A very short chapter here, with kind of not a lot to discuss besides the ending, but I definitely enjoyed it. Egghead is clearly developing to its conclusion with one escape ship away and the other close behind. It’s exciting to think Elbaf is coming so soon, after all these years.

Even with what we were just told a few chapters ago, I was still a little surprised at how far the Iron Giant had to sink in the opening pages. I’m used to the idea of real world landmasses trailing off slowly into the sea, any big shelves a way offshore. But these are mountain summits. It makes sense for there to be a cliff near enough for such a huge descent.

All evidence seems to say Edison is dead. Maybe. If York can switch her Punk Records syncing off to not be caught betraying the others and Vegapunk can do it to record his broadcast privately, there’s no reason Edison can’t also have gone dark to avoid detection. But with the giants’ ship leaving, he doesn’t have much hope of making it off the island, so there wouldn’t really be a point to misdirect us like that. Unless he’s gonna pull himself out of the rubble to start a cover story a year from now. But taking this at face value, it’s kinda similar to the Izo and Ashura situations. Who would have thought the infamously reluctant to kill Oda would now have characters quietly succumb to their injuries offscreen?

Hey, there’s something drawn kinda rough and obscured by the Sunny’s rigging in Nami’s panel. Is that Nusjuro moving between the ship and the sea? Will Zoro have to clash with him one last time to close out the arc?

Okay, so Sanji prevert gags have often gone too far without being funny enough to justify it for a long time now, but the dynamic here, where he proclaims the aid he’s going to give the women while Usopp calls out frantic reminders to save the men too, that’s a pretty good one. This is how I prefer seeing that character trait play out. And great to see Franky adding to it.

And finally, we have the Distorted Future. I’m on the record saying I don’t like Bonney’s powers having this much flexibility, but after the Niki-ish future already established, I’m not totally shocked she gets a more fully Nikafied form to cap things off. Like, I wouldn’t have guessed it a week ago, but it makes sense in hindsight. I want to wait to see her in action before I make any call on if the implications of this form being shared are good or bad. We’ve established she can’t keep a distorted future up for long, which is one limiting factor. Some people are wondering if she could distort the futures of others to make them Nika-ish too, but I think by the established rules, she would need to be able to picture that person as Nika to make them that way. Someone too serious, too mean, too restrained, or just not loose and funny enough just won’t make a good Nika.

While some will argue otherwise, I’m sure, I think this development is bad for Bonney’s chances of joining the crew. Firstly, it creates a double-up in ultimate moves, which I don’t think Oda would go for. And second, it feels a lot like the conclusion of the Bonney story. Where does she go from here for future power ups in future arcs? What else could she want? She’s chased freedom for herself and her father, and she hasn’t just found it, she’s embodied it. That’s a full circle thing. End of the journey. If she slips back to the background with her father between now and the final war no one’s goign to accuse her story of being unfinished.

So where do we go from here? It looks like Oda is setting up two final clashes to throw the Elders off and make the final escape. Nusjuuro has to be knocked out of the way of the Sunny, and Mars has to be smashed down from the sky so he can’t pursue the giants’ ship. Luffy and Bonny are taking on one. Zoro will definitely be involved in the other, possibly with any combination of the group on the Sunny backing him up.

But it can’t be totally that easy. I think there’s lingering threads with the Iron Giant, and with obvious arc villain Saturn. There’s no way the final clash happens, especially one Bonney is part of, without sticking it to him in some way. Maybe he makes spidery jumps from ship to ship to try and come aboard. Or he’s secretly in human form on Mars’s back, ready to jump down and transform. And can the reactivated Iron Giant generate enough thrust to raise itself from the sea floor and make a final move for its Joyboy? That’s maybe not a setup quite on Oda’s level, but the bottom line is that it feels like there’s one last convergence still to happen as we make this arc complete.

Good to be back on three breakless chapters in a row so we can find out the answer without having to wait.