Highs and lows this week with a great scene for Robin but the regeneration problem seeming to be solved in the least interesting way. There’s still time to right the ship on that second one, but we’ll get there when we get there.

The Holy Knights are moving around pretty quickly between chapters here, Gunko going from her position with Sommers and the captive Strawhats all the way to the kids’ location. Sommers also seems to be leaving in that direction in his first scene, but she’s outpaced him to a pretty ridiculous degree.

Ronja was the most upbeat of the kids in her intro panel in the last chapter, and she keeps her spirits high this week even has her situation deteriorates. It’s heartbreaking. Man, I thought Collun was going to be the standout kid character, followed maybe by Johanna, but Ronja’s speech, with her still-smiling breakdown at the end, have rocketed her to the front. Oda has played with the contrast between tears and a smile before, perhaps with the most commentary in Wano via the Smile fruits, but I think it’s most effective in scenes like this one where the character forces themself to put a brave face on in a situation where anyone would forgive them for despairing that are the most affecting.

And man, who’s going to say that Elbaph’s kids are too soft after this? They might not be as enthusiastic about violence as previous generations, but little Ronja is still willing to put her life fully on the line for her beliefs. I won’t here a word of slander; the bravery of Elbaph has been passed down just fine.

Robin fights Sommers, and it’s everything I want from a Robin right. She hits fast and hard with disabling blows, working like an assassin, and then, because she’s the smart one, she even has a plan of her own for the immortality that genuinely catches her opponent off-guard. Hard to imagine anyone doing better with the info they have now. Her one misstep was underestimating how hard it would be to get the others out of Gunko’s arrow wraps. I have no doubt that if even one other Strawhat got free, they’d have been able to finish the job and push Sommers to the Underworld.

Again we raise the question of Gunko’s weakness. The arrows can’t be moved by others, they aren’t burned by fire and they can’t be cut with a knife. What’s the answer going to be then?

And before we leave this scene, I really enjoyed bandage mummy Brook and Nami’s spirited commentary against Sommers and for Robin.

The chapter ends with the order being given to burn the library and the school, but I have no doubt they’ll be saved. Sommers emphasises earlier in the chapter that the World Government’s goal is to erase the giants inconvenient history and culture rather than just taking their lives, but the result will still be the end of giants as we know them. Again, this is a real world tactic of oppression and genocide. Consider the Australian Aboriginal Stolen Generations, where thousands of children were segregated fully from the elders of their culture to receive a white education and prevent the customs and beliefs of the Aboriginies from being passed down. Erase the culture and history so you can rebuild a people as whatever you want them to be, whether that’s assimilated parts of your own society gradually breeding out their racial traits, or as the mindless mercenary barbarians you have on retainer.

But the last page is where the chapter starts to lose me. Scopper cuts off Sommers’ hand, which doesn’t regenerate. Not only is there an art mistake (the cut hand changes between panels) but the implication seems to be it’s his Advanced Conqueror’s Haki that’s causing the lasting damage. Siiiiiiiiigh. Look. I’m a fantasy reader. I can forgive a lot of “chosen one” stuff as long as the stories and characters are interesting. I can read into all kinds of ambiguities about whether the outcome was inevitable or if the hero was just the right guy in the right place at the right time. I don’t think Nika retroactively undoes any of the stuff Luffy fought for before the power awakened. I don’t think his famous family has carried him on his journey. But I would say that locking the way to hurt the final bosses behind the one in a million super special power, and perhaps further behind its better version that “only a handful of the very strongest” can achieve is a step too far. Committing to that would be a misstep.

But we’re not committed to that yet. Let’s spitball some alternate possibilities while we have the chance. Option 1a: The mark: We’ve been told that part of the Holy Knights’ powers are enabled by a “mark” they all wear somewhere out of sight. Maybe the secret is to remove or target the mark. But I wouldn’t bet on that. Sommers should know where his mark is and wouldn’t be so confused about what’s happening to him in that case. We also saw Gunko getting annihilated almost down to the waist a couple of chapters ago. Most of her lower body is visibly bare, so that mark would have to be pretty intimate to not have been destroyed by the explosion.

Option 1b: Scopper is marked. Perhaps people with the mark can harm each other. The Roger Pirates could have discovered the secret behind this power on their journey and some of them may have chosen to take a measure of the power themselves as a personal sacrifice for to be able to stand up for the next generation.

Option 2: It’s Haki, but not the way we think. In early Wano, a big emphasis was placed on Luffy learning the internal destruction application of his Armament Haki. I think it’s curious that this never really comes up again. I’ve assumed for years that it’s what Luffy used to penetrate Kaido’s scales and do real damage to him, but they never talk about it directly. Instead, the technique emphasised in that battle is the off-body emission, used for the ‘fight without touching’ clashes and to push through the magma cloak at the end. So maybe internal destruction was setup for this, where with fine control your injected Haki can block the regeneration until it wears off or the enemy forces it out with their own Haki. Adding Conqueror’s coating would obviously make it more effective, but in this case it’s not a prerequisite for fighting. I think this would be the ideal middleground.

Option 3: It’s the axes. Whether seastone or something rarer and more endgamey, a special custom godkilling weapon for each Strawhat would be a neat final set of powerups. Having it be Seastone could play into the lore already setting up Wano as important for being the sole source and best workers of Seastone. It would tell us a lot about their role in the Void Century days and the future.

Those are my best guesses, but I’m curious to see what the fanbase comes up with given a week off to think. My fingers are crossed for something creative and unexpected from Oda that blows us all away next chapter though.