One Piece Confessions

If you're looking for somewhere to rant, gush, scream or cry, then you've come to the right place

[1piececonfessions]

Hiya!

If you, like me, don't have many friends who are into One Piece and/or you sometimes feel like talking about it but don't know what to do or where to go, then welcome!

You can gush about your faves and things you love, rant about what pisses you off, cry about emotional moments, or whatever else you feel like

Rules:

NSFW asks are allowed. I'm not kicking any kids out, so if you are a minor, just be mindful of that and curate your own internet experience to whatever makes you comfortable

Bigotry is NOT welcome here. If your comments are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic etc, they will not be posted

No callouts to specific blogs. If you guys have beef with each other then you can sort it out amongst yourselves

You can talk about the manga, the anime or the live action, whichever you want. Though maybe specify if you're talking about OPLA because of the changes to the story, so we're all on the same page

That's all for now, I hope we can all have fun with this!

[1piececonfessions]

Unpopular opinion that would probably get me chased around with pitchforks on xitter: if I could take away one person's Conqueror's Haki, it would be Zoro's

Also, the last good aplication of Conqueror's Haki was Fishman Island. After that it's mostly used as a powerscaling tool, which is boring

[leecheedoodles]

OPLA sketches!! S2 was so funnn

[1piececonfessions]

!! Spoilers for chapter 1174 !!

I know his coloring seems to be dark, but I would pay actual money for Loki's dragon form to be bubblegum pink like his hair

Please Oda it would be both super funny and super cute

[anmechokola]

(SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 1174)

Starting off with the chapter title, which is せかいで1番つよいもの. せかい (sekai) or 世界 means world, 1番 (ichiban) means first, or number one, or best, つよい (tsuyoi) or 強い means strong or powerful, and もの (mono) can mean both thing/object if written as 物 and person if written as 者. So the title could be read either as "the strongest thing in the world" or "the strongest person in the world". I assume the reasoning behind the official choice is because the title is likely refering to parental love being the strongest thing in the world, and because it works as a direct contrast to this question

The question is この世で一番こわいもの and is framed mostly like the chapter title, with この世 (kono yo) meaning this world and こわい (kowai) or 怖い meaning scary. The mom even makes the connection, by saying that it's fine that she's scary sometimes because it means she's strong enough to keep her kid safe

By the way, the fact that the title is mostly written without kanji reads like a child is saying or writing this, and that reminds me of the title of chapter 1142, わたしのこわいもの or "What I'm Afraid Of", which was also written without kanji and refers specifically to that scene where the children were talking about the things they were afraid of and that were later materialized with Killingham's sleeptids

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On the one hand, the fact that when Harald got the Deep Sea Covenant he became succeptible to Imu's mind control should make one question all of the other God's Knights personalities, at least a little. Because that kind of mind control is sort of like what happened to the Domi Reversi'd giants, in that they didn't become drones or get completely possessed like Gunko, but had their priorities changed to match what Imu wants, and they all became more violent and less... empathetic, I guess, as a result. So there is a non-zero chance that there are other God's Knights that were influenced in the same way. On the other hand, I really doubt Sommers is one of them, or at least I will be infinitely pissed off if he is lol

(chapter 1160)

His sadistic glee at other people's suffering, especially in regards to watching your loved ones die in agony, is something that has been established since his introduction and we're shown that he's felt this way at least since God Valley. Granted he was already a God's Knight at the time, but his sadism doesn't really serve any purpose for Imu, I don't think, so it's really more likely that he just sucks

Also, he must be really in the sauce if he thinks that Imu is the kind of being who would take responsibility for this "mistake" instead of blaming Sommers for his irresponsibility. And sure, they could always scrounge up more kids, but they'd have to do that with the whole island on high alert and converging to the harbor, which would not only end up with at least some giants dying (aka less warrior slaves to work for them) but would also waste even more time, when Imu went there specifically to call them out for taking so long

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When that kid says he thinks heaven is punishing him for doing bad things, he calls it 天ばつ (tenbatsu), which means divine punishment. So all these children are trying to understand what's happening to them, and they end up seeing it as deserved punishment for all the "bad" things they did, which ended up being... kid stuff. And you can even see how they got to that conclusion. All of the nightmares they admitted to out loud came to life and are currently destroying their home, their school got burned to the ground to save one of their friends who was almost sent off a cliff (the same way they're going to die right now, by the way), every adult who has tried to save them so far has ended up badly hurt just from trying to touch them, they had just been told that they would be taken away to never see their home or family again, and now they're being told that even that is gone and they're just going to die instead. They have absolutely no understanding of the political machinations at work here, and it probably didn't help that the one that destroyed their ship and is "responsible" for them having to fall to their deaths is Nika the Destroyer

(chapter 1129)

This is probably not related, but when he said divine punishment it reminded me of way back in the beginning of Elbaf, when the East Blue crew were stuck in Rodo's legoland. Nami said that Rodo would receive divine retribution for trying to imprison them there (and for changing her clothes) and she also called it 天罰 (tenbatsu) before blasting the so called "Sun God" with lightning, which still feels really thematically appropriate with the way this chapter ended

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Especially horrible to note that Ripley says that "the Sun God is watching" when you're a bad kid, considering the Nika nightmare sleeptid. I feel so bad for them. Interesting that Colon seems to have won an Emet plushie, though, and that it doesn't actually look like what I suppose is the Emet representation in the Elbaf mural, but it does look a lot like the real Emet, so I wonder where the person who made de doll got their inspiration from. Maybe the library has stuff about Emet? Would they also have a picture?

(chapters 1120 and 1138)

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(chapters 1174 and 1147)

Not to fixate on this one girl, but that's such an interesting thing for her mother to say, isn't it? Like, in the middle of all these kid specific problems like not wanting to eat vegetables and getting into fights with other children, why is she talking about needing to protect Karin? Plus, Karin was introduced while complaining about having bad luck. Not to mention the obvious association with Usopp, with being accused of lying and with that long nose of hers. I don't now, she just caught my attention

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I think it's extremely cute that Bjorn calls his brother out for being an otaku but when he sees that Rodo came for him, he calls him あにうえ (aniue) or 兄上, which is a respectful and old fashioned way of saying older brother, and kind of matches how Rodo speaks (which is an old fashioned samurai way that makes him sound like a total dweeb)

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(chapters 1174 and 1143)

This is the payoff to Sommers' speech when he first arrived in Elbaf. We've been waiting for a scene involving parents and children, and it ended up being all of the children who had to go through this and it happened literally how he explained it, right? They did see the thorns up close, and still chose to embrace their kids anyway. Also, I loved that there were different kinds of parental love shown here. There were mothers, fathers, grandparents, foster parents or 親代わり (oyagawari), which is what Ange offered to be for Johanna, and even siblings (we don't know their family status, but since we don't see their parents, it's possible that they aren't around and Rodo is Bjorn's guardian)

When Sommers calls them martyrs for love, he says 殉死 (junshi) which, as far as I could find out, means following your master into the grave. Like when a servant commits suicide after their lord dies, you know? A ritual of self sacrifice

[Sidenote: all of the feelings that I didn't really get during the flashback were definitely felt in this chapter lol]

It's interesting that he calls their deaths poignantly pointless (I like beautiful and meaningless better, but that's just a personal preference), because it really shows how much he just doesn't get it. He really doesn't understand the kind of connection that would make someone voluntarily go through that kind of pain and sacrifice. He talks a lot about 感動 (kandou), which means deep emotion or passion about something, being deeply moved or inspired. It's the word he uses when he talks about "emotion in killing" and "touching display" and "saga of emotions", but the only emotion he really feels is pleasure at seeing other people's suffering. He understands the cause and effect that people will sacrifice their lives for their children but he doesn't really get why they would do that, which is why he calls it meaningless

(chapters 1143, 1160 and 1174)

It actually reminds me of Gunko being surprised that Gaban would choose his son's life over getting rid of her or being confused about why Ronja wasn't happy that she was saved at the expense of the library and school. It shows how much the Celestial Dragons as a whole are disconnected from other people and even their own emotions. It's probably why Gunko's memory broke through both times and why Imu didn't understand why Brook had such an influence on her

(chapter 1149)

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Luffy's move is called ゴムゴムの腹せんべい (gomu gomu no hara senbei), with 腹 (hara) meaning stomach, belly or abdomen and せんべい being the name for Japanese rice crackers. I wonder if the name is a reference to the term せんべい布団 (senbei buton), which means a thin and/or hard bed, a bed worn flat and hard by usage (kind of like, you know, a rice cracker), since Luffy strecthes his stomach out like a mattress for them to land on

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Is this also a prophecy from the Harley text? I like that it still doesn't necessarily specify that Loki isn't Nika, he could still very well be both the beast that blankets the sky and the Sun God. Loki called himself a 破壊者 (hakaisha) or destroyer and one of the interpretations about Nika is as a 破壊の神 (hakai no kami) or God of Destruction

(chapter 1136)

The fact that they mention at least three different ideas of Nika really makes me want to think about three different versions of Nika, aka Luffy, Bonney and Loki, which is why I'm harping so much about this

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Also, as a sidenote, when Rodo talks about everyone wanting to be the Sun God and rule the world, he uses the word 支配 (shihai) which means rule, domination or control. It's also what Imu says when they possess Gunko, that they will show everyone 神の支配 (kami no shihai) or the dominance of god, which is ironic because they are in fact the from the people who style themselves as gods and rule the world

(chapters 1136 and 1149)

If it really was Gunko herself who said that the thing she fears the most is Nika, I wonder if she imagines Nika as a destroyer, as someone who would take revenge on her for standing with the wrong god

<- chapter 1173 analysis

[anmechokola]

(SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 1168)

I assume the chapter title is meant to relate snow with their grief over Ida's death, since we get these scenes of snowfall only during the flashback of her passing. It's sad that the shots we get are Harald and Hajrudin surrounded by their friends while the snow falls, but Loki gets a side by side scene of the massacre and destruction he commited because of Ida's poisoning, which only he seems to know about. Harald and Hajruding have community and support and, most importantly, they got the chance to say their goodbyes, or to at least be there with her in her final moments. But Loki, who also loved her like family, is denied that closure, that shared weight of grief, and his snow falls alone and in silence

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I've said this before, but it's not that I don't understand where Harald is coming from here. He wants a different future for his people, and he doesn't want military strength to be Elbaf's legacy. But he also shouldn't ignore that the only reason things are going this way is because he himself is lending his military strength to the government, not to mention all the giants that were recruited to the Navy. Their commerce might be growing and people are no longer that scared of giants, but their national strength very much still is their fighting prowess. And it's Harald's willfull (going by that silent speech bubble) blindness to this that ends up leaving him so open to manipulation and control

I think that Harald has created a dichotomy for himself. Saul asks if he's not scared of what he might be losing (Elbaf's warrior culture), and Harald pauses before saying both that he doesn't want Elbaf to be known for its military power and that Ida taught him everything he knows, suggesting those two things are connected. I think it's funny because Ida herself never really seemed to have a problem with Elbaf's culture, she's been extremely understanding of it since the beginning. The only time we saw her complain was because of Harald's attitude towards humans and other cultures, which is not the same thing

(chapters 1168 and 1153)

The problem is that Harald himself has projected his earlier faults onto the culture as a whole, and doesn't really seem to be able to separate the two. Especially with that rant about how people who have size as their only quality "are the ones who built the giants' history of terror". Because of me you, no one believes we want peace. Society as it is now bred a person like me you, so it must be all bad. His self hatred is blinding him, so he wants the whole culture gone. It's like finding one rotten apple on a tree and concluding that a) all the other apples must also be rotten, and b) the solution is to burn the whole tree down and plant something else in its place

(chapter 1166)

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Slight translation issue, but she doesn't say that Harald changed, she says

エルバフは変わったね! Elbaf has changed, hasn't it!

I don't see this as a comment on the culture, because you can have proud warriors in a country without infighting and civil unrest (it would actually be better for training/honor/etc), so the fact that Harald managed to unify his people and improve the lives of citizens is a good thing, and didn't really require them to abandon the idea of being warriors. If we're going by the viking inspiration, yes they pirated and raided villages, but they were also know for trade and commerce, the two things aren't mutually exclusive. Harald could have used the Elbaf warriors to emphasize pride, honor, using their strength to protect the weak (the whole Marine spiel), while also building up Elbaf's diplomatic and trade efforts

In this sense, Dorry and Brogy would have been an excellent counter to Harald's beliefs, since they were incredible warriors who were also known to be pretty friendly with humans, but alas they were too busy fighting on a prehistoric island, literally stuck in the past

I'm not really going to come at Harald for the deal he made with the World Government because yes, it was pretty stupid, but think about it. His efforts had already been paying off before that, it's what saved the country from famine when Loki was born. His options would have been limited, but it wasn't impossible. However, he also saw how little rights non-member nations had, how powerful the government is, how fruitless it is to try and go against them (seeing even Rocks, the greatest pirate in his generation, die while trying to fight them). Honestly, it probably would have come to this sooner or later regardless of what choice Harald made here, since we know that Imu very much wanted the giants as tools of war

The willfull blindness comes from not being aware of the fact that he was being used for being a warrior, and thinking that the five elders would ever let him abandon that

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I'm going to take a moment to rant about Ida and her death

Now that we're near the end of the flashback, it feels reasonable to say that it felt both too long and too rushed. As a whole, what we needed to see in it was Loki's relationship with his father, how Harald became the greatest king in Elbaf's history, and how Rocks fits into both of those stories. And if we needed to hear about Rocks, then the God Valley Incident would have to be depicted, that's fine

[Rant inside the rant, but to me Oda did the Kuja so dirty. I hate that they were "idols" and the implication that their raids were all successful because they were just too beautiful and none of the men could fight against them. I hate that Shakky was reduced to a Helen of Troy character, existing only to be kidnapped and rescued. I hate that Gloriosa went there not to save her sister but just so she could impress Roger. I hate that there were so many different pirate crews there and yet the Kuja didn't show up to rescue their former captain and empress. I hate that we never actually see any of them fight except for a kick here and there (wasn't their haki supposed to be different and impressive? where did that go?) I hate that we had a perfect conterpoint to Harald's resentment of Elbaf's warrior culture in the form of the Kuja Pirates, who were also from a warrior culture but unapologetically proud of it, and they were wasted on a "look at the pretty woman pirates" storyline]

The thing is that we spent way too long on Rocks' backstory in a flashback that wasn't supposed to focus so much on that, and it ended up looking more like a Rocks flashback than a Loki one for a time, with tangents into the Kuja, and Roger, and Dragon, and Shanks, and Teach, etc. And that left almost no time to build up to Ida's death, which ended up looking like something that was put in at the last second

Not even going into the need for another sad dead mom story, if she had to die, then this was still sloppy. We had absolutely no build up to her poisoning, every single time we see Harald in Elbaf people are loving what he's doing and cheering him on. Everyone is more than willing to give up their culture and tradition and warrior past. How much power do those shadowy elders even have? Why would they still be against their marriage if Loki was already born and the heir? Since when have Estrid's relatives been resentful of Ida? We never see any of it, we never even knew they existed until Loki killed them all

Speaking of, I think it's perfectly reasonable that Loki wouldn't tell anyone why he trashed the village (nobody ever took his side before, why would he bother), but did no one find out what was wrong with Ida? When Harald was called because she was sick, did he not bring any doctors with him? Was no one curious why a perfectly healthy person suddenly became deathly ill? If she really had to die, then why not make it an actual disease? If it takes too much time to flesh out the resentment of the Elbaf traditionalists, then make her actually sick and focus on another reason why Elbaf needed trade and diplomacy, so they can get better access to healthcare. Make it a disease that could have been cured with more knowledge, with better doctors, emphasize the need for education so the Walrus school becomes even more important, to really hammer in what Harald wanted for the future of Elbaf. And then we can also get some extra pain in remembering that they had to burn it all down to protect the children in the present

If it was supposed to be another instance of Loki's "curse" isolating him from love and affection, then it still needed more background to it. Show the villagers trying to butter Loki up before all this, make them get mad seeing Loki happy with Ida, make her an actual threat to their lifestyle and privilege. Show some people grumbling at Harald wanting to cut everyone off from their past and traditions (it's perfectly reasonable that even a well loved king would have dissenters), show people trying to look for Dorry and Brogy to defend their warrior ways, show these misterious elders having some sway instead of only being there to stop Harald from marrying Ida, show them trying and failing to control Loki and pit him against Harald and his progressive views. Hell, show Ida actually bonding with Loki, maybe scolding him for his views on humans like she did for Harald, maybe telling him about how he reminds her of a young Harald so he feels any kind of connection to his dad instead of that one (1) scene of Harald rushing back to check on an injured Loki

If you really want to make her death painful, show Loki hearing Ida thinks of him as a son right before he finds out she's dying because of him. Show Harald telling Loki she's dead, maybe he's the one who tells Loki how he was also an arrogant ass when he was Loki's age but Ida changed him, show them bonding. The beauty of One Piece flashbacks is that they hurt because we see the relationships between the living and the dead, how important they were, how they impact the present in ways we didn't even realize before, but I'm not really getting any of this now, which is such a shame

Ok, I'm good now. Sorry about the long-ass rant

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The word Harald uses here is 失踪 (shissou), which means going missing, but it can also mean running away. So it's unclear if they think he disappeared voluntarily or not, at least for now. I imagine when he starts making waves as a pirate it'll be clearer that he ran away and had no intention of coming back

But this shows that he had a specific mission in mind when he went to the Holy Land, since he left conspicuously right before he would have had to get the tattoo that not only brought him before Imu but would have also bound him to Imu's will. Since he's a Figarland, chances are he knew about that before it happened, unlike Harald who is still essentially an outsider

(chapter 1152)

It could also be that this is what Shanks wanted to tell Harald "before it's too late", meaning before Harald takes on the Depths Covenant and can no longer go against Imu. He probably knew that Harald would be chosen if he didn't show up, but underestimated how quick they would be about it, probably not realizing just how hungry they were for the giants' power

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Harald says the new king should be someone with youth and 潔白 (keppaku), which means innocence, purity, uprightness or integrity, which is a hilarious thing to say about Loki, his "cursed" heir

This is also the point where it gets impossible to dismiss Harald's actions as just being naive. He should know what it means to have someone sitting on the Empty Throne. When King Cobra saw Imu, he immediately knew there was no way he was making it out of there alive, Harald should be more than capable of figuring out his will wouldn't matter anymore now that he's seen the ultimate power of the world. Even if there's nothing he could've done to get out of making this deal now, he should have made preparations for it back in Elbaf, the fact that he's surprised later on that Imu has other plans for him is frankly infuriating

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(chapters 1168 and 1140)

So the first mark, the one Shanks and Harald had, was for the Shallows Covenant, the first contract tier given to people who are Devoted Blades of God. Now, he gets the Depths Covenant with a mark that looks like the armband the God's Knights wear, the second contract tier that grants him "immortality"

This makes me wonder about Sommers' mark, which is different and more complex than both of those. Is it the Abyssal Covenant? It doesn't seem to grant him the same power as the Five Elders, since he has physically aged since the God Valley Incident, but maybe that means he only got it recently and will no longer age from now on. Either that or what the Five Elders have is completely different from these three contract tiers. It would also raise questions about what the criteria are for getting one, since the elders still seem to have more power and authority than Sommers, even if there's a chance they have the same contract with Imu

Speaking of immortality, the terms they use are 不死 (fushi), which means immortality or undeath (the kanji literally read as non-death) and 不死身 (fujimi), which means invulnerability or immortality. Fujimi is the word that Saul and Gaban used to describe the God's Knights, and it leans more towards indestructible than immortal, in the sense that what they describe is a body that cannot be damaged rather than one that doesn't age (I explain my reasoning for that here)

I wonder if Warcury's comment is because of the increase in strength coupled with the innate strength that Harald has as someone with Ancient Giant blood. Also Nusjuro's comment is pretty chilling, since he's right, Harald's incredible power is now completely at the mercy of Imu's wishes. A monster can still rebel, but a weapon is meant only to be used as needed and discarded when no longer useful

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(chapter 761)

I wonder if the reason Doflamingo wanted "immortality" has anything to do with these Covenants. Right after this panel, he mentions both the Immortality Operation and the Personality-Switching Surgery when he talks about the usefulness of Law's fruit, so there's a chance he needs both of them to "make use" of the national treasure in Marijoa. Maybe he wanted to infiltrate the God's Knights? Personality switching so he can pass as one of them, and being immortal so it looks like he also has the Depths Covenant? The word Law uses for immortality isn't the same, but maybe that's nitpicking, or maybe Doflamingo doesn't know or believe there's a difference. It's something to think about, because this definitely looks like something that's gonna come up again in the future

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(chapter 434)

The fact that the immortality is linked to the Depths Covenant also explains why Shanks' arm didn't grow back when the Sea King ate it way back in chapter 1. Him letting the arm that links him to his biological family, to Imu and to the Celestial Dragons get eaten so he can save Luffy is also pretty symbolic, since it's obvious now that he was strong enough to have saved Luffy without sacrificing it. He's making the clear choice of siding with the "lower" world, with Roger's Will, with Luffy's dream. When he says he gave "it" up for the sake of a new era, he's not just talking about his physical arm, he's talking about everything it and the mark on it represented

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I hate to be seen agreeing with the devil and of course that's not what Imu meant when they said it, but it is too heavy a weight for a single person to bear. Harald is trying to "atone" for the sins of his whole kind, a thousand years worth of it even. It reminds me of Oden and what was to me was his biggest fault: his inability to share his burdens. Oden also thought he had to bear the weight of his country and his samurai on his back alone (literally, in the end), when it would have been much more advantagous for him to forge connections with the other daimyos and Hyogoro and call on the friends he made from outside. He, like Harald, felt that leadership means taking responsibility alone. Harald neglected his personal life because he felt he had to forge Elbaf's connections all by himself, and he must become a slave himself, and he must bow down and beg and rip out his horns all by himself

People like them always remind me of Luffy in Arlong Park saying that there were plenty of things he couldn't do alone, but it was ok because he had his friends with him. It gives a sense of community that's lacking in stories like Oden and Harald's

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I wonder if he called his sons because he thought they would be the only ones strong enough to overpower him and stop what was happening, kind of like Rocks asking Garp and Roger for help when he was Domi Reversi'd. He probably also felt like this was an internal problem, since he called in Jarul too, otherwise it would've made sense to ask for Gaban, if we're thinking in terms of powerscaling

(chapter 1152)

By the time Jarul and Loki get there, Harald seems to have been drawn fully into the pentagram, so he was probably in the process of being Domi Reversi'd. None of the guards seem to be possessed, so there's a chance Harald asked them to do this if Jarul and Loki didn't make it in time

There's still the question of who blocked the door (maybe some God's Knights make it through the pentagram?) and who exactly was the one who commited the massacre. My money would be on Harald, since I don't think those wounds would have been enough to either stop or un-Reversi him. Maybe Loki ate the Elbaf fruit to have enough power to stop Harald? But if there were God's Knights there too, I don't think Loki alone would have been strong enough to fight them all off. Maybe Jarul tells him to run away, and that's how Loki ends up spending those years at sea before Shanks tracks him down

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Given everything, I find it a little hard to swallow the idea of him being called wise lol

Jokes aside, the word used is 名君 (meikun), which means wise, distinguished or enlightened ruler. I'll agree that he was one, in the sense that he saw a future for Elbaf that none of them had been able to see before, and he had the determination to try to see it happen, no matter the personal cost to him. But he also wasn't, in all the ways that we've already seen, his singlemindedness blinding him to anything else

<- chapter 1167 analysis

[anmechokola]

(SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 1167)

First off, puns and jokes!

That "hora fukime" written on the guy's head probably refers to 法螺吹き (horafuki) which means boaster or big talker, and the -me is a derogatory suffix, so it translates to "damn bullshitter"

On the shirt of the guy that's talking there is the picture of a book, which in Japanese is 本 (hon), and 本当 (hontou) means truth or fact, so 本当だよ (hontou dayo) is an emphatic "it's the truth!"

The way these rumors all mention a huge human-like shape appearing from the fog reminds me of the shadows from the Sky Islands that showed up at the beginning of the Jaya Arc

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When this guy (and the narration in the next panel) says "monster", he doesn't say the usual 化物 (bakemono) that people call devil fruit users or the 怪物 (kaibutsu) that some sailors called cordyceps Imu, he says 魔物 (mamono) which also means monster or demon, but more in the sense of an eerie apparition, like an evil spirit, as far as I can tell

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I think this part really shows how Harald's hands were tied and how fruitless this effort will end up being, in a general sense. The narration actually says that

ハラルドは"1000年分の償い"を誓い陰ながら海軍援の軍として働いた Harald's "1000 year atonement" was to work helping the Navy from behind the scenes

Which means that none of his efforts were visible to the general public. So how would that help with the peaceful, friendly image he was trying to build with the other countries? All he can achieve here is winning favor with the World Government in the hopes that if he bowed down low enough they would deign to make Elbaf a member country. While being one would certainly help to open doors, does he really think the government would ever let go of such a useful shadow? Even if Elbaf becomes a member state, they would always be subject to being treated like this, since their own king let himself be put on a leash

Like I've said before, I understand that he was desperate and used to making these kinds of personal sacrifices, but it's honestly kind of sad to see him do this because it feels so... pointless

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While it could be just a normal cheering pose, it's interesting that Buggy looks like he's doing the Nika dance here

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When the narration says the world was sent into an era of frenzied madness, it says

世界は更なる狂瀾の時代へと突入する!!! The world was further plunged into an era of turmoil!!!

The term 狂瀾 (kyouran) means raging waves, while 狂乱 (kyouran) means frenzy or madness. The meaning is similar in context, but I like the use of nautical terms in relation to the Great Era of Piracy

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I'm not sure if "faithfully serving as a tool of the Navy" captures how... demeaning Harald's treatment is here. The narration called him

海軍の手足となり従順に務めたハラルド Harald, who had been obediently serving the Navy

The expression 手足となり (teashitonari) means to follow loyally, to wait on someone hand and foot (quite literally, with 手 meaning hand and 足 meaning foot), or to be at someone's beck and call. And 従順 (juujun) means obedient, submissive, meek or docile. It's a complete reversal of the way he was initially introduced as a brash, overconfident, arrogant youth

Also, when it says that he was "given access" to the Holy Land, the term used is 昇階 (shoukai), which I couldn't really find in the dictionary. But 昇 (shou) means to rise up and 階 (kai) means storey (of a building) or stair, so it means something like rising up the ranks. Or, since he gets to rise up all the way to the Holy Land, maybe the word "ascend" would be better

Harald calls his tattoo 浅海契約 (senkai keiyaku), which literally translates to Shallow Sea Contract. The official translation went with "covenant" probably to match with Diabolical Covenant, which they used when Imu was Domi Reversing Brogy

(chapter 1150)

.

(chapters 1167 and 1160)

Warcury calls Harald 従刃 (juujin), which is the same term the Celestial Dragons called Gunko during the beginning of the God Valley man-hunt. If I'm understanding this right, getting the Shallow Sea Covenant means he becomes a Devoted Blade

Warcury also calls him the God's Knights' "trusted weapon", or 懐刀 (futokorogatana), which has two meanings, actually. It means a small dagger that you carry in your pocket, but it can also mean a trusted subordinate or confidant, like a right-hand man

.

I would like to take a second to be a little smug about getting the idea of contract tiers right before (here)

So there are 3 tiers, and the shallowest of them doesn't require meeting Imu, since Harald doesn't know who this true God is yet. From what Nusjuro says next, you only get to learn about Imu after you rise up (or down, using the naming metaphor) to the next rank. I'm assuming then that the Depths Covenant (literally Deep Sea Contract) is something you get when you become a God's Knight, maybe like the tattoo that Sommers has

(chapter 1140)

That would mean that the Abyssal Covenant is the one the Five Elders have, right? I'm curious how that would add up to 13, though, if there are 10 God's Knights. Does that mean not all of them have the Depths Covenant? What would be the criteria to change ranks, then?Or is the contract the Five Elders have different from these 3 tiers? That still wouldn't add up to 13, unless there are others aside from the God's Knights who have them, and it still wouldn't explain the difference between those two ranks

Also, those are interesting names, aren't they? Thematically, I mean. You "ascend" to the Holy Land, but your contract goes deeper down into the depths of the ocean the higher you rise. If we go with the idea that Imu is the symbolical Devil infiltrating Heaven, then it makes sense, since the closer you think you are to Heaven, the closer you actually are to Hell

.

The narration shows Roger's execution and the recruitment of giants into the Navy to combat the Great Era of Piracy, then says that meanwhile, Harald was becoming a Devoted Blade, which means this happens 24 years ago (it's cute that Shamrock has the same hairstyle as Shanks)

.

I think we can all take this to mean that Shirahoshi is Shaggy, though it still doesn't explain how they get in contact with each other. Maybe Harald gives Loki a denden so they can get to know each other? But then why wouldn't Loki know who Shaggy is?

By the way, it does seem kind of purposeful that the princess with great power from the kingdom with the Sunlight Tree Eve is unofficially engaged to the prince with great power from the kingdom with the Treasure Tree Adam

.

We're getting pretty close to the end of the flashback, since Fisher Tiger freed the slaves in Marijoa 15 years ago and the beginning of the flashback is 14 years ago

The fact that you can only see the right eye, and the sword seeming like it's being held with his left hand, very much pointed to it being Shanks. By the way, what is Fisher Tiger holding in his left hand in that panel on the right that he didn't seem to be holding before? But most importantly, does anybody else see what looks like a blood spray coming from Shanks' head? Right below that "kaching!!"

Maybe it's Fisher Tiger's blood? If it is Shanks' blood, then I assume it's from the wound he gets from Teach, since we see him later with a bandaged eye. That would mean that either he came back with an open wound right at the time the slaves were breaking free (which doesn't make sense, since he specifically went to the armory, indicating some forethought into this plan) or he got that wound during this time, which would mean Teach was at Marijoa at the same time as Fisher Tiger was escaping. But at this point Teach has already been a member of Whitebeard's crew for a long time, how could he be there? Did he have a part in the escape? Was he looking for someone? We still don't know what happened to him and his mother after God Valley. If Teach was there, did he fight Shanks because Shanks is a Devoted Blade? It would be an interesting subversion of expectations, if Teach justifiably thought he was fighting with a Celestial Dragon at the time

.

Again, I have to ask: did the twins' mother ever mention which one of them was older? Did Garling just decide that by himself? He specifically calls him Shamrock's 弟 (otouto), which means younger brother

When Harald asks if he's met either of the twins before, I wonder if it means Harald has met the Roger Pirates at some point and is remembering Shanks as an apprentice. Either that or he knew their mother, since she had the same red hair

If Shanks has a strength that could rival his brother, but he's still a Devoted Blade of God, then I assume he hasn't been there that long, especially because he later says he wasted 24 years of his life before going there. We know that Yasopp joins Shanks some time after Usopp is born 19 years ago. If we go by the Strong World chapter, he still looks like he did when the Roger Pirates disbanded, clothes-wise. So sometime in the next 4 years he gathers some of his crew, but then leaves them to go to Marijoa, and then leaves Marijoa again after one or two years, which would mean he went there looking for something specific (maybe knowledge about the Nika fruit? since he appears to target the exact Cipher Pol ship that had the fruit later on)

(chapter 0: Strong World)

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(chapters 1167 and 1152)

Shanks telling Gaban that he and Harald got along all right is now hilarious in hindsight (unless they get a chance to talk more later)

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I think it's safe to assume he's in Marijoa undercover. The differences between how he and Shamrock dress (Shanks being more proper and Shamrock being the one that looks laid-back), plus the overtly aggressive and degrading way he's talking makes it look like he's overcompensating (though the Celestial Dragons could just think it's a natural born trait to be an insufferable stuck-up). Though going by the silent speech bubble after this, it doesn't look like Harald is buying the act, or he's still trying to place where he's seen Shanks before

Can we take Shamrock's comment as him worrying about Shanks? Did they have any time to bond?

.

I like that the village is explained as the hometown of Loki's 実母 (jitsubo), which means birth mother or biological mother, and not just his "mother", since he himself says that she was never that for him

That giant saying that both of Ida's sons love her very much already makes the chapter title hurt, but Loki's admission at the end really drives home how the title is purposefully ambiguous, since Ida in the end had two sons

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Loki calls Ida 母親 (hahaoya), which as far as I can tell is a formal, kind of cold way of talking about your mother. Maybe not cold, but like serious or without feelings, you know? Like 母 (haha), it's not a term you use when you're calling out to your own mother, it's what you use when you're talking about her to other people

My guess is that Loki is using this formal way of saying it to officially express who he considers his real mother, as opposed to his birth mother that the village called the only legitimate wife

<- chapter 1166 analysis

[anmechokola]

(SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 1166)

To start, I like the idea of the God's Knights appearing kind of like reversed mountains in the fog, it reminds me of those silhouettes at the end of Thriller Bark and makes them feel ominous

(chapters 1166 and 490)

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So the "curse" wore off after Roger and Garp's joint all-out attack. Is the secret to undoing the Domi Reversi a question of mass, as Roger put it? A big burst of Advanced Conqueror's Haki to overpower the person being controlled? That would mean that it's just one more thing that only people with Conqueror's Haki can do, like fighting the God's Knights. I'm hoping that in the present Elbaf they stick with the Reversi game thing they had going, and the trick to turning people back is Luffy going Gear5 wacky hijinks and flipping them back to white. Otherwise the solution to everything just ends up being "be strong + have acoc", which is a little boring

It's bittersweet that Rocks gets to die as himself and not being controlled by Imu, so he gets to do it with the classic D smile, plus dying while thanking someone reminds me of Ace at Marineford

Also, Garling kills him like a coward, after other people did the dirty work for him, which seems fitting

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See, this just raises more questions. Did the God's Knights leave Roger and Garp alive, assuming they would end up dying eventually? Did they not sense Rayleigh and Gaban on the island? Did they think Roger and Garp were dead already? Did Rayleigh and Gaban fight them off to save those two? Is that how Gaban and Sommers meet and how Gaban learns how to fight them? I can't see that fight going well for them, it's 3 against 2 with Rayleigh and Gaban having to protect two unconscious people besides that, and they don't look any worse for wear here

.

The title of the chapter is 新しい物語 (atarashii monogatari). 新しい (atarashii) means new and 物語 (monogatari) is a genre of traditional Japanese literature, kind of like an epic, and evokes this idea of a heroic tale or fable, which is why the narration mentions the closing of curtains, like we're watching the end of a play (like Wano and it's three acts). That bottom left panel more literally says

いくつもの新しい物語が幕を開ける The curtains open on many new stories

and that lightning bolt splitting the sky with its many branches symbolically representing the new stories that branched out of this incident, like Dragon, Kuma and Ginny becoming Revolutionaries, Whitebeard, Kaido and Big Mom becoming Emperors of the Sea, Shanks becoming a pirate instead of a Celestial Dragon, Garp becoming a hero, Roger becoming Pirate King, etc

.

(chapter 1166 and Volume 4000000000)

So we finally get the official version of the sketch from Volume 4000000000, the one that was distributed to people who went to see One Piece Film: Red

And the answer to how Shanks got in the treasure chest that was specifically picked up by the Roger Pirates really did end up being fate, which adds another layer to Gaban calling him a child of fate (since Gaban wouldn't really know how Shanks got there)

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So this is how Sengoku justifies the Navy's (and his own) actions, by claiming that there are just too many people and the organization is just too big to keep track of all individual actions in it, which is true in theory. But what he's specifically choosing to ignore are the actions of the "upper management", ie basically the Fleet Admiral that directly answers to the Five Elders. And that's not one single individual action in a huge sea of military men, this is the people at the very top whose actions directly impact the whole world. This is the Navy and the government covering up for the sick game of the Celestial Dragons and the truth about their "hero" siding with a famous pirate in order to stop someone who was cursed by a top member of the World Government

(chapter 504)

To be honest, this one panel way back in Sabaody told us everything we needed to know about how Sengoku the Fleet Admiral handles the unsightly parts of the Navy. That "human auction hall -- er, I mean the employment assistance office" says it all, doesn't it? Cover up the dirty secrets, put a nice spin on it, say it in such a way that it doesn't look as bad, and just pretend it's not happening. It's exactly what they did with the God Valley Incident, where the heroic Vice Admiral Garp vanquished the mind-controlled -- er, nefarious pirate Rocks D. Xebec with the help of -- er, singlehandedly

Sengoku claims that he can accomplish more if he climbs up the ranks, and I suppose you could argue that things might have been a lot worse if someone with less moderate politics than him had been in charge. I guess they figured that they could double team this, with Sengoku being a voice of "reason" at the top and Garp training the rank and file at the bottom to be better than the previous generation. However, it doesn't look like things worked out quite how they wanted it, because that Akainu vs Aokiji fight after Marineford was pretty symbolic as a radical vs moderate debate, and Akainu and his absolute justice is the one that came out the victor, so I don't think Sengoku (and Garp, Kuzan's mentor) managed to do as much as they're saying here

Also, when Garp talks about turning out "like them", he says

もし染まったら If you get stained/infected/tainted

I wonder if he's thinking about cordyceps Imu, which seemed to infect or taint Rocks with its black tentacles

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(chapters 1166 and 1154)

When Rocks talks about the Galleila, he calls them ガレイラ (gareira) in katakana only, maybe to indicate that his knowledge about them is limited, and he also calls them 破壊者 (hakaisha), which means destroyer. In chapter 1156 I think the Rocks Pirates only call them an army of giants, so I'm not sure if any of them even know they're shipwrights. When Harald and Jarul talk about them, they use the kanji 大槌戦団, which roughly translates to Great Hammer Battle Company, so Rocks calling them destroyers makes sense. There's a lot of emphasis on the fact that they were warriors, and I still maintain the idea that they were the ones who built Pluton (and possibly the Noah), especially if you consider that Pluton is a ship and a weapon

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(chapters 1166 and 1104)

Rocks says that Harald didn't join him because of 愛 (ai), which means love in a general sense, not necessarily a romantic one. It reminded me of Vegapunk telling Saturn that Kuma broke through his programming because of love. There are of course a lot of different ways to interpret what Rocks said, but to me it sounds like a love for his people. I've talked about Harald and his sense of duty and sacrifice before (here), but if you look at his actions, everything he has done ever since Ida showed him a different way of seeing the world has been for the future of Elbaf. He has sacrificed a marriage to the woman he loved, his connection to his sons, his time in his country, his friend, even his hair, all for the sake of bridging the gap between the giants and the rest of the world

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So there's a lot of projection going on with Harald's speech, right? Especially because he talks about "size as their only quality", a clear callback to what Ida told him when she first met him, and the fact that he calls the giant クズ (kuzu), which means waste, scum, trash, and it's the word used to describe him when he was first introduced at the beginning of the flashback, when he was still young and arrogant

(chapters 1152 and 1153)

That's why when he says that people like them are the ones who built the giants' history of terror, he really means people like him. He sees his past sins as the reason why he's unable to build any trust now, and in his despair is forgetting or disregarding what Jarul said, about the giants and their past enemies and how it's not necessarily Harald's fault that he's having such a hard time

(chapter 1154)

He's obviously feeling guilty about choosing his country over his friendship, even though we know that Rocks himself never really blamed Harald for it and defended his friend's desire for peace until the end, but Harald doesn't know that. His guilt over his past violence, his guilt over Rocks' death, his sense of responsibility over his people's actions, it's all compounding and turning outwards. After all of the sacrifices he's made, there's no going back now, he has to find a way to make things work, otherwise what was it all for?

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I'm assuming, since Garp seems to throw the key at him, that this isn't an official release from prison? After all, Dragon very clearly doesn't regret it but it doesn't seem like he's going to serve time for it. Also, Garp's ".....ああ" and "ああ....." translated as "I know" have a very... resigned feel to them, especially with those closed eyes. Like he's just accepted the fact that his son says he feels 軽蔑 (keibutsu), which means contempt, scorn or disdain for him. Both father and son saw what happened at God Valley, they both lost their faith in the Navy and their "justice", but they took completely opposite lessons from it all

The least I can say for Garp is that he didn't try to talk Dragon out of it, and Dragon does seem to eventually make some sort of peace with his father's choices, since he ends up leaving Luffy with him (though honestly speaking, I don't think there was really anyone else he could have left his son with)

[In Water 7 it seems like Garp said he talked to Dragon about meeting Luffy in Roguetown, but that's not necessarily the case. He says

ローグタウンで見送ったと言うとったぞ! I've heard/he said that he saw you off at Roguetown

There are no pronouns in the sentences, so it's a bit ambiguous if Dragon said that himself or if Garp just heard someone say this is what happened

(chapter 432)

There doesn't seem to be any other indication that they've kept in contact, and the other times Dragon was near Goa, like when they found Sabo or during Kuma's flashback, he doesn't talk to anyone, let alone Garp, so it's probably better to assume that last sentence was Garp saying that he heard (probably from the Marines stationed there) about what Dragon was up to rather than hearing from Dragon himself]

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(chapters 1166 and 1161)

When Harald talks about atoning for his sins, he reminded me of Dragon feeling the need to atone for his part in what happened in God Valley. While both of them did have a part in the things they regret (Dragon obeyed his orders at first and Harald was violent and callous in his youth), they are also both trying to carry the weight of a lot of other people's sins as well, since in the grand scheme of things they were a relatively small part of the problems they feel responsible for

Harald says he has a thousand years to atone for, so can we assume he's including whatever the giants did during the Void Century too? I find it a little sad that he's saying he wants the children of Elbaf to have a chance of growing up without hurting anyone, and yet he's willing to become a slave to the government to achieve that. It's obvious that the World Government will continue to see them as nothing more than barbarians that are good only for fighting (especially with that focus on Imu's eye at the end), so it's hard to see how their children would be able to live in peace in these conditions, but like I mentioned before, Harald is kind of backed into a corner now, he has no choice but to make this work, to make all of his sacrifices worthwhile

<- chapter 1165 analysis

[anmechokola]

(SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 1165)

Since the last cover page had Perona and her ghosts and this chapter we found out that Gill Bastar was the previous user of the Horo Horo Fruit, can I be optimistic and assume we're gonna get some information about Law and/or the Op Op Fruit next chapter? Here's hoping

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This could just be an oversight on Garp's part, but he specifically says that they should bring on board every living 住人 (juunin), which means resident or inhabitant, he doesn't mention the shipfull of slaves that were also brought in for the game. I get the impression that he doesn't actually know there are slaves there, so at least he's willing to save the islanders too, and he directly contradicts the Navy's previously seen stance of shooting them down for being from an unafilliated nation

It also mirrors Dragon's actions in this chapter, except Garp has the authority to not have to threaten them to do it. After Garp's reputation among some fans (me) reaching new lows in this flashback, this scene doesn't erase all of that, but it helps a little, in my opinion

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I like their symmetry, and how they both discard the coats that symbolize their differences to face this new threat together, with the top panel showing them facing the same way and even talking in sync. I also think it's pretty symbolic that Garp threw away "justice" in order to team up with Roger and do what is arguably the right thing here. Stopping Rocks is both the best thing for the safety of everyone around them, and also for Rocks' sake, who is clearly suffering. But no self serving Marine would ever care about the suffering of pirates, would they? Wouldn't it be "justice" if they paid for their crimes? He could've just left Roger there alone, and yet Garp turned his back on "justice" to help them. I wonder if this is why Roger decided to trust him with Ace later on

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Garp is calling the Domi Reversi a curse and, just like how Loki is a "cursed" prince in the sense that someone else (his mother) has decided his misfortunes for him, Rocks also had no part in this curse that was placed on him. I like that Garp isn't trying to kill Rocks, he's even asking for a way to break him free

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(chapters 1165 and 1059)

So it really was a Marco lookalike that was kicking Kyo a few chapters back. Given the obvious similarities and the Marco Polo joke, chances are this is his father. Though it feels like they are a little... to much alike. I get that Roger and Ace are also spitting images of each other (minus the freckles) but it feels too on the nose lol

Marco should be about 7 years old at this point, presumably both Whitebeard and Marco know in the present who his father is, so why doesn't Marco go by Polo Marco, if his father was allies/crewmates with Whitebeard?

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(chapters 1165 and 398)

Both Dragon and Luffy say basically the same thing here

望む所だ bring it on

though Luffy says 所 (tokoro) in hiragana instead of kanji. It's not an unusual sentence, but given how iconic Luffy's stance in Enies Lobby is, I have to assume it was done on purpose. They're both 17 year olds making enemies of the World Government, and even though their views are a little different, they're both fighting so they can give people freedom, Luffy for his friends and Dragon for the people of God Valley

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I find it strange that Saturn is still possessed by Imu here, though to be honest I don't know why they had to go full cordyceps on him at all, especially if Gunko was there. Speaking of, where did she go? Wasn't Imu possessing her while Domi Reversing the Davy Clan before Saturn transformed? In chapter 1162, Rocks was already facing off against his relatives, and Saturn was still normal, he only changed by the end after making that ominous statement about something new coming. I wonder if Imu has more power if they possess one of the Five Elders, and Gunko is just a standby in case he doesn't have anything better

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(official translation and TCB scans)

I don't think the official translation is wrong, but I don't know why they wouldn't use the most important word there. That leftmost speech bubble says

正義が聞いて呆れるぜ I can't believe this is justice

Ever since he noticed what was happening on God Valley, Garp has been questioning if what he sees can really be called "justice", and here is his greatest rival and the antithesis to everything he believes in asking him about it, and Garp agrees with him, he also can't see this as "justice". This is supposedly the foundation of his whole worldview crumbling, and I think it's an important moment to try and understand his character. What did Garp think "justice" meant before? What does he think it means now? What does he think about when he sees that word emblazoned on their coats? Can he feel the different weight of it on his shoulders now?

I talked about it in more detail in another post (here), but the reason Garp has for staying reminds me of Luffy. He says that he has to stay so he can protect the 兵達 (kaiheitachi). 達 (tachi) is a pluralizing suffix, and 海兵 (kaihei) means sailor or marine. It's different from 海軍 (kaigun), which means the Navy as an organization. Ironically, Garp gets the epithet 海軍の英雄 (kaigun no eiyuu), or Hero of the Navy, when what he actually wants to protect are the people in it

It reminds me of Luffy because he also tends to focus more on the individual people, instead of the organizations and society that surrounds them. Luffy wanted to help the people of Dressrosa, of Wano, of Alabasta. Their approaches are different, and I don't necessarily agree with Garp's motives here, I just think they feel similar, and I couldn't help but think of Luffy when I read it

It doesn't erase any of the harm and neglect Garp did and does in the future, but of all the reasons he could've had to stay in the Navy, I think this one is the... least horrible one

I also still can't discard the possibility that he's gonna try and cover for Dragon, since Dragon is gonna be in big big trouble now, commandeering a ship like that. Not even mentioning whether the Celestial Dragon he shot might remember, and whether or not he was caught on snamera (snail camera) doing it, or if someone saw him kidnapping the babies. My point is that Dragon is screwed, and I wonder how he manages to get away with all of this

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When Garp acknowledges Rocks' sorrow, he says 無念 (munen), which means regret or chagrin, which I honestly think would've worked best to convey the meaning. It's about the disappointment and distress of unfulfilled expectations, more akin to failure than sorrow. Rocks is feeling the weight of not being able to realize his dream, to fulfill Davy Jones' promise, to protect his clan and family, or even to have control of his own body in his final moments

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Roger's attack, in keeping with his spiritually celestial theme, is called 火乃迦具土慧士 with the furigana ひのかぐつちのえいす (hi no kagutsuchi no eisu)

迦具土 (kagutsuchi) is a fire god, son of Izanami and Izanagi, the mother and father deities of Japanese mythology, whose fire killed his mother Izanami when she birthed him. In his anger and grief, his father Izanagi beheaded Kagutsuchi and separated his body into eight piece, which became the eight largest volcanos in Japan. Other than the obvious similarity of having accidentally killed their mothers in childbirth, there is also the fact that fire symbolism in One Piece tends to be associated with change, and Kagutsuchi's birth and death marked the end of the creation of the world. I'm not exactly sure about 慧士, but 慧 means wisdom and 士 means warrior or samurai, and their pronunciation could be エシ (eshi), which sounds kind of similar to Ace's name エース (eesu). So the attack could be Ace, the Fire God Kagutsuchi or Fire God Kagutsuchi, the Wise Warrior or something like that

Garp's attack is called 無限拳骨 with the furigana インフィニトゥム エクスプロージョン (infinitumu ekusupuroojon). 無限 (mugen) means infinity and 拳骨 (genkotsu) means fist. Garp and Roger are constantly shown in parallel with each other, like two sides of the same coin. They'll face the same way, say the same things and make the same gestures (throwing their coats to the side). Even their attacks match, in that they both have a celestial theme, but while Roger's usually has a spiritual side, invoking gods and written in hiragana, Garp's attack are astronomically named and written in katakana, which is reserved for foreign words. They're similar, but not exactly the same

(chapters 1165 and 1156)

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The narrator says that

世界政府はこの事件を全て闇に葬ろうとしたが The World Government tried to bury/cover up this incident in darkness, but

which is an interesting choice of words, given that Rocks' son is now trying to take over the world using said darkness

.

(chapter 1165)

(chapter 1155)

The narration says that the 崩壊 (houkai), which means collapse or crumbling, of the Rocks Pirates caused 隠し切れぬ残響 (kakushikirenu zankyou), or unconcealabe reverberations/echoes that shook the world. When the Rocks Pirates were first formed and took over Hachinosu, the narration also said that the formidable people that joined him caused the world to tremble (terror is not really mentioned in the original, just the act of causing the world to shudder or shake)

It's interesting that the shaking of the world involved the Rocks Pirates as a whole instead of just Rocks in both cases, like the existence of the group was essential. Rocks himself was an incredible person, but he alone didn't cause the world to shake, you know?

.

I imagine Rayleigh and Gaban are shown going back because they'll be the ones that rescue Roger and possibly Garp, since they mentioned they'll be useless after this last attack

I wonder, if the Marines all left the island before the fight was over, why did they include Roger in Garp's fight with Rocks? If none of them saw, wouldn't it have been more glorious for the Navy is Garp had taken Rocks out by himself? Maybe that was a line Garp wouldn't let them cross though, it probably felt bad enough that they end up calling him a hero because of what happened in God Valley, when it was what made him lose a chunk of his faith in "justice" in the first place

Not to be too pessimistic, but I also don't put much stock in the survival of all those residents that were onboard the Navy ships to be honest, otherwise how would no stories of God Valley have gotten out into the world in all these years, if there were so many people that saw what happened?

<- chapter 1164 analysis

[anmechokola]

(SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 1164)

That cover image is really cute, and a part of me wants to analyze it in relation to the story, like how the Celestial Dragons called the people they were hunting "rabbits". Or the fact that Alice in Wonderland is about going through a crazy experience where nothing is what it seems and it ends up being a dream, and Garp kept asking a couple of chapters ago if he was dreaming because nothing seemed quite real, but even I think I might be overthinking this lol

So let's move on

.

Rocks calls Imu 怪物 (kaibutsu), or monster, which is different from another term for monster that's frequently used in the story, 化物 (bakemono). I'm not exactly sure of the precise difference between the terms, but from what I understand bakemono usually refers to non-human things that take on a human appearance, like ghosts, shapeshifters, etc. It's what I remember people calling devil fruit users like Luffy and Buggy in the East Blue, where people with those kinds of powers were rare, and it's also what Chopper was called in Drum, by both the residents and Luffy and Sanji. Kaibutsu, on the other hand, is mostly about creatures that don't resemble humans at all and has a more... unsettling connotation, I think, though apparently both terms can be used to refer to people who have superhuman-like abilities (like referring to a person who is absurdly strong as a monster)

Last chapter, the pirates that were nearby called cordyceps Imu a kaibutsu, but Garp asked the other marines about the bakemono, though I'm not sure if there's any deeper meaning to it. Anyway, Rocks calls Imu a monster in direct contrast to humanity, and maybe this is just because that's how Rocks sees Imu and the Celestial Dragons, but it is interesting that he doesn't see them as being human at all

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When Imu is talking about a grievance with Davy, he says 因縁 (in'nen). I've talked about it before on the post about chapter 1161, but in'nen means fate or destiny in the sense of things happening because of the connection between certain people. In that chapter, it was about the connections that led each person to the Island of Fate, like the Roger Pirates and most of the Rocks Pirates going there because of Shakky, Rocks going because of Eris and Teach, and Garp going because of Roger. It's "fate" because people's destinies are linked together by their relationships to each other, you know? So what Imu is saying here is that they and Davy's fates are also intertwined in some way

We know for a fact that Wills are not necessarily inherited by blood relatives, but the chapter title and this dialogue seems to suggest that in this case only people with "Davy's blood" can inherit his Will and fulfill his promise, again hinting at a specific biological trait of members of the Davy Clan

Also, Imu is being pretty inconsistent, they say that their thing with Davy has nothing to do with Rocks, but then constantly calls him Davy throughout the chapter. It reminds me of Emet and Zunesha calling Luffy Joyboy

.

There is still a chance that Davy Jones and Joyboy are the same person and Rocks is just asking which name makes Imu more afraid, but honestly it seems a lot less likely. Mostly because Japanese tends to be non-specific when it comes to singulars and plurals unless explictly stated, like how the word 神 (kami) by itself can mean both god singular or gods plural. However, when talking about "their kind" Imu says 奴ら (yatsura), which is specifically a third person plural pronoun

Imu also seems to be implying that Rocks embodies both of them by saying people like them will never appear again as long as Rocks is taken out, which kind of shows the limits of an authoritarian worldview. "If I can stamp out all these fires of rebellion completely, there will be no more opposition to my dominion" doesn't really take into account that Wills are not tangible things that can be destroyed and fires can start anywhere, as long as you have a spark

.

(chapters 1164 and 1122)

Rocks saying that Davy Jones was king of the world reminds me of Emet apologizing for not making Joyboy king. Assuming for now that Davy Jones and Joyboy are different people, and knowing that both of them were alive during the Void Century and that Joyboy was from the Ancient Kingdom, I have to wonder if Davy Jones was also from there

Crazy theory time, but maybe Davy Jones was the ruler at the time, and the war between the Ancient Kingdom and the 20 nations was actually a three way battle about which of them got to be "king of the world". It could explain Zunesha's "crime" if he was actually sentenced by the rulers of the Ancient Kingdom for siding with Joyboy during the war, since I can't see the World Government having enough control to sentence him. If Davy Jones and Joyboy are the same person, then this would still work, because Emet might be apologizing for them not winning the war and Joyboy/Davy Jones dying before he got to be king of the world. In this case, Rocks might be saying that Davy Jones symbolically won the war anyway, which is why it pissed Imu off so much

.

I wonder if Imu chose the giants for the same reason that Rocks wanted them. Rocks getting mad at them for going after the giants is a nice reminder that for all his violent outbursts and calling Harald a fool, Rocks does believe in Harald's desire for peace and connection. And he really didn't hold it against him when Harald refused again to help him before they arrived at God Valley

When Imu compares Rocks to a willing puppet king like Harald, he more literally says "like the you of right now", which I take to mean that Imu is calling Harald as easy to manipulate as someone who has been Domi Reversi'd. It's a little ironic because so far Rocks has been the only one to actually hold out on the transformation for a while, and Harald himself proves later on to not be that much of a puppet after all, since his "mistake" ruined whatever plans Imu had for Elbaf

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Imu's order had been to exterminate the Davy bloodline, and now he's saying that this will bring an end to Davy's dream. Davy's descendants are also necessary to carry on his Will and fulfill his promise to Imu, so I assume that the promise and Davy's dream are related

.

I think it's safe to say that, aside from Rocks, who saw his clan transformed, none of the people there know what to expect, and even Rocks didn't really know how Domi Reversi works, so it's possible they think he's still in control of his mind when he attacks them. None of them were exactly on friendly terms, Linlin doesn't call them 仲間 (nakama), but she does call them 味方 (mikata), which means friend or ally, so I wonder if they feel betrayed right now

I still keep thinking about Kaido's comment about pirates betraying you when they sense weakness, and I'm still not sure if he was thinking about the fact that he was attacked, about possibly being left behind after Rocks' attack or if he thinks of himself as a traitor who abandoned Rocks after Rocks was defeated

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We can see baby Shanks asleep in the chest, already being transported by the Roger Pirates. It's cute that the guy was unkowingly but essentially calling Shanks a treasure. He even uses お宝 (otakara) instead of 財宝 (zaihou). Both words mean treasure and are used mostly interchangeably when it comes to gold, gemstones, cold hard cash, etc. But takara is the word used for a treasured item with sentimental value, like Luffy's hat or Zoro's sword

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(chapters 1164, 513 and 590)

For as different as Dragon and Luffy are in appearance and personality as 17 year olds, they are heartbreakingly similar in how they process their failures. The only thing that ever made Luffy break down was when he failed to save the people he cared about, like his crew and Ace, and now we see Dragon break down for the exact same reason

I see three possibilities here:

Years later, Dragon saw Shanks' bounty poster and recognized his rather iconic red hair from God Valley (sad)

Dragon learned that Shanks used to be on Roger's ship, remembered that the Roger Pirates were in God Valley and connected the red haired former apprentice to the red haired baby that had disappeared (sad)

Dragon still doesn't know that both Shanks and Shamrock are still alive, and that the baby he tried so hard to save got the chance to live freely, and he still carries around that guilt to this day (saddest)

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This means that Eris was in on whatever plans Rocks had in order to take on "the world", right? If she does survive long enough after this, it would explain how Teach got the knowledge to be able to follow in his father's footsteps. Speaking of, we again get an image of his silent speech bubble reaction to what's going on

(chapter 434)

Teach seems to be following a plan, and I wonder now if Eris had anything to do with it. He lied in wait for decades behind Whitebeard's name and reputation. We still don't know what was the second devil fruit Rocks said he needed, though we know that Teach was looking for the Yami Yami Fruit for a long time, and he had been attacking some very specific devil fruit users. I think the only thing that was keeping him from going for Elbaf's fruit is that it was Shanks' territory, and if the fruit is the one Loki ate, it would also explain why Shanks imprisoned him in Elbaf 6 years ago instead of leaving him to run loose

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Is she implying that if they get in the water they can escape Rocks? We haven't seen any evidence that he has a devil fruit, though it would be strange that he hasn't used it yet, not even to fight Imu. I don't personally think he has one, I just think she was desperate and trying to do whatever she could to survive, since even if he couldn't physically follow, he could still kill her with his sword, as we see later when he cuts the whole Navy ship in half from the shore

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Imu seemed surprised that Rocks broke off from the order he was given in order to go fight Garp and Roger specifically, meaning he still has more control over his body than what was expected. Those spiky speech bubbles are only used for internal thoughts, for telepathic communication between the Five Elders or, as is the case here, when the characters are speaking through the Voice of All Things, also emphasized by Roger's reaction now being the same one he makes when he and Oden hear the Sea Kings talking, or when Momo and Luffy hear Zunesha. The fact that Garp reacted means he call also hear it

Rocks is able to somewhat redirect his body (even if he can't stop the order to fight and kill) and also has enough consciousness left to ask Garp and Roger to kill him. Whether that's because of a strong will or because of his Davy blood is still unclear, though the chapter title could suggest the latter

<- chapter 1163 analysis

[anmechokola]

(SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 1163)

The title for this chapter is 約束 (yakusoku), or promise(s). There are a lot of promises made in One Piece, but to me the idea that always comes to mind are unfulfilled promises, like Zoro's promise to Kuina and Brook's promise to Laboon. In fact, chapter 104 is called 約束の岬 (yakusoku no misaki) or cape of promise(s), where both Brook and Luffy promised Laboon they would return one day. But there are three examples in particular I think make even more sense in this context, and they are Joyboy's promise to Fishman Island, Noland and Kalgara's promise in Skypiea, and Oden' speech to the Roger Pirates

(chapters 649 and 299)

Both in Fishman Island and Skypiea, there was a promise made hundreds of years ago, and while we still don't know the specifics of Joyboy's promise, it's safe to assume it involves the people of Ryugu Kingdom being taken to the surface on the Noah arc. And the Shandians have been fighting for 400 years to ring the Golden Bell of Shandora in order to signal to Noland and his descendants that they were still there, waiting for them

(chapter 958)

Chapter 958 is called 約束の港 (yakusoku no minato) or port of promise(s), and it's about the place where the rebellion's allies were supposed to converge before the raid on Onigashima. But that chapter actually begins with a flashback of Oden talking about going back to Wano and why the country needed to keep its borders closed, with a promise to open the land of Wano in the future

[Sidenote, that's an interesting timeframe he gave, isn't it? This is approximately 25 years before the present time and 5 years before Oden's death and Toki's prophecy, so why did he say 20 years in the future, specifically? We know Roger said they were too early, but I don't think he said how long exactly]

These three cases are all about promises made and left unfulfilled, and they all in a way involve people trying to connect and being unable to (Fishman Island with the surface world, Kalgara with Noland, Wano with the rest of the world), kind of like Vegapunk's message about people being isolated and the last lines in the Harley text about how "they will never meet". And all of the promises were/will be fulfilled by the inheritors of the original people's Wills. The Shandians rang the bell (thanks to Luffy), Momo will one day open the borders (to help Luffy, probably) and the promise at Fishman Island wouldn't have been mentioned if it wasn't going to be fulfilled too (by/for Luffy, the inheritor of Joyboy's fruit)

.

When Rocks says that "promises are meant to be kept", it could be he's talking about when he invaded Marijoa and told Imu he would be back, "right here". Now, "here" could mean Marijoa, as he claimed he wanted to show his crew the peak of the world, or it could mean facing off against Imu. Either way, as Rocks called Imu "the world" last chapter, it seems that both meanings can apply now

Imu says that because of this, you (plural, so supposedly the Davy Clan) must be erased from history. Which is kind of sad, because it did happen. In the present, Davy Jones is just a legend and a game, and almost nobody has ever even heard of Rocks or the Davy Clan

It's also possible that Rocks is talking about a different promise, between Davy Jones and Imu, which would be an interesting parallel with Joyboy's promise to Fishman Island, both made 800 years ago. If it's a promise passed down to Davy Jones' descendants, it would also resemble Noland and Kalgara's promise, carried on by each new generation. Of course, in both of those the connotations were positive, which isn't the case here

I can see it being either interpretation, or even both. Imu could be angry at Rocks' presumption to threaten him in Marijoa, and/or at an 800 year long fight against Davy Jones and his clan

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The pirate says that Imu is 無差別 (musabetsu), which means indiscriminate. To Imu and the Five Elders, everyone who lives on the surface is the same, small and insignificant, the only distinction being that some of them (like the Marines) are useful to them on occasion

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(chapters 1163 and 1108)

That guy says that being attacked by Imu/Saturn is 興味深い (kyoumibukai), or very interesting. I'll be honest, I have no idea what he means by that. Is the pain different? Saturn by himself appears to have poisonous legs, but does that extend to this case too? Could it be the poison's effects that are interesting? Or could Imu now Domi Reversi these people too? I had thought before that they needed to flip that pentagram in order to do that, but apparently just impaling Rocks is enough, so who knows

Also Gaban saying "not again" seems to imply that Roger has a habit of going off on his own and causing trouble for everyone, which is very Luffy coded

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(chapter 1095)

In Egghead it's established that low ranking Marines can't even look at one of the Five Elders, but there are too many Marines present in God Valley to all be rear and vice admirals, and they all saw not only Saturn but also Imu, so I guess not one of these men are expected to leave this island alive, which makes it even more interesting that Dragon, a rookie, manages to survive. Did he smuggle away without getting caught? Did Garp bargain for his son's life in exchange for his silence and cooperation? (I can see it, but there is the fact that I can't see this happening and Garp still trying to get his grandsons to join the Marines in the future, if the reason he stayed was to protect Dragon). Maybe they didn't kill the Marines who were there but didn't see anything, since Bogard is also there and still alive in the present. Also, Garp is technically in some hot water himself, actively attacking what he thinks is one of the Five Elders, so I'm not sure he's in a good enough place to bargain for other people

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If this is Garp's first time seeing one of the Five Elders, then there's no reason for him to think that anything is different about Saturn, which is probably also true for most of the others there with the exception of Rocks, who has actually met Imu and recognized them

I'm not the first person to say this, but Imu sprouting from Saturn's head looks very much like a cordyceps fungus, those parasitic fungi that inspired The Last of Us, which mainly infects insects (like those zombie ants) and other arthropods like spiders. So it's very funny that Garp says

ウジ虫共のトップは相応の姿してんだな a suitable form for being at the top of maggot-like insects

[If Imu looks like a fungus, can I make a joke about how when Rocks calls them rat king he's getting the wrong kingdom (like animal kingdom and fungi kingdom)? Sorry.]

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Imu says that their world is still 未完成 (mikansei), which means incomplete, unfinished, or imperfect, suggesting that there they do have a plan and an end goal here. It's possible this goal is related to the original war between the 20 nations and the Ancient Kingdom, and I'd guess it involves flooding the rest of the world, leaving only the people living in high places (like the top of the Red Line). It would also explain those megastructures that are being built around the world for the past 700 years, where at least one of them, Tequila Wolf, is a gigantic bridge that could also survive a mass flood

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So Dragon still has faith that the Marines are the good guys here, or at least that they were misguided and misinformed, like he was. It makes sense, he's mostly seen the Celestial Dragons killing people, he didn't see the Navy ships opening fire on the civillians asking for help, and he hasn't really had any time to stop and think about what it means that the Marines are there to serve those same Celestial Dragons

Regardless, no good could have really come from it if he had managed to reach the ship. Either they would recognize Shanks and give him back to Garling, or they would assume he was just another civillian and kill him or put him back on shore, or they would take him, and we already know how much Cipher Pol likes orphans, especially one who would grow to be as strong as Shanks. Ironically, Shanks owes his life and freedom to Captain John and Kid's future Jiki Jiki Fruit

.

So many attack names! I'm going to take an absurdly long detour here, be warned

Ganzui having what appears to be Mr. 5's Bomb Bomb Fruit from all the way back in Whiskey Peak looks like such a random choice of fruit, though if you think about it, Whiskey Peak was also about a bunch of colleagues all fighting and stabbing each other in the back. His attack name is a pretty literal translation of both the kanji and the furigana

Captain John's Big Eater, though, has both layers and a pun. The furigana reads ビッグイーター (biggu iitaa), or Big Eater, with the kanji 暴贖握磁気. 暴 (bou) means violence, 贖い (aganai) means redemption or atonement, 握る (nigiru) means to grasp or clutch, and 磁気 (jiki) means magnetism, so something like Violent Redemption Magnetism Clutch. However, 暴贖 can also be read as boushoku, and 暴食 (boushoku), which sounds the same but is written differently, means gluttony or overeating. And 握磁気 can also be read as akujiki, and 悪食 (akujiki) means eating strange food, so Overeating Strange Food, aka Big Eater

I like that, while there are some similarities, the naming conventions of past and current devil fruit users are mostly unique to each one. Captain John, for example, doesn't have Kid's punk aesthetics, so his attack doesn't have the punk themed name we see with Kid's moves

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I've already talked about Galaxy Impact and Divine Departure before on the post for chapter 1156 (both celestial themed, one astronomical and one religious)

We've seen it already, but Linlin's attack is 威国 (ikoku), with 威 (i) meaning power, authority or majesty, and 国 (koku) meaning country, so something like Sovereign Nation, maybe? It's translated as Ikoku Sovereignty because it seems to be based on Dorry and Brogy's Hakoku Sovereignty, written as 覇国 (hakoku), with 覇 (ha) meaning supremacy or hegemony. Also, written as 異国, ikoku can also mean foreign country, which makes sense since the giants won't allow her in their country

I think it's hilarious that Kaido just yells 龍 (ryuu), which means dragon. To be fair, he had literally just eaten his fruit like five minutes ago, so he gets a pass on not coming up with names and puns yet

Rocks' attack is 深淵の呪い, with the furigana パンデモニウム (pandemoniumu), or Pandemonium. 深淵 (shin'en) means ravine or abyss, but not like the Abyss that the Five Elders and the God's Knights travel through, which is read like "abyss" but written like "pentagram"; 呪い (noroi) means curse, so literally Curse of the Abyss. Pandemonium is the capital of Hell in John Milton's Paradise Lost, and an abyss is a bottomless pit that leads to the bottom of the sea, or the underworld, or to hell, so I take it his attack means "I curse you to the big hole that leads directly to hell" lol

I think this is the first time we see Whitebeard name an attack, and I found it kind of an odd name, or at least difficult to translate. It's 破空阿 with the furigana ハクア (hakua). 破 (ha) means break, rip or tear, and is possibly related to 序破急 (johakyuu) which, according to Wikipedia, is a "concept of modulation and movement applied in a wide variety of traditional Japanese arts" and means roughly "begin, break, hurry". 空 (sora, but can also be read as kuu) means sky, empty air or void. I'm not really sure about 阿 (a), it could be from 阿字 (aji), the first sanskrit alphabet letter (that अ symbol that some people visualize to meditate? I'm very much not an expert) that can be associated with emptiness or blankness, but is also considered like a seed, a primordial letter, the essence of all mantras. Something like Primordial Void Breaking is my best guess. The funny thing is that 白亜, also read as hakua, means chalk. I assume the kanji meanings are based on how his power looks (ripping or tearing at empty space) and the chalk thing is because it looks like his moustache? Also it has the kanji for white (白), like in Whitebeard. TCB chose Shattering Void, which kind of works, and the official translation chose to go the Ikoku Sovereignty route and called it Chalk Hakua, which is just a mix of the original name with one of the readings, but makes absolutely no sense without context lol

Ok, end of detour

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All of the people who attacked Imu had Conqueror's Haki, though maybe they didn't know to use Advanced Conqueror's on them? Either that, or that approach doesn't work on Imu and/or the Five Elders, just the God's Knights

The only people seen being knocked out by the haki blast are the Marines, I wonder if it's because they were closer, while the Roger Pirates, Dragon and Shanks are all trying to get away from where the fight is happening (or they're all immune to it, which is always a possibility, though I'm more inclined to believe that even insane-haki-wielding Shanks must have had a hard time resisting as a literal baby). When Imu used a haki blast in Elbaf it didn't affect everyone, but I saw it as them being selective (like Luffy in Fishman Island), and Luffy and company felt it even in the Underworld, but it wouldn't make much sense for Imu to just want to affect the Marines right now

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So, is this a Naruto reference? More importantly, is it just a Naruto reference? Because we can see Dragon hitting the ground with Shanks in his arms. The next time we see him, there are little movement dashes on his back suggesting he's rolling over, and there's still dust everywhere from things falling down, so it doesn't seem like too much time has passed since he fell, but there's already a piece of wood in his arms instead of the baby. If Shanks fell out from the impact, wouldn't he have cried? They seem to have literally just finished falling down, exactly how fast is that crawling baby to have gotten out of sight already? Is this just a little ninja joke that I'm not supposed to take seriously? Was it fate???

The fact that Shanks apparently went into the treasure chest by himself really does make him seem like a child of fate

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After the attack, Imu switches their focus to Teach and Eris, and immediately clocks them as being from the Davy Clan, but how? Maybe this is another indication that there's something biologically different about the descendants of Davy Jones. On that bottom left speech bubble they say

解き放ってはならぬ有害な命 harmful life(lives) that must not be released

Now, it sounds mostly like they're saying that Eris and Teach cannot be unleashed onto the rest of the world and bring harm to Imu and their domination of the world, but we could also relate it to the theory of Davy Clan members having multiple souls that must not be released/unleashed/woken in baby Teach

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I wonder why all that Reversi game imagery in the present if Imu can just impale people in order to Domi Reversi them. Maybe because they were possessing Gunko, and not in their original body? Maybe cordyceps Imu has different abilities? But yeah, a Domi Reversi'd Rocks attacking his family would probably lead to Roger and Garp having to team up to stop him (maybe with Rocks asking them to kill him, for maximum angst)

I also wonder where Kaido, Linlin and Whitebeard fall in all of this, and if this is where Kaido's talk about pirates eventually betraying you comes from, if he is the one who ended up seeing Rocks like that and abandoning him. From what we know of his character, I can't really see Whitebeard being the type to cut and run because things got tough, otherwise he would've probably done that already. Linlin is just incidentally there and Kaido wanted to test out his powers, but Whitebeard deliberatly chose to stay and help out, and yet he's not mentioned as being on either side of the Garp+Roger vs Rocks fight that Sengoku talks about in the future

<- chapter 1162 analysis

[definitelynotindecisive]

[escape-the-game-itself]

[donivanessdoodles]

Marco for all you pineapple lovers out there~

It's been forever since I posted anything ;^;

[1piececonfessions]

Predictions for the end, a One Piece bingo if you will:

Vivi will be the new head of the World Government

Akainu and the Marines will clash with the Celestial Dragons

Koby will fight Luffy one more time before siding with him and clashing with Akainu and the rest of the Marines

Koby, Smoker, Tashigi and the rest of SWORD will end up heading the New Marines

Buggy will reach Laugh Tale first and be the new Pirate King for about 5 minutes

Shanks will get the title from Buggy before passing it on to Luffy like he did with the Straw Hat

The Ancient Weapon Uranus is a devil fruit, and not what destroyed Lulusia

[1piececonfessions]

Well, my thought process was mostly that, since one of the ancient weapons is an object and one of them is a mermaid, it would feel more balanced if the third one was also something different (and if we're going with the Uranus = god of the sky, then it should be a zoan fruit of a flying animal)

I actually think it's the Elbaf Royal Fruit specifically, because Elbaf, Fishman Island and Wano all seem to be connected to Joyboy and the Void Century, and the other two nations each have an Ancient Weapon hiding there. Jarul told Harald that the giants had an enemy a long time ago but the records were all flooded, and that it wasn't Harald's fault that he was having trouble with the World Government, sort of implying the enemy was the 20 nations, which would side Elbaf with Joyboy and the Ancient Kingdom in that war

There also seem to be some connections between Fishman Island and Elbaf, with the Adam and Eve trees, and the fact that Poseidon only appears every few generations (kind of matching the lifespan of a giant, possibly), and we know that Rocks thought that the Elbaf fruit was essential to beat the World Government (and Harald having to be the one to eat it, so possibly he means someone with ancient giant blood)

Vegapunk said only the Mother Flame had the kind of power to destroy Lulusia like that, and he thinks it's being used to power an Ancient Weapon, but the Five Elders and Imu never actually said it was Uranus, just that they wanted to test the power of the Mother Flame to see if it was the real thing

[1piececonfessions]

Predictions for the end, a One Piece bingo if you will:

Vivi will be the new head of the World Government

Akainu and the Marines will clash with the Celestial Dragons

Koby will fight Luffy one more time before siding with him and clashing with Akainu and the rest of the Marines

Koby, Smoker, Tashigi and the rest of SWORD will end up heading the New Marines

Buggy will reach Laugh Tale first and be the new Pirate King for about 5 minutes

Shanks will get the title from Buggy before passing it on to Luffy like he did with the Straw Hat

The Ancient Weapon Uranus is a devil fruit, and not what destroyed Lulusia

[huyandere]

nami my girl

[everythingbrainrot]

one of my favourite things about Robin is that she'll come out with horrible violent omens but when we actually see her thoughts they are usually depicted through the medium of crayon drawings