#.500s (impel down & marineford)

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

Do you think there’s a chance cross guild will create a genuine bound between the members ?

oh man, i really don’t know.

part of my uncertainty is that… i’m pretty sure there’s some history there? not, like, a super significant chunk of backstory or anything, but more than just what we’ve seen on-screen.

idk if mihawk and crocodile knew each other prior to becoming warlords, but they have at least known each other that long

buggy knows crocodile on sight in impel down; he’s either been keeping tabs on the warlords (why?) or he’s met crocodile before (when?)

otoh, buggy identifies mihawk as ‘hawk eyes’ when they meet at marineford, with a hint of uncertainty (kisama “tama no me” da naa~~!!?) that makes me suspect he only knew of mihawk at that point (for shanks reasons? or the previously suggested ‘keeping tabs on warlords’ reasons?)

and then there’s the line-up of reactions to the news coming out about buggy being on roger’s crew:

…crocodile doesn’t look especially surprised, does he? though i guess this could be a ‘…sure, this might as well happen’ reaction too.

anyway, between that, the way crocodile entices mihawk to come work with him (which i’ve already said i find quite interesting), and the fact that all three were in roguetown the day roger died, i think there must be history between some of the pairs within this trio that we don’t know anything about.

and i think those starting points, whatever they were, have to inform what their current working relationship could become. without that context i don’t feel confident saying a genuine bond will definitely form, or that it’s never gonna happen.

[nojuicylemonshere]

Oda really pops off with the cover art

[ozymandiasdirge]

so im finally finishing up impel down because ive accepted that the pain and agonies of marineford are inevitable but i have to ask since iva keeps mentioning him....dragon got introduced almost 500 chapters ago.....is his ass ever going to do anything?

[dissvicious]

So you mentioned Skye having an affinity for swords and also admiring sword users themself

… so what exactly would she think of my main girl Tashigi? (Except “If I had a berry for every sword wielder I ever had a childhood crush on-“?)

Ohhhh that's a tough one.

In one hand, OBVIOUSLY Skye would have a childhood crush on her. She's hot. She uses swords. She lead a team that follow every single of her moves. Like. Totally what Skye dreams to be as an adult.

In the other hand she's a marine, and not just any marine, but a member of G-5. Everything that Skye was told to despise since her birth, since Marine... well, marine purpose is basically to either kill or put in jail every person important in her life. Not a great base.

Following the AU timeline (that I'm still working on) where time go slower than in the anime (no I can't believe that those 500 episodes happened in three month Oda), if I believe her wiki page (I didn't catch up the first arcs yet), Skye and her could meet three time : in Loguetown/Alabast, at Impel Down/Marineford and post timeskip, at three stages of Skye's life.

At Loguetown (where mugiwaras click that Red' is Buggy's partner and that they have three kids together), Skye is 11-13 years old, and she's just in admiration seeing this lady extremly talented with swords.

At Impel Down / Marineford, Skye is 15-16 years old, and as the brat teenager she is, she just hates all marines and is kinda embarassed when she thinks about her first meeting with Tashigi. She's just... angry at her, and probably would try to fight against her - swords users and their egos y'know

After timeskip, Skye matured a lot, and would saw in her a woman she respects & admire, even if they are following opposite paths, and Tashigi being a marine / member of G5 would just make her a natural ennemy to Skye.

[chillyneon]

I wanna take screenshots of Crocodile from Impel Down and Marineford because hes drawn deliciously, but I still have 500+ episodes of One Piece to go

I got over 350 shots just doing Kuro, and that asshole only had a handful of episodes. Why must my horny selfship needs push me to these lengths, my addiction to fictional hotties will be my undoing

[animebw]

I’m sorry if this is a bother but does everyone really hate thriller bark? Maybe it’s because all my favorite characters are the comedic relief ones (usopp, brook, franky) but it’s actually one of my fav arcs. From binks brew to kuma and zoro to perona and usopp it will alway be right under water 7/enis lobby and impel down/ marineford. I’m guessing it’s disliked because it’s in between 2 of the best arcs but to me it doesn’t make it any less good. Sorry for ranting 😅

From what I've seen, opinions on Thriller Bark are split. Plenty of folks on my Discord really love it for all the reasons you listed. But for me, those high points come sandwiched between a continuous string of all of One Piece's worst instincts coming home to roost, and it made it a chore to sit through.

Honestly, this probably gets at my one big criticism of One Piece: lack of consistency. When this manga is on, it is motherfucking on. But 500 chapters in, I don't yet feel that I can trust it to always be on. It's had too many slip-ups and stretches of low ebb in between its (admittedly much more frequent) triumphs. And yeah, it's hard to be excellent on a consistent basis for such a long period of time. You're bound to have low points no matter how good you are. But then I remember that Gintama only took around 40 episodes to really hit its stride and basically only got better from there, to the point it was hitting peaks as impressive as Robin's "I want to live!" moment as early as episode 60 and then proceeded to outdo itself on a near-constant basis, always moving on an upward trajectory of quality with only a few small hiccups along the way...look, I know it's not fair to compare anything to literally my favorite work of fiction ever, but they are both long-running Shonen Jump series, and Gintama's ability to almost never miss a beat across 350+ episodes can't help but highlight how One Piece is still missing quite a few beats to this day. I'm still loving it, but I'm still waiting for the moment it really ascends.

[indigopurple]

--Idea I can't get out of my head (caution spoilers for one piece obviously)

K so like. Still not sure what the D stands for, with like the will of D and all that. But I think i know why ppl kinda low key r afraid of those who have it.

Thinking of, like, how most, if not almost all, ppl with that middle initial, have some sort of fame to them--

Garp is the hero of the navy. Dragon is the number 1 in command of the revolutionary army. Law was a shichibukkai, and has an infamous crew of 20 + bounty of 500 million, and working with another pirate 3 times his bounty also being considered among some to be the 5th yonkou . Teech has his crew of op outcast shitheads, along with being a yonkou. His crew finished off the yonkou, Whitebeard, and stole his devil fruit power which still is unknown to the world how it was possible. Ace had his own crew and a high bounty at the age of 17, later working under Whitebeard, former yonkou of the sea before both being killed at one of the most dangerous marine bases in the world - that happening in the middle of a now famous war. Similarly, Luffy also formed a crew and earned bounty at age 17. He's beat 3 shichibukkai, raided multiple marine bases (some just in filler episodes lol), made thousands of allies through freeing tons of slaves in many different islands and kingdoms. He raided all three of the largest marine bases in the world - Enies Lobby, Impel Down, Marineford - to save his close peers. He is the grandson of Monkey D. Garp, the son of Monkey D. Dragon, and the brother of both Portgas D. Ace (who was successfully executed in Marineford during the Paramount war right in front of Luffy's face) and Sabo, second in command as shief of staff in the revolutionary army. He also has an army of followers numbering in the thousands, and also is in kahoots with Law, a former shichibukkai along with Jimbei, also a former shichibukkai whom he's recently recruited to be on his crew. Finally, he's also been given most of the credit for planning the assassination off Big Mom - another yonkou - earning him a bounty of 1.5 billion. Him and Law joined hands to plan to take down Kaido, one of the strongest people on the planet (he's also a yonkou of the sea).

(Sorry i got carried away with Luffy's whole thing, there was too much to write)

They all quickly gained fame in this new generation of pirates. They attract disaster and attention like magnets, which has ended up reeling in so much support (and enemies of course). The way these people go about it makes it seem completely unintentional; which brings me to my point.

I think the D is a mark of a personality trait. Or more, like an ability. Theyre like the popular kids at school with all the drama and peers, just not intentional. They naturally draw people towards them, like this spell in the air around them.

Tbh my only real evidence proving this is all those scenes where we see past enemies coming together and working with Luffy and the crew. In Thriller Bark, the zombies around Luffy believed he could take down Moria and put their trust in him after only a few minutes of knowing him. In Impel Down, the more levels Luffy traveled down, the more people joined him in his journey to escape and find Ace (like holy shit Crocodile helped him even. What on earth). Tbh that act was definitely one of the most important of all in the series, because of the connections he made with Ivo, Buggy (again lol), former baroqueworks and Crocodile, Jimbei which is a fucking key point like oml, even fucking whitebeard -tho ill admit that was after impel down.

These connections, though, are what kept him alive. Bon Caly sacrificed himself so Luffy and co. could escape. Jimbei is a force not to be reckoned with. Crocodile fought off other shichibukkai (doflamingo, mihawk, etc). Buggy is...uh, a decent comrad to have. Number 3 literally made the key to free Ace, after shielding them from heavy attacks.

Like... Ya get it tho right? They had no decent reason to join him (some could be explained with Jimbei getting to know Ace, Buggy totally falling for Luffy's blind trust and forgiveness, you get it).

Anyways thx for reading my essay. Heres a gif for anyone that didn't feel like reading it lol

[luckyrabbithunter]

I decided to do some bounty headcanoning~

Due to the fact the World Noble she was in possession of more or less considered her to be his prized possession and most valuable slave, combined with the humiliation of her escaping under his nose, years later he’s still very bitter and still wants her back, be it as a slave (preferably) or a corpse.

Much like how Judge was able to manipulate the bounty system as the leader of a member nation of the World Government to manipulate its conditions to “Only Alive,” due to being a World Noble with tremendous influence by default, her bounty has also been oddly affected as well.

Bounties in the world of OP say “dead or alive” but can lose up to 30% of the bounty if the person is dead due to the World Government not being able to publicly execute them or keep them in Impel Down; while this is still true for Seiko, who’s wanted dead or alive, as extra incentive for her to be captured alive and likely face a fate war worse than dying, there is a bonus in her bounty if she’s returned alive, which is usually the previous bounty listed on her profile page.

While it could still be lower, out of all the bounties I have listed, I like to imagine her beginning bounty is listed at $777,000. As such, turning her in alive would result in a bonus of $77,700: essentially making her real bounty $854,700. If her listed bounty is $120,777,000 (likely after the Battle of Marineford), then her bonus is $777,000, making it really worth $121,554,000. And ultimately, if its $377,700,000, a bonus of $120,777,000 for a grand total of $498,477,000 if returned alive: just shy of the 500 million I said I don’t wanna go over! Of course, the bonus only applies if returned alive and 30% of the original is lost if she’s turned in dead.

This bonus comes from the World Nobles’ own pocket and he’s willing to pay up to $777 million (St. Charlos very casually threw away 500 million in the slave trade to which his father bemoaned wasting money, so I want to imagine even this is somewhat pricey for a World Noble, although i’m sure they have a ton more) in bonuses for her return for the sake of his vengeance, but that’s the most he’s willing to pay for it.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

I asked someone smart and shanks related on twitter about it but they didn’t feel like they could answer this.

What do you think of the theory that shanks sword is a gryphon because his animal is lion and mihawks is hawk and they are fated rivals? You are reasonable

huh! never made that connection before.

the traditional griffin is a lion+eagle combo—the king of beasts and the king of birds, coming together for a bit of an ultimate king of nature energy. if you’re gonna assign shanks a mythical creature, that’s a solid choice right there. they’re also usually treasure guardians in myth… something you could argue shanks tried to do for the gum-gum fruit, and maybe even for the one piece, by not attempting to claim it for himself though he knew, broadly, how to find it.

to the best of my knowledge there isn’t a one piece character out there assigned ‘eagle’ as symbolic character, so ‘hawk’ is close enough, i guess. why not have the sword symbolize the connection between this lion and hawk?*

…one problem with that theory, though.

gryphon is a fairly recent acquisition. it’s too long for young shanks to have wielded it, and it has a totally different hilt from shanks’ romance dawn sword. the wiki seems confident that gryphon is also different from the sword shanks had when he met ace, about two years pre-canon.

i’m less convinced of that. we only see gryphon’s hilt in this first appearance, at a head-on angle, which is different enough from the rear view of the ch552 sword that i think they could be the same sword from different views. if the guard attachment appears to drill through the grip from the front view, but is actually molded around the rear of the grip… the ch552 sword could be gryphon.

…not that this makes any difference for the point i’m about to make.

because, given the dismissive words mihawk uses when shanks suggests they have a fight in ch96, their rivalry was at its height before romance dawn, when shanks still had his dominant arm. so gryphon wasn’t the sword shanks used to fight with mihawk.

so, to answer your original question, i don’t think gryphon as shanks’ sword indicates that he and mihawk were fated rivals. (emphasis on fated.) the timing just doesn’t work.

…but it could mean shanks has a twisted sense of humor, and acquired a lion-eagle sword after mihawk stopped fighting him… perhaps in an attempt to get mihawk to fight him again?

[kaoskakicewekbandung2]

Rocks adalah kelompok bajak laut di masa lalu. Diperkuat oleh tiga sosok yang kemudian jadi Yonko, Rocks mungkin adalah salah satu kelompok bajak laut terkuat.

Walau kapten mereka sepertinya telah dikalahkan di Pertempuran God Valley, alumni kelompok Rocks beberapa bisa lolos. Malah ada yang berjaya! Inilah nasib alumni kelompok Rocks di One Piece.

1. Edward Newgate, sang Whitebeard

onepiece-treasurecruise.com

Setelah keluar dari Rocks, Whitebeard membuat kelompok sendiri. Armadanya pun tergolong besar. Dari tadinya kelompok Whitebeard dibagi jadi lima divisi, di era Oden masih gabung, kelompok ini berkembang jadi enam belas divisi di Pertempuran Marineford.

Whitebeard dan kelompoknya kemudian menjadi begitu kuat, hingga sebelum timeskip Whitebeard tergolong sebagai satu dari empat Yonko.

Whitebeard sendiri kemudian menjadi bajak laut yang disegani. Tak tanggung-tanggung, nilai buruannya menembus lima miliar Belly. Baru dia dan Roger yang nilai buruannya diketahui mencapai angka itu.

Sayang, Whitebeard sekarang sudah mati. Tak hanya itu, setelah kekalahan dari Blackbeard dan kemudian diburu Weevil, tampaknya kelompok Whitebeard yang tersisa sudah menyusut jauh dari era kejayaan mereka.

2. Charlotte Linlin, sang Big Mom

twitter.com/BandaiNamcoUS

Linlin sudah jadi buronan dengan nilai buruan 500 juta Belly sejak sebelum ia gabung Rocks. Setelah kelompok Rocks bubar, ia kemudian juga menjadi kekuatan yang ditakuti. Didukung oleh anak-anaknya, Big Mom menjadi satu dari empat Yonko.

Setelah timeskip pun Big Mom masih menjadi ancaman berbahaya. Selama di Whole Cake Island, Luffy dan sekutu-sekutunya hanya bisa kabur dari wanita ini.

Baca Juga: Bisa Bikin K.O. Satu Pukulan, Apa Rahasia Senjata Kaido One Piece?

3. Kaido

crunchyroll.com/One Piece

Seperti Whitebeard dan Big Mom, Kaido pun kemudian memimpin kelompoknya sendiri. Dia sekarang tergolong sebagai satu dari empat Yonko, dengan wilayah kekuasaan di Wano.

Kaido begitu perkasa hingga hanya Kozuki Oden saja yang mampu memberinya bekas luka permanen. Senjata kanabo miliknya mampu menjatuhkan Luffy dan Oden dengan satu pukulan saja.

Mengingat dia begitu kuat, ajaib juga Kaido pernah mengabdi di bawah Rocks D. Xebec.

4. Shiki sang Singa Emas

onepiecetreasurecruiseglobal.fandom.com

Yang unik dari Shiki ini adalah kekuatannya tersaji kurang konsisten. Yang jelas sih, setelah Rocks bubar, Shiki sempat menjadi bajak laut yang disegani. Dia sempat memimpin armada besar untuk mengepung Oro Jackson di Pertempuran Edd War.

Namun Shiki kalah di pertempuran itu, dan ada roda kemudi kapal yang menancap permanen di kepalanya setelahnya.

Selain sempat memiliki armada besar kekuatan Shiki saat di masa lalu juga tak terbantahkan. Butuh Sengoku dan Garp prima untuk mengalahkannya, itu pun Marineford porak-poranda setelah Shiki kalah.

Shiki kemudian dipenjara di Impel Down, tapi bisa lolos. Nah, uniknya, saat kemudian dihadapi oleh Luffy, Shiki malah kalah. Padahal saat itu Luffy belum belajar Haki!

5. John

cbr.com

John termasuk yang jasadnya dibangkitkan kembali oleh Gecko Moria. Namun berhubung tubuh alumni kelompok Rocks ini diberikan bayangan pemabuk, John pun tidak terlalu menonjol aksinya di Thriller Bark.

Dari kisah masa lalu, diketahui kalau John juga sempat menjadi kapten kelompoknya sendiri. Dia pernah mengumpulkan harta besar, namun karena ia tidak mau membaginya, krunya sendiri membunuh sang kapten dengan menikamnya di dada beberapa kali.

Jasad John memiliki ikat tangan unik, yang merupakan petunjuk ke hartanya. Luffy sempat menggunakan ikat tangan itu sejak Thriller Bark, namun kemudian ia menyerahkannya ke Buggy.

6. Mereka yang belum diketahui

twitter.com/shonenjump

Selain lima nama di atas, ada dua sosok alumni kelompok Rocks yang masih belum diketahui. Satu bernama Ochoku atau Wang Zhi, satu dijuluki Kapak Perak.

Wang Zhi sendiri adalah nama bajak laut betulan, yang beraksi di abad ke-16 dulu.

Nah, demikianlah nasib alumni kelompok Rocks di One Piece. Siapa favoritmu sejauh ini?

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

yeah, i guess i'd been wearing rose-colored glasses thanks to the sweetness of the "staying behind & missing out on laugh tale" scene… but so many young characters in op swing wildly from brats to total sweethearts, i think i just needed the reminder (from both you and an anon who sent an ask related to this one yesterday) that this moment is in line with shanks' past & future behavior.

…and as mean as this remark strikes us, i think it's worth noting that buggy is totally unbothered. his next line is spent complaining about being called buggy-jiro—suggesting that he finds oden ranking him second to shanks more insulting than anything shanks just said.

(now, whether he’s unbothered because he's used to shanks calling him a burden or because he knows not to take it to heart… well, that remains unclear.)

don't be an idiot! you'd only drag [oden] down!! Can you expand on the way it lingers in ur brain? Is it the same in og?

it's basically what i said in those tags—it feels uncharacteristically mean of shanks. (though no worse than the kind of insults buggy happily threw at shanks at that age.)

is it that mean in the original? let's see!

chapter 958, page 3. they’re so silly…

so, buggy says 「おれが手ェ貸してやってもいいぜおでんさん‼︎」 ore ga tee kashite yattemo iize oden-san!! i’d be happy to lend you a hand, oden!!

and shanks responds 「バーカ足手まといだお前なんか‼︎ ｜ なーおでんさんおれなら…」 baaka, ashidematoi da omae nanka!! naa, oden-san, ore nara… stupid, you’d just be a burden!! hey, oden, about me…

so, yeah, i’d say the translation’s pretty accurate. 🥲 i guess i just had an idealized vision of young shanks in my head that doesn’t match up with the reality…