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We are really spending some time away from the main plot of the arc here, aren’t we? I was talking after the last chapter about how weird it is structurally, and getting this whole other full chapter with nothing to do with the Strawhats while they’re all fighting makes it weirder still. But when this is what we get outside the main plot I’m sure as hell not complaining. The longer this goes on though, the more I’m wondering if we’ll switch back to Egghead exactly where it left off, or if things are going to have continued developing while we weren’t looking at them.

Blackbeard’s pirate island feels like an appropriately chaotic Nassau or Tortuga of the One Piece world, now that we’re seeing a tad more of it. Like Jaya amped up to a hundred, which is fitting, given that it’s where we first met the guy. I’m definitely in the camp that’s a tad skeptical of his crew’s new powers though. I think I wrote when the first lot were revealed, back during the start of Law’s fight, that they felt like abilities Oda had decided on early in the series and stuck to his guns on, even as Devil Fruits got more and more abstract and extreme. Pizarro having such an obvious copy of Pica’s power feels especially egregious. I can only hope that having all that time to brew means that the final battles against these powers are going to be next level.

Now, I’m not one to speculate too hard on battle matchups, but it seems to me you could make a case for Zoro being pitted against a number of Blackbeard Pirates. Shiryu because he normally fights a swordsman (though that one’s got a fruit that would draw Sanji’s ire), Burgess because he usually fights the captain’s apparent right hand, and now – I think – it would be interesting to see him as the crew’s heaviest and most regular drinker pitted against Vasco Shot. It could be another “natural enemy” situation. Shot uses his booze-related powers to try and throw Zoro’s swordsmanship off, Zoro declares that he was already drunk. Cue Enel face.

What really has my attention is Blacbkeard trying to make Fullalead into a legitimised nation. I can only guess that it’s a scheme to gain access to Mariejoa at a Reverie or something, the same way he used the Warlord title to access Impel Down. It feels unlikely the Government would fall for it twice, especially given his current reputation. But then again, Shanks shows us that it’s not out of the question for an Emperor of the Sea to get in one way or another.

Interesting that SWORD basically gets to operate as Schrodinger’s Marines, both in and out of the Navy as the Government’s politics require. I can see where the idea came from, offering Marine resources to these kinds of hotheads to keep them close and useful for as long as possible without restricting them so much they just go off on their own as vigilantes, while being able to instantly absolve all responsibility for their actions when it’s convenient. Whether this would actually be a good or smart system to implement in a real military remains in doubt. You’d have to keep it relatively secret and invite-only to avoid the name being thrown around to excuse premeditated insubordination and desertion. Can’t have the rank and file thinking that’s an option. And whether it’s in-character for Sakazuki to accept this kind of insubordination, even if it is planned for, is equally questionable.

Curiously, Kuzan is fully knowledgeable of it. Which could mean SWORD predates Sakazuki’s instatement as Fleet Admiral. Or it could mean that Kuzan still has contacts feeding him intel. Or it’s just because he’s a part of it.

We also, early on, get to see a Cross Guild bounty poster closer up. Hope we get more of these while the series has time to do it, but given that the bounties seem to be based mostly on rank (with exceptions for popular figures) there isn’t the same hype and mystery as the pirate posters. I also appreciate that the rewards are in treasure chests with only an approximate value – it adds a roughness in contrast to the Government’s precise figures. I wonder, though, if the Cross Guild members borrowed their star-based bounty system from a certain former co-worker…?

We actually saw already a small, sketchy preview of the posters in Cross Guild’s introductory chapter, although there seems to be at least one other symbol also being used there. Potentially a crown or a set of big top tents like Buggy’s base. But what does that mean? Something beyond the star rankings, or maybe something less, for ranks below Captain.

And a final thing from early in the chapter, Pizarro implies that Rocky Port is part of Fullalead. And we know that the Rocky Port Incident was masterminded by Law and kept from being a complete disaster by the hero Koby. I know that the Supernovas and plenty of others swept into the New World right after Marineford instead of taking time to train like the Strawhats, but there’s something genuinely strange to me about learning how far ahead of Luffy’s group they’ve all been already. Like, it would make no sense for Law to have just waited around Punk Hazard for two years, but it never crossed my mind while he was travelling with the crew that he might have been on his second or third lap of the New World already.

Perona’s cameo is a welcome surprise, I’m a pretty big fan of her character. Weird that the chapter doesn’t make it clear if Koby was actually able to follow through and free Moria though. I guess he wanted to find his own escape route and Perona went with him.

The G-14 Marines and new SWORD additions continue to be appealing designs with some interesting new powers to go with them. And it’s cool to see Vegapunk’s GP Flowers making a main story appearance as well. What was it I wrote during the cover story? They seem more like a weapon of sabotage than a true tool of peace, and that is exactly how the government is using them. I wonder if that sours the Mobel Prize somewhat.

So we all remember that Prince Gruz and his squad, including the newly named Kujaku made early cameos in Bege’s cover story, but it’s easy to forget that that was far enough back that the colour manga has covered it already.

Not often we get official colours for characters too minor for a volume cover this long before the anime gets near them.

And then there’s Garp. This old guy is actually one of my favourite One Piece characters. The conflict he feels between his career and his adopted family is genuine, and while I’m generally critical of the morality of characters who make themselves complicit in the World Government’s evil, Garp carries enough clout to make genuine efforts to follow his heart over his orders and speak out against the worst of his superiors. He’s still contributing to a very evil organisation, but it helps his case a ton. He’s layered, his conflicts are believable, and you just can’t help liking the way he flies in on his dog-themed ship (with cute little doghouse crows nests, how charming) and levels half the town from above. Brilliant moment to end a chapter on, and the panel of his ship flying over the city is gorgeously drawn.

In fact, if you look close at that panel, you can even see the gouges in the ground from Kujaku shifting buildings around.

Can’t overstate how much I love that kind of attention to detail!

Despite how long we’ve spent away from Egghead already, I don’t think this sequence is quite done yet. Maybe another half chapter to tie up loose ends (like where Moria and Perona ended up, and if Smoker is there alongside Tashigi, and if Boggard is still at Garp’s right hand) and set up a real cliffhanger of Garp and co clashing directly with the Blackbeard pirates before cutting away. And then we can get back to what the Strawhats are up to. Or hell, why not another cutaway? Still haven’t seen Dragon’s powers, since we’re apparently revealing all the heavyweight players right now. The breaks around this Golden Week time of year can be rough, but it’s hard to be too upset when we’re getting chapters like these.