- Great chapter. With a fitting title. “Falling on deaf ears”. The new generation, literally and figuratively, silencing the old one. Poetic. With a beautiful tribute to Cora-San too!
- Fantastic action shots throughout this battle. Oda’s work on cinematic battle scenes is light years ahead of early One Piece. He depicts illusion of depth, from multiple perspectives, as skillfully as any artist in the medium. It probably infuriates the powerscale chads that he volitionally neglects combat chapters
- Law and Kid’s development is very gratifying. We’ve come a long way from seeing them struggle to put down a Pacificta. Law’s awakening is simply broken. Please nerf! One thing is made clear, Big Mom is still stronger than Law and Kid combined. They couldn’t knock her out. They couldn't bypass her impenetrable exterior. Internal destruction did the trick. Eliminating her from the main battlefield is their deserved victory, for now. Big Mom was “dethroned” by Law and Kid, yet her monstrous status is still in tact. Acting from a position of strength, she rebuffs and belittles her children/homies as they offer to help. On the other hand, she pathetically screams for help as she falls. A true overgrown toddler operating on pure pragmatism, even towards her children. Her arcs as a matriarch and antagonist aren’t complete. As are Katakuri and Pudding’s arcs with Luffy and Sanji. So the fight’s conclusion was perfect considering how much meat’s left on the Charlotte Family bone. Moving forward, even if not on Elbaf, I believe they’ll continue to be significant players. The cover story is a perfect illustration of that.
- The anime has been playing up the Momonosuke/Joy Boy connection. Kaido’s “I chose Wano for a reason”, Oden’s “We have to open Wano in preparation for Joy Boy’s arrival” and Zunesha’s arrival telegraph what’s coming next. Luffy or Momonosuke will be declared Joy Boy’s heir by the end of Wano. Zunesha’s been aimlessly wandering for 800 years, in anticipation of the day of prophecy. Joy Boy appears on Wano today! My money’s still on Luffy for thematic reasons. But given Toei’s propensity for spoilers, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Momo. Zunesha’s arrival would be the perfect segue for Xebex’s flashback. After all, Xebec and Kaido tried to become Joy Boy. And it all began on God Valley.
- I’m all tapped out on Zoro’s Grim Reaper encounter. Literally no clue what that was. I’d like to see him visit Shimotsuki artifacts on Ringo.
- God knows I memed him plenty, but Raizo is unironically cool. Impressive display of tenacity. I got weirdly invested in this fight. A symbolic static duel is sometimes more apropos than flashy battles. I admit Raizo’s loyalty to Oden, juxtaposed with Orochi’s men’s betrayal, was too on the nose. Nevertheless, Oda never portrayed the ever-present theme of inherited will and true death with subtlety.
- Fantastic action shots throughout this battle. Oda’s work on cinematic battle scenes is light years ahead of early One Piece. He depicts illusion of depth, from multiple perspectives, as skillfully as any artist in the medium. It probably infuriates the powerscale chads that he volitionally neglects combat chapters
- Law and Kid’s development is very gratifying. We’ve come a long way from seeing them struggle to put down a Pacificta. Law’s awakening is simply broken. Please nerf! One thing is made clear, Big Mom is still stronger than Law and Kid combined. They couldn’t knock her out. They couldn't bypass her impenetrable exterior. Internal destruction did the trick. Eliminating her from the main battlefield is their deserved victory, for now. Big Mom was “dethroned” by Law and Kid, yet her monstrous status is still in tact. Acting from a position of strength, she rebuffs and belittles her children/homies as they offer to help. On the other hand, she pathetically screams for help as she falls. A true overgrown toddler operating on pure pragmatism, even towards her children. Her arcs as a matriarch and antagonist aren’t complete. As are Katakuri and Pudding’s arcs with Luffy and Sanji. So the fight’s conclusion was perfect considering how much meat’s left on the Charlotte Family bone. Moving forward, even if not on Elbaf, I believe they’ll continue to be significant players. The cover story is a perfect illustration of that.
- The anime has been playing up the Momonosuke/Joy Boy connection. Kaido’s “I chose Wano for a reason”, Oden’s “We have to open Wano in preparation for Joy Boy’s arrival” and Zunesha’s arrival telegraph what’s coming next. Luffy or Momonosuke will be declared Joy Boy’s heir by the end of Wano. Zunesha’s been aimlessly wandering for 800 years, in anticipation of the day of prophecy. Joy Boy appears on Wano today! My money’s still on Luffy for thematic reasons. But given Toei’s propensity for spoilers, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Momo. Zunesha’s arrival would be the perfect segue for Xebex’s flashback. After all, Xebec and Kaido tried to become Joy Boy. And it all began on God Valley.
- I’m all tapped out on Zoro’s Grim Reaper encounter. Literally no clue what that was. I’d like to see him visit Shimotsuki artifacts on Ringo.
- God knows I memed him plenty, but Raizo is unironically cool. Impressive display of tenacity. I got weirdly invested in this fight. A symbolic static duel is sometimes more apropos than flashy battles. I admit Raizo’s loyalty to Oden, juxtaposed with Orochi’s men’s betrayal, was too on the nose. Nevertheless, Oda never portrayed the ever-present theme of inherited will and true death with subtlety.
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