@darkmninya:
I think most people expectation are too high because of the Whitebeard arc, it was a great arc and every chapter was amazing. People expect that pace now in every arc but that aint gonna happen. I think dressrosa arc has been great so far much better than fishmen arc for example..
I don't think the Whitebeard arc should be considered one of the great ones. I did like it (quite a lot), but it has tons of flaws, some of them bordering on meme-tastic (Kizaru's Sniper Skills, Sengoku's Angry Sleeve Roll, Benn Beckman's Don't Move a Muscle. . .), and more than 1 (and more than 2) plot devices we could've lived without. Also, we got so much blue balls with the off-screen fighting during that arc it wasn't even funny.
If people are missing something, it would be Sabaody, W7 or Skypiea quality level; the Whitebeard War isn't specially appreciated around these parts.
@Calchexas:
Oda "has" been doing poorly, but not in the traditional sense: This arc has been amazing, and Oda's work has been amazing. It's just the huge number of breaks on top of the overall pacing we've had since the time skip that bugs some of us.
Truth be told, we should've been to this point in the story half a year ago, and that's based on author-induced padding alone. We looped around Fishman Island a couple times, including the egregious "Nothing" chapter near the end. Likewise, we made a biiiiiig loop around Punk Hazard, as well as what practically amounts to multiple filler battles between Caesar and Luffy.
Dressrosa, though, has pretty much been amazing from the beginning, and the pacing has been wonderful. It's just annoying to some fans that that this has to happen with the first truly great arc since the timeskip, and not just does it with a bad arc + cuts out the padding.
(In before "Oda was sick." Everyone knows.)
But. . .that was probably one of the best chapters of FI. It's what gave Hody his only unique trait, and the last stroke in Oda's thematical assault on the reader. That was basically the last point he had to make so the villains could be the living embodiment of everything Oda was critisizing throughout the arc.
Punk Hazard going on a bit of a loop, through, I gotta agree with you.
The current arc has been building hype quite masterfully, and the tournament spiced things up and kept everything entertaining. Also, the Green Bit parts were, save for Law's mug, pure eyecandy (falling meteors, flying ships, stuff being cut left and right, Dofla vs Sanji, etc. . .quite insane stuff). If I have any grip with Dressrosa, it would be that there's a bit too much stuff going on; not because Oda can't juggle it all (he can, he's doing it), but that extra attention he could give if less stuff was involved will be missing. Too bad.
(I would've left the dwarves for another island; as a new race, they deserve more spotlight, or an arc only for themselves. Guess that's not gonna happen).