Anybody think that this "arrival of Marco" was a cheap storytelling from Oda to give a surprise to audience?
I mean, if the note says "I'll be a bit late, but I'll go" that means Marco coming to Wano was already decided a long ago. Oda made it look like Marco wasn't coming just to throw us off.
And the worst part is that Oda didn't even execute it properly. He could've shown that Neko has begun his return journey without Marco. Then, Marco's arrival would've been more surprising for the audience.
As it stands, how were the readers supposed to know that Marco originally didn't plan to come so soon, but ended up coming when he saw Shichibukai dissolution and Yonkou alliance news.
I don't like to criticize Oda that much. He has been quite consistent most of the time, unless we are nitpicking. But this time, it was different. This time was Oda's choice to throw us off and he didn't do that properly.