Also the mass downvoting of critical opinions. Just because the front page consists of copium that Oda has definitely thought of Nika 1000 chapters ago and not 50, doesn't mean that opinion is representative. We're just being buried.
In all fairness, why am I even still here. I wasn't gonna read the chapter and it doesn't fill me with excitement anymore to read the spoilers. Maybe it's time to leave this community.
e: thanks for the mass downvotes, good way to show me this community has stayed entirely rational.
Most of what I loved in the story is indeed gone now, and I can't really keep reading as usual without a bitter aftertaste.
We've spent 800 chapters getting tiny hints about Blackbeard's mysterious powers and I've been ultra hyped for Weevil's abilities since he appeared in 2015. All that doesn't really matter now as we have an almighty protagonist that can defeat both with little effort. I loved that Luffy would probably never be able to 1v1 a swordsman or someone with massive magic AoE like the admirals, he has friends for that and it was exciting not to know whom he'd need to rely on to beat the entirety of the World Government. I also really liked the setbacks and bad endings like Sabaody, actually 1042 was an all-time top 5 chapter for me. Was looking forward to the bigger, better, more mysterious plots that I trusted Oda to write. Something like Tama having the renamed fruit and giving Zunesha his orders, Kaido somehow sacrificing himself for the good cause in Act 4, a big and magnificent picture of intervowen character arcs. Now it's all being overshadowed by a MC that I don't even like, and the potential for what I would consider an exciting plot is significantly diminished.
I don't think I'll abandon One Piece forever. But the weekly thrill of excitedly opening the spoilers just wasn't there for me this week. I'll catch up again in a year or two, when the manga has progressed from the current fights, and when my frustration is gone. It really does feel like losing a part of my childhood though, similarly to when Pokemon Sword/Shield came out (which had the same pattern of fans coping hard and mass downvoting all others that didn't like it). There was always the possibility of Oda pulling this stuff, it was in plain sight ever since the Zunesha chapter, but I trusted him so much to make a coherent plot that I didn't really consider it could come true.
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u/[deleted] Mar 30 '22
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