You can apply this to most SHP interactions as they’ve dropped off mightily since the timeskip...Luffy basically operates as an independent boss at this point, his crew mates just react to him with little going the other way. All Zoro/Sanji do is fight with themselves, all Nami does is tell them to fuck off, all Usopp does is cower or chide everyone mentioned above, all Chopper does is fret and provide the ~*~kawaii desu~*~ moments, all Brook does is make bone jokes, and Jinbe has literally just shown up as a part of the crew. The only one who hasn’t completely regressed to a single personality trait is Franky, and that’s because he’s still just a gigantic weirdo so anything he does is taken as a joke anyway. Truly miss the days when we got to see them all bond and enjoy each other’s company...and I’m worried those days are done for good.
The only hope I have is that either:
- Wano (the fights, the emotion, etc) shows a return to form for the series towards the climax.
- More personal storylines like Kuma/Bonney or Franky/Robin's eventual confrontation with Pluton being found, issues BB and Shanks come back into the fray, Dragon's motives, true history, whatever tragedy that is happening with Alabasta right now (if it is a tragedy) start to come back into the fold.
Really, I think A LOT of it has to do with what characters we care about and continue to care about and I can personally see a lot of these characters get personal growth moments again towards the forthcoming arcs.
A huge problem is this massive storyline Oda had to do with Kaido/BM and the Samurai. Its nearly 4x longer than the plotline Vivi had with Alabasta and in the end we all likely cared more about Vivi's impact and emotions with the crew. A lot of this is due to the sheer number of characters involved. Dressrosa is the definition of overstuffed and trying to accomplish too much. This is why I hope that once this arc ends, it starts to fold back to teased plotlines like Kuma's or gives us decent updates on Vivi and her father, things that are way smaller/more intimate.
Shit has the potential to be personal, it just hasn't been for years, and I think it really comes down to the number of characters Oda introduced in the last 8 years or so. Hopefully most of them just fade away after this arc (or don't return until the EoS at least), the Strawhats stay together for the remainder of the series, and the next arcs are about plotlines we've wanted answers to for years.
Edit: And dont get me wrong, I've enjoyed the last 8 years of OP, but really, I've been just along for the ride primarily for the art, designs, and revelations (the Reverie was awesome) until the series gets back to a lot of teased pre-timeskip characters (Kuma, Vegapunk, BB, Shanks, Admirals, Revolutionaries etc) and their plotines which have yet to at all be addressed.