Wano was hyped up to be the next marineford, but I feel like the similarities between the two arcs are very superficial.
Yes, like MF, wano was an arc about a giant war involving the yonko. Not merely 1 yonko but 2 yonko were defeated, along with the entire beast pirates. But I think we can all feel that something is amiss in wano. If wano had more yonkos and more fights, G5 Nika Luffy, advanced conquerors haki, Zoro scarring kaido, how can it fail to live up to marineford?
I think the answer is simple. Beyond the yonkos and admirals, beyond all the spectacle of marineford, the core of the arc was the relationship between Luffy and Ace.
Ace was Luffy's brother, he was set to be executed, and Luffy was willing to go to hell and back in order to save him. There was literally nothing Luffy wouldn't have done to save his brother. Nowhere else in OP has the stakes ever been higher. Furthermore, nowhere else in OP, has the story ever been more connected to the MC.
If you haven't noticed, OP is kinda formulaic. Most OP arcs involve luffy going to a new place, befriending a new person, and fighting on behalf of that person. Where MF was different was that it wasn't just Luffy fighting on behalf of any person, it was his own brother.
More than anything, MF was driven by characters. Luffy is willing to die to save ace, Ace questioning his worth as a person and whether or not he deserves to be saved, Garp's inner struggle between duty and family, WB facing the end of his era, and Akainu's mad quest for absolute justice. It is this that makes marineford one of the best arcs in one piece.
Wano has a lot of plot, two emperors fall, by all means that's more important than whatever happened in marineford. Yet wano doesn't have the same emotional core that Marineford did. Luffy's motives in wano are largely tangential to the actual conflict of the arc. Why is Luffy fighting kaido? Oh, because O-Tama and Kinemon and Momonosuke. Wano doesn't feel personal in the same way marineford did. Whereas the stakes were never higher in MF, it felt like Oda perpetually lowered the stakes of Wano. Luffy lost a million times to kaido, but never did any of those losses feel real.
I also think wano had far too many characters. You had the entire SHs, Kid and Law, the scabbards and momo, kaido, the beast pirates, ect. Whereas in MF, the only really important characters were Luffy, Ace, WB, and Akainu. I don't think there was ever a chapter where one of those 4 characters weren't featured. The result of this is that wano fails to have the same strong character arcs that held marineford together and made it the arc that it was.
Overall, I feel like wano is a bastardization of marineford. A marineford with no emotional core and poorly written characters. The ultimate result of Oda writing himself into a corner by creating an ever expanding story that was far too big than it really needed to be.
Yes, like MF, wano was an arc about a giant war involving the yonko. Not merely 1 yonko but 2 yonko were defeated, along with the entire beast pirates. But I think we can all feel that something is amiss in wano. If wano had more yonkos and more fights, G5 Nika Luffy, advanced conquerors haki, Zoro scarring kaido, how can it fail to live up to marineford?
I think the answer is simple. Beyond the yonkos and admirals, beyond all the spectacle of marineford, the core of the arc was the relationship between Luffy and Ace.
Ace was Luffy's brother, he was set to be executed, and Luffy was willing to go to hell and back in order to save him. There was literally nothing Luffy wouldn't have done to save his brother. Nowhere else in OP has the stakes ever been higher. Furthermore, nowhere else in OP, has the story ever been more connected to the MC.
If you haven't noticed, OP is kinda formulaic. Most OP arcs involve luffy going to a new place, befriending a new person, and fighting on behalf of that person. Where MF was different was that it wasn't just Luffy fighting on behalf of any person, it was his own brother.
More than anything, MF was driven by characters. Luffy is willing to die to save ace, Ace questioning his worth as a person and whether or not he deserves to be saved, Garp's inner struggle between duty and family, WB facing the end of his era, and Akainu's mad quest for absolute justice. It is this that makes marineford one of the best arcs in one piece.
Wano has a lot of plot, two emperors fall, by all means that's more important than whatever happened in marineford. Yet wano doesn't have the same emotional core that Marineford did. Luffy's motives in wano are largely tangential to the actual conflict of the arc. Why is Luffy fighting kaido? Oh, because O-Tama and Kinemon and Momonosuke. Wano doesn't feel personal in the same way marineford did. Whereas the stakes were never higher in MF, it felt like Oda perpetually lowered the stakes of Wano. Luffy lost a million times to kaido, but never did any of those losses feel real.
I also think wano had far too many characters. You had the entire SHs, Kid and Law, the scabbards and momo, kaido, the beast pirates, ect. Whereas in MF, the only really important characters were Luffy, Ace, WB, and Akainu. I don't think there was ever a chapter where one of those 4 characters weren't featured. The result of this is that wano fails to have the same strong character arcs that held marineford together and made it the arc that it was.
Overall, I feel like wano is a bastardization of marineford. A marineford with no emotional core and poorly written characters. The ultimate result of Oda writing himself into a corner by creating an ever expanding story that was far too big than it really needed to be.
