@andre said in Greg: Teacher of SUPER " OP " course !:
@kouch_lee I actually meant water7/envies lobby, lol.
Oh, so I went into an ID rant for nothing. Well, that is embarrassing...
...Ennies Lobby DOES get shit around here, you're absolutely right. I need to re-read it some day, I know I don't dislike it, but I'm a bigger fan of the Water7 part.
@Daz What can I say, you didn't write any lies in there. WCI's writing IS wonky. To me, though, WCI is an arc I "vibe" with, where I let myself go for a ride, and it is a great ride. Questionable writing choices often lead to genuinely good moments. All the contrivances you just mentioned (even though eggplant guy falling asleep on Sanji's bed is so stupid it ends up being funny) are definitely eyebrow raising, but they lead to Sanji shedding a tear in the rain as he finds Mummified Luffy waiting for him at the spot he said he would wait for him, and then Luffy finding the messed up bento box delicious cause Sanji cooked it, which also just happens to be the "usual" meal Sanji crafts for the crew. All that is heartwarming, it's a nice, warm blanket on a winter's night.
Sanji's threats are nullified too easily, but that leads to Reiju becoming a gasp character of her own, and at that moment Sanji can leave, he knows it, but he makes excuses cause he doesn't wanna leave and let people die because of that choice, even if those people are his shitty family. If we're to buy the whole "Sanji is the kindest human being in the planet bar none!" theme which is on its own already questionable (the guy that wanted nothing to do with the Punk Hazard kids until Nami begged him to protect them is THE kindest in the galaxy?), that moment is necessary to hammer that point home. Even the shittiest family in the planet he cannot let die! Of course, it all goes down smoother thanks to Reiju being one of the ones left to die, and she's retconned into being nice (she clearly put explossive bracelets on him, Oda decided those were fake after the fact. I'm sure of it).
I'm not saying to embrace bad writing if it leads to good stuff (I didn't like Sanji beating Luffy up...but damn if that wasn't nicely drawn), but I'm making that compromise here and there if I feel the payoff is worth it. BTW, I know I'm making this compromise cause this is One Piece. I would be much less lenient with, say, Hunter x Hunter or Naruto or Bleach. Hypocritical, I know.
The Katakuri fight has the problem you mentioned which kind of alligns with Zoro vs. King - this guy has a weakness, gotta find it, it's crucial! But, meanwhile, let me just hit him harder. Oh look, it works.
It's actually more nuanced than that (Zoro notices how King works and addapts to that...WHILE just hitting him harder and harder cause he learnt CoC coating while fighting, and Luffy does notice he has to circumvent Katakuris insane CoO...while developing an insane CoO of his own to counter Katakuris', instead of using distractions and the like), but yeah, it goes into meatheaded territory which. . .has always kind of been Oda's thing? Punch harder until you win?
On the other hand, the visual presentation of the fight is quite possibly the best in the series, and on re-read I even came to appreciate that moment where Luffy runs away, but ends up realizing he has to go back and defeat Katakuri if he wants to be a top dog. Kind of a Goku moment, yes, but I can roll with that.
As for the murder attempt...I got nothing. I can make a headcannon that they go with it because Big Mom is deep down a rotten apple...but so is Bege, who literally shot Pekoms and left him to die not once, but TWICE. We've come to love Bege cause he's possibly the best supernova out there,
but part of the appeal is that he's kind of evil, and the plan is evil, and the SH's know. There's no gray morality here, the SH's are good guys and have always been, so that was kinda weird...
...but it lead to the plan failing spectacularly, which was tons of fun.
Sanji just wanting to cook the most delicious cake ever doesn't need to link into his "I'll never let anyone starve!" motive, it can just be his pride as a cook. And while I know Greg was disappointed in how that went (no multiple BM sons working together to make the cake with their specialities, which is sadly wasted potential), I actually like some of the stuff that went with that, like the Nova Castello running over Oven followed by Sanji keeping a gargantuan sized cake on one leg while doing Geppou with the other. That's a fantastic visual.
And Big Mom eating the cake? That chapter is one of the best in the entire series, even if it ends with a fake cliffhanger. That's the first time I've seen a sequence choreographed to the lyrics of a song in written format. That chapter, the final chapter you just mentioned and the one during the wedding where I think there's barely any dialogue are Oda doing experiments and succeeding marvelously...and then not doing them again for ¿4 years? (Well, Gear 5 is experimental, so there's that).
Pedro IS boring. Nothing else to add here.
Sanji having awakened genes is terrible, but hey, his mom's sacrifice gave him that but not being a sociopath, which tells us that "genetic engineering is good if it gives you super strength, so maybe that Judge fella was onto something, wasn't he?", but it's not all bad cause it also says "but genetic engineering to take people's emotions away from them so they can murder without feeling remorse, that's kinda messed up, Judge!". It's a genuinely bad development. I remember the crazy theories that what Sanji awoke were actually Lunarian genes on his mom's end and as preposterous as that sounds...it would've been 10 times better than what we got. That coupled with the Germas being COOL as you mentioned makes me wonder what goes through Oda's head sometimes.
Like, does he think the reader's favorite moment is when the Vinsmokes save Sanji and Luffy and start kicking Big Mom's kids around, or when they are getting gunned down with anti-Germa bullets a couple chapters afterwards? Cause I know which moment is my favorite...but which one is SUPPOSED to be our favorite? Do we say "take that stupid Vinsmokes" or do we say "oh, no, they have anti-Germa bullets, the Vinsmokes will be hurt!"? This week, should we go "Damn you Gastino, let Katakuri decimate these assholes!" or should we go "thank god Gastino was there to save the Germa!"?
I got no conclusion here, sorry. Just those scattered thoughts.
