- Fukurokuju responded to an AAAAA in the background? The idea that Orochi is alive and yelling in pain is funny to me, but those are probably just generic samurai/pirate cries and Fuku was tipped off by something else.
- Drake saying he'll go back to the Navy later is interesting. It just shows even after 2+ years of being a pirate, somebody at Navy HQ preserved his post and is willing to bring him back into Sakazuki's marines.
- Luffy calls Goki a monster, not Zoro. I guess it wasn't that obvious.
- It would be totally Jack to return to the roof and see him wiped out in his human form on the floor. That's two Sulong dukes this injured boy has to overcome. Then the Awakened Zoan ability triggers sometime later, he recovers to fight again and we see him use his hybrid form against the opponent who defeats him for good.
Sasaki's revenge sounds enticing. Bruh is just drinking his sorrows away at just losing a best friend. Also RIP that sacred tree that Big Mom leveled, it will be joining tree heaven with all homies from the Seducing Woods. Here's the best shot we got of that guy:
The Japanese tie those ceremonial ropes around trees regarded as Yoshiro, or objects housing a kami in the Shinto religion. Sometimes they just do it after the tree reaches a certain age like 100. It might have just been a very old tree, way before Kaido arrived on the island. Or maybe Big Mom is getting even more bad karma.
King's banter just gets better and better every translation I read. I wish Katakuri had his sense of humor. May I say it was COMPLETELY DESERVED this time for how Queen shamelessly brags at his ability to break peoples' spirits.
"
You're urging me to turn traitor." looks like a dead giveaway that Hawkins knows X-Drake is a rat and the 1%. The "sucks to be him" looks awkward in retrospect. All this talk about Drake having one last hope as he turns to Luffy thanks to his faith in Koby then shows us how Drake beats the odds. But why not just reveal Drake has a 99% chance of dying while he's down on the floor bleeding to three opponents he's not defeating by himself? It would make his situation seem even more hopeless, justifying his turn to Luffy. Therefore, I go along with the idea that the 1% will come back up in the story to refer to a completely different character.
I personally predicted Queen was targeting Drake and not culling the people under him for other reasons, but to see both Queen AND Who's Who come together against Drake was a neat little payoff to the potential Calamity Vs Tobiroppo showdown. It also characterizes Who's Who as someone who cares about the bigger picture above his own promotion and is quite loyal to the Beast Pirates. You could even go back to the start with WW's "If Queen were to die today.." as an attempt to smoke a reaction out of Drake. All he learned was that Drake was not interested in getting promoted to All-Star, something a rat who infiltrated Kaido's inner circle just to obtain information would say. And this cat really hates his rats.
Btw, if you think of X-Drake as the soloist, this plays out similar to the Who's Who card game.
https://www.parlettgames.uk/oricards/whoswho.html
Poor boy got dealt two Jokers. His dad was killed by another Joker. Time to read up how the other Flying Six card games work since Oda probably picked them for a reason.
I actually like Guardian Diety here, comparing Luffy to a specific Buddhist figure is just way too corny. But I am aware Hyo was referring as him to Myo-o. Even though Hyo himself was based on Myo-o. Look at the uncanny similarity:
So Hyo is saying you're more Myo than I am! Is that like Yamato telling Luffy you're more Oden than I am?! I get that Boundman looks great with the robe to cover up his little legs, but let's not get carried away with mythical parallels here.
Luffy with his Go-mu takes out Number 5 Go-ki. Diez Drake (Roman Number X) takes out Number 10.
Fouranky last chapter took out Number 4. Very punny, Oda. Any other wise guys out there who have a vendetta against a certain Number?? I'm watching you!
Army of one? That sounds badass but...uh, Drake, what happened to the rest of your pirate crew? There could be a sad backstory here about Drake's entire crew getting wiped out or turned into SMILE abominations. Maybe they all went back to Marine HQ already and nobody in Kaido's crew has found out. Or maybe Drake was the only marine in his entire crew and now he's justifiably abandoned all those pirates he gathered. That one would leave a bitter taste in my mouth, but give him a unique bad cop vibe even Smoker wouldn't pull.
All I want for Christmas is Luffy riding a T-re-I mean, an Allosaurus into battle. And hopefully Chapter 1000.
