GIGANTIC ESSAY I KNOW AND APOLOGISE BUT I NEED TO VENT
Well said man, I can definitely relate to and understand your frustrations here. I genuinely appreciate how unapologetically honest you are and criticisms like these are a godsend for me to not feel so alone in them and "crazy".
I remember we got no Sanji for absolutely ages, several months or so? That was absolutely ridiculous of Oda.
Honestly if I didn't enjoy Queen so much as a character in general and Sanji didn't destroy but embraced the raid suit, I would be even more furious than I have been lately with this arc.
I completely agree with what you've said, it's so cathartic to see it honestly and I'm very grateful for it.
Depending on how next chapter goes, it will be the breaking point for me with OP. Never mind Shanks and Mihawk who I've waited well over a decade to see in their own arcs by now, OP is breaking me bad lately like I'm Walter White/Heisenberg or when Joker broke Batman finally. Not becoming homicidal ofc but more like the Broken Bird trope and just completely fucking fed up with Odas childish decisions and writing.
OP was much better imo when it was far less extreme, grander, convoluted, dragged out, bigger, oversaturated etc. It used to have the most wonderful spirit, charm, atmosphere, adventurousness (is that a word? Lol) or sense of adventure and such.
There is stuff I love post TS but it's far and few between even and I feel like Oda is punishing us instead most of the time.
It's ironic in a series all about ambition and success, that OP is getting crippled by its own over ambitions and success.
It probably makes me a hipster or whatever, but I still appreciate how much simpler and more grounded OP was early on/pre TS.
I've seen other series fall to over ambition and its hard to watch it happen to OP especially, my own personal favourite series growing up and becoming something I cannot recognise anymore.
OP feels so shallow ironically now, so soulless like it's trying too hard, trying too hard to be dramatic, shocking emotional, clever, complex etc.
It feels like a completely different series to me now, like how someone you know and especially love dearly changes and you don't know who they are anymore, there's just this uncomfortable emptiness and unfamiliarity and whatever you had with them is dwindling for dear life/by a string, feather or so or long gone.
Sorry to be so bleak, pessimistic, mood killing and such but Drizzt himself has said some certain Youtubers aren't happy with or less happier with OP for a long time now or at least lately. Outbursts and complaints by certain Youtubers here but especially on Twitter verify this too.
One certain big Youtuber admitted they exaggerate their reactions as expected and feel frustrated with OP.
I'll always feel like I'm trying to push a boulder up a hill to say and argue these points in the OP community, especially outside of here but posts and comments like yours help me massively.
I really wish OP wasn't being milked to absolute high hell and wasn't burdened by giving Dragonball, Bleach, Naruto, Fairy Tail etc fans something to help make up for their series ending and thus focusing their attention on OP now.
I was a fan of Bleach, Naruto and FT and I watched all of them fall apart for their own reasons and it was painful, upsetting and difficult.
Now I feel OP and especially Oda ofc are far too burdened in many ways and affecting for it too. Between that and far too uncontrolled ambition/greed.
OP was always in a league of its own but its gotten to the point where the long hyped Yonkos and their arcs are extremely divisive and widely hated still. Wano, the most hyper arc of OP which was also gassed bybthe editors and such has turned out to be another Dressrosa for all the wrong reasons and dragging out far more than it did already.
I wanted to see Wano desperately since Thriller Bark was airing. Now I want it long gone and to never see/read/visit again. More so than any other arc before. How the hell did that happen?!
I look at Okami and I see the wasted potential of Wano and OP and it infuriates me. No way in hell I could ever claim to write or do better than Oda, not even remotely close probably but it's tearing me apart to see the current state of OP.
People can call me a hater if they like and as they've done before but ironically they're ignoring my arguments and judging me at a surface level, just like they claim i do to OP.
They have no godamn idea how much I lived, breathed, worshipped this series for many years and I feel somehow I'm also responsible for wanting so much more out of it and from Oda too. After all, isn't Oda also trying to fulfil the overwhelming expectations of his fanbase and try to recapture lightning in a bottle as he did before, to repeat the meteoric rose and success he accomplished before and or maintain it at least?
Champions stagnate, get cock and vulnerable to newer, hungrier, more youthful/full of life underdogs and that's that's I feel has happened to OP for years now.
These are all just my opinions ofc and I don't expect anyone to read this mega essay too but I really needed to vent so much.
Some certain people convinced me to stay and give the next chapter and Luffy a chance, to still have faith in Oda but we'll see.
If we get a raid failing or a confirmed loss for Luffy at least, I'll genuinely quit this series, not even take that long break I was saying I would lately, I will just absolutely quit and never look back again.
I can't tolerate Odas BS anymore. He's won over me at least and anyone else who has already given up on and abandoned OP. I'm also dangling by a thread and depending on next chapter, I'll either cut that thread myself and fall and move on with my life or I'll climb back up regretfully and continue this rollercoaster of abuse by Oda.
Pre TS may have had similar flaws to post TS ofc but it was far more enjoyable, charming, entertaining, easier to follow and digest and so on.
It's like how I prefer simpler games and movies to more complex, layered and time investment needed games, movies, series etc.
I really miss the spirit pre TS OP had. I could do a massive post or and video on why the timeskip and FMI arc caused me so much despair, anguish, frustration and such and maybe I will soon.
I know if do a video like this though, the OP youtube community will cause at least a figurative blood hunt on me though.
Can't wait for the posters who also spend considerable time on here ironically to say, "just drop the series/stop reading bro", "its not that serious", "touch grass", "muh Shonen manga/teenage boys demographic, muh Japanese cartoons, muh children's story, you're just a hater etc".
All actual insults I've seen on here and elsewhere plentifullly.
OP has some extremely tonal dissonance issues lately and it's driving me crazy too.
