General & Others Marineford vs Enies Lobby: Which is the best arc of OP?

[Akai2]

Really impossible to pick, but if I have to vote I'd go with Marineford.

 

[gz89]

Imagine reading Marineford weekly and you see spoilers of Vista matching Mihawk and Mihawk decided to postpone the fight lol.

The agenda would breaks the internet for sure.

Nah as far as i can remember not many cared about Vista and Mihawk but a lot of people thought Jozu was some kind of unstoppable force and one of Zoro's eos goals because their puny mind couldn't understand that Mihawk's slash was a casual slash and not the strongest slash.

 

[Blazing Lion]

Marineford
I love the multi parties with different agendas and top tiers

 

[Flower]

Imagine reading Marineford weekly and you see spoilers of Vista matching Mihawk and Mihawk decided to postpone the fight lol.

The agenda would breaks the internet for sure.

I read it weekly btw. Started that during Amazon Lily.

 

[GalaxyLevelShanks]

Yeah, I absolutely hated that. Ik from a writing standpoint the purpose of the arc was to show Luffy how weak he was, but it also made Ace feel like a waste of a character. His death being like, the only important character death so far also makes it way overused to introduce old friends of his like Tama and Yamato when Ace surviving would have the same outcomes anyway. Luffy would still train if Ace survived, Sabo wouldn’t have gotten the DF, but Ace would still exist. Yamato and Tama would still become his friends, Jinbei would still join his crew. Only WB dying was necessary, but it felt like Ace died for pretty much nothing. We didn’t even get Luffy wanting to take revenge on Akainu or becoming more hostile towards the Marines which could have made for an interesting conflict with Koby, nope, all remained the same and he even helped Smoker and Tashigi when they helped the guy who killed his brother. I feel like Oda could have used Ace‘ death as a build up to much more interesting plot points, but did nothing with it.

I disagree with the Tama and Yamato part since it was hinted in MF itself Ace was related to Wano. But rest is true. Sabo's character feels shafted as shit and Luffy doesn't have the same vitriol against the marines that he should be having. Maybe it can change in the future if we get Luffy vs Akainu.

But most of your criticisms of it are what happened post-ts than the actual moment itself. I know it's kinda hard to analyse stuff in retrospect but in moment, it was really emotional imo

 

[Flower]

Remember when everyone wanted Dragon to appear to save Luffy. I was on a German Forum back then and each week somebody was like: Dragon will appear next chapter, trust! just for him to do nothing at all lmao.

 

[Sir Yasheen]

Remember when everyone wanted Dragon to appear to save Luffy. I was on a German Forum back then and each week somebody was like: Dragon will appear next chapter, trust! just for him to do nothing at all lmao.

The more things change the more they stay the same indeed lmao

 

[DenifClock]

Enies Lobby. The arc where every Strawhats shines the most.

Marineford is an overrated arc filled with clusterfuck of inconsistent power level and characters started acting dumb.

Is this sarcastic or something?
Half of Enies Lobby is Luffy clearing waves of fodder like in a One Piece Pirate Warriors game. Characters acitng dumb? CP9 who are supposed to be professional assassins did not have to tell that they each have a key, and one of them is literally the key to Robin's cuffs.
Inconsistent power level? Buster Call didn't amount to shit despite being hyped up. None of the allies died. NONE.
At least Marineford had deaths.

Marineford is NOT overrated, it's rated perfectly well. Enies Lobby on the other hand....
Water 7 clears Enies Lobby. Nobody was interested in that three headed judge, or the dog guards. Enies Lobby is full of filleresque content. Marineford only has Buggy.

 

[Bad English]

Wano clears all

 

[Flower]

I disagree with the Tama and Yamato part since it was hinted in MF itself Ace was related to Wano. But rest is true. Sabo's character feels shafted as shit and Luffy doesn't have the same vitriol against the marines that he should be having. Maybe it can change in the future if we get Luffy vs Akainu.

But most of your criticisms of it are what happened post-ts than the actual moment itself. I know it's kinda hard to analyse stuff in retrospect but in moment, it was really emotional imo

I mean, I read it weekly. Idk how old I was back then, I think 12 or 13, but Ace‘ Death felt devastating at the time. I remember my friend sending me an SMS since I couldn’t access the internet at the time telling me that Ace died. I started crying in our car lmao.

 

[GalaxyLevelShanks]

Remember when everyone wanted Dragon to appear to save Luffy. I was on a German Forum back then and each week somebody was like: Dragon will appear next chapter, trust! just for him to do nothing at all lmao.

15-16 years later and fans are still saying the same thing... and Dragon is still not appearing

 

[Flower]

Good old SMS Spoilers cuz we didn’t have internet access when we went on vacation. Man, those were the times.

 

[yorosenpai]

I would say marine ford, cuz made OP big

 

[Warchief Sanji D Goat]

I think Marineford is the arc where the fandom truly started powerscaling. Before that, it was just story related discussion.

Also kinda ironic how everyone thinks the story went downhill after the arc that started powerscaling. Maybe powerscaling is the reason why everyone enjoys this story less now

That's probably why lol.

Imagine seeing Sengoku say “it’s our turn to fight” as a cliffhanger part way through the war then have him not do anything all war until the end

Insane cliffhanger and a fakeout.

Nah as far as i can remember not many cared about Vista and Mihawk but a lot of people thought Jozu was some kind of unstoppable force and one of Zoro's eos goals because their puny mind couldn't understand that Mihawk's slash was a casual slash and not the strongest slash.

Mihawk vs Vista was the main reason people starts having doubts of Mihawk > Shanks.

Especially for casual anime fans on YouTube who thinks Shanks is way above Mihawk.

Then again, YT is not the best source for powerscaling.

I read it weekly btw. Started that during Amazon Lily.

I started reading weekly during towards the end of WCI. I was an anime only before then.

Is this sarcastic or something?
Half of Enies Lobby is Luffy clearing waves of fodder like in a One Piece Pirate Warriors game. Characters acitng dumb? CP9 who are supposed to be professional assassins did not have to tell that they each have a key, and one of them is literally the key to Robin's cuffs.
Inconsistent power level? Buster Call didn't amount to shit despite being hyped up. None of the allies died. NONE.
At least Marineford had deaths.

Marineford is NOT overrated, it's rated perfectly well. Enies Lobby on the other hand....
Water 7 clears Enies Lobby. Nobody was interested in that three headed judge, or the dog guards. Enies Lobby is full of filleresque content. Marineford only has Buggy.

Mihawk vs Vista was inconsistent....

Buggy somehow evaded all the Admirals' attacks without dying....

You could make a case for Kizaru shooting the key instead of Luffy himself in MF lol. That was bullshit.

Every arcs has their own inconsistency. While MF does have deaths which is a good thing, EL has better fights than MF. The story was way better too.

 

[Jeanstealer]

Marineford is great mainly because of just how strong of an impression Whitebeard manages to make in a relatively short amount of time. Besides that and the high dramatic points that come with Ace's and WB's deaths, there is also the sheer hype of having the first large-scale confrontation between several truly powerful figures we've previously only caught small glimpses of. That's what I would praise MF for.

On the other hand, many characters simply don't get to do much of substance. The arc at points feels kinda cluttered and messy in a way that foreshadows the symptoms several post-skip arcs will fall to wholeheartedly.

Enies Lobby, on the other hand, has a tighter structure and pacing, all of the Strawhats the readers have already fallen in love with are given their time to shine. The Ohara flashback is a treat, and so is the resolution of Robin's conflict (I stand by the point that her scene with Kuzan at the end is heavily underrated in general, definitely in my top-15 scenes of OP).

So, it's EL for me. Though I think Water 7, Sabaody Archipelago and Impel Down are even better, if ever so slightly.

 

[Rej]

Skypiea >

but I guess this is a battleshounen fandom, so let's see...

on a philosophical level it for sure is Enies Lobby
on the general battle and plot level it for sure is Marineford

I see why shounen bobs pick these two and they have not opened up to Dressrosa or Wano yet because they are too long and modern

I'd say Marineford, it had more impact on the overall story, Enies Lobbies impact was still the strongest for a certain period of the story, but Marineford has set more new fundamentals for the story, like the idea of multifactional conflicts and all out brawls with multiple clashes.

 

[trav]

Neither and both are braindead battle arcs.

 

[Light D Lamperouge]

Alabasta and Skypiea>>

 

[Zoinks52]

I love MF because of the Admirals, Sengoku, BB and WB as well as the sheer scale and grandness of it, but Enies Lobby feels more true to the "spirit" of OP if that makes any sense.

That said I do feel MF's latter half was way better than EL's.

 

[LolonoisZolo]

Ennies Lobby and not even close.
MF was good and emotional but no SHs = No fun