neutralize fast moving opponents. In this arc he made sure to make a point of how quick Hakuba and the tontattas were and she managed to stop both.

people overestimate her fight with Hakuba. It is just that since she doesn’t attack people, she didn’t jump on Cavendish when he fall asleep and was far away from him. Hence the Hakuba attack was far weaker on her. She won by default not because she was stronger or faster.

[maxterdexter]

@Kdom:

people overestimate her fight with Hakuba. It is just that since she doesn’t attack people, she didn’t jump on Cavendish when he fall asleep and was far away from him. Hence the Hakuba attack was far weaker on her. She won by default not because she was stronger or faster.

http://read.powermanga.org/read/one_piece/en/0/773/page/6

Nope. He went after her with full power, and in less than a panel was in front of her.

[Wintermute]

@Kaptayn:

That, my friend, is a brilliant idea.

@Vectorkov:

Neat idea, maybe that combined with observation haki… and eyes in the back of her head.

Hehe, thanks, if this is new, someone has to inform joesephes about that. Maybe he can use this in one of his techniques.

[MasterKingJC]

Hmmm, surprised I only got 89. It shows how forgettable most of the Tontatta and Coliseum contenders are.

No fair using characters that appeared in small flashbacks and characters that weren't physically on Dressrosa.

[Kdom]

@maxterdexter:

http://read.powermanga.org/read/one_piece/en/0/773/page/6

Nope. He went after her with full power, and in less than a panel was in front of her.

Oh sorry i misread the name for some reason

[Vectorkov]

@maxterdexter:

Nope. He went after her with full power, and in less than a panel was in front of her.

Yep, and while she defended herself she was high off the ground and balanced on limbs spouted off the cliff face. I think it was quite impressive.

[desa]

Well I was more impress with Hakuba being able to run on wall or managing to save Robin from the explosion despite being mid-air. But I guess when Robin spend her time defending rather than get her own fight, you pick what you can.

[kouch_lee]

Yeah, with Robin you gotta pick what you can, and what she did on Dressrosa is far more impressive than anything on Punk Hazard. On Fishman Island she got a. . . .¿1 vs 1? It wasn't "named" like the rest were, but her fight with Hammond (had to look for the name for a second there) was almost as long (and as forgetable) as the rest of the final fights on Fishman Island.

But her stoping Hakuba, deflecting Diamante's sword strike with ¿flying butterfly hands? and creating an improvised umbrella with sun flowers is way more badass than defeating that scrub Hammond or the big nothing that was her entire Punk Hazard run.

At this point though it's kind of ridiculous she was the only strawhat on the island not to get a fight.

[RomanceDawn]

@kouch_lee:

Yeah, with Robin you gotta pick what you can, and what she did on Dressrosa is far more impressive than anything on Punk Hazard. On Fishman Island she got a. . . .¿1 vs 1? It wasn't "named" like the rest were, but her fight with Hammond (had to look for the name for a second there) was almost as long (and as forgetable) as the rest of the final fights on Fishman Island.

But her stoping Hakuba, deflecting Diamante's sword strike with ¿flying butterfly hands? and creating an improvised umbrella with sun flowers is way more badass than defeating that scrub Hammond or the big nothing that was her entire Punk Hazard run.

At this point though it's kind of ridiculous she was the only strawhat on the island not to get a fight.

Yeah just when you think, well with half the team gone and so many enemies, Robin is guaranteed a full 1on1! Oda must know what fans think about the subject right? I understand with Robin's abilities that writing a fight must be difficult but I can't imagine it's that hard.

It seemed like Trebol's inability to keep her stuck in one place along with him giving the impression that he was a logia would have been a great way to have their abilities interact for a full fight.

[Johnny B. Decent]

It did stink Robin had to share Diamante with Kyros, but he did have a better reason to fight him then she did. Buffalo could have been given to her but he'd already been beaten by Franky, then Nami & Usopp, so also a bit of a wash. Oh well.

[Luca]

71**/136**
before time run out, them dwarfs, and when did we see kuma?

[Galaxy 9000]

@LordEnel:

71**/136**

before time run out, them dwarfs, and when did we see kuma?

He was in Chapter 794, during Sabo's flashback.

And technically appeared on panel in Chapter 700 during Brannew's Warlord monologue.

[Luca]

Was Just reading some of the past chapter discussion, will lay this out here.

@DollarScholar:

Dissapointing Chapter, this whole Tournament business feels like filler to me. Oda is teasing us by leaving law in such a cool cliffhanger situation and then draw nothing but pointless filler characters romping around in an arena for several chapters.

I mean lets be serious here, almost the entire last chapter was devoted to introducing the cell block C characters, only to have all of them get knocked out in the next chapter. That is what i call zero story progression. I Giggled at the Jacket Jacket fruit though, pretty creative. Im starting to suspect that Oda has several ghost writers working on coming up with new paramecia fruit powers because there is just no way one man can have so much imagination:wub:

[Eat n' Sleep]

I know Barto, Cavendish and the other captains were alone in Dressrosa for plot reasons… but that's still kind of weird. I keep imagining a scene like "hey guys, I'm going into yonder island to participate in a fighting tournament. You guys just wait in the ship no matter what. If the country gets hit by several meteors and generally destroyed by a number of reasons, just stay put. Even if I'm not back in, like, three days, don't leave the ship. That's an order."

[RobZilla]

@Eat:

I know Barto, Cavendish and the other captains were alone in Dressrosa for plot reasons

Gambia was with Barto though.

@Eat:

… but that's still kind of weird. I keep imagining a scene like "hey guys, I'm going into yonder island to participate in a fighting tournament. You guys just wait in the ship no matter what.

They were participating in a tournament, probably planning to be gone for like 5 or 6 hours, tops.

Everything went to shit pretty fast.

@Eat:

If the country gets hit by several meteors and generally destroyed by a number of reasons, just stay put.

I'll admit, I'd be pretty worried if I saw meteors falling in the country that my captain was in.

@Eat:

Even if I'm not back in, like, three days, don't leave the ship. That's an order."

At the least the black hole of general post Dressrosa 3 day recovery has kept this all quite vague.

Who knows who turned up when?

[maxterdexter]

Seriously, birdcage. Also, if they forgot their captains for like an hour, they just might have decided to sail away, as no one remembered why they were on that island.

[King Cannon]

@Eat:

I know Barto, Cavendish and the other captains were alone in Dressrosa for plot reasons… but that's still kind of weird. I keep imagining a scene like "hey guys, I'm going into yonder island to participate in a fighting tournament. You guys just wait in the ship no matter what. If the country gets hit by several meteors and generally destroyed by a number of reasons, just stay put. Even if I'm not back in, like, three days, don't leave the ship. That's an order."

I know Cavendish and Bartolomeo had a few crewmates with them. Bartolomeo had Gambia, and Cavendish had Farul and a butler, so it's very well possible they were in the country.

Not that it would've made any difference anyway. They wouldn't be able to do anything about the Birdcage.

Plus, there was also the memory erasing, so they could have very well set sail and by the time they came back, the whole situation was already over.

[zeff redleg]

Finally dressrosa is over, now this thread will be unpinned from the top.

[RobZilla]

Indeed, this thread has now lost it's sticky privileges.

[desa]

So let's see:

• The arc had too many characters. Revolutionaries, admirals & VA, future allies, Sabo and even a cameo of Big mom's men
  -I would say it dragged too much. With Law getting shot and making it to the place, it seems like the perfect place for the climax.
  -Didn't really find Doffly to be a good villain. Once he fight it is pretty fine, but otherwise he doesn't hold a candle to croc, in my opinion.
  -Fights weren't all that great.
  -Considering I like Caven the most, I was pretty bummed he didn't participate in the last part.
  -I think the arc doesn't make a good case to have the 7 become his underlings rather than allies.

In the end, I would say the arc is quite enjoyable until the point Law get shot in front of the coliseum. After that it just last too much rather than taking the chance of going into the climax. There is also too many character for one single arc, so much that we get both toys and a new race. Rebecca was a mess as a chracter and thanks to my personal expectation the ending was bitter sweet. It's not a shitty arc but it was not amazing either.

[.access timeco.]

So, I decided to finally reread the arc and, as it always happens when you read it in a go instead of on a weekly basis, the arc got much better!

It was already one of my favorites, but, before, I thought it was amazing up to the point the Birdcage appeared and a complete mess after that. Reading it again, I think it is an amazing arc from the start to its end.

We got tons of amazing characters introduced that are bound to expand the world sooner or later, and after revisiting the arc I can say that I like almost every new character presented. Even the ones I didn't like at first I like now: Sabo, Senor, Kyros, Leo, Viola, Rosinante… and while I can't say I like Rebecca, at least I don't hate her anymore. Sure, I still think it is a wasted opportunity to make a good female character (and to avoid the crying princess trope OP loves so much), but at least I can tell she is a consistent character - she never wanted to fight, so it was our fault to think there would be a moment of liberation where she would stand up with her sword in hand and fight for herself (Rebecca's way was never of a fighter. She only learned to fight because she was forced to and only kept fighting out of despair). If anything, she refusing to raise her sword to take revenge despite Diamante's constant efforts to make her lose her mind was the way she kept true to her and Scarlet's way.

Law, on the other hand, just sunk deeper. The more I read his flashback, the more I think he is a whining brat. He really sounds ridiculous when you see Sabo face-to-face with Burgess saying he will not try to avenge Ace because he lived and died by his path (he was a pirate, his death was a consequence of that, there is no blaming anyone for that).
Then comes Law and his whole life devoted to take revenge on a marine officer who was killed because he was doing his job - he was sneaking on a pirate group and was found out while doing so. Law acts as if Rosinante was an innocent bystander caught in the mess, but he died simply as a consequence of his own choices, he was doing something dangerous and it blew in his face. I would understand if Law wanted to take Doflamingo down because he saw him as a monster just like Rosinante did and thought he had to be killed, but no. Not a single time he seemed even remotely mad with all of Doffy's shady actions and all his cruelty, he only wanted to take him down because he killed Rosinante (he even goes as far as to say to Doflamingo he wouldn't be against him if that had never happened). Damn, Law misses the mark so hard when it comes to understanding his idol that even 10 years later he still calls him Corazón and pays homage to him by writing this name on his clothes and having a "Heart Pirates" crew, failing to even notice Corazón is not the guy's name, but his seat as one of Doflamingo's subordinates - Rosinante himself probably despised this name.

Still, there are some flaws in this arc. The fights against the top officers (Diamante and Pica) were underwhelming to say the least, the whole "Sabo is amnesiac" still seem like a stupid cop out to me, but what really bothers me is that I seriously can't understand how Rebecca fits in all that.
I mean, at first Riku pretended Scarlet had died so she could live in secrecy with Kyros. Rebecca was born, but her existence was unknown to anyone. Doflamingo comes, he decides to kill everyone with royal blood and Rebecca manages to survive simply because no one knows about her and the fact she is Riku's granddaughter and Kyros/Thunder Soldier makes everything he can to make it stay this way for years to come. So, 10 years later, we meet Rebecca as a gladiator who is hated by the whole country because she is Riku's granddaughter. Ok... HOW? How did everyone managed to find out her heritage? How did she became a gladiator? Why the Donquixote Family completely ignored her existence even after it became publicly known and never killed her or, even better (since it wouldn't anger Viola), turned her into a toy? I feel like I missed a chapter where it was explained, because nothing adds up there. Sure, later we find out everyone always knew about Scarlet and Kyros marriage, but that still doesn't explain why Doffy allowed her to just live her life and how the hell she became a gladiator.

Oh well, going back to the good parts, I really like how, ever since we had the Den Den Mushi conference with all the SH, the arc got this sense of urgency that wasn't dropped until its end, it was like everything was happening incredibly fast and not a second could be wasted. But the best part, sure, gotta be Doflamingo, best villain hands down and I just fall more in love every time I read a chapter where he is in (funny, 'cause I used to find him a really annoying character before the timeskip and that Oda was trying too hard to make him OP's Joker - ha!).

As I said, at first I was already a fan of this arc, but I used to think it lost its charm on the second half. That, along with FI and PH arcs being sub par (to say the least), made me feel pessimistic about OP future and that Oda had lost his touch after the times-kip. Even though I am loving everything about Zou, I couldn't help but feel that soon Oda would drop the ball. But now I am optimistic again. Dressrosa is one of the best arcs, OP is back on track.

[ARTEMlS]

@.access:

I thought it was amazing up to the point the Birdcage appeared and a complete mess after that.

That's still the way I think about Dressrosa. The birdcage or better said the sugar+birdcage subplot is what completely ruins Dressrosa. A lot of characters suffer from it like Fuji - who just hadn't anything better to do than sit around because there was nothing plot-wise that still occupied him - and most notable Doffy. I like Doffy pre Sugar+Birdcage, I like Doffy post Sugar+Birdcage (in that scene with Tsuru he had back his devilish charisma gladly), but I just cannot stand him during the Sugar+Birdcage part of his arc.

Btw some time ago there was some Dryish rant about Sugar and her role in the story, can anyone please give me a link? I'd like to reread it, but cannot find it any more.

[.access timeco.]

@Bartholemew:

That's still the way I think about Dressrosa. The birdcage or better said the sugar+birdcage subplot is what completely ruins Dressrosa. A lot of characters suffer from it like Fuji - who just hadn't anything better to do than sit around because there was nothing plot-wise that still occupied him - and most notable Doffy. I like Doffy pre Sugar+Birdcage, I like Doffy post Sugar+Birdcage (in that scene with Tsuru he had back his devilish charisma gladly), but I just cannot stand him during the Sugar+Birdcage part of his arc.

Btw some time ago there was some Dryish rant about Sugar and her role in the story, can anyone please give me a link? I'd like to reread it, but cannot find it any more.

I think Sugar could have been great if it was used for events outside the scope of Dressrosa. I mean, she could have turned into toys other characters that would be important later but were never mentioned because people couldn't remember they existed. I remember back in the time hoping that when Sugar was knocked out, Luffy would suddenly remember his mother or something like that. People could even remember Roger had another kid, who knows? The potential was endless, but apparently Oda used her just for what we saw and that's a real shame.
But as a part of Dressrosa, I don't think her plot was a problem. I admit the whole toys deal seem like it could be cut out from the arc without any significant loss, but I think it added a lot to Kyros' drama (I really like the fact Oda resisted the temptation to make Scarlet remember him, even if only faintly, before dying) and it made the dwarves presence have some relevance. Although, after all is said and done, taking out Sugar and even destroying the factory were completely irrelevant aspects once Luffy+Law decided to take Doflamingo down instead of just ruining his plans and leave him to be deal with Kaido's anger.

Regarding Fujitora, I REALLY liked his stance in this arc, so I don't think I would have preferred a scenario where he would be more active. He betting all on the pirates to force the world to recognize Luffy as the hero instead of the WG and thus put a dent on the WG reputation made him way more interesting than any of his displays of power.

[ARTEMlS]

What annoys me about Sugar isn't the idea, but the execution. As you said, there is so much wasted potential. The storytelling regarding Sugar (and the Birdcage) was just so boring. Instead of finding out Sugar's powers the hard way (by some Strawhats vanish and for some reason not mentioned any more), we got telegraphed all there is to her during boring exposition dialogue when revealing operation SOP.

And Fuji: I also like his stance. I don't want him to show a bigger display of power, too. Again, I don't like the execution. Fuji's motivation really should have been more subtle. Like, that he (supposedly) fell to one of Doffy's scheme which cleverly prevented him from acting (instead of just having given his word). Just to finally reveal, that he not only fell on purpose, but also hadn't a real choice in order to reach his true goals. Instead, sure we got some good scenes when he finally pulled off his stand in the Dressrosa aftermath, but this scenes would have had more impact if Dressrosa had an actual well-written outer conflict.

Yeah, we have some really good inner conflicts, but the outer conflict in the second half of Dressrosa just was a complete clusterfuck. Doffy just seemed completely screwed way too early and I didn't feel any real tension during the whole birdcage ordeal.

[herpdat]

@.access:

Sure, later we find out everyone always knew about Scarlet and Kyros marriage, but that still doesn't explain why Doffy allowed her to just live her life and how the hell she became a gladiator.

The citizens knew of both the marriage and Rebecca's birth before the DonQuixote Family ever conquered them (see chapter 799). It's really up to your imagination as to how they could have possibly known this from the get-go. I have the impression that these citizens love gossip and in some way the information leaked from the palace; as the king said, the reason they even bothered faking Scarlett's death was to uphold the outward prestige and purity of the royal bloodline.

Rebecca was never allowed "to just live her life". Seen best in chapter 721, she was always on the run with the Soldier, living quietly and avoiding attention. We see that the Soldier apologizes to Rebecca after receiving a bounty for saving her from some kidnappers. Rebecca isn't a gladiator in the same way Bartolomeo, Cavendish, and others are gladiators; she is one of the prisoner gladiators of the country that we see in chapter 720. After years of being in hiding and on the run with Kyros, they must have captured her. She was prisoner in the colosseum, forced by Doflamingo to participate in matches. Now, why would Doflamingo do this instead of outright killing her? Perhaps Viola had some influence in this, but it's just like Doflamingo to expose Rebecca continuously to the citizens' jeers and hatred while she fights in brutal, inhumane contests. Remember that the typical gladiator (like the "mummies" in 720) lost their limbs and their will with time, until they perished in the cells of the colosseum. Yet Rebecca, thanks to Kyros' training, remained undefeated; she survived using her avoidance strategy and even stuck it to Doflamingo by not perpetuating violence in her combat and victories.

[HeartOfDarkness]

@Bartholemew:

That's still the way I think about Dressrosa. The birdcage or better said the sugar+birdcage subplot is what completely ruins Dressrosa. A lot of characters suffer from it like Fuji - who just hadn't anything better to do than sit around because there was nothing plot-wise that still occupied him - and most notable Doffy. I like Doffy pre Sugar+Birdcage, I like Doffy post Sugar+Birdcage (in that scene with Tsuru he had back his devilish charisma gladly), but I just cannot stand him during the Sugar+Birdcage part of his arc.

Btw some time ago there was some Dryish rant about Sugar and her role in the story, can anyone please give me a link? I'd like to reread it, but cannot find it any more.

Wow this bandwagon still going on? Especially after the explanation we got at the end, something that people at been saying for long time before the actual and obvious confirmation.

[ARTEMlS]

@HeartOfDarkness:

Wow this bandwagon still going on? Especially after the explanation we got at the end, something that people at been saying for long time before the actual confirmation.

That's exactly my point. I have no problem with Fuji, his character and his motivation. I have a problem with the writing. I have a problem that people have been saying for long time beforehand because it was so damn obvious.

[HeartOfDarkness]

@.access:

Stuff….

Rebecca is easily the biggest problem with Dressrosa and the only part of the arc that i absolutely hated but yes after having re-read the entire arc, it's definitely one of the best arcs in the series.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@Bartholemew:

That's exactly my point. I have no problem with Fuji, his character and his motivation. I have a problem with the writing. I have a problem that people have been saying for long time beforehand because it was so damn obvious.

….. How is that a bad thing? Unless you wanted this to come outta nowhere, i don't really see the problem with writing here.

[ARTEMlS]

There's a difference between foreshadowing and telegraphing. If something - like in this case - is too obvious, there's no tension about the outcome.

[HeartOfDarkness]

@Bartholemew:

There's a difference between foreshadowing and telegraphing. If something - like in this case - is too obvious, there's no tension about the outcome.

It wasn't too obvious as most of people in weekly discussions spend months bashing ( a certain someone who himself was extremely against that theory but then never said anything after the obvious revelation) that "theory". In fact this is the first time i am hearing someone claim it to be too "obvious".

[ShinigamiKing]

Ah, I finished the arc some 3-4 days ago.

I don't know what to make of it!

It had some really good highs, and some really bad lows.

Some parts were prime One Piece, and others were Naruto Shippuden tier.

Basically, it's the type of arc that is saved solely by it's overall narrative structure. Like most One Piece arcs, Dressrosa is a mini-epic; it contains a wide scope/scale (in this case, the numerous characters of many different factions), and features a very methodical buildup to in order to set up a large and long climax, complete with a fully developed resolution.

So it felt like a great story. But the execution of it wasn't very good.

Too many brain-turn off moments:

• We had Law having batshit insane stamina after dying god knows how many times. It got annoying to be honest, because I had to turn my brain off, which I hate doing, and which I don't normally have to do for One Piece that often.
• I have to assume Doflamingo did not want to kill Law. I mean seriously, how hard is it to kill him? Aim at his head! Or use your fucking devil fruit. If Doffy wasn't trying to kill Law, then I'll redact disavow this statement.
• The birdcage had to have killed people right? It would have been such a tone setter for the new world to get some legit civilian deaths going on in the present. It would greatly increase the emotional weight Oda was going for, without really hurting his no death rule (since those characters aren't named).

Borderline plotholes:

• Mansherry's dandelions didn't touch Dofflamingo?
• We had Doflamingo's devil fruit almost create a plothole in a way (he could have beaten Luffy and Law with mini-birdcages, if it's that powerful). Could have killed Law with it instead of using a fucking bb gun, ROFL

Contrived plotlines

• The arc did a bad job of setting up for Luffy to defeat Doffy; when watching the arc, I feel like it should have been the arc where Luffy defers and lets someone else beat the villain. Unlike other arcs where Luffy saves the day, it didn't feel right in this case. At least, let it be a tag battle royale where Luffy, Law, Kyros, etc. gang up Doflamingo. That would be fitting for the arc, given the colloseum setting.
• The actual panic that people had over the birdcage was cool, but similar to the previous point, I didn't like how Zoro and Kinnemon were doing that when their pushing didn't make a difference (I think). Given how Luffy proclaimed he only needed one more strike on Doffy, I don't see why Zoro and Kinnemon and Robin or whoever else was free couldn't try to attack Doffy.
• It's fine that Fujitora wanted to leave it to the pirates in order to make a point; that's fine. But I feel like he should have at least made it easier somehow. Things got dire. But I won't consider this a major problem. It could be fixed by simply showing the dialogue and thoughts of Fujitora more.

Story Development Issues

***And among other things, the Tontattas and Rebecca/Kyros/Riku weren't as gripping. Even the Rebecca flashback wasn't that great, which was the first time I didn't get invested in a flashback since like, Zoro's flashback in East Blue? Something was off with them. I don't know why. Maybe it's cause Leo was too one note, and we didn't see much of the other Tontattas talk that much? So that naturally made it feel less engaging?

***And Rebecca was also off. Vivi was much better as a character. Maybe it's a screentime thing? Oda's pacing and chapter content in new world has made it so that characters don't have much of an opportunity to show who they are as people; all we see is their loud, flamboyant personalities. I think that's why Rebecca feels so empty. Her dialogue was too "plot-heavy" - basically, we rarely had scenes of her talking or reacting to something that didn't immediately revolve around her wanting to attack Doflamingo. We never saw her personality or behavior or traits like we did with Vivi, or hell, even Shirahoshi.

***I felt that Luffy's fleet was entertaining, and is an example of how Oda is a legit writer (other mangakas would have introduced Luffy's fleet in much more contrived, last minute fashion). But even then, Oda didn't do it perfectly; their screentime wasn't really organized well; the Hakuba scenes with Cavendish could have been shorter, and we didn't really even need an in-depth showcase of the attacks of some of the characters, since, by the time they might appear again, the significance of their skillset would have vanished from our minds.

***Robin. She seems way to passive post-timeskip. There's a fine line between placing more trust in her crewmates, and then flatout just letting things happen to you. Having the old tontatta peek up in her breasts without her reacting, getting turned into a toy, getting saved by Cavendish, not actually fighting anybody on her own like the rest of her crew on the island did, let alone beating someone, etc. Her devil fruit is unique, and I feel like at the very least, she should have played the Sanji type role in this arc. I mean after all, she can sprout eyes, ears, etc. That's pretty useful for stealth… and as the Skypeia fight showed, her powers are also cool in combat. So I find it disappointing.

***Straw Hats and Pacing. Oda's pacing also hurts the Strawhats too. Oda should have spent at least 1 or 2 chapters more of the crew on the ship before they entered Dressrosa, just to establish some more character moments. The whole entire show was already on crack in Punk Hazard, so there really should have been a slowed down pace before heading into Dressrosa for some breathing room. For some reason, I didn't feel the strawhats in this arc. Something was off, even before Sanji left. Maybe it was the lack of breathing room? I guess thats why you need some cool down chapters on the ship. I think making the arc take place on 1 day also hurt it as well. Skypeia, Alabasta, and CP9 all took place throughout multiple days during the body of the story. But pretty much the whole meat of Dressrosa was in one sitting, and for that, I think it hurt Oda's ability to make things work.

The usual "strawhats are here to save the day" hype speech also didn't connect with me in this arc.

I marathoned it (I never read it as it was being published weekly), and that didn't fix it's issues.

HIGHS

• Sabo? I liked Sabo in the arc, everything about it. The legend of Chapter 731.
• I liked the literary qualities of it - Dofflamingo pulling the strings, literally and figuratively, and the other parallels.
• It still had a good beginning-end structure, something One Piece never fails deliver. No anti-climactic or disappointing ending to be found here.
• The designs.
• Bartolomeo. He was great, I love him.
• Usopp had some cool moments.
• The cinematography was nice (Law vs Fujitora vs Doflamingo standing on the pillars was a pretty hype moment, haha)

Overall? 7.0/10. The arc wasn't bad (outside of Law vs Doffy), but it had too much of it that was shallow and underwhelming or even disappointing.

Again, the arc was carried by having a competent plot structure and by hitting the essential points (Doffy was a good villain who wasn't a retread, and brought some literary value to the table, the emotional stakes were sufficient enough, and it had multiple good surprise moments and cliffhangers). As a result, I'd still take multiple Dressrosa Arcs over the average arcs of other shows (Naruto Part 2, post SS Bleach, etc.).

One Piece doesn't really have any truly bad arcs in my opinion (because again, they usually hit the essential points for making a decent story, and they usually do a decent job at avoiding too many asspulls/brain dead moments), but Dressorsa might be one of the weaker One Piece arcs, ranking closer to the bottom for me.

[Captain M]

@ShinigamiKing:

Ah, I finished the arc some 3-4 days ago.

I don't know what to make of it!

It had some really good highs, and some really bad lows.

Some parts were prime One Piece, and others were Naruto Shippuden tier.

Basically, it's the type of arc that is saved solely by it's overall narrative structure. Like most One Piece arcs, Dressrosa is a mini-epic; it contains a wide scope/scale (in this case, the numerous characters of many different factions), and features a very methodical buildup to in order to set up a large and long climax, complete with a fully developed resolution.

So it felt like a great story. But the execution of it wasn't very good.

Too many brain-turn off moments:

• We had Law having batshit insane stamina after dying god knows how many times. It got annoying to be honest, because I had to turn my brain off, which I hate doing, and which I don't normally have to do for One Piece that often.
• I have to assume Doflamingo did not want to kill Law. I mean seriously, how hard is it to kill him? Aim at his head! Or use your fucking devil fruit. If Doffy wasn't trying to kill Law, then I'll redact disavow this statement.
• The birdcage had to have killed people right? It would have been such a tone setter for the new world to get some legit civilian deaths going on in the present. It would greatly increase the emotional weight Oda was going for, without really hurting his no death rule (since those characters aren't named).

Borderline plotholes:

• Mansherry's dandelions didn't touch Dofflamingo?
• We had Doflamingo's devil fruit almost create a plothole in a way (he could have beaten Luffy and Law with mini-birdcages, if it's that powerful). Could have killed Law with it instead of using a fucking bb gun, ROFL

Contrived plotlines

• The arc did a bad job of setting up for Luffy to defeat Doffy; when watching the arc, I feel like it should have been the arc where Luffy defers and lets someone else beat the villain. Unlike other arcs where Luffy saves the day, it didn't feel right in this case. At least, let it be a tag battle royale where Luffy, Law, Kyros, etc. gang up Doflamingo. That would be fitting for the arc, given the colloseum setting.
• The actual panic that people had over the birdcage was cool, but similar to the previous point, I didn't like how Zoro and Kinnemon were doing that when their pushing didn't make a difference (I think). Given how Luffy proclaimed he only needed one more strike on Doffy, I don't see why Zoro and Kinnemon and Robin or whoever else was free couldn't try to attack Doffy.
• It's fine that Fujitora wanted to leave it to the pirates in order to make a point; that's fine. But I feel like he should have at least made it easier somehow. Things got dire. But I won't consider this a major problem. It could be fixed by simply showing the dialogue and thoughts of Fujitora more.

Story Development Issues

***And among other things, the Tontattas and Rebecca/Kyros/Riku weren't as gripping. Even the Rebecca flashback wasn't that great, which was the first time I didn't get invested in a flashback since like, Zoro's flashback in East Blue? Something was off with them. I don't know why. Maybe it's cause Leo was too one note, and we didn't see much of the other Tontattas talk that much? So that naturally made it feel less engaging?

***And Rebecca was also off. Vivi was much better as a character. Maybe it's a screentime thing? Oda's pacing and chapter content in new world has made it so that characters don't have much of an opportunity to show who they are as people; all we see is their loud, flamboyant personalities. I think that's why Rebecca feels so empty. Her dialogue was too "plot-heavy" - basically, we rarely had scenes of her talking or reacting to something that didn't immediately revolve around her wanting to attack Doflamingo. We never saw her personality or behavior or traits like we did with Vivi, or hell, even Shirahoshi.

***I felt that Luffy's fleet was entertaining, and is an example of how Oda is a legit writer (other mangakas would have introduced Luffy's fleet in much more contrived, last minute fashion). But even then, Oda didn't do it perfectly; their screentime wasn't really organized well; the Hakuba scenes with Cavendish could have been shorter, and we didn't really even need an in-depth showcase of the attacks of some of the characters, since, by the time they might appear again, the significance of their skillset would have vanished from our minds.

***Robin. She seems way to passive post-timeskip. There's a fine line between placing more trust in her crewmates, and then flatout just letting things happen to you. Having the old tontatta peek up in her breasts without her reacting, getting turned into a toy, getting saved by Cavendish, not actually fighting anybody on her own like the rest of her crew on the island did, let alone beating someone, etc. Her devil fruit is unique, and I feel like at the very least, she should have played the Sanji type role in this arc. I mean after all, she can sprout eyes, ears, etc. That's pretty useful for stealth… and as the Skypeia fight showed, her powers are also cool in combat. So I find it disappointing.

***Straw Hats and Pacing. Oda's pacing also hurts the Strawhats too. Oda should have spent at least 1 or 2 chapters more of the crew on the ship before they entered Dressrosa, just to establish some more character moments. The whole entire show was already on crack in Punk Hazard, so there really should have been a slowed down pace before heading into Dressrosa for some breathing room. For some reason, I didn't feel the strawhats in this arc. Something was off, even before Sanji left. Maybe it was the lack of breathing room? I guess thats why you need some cool down chapters on the ship. I think making the arc take place on 1 day also hurt it as well. Skypeia, Alabasta, and CP9 all took place throughout multiple days during the body of the story. But pretty much the whole meat of Dressrosa was in one sitting, and for that, I think it hurt Oda's ability to make things work.

The usual "strawhats are here to save the day" hype speech also didn't connect with me in this arc.

I marathoned it (I never read it as it was being published weekly), and that didn't fix it's issues.

HIGHS

• Sabo? I liked Sabo in the arc, everything about it. The legend of Chapter 731.
• I liked the literary qualities of it - Dofflamingo pulling the strings, literally and figuratively, and the other parallels.
• It still had a good beginning-end structure, something One Piece never fails deliver. No anti-climactic or disappointing ending to be found here.
• The designs.
• Bartolomeo. He was great, I love him.
• Usopp had some cool moments.
• The cinematography was nice.

Overall? 7.0/10. The arc wasn't bad (outside of Law vs Doffy), but it had too much of it that was shallow and underwhelming or even disappointing.

Again, the arc was carried by having a competent plot structure and by hitting the essential points (Doffy was a good villain who wasn't a retread, and brought some literary value to the table, the emotional stakes were sufficient enough, and it had multiple good surprise moments and cliffhangers). As a result, I'd still take multiple Dressrosa Arcs over the average arcs of other shows (Naruto Part 2, post SS Bleach, etc.).

One Piece doesn't really have any truly bad arcs in my opinion (because again, they usually hit the essential points for making a decent story, and they usually do a decent job at avoiding too many asspulls/brain dead moments), but Dressorsa might be one of the weaker One Piece arcs, ranking closer to the bottom for me.

I think this is pretty good summary of the quality of Dressrosa. The pacing is so much easier to stomach now that it's complete and readable in whole, though it still is very slow, even by One Piece standards. Complaints that just center around the release schedule and Oda's breaks always bug me, because they're issues that affect one group of readers only, and only at one point in time. You can't lay that down as a fair critique because now that the arc's done, no one will ever have to deal with that problem again. This is a good look at the real flaws that should be addressed, the ones that come from actual character and story writing issues.

By far the worst thing in my mind about Dressrosa was that I really wanted to like almost everyone and everything that was there. Just none of them had the space they needed to breathe or the space to really be something amazing. Oda's usually good at managing a large cast (and seems to be getting back on form lately) but the Dressrosa storyline, and to an extent Punk Hazard before it, was a place where each member of the cast weighed each other one down, even though they're all quite likable individually. The exceptions for me being Rebecca and Mansherry, who both had issues in their whole concepts that no amount of extra screentime would fix.

The only thing I would disagree with in you analysis is the quality of the Dressrosa flashback. To me, it was a suitably dramatic, tragic OP backstory, carried by its unique delivery. Instead of getting it one chunk, like others, it came in three. Each showed a different perspective on the events that transpired, and a few key moments are seen across all three tales, each one offering new information. It was a pretty unique way to handle a trope that's become very standard in Oda's storytelling. Zou also experimented with flashback delivery, which was great. I hope Oda does more like that in the future.

(well I'd also disagree with the opinion in your sig, but that's a whooooole other debate )

[Zar]

@Captain:

By far the worst thing in my mind about Dressrosa was that I really wanted to like almost everyone and everything that was there. Just none of them had the space they needed to breathe or the space to really be something amazing. Oda's usually good at managing a large cast (and seems to be getting back on form lately) but the Dressrosa storyline, and to an extent Punk Hazard before it, was a place where each member of the cast weighed each other one down, even though they're all quite likable individually. The exceptions for me being Rebecca and Mansherry, who both had issues in their whole concepts that no amount of extra screentime would fix.

Have you ever been pondering why you disliked something but were unable to put it into words, and then someone perfectly describes it in a few sentences?

That just happened.

[Strooger]

This thread is alive? Hm… Might as well post some thoughts about Dressrosa while I'm at it. Since the Love and Loathe for story arcs crashed and burned.

Dressrosa in it's entirety feels extremely convoluted and at certain points in the arc, I can almost tell there is somebody breathing down Oda's neck. It's like the Spiderman 3 of One Piece arcs. Too many subplots going on simultaneously. It certainly didn't fit the mold as one of these humongous arcs. Since it was just a stepping stone towards the conflict with the Yonko. It's not terrible. There is always fun to be had in One Piece and Dressrosa certainly had lots of funny stuff going. But I remember being more frustrated with it than anything else while reading weekly. And after a reread like 3 weeks or so, ago, I felt the same way. Some parts of it is unforgivably dull despite having so much going on. There are lots of praise to be given though. Even One Piece at it's worst is better than most Shounen. This isn't OP at it's worst, it isn't unreadable, but there are many bad ideas going on here.

I feel like Oda took a few big risks, by going way out of the expected elements of the story. He made sure to incorporate influence from the outer world. Usually, these story arcs are self contained stories that can stand on their own. But Oda stretched out his arms and grabbed for whatever he could. The Big Mom pirates going after Sunny was a great touch, the reintroduction of Sabo breathed life in the story in a really good way. Having Burgess on Dressrosa too, was an awesome idea.

But I still don't feel like they panned out the way it should have. CP0 for example was just a plot device, that didn't actually serve the plot really, other than telling the dressrosans that Doflamingo didn't in fact denounce his Schichibukai title. Oh and reintroducing Rob Lucci. I mean, cool for him. But it doesn't change the fact that CP0 didn't do anything really. What would have been is if they had been reincorporated in the story somehow. Like they realise Doflamingo is too much off a bother so they decide to go after him.

I remember reading somewhere Oda had planned to make what turned out to be Dressrosa into two separate arcs. And dude, that would have been so much better. I remember not liking this idea at first, but it did certainly feel like separate movies playing on the same screen. Much of the incorporation of the different story elements only really tied up at the very end.

Take for example the tournament: a tournament arc is usually something that is entirely dedicated to the tournament. But this tournament is just a sidenote and a plot point for the set up for the Strawhat Grand Fleet. A lot of the characters introduced were really entertaining though, so I can't knock it too much. But wouldn't a tournament arc been better if it wasn't just a sidenote in the story? Like how important was it for the tournament to happen right here and now? Couldn't it happen after Dressrosa on some other island? I mean, we could have the exact same set up and everything, some evil genius has Ace's fruit and Luffy wants to fight for it and Sabo shows up and.... Oh I forgot, introduce the worst female character in OP history.

Rebecca is basically on the verge off being as bad as Naruto's female characters. I think novels have been written to condemn her to the inner circles of character hell, but she is just so god awful. Her character arc makes absolutely no sense and only to hammer that point home in the end when she confronts Doflamingo, is instantly taken control over, starts crying and needs somebody to save her again.
We could have had that point with Kuros going all "UR HANDZ ARE CLEANNN", but still, in the end, have her go "fuck that, I'm gonna stop Doflamingo anyway. I'm a warrior" and she actually manages to do something other than needing saving. Anything would be better than what we got. Kuros is another character that is completely wasted potential. He's overdeveloped in his introduction, but deflates like a balloon. He was superkickass when he decapitated Doflamingo and his hype should have just continued to rise after that. But all we got was junk.

There was also virtually no reason for why we couldn't have Luffy, Law and Doflamingo square off in the palace after Kuros is unleashed. Other than making the whole birdcage thing, which was just overblown. Even while the concept was cool. If Oda wanted an excuse for all the battle pairings, he could have just had them happen in the streets at random. And also, the Birdcage introduced some of the flimsiest excuses ever for why everyone couldn't just team up and fight Doflamingo. Yes, Fujitora had a pretty legit reason, but had Luffy lost to Doflamingo, he would have to defeat him anyway, or die. But everyone else could team up. Why couldn't Zoro, Franky and Robin pick up the mantle and stall Doflamingo other than plot reasons? The birdcage, that's why. Which is dumb, because they couldn't stall the cage anyway. So Zoro and some other strong people should realise, "hey maybe I should go fight Doflamingo until Luffy recovers?".

Then there are all these other characters that were terribly developed. King Riku is introduced as a badass action grandpa, but that is dropped completely. Mansherry had like nothing going on other than being a healer, the fact that she was kidnapped felt like something that was thrown in there in the last minute. And it didn't serve any purpose. Don Chinjao was scrubbified. Viola was also pretty badly developed. Bellamy ended up becoming completely unlikable. And I think Oda had other plans for him, but decided to go with a different route due to pressure from the above. Not to mention the Doflamingo officers, when all the top 3 had incredibly underwhelming battles. I can't for the life of me see why Robin was snubbed a 1v1 chance, only to have Trebol go out like a punk anyway against Law and Luffy. Zoro's final strike against Pica was incredible though. Gladius and Dellinger got a far better treatment than all 3 of them.

It really felt like an arc that was just placed on the chopping block. Oda needed to put out a few things there, he needed to have closure with Doflamingo, he needed an incorporation with the revolutionaries and the blackbeards. So he did Dressrosa as a sacrifical lamb for the plot basically. It might sound like I despise the arc, but still, it's One Piece. One Piece will always be awesome. Even when it's low.

[ShinigamiKing]

^ I agree with pretty much everything. The Bellamy storyline felt weird. What happened at the ending? It felt unresolved. Same thing with CP-0, even though Lucci came back into play.
We can all agree that the Birdcage was crap. Which is unfortunate because the actual reasoning Doflamingo gave for it (to hide info about his weapons smuggling) was quite unique and refreshing for a shonen.

@Captain:

The only thing I would disagree with in you analysis is the quality of the Dressrosa flashback. To me, it was a suitably dramatic, tragic OP backstory, carried by its unique delivery. Instead of getting it one chunk, like others, it came in three. Each showed a different perspective on the events that transpired, and a few key moments are seen across all three tales, each one offering new information. It was a pretty unique way to handle a trope that's become very standard in Oda's storytelling. Zou also experimented with flashback delivery, which was great. I hope Oda does more like that in the future.

I think the Kyros flashbacks definitely got better as they went on. The first one wasn't as good, but after Kyros turned back into a human they got better from what I remember. Kyros overall was a character that seemed to shine as the story went on. I forgot to mention how good the Senor Pink flashback was as well (OMG, it hit hard), along with the flashback of King Riku killing everyone. Those were good.

So overall, the arc works because it got the essentials (sufficient emotional weight, decent villain, themes, competent structure). But I rank it lower on the list, becuase it had a little too much bs and uncharacteristic moments.

Anybody else agree that the Tontattas were obviously gonna be their own arc? They got the least flashback time and the least "reestablishment" time (which is when Oda gives the characters some extra scenes to basically restate their emotion and suffering), and thus they felt the most shallow.

Oh yeah, and Rebecca's clothing sucked. It was stupid, to say the least.