@Desperado:
Can someone remind me why the banquet is so important? The day after the whole mess just starts again, right?
There are some plot points that will be dealt with in that banquet…
-Sale-sale will reveal his ultimate plan to become King.
-The twins (with Melody) planning their escape from the succession war. They are using the excuse of doing a musical performance as a cover up of escaping the war. The performance will also be broadcast which suggest something interesting might happen that everyone will overhear?
There is also an increasing tension with all the parties on the boat that might cause panic & hysteria down the road.
Basically a red wedding might happen on that banquet.
@Desperado:
From my view, the chimera ant arc was the start of many of the phenomenons you describe. During the preparation of the palace invasion I caught myself thinking "dammit, how many of these stupid division commanders are left? No one cares about them anymore! Bring in the royal guards!" Then we had to sit through Sazan. And Leol. And Bloster. And Welfin shenanigans. It's basically part of Togashis defensive character esablishment: Draw a diverse set of players that could be developed in pretty much every direction. If you find an interesting pairing, take three or so pages to set up their characters, then have them fight for half a volume until you run out of ideas. Once your editor calls because he has run out of patience, kill off someone important so it looks like you are making progress, then continue playing mindgames with fodder.
Honestly, I didn't particular care for most of the ants. I hated anything involving the cheetah, lobster, the wolf and the octopus the most. Though I personally like Leol vs Morel.
It's standard for any shounen series to throw in some 'mid-bosses' and to pad the story out before facing the main villain. There is bound to be some hit n miss with how the readers will care for those characters. The squaron leaders at least did a better job in that regard.
To be fair, the bodyguards actions are integral part of whether the prince they worked for wins. I guess it's necessary to show their actions & thoughts. But when you have an average of >5 bodyguards per prince & you are going to showcase everyone…
It was a problem in Chimera Ant arc but in the current arc, it is even worse with 10 times more characters & the hiatus.