(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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
