Media One Piece (spoilers!)

[phoopes]

...I can't believe I watched the entire Alabasta arc in such a short period of time but I did lmao. I think this was my favorite part of the series so far, beating out the Arlong Park arc. Up to this point my favorite moment in the series was when the squad rolled up to Arlong Park to confront Arlong after Luffy gave Nami his hat, but I think that was topped by the moment where Zoro learned to cut steel and defeated Mr. 1. And I thought that would be my favorite moment from the arc but then Luffy beating Crocodile while one of my favorite pieces of classical music played was INCREDIBLE. So yeah, now I'm done with the 130 episodes on Netflix and am going to figure out where to continue watching the dub, since that's what I started with. I'm officially hooked though.

...I do have two criticisms though.

First is that Nico Robin joining the crew was spoiled like ten+ episodes in advance because of the opening lol. This bothered me a lot because I felt like there was supposed to be this setup of you expecting Vivi to join the crew and then there was a surprise reveal that Nico Robin joins instead. But the opening killed the surprise! I think this is kind of dumb and I'm hoping that there aren't spoilers in future openings/closings.

The other is that no one ever really dies. I mean we see flashbacks of characters dying like Hiriluk or Bell-mere and I'm not saying characters have to die off for me to enjoy it but at this point I just never believe it anymore when a character "dies." Like just from this last arc Igaram was dead and then he somehow managed to survive without it being explained how he did, Koza got shot like a million times but still powered through, and even Pell lived after taking that crazy bomb explosion right to the face! I thought this would be an actual death since they showed his gravestone and everything but nope, Pell came back. And maybe this is on purpose so that when there's an actual character death it'll hit harder but man, I've been very surprised at the lack of deaths in One Piece.

 

[Stellar]

The other is that no one ever really dies. I mean we see flashbacks of characters dying like Hiriluk or Bell-mere and I'm not saying characters have to die off for me to enjoy it but at this point I just never believe it anymore when a character "dies." Like just from this last arc Igaram was dead and then he somehow managed to survive without it being explained how he did, Koza got shot like a million times but still powered through, and even Pell lived after taking that crazy bomb explosion right to the face! I thought this would be an actual death since they showed his gravestone and everything but nope, Pell came back. And maybe this is on purpose so that when there's an actual character death it'll hit harder but man, I've been very surprised at the lack of deaths in One Piece.

As you said near the end, this is very much on purpose and it is actually one of the defining features of One Piece. The characters very rarely die, but there are deaths. The relative lack of death makes the ones that actually happen that much more meaningful and impactful.

 

[SparksBlade]

First is that Nico Robin joining the crew was spoiled like ten+ episodes in advance because of the opening lol. This bothered me a lot because I felt like there was supposed to be this setup of you expecting Vivi to join the crew and then there was a surprise reveal that Nico Robin joins instead. But the opening killed the surprise! I think this is kind of dumb and I'm hoping that there aren't spoilers in future openings/closings.

THE OPENINGS WILL ABSOLUTELY SPOIL YOU AVOID THEM LIKE HELL THIS ISN'T EVEN A JOKE I'M SERIOUS ONLY WATCH OPENINGS AFTER THE ARC ENDS

As for Pell, you'll hear some theories that Oda retconned his death cos it was very close to 9/11, but there's never been any actual substance for it. Oda has said on occasions that he just doesn't like to kill characters because that ruins the mood at the end of the arc, and he wants a happy fun feast most times. Yes, that does sometimes reduce the weight of stakes in tense situations but what can you do.

 

[Jimbo]

Pretty cool chapter - I'm seeing some theories of Who's Who being a spy for Blackbeard and the timeline really matches up - he saw Jinbe as a Shichibukai which means it was when WW was in Impel Down. Blackbeard in part helped him escape, and he has experience in reconnaissance as a CP9 agent. Plus, it was mentioned the BB Pirates have 10 captains and we don't know the 10th... all fits nicely.

I have to imagine Zoro will heal up and face King although that seems a bit anticlimactic when he already tanked a combined attack from two Yonkou and wounded Kaidou...?

If my math was right I think the next chapter is the 60th of Act 3 which many people theorize will be the final one (for 15-30-60-30-15). I hope it's true tbh.

 

[SparksBlade]

• What's so special about this fruit that a secret CP team needs to transport it?
• How did Shanks get the intel about this? (I don't think a CP9 ship would just stumble upon Shanks' crew, or that Shanks' crew would just attack a CP ship just like that)
• Was this fruit the only thing that was being transported, or were there other things as well?
• I don't remember Rob Lucci's full backstory and when he officially joined CP9, but at least from what WW said I assume Rob Lucci was already part of the team. Also, I'm assuming Spandam was definitely not the chief back then, I really doubt his incompetent dumb ass would've held this position for so long (also he might've mentioned how long he's been chief but I don't remember). So this gives a few scenarios to explain why none of this was hinted during the CP9 saga.
  • WW, and maybe whoever the chief of CP9 was, was/were the only ones who knew they were transporting that fruit (WW may or may not have been supposed to know)
  • Everyone that was part of the transporting group knew about the fruit, but none of the CP9 members we saw at Enies Lobby were part of it. And of the ones that knew, WW was the only survivor and the chief probably sworn to secrecy or something.
• How was this fruit so important that it required CP9 to guard it, yet Shanks was hanging out so luxuriously in East Blue for years with no problems at Foosha village?
• Why was no action ever taken even after Luffy became notorious and his fruit was known?
• What did WW do that led him to be imprisoned? Couldn't have simply been failure, as imprisonment like that is not a way to punish failure of your covert operative from the secret CP team. Maybe it was just Spandam, but it seems that World Govt views the CP members as disposable, so they would prefer to kill a covert operative rather than put him in the official marine prison.

I really don't want the fruit to have any special value of itself, that would devalue Luffy himself imo. Like, instead of just Luffy, he'll become "Luffy, the dude with that special Devil's Fruit". Luffy's great and he's earned everything through his hard work so the fruit being special in some way (Roger's fruit, Xebec's fruit, Joyboy's fruit etc.) will leave a sour taste for me.

Ok chapter for me. Still don't understand why Bao Huang or Tama have to go to the very edge of the balcony to make an announcement through their communication system, that seems silly. The theory in the above post seems plausible, would also explain how Blackbeard is getting info from within Wano.

 

[Jimbo]

I saw another theory on reddit about how perhaps Xebec had the Goro Goro no Mi (Enel's fruit) - which is potentially how God Valley was destroyed and how Raijin Island (with the lightning rain) was made (through Punk Hazard we know that weather can be permanently affected by DFs). It tracks also as both Big Mom and Kaidou (disciples of Xebec) have lightning attacks and Oda has made it a point to continue to show how Luffy is a hard counter. The WG may have found the Gomu Gomu and wanted to keep it in the government as a hard counter to the devastation of the Goro Goro. Only piece that doesn't fit is what SparksBlade said above - why did the government just let Luffy have the fruit? Only thing I can think of is that it's because the Goro Goro never re-emerged as Enel was defeated w/o the world government even knowing he existed.

 

[Winry]

...I can't believe I watched the entire Alabasta arc in such a short period of time but I did lmao. I think this was my favorite part of the series so far, beating out the Arlong Park arc. Up to this point my favorite moment in the series was when the squad rolled up to Arlong Park to confront Arlong after Luffy gave Nami his hat, but I think that was topped by the moment where Zoro learned to cut steel and defeated Mr. 1. And I thought that would be my favorite moment from the arc but then Luffy beating Crocodile while one of my favorite pieces of classical music played was INCREDIBLE. So yeah, now I'm done with the 130 episodes on Netflix and am going to figure out where to continue watching the dub, since that's what I started with. I'm officially hooked though.

...I do have two criticisms though.

First is that Nico Robin joining the crew was spoiled like ten+ episodes in advance because of the opening lol. This bothered me a lot because I felt like there was supposed to be this setup of you expecting Vivi to join the crew and then there was a surprise reveal that Nico Robin joins instead. But the opening killed the surprise! I think this is kind of dumb and I'm hoping that there aren't spoilers in future openings/closings.

The other is that no one ever really dies. I mean we see flashbacks of characters dying like Hiriluk or Bell-mere and I'm not saying characters have to die off for me to enjoy it but at this point I just never believe it anymore when a character "dies." Like just from this last arc Igaram was dead and then he somehow managed to survive without it being explained how he did, Koza got shot like a million times but still powered through, and even Pell lived after taking that crazy bomb explosion right to the face! I thought this would be an actual death since they showed his gravestone and everything but nope, Pell came back. And maybe this is on purpose so that when there's an actual character death it'll hit harder but man, I've been very surprised at the lack of deaths in One Piece.

I just started watching One Piece too! I just finished Enies Lobby!

I share all the same thoughts as you. I actually am the kind of person who doesn't care about spoilers at all, and I knew Robin was going to join anyway since I have seen OP clips here and there over the years, but I was really surprised to see her in the opening when she was still considered an enemy.

Something else that I've noticed is most of the arcs tend to be the group encounters and enemy and they all split up to do 1v1 or 1v2 fights. I hope they mix it up a little more in the future!

 

[SparksBlade]

Something else that I've noticed is most of the arcs tend to be the group encounters and enemy and they all split up to do 1v1 or 1v2 fights. I hope they mix it up a little more in the future!

This will get mixed up, and you'll feel for it. Not saying when, or how soon, but it'll happen.

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

Hyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyypppeeee

 

[Legitimate Username]

monster trio will live on forever

 

[Chou Toshio]

Does anyone understand what the fuck just happened with Luffy’s snake man???

is it even possible for him to randomly go into Gear 4 for just one punch, then be back to regular form in the very next panel?

 

[SparksBlade]

Does anyone understand what the fuck just happened with Luffy’s snake man???

is it even possible for him to randomly go into Gear 4 for just one punch, then be back to regular form in the very next panel?

No idea.

and

No idea.

1025 spoilers for people that wait for the official online release on Sunday

Earlier we saw him fight vs Kaido using CoC in his regular state, and I assumed that means he hasn't learned to use it in any of his gears so we'll maybe see Gear 2 and Gear 3, but it would seem Luffy is a Saiyan and immediately learned it well enough to use it in Gear 4 and then just transform back. I guess maybe it was cos he was exhausted earlier, but he was very confident that he would just beat up Kaido there so idk maybe it was just the foolish protagonist confidence. There is a small panel of him going out of Gear 4 so there might be more to it as well, but it was still very surprising.

Other thoughts:
1. Don't want Momo to resemble Oden too much, def not the hairstyle.
2. There should be some explanation about Oden's logbook - how much did he write and how much do the people that read it know. I'm very concerned about how much Yamato+now Momo and Shinobu know. I hope not a lot and there's some sensible reasoning for that, regardless of whether Yamato joins the crew or not.
3. Momo should get STOMPED - I know it's very likely it won't be the case that because Momo skipped decades of his life he won't be so strong cos he actually skipped training/practice/FOOD, but still it's a kid's mind in a body much bigger and stronger than what he's used to, and he has no fighting experience either. He does have a great Zoan but he isn't very good at controlling that either yet. And if he goes hybrid or uses haki then it'll prolly be the first time Oda will disappoint me.

 

[vonFiedler]

I'm just deathly afraid of Yamato ending up with Momo

This whole arc started with Yamato being in a political marriage, and now Momo and Yamato both want to be shogun, and now Momo has been aged up to the exact same age as Yamato (but not really eww) and they're both fighting Kaido in the climax.

Just please don't

 

[Mova]

yamato for straw hats all the way

 

[brightobject]

I'm just deathly afraid of Yamato ending up with Momo

This whole arc started with Yamato being in a political marriage, and now Momo and Yamato both want to be shogun, and now Momo has been aged up to the exact same age as Yamato (but not really eww) and they're both fighting Kaido in the climax.

Just please don't

I don't recall Yamato ever being up for political marriage (Kaidou's plan was to betray orochi and install his son as shogun, right?), but this is definitely a horrifying possibility lol, especially if Momo is gonna look just like Oden (though I don't think Yamato ever met Oden in the flesh).

Also re: Snakeman, Luffy's been going in and out of Gear Four constantly over the course of Onigashima (one instance I remember is how fast he went into and out of Gear Four when preparing to take Ulti-Meteor + after Yamato came in w the rescue), but the way this was panelled was definitely...weird. I kind of felt like this chapter was lots and lots of dialogue with not that much room for action, so that might explain some of the awkward action pacing, but I'm just as curious as yall as to whether this is leading into some other kind of significant technique Luffy's developed over the course of the raid.

spoilers

We do basically know that yamato will be joining the straw hats from merch lineups, but hopefully there's not gonna be some grody infatuation bit before Yamato sets off to sea with the Straw Hats : - I I want to trust Oda not to pull something that horrible, especially since Yamato's admiration for Oden is clearly not romantic in any way, but it might still end up being some weird bs kind of like what happened with Rebecca in Dressrosa...

 

[vonFiedler]

I don't recall Yamato ever being up for political marriage (Kaidou's plan was to betray orochi and install his son as shogun, right?)

Yamato was supposed to marry into Big Mom's family. Don't recall who, if we ever knew.

 

[brightobject]

Yamato was supposed to marry into Big Mom's family. Don't recall who, if we ever knew.

Ahhh shoot, I remember that now, mb mb lol

hopefully they clear that up. one would assume whoever was meant to marry yamato would be part of the crew that had arrived on onigashima but maybe not (speaking of, did they ever mention where Katakuri was? still in Totto Land?).

 

[Chou Toshio]

Cool chapter-- but was there anything that could have triggered Sanji's transformation/Vinsmoke powers awakening, or is it just random power up?

 

[SparksBlade]

Cool chapter-- but was there anything that could have triggered Sanji's transformation/Vinsmoke powers awakening, or is it just random power up?

The most widespread speculation is the repeated use of the raid suit triggered something in his body, and many people are now using past examples from Sanji's life as proof that he was always a bit enhanced.

Another thing I read was that the other Vinsmoke kids have different hair color cos of Judge's experiments, but Sanji's hair are the same as his parents cos Judge's experiments didn't work. But now it seems they only half worked and maybe whatever Sora did didn't prevent Sanji from being enhanced, instead it just let Sanji keep his emotions and his enhancements were suppressed because of that.

 

[vonFiedler]

I haven't read the chapter yet but I never bought that sanji wasn't enhanced.

 

[Mova]

I figured after we found out that Sanji was enhanced, that there are no truly normal humans among the Straw Hats, even taking their capabilities into account. Before Zeus became Nami's equipment, she was arguably the closest to a regular human other than Usopp, who may or may not belong to a Long-Nose tribe, guessing that long-nosed people are like the three-eyed people, as seen with Pudding from Whole Cake.

Despite that, considering the kind of story we're reading: Once we get our "final" crew member, whether it's Yamato or not, there could also be a temporary crew member afterward that turns out to have been supportive of the WG in the guise of a Straw Hat (not the current crew), even if the character is not someone we have seen, or at least know little to nothing about. It would be somewhat like that one temporary late-game ally who betrays the friend group seen in certain JRPGs. There's also the 12 other crewmates theory, as opposed to 10, but I think this one can also work, I hope.

 

[Diophantine]

Ranked the different arcs. Didn't include any of the Wano arcs because I wanna see how it ends. None of these are bad, all are good, just to varying degrees. On second thought maybe swap Baratie and Zou?

Hide

 

[brightobject]

man I'm glad they finally gave Killer / Kidd a bit more development in this chapter. It took a long ass time but wow was the juice worth the squeeze. Those three spreads one after the other...yum

is anyone else kinda disappointed with how Kidd has used his DF powers during the raid? It's all amounted to hitting the opponent with a big piece of metal, excepting one time he held BM down so Law could hit her. I feel like there could be more creative things he could make out of the metal he brings together...but maybe there isn't enough space / time for that with such a packed roster. Not really asking for Goldberg machines but surely there's something cooler that could be done. Genuinely dont feel like Punk Rotten even counts since its just a bigger pair of fists for all intents and purposes, lol.

Still...amazing chapter!! And very hyped for next week's as well

Also have any of you checked out the Ace LN adaptation by Boichi? I had my doubts about it but I think Boichi's art does a good job at capturing the emotional core of One Piece (you can tell he's rly flexing all the experience he's gotten from working on Dr. Stone). It seems like there's one (?) more chapter left, pretty excited!

 

[kstiemsma]

is anyone else kinda disappointed with how Kidd has used his DF powers during the raid? It's all amounted to hitting the opponent with a big piece of metal, excepting one time he held BM down so Law could hit her. I feel like there could be more creative things he could make out of the metal he brings together...but maybe there isn't enough space / time for that with such a packed roster. Not really asking for Goldberg machines but surely there's something cooler that could be done. Genuinely dont feel like Punk Rotten even counts since its just a bigger pair of fists for all intents and purposes, lol.

ikr! feels like all he ever does is spam the arm lmao. would be cool to see him do more stuff like magneto or risotto from jojos, awakened kid fruit would be dummy OP.

was kinda hoping him and law wouldn't be able to take down big mom bc shes my fav yonko and i really wanted her to go to elbaf but it seems more and more like thats where we're headed.

super happy killer got the jump on hawkins tho, nice to see killer finally get a win and shut hawkins down

I haven't read the LN! def want to sometime but figured I'd just wait until its finished at this point. Boichis art is so pretty! I also really want more chapters of one piece party to be translated as i have a ton of fun reading the few that are translated

 

[Mova]

I was also hoping to see Big Mom continue to have presence in Elbaf after Kaidou's defeat, considering her obsession with that island despite (or because of?) her exile. Too bad Law and Kidd seem to be taking her down already. Also, how many chapters are left of Wano? I can imagine this arc lasting more than 135-140 chapters if we're lucky, as we already have 121 worth. It's not going to end right when Luffy defeats Kaidou, as we need to have an aftermath before heading further. The WG is already confirmed to take control of Wano once that happens, knowing what Lucci stated.