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

Here we are. Final chapter of triple digits. Next chapter, I find out of the filenaming scheme for my offline archive holds up to the new digit, or if I’ll have to go back and add an extra 0 in front of every previous chapter number.

The Jump cover is a nice tribute. I’m not reading a whole lot of other ongoing series at the minute, only Hero Aca and Dr Stone, so I don’t recognise most of the artists, but the variety of character choices is great. Only real letdown is Boichi choosing Ace, because come on man, we already know you can draw Ace. Give us something new!

First half of the combined colour spread looks great. It’s so detailed! Where’s the other half? It’s painful to have this come up with the Christmas break. Just painful.

Yamato’s flashback gives us some Onigashima layout weirdness. The jet of flame in the establishing shot would have you think they’re fighting at the entrance, but then on the next page they’re in the middle of the Performance Floor (which in this time period has no less than three bridges over the middle corridor that just aren’t there in the present), and then a page after that, Mihal is talking to Ace from the docks. The dragon gate that Yamato smashes also seems to be outside. At least with Mihal’s bit the double panel boarder indicates a jump forward in time after Ace notices Yamato’s handcuffs. Now that I’ve reread it a couple of times, it’s clear that the sequence of events is Ace and Yamato fought outside first, then reached a standstill in the Performance Floor, Yamato told him Kaido was gone and stood down, actually standing by to let Ace save the children (I don’t even want to know what Kaido wanted to use those kids for), and then Ace goes back and restarts his fight with Yamato after the ship was loaded up. It was hard to follow initially because despite the movements in time and location, the dialogue is written like it could be one unbroken conversation and the one actual signpost of a transition is subtle and easy to miss. This all could have been drawn a lot clearer, but it would have been hard to do so without adding more pages to it, which probably wouldn’t have been worth it over all.

The gate that initially held the dragon statue, like the bridges over the Performance Floor, also doesn’t seem to be there anymore. It should have been visible in the establishing shot in chapter 978, but it isn’t, so I guess Kaido tore the whole thing down when he gave up on the statue.

Ace forgetting Cavendish’s name when in what was meant to be Cavenwhatever’s prime, before the Worst Generation stole his spotlight, is a great little gag, and getting timelines for some of the other Supernovas hitting the seas is a nice little lore thing. Ace’s faith in Luffy is heartwarming as well. He was a good brother. I always forget how charming he was until he actually comes back onscreen.

It would have been nice to have these scenes mentioned or at least as hinted at in the Ace novels. Without them, the books already feel dated. And speaking of, I’ve seen people in different comment sections talking about this flashback and the one with Tama at the start of Wano “canonising” Ace’s crew from the novel, as if they were created purely for the book. That’s just not the case. Go back to chapter 552 and compare the people with Ace when he fought Jinbe to the sketches at the back of the novel. The manga art is pretty low-res, but there’s the right number of people and nearly half the crew is distinct enough to be recognised as themselves even from this distance.

Ace’s crew has always been canon. They just got a bit more room to breathe in the novel.

Going back to the present, and we can see that the storeroom Momo and Yamato are hiding in is actually inside the skull dome, just below the lower half of the Performance Floor, on a path branching off from the stairs that led up from the skull’s mouth.

Robin and Brook are going up through the castle, where one of them will presumably… sigh… save Sanji from his current predicament. I’m praying for a twist on the formula, but I’m not holding my breath.

We get another little Ace flashback in the middle of the chapter purely to explain why Whitebeard didn’t act against Kaido sooner. This is all stuff that could have been intuited from what we knew already – the slow movement of info to and from Wano meant the didn’t hear what had happened until after, and given the scale of both Whitebeard and Kaido’s crews, the collateral damage and loss of life isn’t worth a symbolic act of vengeance. (the fact that Kaido is about to colony drop a freaking island on a populated area just because he felt it would make a better capital for his empire and Whitebeard coming close to completely sinking Marineford back in the day make it clear the kind of mutually assured destruction two Emperors bringing their A-games would be in for). “But Whitebeard left the people of Wano to suffer as slaves!” Yeah, and he’s also left along the common-knowledge slave culture of Mariegeoise and the slave markets of Sabaody. He leaves Tottoland alone even though Big Mom’s lifespan tax is (despite being voluntary) ethically questionable at best. We’ve never heard about him going out of his way to topple the Doflamingos or Wapols of the world’s monarchies. One man can’t fix all the injustices of the world on his own, even one as powerful and idealised as Whitebeard.

I’m surprised this is as controversial of a reveal as it is’s proving to be. From not chasing Teach to his strategic back and forth with Sengoku at Marineford, Whitebeard has always been portrayed as pragmatic. He’s is a father to his men and fiercely protective of those he takes under his wing (a position Oden voluntarily left) but he’s also extremely aware of his place in the world and the potential consequences of his actions.

I agree that it would have been nice to see Whitebeard weighing these two sides of his personality a little more before coming to the decision he made, mulling over the contrast between his respect for Oden and the feeling of betrayal that Oden left him and his found family to chase knowledge and glory with Roger, but there would have been no way for Ace to be part of that conversation. Remember that Oden had been dead for more than a decade by the time Ace joined Whitebeard. Even though it took “several years” to find out he died, Whitebeard, Marco and Izo would still have had at least another several years to grieve and make their peace with it by the time of this flashback.

I dunno, I’m sympathetic to people who had a specific interpretation of the character they now feel has been betrayed, but I’m struggling to see it the same way. This makes sense with what we knew. It adds layers rather than creates contradictions. It strengthens the worldbuilding if even the strongest man in the world is forced to weight the cost and benefits of even his most unambiguously well-intentioned actions.

Getting back to the chapter, the spread of King and Queen transforming doesn’t give us much new for them art-wise, but I did really enjoy Queen’s ridiculous mouth-gun.

Yamato pulls out the journal, I deliberately haven’t been getting my hopes up for any long-term mysteries being resolved for chapter 1000. Just the start of the final battle would have been good enough. But between this and Law reflecting on it in the basement, do I dare hope for to learn what the D stands for in the next chapter?

Zeus and Prometheus are recharging themselves on the roof. Zeus drawing power from the storm clouds makes sense, but what is Prometheus eating there? I doubt Kaido would make extra flame clouds just for him, and whatever it is is drawn like an explosion that wasn’t there in any previous chapters.

Oh, and where are the bodies of the Scabbards? Weird that they haven’t been in any of these shots even though we last saw them spread out in front of Kaido.

Looks like the final battle really is going to be Big Mom and Kaido together. I can’t wait to see what it takes to get the alliance through it. While I thought the wording was a little clunky, having them declare their intent to get the One Piece together really drives home how high the stakes are right now. Between this and yesterday’s comment about Shanks making a move in the new year, it’s really starting to feel like the end is coming.

Kadio’s fruit being a Fish-Fish fruit is absolutely brilliant. Very Oda. I know I’m not the first to make a Gyarados comparison, but holy carp, he’s a Gyarados!