#ch 854

okay, so, i don’t usually make big non-japanese meta posts about specific panels, but this moment here really struck me. i think this, right here, is the critical downfall of the big mom pirates.

opera doesn’t tell any of his siblings that 1. nami and luffy have escaped and 2. jinbe has betrayed them and is working with the strawhats. this is because of his (from what we’ve seen, entirely reasonable) fear that he will attract big mom’s retribution for his perceived failure in guard duty, despite the fact that said failure was really getting surprise gut-punched by a former shichiukai with no way to avoid it. 

because he doesn’t tell them, the entire charlotte family remains under the impression that they have the situation completely under control, even though the reality is that they now do not have even a single strawhat prisoner and also one of their most powerful lieutenants is now actively working against them, and their poneglyph has been stolen.

opera has to know that letting luffy run rampant cannot possibly have a good outcome for his family and their plans, but he still doesn’t say anything, because his fear of his own mother far, far outweighs his loyalty to her.