Man, I don’t even want to go deep and analytical with this one. It’s just nice, you know. It’s an incredibly sweet thing that’s happened for a character that deserves it all and more. The perfect thing to follow the relentless darkness of Kuma’s story and the loss of Vegapunk in the last arc. Yes, the plot pauses for it, but this reunion has been so long coming that using these pages to indulge it feels absolutely earned. Hold on, hold on, there’s something in my eye.

Okay, got it out. There’s a little space to be grumbly at the start of the chapter here. I’ve been holding my peace on the cover story because I’ve seen before how slowly these things build up, but the Holdem thing isn’t doing it for me. Somehow I doubt he’s the mastermind, and even with his hostage it’s doubtful he’s going to be any kind of challenge for Yamato. What could the next installment possibly be (that we’ll have to wait weeks for with Christmas breaks and a colour spread coming up) besides a recreation of Luffy’s punch to Holdem from the start of Wano? Maybe some of the lingering Yamato crewmate truthers will find that parallel compelling, but it stirs nothing in me. Wouldn’t it make more sense to set them up to copy an Oden moment instead of a Luffy one? Give them the chance to either measure up or show they can do it different to their idol? I’ll wait and hope for a surprise.

The new details of Robin’s past are grim reminder how much she’s been through and how far she’s come. I wonder if any of these scenes were things cut for time from the original run. Eagle-eyed readers might spot the traitorous old woman Kanezenny from the old flashback selling her out. The scene on the cliff and the tragic attempt to draw Ohara back into the atlas break my heart.

We spare a moment for the beautiful whimsy of the Svarr (which makes me think of the jaw-dropping ascent to the Stormwind Arc in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom) and the interesting note that Elbaph has the perfect climate for a lot of things that Egghead needed island-wide conditioning to support. Did Vegpaunk base parts of the Egghead setup on his time in Elbaph, and if most of what he made was recreations of ancient technology, does that mean Elbaph was connected to that tech in the past too?

It can be pretty random what aspects of being a captain Luffy does and doesn’t take seriously, but I like his determination to meet Saul for Robin’s sake, even though he presumably hasn’t even listened to the full story of what happened between them. All he needs to know is that this man is important to Robin. Chopper and Usopp’s drive to help when they hear Saul’s fallen warms me inside as well.

You don’t need me to that the reunion scene works and why. The recreation of their first meeting. Robin getting it right away. And she cuts off all the serious stuff that’s usually her territory and just asks to be praised. This woman has spent so much time wondering if surviving is worth it at all, facing the guilt and blame of being the only one to make it out of a genocide, finally coming to trust the people around her enough to want to live at all, and the only thing she asks of the last parent figure left in her world is validation that she did it right and that it was good for her to have done it. Damn it, I’m tearing up again just writing about it.

What a lovely, warming chapter to get right before the end of the year. I’m moved, I’m fulfilled, I’m happy to see it all come full circle. And that’s all that really needs to be said.