@The:
I think you are reading a little to much into the fish. There are scenes where people or creatures that have a certain look that really doesn't mean much. Especially for the beginning of a cover story, probably doesn't matter what it means, if anything. When Doflamingo called them weaklings, he was taunting them. Between them being in the water in a weakened state, as well as having pushed him this far, he feels like taunting them. This could also show that Doflamingo doesn't care whether he underestimates them or not, he wants revenge for what humiliation he's been put through.
As far as the statement Luffy made about never making the same mistakes again, I understand some of the frustration, but is seems some people take it to seriously. He did fall for that trap, but I think the complaints will be more legitimate if he continues to fall for those traps in this scenario. I agree that Luffy's attachment to his friends can be a downfall, as we see with Ucy, but we also know that can be his strength as well. As far as the Franky fight, while I really want to see him fight, I'm assuming he's saving up his strength for the factory at the moment. It's smarter to make sure he has enough power to take down the factory first before defeating Senor Pink. Of course, I could be wrong with this but seems like the most plausible situation atm.
It will be interesting to see the Law Flashback, which even the people who don't care for this arc seem to have been looking forward to. It should be a nice break from the chaos.
We seem to barely see the villains ship. At this point I don't think he has his ship any more. He probably stays in Dressrosa most of the time and fly's where he needs to. If he uses a ship, it's probably nothing special because he wouldn't want to stand out.
One Piece, like a lot of Mangas, is much better when reading through an arc whole. While Oda does a good job of making people want more of the Manga, since there is always a lot to look forward to, when reading on a weekly basis, there are still times where you want things to move along. Him taking all these breaks doesn't help, but he needs to so he doesn't get overly stressed so he can eventually finish it. For me, even if there are chapters that aren't great by One Piece standards, I can still find something to enjoy each chapter, but that's going to be different for each person.
I give you props for even reading my long post ;)