This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

Chiffon wanting to find Lola is a pretty logical for her as a character, but Lola was last seen heading the opposite way down the Grand Line, right? Going past Water Seven? So yeah, I don’t think that’s going to work out and the real plot of this cover story will jump us in the coming weeks (and then immediately be interrupted by another Stampede colour spread for the movie’s release).

Kid rebuilding his arm is one of my favourite panels of recent weeks from a purely artistic standpoint. There’s so much goddamn detail I love it.

The Momo spread sets the stage for the young man taking the throne at the end of the arc pretty well, but to be honest King Riku got the same panel 20 volumes ago and I liked his version better. It’s a little disappointing that after all the teasing Kawamatsu can’t stick around any longer. I hope he transitions into Zoro’s plot thread quickly.

The flashback sequence was a good and incredibly necessary one. It’s realistic to show the weight of the last 20 years bearing down on the country, and how some absolutely would lose faith because of that. I think it puts the end of Zou into perspective as well: after 20 years of that kind of pressure and uncertainty, when proof that the prophecy would come true did appear its no wonder they were willing to hold to the last man to defend it.

The official explanation for Sunachi is surprisingly clever. I doubt it actually lines up with the Japanese version the same way, but it’s great that it could be made to run so smoothly in English.

I’m looking forward to the lines about why it took 20 years to be used as theory fodder. We’re being set up to believe Toki specifically chose this time period for a reason. Could she see the future? Or does she know something about a weakness of kaido or Orochi that only comes up however many years?

I think I saw some people upset Zoro got to take out so many ninjas all by his lonesome. Well, that’s what they get for jumping him together like that. This is Japanese territory – the Inverse Ninja Law is in full effect!

Aaand Law is the captive. Right when everyone was expecting it to be a weaker Straw Hat, Oda was like “ha, you think I’d give Law a break from his suffering?”

My current pet theory about Drake acting strange is that the camouflage tech in Sanji’s raid suit is also capable of illusions and he’s used that to go undercover as Drake. Doing that Mr Prince thing for the first time in a long time.

Fun chapter overall, hard to say what could be focussed on next week with so many different subplots thrown up in the air on it. I’m hoping for more Law though.