A knight will always follow the sun. Once it sets, a moon, ivory and quiet, will wait for that dawn once more, for it only reflects that warmth, never making it itself.
ITS TIMEEEEEEEEE ππ₯π Brook & Shuri backstory chapter, baby!!!!! Let's get right into it!
Spoilers below, as per usual! I apologize for the single panel posts earlier, I got excited β₯οΉβ₯
That isβ definitely some sort of Japanese pun that's translating poorly. Oh well, what can ya do Β―\_(γ)_/Β―
Okay so Everybody is just on a the "petty for centuries" train, huh? Also jeez Imu, talk to Loki! It's rude (and stupid) to be ignoring your actual opponent!
WHO?! Oda can't stop dropping Void Century lore even in a chapter not about it omfg π It may be just bc it's early, but I can't tell if Dozan was the previous Nidhoggr Fruit user, or somebody else.....
Imu's attacks & weapons stay very badass, just as they stay very beautiful
ODA π₯ KNOWS π₯ HOW π₯ TO π₯ DRAW π₯ A π₯ GOD π₯ DAMNED π₯ HIT!!!!! π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯
Beautifully badass <3
The giant families are being put through the blender, please give them a break Oda omfg π
Anyway, interesting pause panels there with Zaza's staring. Really highlights the ringed eyes.
QUEEN π SHIT π That's what we love to see!!! Get their asses, my lady!
Could've taken more, chose to dip early, points to Double Agent Killi π Yes atp I am fully delulu and reaching about this, what about it?
"Not an enemy but someone I hoped I'd never have to see again"? "Supposed to stay that way"? ......I need to go over some stuff from previous chapters, but was their separation actually an attempt to protect Shuri? Oda, please, what happened?!?!
Okay so her age was mistranslated before, good to know. Also hilarious that the Straw Hats still don't know the immortality stops aging, they desperately need a lore dump.
ALRIGHT So Brook knows that Shuri went to Mariejois, okay, good to know.
Congrats on the braincells, everybody! Figuring out that Shuri's possessed from outside context clues, very good!
Yes Jinbei, that's insensitive, but I understand the urgency of the situation and am giving you a pass
Esperia... It's too early for this, but that name sounds important. I'll have to chew on it later when I can think.
The kingdom fellβ? Oh right the patricide thing, forgot about that lmao
A musical country! I now have thoughts about how Brook might've ended up with the Rumbars!
YOUNG BROOK IS JUST AS WHIMSICAL AS POST-SKELETON BROOK THAT'S HILARIOUS He really was always like that <3
Brook dreaming of going out to sea one day, having absolutely no idea that doing so will lead to the Horrors before he eventually hits freedom π¬ It eventually gets better but oh boy it gets worse first!
You lot have no appreciation for the joys of life! Let the man play music at 4am! He's just being silly! (I too would probably shoot him if he woke me up like that)
dw Brook, you get to meet mermaids. Eventually, after the Horrors.
Oughhhh the other guards all being fanboys over Brook's badass swordstyle, and Brook attempting to teach them it!!!!! They're so adorable
SPEAKING OF ADORABLE ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯π₯πππ₯π₯ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯π₯ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯π
Somebody needs to knock my ass out, my cuteness aggression is going through the roof. I'm going to murder Imu for separating them, Imu or whoever else is responsible.
Anyway! Lil baby Shuri training so she can be strong like Mama! π₯Ίπ₯Ή and I'm obsessed with her unique laugh, it's so precious
Ah, the king! Leuven, nice to meet you. I still have my suspicions that you might be a tyrant, but the fact you're our here gardening + a following scene is leading me to think you might not be too bad?
Idk yet! Shuri seems happy to see you, at least! I can't tell if that "bro" is meant to be a more casual "dude" kinda thing, or a shortening of brother.....
Brook our bisexual icon. I love him, and by later on in the chapter? Yeah I totally agree, one chance my queen please. "Lady Candel, light of my life" is adorably sweet πππππ
Shuri bullying him is so cute, the deadpan of it all, she's so tired of his bullshit π€
LMAO Brook you can't be saying that, the writer's listening! He's gonna put you through the horrors!
Shuri bullying continued, I am biting the drywall about it
THEY'RE SILLY!!!! Okay, King Leuven might have more going on than being a possible tyrant, which is interesting! Oda always giving characters depth.
The Dad!Brook stocks have never been higher, Shuri is HIS daughter now! πππππππππππππππππ
And she's still so cute
Brook being so casual while everyone else is panicking is king shit, I adore him your honor. Also, snails have a Do Not Disturb mode? Did we know that? I can't remember if that's been mentioned before.
SO CUTE ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯ππ₯
My lady, my queen, Candel..... She's a music enjoyed, particularly opera, good to know! Makes her match well with Brook's violin playing <3
Brook stays being nonchalant about threats to the queen because she's a badass, and so is he!
I love him. This is magic bullshit, but I love him for it. Fun that he's always been able to pull shit like this, even before gaining the unnatural speed + undead abilities from being a skeleton.
APPRECIATION FOR MY SOUL KING!!!!!! The kingdom and especially the other guards love him and that's absolutely adorable. Ough the sad part of this backstory is gonna hurt........
Huh, that's usually the kind of reaction we see for Amazon Lily women...... Interesting. Noted. @apiratefellinlovewithastar Viper, you wanna chew on this?
ONE CHANCE MY LADY ONCE CHANCE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ππππππππππππππππ
[ahem] Anyway! Ignoring my pan-ic!
Ah, Queen Candel was the former commander! And she's wearing a proper knight uniform! Would ya look at that, Oda can be more normal about women.
Brook's music was disliked? :( No respect for the whimsy, I swear! Though I suppose his music got better after the Rumbars, so my opinion is skewed.
Overall, this chapter was very adorable and giving me so much cuteness aggression!!! But it's also invoking a very deep sense of dread, seeing this thriving, peaceful, happy kingdom..... Only to know that it fell, that Shuri lost her memories and ended up as Imu's knight, that King Leuven was murdered by his own daughter.......
Excited for next chapter, despite the tragedy it's bound to bring! πππππππ
We're back again with the chaos unfolding on Elbaph. A giant Aqua-Baddie has taken the field and you know she's huge because remember the people in the foreground are giants. Good moment for Ripley and Sanji's racing to provide backup.
Though...we might see him focus on Kirinham directly while the giants grapple with the big hydro-hottie. Let's see, was there anything else of interest in this new chapter? Guess Imu mentions some kind of "Dozan." Is...is he the one who stabbed Japanese wrestling hero Rikidozan? I don't wanna think about the implications of that. What else we got? Anything? Anything good to really stir the soul? Something that might resonate deep down to the bones?
Br...Brook lore! Brook lore! All hands on deck we got Brook lore incoming! You don't know how much I've wanted to see what Boney was getting up to in this stretch of One Piece world history we don't really have anyone else connected to. That's always been part of Brook's appeal. He was 88 when we met him, adrift for 50 years, he mentioned what he did before the Rumbar Pirates but math says there'd be about fifteen years between those periods.
Seiously though...I'm absolutely in love with what we see here. This is Brook at 20, the equivalent of a shitty morning DJ for the Kingdom of Esperia. It is extremely interesting here he's shown as a bad musician but dropping a feat of swordplay we haven't really seen out of him in the present. This is the beauty of Brook's history. It's not unrealistic to be a better fighter at 20 than 38. Likewise if you stagnated for 50 years after, even if we assume the reanimation maintains his body. That's an interesting question too. Will he see how he comes across such an odd devil fruit? Particularly in a manner where he knew how such an odd one should work before he died. What secrets do you hold skeleton man?
Based. From outer space. I'm going to save the big spiel about the historic Takarazuka Revue and gush about The Rose of Versailles and how this builds off of our particular interest in a pair of onnagata-themed siblings tomorrow because that's it's own thing. Let's just take a moment though. Ex-royal guard captain lady who is presented just like our dear Prince Charming Cabbage...yeah Oda could drop an SBS answer saying he's never heard of The Rose of Versailles and I'd refuse to believe it (the fuck you mean a manga nerd your age hasn't?) looking at Candelle here.
What we never saw in Brook's initial backstory was who he looked up to. Even Jinbei you know, it's clearly Fisher Tiger. Laboon was essentially a kid he had to leave behind. His story as part of the Rumbar Pirates already covers Jinbei's era as the successor of the Sun Pirates. This is Brook so far back...you already know enough to get it! All the courtly grace, the "gentleman" part of the gentleman skeleton we met? That's from growing up around Lady Oscar? So what did Candelle do to inspire that? Like, even just the reference itself Oscar does end up defecting and meets her end storming the Bastille.
Something tells me we're in for some good, good Brook love. And I for one am down with that.
Do you think Brook sings the "Good Morning" riff from The Lorax movie's opening number whenever he wakes up?
I had this thought after reading Chapter 1183 and I can imagine him skipping through Esperia while doing that. This tradition transfers to the Thousand Sunny and everyone is SICK of it!
