One Piece, Chapter 785: Even if your legs break
The Dressrosa arc would be pretty spectacular and would easily be my favourite One Piece arc if not for one big factor: it keeps wasting pages showing random citizens and these Z-lister characters reacting to shit. Like, oh, Zoro is fighting Pica! Franky is fighting Senor Pink! Let's waste three pages letting Viola recap last chapter for us which is totally unnecessary. Or have random citizens point out what is already obvious in the art. With some characters introduced with gigantic fanfare but already not doing much -- Jesus Burgess, Sabo, Fujitora -- and half of the main cast (Team Sanji) already missing for nearly a year, it's kind of bad pacing all over. Dressrosa's got a lot of great stuff, a lot of awesome shit with Law and Doflamingo in particular, but a combination of an overload of guest stars that get in-depth backstory (Rebecca, Kyros, the Tontatta) and generally too many characters...
I mean, I'm all for world-building. I like Don Chinjao's crazy fleet and Cavendish's split personality and Jean Ango the stupid bandit and Ideo's weird explosive shoulders and Orlumbus' epic beard, but does that mean we need to see them react to every single thing? Give then scenes that are actually necessary, scenes that actually matter... we don't need them showing up every single chapter just to remind us that they exist.
With that rant out of the way, though, this chapter is pretty good other than the gigantic distraction that is the King Riku speech. The Jinbe cover story finally ends for good with Jinbe going off with Wadatsumi to parts unknown. Maybe they can help Team Sanji out?
We start off with a re-shot of Luffy hitting Doflamingo with his Culverin attack... and then cut to random people reacting. And then cut to Cavendish and Law reacting -- and this is one of the more relevant bits. Law comments that Luffy is overusing his Haki. There's a limit to the Haki one can use? That's interesting. Then we cut over to Jesus Burgress, who I forgot was even in this arc, just thinking about what to do -- he's gunning for Luffy, apparently -- while Koala watches Burgress. We then go to freaking Viola reporting to Riku the same thing she's been reporting for the past few chapters. We then cut over to the factory, which is being moved by the threads because it's made out of Seastone, and the Tontatta running.
Zoro and the two samurai, riding on Kanjurou's ugly bird, pass Franky and for once Zoro is going the right way. They apparently plan to stop Birdcage. And knowing Zoro, it will involve cutting. And more cutting.
Doflamingo, fallen, notes how Luffy is controlling the expansion and contraction with Armament Haki, while Luffy himself thinks about Gear Fourth's time limit. Luffy launches a Double Culverin, but Doflamingo blocks it with 'Off White', which are just gigantic tendrils made out of a shit-ton of threads. Doflamingo's starting to get his cocky speech back on, noting that while Luffy has a good grasp on his abilities, Gear Fourth has a time limit... and how, 'beyond the powers of a little baby', there is another world of power known as Awakening. According to Doflamingo, Awakened Devil Fruit users don't just affect their own body, but also their surroundings...
So does that mean Devil Fruits have, like, a Bankai form or whatever?
And Doflamingo can apparently transform the buildings around him into strings. And Luffy mentions how this isn't even like a Paramecia user anymore.
But Awakening! What the hell is that? I mean, we've got these 'Awakened Zoans' way back in the Impel Down arc that may or may not be foreshadowing, but those are kind of jokes that got one-shotted by Luffy.
So maybe awakened Paramecia can transform things around them into their element? I mean, we've already got Paramecia types that affect things around them -- Robin makes arms sprout of anything, Blueno makes doors out of thin air, Sugar's powers affect freaking everyone, Foxy slows other people -- but I dunno. We need more information.
Is Awakening his Devil Fruit what made Blackbeard so special that he can absorb a second Devil Fruit?
Then we get seven pages of bullshit as we see random civilians giving up and then King Riku talking at exhaustive length about how this country is a lie and how this pirate Monkey D. Luffy is fighting the false king Doflamingo. Which is nice I suppose because now the citizens of Dressrosa know what's going on, but really I think they figured out Doflamingo was evil when, y'know, Birdcage started. Really, they couldn't have done this announcement anywhere before Luffy's big fight against Doflamingo? They must shove it in this chapter? Bad pacing. Wouldn't it work better as Pica was about to squish King Riku, or right after Sugar's curse is broken? Jeez.
Doflamingo, meanwhile, continues to use his 'White' attacks as giant waves to attack Luffy who's just bouncing around, and then uses Billow White, transforming a good chunk of the city into waves of strings. Luffy then, uh, retracts his head so deep into his body he basically transforms into a cannon. His hat is only hanging on to his back by sheer force of will, I think. Luffy does this Gear Fourth Gomu Gomu Bell or whatever and headbutts Doflamingo's Billow Whites, and does this gigantic 'Gomu Gomu no Leo Bazooka' that hits Doflamingo straight in the chest and sends him flying and crashing into Pica's spirally tower thing.
And I would say that Doflamingo is out for the count... if not for the Awakening thing. I feel like Doflamingo's definitely going to get up. And whether Luffy will need help or not -- like, y'know, Sabo -- well, we'll see next chapter, I guess? Shame the Riku speech takes up just so damn much of this chapter.
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