Wano could've been the ultimate arc for the SHs' growth, what EL had been with the gears, asura, and DJ, Wano could've been with a well-integrated narrative source for G5 (anchored into the JB prophecy & Wano's borders), KOH (tied to Ryuma, the samurai, whatever else Oda could've conjured tying Wano and swords, hell, even the blacksmithing element alone), Sanji's exoskeleton, Franky's "leading" the carpenters, miracle-toad-oil-seller Usopp realizing that his lies can hurt others, etc., even Nami's Zeus could've organically grown in Wano, given BM's presence. Instead all fights were fumbled.
Well said. Wano had to be rushed at some point during Onigashima, where Oda said fuck it, fine, we're leaving early. The amount of stuff he was supposed to do with Zoro alone says it all.
I so angry we never got that with Usopp too. Just back to status quo, flanderisation and character regression instead. What was the point of Nami learning ninja stuff with Shinobu too? She and Usopp should have both learned and used Haki to survive the killer siblings, Usopp actually using his CoO to great effect and unlocking FS to help keep him and Nami alive instead of the absolutely cowardly, dogshit writing in that fight, even worse than what happened with him, Trebol, Sugar, Robin etc in some ways before.
I liked Sanjis development a lot except him crying out for help and endangering Robin ultimately ironically (even though it worked out conveniently fine and was she was safe) but him destroying the raid suit, getting the exo skeleton powerup, Ifrit, his backstory with the mouse and him helping the geisha were peak imo, genuinely. I really loved it as a Sanji stan.
The lack of blacksmithing and carpentry stuff, the lack of learning about how Wano repurposes seastone and weaponises it like Hawkins did, the MUCH bigger true Wano sunken underneath the current Wano, the last second Pluton reveal tease, Onigashimas new name etc. Wano was biggest hyped arc for OP for decades but now it has become my biggest regret in the series.
Oda did a lot of teasing with Gear 4th resembling the flame god or w/e but then he changed it entirely with Gear 5 into something pervesely different and insulting, something ridiculous and obnoxious, unfitting. Like a sudden midlife crisis breakdown.
And lets not talk about the godamn movie promotion ending lol.
Onigashima was meant to be the true post TS Enies Lobby and a battle with a Yonko should never have been this rushed and underwhelming. Oda purposely having to keep the Charlotte Pirates out of the arc because he couldn't fathom a way for the alliance to win/know what to do with them despite bringing them to Wano in the first place.
Wano had a lot of highs too but the lows outweight it overwhelmingly too and in a irreverisbly damaging way at that.
All the SHs should have learned haki here by now, the Scabbards could have helped them unlock it and train them and we could have learned
properly how the samurai cut fire and Orochis LEGENDARY fruit not being a comppletely insulting, unfunny joke and waste of immense potential. I was gonna say it was a waste of mammoth potential but that was LITERALLY JACK OF COURSE! Never more fitting!
Wano was way too long but I would have accepted a few more years at least if it gave us all of this and the development we desperately needed and better fights and such.
