If Punji ends up happening Veelk will suffer a stroke.
I was going to wait to until the arc is over so that I could be secure in my feelings toward the arc, but I think with this confirmation, they're pretty solidly in place.
This arc, One PIece did something I didn't think was possible for it to do. It....disappointed me. And that caused me to realize something.
You see, I just didn't see that coming because I was sure, at this point, that I had One Piece's number down. Not that I can predict every twist and turn or anything, but the way in which it does what it does.
Still, with how things were set up this arc, it presented a chance for something new. And I tried to keep my expectations in check to not exceed One Piece's habits. I knew Pudding was going to lose. I knew Pudding wasn't this actual evil genius who had all the Straw Hats dancing at her finger tips. I knew that the strawhats will, eventually, win. But....I don't know, I just expected atleast some of what I wanted to come out of this arc, with how things were looking up. Just a little.
So when Pudding broke down over Sanji complimenting her, I was legitimately, truly disappointed. And ever since then, I've been re-examining how I feel about the series as a whole, and I had a realization: This Pudding expectation and let down is a large example of a consistent problem. I thought back and thought of all the things that One Piece hyped up and what it actually delivered on. Fishman Island, only for it to be a shooting gallery for the strawhats. Doflamingo, potentially the strongest Shichibukai after Mihawk, whose intelligent enough not to underestimate the Strawhats, who ends up underestimating the strawhats. Ace's death, ruined by Luffy's stupid face. There's TONS of stuff that One Piece hypes up to hell and back as being awesome, only for it to have the execution be off in some significant way. It's usually not a complete disaster. Doflamingo is still one of the best villains imo, and Ace's death is still mostly well done other than that. But every moment I can praise has some giant wart smack dab in the middle that I can't ignore. Or sometimes it fails completely. Like Zou, the idea that there isn't a single mink that would turn the ninja (whose design I hate, so yet another let down) isn't cool or heartwarming to me, it's just hokey and artificial feeling. If I had to pick one thing that Oda actually hyped up and then delivered on, it's the marineford war as a whole. He promised a grand battle, he delivered it.
So that made me think: If Oda has a track record of 99% disappointment, what exactly am I hyped up for now? All the plot points foreshadowed are intriguing conceptually. Reverie, Kaido, finding Raftel, Blackbeard's shenanigans with the Revolutionaries, etc. Political intrigue and turmoil, the world turning itself over, the void century being uncovered, all these are general ideas that I find awesome. And I was excited for all of them, even if I know ahead of time that Oda's execution won't be what I want it to be.
Until this arc. Pudding and Big Mom being intellectual, manipulative opponents was a fantastic idea that I got excited for and maybe some of that's on me, but seeing it go down in utter flames like this...well, now I'm rethinking whether it's worth getting excited for those promised future hype moments. And if that's gone, I'm left asking myself what many on this board have asked me many times already: Why am I reading it at all? I thought I enjoyed it enough to keep reading, just because it did other things in interesting ways. Now I'm not as sure.
Also jesus, can Smoothie can be anymore useless? People keep making jokes about her, and I'm starting to agree. Katakuri has been doing basically all the work on his own, while Smoothie hasn't done anything, and now just got kicked away by Reiju.
Yeah, that's another disappointment I've been meaning to bring up.
"Wow, Oda, Big Mom's crew is awesome. It's cool to finally see another top female fighter. Smoothie must be pretty badass. I can't wait to see her fight."
*pages and pages and pages of Katakuri fighting*
