We’re truly moving into the endgame with this one. This is the first possible end point for volume 113, and while that would make a pretty short volume, it’s a huge reveal to use for the final cliffhanger. Even the cover story is building into something promising with (maybe) the long-awaited reveal of Ryuma’s shrine. Some have cast doubts if it’s really his, and I agree that it’s pretty run down for someone as well-spoken of as Ryuma, but on the other hand I think it makes sense for Ryuma to be hailed as a West Blue hero. Read Monsters and tell me it’s taking place in Wano. Obviously Ryuma got around a bit during his life.

After racing down the timeline for a couple of installments, this chapter eases onto the brakes to develop Loki and Harald’s characters. One thing I appreciate in One Piece flashbacks is that even while they build up their key characters as monolithic figures, they also spotlight their flaws and blind spots. Vegapunk’s thirst for scientific opportunity and lack of social intelligence leave him working for the bad guys. Oden chases his personal adventure instead of resolving Wano’s issues before they become too bad for him to face. Now Harald proves himself to be an excellent king both for his nation and the world, but he’s so focused on that he turns into an awful father. He clearly doesn’t outright abuse Loki like the baby’s mother and uncle did, but his neglect must have made their rejections cut deeper. It’s not that Harald doesn’t care – the pride with which he lifts Loki seems genuine – but he’s too busy to even ask follow-up questions about what’s wrong with his son’s eyes or why he’s injured.

I’m not sure whether to overanalyse Harald’s tears at Estrid’s funeral or not. Even though the marriage was political and she was unpleasant, it’s a natural place to cry if you have even a scrap of empathy, but it’s interesting how the tears are juxtaposed with the narration explaining how Estrid’s legacy was the nation’s superstitious hatred of Loki. Does Harald cry for his son? But surely he hasn’t been home long enough to recognise the damage done to the kid’s reputation yet.

The other side of the coin is Loki himself. I think we can see the truth of the theme surrounding the new generation’s apparently weakness here: Loki, the most vocal advocate so far for toughening them kids up like the good ol’ days, is revealed to be a neglected child lashing out at a world that rejected him. There’s no real ideology underpinning his love of strength and violence, it’s just the only thing he’s ever known that earned him a modicum of control in his life. And what a miserable life it’s been. The poor kid was set up for failure long before he had the agency to do anything more than reach out for comfort. Mum despised him. Her brother just as bad. Dad wasn’t around enough to notice, let alone intervene. How telling it is that the first time we see him smile is when his uncle’s body is found. He found one thing he could do that eased the pain and tried to take further. He grins again as he rampages through the village and tries to raise his own standing by setting Hajrudin lower. But while killing his uncle earned him some respite from abuse, and hurting Hajrudin earned a grudging, fear-driven respect, it can’t make Loki loved. And you can see how that cuts him. Hajrudin’s friends coming to his aid (Gerd has jumped up a few rungs in my mind for her determination here) even though he’s weaker and illegitimate frustrates Loki, making him double down, but the hate in that one woman’s eyes as she cradles her injured child shatters the facade. Then, grimmer than anything, even his suicide attempt fails. How can you not feel bad for this poor kid?

I’m really looking forward to rereading the early parts of this arc with a better understanding of Loki’s psychology to see better what’s under all that bravado. It also reframes the alliance between him and Luffy. There were concerns that Loki was too violent, too almost-villain-coded for it to work out, but now we can see there’s something broken inside him for that friendship to heal. An actual character arc starts to take shape.

There’s a few other random bits of lore scattered through the chapter. The origin of Galley La’s name? And there’s speculation they’re the frozen giants at Punk Hazard, but putting the pages side by side, I’m not sure the match is as exact as it’s made out to be. Guys, do these characters have the same faces, or are they just drawn in the same ultra-high contrast shadows? Jarul’s mention of an army of frozen giants also invokes a little bit of Punk Hazard, but it feels to me like a separate point he’s bringing up to the long lost Galley La guys. And how would people learn about them from inside this top secret Government lab anyway, and has it even been built at this point on the timeline? I’m more inclined to wonder if this is connected to the land of ice Moria found Oars’ corpse in.

But who is this enemy the giants had in the past? The obvious answer and reading of the Harley mural is that it’s the group that became the World Government, but time will have to tell.

The talk of the Reverie sows some interesting seeds about figures of the past, particularly Rocks being there. Was he a king before he was a pirate? I appreciate that the flashback actually lines up with the four year cycle of the meetings. I feel like a lot of authors think too late about things like that and have to handwave a past version being out of sync, but this all feels planned out.

And of course we get the surprise Rocks reveal at the end. Holy shit, look at this dude. He seems like he’s gonna be fun to have onscreen, in an unhinged, chaotic and probably evil kind of way. Blackbeard’s father too. After a couple of arcs of building up Imu, it was about time to put Teach back on the final boss radar. Not much you can say besides that from just an intro page, but I’m excited to see how this relationship builds up next week.