User blog comment:Fliu/Chapter 980: This Is Where the Fun Begins/@comment-29391896-20200525133213/@comment-29391896-20200526123837

I think it's becuase Luffy does get briefly KO-ed by Apoo, there's minor cuts and bruises sure, but actually dropping this early in the war makes the stupidty and recklessness of their actions 10x worse with what's at stake. It's simliar to the bit in Drum Island where Luffy can't fight at all becuase he'll get Nami killed forcing him to act differently, Luffy and Zoro shouldn't getting hurt at all at this early point in the final conflict. A victory that can be hard earned but doesn't boil down to plot armour is more fullfilling.

Luffy and Zoro are great chatacters but they can't just do whatever they like, the start of Wano showed that and this chapter did too.