...So it's a mystery flame, huh?

I've got a question for y'all. Since Yamato basically introduced himself by asking Luffy to join his crew, we have all always judged him according to the standards we hold for a new crewmember. Interactions with the crew, dream, tragic backstory, loveability etc. Basically, we judged him like we would judge a main character. And from the reactions to him not joining after all, I've noticed a sort of consensus that people quite like the character, but weren't so hot on him becoming a full-fledged crewmember and are thus more or less relieved he won't be (for now) (of course, there is an even bigger consensus that the execution for this plot development was really lacking).

So, my question is: does your judgment of Yamato as a character change now that we have to reconsider him not as a crewmember and main character, but as a secondary, more or less arc-centric (time will tell) character? Because, to me, if I forget about all my qualms I had about him joining the crew, forget about all that stuff and just look at him like I would at any other secondary character in the story? Then he might just be one of my absolute favorite non-main characters in the whole series!

I just found Yamato immensely likable and fun. He was a real scene-stealer during the raid, got his own little flashback, even got to fight the main villain for a bit. It's a character with a lot of potential and I find myself wanting to see more of him in the future. That's not something I can say for a lot of characters in One Piece. Don't get me wrong, there are literally dozens of characters in One Piece I really love - that's one of Oda's gifts as a writer, he just knows how to make you fall in love with his creations - and I'm always happy when we get to see them again in the story. But I don't often find myself bummed out at the end of an arc because I want to see more of a particular character.

And that's how I feel about Yamato right now. I'm not per se bummed that he didn't join the crew - as I said in the spoiler chapter thread, I don't really need more crewmembers after Jinbe - but I wouldn't have minded him tagging along for a while, like Law or Vivi did. And as much as I didn't like how Oda executed things in the current chapter, I think the fact that I feel like this about a character that was only introduced really late in the arc, and also that it is totally believable and rings true that Luffy would allow him to join the crew when Yamato feels ready to, that seems to me like a big success on Oda's part.

I've read some people state that now in retrospect, all the time spent on Yamato during the raid was a waste of time because he didn't even join, and I just can't agree with that. Were Wyper's scenes in Skypiea a waste of time? Or Kyros's fight against Diamante in Dressrosa? Or Bartolomeo or Cavendish's fights? Or Bege's scenes in Whole Cake Island? I get it, secondary characters also take away screentime from the main characters and the cast of the raid was already bloated to begin with. But if Oda has a really good idea for a character, should he just scrap that character to save time? Especially if its a character like Yamato that a ton of fans really fell in love with?

Plus, we all figure that a lot of the established secondary characters will play some part in the final war, and if that's the case, Yamato is almost guaranteed to play a particularly big part. While there are a ton of characters in One Piece, there is a surprisingly small set of characters that hold "almost-main character" status for me. Law is in that category, for example. Vivi, too, I guess (don't get me wrong, she'll always be a crewmember to me, but it doesn't feel quite right to give her the same status as the regular main characters). And that's the group where I would put Yamato now - almost Strawhat-level.

That might not be all that satisfying for those who really wanted to see Yamato join - more like a consolation prize than anything, probably. I'm just saying that I don't see his character as a waste of time at all.

@Bugs said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

On the other other other other other hand, Saul’s status doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a pretty dull chapter. Daz is right, it’s not fun to read an entire info drop (which I should point out didn’t have anything truly groundbreaking besides Saul and the books, which was a chekhov’s gun waiting to be fired so not that much one) with almost no fun antics or character’s discovering things for themselves (Robin’s tears don’t move me; I would get it if the reveal was Robin actually seeing Saul, which would at least take some of the sting off the retcon).

I hate to go all "The Dude" on you, but that's not a fact, it's just, like, your opinion, man. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine; I find it annoying when people claim their opinion as fact to elevate it to a level where people can't really disagree without automatically being wrong (can't argue with a fact, right?), especially when we are talking about a topic that is super subjective, like if a chapter was a fun read or not. Clearly, plenty of people have enjoyed reading it, some have even been moved to tears by it...

Other people have already pointed why comparing Saul to other flashback characters doesn't really work out, because the other Strawhats all have at least some people left. Robin is the only one who had to watch everybody she ever cared about die - and then she had to live alone for 20 years, with everybody she ever met along the way betraying her. That's a super harsh fate, and one of the many friends she lost that day being revealed to still be alive doesn't really change any of that. She still had to watch everybody else die, including her mother who she never really got to know, and then had to live a really shitty life for two decades. That's why I'm happy for her, she deserves at least a small happy end.

The only other main character who even comes close when it comes to tragedy is Brook, who also had to watch everybody he cared about die and then spent several decades all alone, but at least he wasn't a little kid when it happened. And if you think about it, Brook learning that Laboon is still alive is very similar to Robin learning that Saul is still alive. The only difference is in how the reveal was presented to us, the reader - we obviously never thought Laboon was dead, while we thought Saul was a goner ever since Enies Lobby.

While I'm just as annoyed as everybody else when Oda milks a "death" for all its emotion only to then later reveal that, nah, the character was alive all along, this one feels differently to me. And I think the main difference is the reason for Saul's "revival". When Oda usually brings a character back from the dead, like Pell or Conis' dad, for example, it's just done to provide the arc with a happy ending where everybody can be joyful and nobody has to mourn their dead. There are no reasons beyond that, it doesn't really matter for the story if Pell is still alive or not. Things are different with Saul. While this reveal does make Robin more happy, that's not its only or even main purpose from a story-telling point of view. It figures into Vegapunk's past, it will very likely impact the plot of the Elbaf arc, it will change how we view Kuzan's character in the future.* It's important for the plot and didn't just happen because Oda can't bring himself to kill a character for good.

*On a small footnote, this is very similar to Igaram being revealed to be still alive after Robin apparently murdered him in cold blood in Whiskey Peak, which is "this character is actually still alive"-reveal nobody ever actually talks or complains about. This one was really important in order to make Robin a character we can actually accept as a sympathetic person. If Igaram had stayed dead, Robin would have been responsible for the death of a person that was very close to Vivi, after all. Things are very similar in Saul's case: now Kuzan actually isn't a coldblooded killer (no pun intended) anymore from Robin's point of view, which might be important in the future.

@ARTEMlS said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

It's not just you. I also expected the ancient history to be some mystery story, that is, an actual well-written mystery story with everything that belongs to such a story. Including red herrings.

First of all, despite lots of fantasy stories trying to tell us, archeology is more than just learning the ancient language and then just translating perfectly tailor-made texts which tell basically everything absolutely accurately. No, that's just not how the human nature works. People lie - be it sugar-coating or outright blatant false claims. Therefore, historical sources cannot and never should be taken at face value. A big part of evaluating historical discoveries is interpretation. Two different archeologists can e.g. both syntactically flawlessly translate an ancient text, yet come to two absolutely different interpretations and conclusions.

There should be some actual hurdles and obstacles in Robin's way for her to overcome. That's where some red herrings come in - be it due to Robin making some false conclusions on her own or someone else actively providing false information and doing historical revisionism. There's so much potential for the latter. Like one of the Gorosei just doesn't believe that it's possible to completely eradicate everything, therefore he instead started an operation to provide whoever tries to research the ancient times with as much as erroneous material as possible, trying to mislead them for years, decades or even centuries. Even going as far as creating fake poneglyphs.

I'm sorry, I think all of this stuff can be really interesting if that is what the story is all about, but as much as I love Robin and find all scenes of her uncovering the secrets of the past fascinating, the story isn't called "Nico Robin: Raider of the Lost Poneglyph" for a reason. Even if some readers seem to suddenly have a problem with this, the focus of the story is still on Luffy and his quest to become Pirate King and find the One Piece, and how he gets closer and closer to his goal, both geographically and regarding his position in the pirate world. Robin's storyline of uncovering the history of the Void Century is exciting and obviously important to the lore of the story, but it's still a secondary plot line at the end of day. Introducing fake poneglyphs that contain false information just seems overly complicated and sort of cumbersome. Do we really want plot lines of Robin going "Damn it, that Poneglyph I read in Skypiea actually was a total lie created by an evil forger/spy from the WG, now I have to rethink my whole theory on the Void Century!". That just seems kinda annoying and also like a very convenient way to me for the author to introduce some retcons to his established mythology

Or how about Black Maria being such a history revisionist - for whatever reason? That also would have given us a battle with some emotional stakes and opportunities for some proper inner conflict for Robin during the battle, but nah...

But that battle did have emotional stakes and inner conflict, those were just centered on her relationship to the crew in general and to Sanji specifically instead of her role as an archeologist. And where does Black Maria being a history revisionist even come from? That's just a case of being pissed at the author because he didn't make your headcanon come true.

@electricmastro said in Chapter 1090: Kizaru:

So is Bonney closer to becoming a Straw Hat after getting over Vegapunk and continually hanging out with the Straw Hats like Sanji?

Do you honestly think she is going to become a Strawhat? What makes her special enough to be a main character?

Personally, I've felt pretty much since the timeskip that we were done with gaining new crewmembers. It just felt wrong to me to add a member now who completely missed the Strawhat's and Luffy's lowest point in the series. Jinbei is a special case, as though he joined pretty late in the game, he was introduced pre-timeskip, palyed a special part in helping Luffy get over his grief, and has joined the crew on several adventures before he finally joined.

But there hasn't been a single new character introduced Post-TS who ended up actually joining the crew. In retrospect, one could say that Pre-TS was mainly about building the Strawhat crew, as new members were joining pretty much every single arc. Post-TS, on the other hand, has been about actually becoming the Pirate King - everything Luffy has done in the New World has furthered that goal in retrospect (making alliances, building a grand fleet, taking down direct obstacles to the throne like the Emperors, finding the Road porneglyphs that lead to the One Piece etc.)

Imo Oda also partially didn't let Jinbei join for so long because he wanted to keep the discussion going on who else might join the crew - after all, if Jinbei was still promised to join, who says others couldn't also still join as well? But now that's done and over with and most promising new crewmember since entering the New World, Yamato, didn't actually end up joining either, it couldn't have been made more clear to me that that's it.

I mean, maybe you'll have some characters joining at the end of the series, like some epilogue-thing, but not for the actual series imo.

This trailer was amazing. I think I would actually give this a watch even if I wasn't a fan already. Seriously it actually looks really good. And I surprisingly don't care at all that they cut out Krieg and combine Baratie and Arlong arc into one arc. I hope they still find away to give Sanji his proper screentime and characterization.

Damn, I'm actually fucking hyped now.

It will be a while before I can really form my final verdict on Wano as a whole, but right now I think I would deem it flawed, but good. There were some weird decisions during the raid, particularly towards the end, no doubt about it. But generally, I enjoyed the heck out of it. I'm binge reading Act 3 right now (I'm in the middle of volume 100 right now - Vol. 101 has been released over here only recently), and it's honestly a ton of fun so far.

Stuff like Luffy seemingly running up stairs to reach Kaido for countless chapters is a complete non-issue now. The chapters just fly by and honestly, a lot of set-up happens during these couple of chapters. It provides the Scabbards with an opportunity to fight Kaido on their own and some of the Strawhats to meet their match-ups. The Ice Oni stuff also doesn't bother me at all anymore, as its purpose is much clearer now: it's main purpose is to provide Chopper with a great moment since he won't get a fight this arc, and also to build-up Queen as a cruel villain that needs to get his ass kicked asap.

While I haven't gotten to that part yet on my reread, I know that I enjoyed most of the fights during the arc. Aside from the final, somewhat lackluster clash, everything that happened on the rooftop fighting-wise was amazing, imo. Zoro's, Sanji's, Robin's, Law & Kid's and even Killer's fights were all really good overall. Jinbe's and Franky's fights were good, but too short. Nami vs. Ulti....would have been alright if Big Mom hadn't intervened in their fight. Good build-up both to their personal conflict and to Nami finally gaining Zeus as a permanent power-up, but the fight already wasted a lot of its initial potential when we didn't get an actual Nami & Usopp vs. the Dinobros fight. And then when Big Mom had to tenderize Ulti so that Nami could beat her....yeah. Big disappointment there, no sugarcoating it.

Anyway, regarding acts 1 and 2, I've watched both acts in the anime lately (Act 1 was aired over here earlier in the year and Act 2 is in the middle of airing right now) and am surprised how much I enjoy them now. I don't know if it's the anime adding details and extra scenes, but everything flows pretty well for me. Most notably, I remember feeling like all the Strawhats except for Luffy were totally underused to instead focus on the large cast of secondary characters, but watching the anime, I don't get this feeling at all, somehow. Most of the Strawhats are doing stuff in almost every scene, be it Chopper finding Big Mom and leading her to Udon, Sanji fighting Page-1, Nami, Robin and Brook sneaking into Orochi's party etc.

And while I guess it's somewhat of an unpopular opinion, I have to say I really like the Wano supporting characters. Momo and Kinemon really came into their own this arc. Tama and Hyogoro are really sympathetic, while Shinobu is a ton of fun. And the Scabbards...maybe there should have been less of them. But I do like them all in their own way, individually, they all have their own interesting little backstories. Honestly, I know that many readers were experiencing arc fatigue and just wanted the fighting to end, but in general, I wouldn't have minded seeing more from Kawamatsu and Denjiro in particular. Watching Act 2 again made me realize how much I enjoyed them initially.

@ARTEMlS said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

@Riddler said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

But that battle did have emotional stakes and inner conflict, those were just centered on her relationship to the crew in general and to Sanji specifically instead of her role as an archeologist.

The problem is this inner conflict just did not work at all because Black Maria didn't provide anything for Robin to be emotionally challenged in any way. When she asked "Did I hit a nail?" I just thought: No! You did hit nothing. You completely missed the mark. It just doesn't work.

She confronted her with her fear of only being a burden to her crew, which was literally one of Robin's biggest fears and the reason she left the crew in Enies Lobby. How does this not provide a good emotional hook for the fight but Black Maria being a history revisionist does? Black Maria didn't miss the mark at all. The fact that Robin wasn't fazed by those remarks as much as Black Maria intended was meant to show how much Robin had grown since then, both regarding her feelings of self-worth and her trust that the Strawhats would ever abandon her.

Of course, Luffy is the protagonist. But that does not mean there cannot be more compelling and better thought-out sideplots for the other Strawhats than what we actually have here.

I mean, I guess it's all subjective in the end, but I do find Robin's sideplot plenty compelling as it is and the suggestion that Robin hasn't actually had to work to gain information just isn't true imo. The only reason she found anything out on Fishman Island and Wano was because she was actively looking for Poneglyphs and then confronted people who might know something. Heck, she was even criticized on here for "carelessly" asking Oden's Dad questions about Pluton's location.

One thing I wanted to also respond to from your previous post was your statement that there were no (or not enough) hurdles in Robin's quest to uncover the secrets of the Void Century. To which I want to say: traveling the Grandline and surviving is in itself the hurdle for all of the Strawhats. Be it Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Franky or Brook,* they can all reach their goals and dreams by generally traveling through the Grandline, fighting the strong enemies along the way, and surviving. Why is Robin the only one who needs some extra hurdles in her way?

*I left out Chopper because I'm honestly not even sure what his dream even is. Now this is a character who would benefit from some story focus!

@Alfiere said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

@Marcotty How is disclosing a secret by finding the right key "bad writing"?
Again, Luffy had to actually go out of his way and walk several extra miles to get and keep Robin in his crew. And all this while knowing nothing of how crucial she actually (once) was to obtain the One Piece. He gained the key and deserved it, for being a decent person.

If Kid and Law know of the burned man on Elbaf that knows ancient kingdom lore (and know what that entails), they would surely know of the Ohara scholar in Crocodile's entourage and work from there.
But they were likely too busy with their edgelord revenge plans and crucifying civilians habits, and they missed their chance, too bad for them.

Also, the OP being basically hard locked for anyone that isn't the reincarnation of the guy who buried it in the first place is instead good writing? Because now all hints are pointing to that, ask Roger for reference.

Robin will still be crucial for Luffy's group in particular to reach their goal. The fact that there a few more ways to read the Poneglyphs doesn't change the fact that Robin is still a super important help. If there were only 5 people in the world who could read the Poneglyphs, each of these five people would still be a really vital asset to your crew.

I am confused about your second point. Isn't it the other way around? If Robin, a member of Luffy's crew, was the absolute only way to become Pirate King, wouldn't that in fact make Luffy more special? Like, "of course, it's the Chosen One who has the one person in his crew that can help you get the One Piece, everybody else can just go screw themselves, they have no chance." The fact that there are other ways that may give other crews like Kidd, Blackbeard or Law a chance actually makes Luffy less special...

03:13 Aww Usopp and Nami holding hands! I always loved their relationship as the two "normal" people on the crew.

This honestly looks so good to me. Even if there will turn out to be some flaws, I'm honestly amazed that they seem to have managed to create an adaptation that actually captures the look and feel of the original East Blue saga so well. I hope so much that they will be rewarded for their efforts with a second season order!

@Gizmo said in Volume 105 Predictions/Discussion:

Okay, so Oda addressed that Tama is a Kurozumi, that Hiyori’s final line about burning was meant to address Orochi only, but leaves open the possibility of Kurozumi hatred in the future…

Given the discussions had here about that line When it came out, I’m glad Oda addressed the fact that discrimination might still exist on the Kurozumi, and that while Hiyori might have not meant the line to bear no ill will on the bloodline, it could still be interpreted like that for some of the folks out there.

I really appreciate Oda's thoughtful and mature response to the question. Ideally, he would have depicted that stuff in the story directly, but this at least shows he really put some thought into the situation and its implications. What Captain M said is also true, reading the ending of Wano in volume format will really be an improvement, since you get all these extra information inbetween chapters and Hiyori's statement about the Kurozumis will immediately be clarified and put into context.

@Barkworm This is completely ignoring Kidd's and Killer's characterization in the last arc as semi-allies who would die for each other and have a deep bond and friendship. Readers aren't that forgetful and as I said, the character has his fair share of fans (also, seriously, am I the only one here who likes Killer and wouldn't want him to die? Maybe it's because I've just reread the chapter where he defeats Hawkins, that was a pretty awesome moment for him).

If this wasn't meant to be seen as morally ambiguous, then why end with Kidd's crew begging Shanks to spare their captain's life, invoking sympathy for them, instead of, you know, portraying them as murderous assholes that need to be put down?

To be fair, in GoT's case, the show became bad once they ran out of source material to adapt and had to continue the plot and character arcs on their own. That's certainly not going to happen in One Piece's case.

Absolutely. It all depends on the arc, how much of it is spent on fighting and how much is spent on drama, introducing characters, character moments for the main crew etc. Water 7, for example, I would say actually needs more episodes than Enies Lobby, even though they are about equal lenghts in the manga and anime. But for the LA adaptation, Water 7 has a really cool setting, introduces quite a few characters, Frankys backstory, the whole drama around the Merry and Luffy's and Usopp's fight, Robin seemingly betraying them, the whole mystery aspect. Tons of fun and drama that could translate really well to LA. Meanwhile, Enies Lobby has Robin's flashback and the Merry's funeral (which is one chapter) and the rest is fghting and action. Enies Lobby could be realistically done in 1 episode, maybe 1 1/2, whereas Water 7 should have at best, 2 1/2 to 3 episodes for itself.

I think if they adapt Marineford could depend a lot on how the final saga in the manga develops in the meantime. If the climax of the whole series is very similar in terms of tone and feeling to Marineford, they might skip it in the LA, but if it turns out to be really different...

I think they might also already adapt some of Luffy's later backstory with Ace and Sabo in S2, when they introduce Ace in the present time, as a continuation of the flashbacks in S1.

As for Post-TS, One Piece, it's a lot harder to judge and seems so far away anyway. I always thought four seasons, but maybe they could even realistically condense it down to two?? If we go with 4 seasons for Pre-TS, maybe S5 Fishman Punk Hazard and Dressrosa? That might make sense - Punk Hazard and Dressrosa are too connected to split them up into two different seasons, but Fishman Island is too short to carry a whole season (which would not be a great idea anyway). Plus Dressrosa is too bloated to begin with.

And then S6, could Whole Cake Island and Wano fit together into one season? It seems unthinkable considering their length, but soooo much of it is spend on fighting. It's hard to say. It would make thematic sense - after all, Big Mom and Kaido are both defeated at the end of Wano and the two arcs, along with Zou, are one big Yonkou saga...hmm.

I think Alabasta for S2 is a given. It fits the season structure perfectly in terms onf length, overarching plotline and villain. Many iconic, fan-favorite characters introduced as well (Chopper, vivi, Robin, Smoker, Ace, Crocodile, Mr. 2), and the season can be neatly split into "first half - Laboon-Drum" and second half - Alabasta".

I really don't think they would (almost) completely cut Whitebeard and Marineford, I think the fans would riot lol. I know it's not that popular on here, but it's absolutely in many people's top 3 arcs. I think taking the time to completely focus one whole season on East Blue and then another whole season on Alabasta and then squish everything else into one season is not a good idea. I think you need at least 4 seasons to sensibly cover all of Pre-TS. S3 Skypiea & Water 7/Enies Lobby, S4 Thriller Bark and Marineford. 5 seasons would be a bit better to let things breath, but 4 is doable. But three seasons, no way. I don't care if it's not realistic to get to the end of the show otherwise, what's even the point if you just butcher everything else to such a degree?

I think in terms of arcs that are most iconic and generally beloved by the fans, Alabasta, Water 7/Enies Lobby and the Marineford War seem to me like the three sagas from Pre-TS that people would be extremely excited to see, whereas Skypiea and Thriller Bark I could see being changed or shortened considerably (I'm not talking from my own perspective of what arcs are good or bad, more from what I think is the general fan's opinion). If you look at season 1, the Syrup village arc, an arc that many consider to be a weaker one, was changed considerably, while the general structure and story beats of the beloved Arlong Park arc were kept mostly intact. For the Baratie arc, they focused on the most popular and well-liked aspects of the arc (Zoro vs. Mihawk, Sanji's backstory and his goodbye to Zeff), and cut the less well-liked Krieg plotline.

I think that's a pattern we can expect from future seasons as well, so we should look at which moments, characters and plotlines from future arcs are beloved and iconic, and which are less so. For example, when you think Drum arc, you immediately think Chopper's backstory, his relationship with Kureha, and Luffy climbing the mountain with a sick Nami on his back. Everything else - the Lapahns, the fight against Wapol - is fun, but seems much more negligible to me.

I find it funny how quickly the goalposts were moved xD First, everybody assumed the show would completely crash and burn, now it's a disaster if it isn't at No. 1 for several weeks in at least 80-100 countries.

I mean, how do you keep viewers when all episodes are available from Day 1? I don't really get how this system is supposed to work. Like, if one hundred people are interested in One Piece, and 80 of them are so damn interested, they are gonna watch it in the first week it's available, then there will be only 20 people left to watch it in Week 2. Seems more like a downside of airing the whole season at once, if you ask me? Does anybody have the numbers on big hits like Wednesday in that regard? How did that one change from week to week

I feel like if they had included Hachi, they would have already made him a bit more sympathetic i. e. more in line with his later characterization. In retrospect, Arlong Park Hachi seems a bit too mean, like he has no qualms about murdering Bellmere, enslaving the villagers, kidnapping kid Nami etc. He's still likable enough because of his goofy personality that we gladly accept his redemption later on, but he wasn't exactly portrayed as nicer than the other Fishmen. When Arlong ends up betraying Nami, he just laughs at her like the rest of them.

So even if they had included the character, it might very likely have been a different take where he ends up switching sides or something.

I have a huge smile on my face right now I just watched a review of the series by a German reviewer of films and tv shows on Youtube, who had never watched or read One Piece before watching the Live Action series. He described how much joy he felt while watching the episodes, and how much he enjoyed Luffy's wide eyed sense of adventure, how touching he found Nami's backstory etc.

He pretty much echoed how I felt when I fell in love with One Piece when I first watched the anime. Then I scrolled down to the comments and was hit by a wave of positivity. Super fans who have been reading the manga for decades! People who watched the anime as a kid and felt really nostalgic after watching the series! People who were completely unfamiliar with One Piece that binged the LA version and are now excited to check out the manga or anime!

Wow!

You can't just go by number of chapters, you also have to look at their content. East Blue saga introduces five main characters and their backstories and consists of 6 different arcs, all with their own location, plot line and cast of secondary characters. You basically have to introduce viewers to a new location and new characters every single episode, most of which will only matter for that episode or the next.

Skypiea may be similar in length, but you have like two locations and what, 4 or 5 important secondary characters you have to introduce and feature. Spending like 6 episodes on Upper Yard is just too much and not really warranted in terms of plot. A huge part of this arc consists of fighting. We have to get used to the idea that most fights will at most be a couple of minutes in length.

I think they might actually skip Loguetown or combine it's plot points with Whiskey Peak. They already had the whole "Luffy's smile is reminiscent of Roger" scene in the finale, and I can't see them just repeating that moment. They also already had the oath scene, so what else is there on Loguetown? Zoro getting his new swords and Tashigi/Smokers introduction, plus Dragon helping Luffy. All of that could easily take place on Whiskey Peak, after entering the Grand Line. The final scenes already teased Reverse Mountain, I just have a hard time seeing them going back from that to "Oh well actually, let's stop at this island before we go to the Grand Line".

Either way, even if they keep, I don't think Loguetown needs a whole episode to itself. It's super short in the manga. I think they could easily combine it with Laboon/Whiskey Peak in one episode. They will probably condense stuff and make some changes to the story anyway.

Since they don't have to also include 5 full character flashbacks, they will have a lot more time to focus on the present. Little Garden could easily be done in 1 episode - honestly, it's plot is basically "they meet giants and then they fight some BW agents". Move Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine to Little Garden, no need to have them fight the crew twice. Two episodes for Drum sounds perfect, leaving us with plenty of time for Alabasta, no matter if they have 8 or 10 episodes.

We will probably get a lot more Ace, and of course Smoker and Tashigi. Probably some cameos of Garp and Koby here and there. Not sure what they will do with Buggy, he had such an extended role in S1 that I don't really need him attacking the crew with Alvida. Maybe they will find some other way to tie him in. I also bet that we would already get Blackbeard and Shanks meeting with Whitebeard. On the other hand, that would also mean that we won't see most of these characters for a long while, which might feel a bit weird.

Anyway S2 focusing on the Alabasta saga feels like a very logical choice to me and fits the length of a season nicely.

Now Season 3 is where things would start to become tricky. I don't think it would be a good idea to skip Skypiea completely but I have to agree that the arc just doesn't need a whole 8-10 episodes to itself, even including Jaya. After the characters enter Upper Yard, it's basically two volumes of fighting. I'd say one episode of introducing us to the Skypiea characters and exploring Angel Island, one episode for all of the stuff on Upper Yard, one episode for the fight against Enel, the flashback, and the end of the arc. I just don't see how that can be stretched to a full season.

My idea for S3 always was to have the first half focus on Skypiea and the second half on the confrontation with Aokiji and Water 7, ending on a cliffhanger in which Usopp and Robin have left the crew. Not sure if they would want to go that route, but it be pretty dramatic. No idea what kind of side character storylines they could do for this season though, most of the secondary cast really just disappears between Jaya and Post-Enies Lobby lol. I don't think that is gonna fly in the LA show.

Going with that plan, Season 4 would be similarly divided into two halves: first half Enies Lobby, second half Thriller Bark and Sabaody, ending on the cliffhanger of the crew being separated.

Season 5 is then pretty easy again, it would start with Amazon Lilly and show the whole Marineford saga. We would probably get a lot more scenes of what the other Strawhats are doing in the meantime as secondary plot lines.

So, 5 seasons for Pre-TS One Piece seems pretty reasonable to me.

Then Season 6, depends. They could shorten Fishman Island and Punk Hazard to two episodes each I think...in that case, I think they could do Fishman Island, Punk Hazard and Dressrosa all in one season. Or I guesse Season 6 Fishman Island and Punk Hazard, Season 7 Dressrosa? I know Dressrosa is long and bloated, but a whole season on it seems a bit much. Punk Hazard and Dressrosa would fit well thematically into one season (2-3 episodes Punk Hazard, rest Dressrosa sounds pretty good) but I can't see them just excluding Fishman Island completely.

Either way, Season 7/8 would be Zou/Whole Cake Island and Season 8/9 Wano. Depending how long the current final saga will be, a 10 season show to cover the whole series actually sounds kinda feasible! Obviously, it's much harder to predict the later seasons since we don't know what changes they will make. For example, Post-Enies Lobby will be pretty different now that we already got the Garp reveal much earlier.