Hancock and Luffy are cute together. I kind of view Hancock as if she has a grade school crush, hahaha. It helps that Luffy is as unaware as a boy that age may be too. She is heterosexual to our knowledge as if she wasn't she probably would have felt love in regards to the woman in her tribe at some point in her life, and she hated men for what they did to her. So to see a man she respects, who has sympathy and protected her, and fights against the people who enslaved her just like her hero did to free her, well it makes sense the feelings she had would be extreme. It's her first time feeling love and it makes her a total baby about it. It's charming and it's cool to have her badass side come out fighting for Luffy. Hancock is still ruthless and will mostly definitely kill indiscriminately so you could argue this would be like Luffy teaming up with Arlong in a slightly less bad way as Arlong actually enslaved humans and Hancock just generalizes hate to an entire group. Yet, it's good to have such a powerful ally be on Luffy's side so unconditionally. That Luffy hug was adorable too, I loved his smile. Hancocks moans for 2 minutes straight were a bit too much though, I don't live alone and that sounded(and kinda was) way too lewd!
I wonder where she got the key... I suppose she's good at getting her way so it's no surprise... She could easily manipulate everyone around her to do exactly what she wanted and she could even turn people to stone if she must like in Impel Down, for the person who called this an 'asspull' I can somewhat understand it but I think it makes total sense. The only problematic thing could be that Sengoku didn't account for the betrayal of warlords who were so close to what was going on! I personally had no problem with it and the anime may even go into it more later!
As for Kuma.. I have weird feelings about this. Firstly, why would Doflamingo tell them all that? Perhaps because he likes chaos and he wanted to make some with the truth? But more importantly, we've seen Kuma goes against the government and he sent Franky to Vegapunk. On a meta level, obviously the interesting personality he was given can't just be gone, and on a narrative level I wonder if him and Vegapunk are going against the government from the inside. Especially despite 'tyrant Kuma' being the name he was close with the revolutionaries. Due to all of that, him going against them while being a warlord and 'hating the government in the past' and sending Franky to Vegapunk all makes me think this, but it could be a wild guess.
The more pressing thing however is WHAT THE HELL DOES IVAN EVEN DO!??! I didn't understand singular death winks and now he can make clones of himself that don't register as him through a pacifista's scouter?! It couldn't track him but it appeared as though each version sent a different wink? Was it like, moving really fast and winking 100 times? Does anyone understand Ivan!!!
I was wondering something else too. Doflamingo's power seems busted all things considered. I agree with the analysis I saw in one of these threads that it's as if he uses wires. Wires that can cut and take control of people like puppets. How does someone get away from those? They are invisible as far as I can tell. Even Jozu who showed that his haki can cut right through Crocodile(which felt so good after seeing him soak up so much damage in Alabasta) was absolutely controlled. The emperors and warlords must understand it better so they can counter it so I'm curious to see him face someone who knows how he fights. He's also trying to make Croco-boy his minion! New factions are being made mid battle. O_O
Lastly, Mihawk vs Luffy... Will this be his first real battle this war or will he be saved again? This is scary because Mihawk is an excellent counter to fight against Luffy, normally we don't see good swordsmen vs him because Zoro takes them. I was taken aback that he would fight against Luffy though. Mihawk is a mysterious guy. He'd go against Shanks to strike down his little superstar for the sake of the government after all those two have been through. Maybe it could be understood as this being a trial, for if he can't take down Mihawk he won't have a chance going forward. I'm really not sure but it's nice to finally have him back into play after soooo long, it's time to maybe learn more about Mihawk's motivations!
P.S. I am ultimately concerned over what Aokiji has been doing off screen this whole time... |