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Oh man. Oh man, oh man. What a chapter. Sprinkled with gems from beginning to end resulting in one of the more left field cliffhangers we’ve ever had. Let’s talk about the chapter in order before I give my thoughts on the last page. Skip to that section if that’s what you really want to hear.
Part 1: Post Holdem Aftermath
Chapter starts off exactly from where we left off last week, Holdem is confirmed KO’ed, Luffy takes Tama and runs by getting on Speeds back and giving her one of Tamas kibidangos to manipulate her to do their bidding. Keep a mental note of the fact Tamas kibidango has an effect on smile users, this will probably come back in the future of the arc. Tama brings up that Luffy looked like Ace in his battle with Holdem, something I thought was a onetime thing but it came back again later on in the chapter, which to me implies there’s something Oda is trying to set up or explain in the future.
Part 2: Trafalgar Law vs. Basil Hawkins
Finally, the two calm, cool, and collected members of the Worst Generation clash at last. My predictions about them already being in an alliance turns out to be false. Hawkins sees through Laws disguise almost immediately as Law sets up his room. They exchange a few blows and words when they get reports that Holdem was defeated by Luffy. Hype moment for Hawkins fans, putting these fan speculated power gaps between the Worst Generation in perspective, they’re closer than we think.
Part 3: Past, Present, Future
Luffy and gang are bringing the treasure ship filled with food and water to Bakura town to feed the starving people. On the way they pick up Law, so now they finally are all together. I want to take a moment and talk about the disturbing panel’s right before the citizens realize there’s food in the city. There is a panel of a mother about to kill her baby because the baby is starving and she can’t help it, beside her is an old man praying in front of a noose, which implies to me he is about to take his life. These panels made it even more impactful when Luffy and gang got the food to the people. This was Luffy repaying Tama for the food she gave him, and he said this is just the beginning. We see a panel of Luffy that is probably in my top 5 favorite Luffy panels now. It’s the Panel where he says “”I’ll make sure that by the time we leave this country, it’ll be a place where you can eat until you’re full every day.” Just beautiful. Turns out Ace said the same thing to Tama. Luffy has inherited Ace’s will in Wano, fulfilling these dreams he had, a man’s dreams truly never die.
Part 4: The Last Page…
The last page of the chapter is getting its own section, I do not give a flying flagnard (shout out to the brother King Recon, check him out on YouTube). Law tells Luffy they will go to the ruins of Odens castle atop the hill, to meet the “ghosts of the Wano country.” Zoro mentions it was a surprise when he saw them. Chapter ends panning to a grave site that includes the graves of Oden, Momo, Kineimon, Kanjuro, Raizo, and more, as Law states, ‘You will learn of an unbelievable TRUTH.”
What in the actual hell is going on in Wano?! I wasn’t expecting something like this. Okay here are a few possibilities:
All or some the people displayed on the graves faked their deaths
They all actually died and somehow their spirits are lurking until they complete some mission.
There’s some kind of curse put on Wano where their timeline is skewed from the rest of the world.
There’s just too many strange thing revolving around Momo in particular that raises red flags. First thing that comes to my head is the fact when Roger was brought up in Zou, Momo went on and said he remembers meeting Roger but he was young so he doesn’t remember well. It was played off as being a lying gag but I do not believe it’s a gag at all. What If Momo was actually alive when Roger came to Wano? What if option 3 above is an actual possibility? Is Momo actually dead and he’s been 8 for over 20 years? Or is none of this true and the way he heard Roger was tapping into the “voice of all things” ability? So many questions and possibilities. My mind is still scrambled so forgive me if I missed anything.
Conclusion
Absolutely fantastic chapter, from great resolution to the Bakura town conflict, thematically setting up the long term goal established by Luffy of freeing Wano, to the mind bending cliffhanger at the end. Have faith in the process that is Oda.
TO BE CONTINUED X
~ S