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

Another fantastic chapter. Oda’s killing it well into his second Onigashima volume, and there’s no reason to think this hot streak won’t continue.

This cover story has to be going somewhere, right? The huge and extremely aggressive Navy presence might be an indication of the post-Reverie climate. Bege reached the Redline while the Reverie was in progress, but given that it lasts a week (and Zou was a week’s sail from Dressrosa when Luffy’s group arrived there, and Tottoland a few days away from that, it’s likely that he showed up for the tail and of it, not the start. Maybe his cover story is leading into a reveal of the SSG’s big Warlord-replacement weapon, and the Firetank family’s fate is going to left uncertain as the World Government begins its endgame purge.

Luffy uses the right pronouns for Yamato because he’s a good person. I know that technically he would be using neutral pronouns most accurately translated as “this guy” or “this person” in the Japanese, but as a translation choice it definitely captures Luffy’s attitude and the way everyone else including Yamato himself as spoken about Yamato. There’s a few people who could stand to pay attention to what our captain is doing here.

Apparently all the Tobi Roppo are dinosaurs. That’s good speculation fodder, and I look forward to seeing what kinds of guesses people come up with. Although, it wouldn’t shock me if Oda just means “prehistoric” and there’s a mix of big flying and swimming reptiles that aren’t technically dinosaurs in there as well.

Franky doesn’t get enough love. He and Brook are so easily forgotten but so often come in clutch with arc-saving moves. With this declaration, I don’t think there can be any doubt that we’re toppling Emperors this arc. The crew are ready for this, not individually, but as a unified force. They were big fish in a small pond for a long time, no matter how hard the narrative worked to play them as the underdogs, but now they’re fighting for real in their own weight class.

And then we have the Numbers! Finally, some designs that live up to the silhouettes from the last act a little better. I don’t know if I would have called them Oars-sized compared to normal giants just from the art, but we all know Oda likes to play with scale, so it’s good he had Franky and Nami confirm it.

And then Big Mom drops some lore. Wow, so the World Government was trying to recreate Ancient Giants on Punk Hazard and Kaido’s crew has ties to those experiments. I made a post a couple of years ago talking about this kind of thing (and a whole lot of other wild conjecture) before we even knew they were called Ancient Giants. I’m far from the only person to guess it, but it still feels pretty validating.

My prediction for Kaido’s backstory remains that he was a lab experiment, and probably the most successful among them despite lacking the size he was supposed to have, and he was rescued and taken in by Rocks. Maybe this happened with all the Numbers, maybe he went back for them later, but that’s the bones of the story. This is one of the most exciting mysteries to be coming up on an answer to in my opinion, because I’m pretty sure we’re going to find that the Ancient Giants are significant for more than just their size and strength. They would need to wear a pretty large size of hat, that’s for certain…

The second half of this chapter has some really weird passage of time from the moment Franky shoots Jaki onward. I think Oda was trying to show that a lot of things happened all at once, but the result is that the Number seems to fall in slow motion. On page 7 he’s shot, bottom of page 13 he seems to be falling backward, to land in the middle of General Franky’s transformation on page 14. Which is especially weird given that Franky has time to set around thanking Jinbe and Robin for their help on page 10. He should be already rushing over to meet the Brachio Tank if he wants to start transforming before Jaki hits the floor. It really all does not line up, which is an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise fantastic chapter.

I did enjoy Jinbe and Robin teaming up on Big Mom. I hope this is how the fight with her goes forward, with all kinds of Straw Hat combos. The same method was incredibly satisfying to watch back in Tottoland too. Remeber, the crew isn’t stronger than Big Mom and they’re probably not going to be, given that she’s a natural monster. What they can be is smarter, more skillful and more versatile. There’s a strange fixation in this fanbase on who’s the strongest fighter as opposed to who’s the best fighter. Lucky Oda knows which one is more important.

Oh, another structurally odd moment. Why have Queen stop Luffy and Zoro and then have King arrive to block the skies? Him and his flying Gifters are kinda superfluous as far as tension goes, with Luffy already pretty effectively blocked. Wouldn’t it have been better for the flyers to block Luffy and Zoro first, then have Queen use his long neck to dunk them back to the floor out of nowhere as they get pushed back or prepare to fight? A small niggle, but it does stand out.

And shouldn’t Kaido be feeling a little inferior at the moment? After all, he’s only got a Flying Six, and we haven’t seen a single one of them fly yet. But King swoops in with a whole Flying Nine and they don’t even need to justify themselves with several chapters of built up! In all seriousness, while Stephen’s missed a few marks in terms of names this arc, I think going with Tobi Roppo is one that has worked out pretty well. While Tobi Roppo doesn’t mean too much to me, a non-Japanese speaker, the Flying Six alternative feels like an increasingly poor descriptor.

Finally, the money shot. Been waiting a long time for this one and it does not disappoint! Having it happen in the middle of a battle feels very… well…

I can hear the theme music already.

We’re about half way through volume 98 now, so I imagine this is the point where the story zeroes in on the Straw Hats fighting, with maybe little cutaways to allies like Law, Kid and Hyo elsewhere in the dome. I’m expecting a big focus on team-ups and coordinated attacks as they fight Big Mom, Queen, King and the Numbers. And they’re going to win these fights too, taking at least the rest of this volume to do so. This big reunion, like the one at Fishman Island, has to lead into a skills showcase. Things aren’t going to get really desperate until the crew has a bit of a wining streak going and we cut back to see how the Scabbards are doing with Kaido on the roof, only to find devastation.

That’s my guess anyway. I’m glad I’ve got a busy week ahead to make the time go fast between now and the next chapter!