The only problem is... fuck, am I disappointed with his treatment of Smoker... Since his reappearance in the time skip, he has sucked so much balls (beaten by Law, Vergo and Dofla and generally looked very unimpressive). That's disheartening seeing that I considered him Luffy's Marine rival, at least in the short term (Coby would have possibly taken his place after a bit).

The rest is awesome, but I definitely didn't like how the White Hunter was handled.

 

Don't forget CC also beat him when he was in Tashigi's body so that's four times he's been beat in a single arc and in-universe its been less than 3/4 of a day, so yeah the man is having a really shitty day.

Other than Law beating him(which I wasn't really happy about) the rest kind of make sense, with Vergo he was basically buying time even going so far as to make himself vulnerable to attacks, with CC well he just used his DF creatively and quickly basically taking away their oxygen until they passed out there was nothing much he could have done about that, with Doflamingo well its been heavily hinted that the guy is really strong so a vice admiral being unable to beat him isn't really that far fetched. But yeah I agree with you he has somehow been neutered in regards of posing any physical threat to Luffy.

As for Coby becoming Luffy's rival I really don't think its plausible, the gap between isn't even a gap its a chasm. Luffy has basically been training his entire life where as Coby started what two and half years ago, there's just no way that he catches up to Luffy without undermining what Luffy went through.

 

At least One Piece remains true to form. What a fucking ending to that chapter! Another fortnight before the next chapter......

Did you notice the scar on Zero chest? Looks like Luffy's scar.

 

Smoker got his ass kicked because he went into everyone of those fights without a plan for taking them out. It is kinda hard to kick ass and take names when your opponents all have a pretty good idea of how to fuck you up and you do not have a plan to take them out.

 

Still doesn't excuse how unimpressive he was, in my eyes. I'm not saying he should have curb-stomped them, or won against them, but he didn't even put up a fight. It's how he was beaten that irks me. As badass and solid as he was pre-timeskip, he's been terrible now. If Oda uses this to develop his character (not necessarily strength-wise), it will be great. But until then, I'll definitely consider Smoker's treatment one of the few things I can criticize Oda for.

 

Too bad they didn't fight. Momosuke's scene:awesome

 

Linkage

It is a shame. I wanna see Doflamingo in action and I'm a sucker for ice powers.

 

We all already knew he was a prince among man, and now we have confirmation

 

I think things are getting genuinely interesting for the first time since the time skip. I yawned my way through Fishman Island and Punk Hazard, but now I'm getting fired up again.

 

New One Piece.

Big things are coming.

 

Ace's power was awesome. I wonder who will end up with it.

 

....Buggy is a Shichibukai now? God damn have their standards fallen low in the last two years.

 

Buggy being a warlord wasn't a surprise given how much Oda like him along with that 'mysterious note' he got right after the war.
As for Ace's power.. I could see Luffy doing either, freaking out or just saying whatever. It really will come down to how Oda wants the story to go.

 

Luffy with Fire powers? Luffy with fire powers

 

No. Just because BB can do it doesn't mean anyone can. Luffy getting another fruit would ruin his character for me.

 

If I remember right everyone in Blackbeards Crew is out gorging on devilfruits, so why should not Luffy be able to do it to?
And Schichibukai Buggy is awsome.

 

Well seeing as BB doing it has something to do with the will of D..

 

What? Where are you getting the "Will of D allows more than one fruit" thing?

Eating more than one Devil Fruit will kill the person eating it.

Blackbeard had something incredibly strange/special in order to steal Whitebeard's fruit, and we don't know what it is.

 

I wonder who the 7th shichibukai is.