Aww, I was so hopeful we could get to the end of the broadcast before the next break, but it seems like two weeks on, one week off is just our life now. At least the end does seem to be close.

Yamato certainly seems popular in the Flower Capital, which is probably a good sign that the unfortunate sentiments in the kabuki retelling of the raid haven’t been taken to heart by the citizens. Good news for Tama, right? Urashima has been forgiven as well, so maybe memories are just short in Wano.

Let’s start with Vegapunk’s ongoing speech before going into the stuff surrounding it. This latest set of revelations do his character some actual service, following on from his frustrating need to not point fingers last week. We learn both that the Mother Flame used to power the World Government’s weapon was stolen by York instead of willingly given, but Vegapunk still finds the self-awareness to feel responsible and beg for the world’s forgiveness.

And the stuff towards the end, both about Joyboy preserving the Ancient Weapons and the Roger Pirates choosing not to act, actually clarifies a bit of Vegapunk’s motives and moral views for me. He sees the Ancient Weapons as a force of evil, and since he’s learned that Joyboy’s faction possessed them and intended to pass them on, he can’t see them wholly as the good guys. He wonders if the World Government had a good reason to oppose that. And, he might wonder from his perspective, why would Roger have not carried on Joyboy’s will if it was meant to be such a good thing?

But we know some things that he doesn’t, as did the Roger Pirates. Remember this interesting little bit from Rayleigh in chapter 967?

“It’s not the weapon we’re after … it’s the people who called it a weapon.” What this says is that the Ancient Weapons predated the name we know them by, and likely had a different purpose before they were weaponised for the ancient war. I think it’s pretty likely that the intent of Joyboy wanting the weapons and their will to be inherited was to restore them to their original purpose, whatever that was. And, of course, it’s pretty obvious that Vegapunk’s info doesn’t include the parts that made Roger decide he was “too soon” to fulfill the One Piece’s intended purpose. Maybe if Vegapunk knew these things he’d have firmer judgements to make on right and wrong.

For other things happening around Egghead and the world, we can see the entire basement of the lab was severed from the top and slipped out to the bottom of the Labophase when it was cut. Not that there was any way to tell that had happened from the art last week, but still good to have it clarified now. I’m surprised the Seraphim’s bubbles survived the fall. They have to get loose eventually, right?

Stussy’s scene is exactly what I was hoping for back when it seemed like her arc was about to wrap up with a heroic sacrifice. We don’t get her final decision here, but verbalising her inner conflict between the alies she made undercover in Cipher Pol and the creator she feels indebted to adds so many layers to her characterisation. And Kaku seems genuinely moved by her plight as well. I wonder if he’d vouch for her if she tried to return to Cipher Pol, assuming he still holds any sway after this incident.

Not sure what to make of Ju Peter eating the Cipher Pol agents. That’s some incredibly callous friendly fire, even from the guys comparing human lives to insects earlier in the arc.

I wonder if something is being set up by York’s confusion about the order of events and the contradictions between the things Vegapunk did and didn’t know. Are we setting up some kind of post-broadcast flashback of Vegapunk putting the pieces for his final gambit together?

Aha, and the Iron Giant is the snail’s hiding place. Definitely recontextualises Vegapunk getting stuck inside it at his introduction. Love the panel of it marching through the flames as well. But where is it going, and where are the Elders going to turn up if they’re all about to converge on it. If, as was earlier implied, it really is responding to Luffy’s awakening, that could put him and the giants in a really tough spot it it’s going his way.

And we have Rayleigh at the end. He knows a lot we and even Vegapunk don’t know, which makes it hard to read his reaction. Is there something about the answers he and Roger reached that makes it important to reach them the hard way? And how will this impact the Strawhats, who have already skipped steps on their path to the treasure (by learning about the Lode Poneglyphs at Zou rather than Lodestar, in addition to anything they hear now on Egghead)?

The reveal of the snail’s location I think means we see the end of the broadcast in a maximum of two chapters, probably just in time to leave one final thing unsaid for a big cliffhanger. But with this already being the sixth chapter of volume 110, it’s looking like we’ll still be on Egghead at the end of this book. Ebaf by the end of vol 111 for sure though.