General & Others A huge Yonko War Arc with a crew worth of Zoan users, yet none is awakened.
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CoA and CoO are fine and very easy to understand. The advanced forms of it also makes sense. One allows you to project the hardening like an aura and the other allows you to extended the precog ability to look into the future
CoC again is the problem. It is hyped as the strongest form yet the basic form of it is trash in combat. Oda wrote himself into a corner that he didn’t know how to get out of
CoC again is the problem. It is hyped as the strongest form yet the basic form of it is trash in combat. Oda wrote himself into a corner that he didn’t know how to get out of
The way Oda writes CoC users is a Huge case of unsubtle Bash the reader in the face writing
The way the Seats rimmed Doflamingo's asshole for knocking out fodder was so shit compared to How Crocodile made Baroque Work his bitches or how Enel was a god because of his fruit or even Arlong's "childhood friends" Crew Dynamics
The way the Seats rimmed Doflamingo's asshole for knocking out fodder was so shit compared to How Crocodile made Baroque Work his bitches or how Enel was a god because of his fruit or even Arlong's "childhood friends" Crew Dynamics
One of Kubo's few Ws.
Sternritters swarming Soul Society and slicing their strongest in half felt like god himself just stomped on all the Shinigami, the threat was so massive that Kubo was willing to sacrifice the likes of Unohana to train others and stop it. Sternritters' threat didn't stop, they still proceeded to wipe out the Royal Guard, kill the godfather of all Shinigami, kill the Soul King and activate the dimension bomb with Yhwach as a SK.
The sense of hopelessness (up until chapter 620 or so) was one of the few redeeming qualities of the last arc, ain't no fucking G13 captain was save from getting killed during the time.
Sternritters swarming Soul Society and slicing their strongest in half felt like god himself just stomped on all the Shinigami, the threat was so massive that Kubo was willing to sacrifice the likes of Unohana to train others and stop it. Sternritters' threat didn't stop, they still proceeded to wipe out the Royal Guard, kill the godfather of all Shinigami, kill the Soul King and activate the dimension bomb with Yhwach as a SK.
The sense of hopelessness (up until chapter 620 or so) was one of the few redeeming qualities of the last arc, ain't no fucking G13 captain was save from getting killed during the time.
1.) No badass samurai in a land that is known for badass samurai.
2.) Zoro got no character development. He didn't interact with sword-forgers, learn about why he is so strong, or develop new techniques. This arc should have been as much about Zoro as WCI was about Sanji. Everyone was so hyped for Zoro's character development going into the arc 3-4 years ago. Everyone expected badass sword battles preparing him for Mihawk. We got none of that.
3.) No extended Kaido flashback. But Oden got like 15 chapters straight. We know nothing about Kaido's "giant" race. We know nothing about his character.
4.) No prominence for Nico Robin. Wano is a land full of history with lore on the Poneglyphs. Robin should have learned so much and developed heavily. She got nothing but one fight.
5.) As OP said, the Zoans were useless, no one was awakened. The Smiles designs were terrible.
6.) Kinemon is still alive.
7.) King vs Zoro and Sanji vs Queen were very short fights. Jack was off paneled.
8.) Luffy is now God-tier when he struggled against Katakuri and won by plot convenience one arc ago. The guy literally ate some meat and was good to go in fighting a Yonko after getting wrecked on the roof.
What a disappointment this entire arc was. Was I expecting too much? Outside of Robin vs Black Maria, King vs Zoro and the Rooftop battle, I didn't really enjoy this arc at all. The tension wasn't there. The world building wasn't there. The hype died out mid-way through.
2.) Zoro got no character development. He didn't interact with sword-forgers, learn about why he is so strong, or develop new techniques. This arc should have been as much about Zoro as WCI was about Sanji. Everyone was so hyped for Zoro's character development going into the arc 3-4 years ago. Everyone expected badass sword battles preparing him for Mihawk. We got none of that.
3.) No extended Kaido flashback. But Oden got like 15 chapters straight. We know nothing about Kaido's "giant" race. We know nothing about his character.
4.) No prominence for Nico Robin. Wano is a land full of history with lore on the Poneglyphs. Robin should have learned so much and developed heavily. She got nothing but one fight.
5.) As OP said, the Zoans were useless, no one was awakened. The Smiles designs were terrible.
6.) Kinemon is still alive.
7.) King vs Zoro and Sanji vs Queen were very short fights. Jack was off paneled.
8.) Luffy is now God-tier when he struggled against Katakuri and won by plot convenience one arc ago. The guy literally ate some meat and was good to go in fighting a Yonko after getting wrecked on the roof.
What a disappointment this entire arc was. Was I expecting too much? Outside of Robin vs Black Maria, King vs Zoro and the Rooftop battle, I didn't really enjoy this arc at all. The tension wasn't there. The world building wasn't there. The hype died out mid-way through.
One of the main issues I find with Oda is that there are some minimums the story asks for yet Oda won't hit at all.
Some quick examples of stuff that Wano arc asked for, in my opinion, yet Oda ignored:
—Natural zoans. It's absurd that in Kaidou's crew every natural zoan was either ancient or mythical, makes no sense to have zero regular zoans apart from SMILEs. What did he do for the decades before his business with Doflamingo?
—Zoan awakening, as you well said. It takes zero effort to give Kaidou, King and Queen explicit awakened forms. Like seriously, why not? We will have very few chances to see awakened users and this was arguably the last arc focused on the zoan class. Is it so difficult to draw three gargantuan beasts fitting the brutality of the crew?
—Wano sexism. I know not many people will agree here, but having a Kin'emon who was quite sexist when first introduced, then Kiku as a trans person, and Zoro as a character related to Wano whose whole backstory consisted of Kuina being strong but told the contrary because of her gender, it's quite a missed opportunity to explore the issue. On top of it, Hiyori ended up doing nothing even though she was shown to enjoy fighting as a kid.
—Chopper's rumble balls. We have a captain relying on zoans (most of them artificial), we have a genius scientist, we have another user who actually altered her transformations through drugs! Yet noone ever payed attention to the guy with so many forms? It's funny because this could have been a way to justify Urashima's character, who, if you don't remember, loved tanuki meat. Easy as Urashima kidnapping Chopper to eat him, Chopper turning into some weird zoan form, one Headliner finding it interesting and taking him to Onigashima.
—Kaidou's obsession with non-humanity. He made racist remarks because of his oni nature, one of his favourite islands is technological (guarded by a cyborg), his top men aren't human (a lunarian, a cyborg, a fishman), he chose zoan out of any class of fruit to build his empire... It was so, so easy to enrichen the character following this anti-humanity route, yet Oda totally ignored it...!
I mean, it isn't anymore about disliking Oda's route but noticing how much stuff the foundations of the arc asked for yet he ignored for... what, exactly? He didn't deliver something better, so what's the point?
Some quick examples of stuff that Wano arc asked for, in my opinion, yet Oda ignored:
—Natural zoans. It's absurd that in Kaidou's crew every natural zoan was either ancient or mythical, makes no sense to have zero regular zoans apart from SMILEs. What did he do for the decades before his business with Doflamingo?
—Zoan awakening, as you well said. It takes zero effort to give Kaidou, King and Queen explicit awakened forms. Like seriously, why not? We will have very few chances to see awakened users and this was arguably the last arc focused on the zoan class. Is it so difficult to draw three gargantuan beasts fitting the brutality of the crew?
—Wano sexism. I know not many people will agree here, but having a Kin'emon who was quite sexist when first introduced, then Kiku as a trans person, and Zoro as a character related to Wano whose whole backstory consisted of Kuina being strong but told the contrary because of her gender, it's quite a missed opportunity to explore the issue. On top of it, Hiyori ended up doing nothing even though she was shown to enjoy fighting as a kid.
—Chopper's rumble balls. We have a captain relying on zoans (most of them artificial), we have a genius scientist, we have another user who actually altered her transformations through drugs! Yet noone ever payed attention to the guy with so many forms? It's funny because this could have been a way to justify Urashima's character, who, if you don't remember, loved tanuki meat. Easy as Urashima kidnapping Chopper to eat him, Chopper turning into some weird zoan form, one Headliner finding it interesting and taking him to Onigashima.
—Kaidou's obsession with non-humanity. He made racist remarks because of his oni nature, one of his favourite islands is technological (guarded by a cyborg), his top men aren't human (a lunarian, a cyborg, a fishman), he chose zoan out of any class of fruit to build his empire... It was so, so easy to enrichen the character following this anti-humanity route, yet Oda totally ignored it...!
I mean, it isn't anymore about disliking Oda's route but noticing how much stuff the foundations of the arc asked for yet he ignored for... what, exactly? He didn't deliver something better, so what's the point?
Bro Oda even gave up on explaining Powerups lol. He was just like “here, Luffy can use AdCoC now because Kaido hit him really hard. No explanation”
Then Kaido beats Luffy again, and Oda’s like “here, Luffy awakens now. No explanation, it’s just magic”
But none of the Beast Pirates awaken in spite of them all being Zoans and being defeated just like Pirate Christ lol.
Then Kaido beats Luffy again, and Oda’s like “here, Luffy awakens now. No explanation, it’s just magic”
But none of the Beast Pirates awaken in spite of them all being Zoans and being defeated just like Pirate Christ lol.