#st killingham

Cuz he be killing that ham.

Hehehehe....

If you want to read the summary points from my review of all three of these chapters, you can find them here.

Ok, onto chapter 1139! Mountain-Eater

We cut back to the Romance Dawn trio and Rodo, who are still in the castle looking for the key to free Loki. Rodo helpfully reminds us that “freeing Loki would be a terrible crime,” one that the Strawhats will probably get in a lot of trouble for soon, and that probably only Jarul knows where the key actually is. This last part, again, seems kind of interesting given how shifty we saw Jarul being about the whole Harald-death-sword-through-the-head thing as the only survivor apart from Loki. 

Meanwhile, Zoro’s still stressed out about Luffy’s promise and carefree-ness and is trying to keep him in check. And to be honest, I get it. They barely made it off Egghead, they’re in a country of super strong warriors, and they’ve heard nothing but terrible things about this Loki dude. It really isn’t the time for Luffy to be rushing into things impulsively because someone mentioned Shanks. But on the other hand, Zoro should know that Luffy’s going to do his thing and he can’t stop him. And besides, when has Luffy been truly wrong about someone? 

They get to the throne room and see it’s really messed up by the battle of Harald’s death. There are even three huge gouges on the wall that look like gigantic claw marks, which I know people have theorised might be from Loki’s devil fruit form. They spot the magic circle on the ground, with Nami remembering reading about demon summoning in another country (Brook’s visit to Harahettania comes to mind as what she’s probably referring to). In terms of what this tells us, it feels like a pretty pointed indication that this circle is also used to summon or move ‘demons,’ i.e. Imu’s direct soldiers in the form of the Five Elders and the Holy Knights. As we know in One Piece, people are often gods and demons – it’s something that comes up again and again – and those at the top of the world right now are no different. Luffy thinks hard about where he’s seen this before and can’t remember (goddamnit Sanji would remember perfectly, hence why he’s not here). But before they can keep pondering, we hear a voice from someone saying they’ve been hoping to meet Luffy. 

At this point, I screamed because it was Gaban (yes we don’t get his name straight away but I mean, the hair and the glasses) and I love to be right. We learn he’s called Sir Ya and he’s a former pirate, and he explains he felt some “very abnormal haki” coming from the castle earlier. This makes me think that the magic circle uses haki, which would explain the black lightning effect when it’s being used. I wasn’t sure how much to read into that because Oda’s not even that clear with it when it’s used for conqueror’s haki, but I think it makes sense. We know the main ‘magic’ systems in One Piece are devil fruits and haki, and I don’t think Oda’s going to introduce actual magic or a third new system at this point (in fact I think he said something about never wanting to introduce magic, at some point). 

To me this seems to be something that goes beyond a normal devil fruit, so either it’s some kind of godly devil fruit (like Luffy’s) that Imu uses and has expanded to an incredible degree, or it’s haki and we’re actually going to learn a lot more about what haki actually is, including a huge range of ‘technological’ uses of it that have been forgotten since the Void Century. I’m definitely leaning heavily towards the latter, because given Imu’s power, I don’t think they would limit themself to the use of just a devil fruit. I think they have incredible knowledge and technology in their possession, which they’ve used to infuse themselves with power, and that they can share with the people serving them. It’s probably something like will and life force so strong that it can actually stop someone from aging, as we saw with Saturn, but when removed from the ‘host body’ will remove all its effects and leave their body as old as it's supposed to be. The fact that the Elders didn’t seem worried about the sea in Egghead, and that they could be sent back to Marie Geoise by being overpowered by even stronger haki, supports this for me. 

Of course, he could just mean that Shamrock has a very strong presence and he noticed that upon his arrival in Elbaph. Regardless, I still think haki technology is going to be very important soon, and the magic circles are an example of it. 

Gaban explains that he’s Ripley’s husband and Collun’s father, confirming that he is Collun’s biological parent at the same time. I’d say I’m surprised, but this is One Piece we’re talking about. Before we can think too much about that, he goes on to say “love is free!” and calls himself “the preacher of love,” explaining that there have been many mixed races across history. I’m firstly interested in the declaration that “love is free,” because there are many layers in that one simple phrase. Love is, of course, materially free – you can’t buy it. But love is also free in the sense that it is boundless, abundant, and doesn’t follow rules or restrictions. And what is One Piece literally all about? Freedom. 

Our main character himself is an embodiment of freedom, and the way in which he expresses and shares that freedom is through caring about other people. Luffy is so free because he has so much to share, because he loves people and connecting with people, because he refuses to follow the rules of what society and the world are supposed to be like. Gaban is, on the surface, talking about love in the sense of partnership and intimacy because that’s his personal connection to the concept, but the man’s been to Laugh Tale. He understands the importance of freedom, and that’s why what he’s saying about love isn’t just some hippie preaching. He knows what it means materially, for the world. In fact, him talking specifically about mixed races tells us exactly that. That throughout history people defied the social order and loved who they wanted to love, and defined freedom for themselves that way. 

I’m very curious about his comment that those “blended people” didn’t tend to last long, too. Is that because of other people’s prejudice? Was the World Government against it because they feared people uniting beyond racial differences? I think it’s probably a mix of those two things, but this is coming up as a big theme in this arc, so we should keep an eye on it. His comment also goes against what Ripley said about there never being cultural exchange, because clearly there was, if certain people were living together and building mixed communities. 

He also says he loves “other people causing trouble” and that “secrets are born to be spread.” Again, what jumps to mind for me is the secret of the Void Century and everything the WG tries to suppress, and of course the idea of causing trouble and disrupting the status quo, which we know needs to happen for the world to reach a new dawn. Gaban, worried about this situation,  asks Luffy what his plan is if releasing Loki causes big problems. But Luffy is unbothered even when the old man tells him that only Shanks was able to stop the prince (presumably, even Gaban himself couldn’t despite being Roger’s left hand man, although maybe he just didn’t want to get involved or something). I wonder whether Loki has very advanced observation haki and future sight, meaning that equally good skills (and maybe even observation killing haki) are required to defeat him. 

Seeing Luffy with Nami and Zoro leads to Gaban flashing back to butting heads with Roger over the captain being reckless and childish, adding yet another mark to the tally of people being reminded of the pirate king when they meet Luffy. While he was reluctant to help at first, this convinces him to get Rodo to uncover the treasure room. We cut to the feast in the village, where the other giants are talking about Scopper’s strength, calling him “the pirate king’s left arm.” Side note, I love that Jinbe is actually fully the crew’s wise uncle who actually knows things because he has so much experience. It’s even funnier because Brook is so much older but knows nothing whatsoever about the recent decades, so Jinbe’s functionally the oldest member of the crew. 

Meanwhile, Luffy and co enter the treasure room under the throne, with Gaban declaring that “exploring’s [his] thing.” I can’t help but compare him to Rayleigh, a depressed alcoholic who spends his time gambling and then in prison for gambling so that he can make more money to fuel his habit, while leaving his beautiful wife for months. That makes it sound like I hate Rayleigh – I actually love him very very dearly, it’s just funny to me that he’s one of the most powerful and legendary men in recent One Piece history, and that’s how he’s chosen to live his life (although Luffy did inject some life back into him). Gaban, in comparison, is having the best time – exploring, having adventures on Elbaph, living with his also beautiful wife, probably teaching his kid some moves. Good times. 

We then get a classic ‘test’ scenario in which Gaban challenges Luffy to take the key from him, ostensibly in order to gauge Luffy’s character, strength and abilities. I do enjoy these moments in stories. We end on the reveal/confirmation that this Mr Ya is indeed Scopper Gaban, the left hand of the pirate king.

Chapter 1140: Scopper Gaban

We start with Gaban teasing Luffy and co about getting the key from him, and successfully provoking our captain into fighting him. Zoro remembers Collun mentioning his dad being a strong pirate, before we immediately see the evidence of this. Gaban seems to have pretty advanced observation haki, since he’s able to dodge Luffy’s grabbing-gatling without much effort, and move fast enough to hit him too. 

In fact, he hits Luffy with the giant key imbued with armament haki, and the black lighting seems to imply he probably has conqueror’s haki and is able to imbue it into objects, as Luffy learned to do in Wano. We see him clearly testing Luffy not just in terms of strength and fighting ability, but riling him up in order to see how Luffy feels about Shanks, how he feels about Roger’s straw hat, and his general character. What feels especially important here is that he’s observing and looking at Luffy’s relationships and bonds – what moves him, what’s important to him. We see this when Zoro steps in to block Gaban’s big attack, and the old man thinks “he’s got a good crew.” And the final confirmation seems to come when Luffy shifts into Gear 5, and Gaban recognises the Nika form, “all in white.” 

Some aspects I find interesting here: Luffy still regresses into a kind of childish protectiveness and behaviour whenever Shanks is mentioned, despite his huge growth as a leader recently (especially in Wano). Part of this has been that Luffy has had to learn to think about other people and the consequences of his actions as a captain, but here we see him acting more selfishly again when it comes to Shanks. I don’t think this is inherently a bad thing, since the crew is strong and of course trusts him and his instincts. But I think there’s a process of equilibration happening here, with Luffy and his recently awakened devil fruit. We know that Zoan fruits have a will of their own, and that they can completely take over users if their will isn’t strong enough (like the guards in Impel Down). 

Considering how recently Luffy awakened the Nika aspects of his fruit, and how powerful this fruit is, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a bit of a tug-of-war going on internally for our dear captain, where the devil fruit’s will is influencing his own, and therefore influencing his behaviour. Again, since Luffy’s desire for freedom is in line with the devil fruit’s I don’t think this is a bad thing, but I do believe that it’s shifting him towards ‘freer’ decisions and behaviours, which includes freedom from responsibility. Gear 5 in general has seen him become more childlike and free, and it’s important to note he spent a lot of time in that form in Egghead. This is further supported by the fact that on Elbaph, his Gear 5 form has horns fused into his head, like an ancient giant. I’m not really sure why that is, but it could be because Luffy is becoming more integrated and melded with his devil fruit, which then naturally takes on aspects of the environment he’s in. 

Whatever the case, it’s clear that this arc and going forward are going to see Luffy needing to find a way to retain control over his devil fruit and gain mastery of Gear 5 so that it doesn’t take him over. This is going to throw up some very interesting challenges especially when it comes to this balance between responsibility as a captain and leadership figure (which he’s had to accept as a role even though he didn’t want it in Dressrosa), and how deeply he needs to maintain his freedom to be himself. 

Gaban then gives up the fight once he sees Luffy and Zoro get serious, before stopping Rodo from telling them who he is. It feels like he’s confirmed Luffy is who he’s been expecting (the new joyboy/holder of the Nika will), confirmed Luffy’s feelings about Shanks and the hat, and seen Luffy’s crew and their relationship. He knows they have important things to do, like freeing and dealing with Loki, so it isn’t yet the time for him to talk to them properly as a member of Roger’s crew. I’m also pretty sure he knows it isn’t freeing Loki in and of itself that’s a problem (he might even know the truth of what happened with Harald’s death), but that it needs to be done by someone who can actually befriend and get Loki on side, which could only be whoever holds the Nika fruit. 

He definitely has information about where they need to go next (there’s been some suggestion he might have been the navigator on Roger’s crew since he was the one who told Roger they’d located Laugh Tale), and I’m sure we will get that at the end of the arc. But of course, there’s going to be a lot of chaos first. We see him remember Shanks visiting and, in a very similar comment to Jinbe telling Ace he wouldn’t protect Luffy unless he actually liked him, implies he’ll make his own judgment of Luffy and whether he will help. And as he leaves the Romance Dawn trio, we see him smiling. 

We then cut to the Walrus School, where the children spot Gunko’s arrow-bird, and we see the two Holy Knights land somewhere nearby. She makes a “call” which essentially involves creating a magic circle that summons other Holy Knights. As a point of note, the way Oda draws the ‘shadows’ of the knights appearing in the circle, and previously the Elders too, is very similar to the kinds of shapes we saw when Saturn was getting the life sucked out of him by Imu. This makes me think that whatever this magic technology is, it’s the same thing as Imu’s powers, whether they come from Imu or Imu has just mastered them to the highest extent/has the most control over them. On top of that, we see that the circles can quite literally summon people directly without their knowledge, so presumably they work as portals that can be reached through to pull other Holy Knights through, or that people can ‘walk’ through by themselves. 

The two Holy Knights that appear are St Sommers, who we are also told is from Ju Peter’s family, and St Rimoshifu Killingham. Both are first presented, in classic Oda fashion, as being silly in their own way. Sommers because he’s in his underwear looking like an old stoner, thanks to Gunko’s summoning, and Killingham because he a) looks like a cute cartoon animal with rounded features and b) because he’s stressing about oversleeping like the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland (and me on a workday). Of course, knowing Oda, these motherfuckers are probably ridiculously strong, on top of being, well, deeply evil. The sillier or more plain the character design, the harder he’s going to hit you with their actual skills and behaviour later. 

I’m especially expecting Sommers to be extremely strong, given his outfit once he’s dressed, and the fact that he just looks like some guy (think of the admirals). We see that he has a tattoo of what looks like a circle with points, and a flame on the outer edge, and that his full outfit is covered in medals (probably from committing a lot of genocides). He has a rose theme going on, which we might see is linked to his devil fruit, and mentions that they’ve been working on the food situation in Marie Geoise (I’m very happy that the Revs are still holding it down). 

With Killingham, we get introduced to another name from the 20 original Celestial Dragon families – Rimoshifu. I haven’t seen anyone come up with a meaning for that name, so there might just not be one, but he’s clearly a Kirin Zoan fruit user in his hybrid form. His name is a pun on the word ‘kirin’ and he even has the awakened white cloud-scarf. Interestingly, he wears the bubble helmet of the Celestial Dragons – something that we haven’t seen any of the other Holy Knights wear, and seems to have some kind of sleeping problem. 

Kirin are a creature from ancient Chinese mythology which have been adopted into other east and southeast asian mythologies and cultures. They have features similar to Chinese dragons, usually with the body of a goat or deer and antlers as well as one or two horns (Killingham seems to have just one). Kirin also became associated with giraffes around the 15th century, when the Ming treasure voyages reached East Africa. They are generally seen as very powerful and auspicious, although it is said that their appearance heralds either the imminent arrival or death of a sage or great ruler. Knowing Oda’s love of including mythology, I’m sure he’ll incorporate this into the arc, but there are many options for what that could look like. Loki or Hajrudin are good options for rulers (even Luffy if we stretch the concept), while a sage could be Jarul, or even Gaban. 

Something else interesting to me is that both Sommers and Killingham are introduced as Saints, like other Celestial Dragons we’ve met so far, but this highlights even further to me that Shamrock and Gunko don’t use that title. It could just be inconsistency or a visual preference from Oda, but you never know. There could be something interesting going on, particularly since it seems heavily implied to me that Gunko may have been invited to join the Holy Knights but wasn’t born in Marie Geoise. 

Sommers and Killingham tell Shamrock he’s going back to Marie Geoise to help with the chaos that’s been occurring since the Reverie (I love to hear it), before asking why they’re in Elbaph. The next comment made my eyes zoom in, because Sommers casually asks “what were you doing in this unaffiliated country? paying a visit to Harald’s grave?” – yet more evidence that Harald was closely connected to the Holy Knights/the upper levels of the WG, and that he was absolutely part of their pacification strategy before his death. 

We then get more of their plan explained, which is pretty simple. Kidnap the children and take them back to Marie Geoise to incapacitate the Elbaph warriors. They complain that since only people with “the mark” can use the “abyss pentagrams,” they’ll have to physically sail back. This tells us more about the mechanics of the magic circles. Firstly, the magic involved, whatever is it, is called “abyss.” Secondly, it probably does come from Imu, who can enable other people to use it by giving them a “mark,” which is probably some infusion of their power in the form of a tattoo, in a similar way that the Five Elders’ demon forms seem to come from being infused with the abyss power. This probably also grants the Holy Knights some level of demonic power, with Shamrock’s sword Cerberus potentially being an example of that. 

Lastly, Shamrock says “with your powers, you can make it into a game!” which instantly reminds me of God Valley, and the twisted games of the Celestial Dragons. Hunting and kidnapping children? Let’s have fun! Of course, it’s unsurprising given who they are, but it does work well to remind us that these people are cruel and incredibly powerful bastards, no matter how silly they look, that they consider everyone else to be insects to trifle with, and also that there is a connection to the past that I’m sure Oda is going to reveal more about soon. We’ve already had many links pointing back to God Valley recently, with of course the reveal about Shanks and Shamrock, as well as the Figarland family being highlighted in general. And this is a section of the story in which I believe Oda is going to start telling us more about what the Celestial Dragons actually are, what Marie Geoise is like and how it’s structured, how they live and what happens there. So it would make sense that we will also return to God Valley, which we were told was a regular example of the kinds of things they do for sport, with the implication that the islands chosen aren’t random and that these events serve a purpose of genocide before literally disappearing the islands. 

I can’t wait to see what happens next, especially with Loki and Luffy probably freeing him! Hopefully I can do these a bit more regularly soon but let me know if you have any thoughts.