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

Big Mom VS Marco is going to look stunning in colour with the red and blue flames cascading away from each other. Even though it’s a short clash, you’re doing something right if you’ve managed to invoke the end of ATLA.

We’re at a weird stage of this battle where some characters seem to be getting long-awaited 1v1 matchups while others seem a millions miles away. Like, now that Carrot and Perospero are in the same place it would be a disaster not to take that though to its conclusion. Natch with Usopp and Nami and Page One and Ulti following their interactions later in the chapter. But most of the rest of the crew aren’t interacting with any enemies in a meaningful way. I wonder if Oda’s going to buck his usual structure of setting up the big matches all at once then playing them out simultaneously, and instead had fights start and finish as they do, barely overlapping if they do at all.

Either way, Carrot and Wanda slashing Pero’s face was deeply cathartic, and their Sulong forms look sick.

Big Mom implying some resource management to her power is interesting. I wonder if that’s Oda setting up something to be exploited to beat her. Zeus and Prometheus are also worth keeping an eye on, now that they’ve both gone X-eyed – Zeus following Brook’s attack, Prometheus following Marco’s. Big Mom seems to need both of the to fly in this state, rather than just one, so there might be other limits, like not being able to attack with them either. Will they recover with time like a KO’d human fighter, or will it take some stolen souls to recharge them? And what does it take to kill a homie anyway? Kingbaum was able to keep functioning through an absurd about of damage, and he didn’t even have Big Mom’s own soul inside, so her ones must have insane endurance.

I can’t picture Zoro staying in to fight Apoo much longer. He’ll move on to something more important soon. Oda’s setting up some personal beef between Apoo and Drake which could support a dedicated fight scene, as much as I’d love to see Brook be the one to take him on, for obvious reasons.

Queen seeming to have a personal connection to Judge is a plot thread to keep an eye on, especially if Oda goes with the usual monster-trio-vs-top-lieutenants setup and he starts fighting Sanji.

I love Brook turning out to be invincible in the virus situation. He was the clear MPV of Tottoland, so it’d be great to see this immunity position him for another clutch play here. Chopper has never been the best-utilised Strawhat, so hopefully putting him on a virus timer motivates a much-needed spotlight moment.

Usopp/Nami and Page One/Ulti is a great fight pairing that I hope gets carried through to its conclusion. As the two “normal people” surrounded by superhumans, the interactions between Usopp and Nami in dangerous situations make for one of my favourite dynamics within the crew. My reading of the start of the scene is that Ulti could have escaped the Green Star Devil on her own but loves that Pay Pay jumped in to help her, which is a fun interaction for the dinosaur siblings to set up the duo battle. Props to Usopp for holding his ground after Nami went down and the odds were against him. Even as recently as Dressrosa we’ve seen him backslide into cowardice in similar circumstances (headcanons about Robin-related memory loss erasing his Water Seven character growth notwithstanding) so his bravery deserves commendation here. It’s great to see Nami really getting into a fight and taking some genuine damage as well. Her declaration for Luffy wouldn’t have hit the same if we couldn’t see how real the stakes were for her. Excellent character moment.

And it’s that moment that has me believing this is the matchup for Usopp and Nami in this battle. After a line like that, Nami at least has to stay in and finish things to back her words up! That’s just how shonen storytelling works!

The arrival of Tama and Komachiyo is unexpected, at least timing wise. There was never any doubt they would have some role to play in Wano’s finale. Unlike some I’ve seen, I don’t see any reason to fear the worst of their arrival. They aren’t taking over the fight or anything like that. They’re a diversion to get Nami and Usopp out of a tight spot so they can regroup and come back stronger, then Tama moves on to her real role in the battle, which is presumably helping out with the Gifter hoards and probably eventually transporting something or someone important in Komachiyo to keep them safe. I’m not inclined to believe Tama’s ability would work on real zoans, it’s probably only the smiles. And for all the talk of how dark it is that she has a “mind control” ability, I would say the darkness goes to Kaido and Caesar and the smile fruits as a whole. It’s not just that they have low odds of success and unpredictable animal spawns, they also alter the user enough that other fruits categorise them as animals.

But that’s just my feeling for where these events are leading, and Oda is nothing if not unpredictable.

Looking forward to the end of the week and whatever’s coming next. I was hoping Oda wouldn’t take all the way to 1,000 to get Luffy on the roof, but it seems to be going that way at this point.