Welcome to my completely normal, not-Law obssessed tumblr! Oh who am I kidding, you're probably peeking here also for more Law, in that case, enjoy!
I usually write One Piece meta, because this is what I enjoy doing the most. So far I have these blasphemies yappings to offer (I keep this list mostly for myself, but it lists all of my analysis posts, answered asks and useful tags to navigate easier towards interesting topics):
Trafalgar Law and his fear of touch and closeness (analysis):
A very scrutinizing look at Law's traumas as a result of his childhood. Seems he has some triggers that kick him into PTSD reactions, especially relating touch:
Law's fear of being touched and touching others - I reccommend starting from this one, this is part 1
Law's closeness with Luffy
Law's closeness with Doflamingo's Family
Law's rare friendships (Kinemon, Heart Pirates, Wolf) - I recommend reading part 2 before reading this one, or right after. They're kinda complementing each other.
Law's reasons of avoiding closeness and friendships (a theory) - only read it after all the previous ones. It involves quite a bit of speculation that might spoiler you future manga developments. I might be wrong with my predictions, but feel warned!
The most embarrassing series of posts about Lawlu you will ever read:
The fish (scrutinizing analysis and interpretation of every Law and Luffy's interaction in the manga, I will prove my point that they're absolutely embarrassing in how much they like each other, you're free to interpret it as romantic or not):
Punk Hazard part 1 / Punk Hazard part 2 / Punk Hazard part 3 / Post-Punk Hazard part 4 / Dressrosa part 5 / Dressrosa part 6 / Dressrosa part 7 / Dressrosa part 8 / Dressrosa part 9 / Zou part 10 / Zou part 11 / Whole Cake Island part 12 / Wano part 13 / Bonus part - Law staring at Luffy
The fishing rod: (the tool theory allowing you to go and fish the treasure by yourself. And do go and fish, because I want to read even more embarrassing posts about Lawlu and other ships!)
About pirates and their treasure (a theory) - everything related to the theory is located in this tag: Love is a hurricane.
(more under cut!)
More character studies about Tragalgar Law:
About Law's rumoured bad manners and rudeness
Luffy and Law's similarities in expressions, behaviour and beliefs
Law didn't know about kids in Punk Hazard
Law's weakness for cute things explained (includes many examples and reasons for this softspot of his)
Law's poor self-esteem (with evidence!) and a bonus: Does Law think of himself as handsome or sexy?
Analysis of Law's quote "pirates doing good things repulse me" (fair warning, it's a long one, I delved deep into his psychology here, because I think it's fun)
Trafalgar Law and his surprising fondness of animals (mini-analysis)
Did Law drink this sake or not?!
Why is Law complaining about being ordered around in Wano? (very scrutinizing analysis of his dynamics with Kid and Luffy, and also small acknowledgment of Doflamingo's influence on Law)
Analysis of Corazon and Law's relationship (answers the question of why and whether Law is more dedicated to Cora-san than to Heart Pirates)
Why is Law so grumpy in Wano, can't he relax for a moment?! (short answer: he can't, he carries the whole raid on his back)
Would Law join the Revolutionary Army? (analysis of Revolutionary Army and how Dragon manages it, comparison between Law's and Dragon's possible goals and way of doing things. Since we don't know much about RA this counts as partial theory)
How would Law celebrate his birthday? (this kinda turned into meta fanfiction, enjoy, haha)
Analysis of Law's relationship with his Heart Pirates (100% Hearts appreciation post, I collected most scenes with them together ❤)
Analysis about other One Piece characters and relationships:
A funny tale (a short retelling of Shanks and Buggy going seperate ways in Logue Town from Shanks POV) - just for fun and feels tbh.
Analysis of Shanks and Buggy's talk about their future from chapter 19
Analysis of Katakuri and Luffy's similarities: part 1 (Luffy vs Katakuri and how they're reflections of each other) / part 2 (includes analysis of relationship between Katakuri and Brulee) / bonus thoughts
My various One Piece theories:
About the Red Line and the All Blue
About pirates and their treasures (probably not what you're expecting)
About Law's future development after Wano (warning for potential spoilers, in case I got it right)
13 Strawhats theory (just sharing hints)
About significance of Inherited Will (based on Japanese concepts of On and Giri)
Theory about future of Stussy after Egghead
Could Corazon be possibly alive? (this probably counts as a crazy theory, but there are some sus hints scattered around in the story and I shared some in this series of reblogs)
Link to my list of One Piece tags
My fanfiction:
Misadventures of Law with the Strawhats (slice of life, slight Lawlu but it's a "blink and you will miss it" category really)
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 (the final part)
Feel free to send me asks! ✨
If anyone wants to send me an ask, be it about some serious topic to analyze or something just for fun, please don't hold back! I promise I will do my best to answer thoroughly (it might take a few days tho or even weeks, if I get a lot of asks at once, but I will definitely answer every single one of them!). I reserve myself the right to not answer asks that are rude ofc.
You might want to check the my asks tag and Trafalgar Law's love life tag as well, because I might have answered the thing you want to ask about already (or simply peek there to get inspired what to ask me next :D).
Here we see Doctor Trafalgar Law use the verbal method of checking for signs of life.
Zoro's arm is right there! He's literally begging to have his pulse checked, but Law's like "nah, I'm off the clock."
That's why he later leaves Sanji in charge of fixing Zoro's demolished skeleton. He's setting boundaries to maintain a healthy work/life balance. Please respect that.
...and for me it's another proof that if he doesn't really need to, he won't touch people. So far there were only few times we're seen Law touching or being touched by someone. Being hugged by Bepo. Brushing his fingers on Luffy's arm that one time in Punk Hazard and Luffy placing a hand on his shoulder a bit earlier. Putting a hand on Hakugan's shoulder. Getting grabbed by the wrist by Doflamingo and freezing on the spot, to the point of not being able to even lift an arm to defend himself. And caring for his patients. Yet with Zoro he indeed dumps him as fast as possible on someone else, lol.
If Law grabs someone, it's always by the clothes. And he doesn't do that to many people to begin with, because it's been just Luffy and Zoro so far, I believe (and Caesar, because of neccessity). But he's okay with being carried, apparently, probably got used to it thanks to Corazon.
It's kinda like a Nami situation at this point - she won't hug Sanji usually and it happened literally once after WCI. Not doing something is also telling us stuff.
Dunno if you're still active, but holy shit. I just remembered your theories about Elbaph being a place to "reencounter loved ones" when a saw a theory that Gunko could be Yorki's daughter now that was revealed that Brook appears to recognize her from somewhere.
Hey :) I'm a bit on a break indeed from tumblr. I hope I will be coming back to it soon though. I really needed to refresh my mind and also do something not One Piece related for a change (I have been going for it for a full year already and I guess even hyperfocus has it's limits, haha).
Maybe it's because I just can't relate to the Scopper Gaban hype that the fandom is living on right now. He's alright, just like Rayleigh is alright as well, but they really don't get me excited. That being said he had a very touching moment in the last chapter and it really hit me right in the feels.
Also, I think I really need to watch and read other people's theories less. Not only it's becoming impossible to keep track of, it's also annoying me, I noticed. People will go and paint the most farfatched interpretations (like based on the cave painting in Elbaf, which, tbf, seems *designed* for that purpose lol), but I can't follow the logic behind it at all. I also run upon my first time impressions regarding Shanks lineage that I shared with my friend after watching One Piece Red and I had some pretty good insights there! Just look at it (it's mostly about Garling there):
And I realized, that was an actually valid question that was answered in the Loki and Shamrock's conversation. Garling did care about his son/heir, which is why he didn't kill Shanks when he returned to Mary Geoise. Sometimes first impressions can be really fresh and spot on.
Taking it all into consideration, those are my three reasons why I decided I need to withdraw a bit from the fandom and figure out where to draw the line. I still want to enjoy One Piece at my own pace (it became my treasure, so I'm not parting with it any time soon... or at all) and I want to keep a fresh mind too, and keeping up with fandom took most of my energy tbh. I might not be posting as often as I used to, but I do look forward to writing a retrospective post on all the Elbaf chapters I didn't do in chapter commentaries. Tbh I'm so used to interacting with One Piece story in bulks of chapters and volumes more than chapter per chapter, the latter is pretty fun too (and doing analysis on Loki's possible backstory was an absolute blast), but I find so many details when I actually read in bulks instead, haha.
But back to the ask itself! The theme I was refering to, was what Shanks said here, in chapter 1076, when leaving Elbaf himself:
It was apparently important enough that the whole chapter is called after what he says here, using the same term for "old friends" (kyūyū). Which is why I believed it's likely the whole Elbaf arc will be set up with this theme in mind: "seeing the old friends (that maybe we thought were dead)". So far it's true for Shanks, Robin and Saul, and perhaps indeed Gunko. Gunko is becoming such a mysterious character, isn't she? Last chapter left me really perplexed in the same way the Emet chapters left me once. I know how people quickly jumped to simplest conclusions here (that Gunko and Brook share a past) but the dialogue that is accompanying it doesn't exactly *fit* that: "what is this memory??" (meaning Gunko sees is for the first time) and "they really do look alike" (Brook commenting from afar) doesn't exactly suggest it's about Brook and Gunko in particular, but who knows, who knows. I like the mess it caused inside my brain, that's for sure.
Part of me wants to believe it was actually Imu's own memory, because I'm starving for any hint of backstory there, but also because it would make more sense to me that Gunko saw a glimpse of a memory that isn't hers and that's why she can't recognize it (I just don't like the memory loss trope in OP, but I know it's a much simpler and easier answer here ofc). Also, Oda likes to do this thing, when he sets up a mystery in the end of the previous arc that gets answered/elaborated on in the next one. He did it, for example, with Sanji in Zou (Whole Cake Island becoming his arc), he also did it with Momo's dragon fruit in Wano when it suddenly works and suddenly doesn't (and in Egghead we focus on devil fruits), and Egghead's arc ended up with Joyboy's flashback and Imu's dread when feeling Joyboy's haki, it would be quite an amazing follow up to that. Perhaps. But I do know it's a big expectation that is very unlikely to happen now xD
I do like the idea of Gunko being Yorki's daughter though, it would make this not only fit the theme perfectly, but also expand on Brook, and damn, I'm waiting for that Yorki red thread to get activated for the whole arc already. Sadly, I can't confirm that there have been any hints scattered around, besides Gunko being a fan of Brook's music... not that they have to be neccessarily!
I was actually thinking, since Oda loves the number 3 in storytelling themes a lot (which I started to call his rule of three, haha), that maybe every single One Piece arc follows three major themes. In case of Elbaf it would be "seeing old friends (we thought are dead)", as spelled by Shanks for us, and potentially two more. Since we're far into the arc, I would consider things like "self sacrifice" (as inspired by Ronja) which could potentially answer what happened in Elbaf's past as well, and perhaps "the assumed bad guys end up being heroes". We start the arc with Rodo who roleplays a villain but later on turns out to be our biggest ally in the arc. We have Loki and by now very few people believe he's the bad guy he's painted to be, even if every Giant in Elbaf believes in that. It's a bit hard to work on those when the arc isn't finished yet, but this is my shot for now ;) it would be fun to actually try to identify major three themes in all of previous OP arcs, could help reveal the story from different angles potentially (or, in the worst case scenario, just to sort out themes, to have a better grasp on the story, which by now is reeeeally long and it's easy to lose the red threads in it, haha).
That's my thoughts for now. Thank you for a very lovely ask, it made me really happy ❤
Hello! I started reading One Piece this year and I saw your post about the possible new strawhats! In my opinion, the ones most likely to be members are: Bonney, Kuma and Yamato. Maybe Vivi. As for Law... well, can't say I wouldn't like it but he already has a crew, so the Grand Fleet?
Hi! Are you asking whether I think Law is more suitable for the Grand Fleet because he has his own crew? This way he can be associated with the Strawhats forever and keep his own crew at the same time. Sure, it's a perfect logistic solution. But do I think Oda will do it? No. For a couple of reasons.
First of all, Law is too important of a character to be part of the Grand Fleet (that was the whole point of Bartolomeo treating Law badly - he was jealous that Law is so close with the Strawhats). That being said, Heart Pirates by themselves can still be part of the Grand Fleet, or not. Oda for some reason really avoids focus on Law's or Kid's crews, which makes me believe he doesn't find them all that important for the story, not counting the Penguin, Shachi and Bepo friendship and Kid and Killer partnership. I don't include Law's pride as possible reason not to join the Grand Fleet though, I don't think that's the major reason he wouldn't do it, even though he would probably feel he lost some respect in eyes of his own crew (he would be mistaken though lol).
Secondly, it's too convenient "wrapping of loose ends" and none of the Strawhats were ever "convenient" additions. Look at Robin, she brought so much troubles with her to the crew. Franky was an antagonist at first and hated by Luffy through the whole arc until he build them a ship for free, which is right at the very end. And let's not forget Jimbei. He also had his own crew and yet he's not just part of the Grand Fleet! He joined the Strawhats, even though more than half the fandom was so certain it will never happen. It took so many arcs for us to finally witness it. But it felt good when he joined. If we go by fandom's beliefs Jimbei would have not been part of the crew, instead Bon Clay, Rebecca, Carrot, Buggy and Shanks would be Strawhats by now.
I'm basing my belief of who will be the last three Strawhats on 13 Strawhats theory (which required solving the 13 cats as Strawhats picture riddle that Oda drew). I do think I solved it correctly, which means I have an answer of sorts and tbh I like it more and more. I have no idea how Oda will pull off Law joining the crew story-wise, but I'm sure it will be really cool. But even if I'm wrong, I don't care, it's actually very fun to just imagine the possibility for me.
And that's what it comes down to. All that matters is that it's fun to speculate. But some people take it a bit too far and I can't stand reddit posts or youtube vids claiming "X is gonna be the next Strawhat, I gathered all the proof!!!" and then the "proof" turns out to be either story convenience to wrap up loose ends in the fastest way possible, arc story summary (yes, we know, Bonney was important character in Egghead arc, that isn't a proof she's gonna be a Strawhat. Rebecca was also an important character in Dressrosa arc and she did not end up becoming a pirate) or some random facts thrown together (some of them are good arguments, most of them are really just there to fill up space). Nothing personal, I just dislike this style of pushing an argument when there's little substance to actually back it up. Also, do we really want the post-Egghead Law situation to resolve without any sort of fanfare? Just with a declaration of "I'm a loser, please let me join your Grand Fleet, Luffy-sama". Who wants to witness Law actually saying that?? (even if he doesn't say that this way, it would still kinda suck, wouldn't it?)
As for Kuma and Bonney, my opinion didn't change. In fact, everything that is happening in Elbaf arc so far makes me only more convinced they're not gonna join. Bonney's dream is to go on adventuring with her dad. She's also 12 years old or so atm. There's a reason why Tama, who is also a child, couldn't yet hop in with Luffy's crew (the very same reason Ace told her to wait and train). Like yeah, Bonney is much stronger than Tama ofc, but it still doesn't change the fact she's a child. Shanks also refused to recruit any children, Luffy knows that a bit too well and seems in the end he agrees with it. As for Kuma, we don't even know what will be the end of his story, everything kinda hangs on Lilith/Vegapunk there. Many people hope Kuma stays the most tragic story of One Piece, but I actually wish for him to get a better ending. Also a happier ending doesn't really erase all the misfortune that came before it, it only adds new meaning to it imo. I think he was enough of a martyr his whole life already. I also think he kinda became like a dad figure to the Strawhats (watching over Luffy instead of Dragon, saving them in the worst situation possible, protecting Sunny) and in exchange Strawhats will become like a parent figure to Bonney. Who knows, maybe she will be the next generation of Strawhats? She already has so much in common with Luffy after all (when they eat together they totally look like siblings) and she would make an amazing Pirate Queen right after Luffy. And I kinda adore imagining Bonney, Tama and Collin/Colon/Collun (why are there so many name variations for him??) being the next Strawhats gen ❤
As for Yamato and Vivi I completely agree. Story has set them up to join in later and Vivi is now closer to that than ever, it seems. Yamato is also moving forward slowly in the cover pages story, just like Jimbei was before her :)
Did it for fun and I gotta say, I don't feel like I deserved this result at all. I made 9 mistakes! FOR 50 questions?! And yet I'm in top 0,01%?? (I admit, I could totally live without ever knowing few of those words there :D)
Also, I'm not an english native speaker. Never lived outside my country. Learned english mostly in school, but I did watch a lot of anime with english subs, read shit tons of fanfiction, watch english content creators on youtube, have english-speaking friends I talk with on semi-regular basis, and also read scientific papers in english, yeah, if I were using sources only in Polish I wouldn't be able to write my thesis, basically. You know what that means, right? You all can beat me easily, all you need is guts!! :D :D
The most embarrassing series of posts about Lawlu you will ever read: edition Wano (part 15)
Finally, it's time to analyze the raid! Lots of scrutinizing, sometimes literally frame by frame analysis here, hehe. I had a blast preparing it, hope you all enjoy :3
And we start from the very beginning of the raid, yeah, that's right :D it's interesting how Luffy had the choice to fight in samurai attire but decided against it at the last moment and went on with his own clothes instead. The mantle looks a bit similar to what Shanks wears, but it's curious how both Law AND Luffy suddenly came up with the same idea, both wearing mantles while never caring for it before, right? Great minds think alike, or perhaps...? It's always curious to see Luffy, who is very attached to his usual clothes, to change his wardrobe to fit the occassion :D it's more evident in movies I guess. But on the way to Dressrosa, Luffy did enjoy dressing as a samurai a lot.
Those mantles are reminescent of Shanks and Cora-san respectively ofc. I don't count Kid, he was wearing his furry one ever since Sabaody, heh.
Law allows Luffy to get the spotlight here btw and for him to say one of the coolest lines of the whole raid too. He might mind taking orders or looking bad in front of third parties (like Kid), but overall? He gives away the credit. Aren't they equal in this alliance after all? Yet he chooses again for Luffy to take the centre of the stage.
In a moment Law will be moody and picking up fights lol, but it doesn't override this tranquil moment of just "standing" side by side with his ally. Speaking of picking up fights, manga and anime provide us two different reasons behind it though. Let's start with the anime.
Anime added a tiny little interaction which I made into a gif above (I wanted a vid, but eh, no matter how much I converted, it still didn't want to upload here, so the gif would have to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
Luffy (his ship passes by Law's ship, he smiles but doesn't say anything to Law, instead shouts to Kid): You came after all, Gizao!
Kid: I won't let you have Kaido's head, Strawhat!
Law: *tsk*
Luffy doesn't say the usual "HI TORAO!" or give any sort of acknowledgment to Law and instead focuses on Kid there. But if you followed with my analysis for all the previous parts then you know already that it basically never happened before. Luffy is always spotting Law and giving him attention immediately. But here, arguably only the smile might have been meant for him (or not, debetable, he did smile towards Kid before in Udon when he asked him to beat Kaido together).
Law's reaction to all of that? He just made an annoyed noise. He didn't get Luffy's attention, even though by all means he should have expected to get some acknowledgement of his presence. And to rub salt into the wound, Kid got that attention instead. The very same Kid Law was jealous about twice before! LOL The first time was on the way to Dressrosa (Luffy getting excited finding out about Kid's alliance) and second time in Wano, when Law noticed news about Kid being kept in Udon. He made quite a big reaction, especially so in the anime, when he was completely spiraling into his own thoughts and neglected everything happening around him for a bit, lol. I think this indeed proves, perhaps, that Law is jealous. Kinda relatable, he's Luffy's ally, he was there for the whole ride, not Kid, why would Luffy give all the attention to the new friend he found in Udon instead? If I can relate to this so easily then perhaps it means I'm just as petty omg.
But little does he know, Luffy probably acted this way because of his undying confidence in Law. Of course Law appeared at the day of the raid, Luffy would never doubt that. Kid, on the other hand, was a big unknown in comparison and told Luffy before that he won't show up, so... Luffy is lowkey calling out Kid for his lie here, heh. And we know Luffy dislikes it when people lie to him!
Luffy was in fact so confident and had so much faith in things working out (despite leaving it all in other people's hands, like Law's or Kinemon's), that he stuffed himself silly and fell asleep, so he's well rested before the battle. The very same Luffy who protested in WCI that rest and bath should be reserved for after-battle celebrations, mind you. Now he acts almost like he listened to doctor's advice to gather the most strength and not waste it around before the raid. You think he listened to Chopper? Nah, for once that wasn't coming from Chopper. We heard that discourse of "saving up your strength for the raid" from this particular individual:
Which means, Luffy again did listen to Law. Good boy. But wait, you might say, Luffy wasn't present in this scene! Sure, he wasn't, but his crew was and Law basically drilled into their heads this mindset (now that I think of it, he probably can be a bit annoying with repeating the same stuff again and again. He has this slightly preaching vibe about him). They for sure told Luffy after he broke out of Udon.
This one is a bit curious. Kinemon is apologizing that the plan got leaked and Luffy looks very surprised (he's not looking at Kanjuro despite their frames being right after one another). Luffy didn't know about Kanjuro's betrayal yet at this point, so it would make no sense for him to stare at him (Kanjuro's frame is there because he's gleefully proud of himself as being the source of trouble). So what or who is Luffy looking at? Considering what Kinemon is saying, he's looking in his direction, clearly confused. And where is Kinemon kneeling? On Law's submarine.
Yes, it's likely Luffy isn't looking at Kin directly, but more like searching for Law's reaction to this. But Luffy isn't distressed, he's a bit surprised instead and seeking for confirmation, imo. Despite that, it doesn't faze him, not really (when was Luffy ever fazed in situations like that anyway? Luffy's usual idea how to deal with complications is by beating more bad guys), he's just concerned because he cares a lot for both Kin and Law (and by extension for samurais and the raid).
In next page, they find out from Kaido's minions that Kaido and Big Mom formed an alliance together. Everyone is reacting with shock to the news and focus on the alliance part... except this guy again, reacting with a very annoyed face and spurting "Big Mom...?!!" instead.
Law reacts to the news about Big Mom firstmost, because he remembers who travelled to her territory to get one of his people back, uhum. And swore not to cause any trouble and do it discreetly. Now Law found out the "discreet" part completely failed and Luffy managed to bring his tail (in the form of a very furious emperor of the sea) with him to Wano. He doesn't seem very pleased with that. He's so overfocused on it that the whole "alliance between emperors" thing feels *less siginificant* in this moment, even though it's devastating news! LOL. Please, mr Strategist, keep it together, without you this raid won't ever reach Kaido!!
He's not very pleased with this outcome, because in the next pages he calls Luffy per "idiot" which he actually doesn't do very often (just sometimes), but always when it's deserved (it's completely deserved here lol).
And I think this disappointment that Luffy brought Big Mom with him is the explanation of why Law is acting like a brat and wants to take over (in the manga). No more giving away the spotlight! Law has to again tidy things up after Luffy, after all. This might also be his silly anger that is hiding the fact he got worried. What exactly did Luffy do in WCI? Law must have asked himself that question countless times before, but decided it's not important to know the details as long as Luffy is back. Seems their escape was not safe at all and it's the moment Law realized it. It probably hit him like a piano to the coyotte's head like in that cartoon, you know which one, right??
Putting his inner thinking process aside, we shouldn't forget how rare it is that Law is feeling like "showing off" and quarreling like a brat with the other Supernovas. He's always the responsible guy, only with them he acts a bit like a child, and we know most of his childhood got robbed from him. So all of this results in unforeseen wholesome consequences, Law can behave more freely, like a bratty teen for once.
Important to note here is that Law is only speaking to Luffy directly and facing him as they quarrel. Kid faces Law, but never gets any attention back, lol. It's even more emphasized in the anime version:
Oh boy, in the anime the insult only gets worse. Not only Luffy didn't acknowledge Law's presence, he also gave out an order "stand back" in everyone's hearing range. Add Law's jealousy to it and annoyance about the Big Mom, and Law's big reaction isn't suddenly so strange anymore. It's easy to understand why he would tell Luffy to stand back instead and that he can't rely on him anymore.
Luffy doesn't want to give in and doesn't understand why Law doesn't let him take care of things. Luffy is a simple person, when he says someone takes care of something, he always lets them do it, so he really wants to know why Law wouldn't let him. Normally Luffy also would just proceed to do whatever he wants anyway, but he stops and takes time to actually *listen to Law* first instead. He's also (comically) taken really aback when Law shouts at him, calling both him and Kid morons. Luffy is not used to Law treating him like that lol. Seriously, he's not! Law always downplays Luffy's blame in everything, gives away his own credit and gives in to Luffy, but here, for some reason, he insists not to. But Luffy realized whatever it is, Law is not feeling like sharing the reason, so he decides to do what he usually does: showing Law he's capable of dealing with this no problem, on his very own.
Now let's take a closer look at Law and his body language here. Despite Law's assertive words and declaration that he can't count on Luffy, when Luffy asked to leave the enemy ships up to him, Law did lower his hand that was already prepared to set up the room. Again, his body language and words contradict each other, he says he can't rely on Luffy but he also lowers his hand like he's prepared to do just that: rely on him. He still respects Luffy enough to pause and talk, even if he has no intention of giving in. He also clenches his hand into a fist right afterwards, which can mean that he's made a firm resolve here: to act a certain way and preservere despite his initial instinct. To provide another examples of similar situation, he clenched his fists when he wanted to run out of the hospital and didn't want to visit any doctors (in the flashback), but he stayed for Cora-san. He also clenched his fist like that when Luffy was leaving for Whole Cake Island, like a reminder of his own resolve. did Law actually want to go with him instead? I guess we will never know...
Want my wildest guess here? I think Law regretted leaving Luffy alone with the WCI mission (if he did go as well, he would make sure not to bring Big Mom along!), thought he was wrong to leave for Wano himself and should have followed Luffy like he wanted to, which is why here he wants to take over now to compensate for it, lol.
But you know, he might just be simply petty because he disliked that Luffy gave him an order, in front of Kid of all people. It's rarely just one reason for Law's behaviour anyway.
Of course Law wins in their little competition thanks to the rain. He also says: "You two are losers, no complaints then, right?" which shows that he thinks that winning in the race is enough to make them stand back, because (in his mind) he won his right to take care of the things. In a way, that's somehow honorable. But it's also his answer to what Luffy said "first come, first served" - Law was the first one so Luffy should by all means back off, lol. Luffy almost got forced to accept that, but he doesn't, he's too stubborn for that. It's hard to say who is more stubborn sometimes: Law or Luffy. Law also constantly regrets his decision to compete in the first place, if his furrowed brows reactions are anything to go by.
It's funny how Luffy is still going on about Law retreating, like he truly expected him to. Who knows, maybe in other circumenstances, Law actually would, lol. Here we are, taking Law's reaction in the raid as a given, as his *usual* reaction (hating to take orders, not leaving things up to Luffy, not liking to be treated as support), but seems it's actually something that is *against their usual dynamics* instead. Why would Luffy be so baffled otherwise? Luffy is not an idiot who doesn't pay attention to his friends, he does his best with that. He's at least smart enough to figure out how Zoro and Sanji are super important for each other, despite always fighting and quarreling. And yet here Luffy is only getting more and more baffled, which explains why he later paid so much attention to Law's moody attitude at Onigashima's roof battle as well. He knew Law was in bad mood ever since the beginnng of the raid and acted strange, and Luffy finally was able to identify the (biggest part of the) reason behind that (spoiler alert: it was the presence of Kid). Not here yet though, lol.
Law's comments about his room are also quite hilarious. When he answers Luffy he's just like "who cares" or "so what", dismissive, because Luffy should have known better not to pick up a competition with him in the rain, Luffy knows his devil fruit ability pretty well by now. Honestly, Luffy can blame only himself here. Law didn't even have to acknowledge his comment in any way, but he did, because well, he can never resist giving attention to Luffy, even when they're quarreling. That's some crazy standards he has right there and seems he only has them for people he likes/respects (and in most cases it's Luffy). Law's answer to Kid is much worse: "I don't want to hear that from you (who is a show off)". He's just being mean to him and only because he can, lol. Though it's true Kid is a show off, so you know, just stating the facts ;)
Now after they destroyed that ship, it's time for more arguing, of course. In previous series of screenshots I included the frame in which they attack the ships. Law destroyed the ship's keel at the top (his attack is indicated by the blue light), while Luffy and Kid both did side attacks instead. If you remember Water 7, keel is the ship's spine, doing damage to it is literally rendering the ship useless and beyond repair. I will let you judge who was the one who ultimately destroyed those ships :D also this sorta proves Law has some basic knowledge about how ships work! Not that I ever doubted it.
Kid immediately tries to brag, but Law ignores his comment completely and doesn't even look at him, he just points towards the next target. He has already resigned himself to be in company of morons lol. Luffy also looks at Law and decides he will show off to Law some more, by destroying the very ship Law pointed towards! He's surprised that he got Law's direct reply (his face goes all :O for a second). Why would Luffy be so surprised that Law answered him? He should be used to it by now? Indeed, but Law is behaving strange according to Luffy here and he just saw him ignore Kid completely, despite Kid complaining for being ignored. Luffy must have thought he will get the same treatment as Kid did, perhaps because Law is angry, but surprise, Law didn't ignore him. He talks to Luffy and even looks at him as he does. I can only imagine Kid fuming even more when he noticed the difference in treatment lol.
But the thing he tells him is another matter heh. Of course Law points out that he was the one who destroyed the ship and the others are just playing around, not taking this seriously. Luffy is mad, because he is taking it seriously, he's just unaware that the damage he dealt and the damage Law dealt are fundamentally different (one was fatal, the other didn't have to be). It's still quite a childish thing to quarrel about anyway, lol.
In the manga as well, Law is mostly facing Luffy and pointing at him when they quarrel, completely ignoring Kid. So who thinks Kid feels here like a third wheel?
I also wonder if Luffy secretly slightly enjoys having a competition with Law (just the competition part, not the quarrel part!). You can see his eyes going all serious and business-like a couple of times, lol.
Then we have a break from the fight and everyone learns the raid is gonna be just fine, samurais made it. Luffy cheered up quickly and Law calmed down as well, seems he let out the steam and he embraced the Big Mom's situation already. He even is back to being worried 24/7 and reminds Luffy that Big Mom is unforeseen circumenstances here so he shouldn't let his guard down. Look at him, he doesn't even mention that it was Luffy's fault that Big Mom is even here in the first place! Despite this being a perfect opportunity for it! Now that I think of it, I can't remember even one situation in which Law blamed Luffy openly or directly for anything. He is capable of doing that to other people though, he blamed Zoro from head to toes at the start of the arc, lol. Just not Luffy... He kinda accepted it as something caused by, you know, natural causes ;) Besides, if Law really thinks he should have come along to WCI, then of course he takes the blame on himself instead in the end (as in: he could have prevented this outcome).
After they learn about Denjiro's betrayal of Kaido, Luffy laughs. Law looks to his side then, and when we follow the next frame we see of them, it seems he was looking at Luffy, not the ships. Catching Luffy smiling made him look at him and smile too, huh. I love the anime staff for adding this little interaction here between them. It's almost too cute and wholesome ❤
Anyway, I guess they're good already, quarrel's over, we can all go home now, lol.
In next moment Law already moved on, somehow thinking Luffy and Kid are done as well. They're so not, lol. Law doesn't bother anymore though, finally leaving it up to them, even though he thinks destroying the few leftover ships is actually no longer neccessary.
It's especially funny to compare it to his attitude from the very beginning, before they learned about the Big Mom being in Wano. He's commenting "they're showing off again" and smirking at the sight, completely calm. That attitude won't be back till the end of the raid lol. RIP.
Then we learn that Jimbei is here to join the Strawhats crew. Law is disbelieving with "uso daro?!" (literally: "you're lying, right?" or less literally how it's translated above lol). No one's tricking you Law, but his reaction proves that he never heard of this development before, despite the fact Luffy wanted Jimbei to join ever since Fishman Island! He had multiple occassions to mention it to Law, even if he couldn't have the opportunity to do it after WCI.
Now why does Law care so much? Is it because he feels ignored as an ally? Or perhaps? He feels a bit weirded out, because after Marineford, it was him and Jimbei in Amazon Lily witnessing Luffy rampaging in grief and sorrow, and now it turns out that same Jimbei is joining Luffy's side... I wonder what incredulous thoughts are going through Law's head in this moment. Is he terrified? Impressed? Both at the same time? Let's not forget Luffy did declare Law his crewmate all by himself in Dressrosa already and Law's expression might be the flashback to that memory, because this puts Jimbei and Law in suspiciously similar positions here (parallels-wise). Both of them were there at Amazon Lily with Luffy, both are captains of their own crews, even both of them were warlods of the sea at some point! Tbh I would be also questioning my sanity here, if I was Law, lol.
Kid's reaction to the new development quickly turns to him smirking and walking away, minding his own business. It's interesting, because right after we see Law's reaction which is the direct opposite. He's staring in Luffy's ship direction, not even looking away when Kinemon joins him. He seens a bit whimsical or even has this odd lonely aura around him. Actually, he kinda is left out here. He's Luffy's ally, right now they're together, but he gets kinda excluded from this event. Like yeah, it's not his business, it's Luffy's own crew, not Law's. And yet his *stare* says something different here.
Anime really put emphasis on it, but he does the exact same in manga, if you pay attention. He's also saying that slightly spiteful and petty comment (it is a bit spiteful, come on, let's face that fact). Also I can't help but think that Law is staring at Luffy directly again who is doing all those cheerful excited gestures with his hands raised above him. Their ships are close enough that they can hear what the Strawhats are saying, so definitely can see it too.
Also if you think Law never intended to create a plan for Strawhats because he finally learned to leave them be, then think back to what he did right after explaining the plan (very reluctantly because he was still holding some grudge apparently) to Kinemon and samurais.
His plan already included Strawhats in it (in quite a brilliant way, he decided to use their natural tendencies and made place for it in his double diversion tactics, even if it is also funny af). He calls them just "two idiots" which in Japanese is a bit more nuaunced... he says "baka nikai" (a very curious phrase to use. Nikai is how you count the number of times something happened, most often used as "twice". So the meaning should be closer to something like this: "no matter what plan you think of, there will be an occurance of some idiot (make the occurance twice) appearing to ignore it anyway". Would be so fitting for his peculiar way of speaking sometimes, lol). He feels the need to specify how many idiots he means, because he's speaking to the samurais and they don't know Kid, so he provides helpful context (not really, just the base minimum of it lol). He actually specifies it like an afterthought here, which proves he uses "baka" for plural people quite frequently. This is also second time he officially does that, I wrote about the first use in the previous post. Baka can be used to refer to plural number of people, no need for unnatural forms like baka-tachi, it all depends on the context in the end, as always.
Right after he tells samurais the plan, he goes back to stare at Luffy's ship only to realize it's gone now. He probably wanted to try to tell them what they decided, despite what he declared earlier: that there's no need to set up a plan for Luffy's group or share anything with them, lol. He went back on his own words really quickly.
It happens in anime as well and is more emphasized. Someone's worried again lol. What happened to "don't bother with them" attitude, Law? :D yep, already completely gone. So yeah, if you believed his petty spite from earlier, congrats, you fell for him pretending not to care, lol yes, I fell for it too, only after analysis it dawned on me that he was just petty.
In manga he's much calmer, but then he's also turned with his back to the reader, so it's also harder to tell. His reaction seems less big in comparison and his speech bubble is normal, not shouting :) he also doesn't seem very alerted, which indeed proves that in the manga, Law got a bit more used to Strawhats antics and doesn't overreact to every tiny thing anymore (which is both awesome and a bit of a pity, but at least we have the anime to still deliver on that overreacting front, hehe).
For comparison purposes. Completely different attitude, haha.
Luffy and the Strawhats destroy one of the minor (but important) enemy bases and Luffy spots Law's submarine and waves to Kinemon immediately, looking very happy. This shows Luffy probably did hear Kin shouting to them before, he was just too excited to react in time :D
If you think Luffy only thinks of Kinemon here, you would be gravely mistaken. It's likely he spotted the submarine and got happy instantly because of the Polar Tang's captain as well. After all, Kinemon and Law ARE on same ship. I swear Brook is looking there too... or is he staring at Zoro and Sanji bickering with each other? Lol.
The same moment in the anime. You can spot the exact moment in which Luffy's beaming smile appears as he spots the submarine ❤ he's also doing his happy X pose and waving his hands like crazy hoping they can see him.
Luffy wants to celebrate Jimbei joining the crew with the Strawhats here (it was actually prompted by Franky first, believe it or not), but then ditches the idea after submarine swims by. This moment puzzled many fans, me included, which is why I was cracking my head open to try to see if I missed something and why does this feel so damn important. Even the chapter's title, "Party Off", underlines the fact that they're delaying the party for crew joining, and by all means this chapter should be called instead with Jimbei's crewmate number (shall be the 9th, because Brook's chapter was called the 8th). I have come to my own conclusions and I will share them at the end of this post.
There will be a lot of focus on the anime, because it really expands on this scene. It's also one of the episodes done by the most oustanding animator in OP's anime department (she also did the famous One Piece Fan Letter special).
Luffy is really moved seeing the energy of the samurai, who are led by the Polar Tang and Kinemon in the front. Now, Kin is not the captain of the ship. He was not the one to give the order to move on, that was Law. We don't see it happen, but it's a natural logical conclusion; only captains give orders for the ship to charge forward. We need to have it clear in our heads, Law originally wanted to kick out the samurais from his ship and refused to do anything before they get off. But after he gave in and included himself in the revised plan, he wanted to tell Luffy the news. Look at the things from his perspective. Luffy didn't wait, just moved on and tried to make a celebration while they should be moving on immadiately, like samurais say it: time is of essence because Kanjuro is already on the move to report to Orochi! So Law wanted to tell Luffy stuff, but Luffy just wanted to party. Remember Punk Hazard and how taken aback Law was when he asked Luffy to move on quickly and that they don't have time for parties now, but Luffy ignored him? This is payback. Law told samurais to move on and not wait for Luffy, because he got annoyed, both by the fact Luffy didn't wait for him here and also because of the flashback to Punk Hazard. This time, Law pushes his point across, which is: THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO CELEBRATE STRAWHAT-YA.
You can see Luffy's change of mind as meaningful answer to that. This time, he listened and followed Law's lead. LUFFY FOLLOWED LAW'S LEAD. You heard me right.
But that's not all there is to it, there is a lot of subtle subtext going on besides that. In many visual cues like Luffy's mug timed to Oden's footstep, the emphasis on Luffy putting his hat back on while he stares after the submarine, and in all the small reactions each Strawhat shows to Luffy's decision. It's a feast to analyze.
In this visually stunning moment, Kin and Oden are facing opposite directions, but it looks like Oden is charging ahead, encouraging his samurais to follow behind him again. And the last of Oden's stomps turns into Luffy's mug landing on the ground with a loud "don", replacing the sound from the present with the one from the past.
And then Luffy announces to just delay the party for later, after they win and everyone follows through with smiles.
But who started this dynamic exchange? Do the Strawhats know why Luffy called quits here?
Zoro quickly smirks, he would follow Luffy no matter what, but he's also the one who is with Luffy the longest, so he knows thanks to his extraordinary intuition what's in his captain's head.
Sanji is only observing at first, more every detail about Luffy's behaviour than his words. Then Luffy does his "heeheehee" laugh (as opposed to his usual shishishi), which finally makes Sanji crack a little smile that turns into full blown hehehe laugh mirroring Luffy's own when he says the line "after we beat up Kaido". Their interaction here gives off some sharing our very own little secret vibes, ngl. And my guess is that it reflects their reinforced bond from Whole Cake Island.
Quick refresher from WCI situation. Sanji tells Luffy "I didn't tell you to wait..." despite the fact he can't even face him, because he did write in his letter a lie that "he will be back". Luffy laughing again with this "heeheehee" to both Zoro and Sanji, and basically never to anyone else (again, his usual laugh sounds this way: shishishi). Luffy knows the truth in both cases (Sanji's lie and Zoro's worry), but he also did something else amazing in WCI: he mirrored Sanji's own promise with his own one "I will be back", "I made a promise". In both cases, after my analysis, I came to the conclusion that both Luffy and Sanji meant specific people with their promises, but have real trouble admitting it outloud. This laugh became their little secret sign that it's okay, I know what you mean even if you don't say it. And in Wano episode they do it again. What's the secret message this time? It actually didn't change. By laughing and talking about beating Kaido Luffy actually means the person he's beating Kaido for. Momo? Kinemon? You think? Nah, the deal was made before Kin or Momo were even part of the picture. It was because of alliance with Law of course. And yes, I think the animator behind this Wano episode saw the same secret communication I saw as well between Luffy-Sanji-Zoro and this episode is 100% refering to that, lol. Ngl, feels good that someone else picked up on it too.
And then we have Nami, who also seems to understand, braves herself and scolds Luffy (which surprises Usopp, he can tell she's faking it lol). Whether she gets the secret message doesn't matter, though I'm sure if she got it she would think it was to be expected and "very much like Luffy". Usopp can definitely tell something's oddly special about this too (his eyes dart scrutinizing from Nami to Sanji to Zoro, all the people who always "can tell what's up"), but he didn't pinpoint the reason himself yet. He will probably realize it only muuuch much later, but he gathered the pieces for now. Robin is an enigma like always, Chopper is clueless (also like always), Franky probably just doesn't mind (he was the one reminding Luffy to stay undercover in Dressrosa so he can be the responsible one when needed, so why would he mind it here. The reason provided by Luffy was probably 100% enough for him), Brook keeps his thoughts to himself (I'm sure he knows though lol), and Jimbei complies. Tbh the latter has no reason to complain, he *was* extremely late to the raid anyway. But it's very lovely that they ask him to be the one to make the final decision, because the shared drinks was to welcome him! He makes sure to be the first one to follow through with Luffy's gesture and everyone joins in.
Even though they delayed it (kinda indefinitely, curiously enough), this scene makes it look like even just putting the mugs down is already partial celebration, which is pretty wholesome.
And it all ends with this shot, just before the "to be continued" screen, which makes a perfect scene rendition and end of the episode, and also something often being recalled to later on in the anime, even in the endings, suggesting the circle, despite looking complete, seems to be waiting for continuation, just like the "tbc" screen spells it.
From this point on, this post enters the headcanon/speculation territory, so please keep it in mind or skip it if you're not interested! There won't be anything new in the analysis after this, as I'm finishing this post with that.
You know what's great about One Piece's storytelling, right? The parallels. How about we parallel this ending frame to the one from the very beginning of the same episode then? :D It's actually a shot of Onigashima island but we see that also right before the mugs were placed down, so okay, we can see common theme here. So what's the very next scene?
Law looking towards both Onigashima and the torii gate Luffy will ransack later on in this same episode, the very same place they're supposed to celebrate Jimbei joining the crew. The very same celebration Polar Tang with Kinemon in front of it interrupted :) do you see the full picture?
"I want to celebrate it with everyone" says Luffy. Law's name doesn't get mentioned, but he is definitely part of the "everyone". Maybe even a very special part of it, if this little parallel is anything to go by.
I think Luffy is waiting for Law to join the crew, which is why the celebration and the numbered chapter with Jimbei's number is still on hold. Maybe even the numbered chapter will be a joined one (both for Jimbei and Law), just like it was for Usopp and Franky in Water 7. It won't happen in Wano though, not that we know of at least. "But Law has his own crew!!!" Funny you mention that, Jimbei used to be a captain of his own crew of Sun Pirates as well, that didn't stop Luffy nor anyone else from recruiting him. "But he loves Heart Pirates!!" do you suggest Jimbei didn't love Sun Pirates??? "But Law will never serve under Luffy!!" Please, that's never how it worked in Strawhats either. No one is Luffy's subordinate! In fact, I don't think you can find any other crew that is as equal as his. Even Law's own crew has more hierarchy going on. But let's put all those doubts aside, because this is honestly not the place for it.
Let's focus instead on Luffy's decision: that Law is gonna be his crewmate, because That Actually Happened and it's canon. It all started in Punk Hazard, Luffy called alliance with Law as "it's something like being friends!". In Dressrosa, that already grew into "He's my crewmate!" (told to Cavendish to prevent him from trying to harm Law, but we all know Luffy, he would never toss those words like that if he didn't actually believe them himself). And now, in Wano, Luffy looks after Polar Tang and that makes him put his mug away. They're not a complete crew yet, someone is missing and Luffy wants to do it properly. Luffy decided to wait till Law is ready. That's how I see this.
But Law refused him twice already! He said in Dressrosa he's not Luffy's crewmate, he protested in Zou when Luffy declared alliance is friendship! Double refusal! Yeah, he did that, even though second example wasn't about Luffy's friendship in particular that he protested against, just Luffy's definition of the alliance concept (ffs Law they warned you. Usopp and Sanji both warned you! You deserve every single second of this suffering lol). And yes, in Dressrosa he clearly denied, but Luffy also never asked him, just made a declaration on his own. Without a question, there's no refusal that he will take into account. And even if there was a question, Luffy often decides on his own and pursues someone he chose relentlessly. He did it with Nami before (following her to Arlong Park), Zoro, Usopp, Sanji (how many times did Sanji manage to refuse Luffy? it barely fazed the latter), Chopper, Robin (Water 7/Enies Lobby situation), Franky (it was prompted, but still counts), Brook (remember? he also refused Luffy despite initial agreement), and Jimbei (how many arcs did Luffy chase after Jimbei again? since Fishmen Island till Wano, huh). You see the pattern? I gotta say Law fits 100% into it, lol.
This time though, Luffy doesn't ask Law directly himself. Would Law have it in him to blatantly refuse if he was asked directly to join instead of "assumed to be part of the crew"? Seeing how bad Law is at refusing Luffy anything much at all, even a stare or some attention, I'm thinking he would have a really hard time if Luffy put him in such position and Asked The Question To His Face.
Luffy doesn't do it though, not that we know of. Interesting, considering Luffy usually wouldn't hold back and chases after people relentlessly. Maybe he wants Law to be the one to declare it instead of putting him on the spot? He does respect him a crazy amount, after all. But damn, that would be a first time Luffy is holding back so much. Also, everything that happened post Sabaody? Actually happened because of Law's own intiative. He chose Luffy for the alliance, he saved his life in Marineford, he sticked with him in Dressrosa despite his plan getting trampled and stomped on multiple times, his steel resolve to die together with Luffy if he fails is impressive, he also waits for Luffy in Wano and doesn't betray him despite perfect circumenstances for it just before the raid. Law always chooses Luffy. I wouldn't be surprised if Luffy thinks Law will choose him yet again, to finally join him. He also happens to be probably one of the only people in whole OP world who chose Luffy over and over again instead of Luffy actively chasing after him, like he did with each of his current crewmates.
By the end of Wano Luffy will get his "biggest feast". Jimbei stays in the castle though instead of going to the town to celebrate with the rest, so his "joining the crew" drinking party is still postponed and didn't happen then either. He did drink after Egghead with everyone, but seems that's not the "right moment" yet. The anime ending of Egghead still shows the scene with 10 mugs, reminding us we're still waiting for continuation too.
Here's the clip of most of the scene of ditching the mugs, if you prefer it in more dynamic form. Sadly no subs. Please notice the scene rendition of Oden's stomping the ground and it sharing the sound with how Luffy puts down his mug. And how Luffy's singing gets interrupted by Kinemon's apology as Polar Tang presses forward. Kinemon there stands for Law, but Law would not apologize here haha. The same way Kinemon stands for Oden and Oden stands for Luffy, the scene renditions are "passing on" the inherited will forward. And who does Oden follow? Most likely Joyboy, Oden wanted to open the country to welcome him. In this scene multiple characters stand for Joyboy who isn't present himself, but he's everywhere, thanks to the characters following Oden's will. It's later emphasized when Yamato says he's been waiting for Luffy, but the underlined stomping in the scene suggests, yet again, that Yamato was waiting for Joyboy (the same way Oden was) and thought Luffy would be him. It's all in the subtext.
But, the first one to start this "passing on" in the raid, was Law, whether he's aware of it or not doesn't even seem to matter for the gears to turn. He also lifted up samurais in his Polar Tang at the very beginning, rescuing them in similar way to Oden: Law elevates them from the stormy waters, while Oden holds them above the pot in his execution.
Also artistically it's absolutely stunning scene and I just wanted to appreciate it again ❤
This marks the end of this part of the analysis. Will I manage to end Wano in the next one? Not sure tbh haha. Might take two more posts! Sorry for slower pace in updates, but this takes so much more work to do than just copy-pasting manga panels alone, eh. It's still fun though, I hope :)
I think the obvious part of the discussion about Hajrudin is the setup of making him mirror Luffy (very excited to learn more about him) but I was pretty surprised to see Road be established as a foil to Nami in this chapter. We've seen in this chapter that Nami kinda orders him around bow while he obeys, and they're both navigators, but this moment really stood out to me:
"He was always so...earnest and straightforward, unlike me." Nami was also alone for a long time, thieving and lying for years, until Luffy, someone so earnest and straightforward, met her and was her first true friend who she could rely on, even though she hated pirates and had to overcome that (a parallel to "tainted blood" perhaps?) seeing that pirates can be both good or evil or anything in between.
I think my thoughts are reaffirmed in that Road so far has been almost an entirely comedic character up to this point, often bouncing off of Nami with her giving orders lol, but we have this serious moment and we take time to cut to specifically Nami's reaction to what he's saying (even though it was Zoro who asked the question), and it's a pretty thoughtful expression she has I think. There's a lot of really cool parallels between these two and I'm excited to see what more comes of it!
If you two are gonna do this, do it right FFS. Go back and get a cloth, tie it around your head under your nose, and then you can infiltrate the secret hidden base while rendered discreet and anonymous.
Seriously, Imma be mad if I don't see these two bust out the cloth masks. For shame. I expect better out of you Tama. Do wonder what the hell kind of operation Who's Who has going on here and all, but we have more important considerations.
Do open up the "read more" part. You won't regret it! ✨
Very curious observation. Luffy looks at Law's hands (probably the tattoos), his sword and his hat (arguably eyes). That kinda lines up with this funny bit of how Luffy recognizes people:
Thriller Bark arc above and Return to Sabaody Mini-Arc below:
We can conclude that Luffy recognizes people primarily by: clothes, accessories (cigarette, swords), perhaps hair styles, less so by faces. In Thriller Bark it was the wooden clogs that didn't fit Zoro's image, apparently, LOL.
Bonus: Luffy's struggle to recognize Zoro in Wano's "blending in" outfit
A miss.
One lead picked up.
More and more details start to fit together... a tough samurai (swordsman), talks about booze... cogs inside head turning. Trying to see the details better too so focusing really hard.
And he finally recognizes him.
It's probably because he was trying really hard to spot whether he has three swords and indeed, he has, as we can see in the reveal. Hehe. Good job, Luffy!! The boy is getting better at it. Hey it's not me making fun of him, that's literally how Oda shows it.
No comment for Law's vision of Luffy, because holy molly, that was so romantic (unintentionally so?) ahahaha. But yeah, another proof that Law is always staring at him.
New chapter, let's go :D time to analyze all the tiniest and obscure details probably most fans wouldn't even spend a second on lol. Lots of conversations this time, so there will be quite a lot of focus on context reading, something I should actually suck at by definition ;)
What do you think so far: is Loki a good guy or a bad guy?
he was once a good guy, isn't good anymore
he never was a good guy, he was born evil (always believe in prophecies D:)
he's actually still a good guy and always was (I trust Luffy :D)
he was bad once, now he's good (???)
I just know he's lying about something, dunno about what
Voting ended onJan 31, 2025
Last choice is basically "show me the results", just made it an actual option haha. Come on, betting is fun, so what if we end up being wrong :D
Wait, is that Who's who base? Even the guys inside wear the characteristic cat ears of his crew. Will we finally learn what's up with him?? But this is just a cover story, so any answers we will discover won't really be that clear, I guess (because no actual dialogues). But it's still interesting. It's like we're Momotaro again venturing into the den of Oni haha. And we have lion-dog, a centaur lady and little ninja girl for trusty companions instead of dog, monkey and a pheasant. Also Yamato's face when they peek inside the base is priceless :D
But wait, isn't Yamato the oni? So it's actually reversed Momotaro tale, we're cheering for oni and defeating the hero?? damn, now I got myself confused LOL.
I love how Luffy says his thanks not only to Hajrudin, but Stansen as well! He cares about everyone, not just the leaders of groups. And now that he got to know Stansen a bit better and got to interact with him, he's already treating him as a friend.
It's wholesome that it's Luffy thanking Stansen while not even taking credit himself for releasing him in Sabaody (last chapter Luffy just said it's awesome Stansen managed to get away, but never said anything even close in meaning to "you're welcome". If anything, he gives the credit back to Stansen in a way, underlying the fact that it was Stansen's own initiative that allowed him to get away in the end). It's like he only accepts half the credit and who does it remind me of? Trafalgar "give half of your thanks to Strawhat-ya" Law when he released Jean Bart, heh. It's of course all implied not said directly, but I even like it better this way.
Also hi Colon (doing a Nika pose as he runs and grins), aren't you too young for those drunken feasts? XD
No offense, Jarul, but that comment is sort of ignorant? Why is he glossing over this fact? I mean, it's clear to him *why* humans can't make their way up to "true Elbaf" (he points it out by himself!). It just shows that despite knowing the reason and about the obstacles, he doesn't ultimately care whether humans will make it up here or not, or die in the realm below. He claims humans will just flee, but we saw the underworld and many humans seemed to have stayed behind, despite being terrified and ending up relying on Loki for the lack of better options. Many humans must have also died there, eaten by the beasts or because of other circumenstances. We also saw what happens when pirates make it below, Giants have no problems attacking them. I don't think Giants in general like humans all that much, it's the level of "tolerance", at best.
I think what Jarul is not saying is that sure, they *might* don't mind humans, as long as they're somehow associated with some Giants (Shanks and his fleet, Luffy and the Strawhats). Which means if Kid never attacked anyone and instead bragged about defeating Big Mom, he could have been allowed to "actual Elbaf" as well. I will leave this food for thought here if anyone's hungry ;)
So, why is Jarul downplaying the reality like that? Is he trying to appeal to Luffy this way, perhaps because everyone in Elbaf seemed to have heard already that Luffy looks like a sun god?
Look who's bragging about defeating Oars and delivering the final blow, lol. Well, to be fair, all Strawhats delivered the final blow together, so technically he's not lying, he's just not mentioning this tiny fact.
So the Giants heard about "legendary warrior" Oars, interesting. We wanted to know if there's any sort of connection between Oars and the Giants for a while already and seems there is, indeed! We just don't know exactly what it is though XD if I were gonna guess, he was probably described in the infamous ancient text of Harley as well (he was born more than 500 years ago, so it's a possibility)! Or perhaps, once upon a time, Ancient Giants were considered to be the most "pure blooded" Giants and Elbaf used to be their home. Then they went extinct and the worship sort-of-ended, but not really, because ancient giant blood survived in some of the current giants, as we can see with the example of King Harold. Maybe he was even chosen to be king *thanks* to his horns/ancient giant blood. Him ripping off his horns would bring a new meaning then: to part with the old ways and to show his dedication to treat all Giants as equals. But isn't it Hajrudin's wish as well? It could point towards them sharing the same dream and King Harold influencing his son, hm. King Harold was at the very least not opposed to having a child with non-Elbaf Giants, and that's sort of a fact. But then Harold is also a father of Loki who proudly declares himself a god of destruction. Yeah, there's certainly some odd duality going on here with the king.
I'm still wondering whether Elbaf was once a different place, unrelated to any Giants, before they took over the New World.
I need to say Jimbei is taking those comments in good faith, I'm proud of him. Comments about skin color can be triggering, even if they're not meant in bad way. It's worth noting though that his first reaction is "!" which means it did alert him. If it was only neutral realization, the visual indication (on the far right, I marked it with a red frame) would be enough to communicate it to us. And I'm going to tackle this issue seriously and I don't care if most people would just brush it off as whatever. Giving this interaction some weight honestly makes reading this scene much more interesting than just seeing it as simple smalltalk, lol.
Jimbei laughs this comment off, as we can see the typical "laughter" visual cue next to Jimbei (also marked with red frame by me). But is it an honest reaction? I would say it's likely he's probably a bit divided inside about this. This is Jimbei, after all, the very same guy who declared in Marineford that he only follows those he personally acknowledges. He loved Whitebeard, he even wanted to die alongside him in the war, but he wouldn't even travel on his ship with him, instead swim beneath it, like he didn't want to be considered part of them. I think we can safely assume Jimbei wasn't very fond of humans or at least really wary of them, and that's likely something he kinda inherited from his beloved Fisher Tiger. His opinion about humans must be kinda bad as the result (but he would never admit it outloud, he's a very "keep everything to yourself" kind of guy), which can also explain his hesitation in joining Luffy's crew (yes, responsibilities were likely only part of the reason, but an important one!). But here he can see that not only humans but Giants can be untactful as well. This could be a small eye-opening moment for him, perhaps? I don't think he had many opportunities to interact with other races than humans and fishmen before, so this could be widening his horizons. You can't know things like that unless you travel the world yourself (or someone really open-minded who did that shares the stories with you). In his flashback, he also says fishmen and other races just need to understand each other, so here he is, experiencing it first hand.
This scene reminds me of some interesting details I read about before in anthropological books. Not only we as outsiders but native people themselves are almost always curious about body differences, any outstanding physical differences can bring out some curiosity. I saw similar remarks in books about Japanese culture. In one book a woman from overases joins a closed world of geishas and trains to become one herself. The others help her with applying the characteristic white make up, but realize their usual method doesn't work because of the longer nose of the woman, which of course results in a comment about it and a joke about their physical differences. Many Japanese caricatures of foreigners often emphasize their bigger or longer noses too, it's not always done tactfully, but it is a fact that differences tend to attract attention from both sides. We can see it reflected perfectly here with fascination about fishmen coming from the Giants from one side, and Sanji's fascination with the Giant women from the other.
Does it mean One Piece is untactful here? I actually wouldn't say so. Why? Because One Piece is full of characters with many different noses and body shapes, and yes, occassionaly even skin colors (despite all the controversies about whitewashing Usopp). My point is: when both sides are curious about each other and don't use their differences in judgemental way, it's just normal human curiosity. Here are some examples as to when it's not okay to point out a physical difference: when drawing harmful conclusions (like this: all asians have pretty and cute small noses while foreigners have ugly big ones), using them in completely unrelated contexts (why bring it up if it's not related to anything that's being talked atm?) or to underline the differences to point out their "otherness" (then it becomes an indirect message of "you don't belong, because you look different than us"). But I will allow everyone to draw their own conclusions, this is just my opinion on this particular scene, not on the topic in general (which is a much more complex and sensitive issue).
But back to the scene. Of course the topic quickly turns to fantasies about mermaids lol. I wonder if Sanji might have derailed the topic there slightly on purpose? Like yes, he would use probably any occassion to talk about his fantasies, but it's worth noting that he also stayed around Jimbei. Maybe he wanted to keep an eye on what people talk about to him or around him, you know? And we know Sanji is a very considerate and caring guy for everyone in his crew (but not only limited to his crew), so I wouldn't put it past him that he sticked around Jimbei on purpose just so he can tactfully control the topic of conversation, so it doesn't become offensive. But also just because staying around Jimbei means he might inevitably be able to brag about mermaids lol. Still, he quickly changes the topic of mermaids to the topic of Giant women, which makes me believe even more in my idea of Sanji just being mindful and supportive friend here. It's maybe not really obvious, but that's even better that it's so subtle, Jimbei doesn't have to express openly his gratitude which could be awkward and make him simply feel bad, because he's trying so hard himself not to take things the bad way. I don't think Jimbei would be ready to admit his fears so openly, he's tbh a rather private type of guy who doesn't talk about his feelings or opinions much.
Lol, Brook's utter dismissal to the question. Unlike Jimbei though, he doesn't even care and can take it on, no problem. Still, I sometimes do feel for Brook in some situations. For example, in One Piece World Seeker game, where this issue is addressed in one of the side quests. I think it was one of the rare times when I realized Brook can feel really alienated just because he is a walking skeleton and doesn't expect common people to think it's not a big deal. He can be quite sensitive sometimes too, even if he often plays it off as a joke material.
But, Zoro is lowkey doing him the same favour Sanji was doing for Jimbei. He's implying with his comment "I'm surprised so many Giants have never gone out to sea" that Brook isn't so outstanding as Giants think he is (even though we know he actually is!). Of course it's also Zoro so maybe he didn't even realize he's kinda siding up with Brook. But I want to have a bit of faith here in Zoro. He might not be the best in it, but he tries to be there for his crew and has more empathy than we assume he has.
Also, same here, Nami. But considering the case of Dorry and Brogy it's becoming kinda clear that Giants have only one major Pirate Giants group at a time. They like never mention any multiple ones, you know? And now with the Hajrudin taking over the tradition it seems Giant pirates are only a chosen few. Not quite like in the viking times when it was said many men went to sea and women had to often take over the villages in their absence. Or at least that's what I remember reading about vikings.
Ahaha, Rodo and Gerd are finally in same place, so I can see more of their dynamics when they're actually together. And I kinda love them, they're so silly. Seems Rodo is apologizing because Gerd made him do that. But it's worth noticing how shocked Rodo is at her words and the strict scolding. This suggests it is NOT a common occurance between them. In fact, seems like this is the first time it ever happened! I did share my guess in previous commentaries that Gerd wasn't openly hostile to Rodo before the Strawhats incident, but now she feels the extra need to be this way to show a clear difference between herself and him (she doesn't want her lovely human friends to think of her as a freak! And yes, it's just about the fact that she doesn't want to be considered a geek or a freak. She's like this type of fan who secretly spends all her free time on her hobby, but at school or work declares she just likes it a little bit, you know, like a normal person. Pffff).
Rodo though likes Gerd so much that nothing she would say could possibly make him dislike her lol. Which is why he's ready to embrace submissiveness as his new kink, which is the extreme 180 degrees turn in his character from the "I'm a god, listen to me peasants" roleplay. He loves Gerd that much, huh. It's kinda endearing really. Besides it being just, you know, a silly gag.
And that means Rodo is already on Strawhat's side lol. That was quick 😂 not only that, he even became Nami's slave number 3 pfff. He's also very good at it. Just look at how fast he adjusted there: "My vision is awful, I wouldn't even notice any treasure missing". Omg he's so funny. And he's enjoying every second of his newly found passion of s&m play haha. I'm afraid I have already forgiven him locking down the Strawhats at the beginning of the arc. And for no other reason than him being just himself LOL.
Now all that's left is for Hajrudin to forgive him too. Honestly, one good word from any Strawhat about Rodo would be enough at this rate, to make this happen :)
Funny how Rodo is trying to shorten the distance by pointing out something that is actually true, as we learn from the next chapter. Rodo and Nami do share some things in common, like, both of them wanted to draw maps since they were kids ❤ but Nami doesn't open her heart to people easily, making Rodo her personal slave is already big enough leap of faith from her. It's a bond she accepted but on her terms, heh. No matter what, Rodo respects her boundaries (maybe because he can indeed relate to her in more ways than one) and doesn't try to overstep them anymore. Actually, he finds pleasure in simply being useful to her (probably the same way he feels happy to be useful to Hajrudin too) and speaks with the Strawhats as earnestly as he can, which is probably also not something that comes easy to him! After he is scolded here he starts to refer to himself as "sessha" which is the humble, old way of speaking Okiku used in Wano (roughtly translated as "this unworthy one"). This means that Rodo actually takes extra step back to assure Nami he won't overstep. It feels a bit silly and again very roleplay-like, but also actually surprisingly genuine.
A moment of appreciation for Zoro acting like a true, intimidating pirate, hehe. Love moments like these in my pirate manga :D
Also bonus for scaring the heck out of Rodo. He indeed realized he didn't take the threat seriously lol. And yet he must have seen their bounties before, after all he knew all of their names when he found them.
More sun god lore dropped :D seems there are different depictions of sun god. He's a god of laughter, a god of destruction, a god of liberation, and... a ruler of the world? One of these is not quite the same as the others, hm. One sounds less godly and more, you know, mortal. Okay, so it's time to bring this question to the table: were they all four different Nikas? You know what I'm thinking about, right?
Except here there are even five, not four :) one is an unexpected double, despite all of them being quintuplets. Many people have said it before and I think this is the time to say it again: this is most likely a foreshadowing of some kind. Which kind exactly? I'm not sure. Will there be a point in current timeline of events where there will be as many as 5 nikas? (we're slowly getting here, let's count it together: Sun God Rodo, Sun God Loki, Sun God Nika aka Luffy, Sun God Nika aka Bonney... hey, we're at four already! Of course I don't think this is the end game situation so to speak lol. Just the same parallel used again!) But of course this can also simply mean there were 5 Nikas already in the past, including Luffy in the present.
Maybe each time a Nika appeared in history he brought about big changes with him, just like Jarul said it, but those changes were once seen as good (liberation) and other times as bad (destruction), depending on the perspective of a winner's interest, ofc. If the winner wanted to be seen as good he would label Nika as something bad, like destruction. If the winner was the same side as Nika, then he would portray the events as liberation then, something positive that helped him win. Honestly if that's the case then no wonder the rulers always fear Nika, it's always in their interest to preserve the order the way it is, which is in their favour ofc. You never know when Nika would pop up and on which side it will end up being.
But you know what? Knowing Oda, it's all three references I mentioned used at once (remember, the rule of three, Oda likes it a lot): the playful parallel at Elbaf, the Nikas through history and foreshadowing the end game Nika situation. LOL. Can't wait.
One last observation about the previous screenshot. Giants said "We all look up to Nika! We all share the same dream!" But if you pay attention to what they said, it's actually not true. Like yes, they all aspire to be Nika, but for each of them that means a different thing! Some of them want to be rulers because they believe in the interpretation of Nika being a ruler of the world. Others believe in Nika as the liberator instead so they want to liberate people. There are also those who wants destruction of the world, like Loki himself. And finally we have those that just associate Nika with laughter so all they ever aspire to be is to make other people laugh or apply a lifestyle in which they laugh and are joyous no matter what, despite the hardships and pain they might experience. I think it might end up being important that same people can share same dream, but that dream might mean something different to them. Like Luffy and Roger having "same dream" in this context, for example!
(btw I saw the memes already that original Nika warrior was black, because the shadowy figure appears to look like it, lol. Tbh I would find it absolutely fantastic if it turned out to be true! 💖)
Speaking of different interpretations of history and Nika lore, we know it all thanks to the ancient text Harley that Giants preserved, even though no one apparently can read it correctly anymore. Oh boy, I hope this is NOT a reference to poneglyphs, because that will throw everything into pure chaos. Imagine multiple interpretations of the poneglyphs... it's probably not the case, since unlike Nika's parallel, this is the first time we hear about this. But it's worth remembering that Enel couldn't read the poneglyphs despite them using Birka's writing. Let's also not forget that poneglyphs can be heard, like in Roger's case (is it possible to hear the message engraved on them without the need to read the signs? And is it the same message as the written one?).
As for the Harley text itself in Japanese it's ハーレイ (haarei) and is classified as shintei (holy scripture, like in religious context). This might be a reference to things like Edda (the original source of Norse mythology) or Codex Regius ("Royal Book" or "King's Book" that starts with a prophecy) which in Japanese is called: monogatari uta (narrative poems, except uta can be also taken more literally as songs. Slight hint towards Binks Sake song, perhaps :D sound was also very important theme in Skypiea, arguably one of the oldest civilisations we found in OP world). We also had a prophecy about Loki in this arc. If anything, those could have been Oda's inspirations here.
This is also the first time we heard that world has been destroyed twice already! This means the current world of One Piece is actually the third world! Rule of three, here, yet again!! Yes, we're totally going to destroy the world by the end, to make it go full circle. Okay, so we can safely assume the previous time it happened it caused a Void Century, right? No confirmation of that but it's the most likely option, even if not the only possibility.
In theory, Void Century could have been "end of the world" prevention or delay measure. Why? We actually have no evidence that the world ended. Imu is still around and many different places with a history spanning over thousands of years, like Alabasta. If the world ended shouldn't Alabasta get erased as well? And also it's been mentioned before that Void Century was the history of a war between two fractions that left "scars on the world". Again, if world ended back then, there wouldn't be anything left. Also, do you remember the clever trick Vegapunk did in Egghead arc? Erasure of memories. And what is Void Century if not a bigass erasure of memories of the whole planet? (even the title of the chapter in which Vegapunk's trick is explained, the Void Fortnight, is playing with this idea). As the result, Egghead wasn't really destroyed, but instead severed into two parts, one got sent to the sky, the other ended up in hands of the Government. I admit I always like to imagine Void Century as the history of the Biggest Foil Trick in History lol. Everyone thinks Joyboy lost, but he never actually failed in what he tried to achieve :)
But putting that theory aside, let's consider that Void Century was actually a successful destruction of the world instead, because many will consider this to be the most obvious answer. That means something like a Void Century happened before already as well. And we have evidence of that! Lunarians were once on the Red Line, right? But that doesn't seem to fit the timeline of Void Century we know of, at all. It was the conflict between Joyboy, the first pirate, fighting against an alliance of 20 kingdoms instead. There was no battle against certain rulers like Lunarians occupying the Red Line mentioned anywhere. Which means that must have happened way earlier than that and it just makes more sense this way. Perhaps the Ancient Kingdom was the one who brought down Lunarians and made them go extinct eventually, and ruled the world as the result. History likes to repeat itself so Ancient Kingdom got defeated by people who then took over which place? The top of the Red Line again. And now we know them as Celestial Dragons, a mere shadows of their past selves.
There's one problem though, I still can't decide where to put the sky people in this scenario. Shandorians, Skypieans, Birkans. Were they connected to the first end of the world instead? I guess we need Urouge plotline to gather more hints, because whatever I try to guess now feels like a shot in the dark, at best. My current best shot would be Egghead's top stratum shotting up to the sky and maybe that's how original Skypieans ended up there too. That though supports my idea that Void Century wasn't destruction of the world but a scam instead. Unless Skypieans were in the sky even longer than we can imagine. We actually have no clue when did the moon people go down to earth, at all. Maybe it was at the beginning of times, lol. Like a parallel to our world's belief that UFO build the pyramids in Egypt, you know. Maybe first place Moon People visited was Alabasta and they build the pyramids there as well XD
Also, it all kinda points out to the idea that devil fruits existed even before Void Century. Which makes more sense than their sudden creation only in the span of 100 years, at least to me.
Another thing worthy to mention is the whole idea of world destruction. It can mean anything, from literally destroying a planet (remember the missing "moons" on Clover's solar system setup?), to something more symbolic like shifting of poles (equator and north/south poles changing places) which could result in current islands getting submerged in water and the reveal of the previously sunken Ancient Kingdom, together with the All Blue. It could by all means also just be a figure of speech, meaning current power systems would get destroyed and new system will arise, for example: common folk will become the rulers, kinda like Drum Island situation. Ruler will now be one of the common people, living among them, sharing their happiness and sadness of daily lives. But I don't think all of the mentioned "end of the world" or "destruction of the world" can happen at the same time in the plot, even if we have sort-of foreshadowing for all of those outcomes (maybe shifting of poles gone wrong can result in destruction of the planet?). Maybe destruction of the world is also a choice between options, and not a foreordained outcome. If you have your own ideas about this please share :D
Jarul was there when this happened, right? He admitted as much this chapter. He saw Loki killing King Harold, and he's the only person in the room who doesn't actually judge him for it. This reminds me of that situation from Little Garden, Dorry and Brogy said if you don't die then it means that's the will of the Elbaf's god. And if you die, you were in the wrong, and the winner was in the right. Jarul thinking Loki isn't wrong is not because he didn't like King Harold. It's just the old belief of Elbaf that he still has faith in: Loki didn't die despite everything so he might be in the right and it can be a proof he has "divine protection", while King Harold died so he was wrong. That's all there is to it. God of Elbaf decides outcomes of all conflicts.
But new generation of Giants seemed to have forgotten this belief already and judge Loki very harshly, unlike Jarul. And why did they forgot their old ways? Because of King Harold changing whole politics in Elbaf; from being a warrior country to centering on education and avoidance of violence and fighting. This could make Giants easy targets to eliminate, keep that in mind, Government considered Giants to be dangerous enemies for a long time, it would be extremely handy for them if Giants became weak, were easy to control (like use them for the upcoming war so they're on the side of the Government) or to erase them easily (in case they refuse, duh, to prevent them from joining the enemy's side).
In other words, King Harold indeed might have been in the wrong and Loki was right. Consider it. In which arc of One Piece the situation as we're told turns out to be correct? Dressrosa? People just live happily with the toys and toys are not slaves for fake saviours who kicked out a good king? Wano in which Orochi painted Oden as the bad guy and himself as the good ruler? Why would Elbaf be any different? The surface story we're told is ought to turn to be a lie as well, the only question that remains is: in which way exactly? There are still many possible answers to that and all are still likely.
Seems Luffy has already decided that Loki is a good guy, lol. I never doubt Luffy :D
Loki's terrible reputation is even more terrible than we thought. Not only he has been born cursed (according to the prophecy, ha, what did I tell you all, I knew it had be a prophecy :D) and fated to kill his father. Seems his birth was accompanied by bad omens (the horse dying. ain't no way a toddler killed a horse, come on. and also same year Linlin caused a death of a giant. year later a queen died... you get the drill).
He was apparently also a mischief (many people pointed it out and I also agree: that part sounds like Oden's story) and an arsonist. But if we remember Oden's case, he was still beloved despite being a menace stomping over the social rules. He also at least once took the blame for someone else (Kinemon and the mountain god incident. Only Kin and Denjiro, and Oden himself, knew the truth). Perhaps Loki also took the blames for the fires on himself or, you know, people might have blamed all calamities on Loki. "Unknown fire? Someone said they saw Loki nearby!". Yeah, sounds plausible to me. It's easy to put the blame on the guy everyone supposedly hates. Let's not forget we learned that Loki spend the time in Underworld Elbaf ever since he was a child. What was a prince of Elbaf doing there instead of sitting in the castle? yeah, I still think he was an outcast.
"Caused mischief whenever the King wasn't looking" part is curious though. the same with the insinuation that Loki could do whatever the heck he wanted as soon as the King was away (why was the King away anyway? We learned already there's only one dedicated Giants Pirates crew at a time). This is something worth keeping in mind. Perhaps Giants ought to run havoc (like in that proverb with mice partying when cats aren't around) and again, blamed it on the cursed Prince. Or maybe there's something more to all of this... seems King Harold had to leave Elbaf quite often, he did end up meeting Hajrudin's mother somewhere away from Elbaf, I guess, and brought both of them with him. Despite Harold being so loved, Hajrudin's mom wasn't even allowed inside the castle, because people of Elbaf didn't acknowledge her and even bullied her :/ all things considered, did King Harold really love his people after all of this...?
Interesting, we learn that the "land of warriors" wanted to connect with the world outside. Seeing their change in education, maybe they even attempted to join the countries united under the World Governement. But why would they do such a thing? Perhaps it was to overthrow the prophecy or to unite with others? If Elbaf is no longer a land of warriors but instead a land of peace, then no prince will kill the king. In one of his theories Joyboy even suggested that King Harold decided to shower his son with love to make sure he won't hate him. That's a nice thought, unusual, but would fit the guy's image. After all he did have a child with Giants outside Elbaf and brought that kid to Elbaf as well (Hajrudin). I guess it shows he wasn't a barbarian but instead a kind monarch who was personally against prejudice. Sadly, seems he couldn't really make the folks change their minds and they still ostracized both Hajrudin (because of impure blood) AND Loki (because he's cursed) as the result. Though who knows, maybe Elbaf at first loved the prophecy. A true warrior kills others in battle, it's a honour, right? Perhaps the view on Loki changed only after the Elbaf's big change occured and at first he had god-like status instead and was indeed seen as a true god of destruction! Which would explain why he thinks everyone should still see him this way.
But then we also have Hajrudin, who wants to unite all the Giants races and become a king. I can't help but wonder why didn't Loki become a king after killing Harold? Perhaps he never wanted to be a king himself, unlike Hajrudin? After all he could think of himself as god of destruction but not as a ruler, as those are two opposing views on Nika, their ideal. Btw, worth noticing, on the arsonist panel Loki is presented in Nika's pose (which I would personally call god of laughter, heh).
So Shanks captured Loki on the seas 6 years ago. What was Loki doing rampaging on seas? It again supports the idea that he didn't want to become the next ruler. Especially since we also learn it was 14 years since King Harold was dead. 8 years is a long time, in which Loki didn't attempt to rule Elbaf at all. And finally he ditched it all and went to sea, huh.
Zoro's reaction is worth noting. Perhaps he realized he should keep Luffy in check. We see them talking shortly after outside and Zoro immediately catches on to Luffy's plan for freeing Loki and he is against it. Which is funny, considering he usually enables Luffy's chaotic energy, even in this arc, it's not like him to pause and question, instead of following Luffy's lead no matter what. This is like 180 degrees from his fuck up in Wano, when he let Luffy cause a rebellion (would freeing Loki cause a rebellion or turn Giants against Strawhats? Seems likely from their big reactions!). Back then Law trusted Zoro to keep Luffy in check, but Zoro didn't truly even try and that led to horrible consquences (Luffy landed in Udon, Zoro was a fugititve the whole arc and basically useless to their plans, wandering on his own instead). In the raid he tried to control Luffy a little, but instead caused as much havoc himself as well. I would say Zoro learned his lesson and tries to act smarter than this. Back in Wano his pal Law trusted Zoro to be able to keep Luffy in check when needed, but Zoro failed, despite being with Luffy since the very beginning, being his first trusted crewmate and friend. My guess is he thinks Law was right in general and Zoro himself should do better.
At first, Zoro is pushing the "reputation is just a reputation" and "I never met Loki" approach, but quickly shuts up. He probably got reminded of his own past. Zoro has really good intuition (even if he doesn't always know how to act on it) and I would say this is one of those moments. He wants to keep Luffy in check, but realizes Luffy never relies on reputation about someone. And he's usually right not to do that indeed. So even though he expects Loki might be lying to Luffy, he decides to give it a small leap of faith, while keeping an eye on the situation. Good old Zoro :)
Interestingly we learn that Government sent informants to Elbaf before, but they all mysteriously vanished thanks to a giant crow. We saw that crow before, it's definitely the same one that carried Strawhats to Rodo. Which means all those CP agents? Landed in Rodo's lego diorama! LOL. Now who's a chad without even knowing it? That's right, our pal Rodo :D Those skeletons probably belong to some of the more obnoxious agents too, so you don't have to feel too bad about them, lol.
While we don't really have it confirmed that it was Cipher Pol, they're called 諜報部員達 Chōhō Buin-tachi "Intelligence agents." Very similar to how CP is called. It's not the exact same kanjis, but we have a similiar situation in Egghead with the kidnapped agents. Chōhō kikan was how CP agents were referenced to in Egghead arc. Only first kanjis are the exact match, but the meaning in both cases is overall still almost the same: (ちょうほう) means "intelligence" or "espionage," and "部員" (ぶいん) means "member." The term refers to forces specializing in gathering secret information. At this point it would be weird if it was anyone else than CP, especially after we learned that CP0 is Celestial Dragon's shield (God Knights are said to also hold the same power or even be Celestial Dragons themselves).
Funny how Loki calls Knights "noble" in same sentence he calls Celestial Dragons scum. Does it mean that at one point in history those fractions weren't the same thing or even linked in any way? Let's remember Giants have a long standing history and preservere knowledge about the world that might be lost to other nations and races already.
This also confirms God Knights is actually some sort of knight order. Not every God Knight seems to hold the "saint" title like Celestial Dragons though (we need to keep an eye on it for confirmation).
Let's examine Shamrock's behaviour a bit closer. He seems to be rather levelheaded and would want to avoid uneccessary bloodshed. If an objective or goal can be achieved without killing anyone (even a wolf), he would definitely prioritize that option. He also stops Gunko from being too hasty/hot tempered, which shows 1. he's higher than her in hierarchy (duh, we know that already, but it's really neatly reflected in this dialogue) 2. despite the fact he is letting her execute the orders without doing much himself, I don't think the order actually came from Shamrock, but instead someone higher up (like Garling?).
Seems Shamrock isn't even allowed to make his own decisions without consulting it with anyone first. And that despite being the leader of the Knights! I gotta say, so far, Shamrock actually doesn't score any bastard points yet, lol. Despite fandom expecting him to be "the evil twin" ;) as for me? I'm just observing him. and observing. lol.
I know many people think Loki is really coldblooded here, but I disagree. Here, he's not actually talking to the God Knights. What he's saying is meant for his wolf friend. He tells him to die in peace and accept his fate, while Loki will avenge him (TCB translation directs Loki's speech to third person for the wolf, like Loki is talking to God Knights about him instead of to him, but he's not. He's talking directly to the wolf, which is emphasized by the "tomo yo" - my dear friend, end of his speech). He also tells him to die like a warrior, without opposing his own fate, scowling or complaining. And the wolf is listening, it literally stops howling in pain when he hears that. This is the multitude of their bond, it's genuine. Those beasts don't follow Loki because they have to, they follow him because of the warrior code. Loki is the true leader of their horde!
His words might seem harsh, but they're mostly assertive, he wants to assure his friend that nothing can break him and things will end up in their favour in the end. It's to appease his spirit. He's not apologetic for not choosing to spare him, but he assures he will never forget about this sacrifice. This is indeed probably the best thing he could have done in this situation. To the people who blame Loki for not choosing a better option: you know what, you should direct your rage instead on the God Knights that toy with the lifes of other creatures like it's nothing. Know who your actual enemy is. Loki is a victim who is faced with an unfair choice from the very beginning. Shamrock and Gunko know it, that's why they try to play with his emotions. They somehow know Loki is more compassionate than he seems.
This is probably how Loki himself also thinks about fate. Don't oppose it, just accept it like a true warrior should. Might explain why, despite being rather kindhearted, he embraced his role as the god of destruction and prophesized cursed prince. Perhaps.
In next line he declares: Kono Ikari o Kuratte Ore wa!!! (I will receive this rage for you, or literally "this rage, I will receive!"), which is the exact same wording style as the famous line Luffy always says: Kaizoku ou ni ore wa naru! (the reversed order of words, The Pirate King, I will become!) And I didn't see it pointed out before, but for me it's a clear sign we're talking about inherited will here. Loki will take the wolf's will on himself, he will inherit it, and that will is rage. Sometimes the will can be a dream, love or care (Saul's case?), protection and many other things too, apparently, Which means the moment Luffy declared his dream as becoming king of the pirates, which he shared with Roger, he at the same time inherited his will, even if he isn't exactly aware of it. Now that's a thought!
This is a tiny little scene, with Zoro being attentive. This detail brought back warm memories. Zoro was definitely not acting like this in Zou, which were similar circumenstances! In both scenarios the crew discovers a ransacked place. In Zou, Zoro thinks the gate is simply open, not paying attention. Law corrects him, pointing out stuff, and Zoro soon catches on, trying to do the same ("something wrong with the road too!"), a bit like he wants a praise, haha. Anyway, Zoro inspecting this door to the castle (it was broken from the inside, you can tell by the damage it left, and it's something that happened recently too!) is the Zoro who is smarter after spending some time with his pal Law :) that's Law's influence on him, right there. God I miss Law.
Cute moment with Rodo being a big chicken and Nami reassuring him. Her intention here isn't dictated by kindness. She commented just a moment ago that "this is too vast to be walkable". She was nice because she wanted Rodo to carry her, so she doesn't have to walk so much. But for that to happen, she needed to convince Rodo to be brave and walk inside together with them, lol. Zoro of course joins in for the ride, because he's a lazyass like that (he did the same thing in Punk Hazard, lol. always riding on Brownbeard's tail). It's worth noting he's resting his swords, is that a small bit of trust?
It's cute how Luffy remembers Rodo's name. I guess it's because Rodo is part of the Hajrudin's crew. Seems Luffy took it to heart to remember the members of his own fleet, which is admirable for someone who has such poor memory like Luffy, lol. So he remembers Hajrudin, Stansen and Rodo now. I think Rodo is actually really appreciating it. Not only did Rodo capture Strawhats, Luffy doesn't even hold it against him. In fact, he had quite a blast in his lego town, was a bit sad to leave it so soon and regretted they had to destroy some of the stuff. In other words, Luffy actually likes Rodo. Luffy usually likes good people and doesn't believe anyone is unworthy of living, keep that in mind.
The interior of the Aurust castle is quite interesting. Some speculate the name comes from english word for owl (who knows, who knows). What are those catacombs down there (they remind me of catacombs in Alabasta that we could explore in One Piece Odyssey, they were also destroyed, and it wasn't because of Crocodile)? Why did everything overgrow like this in mere 14 years? And why was this place out of access, to the point that no one even buried the Giants that got killed in the battle? Things are really suspicious.
We also learn about ancient giant blood which often shows as the presence of horns. Ain't that interesitng?
And we finally learn how King Harold looked like. I swear he reminds me of Kratos, lol. Minus the moustache. Some people pointed out he also looks a bit like Kaido, and since we know that Kaido also had horns (as well as Yamato) and was always kinda huge (though not Giant sized), it would make sense. But I'm not sure he's another illegitimate child of Harold, I think Kaido's blood is more dilluted, that's why he's not big like a Giant himself, unlike Hajrudin!
This brings up a question though. Hajrudin doesn't seem to have horns, and we have no idea if Loki's ones are real or just a helmet (though one of his horns on his helmet was glued back on, if you look closely). Does it mean there's no guarantee to have the horns as a child of someone who has them?
Apparently King Harold ripped his horns off as the declaration of changing his ways and seeking peace, which I think makes sense, since he was known as Great Warrior, he wasn't born a pacifist. Do you think Loki, his son, did a similar thing? is it possible Loki at some point blinded himself, as a sign of his conviction? Perhaps, like Fujitora, he couldn't stand the sight of the world and all the atrocities he saw in it. Yeah, I don't think all that rampage in the palace was caused by Loki. But I could believe Loki saw it all with his own eyes and blinded himself afterwards, having enough of seeing so much cruelty. That could be why the gentle and kindhearted Loki we heard about from Lola's flashback turned into bitter destroyer of the worlds he thinks he is today. Yeah, there's still so many possible explanations and none is truly dismissed yet.
But there's one more possibility here I wanna mention. Loki might have been framed, but instead of trying to tell people the truth, he decided to push that lie and took the blame on himself. Maybe he knew people would blame him anyway, because of that stupid prophecy, and Loki doesn't really believe in opposing his fate. But that would mean Jarul knows what actually happened and lied to us (he did avert his eyes when he talked about Loki). That sword he has in his helmet seems to belong to King Harold, btw. We don't have a proper close-up of it in the portait, but the handle has the exact same, unusual shape. I think it's more likely King Harold attacked Jarul with it rather than Loki stole his sword and tried to kill his father with it. It just makes more sense, you know. Maybe Harold was manipulated (Mingo's strings?) or maybe he was never the nice ruler everyone thought he is, or maybe he went insane. My bet personally is still on Government turning against Giants. That circle in the throne room must have been there before, I wouldn't be surprised if God Knights entered through it before and caused all that massacre we saw remnants of, and blamed it all on Loki. Government always lies and discards the pieces it doesn't need anymore. After all, everyone are just insects to them.
But why would God Knights want Loki? Okay, hear me out. Not only Loki didn't deny the blame they put on him (which put him ironically in their favour, heh), he also ate his father's devil fruit. It's likely to assume most if not all God Knights wield powerful devil fruits. Maybe that's why they killed Harold, to get his fruit (it is said to be one of the most powerful fruits after all!). But before they could do it, Loki ate it and ran off or chased them away. I'm still not sure what is Jarul's role in all of this though. Why is he not telling the truth, if that's the case? Did Loki asked him not to? Or was Jarul's life spared on the condition he never shares the truth of the event, and as the result he was the one who commanded the castle to be abandoned and sealed away, so that no one knows the truth. I hope we will get more leads, this honestly feels like an investigation of a crime scene, haha.
Jarul seems to know more than he seems to. 1. Gerd and Goldberg want to report to him after they check on Rodo, because they witnessed a giant crow carrying a ship. Goldberg also mentions "they're supposed to arrest intruders" back then (chapter 1130). Compare that to what Jarul said to Luffy: "not many humans make it here and mistake Underworld for actual Elbaf". Still think he didn't downplay that comment on purpose? Let me spell it out again so it sinks in: they arrest intruders who make it all the way up to Elbaf. They're not welcoming strangers in their land in general, period. Jarul sold Luffy the "nice version" instead of the truth. 2. Someone put those guards to keep an eye on the abandoned castle. That someone was most likely Jarul as well, because he's the only one besides Loki who knows what actually happened on that fateful day. Who are those guards protecting the castle from? Possible intruders from the summoning circle? Definitely not, the guards were clearly dumbfounded by their appearance. They guard this castle so that no unauthorized folk comes inside. Just like Rodo said it - no commoners, himself included, are allowed inside. Jarul doesn't want most people to know what's exactly in the castle.
Few thoughts here. First of all, Rodo is a great exposition device AND an excellent nerd guide. He shares all those trivias and bits of history, god bless him that he's accompanying the Strawhats. Too bad other Giants do not appreciate him much.
Second thought: when he says that Hajrudin holds the grudge against Loki, he adds "sadly" (in Japanese the way he says it emphasized the "sad" part even more, suggesting Hajrudin was "the most sad out of all people" about Loki's betrayal). That sentiment there suggests Hajrudin and Loki weren't on bad terms in the past, but King Harold's death sadly changed that. That could explain why Loki was never seemingly interested in becoming a ruler himself, he probably knew Hajrudin wanted to become one (it was his dream since he was a child, as we learn thanks to the tiny flashback of Rodo) and he was gentle and kind himself so he supported his own brother in his dream. Even after whatever shit happened in the castle, Loki never changed his mind about it... if that's the case, that's some true brotherly love right there. Hajrudin on the other hand probably wants to defeat Loki now, but thinks he can't (perhaps because of that devil fruit). We met Hajrudin in Dressrosa, he was trying to win the flame flame fruit back then, probably hoping it would make him stronger to take down Loki.
Luffy realizes he's butting into a conflict between brothers, oh boy.
Third thought: I absolutely adore how Rodo points out humans also kill each other and they're not any better from Giants having infights. Though just afterwards his pride takes over and he declares other races of Giants are inferior, but seeing his answer to Nami's comment he's not ignorant, he's really self-aware of his shortcomings here. Perhaps he wished he could change himself. Not surprising, considering he is serious when he declares he wants Hajrudin to become king of the giants and unite all the giant races. He's struggling, but he does strive to become better!
Rodo in the flashback is absolutely adorable and kinda a crybaby. Didn't I speculate in one of my chapter commentaries that Rodo seemed to me like a bullied nerd since he was a child? well, bingo. He indeed was. But it wasn't Gerd who saved him but Hajrudin instead. Which is why he considers him his friend and supports his dream, despite having tainted thoughts about pure bloodlines and other prejudice. I can't really blame him, seems he was always bullied and still is, to some extent. No one really cared when Rodo was carried all tied up to the tavern, for example. And I don't think Giants are so dedicated to humans in general, like Gerd or Dorry and Brogy.
There might be a reason why Rodo is roleplaying a sun god in his lego dioramas, he's fantasizing about a world in which he won't be bullied and has some agency instead. Power fantasies yep. But like we can see, he also has a submissive side to him. All in all, I think he would just want to live in a place where he isn't bullied and everyone are accepted, even if he has hard time believing it could be possible. No wonder, if you're bullied your whole life it's hard to imagine a better world. But Hajrudin could and Hajrudin wanted to be friends with him, and that was enough for Rodo to have restored just a tiny bit of faith back in "humanity", or rather, "giantity".
Rodo also has a good heart and is shy, he doesn't want to admit to the Strawhats that Hajrudin was his saviour. Instead he focuses on how awesome Hajrudin is: "straightforward, earnest, endured a lot but doesn't give up". He has a lot of gratitude and compassion for his friend, and would rather speak about him than his own struggles. We know how good of an intuition Zoro has, he probably sensed Rodo is hiding something (just like he did before with Robin or Okiku), he just doesn't know what or why, which is why he's prying Rodo with so many questions here. It's actually a huge step forward from his judging attitude with Robin, he would rather inquire now than show full distrust. But after hearing Rodo's answer about Hajrudin Zoro recognized they're similar to each other, him and Rodo, both were saved by their respective captains and want to repay them with loyalty and support, but are too shy to admit the real reason for it. This is the moment Zoro decided Rodo is alright, actually. He got Zoro's seal of approval and perhaps a bit of disappointment (seems Zoro won't be cutting him today lol).
I find the way Zoro phrased it very funny and dishonest though: "You're an understanding guy, how boring". Yeah, he for sure doesn't think it's boring, he's just too shy to admit he's not that much different himself, pfff. Always trying to act so cool. It's even more underlined by the "nanda wataseba" comment at the beginning, suggesting Rodo's dream is a hand-over (he's trying to make someone else's dream come true and it became his own dream). Nami saw right through him there though which is why she laughed btw.
Speaking of Rodo, I dunno why so many people still can't find him likable and instead would show sympathy towards Gunko of all people. Her personality sucks! And she is a God Knight, what happened to the idea of "you're a bad person if you're truly supporting the Government"? She's the embodiment of exactly that! Doesn't apply anymore because she is pretty and flashed her panties and has a cool devil fruit? Geez. I'm just saying, it's less embarrassing to like Rodo than Gunko, he's a better person than she is. Gunko is so high and mighty, fully embracing superiority complex of a celestial dragon. I somehow get a sentiment that she was one of those recruits who always wanted "a better life" and considered becoming a God Knight as a chance to change her fate. Or perhaps she is trying to rationalize her own choice, heh.
Seems to me like Loki's threats are a bit hollow though. But I like his unyielding spirit! Though if he gave in now he would have let down his beasts friends that sacrificed themselves for him, so it's not like he had a choice, he had to act tough. I wonder if he's really so strong or is he just benefitting from the lies told about him...
And here we have him, the face and name reveal. Figarland Shamrock, son of Garling and captain of God's Knights, as well as a Celestial Dragon. Now, who is Shanks? Is he his twin? They sure are hauntingly look alike. Or perhaps is Shanks the clone? I guess we still don't have a definitive answer, but we know one thing for sure now: Shanks and Shamrock are two seperate people. I guess he's kinda handsome. I prefer more Shanks bratty attitude though. I wonder if the two ever met before... I would assume they did. Elbaf is Shanks territory and he said "he stayed a bit too long" and met Loki who called him a coward (perhaps for not releasing him or standing up to Shamrock?). Suspiciously enough we never saw the beginning of the conversation between God Knights and Loki, perhaps because Loki was already expecting them. I know people are already burying the "Shanks is the rat" theory, but I think it's a bit too soon to do that, lol. There's always a possibility the brothers are somewhat working together. Would I like it personally though? Meh, depends if there's a good reason for it.
For now I don't have any particular sympathy or antipathy towards Shamrock. I'm not opposed to the "twins" or "clones" idea here either. It all depends how it will be exected and I will keep my eye on this development. Still, I'm kinda glad it wasn't Shanks who had that secret meeting with Gorosei, just because it never truly fit Shanks to be there.
New piece of lore at the end of the chapter! In the past, Elbaf Giants dominated the whole sea of the New World, which is an interesting trivia to remember. It kinda makes sense, now after we know how strong they used to be!
A note about God Knights. They're called kishidan in Japanese which means something akin to "knights' order," suggesting a warrior group that hold values of honor and valor in high regard. Reminds me of those statues of warriors at the entry to the Red Line above, you know which one:
I wonder if there's some connection. Maybe a new incarnation of the old tradition. After all, who is the God the God Knights are named after? Imu? If so, what title does he hold? Another Sun God perhaps?
Yes, I'm insane like that, heh. But honestly, why not. Luffy is a Sun God, Bonney is a Sun God, Loki is a Sun God, Imu can be one too, lol.
More links on analysis of the last chapters:
Luffy says again he's not the hero and Nika has got nothing to do with him (standalone post of mine)
A video from Japanese translator dedicated to the Shamrock reveal, talking a lot about linguistics. We learn from it that Shamrock is probably not holding the same title his father did (Supreme Commander) but instead a lower rank captain, which checks out in my analysis of his behaviour too. There's some interesting trivia included about the ranks Dragon and Drake hold, suggesting that Drake is just a captain and there are probably higher ranked people in Sword above him :) interesting. I'm pretty certain this will turn out to be true.
Analysis of Gunko's Arrow-Arrow Fruit done by Tekking. Pretty good one. Everything besides his point about it perhaps being a logia I agree with. I probably won't pay too much attention to Gunko, because so far I'm not fond of her at all, but other people got you covered. She has a lot of fans already 😅
Elbaf's lore and investigation on King Harold and Loki done by Joyboy. He has actually two videos about that. His interpretations are kinda different from mine, so if you want to collect opinions and speculations to form your own theories, this is definitely something you shouldn't miss :)
There are a lot of abuse and recovery stories out there in fandom. A lot of them are written by people who’ve never been in an abusive relationship. That’s fine, that certainly doesn’t mean you can't write it, especially when it’s present in canon. Unfortunately, it does mean that a lot of people get it wrong.
The usual abuse narrative you see in fandom is a story about absence. The lack of safety. The lack of freedom. The lack of love, or of hope, or of trust. They try to characterize the life of an abused kid, or an abused partner, based on what’s missing. They characterize recovery based on getting things back: finding safety, discovering freedom, and slowly regaining the ability to trust–other people, the security of the world, themselves.
That doesn’t work. That is not how it works.
Lives cannot be characterized by negative space. This is a statement about writing. It’s also a statement about life.
You can’t write about somebody by describing what isn’t there. Or you can, but you’ll get a strange, inverted, abstracted picture of a life, with none of the right detail. A silhouette. The gaps are real but they're not the point.
If you’re writing a story, you need to make it about the things that are there. Don’t try to tell me about the absence of safety. Safety is relative. There are moments of more or less safety all throughout your character’s day. Absolute safety doesn’t exist in anyone’s life, abusive situation or not.
If you are trying to tell me a story about not feeling safe, then the question you need to be thinking about is, when safety is gone, what grows in the space it left behind?
Don’t try to tell me a story about a life characterized by the lack of safety. Tell me a story about a life defined by the presence of fear.
What's there in somebody’s life when their safety, their freedom, their hope and trust are all gone? It’s not just gaps waiting to be filled when everything comes out right in the end. It’s not just a void.
The absence of safety is the presence of fear. The absence of freedom is the presence of rules, the constant litany of must do this and don’t do that and a very very complicated kind of math beneath every single decision. The lack of love feels like self-loathing. The lack of trust translates as learning skills and strategies and skepticism, how to get what you need because you can’t be sure it’ll be there otherwise.
You don’t draw the lack of hope by telling me how your character rarely dares to dream about having better. You draw it by telling me all the ways your character is up to their neck in what it takes to survive this life, this now, by telling me all the plans they do have and never once in any of them mentioning the idea of getting out.
This is of major importance when it comes to aftermath stories, too. Your character isn’t a hollow shell to be filled with trust and affection and security. Your character is full. They are brimming over with coping mechanisms and certainties about the world. They are packed with strategies and quickfire risk-reward assessments, and depending on the person it may look more calculated or more instinctual, but it’s there. It’s always there. You’re not filling holes or teaching your teenage/adult character basic facts of life like they’re a child. You’re taking a human being out of one culture and trying to immerse them in another.
People who are abused make choices. In a world where the ‘wrong’ choice means pain and injury, they make a damn career out of figuring out and trying to make the right choice, again and again and again. People who are abused have a framework for the world, they are not utterly baffled by everyone else, they make assumptions and fit observations together in a way that corresponds with the world they know.
They’re not little lost children. They’re not empty. They’re human beings trying to live in a way that’s as natural for them as life is for anybody, and if you’re going to write abuse/recovery, you need to know that in your bones.
Don’t tell me about gaps. Tell me about what’s there instead.
Is the "Shaggy/Mosa" Loki talked to actually Shirahoshi!? Oda setting up a Loki x Shirahoshi ship?? LokiHoshi!?!?
Ok, Hear me out. I know that at this point in time there is barely any indication at all about the identity of the person Loki was conversing with in chapter 1134, but for some reason my mind immediately went to Shirahoshi. I didn't pay it much mind because that's kind of random right?
That is....until not only did a One Piece content creator also toss around Shirahoshi's name in their analysis of the chapter, but a mutual of mine @wyvernslovecake ALSO said they had the same theory as me so!!!
I do feel like since at least 3 people started going down the same thought process the idea might hold some type of validity. Perhaps our minds are picking up on context clues & hints Oda has been leaving??
Anyways, this sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole & I surprised myself with how well this started to come together. Under the read more I'll explain why I even thought this in the first place & what panel made me lock on to this idea.
So originally the main reason my mind thought of Shirahoshi is because of how this Shaggy/Mosa person talks. They speak very politely & seem to be quite timid overall. I don't think there is anyone else in the One Piece world who is as sensitive as our mermaid princess.
However, what really got me to cling to this idea & want to try & prove it right is that my mutual @wyvernslovecake pointed out to me that Roger ALSO calls Shirahoshi "Shaggy" in the Oden flashbacks.
Now, the unofficals are the ones that use the word "shaggy", but "hairy" which is used in the Viz translation is pretty darn similar. Both convey a state of excessive hair & when 1134 first dropped some of the fans who knew Japanese pointed out that the word "Mosa" can also be in reference to hair or "Shagginess". So while translations differ slightly they are all very similar in intentions. Is this a hint from Oda?
This then get me thinking back to Shirahoshi herself. Is there anything about her arc so far which hints to a connection to Loki at all? Or points to it leading in that direction?
Her gag. What even IS Shirahoshi's type?? 🤔 (perhaps a size/age appropriate tsundere lol? 👀👀)
At the current time of the manga the choice of gag from Oda seemed like just another way to add humor. Especially to a situation that is as uncomfortable as the one between poor Shirahoshi & Vander Decken (ewwww 🤢). Why didn't Oda just have her reject him? Why the emphasis on her type? Could it be that he knows exactly what that type is?
"Who are you waiting for!? "
I think at this point it's a safe assumption that both Fishman Island & Elbaph are arcs Oda has had in the back of his mind for a long time. I wouldn't even be surprised if they were apart of his original 5 year plan. So has Oda been planning for this the whole time & this gag is but a hint to a future plot thread? There's actually quite a few coincidences between the two characters as well....
Other hints at a connection between Shirahoshi & Loki
Loki calls "Shaggy" weak & is seemingly annoyed with their behavior, similar to how Luffy was with Shirahoshi in Fishman Island.
"Shaggy" asks Loki not to shout. Shirahoshi multiple times tells Luffy that shouting makes her nervous. She's sensitive! 😤
Another thing to point out is that "Shaggy" tells Loki she now understands that behind his harsh tone & words he is actually quite nice. Luffy teaches Shirahoshi that a harsh tone =/= a bad person. Through her interactions with him she is able to walk away with a deeper understanding on how kindness presents itself. So she'd be able to talk to some like Loki & see through his Tsundereness.
* I do NOT subscribe to the "Loki is a bad person" propaganda. He was framed I tell you!
Both have spent copius amounts of time forcefully isolated & bored outta their minds. This has the potential to lead them to form a quick & deep bond.
This could also explain why Loki has never met or seen Shaggy. Long distance pen pals while being stuck doesn't lead to a lot of opportunities for visitation.
But Why?
Being stuck in your room forever or being tied to a tree doesn't leave a lot of options for hobbies. Coupled with lack of social interaction I don't think it would be strange for these two to make friends in whatever way they could. Everyone gets lonely.
"Hurts me to hear it to"
Shirahoshi has been through multiple traumatic events lol. She has at least 3 which she could be telling Loki about. One of which Involves a nasty CD wanting to literally steal her which would tie into Loki's own hatred of the WG & world Nobles.
Luffy promised Shirahoshi he'd walk with her in a "real" forest someday.
Where does Loki live? In a forest surrounded by animals & I'm sure lots of flowers.
Brook in that same page reminds Luffy a promise is a pact to the death. While Shirahoshi got to see a forest at the reverie she still has yet to take a stroll in one with Luffy & the Strawhats. Could this somehow take place on Elbaph? 🤔
They are not only SIZE appropriate, but most likely AGE appropriate too! Loki was just born when Big Mom started that fire as a child & we know giants age differently. He is younger than both Hajrudin & Gerd. He's supposed to be around the same age as Road who was also born around the same time so that means both of them are most likely not older than Luffy. Or even younger.
Loki is a loverboy. We know this because he asked Lola to marry him a long time ago & nothing has been shown to us yet to refute the sincerity of his words. Another popular speculation when 1134 came out was that Loki was talking to a female. Maybe Loki was just a kid & that's why Lola said no to him? Maybe Loki is into pink hair? Loki's rejection coupled with Shirahoshi's gag makes me wonder if Oda is setting them up for a love at first sight type of meeting.
They would also parallel Shirahoshi's parents! It is implied during Fishman Island that King Neptune has a past of violence similar to Loki's, but marrying Otohime calmed him down. Shirahoshi also has the same idealistic & pacifistic nature as her mom. Could Shirahoshi also tone down Loki's bloodlust?
In the Oden flashbacks Neptune & Otohime were on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but obviously Otohime won him over. In the anime they even added a scene of Neptune being all blushy/a bit of a tsundere about her when discussing her political protests lmao. A repeat in the next generation perhaps? Surely with her family Shirahoshi would appreciate a strong warrior? She seemed very impressed with Luffy & the Strawhats at least.
Shirahoshi is also being targeted by Imu & will most likely need help in the future. Loki also being targeted & his desire to end the world in conjunction to Madam Sharley's prediction of Luffy destroying Fishman Island makes me wonder if all three of these characters will meet up for some reason in the future. Will Luffy learn of Shirahoshi being in trouble via Loki's transponder snail? There are a lot of ways this can be done.
Literally how though??
This is my main issue with this theory. How in the world did these two come into contact anyways?
The only thing we know for sure at this point is that they've never met. Loki even states that he doesn't know what Shaggy looks like. Do the transponder snail also act like walkie talkies? Was one of them shouting into the void & looking for a companion when they picked up each other's signal? Loki says it's only through a "twist of fate" they became friends. So maybe it was a random coincidence?
"we've long been friends"
Loki implies him & Shaggy have known each other for a while. This makes it less likely to be Shirahoshi as she tells Luffy in Fishman Island her only friend is Megalo.
However, Shirahoshi has lied before. She kept secret that she knew Hordy killed her mother most of her life so perhaps she was keeping secret a long distance friend? Maybe she thought she would get in trouble for it so she never told anyone for fear of access to her friend being taken away. Would be very teenager of her to have a secret pen pal lol.
At least a couple of months have passed since Luffy was in Fishman Island. Loki could just be being dramatic here & they haven't actually known each other that long. His phrase could be in reference to feeling like they've known each other forever instead of actually having a long standing relationship.
In Conclusion
I think it would be really cute & wholesome if the person Loki has been communicating with ended up being sweet Shirahoshi. The more I look into it the more it seems the possibility of this being true is a non zero %. Luffy even tells Shirahoshi that her name is kind of hard to say. Did Loki also struggle with it & decide to just give her a nickname? Has Oda been cooking up this friendship/ship for a while now?
I'm not sure. We shall have to see where this all goes. I'm just going to say though that a mean looking grumpy tsundere being paired with a sweet crybaby sunshine would be a really fucking adorable dynamic ok? You have to admit that at least, right? I ship it.
Loki would also most definitely think Shirahoshi being a weapon of mass destruction to be incredibly hot lmao.
Giant boy 🤝 Giant girl falling in love during the end of the world. Love is a hurricane after all.
While I'm not completely sold on this logistically, my heart supports this theory and I really like some of the threads that got pointed out. We certainly know Shirahoshi had to hear about outside world from someone before and we indeed see her talking with someone on den den mushi type of thing. It makes sense she has a phone pal (maybe even more than one!).
What doesn't add up is the fact Shirahoshi would *most certainly* still cry her eyes out loudly whenever Loki lashes out at her (and he is a lashing out type, at least recently. he probably was much kinder before). She cried even before going to the Reverie, she's not over her crying phase yet. Though I'm sure she is trying to build her resillience thanks to Luffy's influence. So while I can picture her suddenly appreciating Loki's worry despite his mean demeanor, that would be rather recent. There's no way Loki can be "her type" if he lashed out at her before! Unless his personality shift from "gentle Loki" (from Lola's flashback) to "betrayed and mean Loki" happened very recently. The same with his blindfold, we still have no idea if he's blind, just blindfolded, and for how long already (might have been even before his capture and if he was born blind, he wouldn't be able to describe to Shirahoshi all those things he apparently "'saw").
One fact that wasn't pointed out and I think it could add to the theory: first thing Loki did after killing King Harold is going out *to the sea*.
Apparently he didn't stay in his country to rule over it as the next king. Giants said that Shanks caught Loki on the seas 6 years ago! So, where was Loki heading to? Would be kinda wholesome if he wanted to go and release Shirahoshi from her tower and beat up Vander Decken for her, right? :D seeing how he promises stuff like that to everyone he talks to (help me and I will beat up the bad guys for you), including Mosa-kou (that one is free of charge lol), it would fit really neatly together.
Even though I said it's a bit unlikely that Loki is *already* Shirahoshi's type, it doesn't mean she can't declare him her type the moment they finally meet. Imo that would make it much more awesome than Shirahoshi already having fallen for Loki offscreen, in the past :D and that would have been made possible thanks to Luffy telling Shirahoshi not to be such a wimp, lol. But in my scenario she couldn't have been "waiting for Loki" yet, so hmm. Yeah, small details don't exactly match up yet, at least for me. But they could fall into place once we find out more :D I admit I wouldn't be disappointed if Loki and Shirahoshi have a history, imagining them together is actually kinda really cute ❤ I do think Loki's type is more like... itty bitty humans. Unless we find out he never liked Lola and it was pre-arranged against his will (wouldn't that be ironic, Lola bailed on this engagement because it was pre-arranged for her too). Maybe Shirahoshi can qualify for a beast, she's half fish after all, and Loki loves beasts too lol.
Initially, I thought Mosa-kou could be Vivi. Vivi also went through a tragedy and quite recently, and is currently stuck with Morgans and has not much to do with her time. The responses Mosa-kou gives could also fit Vivi, she isn't the bloody revenge type of person either. I guess she would have seen through Loki's facade sooner, perhaps, but that depends how many times they talked before. Just because you talk with someone for years doesn't have to mean you talk with them everyday, after all. Vivi also never left Alabasta before her undercover Baroque Works operation in the Paradise sea of the Grand Line and perhaps, for the Reveries.
"I'm sure he's got nothing to do with me!" says Luffy and I was waiting for him to say it. For him to hear all of this Nika lore and declare that, nope, I don't care, I'm not Nika, I'm not a liberator. It's just such a Luffy thing to do. But I know many fans actually will be shocked with Luffy's answer here or will just dismiss it. I have seen many opinions before that Luffy was always a liberator by choice, so becoming Nika is just natural course of events for him and he will have no problem embracing his role in the bigger scheme of things. Some even complained they hate that Luffy is Nika because they don't want Luffy to be the "fated hero" but instead a "from nobody to the king of the world" trope. But nope! Luffy just noped all of this himself.
Luffy is not a liberator and he's not an altruistic hero, he doesn't go from island to island aiming to save people, and if you think he wanted to, then please remember Fishmen Island and how unhappy he was with the idea of being a hero:
And now if you think Luffy changed since then because Dressrosa happened, then please remember what he asked of Momonosuke in Wano:
Yep, that's right. Luffy still *doesn't have any interest* in becoming a hero. If you think he's alright with that and changed his mind, then you're just not paying attention to him, sorry to say that. Luffy has been pretty consistent about this too and now he declared it yet again in Elbaf. It's the third time already.
You just think it's not a big deal because he so easily changed his mind in Fishmen Island, but it happened only because he had an actual reason to do that. Jimbei promised Luffy all the meat he wants. He gave him a *personal reason* to act like a hero, which is why Luffy agreed. And he did the same in Dressrosa. He wouldn't liberate that country if he didn't get attached first to Law and Rebecca (yes, in this order), and his crew to tontattas. They always do it for someone particular, for their friends. It's the same in Wano too, Luffy's constant motivation is Tama, Momo and Kinemon. He wants them to be happy, most of all, and he even says as much when he defeats Kaido: "I want a world where all of my friends can eat as much as they like".
There, he doesn't do it altruistically because he hates oppresion and villains who thrive on pain of common people and he can't stand seeing it. Yes, he probably thinks it's unfair, but he also grew up in Goa Kingdom, the very definition of unfair regime. He saves oppressed people only when they are his friends or has some other personal interest involved. He defeats the Marine base in Shells Town for Koby (and Zoro, later). He defeats Don Krieg so he can repay his food debt to Baratie. He defeats Arlong for Nami. He fights Wapol for Chopper (who saved Nami) and who he already considers his friend because of that. He fights for the Giants (Little Garden) and Vivi (Alabasta), Conis (Skypiea), Robin (Water 7 and Enies Lobby), Brook (Thriller Bark), Hachi (Sabaody) etc. Though, he does make friends rather easily, so usually it's not that big of a deal. But he isn't going out of his way to places he reads about in the newspapers that need to be liberated, he instead cares more for his own dream. He doesn't enter a certain island with the idea in mind that goes like "if I see some injustice here, I'm gonna bring this shit down". It's the other way around. He makes friends and realizes they're unhappy.
He wants them to be happy again and to live without regrets, and that's why he brings the shit down, whatever it is that makes people he cares about feel so unhappy. Because he thinks this is at least something he can do for his friends. Luffy doesn't think he can do a lot of things, he can't do much at all, but he can do one thing: beat up a guy when needed.
He knows how regret feels like ever since he believed Sabo died, he's not gonna sit there and do nothing next time something like this happens. That's why it's so important for him, to make sure his friends are happy. And that's why he beats up people and liberates countries. It's not for justice, he simply wants his friends to be happy.
But wait a moment, Luffy also wants freedom. Yes, he does. He wants to be the King of the Pirates, because for him it means to be free. And that's how he actually speaks about Nika as well:
He wants the freedom for himself. Isn't it funny that he thinks he already achieved it though?
And before you're disgusted by how selfish Luffy actually is, hear me out: Luffy is simply not a martyr. He won't die or sacrfice himself for the world to liberate it. He will instead die for the world if he thinks that will make his friends happy. Preferably though, he would want to survive and eat that meat with them, and be happy together.
Still, if you want him to be a liberator of a whole world it is actually possible, you just need to make it personal for Luffy, like I suggested. For example, put a person or multpile people who want to save/destroy the world (whichever option you fancy) on Luffy's crew. Luffy always cares for dreams of his crewmates and will always support them (because fullfilling their dreams will make them happy), so he would become a liberator if that helps them. But he would do it for them, not for the world.
Luffy is not a hero because he has a golden heart and a strong sense of justice. He's a hero when his friends are in danger instead, because instead of a golden heart, he simply has a big heart and makes friends wherever he goes. A martyr-like hero who sacrfices himself for people without caring for his own wellbeing is noble, but it's also not a healthy mentality, believe it or not. For starters, if you never care enough for yourself and are ready to throw your life away for a concept, what will happen with people who love you and care for you? Is it fair towards them to throw your life away without caring who you're leaving behind and how they will feel about it? Do you even care then for their feelings if your pursuit of greater good is more important to you? You can save the world and make people you love sad and unhappy, and like they don't even care anymore to live, because you were the one who made them happy and now you're gone. Did you save the world for them or destroyed it for them instead, as the result?
Luffy has his own interest in saving his friends too: so he's not alone again. Humans aren't selfless beings, but it doesn't automatically make us bad people either. And sometimes, while pursuing selfish things, we do something that appear to be extremely selfless. But at the bottom of it: we also do it for themselves, even if it kills us.
Tokyo Babylon taught me that every act is selfish, even if it appears like we do it for someone else: we simply want to feel better about ourselves then. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as we don't lose the sight of other people's feelings on our way. We can always share, after all, and that sharing is the bridge between the lone islands that people are.
Luffy, if he dies, will also say, just like Seishiro: "I didn't do it for you. I did everything by my own choice". For myself. Despite the fact it is also true he does it to make his friends happy. Being selfish and being selfless is like two sides of the same coin and both choices can end up actually hurting people. In the first case, because you care too much about yourself and too little about feelings of others, and in second case because you care too little about yourself and still too little about feelings of people that love and care for you. Can you spot the thing in common here?
Bonney's character was retconned, they said. She was never supposed to be a little girl, they said.
What a coincidence she turned into a little girl when she fell into water, in One Piece Stampede, the movie from 2019. Apparently Egghead started only in 2022?
And please, whether you believe movies to be canon or not, and this to be just coincidence, it's all up to you. For me it proves Oda had child Bonney in mind since at least 2019. Also Oda worked on movies ever since Strong World, which includes Stampede. yada yada timelines don't match, I don't care^^; Oda worked on it so for me, at the very least, the lore from the movies is canon.
Tanith Lee was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award for best novel, for the second book of the Flat Earth series. She died in 2015. You can buy Tales From the Flat Earth here in paperback or here on Kindle.
