For example, Oda extended his exploration of the notion of family relationships in the second part :
- He returned for example the prejudice we had against the Big Mom family on his head by presenting Katakuri, someone who - contrary to Big Mom - respects and care very deeply for his siblings. In fact this notion was philosophically debated during the fight between Luffy and Katakuri : Luffy fighting to become stronger in order to protect his crew and Katakuri trying to stop Luffy for what he thinks is the protection of his family. You understand that as the fight goes, Katakuri start to learn and understand more about eachothers and Katakuri even start calling him an equal by literally accepting to be vulnerable in front of people and accepting who he really is.
- On the Katakuri side of things there is also the notion of the responsibility of the elder that is explored and the fact that it can be really damaging for the sanity of a child (here Katakuri). said toxicity represented by the action of his little sister Flampe.
- Continuing this exploration of the relationship between siblings, Oda completely take us by surprise by revealing the true and lovable nature of Brulee. The sacrifice of both gives us a little bit of hope about said family.
- On the food thematic side of things, the entire wedding cake plot line is actually a extention and exagerated representation of the interaction between Sanji and Gin. While in the first part Sanji felt into hell and in the second part Sanji lost hop, in the third part Sanji regain confidence (and finally gave his truth to his father) and at the fourth part, all of Sanji's real asset (Kindness, determination, skill for cooking) were given the chance to flourish and thus proving how everything his biological father told him was a bunch of BS. Sanji's feeding the wedding Cake to Big Mom is literally Sanji saving the entire archipelago while preventing his biggest ennemy to starve to death and all of that with a big grin:
- The relation to food is also something that is explored during the fight between Luffy and Katakuri
- On an other point, the wonderland is something that was explored all over whole cake, in term of character, situation or symbolism.. but this thematic really goes to the next level through the character of Carrot and, you guess it, chapter 888. A chapter that is entirely dedicated to the concept of the vision of something wonderfull and the true reality or power of something. I won't go into details but this chapters alone is a gem. Said chapter that is - btw way - also a parrallel chapter to the amazing prouesse of Jinbe against the Tsunami when they entered the Green Room.
- The notion of truth is also something that was clearly explored during whole cake. This is the arc when we finally understand one of the key power of Luffy being : the Empathy toward all things. Indeed, during whole cake, there is something fun that most people didn't notice : Luffy is not fooled by disguised.
Those desguised actually take multiple form :
- It can be character simply acting in secret (Bege and his family)
- It can be character who have a costume and Luffy will see them (gastino, Pekom)
- It can also be character who hides who they truly are (Pudding, but Luffy sees that she is actually a good person)
- But the best one are the characters who hides what they truly feel.
Those last ones were Sanji and Katakuri and in both case, Luffy acted as a vector of liberation for them. He literally punched his way through their hearth..
- Of course on a basic storytelling optic, the ending is magistral. The fight between Luffy and Katakuri is simply one of the best fight if not the best fight of One Piece, it has everything, the moments with the strawhats are also very exciting since they are facing constantly extrem danger and the ending.. my God Usopp the ending.. the is the only real arc ending on a sad note outside of Marineford and Sabaody (that are supposed to be defeats). This was an ending full of melancholia and grief, extremely layered in term of tonality. This was splendid.