On the cover page, the Strawhats are surrounded by GOLD! Coins from heaven! Symbolizing Enel's return from the Moon, perhaps? Also, there's another one of those crosses right at Luffy's feet, which seems like it's probably going to be important later. You can see a bottle of booze in the treasure pile, too. Booze...or sake, perhaps? Plus, a skeleton with a eyepatch! We FINALLY get to see the long-promised pirate with a eyepatch! And he's dead. Is that Joyboy, Davy Jones, or someone else? These three things are probably more important than they look! They form the foundations that the Strawhats travel on. They probably all represent the past that lead them here, in different ways! Or maybe I'm reading too much into it! We'll see!
The fact that Oda's author message this chapter doesn't even bother to mention that he just dropped the real-life One Piece into the ocean this week is such a low-key power move.
Lilith reveals that Vegapunk's hover technology works on Elbaph. Because Elbaph is "teeming with energy". Huh. Well, that's a unexpected reveal. Something about Elbaph makes the island similar to the artificial environment Vegapunk created on Egghead. Maybe because of that 3000 year old lab on the island? Or maybe because of the Tree? Or something that's in the Heaven/Astral Realm? It seems like this was probably the case even before Loki started shooting off thunderbolts all over the place.
Bonney sitting atop Franky's head is cute. That is all.
Usopp canonically reveals that Loki does dwarf Kaido. We pretty much already knew that, but it's a good thing someone pointed it out, so we know it's intentional, and not just Oda failing to think about scale, again.
Aww...Robin's worried about Saul. She JUST got him back, too!
Nami tries to put out the fire burning the Library down with Zeus! Which is fair enough I suppose. But, he's no match against a Nightmare Lindwyrm! That's new. Another "dragon" subspecies. Interesting. Apparently, according to real-life legend, anything that it rests upon will grow. So, if it sits on a pile of treasure, more treasure will grow around it. Neat! Not relevant to THIS story, at all. But, still, neat!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindworm
But, the power of SCIENCE trumps all! Well...SCIENCE and a deus ex machina. Floating discs that can absorb all the heat in a area, freezing everything around it. I guess that was probably used to make sure Vegapunk's new body stayed frozen? I guess Vegapunk needed to start thawing out, anyway. You always need to remember to leave time to thaw out your Vegapunk, before you start preparing him.
And I guess Lilith can literally bottle the flames she absorbed into...Super Vega-Cola! Franky's getting a upgrade! It's a arc late, but I'll take it!
Find a girl who looks at you, the way Lilith looks at her new science experiment....I mean, Franky. You might not live long, but what a way to go!
"A new world can only be born by severing things like history!" Huh. That's a interesting thing to say. Oddly philosophical, really. And...not necessarily evil, I'll point out. Hold onto to old grudges and wrongs from the past can make you unable to move forward. There may be a legitimate reason why they're trying to erase history.
Qilingham hates Fishmen. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be ironic, since HE may be part-Fishman, given his teeth, or not. Or Qilingham's just something else.
Did someone order a COMBO MEAL?! Qilingham gets stuck in the middle of a three-way attack with Franky, Jinbe, and Sanji ALL wanting a piece of him! There definitely seems to be a running theme with the last few chapters. First, Garp and Roger needed to work together to take down Reversi'd Rocks. Then Loki and Ragnir work together to defeat Harald. Then Gerd, Road, and Goldberg worked together to defeat Nightmare Nika. Then Luffy and Loki worked together to defeat Sommers. Now this? Combo attacks seem like a key way to take down the God's Knights. Could this be...LOVE? Maybe?
So, it seems like there still IS some of the old Dorry and Brogy left in there! Enough to fight back and...cut off each other's heads?! Okay, well...it's not the most well thought-out plan in the world. But, I like the spirit of it! Does this count as them dying with smiles on their faces? And murdering each other...turns them back to normal? Huh. So, you just need to cut off their heads, in order to break the Reversi?
Wow...Oda found a way to make fakeout deaths a key plot point in the story. I just....*CLAPS* I have to respect that, honestly. I have to respect doubling down like that. Well played, Oda.
Well...I guess Garp and Roger should have had a SWORDSMAN fight Rocks, instead, huh? Too bad Rayleigh was too busy with Shakky at the time. Then they could have saved Rocks! But, wait, if killing someone undoes the Reversi AND heals your body...that doesn't quite line up with what we saw with Rocks. Rocks got turned back to normal, I guess by Garp and Roger literally killing him. But, he was still wounded after getting turned back, allowing Garling to take the finishing blow. Unless it NEEDS to be a headshot that does it? I feel like this should be a SBS question. Why did Rocks not get "healed" after he got un-Reveri'd? Unless Garp and Roger's combo attack was just SO STRONG that it nearly killed Rocks literally twice? Which...yeah, that might end up being Oda's answer, but I still want to know, officially!
And EVERYBODY'S kinda into the idea of killing their friends to turn them back. Giants (and Zoro) are kind of scary. First being willing to eat people, now looking forward to the chance to kill all their friends, consequence free? Yeah, I guess there's a reason why having the Giants on your side can turn the tide of a war.
So, Qilingham and Sommers are both "eliminated", at least for the moment. So, focus SHOULD really shift to Imu-nko, now. Too bad there's a break next week. Oh well. Next time we might be in for some good, old-fashioned ultra-violence, one way or another.
