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

I was hoping we’d get the full colours for the volume 95 cover with this chapter, but ah well, next week for sure.

I’m not shocked Oda chose to gloss over the bulk of Oden and Toki’s romance. Nothing we’ve seen so far suggests it’s the kind of thing he’d be good at writing, and while Oden is an interesting figure, he doesn’t have the depth of a romantic lead, and Toki isn’t much of a character at all.

Blackbeard’s cameo was an interesting nod, but really doesn’t give us much to go on. It’s mostly interesting in the context of the One Piece magazine reveals of the Marshall family mother and sisters. You would think if they were going to be part of the final canon this would be the time to leave some hint about them. Surprising that he joined so young though. From all his talk about hiding out in the crew biding his time for the right devil fruit, I would have guessed Blackbeard had joined as a calculated move later in life.

The old witch with the Clone Clone is the biggest enigma of the week. Who is she? How does she know all this? When did she get the chance to steal all these faces without the owners realising? The Clone Clone changing hands means she’s already dead, so Oda’s going to have a hard time explaining her whole deal if he can’t find a chance to do it within a flashback that’s already carrying a ton of weighty plot threads.

And then there’s the Roger pirates, making the big last page reveal for the second week in a row. He doesn’t look so sick to me! Young shanks with his piled up hats is pretty cute though.

Solid chapter overall, but nothing huge. Glad we’re getting one more in before the end of year breaks kick off. It’s going to be rough having those in the middle of a flashback.