Honestly? The moment that made me think "Oda's really serious about ending this now!" actually didn't come from the manga. It was when he revealed that he dropped the real-life One Piece into the ocean. That's what felt like Oda mentally preparing himself to say goodbye to this story, to me, anyway. That feels like something you do when you're in the final stretch of a long journey.
Although, if you want a moment from the manga...just think about how many members of the "Silhouette Tribe" that Oda's revealed in this arc alone. When you really take a step back and think about it, he's revealed a LOT of the longtime mystery characters he's been teasing for YEARS!
https://worstgen.alwaysdata.net/forum/threads/silhouette-piece-never-ends.59710/page-3#post-5615964
Imu, Gunko, Shamrock, Scopper, Rocks, Loki, Franky's dad, most of the God's Knights...Oda's been revealing face after face after face, lately!
I mean, at this point, the only ones left are: Nika, Davy Jones, Joyboy, Binks, The Man Marked By Flames, Roger's Giant Mystery Egg, actual names for a lot of the God Valley God's Knights, the First Twenty, Imu's new(?) Intern, and MAYBE Big New's Morgan's Human form, if you want to count that. And most of those characters are going to be Void Century Flashback characters!
At this point, the "Silhouette Tribe" is slowly going extinct! Oda's finally introducing characters that he's teased for years, and it just kind of adds to the feeling that we're finishing things up, rather than expanding them.
I'm sure we'll get TONS of new characters introduced in the eventual Void Century Flashback. The First Twenty alone will take up a huge slot of new designs. But, we really are in the "crossing the T's and dotting the i's" phase of this manga, now.
Although, if you want a moment from the manga...just think about how many members of the "Silhouette Tribe" that Oda's revealed in this arc alone. When you really take a step back and think about it, he's revealed a LOT of the longtime mystery characters he's been teasing for YEARS!
https://worstgen.alwaysdata.net/forum/threads/silhouette-piece-never-ends.59710/page-3#post-5615964
Imu, Gunko, Shamrock, Scopper, Rocks, Loki, Franky's dad, most of the God's Knights...Oda's been revealing face after face after face, lately!
I mean, at this point, the only ones left are: Nika, Davy Jones, Joyboy, Binks, The Man Marked By Flames, Roger's Giant Mystery Egg, actual names for a lot of the God Valley God's Knights, the First Twenty, Imu's new(?) Intern, and MAYBE Big New's Morgan's Human form, if you want to count that. And most of those characters are going to be Void Century Flashback characters!
At this point, the "Silhouette Tribe" is slowly going extinct! Oda's finally introducing characters that he's teased for years, and it just kind of adds to the feeling that we're finishing things up, rather than expanding them.
I'm sure we'll get TONS of new characters introduced in the eventual Void Century Flashback. The First Twenty alone will take up a huge slot of new designs. But, we really are in the "crossing the T's and dotting the i's" phase of this manga, now.
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