What a chapter. I’m still disappointed that Rocks is Blackbeard’s dad, but that’s a proper introduction to him.
We can see his twisted nature clearly. There was a lot of nonsense about him being some sort of harsh but ultimately noble figure. He’s not, he’s a psycho. The bit where he attacked Loki to get his father’s attention, then started laughing about it, is brutal af.
Flashback within a flashback is wild. He’s doing the stuff I wanted Dragon to do at Reverie. Taking down Admirals, charging in and confronting Imu.
(Also, still can’t get over, in a good way, that Brook is so linked to the Imu plot with Gunko being the attendant).
Davy Jonesian Pirate? The Will of Davy? One Piece all the treasure of Davy Jones Locker? Was Davy Jones the evil D in Joy Boy’s time? Was Davy Jones Joy Boy’s real name? Is this going back to the Peacemains and Morganeers from the Romance Dawn oneshots? Lots to speculate about here. We can comfirm that knowledge of Imu has at least survived in the legend of the demon that cursed him, from back when we first learned about Davy Back fights.
We get a good glimpse of the traits that Blackbeard inherited from Rocks, hostage taking, wounding kids, cunning, backstabbing, force of personality to gather people under his banner.
And I really do like Harald and Loki, I think Oda’s done a much better job than with, say, Oden and Momo. Really hype without being over the top about it. I know a lot of people expect Loki to join Blackbeard as a Rocks proxy, but I think that it’s more likely that Luffy will let him see how their approach to life is wrong. Loki’s admiration for Rocks comes from serious self loathing.
Only, slight, sour note, don’t like Caribou being the son on Wang Zhi, same as my complaints about Blackbeard being Rocks son. Makes the world smaller.