One Piece

It's a big jump between "quite a bit weaker than a Warlord" and "totally useless," I think; we know from this arc that all the Straw Hats weaker than Zoro are also weaker than a VA.

The pig of Hufflepuff pulsed like a large bullfrog. Dumbledore smiled at it, and placed his hand on its head: "You are Hagrid now."

Please, Smoker is unlikely to be that good in the first place. Him getting beaten over and over again is largely meaningless.

And Doffy's messed up Vice Admirals before, albeit with his control powers rather than his offensive ones. Whitebeard commanders, too.

The pig of Hufflepuff pulsed like a large bullfrog. Dumbledore smiled at it, and placed his hand on its head: "You are Hagrid now."

That brings up a good question: Why are we having The Worf Effect done with a weakling?

It reminds me of Chad from Bleach, although Smoker is nowhere near that bad.

Also, after rereading through a few chapters Punk Hazard, I have to say, Law is more annoying than I remember.

edited 5th Feb '13 11:15:35 AM by Scardoll

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

On another note... Anyone else get weirded out by Franky's choice of hairstyle in this chapter? I mean, more-than-usual-for-Franky weirded out?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Franky Longstocking.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

We didn't. The purpose of that scene was to give another good reason for Doflamingo to give up his title and show that he is very pissed and have a taste of his various ability(just like Crocodile vs Mook pirate in Alabasta). It wasn't to show how powerful he was, because Smoker wasn't going to win against him and we know it. The Worf Effect would be in action if he beats the ex admiral but I doubt it will happen.

I'm excited for the Aokiji/Doflamingo fight, but I seriously hope the former Admiral isn't Worfed without a good fight.

Also, I was reading an SBS and apparently Sanji's initial character design was modeled off of Steve Buscemi in Reservoir Dogs. Explains a lot, am I right?

So I'm a writer...

Eh... Aokiji is held up pretty high on the power rankings. Doffy shouldn't be at his level yet so I think that if they do fight it's more likely that Doffy will be able to hold his own or fight defensively and not lose. That or pull some sort of dirty trick that Oda specifically points out with a glaring lack of subtlety.

edited 5th Feb '13 12:34:03 PM by Arha

So Akoji pulled a Dragon and saved Smoker from a clearly better fighter?

I vote that Clown will be the new punching bag for the crew.

Batchee forever will leave live in our hearts and is king of sniper island!

... You have a good point. The parallels are rather uncanny.

> implying they had a punching bag in the first place

edited 5th Feb '13 1:51:15 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

>Insert horrible pun about Aokiji putting Doflamingo's plan on ice here<

Loved the chapter, it was not what I expected (also being super early was nice). Chopper even had a nice joke about Caesar. Man, I hope he gets beat again up at some point.

Also, Doflamingo putting the smack down on the G-5 marines was intense. I really didn't think the shadow was Aokiji. Look forward to next week.

Common sense is a flower that doesn't grow in every garden

I liked it too; everyone sounded like themselves. Sanji even got to be noble, telling Law he's in for a whupping if he tries anything funny with the alliance. And it seems Caribou and the old lady are friends now? I never thought I'd see Character Development in a million years from that guy.

The pig of Hufflepuff pulsed like a large bullfrog. Dumbledore smiled at it, and placed his hand on its head: "You are Hagrid now."

He still stole her stuff, didn't he? Honestly, I haven't been paying much attention to his antics.

He tried to, at least, but this cover makes it look like they buried the hatchet.

The pig of Hufflepuff pulsed like a large bullfrog. Dumbledore smiled at it, and placed his hand on its head: "You are Hagrid now."

Just noticed Smoker called Doflamingo Joker. He's not supposed to know Doflamingo is Joker, is he?

"No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me!" ~ Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic Colours

He was attending the exposition from Law last week, remember?

Long live Cinematech. FC:0259-0435-4987

I swear I hear Benny Hill's song in my head when I'm thinking about Dofla's predicament.

"I don't give a rat's ass about going to hell. I guess it's because I feel like I'm already there." -Mugen

That's part of the reason Doflamingo's trying to kill him.

And I do have to say that this cover story is now confusing as well as not interesting. Maybe I'm misremember things, but I don't get what's going on.

edited 5th Feb '13 2:47:54 PM by Sarcasticles

Common sense is a flower that doesn't grow in every garden

I know Smoker knows, but Doflamingo didn't know he knows. Smooth move, Smoker, blowing your cover so easily. Geez Oda, not only do you embarrass him in every fight he's in, but you have you drop his IQ too? Damnit.

"No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me!" ~ Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic Colours

Doffy wasn't exactly going to give him a cookie and send him on his merry way, you know.

Either the old lady knew that Caribou stole her jewelry and didn't care, or she's gonna be pissed later on when she realizes that the man she helped stole her jewelry.

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

He might've been more likely to believe Smoker's bluff. Well, probably not, but just blurting that out is still really stupid.

edited 5th Feb '13 2:59:57 PM by Everzwijn

"No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me!" ~ Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic Colours

Doffy was going to maul his face off either way. Also, while Smoker may not be stupid, he believes enough in what he's doing that he might very well have confronted Doffy here even if he knew for a fact he could get away. He's stubborn and idealistic.

Maybe, but Doffy's reaction makes it clear that it's what Smoker just said that marked him clearly as knowing too much for Doffy's liking, which changes the answer to the "Should I take out Smoker now?" question from "Maybe; I should weigh the pros and cons" to "YOU HAVE TO ASK?! KILL HIM YESTERDAY!".

BTW, interesting tidbits from the wiki:

Who knew that Oda applied his "reuse past characters eventually" habit to the Sea Kings? Guess that, along with their proven intelligence/sapience/self-awareness, means that we should count them as a Cast Herd of their own.

edited 5th Feb '13 3:04:57 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.