#op ch136

[salteytakesonmanga]

Sacrifices are a big theme in this arc, so it’s interesting to compare how it’s handled here versus how it was handled throughout the East Blue arc. Even though it’s still a “sacrifice,” there are a lot of differences. The situations are different, the individuals are different, and so you have to deal with them differently.

One Piece demands a lot of nuanced thinking from its readers. You might come into this arc thinking “ah, once again we’re going to be reminded that sacrifices only cause needless suffering and we’re supposed to ask our friends for help” but then you realize Oda is taking the theme in a completely different direction, while also not undermining his earlier point at all.

We’re going to have to get comfortable holding contradictory and equally correct ideas in our head at the same time, and making up our own minds about it.

[salteytakesonmanga]

All four of these men - Dalton, Chess, Kuromarimo, and Wapol - are around the same age, in their late 20s or early 30s. Knowing that gives me a different perspective on what kind of dynamic they must have had. Despite saying they were “equals,” it feels more like a group of school-age bullies led by one rich kid and his sycophants with the token gofer reluctantly trailing behind them. (Just say Mean Girls, Saltey, it’s what you were thinking anyway.)

[salteytakesonmanga]

The in between stages of Zoan transformations are really freaky. Dalton looks like a stereotypical devil here, which is probably something Oda played up on purpose. It could simply be to make this scene cooler but it could also be meant to hint about how Dalton sees himself as sharing the blame with Wapol for the state of Drum Kingdom.

We get a little about Dalton’s history during Chopper’s flashback, but I’m curious what debt Dalton had to the previous king. It’s not especially important to the story, but considering how long Dalton stuck around despite his troubled conscience it must have been a pretty weighty one.

[salteytakesonmanga]

To Wapol, this is entirely immaterial. Other people’s lives only matter to him as much as he can use them. Essentially, “l’état, c’est moi.” The state is me and I am the state. The nation does not exist for any other purpose but my benefit, and without me this country is nothing.

I think a lot of people tend to get hung up on technicalities in situations like this. Wapol is probably actually correct, according to the laws of the kingdom. Dalton would be the one who is the criminal here. But to Dalton the real crime is Wapol’s selfishness and the way he treated his citizens.

[salteytakesonmanga]

I don’t know much about how Japanese people feel about their healthcare system, but speaking as an American, Wapol’s blithe attitude about how a system he created and controls can’t be changed because of “politics” is hitting a little too close to home.

[salteytakesonmanga]

I’d forgotten how many of the major themes of the series are introduced in Drum Island!

This is the first time we’re introduced to the idea of a country presenting itself with a rosy and idealized image to the world while the reality is very different. Drum Kingdom as a kingdom of medicine, but it’s only medicine for the royal family. Sabaody as playground, but only for humans, and only if you’re not enslaved. Goa as a clean and beautiful kingdom, but only for nobles. Dressrosa and Whole Cake as happy fairytale lands that hide a terrible hidden cost. Even Enies Lobby as the seat of justice, even though the court is a sham.

[salteytakesonmanga]

I have questions about Wapol’s physiology

Obviously since his fruit power allows him to incorporate the things he’s eaten into his body, his treatment would be more “repair” than anything else.

[salteytakesonmanga]

This is such a badass line.

Oda does a really good job of keeping his characters balanced. Dalton is designed like a very typical macho character: huge and bulky and muscular, square jaw, a soldier, grim determination. But he also made Dalton a very gentle person, humble and caring and sensitive. That gentleness isn’t made into a joke, he’s not a “gentle giant” or a comically bumbling guy who doesn’t know his own strength. These two aspects of Dalton aren’t presented as contradicting each other or being opposite sides of him, they’re just who he is.