Luffy is now like some extremely rich person has bought out the entire story/IP or whatever, the right to One Piece and gone on an extreme self insert power trip, where they write their own unstoppable, "original character" to replace Luffy hence why he was killed and replaced with Nika, having his fruit retconned after 25 years with the most extreme plot armour and "literally God" and everyone else pales in comparison.
We're getting the same kind of BS Naruto and Bleach had at least by the end of their runs and I really don't like it, I knew Oda would do this, it was inevitable.
Japanese writers really cant help themselves, I see this shit so much in Shonen anime at least. But Japan really loves prophecies, inherited will, generational success and making everything ultimately revolve around Gods and celestial shit. Its getting exhausting seeing the same ideas, the same cliches crop up in so many series. Too much escalation and drawing out the story leads to this ultimately too.
The Strawhats now feel like the rest of the Pussycat Dolls whereas Luffy is Nicole Scherzinger. Or the rest of the Kardashians whilst Luffy is Kim.
They barely feel like a crew anymore, not a close unit, not a found family, except for some storylines and moments here and there ofc .
Luffy was amazing and perfect pre TS, Oda has now "jumped the Jinbei" and "fixed something that wasnt broken" with Luffy and the story in general. Post TS reeks so much of flanderisation/exaggeration/doubling down and other nonsense. This is the same Luffy who watched his beloved hononary brother die in front of him and thought the other one was dead since his childhood too, after apparently being killed by cannon fire.
Post TS is so shallow and pretentious for the most part and the SHs feel like cariactures and carboard cutouts, they don't feel like the SHs I knew and loved, the ones I remember. They barely exist now, like "ghosts".
Theres so much wasted here for Franky in arc thats been going on for 1.5 years now too, I am so fucking sick of Oda introducing new pointless shit/plot elements, overconvoluting the story and dragging it out even more, bloating it to hell and sacrificing the SHs for it too. its Wano and Zoro all over again.
Usopp fans are in extreme denial that Oda wont neglect him during Elbaf and that it "won't" be the worst time to be an Usopp fan in the entire series, its gonna be such a disastrous letdown, even far more than what Oda has done with Wano, Zoro, Kaido, Kizaru, awakenings etc.
The Worlds Strongest Swordsman, Mihawk has no named attacks still, has not fought anyone since he postponed vs Vista, ran from the ultimate fodder Marines to join Buggy and become a clown himself once and for all. If his bounty wasnt thankfully as high as it is, then Mihawk slander would be infinitely worse than it already is now and his stocks would plummet as hard as Kidd's/Killers/Drake's/Hawkins'/Fujitora's/Smoker's etc have.
A certain fight in Dressrosa had better character development for Franky and the best fight for him for the whole of the post TS and even the entire series so far. Although hes barely had any too. Better than Odas handling him of him in this arc especially too, except the whole laser hit on Saturn ofc and more entertaining than the Sasaki fight, but at least that had a cool finish and Sasaki being awesome and funny for part of it /s. This should have been Frankys most important relevant arc but herre we are. Elbaf will be much worse for Usopp than this, I am 100% certain of this now especially.
There is NO way Usopp wasn't gonna beat Auger with the most extreme plot armour/conveniences and that was BEFORE Auger got a fucking teleporting fruit AND was 1 SHOTTING CRACKERS BISCUIT SOLDIERS IN THE ANIME! Usopp may as well die for real as he claims he will, because Auger will instant kill him, even from an island away potentially and if not, he can just teleport, instantly kill Usopp from any distance, Usopp won't be able to sense it as Oda forgot he gave Usopp haki too but even then, Auger can just instantly shoot his brains out and Usopp can't do ANYTHING AGAINST IT! Usopp will have to become completely immortal/invulnerable or at least completely bulletproof somehow to even stand a chance!
Unless Oda really fucks up or just decides to not have Usopp fight Auger anyway, for plot convenience or to "subvert expectations". Just look at the amount of "swordsmen" Zoro has faced and defeated. Enough said.
Brook still hasnt had a real serious 1v1 fight that he's won yet, with so many great opportunities before too.
Oda had far more love and respect for the SHs pre TS, its not even remotely comparable.
Sorry but I had to get this off my chest, so much about OP is bothering me lately, I thought things would get a lot better in this final saga but its the usual empty promises/bait/lies from Oda.
Oda has made some great improvements in the final saga but still massive, unforgivable flaws and poor decisions that he full control over in this arc that he should know FAR better by now after spending 6 actual IRL years on 2 fucking arcs alone.
