It's the worst arc. Only good things about were Capone, Brook, Pedro, a few other chars, and the Enraged Army chapter where Luffy got his ass handed to him. Other than that, the arc was a disaster. It was supposed to be a simple infiltration arc, save Sanji (honestly they should have just left him to the Meme Team at this point), and get out. But instead, Oda thought it'd be a good idea for Meme to have two of her Sweet Commanders get beaten while the remaining one perfected her disappearing act with Compote, have Meme get humiliated at her own tea party, get her turf wrecked, lose one of her personal Homies to Nami, and have Morgans report all of these and more Ls for the world to laugh at her, and rightfully so. What makes all of this even worse is that half a SH crew and a few other allies simply waltzed in and left WCI and Big Meme's crew in that condition.
As for the Big Mom Pirates themselves, plenty of people already have summed up how trash they were quite well. Katakuri was the only decent one, and even then, I don't think he was that great, he had plenty of wtf moments like just sitting on the Sunny and only getting the idea to destroy it AFTER he got stuck in the mirror world. What really killed them for me was how incompetent they were. A few years ago, if you told me that Oda would have a Yonko crew turn out to be a pack of jokes, I would have thought you were crazy. Now though...yeah. Off the top of my head, my favorite moment of idiocy from the BM Pirates was when Perospero had the Vinsmokes at gunpoint on a silver platter and he STILL wouldn't shoot them even after Katakuri told him to do his job. Time will tell if the Beast Pirates can give them a run for their money in that regard (Queen's already gotten to a good start during the Udon plot).
Then there's the Yonko herself, Big Meme, First (and thankfully only) of her Name, Queen of the Ls and the First Memes, Plot Device of the SHs Pet, and the Breaker of Chains (or not
). I was never really looking forward to her arc, but I thought Oda would at least make it and her character good...nope. Tbf, Whitebeard was the first Yonko we saw, so it's hard to match his performance, but Big Meme doesn't even come close to the likes of Magellan or even Vergo, let alone Whitebeard. She has no charisma, no intellect, no presence, no nothing. Her DF is a poor man's version of Moria's DF. Her character essentially boils down to
WEEEEED WEDDING CAAAAAKE and taking Ls. And as for her Ls, her Ls have Ls. If she gets any more they'll start multiplying. I really wish Oda would have offpaneled her had her get taken out by the Marines instead of bringing her to Wano, but sadly, here we are.
The protagonists weren't much better. Again, only Capone, Brook, Pedro, Jimbei, and a few other side chars were any good. Chopper was living scenery, Oda kept shoving Nami into situations she had no business being in like the Cracker fight, and Luffy continued to regress into a more reckless and dumber MC who is only still alive because Oda had the plot bend over backwards for him and his crew. Which brings us to Sanji...it was supposed to be his year, and instead he got his character annihilated by Oda. What was the point of his "arc" exactly? I'm pretty sure if one skipped WCI, apart from the Raid Suit, they wouldn't think Sanji had changed any bit at all. His family sucked apart from Reiju, who was meh at best, his flashback was generic, and instead of getting a much needed fight, he got a romance with Pudding that was beyond moronic (bonus points for actually thinking he had imagined Pudding being evil), he baked a cake that didn't make Big Meme faint, and if it hadn't been for Wadatsumi the SHs would all be dead. And to cap it all off, Sanji was fine with leaving his family and Jimbei to face the Meme Team while he happily baked his crew a meal...lol. Idk wtf Oda was thinking.
Finally, one of the things that bothered me the most is that there was absolutely no tension (such as it is in this series) in this arc. None whatsoever. I remember how hopeless it felt when the SHs were up against Kizaru and Sentomaru, and then got picked off one at a time by Kuma. How Magellan felt like an unstoppable juggernaut and the escape team's only option was to run. And how shocked I felt when Akainu snatched Luffy's victory away from him at Marineford, killed his brother, tore right through Iva and Jimbei after taking attacks from Whitebeard, gave Luffy his scar, and nearly made him give up on his dream. I have to be honest, a long time ago I thought that the Yonko Crews would make those incidents and antagonists look like nothing...oh boy was I wrong. Not only were the antagonists underwhelming, but Oda put in way too much plot to save the SHs. I never thought the SHs were in danger, because ever since Brook was rescued from Big Meme in a comedy scene, and she got tricked by a fake skeleton with seaweed for hair, I knew Oda would use a good chunk of plot and asspulls to save them.
So yeah, 1/10 arc, maybe a 2/10 and that would only be because of the likes of Capone, Brook, Pedro, Jimbei, etc for putting in the work. I will say that Capone was a legend in this arc; he went from a meh Supernova to one of my favorite characters. Thank you Capone and co for all of your hard work this arc.
