On the cover page, Yamato's continuing the foodie tour of Wano. Today, Yamato has a delicious apple! How exciting!
We see 63 years ago, when Linlin rampaged on Elbaph. I honestly thought that might get a bigger focus, but oh well.
Apparently, Elbaph also suffered fire, wind, freezing cold, and famine around that same time. Part of me wonders if that could have been the Gorosei at work in secret or something. Most of those are things their "Yokai" powers could do. But, chances are it really was just bad luck.
And we see Hajrudin get blamed for Loki's "curse". I guess that's a pretty obvious way for some bad blood to start between them, other than just being the "second class" family due to his mother being a outsider.
And Harald can literally flatten another Giant. Kind of impressive. Good thing he just happened to be around. And he brought takeout!
Harald actually cried over Estrid's death. I guess he really did care about her.
I was honestly a little confused on whether or not the implication was that Estrid actually had Loki's eyes gouged out, or if the "guards" just bandaged his eyes to keep her from doing that. I could honestly see Oda going both ways with it. But, we do see Loki's eyes later while he's crying, so I guess they were just covered. Good to know!
"At only a few months old, Loki had given up on love." Well, that's just sad.
Estrid had a brother?! And Harald put him in charge of watching Loki? Geez, that poor kid can't catch a break.
Ida continues to be adorable. That is all. And I guess she's the one who started this bar on the coast. I guess that makes sense.
And the Gale-Ra Warhammer Company was captured. So, the World Government has had a interest in Giants and Ancient Giants for a while, then. Interesting.
The "frozen army of Giants" is almost certainly the frozen Giants we saw back on Punk Hazard. (Chapter 660). Interesting that Jarul's heard about that.
...Part of me kind of has to wonder if Loki actually did kill his Steward/Estrid's brother. Or maybe his animals just did it to protect him. You can see just a HINT of a smile on his face when it's announced that he's dead. It's probably just another thing that he got blamed for, but I really couldn't blame him if he did. We didn't get to see much of their interactions, but he really did seem to hate lil' Loki.
I kind of expected Loki's rampages to be more misunderstanding, but no. Loki really is just kind of a jerk. Understandable, given all the abuse he's suffered. But, I was expecting this to be more other people misinterpreting him. But, Loki's kind of just a bully.
We didn't even get to see how Loki befriended the animals. Oda's really flying through this backstory.
"I can't even die" Hmm...shades of Kaido's "suicidal" tendencies. I wonder if Oda's doing that on purpose?
And now...FINALLY...we get to see Rocks D Xebec! And he's confirmed to be the father of Blackbeard! Biggest reveal of the chapter! Makes sense, given how Blackbeard's ship is the Saber of Xebec. We knew there was some sort of connection, but we didn't know what. Here, he's listed as the "future captain" of the Rocks Pirates. They haven't technically been formed yet, even after Rocks killed a Admiral. So, just Shiki, Whitebeard, and...I think that's Gloriosa? Or maybe original Stussy?
Hmm, apparently there was a of "Reverie Incident" 56 years ago. I think this is the first time we've heard about this. Rocks murdered a Admiral. You have to wonder how Rocks even got INTO the Reverie in the first place to do that. Someone's gotta ask who the Admiral Rocks killed was in a SBS at some point.
And it's worth noting, whatever Rock's power is, it seems to be able to cut mountains, if that one panel is any indication. None of the others should have their Devil Fruits, yet. So, Rock likely has a Fruit or some other ability that allows him to do that. Could Rocks have had Buggy's Chop-Chop Fruit?
Interesting design for Rocks. He definitely looks a lot like Blackbeard, just with more white in his hair. He's also less "fat" than Blackbeard. And he does seem to be more of a "bad guy" than I might have expected. I was halfway expecting him to be a "good guy" more or less, given he got lumped in with Roger, Whitebeard, Shanks, and Oden in that "How high will your ceiling go?" panel in Chapter 1001. But, all signs are pointing to him being more antagonistic than most of those other guys.
But, yeah, this flashback suddenly got more interesting. Just because of Rocks!