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One Piece (Beware, spoilers)

Speaking of flashbacks, the big Kuma flashback in the anime is almost done, probably just an episode or two left. Just pointing it out here because following the end of the flashback we'll get The Punch, and booooy I hope the anime sticks the landing with that moment. It should land at least as hard as when Luffy decked Saint Charlos.
 
SpoonyBard said:
Speaking of flashbacks, the big Kuma flashback in the anime is almost done, probably just an episode or two left. Just pointing it out here because following the end of the flashback we'll get The Punch, and booooy I hope the anime sticks the landing with that moment. It should land at least as hard as when Luffy decked Saint Charlos.
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This is one of the most satisfying punches in the series, they really should try to capture it.

New chapter, and it ends big: We see Rocks, before he becomes the captian of the Rocks Pirates. And he is Blackbeards father. Huh. Also, with him are Whitebeard, and I think Gold Lion Shiki? Who is the woman on the left? Big Mom looks different, I think.
 
It's totally Original Stussy. And I think that's not too far off from how Big Mom looked as a kid? Honestly I was waiting for some more info on her to pop up considering a good chunk of her backstory was how she was thrown out of Elbaf.
 
I think Felix’s Big Mom comment was saying that maybe-OG-Stussy didn’t look like young adult Big Mom so couldn’t be here
 
As a young adult, she always has this long, flowing hair, I think. Not that short. At least, if my memory is correct. But Stussy sounds very fitting.
 
We are now THREE flashbacks deep haha. A Rocks flashback inside a Harald flashback inside a Loki flashback.

Looks like we’re here for the God Island incident at last, though (after a break). Some pretty high-stakes action in this chapter alone. And I’ve seen people connect more of the Rocks crew to Moria’s zombies, and putting forward the idea that Thriller Bark was itself God Island turned into a ship, where he dug up the corpses and reanimated them. Kind of a neat idea.

Also: Davy Back Fight mentioned! Rocks Boxing!
 
Davy Back Fight was the first thing that jumped out as OH MY GOD. I'm not sure I ever mentioned it, but since I heard the idea, it never left me: That the final battle between all fractions will be a brutal davy back fight. And THATS why we needed Foxys arc. Aside from that arc being hilarious.

And yeah, I think we will learn about God Island, and generally get the flashback to Rocks. What a weird flashback structure. All together, I kinda buy that Oda wasn't planning to write this arc, and so hasn't planned it out as thoroughly as other arcs. Not a criticism, I do enjoy my time with it, it's just a bit of a mess.

No idea why, but seeing Shiki always excites me.

Also, Blackbeard now feels even more like the spiritual descendant of Rocks. Both have crews who don't care for their captain at all, and are more following, because they want their goals fulfilled. Which, still, is weirdly similar to the Straw Hat crew. Except for them all giving it all for Luffy.
 
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Never, ever would I have guessed, that we see the Kuja pirates here (or generally again). Crazy. What a nice surprise.

Young Roger! Young Garp! And Rocks insane crew. It's always great to see Whitebeard, Big Mom, Shiki and Kaido as equals, in one crew, before they become these giants of history. Love it. This whole chapter was just full with big names.
 
FelixSH said:
This is one of the most satisfying punches in the series, they really should try to capture it.
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Well the episode aired and, yeah, I think they nailed it.

Link to the clip since Youtube won't let it embed.

Can't find an unedited video of it on Youtube yet, this is the best clip I could get and even that has cut things out (including a new version of the opening song that plays post-punch, since that episode did not have an opening sequence they held it off until then, it works surprisingly well)
 
Unexpected to revisit the same event from a different, and fairly recent, flashback from another angle, but wow there was a lot of info in this chapter. About time we saw the event that drove Dragon away from the Marines.
 
It all feels structurally a bit weird, being started as an Elbaf flashback, but yeah, it's a good one.

I don't know why expected Rocks to be the horrible monster history depicts him as (I really should know better by now), but I enjoy spending time with him.
 
I think we’re seeing Rocks’s best face here - he’s still more of a Blackbeard or Kid figure as far as we know, wild and destructive as his expression of freedom.
 
Hmm, you might be right. But it is likely the only time we see something specific of Rocks, and Oda deciding to show us this stuff - I trust him enough to know what he is doing, which is, imo, that Rocks is not the horrible monster he is made out to be. But yeah, there is space between Historys Worst Monster, and a still highly dangerous pirate.

New chapter! And what a chapter that is. Has it all. Rocks Crew! I will never get tired of this absurdly stacked crew, full of legends. It's still crazy to me, that BIg Mom, Kaido and Whitebeard were all on the same crew, once.
Roger! Not much to say, though I'm looking forward to finding out why that Royal Knight dude shit himself, when he realized that Skopa Gaban was coming his way.
Garp! The Legend is here!

And this all just works, because there have been decades of buildup for this. We have known these people for so long, and heard about the God Valley incident. And we are here, and it's epic.

But god, it's disgusting how the celestial dragons treat the people here. Not even calling them humans. Awful stuff.
 
With all the cool stuff happening in this flashback, I think my favorite moments are when young Big Mom does something. I find her a lot of fun, squabbling with her crewmates.
 
Cheeky teenage Kaido was a laugh this chapter, after kind of being a broken “Linlin gimme the fruit you promised” record the last few!
 
Loved that chapter. Similar to when a regular arc ends, except that it gives us the highlights for the rest of time until, well, close to now.

I loved seeing so many characters again. I mean, nice to see the four emperors a last time here, but seeing Fisher Tiger again was really cool.

More details about Harald. Amazing, seeing him trash ships from the fog, being scary.

But my highlight was Shanks. I know, we will have to wait quite a bit to get to his flashback, but I really want to find out what happened. Why he went back to Marijoa. What he means, that it was all horrible. I don't remember the flashbacks, but I think he seemed to having fun.[/ISPOILER]

Extra spoiler, because I got this from a youtube video, suggesting something: That Shanks is dressed like Shamrock is dressed now. Which implies that, maybe, the Emperor is actually Shamrock, and Shanks is a horrible, horrible person. Which would explain him going to Marijoa, which I would think was from his own motivation, and still coming back from there. Maybe Shamrock actually liked the stories that Shanks hated so much.
 
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Oop broken spoiler tag on that first one there, missing the first “[“!

My reading at the moment is that it’s the same Shanks - he has just received his eye injury from Blackbeard (I wonder how much BB knows about all this Rocks and Imu stuff, and whether Shanks learned anything from him), and in the previous flashback where he visited Elbaf we saw him have that same Imu tattoo as Harald on the arm that he ends up losing to save Luffy, which would explain why he is no longer vulnerable to Imu’s control
 
Ehhh, "What if Shanks was evil actually?" has been an ongoing theory in parts of the fandom for years now and I've never bought it. My money's on this being a ruse Shanks is putting on. Harald looking over his shoulder back at him tells me he senses something is up.

Amazing that this flashback has finally gotten back to the perspective of the goddamn person telling it. The entire God Valley detour was fantastic lore, but it's kind of hilariously timed because this is still in Loki's flashback and he'd have no knowledge of what happened there. It's literally "How did you know about the parts you weren't there for?"
 
Thanks for notifying me, but I don't know anymore what I wanted to spoil, so I'll leave it like that. No idea, how that even happened.

SpoonyBard said:
Ehhh, "What if Shanks was evil actually?" has been an ongoing theory in parts of the fandom for years now and I've never bought it.
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I see it less as Shanks being evil. The person that interacted with Luffy, and is down here at the moment, is still a good one, he just has a different name. Shanks being evil would, imo, mean that the dude who gave Luffy the straw hat has some evil agenda, which I don't buy.

I never thought about it, but I think in my mind, whatever characters tell each other in a flashback is not necessarily what we see. The narrator, who is telling the story in-universe (I assume that's a thing, but it's just headcanon) is telling the listener/reader all they need to know, which might be more than what comes from the character.

That said, this here is really stretching it, but I don't mind. As you said, what we got in lore was great.
 
Hehe, after being built up as a serious threat, the Holy Knights are getting torn down again and again. I mean, they are still powerful, but if you are easily defeated by Sanji, you are not an actual threat.

I love Dorry and Broggy. And the final panel is also great. Love a good One Piece smile.
 
A thought: Could it be, that Smoker and Tashigi were intended to play the role, that Coby and Helmeppo have taken on? In my mind, Smoker feels inspired by Les Miserables Javert. Specifically the musical version, who is obsessed with catching Valjean, who is someone who got away from him, despite being a very capable police officer (or whatever rank he has). And while that is true for Smoker, he hasn't appeared in forever (I think it's true, not sure, it's been sooo looong).

We don't see Coby and Helmeppo too often, but I think they met the crew at least a few times? Am I misremembering?

Like, I think the idea was, originally, that Smoker would be Luffys Garp, which is now probably Cobys role. The second person is also both times a swordfighter.

I mean, however it was planned has changed anyway, over time, I would think. I don't think, Smoker would have done what Coby did throughout the series. And yeah, it's a moot point anyway, but I still am curious. Because Smoker feels like someone set up as a recurring villain, and then gets dropped. Or maybe he was just planned for Alabasta, he and Tashigi got a bit of an arc there, and that was that.
 
We finally get a look at Imu's face in this latest chapter and, hrm... Honestly I'm not sure what I expected, and I don't think any character design could have won over everyone in the fanbase but it seems people are mixed on it.

What is interesting is that his power is just listed as 'The Devil Fruits'. Like, the concept of the devil fruits? All of them at once? I guess we'll have to see.

Some people have pointed out that he faintly resembles Robin, mostly with the flat nose and the eye shape, which seems like a stretch but it would put an interesting spin on her old bounty name of 'the demon child'.
 
I like the design. Looks Lunarian-y to me, but that might be more a resemblance to King, who is the only one of that race we saw, up to now. In any case, it looks cool to me, the whole design.

No idea, why people think there might be an intended resemblence to Robin. Seems like trying to find connections to me.
 
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