#fresh thoughts

⚠️ Spoilers filled discussion, with my fresh thoughts from an excited reader (not a theorist).

First of all, let's spend a bit of time on the cover art. I loved it. We have Roger, Rayleigh my man, Gaban, and then at the center Luffy with the rest of the crew as mini members. The direct inheritors and wing of the Pirate King : Sanji and Zoro. I mean, obviously the whole series is based on inheriting will, but this cover art just encompasses all of it.

Then, we are told idols are navigating on the sea and who do we see?? The Kuja Pirates! This made me so happy and excited. Gloriosa’s younger design is so cool and a bit Boa-like (that's why she is harder on her). And yeah, we always knew she could relate to the lovesickness of Boa because she had one of her own—but I was not expecting hers to be Gold D. Roger. Will she fall for another man from the Rocks and follow them, then? Curious to see how this will unfold. Tritoma, who succeeded Shakky and also died of lovesickness, is also present and super cute <3

Young Roger without his famous mustache is so weird haha xD but loving it. And him trying to kidnap Shakky was so funny. Gaban (like Sanji) almost died from her hotness. And yeah, so confirmed: our little Roger was more sensitive to females than our Luffy xD (yeah I know he had a kid with a woman, but who knows). I’m sorry but the Rayleigh x Shakky scene was so so so cute. I ship them so hard—best couple of the whole One Piece (oh maybe Kuma and Ginny come close).

The Garp vs Roger scene was so cool, I am so excited to see more of them. I missed their interactions, we had barely nothing since Marineford arc flashbacks so this is feeding me up. We saw so little of them in the series, but it's one of my fav dynamics. Excited to see them team up against Rocks Pirates.

After that amazing moment, back to Elbaph. So Loki tried to go to the sea and really wants to join Rocks because he believes he is the most free (so maybe when he sees that Luffy has the Nika fruit, he will consider him the most free and join the crew?) Still made me sad that baby Loki is still not really wanted. But Ida telling him to come live with her is so sweet. I wish we get to see some of that.

Cut to the Pirate Island, Kyo wants to join Rocks. His design is so so cool though. So we know that Rocks wants two fruits. My guess is obviously the Nika fruit (which my guess is still it's the one Harald died protecting) and the second one might be the Yami Yami no Mi (Darkness) fruit that now his son, Teach, has. But yeah, Rocks wanted Harald to eat one of them... kinda curious which one.

They are still looking for the GalleyLa mythical builders... I wonder if Iceberg named his company like that because of that legend or if he has some knowledge about them... Curious, curious.

They are also looking for the frozen bodies of the ancient giants... the ones we know Moria has found and revived. So they may come back later on for the final saga... They are saying even if they come alive again, they will have no reason to listen to us. So will Oars Jr. come back? (Fake-out deaths hehe) Or maybe the older Oars, and we will have to partner up with Moria? (God please no T.T xD I mean he is not a charismatic villain, he gives me the ick, I don't like him and his stupid mouth.)

BTW in all this talk, noticed young Streusen? XD And young Kaido is kinda hot haha. So Kaido kinda wants to force their plan onto Harald, which annoys Rocks and they break into a fight. I wonder why he is against it ? Maybe because of their earlier short-face-off at Mariejoa? Did he realise they would be equally strong and so difficult to force onto?

So Rocks really confirmed that Elbaph is essential for Mariejoa to come down. Is it because Imu is vulnerable to the Nika fruit and they have it? Is it because of strength? Do the giants have an ancient connection to Imu?

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One Piece has always played a lot with the idea of this current generation being a mirror to the older ones, inheriting their will and continuing their journey. But here, I feel it more strongly than ever before. I mean, Rocks almost had all the elements but failed... and I am curious how. Why did Garp and Roger stop him? Garp, logical, because he is a marine and has to protect Mariejoa. But why did Roger? Why did the World Government erase this event ?

And how the fuck is Loki still narrating everything to his brother?

Also, we can see that along our journey, the missing parts from Rock’s journey : our Mugiwaras will have them. (Nika fruit, Oars, Galley-La kinda, etc.)

This chapter makes me think more and more that if Harald continues to refuse Rocks, he will either kill him or maybe Kaido will, to get the Nika fruit, since it's essential to their journey. And I truly believe it's the fruit Elbaph is protecting.

If my little hunch is true, it will be so devastating for my boy, Loki T.T.

Anyway, the scene is set up and I can't wait for the next chapter.

∘₊✧──✧₊∘ more on OP ∘₊✧──✧₊∘

If you’re into OP analysis, I also wrote:

Freedom isn’t always peaceful – rage and resistance in One Piece & AOT

Yes, One Piece is political and that’s what makes it great

- I really like how there's a clear sense of adults and kids in this series. There are a lot of stories where kids talk like adults and adults talk like kids, but here, it feels like everyone is as mature as their age implies, even when it doesn't look like it once you first get to know them

- The artwork is absolutely stunning. Probably one of my favorite series when it comes to visuals. The character designs by themselves already look great, but the action scenes combined with the amazing dynamic camera angles makes this a blessing to look at. Although I can totally see this not being everyone's cup of tea.

- Rudo is a really good protagonist. I like how he always seem genuinely interested in learning from the people around him so he can improve as a person and do better at his job. It helps sell the idea he can "bring out the value of objects" when you actually see him valuing everyone he meets.

- I think Enjin is my favorite character. I love his attitude of "This ain't my first rodeo, kid" where you can tell he's more interested in helping people reach their full potential than whatever the goal of the week might be.

- Guita has my favorite vital instrument. Being able to turn into a giant FU kaiju is awesome. I hope she comes back in the future.

- I did not care for Follo. The arc overall was decent and I get what they're going for, but I just felt this character sucked.

- What exactly is the author's deal with Rudo being a wolf? 🐺 One arc had references to the three little pigs and Rudo blowing their houses as if he's the big bad wolf, and in a recent arc, he straight up becomes one. What's the lore here? 🤔

- I f**king love the riders. There's a part of me that almost wishes these guys will never be defeated cause I just love seeing them even though they're villains. Probably one of my favorite bad guys group I've seen in a while.

- The gag between Rudo and Zanka where they try to be nice to each other but end up getting more angry instead genuinely never felt funny to me and I'm very glad they toned it down as the series went on. It reminded me of Fullmetal Alchemist and the thing where Ed would get annoyed for assuming people were calling him short. Always hated that dumb joke.

- This thing the series does where characters will get introduced by bending their backs and opening their arms as if they're about to do the "just fall, I'll catch you" challenge... I don't know what this is about but I really like it. I hope they keep doing that.

Ok since Shadow was made by A Robotnik (Not Eggman, but his Grandpa), technically Shadow is great uncle to anything created by Eggman. This oughta make for some awkward Family Dinners when Metal Sonic is sitting there silently pissed at Shadow for kicking his kaiju ass back in 2003.

Hell if Biolizzy was around with the exception of their generous sized form, i think they'd be whining for food scraps like a dog from everybody.

-Class-

You sit there making songs,

out of night that endless grew.

Not into right or wrong,

You left yourself and it flew.

The chalk screams and breaks into you,

as vines near the window mockingly smiles.

And the room felt empty beside few,

Your dazed bruised knees falls to rest like tiles.

"Shut up" a voice screams,

as if to shut you, a seemingly dead silent fantasy.

But the trickles of rain from breams,

makes you vivid, invincible and saasy.

The flipping of pages slows down,

this clicking of pen is a music.

Those chatter you don't hear are her crown,

and your poem the queen with eternal magic.

Those colourless clouds are art,

these pens, pages, chairs and desks are colours.

Nothing exists that can thwart,

Your stroke of pen and creation of a lover.

You fly and float,

in that perpetual sea.

"This is the end of three men in a boat"

and you die in the waking of thee.

Your dead self curses,

You are a lazy and loser lass.

You throw scolding your verses,

"Shit man,I missed my whole class."

I'm gonna be honest, the one thing that kept crossing my mind while watching these episodes was, "Did this show have to be animated?" 🤔

So many episodes of this are just characters standing around and talking, or sitting around and talking, or picking up a phone and talking.

A lot of very slow, very long, very still, talk scenes.

I thought they were going to use the whole "people's minds on the web" plot point to do some really crazy, breathtaking visuals with the animation... and they definitely do a few cool things, but overall I can totally see this series having been done in live action and we wouldn't have missed much.

The visuals in here are kinda tamed imo.

I remember they had this one really slow scene of a guy going to make his coffee, picking the coffee, drinking the coffee, and I just thought to myself "This feels like the kind of scene you do in a live action show but isn't really needed in animation."

This feels like a series that was written for live action that just happened to be animated.

Even the big fight scene in the season finale. It looked cool, don't get me wrong, but I feel like they could have gone even crazier and wilder with the visuals.

Heck, I think the TV Show "Legion" had more interesting animated visuals in the season 2 finale, and that's a live action show!

I think the movie kinda peaked right here for me.

I went into this thinking the whole movie was going to be basically like this scene, just these three girls killing demons and kicking ass while going back and forth between looking silly to looking super stylish, sorta like some sort of Devil May Cry meets Kpop.

I was pretty hyped for it!

But... The rest of the movie doesn't really go this route exactly. This is more like... Devil May Cry if it was a webtoon.

(spoilers)