Downtown Rumbles: Sharp's Scotch Bar

[The Dog]

new chapter of one piece.

god, sanji must be broken after this.

spoilers:

And enter the "Knight of the Sea" to stop Luffy from ripping his hands off to escape his imprisonment.

end of spoilers

[Dark Soul # 7]

One Piece

spoilers:

I wonder if Sanji is going to set aside the pain of his loss and kick some ass, or if he's too down in the dumps right now to do anything. Brooke has some serious balls, standing up to a yonkou like that. That is, if he had any balls. Skeleton joke! Always good to see Jinbei, him kicking ass is a gret treat.

end of spoilers

[Nik Hasta]

For some reason Brook spoilers:

calling Big Mom "young lady,"

end of spoilers really hit for me.

One Piece continues to up it's game recently, which is good to see. I didn't care for the Fishman Isle arc and the Punk Hazard/Dressrosa arc was better but still a bit too cluttered for my liking. The current arc has been more tightly focused and more tied into the Strawhats themselves which I've been enjoying.

Also, the Big Mom Pirates are kind of entertainingly freakish, even by One Piece standards.

[master of read]

For some reason Brook spoilers:

calling Big Mom "young lady,"

end of spoilers really hit for me.

One Piece continues to up it's game recently, which is good to see. I didn't care for the Fishman Isle arc and the Punk Hazard/Dressrosa arc was better but still a bit too cluttered for my liking. The current arc has been more tightly focused and more tied into the Strawhats themselves which I've been enjoying.

Also, the Big Mom Pirates are kind of entertainingly freakish, even by One Piece standards.

well brook is over 80 years old so it makes sense that he would refer to linlin like that.

although we don't know her exact age.

[Hiromi]

The Big Mom arc is turning into a great arc

also
Tien confirmed for strongest human

[Dark Soul # 7]

For some reason Brook spoilers:

calling Big Mom "young lady,"

end of spoilers really hit for me.

One Piece continues to up it's game recently, which is good to see. I didn't care for the Fishman Isle arc and the Punk Hazard/Dressrosa arc was better but still a bit too cluttered for my liking. The current arc has been more tightly focused and more tied into the Strawhats themselves which I've been enjoying.

Also, the Big Mom Pirates are kind of entertainingly freakish, even by One Piece standards.

One of the editors for the series says that Oda has taken certain comments about the previous arcs, specifically those about the pacing, to heart, and that the pace of this arc is going to speed up a lot from this point on.

I'm really interested in seeing what state the Big Mom/Vinsmoke alliance will be in when this arc is over. Odds are that the wedding isn't going to happen at all, which might postpone the Vinsmokes playing the Starks at Big Mom's Red Wedding re-enactment. But she might backstabb them anyway after ****'s gone down.

[The Dog]

One of the editors for the series says that Oda has taken certain comments about the previous arcs, specifically those about the pacing, to heart, and that the pace of this arc is going to speed up a lot from this point on.

I'm really interested in seeing what state the Big Mom/Vinsmoke alliance will be in when this arc is over. Odds are that the wedding isn't going to happen at all, which might postpone the Vinsmokes playing the Starks at Big Mom's Red Wedding re-enactment. But she might backstabb them anyway after ****'s gone down.

And if not for Sanji being involved, I wouldn't give a damn about Big Mom's Red Wedding plans against the Vinsmokes. Because, to be honest, both sides are utterly horrible, and the Vinsmokes deserve it.

[master of read]

And if not for Sanji being involved, I wouldn't give a damn about Big Mom's Red Wedding plans against the Vinsmokes. Because, to be honest, both sides are utterly horrible, and the Vinsmokes deserve it.

well, at least reiju has some decent qualities since she actually seems to care for sanji.

[Dark Soul # 7]

And if not for Sanji being involved, I wouldn't give a damn about Big Mom's Red Wedding plans against the Vinsmokes. Because, to be honest, both sides are utterly horrible, and the Vinsmokes deserve it.

Definately true.

I'm mainly wondering if they'll hunt after the Strawhats as a combined force, or Big Mom's crew will do it on their own after murdering the Vinsmokes. I think I might enjoy option A a bit more, depending on whether Sanji gets to wreck his brothers in this arc or not.

[Iron_Twister]

At the very least, I'd greatly enjoy the Vinsmokes being reduced to nothing...But alive.

Just to see their reaction of how a lifetime of arrogance and unnerving jackassery has them ended up. Their status and power all violently taken away and no one will feel an ounce of pity for them in that aftermath.

...Cause really, that's how Oda tends to do to the most assholish villain who runs into Luffy and crew, who won't take that ****.

[Nik Hasta]

One of the editors for the series says that Oda has taken certain comments about the previous arcs, specifically those about the pacing, to heart, and that the pace of this arc is going to speed up a lot from this point on.

Eh, speed was never the problem for me so that comment is more worrisome than reassuring. For the last two arcs, it was more about structure, mismanaged stakes and a lack of interesting characters that hurt the arcs rather than issues of pacing.

Fishman Isle was hot off the the timeskip, still glowing with the emotional high stakes of the Marineford War arc, and we were greeted with the raw pulsating charisma of... Hody Jones... as a villain...? I mean, I knew we weren't going to get someone like Akainu calibre for this arc but Arlong-lite but addicted to drugs was just a bit of a damp squib in terms of opponents. Also, the Strawhats were kind of way above their opponents. None of them seemed threatened by the events of that arc, despite having the overwhelming disadvantage of being human/fruit users at the bottom of the sea. It just didn't feel very weighty as arcs went. A bit limp.

Punk Hazard/Dressrosa was a step in the right direction. Donflamingo was a fun villain and he'd had a lot of build up and didn't disappoint in terms of spectacle of both his evil deeds and the brawl it took to bring him down.

Unfortunately, both segments of the arc were mired by a few problems. First off, Ceaser was just a bit uninteresting as a primary antagonist though the use of the SAD gas made for a decently structured chase scene. We did see the Strawhats mostly just running through enemies without issue, Zoro versus Monet being a low point where she completely collapsed just from the threat of Zoro actually attacking her. Kind of hard to feel invested in that kind of battle, unless you really like Tashigi I guess?

Virgo was okay. Guy was tough and threatening and got taken out well so that was a good step.

Once you hit Dressrosa things got more interesting but things were weighed down by Oda introducing a metric ton of characters. Between the Tontota, the toy people, Donflamingo's crew, all the gladiator tournament people, Sabo, the extended royal family of Dressrosa, Law's backstory with... what's name again... Corazon (geniunely had to look that one up) and so on, it was pretty messy and just made the arc feel a bit confused for my liking.

Also, Zoro kind of remained a problem in that he, once again, kind of monstered on Pica without any real threat to him. Zoro has shown that he's capable of being hurt and having a high stakes match in the past but Oda seems kind of unwilling to let him be vulnerable these days.

So, all in all, it was an improvement. The pacing was fine for the actual plot beats but I'd say that Oda was trying to be a bit too busy with it and it just didn't really work that well.

Whereas, this arc has had two things I've liked a lot. Firstly, controlled introduction of new characters - we've got the Vinsmokes, the Big Mom pirates and, briefly, the Zoa people. The third group has now mostly been scaled back because they were more window dressing to the larger narrative, the Vinsmokes are tied to Sanji which makes them more engaging than your average extra characters and the Big Mom pirates are the antagonists so they need to be there.

Secondly, the Strawhats are pretty firmly way out of their depth. I like seeing them being the underdogs a bit more. There were shades of that in the Dressrosa arc but it's much more overt this time that this is a really dangerous situation for them right now. We had Luffy, hot off beating another of the Shichibukai in the previous arc, getting mostly punked by Big Mom's midboss squad, taken prisoner and being reduced to the point of; '**** you, if I have to literally rip my own arms off to stay in the fight, then that's what I'll do!' That's good stakes right there.

So, I'm hoping that Oda keeps the pacing as is and focuses more on keeping those stakes up. Then I'll be a happy man.

[Iron_Twister]

Yeah, I really like how this arc quickly reminds readers there are reasons people don't try to pick a fight with one of the Yonkou and their crew. Luffy bit more than he can chew.

[master of read]

it should be note that whenever a supernova challenged a emperor, they either joined them as subordinates or got totally curbstomped.

[Iron_Twister]

it should be note that whenever a supernova challenged a emperor, they either joined them as subordinates or got totally curbstomped.

Also again reminds me how the World Government prepared facing the full wrath of a Yonkou; assembly every able marine and the Shichibukai in one spot and prepare to throw down...Cause it's all 50-50 from then on.

[master of read]

Also again reminds me how the World Government prepared facing the full wrath of a Yonkou; assembly every able marine and the Shichibukai in one spot and prepare to throw down...Cause it's all 50-50 from then on.

and remember when the WG were losing their **** when they found out shanks and whitebeard were meeting for a talk and the possibility of a alliance between them? i can see why they were so scared.