Wow, hey, I didn’t see that coming. And in fairness, I play it fairly safe as far as theorycrafting goes. The conventions of storytelling – the structure of rising and calling arcs of action and character growth, the long and short term pacing, the way foreshadowing is doled out – all are the way they are for good reasons. A lot of fan theories these days emphasise some big, shocking clickbaitable twist hiding in plain sight, but in reality nine times out of ten the thing that will happen is what’s being built up in the standard ways.

But then there’s that tenth time, when the author swerves and subverts and escalates past where you thought the limit was. Done purposefully, and after enough time of colouring inside the lines, and you can catch even your most analytical readers off-guard.

The choice to include Lilth and Bonney in the colour spread is interesting. I wonder if this one was drawn back in Egghead when they were more prominent and left unused, or if they just got in by default because none of Elbaph’s locals would fit. Usopp and the cat seeing the bill is a fun detail, you just know Nami set the prices. I’m in two minds about Bonney’s tray though. Like yeah, it’s probably “rip-off” like what the Japanese text says, and there is exactly one confirmed instance of deliberate colour spread foreshadowing in the series’ whole run, so it’s not a safe bet. But come on, the tray even has kind of a squashed shape instead of being a perfect circle, making it feel even more like a tombstone. Maybe that final page twist has me in a mood for conspiracies, but I can’t help paying attention to it.

I’m glad we get to see a decent amount of fighting between Scopper and Sommers. It’s getting hard to tell if this arc is going have room for traditional, extended one on ones, so I was worried we wouldn’t get to see the full creative applications of his and Gunko’s powers. Pleasantly surprised that Haki isn’t being treated as the be all, end all solution to immortality here. It’s obviously effective up to a point, but not enough to put the Holy Knights fully out of the battle. Anyone else notice the Impel Down callback in one of Sommers’ attacks too?

This is also a great scene for Chopper. He doesn’t call out Brain Point by name, but being the only one present to really notice how effective Scopper is managing to be and making the pragmatic choice to follow him instead of wasting strength on the others (having seen that Robin couldn’t cut Gunko’s arrows and Saul couldn’t do anything for the thorn coils around the children) is Brain Point behaviour. And since he follows Scopper over the edge at the end, he’s going to be the one in a position to relay the secret to the others later, whether by returning alone or escorting Scops to Luffy’s group.

The school and library start to burn. That’s one timer running, but I’d be surprised if any real damage is done to the books. The school can be rebuilt if it burns down. I wonder if the answer will be as simple as Biblo deactivating his power so that the books shrink down and become easy to move, or at least consolidate in a corner away from the flames. But even without personally feeling the threat, seeing Robin and Saul’s reactions as it goes up is heartbreaking.

And speaking of heartbreaking, god damn, Ronja. What an awful thing to put on a child’s shoulders. In light of the final pages, I find Gunko’s reaction to the child’s tears interesting. She thinks Ronja should be happy to be saved, no matter what has been sacrificed in her name to make that happen, even if surviving this means a life of servitude. Is Gunko herself enduring a scenario where everything important to her was lost, leaving her with only a life in the Celestial Dragons’ grip? This is followed by another tragedy: Collun’s love for his dad foiling the rescue. Understandable coming out of a kid raised in a well-defended land of peace, but you can see the pain in Scopper’s face. I’m surprised the future sight vision of Collun’s death was so graphic. Good way to get readers in the mindset that made Scopper back down though. His injuries are pretty rough, and with the fall to go with them I might have feared for Scopper’s life in any other series. But he’s going down by the side of the best doctor he could ask for, who also happens to be able to transform into a big, fluffy cushion if he can get ahead of him in the air.

And then the final spread just punches everything into top gear. Gunko knew Brook? Pre-piracy Brook lore? His army days and knowledge of Germa and the Holy Knights? God damn, this has been a long time coming. That alone would have put me into overdrive, and then Imu drops in to say hi. Why is the Holy Land burning? How far does their power over the marked ones go, now that we’ve seen telepathic communication, body hijacking and remote termination? What is Imu actually going to do via Gunko that she wasn’t already doing? Is Imu able to bring any other powers of their own through into her body, like, say, their transformation from the Sabo’s throne room scene? Given the lightning, is this an application of Haki, or at least Imu’s Haki being used by Gunko’s body (and that being possible, could the Strawhats with CoC lend it to their crewmates for future battles)? And I legitimately cannot tell if getting possessed made Gunko’s hair grow or if it was just hidden before.

Awesome week to be following One Piece, made better by not having a break to nurse this cliffhanger through. I can’t wait to see where Oda’s going with all of this and what long-awaited Imu lore is going to be delivered through their presence.