One Piece Weekly Chapter Discussion

Superbuu3 wrote:

Well Doflamingo lived unsuprisingly, there is the off chance he might be executed though as the tenryubito wanted him dead this whole time. Would've been intersting if we found out the secret he was hiding.

When does Luffy ever kill the villain?

Doffy will get his comeuppance, either via the World government / Tenryuubito or from Kaido, but it was never going to be Luffy that finished him.

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Sabo disappointed me he was a badass and decided to not kill Burgess. Seriously why not thats going to bite them in the ass.

Unless its a major plot point, people don't kill each other in one piece, even when they probably should.

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I do hope Kid and his alliance don't get killed by Kaidou off screen that would be complete BS. I don't get how Jewelery bonny is free though she was captured ages ago by akainu when blackbeard wrecked her and her crew, so how's she free.

We haven't seen Bonney since the timeskip, we have no idea what she has done in that time. Anything could have happened. Kidd / Apoo / Hawkins were targeting Shanks, not Kaidou, so I think even if they are defeated, they certainly won't be killed.

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Capone seems to be gunning for Luffy, so we might finally see him do something, although these guys are all small fry I wonder what the yonkou will do.

Capone mentioned getting back Caesar, so I wondered if he had allied with Big Mom.

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Fujitora just seems like another douche though now preaching all kinds of BS and then not acting on it, if he hurts bartolomeo i'll hate that character.

What?

Fuji's a gambler. He rolled a die, and since then he has deliberately limited his own actions in Dressrosa - and made it known this was the case - so the Straw Hats could get full credit for taking down Doflamingo and revealing the huge scale of the corruption within Dressrosa. He knew that if he got involved personally, or reported it to Akainu then the Wrold Government would have twisted events and given credit elsewhere like they did with Crocodile, or just covered it up entirely like they did with Moria.

Almost every action of his was a middle finger to the Government, aimed at very publicly exposing the corruption the shichibukai system has made possible.

Also, did you miss the fact that he also appeared to be using his gravity to prevent the marine troops from moving in the latest chapter? I'm not sure what's going to happen in the next chapter, but I doubt very highly he'll actually get into a serious fight with the Straw Hats or their allies.

Fuji may be many things, but he's certainly no douche and I've no idea where you get the idea he's been preaching at not acting on it.

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Bartolomeo needs to join the straw hats.

Not going to happen.

Bart has his own crew, he'll likely end up as part of the larger Straw Hat fleet, but not directly part of the crew itself.

Yeah, having the Bartman actually joining would be weird. Apart from having his own crew to look after and his life of piracy already being inspired by Luffy, the joke of him being a total fanboy would be painfully rammed into the ground if he wound up becoming a full blown Straw Hat. It'll be the only thing that defines him and it'd get really old.

Man, I tapped out of One Piece back when Luffy and Law were riding on the bull for a dozen issues and decided to catch up to see what I'd missed. I can't believe Dressrosa got dragged out as long as it did. Talk about arc fatigue; the pacing was awful. I can't fault any of the actual story beats (well, other than Rebecca - I'm sick of weepy princesses, bring back Vivi) but there were just so many and it lasted so long. It's still not technically over, even though Doffy is down, because the Straw Hats still need to escape.  

The biggest problem with One Piece, which was apparent from the beginning of the arc, is that there are just too many characters in the main party now. Even with the loss of the beta squad for this arc (coincidentally, all of the least interesting Straw Hats post time-skip), the millions of Colosseum fighters and Dressrosa residents (the dwarves, the royal family) made up for their loss and demonstrated the difficulty Oda has juggling so many characters. I think the current group split might be a blessing if Oda uses the opportunity to tell a few story arcs that are more focused on specific characters with relatively lower stakes. The story definitely needs a palate cleanser after Dressrosa becuase more of the same would be overkill and fatiguing.

Every arc needs to stop having so many simultaneous battles. It's been happening since Arlong's Park but, where it once was manageable (see: Alabasta, Enies Lobby), it's gotten a bit tiresome with the increased cast size and the general trend towards everything needing to be BIGGER and MORE EPIC than every previous arc. Characters will start fights that will only be periodically shown and won't be resolved for months. Zoro's Rules of Nature moment on Pica was great and all but he was fighting him continuously for like thirty chapters.

Overall, I liked the arc but it was a bit too grandiose for its own good. It was basically Alabasta 2.0 but Alabasta was pretty much perfect so recreating the same basic story but just bigger in scope didn't necessarily improve anything.

Doflamingo was a compelling villain and the general concept of his family of henchmen was alright (there were too many and I had trouble distinguishing/remembering them). Senor Pink was my favorite. His fight with Frankie was hilarious and his last minute sob story was so audaciously tragic that I can't decide whether it is horribly sad or funny.  

The arc broke rare ground by presenting its flashbacks in a way that were effective and didn't kill the pacing too badly. The Law/Corazon flashback was a bit long but it was a good story and Doflamingo's sociopathic origin story was succinctly delivered in less than a dozen poignant panels.

Gear Fourth was pretty cool, Sabo didn't do all that much, Bartolomeo was the best, Bellamy is the worst, every character having their own tragic backstory wore a little thin somewhere around Laboon the whale so the fact that every arc rests upon every new character struggling with their past is dull now. Is there literally any character who hasn't suffered the loss of a parental figure or sibling? Speaking of, Rebecca's tragedy was better than the fish princess' but it was still not interesting at all.

I'm interested in the general future direction of the story but I definitely have no desire to maintain a weekly following. I'll be following it till 800 I think and then backing off on a nice clear milestone for another year or so. I don't have the patience to stick around week in and week out, especially because a new arc will be beginning soon and that likely means another slow plot burn for a few months.

SimianWonder wrote:

When does Luffy ever kill the villain?  

Doffy will get his comeuppance, either via the World government / Tenryuubito or from Kaido, but it was never going to be Luffy that finished him.

Unless its a major plot point, people don't kill each other in one piece, even when they probably should.

We haven't seen Bonney since the timeskip, we have no idea what she has done in that time.  Anything could have happened.  Kidd / Apoo / Hawkins were targeting Shanks, not Kaidou, so I think even if they are defeated, they certainly won't be killed.

Capone mentioned getting back Caesar, so I wondered if he had allied with Big Mom.

What?

Fuji's a gambler.  He rolled a die, and since then he has deliberately limited his own actions in Dressrosa - and made it known this was the case - so the Straw Hats could get full credit for taking down Doflamingo and revealing the huge scale of the corruption within Dressrosa.  He knew that if he got involved personally, or reported it to Akainu then the Wrold Government would have twisted events and given credit elsewhere like they did with Crocodile, or just covered it up entirely like they did with Moria.

Almost every action of his was a middle finger to the Government, aimed at very publicly exposing the corruption the shichibukai system has made possible.

Also, did you miss the fact that he also appeared to be using his gravity to prevent the marine troops from moving in the latest chapter?  I'm not sure what's going to happen in the next chapter, but I doubt very highly he'll actually get into a serious fight with the Straw Hats or their allies.

Fuji may be many things, but he's certainly no douche and I've no idea where you get the idea he's been preaching at not acting on it.

Not going to happen.

Bart has his own crew, he'll likely end up as part of the larger Straw Hat fleet, but not directly part of the crew itself.

I didn't expect Luffy to kill him, hence the unsuprisingly. In this case Doflamingo not getting killed by the Tenryubito would be pretty weird. In regards to Sabo, there was easily enough motivation for him to do it and we know nothing about him in terms of character, there always was a possibility for a game changer. Loads of people said people would never die in the present, then it did happen, I can still hope things might change a little.

We saw Bonet before and after Fishman island. As much as we've seen some of the other Supernova. Capone got sucked into a giant black ball previously so he likely has a connection with someone stronger. I'm pretty sure I commented on both of these things previously in this thread.

Fuji is still going after the Straw Hats and sure he's a gambler, but he also would've willingly gone after them the first day if the dice rolled that way. He also said he would've liked it that way to not be allowed back to the marines until he caught him. Whether you like the character or not that sounds dickish. Being a badass doesn't suddenly negate the actions you take. So what he gave Luffy full credit, if he'd willingly hand him back to enies lobby would he still be great in your eyes? Just because he isn't capable of doing it later doesn't suddenly turn it into oh well he never would've done it. Garp was the same, except we know for a fact he didn't want to do it, i'll check out where you thought gravity was used. I remember someone commented on haki use, but it wasn't.

I'm inclined to go with what Sora said he'd grow annoying.

Oh wow Luffy has a fleet I guess issue 800 is going to be a big one.

Will Luffy accept though?

I can genuinely see him turning down the offer. I hope he doesn't, and he'll need larger numbers if he hopes to take down a Yonkou, but I wouldn't be surprised if A) Luffy turns them down and B) God Usopp accepts in his stead. Hell, he kept on saying he had 8000 followers, didn't he? This would put him two-thirds of the way there!

SimianWonder wrote:

Will Luffy accept though?  

I can genuinely see him turning down the offer.  I hope he doesn't, and he'll need larger numbers if he hopes to take down a Yonkou, but I wouldn't be surprised if A) Luffy turns them down and B) God Usopp accepts in his stead.  Hell, he kept on saying he had 8000 followers, didn't he?  This would put him two-thirds of the way there!

I don't think Luffy has a choice in the matter. That said your solution is a reasonable possibility, there's no way these guys are taking no for an answer.

Watch out, crew. We're in furry country.

The Ryuunosuke stuff must be one of the all-time greatest gags in the series. At the very least, it's been a long time since I was outright laughing at someting.

Spoiler:

LEO LEO LEO LEO GOD DAMMIT GOD DAMMIT GOD DAMMIT GOD DAMMIT

They should all set up a truel. Put those printed copies in a treasure chest and then face each other in a Konami pachinko machine battle for the prize. Then it turns out there was another copy and it was in the hands of Monet all along, and that she's alive somehow because a pirate wizard revived her. Then they set out to meet her and she gladly hands over the last copy. She also joins the crew because whatevs, right?

Still anxiously awaiting the Monet/Sugar cover story.

There's been a real hot streak going on in terms of quality since Kaidou's appearance. I hope Oda manages to keep it up for a good long while.

Also remember when we were all kids and hated Vivi? Thank god we grew out of that.

I didn't hate her.

LuffyxVivixHancockxMargaret OTF.

I disliked her 4kids dub voice, tho.

pudding 4 nakama

Pudding is the best character ever!!!

Yeah, didn't see that coming. Nice twist though, and Sanji still sucks.

Is Sanji going to get Red Wedding'd?

Perfect opportunity for Sanji to break with his "not hitting a woman" rule. Women in OP are not all damsels in distress, some of the female pirates shown can be absolute monsters, Big Mom being the most obvious case in point. Sanji putting himself and his crew at risk was already ridiculous back in Enies Lobby and now the stakes are much higher.

Doesn't mean I think he'll do it, of course. Sanji's white-knighting is almost as important to his character as kicking things and cooking things, so I don't think it'll happen.