I'm not claiming that I would have done a better job than Oda, as I am saying all of this in hindsight. But personally, this is what I think would have made for the best story.
One of the issues I have with OP is that the story has become more of a battle shonen in the post skip. Post skip OP is directly about Luffy becoming the strongest pirate in a way pre skip just wasn't. Just compare Luffy's power skip power ups to his pre-skip ones. The issue is that Oda didn't change up the arc formula to reflect this new direction.
I think the best way to tell this type of story is if instead of having these long winded arcs such as dressrosa and WCI, OP arcs had a lot more brevity and were more focused on Luffy with very little screen time given to lesser side characters, specifically non SHs. When I say Luffy needs more focus, I'm not simply talking in terms of screen time, but rather in terms of depth.
Most OP villains aren't directly tied to Luffy and I think if Post skip OP is going to be a battle shonen, this should change. That's why I believe that the main villains up until Luffy vs Kaido should have been:
What if instead of getting an advantage over his peers via the rayleigh training, it actually put Luffy at a disadvantage? Since haki blooms in life or death situations, Luffy's controlled training might actually have not been as effective as actually going to the new world. The trade off, however, is that Luffy wouldn't enter the NW until he was strong enough to defend himself, and as such, he would never lose any of his friends like he did in sabaody and marineford.
That's the route MTD Piece would take. Smoker would have FS, Sabo would have ACoA, and Kid would have ACoC. Each would be defeated in moderately sized arcs, with Luffy acquiring each skill along the way.
Smoker would essentially replace katakuri in MTD piece. He shows up in FI, beats Luffy, and captures Sanji. The vinsmokes would be part of punk hazard, with them abusing their status as a WG nation while secretly producing Kaido's SMILE. SHs beat vinsmokes, Luffy beats smoker(who has to follow Judge's commands since he's a WG king).
Instead of being an Ace clone, I envision Sabo as kinda similar to Dabi from MHA, but not as insane. My idea is that the accident massively disfigured him, which he struggled with growing up. Once his memories returned, that on top of what happened to Ace caused Sabo to lose his mind, quit the revolutionaries, and basically become a terrorist. He'd be the antagonist of Dressrosa, with Doffy losing his shit and running away after the factory's destruction. Sabo wants to kill some members of doffy's family who are visiting from mariejois. Also, none of the shitty colosseum fighters, kyros, rebecca, violect, ect exist.
Lastly, for Kid. I think Kid would be built up to be the strongest non yonko non shichibukai pirate, basically the 5th emperor. He's like yamato level. He allies under kaido and uses the code name: Ace. The arc would showcase how Kid is a failed version of Luffy, with Luffy ultimately awakening ACoC and beating him at the end. This arc would be replace WCI and would take place on that giant magnet island we saw capone's ship get stuck on pre-skip. It would end with Luffy crushing Kid's dreams and Kid begging Luffy to beat Kaido in his place.
Having beaten an ACoC user, Luffy would legitimately be a 5th emperor entering wano. He wouldn't get perpetually low diffed by kaido and Oda wouldn't need to scramble to spam Luffy with power ups. He would get one major power up, G5 awakening. And it would be much harder than mastering haki as Luffy has always struggled to master his DF. Dragon will appear and explain awakening to Luffy and tell him how to do it. Doffy re-appears and fights alongside kaido as originally planned, Law 1v1s him.
Big mom or her crew aren't included in any major arcs up until wano. Linlin gets defeated by Teach(on screen) between the Kid arc and wano.
One of the issues I have with OP is that the story has become more of a battle shonen in the post skip. Post skip OP is directly about Luffy becoming the strongest pirate in a way pre skip just wasn't. Just compare Luffy's power skip power ups to his pre-skip ones. The issue is that Oda didn't change up the arc formula to reflect this new direction.
I think the best way to tell this type of story is if instead of having these long winded arcs such as dressrosa and WCI, OP arcs had a lot more brevity and were more focused on Luffy with very little screen time given to lesser side characters, specifically non SHs. When I say Luffy needs more focus, I'm not simply talking in terms of screen time, but rather in terms of depth.
Most OP villains aren't directly tied to Luffy and I think if Post skip OP is going to be a battle shonen, this should change. That's why I believe that the main villains up until Luffy vs Kaido should have been:
- Smoker
- Sabo
- Kid
What if instead of getting an advantage over his peers via the rayleigh training, it actually put Luffy at a disadvantage? Since haki blooms in life or death situations, Luffy's controlled training might actually have not been as effective as actually going to the new world. The trade off, however, is that Luffy wouldn't enter the NW until he was strong enough to defend himself, and as such, he would never lose any of his friends like he did in sabaody and marineford.
That's the route MTD Piece would take. Smoker would have FS, Sabo would have ACoA, and Kid would have ACoC. Each would be defeated in moderately sized arcs, with Luffy acquiring each skill along the way.
Smoker would essentially replace katakuri in MTD piece. He shows up in FI, beats Luffy, and captures Sanji. The vinsmokes would be part of punk hazard, with them abusing their status as a WG nation while secretly producing Kaido's SMILE. SHs beat vinsmokes, Luffy beats smoker(who has to follow Judge's commands since he's a WG king).
Instead of being an Ace clone, I envision Sabo as kinda similar to Dabi from MHA, but not as insane. My idea is that the accident massively disfigured him, which he struggled with growing up. Once his memories returned, that on top of what happened to Ace caused Sabo to lose his mind, quit the revolutionaries, and basically become a terrorist. He'd be the antagonist of Dressrosa, with Doffy losing his shit and running away after the factory's destruction. Sabo wants to kill some members of doffy's family who are visiting from mariejois. Also, none of the shitty colosseum fighters, kyros, rebecca, violect, ect exist.
Lastly, for Kid. I think Kid would be built up to be the strongest non yonko non shichibukai pirate, basically the 5th emperor. He's like yamato level. He allies under kaido and uses the code name: Ace. The arc would showcase how Kid is a failed version of Luffy, with Luffy ultimately awakening ACoC and beating him at the end. This arc would be replace WCI and would take place on that giant magnet island we saw capone's ship get stuck on pre-skip. It would end with Luffy crushing Kid's dreams and Kid begging Luffy to beat Kaido in his place.
Having beaten an ACoC user, Luffy would legitimately be a 5th emperor entering wano. He wouldn't get perpetually low diffed by kaido and Oda wouldn't need to scramble to spam Luffy with power ups. He would get one major power up, G5 awakening. And it would be much harder than mastering haki as Luffy has always struggled to master his DF. Dragon will appear and explain awakening to Luffy and tell him how to do it. Doffy re-appears and fights alongside kaido as originally planned, Law 1v1s him.
Big mom or her crew aren't included in any major arcs up until wano. Linlin gets defeated by Teach(on screen) between the Kid arc and wano.
