Seth Macenzie

This is so fantastic, Usopp getting dragged, getting beaten bloody and yet standing up, the moment of dramatic pause on Chopper before we see Usopp in the background getting up, because they can make fun of everything, but not Luffy's dream (or any of their friends' dreams).

I wish we would get more horn boost, it looks so amazing.

The planning, the teamwork, the trickery, the actual long shot hits.

And the payoff.

Physics are fun.

How on earth did the Baroque works even get their hands on him? As far as we know all weapons who ate devil fruits are from Vegapunk.

I do love that we get this wacky idea, the part that Mr 4 is basically just a really strong baseball player that uses his gun-dog as a ball maschine and on top of that we hae the specification that the poor thing has a slight cold.

Beautiful showcase of hom strong Mr 4 is, you can really feel his strenght through the panels.

And to bring it home we have this. The thing is: we know that One Piece has crazy strong characters. But Mr 4 shows us strenght that by this point we really haven't seen Usopp or Chopper face. (Also both of them would by now one shot them so fast, it's hilarious.)

I do love Usopp for basically just being a normal person in this insane adventure. Can't really blame him, he's a sniper, he's never supposed to be in close combat (and yet he always is).

Also five seconds ago the Mole Woman (she hasn't transformed yet!) was arguing that Mr 4 should hurry up and kill them and here they are bickering, while he pets Lassoo.

The disrespect of Mrs Merry Christmas this chapter is so mean and funny.

And then we see how much of a problem she's going to be. The holes everywhere (of course we're getting what-a-mole).

Bickering or not, you save your Namaka!

On one side this battle has some wonderful comedy on the other side both Chopper and Usopp almost die so often it's insane.

This is so smart. He not only in such a short moment realised he could use the tunnels, but found the right one to get in position to hit Mr 4. (early sight of observation haki maybe?).

The strenght Usopp has and the strenght Mr 4 have are very much depicted the same way and while this hammer isn't actually 5 tons, you got to admit he had to hit really hard to make Mr 4 dent that much.

THE DESTROYER KING CAPTAIN USOPP.

Chapter 185

It's been 22 years and we still don't know which DF this is.

I generally am a sucker for characters that don't feel brave and want to just run away but then do stay and do fight and still don't feel brave, because they don't realise it. But this fight we really see it with Usopp again.

He wanted to run, he didn't want to fight, he's just a normal guy and a sniper at that, he should not be in the middle of this battleground.

And yet he tried his best and fought. And he does so again.

Usopp playing whack-a-mole is the best panel for the comedy alone. It's just wonderful.

And while he doesn't hit her, he does tire her out.

We all know where this one is going.

Chopper just got seemingly exploded and Usopp is still thinking clearly. (-it doesn't work)

But this is also really smart from Chopper.

Love the action movie shot (and Chopper explaining what Usopp already knows, he went in them this chapter).

Chapter 186

They look so ominous and evil. It's beautiful.

Is Luffy is anything not in any way, shape or form it's feeble.

And not for a second does Usopp believe her. There are so many aspects to this whole part: Usopp calling her a liar, when he just lied, Usopp's believe in Luffy, Usopp stopping trying to escape and turning around to scream at her. This is why the Merry fight hurts so bad, he's the first one to say it out loud, to showcase just how much he stands behind Luffy. No doubt whatsoever.

He's the first Strawhat to say it (other than Luffy himself).

Love how Miss Merry Christmas speech bubble cuts of the obvious "THEY'RE HERE" from Mr. 4. Only for her to complain later.

Just Vivi, nothing else -everyone proceeds to get in fights with the Strawhats instead.

How do you know that Luffy isn't involved? We have a very good plan and are actually following it and it works.

This is legit cool from Mr. 1. It's a great panel, despite being so small in the middle, the way he just shrugs off Usopp's hit.

Such a good plan (no Luffy in sight).

Obviously Eyelash was the best. But I do love how unhinged the Strawhats all look and then there is the camel that just rode a duck looking paniked.

Chapter 182

Who could this many armed person escaping be? A flying scorpion maybe.

What could possibly happen in the nearby future?

An accident says the guy with the BAROQUE WORKS logo on his arm. Crocodile in his "no I'm being subtle era" what does the man do if he isn't subtle? Ride in on a crocodile, with a crocodile seat, under a crocodile umbrella, dressed in crocodile leather surrounded by an ramy of crocodiles?

This is a fantastic panel. The ay his eyes are black, unseeing, while the black steed (darknes) drives him forward and Vivi shouting towards a man already past her words. This is some high class symbolism here.

If there is one things the Strawhats cannot do it's give up (yes that counts Sanji fighting women, you can't give up if you never start to begin with).

Speaking of symbolism: Koza on his black steed running past Vivi and Usopp on his white steed coming to aid Vivi. Important note: this is Vivi's perspective we're talking about. It seems a bit too good to be true.

And of course it isn't. But good thinking on both Vivi's and Mr. 2's end. Also shoutout for Karoo, not only taking the trampling hooves for Vivi, but also getting up and dashing away.

Chapter 183 Squadroon Leader Karoo

I think after last chapter we know why he is the leader of the squad well enough already.

This is so great. Every panel of it. The plan, Sanji's insult, Zoro's answer, Luffy's reaction and Usopp too.

Deserved leader of the squad.

And now for some great comedy.

I admite the shere will to run up the same path as Karoo, but the stairs are right next to you Bentham.

Oh we're battling the LGBTQ+ community, of course it's Sanji. I wonder if Iva or Sanji ever brought Mr. 2/Bentham up.

priorities!

The fact that both fight mainly with their legs made the set up rather obvious. Luffy gets Crocodile, Zoro gets the highest ranking man, Nami gets the highest ranking women (that is actually an enemy), Sanji gets the third in command with the leg powers.

The fact that Bentham points out they have a lot on commen and that we saw how nice he is in contrast to the other members should have made us get how great of a person he will be in the future.

I am a mole and I'm digging a hole. Diggy Diggy hole. Diggy Diggy hole.

(Quick mention of a dog being used to help, wonder who we haven't seen yet.)

Also Luffy's willpower is just impressive. And yet it's not enough to get him out of the quicksand, he need someone to lend him a hand.

This is the best panel this chapter. It's so beautiful, how Robin rises Luffy from essentially his grave. It has a lot of religious ideography, with the blood running down, his head titled back and the arms rising him up. Then there is Robin in the background and now we have confirmation that she isn't as bad as she seems. We see her afterwards in full, but just from the hands and her silhouette in the background we know it's her.

And he thanks her. The entire situation, Robin asking him why he fights, brining up the Will of D without Luffy knowing what that is and her getting him his Strawhat, without knowing how important it is to him. It tells so much about both of them in such a short time. -Robin has knowledge about Luffy that he doesn't have -Robin is not loyal to Crocodile, and likely not as evil as we thought she was -Luffy will acknowledge help from an enemy and is greatful for it -Robin after realising that Luffy doesn't have answers to her question still brings him his hat back, when she has no reason to. And then Pell shows up.

And he looks fine all things considered. From what we've seen she could have ended him then and there, but she didn't. This words direktly into what we've just learned about her not being as bad as we think.

And then she tells Pell two important things: he needs to be careful and that Luffy brought Vivi home, so he'll help him.

This entire chapter is just: Robin is a good person deep down and I love it.

I love the Accelegator. I love all the Crocodile/Alligator imagery so much. I wish I knew Japanese on a deep enough level to get all the puns in this.

Priorities. Before this Pell asks: Why can protect Vivi and this is the answer.

And then of course the last obstace in but Robin is evil. Igaram is alive.

Alabasta Arc ending: a summary.

This is really it, if you defeat Crocodile the rain will return- honestly holding back the rain in a whole country for 14 years is insane.

It's always why did Pell survive and never why tf did Toto survive.

On an analytic note: Do your worst Sandstorm (Crocodile) - you'll never defeat Yuba (me, the people of Alabasta).

Sanji's simping has paid off.

There is no indication of who is talking and yet you can tell.

This is so funny. He tried, he gave it his all.

I just like the panel of Chopper gripping onto Zoro.

It's so nice when this stuff pays off. It makes you wonder how the planning stage went. Oda: so I made this map of Alabasta and there's a river in the middle, I need them to cross it, how do I do that? Oh I know, I'll make this little side battle earlier with a new species I invent that will save them later.

They are all amazing, but my heart goes out to I don't want to be here duck in the back. That's just the Usopp duck, it's there, it will do what it needs to do, but it's not happy about it and scared af.

Bentham -I broke them out of Impel Down - of the Wild.

I love how everyone freaks out in their own way. Zoro and Sanji starting to fight (and not beating the shipping alligations), Vivi trying her very best at being uplifting, but they all know her too well by now and Usopp having his typical: I should do something moment. Do like how he's telling Vivi she's the most worried, not even Usopp himself, just Vivi.

And now for a wonderful panel break to set the tone

This is so beautifully done. We have Toto being hopeful and optimistic and then cut to Luffy being hooked by Crocodile, all in black while we see the sandstorm making it's way to Yuba, while Crocodile tells Luffy what's going to happen next.

Usually you shouldn't monologue, but tbf Crocodile has won this and Luffy should have died

(and people complain about Pell's plot armour this arc). Funny how this man then goes and saves Ace from execution when he has absolutely nothing to gain from it.

-Crocodile realising this Strawhat managed to get water in this place -getting the water on him -Luffy grabbing him so hard despite being on the brink of death -this is the very moment that manged to get Luffy to win the last fight against him

The horror of being buried alive in quicksand is beautifully illustrated. And I do think it's quiet interesting how Crocodile calls it a waste of time, he sounds a bit disappointed that he didn't get a better fight.

Smoker is such a great character and it's so funny how on the nose his jacket is. But it's also a good teaching/learning moment, he trusts Tashigi to make the right choice, but he lets her see for herself. No matter what happens, he will take responsibility.

I've recently spend a ton of time (like the last year or so) looking at horses for fanfiction writing purposes, but I think Oda had a bit of a horsegirl phase with Koza's ride. That horse looks amazing in every panel. It's so detailed and strong and powerful.

And now we're getting more information what members of the Baroque Works are doing what exactly. Notice how strong Cobra still looks despite being tied up and we see this in his thoughs right afterwards.

This paneling just shows you how far Luffy is current out of his league with Crocodile, he's a weirdly bend over bundle on the floor while both Crocodile and Robin are menacing in the background. And yes his time has come (or would have if not for Robin).

(Don't think about Marineford- yeah no, I think about Marineford and that Crocodile saved Ace and that he helped Luffy and that it still didn't save Ace from his death.) And yet Luffy keeps fighting for her.

You can pinpoint the exact moment Robin decided to help Luffy. And it's here, he's so positive, so helpful, so loving that he'll help Vivi after just knowing her and not just anything, he's willing to go up against Crocodile for her.

Also Robin still being a tad bit suicidal. Her and Sanji could have made a club before they overcame their issues, no wonder she was the one who saved him from Black Maria.

That half open suspicious eye, the half annoyed look.

This feels like an honor, he's giving Luffy the time of day. He's giving him three minutes and he even asks if he's got complaints about it. It's about the most respect he probably ever paid to the rookies that came through.

The battle looks so good, the color contrast of the black coat, the sand effect of grainy streaks, the highlighted hook and Corcodile's evil grin.

The peak in interest about the fact that Luffy managed to dodge, unlikely the norm for Crocodile.

The sand effects, how effortless Crocodile turns into it, the color contrast of dark and light, Luffy's strawhat flying on the side, his coat floating like a cape. The play of clothing movement, sand movement is so beautiful.

The Gum Gum Gattling Gun doing nothing, except make look Crocodile extremly cool.

Same with the Gum Gum Bazooka. And how small Luffy looks in the panel, Crocodile is coming and without even seeing his hook, just by his floating cape starting to surround and corner Luffy you see how bad this is going for him. The sand also just plays to make Crocodile looks even bigger, because we know he is the sand, so we have Crocodile on the left, taking about 3/4th of the panel in with his presence and on the right we have Luffy so small in comparison with nothing to back him up visually, just empty white panel, and that empty white is sand, it's what they are standing in, he's surrounded by nothing but his enemy and his attacks do nothing.

The one thing Luffy does manage is to piss Corcodile off like nothing else. It will not go well for him, in case that wasn't obvious enough.

Chapter 178

Again with the size play, we've seen Oda do this before, but always you knew Luffy was going to win this just by perspective.

Here we have a tiny Luffy with Arlong in comparison:

You can see that Arlong is far bigger, but Luffy is up in the sky, playful, he has the upper hand in this.

Here we have Zoro in Whiskey Peak:

He is tiny, but you can tell he's got this fight in his pocket.

But Crocodile vs Luffy doesn't look like this, it looks like a young rookie pirate going up against a warlord. We can tell from the perspective how far away from Crocodile's level Luffy currently is and Crocodile is right: playtime is over.

Thankfully Luffy does figure out the issue, now he needs the solution. (I really like desert spada as a attack.)

I will kill you, but I will also acknowledge that you are giving me a fight. When was even the last time Crocodile had to deal with any legit enemy?

I will not stop gushing on how cool the sand effects are. We do know that he has insane good control over his powers (he did spend 16 years in a desert, he better be good), but given the wording it doesn't sound like he awakend it and I really would love to see that. Could be just dry out everything? Could he use wet sand? Where is the limit to an unwakend Logia?

The range to ensure Luffy stays inside despite his powers, the cut from the desert spada going insanely deep down into the hole.

The level of evil here is something else. There is ground water in Alabasta in the desert and he's even keeping that from the people for his own gain. Toto was right by keeping to dig, there's still something there, no wonder Crocodile kept hitting the town with sandstorms.

Also note: Luffy ended up beating Crocodile, but not in a desert battle.

I like that Luffy is getting creative, but honestly why would that work, how would that work, it's sand and I can understand Crocodile looking so annoyed at this terrible attempt to do something.

Luffy is struggeling so bad and Corcodile is just unphased.

Now we know where the baroque works flag comes from.

Luffy can be very lucky that wasn't his hook, because that arm would have been off. Again the shading is wonderful, the dark coat, the sand cutlass, Crocodile's pissed off face.

The panic in Luffy's face, unseen so far. He's been in bad situations, but nothing like this. Usually I'd say something about villains monologing, but you really can't blame Crocodile here, Luffy has nothing on him.

Except the option to utterly disrespect him of course. Love that Luffy learned from his encounter with Wapol and Crocodile's upper body coming out of his mouth like a very pissed of genie.

He's pissed, but he's still so casular. And he's done with Luffy. The reaction to everyone for the sandstorm, the citicens so used to them they can tell if it will hit them or not (meaning Crocodile makes sure they look natural), Smoker unhappy and untrusting, the Strawhats worried, except for Zoro who looks very calm and Sanji with his glasses who is hard to read.