A fighting chapter! Without Luffy or Zoro! It’s been so long. That’s basically everything I wanted Nami and Usopp vs Ulti and Page One to be. That made me very wary of how the fights will be concluded, this cheers me right up.
Is Oda trying to whittle the numbers on each side down to equal? Would prefer the Strawhats and co overcome great odds, but eh.
Nika the Sun God, lots to think about there. The sun imagery has been seen on the Alabasta and Kozuki flags, and I think on Shandora as well? Nika also looks to be dressing quite like a Shandoran, but with no wings.
Now, slavery of “ancient times.” Did slavery exist prior to the Void Century? Or is this after the World Gov was founded we are talking about.
The Nika/Joy Boy/bring laughter to the world/Luffy connection is quite obvious. That’s more than likely Luffy and Roger’s childish goal. What I’m thinking is that, in the years immediatnely after the Void Century, the World Gov had slaves from the ancient kingdom, to build Mariejois, Impel Down, so on. This story is from them, the people who remembered Joy Boy and the idea that someone would come (Luffy) to inherit his will. So the information exists in two seperate forms- the poneglyphs, for posterity, and word of mouth, which is less safe and prone to corruption.
Also interesting that Jinbei gets pissed when WW starts bringing it up, although WW being a bit of a racist cunt don’t help.
The guard vanishing, hallmarks of Im, the Gorosei and taking away info they don’t like. Curious, was it Impel Down WW was held in, or another prison, that Jinbei was in briefly (like Baroque Works) before being transferred?
That should have broken the helmet so Jinbei can see who he is. I think the fights over, the secret technique has been broken out and Jinbei has proved himself the significantly superior fighter. Definitely proving Jinbei (without much water) to be a Calamity level fighter, cause he beat the strongest Flying Six with relative ease. I was hoping for WW to be stronger and have fought a Calamity equally in the past, but this is just as good for putting Jinbei up there.
In to a stinking time of the year, release wise, with the Olympics and Obon plus Oda breaks. Next few chapters for the fall of Black Maria and Sasaki. I think with this chapter there is six left in the current volume, we might even get Jack down in that time.
Hell, if Oda does the fights rapid like he did in Dressrosa, the last page of this current volume will be a double spread of Sanji beating Queen.
1019- Black Maria
1020- Sasaki
1021- Jack chapter 1
1022- Jack chapter 2
1024- Queen chapter 1
1024- Queen chapter 2, volume ends.
But I think there will be one or two intermission chapters instead.
Either way, pace picking up, which is a good thing. I was worried a few chapters ago that arc fatigue was setting in, it‘s good to see fights getting wrapped up.