One thing I’ve never liked about One Piece is that there’s been a bunch of times where I’ve felt that the main hook of “Luffy heads off to get the treasure” has just fallen by the wayside because of going all in on a bunch of side quests (Ace and Marineford being an exception because of course Luffy would try to save his brother).
The only people with good showings are Luffy, Lucci, and the giants. I've been hoping this entire time we'd get Sanji vs Kizaru but instead Luffy just beats him instead and now we have to spend two dozen chapters of Lucfy fighting the Gorosei without any contribution from the other Strawhats. And why isn't Kuma getting to do anything?
Because his worth this arc has been his backstory with Bonney. And that’s been accomplished.
Hasn’t much of the action since the timeskip being Luffy upstaging his crewmates beyond what he does as the main character with the exception of a good showing of either Zoro or Sanji?
Oh please. I've seen how these arguments go. People are perfectly willing to find the "the power levels being thrown around are just too big for the supporting cast to contribute" argument airtight, whether it's Bleach, Naruto, MHA, or what have you. Reputation has nothing to do with this. It could be someone like the authors of Black Clover or Fairy Tail and people still wouldn't complain.
Sure, if you disregard all the arcs post time skip except Egg Head.
They get loads. But weekly manga. So it was quite litterally months to years ago now.
I mean yes, a lesser manga would be getting less flak because One Piece fans seem to at the gery least comprehend what a weekly release schedule is and means.
The arc isn't just solely focused on the island now.
I mean, you’re not wrong. I guess the weekly grind kind of makes it hard for me to see when the non trio pirates are able to get something or do something .
The weekly grind will forever be the objectively worst way to enjoy anything serialized. One Piece will be a completed work for much longer than it is a serialized one, and Oda knows this.
I guess he’s banking on that to justify why he hasn’t said anything about the Void Century yet. Or why the treasure seems like an afterthought. Or why a lot of Vegapunk’s revelation stream seems like a lot of screwing around.
I still feel like there's a fair amount of screwing around even when certain parts were completed in One Piece. They teased the Sabo reveal in Dressrosa for a whole volume and a half and it felt so goddamn obvious because of all of the shit they showed when he was initially shown. I did feel like Dressrosa went on for too long and I don't feel that for Egghead at all. The frequent 3 week breaks just make everything feel longer than it actually is.
i think that is on purpose. luffy being the one to do pretty much everything is going to make the rest of the crew realize they need to get serious. i am not saying there will be another training arc per say but i do think when they get to elbaf we are going to see every strawhat get a boost in power in some form. as for kuma he has served his purpose. i would not be surprised if his last action is to use his devil fruit power to warp everyone to elbaf before egghead island get destroyed.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that we’re still essentially setting up an over-arching saga here. Egghead exists in the same position as Punk Hazard or Whiskey Peak or Jaya. Vegapunk’s revelation stream is the exact type of countdown time limit Oda has used going back to Alabasta in order to establish immediate stakes within a conflict.
I'm in the camp of the gorosei not being naturally powerful. They likely have a weakness which we won't discover for another 200 chapters. I don't think they're going to be defeated by Nami getting another climate baton upgrade or Usopp getting a better slingshot.
It’s still kind of frustrating though.
I’d say their transformations are from the treasure of Mary Geoise, and that treasure is basically “Nika Fruit and whatever is on Laugh Tale but…evil”. And I guess the weakness of the power will be that they have lots of raw power but nothing resembling finesse and skill because of going so long without having to use it, a contrast to Luffy who’s been training and improving and using the gear system to raise his game.
