@Monkey:
What was wrong with that?
@Robby:
That wasn't the conclusion though. That was the mid break point. Usopp haki sniping Sugar from a mile away through a window was.
@Kaido:
The difference is that Sugar was never a physical opponent, and Usopp is by nature a comedic character. To me, it was satisfying because it completely subverted all that buildup. Would you really have been all that interested if the Tontatta or Usopp had just fed her the Tatababasco?
I agree that that Sugar's second defeat is one of Usopp's best moments in the series, I just don't understand why it needed to follow arguably his worst. It's just incredibly silly in a scene that was building a more serious tone. The Chu, Mr. 4, Perona fights didn't need it, I would have rather just had Usopp do some clever sniping and creative battle tactics against Sugar and Trebol from the beginning. Him figuring out Trebol's Devil Fruit not really being a Logia would have felt more like a classic Usopp fight.
What was wrong with it? It was a legitimate threat along the same lines as Crocodile's bomb or Kuma's giant explosion or Enel's death ball of lightning that united the people together against one major death threat.
It's a completely organic extension of his DF abilities, and it's called an ultimate technique for a reason. Plus, the Birdcage will come down if Doffy is taken down, which a Yonko should easily be able to do, as well as an admiral, to a lesser extent. Fuji just didn't take Doflamingo down because of his position and obligations.
What bothers me about the Bird Cage is that it can't be stopped at all. Issho, Zoro, the whole Grand Fleet, the Samurais, and dwarves could only hold it off for a few minutes. Kuma's paw explosion has been tanked by both Zoro and Little Oars Jr. I'd assume haki could stop Crocodile's bomb or Enel's lightning ball. But the Bird Cage had multiple strong characters against it that couldn't do anything.
I mean when Issho tried to stop the cage from closing, he couldn't. If Doflamingo could trap someone in there without trapping someone else, what could they possibly do? Because his strings are portrayed to be indestructible.
Trebol's DF is really simple: he covered his body in mucus in order to make his opponents confuse him for a Logia. As I said before, his role in the second part was not as a combatant but as a device to develop Doffy's past more. You really would have wanted Robin to grab that mucus-covered body?
The problem is Usopp cut his head clean off earlier. His head drooped to the floor to. It's too dramatic of a change for him to just be a Paramecia. At this point, Robin fighting anything is considered a win in my book.
Rebecca's arc was fine. It was also Kyros' arc, and the King's. If you wanted Rebecca to be a badass warrior amazon I can see the dissapointment, but the story of a girl that just wanted to live with her father figure after a tragic past worked fine.
Yeah, I think Oda did fine on Rebecca finally being able to share a home with her father was done well, but there's several instances in the arc - where she cries to Luffy that she wants to be the one to save Kyros for once or when she goes to fight Doflamingo - it tells me she wants to be an active, strong character. But the narrative seemed to constantly be going back and forth on that. In one chapter, Kyros tells her to drop her sword and live a life of pacifism. A few chapters later, she picks it back up to fight the boss of the arc. And she's never rewarded for these acts of bravery against Diamante or Doflamingo. She's always a burden and always needed saving.
That was more Sabo hype than anything. Burgess completely destroyed everyone else, to the point there was an entire 1/4 of arena gladiators we never even saw.
Bartolomeo also made it out of his block completely unharmed. I just wish Oda had given Burgess someone like Elizabello or Koala to clobber so that we could have a general idea of his strength before he got pushed around by Sabo.
Bellamy's undeserved loyalty and turning over a new leaf were both great for a guy that we thought was dead 10 years ago.
Bellamy's return was cool. But Oda spent such little focus on him that I'm not sure it was really worth it. Bellamy comes and goes every couple of dozen chapters. I think in this 100 chapter arc, there's like two full chapters actually spent fully on his character. All of the other scenes are sidelined into a page or two. Even Bellamy's farewell is thrown into a flashback panel after the arc. I just don't think Oda cared all too much with everything else going on.