One Piece

Just had a random thought when rereading the Marineford arc and laughing at the scene where Luffy uses Buggy as a shield against Mihawk: I want him to do it again in a fight against Sakazuki, only somehow using Kaido as a shield this time. Bonus points if Kaido completely tanks the lava punch somehow and/or sends Sakazuki flying into the horizon with his kanabou.

Yes, I'm aware of how silly and nonsensical it would be. Don't care, would still laugh if it ever happened (which it very likely won't).

My God, Buggy was one of the few good things at Marineford The true competitor for Pirate King alongside Teach

Big Mom having a Tontatta kid is really disturbing when you think about it.

The greatest Dwarf who ever lived. They speak of him in legends. Also, how does Normande have wings? Does she have a Devil Fruit?

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Aug 13th 2020 at 5:10:42 AM

It’s best not to think of the logistics involved.

On the previous point about slavery: One Piece is actually remarkably brutal about the evils of slavery as a institution, compared to everything else. I'm sure everyone can remember our introduction to a slave market (the first in the series iirc) in Saboady being that of a slave killing himself by slitting his tongue open with his teeth. And the slave market proceeding as planned despite that.

Pretty sure the dude who bit through his tongue lived actually

He's seen in a crowd shot with a piece of his tongue missing after the slaves are freed.

Still. Pretty damn brutal.

I think Oda figured that it would be too cruel to have this dude kill himself mere minutes before he's given the oppurtunity to be free.

Some lines from Doflamingo's speech at Marineford that I realized connect directly to his backstory as revealed in Dressrosa:

• "Kids who've never known peace have different values from those who've never known war."
  • Doflamingo, as a kid, lived life both as a Celestial Dragon on top of the world and on the run from people hunting his family down for being former Celestial Dragons. He's speaking from experience, having lived both extremes.

• "Those who stand at the top can decide the definition of "evil".
  • Doflamingo's entire life has been dictated and controlled by the idea that the person with more power is the one in the right, while the person being victimized in wrong.

• Justice will triumph, you say? Of course it will! Because the winners will become justice!"
  • This is how he took over Dressrosa, he made Riku look evil and turned himself into justice.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Aug 13th 2020 at 7:11:45 AM

Sounds like a good villain. Too bad I tapped out of One Piece before I got to see him take center stage.

Seeing him as a foe was pretty significant. To my reckoning Don Flamingo was the first character the fanbase latched onto as "could he be the Big Bad of it all?" as beforehand the storytelling of OP was a lot more serial (and there was no big overarching villain like most other shonen, e.g Naruto with Orochimaru) and Flamingo was the highest bounty introduced up to that point, as well as his over-the-top character, so a lot of people were thinking he might be the bad guy to end it all. Particularly during the aforementioned speech at Marineford.

Blackbeard became another main candidate after his bout with Ace, but Blackbeard's role as the prospect Big Bad didn't really solidify until Whitebeard's death, which positioned as second to none for the position. For a while a few fans were between Flamingo and Blackbeard (the pink and the black, as it were).

From there the "who will be the final boss?" debate then turned to Blackbeard vs. Sakazuki and finally to Blackbeard vs. Ym-sama.

I mentioned before that Luffy's final blow on Doflamingo was like that one attack that finally downs the raid boss, and now that I think about it, Doflamingo could make a pretty neat raid boss in a video game:

• Phase 1: Fairly straightforward fight in the throne room, where he makes use of his string powers to try to slice you into ribbons and sometimes grabs some poor sap to force to fight you as well.
• Phase 2: Bird Cage appears, and the fight moves outside. Doflamingo becomes more aggressive in combat and starts using his Awakened string powers.
• Phase 3: Bird Cage starts shrinking, and now you're racing against the clock to beat him. He's at his most aggressive and desperate now, and if you don't bring his HP to zero before the Bird Cage completely closes, game over.

Until Luffy Red Hawk'd him Doffy was also one of a tiny handful of characters that had been shown in combat yet never actually been injured. The others? Shanks, Kizaru, Mihawk and... Hancock.

I'm guessing you're not counting that time when Shanks got his arm chomped off?

...Granted, he didn't really lose it in combat.

I think we know which member of that list is never going to get a scratch on them.

Yeah.

It's really hard to scratch somebody who's made of light.

He obviously means that the sexiest member won't get hurt, meaning that Mihawk is completely safe.

Ever since someone brought it up, I've been super into the idea of Sanji or Shiryu hard countering Kizaru with invisibility. Fights where elemental weaknesses come into play is one of my favorite things about One Piece.

You underestimate Shanks.

Edited by Moth13 on Aug 13th 2020 at 2:59:39 PM

Fools around here not appreciating Kizaru's shining hot bod smh.

I guess they're not fond of him flashing so often.

Excuse me, we saw Kizaru get a "scratch" on him. Very specifically a "scratch." Which characters have no chance of fighting Apoo?

I brought that on myself. I admit it.