Many people sleep on WCi but it was the best arc post timeskip, the only arc where the Yonkou crew
reputation was shown onpanel in massive hype. Starting with Cracker vs Luffy, showing off how hard it was for Luffy to defeat a Sweet commander even with help.
Then whole plot around Sanji and Vinsmoke(i loved it), the plot point with the Red Poneglphy with Pedro and Brook. Even thought we had lot of Big Mom pirates member, Oda really did a good show to give them proper portrayal(enraged army beating Luffy via teamwork and haki).
And teaparty was peak with the total defeat of the alliance, they didn´t even had any chance.
Followed with crazy good flashback about Big Mom who show us her character and why she became what she became.
And even if wedding cake shit was annoying, Big Mom reputation as monster was still there, they didn´t even try to fight her back. And as you said, Carrot Sulong form, Big Moms top members leading the army with strategy and good plans, Perospero as none sweet commander lived up his hype too. Everything was perfect, top with Katakuri as main antagonist, dude was a meniac and got the best fight Luffy ever had(post timeskip).
We all got what we wanted for that arc:
- Luffy getting stronger and learning powerups...
- Interact between half strawhats, good pace
- Great villians, Yonkou crew worth calling a beast crew.
- Big Mom with a amazing flashback
Wci was peak and Wano can dream to be close to that writing lvl what Oda show in WCi arc.
I mean what we learn from Kaido?
Nothing, literally nothing, why he was suicide?
Who caught him 18 times, which been the 7 people who defeated him, why he became like how he became?
He got a entire arc with 150chapters and we didn´t learn anything about him??
We spend rather with screentime with useless characters, who been more important for Oda rather Kaido...
Wano was a disaster, the beast pirates(Jack didn´t had any named attack or a proper fight).
Wano had good moments, but overall it was a disaster and fiasco of a arc.
We got 150chapters, the pace was shit, to many characters, to many useless characters..
Wano is for me the worst arc Oda ever draw, it was really poor and I think Oda never really know how to write that arc, I feel like he made lot of changes with made the arc longer and worse...
Let hope we never get something similar like Wano ever again.