Hiyori was really interesting in mainland Wano. Her double role as Komurasaki was cool, but loosing her temper at the banquet with Orochi and risking everything a few days before the raid she waited for for 20 years was nonsense. Her character was all over the place.
There was absolutely no need for her not to meet Momo before the raid and still go in secret to Onigashima. There was no reason not to show us her healing the samurai. There was no reason for her to tell Zoro, at the time a stranger, who she really was.
As a meta character, that opened the Acts and told the story as a narrator, thst was fun.
But one of Wano's disappointments was the lack of long waited scenes: we didn't see the moment Kinemon met with Tsuru again, after 20 years passed for her. We also didn't see Momo and Hiyori meeting and talking about their parents and the country's fate.

I didn't see people mentioning this, but hoe crazy was it that Sanji himself aknowledged how close they are to the end of their journey? When he "mourned" Zoro's death so close to the One Piece.
Oda now is so focused on the ending that even the characters are thinking about it.

Willing to consider Vivi or Yamato that member. Especially if we think that Ao Kiji is BB's tenth comander, since Ao Kiji would be obviously a traitor and spy.

There is for sure a lot of sadness behind Garp. As much as he wanted to capture Roger it was obvious they both liked and respected each other.
The key scene is when Garp returns to Fuchsia after Ace's death and Dadan yells at him. After that Makino tells Dadan that she should be able to see that Garp is the one suffering the most... so yeah, he has so many regrets! It makes it more cool the scene where he subtly looks away and lets Luffy punch him to reach Ace.
In the end he'll be happy his family became pirates e revos, achieving the freedom he never found at the navy

Wonder if Bonney's attack Oil Shock is written the same way as Ursus Shock in the original. Cool to have a little reference to her father...

Maybe Bonney is Big Mom's clone (pink hair, hungry) and that's what Kuma didn't want her to know.

Wondering about Kuma's past: it would be so interesting if he really was a Tyrant, a bad king, and changed his ways after meeting Dragon, even stepping away from the throne to let his people be free. I am afraid Oda might go the safe route and make the tyrant thing a bad reputation the WG gave him because he got close to the Revos.... It would be nice to have a good character who was actually bad in the past

Really wished the story focused on Vegapunk and Kuma. Their lore has been on the background of the main story ever since Kuma was in Thriller Bark. Bonney's having some great emotional moments, and I think Oda should have delayed the cp0 and Blackbeard stuff (or anticipated Blackbeard to before Egghead).

How funny that One Piece is getting extra tough for casual readers: remember the minor participant of Big Mom's party, who apparently was a governmental agent? Now she's also a clone of a character who had a one-chapter appereance like 23 VOLUMES ago. Good luck for those that don't usually reread OP

@electricmastro
Oda didn't have to give Momo a spotlight, he chose to. And it would not be a problema if he had managed to make Momo an interesting character. We were all excited to see his growth and development, we just didn't like the way it happened.

(One exception for me: I think I might be the only person who liked the scene in which Momo bites Kaidou, both in dragon form. Luffy saying "After this, is there anything in this world you are afraid of?" was so awesome! And it was so weird that after that everyone was waiting for Momo to finally attack Kaidou or give him the final blow, as if that had not just happened??)

@Captain-M said in Chapter 1072: The Weight of Memory:

@Chams-0 said in Chapter 1072: The Weight of Memory:

How funny that One Piece is getting extra tough for casual readers: remember the minor participant of Big Mom's party, who apparently was a governmental agent? Now she's also a clone of a character who had a one-chapter appereance like 23 VOLUMES ago. Good luck for those that don't usually reread OP

It's not like you need anything from the wedding party to understand Stussy the way she is now. Being reintroduced as part of a Cipher Pol squad gives her a clear role and skillset whether you remember seeing her before or not. And now that there's a big reveal putting her in the spotlight she gets a new Odabox introduction.

People do seem to be having a harder time drawing the connection to Buckin on their own though. Maybe the audience could have used a refresher on her when we were seeing the world between arcs.

I partially agree, but try to think of it through the perspective of casual readers: You are able to say that her part in the Wedding is not necessary to understand the character because you REMEMBER her there and knows what she did. But another reader will see Stussy this arc and say "I think she appeared before, who was she again? Did she do something important?" and they might think they are missing out on something.
I don't think this arc is impossible to understand, I just think that casual readers will feel like they are not getting the full experience, and might feel left out with so many secondary characters getting the spotlight.

Really wished the story focused on Vegapunk and Kuma. Their lore has been on the background of the main story ever since Kuma was in Thriller Bark. Bonney's having some great emotional moments, and I think Oda should have delayed the cp0 and Blackbeard stuff (or anticipated Blackbeard to before Egghead).

How funny that One Piece is getting extra tough for casual readers: remember the minor participant of Big Mom's party, who apparently was a governmental agent? Now she's also a clone of a character who had a one-chapter appereance like 23 VOLUMES ago. Good luck for those that don't usually reread OP

I didn't see people mentioning this, but hoe crazy was it that Sanji himself aknowledged how close they are to the end of their journey? When he "mourned" Zoro's death so close to the One Piece.
Oda now is so focused on the ending that even the characters are thinking about it.

Wonder if Bonney's attack Oil Shock is written the same way as Ursus Shock in the original. Cool to have a little reference to her father...

Maybe Bonney is Big Mom's clone (pink hair, hungry) and that's what Kuma didn't want her to know.

Wondering about Kuma's past: it would be so interesting if he really was a Tyrant, a bad king, and changed his ways after meeting Dragon, even stepping away from the throne to let his people be free. I am afraid Oda might go the safe route and make the tyrant thing a bad reputation the WG gave him because he got close to the Revos.... It would be nice to have a good character who was actually bad in the past

I have a small theory that after Whole Cake island there was supposed to be a mini arc in Sphinx Island, in which Luffy recruited Marco and defeated Weevil. But WC ended up taking so much of the manga's run that the mini arc was scrapped and Marco's story was shortened. And Weevil was saved for another moment. Felt strange he was introduced as a Warlord and before he was used Warlord System was abolished and the guy barely appears in the manga

There is for sure a lot of sadness behind Garp. As much as he wanted to capture Roger it was obvious they both liked and respected each other.
The key scene is when Garp returns to Fuchsia after Ace's death and Dadan yells at him. After that Makino tells Dadan that she should be able to see that Garp is the one suffering the most... so yeah, he has so many regrets! It makes it more cool the scene where he subtly looks away and lets Luffy punch him to reach Ace.
In the end he'll be happy his family became pirates e revos, achieving the freedom he never found at the navy

@electricmastro
Didn't the flames already happen? Orochi burned in front of her, from a fire he lit up with Kanjuro, born of old grievances and hatred. She witnessed the last Kurozomi burn.

Hiyori was really interesting in mainland Wano. Her double role as Komurasaki was cool, but loosing her temper at the banquet with Orochi and risking everything a few days before the raid she waited for for 20 years was nonsense. Her character was all over the place.
There was absolutely no need for her not to meet Momo before the raid and still go in secret to Onigashima. There was no reason not to show us her healing the samurai. There was no reason for her to tell Zoro, at the time a stranger, who she really was.
As a meta character, that opened the Acts and told the story as a narrator, thst was fun.
But one of Wano's disappointments was the lack of long waited scenes: we didn't see the moment Kinemon met with Tsuru again, after 20 years passed for her. We also didn't see Momo and Hiyori meeting and talking about their parents and the country's fate.

One Piece is not a very strategy heavy manga, like Hunter x Hunter (at the other end of the spectrum). So Vegapunks smartness allows him to do science things, bit not to think about the consequences of his actions. Sengoku and Akainu were praised by their strategy in Marineford and even they didn't do that much... I missed strategy in Onigashima though. Really thought Nami and Usopp would create a plan of counter attacking the beast pirates, bit they were just taken along Tama. The whole Go board of the Cp0 agents was more foe showing the numbers than developing a strategy. Even the samurai's plan was weird: Orochi knew for certain they were alive but Kaidou was still taken by surprise?