1) I think Ace's last words to Luffy were really hard hitting and had an enormous impact on Luffy which led to Jinbe telling Luffy him to keep on living because he still has his friends. Ace's death and legacy had a huge impact on Luffy's way of living. Dragon could literally change the world and is inspiring people to question the WG. Saul told Robin to keep on living and that she won't always be alone and died smiling. We haven't seen enough of Garp. Blackbeard literally gave one of the most inspirational speech to Luffy when they met on Jaya about people's dream never dying. Roger was clearly admired by his nakamas (just look at their reactions) and even by his rivals and inspired Shanks the most by giving him his hat.
2) He certainly is not Sasuke (who could be as bad anyway). Well, Law was extremely popular even when he was just barely introduced in sabondy and we knew kitten about him. I think people were just in love with his design and bad boy personality but at least one girl admitted that she was mainly attracted to him for his looks and not really as a person. Unfortunately, there are people who voted for characters like Rebecca and the giant mermaid for their huge pillows and nothing more (One Piece Podcast goes to Japan). I preferred Law when he was in a Han Solo type of character with his own Chewbaca. I thought that he was better fitted as a cool and laid-back badass and he kinda became too serious in the timeskip cause they likely wanted to give him a bigger role into the story.
3) I just feel that Law being side to side to plan stuff with Luffy takes away the role of Nami and Zoro. The issue is that I don't really feel the friendship between them cause it was not developed enough for me to care. In contrast, I mean we really get to see Nami and Luffy grow as friends (they bicker, they have fun, she learns to know luffy and see that pirates are not all bad) culminating to the girl asking for her captain's help. I feel Law and Luffy lack these kind of moments for him to be put in the foreground at the place of Nami and Zoro. PH was too much about Law and should have been about Luffy becoming more and more friends with Smoker. Nami's possible friendship with Tashigi could have given the orange girl some great moments and seeds of having marines rebelling against the WG. I just felt that PH would have been great character development for Luffy, Nami, and Zoro but it ended up too much about Law and the story felt more like his own.
Ace's last words were not inspirational for Luffy. There is nothing inspirational about "The only regret I'll have is not being able to see you accomplish your dream, but I know you can do it. Tell everyone I said thank you for loving me" (paraphrase). Luffy's inspiration didn't come from words, his decision to train for two years before continuing on was bred from his failures. He failed to save Ace, he failed to save his friends on Sabaody. Teach's speech was likewise not an inspirational speech, he was telling Luffy his views and the way he lives. He wasn't inspiring Luffy, who already believed everything Teach had to say anyway. The only possible sources of inspiration were from Saul and Dragon, and even then Saul's words were more representative of a way of life as opposed to inspiration. D's aren't inspirational so much as they are physical agents of forced change. Luffy, for one, doesn't care about inspiring people. Neither does Teach. Neither did Ace. Neither does Garp. From what we no, neither does Roger. Saul did once, for Robin, but other than that, he didn't. The only resounding similarity between anyone that is a D is that they strive to live the way they want to, not anyone else.
Law in no way usurped Nami and Zoro's spot, and recent chapters have shown that (not to mention the fact that both Nami and Zoro maintained chief importance while on Dressrosa). It's not like Luffy listened to any of Law's advice anyway. They formed an alliance, Law's role should have come to zero surprise. PH was not abut Law at all, it was entirely about Ceaser, Doflamingo, and introducing us to how the New World underworld operates, so we could understand just how badly Luffy and Law were preparing to screw things up. The bold makes absolutely zero sense at all considering that Nami has zero interest in having marines rebelling against anyone, as it doesn't even come close to crossing one of her goals.
Of course it felt like Law's story for a bit, how is that at all surprising? Oda has operated that way the entire time he's written OP, every arc become's Luffy and someone's story. That's literally a formula that's operated since the beginning of the series itself.
Edited by AHK, 13 February 2016 - 03:54 AM.
