This was an amazing chapter.
Though I think it needs to be said because the powerlevel fags were losing their minds: Theres no reason to take this battle seriously. It was portrayed as a friendly scrap. These guess are clearly good pals and for all we know this is just how they greet eachother. lol.
Roger's showings were of course interesting because it's the first indication of what he can do and Haki-wise it sets a bar for Luffy to reach.
Not sure if the translation is bad but the one I'm reading says 13 years ago Roger reach the end of the log pose at the island Road Star. Is that accurate? I'm fairly certain that Roger entered the Grandline as his final adventure about 3 years before he died. I'd need to re-read the conversation with Rayleigh but in any case this suggests Roger had been all over the Grandline before finding the way to sail through it.
Also, did anyone else notice the similarities?
What the fuck did they say??? Stop fucking with me Oda.
Another scene I like is the one where all the little apprentices are sizing eachother up. Now this isn't Oda's best but it is an example of why his exposition is so great. One of the main things authors will tell you about how to do great exposition is that you should always try to do more than just dump lore info. That you should try to accomplish multiple things at once. And here we have a great example of Oda giving us pieces of characterization along with important info about Blackbeard. Not only to we get a hint at the mystery surrounding Teach but we also learn that even from a young age Buggy was rather shrewd and observant. He was keeping an eye on one of his rivals and even managed to gather a bit of information about him. Whereas with Shanks we get a brief glimpse of his worldview in that he prioritizes the enjoyment of life above most things. Which falls in line with how he's always been shown partying and attending weddings. So for me it was really great to see confirmation that those scenes weren't random but were actually purposeful in hinting at who Shanks is as a person.
Next thing I wanna talk about is this scene:
Because it hints at a whole lot of information regarding awakening. Now as I've said many times a lot of people think that awakening your fruit means any fruit that affects the environment is awakened. Whih of course would be nonsense. Some devil fruits affect the environment just as a natural description of their power. Senior Pink's Devil Fruit lets him swim through land as if it were the ocean. Thats just what the power does. Using it on the world around him doesn't mean that it's awakened. The same would go for Crocodile using his hand to dry up the land and turn it into sand. Thats not awakening just a natural application of his power. The same would also for for the likes of Robin whose power is to make her limbs sprout from anywhere. So Doflamingo's definition of awakening is way off or even just poorly translated.
However here I think we get a closer hint at what Doflamingo actually meant. It appears as if through his will alone the ocean begins to quake. Does that mean that if Whitebeard got angry enough or if he simply he could affect the world with his quakes without needing to do anything? Like shake the world with endless quakes? No wonder people feared this power. This lends more credence to the idea that Whitebeard could have indeed destroyed the world if he wanted to.
Other than that I loved Whitebeard this chapter. He's essentially the pinnacle of Fatherhood and the living embodiment of the ideal of family. I really loved the part where he tells his crew to give all the treasure and supplies back so Oden's family didn't starve. The character has been dead for years and somehow Oda is still making me respect this guy.
Lastly we should all really take a moment to stop and marvel at the fact this chapter is full of rare instances of Pirates actually doing pirate shit. I mean wow.