I would hope Pica reveals himself to be a big badass whereupon he gives Zoro a good fight before losing with grace and not being knocked out by a rock.
Won't happen.
Tangent: Zoro's gimmick is that he usually fights with a handicap. I don't think he has one here right? I mean with Monet he didn't wanna hurt a lady I guess but post-timeskip Zoro tends to be fighting in top form most of the time. Odd choice.
Well no but that is indeed why the timeskip has been very meh. The arcs have not given our heroes ample time to do something while the final battle occurs.
In Alibasta, you had the search for the bomb in tandem with Luffy vs Crocodiel.
In Enies Lobby, you had the search for the key and eventually the Buster Call while Luffy fought Lucci.
In Thriller Bark, all of it comes down to a time limit so the tension is pretty natural.
Even in Skypeia, which I don't much care for, had the whole cutting the beanstalk to get to Enel.
Now Doffy is basically alone except for Trebol but we gotta pretend like Pica managed to keep Zoro busy long enough for him to not just come in an interfere with Doffy. Granted I guess he could try and cut up the bird cage. Or maybe have Burgess show back up and fight him for no reason. Would be entertaining.
The most interesting stuff is on Sanji's end but we'll never get around to addressing that it seems.
This revelation of the executive's role comes a bit late... what with 3/4ths of them already gone and, like, two of 'em (Vergo and Diamante) having any personality/history to speak of.
What happened to Oda's character building? We're only finding out about 90% of the character here in the chapters they go down, reducing the potential hype considerably.
Like, what if we had the tragic backstory of the baby-dressing guy *before* he left? Or knew the executive's importance to DoFlamingo before all were down? And, knew, like, anything about most of the other officers besides their combat gimmicks?
Originally posted by Q99
This revelation of the executive's role comes a bit late... what with 3/4ths of them already gone and, like, two of 'em (Vergo and Diamante) having any personality/history to speak of.What happened to Oda's character building? We're only finding out about 90% of the character here in the chapters they go down, reducing the potential hype considerably.
Like, what if we had the tragic backstory of the baby-dressing guy *before* he left? Or knew the executive's importance to DoFlamingo before all were down? And, knew, like, anything about most of the other officers besides their combat gimmicks?
I didn't really mind that, it's not as if there was much tension built with this kind of backstory being put before.
Originally posted by Bentley
I didn't really mind that, it's not as if there was much tension built with this kind of backstory being put before.
It made me care about the fights more if the villains at least had some personality.
Like, I can barely remember most of the officers here, while Baroque Works, I remember most of them well. Heck, I think I remember the *Fishman Island* villains better! Fishman island! (You had Hodi, Van Decken, naive puffer giant, drunk octopus swordsman, and overconfident invisible guy).
Well that is because we see Baroque Works in action before our heroes confront them. They turned an entire country against itself quite well and we see them interact with each other a lot.
With CP9 we see them in their disguises and get to see how ninja they are. They are also pretty effective, almost effortlessly deducing answers from little info.
Hody Jones' crew takes down the Fishmen royal army(which has the unfortunate side effect of making the Fishmen look pathetic) but since the Straw Hats never struggle with them it makes all parties look kinda weaksauce, which ironically does not make the Straw Hats look strong for beating them.
Doffy's crew just doesn't get a very good showing before being hauled off for battle. We see minor interactions with them in Punk Hazard but our attention is more on Doflamingo than his pals. Baby 5 and Buffalo show up later but they failed. Diamante curbs Rebecca but Sabo and Burgess are way more significant to the audience. Sugar is dismissed by a joke, Violet turns good on a dime, and Baby 5/Buffalo never get a second chance to be tough. And all the other heroes are mostly just forgettable, with characters like Lao G and Senor Pink relying on gimmicky appearances more than anything underneath. They all just lose too easily.