my thoughts, with various spoilers up to this point below!
- luffy continues to be the best straw hat. even up to brook i think it's luffy > most of the rest > sanji, and sanji is solely in last to pay for his Horn Dog Crimes
- anyone who's ever said skip skypeia is a dope, just an incredible tribute to castle in the sky/indiana jones/old adventure serials with a side of "oh i know elementary school science, when rubber boy luffy meets thunder god enel the latter is fucked"
- CONTROVERSIAL: i get why water 7/enies lobby is considered the peak of the series for most. but it really does feel like, especially during the enies lobby boss fight episodes for the crew, we could've tightened things up here
- CONTROVERSIAL PART 2: exact same complaint for enies lobby/marineford, especially during batches of episodes without luffy. and even when he does show up it feels like there's a lot of slow-running towards the platform they're gonna execute ace on while a new-or-returning character volleys luffy around
- biggest surprise character so far for me is boa hancock. her in universe description of "the most beautiful woman" has definitely seeped into the public consciousness of one piece for people who don't actually follow it; really easy to see her as just the sexy mean lady with snake motif. was absolutely not ready for the juggling of her comedic nature (piece of shit into schoolgirl crush on luffy) and tragic backstory. and her supporting cast of amazon lily residents are also great, marguerite is the best.
- moments that made me Cry: vivi's goodbye, luffy punching enel to ring the bell in skypeia, nico robin's backstory during enies lobby, the going merry's funeral (i cried for a BOAT!!), brook and laboon, bon clay staying behind in enies lobby, luffy wishing to be with his friends again at the end of marineford
- which means yeah, somehow didn't really feel anything from ace's death. i think a mix of that being one of the most well known one piece spoilers and how little screentime he has made it not hit as much. they put all the good childhood memory development afterwards!!
- didn't cry for whitebeard's death but it is probably a top 10 moment of the series. just stubborn bastard energy to the end, hell yeah
- regarding overall filler and pacing: i've been skipping most of the filler besides g8 (it rules) and the spa island 2-parter (it was fine). the latter i didn't skip because i did accidentally skip too much between foxy pirates and water 7 that i missed canon episodes. so i let the waluigi/dorombo gang ripoffs take up a bit more of my life for my crimes instead of just going back...anyways i'm still watching the original show (and just skipping intros i'm not feeling and recaps). i had those controversial takes up there but they've been nowhere near detracting enough to swap to the manga or one pace.
- hope i can adjust to the time skip designs. they seem a bit over the top to me of muscle men and big tiddy women, but overall i really missed the crew during marineford so i'm happy to have them back.
