#Elbaf predictions

[krongulous]

ELBAF PREDICTIONS, from someone currently in Zou #lol:

The villains in this arc will be Gods Knights, from the image shown here at least 9 are shown, though there could be more, this is based on the fact that rn the gorosei are tailing the strawhats at Egghead, so when they eventually escape to Elbaf, the knights will probably be sent after them.

Assuming 9 is the limit though I’ll send some quick match ups: Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, Jinbe, Franky, Usopp, Urouge, Enel, Gedatsu. Why these two out of nowhere?

Well I dont think the arc will be entirely focused on the giants, moreso this is gonna be an arc focusing on three characters, Gedatsu, Enel and Urouge

The three of them represent different parts of the sky islands lore, Gedatsu represents the destruction of Birka, being one of the few survivors

Enels focus will be an origin story of sorts, basically being about how he found the devil fruit and how he got to the sky islands, as you’ll note his lack of wings (this could just be due to the symbols on his back however)

And finally urouge, who I feel will also be tied to Birka in some way. I see a lot of people mistake him for being Shandian, however I don’t think this is the case, as his younger form is shown having a hairstyle only skypieans have. It’s also safe to say in this arc we’ll actually learn the name of his devil fruit.

If I had to throw a quick Oda esque-backstory out there: Urouge was there when Enel took over Birka, made Gedatsu and the rest of the priests work under him and finally destroy it when he saw it as no longer useful, and SOMEHOW survive and probably find a devil fruit afterwards.

Now why would they be at Elbaf?

For Gedatsu I can just see it being a coincidence, he tunnelled too far with his mole buddy and ended up at Elbaf with Goro and wacky hi-jinx ensue where chopper remembers Gedatsu blah blah blah but they’re over it

With Enel I can see him finally coming back down to earth to meet with Luffy, and when luffy wants to fight him, he instead makes peace with him, knowing his limits, he wants to ally with luffy instead since the murals on the moon had interested him so much, that he figured the blue sea below the skies had the answers

For Urouge though? I have three ideas:

A: he could want to ALLY with luffy, as he followed him to Elbaf to ask if he could join his grand fleet and help him claim the one piece, with him being forced to partner with Enel as they fight gods knights

B: he could be the actual villain of the arc, dispatching of one of Gods knights in the middle of a fight and forcing Luffy and Enel to team up to defeat him

Or finally C: Enels the real villain who gets rid of gods knights and makes luffy form an alliance with urouge and Gedatsu to defeat Enel, “for Birka!” Or whatever

Whatever the outcome of this is though, it will end with luffy having gained a new ally, and I think the outcome is set in stone by this point:

Robin will find the final road poneglyph here and after the battle, preparation for the final battle at Laughtale is set in motion, the grand fleet are called to Elbaf to prepare and a massive final party is had the night before they finally set off towards Laughtale.

Or it could be nothing like this and I essentially wrote a fanfic for nothing

[crowdusk]

One Piece 1137: Introducing Shamrock

Thoughts on chapters 1134-1136 here.

CASTLE TIME!

interesting that the castle was sealed off for 14 years after the incident - maybe i'm being too badmind but maybe for other reasons than just because there's no king/it being a site of tragedy...is there traces or evidence there of what really happened?

as I said before, there does seem to be a class system in Elbaph, specifically quite intense dominance from the king/royals (so it makes sense that perhaps they've clung to King Harald's legacy after Loki's imprisonment, as a way of clinging slightly delusionally to hope and false progress...interesting that they're seemingly in a new dawn on the surface, but still very much stuck in the past)

the title from last chapter about Elbaph awaiting the sun, is also an indication that this is a false dawn - true liberation and progress is yet to come

i reallyyyyyy love the panel with the interior of the castle - the assistants once again should be getting big money, flowers every week, their asses ate

the thing about Loki killing 100 guards - possible but once again, I'm convinced the story we've heard so far about Harald's death and the circumstances around it are minsinformation, so, i'm suspicious that Loki killed all of them

we can see Elbaph has a very superstitious culture with the idea of curses (they very much talk about Loki as being born under a cursed star, and blame him for things completely not under his control like Big Mom's actions, and his mother's death) and vengeful spirits haunting the castle

the revelation of some giants having ancient giant blood is huge - i don't have too much to say right now other than i wouldn't be surprised if the ancient giants were a pain for the World Government (I mean, Oars could literally move entire countries) and the WG has been trying to find ways to 'deal' with them and their descendants for a long time. also, the literal symbolism of them having 'devil' horns is...yeah, very on the nose (i believe devil was also part of Oars' epithet)

AGAIN WITH THE HARALD BEING THE GREATEST KING this is FAKE NEWS i'm telling you!!!!!!! oda is never this heavy handed unless it'll be subverted (me screaming this from the beginning i love to spot patterns make connections etc)

Harald ripping out his horns gives me red flags too...no one is prepared to go to these lengths unless they're completely single-minded/obsessive about something, and usually that's not a good thing (especially since in this case it's about him being ashamed of his and Elbaph's past). i said this in one of the other reviews, but in One Piece the past is something you cannot run from or erase - it isn't somewhere you should dwell, or live, but you must acknowledge it or there will be dire consequences

this makes me think Harald was someone who would have gone to any lengths to 'redeem' Elbaph (in his eyes) from their 'barbaric' past, including probably work with the WG

we learn Loki and Hajrudin are half brothers, which i thought was probably the case, but extremely interesting that Hajrudin isn't just a half brother but very much a bastard, since his mother wasn't an Elbaph giant. clearly Elbaph has some racial purity ethnic superiority problems going on, so we're getting the nuance of: Elbaph does need to move forward from some of it's culture and values, but in a way that isn't just based on delusion and empty of meaning

ALSO AGAIN, FUCK HARALD!!! you're the king and you can't let your previous wife and kid live in the castle with you??? idk maybe i'm being unfair and we'll find out some Elbaph customs are extremely rigid and even a king can't break them, but eh...

still don't like Rodo but the flashback did make me like Hajrudin even more - very clear parallels to Luffy including, of course, his dream to unite all giants and be King of the Giants

CUT TO THE UNDERWORLD

ok so Gunko is beating up Loki to uh, try and make him join them lol (interesting strategy)

very interesting that clearly you can become a god, you don't actually have to be born one (we've seen that as a theme already, but Oda's bringing it up again here)

the fact that she calls it a "miracle" really makes me think of religion and faith, and especially Mother Carmel's "miracle" - all things that on the surface appear beneficent and wonderful, but are based on violence and deceit

Loki calling her a moron and going "nyah" - yeah, he's gonna be an alright guy, he's funny

and finally, the Shanks evil twin reveal!!! ngl Shamrock as a name took me out but clearly, this man is powerful (aside from just his rank)

he's got that old school colonizer aura and look - and the fact that he's so calm and clearly reluctant to just rely on violence makes me more worried because he's probably incredibly smart, tactical, and a crazy fighter when it comes down to it (in the same way Shanks is reluctant to fight but when he does, oh boy)

he clearly has the same superiority that all the Celestial Dragons do, and Gunko too - but very interesting that he's not a 'Saint' like Garling. i wonder why

his last statement is particularly informative: it confirms my thoughts that the WG has clearly been trying to co-opt/subdue/use the military might of Elbaph for a long time, and that Harald was probably their first success on that front

also, this clearly comes from Imu/the Five Elders themselves, since Shamrock is asking to call Marijoa (they don't just deal with anything, so that tells us Elbaph and Loki are clearly very important to them)

I wouldn't be surprised if Harald was made a similar offer to Loki and accepted, either out of desire for power or maybe they threatened someone close to him and he wanted to avoid all-out war

I'm leaning towards Harald basically getting close with/becoming part of the WG via Mother Carmel and the Holy Knights, and them further convinving him to believe in this vapid, empty 'peace' that looked good on the surface and made him feel like he was leaving the past behind

I also am coming back to my theory about faith and religion, because it feels like Oda is setting up a bit of a Christianity/Pagan beliefs type of dichotomy in the narrative. as we know, of course, Elbaph is deeply inspired by the Vikings, and the christianisation of Norse culture is very much something that happened in our world. I think we'll see some parallels in the story between Elbaph's ancient beliefs and mythology (particularly around Nika) and how Harald (influenced by Carmel and the WG) started to change this because Nika was probably also associated with their 'barbaric' past (as we know, Ripley's is the last generation of warriors and the last one to know about Nika)

I wouldn't be surprised if Harald (and the WG's strategy) was to develop a new 'faith system' around Mother Carmel's values of peace etc (I mean, she's literally inspired by Mother Teresa in real life) in order to give people a sense of 'a new dawn' and system having arrived - and in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the 'gods' of this new system are essentially the World Government (maybe the Holy Knights, or even the Five Elders), which would line up very well with the way they already see themselves and have established themselves as gods

this also makes me think that maybe that was the last straw for Loki, seeing his father or his people worshipping a 'false god' or false gods, and becoming enraged at the betrayal of their ancestral values, culture, and beliefs in the sun god

my other thought is that Loki may well have found out the truth about Mother Carmel, and of course hated her, leading to the incident where he killed his father if something happened to push him over the edge (maybe his father was going to give him to the WG, maybe he was going to give Hajrudin to the WG, maybe he was accepting becoming a world noble, maybe something else completely)

also it would make sense for Loki to be causing chaos in order to maintain Elbaph's reputation as dangerous if he knew the truth of the WG/Mother Carmel's plans, especially if the WG was looking to install itself there and further develop that relationship - maintaining the older culture through violence and chaos could have been a way to keep outsiders away

Shamrock's statement about the Elbaph warriors "conquering the New World long long ago" is also very interesting to me - obviously that could mean lots of things, but it makes me think of some possibilities.

one, maybe they conquered it from the human ancestors of the WG.

two, maybe they conquered it from other strong races (like the moon people?)

three, maybe they claimed it over other giants (from what it seems like, other giants are scattered in different smaller settlements including in the four blues, so Elbaph was the most 'successful')

we've had it mentioned that the Adam Tree Elbaph is established on is the oldest, and also that it has 'perfect conditions' for all kinds of technology - in that sense, Elbaph definitely had the best conditions for creating a thriving civilization

they may also have come into connection with the moon people when those first came down to the blue planet (i mean, a giant tree is a pretty good landmark?)

but yeah, to me, what Shamrock said implies that the Elbaph giants got the best of the resources and places available in the New World - and as we know, fighting over resources (specifically land) is going to be a huge theme in this final saga - because of their warrior culture strength compared to other giants and peoples. and the WG has been trying to both neutralise their power, and I believe access something/some resource on the island itself (or maybe even the island/tree itself) for a very long time

[namisweatheria]

It's funny, I saw a post earlier about the different kinds of arcs One Piece has and theories on what kind of arc Elbaf will be, and while I disagreed with basically everything it said in a very quibbling semantics way, it got me thinking....

Egghead has a lot in common with mini set-up arcs like Amazon Lily and Zou, doesn't it? Which would be a really exciting way to think of it....

Centered around an emotional tragedy that already happened in the past, connecting it with major aspects of the rest of the series, there's a challenge to overcome that isn't the typical beating-down-the-oppressor fight, bringing along a female character from it to the next arc.... people going to great lengths to hide the truth... Hidden alliances...

I wonder if Elbaf will have a unique, kind of calamitous structure that ends in a great escape, like Marineford and Whole Cake Island, the arcs that followed the mini arcs did. Perhaps a terrible self-sacrificial death as well....

It would make some sense, right? I think there's something they have to face here, something that challenges the way the Strawhats operate, or Luffy specifically, before they can move on to the final arc within the final saga. I wonder what it is...

[tae-rambles]

since this is the end of the Egghead arc and we're heading to Elbaf, here are some of my predictions, hopes, expectations and just general thoughts and feelings i have for the next arc:

firstly, i'm not sure what exactly to expect for Usopp during the Elbaf arc but i have very high hopes for it

next, something that is pretty much guaranteed is Robin's reunion with Saul and her seeing the books from Ohara. i'm so hyped for it and i expect it to hit me in the feels. i also wonder if Robin chooses to read some of the books. on one hand, her reading them would be like paying respect to the scholars' efforts to save them. on the other, however, Robin wants to discover the truth by sailing with the Strawhats ( - she rejected Rayleigh's offer to tell her in Sabaody). yes, the scholars' research isn't complete and so she would still have to reach Laugh Tale to learn the whole truth, but we also know that perspective matters ( - Rayleigh said she might arrive at a different conclusion than the Roger Pirates did) and learning incomplete truths might affect it. so what i think she's going to do is only look into the legends about Nika since she heard Vegapunk declare that Luffy's new form resembles the Sun God and she wants to help her captain. which leads me to my other prediction:

Luffy will learn about Nika and the truth about his devil fruit. he will be opposed to it at first because he's Monkey D Luffy, the man who will become the King of the Pirates, he's not a god nor a hero, dammit! but will relent in favor of learning more about his abilities to become stronger. he may also undergo a mini training arc similar to his time in the Udon prison in Wano.

next, what i hope to see is the dumbass captain trio reunion. i loved their dynamic in Wano, it was so fun! but this time, the atmosphere will be much different. (yes, i believe Kid is alive, this is One Piece we're talking about.) i have some thoughts about that:

the answer to how Bepo and Law would end up on Elbaf is simple - it's the closest location to Winner Island that the log pose points to. (my other theory is Bepo took them to Zou since Zunesha was last seen at Wano and i wouldn't be surprised if they left in the direction to Laugh Tale to prepare for the final war or something idk) they would be welcomed and taken care of at Elbaf since Law was said to be one of the two who defeated Big Mom, the Elbafians' sworn enemy. when he sees Luffy again, Law can ask him to team up against Blackbeard and to get his crew back if they were captured. i'm hoping he simply asks for help instead of forming a formal alliance because it would imply that Law officially accepts Luffy as his friend ( - which Luffy realizes because he's observant like that). but it would also make sense for Law to not demand they call it an alliance since, from Law's perspective, as Blackbeard put it, he can't call himself a pirate captain without a ship and a crew so he's not in a position to form alliances. Luffy will of course agree because they're friends and he will do anything for his friends.

there are two options for how Kid gets onto the island. either Dive turns out to be a half-fishman (a theory i believe) and it's her who saves the crew but it would be hard for her to do it alone, especially with her small stature. the second option, is that a/some giant(s) take pity on the Kid Pirates and save them in secret as a thank you for defeating Big Mom. however, i'm not sure how the interaction with Luffy would go. Kid will be even more pissed at Shanks and surely desire revenge (on Dorry and Broggy, too). and although Luffy did express his desire to fight Shanks, there are no bad feelings between them - quite the opposite. so yeah, i'm nervous to see how that's gonna go

other than that, i'm hoping for all the Strawhats to do some battling since Elbaf is the land of warriors which is a great opportunity to train

i'm also hoping we get a flashback to the night on Egghead so we get to know what happened and how Robin got so injured (my guess is she fought a seraphim but i want to know the details!)

i also want to know where's Stussy but i hope that will be covered in ch 1124

and just to cover all my bases: Bonney will join the Straw Hat Pirates (trust me, Oda told me so)

that's all that comes to mind right now. sorry if it's too incoherent and rambly but that's the nature of this blog (tae-rambles) so... eh?

[theclearblue]

Sanji fans WE WON

I need Elbaf to give me beautiful awesome sexy giant women, I need them to be so buff and strong and tall and for them to pick up Sanji like a lil ant when he has hearts in his eyes and be like wow look at this pathetic lil guy. Obsessed with this creature I found on the ground by shoe.

[j0cto]

Zoro Elbaf outfit prediction..

[raconteur-wanpi]

One Piece 1130

Here comes another review / reaction!

Starting with the Yamato cover stories again, it seems whoever is the suspicious kidnapper is also trying to steal Yamato's katana! Or at least, I'm assuming it's the same person. I feel like this means we're going to find out who it is rather soon. Is my bet on Perospero going to be completely and utterly debunked? We'll just wait and see.

Franky and the rest of the strawhats remaining on the giants' ship seem to have decided to call off the search! It's certainly the right decision, because as we'll see later, the rest of the crew is indeed already on Elbaf. It's interesting to see Franky specifically showcasing determination and speaking out the decision, I kinda love it. You have to remember he was the leader of the Franky Family for a long while, nice seeing that element of his again.

The rest of the New Giant Pirates are starting to show up! I remember both Gerd and Goldberg, but getting more dialogue from them is nice, they seem like genuinely charming characters and I love both their designs. They even showed up in Vegapunk's flashback, helping out Saul pick up all the books in Ohara. They seem to not like Rodo very much, which is kinda funny but makes total sense. It's also worth mentioning that apparently, according to Linlin's childhood flashback, Loki, Rodo and Goldberg were all born on the same day, or at least very close to each other! (From chapter 866)

The strawhats unfortunately don't recognize these two, who are certainly their allies, so instead they hide away from them.

This panel of all of them making their escape from Rodo's weird creepy dungeon is pretty cute, I always love seeing the strawhats casually interact. Sanji saying he used to cross a rope bridge like this is very interesting to me, surely there was one in Germa, right?

* Edit: oops, turns out that's Chopper saying it! Big thanks for the corrections in the replies. It's really hard to tell, but that makes more sense, we do see that in Drum Island.

Anyway, Luffy seems to spot something that catches his interest during this walk-away.

Meanwhile, back on the ship with the Giant Warrior Pirates....

Dorry and Broggy have been framed for the Egghead incident by Morgans also! Well, they did go against the government, so it's to be expected. Their bounties increasing to such numbers seems to actually align with real life inflation rates, Oda did his research.

Aaaandd here it is, one of the biggest things in this chapter. Vivi left a message to the strawhats!!!!!!! Being with Morgans, she was obviously able to draw the marking on the photo before it started getting reproduced for publishing. Everyone predicting Vivi joining the strawhats this arc is probably correct, hopefully! Please let it happen. Go get your girl kids!!!!!!

OK, this is the other huge (pun unintended) thing revealed this chapter. More information on Loki and, well.... the revelation Harjudin might be his brother!? They're both the King's sons, right? They both get referred to as princes here, aren't they!?

King Harold is referred to as Loki's father here, so it's safe to assume he was Harjudin's father also. If this is the case, Harjudin going after the Flame Flame Fruit in Dressrosa makes more sense.

Hmm, this narrative is pretty interesting, Loki getting called things like "cursed", "the shame of Elbaf" "not right in the head" etc, it feels like pretty cruel words. Even if he is indeed a horrible and dangerous person, something tells me we're meant to be wary of people being spoken about that way, so it might be a case of the people of Elbaf taking their measures against this guy too far and pushing him into what he eventually turned into.

One Piece loves this narrative, when you have things like Wano's unjust treatment of the Kurozumi Clan or Doflamingo's treatment when he was a child. Yes, Orochi and Doffy did turn out into terrible, horrible people, but the implication of those narratives is that it's the systems that failed them that created those monsters. It's not to feel sympathy towards them or anything, they really don't deserve that at this point, but rather to understand how they were created, and that the people who unwittingly turned them into such dangers were in many ways in the wrong as well. After all, Tama is also a Kurozumi, for example, and Wano needed to get over their treatment of entire clans for the crimes of a few. We even see that with Yamato being hazed for his father being Kaidou in the cover stories, only for Denjiro to scold the younger generation for this behavior. Not to mention, "the shame of Elbaf" does immediately make me think of "the failure of Germa" and such similar things. In fact, if we wanna push that parallel further, Loki being almost married off to the Charlottes' in a similar way, might have in fact been an attempt at "getting rid of the failure" and letting someone else deal with him, rather than an attempt at making amends with Linlin. I do think it's most likely that Loki will be a bad guy, but I think there will also be a narrative on how cruelty breeds more cruelty. Oda's favorite!

And here he is, the "accursed prince". Wow, what a panel! This is such a good drawing in sense of scale and danger. Incredible artistic work. Immediately leaves such a strong impression on who this character is, it's quite the introduction!

[l-in-the-light]

One Piece Chapter 1126 commentary

Fresh spoilers under cut!

Yes, Luffy, you're right. Anyone would be curious after 100 years. I just can't with Luffy sometimes. I still wonder if this serves as foreshadowing that Luffy will become immortal smh.

Such cheerful idiots. They remind me so much of Zoro and Sanji, and they also served as parallel to them all the way back in Little Garden too.

Just look at them. They love each other so much, my god. I guess in One Piece, fighting each other constantly means you just love them so much you can't refuse any opportunity to interact, geez.

Also it's so sweet that Dory and Broggy still keep it a secret that their weapons broke down because they helped Strawhats leave the island. They will take that secret to their graves, won't they.

This is so wholesome. Kuma's consciousness might be barely there, he can't even speak, but Bonney knows it's still her dad and wants to just spend time with him together <3

I admit this hit me right in the feels. Bartolomeo knows that if he asked for help, Luffy would run miles to him, but he just won't because he doesn't want to be a burden.

I don't think I ever saw Shanks doing that expression before... I wonder if Bartolomeo's words just hit too close to home.

Also hi Shanks, finally I get to see you more often than once every 200 chapters, about the effing time. Don't spoil me too much or I might expect seeing you more often from now on, and I'm not ready for the disappointment if that's not the case!

"Softer than I expected", oh, Bartolomeo, you have NO IDEA. He's so right though.

Oh. My. God. When was the last time I saw you smile like that, Shanks?? Must be a thousand years ago! All the way back when Ace visited you and thanked you for saving Luffy's life. And before that? Must be in East Blue with Luffy. It was way too long. Please smile more often, you doofus! Bartolomeo, honestly thank you for exisiting. You made this man smile like this again <3 also you're a chad Barto, please, you're great.

Also Shanks, you have no idea how many people are doting on Luffy! Lots of very nice people. I wish you could have met Law as well...

And boom, another young pirate crew got eradicated. Seeing Shanks reactions in this chapter though makes me more convinced that Kid will be fine and alive too. Narrator in One Piece is so unreliable lol.

Speaking of narrator in One Piece... who is it actually? Who is commenting the events for us? Is it you, Morgans?? Admit it, you stupid bird!!

I don't believe you even for a second Kuzan. Not after that trick you pulled off with Saul. You clearly did everything you could to SAVE Garp's life there. He was in such a bad shape too, after all. Garp's rep is insane btw. And he looks a lot like Ace locked away forever ago in Impel Down...

Big bro and Big Sis? Caribou, do you mean Devon and Augur by that? LOL. Or does Caribou actually have a big sis??

Hello, new adventure of Strawhats in a Lego land! God, how much I envy them! I also want to explore a lego land!

Okay, so what happened here. Did they shrink and now they're dolls in a lego house? Because this is not Elbaf. It's not like I thought it will be Elbaf anyway, I read a good theory that Elbaf won't happen yet, we're entering floating storyline arc. It might be wrong, because it predicted Strawhats somehow landing in G-14 base (which is supposed to be somewhat near to Egghead, that's where the kids from Punk Hazard are kept, as well as many Sword members are part of it).

But let's explore the possible explanations that were given to us in this chapter alone:

Robin's idea is a funny one. But Robin's ideas and visions are always wrong, that's like the repeated gag in One Piece lol. So I'm not placing a bet on that (also what sort of fish has a lego mansion inside it's stomach).

"There's a chance it'll make you hallucinate". Interesting. And it's called Green Fairy huh. We see Sanji, Zoro, Nami and Usopp getting seriously drunk with it. Coincidentally, those are the Strawhats that are currently missing in action (+Luffy and possibly Chopper as well?). Actually, the whole Sunny is missing. What could make a whole ship just disappear? I mean, it was even tied up to the Giants ship, wasn't it?

Yep, seems it was. Probably using Sunny's anchor. Which means, if a fish actually swallowed them up, it would be dangling on that anchor. But anyway I didn't buy Robin's comment anyway, no one should lol.

So someone had to undo that anchor for the ship to leave... and here's my most logical conclusion to that: it was Luffy. Luffy doesn't like to drink. For some reason he abducted them somewhere? I mean it's not exactly something impossible for Luffy to do. The crew also somehow pins it down on Luffy, just look at this:

Or, it was someone else capable of stealing a whole ship. There's one problem with this idea though. We were just watching reactions from folks all around the world about Vegapunk's broadcast. We basically know where everyone is and what they're doing (which excludes possibility that it was for example a prank from Shanks), besides literally a few exceptions, like most of Luffy's grand fleet. I can't help but notice Law is still missing in action too.

Right before the environment is revealed to us, Nami comments this must be all alcohol's fault. And that's indeed my guess on what's happening: Nami is experiencing a hallucination from drinking too much of Green Fairy. Which means she isn't a reliable narrator right now and what we're seeing isn't 100% accurate. I still envy her though. I also want to be in a Legoland <3

There's also the chapter's title: 落とし前 (otoshimae) which means: payback, return of favour, taking responsibility, but the most known association is with the yakuza's custom of cutting off a finger as apology for making a blunder. We saw one of such examples happen in this chapter: Bartolomeo had to suck it up because he messed with Shanks and Shanks couldn't let it slide.

I admit I thought it's gonna be a red herring plotline, but Oda actually delivered on that promise! I'm glad I was wrong, ha! This was delicious. Bartolomeo drinking a fake poison to show his loyalty to Strawhats was absolutely fantastic. And Shanks testing him in such a way is so disgusting but also awesome. He cares so much to make sure people around Luffy are actually good people... Shanks and Bartolomeo's encounter is basically two biggest fanboys of Luffy meeting up and it's gotta make this my most favourite chapter for a while now <3

Next, we could probably see "taking responsibility" also in what happened at the very end of the chapter. Strawhats got literally drunk, yeah, so they're literally taking responsibility now for it. But it could also suggest someone kidnapped them to either 1. give them payback 2. repay a favour (despite the ominous line at the end of the chapter, I think it might be the latter actually. But we will see). Wouldn't be the first time Oda uses subtle hints like that to let us know what's actually going on.

There's probably a few more tie-ins to the title in this chapter. Dory and Broggy still gonna continue their duel (it's also taking responsibility, right? Once said words can't be taken back), Bonney and Kuma (she took him with her so she's now taking care of him instead of feasting with others), Blackbeard and Kuzan (Kuzan kinda took responsibility over what happened and made up for the losses when he took Garp hostage). I'm not sure how accurate it is though, because I though otoshimae is related to "making up for some wrongdoing or a mistake", not just taking responsibility for your own actions (or collectively for the whole group). But it might be both, I guess?

But then we can't ignore a tiny callback to that line Zoro says in Water 7 here: "we need to take responsibility for accepting Robin into the crew and that's why now we have to decide: is she a crewmate or an enemy?" The word he uses back then is also "otoshimae".

I'm so into this story's development right now, I literally can't wait for the next chapter! I liked the lore in Egghead, but futuristic islands are just not my type of thing in general. Whatever is happening now, I'm so into it already haha.

[zorosangell]

⛥ﾟ・。 protector: chapter sixteen

synopsis: " you were supposed to stay a crewate, just another back to watch, " he tightened his hold, " i didn't even notice the change until i woke up one day and realized i'd take a bullet for you "

cw: violence, gore, fighting, mature themes, profanity, MAJOR/MINOR ANIME SPOILERS, follows the plot of the anime, slowww burn.

a/n: reposting from another account

After talking to the princess and finding out why she went undercover within Baroque Works, she accidentally spilled the beans about the secret identity of the company's boss.

Which put you, Luffy, and Zoro at the top of Baroque Works hit list.

Igara-guy tried to buy you all some time to escape by posing as Vivi and boarding a ship on a course straight to Alabasta, but it was blown up the second it left the dock.

You, Luffy, Zoro, and Nami managed to grab everyone, including the princess and her duck, and escape from the island.

Though once you got a good ways away, a woman, who Vivi identified as Ms. All-Sunday, somehow snuck onto the Merry and tried to make a deal with an eternal pose that led to an island not too far from Alabasta.

Vivi was about to accept but Luffy didn't like how she blew up Igara-guy and crushed it, kicking her off the ship.

So now here you were, docked on an island called Little Garden.

An island that Ms. All-Sunday predicted would be the death of all of you.

"Damn! Can't get a lick of sleep around here!" you exclaimed, jolting up from your spot in the crow's nest at the 50th earthquake of the hour. 

Everyone else decided to explore Little Garden, and you just wanted to catch up on the sleep you lost from Whiskey Peak. 

But for the past two hours there was nothing but earthquakes on the stupid island.

"Whatever. Might as well do a quick fly over," you groaned, standing up and stretching your arms, unfurling your wings.

"I wonder what everyone else has been up to."

You took off flying, soaring just a little bit above the treeline.

'The air here seems so fresh.'

You smiled as you held out your arms, barrel rolling in mid-air.

Looking down, you saw that you had made it past the forest area, and where now flying over a clearing.

Which, surprisingly, had two unconscious giants laying in it, four Baroque works agents, and three of your friends trapped on this spinning wax candle-cake contraption.

'Never a dull moment.'

You noticed that the Booger Guy from Whiskey Peak was aiming on of his bombs at the giant, and quickly took action.

You dived-bombed for the man, roughly landing on his back and using your foot to pin his head to the ground.

"I try to take a nap and everything goes to hell," you sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose.

"(Y/N)! We're saved!" Nami cried, relieved.

"Can someone give me a quick catch up? What's with the giants?" tou asked.

"Dorry and Broggy are warriors from an island called Elbalf and have been dueling here for over a hundred years! But Mr. 3 interfered with their duel and Broggy killed Dorry unknowingly," Vivi quickly explained.

'Wait... Elbaf?'

"We got captured and are now slowly turning into wax statues 'cause of this flaky stuff falling from the spinning thing," Zoro added, pointing up to the spinning head of the wax cake. 

"Can't you cut yourself out?" you asked, cocking a brow.

"This stuff is as hard as steel. And I can't put much power behind my swing in this stance," he answered.

"Well then—" "You think I'm just gonna let you plan your escape right in front of me?! Think again! Ten thousand kilogram press!" the Blonde woman interrupted, suddenly falling from the sky like a boulder.

You quickly rolled off the Booger man and dove out the way, allowing her to crush him instead.

"Wax Wax Lock!" a man, who you assumed to be Mr. 3, shouted, shooting wax at you from this hands.

You quickly shot into the sky, dodging the attack and turning around.

"Heavenward Stomp!" you exclaimed, dive-bombing for the creepy man.

You wound up your mace and were about to bring it down on his head when he suddenly turned into a puddle of wax, making you slam your weapon into the puddle and get it stuck.

"The hell?!" you exclaimed, yanking at the handle with all your strength.

But it wouldn't budge.

"(Y/N), LOOK OUT!" Zoro, Nami, and Vivi shouted in unison, you quickly whipping around to see the trouble.

"Wax Wax Lock!" Mr. 3 shouted, binding your wings together so you couldn't fly.

'Crap!'

You did a front handspring, using the time your feet were in the air to kick the man in the face, sending him flying back.

But not before he shot some more wax at you and bound your feet, trapping them to the ground once you landed.

'Double crap!'

"Dammit! I can't move," you hissed, trying to wriggle free.

"That is the power of the Wax Wax fruit, you impudent girl," Mr. 3 smirked, getting up from his spot laid out on the floor.

"Now you get to watch as your friends turn into wax statues right before your eyes!"

You turned to the three stuck on the wax cake, Nami and Vivi's breathing labored as they coughed through the thick cloud of wax particles that had settled around them. 

'I gotta find a way to get myself outta here!'

"Giant, you can still move, right?" Zoro called, turning to Broggy, who was all tears as he mourned the death of his friend.

The giant was surprised, and the sound of his sobs ceased.

"Good. I can, too. And I don't know about you, but I wanna bust outta here," he smirked, drawing two of his swords from their sheaths, his usual determined look in his eye.

"Zoro..." you stated, almost like warning as he held them in a swinging position.

"What the—?! What the hell are you doing?!" Nami exclaimed, eyes wide.

"He's insane," Vivi mumbled to herself, looking down.

"Quit messing around! I know you're not thinking about cutting your own legs off!" Nami shouted once more.

"I'm not messing around at all. It's the only way to get us out of this situation," he stated plainly.

"You in or out?"

"Hold it, Zoro! I can almost reach my mace! Just wait—!" you strained, trying your hardest to reach the handle of your weapon, your stretching against the wax no doubt tearing a bit of the skin on your ankles.

But you didn't care. 

Hell, you didn't even feel it.

There was no way you were gonna let that man cut off his feet.

But sadly, you still couldn't reach it. 

You were only a hair's distance away, but still not nearly close enough.

"We're running out of time," Zoro stated, winding up his swords. 

"Get ready, giant."

"Dammit!" you scolded yourself, still straining to reach.

"Zoro, no!" Nami shouted, the sound of skin slicing echoing throughout the clearing.

But it was cut off halfway by the shouts of Karoo, Luffy, and Usopp, who burst out from the jungle and crashed into a bunch of trees.

"WHEN I GET BACK I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!" Luffy shouted as he flew, splintering the poor tree he landed on into a million pieces.

"LUFFY!" Vivi and Nami happily shouted.

"ZORO! Your feet!" you exclaimed, quickly turning to the swordsman.

"Yeah, I'd say I got about halfway through," he smiled, looking down as his blood trickled over the wax.

"THAT'S NOT SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT!"

Just then, Luffy ran over and got his ankles locked by the Wax guy.

He grabbed onto a horn on Broggy's helmet and swirled around so much he knocked into the wax cake, knocking off the headpiece.

Only now it landed even closer to the three.

"THAT DIDN'T HELP!" Nami and Vivi shouted.

'DAMMIT I GOTTA GET FREE!'

"One more stretch, (y/n)! C'mon!" you scolded yourself, giving one more big push. 

You made it. 

You managed to grab onto the handle of your mace.

"Yes! Now... Strength of the Gods!"

Suddenly, your strength increased tenfold and you were able to break your mace out of the wax, using your feet to break out of your own wax lock to the ground.

"Alright!" you cheered, happily.

"(Y/N)! WATCH BEHIND YOU!" Zoro warned, you responding by forward flipping without even knowing the danger.

You trusted him.

Turning around, you saw that it was some girl with a paintbrush.

"She messed with Luffy and now he won't save us!" Vivi shouted.

You took a quick glance to see that he was sitting on a picnic blanket, drinking tea and eating rice crackers.

"It's always something," you grumbled, dodging another one of her paint splatters.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Usopp exclaimed, running back into the clearing on Karoo's back.

"USOPP! I need you to help Luffy! I'll take care of the kid!" you exclaimed.

"On it!" he nodded, changing direction.

Quickly, you tossed your mace at the kid at full-speed, knocking the paint palette out of her hands.

"Huh?!" she exclaimed, wide eyed.

"Go to sleep now, kid. You've caused enough trouble," you spat, flying over and smacking her upside the head, knocking her out.

Turning around, you noticed that Usopp managed to wake up Luffy, and the both of them set the Wax Cake on fire, freeing Zoro and the girls enough so they could save Usopp from getting his head chopped off.

"That was hot! You couldn't have come up with something else!" Nami scolded.

"Can't you be at least a little bit grateful! That was hard!" Usopp fired back.

"I can't believe it. We're alive," Vivi stated, looking down at her wax-free hand.

Suddenly, the Booger guy grabbed Usopp holding him in a headlock.

"Now it's time for a full body explosion!" he shouted.

"Crap! USOPP!" you exclaimed, zipping off to try and reach him in time.

"NO! PLEASE! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!" Usopp cried.

"FLAMING ONIGIRI!" a familiar voice shouted, bursting from the flames and cutting up the Booger guy.

And setting him on fire.

"Zoro," you smiled, the pit in your stomach finally lifting.

You were really worried for him. 

Broggy slammed his hand down on the ground, standing up with a smile.

"Hey, giant. Glad to see you're alive."

That's when you remembered.

"Zoro, your legs," you reminded, holding Zoro's shoulders still to get a good look.

"Stop worryin' about me. You messed up your feet pretty bad, too," he noticed.

You looked down to see that you tore off huge hunks of skin on your ankles and feet from your straining.

"Damn. I didn't even no—" Suddenly, your legs gave out, but the swordsman caught you easily.

"Huh. What happened?" He asked, his concern showing clearly in his tone.

"It's... Strength of the Gods. It gives me ten times my strength... for ten minutes. But when that's up... my strength in shot," you groaned.

He sighed, "Just rest for now. You've done more than enough."

"No I haven't," you quickly snapped, sniffling.

Zoro cocked a brow.

"If I had just been stronger, if I hadn't taken so long to reach my mace, you wouldn't have had to cut yourself. I was too weak when it really counted. How am I supposed to kill—" You paused, trying to wipe to glossiness from your eyes.

"How am I supposed to find Doflamingo if I'm not strong enough?"

The man paused, allowing your words to sink in before he spoke up again.

"That depends... What are you gonna do about it?" he asked.

You were surprised.

'What am I gonna do about it?'

Your face turned serious.

"I'm gonna train harder," you answered, looking up at him determinedly.

He smirked.

"Alright then. We start tomorrow," he smiled.

A strong blush managed to grow on your cheeks, spreading up to the tips of your ears.

"Yeah... tomorrow," you smiled back, allowing your eyes to flutter shut.

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece Chapter 1125 - Initial Thoughts

A week break gone and now we're back again

It always takes so long but we return to One Piece. Elbaf is on the horizon, and while questions float over Vegapunk there may still yet be a little more before we reach the land of giants.

Let's see what we have

Spoilers for the Chapter, Support the Official Release too!

Yamato's latest pit stop is the still-rebuilding Oden castle

Minatomo the carpenter has gone missing, so I guess that's the next step - probably missing his student who happens to actually be very skilled at carpentry

The WG continue to wrap things up on Egghead, ready to load the Seraphim and leave, we don't know what they intended for the Mark IIIs and the Weaponized Sea Beasts though

Lucci and Kaku board with angered faces, claiming Stussy was KIA

Unusual for Lucci to lie about that though isn't it?

Saturn though wraps up the benefits of the operation, citing that getting York and the Mother Flame is a win, but there was one critical hiccup

The Vice Admirals are in audience with him, and apologize for failing to capture Bonney and the Straw Hats even with a Grand Buster Call

They ask to make chase to Elbaf, but are turned down

The true hiccup was Vegapunk's message getting out

He also mentions that the awakening of Emeth was ironic

We get a flashback 200 years ago, turns out Emeth being studied on was by Saturn's permission! He wanted the tech for military might

Man literally left a 200 year chekhov's gun on the table

As Saturn mulls about Emeth, Vice Admiral Doberman makes a foolish mistake, and asks if that means Vegapunk's message was true

And thus he gets eyeshotted, though he seems to just be KO'd, since they call a medic

Something's happening in the Labophase though

York sees a ton of clouds in the lab, and realises that a plan has been undertaken

Edison's not dead! But York is trying to rectify that

But it's a feint, and as York fires to the side the top half of the egg floats away

Punk Records has been swiped from the clutches of the WG

Back at Marejois and naturally, the Celestial Dragons are not taking the low food supplies well

Sadly that means lots of killing and blaming

Akainu catching a stray for not capturing Kuma, but it seems that most of the Dragons were unaware of Vegapunk's reveal

Figarland Garling approaches the remaining Gorosei in their usual place

He has new orders: York is under his command now, because he's the new Minister of War

Saturn fucked up and now he just got demoted! That really ruins the planet motif

Oh but what of Saturn? He screams in agony on his ship

Looks like Imu has no use for him, and the black haze that seemed to restore them from damage now suffocates him

The Vice Admirals just look in horror, unknown to what's causing this

The seemingly impervious Saturn retches and grows thinner, almost hollowed out

Imu tells him their motives; Joy Boy was allowed to escape, so they are responsible

Black smoke and flames erupt from the ship, and what remains of Jaygarcia Saturn is just bones

Back at the now floating Punk Records, it seems the satellites are all alive, chatting among each other

Shaka notes they intended to get the whole Fabriostratum, but they're glad to get Punk Records out of York's hands

Pythagoras notes that she can still link up with Punk Records, but it'll only to be to fulfill its original intention

Shaka predicts it'll still take 500 years to achieve its true objective

But everyone thinks they're dead so there's limited pursuit, but that also means no funds

Edison has a new body, a frankenbody of spare parts

His own head, Atlas and Pythagoras' arm, and Shaka's torso and legs

Shaka also jabs at Edison for always admiring his height

Atlas however wants York's spare parts thrown out, which the rest of the group agree on

It is very fortunate Sanji never found this room of spare body parts

Edison also has another connection up his sleeve, and calls Weatheria!

Over to the Revolutionary Army and they are gathering the intel from Vegapunk's message

They also conclude that whoever gets the One Piece gets access to the power to destroy the world too

Belo Betty seems like she is ready to oppose the pirates, and in turn Luffy and Robin

Sabo doesn't comment, only noting that it explains why the first Celestrial Dragons took up home on the Red Line

Oh! Tequila Wolf wasn't the only one...Vodka Wolf, Rum Wolf and Bourbon Wolf

We know there's a Vodka kingdom since that's where Kaido came from, wonder if that's a connection

Dragon mulls on the coast, noting how many will take Vegapunk's message to scramble for higher land

Looks like Dragon's got a boot up the ass, to speed up his plan

Well this is interesting

The power structure has changed, Figarland Garling is our new Gorosei, Saturn is no more. A brutal death to a seemingly unkillable being at the hands of Imu, but the interesting part is what it tells and what it implies. Saturn was a person, and it seems that Imu was able to keep him alive for so long, at least 200 years. Does that mean there were other Gorosei back in the day? And does the Gyuki transformation transfer over to Garling? Will he be empowered with a new shape? The World Government may still have York and the Mother Flame, but the loss of Punk Records is huge! I guess that's what Lilith meant by them not being dead, I guess they all still can connect to one satellite and share the body. The frankenbody is unusual, though I wonder if they'll come back in a different shape next time, following refinement for convenience given how weird their proportions are right now. Interesting not to hear the Stella talk either, I guess he could still be the brain jar but maybe he is the sole casualty?

The Celestial Dragons starving may've killed a Gorosei but it will lead to more violence and blaming, not gonna be good for the current climate, which is probably why Imu anticipates war. Imu is definitely paying attention to Luffy now, calling them Joy Boy, but Saturn did in a way cause all his own undoing, from Emeth, Kuma and Vegapunk himself, he underestimated everyone because they were insects to him and they all outwitted him, an ant bite can still kill a man.

The Revolutionary Army look to gear up for something big. They have been making smaller strides in general but maybe now Oda's gonna put them to work. I do kinda hope though that they don't directly oppose Luffy like Koby intends to, Sabo that is your brother and all the RA have friendly ties to Robin. Everyone is like 'this power is dangerous and can destroy the world' but nobody's reminding themselves that Luffy ain't about destroying the world. Like, maybe just help pave the way? The Grand Fleet need to be kicked into gear to help with that too.

All in all a lot to consume and chew on with this chapter, especially compared to the linear brevity of the last. I doubt we'll go to Elbaf next chapter though, we have the dangling thread of Kuma and Bonney still to deal with, and of course whatever game-changing thing is about to happen on the other sides of the world.

Oda and his round numbers man, he loves them round numbers.

[a-killer-obsession]

Thinkin a lot about this recently so here is my predictions for One Piece. Or at least what I hope, based on the theories I like. I'm not up to date properly with the manga but I see spoilers so I kinda know where it's at.

I am a firm believer that Law and Kid's crews are at least mostly alive, and will be relevant again

Trying to think of what the potential conflict in Elbaf could be and I would like to see that Kid's crew are locked up, and since Luffy considers them friends he would be upset at that. Maybe he allies with Kid to take down Shanks, but the fight wouldn't be immediate. I feel like Law and Kid are supposed to be on equal footing, but Law travelled with Luffy for a pretty considerable time, so without a ship of his own maybe Kid will too. I can also see another sort of splitting of the crew, with some looking for the road poneglyph and other information while the rest go to Shanks. I think everyone is expecting Luffy's time in Elbaf to be peaceful but something has to happen surely

In my mind, Luffy is slowly gathering power for the final fight (see further down). He has allies with multiple kingdoms (Fishman Island, Alabasta, Dressrosa, Wano, not to mention the grand fleet, revolutionary army and SWORD) and if you think about it, he could have multiple emperors behind him as well. I have no doubt Whitebeard's old subordinates would fight for Luffy, Yamato has control of Kaido's crew, and I think Luffy can get control of Shank's, Big Mom's and Blackbeard's as well

For Shanks, I think we all know a fight is inevitable. It'll be maybe the last fight before the final one imo, but it won't be a fight to the death. More of a student surpasses the teacher thing, after which Shanks would show his respect by answering Luffy's call in the final fight

For Big Mom, it goes hand in hand with Blackbeard. First, Luffy finds out what happened to Law, collects him, helps him get his crew, and teams up to take down Blackbeard, perhaps with Kid at their side as well. I think this would be a fight to the death, and afterwards a lot of pirates would bow to Luffy. This would also allow for the rescue of Pudding. Katakuri is the most likely person to be in charge of the Big Mom pirates now, since he was the first mate, and we know he respects Luffy for defeating him, and that Katakuri has a sweet spot for his siblings. I think returning his little sister would do a lot for Katakuri's respect, maybe even enough to lend his forces for the final fight

The last hurdle is the man with the burned face, who has the last poneglyph. We already know Blackbeard is looking for him, and since it seems like the road poneglyphs have all been with emperors (assuming Shanks is protecting the Elbaf one which it seems like he is) then I can see Blackbeard managing to get it, and then Luffy fighting Blackbeard for it, which would make four for four on road poneglyphs being with emperors. Either that or the man kills blackbeard, becomes a emperor, and luffy fights him instead

But what is the One Piece I hear you say? I think its information, and that information is pertaining to what the World Government did to change the water level, aka the creation of the Red Line, and how to destroy it using the ancient weapons. This would tie in with the All Blue (as all oceans would be connected if the Red Line was destroyed) as well as the vision of Luffy destroying fishman island, since it's right underneath. This is where the arc in fishman island would come in, and be used by Shirahoshi to evacuate everyone. Its the one piece of information missing to take down the world government

I think Zou will also be a part of this. We know Momo spoke to him about opening Wano, and we know the weapon Pluton, which is a ship, is under Wano. I think Zou will be responsible with breaking down the walls around Wano to free the weapon (this bit seems like a pretty set theory). Perhaps he even tows it like Hancock's snakes, allowing it to travel through the calm belt. I think his punishment hes been going through has something to do with not releasing the weapon when he was last asked to

Luffy is allied with two out of the three ancient weapon's keepers, so the last step would be getting control of the last weapon, which is most likely something sky based and could potentially be what we see destroying islands. Obviously this is under the control of the World Government, so this is where the final fight would come in

Luffy would call in all his allies from throughout his whole journey, and together they'll get the weapon, destroy Mariejois and the red line, and unite the world. He'd also be King of the Pirates by now for finding the One Piece but I think the irony would be that he's basically king before even finding it

I also think cross guild are likely to join. Buggy and crocodile have already lost to Luffy, as well as allied with him before, I think all thats left there is for Zoro to defeat Mihawk. Again, I don't think this would be a fight to the death, much like Shanks and Luffy

Honestly I don't think Luffy even wants to be king, its just a means to achieve his actual dream. We saw how he acted when the strawhat grand fleet was formed, he doesn't want subordinates he just wants friends. For this reason I think Luffy, Kid and Law can all get what they want. Luffy unites the world, Law gets knowledge, and Luffy gives Kid the title of King. After all, Luffy is a fucking god, so what does he need the title for?

I think Kid is also probably changed after losing his ship. He probably feels a lot of regret that it was his immediate jumping to violence that made Shanks attack and put his crew in danger, and I think this would humble Kid and make him rethink how quick to jump to violence he is, making him a better king. I also think it'd be a interesting parallel to Sabaody since he had the highest bounty, so everyone likely assumed he would be the one to find the one piece, and in the end it happened but it wasnt his brutal violence that got him there, it was friendship, despite how against friendship he was, claiming they'd be enemies next time they saw each other.

Other shit i think is likely/theories I like:

It doesnt make much difference but i like the theory that D. Stands for dawn and those with the initial are descendants of joy boy's crew aka the Dawn pirates, with vivi's ancestor being honorary for turning against the government to hide the poneglyphs, just like vivi is a honorary straw hat. Idk i just think thats nice

All that shit with enel coming back from the moon. Honestly its gonna go one of two ways: either the moon is the natural partner of the sun, aka more allies, or the moon is the natural enemy, and maybe enel will be the enemy luffy deals with in elbaf or thereafter. It could well be that the last ancient weapon is on or part of the moon. Idk but i agree that enel will still be relevant

Dont get me started on the links between the emperors, elders, luffy and the aztec gods. Its a whole fucking thing okay but i think theres something there. Its the start of a new sun cycle okay? Luffy is bringing the dawn of a new sun!!!

Why did joyboy, or roger even, not use the weapons? I think he just didnt have enough allies tbh, or the ones he had weren't strong enough. The great pirate era forced everyone to get stronger and fight for one thing, and i think that was purposeful to boost the overall strength of those who hate the world government. I dont think its a coincidence that roger announced the one piece's existence and then after 900 years Luffy's devil fruit finally shows up, it was waiting for that call

Anyway idk shit about shit so take this all with a grain of salt, this is just my personal thoughts

[crowdusk]

CHAPTER 1136 THOUGHTS

[note: i read the official version when it comes out so i keep away from scan spoilers]

interesting that Who's-Who is (maybe) back considering he was the first to name and talk about Nika

Luffy so cute

I still don't like that we're getting a feast first thing in the arc...does not bode well but oh well let's go

more reinforcement of Elbaph being isolated/insular (which is weird considering Harald seemingly did so much to try and open it up...what was this dude doing)

speaking of which, I'm more and more suspicious about this dead king...I know I said he probably was just naive but hmmmmm. the fact that Jarul put him on the same level as Loki (a character that so far most giants have described as evil), the theme of misinformation and reputations being misleading, that the sword in Jarul's helmet looks like Harald's, that Jarul is definitely hiding something about Harald's death and Loki (look at his eyes in the panel where the giant is saying Jarul was there and tried to stop Loki). Harald smells fishier and fishier to me by the chapter, and it wouldn't surprise me if he was working with the Holy Knights/Elders in some way, maybe offering giants as military assets in exchange for (diplomatic) power. we also hear that he would leave Elbaph for periods of time which isn't all that suspicious by itself, but to me speaks to a disconnect between what he was doing and what his people were aware of.

so much lore!!!

interesting that a) Rodo says all giants growing up want to be the sun god and rule the world and b) there are different versions of Nika, which makes complete sense. Luffy literally does embody almost all the aspects mentioned - laughter, destruction, liberation - but it's interesting that the one thing Luffy has absolutely no interest in is ruling. he is a leader because people want to follow him, not because he wants to lead - how much is that true for Nika as a god, too?

I personally wasn't that surprised at the revelation that the world has been destroyed twice - I always thought the Void Century wasn't the earliest 'catastrophe' since the arrival of the people from the Moon was much earlier than that, and probably itself was a big cataclysm/reshaped the planet. plus, Nika probably comes from the Moon people (like the Shandorans) and so must be much older than the Void Century.

I am interested in the Harley, though (I SAID THERE WAS GOING TO BE IMPORTANT MYTHOLOGY PASSED DOWN IN ELBAPH). wondering if Robin could glean some information from it (pleaseeeeee) - but of course she's not there because Oda's smart and tricksy and annoying like that

the idea of change being both destructive and generative gets reinforced, and that it's to do with the toppling of power structures

of course, we need Luffy to reject the 'chosen one' fate, which he always does - he wouldn't be free otherwise

we kind of get told of Loki's deeds, finally. importantly, they're described as pranks and we actually see Loki laughing in the exact Nika pose Luffy takes on in gear 5. again, this idea of Loki really embodying the destructive but also comical and mischievous aspect of Nika makes me think he isn't a real antagonist to the Strawhats. plus, as we know with One Piece, the more someone is portrayed as one-dimensional by reputation (take Zoro for example), the more Oda likes to subvert those expectations. to me, Loki's pranks sound like a child acting out and messing around.

confirmation that Shanks caught Loki and that's probably what made him an Emperor, but seems like there's more to the story if Loki's calling him a coward. from later parts of the chapter it's clear Loki embraces the Elbaph warrior principles, so it doesn't seem like he'd call Shanks a coward if Shanks had beat him in a straightforward fight (but we'll see). this also makes me think, along with the last parts of the chapter, that Loki might actually take deals seriously and therefore may not have lied to Luffy (maybe he knows where Shanks is because he knows where the last road poneglyph is).

we get Zoro being pretty perceptive, and some explanation to why he was on edge. I maintain he's stressed and not quite himself post-Egghead, probably because he doesn't feel like he's as strong as he needs to be (and the crew isn't as strong as they need to be) - so he's being extra serious and careful. interestingly, Zoro is going off of Loki's reputation and as we know reputations are often false (as in his own case)

as we knew, Luffy's solution to Loki maybe tricking him is just 'well i'll beat him up if he causes any problems' - very much like his approach to Law and other pirates

i'm interested to see what Luffy Nami and Zoro will find in the castle, if they go there (any hints as to what happened with Harald?)

I thought the Knights were either going to try and kill or recruit Loki, but to be honest was leaning more towards the killing possibility so, I was wrong (although let's see what happens). I imagine it's to do with his devil fruit and general strength making him a useful asset. i'm actually leaning more towards his devil fruit being something related to prophecy/predicting the future/fate, since there was a mention of Harald prophesying his own death, and he keeps talking about fate and the future. plus, eyes are often a strong symbol of prophetic ability, visions etc and his eyes are covered. a strong giant with some kind of future-related ability? invaluable to the upper echelons of the World Government.

i did enjoy Loki calling them trash a lot, and it made me think that the Holy Knights may well recruit people from different countries across the world so that they have a network (notably since Gunko doesn't have a 'Saint' title and therefore may not have been born as/may not be a Celestial Dragon)

also very funny that the agents they sent got taken out by Rodo's weird scheme

obviously Oda giving us absolutely nothing wrt Shanks twin's face but atp we know it's not Shanks

it feels to me like the Shanks guy is her superior, since he kind of chastises her for getting ahead of herself

we see that Loki seems to follow the old warrior principles and beliefs, like Dorry and Brogy. he also isn't heartless, since he actually talks about his feelings quite openly (and not just rage but sadness too, which he also mentioned during his conversation with Shaggy). it feels like there's a strong emotional drive to his desire to 'destroy the world', not just cruelty and the enjoyment of senseless violence. i look forward to finding out where that comes from.

One Piece Chapters 1134 + 1135

SUMMARY (I simply cannot be concise so I thought I'd add summary points for anyone who doesn't want to read a whole long piece. Clown music though because even the summary is long. I can't help it.)

Also you can find previous Elbaph thoughts/predictions here.

I believe Elbaph’s current culture of peace and absolute non-violence came from Harald (who was probably an idealist) and Mother Carmel, who was – and is still – seen as a holy woman and saint by the giants. Her rhetoric was all about ‘everyone living together in peace’ in a superficial, unrealistic and one-dimensional way that hid and enabled a lot of violence. Including, of course, her literal job providing military assets to the World Government in the form of orphaned children to be made into spies and soldiers. 

Mother Carmel’s infiltration may have led to Harald developing a relationship with the World Government (which he probably wanted Elbaph to become a part of), while we know that the Five Elders are wary of giants and have always sought to co-opt their strength. This might explain how the two Holy Knights looking for Loki were able to teleport into the castle (I believe there must be physical rules/limitations to the magic circle transport, e.g. some kind of physical anchor to the place you���re going).

This arc is going to look at and explore questions around peace and violence. Peace by and for whom? For example, ‘peace’ can look like the people at the center of society living without disturbance or discomfort while those on the margins suffer and are silenced (neoliberalism). Peace as defined by the absence of overt conflict doesn’t mean there is no harm or violence – it can be repression, manufactured consent, etc. True peace cannot be imposed from the top, it must be collectively built. And so forth. Conversely, violence and conflict are sometimes necessary to protect what you care about (your treasures), as we see with the Strawhats. Creating a peaceful and knowledge-centric society doesn’t have to be at odds with warrior culture, since being willing to put your life on the line is important in some instances. What will happen if external factors threaten Elbaph’s treasures? 

Last review, I talked about how I think one of this arc’s central themes will be the juxtaposition of reality and fiction, truth and lies, stories and lived experiences. Illusions will shatter and false gods/idols will fall – I think the giants’ idolisation of Mother Carmel and Harald will end, one way or another. For the latter, I don’t necessarily think he was evil. More so that he was just one person who made mistakes and had flaws, rather than a perfect king who only ever brought wonderful changes to Elbaph. On the other hand, Loki may not be a god but he could have the powers of one, and I think the first impressions we got of him will be changed and shown to be misinformation to recast him in a more positive light. I think he had a good reason to kill his father, and that the events of Harald’s death are another false story that must be clarified. Oda loves a good character twist. (Honestly if Harald turns out evil, I’m here for it). 

I also said in my last piece that I thought there would be internal divisions, and I still think this is going to be the case. For example, we don’t know why Hajrudin initially left Elbaph – could part of it have been feeling stifled by the loss of warrior traditions? This would make sense, since he wanted to follow in Dorry and Brogy’s footsteps. However, I think we might just see more of a spectrum of positions, rather than, say, two clear factions. Nevertheless, I still think the Strawhats will have to bring a lot of people together to fight a bigger antagonist, maybe even including Loki (as the potential king??) – but they’re pretty good at that. 

Last time I wrote about 1132, I was still a little unsure about Loki’s vibe, but I didn’t think he would be the big villain. This is now pretty much confirmed for me and I think will become even clearer once we get the truth of his backstory. The more we see of him, the more we see a silly side – one that hides genuine care for people under a violent and fearsome facade. I think he’ll probably end up as an ally (even if he’s still morally ambiguous). Classic case of Luffy’s gut being right once again. I am particularly interested, though, in what this means about Loki’s proclamation that he’s the sun god who will destroy the world. Is it metaphor? Does he want to declare war on the WG? Is he still going to do some fucked up things? Unclear. But I still think divinity, myth and belief are key to Loki’s character and his juxtaposition with Luffy, and I’m interested to see exactly how.

I wrote about strength after chapter 1132, and I still think it’s going to be an important theme. What I’d like to add is that I think it will be specifically about strength in relation to pride, and warrior culture in general. Essentially, it will be about why people fight. Why people want to be strong, and why they take pride in it. The Strawhats fight for what they care about, especially people. This also includes things that carry the wills of people who have died, like the books of Ohara, or even the concept of people’s dreams. This arc will look at warrior culture, and the difference between a warrior society and an oppressive/hegemonic society which uses violence (fear and the threat of death) for extraction and control. Fundamentally, all these themes are about power in relation to collective freedom, and what it means to live a good life. There is rightful pride in being able to fight from a place of knowledge and connection, to fight for what you love and believe in (including people’s freedom) as opposed to the soulless genocide and extraction from those considered less deserving of life. 

I think the declaration of the warriors at the feast might also be a foreshadowing of exactly what the Strawhats will do in Elbaph. Understanding and protecting their ancestral pride as warriors, and helping them reconnect to it as a country. Freeing them from ignorance (revealing the truth of what really happened with Carmel, Harald, and Loki). And saving them from being destroyed (this one’s pretty self-explanatory, but I believe it will be to do with Yggdrasil).

Ok if you’re here for the full whammy, yay! SO MUCH HAPPENED IN TWO CHAPTERS. GAH. Let’s just get straight into it. 

So, in chapter 1134, we open with the strawhats meeting Saul outside the library. I don’t have much to say about this part thematically (same with the previous chapter) because I think it’s pretty straightforward. I’ll summarise: I loved it, Luffy poorly copying Jinbe was extremely funny, the reunion did actually make me cry, and I am forever crying over Robin just – being happy now. Being relaxed, content, smiling more, bonding with Bonney. My heart, my heart. 

We also see Lilith introduce herself to Saul as Vegapunk, and explain to him (and us, for the first time!) that she has brought a “perfect re-creation” clone of Vegapunk with her. She plans to settle down in Elbaph and build a new lab. Ok, cool. Honestly, I’m a little eh about a Stella comeback (because I think it’s more interesting for him to be embodied by just his satellites) but just because that’s the plan doesn’t mean it’ll go smoothly, or happen for sure. On the other hand, I’m genuinely pleased that there’s a potential to bring Kuma back, not that he was ever never actually dead. We’ve had so many hints that there’s hope for him. Plus, he’s one of the characters that truly just went through the worst of the worst over and over for the sake of liberation and his loved ones, holding onto faith throughout. I think he deserves to be a father and be happy, I don’t care if that’s cheesy. But again, no guarantee that will actually happen. 

Love and Light Only 

We then see the Walrus School where the children are educated and hear that it was founded 20 years ago by Saul, at the behest of the former king, Harald. Once again, huge huge kudos to the assistants because wow. I want to live there. What follows is Luffy’s encounter with some of said children, who turn out to be, well, absolute wimps. They don’t use ‘bad’ or potentially insulting words, and they’re not going to be setting out to sea to fight ruffians when they’re older. They’re learning in school, rather than being trained to be warriors. In fact, as their teacher Ripley tells us, being a warrior nowadays isn’t fashionable, because “insults, violence, pillaging, war” are just “not the world we live in anymore”. [Side note: the number of beautiful giant women Oda is giving us??? It's tough out here for a gay]. Absolutely nothing even close to violence or antagonism are allowed, not even petty insults, specifically by the children, which tells us this is very much the way they’re being raised and taught. It’s giving weird, cloying, toxic positivity. I was even going to say there is no war in Ba Sing Se, but I don’t think we’re dealing with brainwashing here – just insularity and idealism. 

We see this reinforced by the repeated mentions that Elbaph has very little connection to the outside world – they don’t pay attention to it, they don’t get news coos, they just mind their own business. Interestingly, we also know that any “intruders” immediately get captured (presumably to be vetted and potentially kept out if they risk disturbing the peace). I honestly can’t remember if the news coo thing has come up before in the context of non-WG countries, but I don’t think so? Anyways, that’s pretty bad. Like, if a country isn’t in the World Government (which, remember, requires paying literal tribute to the Celestial Dragons) they just don’t get information about what’s happening in the world? Wild stuff. In some ways maybe that’s protective, but in other ways, extremely dangerous. 

On the topic of language, we also immediately see ways in which these cultural rules are being broken. The way Ripley speaks is rougher, as she herself calls the kids brats and says she teaches by “negative example” (do as I say not as I do). So we’re seeing a clear generational rift in culture between what Ripley later says is the “last generation of warriors” (presumably she’s around the same age as Hajrudin, Loki, Rodo, Gerd etc) and the current children. When we meet Collun, we also immediately see that the way the other children treat him isn’t exactly kind. Despite strictly following rules around things like name-calling, they outright say they hate him. He replies in kind, but it’s not hypocritical of Collun in the way it is for the other children. He’s clearly the rough “wild child” who’s following the older warrior culture, whereas the ways in which the educational system is teaching ‘non-violence’ clearly doesn’t preclude them from excluding or being rude to a kid who’s different from them. In fact, they’re just following the rules and it’s ok to be mean to him because he’s always causing trouble and not following the rules, so he deserves it. They even basically imply why are you here. I think this kind of petty behaviour isn’t abnormal or horrendous for kids, but it does highlight to me that the kind of ‘peaceful’ culture Elbaph is aspiring to feels extremely one-dimensional, oversimplified, and somewhat superficial. Even the way Ripley talks about it feels so smoothed out and idealistic, which is strange coming from the mouth of someone who still looks and behaves like a warrior. What happened from one generation to the next?

Ripley goes on to say Harald’s policy was “don’t fight other countries – trade with them!” Sound familiar? Yeah. Those were exactly Mother Carmel’s ideas for the giants a hundred years ago, when she lived on Elbaph. This was following the dissolution of the Giant Warrior Pirates because Dorry and Brogy had started their century-long duel on Little Garden, when she appeared as a “wandering holy woman” and ‘saved’ some of their crew from execution by beseeching the marines for forgiveness and an end to violence. The giants understandably see her as a saviour and saint who performed a miracle. We only learn later that this was a stunt pulled in collaboration with the marines and the World Government, which allowed her to gain the trust of the giants and infiltrate Elbaph as a child trafficker.

Now, I’m not saying Harald was aware of Carmel’s true nature, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was inspired by/agreed with what she was saying, thus starting Elbaph’s current era of ‘peace’ with the Giant Warrior Pirates out of the way. Carmel was a perfect human link to the WG who could help Harald carry out his ideas, while her saviour position in the eyes of other giants helped him convince his people. This is important, because that means this peace was potentially built with a foundation of deceit tied to military strategy. Carmel wasn’t operating alone – she was specifically selling orphaned children to the WG to be marines, spies and agents. We see her talking to and dealing with CP0, who work directly under the Celestial Dragons and the Five Elders. Mother Carmel was a morally putrid money-hungry old hag, yes, but she was also an instrument of the WG. We also know that the WG has long been interested in harnessing and controlling the power of giants (from Carmel talking about getting giant children into the navy, like John Giant, to MADS’ and later Caesar’s gigantification experiments). In a world based on power inequality, oppression and authoritarian domination, the giants are military assets – if only they can be assimilated into the system. And who is easier to indoctrinate and control than children? 

To be clear, I think peace with a focus on education and knowledge is great! I would love for the world to be that way. And I definitely don’t think the “goal” of this arc should be to renounce those ideals or simply go back to being a completely war-based culture. Knowledge is extremely important in One Piece – that’s quite literally a central theme of the whole series. And of course, we are shown time and time again how horrific and devastating war is. However, history – why and how things come to be is crucial. Is something coming from people’s informed collective desires, or is it coming from the decision of one person/a few people? Is it something that benefits everyone? Is it growth from a place of understanding, or historical amnesia and bypassing material reality? The truth is that right now, the One Piece world isn’t past “violence, insults, pillaging, war”. It’s very much full of those things, specifically because it is rife with inequality. Elbaph so far has been sheltered from these problems, but what happens if the problems come to them? 

This is one of the central questions I believe Elbaph is going to grapple with. What is peace, and what is violence? How can true peace be created? Can violence truly be eradicated from the world? What different kinds of violence are there? 

I think the books from Ohara, the Owl Library and Yggdrasil are going to be of crucial importance to these questions. We know that Yggdrasil is extremely important to Elbaph, and we also know that accumulated collective knowledge and education – as represented by the books – are beyond precious. So, the giants have something to protect that isn’t just their own lives: they have a collective treasure. I wouldn’t be surprised if threats to these treasures are the catalyst for the giants’ reconnection to their warrior natures. Pillaging and engaging in violence just for the sake of it or for sadistic pleasure is unnecessary and cruel, but being a fighter and a warrior in order to protect what one cares about – one’s treasure – is important. All the warrior cultures we’ve seen so far in One Piece have shared this reason for their strength, from the Shandorans protecting their sacred ancestral lands and history, to Wano with Pluton, and the Minks with their poneglyph and Zunesha. 

Elbaph can be a peaceful nation that focuses on education and knowledge, and still be able to protect that knowledge if necessary through maintaining relationship to the core aspects of their warrior culture: honour, courage, strength, skill, freedom, etc. I think that’s also where pride can sit, in the space of being strong enough to do what’s needed to protect life, dreams, love, and what we care about. This is, after all, what we see time and time again in pirates like Luffy and the Strawhats – that fighting and strength are absolutely not everything, and look different for everyone, but are ultimately important to protecting what’s important to us. There is pride in embracing one’s dreams, taking action, resisting oppression and injustice, and having a strong relationship to life and death as warriors do. As an aside, I do think Usopp will be a key person who inspires this shift and re-invigorates the giants’ pride (big speech time!). 

Ideals and Idols

Two things jumped out at me in this section of the chapter. The first is that multiple people have referred to Harald as a “great king”, or something along the lines of ‘beloved by everyone’. Now, that’s not so strange. He could’ve just been a really caring or charismatic leader. But the emphasis makes me a little suspicious about what was going on behind the scenes, especially since we know what Mother Carmel was really doing, but the giants still don’t know the truth. They still see her as a holy figure and miracle worker who saved them and even cared about Linlin, a “god of disaster”. I think it’s no coincidence that the figures of Harald and Carmel have been set up as key figures of this hundred-year period who are idolised by the giants, and the illusion is going to crumble at some point. I believe the truth about Carmel being the epitome of ‘peace and love’ hypocrisy will come out, and so will whatever truth about Harald. Again, to be clear, I’m not saying I think Harald was evil or had bad intentions – it’s more likely that he was tricked and manipulated by Carmel and the WG because of his idealism. I think he probably wanted to make Elbaph part of the WG (in order to pursue his goals of peace and trade), he wanted Elbaph to open up to the world, and he wanted ‘peace’ in the sense of blanket non-violence. 

That last part we already saw expressed with terrifying clarity in a child Linlin, when she locked a bear and a wolf in a cage to stop them fighting because “fighting is bad”. I won’t get into analysing that metaphor right here (I think I’ll make a separate post) but it is so on the nose – forced peace and non-violence is itself violent and creates more violence, especially because it requires imposing your will on other beings and taking away their freedom. Peace for whom? And by whom? I believe the truth of Harald’s engagement with the WG, and either his collaboration with them or his mistakes in dealing with them will come to light, and I’m sure Loki’s reasons for killing him are related.

In this way, Harald opened Elbaph up to infiltration and engagement from the WG, who I’m sure were only waiting for an opportunity to gather intelligence and start undermining the giants’ power or bend it to their use. Like I said previously, I strongly believe that the Warland giants had ties to the Ancient Kingdom and the events of the Void Century. It would absolutely be in the WG’s interest to bring them over to their side and disconnect them from any remaining traces of that history. In fact, Mother Carmel’s House of Lambs also centered around the idea of ‘reforming’ children and helping them leave their ‘problematic’ past behind. This same idea of reform has been used to describe Elbaph itself. This treats history as something to bury and leave behind – something shameful, rather than something to acknowledge properly, learn and grow from. And of course if we know anything about One Piece at all, we know that forgetting or erasing history is literally one of the most central problems/mistakes/evils of the series. We see this further shown in the fact that Ripley is the one to bring up Nika to Luffy, and that she specifies she’s from the last generation of warriors tells us that the children might not even know about him. Why would they, if he’s a warrior god and they’re actively being taught to be anything but warriors? It gave me chills, no joke.

So the ‘peace’ in Elbaph feels especially uneasy right now, despite Ripley’s words. There are antagonists working for Garling/Imu on the island. There is what seems like a red herring of an antagonist (Loki). There is misdirection and mystery galore. So many illusions and false stories to be shattered. False idols to be toppled. Funnily enough, the one story we know is real right now is a literal living myth (Luffy’s Nika form), who is also just a guy. Ideals and idols need to be brought down to earth for real living people to connect with materially, instead of being held aloft and out of reach. What did the arc open with? Rodo pretending to be a god. We’ve also had another character claim to be a god in Loki, meanwhile we know Celestial Dragons (including the Holy Knights) pretty much believe themselves to be gods. Yeah, I’m reiterating my point that ideas of faith and divinity are going to be crucial in Elbaph. In fact, I will put it out here right now that we’re going to get more information about the Lunarians, who were also called gods (I have a whole theory about that). 

Updated Loki thoughts 

The last thing I wanted to talk about is some updated thoughts on Loki. Basically, he’s a tsundere?? Love to see it. It seems that at least part of the unhinged and violent temperament we’ve seen from him so far is a facade, since his long-term friend ‘Shaggy’ says “I’ve realized recently that those fearsome words of yours hide your kindness”. We see that Loki has a friend he’s never met or seen, but known for a long time through den den mushi conversations. He empathises with said friend’s recent traumatic experience, saying it hurts him to hear it, while overreacting when they call him kind. Typical bluster, which seems to compensate for what is a sense of compassion and understanding. Not a heartless villain, then. This of course consolidates the idea that he isn’t how he appears on the surface and how he was first introduced, and that Luffy’s instincts were right. This does make me feel much better about their ‘promise’, even if it will still probably end up causing chaos. On top of that, it reinforces my feeling that he reminds me of Law, and will probably end up as an ally to the Strawhats in some way. Maybe by the end of the arc he will even be restored as the king of Elbaph, potentially alongside Hajrudin. Speaking of which, I went back to the previous chapter where the Giant Warrior Pirates were talking about Loki and Hajrudin, and the description of Loki as “another official child” of Harald makes me think Hajrudin is probably his illegitimate half-brother. But we’ll see. 

All of this has me thinking about the other giants calling him the “shame of Elbaph”. Initially I thought this might be because his actions are considered dishonourable, and I still think that’s probably the case. But having had the developments about Elbaph’s cultural shift, I wonder if part of the dishonour is just doing any kind of violent acts in Elbaph at this point. Thinking about how the other children treated Collun, and talked about insults, is there a sense that anything ‘barbaric’ on the island is shameful? Have they maybe even been taught to be ashamed of their violent past as Warland? I wouldn’t be surprised. And if so, that makes me even more worried about how that happened and the consequences of such revisionism and reform. As I said earlier, it’s one thing to want to change and improve, to move forward collectively for everyone’s good. It’s another to completely reject the past and bury it. Shame can be an important part of reflection and acknowledgment, when deserved, but it can also prevent real growth. I worry that Harald and Carmel’s approach was just to give Elbaph a PR-style culture change that has left them with a flimsy and fragmented social structure. One that is particularly vulnerable to hegemonic influence and external danger. 

Speaking of which, my thoughts on the two strangers (I’m going to call them Holy Knights because I’m pretty sure they are) looking for Loki are that they are either here to kill him, or to influence/recruit him somehow. I’m sure they’ve had intel on the situation in Elbaph, including the fact that there is no king since Loki didn’t ascend to the throne. Given that it seems Harald wasn’t a threat to the WG, I assume they know that Loki is different somehow. We also know that the Holy Knights are essentially the military special forces unit of the Five Elders/Imu, so I don’t think they’re there for a tea party. Even if their mission involves diplomacy, I think violence and threats are probably part of the plan. Hence, persuading him of something (with force if necessary) or assassinating him. We saw Loki has a “special” bounty, probably because he killed his father and/or has a legendary devil fruit, so it makes more sense to me that the knights are there to take him out. Plus, from a narrative point of view, if Loki is a rebel compared to his father, and is likely to ally with the Strawhats, he’s probably a character that is going to be set in opposition to the World Government. 

I don’t have much to add to what everyone’s already saying about the Shanks lookalike Danks, other than I agree it’s not Shanks and is either a relative or a clone, especially with the way clones keep being brought up. They’re clearly very powerful if the bandage person is anything to go by (bandage-bandage fruit?? the way they used it to break the guy’s bones was something), and I’m hyped for more. I’ve been waiting to see the Holy Knights since we got the God Valley flashback. I’m so ready for new villains. I'm also pretty scared, since we're getting a feast at the beginning of an arc. That doesn't bode well for the ending to me...but let's enjoy the good vibes while they last.

Honestly it feels like these last two chapters just left us with more questions than answers, and knowing Oda, we might not get those answers for a while! But let’s see. The opening parts of an arc are always the most fun to me because of that.

Bonus favourite bits:

Saul asking why Vegapunk's a woman and Lilith being like "who gaf"

Robin being happy always

Chopper and Robin library time I cry

Ripley being excited to see Nika Luffy, and Luffy's response

BIG ANCIENT OWL!!!!!!!! I LOVE

Bonney, Chopper and Robin on giant books

Luffy's interaction with Collun - truly big brother

the way Stephen Paul translated the kids' speech (vylence, vishus)

the new outfits, very cute (especially love Jinbe's)

the Jarul gag????? unserious

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Motherlode

And here I find myself again, circling back to the same basic thoughts about this arc that really only stretched itself out to about double what I and most others predicted. You get my angle right? While the world's watching, while the fandom's watching someone not named Nico Robin give a little nuggie of Void Century lore...200 chapters after Bakura Town, 100 after Kiku's fall, in a chapter after one with a folk lore allusion title. Stussy breaks the seal. Speaking more or less the same trauma. It's even the same central idea of Wano; ensuring the Straw Hat's escape was Stella's final command. It all runs on that old school Japanese take on ideal feminity; "A woman's happiness is taking care of those she loves." Self-sacrifice to repay kindness towards you.

Bonney has so much to compare and contrast, you're a solid candidate for someone who could kinda fuse Kiku & Yamato, but Stussy? You're our Tamataebako buddy with the same eyes. A trans woman and a clone, can't say it isn't relatable and they both have a demonic facade without an ounce of action girl tomboy tropes. Stussy can nab that torch now just like Bonney could have. But you still exist in that space. Why are we doing you now, after the others? We still have cards unplayed from Wano. When their theme is subtlety one should expect waiting until the final phase.

This chapter gives me a lot that has me excited.

We have a whole theme this chapter of people responding again and doubling down on the idea these different faces we know are reacting differently to Vegapunk's speech. Things different fans are reacting to. Wano the Joyboy lore, Carrot the weaponry, but it's one of those simple tricks that fuel a big deception. None of it is really that much deeper than clarifying what we as readers sorta knew. Of course, for Wano...it isn't the full group but we see a group. It'd make perfect sense for Kiku to be smiling and holding a tray with the implication she brought the dango, she could appear any example of this cover serial...but this is how you have to look at things when strategic absence is an established motif. Oh, and I guess Shino just got to stay youthful. Rock on mature woman, enjoy it.

The world is merely learning more or less what we know. The real story is still playing out. Stussy, the escape, this time we aren't breaking away. It's almost like a good rap track where the first two verses are smooth and melodic leading into a rapid-fire third verse to really hammer the message. I think we'll stick with that as the message unfolds. But this arc has just enough gas it's the opening act not the final point in and of itself. What makes me feel confident this time? Glad you asked:

Nojiko caring more about the farm bolsters this and her alone would have me freaking the fuck out but...bruh. Miss Goldenweek? Goldie!? Marianne and her hilarious in hindsight apple hat? Peep the suitcase, they're leaving to find Cross Guild. But yeah! Miss Friggin Goldenweek and Nojiko have an interesting response to this worldwide message. I love it too. They don't really seem to care much. Nami's big sister and a mellow girl that was one of Luffy's most vexing opponents. She got a cover serial, this little lady was always an oddball waiting to surprise us. For now though this is dope. Don't let her demeanor fool you, she was clearly a top agent for a reason and the reasons really aren't that different than the archetype I see out of Kiku.

What specifically does it though is how she's paired with the reaction focusing on the common people killed as collateral damage. Now let's take it altogether. Because something else going on under the message brings us back to where this felt most powerful:

Uh-oh. The big cloud layer is under attack. The Elbaf ship is getting surrounded. What if they weren't enough? For all the talk about other stuff that could happen if the Giants are the penultimate surprise addition...is it just gonna be the Grand Fleet after all? They make so much sense big picture. Robonosuke is still hanging around at the edge of all this too. Because things are getting dire on Egghead underneath the lore dump.

All in all...I love this shit right now because it's exactly what I've been on about since Wano ended. Wall to wall this chapter. 1115 is a straight banger.

[wesleysniperking]

usopp positivity post #23

Usopp's character might seem easy to figure out at first glance, giving readers and viewers a sense that they already know him. But that’s exactly what makes him an anomaly in the Shonen genre. When people start the anime or manga, they might see Usopp and think, "This dude's a coward and doesn't really serve a purpose to the crew. So, thank you, next." But then you get to arcs like Alabasta, Skypeia, and Water 7, and suddenly, Usopp isn't as easy to read as they thought.

I believe the polarized perception of Usopp among fans stems from his unpredictability and potential—the kind of potential that scares people. Don't get me wrong, all the Straw Hats are awesome, and they each bring something unique to the table. But as a biased Usopp fan, he'll always be number one for me.

Usopp's potential makes haters uneasy because every time they think they've figured him out, he does something that surprises them and shifts the spotlight away from their favorite characters. People often avoid mentioning Usopp when it comes to Elbaf because they don't think he deserves the good things coming his way. Usopp’s unpredictability and growth challenge their desire for stability and simplicity, reflecting the complexity they try to escape from in their daily lives. Usopp goes against their ideal of rationality and predictability. Seriously, if every harsh criticism toward Usopp were full of so-called facts and set in stone, then there would be nothing to ever dispute about Usopp.

In the end, Usopp represents unpredictability and potential in the most beautiful ways, which haters find unsettling because they don’t think someone like him should possess those traits.

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Usopp fan club (feel free to join)

[thegreatcaptainusopp]

Ok actually here’s my Elbaf predictions wrt Usopp:

1. The giants are gonna train him in some capacity

2. Him and the rest of the crew are gonna find out he has used observation Haki before

3. Him and the crew are gonna be told that some of his stories have been coming true which is related to his insanely good observation Haki

4. Observation Haki is gonna give him a big power boost in the way that he fights/snipes

5. He might awaken some sort of advanced observation that gives him really good future sight.

6. There might potentially be a fruit involved in some capacity

[yamat0]

my robin elbaf outfit predictions now since oda is just reusing namis beast pirates disguise

braided loose hair and either some sort of scales/chainmail or milkmaid corset lacings (like on zoros) plus fuzzy boots and straps and a big belt buckle (like sanjis) horns or a helmet like luffy but make it Sexy

this is what i’m going for on the right one