B
Oda shouldn't have used Sanji's weakest character trait to hype Robin, a de faction plot device that hasn't had a fight in over a decade. The female character's relevance is at the mercy of the make character's "positive" sexism.
On top of it, Black Maria takes drugs to alter her hybrid form in favor of a stereotypically "beautiful" appearance which makes their battle look like a cat fight.
Oda fails to write compelling fights for his female characters: the characters are put in place artificially, it's not natural.
Oda breaks the flow of the story and inserts an "extra" situation only so that his female protagonist can fight another woman -a callback to Nami vs Kalifa.
The fight itself is nothing special, it gets its appeal from the fact that, after over a decade, Robin even fights at all.
The King fight was one of Zoro's weakest fights. Not strength wise but plot wise.
King's transformations and forms are a mess. Why does he need Lunarian wings in his base form and devil fruit wings? Like with Kaido's characterisation, Oda poured all sorts of different stuff into this fight as well as King's character design(s).
The fire dragon being an obvious allusion to the ZKK theory.
Zoro's victory was not satisfying and the grim reaper plot unnecessary.
The Sanji vs Queen fight was funny but dumb. Sanji's victory doesn't feel deserved because Queen defeated himself due to his lack of competence.
All this being meant as a gag doesn't justify it.
Instead, Oda should have have highlighted both characters' competence while keeping the funny tone.
Overall, the fight is nothing more but a mere setting for Sanji's Germa/Raid Suit plot.
The "Wings of the Pirate King" title was meant as a slap in the face of Zoro supremacists.
I wrote this many times here, I don't like Oda's attempt at normalizing genetic modifications and transhumanism.
The message that Sanji's emotions are what make him human despite having a genetically engineered body has a weaker impact than the fact that his body is fundamentally unnatural.
His modifications beg the question to which degree Sanji's fighting prowess is a product of hard work/his own will at all.
When a human's lineage factor can be designed at will, why do hard work and determination even matter?
Too long. Too stretched out. It's the same thing over and over again.
Eventually Luffy did win because his punch was strong.
Oh, and the punch is also magical and divine.
As we can see in the recently published drafts, Momonosuke's adult design had been planned out for a good amount of time.
And it's not like he looks bad. But if Oda thinks a handsome adult look can magically make Momo a better character he's mistaken.
Does he really think the fandom is this dumb?!
Awsome.
Oda's ultimate troll move(and apparently planned since forever).
It does make sense. Buggy's character is all about appearing as more than he is, Buggy is a trickster, using his pure luck to his advantage.
I like that there are different types of Yonko:
That's an intelligent move from Oda's side. Greenbull's full reveal is clearly written as a cliffhanger.
How was he capable of decimating King and Queen without any effort? Were they still injured? Did Greenbull imprison them in Udon or interrupt their attempt at re-grouping with their crew members?
Whom was he talking to over the DenDen Mushi?
We really don't know who is talking to whom at all.
Very tiresome.
Oda stretches out unnecessary plots and it felt as if nothing is happening for weeks. First they save Momo, then it's the fire plot, then the bombs endanger the island, then the disappearance of Kaido's flame clouds endanger the Flower Capital......
not to mention Tama's kibi dango plot. I don't understand why Oda thought it's a good idea to write a small child into a war scenario.
Had Tama remained the emotional connection to Wano's suffering, the representative of its oppressed citizens I would have enjoyed her character more.
Which brings us to the next point: Wano and Onigashima should be seen as separate arcs and among those two Wano is the better one.
The strawhats' bonding with the citizens and them blending with the populace was a good read. Aside of a few overly long plotlines (like the Sumo plot in early Wano) Wano is an ok arc with the potential to become better in a re-read.
Onigashima, on the other hand, is a mess and umsatisfying to read weekly. And then the ending is ofpanneled
Too short. Not even a real flashback and unsatisfying.
Kaido, being the collection of villain tropes that he is, remains blunt.
The flashback is made up of unnamed characters narrating Kaido's past, Oda again fails to live up to "show, not tell".
On top of it, Black Maria takes drugs to alter her hybrid form in favor of a stereotypically "beautiful" appearance which makes their battle look like a cat fight.
Oda fails to write compelling fights for his female characters: the characters are put in place artificially, it's not natural.
Oda breaks the flow of the story and inserts an "extra" situation only so that his female protagonist can fight another woman -a callback to Nami vs Kalifa.
The fight itself is nothing special, it gets its appeal from the fact that, after over a decade, Robin even fights at all.
The King fight was one of Zoro's weakest fights. Not strength wise but plot wise.
King's transformations and forms are a mess. Why does he need Lunarian wings in his base form and devil fruit wings? Like with Kaido's characterisation, Oda poured all sorts of different stuff into this fight as well as King's character design(s).
The fire dragon being an obvious allusion to the ZKK theory.
Zoro's victory was not satisfying and the grim reaper plot unnecessary.
The Sanji vs Queen fight was funny but dumb. Sanji's victory doesn't feel deserved because Queen defeated himself due to his lack of competence.
All this being meant as a gag doesn't justify it.
Instead, Oda should have have highlighted both characters' competence while keeping the funny tone.
Overall, the fight is nothing more but a mere setting for Sanji's Germa/Raid Suit plot.
The "Wings of the Pirate King" title was meant as a slap in the face of Zoro supremacists.
I wrote this many times here, I don't like Oda's attempt at normalizing genetic modifications and transhumanism.
The message that Sanji's emotions are what make him human despite having a genetically engineered body has a weaker impact than the fact that his body is fundamentally unnatural.
His modifications beg the question to which degree Sanji's fighting prowess is a product of hard work/his own will at all.
When a human's lineage factor can be designed at will, why do hard work and determination even matter?
Too long. Too stretched out. It's the same thing over and over again.
Eventually Luffy did win because his punch was strong.
Oh, and the punch is also magical and divine.
As we can see in the recently published drafts, Momonosuke's adult design had been planned out for a good amount of time.
And it's not like he looks bad. But if Oda thinks a handsome adult look can magically make Momo a better character he's mistaken.
Does he really think the fandom is this dumb?!
Awsome.
Oda's ultimate troll move(and apparently planned since forever).
It does make sense. Buggy's character is all about appearing as more than he is, Buggy is a trickster, using his pure luck to his advantage.
I like that there are different types of Yonko:
- A natural born monster with the desire to rule a nation
- A natural born monster with the desire to wage infinite war
- A guy with a small crew who chills on an island and probably has some kind of secret connection with the government
- A cowardly, weak, yet madly ambitious and cunning agent of chaos
- A funny kid who naively jumps across the world, running purely on instinct, with ferocious levels of non-egoistic ambition and "the chosen one"
- A clown in the literal sense
That's an intelligent move from Oda's side. Greenbull's full reveal is clearly written as a cliffhanger.
How was he capable of decimating King and Queen without any effort? Were they still injured? Did Greenbull imprison them in Udon or interrupt their attempt at re-grouping with their crew members?
Whom was he talking to over the DenDen Mushi?
We really don't know who is talking to whom at all.
Very tiresome.
Oda stretches out unnecessary plots and it felt as if nothing is happening for weeks. First they save Momo, then it's the fire plot, then the bombs endanger the island, then the disappearance of Kaido's flame clouds endanger the Flower Capital......
not to mention Tama's kibi dango plot. I don't understand why Oda thought it's a good idea to write a small child into a war scenario.
Had Tama remained the emotional connection to Wano's suffering, the representative of its oppressed citizens I would have enjoyed her character more.
Which brings us to the next point: Wano and Onigashima should be seen as separate arcs and among those two Wano is the better one.
The strawhats' bonding with the citizens and them blending with the populace was a good read. Aside of a few overly long plotlines (like the Sumo plot in early Wano) Wano is an ok arc with the potential to become better in a re-read.
Onigashima, on the other hand, is a mess and umsatisfying to read weekly. And then the ending is ofpanneled
Too short. Not even a real flashback and unsatisfying.
Kaido, being the collection of villain tropes that he is, remains blunt.
The flashback is made up of unnamed characters narrating Kaido's past, Oda again fails to live up to "show, not tell".
