@Jabra:
Agreed.
Showing serious growth when it comes to his cowardness is dangerous. Being a brave warrior of the sea is his ultimate goal, his "all blue". I don't know how gradual progression would look like in his case, especially since the enemies are getting more and more terrifying and strong as the Straw Hats sail through the New World, but the fact that he doesn't have issues confronting Sugar (a girl with a dangerous hax ability) is already something if you ask me.
Also he wasn't scared of the fodder, he was shocked that they were discovered. The joyful dwarves annihilating the grunts was the cause for everything that happened after.
Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. He had his "cowardly" panels here, but not because he was afraid to fight. There's the problem with long-runners that it's really tough to keep all characters "gradually" changing. Because if you change them too much, they aren't really the characters that everyone loves anymore and if you don't try to change them at all, they'll become stagnant(uninteresting) and annoying. I think Sanji is the best example here, he's the one who probably has the least depth from the strawhats and that's why the nosebleeding became annoying.