Quote Originally Posted by Kraco View Post
I'm not really sure what Smoker and Tashigi's role is in the bigger picture, but right now I'd judge somebody like Akainu far more dangerous.
i don't expect Akainu to be a direct antagonist for the Strawhats until very near the end of the series.

In the meantime, I expected Smoker and the G5 unit to represent the Marines ongoing attempts to harry the Strawhats.

Personally, I think this would be more effective from a storytelling perspective if Smoker's unit had more actual named characters in his unit. Just him and Tashigi doesn't make them a credible threat. But maybe with Hina, Fullbody, Jango, Coby and Helmeppo, with 2 years of increased abilities, they'd at least feel like a faction that, I dunno, mattered.

Right now, they don't.

Quote Originally Posted by Assertn View Post
How is she ever expected to catch up to Zoro? Zoro was way ahead pre-timeskip, and now he's personally received training from the world's greatest swordsman. Zoro vs Mihawk would be a more interesting fight to have now.
Through a plot device obviously.

There are other ways to get powerful besides just training after all.