Chapter Discussion ONE PIECE CHAPTER 978: Introducing the Tobi Roppo

[Isaac Netero]

First of this chapter has some of the best Art Oda has done in a while, Onigashima is just breathtaking amazing.
Kinnemon's resolve with the speech to the alliance was awesome too, Oda can just perfectly balance the comedy and seriousness within the characters! No ships to flee or comeback makes me think that the Grand Fleet will indeed come and well if they don't come in a conflict where the SHP are against two Emperors when would they?
The Flying Six designs for some reason gives me some Phantom Troupe vibes, really liked them. Who's who seems to be Gin? And Black Maria is just beautiful! Page One and Ulti looks so young as well.
I believe the next two chapters will finalize the Yonkou Alliance introduction and the next one we will get the infamous narrators box chapter with the prelude to the war and from the way I see it, Act 3 should be ending there too.

Also during the war Oda will probably do way more double spreads than the usual and he also will be probably taking more breaks than normal as it happened during the Marine Ford Arc.

 

[Jo_Ndule]

But isnt drake named after a card game itself as opposed to 10 like the other fs

Not really... he has X and Drake as name

While Those who are Kaido Main crew have Names that fit their Card names: King is Named King, Jack is Jack, Numbers are 1 - 10... while Joker is Doffy alias since he is Ally not main crew

Flyers names are based on Card games not Cards! Who Who/pageone etc... isnt a card but rather a card game

Look at it this way :
Kaido Main Crew : Calamities and Numbers have card names!
Main Affiliate : Doffy has a Joker card name
Lower ranks : named after Card Games
External Crews : flyers are named after Card games

Drake has a Ten but he is not "Ten" as Numbers and "Drake" isnt a card game

 

[Red Dog]

RIP Drake being the "ten."

They're no doubt the 2-10 cards. I have two ideas: either they're Kaido's top subordinates with the All Stars or the Tobi Roppo fill that role and they're akin to giant pets.

King, Queen, Jack: Kaido's top executives; the others are the Tobi Roppo.
2-10: Kaido's giant pet monsters.
Joker: Kaido's most-trusted affiliate.

I think tobi roppo under the calamities mean jack queen and king while numbers are directly under kaido command given their nature for more animals so only kaido can control them...

 

[Fuckthis3]

Drake is a ten but he a traitor so he shouldn't count anyway

 

[Garp the Fist]

Going back to what @Garp the Fist pointed out with the Numbers' laughs being based on the JPN numbers, one seemed to have a "ten" (ju) laugh.

"Five": "Go ki ki ki!"
"Eight": "Ha cha cha cha!"
"Nine": "Kun yun yun yun!"
"Ten": "Ju ki ki ki!"

So I suppose the question now is the Ace
-is it just Number one who'll laugh like Ichi ha ha ha or something
-is it Kaido and the card theme is Numbers 2-10, Face Cards, Joker and Kaido
-is there a yet to be introduced character (presumably the son) that fills the role.

 

[S.W317]

Well I don't think that X-Draks is the representative of the number 10, and I have a feeling that he's stronger than even Jack but I could be wrong

 

[Monkey D. Luffy]

So I suppose the question now is the Ace
-is it just Number one who'll laugh like Ichi ha ha ha or something
-is it Kaido and the card theme is Numbers 2-10, Face Cards, Joker and Kaido
-is there a yet to be introduced character (presumably the son) that fills the role.

If "Number One" had a laugh, it'd go, "Ichi hi hi hi!" Getting back to your question, I think Kaido's son could very well fill that role, but will he be called "Ace"?

 

[Tyki_Mikk]

So I suppose the question now is the Ace
-is it just Number one who'll laugh like Ichi ha ha ha or something
-is it Kaido and the card theme is Numbers 2-10, Face Cards, Joker and Kaido
-is there a yet to be introduced character (presumably the son) that fills the role.

So the numbers cover 2-10(of course the 10 is the strongest and probably the best number, I think he have a Ancient zoan power too as we can see a dinosaur form). Logically 10 the number which we see in that panel should be behind Jack.
Joker is already take out and the last card is left, who is post like Ace, Kaidos son!!

With the rank of the numbers, are they really above the Flying six??? Or is at least the strongest numbers on same lvl or stronger?
I still try to understand the balancing for the Beast pirates from Oda.
I mean didn´t it complete beeing very a powerful crew if they have over 6Vets, probably even almost 10 characters on that lvl?
And if Ace really get the card as the strongest, he beeing even above King and Queen, in that case it would be little broken didn´t you think that too?

ViceCaptain - Ace(low top tier?)
Yonkou Top Commanders - King,Queen and Jack (YC1-3 lvl)
Veterans/Numbers - 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10(High Vet to low Vet lvl)
Flying Six fighters - Who´s Who, Sasaki , xDrake , Black Marie , Ulti , Pageone (Top Vet lvl characters who have the potential to even became the next Calamity).

Overall we have 19 Characters with pose a very high lvl(from Low top tier to low Veteran lvl most like)

Over top of it we have a large army of pleasures,waiters,gifters(Elite),headliners.
Isn´t this lilttle be over the top to compare that to Big mom crew?
I mean if we only count all YC and Vet lvl character I only get these numbers.

Yonkou Top Commanders - Katakuri,Smoothie,Cracker and Snack(ex sweet commander)
Veterans - Perospero,Daifuku,Compote and Oven
Strong normal pirates - Streusen and probably Tamago

Only 10 character who pose a high lvl, compare to the Beast pirates it seems clearly outnumbered...
What is your though about it?

King, Queen, Jack: Kaido's top executives; the others are the Tobi Roppo.
2-10: Kaido's giant pet monsters.
Joker: Kaido's most-trusted affiliate.

Shouldn´t be Ace the strongest card? Since the numbers cover probably from 2-10 and also the flying six get their own card game names, the only card who are left is right now Ace right?
In that case we probably see Ace in the next chapters, via the rank system he should be also the strongest character.

 

[Monkey D. Luffy]

Snip

Big Mom's crew
Right-Hand: Streusen
High Executives: Katakuri, Cracker, Smoothie, Perospero, Compote, Daifuku, Oven
Mid Executives: Other Ministers
Low Executives: Other Charlottes
Combatants: Non-Family Members
Homies: Peacekeepers and other Homies

Kaido's crew
Executives: King, Queen, Jack, "Ten," "Nine," "Eight," "Seven," "Six," "Five," "Four," "Three," "Two," "Ace"
Headliner Captains: Tobi Roppo, Normal Headliner Captains
Smile: Headliners, Gifters, Pleasures, Waiters

There are two types of Headliners like there are two types of Chess-ranked Big Mom Pirates.

 

[S.W317]

If "Number One" had a laugh, it'd go, "Ichi hi hi hi!" Getting back to your question, I think Kaido's son could very well fill that role, but will he be called "Ace"?

Wowowowowo, it seems you're not familiar with card games cause there's no number 1 in card games; instead the Ace IS number 1

 

[Monkey D. Luffy]

Wowowowowo, it seems you're not familiar with card games cause there's no number 1 in card games; instead the Ace IS number 1

There's no #1 but at the same time there is a #1?

 

[Kurodiamondo]

So I suppose the question now is the Ace
-is it just Number one who'll laugh like Ichi ha ha ha or something
-is it Kaido and the card theme is Numbers 2-10, Face Cards, Joker and Kaido
-is there a yet to be introduced character (presumably the son) that fills the role.

Well i thought so too
I think gecko moria is ace/kaido's son since his laugh is "kish kish kish" but who knows?
Isn't kaido has family issue?

It would be nice if moria is ace. And we've already got Joker (doffy) beat ace (moria) situation

 

[Ravagerblade]

Well i thought so too
I think gecko moria is ace/kaido's son since his laugh is "kish kish kish" but who knows?
Isn't kaido has family issue?

It would be nice if moria is ace. And we've already got Joker (doffy) beat ace (moria) situation

That's like saying Luffy shihihi and Robin Dershishishishishi or so are siblings. and Moria lost his crew against Kaidou.

 

[Monkey D. Luffy]

Well i thought so too
I think gecko moria is ace/kaido's son since his laugh is "kish kish kish" but who knows?
Isn't kaido has family issue?

It would be nice if moria is ace. And we've already got Joker (doffy) beat ace (moria) situation

Why would Moria be the "Ace"? He's in no way affiliated with Kaido's crew yet alone Kaido's son.

 

[S.W317]

King, Queen and the numbers are probably Kaido's original crew when he started to sail and they are probably very skilled and assumed different roles in Kaido's then small crew such as Doctor, Shipwrite, Chef and so on. So when the other world powers started to grow stronger and with the advent of the great pirate era, Shanks rising to the ranks of Yonko, big mom's smaller children getting more powerful, the establishment of the shichinukai system; Kaodo felt that he needs to make his crew more powerful so he started to scout and recruit other powerful pirate captains with bounties higher than 100 mil starting with Jack and he's been doing so for a few years. So Jack was probably an exception and rose to the level of an All-Star despite being a new recruit, but other than him other notorious pirates were put in one group called the Flying six.

So I had to rank Kaido's crew;
Kaido
Ace
King
Queen
Jack
X-Drake
Apoo
Hawkins
Number 10
Number 9
Who's who
Sasaki
Number 8
Black Maria
Number 7
Uruti
Page 1
Number 6
Number 5
Number 4
Number 3
Number 2

 

[Kurodiamondo]

That's like saying Luffy shihihi and Robin Dershishishishishi or so are siblings. and Moria lost his crew against Kaidou.

It's not "shi" it's "ich" or maybe "moria's kish kish laugh"

 

[Ravagerblade]

It's not "shi" it's "ich" or maybe "moria's kish kish laugh"

I'm talking about Luffy's laugh and Robins laugh. Not the Numbers laugh.

 

[Paperchampion23]

So I suppose the question now is the Ace
-is it just Number one who'll laugh like Ichi ha ha ha or something
-is it Kaido and the card theme is Numbers 2-10, Face Cards, Joker and Kaido
-is there a yet to be introduced character (presumably the son) that fills the role.

I would say it's the last one most likely, only because:

- Kaido was introduced as the "Governor-General" of his crew. He never was given the title Ace or implied to have it. Though I understand it's a possibility.

- The Ace card is almost never a "numbered" value in card games. Meaning it's very unlikely to see an Ace being used as a one in popular card games at least. Plus, the fact that it's called an "Ace" value leads me to believe the "Numbers" will not have an Ace value in their group. But we'll see when their introduced, I assume within the next few chapters.

Knowing Oda, the fact that he has given Kaido at least 12 of 13 card ranking subordinates, means he knows the value of the last one and what it would mean. The oddest thing is that we didn't ever have any proof that there would be someone above King, but Kaido loosely talks about his son last chapter, leaving the possibility.

It's just very interesting, regardless. Doflamingo had 4 Executives. Big Mom, at one point had 4 Sweet Commanders, so while Kaido only has 3 Calamities, they could be grouped under All-Stars as a group of 4, or the Ace could have his own ranking/title.

 

[chiefdante]

Never knew Robin was part of the Tobi Roppo

 

[Ravagerblade]

Never knew Robin was part of the Tobi Roppo

Nah it don't look like her. At best it's the nose.
Pretty sure most everything else is different. Except for one thing.
GILF, BILF material.