Thoughts on one piece (ch652 - ch800)

I have returned with yet more opinions about one piece!
This time, I just finished off the whole dressrosa arc, which has been a lot of fun.

First of all, Punk Hazard.
Before everything else, I just wanna say that I really like the name Punk Hazard. I think it sounds very cool. I don’t really know where else I’d mention it, so I’ll just throw it in here.

While we’re at it, here’s every Arc I’ve read so far, ranked by how cool their names sound:

1. Punk Hazard Saga
2. Summit War Saga
3. Thriller Bark Saga
4. Water Seven/Enies Lobby Saga
5. East Blue Saga
6. Alabasta Saga
7. Dressrosa Saga
8. Sky Island Saga
9. Fishman Island Saga

Alright, that’s done, time to actually start talking about this thing.

First of all, I do really like laws powers. Him just being able to teleport is really fun, and his powers having a clearly visible limited range with his operation room is just kind of neat. Overall, one of my favorite devil fruits, even if his powers really are kind of bullshit in just how much random unrelated stuff they allow him to do that is like, barely related to the theme of his fruit xd

Punk Hazard being 50/50 ice and fire is kind of fun, and i like the explanation of it being a result of the fight between Aokiji and Akainu. It really demonstrates just how powerful the marine admirals actually are in a really cool way.

I really like Caesar Clowns design, he just looks very cool. I appreciate having like, an evil mad scientist sort of villain, it’s a bit of a shakeup from the usually at the very least pirate-adjacent villain concepts we’ve had so far. Gas Powers are also just kind of neat, and not something you see too often. Though there might be a reason for that, as the actual fight between him and Luffy is kind of… eh. He’s a tad one-note in terms of powerset. He has The Gas That Kills You (TM), and that’s about it, apart from the typical Logia shenanigans. I appreciate them sort of taking them along on their Journey for a bit due to the whole kidnapping thing, he makes for a fun contrast to the rest of the crew for the very, very ocassional dialogue he does get while he’s around.

I also really like how much Law tries to plan things out. With the Straw Hat crew usually being very much not all that organized, it’s nice to see someone take a more long-term analytical approach. I can saw the same thing Donquixote as well. Most villains so far did have some sort of grand plan, and have tried to outsmart the strawhats, crocodile especially, but with Doflamingo it does really feel like the strawhats are engaged in a battle of wits with him, he comes across as way smarter than any of the previous villains, which i like.

I also just really love his design. I didn’t think you’d be able to make those stupid ass glasses and absolutely horrendous haircut look menacing, but oda somehow did it, and it looks really cool. I love that his power is string of all things, which is pretty unexpected seeing as, at first, the most obvious supernatural thing about the guy is his ability to fly. But, as it turns out that’s just him attaching string to clouds and sort of hovering in the air that way(?). It’s admittedly kind of a bullshit explanation, but also this is one piece and we’re operating on like, at least 60% cartoon logic, so who cares, it’s still a fun reveal.

It’s also very fun to see a villain who does care about his subordinates, and treats them like family… to an extent at least. I mean, he did also kills his real father, so make of that what you will. Doflamingo and his crew are family still. A very fucked up, dysfunctional, murderous family. But a family nonetheless. It’s a nice parallel to Luffy whose pirate crew also doesn’t really have any strict hierarchy, and who does consider all of his crewmates to be, at the very least, close friends of his.

While we’re still sort of on the topic of Punk Hazard, I really liked the Yeti Cool brothers. They’re only like, barely part of the Story Arc, but they’re just very fun villains. I like how they’re always just there freakishly tall, shadowy figures. And I especially love their stupid quirk of always needing to comment on how things are cool/not cool. Really living up to the name there.

Next up, the dressrosa arc proper. I think the whole toy factory thing is fun, basically erasing the memory of others from existance to turn them into your slaves is a very interesting concept for a devil fruit power. The whole reveal with Kyros being the toy soldier was neat, and something i somehow didn’t actually see coming even if in hindsight it is fairly obvious. Doflamingo makes for a very fun villain on account of him being a completely obnoxious asshole. The reveal of him being a celestial dragon is very fun, and I like the additional exposition on how the celestial dragons literally just do not consider themselves to be part of the same species as humans. That might’ve been mentioned before, but I think it’s a fun worldbuilding detail.

It’s nice to see the threat of a celestial dragon who’s actually competent and not just a complete pushover that’s only dangerous due their connection with the government. And I know Doflamingo technically isn’t part of the celestial dragons anymore, but he does still consider himself one, acts like one, and effectively has at least a good chunk of their influence on the government, due to whatever mysterious treasure he discovered that the government wants to keep hidden. I’m guessing whatever it is, it’s somehow connected to that 200 year void in history that the world government really doesn’t want anyone learning about.

The tournament arc at the colliseum was very fun, as tournament arcs tend to be. I like Rebecca’s gimmick of only winning via disqualifying her opponents. And Bartolomeo is just a lot fun. I love how much of complete asshole he is initially, and his whole strawhat fanboy thing is also just very charming. He seems like a cool guy. Apart from the whole cannibalism thing he apparently has going on, which i honestly completely forgot about until the end of this arc where his title was briefly mentioned again. Like, oh yeah, he does eat people apparently. Still, I’d hang out with him, he seems cool.

Luffy’s other brother returning is also fun. Honestly, I wasn’t actually all that suprised, even though I didn’t get spoiled for it. He didn’t make that much of an impression on me when he initially showed up in Luffy’s backstory, so i was just like “Huh, that’s kind of cool.” - and moved on. He’s a fun character though, and I do really like his design.

The final fight with doflamingo was of course really cool, and i especially enjoyed the fight versus Pica. You’d think the ability to control stone would be fairly boring as far as devil fruits go, but I didn’t expect him to get like, a huge stone-mech.

I also just really love Issho. He doesn’t play a huge active role in this arc, but he’s just a really cool, interesting character. The whole blind swordsman archetype is just really fun, and I always love the designs of the Naval Admirals that are very obviously based on real people. I think it’s the like, vastly more detailed but still cartoony looking faces they tend to have? I really love that style, and how much it sticks out compared to the others characters. His like, levitation/black hole powers(?) are also just awesome. In general, his whole schtick of humane justice is very fun, and having a marine admiral who does genuinely want to do good, and has the backbone to ocassionally actually try go against the interests of the world government to do that, is a very fun contrast.

I like that the world government isn’t just completely full of cartoonishly evil assholes. There’s good guys even at the levels of marine admirals. They’re just participating in a system that sucks ass. Maybe they got blinded by the propaganda, maybe they want to change it from the inside. Who knows, but it’s nice to have that nuance.

Aaaand, that’s it for now, I think. I’m honestly suprised we’re already at chapter 800. Time really does fly by when you’re having fun, I suppose. I’ve had a lot of free time to read while on vacation, which is now over, so I’ll probably slow down quite a bit. So yeah, we’ll see when i get around to doing another one of these.

Thanks for reading!