Egghead definitely seems to be heating up, but the direction of the arc remains hard to parse with the state of advantage between the Strawhats/Vegapunks and Cipher Pol swinging like a pendulum from chapter to chapter. Will there be an escape sequence? Will we stand and fight against Borsalino’s fleet? Will Cipher Pol slip their bonds and strike back, turning the advantage once again? It’s exciting to feel like we have so little idea of where the story is going.

Vegapunk’s invention on the cover is certainly an interesting way to reference the famous Flower Power moment of the Vietnam War protests, although it’s a little hard to figure from his imagination what exactly the purpose of creating it was meant to be. Ending wars by having it grow in both sides’ munitions, spoiling them as shown? Sounds a little more like a weapon of sabotage to me. And what’s with his expression while he accepts the Mobel Prize?

I love seeing Stussy weaponising seastone in such a clever way – when you think about how effective it is on Devil Fruit users in such small, concealable amounts, it’s almost strange we haven’t seen more moves like this. But given that assassination and covert ops are a big part of the Cipher Pol playbook, it makes sense for it to be showing up here. People have complained that CP9 was too weak before the timeskip, but their job wouldn’t be to get into straight up fights like they had with the Strawhats. Attacking unaware targets from the shadows like Stussy does here shows how the right tools and intel can level the playing field.

Her not being able to override Lucci’s orders even after he’s knocked out though, that feels like it was decided just to get the clash between Zoro and S-Hawk happening. I’m very curious and concerned about what Zoro said about the Seraphim’s humanity though. Mihawk has always seemed relatively chill to me, but is Zoro here hinting at a darkness we haven’t been shown yet?

Oh? Stussy’s been invited too now? Yeah, somehow I don’t think the last stage of this arc will let Vegapunk’s plans come to fruition that easily. I could always be wrong, but it’s going to be a storytelling chore to manage such a huge entourage for the main crew if that just gets to happen with no complications.

Vegapunk vanishing in a way that earns narration boxes is a bit of a shock though. That makes it feel like a huge event, but I wonder if maybe Oda just felt short on page space and decided this was easier than showing Luffy and Chopper checking a dozen places and concluding they can’t find him while he’s just off in a side room dealing with Bonney. Just a strange plot point to throw up so suddenly…

The Sphinx Island cutaway once again shows the cruelty of the World Government to non-member states while bringing Weevil into the fold for real. I appreciate Oda taking the time to set the Miss Buckin/Buckingham Stussy connection in stone so soon, after I was complaining about people still getting the name wrong last week. Can’t miss it now, no matter how casual you are. All these global events being built up though. Sabo’s desperate situation. Law’s fight with Blackbeard. Kid at Elbaf. Kuma climbing the Redline. Garp rescuing Koby. And now a reason for Marco to try and save Weevil. I don’t think we’re going to see all of this play out in parallel and am adjusting my expectations accordingly. More likely it’ll be like the events built up in the intermissions of Wano, left hanging for a long time to be resolved all at once in the Egghead post-arc period.

But the big news is obviously an Elder making his move in the real world. Whatever comes of this will go a long way to show us how the final battle will be. Are the Elders fighters in their own right, or just figures of authority. I’ve always figured the latter, I think it makes a lot more sense, but I’m open to being proven wrong. He’s great theory fodder either way – all the stuff flying around assigning planet names to the others, keeping in mind the Ancient Weapons and Luffy as the Sun God. Imu as the moon, with their space laser from earlier, if you asked me to guess right now. But I’m not going to be too quick to assume anything deeper about their roles or personalities or abilities based just on possible planet names. Like the lackadaisical but ultimately meaningless Flower Power homage on the cover, Oda will sometimes reference things just for the imagery, just to make something in his story share a name with something he thinks is cool in real life. Not because he’s trying to recreate the mythology behind the gods we named the planets for 1:1. Just worth keeping in mind as the theorycrafting really picks up over the break week.

I’ve never been a big believer in the theories that the pre and post timeskips will mirror each other too exactly. I think you have to really stretch to make it work beyond superficial stuff like the first saga having fishmen in it, the second one being about saving a kingdom (news flash, most arcs are about saving a kingdom!) and so on. But I’d put down reasonable odds at this stage of Egghead concluding with Luffy kicking off a global war by clocking one of the Five Elders in an escalation of Sabaody. I’ll take the loss up front if it comes to that. Things aren’t always the same as other things, but sometimes they are.

It hurts to have another break after such a strong chapter, and so soon after the new years’ off period, but Oda’s health and energy levels matter. At least we’ve got a lot to chew on while we’re waiting.