#chapter 1135

Meanwhile, Wano continues its trend of fierce children you should be terrified of. Hell yeah Tama! Not how I expected you to be rescued but I am here for it! Good job getting yourself out of that jam, and good job taking away a need to deploy the Kiku thus hopefully preserving her for post-quest shenanigans in Ringo.

Elbaf's peace and Kaido's words here make for an interesting comparison. And I appreciate that we are seeing how Wano & Elbaf are raising their respective next generations.

Tama KICK / the Elbaf kids, with the exception of Collun, rejecting violence.

The value of pride and of titles are brought up as well, which ties nicely to scenes from 1042 again, and also 1036. The value of warrior's pride and whether or not the victor needs an epithet.

Given the current situation, I truly believe that Usopp will soon find himself in a tight spot and will ultimately be forced to take action. He seems too comfortable at the moment, telling stories and bonding with two significant figures—namely, the giants he admires. The friends he usually relies on to save the day (and unintentionally tower over him) are not around, and those who are present often take a backseat or find themselves unable to help because they are occupied with assisting someone else. Perhaps I’ll be wrong, since Oda is unpredictable, but seriously, Usopp is having the time of his life right now. Elbaf is beautiful and everything, but come on! Given recent revelations, something is bound to go wrong. How could he possibly fail to act when he is under the giants’ scrutiny?

I'm going to do something a little bit different with 1135, because the #1 I'll focus on post-Wano is anything that feels narratively odd or subversive. And now that we're here, it's worth pointing out how Elbaf has accomplished that. We're having a big party upon our arrival. Only other time that's happened in One Piece is Whiskey Peak and it was a ruse. Do I think the Giants are as duplicitous? Hell no, but here we're seeing the type of scene you'd see after the climax of a major One Piece arc at the beginning. Even if it makes sense logically, in terms of telling a story that is interesting.

Especially when we have our disruptive forces working in the background. Loki is a wild card and now we have him explicitly tied to these invaders. Not-Shanks and this mystery woman who may or may not be the Mosa that Loki was talking to last time. Though I feel like if they had contact with him they wouldn't need to ask where he is. Nor does it feel like anything shady on the Elbaf side when they first assume the pair are with the Straw Hats, though it is rather interesting they don't comment on the Shanks lookalike. Maybe Red Hair isn't super well known here? No matter what else, don't forget Louis Arnot's warning. Don't linger on Elbaf.

LORE! According to the Giants' ancient lore, the world has been destroyed twice before. And each time: Nika. The Second Destruction checks out - I mean, Joyboy + War + an unimaginable 800 meters rise in sea level was a world-ending cataclysm for huge swaths of the population. But... before then, too? I mean. Giant lore is old. Anything from after the Void Century would be like "Yeah, gramps told me all about it!" not "The texts are so ancient we fight over the correct interpretations". So the First Destruction must have happened before Joyboy's time! Do we have any other hints of what it could've been? The Ancient Weapons and Poneglyphs are confirmed Void Century War stuff - as is the Will of D. Are there any even older mysteries?

And of course: what cataclysm will our Nika bring when he comes to possess the ひとつなぎの大秘宝 furigana ワンピース - the... what's the official translation? The great treasure that connects everything into One Piece doesn't sound quite right but... Anyway! That thing! Which certainly sounds like something that could maybe reconnect the divided four oceans, maybe by undoing (or redoing!) what was done 900 years ago... hopefully without going full extinction event.

Right. So. Party! Lore! And my personal favorite moment: Zoro's "My Captain Is Up To Something" senses tingling:

And of course Luffy told him what was up. Of course. <333

WTF I THOUGHT WE WERE CLOSE