User blog comment:Fliu/Chapter 980: This Is Where the Fun Begins/@comment-29391896-20200525133213/@comment-108.83.222.210-20200528043211

They are in the middle of enemy territory fighting against a force that is far greater then theirs against two Yonko currently. Last I checked, there are not likely to be good circumstances regarding how and when they will be able to fight no matter how long they wait. They will still have to face these people and cause a scene in order to follow the plan. When would be a good time for them to fight if not now? Where should they begin the fight if not here? Are they supposed to sneak past this crowd and go right to Kaido to fight him because if they do that then they will find themselves caught between Kaido in front and everyone else in back. Who knows, Kaido might decide to make a game of this like he did out of his execution of Oden. (sarcastically speaking) I wonder what the outcome would be this time? If they are causing a scene here and keeping the focus of the beast pirates on them then they will not be scurrying all over the island where they can come across the rest of the group and raise the alarm on them. In the past they Luffy has caused chaos quite a bit and it seems to have helped him and his crew succeed. Chaos is where they thrive after all and there is now plenty of it to go around. As for the point of compromising their principles as one of my responders seems to have brought up, Luffy did the same thing when he decked that celestial dragon in the face. Intelligently speaking it would have been wise for him to keep out of it, it would have been better to just ignore that Hachi was shot and allowed the noble to use Camie as entertainment to outrun pirranas in his fish tank. It would have meant both their deaths but it would have been smart. It also would have compromised who he is. Notice that in the same place, Zoro almost cut down that very celestial dragon and afterword's he helped the man whom that so-called noble shot. These are regarded as foolish decisions, but they also show that the Strawhats are genuinely good people. Again, the commenter who responded to me pointed out Alabasta, going there to help Vivi was on the face of it a rather stupid decision by some standpoints. They have nothing to gain by it, they could have died against a stronger opponent and organization, and they could have easily been arrested or turned into the marines for their trouble. Yet they still chose to help Vivi regardless. Enies Lobby was by certain standards quite foolish, a few insignificant pirates and a ragtag team of shipwrights and rejects who failed to become shipwrights taking on a government institution guarded by a group of powerful assassins and representing a global power composed of over 170 countries. As Spandam stated, "Do you have any idea how worthless your existence is compared to this? Do you have any idea how powerful the organization chasing after this woman is?". An intelligent person would have given her up for dead and chosen to leave her to die. They did not and in fact Luffy order Usopp to shoot down the flag in defiance of the world governments reputation and power to show her that they would protect her through thick and thin even to the very bitter end. In Whole Cake, a sane person would seek another chef after their current one is taken by a Yonko and thank their stars that they were not killed. Luffy chose not only to get Sanji back, but to help him rescue his family. Those are just three significant ones. I could mention getting Nami back, helping defend Zeff, challenging Moriah, Luffy going to Impel Down and Marineford as well as a number of other situations. All of which were quite foolish decisions by certain perspectives and ones that most pirates would not have made. Most pirates upon seeing Mihawk for instance would have decided that the Grand Line is too much for them and would have stayed in East Blue. It would mean never having the chance to become pirate king or in Zoro's case, never becoming the world's greatest swordsman but it would be far safer then choosing to chase a treasure they don't even know exists in a place that is described as a pirate graveyard. Impel Down and Marineford in particular have been described as a fools errand. Most individuals would have decided that it is better to accept someone as dead and take comfort in the fact that nothing that they do can change the outcome. Ivankov suggested that Luffy just leave the outcome to Whitebeard when they found Ace gone. Luffy refused to do so saying that if he didn't try to get Ace back he would regret it forever. He would have spent the rest of his life wondering if he could have changed the outcome if he had been there. It was a foolish decision, but at least he doesn't have to spend time regretting that he didn't at least try. For his brother he was determined to enter hell itself and escape with him and after getting out of that mess he chose to go to Marineford which was even more dangerous. As for this being character regression, parts of their personality will always stay the same and that is part of being human. It may seem like character regression to you and you are free to call it that, me I call it a demonstration that Luffy is still essentially the same person he always was. How do we know that Luffy's actions will harm the plan? For that matter, how do we know that choosing to do nothing and staying out of harms way would help the plan in the long run? One Piece has proven to be anything but predictable in regards to how things work. Often things that seem to be foolish can in the long run help. With Moriah they gained Big Mom's Vivre card which helped once they got to Whole Cake island and on Whole Cake Pudding who was proven to be a spy for her mother ultimately proved to be part of the reason that they escaped. Their actions in Dressrosa allowed the mink tribe to live to fight another day and ensured the assistance of the minks as well as access to their Road Poneglyph as well as gaining them their fleet. Even Luffy's actions of helping Coby early on helped him later when Coby told the marines to stop the battle providing Law and his crew precious seconds to prepare to escape what was building up to be an impossible situation to escape from. The compassion and empathy that the Strawhats tend to show to others regardless of how impulsive and reckless it usually is tends to work out in their favor later if not in the near future. Often this occurs in unexpected ways. You are of course free to interpret this differently then me. This is merely how I see it and you can disagree with me as freely as I am disagreeing with you. You can even call me unintelligent or any number of insults if you wish, that is a risk in the anime community. I chose to see things this way and I chose to believe that while the actions of Luffy and Zoro are indeed reckless, they do not necessarily mean failure of the plan at this time. For all we know the plan being derailed will allow a better opportunity for things to work out in their favor then the original plan would have. Dressrosa was supposed to be a quick in and out for the Strawhats. They were to destroy the factory and leave allowing Doflamingo and Dressrosa to face Kaido's wrath. That did not work out for them, but I think it was ultimately better for the Strawhats, for Law, for Dressrosa and for all the other players involved that things did not end up going that way. Again, you are perfectly free to disagree with me on that point or any other. You will find that one trait I have in common with Luffy is that I am rather stubborn. It may be that I am quite stupid as well, but I don't mind that. I have met my fair share of people labeled, intelligent, stupid, good, bad, and a variety of other terms. I have had good experiences with all of them and bad experiences with all of them. If being labeled stupid is the worst thing that can happen to me because I choose to see things a certain way then I am fine with that.