#ch468

Given how Oda usually draws his crying characters as sniveling wrecks, it's important to note when he lets a character cry pretty. Cindry has been stripped of much of her dignity by Hogback, but Oda lets her take part of it back with this moment of quiet, beautiful defiance. The usual streams of snot and gushing tears would detract from the scene, while the slip of a single tear down her cheek along with the completely blacked out background elevates the moment into something special and makes for a fantastic end of the chapter.

Cale: ...

I'd forgotten that Chopper calls Hogback work monstrous. That's such a loaded word for him, and a huge chunk of his character development is coming to terms with his own monsterness that it's a little bit surprising that he directs it at the zombies instead of Hogback himself. That said, given the themes of One Piece, stripping a person of their personality and will is one of the worst things you can do for them, worse than even killing them, and that's one of the reasons Hogback is treated as the most villainous villains of the arc over even Moriah. So by One Piece logic the zombies he helps create are outright abominations. To call someone a monster is pretty much the worst insult Chopper could say, and it speaks volumes for what Hogback's done that it's 100% warranted.

If there's a thesis statement for this fight, it's this. Hogback isn't judged for generally being a shit stain of a human being, but for taking away the freedom of others, and life without freedom isn't really life.

Alive!Cindry is always shown as happy and smiling, but this moment right before she gets stomped to (re)death is the only time when zombie!Cindry does the same. It's kind of a reverse of the situation in Wano or with the slaves of the Celestial Dragons where the people have no choice but to smile. Here Chopper has freed her to be able to truly express herself, and this last moment of defiance makes her happy