ahill1 said:
So he'd stretch his arm holding onto the enemy's ship when that leaves his arm opened to cuts?
He can cover his arms with Haki if need be and it doesn't seem to affect his stretching capabilities much, not to mention the fodder soldiers would have to get past Kid and Law first.
Being relegated to off screen doesn't mean it won't be picked up again.
It doesn't, but that's assuming it indeed gets explained. We got no explanation for him being able to spam Gear 4th against Cracker and Katakuri, so I hold out little hope for a coherent explanation when Oda's refused to give such thus far.
When those restless actions didn't have that much of an impact on the outcome of most of Luffy's battles, I can't blame him for operating that way. I dislike it though, yeah.
This in itself is the problem with his recklessness. Leaving aside the obvious of how he should've been taken a different approach ever since the timeskip after his reckless nature led to his crew being separated, him almost dying in Impel Down and being completely incapable of saving Ace, the plot ever since the timeskip has rewarded Luffy for making dumb risks without any rationale behind them.
I don't see how. If it's picked up again and developed, going more in depth on what this new training bestowed him, I don't see how this reflects on the writing too much.
In the current situation, this can only be done as length flashbacks that would damage the pacing and come off as exposition rather than flowing in the natural manner that can come from more linear storytelling.
It doesn't matter if G2 isn't that taxing, the point is that it's still a taxing 'form' that seemed to be improved upon heavy usage. He seemed already more used to it on future occasions and while learning Haki may have softened its effect, maybe this new level of Haki that was being honed by Luffy also helps to mitigate the heavy usage of armament Haki that's the predicament of the G4... we shall see.
That in itself is a problem. Luffy's casual usage of Gear 2nd later on was excused by having 2 years to learn and train his Haki and, even then, Gear 4th was an experimental form that was still heavily flawed. For all that you're assuming to happen, Luffy would need to have improved his Haki far more in just a few days with Hyogoro than he did from several months with Rayleigh. Regardless that this is likely the route the story is going down, doing so comes off as heavily inconsistent when the training of someone far more powerful and with more worldly experience that is the Pirate King's first mate should be far more beneficial than an out of shape samurai who's never been outside of Wano.
And it also had an effect on the user's lifespan, as pointed out by Elder Kaioshin. Goku also stated it causes a "restless feeling", so it wasn't easily maintained either.
These aspects are still minimal compared to the drain Gears 3rd and 4th provide. Moreover, it's fairly arguable if Elder Kaioshin was even speaking of just regular Super Saiyan when he seems to not distinguish between the forms during the arc and would have been able to sense SS3, which was the only real benchmark he had to go on beyond viewing Gotenks' uses of the forms.
I can agree with that, but looking from an in universe character perspective, it'd be wise of Luffy to try and overcome this weakness. I don't think it makes sense he wouldn't try to solve this issue when it puts him on such a predicament.
I'd agree in concept. The problem is with Oda's execution of it. Choosing to forego the more linear route of showing Luffy's progression and instead skipping to the results whilst leaving the explanation for later is a very bad way of presenting the results of training as it causes the results to take precedence over the steps needed to get there and makes them feel less earned.
And the burden of the state isn't the only way to raise tension, either... how come we felt tension in Luffy's fights prior to the achievement of the G2, in where he had no burden to his normal state?
It's not the only way, but it is one that adds to the situation. Gear 2nd had tension in its use against Lucci, but it was at the end of the fight and after that in which the unbelievable plot armour of the Straw Hats that can give them nigh-infinite stamina when the plot requires it gradually sapped away any tension to be found in Luffy taking on a difficult opponent when he always seems to pull through. The Katakuri fight was the perfect example of how immersion breaking Luffy's plot armour has made any sense of tension in the fights he's involved in.
The exception to the rule was Sabaody/Marineford, but the problem is how the events after it shifted back to the status-quo. Tension would remain if this had served as a tonal shift for the series, but in not doing so and with what's happened since, it's become difficult to take any sort of difficult situation Luffy faces with any sense of doubt in his chances.
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