I seriously love the direction this arc has taken... I had slightly criticized Luffy chasing the shadow for being a plot device that was woven in with character writing but that was jaded of me. As Zoro pointed out everyone here is deceptive and I hadn't realized but Moria's goal was to keep Luffy busy, kinda like how Usopp wanted to keep Oars busy. He wants to wait them out for the sun to burn them to a crisp or severely limit their options. Not only was Luffy chasing the shadow and being tricked indicative of who he is, but it was also indicative of Moria! I now have no problem with it. I think it was really awesome to do it that way.
With Brook saving Usopp and coming back with salt, which makes sense with how he's actually the one who's most familiar with Thriller Bark, it seems we very well will get the Straw Hat crew beating Oars without Luffy and then being forced into the shadows as Luffy fights Moria. That should be phenomenal honestly and I sincerely hope it goes that way! Brook's introduction here had my jaw drop. I love him so much!
I had thought Zoro just wanted to fight Oars to prove to himself what a swordsman he was by testing himself like that and that he wanted to see his legendary sword in action yet that wasn't entirely the case. He's doing it because he's already thought about the worst case scenario, he's already analyzed the types of tactics these people use, and he's ready for all the danger involved. So, he knows Moria is going to trick Luffy and even though he fully believes in him he knows Luffy's lack of foresight can get them all killed here. I love how it showed just how smart and observant Zoro is when it comes to analyzing danger. It's one of my favorite qualities about him. And the way he quickly reasoned his new sword would be heavy enough to ricochet Oars fist off of him was honestly way too cool...
I already went over it in the quote below but I want to briefly touch on how awesome the Kuma and Moria discussion went. It may have been my favorite part of this arc so far. It was so tense. Firstly, I think I was right about what it means for Kuma to ask where someone would like to go, it's a way of threatening someone, it's a way to plan out how he's going to take them down if they confront him or go against his orders. Moria took it that way by telling him not to mess with his powers around him. That was such a cool little piece of information naturally confirmed to us! Second, it also showed Moria's inferiority complex, he lost to that one guy as he mentioned before and it's what inspired him to fight behind his men(literally in the case of Oars), so when Kuma suggested he may help him so he doesn't lose like Lucci did he lost his mind! Cool! Lastly, I really love how their body shapes give such a different impression of the two. Despite both being giants Kuma's body weight is on his upper half. This gives him a monsterous, bear-like, intimidating body shape to go with his height, whereas Moria has all his body weight in his lower half with a skinny neck and head. He looks like a pear, or whatever Luffy likes to call him. This makes him goofy looking and unmenacing and it goes with his childlike and lazy attitude. They're both the same height yet they give off such different impressions from their body shapes alone. That's some effective design work!
Strawberrycake48 said:I have no idea what the World Government are thinking...exactly what criteria do they have for making someone a warlord bc the ones we've seen so far are all terrible people (aside from Shanks & Mihawk)?!!
Old post but replying for future peoples! It's been said that the World Government and the Warlords work together in controlling the sea so that the Emperors of the sea don't rule everything and become too strong. Since everyone wants total control yet the Emperors are way stronger than everyone else the Warlords have to be strong enough to help the World Government keep the three way balance and prevent them from becoming the main force on the sea! Moria even touched on this by speaking about how Blackbeard should bring "the balance" back yet Kuma claimed he thinks it will actually just throw it out of balance even further because Blackbeard has no intention of stopping his growth there and he implied he thinks he's only using it as a stepping stone. So yes, the Warlords are mostly awful other than Mihawk, whereas Shanks is actually an Emperor if I recall correctly, but the important part is their control and power not their morals because in the end it's about keeping balance. Also, the World Government isn't so sweet either.
Interestingly we saw just how rocky the dynamic between the World Government and the Warlords are at their meeting a long time ago. The only people that went to it, if I recall, were Doflamingo, Kuma, and Mihawk. I forget if Mihawk went or if it just cut to him. Either way, it's cool because we can see how the others didn't have any reason to go, they work together purely out of necessity and not respect. Doflamingo went because he was bored if I recall and Kuma went out of duty from what we know now about him working voluntarily for the government, something none of the others seem to do! I love this dynamic between the powerhouses of One Piece, all would be at each others necks if it wasn't out of fear of one group taking full control if they did! It's basically the same thing set up as the Yuyu Hakusho "Three Kings Saga", and that was one of the coolest parts of that arc too. ^_^ |