So are we all just getting comfortable in the assumption it’s going to be two weeks on, one week off from now on? It’s rough, but that’s life. I was around for all the venting and complaining when it first went to three on, one off during Dressrosa, and I think if we can survive that, we can adapt to this as well.

The shock and reverence the Marines have for Saturn’s appearance is interesting to watch here. While the World Government has always been technically theocratic, literally deifying its rulers, we’ve never seen much in the way of worship for the Celestial Dragon pantheon, or at least their allegedly world-creating ancestors. My read was always that they didn’t really care if their subjects truly believed the myths or revered them, so long as the taxes were paid and a healthy fear of their power – whether divine or military – was maintained. But the opening pages show a more genuine-feeling awe among the Marine rank and file. It’ll be interesting to see if Oda goes any deeper into this.

I’ve mentioned the Vice Admiral with the streak in his beard as a character design that stands out in the past. In the middle panel of the second page you can see him seemingly preparing to pull the crescent-shaped blade thing out of his skull to use as a weapon. What kind of power does this guy have?

And speaking of weird powers, Saturn has healing, vision-based force blasts, and a wider-range pressure field strong enough to keep even Sanji and Franky from standing up. On top of the whole summoning circle thing. Fascinated to see what this Devil Fruit ends up being, and how many liberties have been taken with whatever obscure folklore inspired it.

I expected Borsalino to be dazed but far from out of the running yet, but the official translation makes it seem like he’ll be taking more of a breather. I still think we’ll see him fighting again before the arc is done. A little more surprising is instead going for a ‘you have failed me for the last time’ Saturn is pretty understanding that it’s “Nika” he was up against, and makes a very hardcore villainous move to stamp out Luffy without any capture or monologue or messing around. At least as a first reaction. He gets himself chatting on the next page, but going for the kill first still makes a statement. As does asking outright for the cruellest order to start the killing, that’s a sick bad guy line. Great to see Franky get a moment to save the day. With all the hopes of Egghead being more his arc, it’s nice that he at least to gets be on ground level for this pivotal confrontation.

Bonney tells us outright that it was Saturn specifically who ordered her father’s destruction, wrapping up one part of the mystery, and it looks like we’re about to find out the rest. While going into a Kuma flashback redoubles my confidence that his arrival is going to be what saves the day, I’m once again finding myself wondering how this arc fits together structurally. Wano’s darkest hour was the destruction of the ships and apparent loss of the samurai army, which was used as a springboard for Oden’s flashback, reiterating the stakes before the Strawhats showed up for the rescue and restored hope. It came up only when absolutely everything was against the heroes. But is this that? Maybe if Borsalino got back on his feet first. Maybe if Lucci was holding the upper hand in the dome instead of fighting Zoro. Kind of like when we went into last volume’s cutaway sequence, it feels like things are too in-swing to call this a natural break point.

I don’t want to say outright that I think this is something wrong with the arc. The frequent breaks and the new schedule we’re all not quite used to yet warp perspectives on longterm storytelling until a reread is done. I could be missing the forest for the trees. But it just feels off somehow in the moment.

On the topic of comparing this flashback to the cutaway though, volume 107 was made extra long to accommodate the whole cutaway in a single book, so maybe the same can be expected of this sequence. We’re in the seventh chapter of volume 108 currently, allowing room for 3 to 5 flashback chapters. Oda’s able to make that kind of pagecount decently meaty, and any more might turn into a lot of time to spend away from the main cast again, however compelling the lore and history of God Valley ends up being.

But yeah how about this flashback? God Valley? The Figarlands? Holy Knights present? Five Elders present? Stories of Nika being shared? The possible origin of the Revolutionaries? An event Roger, Garp and Rocks were all present for? All at once? This sounds like Christmas. A lore dump on par with the original Reverie Arc.

But I don’t want to get my hopes too high just yet, Kaido’s flashback showed that Oda’s still more than willing to hold some details and bigger-picture ideas back for later, even in the story’s endgame.

Anyway, Oda’s setting this one up to hurt. The cruelty of the Celestial Dragons is taken to new heights here, especially represented in the death of Kuma’s dad, that’s so casual, so incidental, so unfeeling that it’s happened before you even realise what you’re reading. None of the usual build up and huge response, a father is just gone in a couple of panels, and slaves have no time to grieve. And a mean play by Oda that the killing gunshot has the same sound effect of the drumbeat from the song.

The way Kuma’s dad delivers the myth of Nika, complete with the drumbeat, before his death though, that makes me feel a little disappointed we couldn’t have seen this kind of thing sooner. It’s perfect on its own, just give a version of it to some background Impel Down prisoners, or slaves at the Sabaody markets. One little moment like this would have made the Nika reveal at Wano read so much more smoothly. If you put me in the live action writers’ room, or in any kind of creative role for a hypothetical anime remake, that might be the biggest thing I’d push for.

God Valley’s actual origin was quite a surprise after all the speculation surrounding it, to have not been some longterm sacred site to the World Government. The Buccaneer race is another interesting twist in the story, but have also been left pretty vague for the moment. Is their only distinguishing feature their improved strength and maybe their large size? I’m not sold, considering that characters identified as regular human have been shown growing bigger and stronger. But maybe they don’t need to be anything special in terms of abilities. The World Government has shown itself to care pretty deeply about preventing “criminal” bloodlines from continuing, as shown by their rhetoric surrounding Ace’s execution. The situation only gets more dystopian when we learn here about seemingly-mandatory at-birth blood tests and hospitals for undesirable blood groups. Pretty rough world to live in.

Although, nearly 50 years ago is a long time for such precise blood testing to exist. Weren’t we told that Bloodline Elements were first discovered by MADS? At the time of this flashback, Vegapunk would be 18, and Judge just 9. I don’t think they’d be unlocking the mysteries of genetics together yet, let alone passing that info onto the Government. So what other method is the Government using to test for these outlawed races?

Ginny is a cute character design. It’s a shame she’s about as doomed as One Piece characters get. On the assumption that she’s Bonney’s mother, she’s at least getting through this Most Dangerous Game hunting trip to be old enough to have kids, but it already feels inevitable that her premature end is going to be the emotional heart of this flashback. Conspiracy theories about her surviving and being Ivankov’d into any modern day adult man are fun, but I’m not holding my breath for a second. And if she is Bonney’s mum, and that’s still an if, it probably rules out the theory that Bonney is chronologically still a kid, just to make the timeline work.

Hopefully the next chapter has enough info to lay out the trajectory of this flashback. The (presumed) need for Ginny to grow up means it can’t totally be centred on God Valley, but maybe we get a feel for how long we’ll be sticking around there and how much of the main event we’ll actually get to witness. See you all in two weeks!