#chapter 1088

[brave-symphonia]

So what you're telling me is that Koby is the Rock Lee of One Piece?

HOLY. SHIT.

[curlybrow-kun]

kings

[chromatic-lamina]

chapter 1088 spoilers

Yeah, I think roydeezed called it last week with this great post on Garp and chapter 1087. (I'll tag when I know they've read the new chapter). They pointed out that Garp wasn't smiling, but now he is. Ah, gonna miss you old man.

You might not have lived like one, but you died a hero.

Kuzan maybe saved the fleet by sacrificing Garp, but not sure. Fandom's focusing on Koby, and it's great, but the loss of Garp is *oof*. Garp would want me to focus on Koby too.

If it is missing in action to reappear again, then fair enough, but he's smiling.

**Just took off the “read below the cut” divider for release of the official, and just realised how much Garp’s laughter looks like Joy boy’s. I can’t be the only one who noticed, right?

[bydxsign]

[migila]

Is Garp gonna die? Or was he perhaps right about Kuzan being soft and gets saved by him?

[basedkikuenjoyer]

The Main Event

We’ll get there under the cut, you can probably guess what it is if you’ve read the chapter, but today is a big one my lovelies. First though, I do want to take a moment to highlight our finale with Garp & Koby & SWORD. We’ve already talked about the subtle ways Koby & Hibari echo what we saw out of Kiku in Wano, particularly the quiet parts. This is just beating you over the head with it. Big moment for Garp and Koby and those are awesome...but Garp just went down a lot like Oden and this parable we start with is sooo blatant. Complete with Koby learning the difference between a noble and senseless sacrifice, not to mention this age and potential of youth element. How high can your ceiling go? But...this is important. It’s an inversion; Garp here is arguing against total equality and for let’s say at least discretion if not discrimination. 

And the other shoe still hasn’t dropped on Drake’s report. All to say, we’ve been escalating through this cutaway to a hell of a lead-in as we finally...

Leeeet’s get ready to...respect Michael Buffer’s intellectual property because he is a litigious, litigious man. No guarantee we’re coming back fully to the main story next chapter true, but we’re seeing Egghead again. Don’t see how Marco could outdo Garp’s lead-in anyways. Just like the previous chapter, we see the narration get a little funky. Listing the headlines for tomorrow’s newspaper. Which does have me wondering if a hunch is paying off. Are these ships arriving the next morning? Meaning we have skipped over a night in the lab? That’s what the structure implies. 

I care because of what it opens up the potential for. We cut away around the time Sentomaru & Stussy are coordinating evacuation efforts. We frame it as the events of the day before. There was already a morning paper leading into Egghead and we see Morgans reacting to early leads but wanting to spin the story. This whole incident seems predicated on Luffy stumbling into a tense situation that has nothing to do with him and last we left off the Straw Hats were in pretty dire straits. So if things turned around overnight...how? This is the basic type of structure I’ve been keen on, well before we really got we were doing it in the intermission. Think Zou, if we start going forwards/backwards on what comes next that opens up a lot. There’s one other aspect here too: 

The Blackbeard Pirates are floating around the main story as well. Process of elimination suggests Lafitte & Catarina, a pair that suggests stealth. This is a huge wildcard if the timeline is that they slipped in while the scramble on Egghead was spiraling out of control. Also note the direction of the Frontier Dome; if LaTarina were arriving at the same time as the Navy you’d theoretically be able to see them on either side of this panel. So I’m excited at the prospect of cutting back to Egghead on the next day. If they’ve already evacuated the rank-and-file, that’d make the Night in the Lab a mystery like God Valley or Onigashima. No one is quite sure what happened.

Let’s call it getting the first number right on a lottery draw. Could be wrong, could go any number of ways. But the “Subverted Sabaody” is very possible from this situation. The Straw Hats stand tall in an incident of historic proportions because something shifted overnight. They’re in control of the situation enough to handle the heavy hitters and the Grand Fleet smashes the siege. Of course, y’all know my other wrinkle here. A sociable quartermaster stepping out onto the scene after we cut away actually threads the needle here stupidly well. Even beyond the Grand Fleet. That could solve a lot of problems.

Think of it this way. We’ve seen it before several times. The Straw Hats drift in, get entangled in the island’s plot, usually take some kind of loss. Then what? What happens after the point we cut away here? They get together, we piece out the puzzle, and launch the counterattack. I’m saying the shell game is we missed that part looking elsewhere. So then, why would you tell a story like that? 

[notmecreatinganopsideblog]

As much as I've enjoyed all the lore dumping and world building we've gotten in these last few months (yes it's been months!), I'm really excited to be getting back to the strawhats. I've missed that funky little bunch.

(On an aside well be getting new strawhat content and anime gear 5 within a week of each other! It's a great time to be a one piece fan!)

[bydxsign]