I don't think Big Mom will be defeated in any traditional sense, but it would be weird to travel all this way and not weaken her in some sense. Considering how many forces is being gathered to go against Kaido, I don't think it will be likely that Big Mom will be fought against face to face when the Strawhats is lacking half their crew in Whole Cake Island. I think Sanji will be rescued, and the SHs will narrowly escape with the poneglyph, and they will leave a big enough mess so that Big Mom will not have the ressources to bother with her revenge on Jinbe/Sanji/Luffy.

Anyways Kaido, Blackbeard and Revolutionaries are kind of occupied now, and the Marines have the Reverie, Akainu/Fujitora problems and reworking the shichibukai system to focus on. So the only left is Shanks, which is left for another time. This means that any more forces will be introduced now, and if any chaos is going to happen, it is going to be because of Capone Bege, Vinsmokes or internal conflict in the Big Mom familiy. The SHs and Bege are of course going to be the jokers in the story.

So seeing as Shanks is heavily related in all this, why is it that The Zou or Wano people did not think of contacting him? Is it likely that Shanks will end up in this war since the Kid-Apoo-Hawkins alliance ended up meeting Kaido?

Kaido went to war against Whitebeard for the hell of it (and was stopped by Shanks), could it be that Kaido would want to take advantage of this and also attack Shanks? Would be awesome to finally get to see Shanks in action, but a Zou-Wano-Luffy-Law-Marco-Shanks alliance vs Kaido with Kid-Apoo Hawkins under his command would be too much a mismatch unless more players entered. Kaido has shown to accept people under his wings before (Drake and Doflamingo) so who knows.

Maybe I am just being too optimistic about the involvement of Shanks…

So how are they going to kill the elephant? More exotic weapons?

Noticed no spoiler thread yet. Is there a chapter this week?

I am aware of the whole mangapanda thing (meaning delay in spoliers and chapter).

@Ivar:

Im thinking , Am i the only on who thought this ? Jack might be the Guy whos using Kaidos name to run his own crew ? Like kaidou is all carefree and wants to die , Maybe Jack is pulling all stings from behind. Like maybe he is the brain behind the Kaidou crew . seeing how Kaidou is a loner and all .

That's a really interesting theory, although then it doesn't make sense why X-Drake and friends were so afraid of telling Kaido that Doflamingo had been defeated (if Kaido is so carefree and wasn't planning a giant war/arms race).

I was hoping that the shichibukais' roles were mostly phased out as "allies" or former enemies of the SHs, and hoping for more of a focus on emperors/marine admirals. Hopefully this new fake son of Whitebeard will not be more than just a 'Duval' encounter where he gets beaten and then becomes an asset (albeit more important than Duval) of the SHs. The fact that he is claimed to be so strong may cause him to be quite important for the story, which I don't really know how I feel about.
If it means that Marco & crew gets reintroduced then I am all for it, but if it means that the encounter with Kaidou gets heavily delayed then I am going to be a bit sad.

So since the Dressrosa arc is basically over I'll give my thoughts here:

Pros:

• Great villain. One of the best I can think of. Crocodile is still my favourite, but Doflamingo is on a close 2nd together with Akainu.
• Gear 4 revealed. Much better than I could have imagined.
• Enjoyed the introduction of all the characters a lot
• Green bit part was great
• Colloseum part was great
• Fujitora filled a new role we haven't seen an admiral have before
• Sabo was introduced (succesfully). Didn't interfere too much in the story, yet still had an important role
• Interesting and unique subordinates of Doflamingo.
• I liked how Dressrosa was explored. From "this is a beautiful but mysterious island" to "this is a dark and terrible place"
• Bringing Law along gave defeating Doflamingo more importance and new cool team fighting (yet Luffy still went 1v1)
• I enjoyed the part with the gladiators vs the henchmen of Doflamingo as well as the invasion of the 'mountain levels'
• Robin finally got some impact in the story!

Cons:

• Sorry but the whole thing with Rebecca was miserable to read through. Most of her story was just waste of space
• The royal family were in my opinion too passive during the end of no return.
• Cipher Pol was a disappointment
• A bit too many flashbacks. I can't remember them all, but something like Kyros/Rebecca, Law, Doflamingo (all three major) and Chinjao, Sabo (two minor). Too many!
• Poor top dogs of the family. Pica, Diamante and Trebol were too weak if you ask me.
• I would have liked to see Robin, Zoro and Franky be tested a bit more (as in they have to reach their limit)
• Kyros was a disappointment. I expected differently from when we first heard of him in the colloseum.
• I would have liked to see Sanji have more impact.
• I didn't like the invasion of the palace in the beginning. Wasn't any exciting as the experienced reader already knew that no big fights would happen yet.
• A bit too many factions involved at the same time (without any clear objective)
• I absolutely despised the copy ability of Doflamingo
• I would have liked to see Viola's ability to be used a bit more than just for reporting information to King Riku.
• Gear 4 made the final battle against Doflamingo a bit too swingy

How Bellamy's purpose in the story will benefit the overall rating I have yet to decide

So the final rating will be 6/10. Better than Thriller Bark and Fishman Island (if we only include the main arcs), but not much better than that.

Bounties and titles are great for determining the importance of an unknown character. The thing is though that we are so far into the story that the only new high-bounty-characters we will see from now on will be rookies (not so relevant) or subordinates of already known characters (relevant, but moreso because of their ranking below important characters). Subordinates usually have lower bounties than they would otherwise have if they went solo, so even then the bounties don't really reflect the reality.

Regarding bounties and the Strawhats: Of course I think it is necessary for Luffy to get an increase in his bounty after every major incident. It shows that there have been officials who have evaluated his threat to the World Government. However the number itself doesn't really tell a lot. Before Impel Down and Marineford Luffy was mostly known by outside characters for his bounty and somewhat for his recklessness. Having a bounty show up as the only information was a great way for other characters to suddenly get surprised as they realised Luffy and his crew weren't some no-names.
After Impel Down and Marineford basically everyone has heard of "Strawhat", and very few people will not be able to recognise Luffy from all the newspaper articles and bounty photos, and it will be the stuff Luffy have been through (Enies Lobby, Marineford, Impel Down, Dressrosa, Sabaody Archipegalo, possibly Alabasta and his relation to Garp and Ace) that people will think of when they hear of Luffy. Not his 500 million bounty.

However I still think it is cool when the other Strawhat members get a bounty increase. Usually Zoro and Robin are recognised, and sometimes Sanji. By giving the SHs higher bounties their name and pressence in a stand-alone context also increases.

Bellamy is the only character of the three (Rebecca, Barto and Bellamy) with the right history, moments, and attitude to join the crew.

Barto has the strength and uniqueness but his character doesn't fit at all (who seriously wants him fanboying throughout the rest of the manga series?) and he haven't been through emotional trouble (and his history is very ambiguous).

Rebecca is weak, she is boring, and she has no history with the crew outside of Luffy and Robin.

Bellamy is strong, unique abilities and attitude/personality, has history with the crew and the former villain, and he has been through a very big emotional roller coaster in this arc. His history is well known, and he did previously have meaningful goals regarding piracy. He does however lack a proper flashback, and right now he is devoid of any ambition and goals. This chapter didn't revolve very much around him either. I think you can remove him from the list too.

I think it was very clear that this chapter very much had the purpose of setting up:

• A proper goodbye to Rebecca, Dressrosa, and the other pirates/gladiators
• Unification with daughter and father (family bonds being more important than public opinion)
• A fun way of having the SHs escape the marine (with both Fujitora and Sengoku being involved, how badass is that?)
• Making Doflamingo & crew's capturing meaningful with important figures

@Bongking:

Pretty sure that Kyros is going to turn out to be Kobra's son and Vivi's brother. Him being royalty as well fixes most of these domestic and public image problems with the Riku family and them all living together. Bellamy pulling a Mr. 2 would be awesome as someone mentioned already, but I'm really getting the vibe that if anyone joins this arc it will be him.

Kyros being royal was a rumor he created himself. It is not true. It was made to make the public acknowledge Rebecca as a legitimate princess.