#ch 908

[larkreadsop]

It’s...very strange to see Kuma smiling...but knowing that Sabo’s still beating himself up about not being at Marineford even if he honestly didn’t know it kind of makes his desperation more understandable. I think he does recognize that anything within Kuma that’s still ‘Kuma’ is probably long gone by now but he’s still not willing to give up.

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

So all the way back in chapter 595, a captured Jewelry Bonney shouts something like "I'll never for give you," or "I'll make you pay," at Akainu (I've seen a couple of different translations). This interaction has sparked A TON of theories but I'm more curious about if the original Japanese version offers any clarification to if Bonney is speaking to Akainu as an individual person or as a representative of the world gov/marines? Basically, singular you vs collective you?

it is the plural! what she says is お前達絶対に許さないからな/omae-tachi zettai ni yurusanai kara na! (basically “I’ll never forgive you!”) the tachi makes the ‘you’ plural, so she does indeed seem to be addressing the marines/government as a whole.

this is reinforced by the fact that she says almost the exact same line in the reverie arc, when she sees what’s become of kuma: 許さない!! 絶対に!!/yurusanai!! zettai ni!!

[elldan]

Okay, so at first I thought 'great cleansing' meant genocide, but then they're talking about 'who' and 'the light that needs to be extinguished from history'. Now that implies they will somehow remove one person from history, not necessarily killing them. Perhaps this is Im-samas devilfruit? Somehow being able to remove information about a person or an incident from everyone's minds? This reminds us of the void century, could it be a result of Im-sama using their devilfruit? What could have gone so wrong they had to hide 800 years? From the pictures we can see Luffy, Blackbeard, Shirahoshi and Vivi as what we assume are candidates to be this 'light that needs to be extinguished'. From the world governments point of view I can see why Luffy and Blackbeard are there, they are pirates that threaten peace and inspires new pirates. But why Shirahoshi and Vivi? They're both princesses and they haven't had neatly as much impact on the world as say, Shanks, so why are they candidates? Shirahoshi is Posiedon, but since she has barely used this power I find it hard to believe that the world government would know this. Vivi has great influence on her people, sure, but they're just a tiny island in the beginning of paradise? Despite this, it looks like 'Im-sama' chose Vivi. What does this mean? Will they do something to her doing the reverie?

[larkreadsop]

This is a wonderful group and I’m glad they’ve all had a chance to meet each other now.

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

In Chapter 908 (I'm not sure what the correct way to count the panels is), it's implied that Bonney and Kuma are husband and wife, based on the titles underneath their names. What do their titles say in the Japanese?

husband and wife??? that’s a new one.

when bonney is introduced in her disguise as ‘connie,’ she’s introduced as the 王太后/oudaigou of the sorbet kingdom, which means ‘dowager queen,’ aka the king’s mother. though when she’s properly introduced as herself a few pages later she’s just introduced in her role as captain of the bonney pirates.

meanwhile kuma has like three different titles he’s introduced with, but the relevant one is 元ソルベ王国国王/moto sorube oukoku kokuou which is ‘former king of sorbet kingdom.’

so... if bonney’s initial title was actually true, that would make her kuma’s mom, not his wife, which, uh, i do not believe to be the case! unless she is a LOT older than she generally appears to be.

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

This line by one of the Gorosei is a call-back to that quote from Roger at the start of chapter 100, where he’s listing things that 'do not/cannot be stopped’ (止まらない/tomaranai) and one of the things he mentions is 時代のうねり/jidai no uneri, ‘the winding/meandering of the ages.’ And the use of uneri stuck out to me as kind of memorable there when I did my breakdown of that page, because it’s such a unique word.

Then, here, the line by one of the Gorosei is 頂上戦争から2年、もはやうねりは止まらない/choujou sensou kara ninen, mohaya “uneri” wa tomaranai. “In the two years since the Paramount War... the meandering/undulation/swell can no longer be stopped.”

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

Hi! I love your blog so much, your analysis rules and your meta posts just KILL me. I was wondering about ch 908 when the Gorosei kneel before Im. I've seen this line translated as "tell us the name of the light that must be extinguished from history." This sounds a bit awkward, is it accurate? (I am obsessed with Im lol)

Hello! Yeah, that’s actually more literal of a translation than I would usually expect, which is maybe why it sounds kind of awkward in English, but it is accurate. 

The first part of the line is 歴史より消すべき灯がまたお決まりでそうか？/rekishi yori kesubeki tomoshibi ga mata okimari deshouka?

Rekishi yori kesubeki is “should/ought to be erased/extinguished from history.” Tomoshibi does mean ‘light,’ and it stood out to me here because it’s not a terribly common way of saying that? It can also mean ‘lantern’ or ‘lamp,’ and interestingly, it’s the same word as from Robin’s “Light of the Revolution” epithet (革命の灯/kakumei no tomoshibi). 

Okimari deshouka is a polite way of saying something like “it seems it has been decided?” The word that really caught my attention here, though, which doesn’t seem to have been included in the English translation you provided, is mata. Which means ‘again.’ So the line here is something like, “It seems you have again chosen/decided on the/a light which should be erased from history?”

And then they finish with 然らば、その者の名を/shikaraba, sono mono no na wo! Shikaraba (this is again pretty formal language) means like ‘if that be the case’, sono mono no na is ‘that person’s name.’ This sentence never finishes with a verb, which is something you can omit in Japanese sometimes if it’s obvious. So it’s like “If that’s the case, (tell/give us) that person’s name!”

[larkreadsop]

The idea that there’s this...shadowy figure who can command even the Five Elders to just...zap entire nations out of existence on a whim is terrifying.