Current Events Why Wano fails to surpass Marineford

[Peenix]

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.

Now I agree that Marineford was a better arc than Wano, but Wano was never supposed to be Marineford. Wano was never hyped up to be the next Marineford. The interview that people usually cite for this was talking about the final war, not Wano. Wano from the beginning was set to have Luffy come out on top. He's gonna be the pirate king and Wano was meant to the arc where he proved it. Marineford on the other hand was always set up to be Luffy's biggest defeat. Marineford was meant to be the arc that reminded the audience the world doesn't revolve around Luffy.

People projected their own desires onto the series instead of actually paying attention to what the arc about. If people got disappointed for Wano not being Marineford 2, then that's their own fault. Yes, Wano has flaws like too many characters. But in my opinion, it's still a solid enough arc on its own merits if you look at it for what it is instead of what it's not.

 

[LubeDaddy]

I think I'm one of the few people who find Marineford a tad bit overrated. It's a great arc yeah but it's basically just a giant ass battle. What it does have over Wano is that 2 important characters actually died though one could argue that they were written precisely to die in that arc in order to usher in a new era. Though the impact of Ace's death got dimished for me when Oda introduced a substitute brother right after it. It sure had some great moments but I Still think Water 7/ Enies Lobby is the greatest arc. I also like Arlong Park and Sabaody more than Marineford. So I think Marineford would be my 3rd favorite pre time skip arc

 

[Finalbeta]

If only Loda made Wano shorter at least the agony would of lasted less