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One Piece Book Club - Fishman Island/Punk Hazard (Patreon)

Published:
2023-09-09 20:15:27
Imported:
2023-09

Content

Book Club today, tentatively scheduled for 5:30pm PST. We're finishing our playthrough of Skies of Arcadia today right beforehand, so we might start a little late thanks to that.

Anyways imo this was the least fun reading session so far. But what did YOU think?

Files

Jello's One Piece Book Club Chapters 598 - 699 (Patreon Stream)

Congratz if you are watching this thank you for supporting the Patreon!!! Its time for HODY JONES POINTLESS ADVENTURE! Jello's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jelloapocalypse Aloha's Stuff: https://www.youtube.com/@Stabbyness Bo's Stuff: https://twitter.com/beauhello

Comments

Anonymous

I might have to let it sit some more but Fishman island solidly in the running for the worst arc. Skypeia was bad and boring but Fishman Island felt like such a goddamn waste. Punk Hazard is probably pulling more favorably for me just from its placement right after. Most anything would feel refreshing after being free of Oda's infuriating attempts at political commentary addition: At its worst, Fishman Island feels like a story written from the perspective of people who say we shouldn't teach critical race theory in schools because "teaching kids about the prejudices of the past will just make them resentful and continue the cycle of violence, when that stuff isn't even happening anymore" or w/e. I don't know if Oda would have that belief IRL (the poneglyph stuff makes me think he would object pretty strongly to the obfuscation of history like that) but it feels a story fueled by at least the ignorance of that perspective, if not the malice of it. Nick Creamer, a reviewer I enjoyed, actually like Fishman Island, and while I disagreed on most of what he had to say about it, I thought he was on the money here: "I didn’t initially think much of the choice to cast One Piece as the “pirate world.” It just seemed like a good hook for a shonen universe, punchy and easy to understand in the same way Naruto’s “ninja world” or Academia’s “hero world” are. But at this point, it’s clear that Oda genuinely and specifically venerates what he sees as the values of pirates – fierce individualism, absolute freedom, and undying loyalty to those you consider family. Rallying against the assumed conformity of collectivism, Oda consistently cries out that I Am Here, and that a true pirate does what his heart desires, no matter the cost. At the same time though, his general suspicion regarding solidarity and collective action seems to limit his ability to imagine an end to the Fishmen’s oppression. He distrusts structures inherently, and thus cannot imagine a structural solution to their plight; all attempts at civil political action are undercut by bad actors, and genuine revolutionaries are driven more by rage than moral conviction. He repeatedly returns to the idea of changing hearts and minds on an individual level, but in the end, victory can only come when one heroic individual claims justice for himself." And that's what makes Fishman Island feel like a waste to me, Oda's overemphasis on the individual. Nami a good, strong person and is therefore easily able to cast aside her fishman baggage because Arlong was just a bad exception, but Jinbei obviously isn't like Arlong, so hating Jinbei would be silly. Whereas Hody Jones (whose name I'm already struggling to remember because he's so fucking boring) can't overcome his hatred of humans because he's "empty" and "bad" I guess. It ends up being a really limpdick boring story, because it just ends up being about the fishmen's internal resentment and conflict between themselves, except Oda doesn't have any ideas on how to make that compelling besides "what if we wanted freedom but Too Much oops i'm bad guy baby eater kill all fishmen who want peace with humans hurr durr". The most impactful moment of the arc was Tiger's refusal to accept the blood transfusion, because all of his resentment and pain had truly poisoned him. Koala's "betrayal" so to speak was the last straw for him and he outright admits that he'll never be able to overcome his hatred of humans and that it'll be up to the next generation to mend those wounds. I felt like I glimpsed an alternate world where the arc could have been full of more stuff like that, genuine struggle and conflict from a character trying to be good despite themselves. And we didn't get fucking any more of that because One Piece is at its worst when it's being a shonen. As opposed to Skypeia (which needed to be entirely rewritten, I agree with your take on that), here's so many easy ways this arc could have been made better, all the pieces were there. Like Nami could've had a parallel struggle with her conflicted feelings (except Nami's a woman and isn't allowed to be mad so Sanji has to get mad for her aaaaaaaaaaah I have too much to say about Sanji so I won't). You could've written Hody out entirely and made Jinbei the bad guy, with his own traumas and pain clashing against Nami's, like there's infinite possibility and Oda didn't do anything with it because he bit off more than he could chew. There's a version of Fishman Island that could've been good. And it could have been good while still being a shonen manga appropriate for its age demographic, I don't think I'm asking for something unrealistic. This arc frustrated me more than any arc in One Piece because I felt like it really made me feel the divide between Oda's ambitions and his talents right alongside his shortcomings and crutches he keeps leaning on. This is my first time reading One Piece and I've had my ups and downs with it, but even when it's lame and bad or even boring, I've never thought Oda was uncompelling as a creative. I feel like he has ideas and visions for interesting stories and it's massively disappointing to see him basically copping out here. Ultimately I think I will be sticking with One Piece until the end, because even when I watch Oda shoot himself right in the ass, it always gives me a lot to think about, even if those thoughts end up amounting to "well i simply would have chosen not to shoot myself in the ass". Maybe without the book club I wouldn't find it so compelling to discuss and would've dropped off on my own, but for now I haven't regretted my decision to stick around, despite everything.

Anonymous

Fishman island is pretty forgettable IMO. Vander Decken was slightly interesting, as was the crew having to deal with being on the sea floor, but on the whole it was just a slog. Punk Hazard was a slow ramp up back to the norm of OP being good, and was an alright opening into The New World. Though Punk Hazard doesn't really compare to the arcs that follow it.

Anonymous

Fishman Island feels like the one Arc in One Piece Oda legit did NOT want to write and ultimately phoned it in with, as Jello pointed out, Bullet point storytelling. Fishman Island, like Wano, was setup really early and he clearly had it in mind for a while. Fishman Island was introduced Pre-timeskip as early as East Blue and exact location around Thriller Bark I think, and around the time Oda decided to do the Timeskip and was planning stuff out he went: "OH right, Fishman Island is the next Island in the order huh...", and since he more interested writing a showcase of how cool and strong the Straw Hats are now, he decided to make this arc from that perspective first and foremost and everything else was secondary. The worldbuilding was ass, the one thing Oda is consistently good at, the villains are somehow just as bad as the Skypeia guys and has the single worst main antagonist of them all, the utter failure to follow up on anything related to Nami is glaring (although maybe the Hatchi stuff Pre-Timeskip should have been a clue Oda was never interested in following that up again...), the entire setup for the conflict is nonsensical as shit even by OP standards and the whole racism plot felt like a uncooked light snack in terms of quality where it should be the FLAVORFUL MAIN COURSE OF THE ARC. I genuinely think if Fishman Island is a victim of Oda's setup style storytelling biting him in the ass, as he clearly wanted a more low stakes arc to show off the Straw Hat's buffs, but got stuck with an arc that, while not super significant to the world at largest at that moment in time, should have been one of the peaks of One Piece's narratives about systemic racism, slavery and abuse, so he tried and failed to do Oda both and we are all worse off for it. Wano is kinda similar, it got setup early and was always meant to be a centerpiece but was ultimately a victim of poor storytelling, but I never doubted Oda wanted to write it as a location and important piece in the puzzle of the central narrative, where as Fishman Island, an Island with a similar level of connections to the Myth Arc and other core themes, felt like he wanted to be doing anything else but that except when necessary for stuff in the future.

Anonymous

Made a realization about the art degrading at this point. This grouping of chapters is around the same time Bleach was hitting the Thousand-Year Blood War. And anyone familiar with Bleach knows that that's when Tite Kubo was really hitting his limit with the series art-wise. So absolutely unsurprising that Oda hits the same point with One Piece at that same time chapter-wise.

BreadBunny

So because I'm at this point writing full on essays, I'll start writing a preface so that if you read this you'll know which parts are of most interest to you and what you can expect. 1.Sabaody Return and what I believe to be the problem with the way Sanji is written and how by extension this also counts for Nami and Chopper. 2.Fishman Island, the fishmen should join the revolutionary army and also the blood transfusion thing is badly explained in the manga and could be used to further the idea of Jinbei as the reason why Hody Jones got radicalized. 3.Punk Hazard, Caesar Clown's devil fruit is fucked up and that's really bad actually and no one realizes this because Oda doesn't realize this. 4.YOU'VE ACTIVATED MY KUINA ESSAY DUE TO YOUR TALK ABOUT SMOKER AND TASHIGI. Also Zoro could be so much better a character if Kuina didn't die it's insane. this one is also like half the length of this comment because I am the world's number 1 Kuina Stan. 5.Conclusions, this one is short actually because that's what conclusions are for. 1.SABAODY RETURN So as I did say before IMO Sanji should have transitioned and instead of becoming an EVEN bigger pervert should have just been a woman now, though like to be honest Oda could not make a good female Sanji, I could though Give Her To Me. Though to be extremely honest I also think I'm starting to see the problem with how Sanji is written and by extension also Nami, Chopper, and Franky and how all four of these characters could have been way better. But realistically Franky should not be here so I'll just talk about the first three instead. So like Sanji's goal is that he's looking for the All Blue so he can get access to all the ingredients the sea could give him so he could become the greatest chef he can be so he can feed everyone who needs it because when he was a kid he and Zeff almost starved. and there's a lot here but ultimately he's looking to become the best chef he can be. Does Sanji spend literally any time on improving his skills as a chef or being excited about all the possible new ingredients he could find whenever the Strawhats get to a new island? Because the answer is no. And does Nami whose goal it is to make a map of the whole world ever spend any time making maps or being excited about getting to a new island so she can experience the new wacky topography? Because the answer is NO. And Chopper, who is the ship's doctor, who doesn't really have a goal because he's functionally one of the best doctors in the world already by the time they recruit him ever spend any time improving his skills or being excited about the properties of plants he's never seen before or medicinal skills the islanders of the new island would know that he's never seen before. BECAUSE THE ANSWER IS NO! And I could talk about how the Thousand Sunny being the ultimate ship makes Franky largely useless, and how he could be spending time upgrading the ship as the adventure continues as he learns more skills from the shipbuilders that would have to exist on every island until he slowly makes the Thousand Sunny into the ultimate ship rather than having it already be like that from the start. But like the only thing Franky does is make funky little appliances which is not useful enough for Franky to be here and also Usopp could fit that role instead. But basically I think I have recognized where Sanji, and Nami, and Chopper's characterization have gone wrong and why. Sanji's funny trait is that he's a pervert. Nami's funny trait is that she loves money. Chopper's funny trait is that he's baby. And for all of them in any given situation, rather than look at what their goals are Oda looks at what their funny trait is to determine how they should act. And for Sanji this is the most obvious because his funny trait is AWFUL, but Nami is also written really badly because of it, and for Chopper it's becoming more and more noticeable over time with how him being baby keeps getting in the way of him being a good doctor. Basically though Sanji can be a flirt, in the world where I make Sanji a woman I let her stay a flirt. But Sanji should at any point primarily be thinking about what kind of dinner he's going to be making and how he'll incorporate all the new ingredients he's finding into it. Hell the Thousand Sunny literally has a big fish tank for everyone to put ingredients into so Sanji can use them in his cooking that goes completely unused after being introduced. And Nami can get to like money, her entire backstory is about how she spends upwards of ten years literally only caring about money. But she should at any point primarily be spending her time mapping out the place and marveling at how weird the climates can get on the Grand Line and now the New World. Hell it's so easy to have like a big map of the whole Grand Line that's slowly filled out over the course of the story as Nami gets to see more and more of it. And Chopper... oh Chopper, you've already talked about it to a degree, but like Chopper should be spending his time aiming to improve his skills as a doctor, hell he should have used his time-skip to become a veterinarian and now he can also treat animals and that's majorly upped his understanding of medicine, and like the Thousand Sunny should have like a medicinal garden with some bullshit about supernaturally fertile ground that makes the medicines grow immediately so he can have a reason to go on the island aside from just standing next to Robin in the background. IN Conclusion, I believe Oda writes characters to have primarily a goal, and secondarily a funny trait and sometimes he'll just forget the goal and start writing these characters primarily as their funny trait. And that has happened to multiple main cast members and it's not good. 2.FISHMAN ISLAND So to start, the answer to the Fishman Island Racism plot should have been 'join the revolutionary army to destroy the Tenryūbito' instead of 'letting go and living well' like literally the entire problem that the fishmen have is that the tenryuubito exist. Straight up without the slavery upheld by them the fishmen would be fine, so like sorry to Shirahoshi's mom (who to be fair died at a point in time where the revolutionary army was still getting started and given she lives in fishman island she most likely would not have known about them) but letting go and living well is not the answer the answer is toppling the world government! Like what the fuck is the world government going to do, send an admiral down there just so a random fishman can pop the bubble his ship is coming down with, killing him instantly? Like the only time a Tenryūbito made it down there in the story he was the only survivor his ship was fucking nigh on demolished and everyone was literally just like "if we kill this guy right now no one will EVER know" the fishmen are in such an insanely powerful position if they join the Revolutionary army because they're DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH Mary Geoise and the WG would be in such an insanely bad spot. Also Jinbei should have then become the commander of the fishmen faction of the Revolutionary Army instead of dicking around with the Strawhats, like sorry Jinbei but we didn't need EVEN more cast bloat. Especially also because Jinbei already knows Ivankov. Aloha's suggestion with Nami being a fishman (not a mermaid, a fishman) is cool there's a lot that could be done around that, I'll definitely remember that as a potential use for my One Piece rewrite. Now then, I'm pretty sure the blood law thing is completely informal or at least meant to be. Because Fisher Tiger could not allow himself to accept human blood because he recognized that he had come to truly hate humans despite his best efforts, and then Jinbei lied saying that the humans refused to donate their blood and then the people of fishman island heard that and it became like an icon of racism to them and THEN because of that no fishman will donate blood to a human because no one donated their blood to Fisher Tiger. AKA it was all Jinbei's fault and that should have been used in the way that you all said where Jinbei's actions before he became part of the Sun Pirates and even after sowed the ground with racism and now he has to reap it. I will say I did like the Usopp boss fight at the end because of his "I'll beat you in three moves" where he then does and laments that he's gotten worse because it used to be that he had to bluff his way through fights like these and now he can just actually beat these people straight up. Honestly very fun insight into Usopp as a character and the way he's grown in the time-skip. 3.PUNK HAZARD So I don't like Caesar Clown for one big reason, this man has the Gas Gas Fruit, he has the power of EVERY SINGLE GAS BASED LOGIA FRUIT. what the fuck is this? What do you mean?? Oda??? Like a big reason why the devil fruits are so interesting to me is because they're always just like "here have a weird power, now figure it out" and sure the logia's have been the most versatile powers of all the devil fruits but like the devil fruits up until now have largely been weird incredibly niche powers that people have to genuinely figure out the uses of. And in comes Caesar Clown who can make poison gas, explosive gas, and also air bend the oxygen out of people's lungs and whatever else as long as he's dealing in one of the four major types of matter. and it's like Oda doesn't even realize what kind of precedent he's setting by introducing a devil fruit with as versatile a power-set as this one has. And then Baby 5 who has the weapon weapon devil fruit walks in and can turn into literally any weapon... Like I would have been fine if anyone in the story would have gone like "oh yeah there's like some extremely rare devil fruits that just have the power of multiple other devil fruits combined and they're fucked up strong" but that doesn't even happen because it's not something people really notice because Oda doesn't notice how fucked up these devil fruits really are. Also as an aside there's a moment where Nami while she's in Sanji's body rescues Usopp after they go through an avalanche and Usopp is like "oh Sanji you saved me" and is like genuinely disappointed when he realizes it's Nami actually and that moment had me sitting there like. Usopp? Anyway so Usopp should be gay is what I'm saying. MLM WLW solidarity between Usopp and Nami. Just to end out Punk Hazard I am of two minds about the part where everyone gets body-swapped. Because on one hand the way women are drawn doesn't go away but on the other hand Smoker in Tashigi's body is just like such a strong glimpse into what One Piece women could be if Oda didn't just sideline them all the time. It also has weirdly some really good Sanji moments whenever Oda lets up on having Sanji act like a massive pervert about being in Nami's body. The moment where Sanji is like legit having to be careful because Nami's body isn't trained in his martial arts so he doesn't strain it is great. When Sanji has to save Kinemon's torso from the lake and Sanji strips down because his clothes will need to be dry when he gets back out or he'll freeze to death, and he just doesn't perve about it, incredible. I wish this was how Sanji always was. up and to the being a woman because I am the Fem!Sanji propagandist now lmao. 4.YOU'VE ACTIVATED MY KUINA ESSAY Okay so. To set this up, Zoro made his promise with Kuina because he wanted her to keep training because he knew that she had like infinitely greater talent with the sword than him and he didn't want something stupid like sexism to stop her. This is just text, however Oda is a massive sexist himself so he then immediately killed Kuina as a bad motivation for Zoro to now have to become the world's greatest swordsman in her stead. So Kuina should not have died, and Zoro's arc should be about him competing with Kuina to keep motivating her, because he knows she can become the greatest swordsman in the world if she just keeps going. In that way their arcs would mirror, Kuina is a diamond in the rough who needs to be polished so she can shine but she doesn't believe in herself enough to do so without outside motivation, while Zoro is a piece of coal that is insanely trying to crush itself into a diamond, because he believes stronger than any sane person would that all he needs to do is just keep pressing harder. Zoro's arc then becomes about how he's constantly pushing himself, yes, because he wants to become the world's greatest swordsman but really because he wants Kuina to look at him and remember to keep the promise he basically forced on her so she won't put her sword down because Zoro knows better than anyone how much stronger she can become. In this way Kuina also becomes a bounty hunter, Zoro leaves their dojo after they spend like five-six years sparring because at that point he realizes that in order to keep growing they'll need to fight other people. Kuina is sad he leaves and thinks he gave up on their promise because he got sick of her, lays the sword down and lets herself gently fade into a lifestyle she hates. (this can happen as Zoro backstory) But then she hears about Pirate Hunter Zoro whose goal it is to become the world's greatest swordsman, and realizing he hasn't forgotten she takes up her sword again storms out and becomes a bounty hunter herself. She's just immediately very good at it, starts taking out big name pirates (for East Blue) and due to her bringing in like a train of people, she catches the attention of the Marine in charge of the bounties in East Blue which we'll make Smoker! (this can happen as part of loguetown where it's shown that she's now working with the Smoker as a bounty hunter she doesn't join the marines) Then here we go it's the Smoker Tashigi dynamic except Tashigi doesn't exist anymore and Smoker and Kuina have a reason to be here. Remember earlier on when y'all were talking about how bounty hunters are kind of irrelevant. Well here you go Smoker is now in charge of the bounties in East Blue and then after the time-skip as a whole. He can be the person to give Kuina bounties that she will then collect and every arc/Saga you could play a fun game where Kuina gets given a partially obscured bounty for one of the enemy pirate lieutenants and then instead of the strawhats fighting them Kuina will just drop into frame beat the shit out of them and then just leave. and every arc/saga at the start you get a cover story that's just like Smoker handing her a bounty that you can only partially see and now it's all about guessing which pirate she's going to down instantly. Also to further Zoro and Kuina's dynamic, every time they meet which is either once per bigger island or once per saga, Zoro demands a fight and every time and I do mean EVERY TIME Kuina just beats his ass, not even like a chapter of fighting or anything, literally just Zoro goes "we're fighting NOW" and the next panel is Kuina sheathing her blade and Zoro is lying dead on the ground but because this is One Piece he's fine. And this part is crucial when Zoro or someone tells her "wow you're really strong" or "you've a lot stronger" Kuina will then immediately start making excuses for why she won about how like the sun's position was in her favor or the ground was slightly slanted and Zoro will just get up and go "alright I'll remember that" and then the next time they fight Zoro will have found an arena where Kuina's previous excuse no longer matters. The sun was blinding Zoro, no matter we're fighting in total darkness, Kuina had the high ground, no matter we're fighting each other on the way down from Skypiea so we're both in the air. That kind of shit. And now instead of having Zoro be bad with directions so Oda can keep him out of the story until he's needed, Zoro is always running off because he's looking for the next perfect arena for him to fight Kuina so that maybe this time she won't have an excuse anymore and will simply have to accept she's the better swordsman. And like in this version Zoro just doesn't make the promise to never lose a fight again, and the actual important promise is the one he made with Kuina where either one of them would become the world's greatest swordsman. And Zoro's goal while out-loud being that he wants that spot, it is shown that his real goal is making sure that Kuina doesn't lay down the blade because he knows that spot is hers to take. Smoker then also still shows up whenever he does in normal One Piece but he is now explicitly Smoker the White Hunter who realized how far Luffy would go and is now hot on the Strawhats' heels for the rest of the manga, essentially getting promoted by being forced to take the Strawhats' accomplishments like in Alabasta and he hates it. And then after the time-skip he's become a vice-admiral and rather than being in G-5 he is now just in charge of the Marine faction whose job it is to keep track of and cash in bounties for the World Government. Smoker would then also be disillusioned with the Marines and WG and be influencing bounties to reflect how dangerous someone is to the world at large rather than to the World Government. Though I don't know if he should be like putting his flavor on the bounty system as part of his beliefs or if his character should be taken further and secretly start sympathizing with the Revolutionary Army. Kuina then would also just continue working with Smoker because he'll give her bounties tailored to her abilities and his need to get those particular pirates gone because of how dangerous he's determined them to be. Also after the time-skip Kuina is now a marine Commodore (the highest ranks below the admiral ranks) not because she's been convinced of the Marine way but because the Marines under Akainu the Marines have been conscripting notable bounty hunters into their ranks because forcefully taking in more people who don't want to be here is a great way to increase the power of the Marines while also exponentially increasing dissidence and dissatisfaction with the way the Marines and WG do things. This as a way to put the Revolutionary Army plot a little more center stage and showing how the WG are essentially destabilizing their own position in response to the threat that is the Revolutionary Army and the second wave of the Pirate Age that started when whitebeard told the world the One Piece is real. Like so much of One Piece is just people who should join the revolutionary army and then not doing so because despite the fact that the world government NEEDS to be overthrown because Oda doesn't actually want to spent time working on that subplot, and the Revolutionary Army should for real be like the primary subplot of One Piece. Whenever we move away from the Strawhats onto the wider world and how it's going the Revolutionary Army should pretty much always be there in some capacity. And as I understand it that's starting to be more the case in after chapter 1000 but it should have been the case starting at the latest during Impel Down when we meet Ivankov. 5.CONCLUSIONS To end this essay, I'll also say that I was planning on talking about how I think Observation Haki should not exist but I think I'll do that after Dressrosa instead because that's when it's actually going to start being a thing, and maybe I'll even push it back to after Whole Cake because that's where I remember the real big problems starting to crop up. Anyway I hope you had fun reading my 3000 word essay about half of which is about Kuina because I am her biggest fan, and she's in my opinion so perfectly emblematic of Oda's problems with women in One Piece.

Anonymous

Something that really irked me about the time-skip was how Sanji never got a moment in New Kama Land with Iva where Iva smacked some sense into him about his sexist womanizing bullshit. Post timeskip, Sanji could have came out a changed man who actually respects everyone as equals.

Anonymous (edited)

Comment edits

2023-09-11 21:48:09 I don't know quite how to articulate this, but the timeskip in One Piece feels like it takes forever to actually payoff. It's something about how the strawhats aren't really tested until the raid on onigashima a decade later. Like at no point do I feel that the Straw Hat crew pre-timeskip couldn't have handled Hody, or Caesar, or even Doflamingo. Like when the Zoro vs King fight happened in the manga I remember someone calling out that this was the first serious fight Zoro had post-timeskip and I was in disbelief at first until I looked back over who he's actually gone up against and, yeah, King is the first fight Zoro had to push himself in. It feels like I'm still waiting for all the Straw Hats to fully show off the results of their training and that most are still keeping secret techniques and forms and other shonen BS in their back pocket. It's like East Blue, where Luffy one-shots every villain, except now the entire crew can do that. Not that I'm saying Chopper could take out Doflamingo, but the way the power-creep is written I wouldn't have been wholly surprised if he got close.
2023-09-11 19:36:24 I don't know quite how to articulate this, but the timeskip in One Piece feels like it takes forever to actually payoff. It's something about how the strawhats aren't really tested until the raid on onigashima a decade later. Like at no point do I feel that the Straw Hat crew pre-timeskip couldn't have handled Hody, or Caesar, or even Doflamingo. Like when the Zoro vs King fight happened in the manga I remember someone calling out that this was the first serious fight Zoro had post-timeskip and I was in disbelief at first until I looked back over who he's actually gone up against and, yeah, King is the first fight Zoro had to push himself in. It feels like I'm still waiting for all the Straw Hats to fully show off the results of their training and that most are still keeping secret techniques and forms and other shonen BS in their back pocket (we only just learned Robin studied fishman karate). It's like East Blue, where Luffy one-shots every villain, except now the entire crew can do that. Not that I'm saying Chopper could take out Doflamingo, but the way the power-creep is written I wouldn't have been wholly surprised if he got close.

I don't know quite how to articulate this, but the timeskip in One Piece feels like it takes forever to actually payoff. It's something about how the strawhats aren't really tested until the raid on onigashima a decade later. Like at no point do I feel that the Straw Hat crew pre-timeskip couldn't have handled Hody, or Caesar, or even Doflamingo. Like when the Zoro vs King fight happened in the manga I remember someone calling out that this was the first serious fight Zoro had post-timeskip and I was in disbelief at first until I looked back over who he's actually gone up against and, yeah, King is the first fight Zoro had to push himself in. It feels like I'm still waiting for all the Straw Hats to fully show off the results of their training and that most are still keeping secret techniques and forms and other shonen BS in their back pocket (we only just learned Robin studied fishman karate). It's like East Blue, where Luffy one-shots every villain, except now the entire crew can do that. Not that I'm saying Chopper could take out Doflamingo, but the way the power-creep is written I wouldn't have been wholly surprised if he got close.

Grove20

As the arcs went on and on, I felt like excitement was deprecating and the only thing I gave a crap about was the final boss fight and any moment Robin had something to do, minus the annoying fan service.