Character Discussion Smoker fans are delusional.
- Thread starter Pooth
- Start date
Smoker should have beaten Vergo and Tashigi should have beaten Monet.
Oda had plenty of good stuff further down the line for Zoro and Law, he could have thrown a bone to two long standing members of the cast here.
I think that Oda was originally going to have Vergo play a lot larger part in Law’s backstory then Law getting beaten up by him once the only time they met.
Tashigi’s treatment was just inexcusable garbage and I’m someone who usually loves a good Zoro wanking session.
Oda had plenty of good stuff further down the line for Zoro and Law, he could have thrown a bone to two long standing members of the cast here.
I think that Oda was originally going to have Vergo play a lot larger part in Law’s backstory then Law getting beaten up by him once the only time they met.
Tashigi’s treatment was just inexcusable garbage and I’m someone who usually loves a good Zoro wanking session.
Neither Smoker nor Coby are will of D members. Neither Smoker, nor Coby will 2vs1 Blackbeard with Luffy lol. Neither pose a threat to EoS Luffy and would need a time skip/ cybernetic enhancements to even catch up to Lucci level let alone Luffy.
Luffy is the new "hero of the world", considering he is the one liberating all these islands and standing up against the modern day Rocks.
Luffy is the new "hero of the world", considering he is the one liberating all these islands and standing up against the modern day Rocks.
Atleast Tashigi was always pretty weak. Smoker was a serious threat from the get go. Fucking Dragon needed to step in to save Luffy against the guy lmao. I get he was a logia in paradise and the new world is a different beast, but treating a long standing character to job 3 times and worst of all to a one arc rental like Vergo (literally a nobody in the grand scheme) is objectively bad treatment of the character. Look how much respect Crocodile got in his reintroduction in the war of the best and compare that to Smoker on PH. Crocodile didn't actively beat anyone but the portrayal was there, he didn't budge against top tiers like Akainu and Mihawk and actually halted them, realistically the gap between them is so vast that shouldn't have even been drawn, but Oda actually respected Crocodile too much to do him like that. Oda simply didn't respect Smoker enough to save face for him.
Crocodile never got trashed like Smoker though. He may have gotten the most respect aside from Kaidou for any major arc antagonist to date. He just showed up too early in the powerscale. Smoker's was a different case, the powerscale and abilities were well formed.
Smoker straight up got chewed up and spit out like he was some cheap whore on PH.
Anyone can recover on Oda's whim, but Smoker lost all the buildup and momentum he had going for him thanks to PH, and there is no way Oda didn't do know that would happen the way he treated him.
Smoker straight up got chewed up and spit out like he was some cheap whore on PH.
Anyone can recover on Oda's whim, but Smoker lost all the buildup and momentum he had going for him thanks to PH, and there is no way Oda didn't do know that would happen the way he treated him.
They are not really wrong.
Garp was the one marine assigned (self assigned?)to track Roger.
Sengoku was tracking Shiki and later WB.
Tsuru has a similar relationship with Doffy.
Smoker had a similar relationship with Luffy. He even requests to he transferred to the NW so that he can stay close to his target. Luffy though is just too special and he has totally outgrown smoker to the point that Luffy 3rd strongest (Jinbei) crew member could beat and stop Smoker from meeting Luffy face to face. That's not something that happened to the above relationship dynamics.
Makes sense why Oda introduced Fuji. He is someone whom Luffy can never delegate to his henchmen.
Garp was the one marine assigned (self assigned?)to track Roger.
Sengoku was tracking Shiki and later WB.
Tsuru has a similar relationship with Doffy.
Smoker had a similar relationship with Luffy. He even requests to he transferred to the NW so that he can stay close to his target. Luffy though is just too special and he has totally outgrown smoker to the point that Luffy 3rd strongest (Jinbei) crew member could beat and stop Smoker from meeting Luffy face to face. That's not something that happened to the above relationship dynamics.
Makes sense why Oda introduced Fuji. He is someone whom Luffy can never delegate to his henchmen.
Funnily enough, the treatment of Croc gives me hope for Smoker.
Smoker’s in the same position now as Croc was at the start of ID. Both really needed a massive powerboost otherwise they’d be irrelevant. Croc at the start of ID was the guy who‘d been beaten by pre-Gears Luffy (and with no Haki, which we were starting to get explanations about at the time). So Oda gave him a big boost and great portrayal, and now when he comes back into the series he could honestly be YC in strength and I don’t think people will bother much.
For Smoker, PH was his Alabasta. All of pre-skip Smoker was an unstobbable beast, going into the timeskip he was still wrecking Luffy in Marineford, and only Hancock could hold him off.
(And Hancock had great portrayal back then, being one of the few CoC users and being unscathed in all of Marineford).
Then for PH Oda decided to use Smoker as the whipping boy to show how hard the New World will be. So hopefully now that’s done he’ll get a Croc-style boost.
Luffy did promise they’ll fight again when they are both at full strength, and it’s been so long now that if Oda actually goes through with it Smoker basically jumps over half the characters in the series in tier lists cause of how strong Luffy is now lol.
Smoker’s in the same position now as Croc was at the start of ID. Both really needed a massive powerboost otherwise they’d be irrelevant. Croc at the start of ID was the guy who‘d been beaten by pre-Gears Luffy (and with no Haki, which we were starting to get explanations about at the time). So Oda gave him a big boost and great portrayal, and now when he comes back into the series he could honestly be YC in strength and I don’t think people will bother much.
For Smoker, PH was his Alabasta. All of pre-skip Smoker was an unstobbable beast, going into the timeskip he was still wrecking Luffy in Marineford, and only Hancock could hold him off.
(And Hancock had great portrayal back then, being one of the few CoC users and being unscathed in all of Marineford).
Then for PH Oda decided to use Smoker as the whipping boy to show how hard the New World will be. So hopefully now that’s done he’ll get a Croc-style boost.
Luffy did promise they’ll fight again when they are both at full strength, and it’s been so long now that if Oda actually goes through with it Smoker basically jumps over half the characters in the series in tier lists cause of how strong Luffy is now lol.
It's kinda going in the opposite direction with Smoker though.
If Smoker's Alabasta was Punk Hazard that's a major yikes since it came well after his introduction, whereas Croc was introduced and looked like a monster in alabasta, still gave Luffy the most trouble aside from Kaidou arguably.
Smoker continued to rack up some solid portrayal pre skip, even Ace didn't make quick work of him, it was a stalemate, he got great portrayal like you said in marineford where Hancock had to step in and she has hype of her own.
We went from that to him getting trashed in a later arc. It's like the reverse of Crocodile is happening here lmao, and Crocodile was never disrespected to begin with he just showed up too early but in his given panel time he was never sold short according to the power scale of the time whether it be Alabasta or MF.
I genuinely think Oda respects Crocodile more than Smoker due to this. However despite all of this its true he has more room for growth since he, just like Luffy and Teach, is always actively growing stronger/ranking up (this was also noted back in MF). I have hopes he'll show up much stronger around the commander ballpark, but a lot of the damage has been done as far as hopes go, I don't see him approaching any of the prominent WG members let alone Luffy who is already taking on the top 1 character in the verse.
If Smoker's Alabasta was Punk Hazard that's a major yikes since it came well after his introduction, whereas Croc was introduced and looked like a monster in alabasta, still gave Luffy the most trouble aside from Kaidou arguably.
Smoker continued to rack up some solid portrayal pre skip, even Ace didn't make quick work of him, it was a stalemate, he got great portrayal like you said in marineford where Hancock had to step in and she has hype of her own.
We went from that to him getting trashed in a later arc. It's like the reverse of Crocodile is happening here lmao, and Crocodile was never disrespected to begin with he just showed up too early but in his given panel time he was never sold short according to the power scale of the time whether it be Alabasta or MF.
I genuinely think Oda respects Crocodile more than Smoker due to this. However despite all of this its true he has more room for growth since he, just like Luffy and Teach, is always actively growing stronger/ranking up (this was also noted back in MF). I have hopes he'll show up much stronger around the commander ballpark, but a lot of the damage has been done as far as hopes go, I don't see him approaching any of the prominent WG members let alone Luffy who is already taking on the top 1 character in the verse.