#op ch142

[salteytakesonmanga]

There are a lot of things about Hiriluk’s story that I think are wonderful and touching, but something I can never get over is that most of the time he was wrong.

He was wrong to do this to Chopper, driving him out and acting like he no longer cared about him. He thought that by driving him away he would spare Chopper the pain of watching him die. But if he had succeeded Chopper’s heart may have never recovered, he could have thought nobody would love and accept him and he would have become an angry, lonely, mistrustful person.

I think Hiriluk did this because he is, frankly, stupid. He made bad decisions from a place of love, assuming he knew what was best for people. He was too focused on his own death specifically without remembering that the reason death is painful is because of the loss. Between losing Hiriluk to rejection or losing him to disease, Chopper would still be alone. But at least with the latter he would have fond memories instead of bitterness.

Obviously that’s not exactly how it works out, but every time I read this I think about how almost everything Hiriluk did made things worse. AND YET, there was still a lot of valuable things that came from his choices.

I do love a complex character.

[salteytakesonmanga]

This little montage of what Chopper’s life was like with Hiriluk is really cute. This is probably why Chopper feels so comfortable with the Straw Hats, they have the same chaotic and easygoing lifestyle that Hiriluk did.

[salteytakesonmanga]

No wonder the hat is so important to him. It’s not just the symbol that represents his goal or his job, it’s also his first tangible sign of acceptance and friendship.

[salteytakesonmanga]

I’m pretty sure these two don’t actually have any idea what the words they’re saying mean. They're just parroting the same sophistry Wapol says.

Dishonorable mention for simplifying some of the key words of this arc out of this scene. Dalton says that Vivi feels for her country, to which Chess replies “Feelings are politics?” and “Politics has no need for heart!” Kuromarimo adds that “What’s important is the system.”

Even though I think the translation as-is did a pretty decent job of communicating the meaning of the words, the story itself puts emphasis on particular words. Specifically the word Chess uses for “heart,” which is the same one Hiriluk uses when he talks about how he was healed by the sakura and how his research will heal this country. Hiriluk is trying to heal a country’s heart, but we can see here the people in charge of the country have no hearts.

All of this has a cumulative impact on Dalton later, but when they take the key words out of this scene it’s harder to understand why.

[salteytakesonmanga]

No wonder Dalton recognized Vivi when he met her again. This event stood out so much to him, and was also pretty memorable for Vivi, too.

Condolences to the translators, who looked at the word “world council” with the reading Oda had provided next to it and were like “oh hell no.” Rather than try to figure out how to transliterate Reverie/Levely they just stuck with translating the meaning. It wound up making it harder for people to connect the dots, but I understand why they made that choice.

[salteytakesonmanga]

I can’t get over how much of the plot was introduced this early. Mary Geoise, the Levely, Dragon and the Revolutionary Army… I feel the need to confess that Drum Island was never a favorite arc of mine because I felt like it killed some of the momentum leading up to Arabasta, but this is giving me a new appreciation for how much was going on here.

The details that Oda introduced here could have easily been left out, but by including them he’s getting us used to thinking of the in-story world in the way he needs us to. This scene in particular establishes that despite all of the islands we’ve seen so far being isolated they’re actually connected by a World Government, and it also gives us the information that this World Government has enemies. But at the same time, astute readers may put together that it wasn’t Dragon and his ideas that wound up being a danger to Drum Kingdom or Arabasta, but a pirate. (I was not an astute reader, to be clear.)

Mostly what stood out to me on past reads was the fact that Dragon’s crimes were described so simplistically. I was disappointed in Oda for introducing a character with this juvenile explanation for why we were supposed to fear him. He has “dangerous ideas?” That sounds like the sort of thing a cartoonishly-evil leader would say to cover up their own crimes and protect their position of power! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[salteytakesonmanga]

I said Wapol and his three counselors reminded me of Mean Girls, but really they’re more like stereotypical frat boys.

They have these very black and white ideas about how the world is supposed to work, which conveniently favor themselves. Technically they have jobs, but nobody really expects them to actually do anything. They apparently spend their time drinking and relaxing while also bragging about how important they are and how nothing would get done without them. Most notably, they have a very rigid in-group/out-group structure, and they bully and browbeat anyone who questions this structure.

[salteytakesonmanga]

The explanation Hiriluk gives for Chopper’s name is cute and all, but there was a reason they used to call doctors “Chopper.”

In situations where doctors didn’t have access to resources or tools - military doctors on a battlefield, ship’s doctors out at sea, or country doctors in small towns - sometimes the only treatment available was, well, the chop. Sometimes the best option for an infected wound was to amputate (hence the other gruesome nickname for doctors, “sawbones”) and hope for the best. Without antibiotics, it usually didn’t end well.

So giving the Straw Hat’s doctor the name Chopper is some pretty dark humor from Oda.