@Monkey:
Dressrosa in general.
It starts off interestingly enough, but the Coliseum isn't the best as it feels forced and clustered with all the fighters being introduced for them to be taken out quickly and uninterestingly. Bellamy comes back with awesome development but then get's his ass kicked again leaving it null and void.
I honestly don't think the coliseum feels forced, although I will agree it's cluttered. As far as fighters being introduced? They really only got one panel each dedicated to their introduction, and it makes sense that they'd be taken out in the way they did. Uninterestingly? Some of them, (Sai, Ideo), sure. But not all of them got taken out that way. cause otherwise this tournament would drag on forever. Plus, they're back now to fight the Donquixote family, and we already know what they can do since we've seen it before. Bellamy getting his ass kicked by Bartolomeo does not, in any way, diminish his amazing character development. Bartolomeo is easily the best thing to come out of Dressrosa, and for him to beat Bellamy only to save him later on from Dellinger, considering him a friend, is great.
Nami get's a chance to show off her chops in her 1st real fight post-timeskip but nope Brook steals the glory.
To be fair this was handled really well. Brook tricked her, and if I recall wasn't panicking during the whole thing. I don't mind this at all. Brook had to start getting some awesome moments now.
Violet is an interesting character who has an emotional switch of sides thanks to Sanji but nope she's been good all along and the princess (and the Donquixote Pirates wonder why she betrayed them?!). Also, in one of the genuine showings of some romantic tease, her and Sanji are getting along really well, setting up a perfect fight for Sanji against Trébol - Violet's superior, a blatant creepy pervert, and a Logia Card Seat. But nope Sanji hasn't been seen for 20+ chapters now and Trébol failed his job and is waiting around at the palace for his proper beating.
I think you're simplifying and generalizing things far too much. I don't see how Sanji's thing with Viola sets him up to take down Trebol…at all. He may be her superior, but she was always gunning for Doffy since the beginning. As far as Sanji not being seen for 20+ Chapters? Oda obviously has something in mind with that, or is setting up for the next arc. I don't mind him splitting up the Straw Hats and relegating some of them off screen. We've seen these guys for 600 Chapters, imo they don't need to be in every single arc. Plus the circumstances make sense. Nami wanted to get Ceaser and Momonosuke far away from Dressrosa as possible. I agree they left on quite a cliffhanger, but I'm fine with it. It sets up for what's going to happen next.
Bellamy, in credit to the great character he's become, keeps a lot of investment on him and is about to have a fight with Luffy! But nope he get's almost beaten to death by Dellinger and has been off-screen for a while now. Bellamy is the only person I can honest to God I say I've really really wanted to join the crew not counting actual members. It was an interesting development - the hated punk from Jaya grows over the Timeskip just as much as the crew and then joins. Perfect storytelling. Yet, there's no way that's happening now with his horrible treatment.
I, too, love Bellamy this arc. I also would love to see him join, even though I don't think it'll happen. So yeah Bellamy has been off screen for a while, but I honestly don't think Oda will fail to resolve this plotline this arc. I'm sure Bellamy will come back, maybe initially loyal to Doffy, even though he knows he was betrayed, because he still idolizes him. He could fight with Luffy again under Doffy's behest, and then later on be convinced to let go of Doffy. I'm almost positive Bellamy will come back and get his due development, just give it time.
There's a lot of hype and time gone into setting Luffy's relations with the Coliseum participants and leading to the grand finale. But nope Sabo returns too early and takes Luffy's place and therefore removing all the personal conflict in the final and meaning all the time setting up Luffy's relationships with a lot of the participants was mostly a waste. Then, D-Block get's completely swallowed up in the greater Dressrosa plotlines, being done appallingly and ends with Cavendish's sudden split personality disorder shown up and just ending the thing with no real feeling of resolution.
Now, possibly the worst part of Dressrosa: the Coliseum Final! As I mentioned, Sabo is Lucy now so there's not much investment in his conflict with the challengers. It doesn't get much focus despite being the climax to one of the main plotlines in the first third-half of the arc. SuperCoolBadassBossThePoochie Sabo completely wrecks everything in sight - making both Burgess, freshly returned and the 1st Division Commander of a Yonko and one of the main villains in Blackbeard, and Diamante, who had been treated ominously and gotten hyped well; making him one of the (imo anyway) most anticipated and threatening subordinates ever, look like complete chumps and drowning all their build-up like it was nothing. And then he eats the Mera-Mera no Mi, evolving into SuperCoolBadassBossThePoochieHype-Slaughtering Ace 2.0.
And now Bastille, a VA that could have had a good fight against someone, has been added to the list of people trolled hard by him.
See the thing is there was no way Luffy could have fought in the finals. Burgess couldn't have won the Mera Mera, it would have completely changed the arc since Luffy would have to deal with him. It would also make him resent two members of the BB Pirates. Teach for capturing Ace, and Burgess for eating the fruit. Luffy couldn't have won it either or have Barto win and give it to him, cause what would he have done with it? None of the SH's could have eaten it, let's just be real. Sabo showing up came out of left field, but it kills two birds with one stone. Luffy's free to go and do what he was supposed to do on Dressrosa, and Sabo eats the fruit. The point is it was someone that Luffy, and therefore the reader, trusts. I think it was the best solution of what to do with that fruit.
As far as the final, I think it was mostly done for two reasons. First, we can't see Burgess or Diamante go all out, we just need an appetizer of their abilities. Burgess will go all out later on in the story, and we need to save Diamante for the tail end of Dressrosa. Sabo doesn't wreck everything in sight. He keeps up with Burgess but he never gets the upper hand on him, he basically just destroys the arena and literally absconds with the fruit. I'm sure Burgess could have done the same thing if he thought about it, just wreck the arena with a nice Hado Elbow. As far as Sabo being an Ace clone, whoever ate the fruit was going to be inevitably compared to Ace in some way, but to simply disregard Sabo as an Ace clone I feel is doing injustice to both of their characters. From the perspective of the story, Ace in the past was set up to be a rival to Luffy. He said he would make Whitebeard the Pirate King, not Luffy. In that regard he was somewhat similar to Shanks, acting as both someone Luffy could look up to, and one day surpass.
With Sabo there's no such relationship. He's not a pirate, he works for Luffy's dad. He's also another member besides Ivankov and Dragon that ties Luffy to the revolutionaries as a whole. We haven't actually seen too much of the revolutionaries yet, they've felt like a tertiary aspect to the story ever since the beginning, despite having some key members we've already seen. They're definitely being built up for something as the story goes on, so Sabo being alive and part of them just adds another layer to that. Ace and Sabo have similarities, but I feel at their core they're different characters. They're both confident, probably a little cocky, and protective of their little brother. Still, Ace always had a temper to him, and seemed somewhat stubborn. He also was easily provoked by insults and usually reacted with violence. So far, Sabo seems to be pretty bubbly and even tempered, and I'd argue he's more similar character-wise to Luffy than he is to Ace.
The hype for Diamante is still valid. He didn't actually lose, neither did Burgess, as in they weren't knocked out or defeated, so they still feel as powerful as they were built up to be. And we'll see Diamante fight soon enough.
Agreed on D Block, though.
We get a horribly rushed flashback of Kyros/Toy Soldier's life which tries to force us to care about his relationships with the Riku Family but is, well, rushed and fails…
Ok, this one is severely imo, but I feel Kyros would have been better off as a former soldier of The Riku Family and Rebecca's boyfriend. Even that idea as just a line feels a lot less forced. I know there are a lot of people anti-romance in One Piece so I'll understand apprehension with that point.
This is subjective. Rushed? I felt Kyros's backstory did everything it was supposed to do. It gives it more weight when he returns to a human and his connections are re-established. There have been lots of examples of backstories being short and placed at weird points throughout the series. Zoro's about to die? We get his backstory with Kuina. Usopp leaves Syrup Village, we get his backstory which is literally two pages. Robin's about to declare she wants to live? At this super tense and emotional climactic point…we get Robin's backstory. It's always been like this in One Piece.
Another apprehensive point - Dofla caring about his crew. I myself like villains with depth and complexities. But, his underground persona is 'Joker' for a reason. He always came across as that one villain in a series who doesn't care for morals and honour - he's one of those men who just cherishes the chaos. Plus, he's been shown to be very sadistic, and hates certain subordinates like Bellamy and if the stakes are high enough is considered likely to kill a failed subordinate such as Monet if she couldn't protect Caesar. Him caring about particular subordinates in particular circumstances just weakens the character imo. Like the above, I'm very willing to accept problems people have with this point.
I disagree with this. While I do agree Doffy came across as a guy who was unforgiving to his subordinates. But not caring for morals and honor? I think you're mistaking him for the earlier villains in One Piece. See, it was Kuro and Don Krieg who truly didn't care about their subordinates. They were just tools to be used. Doffy definitely cares about honor, cause otherwise why did he even beat up Bellamy? It was because Bellamy dishonored his flag, he says as much himself. Doffy doesn't care if sky island exists or not, but he's annoyed that Bellamy dishonored the flag. Doffy doesn't care about the mooks, but he does care about the executives, cause they're his actual crew. I think this just adds to Doffy's character, we've had enough villains in the franchise who treat their underlings like crap. It's possible that the executives were all Doffy's original crew members, back when he was a small time Pirate. They've shared laughs and sorrows together, it just makes sense he'd care for them. Monet even alludes to the fact that Doffy's dream is to become the Pirate King. This is even more unbelievable than him caring about the executives, cause this whole time we've been led to believe that Doffy's got a "new age" thinking. You know, Pirates who only focus on the treasure that's in front of them, as opposed to myths like Sky Island and One Piece.
We get Operation: SOP which drags like Hell, back-pedals on Usopp's character development (who has been acting like a knob since this whole 'Usoland' thing started) by having him just learn a lesson he already did way back in the Arlong Park Arc, and after all the tension and drama it succeeds because Sugar acts dumb and we get a genuinely unfunny gag to take her out. Usopp is then praised as a God despite not really doing anything…...
I've talked about this in other threads but I have to disagree with this one. Usopp took out Sugar in a manner that was consistent with the character. Sugar's a non combatant, so what would he have done? We already know he's a master sniper, and there wasn't really any opportunity to take her down with sniping skills. The most he could have done genuinely was use some sort of vine Pop Green to bind her, and then shove the tatabasco in her mouth or something. Sugar let down her guard, she wasn't being dumb, and as far as the gag being unfunny again that's subjective. I wasn't laughing out loud, but I thought it was amusing. Usopp being praised as a God was the whole part of this, anyway. The gladiators didn't actually see how he took her out, so they're free to embellish the story as much as they want.
Earlier, Luffy had his first real fight of the New World against Don Chinjao but it still wasn't particularly exerting and he wasn't pushed that bad. So, we were now waiting in anticipation for his first actual all-out New World fight. Also, in one of the reasons Punk Hazard was so great and by far one of the better parts of this arc, Oda continues to build-up Law and Doflamingo's personal rivalry. Law's the one with the personal rivalry, the biggest non-Straw Hat member of the Worst Generation aside from BB and arguably Kid, and in an excellent change of pace has been the one pushing Dofla's buttons and sending him to a breakdown instead of Luffy.
WHAT!? You say Oda's shaking things up and letting someone other than Luffy take out the main villain of the arc and as part of that is setting up someone else as a cool badass and Luffy's opponent (Diamante would have been the preferred choice because of the reasons I mentioned when I last talked about him in this post).
Well, not exactly. Instead, Oda's trying (and failing) to reach a compromise with the quickly approaching Luffy and Law vs Doflamingo, which dulls the point because either 1) Luffy's gonna be hurt (what I'm predicting heading off of 751's ending) so we still won't see his full potential or 2) Dofla will be too OP and the anticipation for Luffy's full power will have been for nought as Luffy will need help to win.
I think this is because Don Chinjao didn't have his full strength cause his head was flat. Plus, Luffy couldn't have gone all out now because he has to go all out for Doffy. When we actually do see Luffy fighting Doffy, Doffy kicks his ass and effortlessly shrugs off Luffy's attacks. Also, as Law said before, he and Straw Hat are "partners". They're both after Doffy. I never once thought anyone but Luffy would take out Doflamingo. Also, if you recall, Law's goal was never actually to defeat Doflamingo personally. It was to get Doffy in a bad situation with Kaido and let Kaido take him out.
As far as predicting that Oda's trying to reach a compromise, I don't think so. It's far too early to tell since Doffy hasn't even started fighting yet in earnest. Law may end up getting sidetracked and have to defeat another executive (Diamante?) while Luffy takes out Doffy on his own.
Also, again I have to mention the pacing is a bit all over the place and it can go long periods before we see certain characters again.
So, that's my opinion on the Dressrosa arc. Sorry for the long post. Once again, I must re-iterate that this is all imo and I'm not trying to force my beliefs on anyone.
I think that has more to do with the sheer number of concurrent storylines, rather than pacing problems. Actually the arc itself is paced pretty well, considering all the players on it. If you go back and reread it from Chapter 700. The problem is with One Piece is that it's a weekly story. I'm always forced to go back to this analogy, but imagine seeing your favorite movie for the first time. But you can only watch a minute of it, every day. Your entire perception of the movie changes, and everything becomes questionable, because you don't have the full picture yet.
However I do appreciate your stance on your opinions, and that you can do it rationally. You are entitled to your opinions, of course, I just wanted to try and give you a little insight onto how I think, cause I really like Dressrosa as a whole. I hope I've been able to shed light on a few of your issues.