One Piece – Dressrosa Arc / YMMV

Arc Fatigue: This arc was just over 100 chapters, making it the longest singular arc until Wano. If you account for Oda's annual three-week break and the month he took off due to his health deteriorating, that's equivalent to over two and a half years. The anime is even worse, as Toei refuses to adapt more than one chapter per episode, meaning the arc dragged on TV for at least two years.
Broken Base: Was the arc a suitably epic battle that revealed lots of interesting details and set the stage for the rest to come, or an overlong mess with too many characters and plot elements to be entertaining? No two opinions are exactly alike.
Catharsis Factor: For all the time the story took to end, it was so satisfying see the World Government be forced to own up to its mistakes for once. Smoker and Tashigi even feel this way after learning about what Fujitora did.
Complete Monster: Donquixote Doflamingo is steadily revealed as the epitome of selfish egomania whose own brother describes as having been born an evil madman, despite his servants' Undying Loyalty towards him. In the guise of "Joker," Doflamingo is a mover and shaker in the criminal underworld where he participated in a slave trade for the pleasure of the corrupt Celestial Dragons. When conquering his old kingdom of Dressrosa, Doflamingo enslaved the people by turning many into toys and making their loved ones forget them, and framing the good-hearted King Riku Dold by forcing him to attack the people he loved so much to make Doflamingo a "hero" for removing him. It is also revealed he planned to brainwash Trafalgar Law into being his loyal slave who would gladly trade his life to give Doflamingo immortality, executing his own brother Rocinante when Rocinante tried to save Law. In his crowning moment of evil, Doflamingo attempted to massacre everything in Dressrosa, his own men included, gleefully proclaiming he would just find a new country and "family." Even upon his defeat, all Doflamingo cares about is seeing the news so he can appreciate the chaos the world is thrown into by recent events.
Hilarious in Hindsight: In the anime, when it's revealed that Buggy has become a Warlord, he makes a speech that he'll join the Emperors one day. Towards the end of the Wano Arc, with the fall of Kaido and Big Mom, Buggy ends up filling one of the vacancies alongside Luffy.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Many fans cry foul at Dressrosa for having many similarities to the Alabasta arc, mainly because in both arcs the main antagonist is a Warlord and there's a princess among the allies. This is almost lampshaded by Smoker, who claims that Dressrosa's situation is what could have been of Alabasta had Crocodile's plan been successful.
Magnificent Bastard: Donquixote Rocinante is the younger brother of the wicked Donquixote Doflamingo. Separated from his brother, Rocinante was taken in by Fleet Admiral Sengoku and ate the Calm-Calm Fruit, which projects walls of silence. Infiltrating his brother's crew and using violence to scare off children who wished to join, Rocinante fed information back to the marines to try to stop Doflamingo. Knowing his brother's ambitions, Rocinante kidnapped the young Trafalgar D. Water Law and brought him on a quest to cure his white lead disease, angrily burning down hospitals that refused to treat him. Realizing Doflamingo knew of his betrayal, Rocinante used intelligence he received to steal the Op-Op Fruit and feed it to Law, hiding the boy when his true allegiances were discovered and using the ensuing conversation to deliver vital information to the hidden Law. Mortally wounded by his brother, Rocinante dies smiling, content in the knowledge he had saved Law and given him a chance for a true life.
Shocking Moments: The whams of this arc: Ace's Devil Fruit! Big Mom coming for Caesar! Sabo is alive! Bearers of the initial "D." are the enemies of the World Nobles! Gear Fourth! Fujitora giving the Straw Hats credit for stopping Doflamingo! The Straw Hat Grand Fleet!
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- How many felt about Rebecca’s initial drive to relieve the Toy Soldier’s (actually her father’s) mission to take down Doflamingo. Sabo ends up eating the Mera Mera no Mi, and after Kyros regains human form, her role ends up simply being to be protected the way he failed to protect Scarlet.
- Complaints about Robin’s under-utilization reached a head in this arc where half the crew is elsewhere. She doesn't get a victory against the Donquixote Family (Luffy obviously defeats Arc Villain Doflamingo, Zoro cuts down the mountain-sized Pica, Usopp awakens Observation Haki to stop Sugar, and Franky defeats Señor Pink to initiate the overthrow of the factory). She instead gets to assist Law in his meeting with Doflamingo, sneak in to defeat Sugar, fight Trebol, support Luffy when he's climbing the mountain to reach Doflamingo, stop to fight against Gladius, stopping Hakuba, and then leaves the fight with Gladius to protect Rebecca so that Kyros can defeat Diamante.
Unexpected Character:
- Bellamy, mainly because the audience (quite understandably) thought he was dead.
- Neither did people expect to see Koala and Sabo again, for that matter.
- Law's flashback contains a surprising appearance by a young X. Drake, who is inadvertently responsible for allowing Law to escape Doflamingo.

YMMV / One Piece – Dressrosa Arc

Edit Locked