I swear it always comes back to this damn clown. Crocodile's response is so funny to me and Buggy's expression is so good but the scene as a whole. Vegapunk's transmission concludes here. He's left the world in a panic. Buggy though continues to make the best of opportunities through sheer charisma. Don't forget where we left off last time, this may be a tense relationship but he's somehow worked himself into solidifying the Emperor title. I get the vibe at least CrocHawk are fuming here because they're realizing they have to play ball with Buggy on some level because he's the one with the men's loyalty. That's an important note for this chapter, the power of charisma vs. Vegapunk muddying his own message.
Let that one sit a moment because it won't really play much in the rest of the chapter, but like we often say with Egghead it is an interesting scene to frame the rest with. While Vegapunk's message and the impact of it remind me so much of David Bowie's Five Years, the little lead-in line made another rock music reference worth paying attention to. "The Times They are A-Changin." We couldn't use it as the chapter title because that, in full English, was already one which was confirmed as a reference. 572. Whitebeard giving the final order. Our lead in to the death of Luffy's brother Ace.
We'll talk narrative structure in a minute. Because I want to keep smoking this Whitebeard pack while I have it open. "I failed to make him King." That line, the flashback, the sacrifice...I see why we have that callback. Emeth here ends up being a pretty cool combination of Whitebeard back then and Izo's sacrifice late in Wano on top of the obvious internal parallel with Kuma. Especially when you mix it with seeing Koby's reflections on early chapters this chapter really felt like it was hitting that deep DNA of the series.
And of course, that makes the title interesting this time. "The Time is at Hand." I feel like I'm supposed to be making that connection right now. And honestly? All I've talked about this whole time could work just fine if Luffy simply gets taunted after this like Ace does. For all the pomp and circumstance. All the big ideas of Grand Fleets and mystery interlopers, that could tie it off here too. Are we ready to "untie the knot?" Are these scattered contexts about to make sense and reweave time?
It's not like I can ignore the confluence here. The bulk of the Gorosei are banished. Nami's lament about Atlas & Edison imply Lilith is the Last (goo-, evi-...allied) Punk Standing. Er...laying. You know I just thought "Last Punk Standing" sounded cool okay? The broadcast is donezo. Robonosuke's done his thing. Even cinching up Caribou and the Blackbeard bits. All this happens as the ships come together and the gang is drifting away.
Just saying, feels like the broadcast did sorta serve as this third discrete segment where Egghead takes on a different tone. And now that's settled. We'll have this break and honestly? Next few chapters feel like a total wild card.
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Catch the classic Wano trick? Scattershot chapter but the title gives you the clue; conflict. It was smoother but we've stepped away from the Straw Hats, they aren't in this one. I said this when we finished Bonney's cutaway. If you look at what's left it's Stussy as a springboard to Bakkin/Marco which we haven't checked in on since their first appearance parallel to Egghead. SWORD also has an unfired Chekov's Gun with Drake. Either of those can pull a Kuma and rewrite Wano. Only one person there can do that and it was the girl playing coy in the end.
Last week, it was "If he's gone, who am I to live for?" This week it's this titular line about inner conflict, how it's proof of your humanity. Especially with the Seraphim and building off of CP9 being these vicious government dogs who just need the order to indulge bloodlust right by it. That role doesn't have to be who you are, and if circumstance deals you a bad hand that forces you to go against your nature those conflicted feelings are proof you're not losing yourself to it. The difference to me though is like we said with Stussy maybe needing her own "Okobore" era. I don't think this is really Kiku's story replacing humanity with gender identity...I see it more as a parallel to the implied backstory and growth that allowed you to give it your all freely on one final show with the old gang. Also, don't forget Bakkin was last seen with Marco and that's all tied up in Sphinx Island as one of these wayward villages in need of a humble guardian.
Oh yeah, and doing this while York introduces a truckload of ambiguity. This is a cool scene. Because we really have to stop and think about what York knows, what Stella knew, and of course these weird gaps when we also now know Vegapunk Prime was with Bonney during the Void Night. As above, so below and all that right? A story about the Void Century on the surface when the micro clash on this island has that big blank night before raising so many questions.
Specifically highlighting the idea VP is a horrible liar and a bad actor. Is there like, anything specific we could pair this with in York's conclusion that would enhance the aroma?
Hey look! We got Robonosuke and Momonosuke in the same chapter! If you count the cover page we also got both Tsurus which is nice. York's theory is that Robonosuke is set to guard the broadcast. My point is that, alongside Stella telling us his limited version of the Void Century after a string of unreliable narrators we have York offering us this theory in frustration. Specifically highlighting solid reasons to be flummoxed. Vegapunk may have pulled a big brained plan all along, he was dicking around with Robonosuke when we met him. But he also like, weirdly disappeared from that scene too which is one of those little things I try to remember about Egghead. Vegapunk also wasn't really far along at getting Robonosuke online.
This becomes some really good shit though if there is a mystery interloper. Because really it could go both ways. If York's right, they could already be there and ready to make use of it. A trap. If York's wrong, the chaos just gave you a perfect distraction and it's a perfect sign of beating the genius by getting in her head. I still think there's something to the idea that Vegapunk didn't have time overnight to fix this dude. Luffy's G5 heartbeat being a signal or that backhanded way of someone making good on his assumption you just need to know Robonosuke's real name? That works in a night we still haven't filled in. And no matter what this big, bad mofo is about to start wrecking shit. Which is pretty cool.
Last but not least we have our reactions to the message. One big thing I thought was cool was seeing a lot of Alabasta stuff but not Vivi directly. V cool. Not like these breakout stories anchored around the three ladies are exclusive; Stussy had that great beat introducing her inner conflict during Bonney's and Bonney was incidentally involved in the stuff @ Mariejois. Before we get to our main man here too I'd highlight Shakky potentially carrying over that idea from Nojiko & Miss Goldenweek last week. Practical, grounded women aren't paying much attention and going about their day-to-day.
But then you got Rayleigh. Love this little line of conflict between Vegapunk and Ray. Because like we hinted at last week on a meta level this is kinda fucked up for VP to be just dumping all the Void Century stuff. Or it would be if he wasn't walking that fine line of not really revealing too much. Notice how he's kinda back to talking about his own stuff over the past few months as York puzzles it out. We can forgive Ray for not catching the subtleties though because he's drunk. I like this balance honestly, especially when you have Crocus kinda straddling the two.
One last thought too that just can kinda go anywhere with this message...Robin still has like, four regular Poneglyphs we've seen but not really fleshed out. The other two in Big Mom's stash, the one above the secret passage in the Flower Capitol, and the one Law found on Onigashima. She might already know something important Vega doesn't and her being mysteriously injured last night is a great excuse for not giving them time to touch on it.
Honestly it was hard to know where to start so let's start with Silly Boy and his silly face interacting with Robonosuke. Yes of course I'm going to keep calling him that but don't worry, we'll get to the actual heavy Wano callbacks later. This is a weird chapter...because it feels like we're hurtling swiftly towards an ending to Egghead now. Our giant robot friendo is a big part of that.
As we're blasting off the big robo seems to be gearing up for a huge attack. Maybe a self-destruction. A concept echoed nowhere else in this chapter and certainly not anywhere recently. But you do have this moment that reminds me of Zunisha. Luffy hearing what is likely the Voice of All Things emanating from Robonosuke. Dude is finally ready to rock and roll, looks like it'll time out well with the final notes of the broadcast. You'll see this theme pop up again here, I really want to see the next note before I think too heavily about that but we'll have a lot more to talk about that through the lens of...
Atlas pulls a move we've seen out of other Vegapunks before and seems set to become yet another casualty of this arc. I don't care too much about that for this review, not because I don't like it but because of what Atlas does first. Slamming Lilith into the deck and turning off some kind of tracking device York was using. Which...type of thing that would have been nice to come up at some point earlier but I'll give at least a chapter or two to see if there's like, a reason they didn't do that earlier.
It's obviously Lilith I care about. We could move very quickly out of here into the next arc. Like, you could literally do it in one chapter. Robonosuke go boom cutting off Vegpaunk from giving too much of a reveal, Coup de Burst off into the sunset, cue the newspapers. Lilith is hanging around for whatever reason as a tie to the next. Lilith even can relatively quickly become an off-ramp for what I've seen winding out of Wano through Vivi, Bonney, & Stussy this arc. She was a first impression of the arc too, even had some little quirks with that building off of Kiku last arc who did the same with Pudding who did the same with Rebecca. Speaking of though, pay attention to the title.
Two problems. One that leaves a lot untied. Like, much more than Wano. I suppose you could fill in a bunch of stuff after the exit about Lilith, but the reason that idea ever worked at all for Kiku was because of her personality. Stussy's someone who can believably pull that too, we even just saw her do something like that with her talking to Kaku. Lilith is like, the opposite of mysterious. There was nothing like a mini arc introducing you as cryptic and guarded or juggling loyalties all Egghead. York was the one who played really well into that aspect of things. Lilith is even after Atlas right here giving you the self-sacrifice and how about that light/dark framing with the different expressions up there!
Two, as it stands now there's still no real "point" to the story. This is all literally happening while Vegapunk Prime dumps everything he knows about the big lore, of course he isn't going to get too close because that's Robin's story. So I doubt Lilith has some extra info to add. And of course...a lot of things have flared up for a couple of chapters and faded as quickly as they did. I don't think we're too far from the end, but I still have that feeling this is a little misleading. There was one last aspect of this chapter that makes me wonder about just a little more getting us there:
It's the combination of Clover's denial of his name to survive as well as this late-game Punk Hazard flashback. It all feels so, so Kaido all of a sudden. Maybe it helps or hurts that I'm watching through dub Wano's end with sweetie but this scene feels like such a blend of Kaido, King, & Momonosuke right now. Which is a really weird discordant note. And one that casts that shadow over Vegapunk again.
That's actually the big thing to me. The broadcast has crackled but now its coming to an end. Watch the next few chapters closely. Egghead could end in the next chapter or two, but I wouldn't be shocked if it had another volume in it to get a little weird.
No I will not go one step further until we address this. Gnawing a tree down into a big baseball bat is one thing, I can understand that. The hair aviator goggles were pretty believable. Did...did this mofo just conjure paint and a batter's helmet? This is seriously the strangest G5 bit by far and that's saying something when we also had:
Getting the cuffs smacked off is my favorite touch. The baseball gag though, it's so funny and I love it but it really does feel like a new level of cartoon silliness. Trivia time! Where else have we seen a baseball theme? Baroque Works, Mr. 4 & Mr. 9. And I can't help but notice the more cartoon art style is leaking. The demon Gorosei are evil looking but it's still a very flowy family of designs. The giants do too, lighter and sillier. Even get some weird stuff like an almost Dutch Angle shot as they're running away. Noticed last night the anime is getting in on this too. It slowly escalated throughout manga Egghead, so if we're doing stuff like introducing sparkly transitions now I'm curious what Toei does with this leg of the arc.
For all that weirdness around the main scene though I don't want to miss this. Because it was subtle but if you've been following along you'll probably recognize the core thread. Jinbei arrives, Zoro has won but is wasting time because Lucci stayed on his feet. So Jinbei smacks the shit out of him. It's hilarious but he knocks Lucci right to someone he can report to. We saw this type of thing in the Onigashima Raid. It was nice to let Jinbei have his time to shine early in the arc and he was solid for going to grab Zoro...but it's kinda like Nami and Luffy. You can't quite reign him in. Think like Usopp making shoddy repairs until we got a proper Shipwright.
That's the type of thing I see as justifying the final role of a Quartermaster regardless of who it may be. It rings hard when it's Jinbei coming up short. But he is just the Helmsman. Like the other adults his arc should be lightening up. One of those big reasons Kiku at least works as a template is because there's someone who'd make sense to find freedom in being more of a fussy tightass.
Oh huh? Never mind all that...Robonosuke. This dude is huge! Like, my goodness I knew he was big but this mecha monstrosity looks primed to wreck shit. Good cliffhanger. Ready to see what he does. Sad we're going to have to wait a bit but I've gotten used to it.
All this though, it leaves us in familiar territory for Egghead. Feels like we just escalated again while still not changing the core issues. The Straw Hats are roped into stuff that doesn't concern them, they're taking their eyes off the ball, being a little too loose and carefree is causing all this to spiral. Definitely have to prepare ourselves for the real possibility we come back and launch into another cutaway segment. But we'll have a few weeks to chat about that sort of thing.
Obvious focus this time is seemingly the end of the broadcast. Maybe there's a coda, maybe it's done here. This was a weird chapter and potentially the hardest one in Egghead to write about. Bring honest, it's a common complaint these days but this was the first time I felt it was just spinning its wheels a bit. I'm also really confused. I think it'll flow better reading as part of a binge later but parts of this feels like they may have worked better before stuff last week.
Otherwise...Vegapunk's climax. It's a perfect microcosm of how I feel about this segment. It's kinda like how "Roger Laughed" told us about the One Piece without telling us about the One Piece. A big theme here, part of what Wano and Egghead share, is setting the stage for the finale. We've used the phrase separating the wheat from the chaff. I've made the comparison to how Wano acts like a lot of school play arcs in slice of life anime, that little bit of distance allowing you to narrow down on what's really important. Tie off your loose ends that don't need to be here anymore. This chapter really does that.
Heh, I love this joke with the reactions. Skypiea has continued to grow over time. It makes sense serving as somewhat of an overture to this main thrust of the series. They have nothing to fear from sea level rise but their plight was very much the results of that. Nice to see Conis again. But we have a more important reaction.
Hey Marco! You can call it a reach if you want but I think this one is a little sneakier than some of the fluff reactions. Part of doing this is nudging you what some of these characters are doing. Marco alone here does tell us one thing, Bakkin seems to have moved along. It's also kinda interesting he's lumped in with this more functional scene. A lot of them have just been seeing a character listening, Marco is used more as a tie to the content and it's here with Pudding who is also one of the oddballs at the periphery of this arc.
I still wonder about these two. So their placement here together is intriguing. We could just be checking them off the list, we could be nudging they still have threads in this arc. It's tricky right? The line between reactions to this broadcast and scenes we're seeing around it.
...Cmon Robonosuke. *Nudges with stick.*
This robot's a trip. Really felt like he was about to do something cool. Maybe we get it next time but it's weird how this was such a non entity. Let me put it this way. I with these two chapters would have just done a full split on the two levels the main cast has coalesced around. It almost does that. But it doesn't.
Special note for the title too...very cool it uses part of Roger's classic speech. The destiny of an age. All in all it does frame this message in an interesting way. It's good for pulling back on the image of Luffy as a unique chosen one, same with Bonney learning to mimic his ability. I love the big splash with the main players at the end. Now can we please get to the fireworks factory and draw out a clearer point to all this?
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Never Mind the Bollocks, This One's About the Robot
Does...does Bonney just make everything a named attack? You can guess from the title what we'll be focusing on the most here from Chapter 1092. I could start by pointing out a lot of things as this quiet thread weaves ever more and more into the foreground. Seeing more of a known scene through Akainu/Bonney. Kizaru and his forlorn attitude towards duty demanding the elimination of those he has a bond with. Here's one that'll waggle your eyes, isn't Kuma right now quite reminiscent of Cindry?
At this point, we've seen enough to know at least one thing is true. One of One Piece's little tricks is every arc has a thread that's more about setting up the next. Okiku is Wano's. You know what I say; the conspicuous absence from the Ryokugyu fight and ending on Rakugo Rocky's unreliable narration after the type of story we told with her opens the door to more than that. But forget about that...Robonosuke.
So that was the original pitch right? We didn't see closure on Kiku and a lot of things because she is still on the ship this whole time and has been quietly coordinating with the Grand Fleet, a sensible niche for a new quartermaster. One it's not time to write off yet, a lot of things could still happen. The ship getting tossed is a good chance to play with that. We did lose our stated plan which was a necessary step, and I'll remind you now how easily that came about very recently. Vegaforce-01 went down. But something else happened. Luckily, we have a spare though I don't think this one can fly. This...this is where we now have to heavily consider another idea. One we've poked at before.
This shouldn't be too hard of a thread to follow. We've already raised the idea that we've seen Egghead Island before. It has the right placement to have been where Oden met Toki, which would be pre-lab. Let's assume that's true for a moment. Why was Toki there in the first place? According to Vegapunk, that robot has been here for 200 years since its assault on Mariejois. It isn't crazy to think that's why VP wanted to set up his lab here, but that was post-Toki.
One of the most consistent thoughts we've always had about Okiku's peculiarities is how well they could go hand-in-hand with the potential her actual idol was the 800-year-old woman. Toki was a huge card to put on the table and never really utilize, even moreso when you have a cryptic but major new face in the present who can carry on a separate will and keeps hanging out in the background doing a whole lot of typical "new recruit" type things.
We certainly imply Robonosuke here awoke due to the drums of liberation...but that doesn't jive. This is the third time Luffy's gone G5. At least second if you don't count the quick bit with Bonney. Egghead just did the misleading stinger. We've already floated the idea that maybe instead of the ship our newbie who quietly slipped away has been solo questing on an island that could have tangential personal significance. Putting us back at another moment where you could actually pull the trigger very easily from here, assuming you deal with a couple of logistical problems. The plan to fly away being so spur of the moment and instantly dashed works better with "oh yeah, we forgot..." at least. Remember the cloud cover skipping over the night gives us for justifying almost anything.
What if Luffy had the right idea with Robonosuke? You just needed to know his name. That relationship with Toki would make Kiku one of the absolute best candidates to believably know exactly what she found and how to use it. A scrap heap sounds like the exact right place thematically for her to do so.
Weird thing about factoring in Toki is that she could really pop up a lot of places in history. We don't really know much about her past, she took to the life of a Daimyo's wife quite well. There's also the idea Oden's journal is our main source about her. Toki just flat-out could have been a part of why Robonosuke ended up on this island or any number of things.
Bahahahahaha look at the snail getting up! No matter how deep and heavy this story gets at times sometimes it's really that simple. You know that feeling when you see something so eye-catching and it just takes you away? Almost like stars in your eyes? This lil guy doing his best is that for me. And I felt it needed acknowledgement. No other reason.
So the broadcast is back! People who got really hot about apparent sudden turns in the last chapter have a bit of egg on their face this one. We flow back into our current bestie, pulling a very Wano trick yet again of a double meaning in the chapter title. A lot of people get the connection in the title to the Golem of Jewish folklore. But "Emeth" literally means truth, faithfulness as well. Our concept in the little lead-in text "Words that shroud the truth" for our return to...
Here we are, getting back to Stussy. And it seems to be the case that we skipped over the heart of her conversation with Kaku. Last we left off was this notion of her conflicted, wanting to be faithful to both. It's so interesting to use Kaku this way, not for a similar name or the odd through line of giraffes but because we know he was here once before too. He was the one who had some earnest love for his role as a Galley-La shipwright. Is he thinking about Paulie and Lulu and Tilestone? Wishing he could have done the same, enjoy that humble role and honest job forever?
Regardless, broadcast is back and that means Stussy's Gay Pop Summer continues. I got that from a comment on the Chappell Roan clip and well, it's just perfect. This is essentially the same type of bit I saw so heavily in Kiku, very similar to the End of Act 1 example actually, which means it could end up meaning anything. Stussy is both someone who could be our window into what happened last night as well as the subject of it, you know? Like the other two I wanna give room for the idea one of these cutaway ladies is just setting herself up and this right here opened up a lot for Stussy. Girl's really working her way into the very tippy top of the blorbo rankings in her own right with these past few chapters too.
And of course, when we get back to all of this with the Elbaf ship it moves on pretty swiftly. Apparently now there's also some mystery holdup above. Bonney ran out of steam almost immediately and it's even highlighted how it was an illusion of the Age-Age Fruit. I quite like smacking Luffy in the back, especially with the bit about Sanji & Franky doing it without a second thought. Don't forget Bonney's been a rather successful captain in her own right.
All in all, feels like this little side-segment has done what it needs to. Especially since our return to regularly scheduled programming also includes...
Big robot. No one is excited for this. How silly. Look at my entirely flat affect...
Seriously, how fun! Rock Em Sock Em Robonosuke! First off if he's back and the broadcast is still going then yeah that means the idea this ends up in the broadcast being hijacked is back in play. But we do now know for sure there's no ambiguity with the robot reacting to the Nika heartbeat and having this explicit connection to Joyboy. Still think it's interesting we're playing with the split between the two and of course, if it's from the Void Century you always have to wonder about the potential of further info passed on through Toki in some fashion.
All in all, definitely has me feeling good about reading the last little bit as a "crackle" in the story we're still telling. Boo to break week, but they're necessary. Curious to see what's up next when we come back.
