Standing on her hand she felt her balancing on the top of the tower as she watched the bedraggled procession below. On Grove 1, the Human Shop, a suit wearing man with a bubbled helmet and turnip shaped hair wandered below. Among him wandered a blowfish-man and a woman. Both wore thick iron collars around their necks with chains leading to the mans hand. His ridiculous suit and hair declared him one of the World Nobles. A guttural growl erupted from her throat as she felt the fur erupt all over her skin. Light white fur covered in black dappling. And it required all of her strength to not  unleash her Devil Fruit. --- Hey guys, to fight away my depression I decided to delve back into One Piece, and Holy Shit, I finally made it through Saobody! So clarify unlike before I will not be doing a Saga wide plot review, instead I'm going to write out my thoughts on the arcs I watch as I recharge further from this past summers assortment of shows. Yes, I will be doing Andor, but it will be a bit for me to work up to it! Now, going straight into Saobody the reappearance of Hatchin was a nice touch. Camie while kind of ditzy was such a damn lovable character! Papagu as a sort of foolish rasta hat wearing sartfish only took the cake. This series is all about the high level absurdism that is in this series. We go from just a wandering lost Mermaid to flying motorcycle fish. But I digress. As the team leaves Thriller Bark they find themselves right at the wall of rock that is the Redline. A massive line of mountains (as best as we can describe it) that encircle the entirety of the world. It is the Redline and the strange Grand Line Ocean which split the One Piece world into the Four Blues. So seeing it in person outside of Reverse Mountain is pretty amazing. Now switching back to Camie, her lead up with the Macro Gang and the Flying Fish Riders was more slapstick than actual fight. Learning that a lowly shitty gangster had his life ruined by a bad art piece of Sanji is pretty hilarious in a way. But what took the cake of this mini-arc was Luffy defeating Duval with just a glance. A great lead in to Haki (which was see earlier in the series with Skypeia and the meet up between Shanks and Whitebeard). We get an idea of how these folks wanted to kidnap Camie as a get-rich-quick scheme. But as we pop in Saobody we get a really taste of the horror of the World Nobles. A man, Devil Dias, escapes only to die as his collar explodes. Later said World Nobles appear and shoot the man because dared to run away and demand to see his family again. What is truly horrific about this scene is how no one moves to heavily Dias. They all ignore him and shudder in terror knowing that the Nobles can enslave them on the spot without question. In this world, the World Government, treats its ultra-rich bubble helmet suit wearing Nobles as "Gods". They're even called "Celestial Dragons", a pretty apt allegory for the uber rich. Any billionaire in this day and age could easily be any one of the Rosewards. When Camie is kidnapped I was horrified as the auction scene became the next focus. Even with Handsome Duval (yes I'm using this title sarcastically) and his crew offering some light humor, there's nothing light about it. So, we get everyone but the Monster Trio in to save Camie and as the slaves are sold she finally almost has a chance to be saved. Nami has a plan! Using every single ounce of treasure from their last big score they'll save her. Too bad that one of the fucking Dragons decides to just bid on her with 500 million! This scene raises the despair of this particular arc, and as all hell breaks lose Luffy and the rest of his top fighters storm the hall only to raise the stakes. Hatchin jumps in and ends up getting shot in only what can be described as a blatant racist show of the terrible humans of One Piece! Seeing Luffy punch Charlos Roseward into the ground was damn satisfying just as it was for someone to land on his shitty father. And when all seems lost a literal fucking legend pops up to save them all! Yeah, this Arc really just as dramatic as any other. Back on topic, what we see here is a pretty lengthy combat scene where the Strawhats are driven to the brink. It's only a matter of time before they break! In this island archipelago of wondrous bubbles and massive mangroves, the very amusement park is just a trap for traffickers. Now, almost immediately after Rayleigh dismisses everyone in a singular moment we get just a singular reprieve. With an episode Admiral Kizaru appears along with the Pacifista. As the Strawhats try to run they are picked off one by one. Each of the Kuma cyborg clones easily takes out members of the Worst Generation as they wield the light of the Pika Pika no Mi. This sudden change from quiet to the increasing despair of the end of this arc was bone chilling. Watching Kizaru stand over both Zoro and later Sanji ready to kill them as, damn. We almost get a sense of triumph just before the Pacifistas are told to step aside by the real Kuma. As he uses his Paw Paw powers to sent the Strawhats away we see Luffy losing it bit by bit. Every bit of safety and support he's built for years is being carved away. No matter how good the Strawhats think they are, they cannot defeat a fucking admiral. Conclusion This Arc is a start up for the Summit War, a story about how you can't always win. That the Bad Guys can and will outthink the hero and that yes, you an't save everyone. I know the end of this story, but I want to experience first hand so I wrote this as a separate piece for my thoughts on the Saga. I plan on doing Amazon Lily and Impel Down soon, but for now this is all the energy I have in me! Hottakes:

The Rosey Riders sans Flying FIsh Riders are a ridiculous crew. I adore them.

Kizaru is a fucking genocidal asshole only matched by Akainu

I like how they really pushed how dangerous Haki is in this especially with Sentomarou using it to hurt Luffy.

Elon Musk is a fucking Celestial Dragon.

This Arc makes me hate the World Government More.

I hardcore ship Sanji and Zoro now for some damn reason, probably because I read a Trans Sanji story!

Nami is amazing, I loved how she's mastering her weather powers.

Sanji firing away in futile attempts against Kizaru just made me want to sob as he wanted to defend his friends.

❝ if you don’t think i could lead us, just say so. ❞

          “no, luffy, i...” sorry sorry sorry, i’m so sorry, words couldn’t explain how sorry usopp really was for what he had done, the calamity he had caused for the crew. over some arrogant need to prove that he was still strong enough, that he COULD hold his own in a fight, that just because the merry was the one who was breaking down, it wouldn’t be him, he could be strong for her, he could build her back up.

     he was foolish in thinking that he could save her, he knew it from the start, he knew it since skypia that it was a fools errand to fix the going merry. and yet there he was that night standing opposite of luffy, aiming his weapon at the man he had called captain--at who he called his friend.

     kneeling down to show his subordinate towards the devil fruit user, usopp’s head bowed down as there were tears forming, overflowing onto the newly placed floorboards on the ship that was now named thousand sunny.