On the cover page, the Strawhats are all children, and Jinbe's selling Bento boxes for a eel train. Weird! What can we read into this? Uhhh....well, Robin's the one paying Jinbe for the bento boxes. So, I guess...Robin's going to be the one who helps everyone get to Laugh Tale the most? And Jinbe is still the most out of place, since he's not even really a part of this group. Even Oda seems to subconsciously feel like he's not really a part of the "family", yet.
It's hammer time! Ragnir refuses to let anyone eat the Devil Fruit it's guarding. That's a VERY motherly hammer!
And Scopper reveals what we all suspected. Healing powers are weakened by Conqueror's Haki Coating. That feels like the boring answer. And it doesn't seem to be permanent since they ARE able to heal eventually. But, it slows them down, at least.
And apparently, the God's Knights tried to take Shanks back many, MANY times. It doesn't seem to be because Garling ordered them to do that, but I guess these guys were just acting on their own volition. Real self-starters, those God's Knights. Funny Shanks and Buggy never noticed all these attacks. Did they always attack when they were having nap time, or what?
"Meanwhile, my life's always giving me the chills" "You can call that...FATE!" Huh. These lines seem important. I'm not sure how, but maybe something's hidden there in the original Japanese. Just pointing it out.
Oh my goodness, Ragnir is Ratatoskr the World Squirrel! I was wondering if we'd ever get to see the legendary squirrel! Oh, this makes me stupidly happy. So random, but so cool.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratatoskr
Huh. Scopper says most God's Knights don't have Conquerors Haki. I guess that makes sense, since they are mostly all "lazy" Celestial Dragons.
Wait, did we just skip over how Loki convinced Ragnir to let him have the Devil Fruit? Or was just bonking him on the head good enough? That's kind of a simple "test", but sure, why not?
Such a tiny Devil Fruit, it's hard to make it out. It looks...pointy. And, yeah, it seems to be some sort of Zoan, probably. From that transformation that we don't actually get to see. *Ugh* Oda's REALLY dragging out this reveal. Based on the shadow on the wall, it has a long neck and claws. My first instinct is to say "dragon" (shocking coming from me, I know.). But, maybe it's Sleipnir, Odin's horse? But, it could just as easily be Fenrir the wolf or Nidhogg the dragon eating the World Tree's roots. My money's on Nidhogg, but we'll just have to wait and see. A "Western Fire" Dragon to counter Kaido's "Eastern Water" Dragon, perhaps?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleipnir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenrir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nidhogg
And this might be the first time Loki's used Conqueror's Haki. Interesting. Loki just needed ONE more emotionally-scarring trauma to push him past his limits, I guess.
And Harald...thanks Loki for burning down Alcohol Village to avenge Ida. Wow, that's messed up...and touching. Man. Geesh.
'Twas the power of LOVE that defeated Harald! So...does that mean "Love" is stronger than Haki? Harald also dies with a smile on his face. Which is more than Rocks got, I guess.
I guess this flashback really did end with a BANG, like Oda said in the Jump Festa message. Even though, I don't feel like it's over yet. We still need to see Loki on the run. And Loki asking Lola to marry him. And at least confronting Shanks, even though we'll probably skip the actual fight, since Oda probably doesn't want to reveal anything about how Shanks fights. At least one more chapter of flashback, probably. Maybe two or even three.
So, ends 2025. It's been a pretty good year for One Piece, all things considered. Elbaph's been pretty great, so far. I suppose we'll be waiting a few weeks until the next chapter? Since this one technically is for 2026. We should be getting back to the present, soon, at least. And I'm looking forward to finally being reunited with...what were they called again? The Hay Helms? Eh, something like that. I'm sure I'll remember once we finally get back to the present in a month or two.