User blog comment:Kaido King of the Beasts/Chapter 896: After Beating the Mochi, Pop into the Oven/@comment-24850639-20180302165349

Can't articulate my thoughts on this without a long post, so sorry in advance.

Brulee - Oda straight up nerfed her for plot convenience, and I'm not a fan of that at all. She was introduced as someone who  went toe-to-toe with LUFFY, and defeated Chopper & Brulee in the Mirror World, so to see her reduced to a punching bag for EVERYONE in the story because of her ability is just a bit too fortuitous. Chopper using Monster Point and working with Carrot to take her down was believable. Luffy and Pekoms both offscreening her was not in my books. Also being the 8th Daughter of the Charlotte Family, the expectations for her were rather high. Someone being introduced as so strong, with their strength later being trivial is believable with the passage of time, but not in the same arc. Sure, maybe they just "captured" her instead of outright beating her, but how many times can you let yourself get captured? The crew discussing this is a whole to try and downplay it was rather "convenient" as well. What the hell has Pekoms been doing all this time? How the hell did he get a hold of Brulee in the first place after Luffy captured her and used her to get back into the Mirror World and finish his fight with Katakuri?

Sanji & Pudding - You are led to believe that Pudding probably kissed Sanji, but when Sanji is shown again, he doesn't appear to be acting like a man who had just been KISSED by a woman, given what we know of him. He freaking lost his mind just from Nami hugging him and being concerned for him, I refuse to believe he would be kissed and then 10 minutes later he's completely chill. So I agree that there's probably something more to it, but that doesn't really explain the cigarette thing. Curious to see what happens with Pudding from here on out, and what this request was. Sanji. Sanji Sanji Sanji. Please don't tell me your big payoff action-wise this arc is going to be grabbing Luffy and moving so fast that no one can notice you get back to the Sunny. Oda set this up with him rescuing Chiffon, and seems to be what he's setting up now. A one-on-one fight with Sanji is COMPLETELY out of the question in this scenario, so it looks like a freaking cake is indeed going to be Sanji's big accomplishment this arc. Not sure what it is you guys that are hoping he fights Oven are seeing exactly. No one has time for individual fights anymore, the Straw Hats need to get the fuck out of the there. Now I will say, I have always wanted Sanji to get some action, it's one of the biggest things I've wanted to happen for a character next to Brook finally getting to see some damn panties. But again, that doesn't take the place of a combat feat, for someone who's wanted to see Sanji shine in this area since the timeskip. I will take what I can get, but as of right now this rings hollow.

Luffy vs. Katakuri - Couldn't be more disappointed with the way this fight ends. I considered it VERY contrary to Oda's style to introduce a power-up this monumental, only to showcase it for just one chapter and end the fight, with no historical context. No flashback to talk about how Snakeman or the King Cobra was developed, no explanations of what exactly Snakeman is and what makes it different from Boundman, literally nothing other than Luffy's little note that his arm speeds up as it continues to stretch. Oda didn't go through the proper set up process to make us truly believe that this power up was something that made Luffy better than Katakuri in any way. To make it all worse, the climactic final clash......Katakuri's body DOESN'T EVEN MOVE when he gets hit by King Cobra. Luffy's final attacks have always brought the pain, and King Kong Gun makes this attack look like a love tap. So I tried to play devil's advocate and say ok, maybe King Cobra did something internally to Katakuri that we just can't see, like Gamma Knife or something. But no.....no reaction panel of Katakuri saying "OMG whats happening to my body?!?", or "Wow what a powerful attack!". He tanks the attack like a straight up boss, and watches Luffy fall first.....then mysteriously passes out? Then gets up, just to fall again? I'm sorry, but the ending of this fight was extremely anti-climactic for me, and I couldn't be more disappointed after feeling like this was the best fight of the series up until now. I should have left this fight feeling like Luffy actually taking on a Yonko now makes sense, but Luffy's inferiority in Busoshoku haki, which was never addressed before this fight ended, makes me feel otherwise. I most certainly enjoyed Luffy's gesture of respect, but the way this fight played out is going to leave a sour taste in my mouth for a while.

Morgans & Stussy - There's a lot of ideas floating around out there about the role these two will play as this arc wraps up. Of course Morgans is there for the Straw Hats' new bounty and making the world aware of their recent exploits, but I'm still not sure if his connection with the Germa is going to play some kind of role. Maybe he's been working with Absalom, and that will be our re-introduction to Moriah and his motives lately as we move into Wano. Maybe we'll learn he'll break the story on Sanji's connection to the Vinsmokes, and that'll play a role in his bounty increase. As for Stussy, I personally hopes she calls in Marine support to deal with the Big Mom Pirates. At the same time, this would also start a war, as Big Mom herself is still in play and more than capable of giving the Marines a run for their money.

Let's see how many chapters are left, and what plot holes Oda decides to close in that time.