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!
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!
It’s fitting Imu’s the One Piece devil because he’s boring as Hell.
And my lack of interest in this Super Duper Big Bag is one big reason why I’m not loving this part of the flashback.
Imu rules the world!
Imu’s evil to the core!
Imu’s uber-powerful!
Yeah…but what’s Imu’s motivation? What’s his endgame? He mentions wanting a perfect world. What does that mean? The total destruction of all sentient life? To flood the planet in order to have the largest swimming pool ever? Give me something, Oda.
I know. I know. All will be revealed later. Yeah, like in the final arcs of the damn story! That’s just not soon enough for me. Especially, with all we have to chew on until the final flashback is an overpowered monster with the personality of a packet of mayonnaise.
Forget Imu’s origin. The biggest mystery box is how Garp kept his job after punching his boss’s bosses’ boss.
Look, I’m just tired of all the mystery boxes. We’re getting the barebones minimum of the history of the One Piece world in a part of the series where the author himself has said it’s the story’s final saga. Nothing wrong with mystery boxes, but too much of a good thing can ruin a story for some readers. The constant teasing of future reveals, the slow IV drips of new lore, and the unnecessary and overblown use of silhouettes of characters that don’t have to be silhouetted just to drum up hype. Hey, Oda-sensei? GET ON WITH IT!
Well, Imu & Saturn VS Davy Tennant D. Xebec, Edward Newgate, and Kaido Smith to be more accurate. But that fight’s setup at the very end. Let’s talk about what happened elsewhere in this chapter.
…Not much.
Seriously. Just a lot of running around and off-screen battles. If I didn’t read this for free, I’d demand my money back and a free pumpkin spice latte!
…Um, Garp finally noticed the hundreds of dead civilian bodies spread across the island. I guess that’s the reason he decided not to be a Navy Admiral, as to not be directly under the Celestial Dragons’ control. Great idea, Garp! Too bad entire civilizations on unaffiliated World Government islands are still dying in Human Hunts and you’re basically letting it happen. But, it’s okay, Y’all. Because even though Garp’s complacent, he feels bad about all the mass murdering and genocide. Ugh!
The Rocks Pirate joining the “No Kings” protest.
There’s still the chance Garp is the one who creates SWORD but again, what’s his endgame?
Rocks D. Xebec is such a vibrant and bombastic character. I can almost hear his voice inside my head.
You hear that? Guess it was just the wind…
Anyway, let’s talk about this chapter.
It opens with Kid Loki getting hurt by Rocks—all to get Harald’s attention so he’d come back to Elbaph—then IMMEADIATELY transitions to another flashback.
The Reverie. Hmm… I wonder what Rocks thinks of the Reverie.
Rocks captured five kings to create a panic so he could sneak into Imu’s Chamber of Flowers. Makes me wonder if he had a chance to pump any of those kings for information.
Inside the Chamber of Flowers, Rocks confronts Imu—whom he seems to already know is the secret ruler of the world—and his female assistant(?) who looks to be Gunko. How the heck did Rocks learn of Imu? Good question. Let me know if you figure it out, because I haven’t got a clue.
I can only imagine what Rocks thinks of Imu.
Looks like Gunko’s no mere Holy Knight. But I guess it makes since Imu has someone tending to his every whim. And that person has to be a Celestial Dragon to help keep things secret.
How’d Rocks get into The Chamber of Flowers? Easy. He found the key hidden under the welcome mat.
It’s mentioned Rocks is a worshipper of Davy Jones. I never really thought about the character since his mention back during the Straw Hats Davy Back Fight against the Foxy Pirates. Seems like there’s more to Mr. Jones than I thought. Could he even had been a member of Joy Boy’s crew?!
I get it. I GET it. Luffy’s the main character; he has to save the day. But could all the other Straw Hats have their moment to shine?
No! Because we’re at the classic Luffy-Was-Absent/Disposed-But-Now-He’s-Back-To-Save-The-Day portion of Elbaph’s Arc. Well, it’s not all about Luffy. Can’t forget about Sanji and Zoro. One will fight Killingham and the other, Sommers.
Maybe.
There’s still Loki. No way is he not getting uncuffed at some point. Helping against Imu will probably be that reason. Not now, of course. No way will the Monster Trio think they’ll need Loki’s help. Things will have to get even MORE dire for that to happen. You know…like Luffy losing to Imu.
At least Chief Jarul will get a free gold watch and retirement party at IHOP.
Oh, don’t act so shocked! Luffy losing a round or two to a Big Bad’s nothing new. And since Imu will be the FINAL Biggie, there’s gonna be a lot of plot armor and/or teamwork getting Imu off Elbaph. Loki, Whoever/Whatever’s in Astral World, Brook helping to break Imu’s control of Gunko, etc. Heck, even when Team Luffy wins it’ll be a win against Imu possessing Gunko, not the character’s true body. It’s all building to the final war, kids.
Not exactly the most unique Big Bad we’ve seen, right? Look, let’s be honest here: Imu’s basic. Really basic. Let’s go down the evil trope checklist.
Devil Wings
Pitchfork
Pentagram
Spooky Magic Book
Dressed In All Black
No Pants
This is who’s supposed to be the final villain of the series? This boring caricature of pure evil? Yes. Evil. Because he/she literally says “Evil”. So much for subtlety.
Does Imu’s Satan schtick recontextualize Luffy into God? Or, at the very least, the living embodiment of good? Nika’s always laughing. Pure Happiness VS Pure Evil. Is that what One Piece is heading toward? Sure, there’s nothing wrong with that. Good VS Evil is a classic storytelling theme. But! Luffy’s goofy cartoon Nika form’s getting stale and Imu’s so dang darn boring that for the first time ever… I’m not looking forward to the end of One Piece!
It’s the skeleton guy who turns out to be a DEADbeat dad. Should’ve seen that coming.
Brook was a Celestial Dragon?! Gunko’s his daughter?! What the heck’s going on here? Well, besides Oda giving us an entry into the Celestial Dragon’s backstory. Honestly, I’ve never thought about Brook’s pre-pirate life. I just assumed he was from the same Blue as his previous pirate captain, Yorki. Sorry, Usopp fan(s), your bud’s arc just got hijacked by the Soul King.
Maybe I should’ve seen something like this happening. Gunko’s a woman. And we all know by now Oda goes light on women fighting seriously. And that’s on the small occasions when they do. Nami and Robin’s too weak to pull off a believable win against Gunko, so instead we get a possible redemption arc for our no pants faux god.
I heard Gunko’s Mom is also a living skeleton named Kate Moss.
Not only can King Imu communicate with those who (I assume) he lent his immortality power to, but he can control their bodies when necessary. There’s no leaving Imu’s Gang. You get in, you in for life!
So…uh…anyone know what The Harley is talking about?
Safe to say the Harley’s passages matches the mural. Let’s assume each area of mural under a Harley passage represents that particular message. If so, let’s try figuring out what’s going on based off of what we currently know about the One Piece world and its past.
The First World
Ok… Ah, the Mother Flame. Cities. …Maybe the world was advanced and that civilization discovered the Mother Flame. Things went downhill from there and somehow the planet was destroyed. Remember, we recently learned the One Piece world was destroyed twice. Once during the Void Century and the other, I presume, was way way WAY back in an advanced age.
If the Sun God is Nika, then the Earth God was Imu? Or, whoever had the Earth God powers during that time? And does all this earth talk symbolize the creation of the Red Line and it subsequent separation of the planet into four blues? Sure, let’s go with that.
The Second World
“The Forest God tamed demons” could mean during this low point in history, devil fruits somehow appeared in the world and were used to fight the demons? [Wait, wait, wait! Does that mean demons were unleashed because the ancient civilization dug too deep for the Mother Flame and awoke them? Like when the Dwarves in Lord of The Rings mined to deep and awoke the Balrog? Hmm…]
Those of the half-moon and moon dreamed? Hmm… Lunarians and…some other race of people, I guess. The sea god storming could mean devil fruit users gaining their water weakness. If so, it’s interesting something happened to give them that vulnerability rather than it always being there.
The World Tree also plays a role here but I’m not sure what that was. Unless… Were devil fruits born from it?! Devil fruits originated on Elbaph. A place where horned giants that could be mistaken for demons lived and has an area they call the Underworld… Fascinating!
Apocalyptic Graffiti. Usually you only see that in New Jersey.
We see flying arks in the mural similar to the one God Enel built (no doubt from ancient blueprints he found or stole somewhere). Did the Lunarians and others escape the demon infested planet in order to live peacefully on the moon? If so, are they still there? I don’t think it was ever confirmed if anyone was still alive up there except for the Space Pirates before Enel got there.
“Man killed the sun and became god” I take that as Team Imu (the united countries that founded the World Government) attacking the last remnant of the formerly vast ancient civilization (now only one island, Laugh Tale), flooding the planet, and taking over the world. Imu later moves into the Lunarians abandoned territory atop the Red Line and creates Marijoa. Basically, The Second World describes what happened during the Void Century.
Mammoth Base Opera Castle 