The Mecha Franky cover page was actually kind of a sweet tribute. I assume this was to "celebrate" Kazuki Yao's tenure as Franky, since he's retiring. It's a nice way to send off one of Oda's friends.
"You know we'd die for you!" Yeah...I think a lot of the fanbase is feeling the same way right about now.
Welp, we know how and why Bonney, Kuma, and Lilith will be leaving the Sunny. Vegapunk's getting cloned and Lilith's setting up a lab on the Elbaph. So, I guess Oda's setting up those three leaving the Strawhat's early so no one gets too disappointed when they eventually leave them behind.
Am I wrong for thinking Ange seems kind of suspicious? I don't know, I'm just getting Aizen from Bleach vibes from her. I'm guessing Oda will play with the whole, "Hot Librarian once she takes off her glasses" trope with her, somehow.
The Giant Kids wanting to "play prisoners" with the Strawhats kind of helps give context to Road's actions. I guess Oda's basically telling us that Road's basically a big kid who never grew up?
There WILL be fan-art of Ripley. No one can stop this.
The Giants going through a generational cultural change is kind of interesting. I guess that make Loki more of a "fundamentalist", maybe?
There is NO current King of Elbaph, which is interesting information. I wonder how they manage to get anything done? It's just weird that they've gone without a King this long. Weird.
Books getting bigger within the Owl Library is weird. I'm guessing it's the "Devil Fruit" of that Owl that we see in the Library? I guess some animals just have special abilities on Elbaph, like that Giant Cat who turned into a Lion earlier.
But, now we have the first of the two big mysteries in this chapter. Who is Loki talking with? Given the context, I feel like it's probably one of the Gorosei. And given the Den Den Mushi's beard, I feel like that points to it being Marcus Mars. Trasnponder Snails do have the habit of looking like the people they're communicating with. And Mars is the only Gorosei with a full beard even close to what we see on the snail. Although, this is a "Snow Snail", so maybe they ALL have beards? In which case, it COULD be Ju Peter, since Oda seems to be setting up Jupiter having a bit of a crisis of conscious with some of his reactions. So...I think Ju Peter might be the best bet for Loki's phone friend.
But either way, that "moment of true fear" being what drives them definitely FEELS like they're talking about the moment when the Gorosei sensed Joyboy's Haki that drove them all away. I'm guessing that's what they're talking about. The Gorosei and Imu seem legitimately worried about Joyboy and Nika playing a part in current events.
And then we get to see "Shanks" arriving on the island via a Gorosei-like Pentagram. And I say "Shanks" because...yeah, I guess Oda's most likely doing the whole "evil twin" thing. I don't know if it makes sense for Shanks to arrive here this way, when we know he was sailing around just a little while ago dealing with Bartolomeo. I'm not sure if I like that trope, but that feels like where we're going.
But, there's also someone with him. And they're kind of giving me Sheik from Legend of Zelda vibes. Could it be possible? Does "Shank's Hot Sister" actually exist?! Tekking's going to be so excited.