Ch. 1133 p1
In this chapter's cover story, Hold'em gets a hold of Tama after beating Speed with the help of his SMILE-lion Kamijirō (I think that was the name, but I'm going with my memory here, it might be wrong) and its fire-breathing capabilities and uses the girl as hostage to extort Yamato for her belongings.Who? Who would have thought a couple of chapters ago that the cover story would turn out as the most interesting plotline of the arc??
The pattern continues and as Yamato reaches her next checkpoint, she finds some trouble. Now she only needs to meet another member of the 9 red scabbards before leaving to her next destination.
I find this part of the cover story hillarious for a lot of reasons. But before discussing them, there's something the appearance of Hold'em brings to the table and shouldn't be avoided: What happened with the Beast pirates after Kaidō's defeat?
It was never told. Usually at the end of such an arc (Nation-wide power struggle the Mugiwara pirates help settle for one side or another. The most common kind of arc, I believe), there's a "clean up" step in the country and the losing faction is taken care of.
- Crocodile and his officers arrested by Marines.
- Eneru departs for the Moon and his priests are set to "cloud drift".
- Hody and his comrades are put in jail.
- Doflamingo and his crew also arrested by Marines.
- Are the surviving Beast pirates (whoever they are) regrouping in Wano, getting ready to cause more trouble now that its saviors are gone because despite all the hatred, Wano's new ruling class left them completely unchecked???
- Is Hold'em acting on his own as a lone escapee to the new Wano authority that dealt with all other Beast pirates appropriately even though we weren't told??
Any way, by the looks of it, Speed was one-hit-KO'd not putting up a fight at all. Who let her join the Beast pirates and promoted her to Shin'uchi?? She's useless.
"No, Katakuri, don't be so harsh with poor Speed. She was surely ambushed by Hold'em."
Well, the fact that Tama is not hurt indicates Hold'em took Tama before roasting Speed. So, her defeat can't be blamed on the surprise element. But even if she actually had been ambushed, then what good is her 350º-wide panoramic vision she used to boast about if she's not going to notice being ambushed??
And what was Yamato doing exactly during all that? I mean, look at ther. She looks helpless! WTH?? She was strong and resolute during the Wano arc. Why is she panicking now as Chopper in front of any unexpected event??
And what about Hold'em? Every other outlaw in Wano took the smart decision not to confront Yamato. Let's be real. She's in all likeliness the strongest individual in the whole country right now and very well-known by everyone in it. And yet Hold'em decided to pick a fight with her.
Even in the case he ambushed Speed, he still ambushed Speed rather than Yamato. Why??? But that isn't everything. He's asking for their belongings, as though they would carry much of worth. We don't know whether he's trying to find an escape out of Wano or has adopted the life of a bandit there, but in any case, what is he expecting to steal from Yamato??
Hold'em, better than anyone, should know he already has the most valuable good in his hands. He had already kidnapped Tama once in order to use her to tame animals. Why is he using Tama as a hostage now and not as the thing to grab and run??
Everything is so silly here and then there's also Komachiyo's disappearance. He is not in the picture now. Conveniently erased from the action. But I found an explanation to all of this. Don't get your hopes up, it's not a good explanation as the scene won't make any more sense, but it's an explanation nonetheless:
With this cover, Oda wanted to make a homage to the Wizard of Oz. So, in the picture there are the four protagonists of the story:
- Speed represents the cowardly lion. We know she withstood Kaidō's attack before and still had strength to run back to Bakura for plot convenience. But now, she's frozen in the ground unable to help Tama. She needs courage just like the cowardly lion.
- Hold'em represents the scarecrow. He should know way better, and yet he's making every wrong decision he can (in a single panel). As the scarecrow, a brain would do well to him.
- Yamato represents the tin man. She's just there doing literally nothing. It''s her friends and companions, who went on a quest to help her, who have been attacked and yet Yamato can't find an ounce of empathy within her to help them back. She clearly needs a heart that lets her have feelings just as the tin man.
- Finally, Tama represents Dorothy. She's been literally and figuratively taken away from her homeland (Kuri to Udon) by riding in Speed's back, being involved in Yamato's adventure and held hostage by Hold'em, and needs to find the way back. Just like Dorothy who was taken from Kansas to Munchkinland by a tornado.
Ch. 1133 p2, p3 & p4
The chapter starts with these three pages that are basically a repeated flashback. Save for Spandine talking to the journalists and Robin drawing Ohara in the map, two things that are completely irrelevant for the story, everything in the flashback we already knew.Robin had it very rough in her childhood because the government demonized her and offered good money for her head. She could never rest or feel safe and everyone turned on her to earn her bounty. Not a single new relevant detail.
If a couple of chapters back we had a panel to remind us of who Hajrudin is, then now we got three whole pages to let us know who one of the protagonists is, because obviously we don't know the protagonists of the story.
Any way, let's talk about those two things.Why is Spandine reporting to the journalists? Telling them a sob story. I mean, How bad in the head should the whole world be if they read on the newspapers "Marines raze a whole island to the ground because there were some criminals living there and an 8-year-old criminal sinks the evacuation ship for the people who just lost it all in the Marines' bombing" and their concern is with the 8-year-old criminal???
Spandine isn't blaming Robin for what happened to Ohara. He's admitting a Buster Call was conducted in the island. He's blaming Robin for the sunken ships alone. It's ridiculous.
But even more ridiculous than that it's the fact that of all people, Spandine is the one speaking to journalists. Who is he identifying as???
He's supposed to remain unknown and specially not related with the World Government in any way. What is this joke?
Also, why would the island itself be removed from maps?? What's the point? The island still exists, it's just the settlement that doesn't. I'm sure merchants and anyone sailing a ship would like to know there's an island there so that they don't stumble upon it, think they reached somewhere else and start doubting their course and conequently sailing based on false information messing their whole travel.
What about all the maps of West Blue that already existed? They they go house by house throughout the world taking them?
What's the problem with people knowing there is an island there? It's not like they've put a secret laboratory like in Punk Hazard or Egghead, it's just a deserted island now, so why?? The only thing they're accomplishing with that is creating a perfect haven for pirates to hide in a place the world think doesn't exist.
Furthermore, didn't Spandine just report to the news about the whole incident in Ohara??? Who's in charge of the strategy?? Is it Sengoku? Is it a gorosei?? Either tell the world about Ohara, or make them believe it doesn't exist, but you can't go both ways! XD
Summarizing: Inside a repeated flashback that brings no relevant information, there's still two new things that would be nothing but an embelishment that make no sense by themselves and even less when combined.
Ch. 1133 p5
"The island is massive!" sure. Just look at the rainbow's width arriving at the port and also in the same picture with the whole island.The Great Erik arrives at a small dock, "Western village port", and lies on sea clouds, "of course". Some giants are there to greet them while worried by their lateness.
The name of the port confuses me a bit. I don't think it means "the port of the Western village" because the other Mugiwara pirates are there too and they were at Elbaf village not a different one named "Western". But then it should mean "the one port in the village that's to the west", implying that there is more than one port: one to the west and at least one other somewhere else. But why would a small village located on the tree-tops need more than one port? A single port is already quite a stretch, if you ask me. Especially considering how during the previous arc, the Giant warrior pirates along with Shanks were hanging out at the "land of the dead". Why didn't they invite Shanks' crew over to their village if they're good friends? What would have they done had they needed to set sail immediately? Hike the mountains across the whole island, climb the tree and get to the port at the edge of the tree-tops to get to their ship?
Anyway, I don't know who wrote that "of course", Oda or the translator, but whoever it was... It makes no sense. It couldn't possibly be obvious under no circumstance that there would be sea clouds between the branches and leaves of the Adam tree. Those are only supposed to be so up in the sky not there. Also, we can see mountain-wide waterfalls coming out of the leaves. Actual water, not sea clouds. If anything, actual rivers should be expected up there and not sea clouds.
I get why those giants were worried by the pirates' lateness. It took them a really short time to go from Elbaf to Egghead (they read newspapers about Luffy as soon as morning, got to Egghead during the same daytime and left and partied before dusk. However the way back took them more than 2 full days. They were truly late. For no logical reason. However, wouldn't it be more reasonable to wait for them at the shores of the island where they'd be able to see them coming? For all they know, the pirates could have been partying at the bar at the shore for two days. So, either they weren't that much worried or they're very dumb.
Ch. 1133 p6_7
More panels of Mugiwara pirates amazed at everything they see. Gerd and Goldberg fly on a small boat that floats because it has island clouds at the tip of the rows. They land at the port and meet with Hajrudin, Stansen and Rodo.I really don't know what else to say. A flying boat. Just like that. Because it has a small line of island cloud... ¿somehow glued? to the oars. Imagine Pagaya's face if he could see this. A sky engineer like him and the expertise of every other engineer in Skypiea ever humiliated by some giant barbarians that don't even know what the rainbows in their homeland are. Years of designing and building by Eneru and a lot of workers to make a ship that could fly powered by Eneru's electricity and hundreds of dials, when all they needed to do was put some island cloud on a stick. Easy peasy. How did that never occurred to them?
There's one good thing to this flying boat, though.
It's just a small boat and this will never surely never again be found on a big ship, but to see Oda remembers triangular sails exist after... I don't know, 20 years? When was the last time a ship had triangular sails? Arlong's ship?
And look! At the cliff, there's some kind of hidden building that goes underground. These spaces already appeared last chapter. I wonder if that's going to be explored or it's just a random detail.
And... Wait. If Goldberg has the Sunny in his hands and Gerd has the other Mugiwara pirates in hers (you can see one of her elbows bent towards her knees), who is rowing the boat?? Is there a cloud monster inside rowing those six oars for them too???
More Bonney and Lilith shoehorned page after page. This time Lilith is even used to show amzement at "all the technology" at Elbaf. But let me tell you one thing, Lilith, it's only TECHNology if someone developed a TECHNique to create it. Rainbows, clouds and ¿bubbles? aren't technology just because they exist. And why is she amazed? Elbaf is the closest island to Egghead. Didn't Vegapunk know about his neighbours?? By the way, where are the bubbles Lilith speaks about? Don't tell me she's amazed at something she already knew from before??
And then there's that guy in the bottom right panel shouting "The climate here is perfect for all this!!" He's like super thrilled as well. WTF?? You live there. You see that every day. Why are you shouting like your pop idol just came out from behind a curtain?? This is Oda doing exactly this to his own manga:
But the scene makes no sense at all! Last chapter Gerd had already arrived at the village with the others. Why are they now flying to the village? Or to another part of the village? Why aren't they just walking? They walked all the way from below the tree-tops, they walked all the way to the village and now they're taking a flying boat to move through the village?? Where did they take that boat from??
And look!! There's the 5 of them now! Hajrudin and Stansen who arrived by the rainbow, Gerd and Goldberg we just saw in the flying boat and... RODO!! He's here. Crucified even!! But BY WHO??? Who the hell crucified Rodo and brought him here??? He was left beaten at the forest. Goldberg couldn't bring him because he's carrying the Sunny. Gerd didn't either. He's not even at the flying boat. HOW DID HE GOT HERE?? It's nonsense!
And... I'm sorry, but I can't help it, look at Hajrudin! Please, stand up, do the same pose he's doing, with his knees and ankles bent, his torso leaning ot his back, and now tell me why would anyone stand like that?
Ch. 1133 p8_9
Hajrudin and Gerd tell about how Big Mom's defeat was received in Elbaf. Someone amoing Luffy, Zoro, Nami and Usopp is surprised. The whole village seems to be looking forward for a great feast, but Robin wants to go meet Saul right away and the others go with her. Gerd takes them to the school. Robin doesn't want to bother anyone, but Luffy insists and the giants are so understanding they hold up the feast.So, why would anyone of those four be surprised about Big Mom being defeated??
We can see the big unnecessary stone gates in the top-left corner of the big panel. So they were in the village of Elbaf after all. So what's that about Gerd and Goldberg coming in with the flying ship??? Gerd was already there by foot last chapter!
Goldberg's shield is asleep for now. I wonder if it's supposed to be a homie. A present, maybe from Big Mom at some point or Mother Carmel even?
There's among the crowd a kind of cloaked shady guy at the bottom-left. But maybe she's just a regular citizen and I'm simply aching for some plot.
There's a bear too. Is it an actual animal or a statue? Difficult to know, but I guess it's just a statue. The other animals in the below level were much bigger than giants.
The narrator clarifies now, that it wasn't the Western port, it's the Western village and with this I've had ENOUGH. Look, Oda, make up your damned mind already! For most of the manga, the name "Elbaf" referred to a village somewhere in the New World. "Elbaf mura" (エルバフ村) in japanese to be more precise. It means exactly "Elbaf village" and this is the way Dorry and Brogy referred to it. At some point the word "Elbaf" alone, without saying village or anything else, was also used. I believe it was during Big Mom's flashback, quite recently, that the concept of "Warland" was introduced. To me, it looked like an epithet, you know? Like "Little Garden, land of the giants", "Elbaf, Warland" or "land of war", but it's okay if it already meant that "Elbaf" was somewhere in a place by the name of "Warland", a village in an island, even though that wasn't specified either.
Some chapters ago, we were told the island is named Warland while the country is named Elbaf and that's... okay I think, despite it's pretty weird to tell someone about your village rather than your country when that someone doesn't know of your country or where your village is and even more so if your country and your village share the same name. But, whatever. As long as things were consistent, I didn't complain. There's a village by the name of Elbaf inside a country by the same name in an island named Warland. Cool. But now, now, it turns out Dorry and Brogy's village is not Elbaf. It's the "Western village". WHY? What reason is there to create an inconsistency like this out of the blue??? Everything would have worked as fine if the name of the village had remained Elbaf. What's the point of this?? Why no editor asked him about this? "Hey! How come the village is not called Elbaf any more? Did you forget it was the name of the village? No problem, it's normal for this to happen every now and then, let's just fix it. I know because as the editor of this manga it's my job to know this inside out and notice theese things to be there for the author if he accidentally slips". But no.
Gerd takes the Mugiwara in the flying boat. I still don't get how that's supposed to work. It's one thing to suspend disbelief to accept there can be a house atop a colossal cloud the size of a county. And it's a completely different thing to accept a tiny thread of cloud supports a whole boat, cargo and passengers and moves them through the sky. Also, even if we take levitation for granted just because, imagine the amount of rowing that'd be needed for the boat to move a little.
You see? How much rowing is required for the boat to move depends on the rate between the boat's mass (plus cargo, passengers, whatever) and the mass of the water the oar moves. In water, the amount of water an oar can move weighs way less than the boat and so you have to row quite a bit to get some movement. If the boat moved through thick mud, a lot less rowing would be needed for the boat to move (every stroke of the oar would require much more force, though). If the boat sails through air, which is not only a lot lighter but also way more ineficcient to move with an oar, you could be rowing all day at full speed and get nothing.
In fact, it should be as difficult as trying to use the oars as a bird's wings to take off. The clouds should only be helping (and that's already a lot of credit to them) to not fall. But the lift would be entirely on you. That is not possible with a pair of oars even if it's just one person trying, imagine a whole boat! Back in Skypiea Oda knew of this and he provided with dials to act as propellers for this very reason.
On another topic, the bit about Luffy saying he has to greet Saul I think it's a call back to how Ace also wanted (and did) meet with Shanks after becoming a pirate and thanked him for having taken care of Luffy.
However, this little (or not so little, we don't know yet) detour is the most anti-climatic and mood-killer development ever. The giants of the village are all very fired-up to feast for their "leaders" return and suddenly they have to not have their party because some foreigners want to run some errands first. And we and them (the giants) we'll surely have to pretend later that this never happened and that we can pick up exactly were they left off now as if nothing happened. Right? So... What do you think Dorry, Broggy, Hajrudin, etc are doing now? Sitting at the tavern, with all that food getting cold but not taking a bite, looking at some magic wristwatch they might have wondering when will Luffy come back. Getting bored, reflecting about life in silence as they try to pretend time's just stopped by now, slowly realizing it's not, thinking how are they going to shout and laugh and cheer later as they eat and drink with the same enthusiasm they would have done right about now if their mood has been murdered by the author, pondering whether they'll just fake it or be honest with the Mugiwara upon their return and tell them to eat in quiet as the party's been called off because no one feels like it anymore.
You know what? Actually, I'd be a lot more interested in reading what's going on in that tavern right now than what's coming in the next pages.
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Ch. 1133 p10
Gerd and the Mugiwara finally arrive at "Warrior's springs" where the Owl library is. It's a beautiful lake under a giant branch of the Adam tree with a beach made of... ¿bark? Luffy impulsively tries to go first and meet Saul, but Nami stops him to let Robin meet with his friend first.A page ago we were told Saul was at the library so Gerd was taking the Mugiwara to the school. It follows logically that Saul's in the school's library. Specially considering this very page Gerd explains to Usopp that giants study too. Hence the school. But then we arrive and there's no school. The building's named "Owl library". So, either, the library is a separate building that's not actually the school, or there's no school and giants study at the library. Or maybe they don't study anymore as of this page... Also, about the waterfall, where does all that water come from?
You know what? IT'S FINE. I don't care. There's a beach because small bits of bark are acting like sand and there are waves because the waterfall obviously creates them. And that is the most and best explained things we've had for 200 chapters, easily. So, even if some things are still lacking, when I read this I just want to cry HALLELUJAH!
None of this changes the fact the last panel of the page is one of the ugliest ever.
Ch. 1133 p11 & Ch. 1131 p17
A giant woman heads for the protagonists hurrying to tell them Saul fell annd Luffy, Sanji, Chopper and Usopp get all worked up over it, even complaining about it. But the giant points at Saul and Robin says it's alright and goes to Saul alone.This is nuts! This already happened two chapters ago when Robin wasn't even on the island. How is this possible??
I'm going to ignore things like how did they know when exactly was Robin coming? how could Saul not be seen from up above before the flying boat landed? or how did the giant woman know she had to call for help specifically to them? This is clearly a set up to mimic the way Robin and Saul first met and we must believe that woman was simply in cahoots with Saul. Okay, but why is he doing this to begin with??? I mean, would you do this.
Imagine you have a long-lost friend, someone very dear to you, someone to whom you are a parent figure in some way, and you think or at least you hope that someone is being brought to your town by other people you're acquainted with in a rescue mission. They're not preparing a reunion for you. No one's leading her into a big surprise. In fact, she might not know about you being alive or there to begin with and certainly you read in the newspapersabout her more than likely escape from a very dangerous situation but can't possibly know whether she's alive or even in a good condition. She might be severely wounded for all you know.
Would you wait secluded in a naturally hidden place for her to find you or someone to take her to you waiting for the time to enact this theatre play? Isn't this the most retarded decision making we've read here in the last... Who cares? No, it's probably not. We've had a lot of shit, now that I think about. This might be just average.
Luffy, Sanji, Chopper and Usopp's panel too. That is just a theatrical reaction. Not what they'd normally do. Or at least I hope that's not what they'd normally do. It's definitely not what they used to do. When Cricket collapsed in front of them after attacking them, they genuinely cared for him immediately even though he was no one to them. So, every character is acting by the wisdom of plot convenience to fit this scene Oda thought would be nice to have, for some reason.
And I wonder, was this Oda's intention from the beginning? (Not the actual beginning, but like from the beginning of the arc at least) Or is this the only way he's come up with to save some face after writing Saul's fall as a cliff-hanger two chapters ago and then realizing wherever he wanted to go with that it was a very bad idea and that he had to reroute it? Because this is the only explanation I can think of for this second fall of Saul.
After 1331 Saul had fallen. Not in the same way he did this chapter. He could not possibly be enacting this weird way to meet Robin again and have the girl cry for help to... no one. Oda could have just done as though the ending of two chapters ago never existed and had Saul reappear in the story in a more logical way. After all, he's already retcon'd the whole village of Elbaf, he retcon'd Saul's death even... surely he could retcon that little bit too, right? No. It occurred to him that wasting a whole chapter reminiscing of a flashback that was already told just for the sake of it was an amazing idea.
Ch. 1133 p12 & p13; Ch. 392 p8, p9 & p10
For these two pages, Robin and Saul just see each other. There's not much to comment about them. So I threw in some pages from ch. 392 that Oda replicated here in order to re-enact that scene. Please feast your eyes in the beautiful drawing of the past.If anything, I find it curious that he replicated it even to use the same sound effects in the same place: the "za za..." above Saul in the top panel for the waves in the shore or the breeze maybe, I don't know much about japanese onomatopoeia ^^", the "ooooo" under Saul in the bottom panel for the scare, but he changed the "tatata..." I believe it's for Robin walking on the sand, to "suta suta...". Maybe that is because despite he's drawing it to be visually the same, Robin is now not walking on true sand but on tree bark? So it sounds differently. If that's the case, then this is a very nice detail. One I imagine most people wouldn't ever notice nor care. But it's the kind of things I enjoy.
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Ch. 1133 p14 & p15
They start talking, we see Saul lost a leg and the reminiscing of the flashback we already knows continues with the breif addition of how Saul survived.And here I thought Oda wanted to create this scene to give Robin and Saul a beautiful moment in some way, but turns out this was just an excuse to whitewash Vegapunk, bolster the importance of the previous arc and Vegapunk's speech specifically and try to justify Saul's retcon'd death. The audacity!
So, let's talk about this because I won't stand for this bullshit.
Robin and Saul finally reunite with one another and the first thing they speak about are trivial matters?? "Hey, did you hear Vegapunk's speech the other day? It was so interesting, huh? Oh, he sure passed down Ohara's message". HELL NO! Last time they saw each other, Robin saw Saul be frozen to death and Saul saw Robin be completely alone and vulnerable in the middle of a Buster Call to target her with a Marine Admiral next to her. So, how about something more like this:
"Oh my god, Saul, you really are alive!! I'VE MISSED YOU SO SO MUCH!"
"I've missed you too, Robin! I'm so sorry I couldn't help you back then. I can only imagine how horrible all these years have been for you. But... how did you get out of Ohara alive??"
And after they've cried of joy, hugged till their arms are numb and talked about everything that's truly important and relevant, then a week later MAYBE they can look at the camera and start sucking Vegapunk's dick, figuratively speaking. But not the first thing they do.
And if Oda doesn't want to bore us with an emotionall scene where we can see Robin is a human being and has feelings, that's okay. All of us accepted long ago that Robin would never again have any meaningful interaction with her friends, because otherwise she would have said and explained so so many things that she didn't for the sake of plot convenience. But don't use her like this either. Do not rape her character to blow your own dick and validate the mess that was the previous arc and Vegapunk's inconsequential speech. This is disgusting and shameful.
And now let's talk about Saul's retcon. Because this is as much an explanation as we're going to get so now we're not guessing, supposing or speculating any more. It's time to pass judgement to this.
In some way, what Oda did here is kind of clever. Saul melting because of the heat of the fire, thus reverting back to life before being truly dead is not just a possible outcome, in all likeliness that is exactly what happened. So, he's telling us a truth to justify the retcon, and because it's a truth suddenly you may even be convinced that there was no retcon and Saul really never die and there was nothing to complain about in the first place!
Oda is making great use here of what he chooses to show us and what he chooses to hide from us. In fact, there's already a detail that tells us he's not being completely honest and is making shit up: Saul says he woke up in the sea. Melting because of the heat is one thing, but being magically transported to sea it's a different thing. Yes, Saul should have melted by the heat and immediately after he should have also burn to death if he was unconscious, or alternatively he should wake up right there where he was frozen and get away from the fire willingly.
But what Oda is not telling us so that we focus in the sole thing that makes sense, is that after waking up, even if he did so in the sea, the Buster Call should still be ongoing. Marines should be roaming the island looking for possible survivors or more documents to destroy. Specifically, Aokiji should be very aware that his ice could melt and surely after seeing Robin off, he would have returned to Saul to check whether he was truly dead or was precisely melting. I mean, Aokiji said Saul was his best friend (or a very good friend at least), without better things to do and surely not feeling like arguing with Akainu about destroying the evacuation ship, he would return to his friend to confirm whether he had killed him or not. Otherwise, how is Saul supposed to have left Ohara alive? Or at least have survived there until the Marines left. It's impossible. It makes no sense.
Moreover,
Ch. 433 p17
In chapter 433, Aokiji clearly speaks about Saul as a dead person. I wonder if he did it explicitly even, because in the original text of the last panel of this page, Aokiji doesn't say exactly what it says in this translation, but he speaks about having a duty after <someone's> life. This might be an explicit reference to Saul being alive no more, or he could be referencing having to watch over Robin's life. It's not clear to me. Partly because my japanese knowledge is super limited, but partly too because japanese can be spoken in a very criptic way as though you were being revealed a mystical prophecy by an oracle in riddle form and for japanese-speakers that's just tuesday. Regardless, Aokiji spoke here at all moments as though Saul were dead. Specially when he says that now Saul isn't there, the duty to watch over Aokiji befalls on him. That's not something you take responsibility for, specially in fiction stories, unless the one who had that responsability has died.