Flashback’s over. Let’s get back to the Straw Hats!
…A recap chapter!? NOOOOO!
Guess I’ll touch on the non-recappy parts, like Chief Jarul finally coming (somewhat) clean about what went down in Aurust Castle fourteen years ago. I still think it was a dumb decision to stay quiet, but I like Jarul going with keeping the secret in order to prevent a losing war against the World Government as a valid reason. That makes more sense than the B.S. reasons Loki was spewing out in the flashback.
Zoro has a plan. Well, I’ve got one too: Burn down the boats! No boats. No trips off Elbaph. That could be Zoro’s plan too. Either that, or just cutting Branch 8 so the kids can’t reach the harbor. Oh Zoro! I’m—erm—I mean YOU are such a genius! And mad cute too! ♥
So who’s gonna do what? Prediction time!
Wait. You said three enemies or Mr. 3? Sorry, I’m listening to Beck’s new album.
Sorry, Oda. You didn’t convince me Loki keeping Harald’s rampage a secret was a good idea.
Elbaph’s citizens not accepting Loki as their new king despite his justified killing of Harald? Sure. I’ll give you that.
Loki feeling undeserving to become king because of his past and genuine guilt from killing his own father? Yep. I get it.
Loki determined to make the World Government pay for putting the whammy on Harald? I’m with you, Oda-sensei.
So, why not just tell the people of Elbaph what happened, with Jarul and Gaban backing you up?!
Seriously. Why not? The citizens won’t want you as their king? Fine! You don’t want the job anyway! They’ll still blame you for it? Fine! You wanna leave and take on the World Government anyway, so it doesn’t matter!
It. Doesn’t. Matter.
WRONG! It’s E-L-B-A-P-H.
Loki being imprisoned in The Underworld seems like an half-assed excuse to keep Loki’s true motivations secret from the readers until it was time for the action-packed back half of the arc. It feels so forced to me.
Gotta recharge your precious psyche in order to face the pressures of this sometimes scary world?
Mentally exhausted and in need of an emotional nap?
Well, have I got the late-night talk show for you!
I know. I know! Late-night talk shows are probably where you get parts of your important, yet apocalyptic news through their if-I-don’t-laugh-I’ll-cry monologues, right? Well, fret not, my fellow champions for global sanity! The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson originally aired from January 3, 2005, to December 19, 2014. No recent politics allowed!
All it took to defeat King Harald was a powerful, ancient blood giant with the color of supreme king haki and the added power of an ancient zoan fruit who also wields an incredible ancient weapon that also ate a devil fruit.
Simple, yet effective.
The flashback itself seems less about the drama (which is hard for me to get into because of how stupid Harald had to act to get into this situation) and more about Oda holding off revealing Loki’s devil fruit ability and Ragnir for as long as possible. And even now, Loki’s devil fruit didn’t get a full reveal because Oda must wait until the big super awesome fight against Imu in Elbaph to unveil it. But, I’m sure it’s all gonna be worth it.
…Sorry. Sarcasm’s hard to display in reviews sometimes. *AHEM!* NO! It WON’T be worth it.
Haki is the alpha. Haki is the omega. Haki is all. All is haki. How to defeat Imu’s knights? Haki.
How to defeat someone under Imu’s Domi Reversi? Haki.
I guess that explains why the flying death hammer smells like hazelnuts.
See? That’s why I always tell you kids: Never make deals with the devil!
[And yes, that includes billionaires, movie producers, and those people who make fake AI trailers on YouTube.]
So… How do you kill an immortal ancient giant wearing sexy black leather pants? Easy. Make his sexy ancient giant son in sexy black leather pants eat the royal devil, then beat his father to death with a hammer. DUH!
That’s pretty much the entire chapter. Harald’s compelled to follow Imu’s orders to turn Elbaph’s citizens into an army. And Loki’s gotta eat a devil fruit in order to get powerful enough to stop him.
Oh! And Shanks and Gaban show up for the assist. So, yeah, they know the truth about what went down that day. Why didn’t they just tell the citizens of Elbaph Harald went crazy due to a weird power from the World Government? They live in a world full of magical fruit. Not like it wouldn’t be hard to believe. Especially with Chief Jarul and Gaban backing up the story. Can’t tarnish Harald’s legacy, I guess.
Tricked by the EVIL World Government?! You don’t say?
Hm. I’m starting to think shonen manga author, Eiichiro Oda, isn’t good at writing political drama.
Did Harald have to be portrayed so oblivious to the Five Elders and Celestial Dragons, in general? They own slaves! They consider anyone not a Celestial Dragon as inferior! They attack weak countries not affiliated with the World Government! This makes ZERO sense that Harald didn’t pick up on all of that and, instead, put HIS ENTIRE TRUST into the World Government and the mysterious guy you swore totally loyalty too!
I fear for the Void Century flashback if it contains political drama because it’s just not Oda’s strength. That’s fine, not many authors are good at writing every single genre of storytelling. But… I suspect none of Oda’s Editors told him this or he just doesn’t care.
As punishment, Imu’s gonna make Harald do that 6-7 meme. The monster!
But instead of heading for Laugh Tale, Shanks decides to take a different approach: Learning as much as he can about the true enemies of the world—Imu and the Celestial Dragons.
It’s safe to say Shanks inherited Roger’s will to learn the truth about the world, but how much did he know before going to the Holy Land? Roger didn’t want to tell him anything that happened on Laugh Tale, but there’s someone else who could’ve pointed Shanks in the Celestial Dragon’s direction…Blackbeard!
[Thanks to LunaPianArt for putting this Blackbeard idea in my head, by the way.]
“Well, everything except skateboarding. Where’s a guy gotta go up here to do a 720 kickflip?”
Here’s what I’m thinking: Shanks confronts Blackbeard who spills some beans about the Celestial Dragons being the final boss of the world and the ones behind, well, everything. After their battle, Shanks decides learning the truth for himself and feigns loyalty to Team Imu. Makes sense, right?
Does that mean Shanks intentionally attacked a World Government ship to steal the gum-gum fruit? Does it also mean Shanks purposely got his arm bitten off to remove the Holy Knight’s tattoo? Yeah, probably. This guy has been planning to take down the World Government, something Gol D. Roger couldn’t do, for a looong time.
Can anyone tell me the purpose of the God Valley Incident?
Answer: Setup.
The Rocks Pirates’ reason for going and their break-up, mostly meaningless. Just a means to an end. That end is, of course, being How To Take Down The World Government (and Imu).
Joyboy took his shot and missed. Rocks, a decendent of Davy D. Jones, never got to see his plans fully go to fruition before dying. BUT, in doing so, allowed his son, Blackbeard, to survive and give it the ole Davy try in the present. And while Blackbeard isn’t ready to destroy the World Government, he’s well on his way! He’s got the crew, the darkness-darkness fruit, and someone willing to spill the beans on Pluton’s hidden location beneath Wano.
What’s left for Blackbeard to do before giving the World Government the D. Clan boot? Finding the One Piece! Whatever’s on Laugh Tale may be the key to ultimately destroying the WG and Blackbeard needs it! That and some Eternal Flame to power Pluton. What? You think it’s gonna run on AA batteries? But that’s a discussion for another time.
If only Garling hadn’t brought that paper mache sword, he never would’ve beaten Rocks.
So, Rocks is dead, but we learned Imu’s Domi Reversi curse can be reversed with enough haki. I smell a Luffy and Loki team-up against Imu!
Oda skipped a scene showing Rayleigh and Gaban saving Roger and Garp from God’s Knights. Why? Heck if I know. Probably to hide Gaban’s knowledge that Supreme King haki infused attacks affects the Knights ability to regenerate. Absolutely unnecessary. Every fricking thing doesn’t need to be hidden up to the last second, Oda!
The Roger Pirates find Baby Shanks inside of a treasure chest. I guess his full name’s printed on his clothes somewhere. Hey, mom had to tell him and Shamrock apart someway.
Well, looks like the big DraftKings Haki fight is over.
Winners:Monkey D. Garp and Gol D. Roger
Luckily for them, Gaban and Rayleigh will save those two since defeating Rocks took every ounce of big D. energy they had. Gonna take a lot of V8 bottles and D3 vitamins to get them back on their feet.
Rocks’ Crew have officially broken up. Either “betrayed” by Davy Hasselhoff D. Xebec or just grabbed some loot and bounced. Do I care? No. None of them are worth talking about except for Edward Newgate. I find it interesting Newgate left on Captain Polo Gram’s ship. I never would’ve guessed our favorite Quaker met Marco’s father.
Bye-bye, Polo Gram!
I’ve seen better fight scenes watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
Ain’t no dang-darn-doobley way the Rocks Pirates didn’t notice Rocks was possessed!
Seriously, Oda? Big Mom, Kaido, and Edward Newgate never noticed their CAPTAIN—whose body grew larger, gained monstrous fangs, sounds different, and sprouted WINGS—was being controlled by the giant monster who’d impaled him just a moment ago?
Hey. Come over here a moment, Oda. Come on, this won’t take but a second…
Let me guess, you didn’t know how to breakup the Rocks Pirates when you first introduced the idea earlier in the series, right? It’s okay. You can tell me.
…Yeah. I thought so.
Look. It happens. You write something cool then can’t quite make the plot fit perfectly to justify it, so you do what you can hoping no one notices. Don’t worry, we forgive you!
Mammoth Base Opera Castle 