User blog comment:Kaido King of the Beasts/Was the Dressrosa Arc Good or Bad?/@comment-24850639-20151021003125

I'd have to say it was good overall, I'd give it about 7.5-8 out of 10. I have no complaints about the actual length of the arc due to what was involved, but I did take issue with certain elements of it BECAUSE the arc was so long. I have no problems with anything that was presented in the arc, moreso just how much or how little we got of it.

LOVED

- THE PLOT SETUP: Absolutely brilliant. Like Arlong Park, Alabasta, or Enies Lobby to name a few, we came into this arc already knowing who the protagonist is going to eventually fight. When such an important thing is already known, you then hope the writer does a good job of laying out the context as to just why the main protagonist HAS to fight this person. In my opinion, this was done better during the Dressrosa Arc then any other arc so far. The backstory of the Tontatta with the Donquixote Family, the history of the gladiators in the colosseum, the tournament itself over something INCREDIBLY important to Luffy, the Hobi Hobi no Mi and how it completely reshaped the country to hide "undesirable" characteristics, the fucked up things Doffy did to the Royal Family (and his OWN), Doffy's own significance in the Underworld, and even his personal backstory as a Celestial Dragon and how they treat people. I loved how everything meshed together and just made more excited chapter by chapter to see the fights finally happen and the downfall of the Donquixote Family begin.

- THE CHARACTERS: The Tontatta were major players during this arc, and I love how they actually played an important role in supporting the protagonists rather than just being there to set the stage, or in the way like the Shandia during Skypiea or the revolutionaries in Alabasta. They can kick some major ass without even being seen, which i absolutely loved. Sabo being alive? AND getting Ace's fruit? An old blind gambler turning out to be a fucking Navy Admiral? A member of the Blackbeard Pirates? Rob Lucci confirmed as being in CP0? The Revolutionary Army? Good god, I could expand on this for days. Yeah there were a LOT of people introduced in the tournament, but they all for the most part ended up playing a role and being awesome at it, and the more significant ones we now know will play an even bigger role in the future. Out of the hundreds of characters introduced in this arc, Rebecca is quite literally the ONLY one I don't like. And whoever the chick was with the vacuum cleaner at the SMILE factory. Didn't seem to be much point for her lol

- THE SCOPE/IMPACT: Good lord, so much that can be talked about here. Lets start with the shitstorms Luffy has been causing island after island in the New World. First there's declaring war on Big Mom, who has a nice "explosive" treat waiting on her when Pekoms and Tamago bring back the treasure, in addition to whatever the Twirly Brow crew pulled when her ship popped up in Dressrosa. Then there was defeating and capturing Caesar, which pissed Jack off quite a bit, as well as all other involved brokers, and now there's Mingo, which is essentially declaring war on Kaido, and the entire underworld network. Yeah Luffy's always been pissing people off, but taking down Mingo, and it being published as WORLDWIDE news? This is the first time where we have to go, "Awww shit Luffy, now you've REALLY done it". In addition Luffy has a new Marine adversary in Fujitora. Smoker's campaign against Luffy was more of a personal vendetta, Issho's JOB actually hangs in the balance now on capturing Luffy which was definitely not the case with Smoker (we also know Luffy can kick Smoker's ass now with his eyes closed). Speaking of, we've never seen an Admiral have direct conflict with their superior officer, nor would I have imagined Issho making a worldwide apology and admitting the WG's involvement in the mistake. We have another link to the Void Century via the Tontatta, another country that will be at the Reverie and has Luffy's back, the first new bounties of the New World for the crew, and last but not least the Straw Hat Pirates are officially a FORCE in the New World now with the New Fleet, which the rest of the crew doesn't even know about yet. Shit is getting so real now with all the things that are happening off screen as well as with the crew currently, and I feel Dressrosa was a necessary spark to the powder keg to really get this story going in full force from here on out.

WANTED MORE

- THE FIGHTS: With this arc being so long, and with so much historical and current context, I was expecting every fight to be good and have its own weight. Most of the fights with the executives were underwhelming, and the Senior Exec fights were extremely disappointing. Most importantly, I was very disappointed in the main fight of the arc, which had gotten me so excited leading up to it. The only 1v1 fight during this arc that I actually liked was Franky vs Pink, and it wasn't even one of the more serious fights. The fights that were actually very good matchups werent as important, so we didn't get to see most of them.

Trebol: Was never going to be a match for Luffy or Law, and he blew himself up to try even the score......which didnt' work.

Diamante: The guy who taught Law his swordplay, was trusted to handle BOTH Luffy and Jesus Burgess, and the leader of the subdivision of the Donquixote Family that has the best fighters.........got his ass kicked rather easily by a guy with one leg, was just getting used to having human limbs again, and couldn't even stand up straight most of the fight. He was painted as the guy who was supposed to be essentially THE top fighter of the Family, and he turns out to be someone who relies too heavily on his Devil Fruit and cheap trickery.

Pica: It was made obvious rather quickly that Pica couldn't hold a candle to Zoro, yet it their conflict was drug out over essentially 50+ chapters. His ass whooping took wayyyyy too long, and Diamante's happened way too quickly.

Gladiators vs Lower execs: Sadly, these guys had better fights than their superiors. Franky vs Pinky was great, and I only loved it more after learning Pink's backstory. Dellinger is a fucking badass, and I loved watching every minute of him, despite his cross-dressing. Lao G is by FAR my favorite member of the family, and I loved the touch of Sai taking his dad's place and beating him. Baby 5 was a disappointment to me this arc, but hopefully we'll get to see more of her in the future.

Sabo vs. Issho & Burgess: Sabo is 2nd in command of a force that I feel is much more significant of a "power" than the Shichibukai. Fujitora is literally one of these powers himself. Burgess is clearly the 2nd/3rd strongest under Blackbeard, a Yonko. I'd lean heavier on the 2nd since he was there before Shililew, but when the BB Pirates vs. SH Pirates confrontation finally does happen, Zoro's much more likely to fight Shililew than Burgess. With that said, why was Sabo's fight against Fujitora a stalemate while Sabo whooped Burgess' ass effortlessly? Its not like Burgess took a ton of damage during the colosseum, and he hadn't even been fighting anyone since. Just an inequality that threw me off. I can understand Sabo being stronger, but give Burgess more credit.....

Luffy vs. Doflamingo: The main event, the moment a lot of people had been waiting on since Mingo's intro during the Skypeia Saga. The setup for this fight? Incredible. I love how he had to take down an enemy turned friend in the exact same we he did when they were enemies, and how much it fired him up to take Mingo down. The moment where he stopped Mingo's stomp on Law? Probably one of my favorite moments in manga history. I've never been more excited to see a fight finally happen, then when it actually does, I'm expecting more. I'm sorry, but as big of a badass Mingo has been painted as since the series began, I was seriously expecting a Rob Lucci kind of brawl. Gears 2 & 3 definitely proved ineffective, but there was never a point in the fight where Luffy was getting his ass handed to him, or Mingo had a serious upper hand. I was hoping to see a fight where the momentum swung back and forth from the time to time, but it was moreso Luffy trying some techniques that didn't work, and then just breaking out a technique that his opponent was hopeless against. Not that I have any issues with Gear 4th being the gamebreaker, Lucci couldn't really do much against Gears 2&3 either. But at least Lucci got some hits in over the fight.

- THE HISTORY: Good lord we got teased so much this arc. The D. clan was referenced so much here, but the only tangible information we're left with is the superstition of "God's Natural Enemy", and Doflamingo's assertion that they're always present among the "embers of history". We got a tragic backstory of a Celestial Dragon being cast out from the Mariejois high society, and we know he knows an incredibly valuable secret in regards to that, but no actual hints as to what it could even be. And now that he's either about to get locked up in Impel Down for life or taken back to Kaido to get raped, we prob won't be finding out anytime soon. I was hoping through Rocinante we might get more insight into Mariejois and what life is actually like there, or even just an image of something other than clouds, spacesuits, and white buildings. The Tontatta, The Donquixote bloodline, and Dressrosa itself were all around during the Void Century, but this was not mentioned much, if at all. We've got much more time to learn about Law, but I don't see much reason now for Oda to tell us that much more about Mingo and his family's background now that his time to shine is over. I was hoping to learn more about about just how Doflamingo started establishing these connections with these people in the underground, and seeing how he got so big in it to the point that he essentially ran it. I'm not upset that I didn't get answers to all these questions this arc, moreso just a little frustrated that we didn't get more history considering how long and important the arc was.