Hello.
I would like to discuss how insane the last few days have been in-story. And this is just shit off the top of my head.
Day 1: The Straw Hats come back after a two year absence. The world goes into a minor tizzy. Bartholomew Kuma has been guarding their ship.
Day 2: Robin finds a poneglyph. Luffy establishes Fishman Island as his territory after rescuing it from destruction, thereby playing a huge part in the turning point of an entire legacy of human-fishman relations… but Luffy is still going to destroy it maybe?? Big Mom will react in a big way once the Tamatebako explodes in her face.
Day 3: Luffy forms an alliance with a Warlord to rival the established ones in the New World, and goes on to make sure the underworld brokers understand he's earned his own place among the WORST GENERATION. A plot is then hatched to take down a whole other Emperor, one whose artificial DFs (!!!) have been and will be neutralized. Not only that, but we get two new temporary crew members in Kin'emon and Momonosuke, with their comrade to join their number and make three. It is DAY 3. The day after they save Fishman Island and lay claim to it (!!!), they start the day off by fighting a dragon and that's the least insane thing that happens that day. Day 4: Holy goddamn shit Day 4. Obviously, Luffy makes allies with ASSLOADS OF IMPORTANT AND POWERFUL PEOPLE who will almost certainly be in his fleet in the future. So already, wow. THEN LUFFY LEARNS OF SABO'S SURVIVAL, and not only that, but he's very high up in the Revolutionary Army!! Again, already, one HELL of a day. A new admiral shows up and sort of links arms with the SHs to help save Dressrosa, providing a sympathetic link to the Marines besides Kuzan. The SHs are split up, with half the crew locked in a separate battle, their fates unknowable. Will the crew even be able to reunite!? This is all the backdrop to Luffy and friends ending the exceedingly cruel reign of the exceedingly terrifying Warlord DONQUIXOTE DO FLAMINGO! Think of the ramifications of all the numerous traumatizing ordeals that occurred in succession just in terms of being a citizen of Dressrosa. First, they learn that all of the loved ones that they'd forgotten were toiling in utter, unceasing anguish to the evil aims of a king they'd up until then revered as a hero, who thereupon threatened to slice them to ribbons and even forced friends to kill each other (let alone the particularly mentally scarring survival game he foisted on them a la Eneru). The whole while Marines, Donquixote operatives, fighters from foreign lands and random other pirates are swarming their utterly devastated former land of peace, part of which has been violated and possessed by an imposing, shifting colossus, a remorselessly homicidal menace of sun-eclipsing supreme dread sure to reappear in many a nightmare. The scars on their ancestral home are only pounded into relief by their hero Luffy's final attack, finally putting an end to the man who was not only their secret oppressor but the kingpin of a) a vile human trafficking ring (go Straw Hats!) b) a steroid cartel fueling the ambitions of a conquering Emperor, plus dabbling in DF trade and c) instigator of what must surely be dozens of wars. Do Flamingo's manyfold blight has been extinguished!
Jesus, how in the hell did any of the SHs sleep easy any of those nights!? WAY TOO MUCH GAME-CHANGING SHIT HAPPENED every single day. If it were me I'd still be frozen in open-mouthed shock just after Day 2. Like, really, we just saved Fishman Island and its 5,000,000 inhabitants yesterday, and today we've not only gained three new people aboard but are gunning for the head of an Emperor!?
Maybe it hasn't been four days successively like I remember, but I really don't think the better half of a week has passed yet since the SHs regrouped??
This series is lovely and very, very crazy. There's no doubt Dressrosa was a bit of a clusterfuck at points, but I still truly appreciate that Oda is so absurdly overflowing with creativity that his major problem recently has been TOO MUCH STORY TO TELL. He's so overflowing with creativity that he gave one character two entirely distinct personalities (Cabbage!); he's got characters dancing around in his head to spare, son!