Watching for the first time, Amazon Lily is the first bad arc so far in my opinion

Please no spoilers of what comes next. I literally just finished the arc. Also there be massive spoilers for the arcs so far on this one

There are a few big problems I have with the arc. Neither of which are the fan service (which while I find it cringey, I don't think it's inherently offensive).

PROBLEM 1: What Came directly before:

Right before this, we saw the Straw hat crew decimated and disappear with this wonderful motif of bursting bubbles as it happens. Now, I don't take issue with adding levity or lowering the stakes a bit after raising them so high in general. I thought a good example of how to do this is with Luffy taking the mushrooms. I thought that was both a good joke but also worked as a response to the sadness he felt. However, in my opinion, there's just such a massive drop off in stakes from what came before, it really felt like I was watching something that was non-canon side movie. It sort of kicked any momentum the story had in the nuts for me.

Problem 2: Boa Hancock: too hot to actually be a villain (despite all her actions up to a certain point)

Look, I'm judging just based on this arc. So idk what happens with her. But this woman is introduced as a disney villain. The first thing she does is kick a kitten before saying essentially "i know i have the job title but I don't want to do the job" and then killing a bunch of men for it essentially. which, yes is queen behavior I guess but it's also evil? She is then given a statue by children that she breaks because she thinks it doesn't make her look pretty enough. She then turns the subject from the town with the most characterization to stone while saying "I can be as cruel as i want because I'm pretty." This is clearly the villain of the arc who we will see Luffy fight, right?

Wrong, the big fight of the arc is between Luffy and her two sisters who Oda notably gave the "not hot girl" design to. It's like if in Star Wars, the last fight wasn't between Luke and Vader but between Luke and IG-88 or that one henchman Vader force chokes. I've really liked what I've watched so far but that's just not good writing in my opinion.

Her actual "comeuppance" is that she's in love with Luffy and she's simping for him, which I guess is fun? It could be a relatively charming dynamic going forward, but it betrays her character and doesn't match up with the character they set up before. again SHE KICKED A KITTEN, like first thing. You don't even need to swap genders on the character, if she was drawn to look like either of her sisters, she'd be the villain of the arc who Luffy defeats in the end.

Anyway, this is just my opinion. I wanted to share it somewhere. never posted here before.

Just to go through the arcs I've already seen that I saw people think of as the worst:

Syrup Village: I actually really liked this arc. Admittedly Uusop is my favorite character, but I thought the moment of when no one believed him in the village about Captain Kuro, and then instead he tells his little wannabe pirate crew with a smile that he was totally lying (even though he wasn't) was one of the first major gut punch cry moments in the show. I also thought that it was set up nicely of using this boy who cried wolf vs this honest man and then flipping on it's head. I get i might be wrong but i didn't see a lot to dislike about the arc.

Skypiea: This one is really cool actually in my opinion as world building it's just way too long. I agree with that criticism 100%. I do like that it sets up this cool technology in the dials and I thought the fights were creative and fun. Still it drags like crazy in the middle.

Long Ring Long Land Arc: ok this one is just fun. It is dumb that there is a random triathlon arc but Luffy has an Afro throughout the last big fight. It gives a lot of fun moments, and it's Wacky Races with One Piece, it was an absolute joy to get through.

Thriller Bark: I thought i was going to dislike this one and admittedly at the start it was the first point where I really lost steam with the show. However by the end it was actually one of my favorites.