First and foremost, I need to tell all of my readers a very important thing:
I apologize.
A man needs to know when he's failed and take responsibility for his mistakes. I have to confess I couldn't see this coming. None of it. At this time, I believe you must have already read the chapter, so you surely know what I'm talking about. The way all the pieces, all of them, which, at least to me, they looked like a complete mess, and suddenly they've come into place for us to realize how incredible this narrative technique has been, the small bits of meaning that have been slowly piling up until now, the beautiful coreography of plotlines dancing under the radar to this arc, the catharsis of this magnificent character development contrasting the old and new...
I'm at a loss for words, Oda really played me like a fiddle this time... But it's better late than never, so I'll try to make things right and tell everything about this great chapter and why it really is the icing on the cake.
Let's go with it!
In the cover story, Yamato enjoys Tama's training and cheers for her as though it were the NBA finals. Investigating the kidnappings that had her so concerned can wait. Obviously, a girl throwing kunai at a target bigger than her head, that's ¿30? maybe 40 cm away, is far more important and even the pilgrimage can wait. In fact Yamato has lost the katana she was supposed to return i nthe first place. But it doesn't matter because, oh my god, Tama is doing it reeeeeally well. Look! Even the target is bowing in acknowledgement.
The accomplishments of Tama are so amazing that Oda couldn't focus in anything else and forgot he gave Shinobu a liposuction at the end of the Wano arc:
Is this the blandest and most boring cover story ever? So much that there are even random "animal covers", like Sanji and a goat gazing at the starts, way more interesting and compeling? Yes, of course!
But it's only natural. The careful planning he must have had to go under to pull this exquisite chapter surely required all of his attention and that's why this cover story is this dull.
Now fasten your seatbelts, because with next chapter starts the Rock'n'Roll!
The sun god is furious. He's playing a role in front of his "living dolls". And as a true god, self-criticism is not in his dictionary and rather than trying to put out the fire in his workshop or at least think and reflect for a moment about what he did wrong so that this happened, he's going to take it out on the poor toys.
Two things to notice here:
Forget about Nami, Zoro and Usopps ramblings. Forget about the cat's size even. Because, in this very page, in a tiny panel at the bottom right is where the magic beings:
Luffy, by means of his iconic happy face, displays his great empathy and kindness, and wants the cat to minimize damages to the sun god's toy-setting.
The great sun god parsimoniously chases his cat as though it were a matter of eventually cornering it. As though the people on its back hadn't already set his workshop in flames or were capable of further destruction.
Luffy doesn't know where they're going despite they discussed their plan at the end of last chapter already. It's also interesting to notice that since the end of last chapter until now (page 5) only one or two seconds have passed. They're exactly at the same place they were at the end of last chapter: past the castle with the sun god behind them.
Nami throws out the map. She's memorized it!! Remember I told you last chapter that Nami now was dumb. Well, I was wrong. She's still a genius because she's memorized the map on the fly (literally). In fact, she might've been onto something last chapter when she considered whether they could have been giantified. Look at them now! They're all bigger than the doors and windows of buildings even closer to us!! They are indeed becoming larger!
Zoro, Chopper, Sanji, Nami... saying obvious things to the camera as they make dramatic and cool expressions surrounded by dynamic lines as though they were escaping Enies Lobby in the middle of a Buster Call or something, but they're running on a cat's back in a small playroom from someone not too invested in catching them.
"We need to keep pushing". Excuse me??? What have you been pushing exactly??? "It shouldn't be much further" No, it won't. This place wouldn't take you 5 minutes to cross even if you were walking slowly.
We se the nice map Nami discarded. The playroom is a square. Well, not exactly it's slighly more wide than it is long. This is why I wanted you to take a look at the width of the workshop. Now you have a good idea of how small this room is. It's really small.
Oh, and one last thing, because it's so much in our faces that I find it surreal. Look at the map. Now look at the panel immediately to its right. The cat is traveling in a straight line from the workshop to the tree. It's absolutely impossible to see the very door behind them reflected to the right of the tree as it is in the other panel.
Thank god Luffy already made this chapter glorious a page ago (even if we don't know it yet)!
The Sun god warns the mugiwara pirates about the room not being all there is. He says it's a "detention center" for giants and that they won't escape that way.
It's not clear whether he says that because he thinks the walls can't be broken or something else, but I think he means that this is an interior room and if they get through the wall they won't be "outside" but just in a different room in the same building. This ties with last chapter where more rooms could be seen in the corridor to this one and also with the fact that the corridor was dark and lit with candles, which hints at it being a basement or dungeon.
It could be nighttime too, but one would expect this "block world" to have its own nighttime and... wait.
How does this room's lighting work?? It's so sunny in here even though the corridor outside is dark despite the multiple candles. How many candles are here? None that we've seen. No wax dripping from anywhere either. How long would the people and animals living here survive in this closed space with that many candles constantly consuming the oxygen in the air?? No! Is this a detention center for giants? Like... a prison?? How is this sun god allowed to have a playroom and a workshop for his hobbies in a prison?? Does he run the prison??
Sanji doesn't seem to reflect on anything like that. His attention is caught by the way the sun god speaks (that we wouldn't know because it's lost in translation). He speaks like a samurai. Hmm... I wonder how relevant will this be.
Moving on, the sun god stretches a net in the inner part of the circle at one end of his staff turning it into a butterfly net. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop. Is that a devil fruit ability?? The sun god has the power of weaving nets? Wouldn't that be way too similar to both Hina's and Leo's abilities?? Because one thing is sure that net wasn't there before this page.
And look at the first panel. Did someone start drawing it, went to sleep, have dinner or take a walk midway and then finished it at another time? Because it makes no sense at all.
The top and left parts of the circle are consistent with how the staff is held: mostly vertical, a little bit tilted to the sun god and the circle parallel to the sun god's face. However, the bottom-right part and the net are consistent with the left hand that's stretching the net and look like the circle is perpendicular to the face. That means, with spikes pointing at the face, yet they're not. Except the one at the bottom-right. That spike is the part that looks more odd and helps seeing this.
The way the sun god takes the net in his left hand makes sense if it were perpendicular to the face. It would be the most natural movement with the left hand. But 3/4 of the circle is drawn parallel to the face, consistent also with how the staff is held in all previous panels and that way, the left hand would be pulling the net in front of himself and outward, yet a little bit twisted. It would be more natural to pull it inward from behind. Especially considering he's about to use it to catch the cat.
It's very weird.
The cat is trapped and stops running. In fact, it falls to the ground looking as though he were put to sleep or something. It's just a net. I mean, thet cat can stop, the cat can even try his claws with the net (that's actually what cats love to do), but why would the cat fall flat on his face and look devastated??
Oh, but you have to understand, he's tired and wounded because of previous kicks, slashes and punches from the monster trio. Okay, fine. Then why's he up and running with this vigor next panel?
Really Sanji?? Ifrit Jambe just so the mosshead can't claim he's carrying the group? Zorotards are going to laugh their asses off for a really long time.
Also. Can anyone explain to me why both Zoro and Sanji were, obviously, inside the net, but as they cut it / ¿burn it? they're moving from the outside and towards the cat???
Ooh... "metal wires", huh? I bet no giant could have torn that net, right? Strong metal wires. The ultimate weapon of the sun god. I wonder how Sanji burnt them instantly though? I mean, metal doesn't burn. Is Sanji now Akainu? His touch melts metal instantly? Wow. They're still running with their tails between their legs from a giant with a butterfly net.
Humiliated by the Mugiwara pirates once more, the sun god relies now in the "mighty eargod". What part of his workshop in flames and the "mighty guardians" knocked out did he miss??
HA! What would we know, the eargod Luffy killed, roasted and ate IN THE FOREST had his bones taken still burning hot and brough in the middle of a street by... "someone" for "some reason".
By the way, Zoro and Sanji made a hole somewhere in the net. That's all they did, then the cat got out. Why doesn't the circle have the net any more? Was it magically removed because it's a devil fruit ability or what? So, things actually appear and disappear blatantly just because of plot convenience, no, worse than that, because of laziness to draw. We're already in "Adventure Time" level of surreal fantasy and nothing is slightly reliable any more in this story, is it?
I have to admit I'm not too sure what's going on in this page. One thing is clear: the rabbit, the suddenly "carnivorous" bunny, was his ace up his sleeve. It's not clear to me, though, whether he's just backpedaling on his rage after realizing they can beat the living crap out of him or his simply gone crazy.
In any case, he seems now ecstatic that something out of the usual is happening in his playroom. Although, I have to question: That ravenous bunny of his that might've attacked Luffy on sight and in whom he trusted to stop the Mugiwara pirates, is the same that has been living there for who knows how long with the other captives not being devoured or anything. Moreover, the only advice the grasshopper-er thought important to give to the "newcommers" was about the "temple", not about the eargod at all. Strange.
Ooookay. "History is being made". Now I'm sure this sun god's high. Someone please tell him his workshop is burning down as he speaks. And... also his block world is burning? Are those doodles supposed to be fire or what? Why would they burn? Weren't they made of plastic? Are the flames from the workshop here already or was it Sanji's? The staff is not in flames, so probably not.
The other prisoners in the block world were pretending as I told you. They're going for an escape now since the sun god is absent-minded and the door is open. How foolish of them though. Everyone knows the open door is a bad idea. The good idea is to open a hole in the more than likely thick wall of rock.
Imagine the Mugiwara's faces if the wall turns out to have a layer of kairoseki or wapometal and it doesn't break. XD But don't fret. Plot convenience takes care of that.
Nice. Usopp goes all out with his strongest move (a plant move, never forget) and... he breaks the mirror. A little bit. Luffy casually bumping on it tore a larger hole.
HA! How awesome! How subtle and well-written!! Because of the great reveal not being evident to us yet, at this point we still think this chapter and many more before it are absolute trash and therefore we find these lines quite rich from Oda. He can't find enough inspiration or professional ethic to write a decent story anymore and yet one of his characters is going to tell us about how to write a good story!
But we will soon understand. Because the plot twist about to befall us will be a real game-changer. Nothing is going to ever be the same after this. You're not ready and Oda knows. He knows and rejoices in it the same way the sun god is doing now.
You see, it's all an allegory. Oda is the sun god playing with us in his playroom. The Mugiwara pirates are the story moving forward by crashing against a thick strong wall of rock and then act like nothing happened. We're the captives that play along in front of him but would try to escape if the chance arose.
Nami, Nami again. The prodigy is surprised the sun god knows their names. Nami, darling, you've been concerned that potential enemies would know you since Mr. 13 made a drawing of you for Crocodile, and all bounty increases in the crew worried you further in this regard. Of course you're known.
"Little" gear fourth. This is, as some other details like the "carnivorous rabbit", pure damage control regarding why a gear 3rd elephant gun was named "gear 4th" a couple of chapters ago. And for that and that alone, now there's no boundman anymore. Gear 4th attacks no longer require a transformation. So much for those who claim Boundman was Luffy's "hybrid" form (lol).
It's obvious, though, that two chapters ago, Luffy hit the cat with a gear 3rd move any way. I wonder why isn't he not using gear 5th. He used it against fodder animals, why not against the thick wall of rock that's going to have you crushed unless you succeed?
I'll tell you why. It's because "booming dawn pistol" or whatever its name is, wouldn't make a hole in the wall. the wall would become elastic, Luffy's fist will stretch it from one side to the other, but then it would go back to normal like nothing. That's why I've always asked myself how come that ridiculous move hurts anyone. Oda gets away with it because Luffy's not going to literally punch through anyone's skull as long as this is published in Shonen Jump and characters can just act like the punch was very painful. But when things get real and you need to actually make visible damage to something... AHA! Gear 5th is useless.
We just come from seeing how Luffy is about to grant the group their escape from that prison (or so they trust), his fist is already charged and likely bouncing back to hit the wall and... Waaaaaaaaaaaaait, nope. Look at the center's panel. Where's Luffy's fist? Yep, it isn't anywhere. Now Luffy himself disappeared from the scene. He must have been at the toilet when this was drawn. Any way, his fist will be about to obliterate the wall when he gets back from the toilet but meanwhile the rest of the group have a nice conversation, Nami can even perform slower attacks that she's still deciding on...
It's interesting, how suddenly, Nami is brave to hit the giant and even more, confident that she'll harm him. Sanji too. As he hears Nami's intentions, he needs to step in and show his determination to also fight the giant now. Poor Sanji with this and the thing with the net before, it seems as though he has some sort of inferiority complex, isn't it? He thinks he needs to constantly prove himself.
We get a pervert gag now because it is now obvious the true Sanji from previous chapter was replaced again by Lanji, so instead of being stupidly in love, he's simply a pervert again. Being used to that already, it almost made me laugh this one, I have to confess. I'd have to if it weren't for the further self-humiliation it exposes about Sanji being equally conscious of the fact the sun god got to undress Nami and not doing a thing about it when it first appeared. True Sanji, without saying a thing, would have been the first to break the giant's nose with a kick making him fly out of the workshop the moment he had entered. Not Lanji though.
None of that matters, though, because, my dear friends, One Piece is about to change forever in ways you couldn't fathom i nthe very next page and we're already teased at the end of this one. I'm sure you'll agree with me that everything and anything will be forgiven once you realize this masterpiece of a plot twist Oda is about to pull right from within is arse.
ROD, ROAD, LOD, LOAD, whichever his name is supposed to be, ãƒãƒ¼ãƒ‰ãƒ¼, in any case. He is actually the sun god! The navigator of the New Giant Warrior pirates. Hajrudin's crewmate! Who would have told, right?
Well, that's a plot twist, but that's not really that big of a plot twist, isn't it? Hmm... Probably not. But this is not what I was talking about.
He is the one who kidnapped the Mugiwara pirates (Technically, it was his crow, but he kept them, so it's still true). It's shown as though it were a coincidence, but at the same time, it turns out he wasn't too happy about his captain, Hajrudin, having sworn fealty to Luffy and he thought it was a good idea to do this to show them who's boss.
He also solves the mystery about everyone falling asleep during the party with thhe giants.
Okay, let's talk about this a little bit:
Apparently it's something giants are aware of. It's just known to them. On the way from Egghead to Elbaf (and viceversa) there''s the mysterious "sleeping mist belt" and when you breath that mist, you fall sound asleep. So... How come no one mentioned it earlier? How come the Giant Warrior pirates who know of it and who are vulnerable to it don't do anything about and just sail straight towards certain danger? Isn't this stupid among stupid things??
At the time, the narrator was teasing us with "hm... what could have caused this...?" while the very same person (Oda) had Dorry and Broggy say "Oh, my god, did we all pass out drunk??"
So, they know there's a strange mist that will do exactly that, and yet they don't know at the same time. Uh huh. Awesome writing. Damn, I'd be so pissed if it weren't because in the end, it's all justified!
Oh, and two more little things before moving forward.
During the brief flashback, Nami's got time create a giant stormcloud and uses Zeus to electrocute Rod.
Okay. Luffy must still be in the toilet. We've got to make some time for him or something.
Luffy returns from the workshop. It seems someone put out the fire already. No other prisoners escaping through the door despite they said they were going to do that now. Luffy punches through some rock as though this was an ultra epic moment or something and the chapter ends.
So, what's the plot twist I was talking about, right? Well, you might have overlooked it but... the thing is...
Luffy is revealed as a slaver sympathizer.
First of all, there's a slaver who belongs to the Mugiwara Grand Fleet. Created, introduced and expanded with all sorts of epicness and pageantry by the author, from the drinking ceremony until the cover stories for each member, including Rod the slaver.
At the beginning of the arc we had this really weird unmarked flashback to Bartolomeo. At the time we couldn't know, but now it's plain to see. The purpose of that flashback was to show how the rest of the world acknowledges the Grand Fleet as underlings of Luffy. Shanks asked Bartolomeo to have Luffy take responsibility for his actions.
This chapter also, Rod states he (and his crew) are under the command of Luffy, even if he disagrees with such decision.
And now you're ready to understand the importance of that little panel at the beginning of the chapter where Luffy didn't want to damage the block world. Despite he himself, his friends and lots of other innocent people are trapped and ensalved ("Now you will serve me" says Rod at the end of page 14) by Rod and Luffy finds it cute and charming. He values the dedication he's put into it and doesn't want Rod's work to be destroyed. He even refuses to confront him. If that's not Luffy validating slavery I don't know what it is.
And this... this changes everything. And now lots of things make sense. Some others make a different kind of sense too.
Now it's easier to understand why Garp and Roger are also a slavery apologists. Easier to understand why when push came to shove, Dragon didn't help Kuma. He didn't even appeared at the slave hunt every big shot went to and Ivankov and Kuma had to save themselves.
Now it's easier to understand why Luffy wants to Pirate King. Why he has the devil fruit of the god of freedom. He sees the Pirate King title as a paragon of freedom. He wants to take that spot just as with the devil fruit because if he is freedom, if him and freedom become one, then no freedom will be left for others. By taking freedom in his hands, he wants to sentence the rest of the world to slavery.
We were warned 800 chapters ago (800, huh? Coincidence, I think not!)
Marines are the good guys. Luffy is the bad guy who think he can speak for others and tell them what to do.
And now that we know this story really is about a pirate who approves of pirate things and does pirate things, now, things got interesting again!
I apologize.
A man needs to know when he's failed and take responsibility for his mistakes. I have to confess I couldn't see this coming. None of it. At this time, I believe you must have already read the chapter, so you surely know what I'm talking about. The way all the pieces, all of them, which, at least to me, they looked like a complete mess, and suddenly they've come into place for us to realize how incredible this narrative technique has been, the small bits of meaning that have been slowly piling up until now, the beautiful coreography of plotlines dancing under the radar to this arc, the catharsis of this magnificent character development contrasting the old and new...
I'm at a loss for words, Oda really played me like a fiddle this time... But it's better late than never, so I'll try to make things right and tell everything about this great chapter and why it really is the icing on the cake.
Let's go with it!
In the cover story, Yamato enjoys Tama's training and cheers for her as though it were the NBA finals. Investigating the kidnappings that had her so concerned can wait. Obviously, a girl throwing kunai at a target bigger than her head, that's ¿30? maybe 40 cm away, is far more important and even the pilgrimage can wait. In fact Yamato has lost the katana she was supposed to return i nthe first place. But it doesn't matter because, oh my god, Tama is doing it reeeeeally well. Look! Even the target is bowing in acknowledgement.
The accomplishments of Tama are so amazing that Oda couldn't focus in anything else and forgot he gave Shinobu a liposuction at the end of the Wano arc:
Is this the blandest and most boring cover story ever? So much that there are even random "animal covers", like Sanji and a goat gazing at the starts, way more interesting and compeling? Yes, of course!
But it's only natural. The careful planning he must have had to go under to pull this exquisite chapter surely required all of his attention and that's why this cover story is this dull.
Now fasten your seatbelts, because with next chapter starts the Rock'n'Roll!
The sun god is furious. He's playing a role in front of his "living dolls". And as a true god, self-criticism is not in his dictionary and rather than trying to put out the fire in his workshop or at least think and reflect for a moment about what he did wrong so that this happened, he's going to take it out on the poor toys.
Two things to notice here:
- The inhabitants of the block world, they look desperate. They look like they think the world is really ending for them right? But no! They're just pretending. They're playing along with the Sun god. Why? Keep reading and you'll find out.
- In the last panel (I mean, there's only three of them, so the third one.), you can see the total width of the workshop. Two metal bars at the sides, part of the mirror's frame, mark where the mirror end and the lateral walls begin.
Forget about Nami, Zoro and Usopps ramblings. Forget about the cat's size even. Because, in this very page, in a tiny panel at the bottom right is where the magic beings:
Luffy, by means of his iconic happy face, displays his great empathy and kindness, and wants the cat to minimize damages to the sun god's toy-setting.
The great sun god parsimoniously chases his cat as though it were a matter of eventually cornering it. As though the people on its back hadn't already set his workshop in flames or were capable of further destruction.
Luffy doesn't know where they're going despite they discussed their plan at the end of last chapter already. It's also interesting to notice that since the end of last chapter until now (page 5) only one or two seconds have passed. They're exactly at the same place they were at the end of last chapter: past the castle with the sun god behind them.
Nami throws out the map. She's memorized it!! Remember I told you last chapter that Nami now was dumb. Well, I was wrong. She's still a genius because she's memorized the map on the fly (literally). In fact, she might've been onto something last chapter when she considered whether they could have been giantified. Look at them now! They're all bigger than the doors and windows of buildings even closer to us!! They are indeed becoming larger!
Zoro, Chopper, Sanji, Nami... saying obvious things to the camera as they make dramatic and cool expressions surrounded by dynamic lines as though they were escaping Enies Lobby in the middle of a Buster Call or something, but they're running on a cat's back in a small playroom from someone not too invested in catching them.
"We need to keep pushing". Excuse me??? What have you been pushing exactly??? "It shouldn't be much further" No, it won't. This place wouldn't take you 5 minutes to cross even if you were walking slowly.
We se the nice map Nami discarded. The playroom is a square. Well, not exactly it's slighly more wide than it is long. This is why I wanted you to take a look at the width of the workshop. Now you have a good idea of how small this room is. It's really small.
Oh, and one last thing, because it's so much in our faces that I find it surreal. Look at the map. Now look at the panel immediately to its right. The cat is traveling in a straight line from the workshop to the tree. It's absolutely impossible to see the very door behind them reflected to the right of the tree as it is in the other panel.
Thank god Luffy already made this chapter glorious a page ago (even if we don't know it yet)!
The Sun god warns the mugiwara pirates about the room not being all there is. He says it's a "detention center" for giants and that they won't escape that way.
It's not clear whether he says that because he thinks the walls can't be broken or something else, but I think he means that this is an interior room and if they get through the wall they won't be "outside" but just in a different room in the same building. This ties with last chapter where more rooms could be seen in the corridor to this one and also with the fact that the corridor was dark and lit with candles, which hints at it being a basement or dungeon.
It could be nighttime too, but one would expect this "block world" to have its own nighttime and... wait.
How does this room's lighting work?? It's so sunny in here even though the corridor outside is dark despite the multiple candles. How many candles are here? None that we've seen. No wax dripping from anywhere either. How long would the people and animals living here survive in this closed space with that many candles constantly consuming the oxygen in the air?? No! Is this a detention center for giants? Like... a prison?? How is this sun god allowed to have a playroom and a workshop for his hobbies in a prison?? Does he run the prison??
Sanji doesn't seem to reflect on anything like that. His attention is caught by the way the sun god speaks (that we wouldn't know because it's lost in translation). He speaks like a samurai. Hmm... I wonder how relevant will this be.
Moving on, the sun god stretches a net in the inner part of the circle at one end of his staff turning it into a butterfly net. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop. Is that a devil fruit ability?? The sun god has the power of weaving nets? Wouldn't that be way too similar to both Hina's and Leo's abilities?? Because one thing is sure that net wasn't there before this page.
And look at the first panel. Did someone start drawing it, went to sleep, have dinner or take a walk midway and then finished it at another time? Because it makes no sense at all.
The top and left parts of the circle are consistent with how the staff is held: mostly vertical, a little bit tilted to the sun god and the circle parallel to the sun god's face. However, the bottom-right part and the net are consistent with the left hand that's stretching the net and look like the circle is perpendicular to the face. That means, with spikes pointing at the face, yet they're not. Except the one at the bottom-right. That spike is the part that looks more odd and helps seeing this.
The way the sun god takes the net in his left hand makes sense if it were perpendicular to the face. It would be the most natural movement with the left hand. But 3/4 of the circle is drawn parallel to the face, consistent also with how the staff is held in all previous panels and that way, the left hand would be pulling the net in front of himself and outward, yet a little bit twisted. It would be more natural to pull it inward from behind. Especially considering he's about to use it to catch the cat.
It's very weird.
The cat is trapped and stops running. In fact, it falls to the ground looking as though he were put to sleep or something. It's just a net. I mean, thet cat can stop, the cat can even try his claws with the net (that's actually what cats love to do), but why would the cat fall flat on his face and look devastated??
Oh, but you have to understand, he's tired and wounded because of previous kicks, slashes and punches from the monster trio. Okay, fine. Then why's he up and running with this vigor next panel?
- Zoro vs net: Takes a katana and done.
- Sanji vs net:
Really Sanji?? Ifrit Jambe just so the mosshead can't claim he's carrying the group? Zorotards are going to laugh their asses off for a really long time.
Also. Can anyone explain to me why both Zoro and Sanji were, obviously, inside the net, but as they cut it / ¿burn it? they're moving from the outside and towards the cat???
Ooh... "metal wires", huh? I bet no giant could have torn that net, right? Strong metal wires. The ultimate weapon of the sun god. I wonder how Sanji burnt them instantly though? I mean, metal doesn't burn. Is Sanji now Akainu? His touch melts metal instantly? Wow. They're still running with their tails between their legs from a giant with a butterfly net.
Humiliated by the Mugiwara pirates once more, the sun god relies now in the "mighty eargod". What part of his workshop in flames and the "mighty guardians" knocked out did he miss??
HA! What would we know, the eargod Luffy killed, roasted and ate IN THE FOREST had his bones taken still burning hot and brough in the middle of a street by... "someone" for "some reason".
By the way, Zoro and Sanji made a hole somewhere in the net. That's all they did, then the cat got out. Why doesn't the circle have the net any more? Was it magically removed because it's a devil fruit ability or what? So, things actually appear and disappear blatantly just because of plot convenience, no, worse than that, because of laziness to draw. We're already in "Adventure Time" level of surreal fantasy and nothing is slightly reliable any more in this story, is it?
I have to admit I'm not too sure what's going on in this page. One thing is clear: the rabbit, the suddenly "carnivorous" bunny, was his ace up his sleeve. It's not clear to me, though, whether he's just backpedaling on his rage after realizing they can beat the living crap out of him or his simply gone crazy.
In any case, he seems now ecstatic that something out of the usual is happening in his playroom. Although, I have to question: That ravenous bunny of his that might've attacked Luffy on sight and in whom he trusted to stop the Mugiwara pirates, is the same that has been living there for who knows how long with the other captives not being devoured or anything. Moreover, the only advice the grasshopper-er thought important to give to the "newcommers" was about the "temple", not about the eargod at all. Strange.
Ooookay. "History is being made". Now I'm sure this sun god's high. Someone please tell him his workshop is burning down as he speaks. And... also his block world is burning? Are those doodles supposed to be fire or what? Why would they burn? Weren't they made of plastic? Are the flames from the workshop here already or was it Sanji's? The staff is not in flames, so probably not.
The other prisoners in the block world were pretending as I told you. They're going for an escape now since the sun god is absent-minded and the door is open. How foolish of them though. Everyone knows the open door is a bad idea. The good idea is to open a hole in the more than likely thick wall of rock.
Imagine the Mugiwara's faces if the wall turns out to have a layer of kairoseki or wapometal and it doesn't break. XD But don't fret. Plot convenience takes care of that.
Nice. Usopp goes all out with his strongest move (a plant move, never forget) and... he breaks the mirror. A little bit. Luffy casually bumping on it tore a larger hole.
HA! How awesome! How subtle and well-written!! Because of the great reveal not being evident to us yet, at this point we still think this chapter and many more before it are absolute trash and therefore we find these lines quite rich from Oda. He can't find enough inspiration or professional ethic to write a decent story anymore and yet one of his characters is going to tell us about how to write a good story!
But we will soon understand. Because the plot twist about to befall us will be a real game-changer. Nothing is going to ever be the same after this. You're not ready and Oda knows. He knows and rejoices in it the same way the sun god is doing now.
You see, it's all an allegory. Oda is the sun god playing with us in his playroom. The Mugiwara pirates are the story moving forward by crashing against a thick strong wall of rock and then act like nothing happened. We're the captives that play along in front of him but would try to escape if the chance arose.
Nami, Nami again. The prodigy is surprised the sun god knows their names. Nami, darling, you've been concerned that potential enemies would know you since Mr. 13 made a drawing of you for Crocodile, and all bounty increases in the crew worried you further in this regard. Of course you're known.
"Little" gear fourth. This is, as some other details like the "carnivorous rabbit", pure damage control regarding why a gear 3rd elephant gun was named "gear 4th" a couple of chapters ago. And for that and that alone, now there's no boundman anymore. Gear 4th attacks no longer require a transformation. So much for those who claim Boundman was Luffy's "hybrid" form (lol).
It's obvious, though, that two chapters ago, Luffy hit the cat with a gear 3rd move any way. I wonder why isn't he not using gear 5th. He used it against fodder animals, why not against the thick wall of rock that's going to have you crushed unless you succeed?
I'll tell you why. It's because "booming dawn pistol" or whatever its name is, wouldn't make a hole in the wall. the wall would become elastic, Luffy's fist will stretch it from one side to the other, but then it would go back to normal like nothing. That's why I've always asked myself how come that ridiculous move hurts anyone. Oda gets away with it because Luffy's not going to literally punch through anyone's skull as long as this is published in Shonen Jump and characters can just act like the punch was very painful. But when things get real and you need to actually make visible damage to something... AHA! Gear 5th is useless.
We just come from seeing how Luffy is about to grant the group their escape from that prison (or so they trust), his fist is already charged and likely bouncing back to hit the wall and... Waaaaaaaaaaaaait, nope. Look at the center's panel. Where's Luffy's fist? Yep, it isn't anywhere. Now Luffy himself disappeared from the scene. He must have been at the toilet when this was drawn. Any way, his fist will be about to obliterate the wall when he gets back from the toilet but meanwhile the rest of the group have a nice conversation, Nami can even perform slower attacks that she's still deciding on...
It's interesting, how suddenly, Nami is brave to hit the giant and even more, confident that she'll harm him. Sanji too. As he hears Nami's intentions, he needs to step in and show his determination to also fight the giant now. Poor Sanji with this and the thing with the net before, it seems as though he has some sort of inferiority complex, isn't it? He thinks he needs to constantly prove himself.
We get a pervert gag now because it is now obvious the true Sanji from previous chapter was replaced again by Lanji, so instead of being stupidly in love, he's simply a pervert again. Being used to that already, it almost made me laugh this one, I have to confess. I'd have to if it weren't for the further self-humiliation it exposes about Sanji being equally conscious of the fact the sun god got to undress Nami and not doing a thing about it when it first appeared. True Sanji, without saying a thing, would have been the first to break the giant's nose with a kick making him fly out of the workshop the moment he had entered. Not Lanji though.
None of that matters, though, because, my dear friends, One Piece is about to change forever in ways you couldn't fathom i nthe very next page and we're already teased at the end of this one. I'm sure you'll agree with me that everything and anything will be forgiven once you realize this masterpiece of a plot twist Oda is about to pull right from within is arse.
ROD, ROAD, LOD, LOAD, whichever his name is supposed to be, ãƒãƒ¼ãƒ‰ãƒ¼, in any case. He is actually the sun god! The navigator of the New Giant Warrior pirates. Hajrudin's crewmate! Who would have told, right?
Well, that's a plot twist, but that's not really that big of a plot twist, isn't it? Hmm... Probably not. But this is not what I was talking about.
He is the one who kidnapped the Mugiwara pirates (Technically, it was his crow, but he kept them, so it's still true). It's shown as though it were a coincidence, but at the same time, it turns out he wasn't too happy about his captain, Hajrudin, having sworn fealty to Luffy and he thought it was a good idea to do this to show them who's boss.
He also solves the mystery about everyone falling asleep during the party with thhe giants.
Okay, let's talk about this a little bit:
- Rod was already serving Buggy, of all people, before Hajrudin decided to change sides. So what's his problem with Luffy?? And what's that about "not following itty-bitty humans"? You were Buggy's henchman!
- His crow brings him part of the Mugiwara pirates and the first thing that crosses his mind is "let's enslave them in my dollhouse!" He knows Luffy is a yonko. Doesn't he think he's going to be in trouble when they awake? When the rest of the crew comes looking for them? When the Giant Warrior pirates that were escorting them come?? When his own captain comes looking for them?? Did he really thought he could kidnap half the most famous pirate crew in the world and everything would be sugar and rainbows??
- He was also introduced as the navigator in Hajrudin's pirate crew, so... What's he exactly doing wherever he is running this dollhouse asa hobby? In a "giant detention center". Is he a pirate sailing the New World or is he a jailer? WTF is going on??
- Why, WHY would he dress like this outside of the playroom?? Why does he walk through dark corridors of a detention center dressed in his role playing game costume?? Why would he put on the skull helmet?? It makes sense for him to put on the costume when he enters the playroom, but it doesn't for him to wear it outside of it. The most natural thing would be to keep the costume in the workshop. I know why he did. It's because the mugiwara pirates were already at the workshop so he had to come dressed from the outside. But why??? Even if the narrative is the only excuse and we just give up on the story itself, it's irrelevant that Luffy and the others see his face. They don't know him. Only we do. So, it's all so that we didn't know who it was, huh? Well, who cares?? Imagine we just see it's Rod from the beginning. So what? We'd still be wondering things. No hype would be lost. Not that revealing it's Rod leaves anyone speechless or anything. This is really, really dumb. Then, in the flashback where we can see it's him, BANG! He's not wearing his costume! even inside the wrokshop. So it really was just a dumb hype tool. Well, at least Rod isn't a main character of the arc while remaining nothing but a lazy shadow like Imu.
Apparently it's something giants are aware of. It's just known to them. On the way from Egghead to Elbaf (and viceversa) there''s the mysterious "sleeping mist belt" and when you breath that mist, you fall sound asleep. So... How come no one mentioned it earlier? How come the Giant Warrior pirates who know of it and who are vulnerable to it don't do anything about and just sail straight towards certain danger? Isn't this stupid among stupid things??
At the time, the narrator was teasing us with "hm... what could have caused this...?" while the very same person (Oda) had Dorry and Broggy say "Oh, my god, did we all pass out drunk??"
So, they know there's a strange mist that will do exactly that, and yet they don't know at the same time. Uh huh. Awesome writing. Damn, I'd be so pissed if it weren't because in the end, it's all justified!
Oh, and two more little things before moving forward.
- Lilith must have known too about such a strange and stable phenomenon near Egghead and didn't say anything either.
- Rod has a supply of such mist stored somewhere in his workshop because... potato, I suppose.
During the brief flashback, Nami's got time create a giant stormcloud and uses Zeus to electrocute Rod.
Okay. Luffy must still be in the toilet. We've got to make some time for him or something.
Luffy returns from the workshop. It seems someone put out the fire already. No other prisoners escaping through the door despite they said they were going to do that now. Luffy punches through some rock as though this was an ultra epic moment or something and the chapter ends.
So, what's the plot twist I was talking about, right? Well, you might have overlooked it but... the thing is...
Luffy is revealed as a slaver sympathizer.
First of all, there's a slaver who belongs to the Mugiwara Grand Fleet. Created, introduced and expanded with all sorts of epicness and pageantry by the author, from the drinking ceremony until the cover stories for each member, including Rod the slaver.
At the beginning of the arc we had this really weird unmarked flashback to Bartolomeo. At the time we couldn't know, but now it's plain to see. The purpose of that flashback was to show how the rest of the world acknowledges the Grand Fleet as underlings of Luffy. Shanks asked Bartolomeo to have Luffy take responsibility for his actions.
This chapter also, Rod states he (and his crew) are under the command of Luffy, even if he disagrees with such decision.
And now you're ready to understand the importance of that little panel at the beginning of the chapter where Luffy didn't want to damage the block world. Despite he himself, his friends and lots of other innocent people are trapped and ensalved ("Now you will serve me" says Rod at the end of page 14) by Rod and Luffy finds it cute and charming. He values the dedication he's put into it and doesn't want Rod's work to be destroyed. He even refuses to confront him. If that's not Luffy validating slavery I don't know what it is.
And this... this changes everything. And now lots of things make sense. Some others make a different kind of sense too.
Now it's easier to understand why Garp and Roger are also a slavery apologists. Easier to understand why when push came to shove, Dragon didn't help Kuma. He didn't even appeared at the slave hunt every big shot went to and Ivankov and Kuma had to save themselves.
Now it's easier to understand why Luffy wants to Pirate King. Why he has the devil fruit of the god of freedom. He sees the Pirate King title as a paragon of freedom. He wants to take that spot just as with the devil fruit because if he is freedom, if him and freedom become one, then no freedom will be left for others. By taking freedom in his hands, he wants to sentence the rest of the world to slavery.
We were warned 800 chapters ago (800, huh? Coincidence, I think not!)
Marines are the good guys. Luffy is the bad guy who think he can speak for others and tell them what to do.
And now that we know this story really is about a pirate who approves of pirate things and does pirate things, now, things got interesting again!