@Daz:
I think a crucial mistake was making a deliberate point of "Doflamingo knows about Luffy! He won't underestimate him!"…and then having Doffy underestimate Luffy to sub-Bond villain levels. When Doflamingo kicks everyone off the palace because "STARS game mfufufufufu", and the game then falls apart instantly, its forced as heck and makes Doffy look moronic. Throwing in "Doffy has been monitoring Luffy ever since Alabasta!!!!" makes the whole thing even more bizarre, and stuff like not noticing that his factory/backup Dwarf are lost make him seem clueless.
I totally agree. If you let a villain say that he won't underestimate the enemy/won't make the same mistakes/will be one a whole different level compared to all the previous enemies, than you sure as hell have to back up these words with actual deeds. Show. Don't. Tell! However, basically everything he pulled off during the Dressrosa arc fell apart. During the first half of the arc I gave him the benefit of the doubt that everything somehow will work in regards to his overall master plan which at that time still was unknown to us. But then, however, after seeing that his master plan, the birdcage (which we had to deal with 40+ chapters!!!), wasn't anything more then pure desperation move, he lost almost all his villain credibility for me.
The narrative wants us make to believe that he is a decent planner who just was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of bad luck and coincidences no one could have foreseen. That he is anything but a moron. However, I just cannot see it. Let's look at some of his planning:
the colliseum subplot: Especially considering that he knew about Luffy dealing with Crocodile back in Alabasta, this whole plot doesn't make any sense. What did we (and he) learn was the next interaction between Luffy and Croc? Yeah, they fought side by side during Marineford. Seriously, Luffy is a charismatic dude who make friends with everything and everyone. Putting him into a scenario where he can interact with everything and everyone… is supposed to be a good idea because...?
No one could have guessed that Sabo would appear? Replace Sabo by a randomly appearing New World combatant who is on the level of Sabo/Burgess and together with Luffy's ability to befriend everything and everyone. A random contestant on a higher power level tier than Diamante - not such an unlikely scenario, eh? Seriously, as a decent planner and especially with knowing of Luffy's strengths your plan had to be formed in a way that includes as less random instability factors as possible. Whereas the colliseum literally invited hundreds of these instability factors.
Bellamy:
As if letting 100 instability factors aren't enough, let's increase it to 101. Seriously, first he declares he won't underestimate the enemy and second he does… order to backstab one of his loyal subordinates because he failed him. Just read the goddamn evil overlord list. The correct order is:
- Deal with the enemy.
- Be really sure that you've dealt with the enemy completely.
- NOW you can deal with your subordinate.
But Bellamy is so puny and weak, what can he do, anyway? That's exactly the kind of underestimation Doffy mouthful claimed not to do! Add the 100 aforementioned instability factors and well... one of them intervened when dellinger tried to kill him off and - oh surprise - it heavily backfired!
Sugar:
So not only the present plot, but also his overall planning heavily relies on that a girl will never faint. But hey, what possibly could happen? Again it's the sheer amount of random instability factors that is everyone of those who Sugar has to touch. We learned during the Luffy vs. Enel fight who devastating an natural enemy to your DF can be. And it really should be common knowledge that every DF can have its own natural enemy who also can show up at any random time. Sure, the probability of it happening is ridiculously small. But it has to happen ONLY ONE TIME in order to INSTANTLY DESTROY all of his efforts.
Especially considering that Doffy isn't always present in Dressrosa in order to deal with the desaster personally. And regarding to the present conflict: Is it really such a good idea to let Sugar directly interact with 100+ completely unknown people? What if one of them had an Anti-Sugar-DF? Which will only show its devastating powers (in regards to Sugar) right in front of her?
Instead of building up his kingdom in a way that one unlucky situation instantly can make it crumble, how about instead building up it by your devilish charisma which you were praised for? That way, the enemy had to deal with you and that charisma which should give YOU the power to befriend everything and everyone as well. But hey, STARS game mufufufufu!
By the way, I know there was some Dryish rant about exactly this issue, but I cannot find it anymore. Does anyone know where it is? It is to be somewhere around chapter 740 I guess.
Birdcage:
What really tore this arc apart was Oda's decision to build the overall outer conflict around Sugar and then the birdcage.
The birdcage is a shitty desperation move. Nothing more to say here.
Just that it doesn't even help in a lot of possible standard scenarios like
- the revolutionaries start a coup during his absence (maybe during the Marineford War) and Doffy himself is not present
- Akainu (may it be still as regular admiral) is present on the time of crisis
And just a question about his intellectual and social skills, he was dead serious here, right?
http://www.mangareader.net/one-piece/780/4
He never planned anything to create a semi-realistic scenario in order for Law to do the operation where there actually had been a slight realistic chance that Law might decide so, did he?