It is a problem though since the hunt for PK will pretty much remain without a credible rival for Luffy while it also reveals a problem for BB. He wants to become PK and thus make it his era, if Luffy becomes PK, BB pretty much stays an empty villain who failed to achieve his goal.

That's why Luffy and Blackbeard will fight for who gets to be crowned that, obviously. Blackbeard will be Luffy's greatest rival and antagonist to the end, just as he's been set up to be. There's no one else who can fill that role. These two will decide the fate of the world. The only problem is that some people have decided this needs to happen at Raftel, but that's not remotely true. It's clear by now that this is going to be bigger than Raftel, it'll involve the whole world. Blackbeard, the man who proclaimed the coming era to be his, the man who speaks of conquering the world, the only evil D, the dark version of Luffy, the man with the power to destroy the world, isn't going to be anticlimactically knocked out of the picture before the great end war happens.

The ruler of the age is not the one who conquers WG and Marines, it was Rock´s age, Roger´s age, WB´s age, and in all through each era the WG remained in power.

Blackbeard has outright said he wants to conquer the world. He's not just aiming to do what Whitebeard did, sitting passive on a throne. Or what Roger did, reach the end and then do nothing with it. The evidence goes against that being Teach's ambition. Saying that he will be Pirate King doesn't have an innate meaning because it means different things to different people. For Blackbeard, we don't yet know exactly what it means but if you assume it means holding a title and sitting on his ass you're likely to be surprised.

I wish it was confirmed, at this point it´s people wanting that to be the case though, so that they can feel justified in their opinion.

The evidence is clearly stacked. Speaking about conquering the world, having an interest in ancient history. All the signs point to it and that's what good predictions are, based in clear clues and evidence. Nothing will be truly confirmed until it happens but it's as close as it gets.

If the leader of the world holds teh pictures of BB and Luffy up, he puts them up as threats against himself from a superior position, not as people who will remain in the end, there is no causality in that statement.
If anything, it underlines the ultimate stance and level of the WG, they are above all, everyone else plays in their pond.

Of course he is, he's in the superior position now, but these are the two people that will eventually threaten him and his rule. Blackbeard has announced his intention to conquer the world and that the World Government can basically go fuck itself because it's HIS era. By the end the WG won't be the biggest fish in the pond anymore, they'll be knocked off their thrones as the ones who rose to the top in the new era decide the future. We had even more foreshadowing for this extremely recently with Doflamingo, if you recall:

https://www.mangapanda.com/one-piece/801/9

@MiyamotoMusashi:

What i personally have a problem with, and this is up to Oda to make it compelling and credible if it comes to that, is BB´s eventual reason to still participate in the big war in which he has no real stakes in, unless Oda shifts BB´s role and aim from becoming PK to generally ruling the world with an Ancient Weapon like Crocodile wanted to. Because BB´s aim is without a doubt to become PK, unlike let´s say DD, his definition of becoming PK is not different to Luffy´s, get to Raftel, find OP. That´s why he is so happy when WB confirms the existence of One Piece, and it´s consistent with his insistence on the importance of dreams in Jaya.

But this also implies that BB will have no adversary role to play towards Luffy becoming PK since BB being still active in the final war and being Luffy´s last opponent to beat implies that the race for PK is over.

That's not really a problem though as there are already multiple clues that basically confirm Blackbeard having ambitions beyond "sit around being Pirate King, yay!". We just don't know exactly what they are yet because the main antagonist's true motives are being kept as a mystery toward the end, which makes sense, but the hints are there.

When he tried to convince Ace to join his crew he flat out said he wants to conquer the world and has already laid out his plans for it. He doesn't want to just have the PK title as some kind of badge of honor and sit on his ass once he gets it. When he stole WB's fruit in Marineford he basically announced that he'll overtake the Marines and WG as the ruler of the "age". And looking at material outside the story itself, Oda has given some heavy clues in the form of saying that Teach's profession would be an archaeologist in the real world. He has a significant interest in something far back in history, not just chasing a dream for the sake of an idealistic notion like freedom. All this put together pretty much confirms that his ambitions go beyond getting a title and sitting around with it.

What makes the most sense to me is that the war will have many different factions, like

• Straw Hats & friends
• WG loyalists
• Defecting Marines that can't accept the "world cleansing" (possibly in different directions)
• Revolutionaries
• Blackbeard pirates
• other pirates and people with their own agendas

and in the end it will be Luffy and Blackbeard left standing and deciding the future of the world. There's nothing else that has been built up as much as this. Even in this chapter which has revatilized the WG-for-final-boss crew, the secret king of the world is looking at Luffy and Blackbeard side-by-side as equal threats.

The Commanders' designs aren't instant classics, but I like them. I also like that, since this seems to be all of them now, the number of Revolutionary Army significant i.e. named members has been kept relatively small. It gives me hope for each of them getting individual focus in a way that many characters since the timeskip haven't.

@Count:

I do not care for Sanji wearing it I like his fighting style because it centers around his personality and cooking. He relies on kicking because his hands are too precious for cooking to risk and his fire attacks are loosely themed after spices/cooking heat and are created from friction/passion. All of that is consistent with Sanji's characterization in how he fights and acts. Getting a high-tech cyborg suit has nothing to do with what defines Sanji other than why he was picked on in his second flashback, and most of what these suits do is already redundant (advanced physical stats and leaping/air walking). The only thing it could add is some sort of elemental ability like Reiju's poison, Ichiji's sparks, Niji's electricity, and Yonji's winch fingers, but again, Sanji already has fire abilities.

Additionally, one of the most unique things about Sanji is his business suit attire. All of the Straw Hats change their attire for most arcs, sure, but that is what Sanji's design always keeps coming back to. A super sentai look just does not mesh with that. Hell, the raid suit design is the one thing I can concede works better for Usopp or even Franky than Sanji because those two like to act like goofy heroes who use technology, like to wear costumes, and do silly poses.

And I'm not even getting into how contradictory it feels for Sanji to wear a raid suit after his the second half of his character arc in Totland was proving his family's ideals of valuing royalty, strength, and technology over "peasant" duties like cooking wrong. In-universe, there is no reason for Sanji not to wear this suit other than pride. His crewmates in the latest chapter are right about science being valuable. But from a meta storytelling perspective, it only looks regressive. Why go from proving that you are already great without a tool your abusers use as a crutch to belittle you only to end up relying on that tool one or two arcs later? That is so contradictory.

I think I'm only fine with Sanji only using it once in a forced situation but striving to improve himself without it afterwards. It would make for nice gradual character development similar to Usopp building up bravery pre-timeskip.

Well, this guy pretty much said everything I wanted to say but twice as eloquently. I can't think of any future development for this suit business that I can feel both confident and comfortable with.

Just like everything involving the Vinsmokes it makes me feel like me and Oda are not on the same page anymore. He leaned so heavily into the flashy superheroes portrayal of them which was seemingly intended to impress and wow us readers, while their characterization remained both shallow and off-putting. It makes me afraid he's going down the same route with Sanji - and that I'm supposed to be okay with it despite the dubious writing because wowzers, power rangers flashy bang bang! My gut feeling is that Sanji will eventually put the thing on and Oda will portray it as something flashy and cool and badass, like he did with the Vinsmoke family members, and I'll once again be sitting there like "Welp, I'm not feeling this. Not feeling it at all".

The best way I can rationalize it is that Sanji "earned" the suit as a power-up by proving his family wrong about him without ever compromising on his ideals. I view Niji giving him the suit as a sort of twisted compliment and showing of respect in the only way the Germa can for Sanji. There's something vaguely satisfying about that reading.

So a use of it as a one-time deal in a dire situation, fine. That much I'm almost certain will happen. But I can't get on board with it as a permanent power-up for Sanji. It would change his entire fighting style both aesthetically and thematically in a direction I'm not fond of at all. Unfortunately given how fond Oda seems to be of the flashy superheroes theme, I'm afraid it may be a case where me and the series ends up having an irreconcilable difference.

1. Jaya-Skypiea
2. CP9 (Long Ring - W7 - Sea Train - EL - post-EL)
3. Baroque Works
4. Summit War (Sabaody - AL - Impel Down - Marineford - post-war)
5. East Blue

Jury's basically still out on the New World stuff not just because I've found the quality to be lower than before (which I do), but also because it's getting harder and harder to neatly categorize the story into arcs. They're so much more interconnected than before, every island has contained important setup for future ones and the story flows pretty seamlessly rather than being split up into self-contained story arcs.

Fishman Island was pretty good, but can't measure up the big 'uns all on its own. The "Doflamingo arc" (Punk Hazard - Dressrosa), despite being a huge disappointment in many ways, is stronger than the "Big Mom 1 arc" (Zou - Totland) for me. It had proper setup and build-up which led into kind of satisfying conclusions and closure on all the major story beats.

Even though I actually think the latest two arcs we've had are better, looking at their individual quality, they don't feel "done" yet in the same way. Zou was setup for Wano and beyond as much as it was set up for Totland and WCI left more threads hanging, intentionally eschewed closure than any other arc. That's not bad writing or anything like that, it's definitely deliberate, but it also means I can't really judge them the same way I would other arcs/sagas. My current gut feeling is that the time of neatly contained arcs is completely over by now and it's going to be one long seamless stretch from here to the end. By then we'll have one gigantic arc that contains everything from Zou to round 1 with Big Mom, to Wano/Kaido, to Elbaf/round 2 with Big Mom, and beyond.

As far as strictly individual arcs/islands are concerned:

1. Skypiea
2. Water 7 (incl. Sea Train)
3. Arabasta
4. Enies Lobby (incl. post-EL)
5. Jaya
6. Marineford
7. Impel Down
8. Drum Island (the MOST underrated arc!)
9. Zou
10. Baratie

Gets tough by the end. Whole Cake Island, Sabaody and Arlong Park all kinda duke it out for that last spot along with Baratie, it could really go either way. Zou remains the best post-timeskip arc in my books, it was short but executed to near perfection.

@theackwardstation:

I've never seen Sanji as this unshakable strong-willed character as Luffy and Zoro, although also being part of the Monster Trio. I'd even remeber that, back in Baratie, Zeff's speech to Sanji was all about how Luffy had this "spear" to go all out for his dreams while Sanji was too stuck in repaying his debt to Zeff instead of leaving to the sea in order to search the All Blue. During Zoro's fight against Mihawk, we're constantly shown that Sanji didn't understand the concept of dying for your dreams, claiming it was best to abandon your dreams intead of dying. However, at the same time, Sanji was always a dutiful man ready to fight to protect his friends, never shaking before doing the right thing. So what we find is this selfless person, ready to die for the others, but never for himself… something pretty close to the plot of WCI.

...

Didn't mean about becoming an entertaining character, but fulfilling its role as a threat. A villain is ultimately an obstacle for the main character to reach its development/conclusion and Smoothie was never put in that position. Smoothie was only there to build Big Mom's crew, although I think Oda could have done much better in making her entertaining. However, about other past villains, I don't think Oda did such a great job with all of them. Since you mentioned Skypiea, I'd argue that the only Priest to have a full-fledged fight agains the Shandians (the position Smoothie would fit if her role was to fight the Vinsmokes) was Shura and he's not better than Smoothie from what I can remember, just a typical bad guy with no interesting traits (only a cool design) that ended up defeated by Wiper only to show Wiper's strong will to use the Reject Dial. For each arc, I can think of a henchman that was completely underwhelming as a character, with the exception of CP9.

Yeah, but the whole point of where that led was Zeff telling Sanji that he's been a stubborn idiot who holds himself back and refuses to follow his own dreams. He has his own "spear" as much as Luffy and Zoro but was stifling it on account of feeling forced to repay his perceived debt to Zeff. He wasn't being honest with himself when he called out people for being idiots to follow their dream even at the risk of losing their lives.

https://www.mangapanda.com/one-piece/66/14

I agree that Shura is no more interesting a character than Smoothie but he made up for that by actually being a credible threat with an entertaining fighting style, who got into some pretty cool scuffles. This was a top lieutenant of the arc villain who never really had a proper fight with any SH and yet still figured as a credible antagonist entertaining enough not to feel like a disappointment… Smoothie has no excuse for not at least matching that, given her far greater stature and the greater length of her arc.

I certainly disagree that confrontations are only entertaining when it's the villain against the main cast. Seems like an arbitrary statement to make. Skypiea had some tense struggles between two entirely different groups, the Shandians (who weren't even necessarily allies at the time) and Enel's priests, and they were good and satisfying for what they were. The Germa were antagonists given a lot of screentime in this arc, they're not some minor group, and they would have been better served in something resembling a proper showdown instead of getting spread of getting the occasional spread-out panel of performing one flashy feat each before sinking into the background again.

Smoothie has the same position (technically even one step higher) as Cracker. It's not a good excuse that she didn't have a greater role in the story because it's Oda who writes the story. The whole point of the criticism made against Smoothie is that he relegated her to such a boring state didn't give her a greater role. The narrative isn't some independent thing that Oda has to go along with, he makes it, and he shouldn't have had a top commander of Big Mom be so limp and lackluster for a massive 75 chapter arc.

I wouldn't really call her a major problem either, but like I said, never before in OP has such a big name been given such an underwhelming treatment in a primary arc. So it just sticks out to me like a sore thumb and is one of the things that contribute to the arc feeling "off" alongside stuff like Germa's treatment.

I think part of it is because it's Sanji, specifically, we're talking about. He's a part of the monster trio and that has never just been about who can hit things the hardest. Those three are the pillars of the crew mentally as well and are ready to carry the heaviest burdens. They have absolute confidence in themselves and you'll have to practically break them to make them waver even an inch, as exemplified by how much it took for Luffy to finally fall in the Marineford arc.

This part of his past was far enough behind and he had enough good in his life since then. If we compare it to Usopp, the sharpshooter was always struggling with his insecurities in this crew of monsters and was pushed over the edge. And if we compare it to Robin, the only true happiness in her life for the past 20 years had been few weeks she had spent with the Straw Hats. I think those two elements, combined - his high confidence and mental stability plus having many happy years on the Baratie even before joining the crew - make enough sense of Sanji's situation. People are just different too, it's not always predictable how someone will react and be affected.

But that still does call into question why even bother giving him such a cartoonishly and disturbingly evil family, just like you say. In the end the Vinsmokes barely mattered. They were a plot device to get Sanji in that situation where he felt pressured from all directions to resolve things peacefully for everyone, and it's from there that all the good character stuff stemmed. Not from his feuding with his old family. The best thing I can say about the whole Vinsmoke situation is that it gave some insights into where his ideals and interests come from (I love what you brought up about his childhood consisting entirely of abuse and bullying from his male siblings and father, while only his sister and mother brought him any solace - I'm not sure if Oda actually intended this, since it seems like it's the later scene with Zeff that led him down his path of chivalry.. but damn it, I'm going to force myself to believe it's fully intentional). But in the end it's not enough to justify the unpleasantness and lack of satisfying resolution the group brought to the arc.

@DemonX:

Hey Corus, good to see you're back again/still around/still reading OP.
I was really wondering what your take on the last few arcs would be. All in all, I'm a bit surprised you aren't more critical. But I've yet to read the arc in one go, so my criticism might mellow out a bit.

What did you think of Luffy's fight/powerup? And what about Jimbe still not joining the crew? Also, are you seriously saying you got crewmember vibes from Carrot?
(and off-topic: are you going to show up more often on TMF/NF?)

I still need to re-read the arc, but I have to agree with this sentiment. Since I'm not that drawn into the newer arcs I really wonder if I'm outgrowing a phase here or whatever, but I still love reading the older arcs. Maybe it's just nostalgia, or maybe…Oda can't manage as well anymore, as you've said. Which is a pity, because I really really want to like OP. It's the first manga I've actually bought FFS.

Well as I said this arc was the least engaged I've ever felt with One Piece. For the last few months I kept forgetting that a chapter was even coming out, which is a sad state of affairs for a series I have so much love for. But now I'm increasingly sure the weekly reading really hurt this arc. It's not as bad as it felt at times.

Made my peace. Pretty disappointing, it's clearly a part of an intentional downer ending so I'm accepting it for now but the payoff has to be good. Yeah she's a lot of fun. Very lively and emotive, fun interactions with every crewmember, amusing quirks, and fighting abilities that I could see being both entertaining and cool. I'm not sure I get actual joining vibes, I'm more so saying she was fantastic to have around as an arc ally that felt on par with an actual crewmember in terms of personality and interactions.

@Icefae:

I gotta just whine more about the Vinsmokes. I really do think I would have loved the arc had it not been for them. Frankly it would have been nice had the Sanji flashback not existed at all, or at the very least been toned down in its severity.

As we've said, Judge and the Vinsmokes were built out as disturbing as hell Ramsay Bolton-esque villains. I actually loved this element at first because it was a great development for Sanji. Others would say that it was poor writing that Sanji defected from the Straw Hats but that flashback made it very clear that, similar to Robin's trauma surrounding the Buster Call in Water 7, he was acting out of a fear that was incredibly dark but relatable. The message was clear that Sanji's love of women extended beyond just what he was taught by Zeff, but also way back to his brothers and fathers beating and abusing him for years whereas Reiju and his mother especially were sources of comfort and validation. I thought that it was a bold move on Oda's behalf to explore Sanji's "misandry", overall distrust of men, and perhaps his unhealthy obsession with needing validation from women. I was literally declaring to people that One Piece had reached its absolute highest point with that flashback and the direction I thought the story was headed. I seriously thought that we were going to explore how Sanji's trauma had affected him, and this arc (the year of Sanji), would have been him confronting the demons of his past. I had even theorized that he would actually have to fight a woman in this arc as the ultimate character test. The scene with him trying to light the cigarette in the rain is one of my favorite chapters ever and easily in my top 5 panels ever.

So like… imagine my dismay when Sanji doesn't even confront his past or address his trauma in any believable way. He just runs back to Luffy and that entire subplot is dropped entirely. And for the rest of the arc, the Vinsmokes are portrayed as cool and heroic. I can't help but feel like it would have been better if it was just Sanji's father that cast him away but everything with Cosette and the treatment of Sanji's mother were cut. It helped to make Sanji's fear believable, but it was even weirder that he seemed to just be over it even though he's like 21 years old and probably isn't popping any anxiety pills or antidepressants (although he is a chain smoker). And the Vinsmokes torturing Sanji as a kid and then again as an adult only to like... turn up and be depicted as these heroes who save the day is just fucking like. God what? What the fuck? Just truly what the fuck.

If I'm going to play devil's advocate for my least liked part of the arc for just a moment, I do have an idea as to why Oda might have chosen to play it his way rather than something more expected like what you suggest.

I think the idea is that Sanji has become too strong, strong-willed and distant from his past demons to really be that affected by them. Or really needing to "face" them. They still shaped him, but he's already far beyond them, ten times the man they are all combined. He looks on them with pure disdain, loudly declares he doesn't view them as his family and would prefer to never see them again, punishes them when they do something in his view absolutely unacceptable (hurting Cosette). He's only ever cowed by threats he could do nothing about.

These arrogant bullies are absolutely nothing compared to Sanji and he doesn't need to prove himself to them. He's long since left his demons behind. He doesn't care about them in the slightest, besides the little part of him that says "you can't just let your family die like that, no matter how horrible". He's completely secure in who he is and firmly rooted in both of his new families-by-bonds. There's not much to even say between them, other than a blunt - you're not my father, you're a vile piece of shit and I never want to see you again, get it?

…that's what I want to say. And I do think it's roughly what Oda intended, but I don't think the writing is consistent in showing it. The problem, just as you've identified, does lie with the incongruence in how the first part of the arc is shown and what ends up happening later. The Vinsmokes are given free rein to bully Sanji around, beat him up and insult him at their leisure. He's treated like absolute trash by these guys. Sanji isn't exactly broken to pieces by this but he hardly takes it perfectly either. And sure, I buy that. He's not a robot, it would be unreasonable to ask him to be totally unaffected by the memory of that childhood trauma coming to life again in front of him. But the problem still remains that the Vinsmokes never got true comeuppance for their vile behavior. The very polar opposite, as they end up being treated as flashy badass heroes, and even get to embarass Sanji as he fails miserably to get anywhere with the cornered Luffy in the most baffling scene of the entire arc to me.

It just isn't satisfying. It's so off course for this series. One Piece is in the category of stories that says the true defeat villains suffer is not on the physical but on the ideological and mental level, and I absolutely love it for that. I believe every villain that lost to the Straw Hats thus far have been defeated that way, been served a nice juicy helping of poetic justice. They got what was coming to them. All of them, except the Vinsmokes, who were evil in an unsettling and disturbing way and ended up being treated like superheroes. Even them straight up dying to Big Mom won't work as a resolution, if anything it'd feel like they got off too easy.

The more I think about the stuff with Sanji the more I think it… does work, maybe not 100% perfectly, but it does (except I still don't buy into him actually thinking Luffy & CO would give up on him - NO fucking way, no one will ever sell me on that). But the Vinsmokes themselves just don't work in the way One Piece characters almost always do.

@theackwardstation:

Hi, Coruscation, great review overall, but I'd like to discuss this particular point.

Starting by your challenge, I'd describe Smoothie as arrogant and sadistic (primarily by the way she likes to abuse people with her powers). She's also clearly afraid of her mother (as shown in two instances) and maybe it'll become a joke that she's lazy, lol. Her quirk is how she uses her powers in very disturbing ways. That said, I agree with you (and everyone else) that Smoothie was not an interesting character, although I like her design. Above all, she didn't do anything relevant, as we know.

However, I absolutely disagree that Smoothie is proof that something was wrong with how Oda planned this arc, but rather the opposite. Her role being so undervalued in this particular storyline is only proof that Oda is very conscious of the power of a Sweet Commander. He can't let Smoothie have enough space to do stuff without facing a huge problem: the Strawhats are not powerful enough to deal with her. So there are two options: (a) Smoothie would be obliged to underperform in a circunstance where there's no excuse for such or (b) the Strawhats would have to be captured by her (not an option, really).

The dilemma is as follows: Smoothie must exist, because a Yonkou must have at least a third commander, but this third commander can't be allowed to interfere too much, because (s)he's too powerful for the protagonists (aside Luffy). And this dilemma is very noticeable in the way Oda has written a lot of moments in the last section of this arc. For example, when the Strawhats were surrounded by two fleets and Sulong Carrot had to do her stuff, Oda put Daifuku on the front and Smoothie on the back, because he couldn't make Carrot jump into Smoothie's fleet. That'd be mission impossible for Carrot (the end of the line for the Strawhats), otherwise a Sweet Commander would be completely subpar in strenght compared to the others (and people would think she's even lamer).

To sum it up, I can't blame Oda for his decision to underutilize Smoothie, since it was only natural given the circunstances. Sure, there're reasons to be upset with her character, but I wouldn't dismiss the construction of the plot for this reason. At the end of the day, we should understand that there's going to be a Part 2 against Big Mom and that's when Smoothie will get her time to shine, hopefully.

I should have disallowed "arrogant" since it's not so much a character trait of One Piece villains as it's hardwired into their DNA. Every single one of them is. But that's my bad, so you got me. She's arrogant. That's the extent of her character. I'm not sure you can really call her sadistic, but if you go with that then it means she has another generic villain trait that's forgettable enough you could miss its existence.

The rest: yeah, but… like... that is the disappointing writing I'm talking about. Or at least a part of it. There's no automatic correlation between a character being kept out of the action for plot convenience and them being a boring dullard with no personality. Those are two entirely separate things. Characters with less screen time and plot presence have been far more interesting and memorable in this series.

But as for keeping her out of the action, I didn't think it was done in a convincing way and nor do I agree it was a necessity in the way you've said. For example: the Germa could've arrived back on the scene much earlier than they did and she could have gone up against all of them by herself, having the advantage over them at full power and in their home territory as a true display of the terror of a Yonkou elite. It would've spared us the Germa's confusing, tone deaf rescue at the end of the arc while giving two groups that needed more to do, more to do. That's just my quickfix too.

As for the "There's going to be a Round 2 with the BM pirates, and all of this will be fine" notion… it's not something I can seriously take into account at this point in time. It's fine that Big Mom's own defeat will have to wait, but Big Mom was already fine in this arc whereas Smoothie wasn't. If such a thing happens it's likely hundreds of chapters away at the pace we're going, and there's absolutely no guarantee Smoothie that will be expanded upon and made an interesting character at that time. Even if she is, it still won't change how underwhelming and forgettable she was in this arc. It's not something you can salvage by adding something else later. The damage is done, we can only hope if she returns the same mistake won't be made again.