One Piece Episode 483

[DarthEnderX]

I understand you think Enies Lobby and Marineford are completely different, but the fact is that the setups for these two arcs is almost IDENTICAL. And the only reason they progress differently is because Oda writes the characters to react differently(and in my opinion, less believably in Marineford).

If CP9 had rushed out to meet the Strawhats at the courthouse, then Enies Lobby would have progressed just like Marineford. If the Admirals and Shichubuki had taken Ace and withdrawn inside the Headquarters, then Marineford would be progressing just like Enies Lobby. The difference isn't the situation, it's the characters actions.

I just take issue with this idea that "There aren't duels in Marineford because it's a REAL war." But they are both the same. There aren't duels going on because Oda is writing the characters differently, not because Marineford is somehow "more warish".

So, we see this happening to Luffy alot, that people will intercept his enemies, and we accept these as valid reasons as to why Luffy isn't having a hundred different all out duels. Why then do you assume that the people who intercept those enemies immediately abandon their fight, or abandon their fight for no reason? Any number of things could happen off screen, but you assume that "If it isn't shown, nothing happens"? Their own fights could have gotten interrupted for any number of reasons, one person could have retreated, one person could have been temporarily incapacitated, etc etc.

And that's the problem. The fact that none of those things are being shown. It'd be one thing if two characters ended up squaring off ended up not being shown again until the battle was over. But when you have those characters continually popping up in the middle of the battle again, with no explanation of how they went from fighting who they were before, to being where they are now, that's bad writing!

Yes, they could have been interrupted for any number of reasons, but if you don't show any of them, the audience is left to think characters are just behaving stupidly.

And this is what I mean when I say the manga is TOO fast, and frantic in places like this arc. Because things like what caused Boa and Smoker to stop fighting, or Ivan and Kuma to stop fighting, or Don Flaminco and Crocodile to stop fighting are things that should be getting explained.

But really, it should be getting explained in the anime. I've said it before, I think the manga is frantically fast paced on purpose so that when the anime writers stretch out a chapter into a whole episode, it doesn't end up feeling padded. The problem is, the anime writers are stretching the wrong things. They're rehashing the Boa and Buggy jokes over and over when they should be showing what's going on in these side battles instead. THAT'S where the stretching should be taking place.



P.S. I really hate the new board layout. The existence of multiple "post reply" buttons, one of which will eat your typed out post, has caused me to have to retype multiple posts now.