One Piece

Whenever we have conversations about how having the D is important for the narrative and the world, I can hear Freud chuckling into his pipe.

I hear the final opening song is going to drop all subtlety and go to the source of the term.

So, what do you all think the chances of Lola's mom still being Big Mom are?

The hair on the Jolly Roger does look a bit similar.

Less, when Fishman Island seemed to stress that Big Mom isn't the most welcoming...

But now that I think about it, didn't Lola have that candy cane? Hmm...

She also called her mother "Mama," same as Big Mom's subordinates do. Maybe she's not actually Big Mom's biological daughter but a former member of her crew?

Well, that could be a convenient excuse for her not to kill them when they meet up. Because, I'm still not on board with them legit beating one of the Emperors at this juncture.

Edit: I say this because I'm just going to assume they'll be dealing with her in the next arc. And if Luffy is having this much trouble with Doflamingo (not to downplay Doflamingo) there is no way he should be able to even fight on par with Big Mom, let alone beat her.

And that's not even getting into everyone else...

edited 28th Sep '14 9:35:21 PM by KBSL

"This much trouble with Doflamingo," what does that even mean? The fact that he hasn't one-shot Doflamingo doesn't mean he's having "trouble." "Trouble" fighting someone is Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji all having to work together to take down a Pacifista, with some assistance from the rest of the crew here and there. "Trouble" is not "My one powerful attack didn't take him out instantly."

This is Doflamingo we're talking about, anyway. He's been around the New World a bit and has settled down making himself the king of the underground crime world. He's supposed to be a challenge, and so far Luffy is handling it pretty well. I mean the guy is tied up and still standing his ground, for goodness sake.

Sometimes I wonder what our conversations would be like if our idea of the power levels in the series was attributed to the East Blue saga. "There's no way Luffy is ready to handle Arlong right now, look at how much trouble he had with Don Krieg!"

It means that at this point, it's not even. Doflamingo solidly has upperhand against both Law and Luffy now, that's a fact, and it wasn't that difficult for him to get it. I don't need him to get one-shotted, and I'm aware of all you said. I didn't imply what you are there, and I find that irritating as well.

The point is, that if things are like this against someone like him, Luffy shouldn't stand a chance against the Emperors. That's not so much a jab at Doflamingo as it is a testament to the Four Emperors.

Edit:Though, if we want to get to the root of it, the fact that Doflamingo is someone who is supposed to be a challenge for Luffy (and he is and I think he should be) should automatically tell you he's not ready for the likes of Kaido and Big Mom.

edited 29th Sep '14 5:17:28 AM by KBSL

The thing is, he kind of has to be. We're not going to have Time Skip 2: Electric Boogaloo. At most we're going to have an Alabasta-and-Enies Lobby-style inflection point where everyone knuckles down and comes up with a few new tricks, but fundamentally they have to be in everyone's league by now, at least in the loosest sense (as far as, say, pre-skip Luffy was in Moria and Crocodile's league at all points).

The alternative is them somehow doing an end-run around the god-tier folks, but this is a shonen manga...

Not to mention that this is the very reason they have the whole alliance thing anyway - so the odds are better in their favor. I again bring up the comparison the Luffy was basically tied with Don Krieg back at East Blue - in fact, had it not been for someone to swim down and save him, Luffy would have died sooner than Krieg - but he still went on to fight Arlong and defeat him. Hell, after that, he would later go on to beat Crocodile, a Warlord.

What I'm saying is, we're in the New World. They took two years off to get stronger, and even kickstarted their journey with a big alliance. They're even starting their master plan off small, by taking away one of the Warlord's sources of power. I don't think it's ridiculous that eventually, Luffy will be fighting the Emperors 1 v 1, and I especially don't think that it's impossible just because Doflamingo manages to get an upperhand for the first part of the fight.

I have to wonder about that; does Law even want to fight Kaido? It seems like part of it's like that, but then he eventually came out and said everything he did until this point was just to get Doflamingo killed and when the plan falls apart he tries to break off his alliance with Luffy.

So did he really have a plan and this was just a bonus or was this the thing all along?

And if in the end Luffy just Powerof Friendship and Determinator his way to beating the Emperors I'm going to be pissed.

I expect that to happen at the end with Blackbeard, but it shouldn't happen with all of them.

Having an actual plan or better yet, letting the Kid alliance, whom I assume also have plan of action do it works much better for me. Let us see that the "New Generation" has people of value besides the Strawhats. And we I say value, I mean they do things on screen that actually have implications for the entire world.

edited 29th Sep '14 10:48:22 AM by KBSL

Law didn't want to fight Kaido, he wanted to provoke Kaido into killing Doflamingo. He just said that to draw in Luffy.

And that leaves me wondering what happens next for their "alliance".

>Whenever we have conversations about how having the D is important for the narrative and the world, I can hear Freud chuckling into his pipe.

This association carries interesting implications about Rouge.

It's because with Roger, she can finally have those double Ds she wanted.

And Ace makes triple Ds.

Stop teasing, Oda.◊(SJ comments)

The episode's out, we've already heard it.

He's vocied by Toru Furuya, apparently.

>KBSL

>LSBK

>?????

Something happened to his old account, apparently.

You know, I can't actually see Luffy fighting Akainu. Or see it being interesting, from a combat or story standpoint. I'd rather it was Kuzan, Jinbe, or someone new.

That's not a fight I'm particularly interested in, either.

But then again, I'd rather there wasn't a big one-on-one showdown were all of the admirals and Sakazuki get taken down. It seems kind of predictable, and like you said, I don't see them being very intersting. Kicks vs. kicks, sword vs, swords, etc. sounds boring.

edited 1st Oct '14 2:17:16 PM by LSBK

It'll probably just be a fairly standard punch-up.

Another thing I'm likely not going to be very interested in is this flashback. I've said I like Law, but I'll specify that I like him when he has someone to play off of. He's a complete and utter Straight Man which is very rare in this series, but on his own a Straight Man is just a "stock anime character." I don't dislike him, but as I've said about Zoro I'm completely and utterly indifferent to "stock anime characters" in this series.

I'm torn over the flashback; I'm interested in in it, and yet I want this arc to hurry up and just be over.

So, I'm a bit conflicted on whether I can really enjoy it or not.

Well, I am pretty excited for the flashback. The relationship between Do Flamingo and Law always (... well, since Punk Hazard) interested me, and I like both characters, so, it will be nice to see it more fleshed out. And, well, Oda it's pretty good at flashbacks. Even Fishman Island had a great one.