#ch 1072

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

sanji and zoro's shared tendency to only ever use the honorific -kun for each other specifically for the purpose of being cunts will never stop being so so funny to me. (i noted a couple previous instances of this here.)

for example here sanji is going "marimo-kun... died in the line of duty with the one piece right before his eyes...."

[ninhaoma-ya]

Chapter 1075 — Labostratum Death Game

This arc has it all! Murder mystery! Whodunnit! Imposter! Split teams!

And not to be like that, but damn if that isn’t an ominous chapter title.

However, "Death game" has a nicer ring to it than "Battle Royale" which would imply all-against-all.

Nice parallel between Shaka and the Shadow's poses.

Poor Luffy, noticing something's wrong…

…and yet suspecting he might have broke it somehow :,)

Really enjoying the team-ups! I just hope it gives everyone a chance to shine like the diamonds Nami found.

It's fifty-fifty if they a) come back for the bag, b) forget the bag and Nami remembers once they are out at sea, or c) it comes tumbling down a ruined labostratum later on in the arc and she catches it.

Vegapunk's satellites really vary in size, don't they?

And I love the ongoing gag of Robin's morbid sense of humour. Just waiting for the day it turns out she's right.

But the mystery deepens…

Who doesn't belong? Or has one of us turned against the rest?

I just really likes this panel. Lilith could be a bit more evil, but Usopp's fright and pose, info drop about the bubble gun (which probably will come in handy later on), the sheer size of York…

…which comes into play really quickly!

She is visible when they find Pythagora's head–

–but not in the discussion with Pythagora's head! Where can she have gone?

Usopp, my beloved.

Kind of a major mistake from Vegapunk? Never create something you don't have the control over. Unless your goal is true anarchy, of course, but most people who design weapons of mass destruction usually want them to be under their control.

Zoro's sense of honour is just so cute.

a) Of course there will be a team-up of former villains. Why didn't I anticipate this?

b) Lovely to see Luffy and Zoro's upset faces! We got the rest of the crew, but I don't think we got them in Wano.

So.

Going back to chapter 1072, we have the command hierarchy:

And combined with Stussy's comment a few chapters ago of her inability to override the earlier commands of Lucci and Kaku, it seems like the first command by one authority level holds presedence (which is a really weird choice. What if things change in the middle of battle and the Pacifistas are still hell-bent on taking down object A while object B is now the priority?).

a) Does the Stella have a higher internal Vegapunk-classification to the satellites?

b) Which part of Vegapunk issued the order to wipe out the people in the labostratum?

c) Is an Elder Star already on the island, as the main authority?

I wonder if all the satellites will be decomissioned (i.e. killed) and it's a part of Vegapunk's plan? Or is it all part of the Five Elder's plan – or do they even know what's happening on Egghead?

It would have been nice with a little longer breather between the intensity of Wano and the suspense of Egghead, but the arc is shaping up nicely!

Great chapter. I give it a twirly moustache and a magnifying glass.

[larkreadsop]

...So then we find out that apparently Stussy was a clone all along and what that paragraph at the beginning of the chapter was referring to, though there’s no real indication what her ability is.

And while this doesn’t expressly link her to Bakkin, it’s not very hard to make the Bakkin=Buckingham connection which also ties both her and Weevil into everything that’s going on here.

[larkreadsop]

I’d always thought the whole...Stussy-drinking-giraffe-juice in WCI thing was Kaku foreshadowing but I didn’t think it was meant to be this literal (Oda also says in an SBS that it was a Kirin beer joke but kirin, aside from being the Japanese name for giraffes, is also how they spell qilin which is a mythical horned dragon-like creature that generally has a flaming mane and looking at Kaku’s Awakened form...yeah...)

Also both Hattori and Lucci being concerned for Kaku is great because I don’t think we’ve ever seen Lucci be worried about...well, really anyone, so nice to know he’s capable of it!!

[larkreadsop]

...Yeah so I guess they forgot ‘don’t destroy the lab’ was part of the mission!

But I also want to say that I hope we get more giraffe content because we don’t even get a full-body panel of his Awakened form and considering that last time he was making up attacks on the fly I’m guessing he’s more proficient with using his fruit in general by now.

[larkreadsop]

I’m so happy at least the official tl got the ‘kilimangyro’ pun because it’s great but aside from that I saw so much...complaining and downplaying the fact that Kaku’s Awakened his ability because ‘he’s only had it for two years’ and ‘he’s not even an important character’ but like...the dude just loves giraffes, so if anyone would be inherently compatible with that fruit, it’s him.

And yes, being able to do it in two years is impressive, but Kaku was only 18 when the whole Water 7 mission started and he managed to become one of the best shipwrights in the city and was already a member of CP9 at the time so he’s always been pretty skilled and able to pick things up quickly when he has to.

[larkreadsop]

‘he’s supposed to be a giraffe’

amazing

[larkreadsop]

Again I feel like this is something that should have been flagged as a potential issue long before the Seraphim actually came to fruition but given how flawed the control order seems to inherently be, this idea that they can sometimes make their own decisions is...not necessarily helpful...

Especially given that abolishing the Warlord system to begin with was in part because of how the members behaved so giving these super-powered creations those same personalities that they considered a detriment in the first place...isn’t exactly helpful!