User blog comment:12th Supernova/Chapter 800: Freedom/@comment-24850639-20150917170745

Its really about time you guys realized that just because Oda takes a break, doesn't mean the next chapter is going to be incredible. I've lost track of how many times I've seen "expected more after waiting 2 weeks". Having those expectations period is PROBABLY what leads to you being disappointed in the first place. I enjoyed the chapter for what it was. I've been rather vocal about my support Luffy and Issho's respect for each other, and just how much he reminds me of Kuzan as the Admiral with morals. Sengoku is certainly no stranger to Pirates saving the day, so I'm sure that last panel was just for amusement.

As for the armada, as its been said before, shouldn't surprise anyone. We knew Luffy was going to comically say no, but they would all continue to support him anyway. The panel were they were all leaning to side with the question mark over their head after Luffy said that was prob my fave part of the chapter. I also love how Oda seems to give the Giants THE most hilarious laughs of them all. I don't like how Law's starting to get overshadowed from how quiet he's been lately though. And of course, Bellamy.

Finally, as far as the foreshadowing goes, "Pivotal Event" in a series like this, at a time like in THIS series, could literally mean just about anything. What gets me is that he implied each of the 7 "captains" are going to leave their "own mark on history". I can now see where the complaints are orginating about having too much character development to spread around, but I'm interested in them all anyway so I could care less. Notice that just these 7 got the implication, not EVERYONE in the associated parties.

1) Leo - The Dwarves have a history that precedes even the Void Century, and we know they had a run-in with Noland at some point. Noland's experience with the Shandia has slightly enlightened us to some very crucial moments in the history of One Piece, and I expect the same when we learn of his experience with the Tontatta.

2) Hajrudin - Another race (Giants) we learned very little about during the first half of the series, but enough that we know they will play a role in future arcs. There's Usopp's interest, and then of course Hajrudin's old crew. He mentioned that there were at least 4, and there are EXACTLY 4 Giants we met that we have yet to learn the fate of: Dorry, Brogy, Oimo, Kashi. The former 2 we were hinted at possibly seeing again.

3) Bartolomeo - His admiration of Luffy and desire to be of use to him speaks for itself. We perhaps still need to know just who he is and where he comes from, but due to his popularity I STRONLY doubt anyone is opposed to seeing more of this guy. He also clearly has no problems with causing trouble for the World Government.

4) Cavendish - His role in this confuses me a little, as he's easily the most prominent of them all and the absolute last person I would see subordinating himself to a rookie pirate. On the contrary though, all other things equal he's the MOST likely I see making his "own mark on history". He's named after a real-life pirate, and so many aspects of him are references to very prominent knights and princes.

5) Sai - The Happo Navy already seems like a force to be reckoned with, and Zoro implying that he may have heard of them before was definitely not lost on me. The last time he said something like that, we found out that he had a run-in with Baroque Works before. A lot of Zoro's life after leaving the Dojo but before meeting Luffy is a huge mystery to us, and if we're approaching a Wano Kuni Arc, it'd make sense that they start to reveal these things, now that we've met person who can connect the dots potentially. As far as what Sai is going to do, I'd have to wait until we know more about him. When we find out who his country is at war with, I believe we'll start to get some more answers.

6) Orlumbus - The references to Christopher Columbus couldn't be more blatantly obvious, so the "history" portion kinda speaks for itself here. He also appears to be rather strong though, so he's definitely more of a question mark that im hoping we get to learn more about.

7) Ideo - He leads probably the most underwhelming group of the 7, but the long leg and long arm tribes are also still a bit of a mystery to us. Where did they come from, how did they originate? Did they start as regular humans and evolved somehow? Brook's timeskip fiasco was somewhat of an introduction, but we now have an actual characters that can give us insight into who these people exactly are.

So overall, don't look at them as sapping away character development from everyone else, look at them as segues to learn about a new race, or a new part of the New World.