One Piece - I'm Gonna Be the Pirate King!

[AveraDiane]

So I am still on, but nearing the end of, Dressrosa. I gotta say, even using Pace its still getting realllly long in the tooth. Not even Doflamingo can remain interesting in a six hour fight. This is reaching anime Namek levels of "please, move on."

edit: Gotta say, I really liked the first half of the arc, when things were actually moving pretty quickly.

I finished the arc early August and its pacing made me realize that Alabasta arc was superior. I had a hard time caring for the royal family, at least Vivi and her family were more interesting. Even the Tontottas were better.

 

[Incecticyder]

I finished the arc early August and its pacing made me realize that Alabasta arc was superior. I had a hard time caring for the royal family, at least Vivi and her family were more interesting. Even the Tontottas were better.

It is a mixed bag for me. Weaker royal family, superior villain.

 

[Ainchiemi]

It is a mixed bag for me. Weaker royal family, superior villain.

Didn't care for doflamingo. This point, you're so far into the series you'll know he lose. Was liking his celestial dragon ties to his final fight, but that was just cause I was going through enough of the emotion of the series. And yeah, viola and riku didn't pop as characters at all. Rebecca's only known for her hot body and the 53 different subplots all in there was just because.

I'd add that alabasta royals weren't great. Cause they didn't put in effort to stop getting accused of being hoarding evil tyrants enough and let people assume that worst. The conflict was caring more about vivi caring about it herself than the citizens in the war itself.

 

[Random Internet Person]

Didn't care for doflamingo. This point, you're so far into the series you'll know he lose. Was liking his celestial dragon ties to his final fight, but that was just cause I was going through enough of the emotion

One thing I’ve heard about Doflamingo is that the arc worth it just to watch the guy go crazy as everything he built completely falls apart around him. I’ve even heard one YouTuber call the man Dio from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure done right.

 

[HodgePodgeRogerDodger]

Didn't care for doflamingo. This point, you're so far into the series you'll know he lose. Was liking his celestial dragon ties to his final fight, but that was just cause I was going through enough of the emotion of the series. And yeah, viola and riku didn't pop as characters at all. Rebecca's only known for her hot body and the 53 different subplots all in there was just because.

I'd add that alabasta royals weren't great. Cause they didn't put in effort to stop getting accused of being hoarding evil tyrants enough and let people assume that worst. The conflict was caring more about vivi caring about it herself than the citizens in the war itself.

Dressrosa is more about Rebecca and her dad. Luffy literally does not give a shit about Rebecca’s family, he primarily beats the shit out of Doffy due to the threat to his crew, Law showing actual emotion, and Rebecca.

 

[Ainchiemi]

Dressrosa is more about Rebecca and her dad. Luffy literally does not give a shit about Rebecca’s family, he primarily beats the shit out of Doffy due to the threat to his crew, Law showing actual emotion, and Rebecca.

Rebecca and riku lack alot.
Which is why I said the series is just going through the motions with luffy and the big bad and luffy getting out. Cause oda needs to get his story over.

 

[Random Internet Person]

. Cause oda needs to get his story over.

Really? Because Oda seems to have an attitude of “you will let me do this at my pace and you will like it!” And the WSJ readers in Japan seem to like it enough.

Also, this may just be the grind of reading weekly that people complain about, especially during breaks.

 

[whatever I feel like]

I like Doffy but holy shit his character only suffers and wears out his welcome by surviving Law's gamma operation or whatever he called it. With just a little tinkering Oda could have cut hours of additional nothing from the fight while keeping whatever was wanted/needed from the post-operation parts.

The first half of this arc with the tournament, dwarves, toy factory, etc. was some of the strongest the series has been but after it just drags. Even the climb up the mountain was fine but something like 8 or 9 Pace episodes happen afterwards and it is just ridiculous- fit for ridicule.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I like Doffy but holy shit his character only suffers and wears out his welcome by surviving Law's gamma operation or whatever he called it. With just a little tinkering Oda could have cut hours of additional nothing from the fight while keeping whatever was wanted/needed from the post-operation parts.

The first half of this arc with the tournament, dwarves, toy factory, etc. was some of the strongest the series has been but after it just drags. Even the climb up the mountain was fine but something like 8 or 9 Pace episodes happen afterwards and it is just ridiculous- fit for ridicule.

i think doffy is a good villain but his fight just does not hit for me the same way the fight against big mom or kaido or even arlong did. something just feels like its missing. maybe its because it feels like he did not lose enough compared to others. i dont really know for sure.

 

[whatever I feel like]

i think doffy is a good villain but his fight just does not hit for me the same way the fight against big mom or kaido or even arlong did. something just feels like its missing. maybe its because it feels like he did not lose enough compared to others. i dont really know for sure.

He pretty much says "nuh-uh I have an anti-lazer shield" halfway through the fight. If Oda isn't going to limit his characters in well defined ways the the fight isn't really going to be interesting to watch. Having not yet finished the fight, you kind of only rarely see Dof really use his strings as strings. Even when implied that he's doing so it doesn't really show it. Instead of gliding through the air he should be either climbing like a spider or swinging like Spider-Man, or hauling in characters caught in his net like a fisherman. Oda really lazed out on depicting his powers, versus some of the other characters. Oh wow, a generic attack blob that is supposedly string....

 

[Snake of Diamond]

i think doffy is a good villain but his fight just does not hit for me the same way the fight against big mom or kaido or even arlong did. something just feels like its missing. maybe its because it feels like he did not lose enough compared to others. i dont really know for sure.

In terms of everything he spent years planning and i'd say by the time the SH's get to Dressrosa he basically "won" since he had a deal with Kaido and was overseeing the production of SMILE with Caesar. The backstory we got makes you root for his downfall but i gotta agree it didn't feel like anything. It's less like a Big Mom. Arlong, Eneru, Kaido, etc where the build up to the fight and the pay off is that finial punch of victory and to me more like "just get it over with already".

His DF is very interesting but some of the things he does with it just seemed like the "big ball of whatever attack"

Dressrosa is more about Rebecca and her dad. Luffy literally does not give a shit about Rebecca’s family, he primarily beats the shit out of Doffy due to the threat to his crew, Law showing actual emotion, and Rebecca.

It's weird since Law has the most attachment out of anyone considering his backstory but i didn't care that much about Rebecca. Don't hate her but it feels like she's another one of those characters that exist to give more of a purpose for Luffy to care about what is happening in Dressrosa rather than the plan with Law, Ace's Devil Fruit and whatever harm happens to his crew while in Dressrosa.

 

[Incecticyder]

i think doffy is a good villain but his fight just does not hit for me the same way the fight against big mom or kaido or even arlong did. something just feels like its missing. maybe its because it feels like he did not lose enough compared to others. i dont really know for sure.

In terms of everything he spent years planning and i'd say by the time the SH's get to Dressrosa he basically "won" since he had a deal with Kaido and was overseeing the production of SMILE with Caesar. The backstory we got makes you root for his downfall but i gotta agree it didn't feel like anything. It's less like a Big Mom. Arlong, Eneru, Kaido, etc where the build up to the fight and the pay off is that finial punch of victory and to me more like "just get it over with already".

His DF is very interesting but some of the things he does with it just seemed like the "big ball of whatever attack"

Two reasons really:

1. He lost the fight but achieved his goal. He was very much getting joy by being a tyrant but his trauma meant that he still had nightmares from his childhood that haunted his dreams. His true endgame was for the world to burn and for everyone to suffer as much as he did. He helped Kaido and BM get stronger in order to have them create chaos. BM wanted to conquer the world while Kaido wanted to burn it down looking for Joy Boy. He had his hands on everything related to the Underworld in order to collapse society should he be defeated or just if he felt like it. I bet when he was taken by the Marines in that ship, he realised the world as we know it was about to end and was genuinely happy for the first time in forever. It would not surprise me if he sleeps peacefully from now on.

2. The man, like Moria, rested on his laurels for far too long and, while he tanked some big attacks, he feels like he would have been far stronger had he been more willing to fight strong opponents he was not sure he can defeat. His talent and power stagnated.

 

[Random Internet Person]

 

[ShitLurker]

The man, like Moria, rested on his laurels for far too long and, while he tanked some big attacks, he feels like he would have been far stronger had he been more willing to fight strong opponents he was not sure he can defeat. His talent and power stagnated.

I'd say that applies more to Doffy's crew than himself. Doffy was a beast, yes, he folded pretty quick to gear 4, but he took a lot of punishment to reach that point. The mingo pirates on the other hand, outside of Sugar, were not particularly threatening.

A lot of them you just see it in their design, they are old and fat and got complacent in their status quo. All of Baroque works felt like a threat in Alabasta, in Dresrosa only Mingo was an actual threat. That probably adds to why the arc feels like it drags, Mingo is doing a lot of heavy lifting while his crew is taken out by "nobodies".

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I'd say that applies more to Doffy's crew than himself. Doffy was a beast, yes, he folded pretty quick to gear 4, but he took a lot of punishment to reach that point. The mingo pirates on the other hand, outside of Sugar, were not particularly threatening.

A lot of them you just see it in their design, they are old and fat and got complacent in their status quo. All of Baroque works felt like a threat in Alabasta, in Dresrosa only Mingo was an actual threat. That probably adds to why the arc feels like it drags, Mingo is doing a lot of heavy lifting while his crew is taken out by "nobodies".

this would explain things for sure. especially if you compare mingos crew to big moms or kaidos. his crew got lazy ruling over dressrosa they just assumed nobody would dare mess with doflamingo because of his connections to kaido and the underworld in general.

but overall i think dressrosa was mainly just to showcase doflamingo and how evil celestial dragons are even to their own kind along with giving luffy an excuse to use 4th gear and having sabo show up.

i will say though one thing dressrosa did very well is show off how strong franky is. between punk hazard and his fight with senior pink franky was really showing off.

 

[ShitLurker]

i will say though one thing dressrosa did very well is show off how strong franky is. between punk hazard and his fight with senior pink franky was really showing off.

Weeell, I kind of read it more as how crap the Mingo crew was. That Franky soloed baby 5 and Buffalo without much effort and Senior Pink, though a great hardboiled moment, Franky could have taken him out without taking too much damage if he had not decided to join in that and just brought Franky Shogun or shot some radical beams.

Hell, Zoro against Pica was more annoyed about finding the real body than it being something he deems a worthy challenge. Ussop making the 0.000001 shot was the real highlight of power outside of anything where flamingo was involved.

Now we wait for the next time Franky is allowedto fight and actually go all out. I imagine we won't get that till blackbeard.

And speaking of ol Teach snd the Strawhats...



Not that I expect these pairings, but just to get the ball rolling. Luffy, Zoro, Ussop and Chopper all seem obvious and set in stone. But the other 6 I could be convinced either way. and definitely a 2v2 or more since Nami is fucked vs pretty much anyone without having somebody to tank while she sets up her tricks.

Also, we clearly need Borsalino to joing the straw hats to counter Kuzan!

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Not that I expect these pairings, but just to get the ball rolling. Luffy, Zoro, Ussop and Chopper all seem obvious and set in stone.

You think Sanji isn't going to fight the Clear-Clear fruit user again? Don't even try that "but he's got a sword so Zoro has to fight him."

Sniper on sniper combat might seem apt but I could see Usopp fighting the guy who literally has the strength fruit as part of his road to be the most man of men. Alternatively maybe Zoro gets to do a repeat of that movie where him and Sanji swap what would normally be their default enemies.

Franky vs the big drinker. Not all of us have forgotten that the cyborg is powered by soft drinks.

While looks wise Brook's pairing seems good given he has a degree of messing with the animated inanimate he might also be a good fit for Mr Island.

Robin might be the one to get the designated chick fight. Alternatively she does owe ice-man.

Augur vs Nami might be interesting. She has illusionary shenanigans and long range attacks of her own to counter his teleporting sniping.

 

[TerminalTryHard]

My bet for BBs vs the SHs is
Luffy vs Teach (obvious)
Zoro vs Shiryu (obvious)
Sanji vs Pizaro
Chopper vs Doc Q (obvious)
Usopp vs Van Agur (obvious)
Nami vs Laffitte
Jimbe vs Burgess
Franky vs San Juan Wolf
Brooks vs Vasco
Robin vs Catarina Devon

Bonus
Kuzan vs Koby

 

[ShitLurker]

You think Sanji isn't going to fight the Clear-Clear fruit user again? Don't even try that "but he's got a sword so Zoro has to fight him."

Zoro gets the swordsman has been LAW for 25 years, accept it brother.

Franky vs the big drinker. Not all of us have forgotten that the cyborg is powered by soft drinks.

Technically, Nami is the heaviest drinker in the crew, so her vs Vasco is a possibility I'd like to see in action.

Sniper on sniper combat might seem apt but I could see Usopp fighting the guy who literally has the strength fruit as part of his road to be the most man of men.

Though Burges would be a neat curve ball, Augur is still apt since it would push Ussop's observation haki to it's limit by dealing with a teleporting menace.

Bonus
Kuzan vs Koby

Though I'd love Borsalino, yeah, this seems a lot more likely and Koby has motivation for it.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Technically, Nami is the heaviest drinker in the crew, so her vs Vasco is a possibility I'd like to see in action.

Them settling it with a drinking contest is entirely acceptable. Given the current arc the final shot should be Elbaf absinthe.

Zoro gets the swordsman has been LAW for 25 years, accept it brother.

Do you want me to drag up images of every single person with a sword fought by other Strawhat crew along with every single member of Blackbeard's crew who favours a sword?

Yes, Shiryu is another weeb who uses some Wano style weapon rather than a cutlass. Shiryu also identifies less a swordsman and more as an asshole. Frankly Tashigi has a better right to taking him out and given his history he might well be one of the people who inspired her to take the named swords out of the hands of the exceedingly undeserving.

I'm not that committed to this, it might well be Zoro gets to fight Shiryu. But it does feel too easy.