@access-timeco said in Chapter 1116: Inner conflict:

At the beginning Vegapunk was super worried about ensuring the message would reach every person directly to avoid giving those in power the opportunity to manipulate the message to their benefit.
But now, he is giving all these half-assed gossips that with each chapter seem more likely to benefit the WG:

• 800 years ago the world was flooded during the fight between Joy Boy's super kingdom and the World Government,
• the flood was caused by the Ancient Weapons,
• the Ancient Weapons belonged to Joy Boy,
• Joy Boy was a pirate and ensured the weapons would survive and be passed to future generations,
• as I worked for the WG, someone stole one of my creations to power up the Ancient Weapons,
• the only people who know about this story are the most vile pirate crew that ever existed and is currently in hiding,
• the world is again at peril of being drowned.

I mean... there is absolutely no way anyone in the world will listen to this and not assume the WG are the saviors. Plus, we also have:

• someone killed me, but I don't want to say they are bad or good because I don't understand "him" enough,
• also, I can't judge Joy Boy because I don't understand him enough.

The implication seem to be very damning here, particularly if at some point he mentions the connection between Luffy and Joy Boy.

Hopefully once we get to the visual portion of the message, he will something more concrete, because all this vagueness might end up doing more harm than good.

I'm actually thinking Oda may be setting up a "Luffy vs. the World" scenario, instead of a "WG vs. The World" like many predicted.

The former is much more interesting, because it would show who Luffy's friends truly are.

Plus, superfans are more likely by nature to become yes-men and thus less likely to challenge Oda's own ideas, which is the whole point of an editor.

Makes you think, huh?

@Alfiere said in Chapter 1090: Kizaru:

The Water7/Enies Lobby saga was first and foremost about Robin's tragedy, establishing the world government as the big evil villain, the greatest obstacle on our heroes' path, and introducing the massive lore connected to all that.
And yet there was plenty of time to devote to Usopp's personal drama about being robbed first and losing the merry immediately after. It was a highly irrational and childish reaction on his part, and it threw a big wrench in the gears of the crew, complicating things for them, but an extremely believable and moving one for sure and it just kept going on along to the main plot bringing about a fundamental growth for the character Usopp and highlighting all the other crew members' feelings about his action. Meanwhile we also got the Franky storyline and even a bit of Chopper's.
So there isn't really any reason for not devoting not one chapter, but an entire subplot to Sanji dealing with the hunger in Wano because that's what I'm expecting from Sanji on a famined island after 20+ years of following his adventures. İf it's missing, anyone who cares about the character is bound to be disappointed.
Same goes with Jimbe, who is a very bland and overall badly written character, but at least always made clear one thing and that is disliking slavery, so i would expect there being a giant note in front of Oda's desk saying "chubby fish is not cool with there being a child soldier clone of him, or of anyone for that matter". İt clearly isn't there and that denotes nothing but lack of a care that was once there.

The Water7-Enies Lobby saga is also one of the longest stories in the series, with nearly 130 chapters of content. Now imagine doing that when you have several more characters, primary and secondary. Corners have to be cut.

Never mind that according to Oda, Water 7 was originally about Merry/Usopp and Franky. Robin's subplot was entirely non-planned (or at least was not planned to be tackled there) and even Lucci wasn't meant to be an antagonist until he suddenly was.

Essentially, by doing exactly what you suggested, we ended up with a massive story that rivals Wano in lenght, but with 1/5 of the characters.

And you still have people clamoring for an 11th Strawhat.

@The-Light-of-Shandora said in Chapter 1107: I've Been Looking For You!!:

I am still hoping for Teach being somehow related to the Buccaneers. Maybe the secret to them will be explored not with Kuma but with Teach, also with Vegapunk close to his death, I belief he won't be able to tell us what's special about them. Either Kuma will be able to talk and answer questions like he was prior to his "death".

That doesn't make sense since Saturn appears to know what Blackbeard is, and he still refers to Kuma as the last buccaneer.

@Razh said in Chapter 1107: I've Been Looking For You!!:

@King-Cannon That's borderline victim blaming. Aren't Oda and his paid editors the ones who decide what gets in?

You don't just decide to make one of main characters Wanoan, and then go so far to make his family a big deal and then just fail to do anything meaningful for the character with it.

But that's hardly the only thing that got inexplicably skipped over in Wano arc.

Oda has to read every fan letter I believe, so if people kept writing about it, he likely felt forced to clarify it. In the end, he is the one who has to dedicate the little time he has reading dozens of letters and then choosing what gets published.

And again, Zoro is not Wanoan. He merely has some Wanoan ancestry, which by itself is not special since everybody in his village does.

@Gizmo said in Chapter 1116: Inner conflict:

I remember theorizing Stella and the other two Vegapunks were mind memories that were uploaded to some server and this is a livestream, and still think that’s the case, but I’m thinking more so that York’s reasoning is meant to show she’s wrong due to being frantic and the snail isn’t in the robot. Everything Vegapunk said Stella could’ve still known about when the Lulusia attack happened, the Mother Flame being stolen, and still line up for him not knowing York stole it.

I think the implication is that Vegapunk must have done the transmission literally yesterday, since he knew the WG was after him. Maybe this was filmed during the call between Dragon and Shaka.

This would also indicate that Luffy, Chopper and Co. indeed found VP while he was hiding the snail. York was probably thinking VP had done it earlier, before the whole mess started, and not during it.

In fact, Luffy's arrival could even be the reason he hid the snail in the giant, as he expected Gear 5 to power it up. This would mean VP was playing 4D chess with himself as a pawn.

@T said in Chapter 1119: EMET:

@King-Cannon Luffy got hurt and commented on them using haki. We got foreshadowing earlier too.

@The-Light-of-Shandora said in Chapter 1119: EMET:

@King-Cannon
Maybe, but who knows.
Some people think Franky knows Haki, because of his upgraded attack "Strong Impact Right" and Luffy saying they are using Haki, because they've hurt him.

Franky doesn't have Haki. Unlike Sanji and Bonney, his arm doesn't blacken (why would Oda not ink it while he did for Sanji and Bonney?). And Luffy's dialogue could easily refer to just those two.

Also, he tried to hit Kizaru with a laser just a few chapters ago. That's not something someone with Haki would have done.

@Deicide said in Chapter 1121: The Upheaval of the Era:

@King-Cannon The idea that the villain shouldn't try his best because the hero will stop him anyway is, frankly, stupid. By your logic, Saturn shouldn't use leg attacks, because they never work, nor should jump on the ship to begin with, because nothing he does ever works.

I'm just saying that what Saturn does in this chapter is not really bad in theory. Oda could've made some of those attacks hit the giants, at which point we would be calling it the right move, or he could have Saturn use his poison bombs and fail miserably again.

Like, Saturn literally has death legs. The attack is not any less dangerous than any of his other ones. And as pointed out, they are not being blocked effortlessly, as the Giants are using Haki.

There's really no point in making up alternate scenarios where the villain tries something else and somehow wins. Saturn needs to lose anyway, and it's not like him doing an evil glare or something would've changed his prospects narrative-wise.

Now that Wano has ended and many people have voiced their pros and cons about the arc, I thought this would be an interesting thing to post here, because it gives an idea about where Oda concentrated his writing and drawing efforts while he developed this particular storyline.

THE TOP 50 CHARACTERS IN ALL OF WANO WITH THE MOST APPEARANCES

Monkey D. Luffy - 1689
Kaido - 989
Roronoa Zoro - 922
Kin'emon - 684
Kozuki Momonosuke - 674
Sanji - 573
O-Kiku - 484
Yamato - 479
Charlotte Linlin (Big Mom) - 471
Kozuki Oden - 458
Nami - 453
Kawamatsu - 431
Queen - 421
Trafalgar D. Water Law - 407
O-Tama - 400
Kozuki Hiyori - 357
Raizo - 353
Nico Robin - 345
Eustass Kid - 340
Kurozumi Orochi - 339
Usopp - 330
Denjiro - 320
Tony Tony Chopper - 319
Shinobu - 306
Franky - 305
Inuarashi - 302
Hyogoro - 285
Nekomamushi - 271
Ashura Doji - 270
King - 268
Kurozumi Kanjuro - 258
Napoleon - 253
Brook - 223
Komachiyo - 190
Jinbe - 188
Basil Hawkins - 187
Killer - 185
Marco - 169
Ulti - 149
Izo - 145
O-Toko - 144
X Drake - 142
Shimotsuki Yasuie - 141
Kozuki Sukiyaki - 131
Black Maria - 119
Thousand Sunny - 118
Sasaki - 118
Scratchmen Apoo - 117
Page One - 116
Zeus - 112
***RUNNER-UPS:***
Onimaru - 107
Who's Who - 105
Carrot - 104
Kozuki Toki - 103
Gol D. Roger - 96
Jack - 95
Prometheus - 82
Gama Pyonnosuke - 82 
Aramaki (Ryokugyu) - 80
O-Tsuru - 79
Fukurokuju - 78
(Eye-Scar CP0 Member) - 76
Speed - 74
Edward Newgate (Whitebeard) - 74
Babanuki - 66

The methodology is all explained in the reddit thread. Credit to Chris_Mic: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePiece/comments/wvkjan/a_comprehensive_breakdown_of_wanos_panels/

Personally, I was surprised about how well Kiku ranked, and that Aramaki managed to get that high despite being in just 3 or so chapters, to the point of surpassing Fukurokuju.

UPDATE:

I also found this quite old list from the now defunct Oro Jackson that includes panel time from chapters 1 to 908. If anyone wants to do the math with how it adds up with the above, be my guest.

Monkey D. Luffy - 15147
Nami - 7302
Sanji - 6636
Usopp - 6552
Roronoa Zoro - 6307
Tony Tony Chopper - 4638
Nico Robin - 3566
Franky - 2966
Brook - 1968
Nefertari Vivi - 1588
Trafalgar Law - 1476
Jinbe - 1084
Donquixote Doflamingo - 1031
Portgas D. Ace - 856
Crocodile - 830
Rob Lucci - 795
Buggy - 772
Charlotte Linlin - 660
Bentham - 656
Caesar Clown - 646
Kin'emon - 625
Kyros - 607
Enel - 600
Kaku - 589
Rebecca - 550
Carrot - 549
Smoker - 529
Arlong - 527
Charlotte Katakuri - 517
Hatchan/Iceburg - 508
Tashigi - 493
Kalifa - 483
Paulie - 468
Sabo - 425
Wiper - 422
Oars - 406
Galdino - 405
Hody Jones - 403
Shirahoshi - 400
Capone Bege - 394
Blueno - 385
Edward Newgate - 384
Charlotte Pudding - 376
Keimi - 373
Spandam - 369
Emporio Ivankov - 360
Pedro - 357
Don Krieg - 354
Gan Fall - 348
Boa Hancock/ Bartolomeo - 347

From here: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePiece/comments/ae53et/top_50_characters_with_most_manga_panels_time/

@hideoushorrendous said in Chapter 1126: Settling the Score:

why would Barto remain in an island for +30 days ? did he immigrate or something? right.

The crew has no real navigational skills. And even if they did, they would need to wait for one of the Log Poses to fully set anyway.

Who's the character next to Sentomaru? I don't recognize him.

@FolhaS said in Official Egghead Thread:

My reading of those chapters were that Oda doesn't really know how to write a complex murder mistery.

He set up all the pieces but when it was actually time to see them move that's when he decided to show what was happening elsewhere. And he could have done that to create suspense, or indeed skip a couple of hours so we would see the characters back in Egghead in new/different positions before showing the resolution on camera, but he skipped everything and went straight to the "It's done, we've captured the criminal" phase.

Not saying that he didn't want to show what was happening with Law, Kidd, and Garp during the Egghead arc but he really did use that opportunity to write himself out of a corner.

This is weird because he didn't really write himself in a corner to begin with. He actually showed how Luffy ended up convincing S-Snake to save the petrified, as well as most characters converging into York's spot anyway. He was already setting up the solution before changing scenarios.

I genuinely think he actually got bored of the Seraphim and decided to skip things because they weren't really offering anything new for the reader. They all have old powers, so outside of creative new uses of it like S-Shark's, there was nothing worth drawing again.

I believe it's no coincidence that they ended up completely sidelined for the final act, being stuck in those bubbles and not being players anymore. It's Oda literally shelving his new toys in favor of the giant monster Elders.

@black-leg-jex said in Official Egghead Thread:

I still stand by the fact that we didn't need to see the end of the Seraphim vs. Straw Hats encounter. By the time Oda moved on we had every single piece in place to know how it would turn out and when we did see the aftermath, the only thing Oda needed to explain was the S-Snake reversal (which he did through flashback).

Luffy, Lucci and Sanji weren't going to lose. We knew Atlas, Robin and Chopper were on their way to York. Bonney was out of the incident entirely. We didn't know where S-Hawk was going at the time but in the aftermath with the injured Kaku and Robin, it's clear that S-Hawk went to protect York and caused them both to get injured, before Zoro held him down. I think if Oda showed it to us in real time, it would have been an extra chapter and a half at most.

I admittedly wanted to know how Robin got injured, but that's a very minor thing that can be figured out with guesswork.

• Brook and Atlas figure out York's hiding spot. We know this happened.
• S-Hawk presumably went after Robin's group to protect York. Ends up injuring Robin.
• Zoro and Kaku arrived late to deal with him because of Zoro's dumbass sense of direction. Kaku got the raw deal, since he ended up as one of the bigger casualties.
• Nami and Brook joined Robin's party while Sanji kept S-Shark busy.
• Nami, Robin, Chopper, Brook and Atlas overwhelmed York.
• Jinbe did nothing as usual.
• And of course Luffy met with S-Snake, likely after dealing with S-Bear.

In the end, it's just more running from spot A to spot B. I guess Oda just couldn't find a way to make York threatening outside of her control over the Seraphim, especially since her side was massively outnumbered to begin with.

Vivi's Vivre Card says she sleeps 12 hours a day, from 10:00 PM to 10:00 AM.

Just a fun trivia.

@Cockycent said in Vivre Card: One Piece Visual Dictionary:

I already like him, but to find out his name might be spelled as Guernika??? He truly was a legend

The Nika we didn't deserve.

Wild that Brook was such a non-entity this arc. He lost to the fucking robot that only became a character ten chapters ago.

At least Franky wasn't sidelined. 3rd place among the SH isn't bad.

I think that was someting added by Stephen, since the scanlation had nothing of the sort.

Weird choice anyway.

By the way, would preparing a broadcast of the WG's actions really be of any help when he had just admitted to researching the poneglyphs?

Like, that alone creates a plausible deniability for the WG to attack Egghead. VP would just be branded a criminal.

If the WG can destroy whole islands without receiving that much public scrutiny, then I'm not sure how a live broadcast would help, especially since there were no innocent civilians involved this time around. VP wouldn't really be able to play victim.

@Deicide said in Chapter 1123: The Void Fortnight:

On another note, I wouldn't be surprised if Vegapunk wanted to preserve Punk Records and the Mother Flame because those are his dreams, and that helps explain his decisions. However, the story should address it, to show his flawed objectivity, not treat readers as if we are supposed to acclaim him for his selfish sacrifice.

There's also the cloud-making technology, which is tied to humanity's well-being more than any personal wish.