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

This week we finally get the overhead view of the Onigashima interior people have been asking for literally since the battle started. But what we’re shown here actually raises a few new questions.

At a glance, I wasn’t sure how to reconcile the view here with the mini maps shown during scene transitions previously.

But after a bit of looking and reviewing, I think I was actually reading the old maps a little wrong this whole time. There’s still issues with the old map, but I think with this we’ve got it figured out.

The areas in grey below, I initially assumed to be large interior zones of what is labelled “Right Brain Tower” in the narration, but they’re really just the walls of the dome. Solid rock, by the look of them. The only part that matters are the lines through each side, highlighted in red, which I now understand to be the long passages leading to the exterior that Franky fought Sasaki in and Big Mom chased Nami, Carrot and Shinobu down. They appear to have side rooms, but for the most part the Left and Right Brain structures are just straight lines.

But it still doesn’t totally make sense. To match up with what’s been shown in the actual manga, the minimap would need to be more oval-shaped. I played around with the warp tool in Photoshop and think I’ve tweaked it into something more accurate to the canon layout of the space, with a few main landmarks shown for complete clarity.

However, I made a post back in November (holy shit, we’ve been doing this for a while) looking at how consistently Oda tracked battle damage and character locations across the battlefield and it’s still spot on here. This map shows the tower Zoro cut down, the place Yamato’s handcuffs exploded and the path of Big Mom’s attack on the Performance Floor right where they should be. It’s also cool being able to spot the Pleasure Hall, the back entrance to the dome and the trench blasted by Kaido and Big Mom’s combined attack on the roof on the overhead shot of the island flying on the next page.

Getting to the actual content of the chapter, Raizo’s fight was a fun interlude in the early pages. Fukurokujo fighting with his earlobes and Raizo giving away his real self by talking are classic Oda gags. I can’t see it being a particularly long fight, however. The next time we cut back to here should be the last. It’s interesting too see that Ashura Doji’s body has snow falling over it. I was pretty sure he fell inside the dome. Maybe the fake Oden’s explosion blew a hole in the wall we didn’t get to see at the time.

Killer and Hawkins are both fairly periphery characters in the grand scheme of things. Neither of them are all that emotionally resonant (though Killer’s surprised me a few times this arc) and neither has the battlefield presence for it to be a point of tension if he’s defeated or not. That’s why it’s such a clever move on Oda’s part to have Hawkins connect himself to Kid. The stakes of the fight and its potential to force the characters into tough choices have just been raised tenfold.

King and Queen’s villain spread looks incredible. I feel like I’ve been saying a lot that I’m looking forward to the colour manga version of different scenes, but it just keeps being true. Sanji taking damage going up against both feels like a way to level his playing field with Zoro, who got the chance to face Kaido. I don’t think it has quite the same prestige, but it works for what it is.

Perospero is back outside, where he left Carrot and Wanda. I still think they’re going to get back and contribute to his defeat, especially with the island having already moved back into seemingly clearer skies.

So King’s special racial trait isn’t to do with the wings or anything he might be hiding under his gimpsuit, it’s making and controlling fire? What a novel and unique ability to naturally have access to without any help from devil fruits or technology…

I was tempted to include Doflamingo’s Overheat as well, but despite the name and being drawn with an inexplicable warm orange glow, the ability has never been been shown generating actual flames. I also omitted Zoro for the moment, given that he’s only shown the ability to cut fire, not to make it.

So either King’s race has a pretty underwhelming perk, or they genetically integrated into the wider population over time, losing the wings but distributing enough fire-making genetics that a minor version of the ability shows up regularly. Or it could be similar to how water manipulation would likely be seen as a Fishman/Merfolk benefit, but it can actually be learned by anyone willing to put the time in. (once again, I’m willing to bet the Minks’ electro could be taught the same the way)

But there’ll definitely be more about that in the future! Because we it seems that this fire race once lived on the Redline (unless the leading name of this Red Wall is a red herring), which presumably makes them and their history fairly important. The fact that they have wings is also very interesting. He’s doesn’t seem to be Skypiean, Birkan or Shandian, the three important races depicted in carvings on the moon, but this fourth winged race that he is must be related to them somehow, right? King’s race also differs from the other winged peoples of the world in that his wings are big enough to fly on. Are they a racial feature that’s just somehow less remarkable than the fire? Is he perhaps the last of an ancestor race to the clipped-wing modern Skypiea/Birkan/Shanians, the same way the Ancient Giant race that produced Oars, his descendants and (kinda) the Numbers is larger and more monstrous than modern giants?

I’m surprised by how clean Zoro looks with the bandages off. I guess we can only really see his back, but there’s no dried blood, no dirt, no wounds or anything. I’d kinda figured the Minks’ cureall would just re-energise him and let him fight despite the injuries, not vanish them entirely. Basically, he looks like nothing happened, when I wanted him to look like Nothing Happened.

I hope Oda’s willing to play with the 2v2 setup of this fight a little. Are King and Queen willing to give each other assists while Zoro and Sanji determinedly focus on their designated opponent? Or will we get another “ten seconds” scene where they team up and take the bigwigs down one at a time? Even just the chance for banter if they’re fighting side by side is appreciated.

Here’s to another excellent chapter, and with as few as three left in the volume things can only keep ramping up.