Mmmmm okay, one more week. It’s looking more and more likely this flashback is going to fill most if not all of volume 114, with God Valley, Harald’s fate and Loki’s rampage and capture to still to cover. This is a very transitional chapter though, a little unfortunate to return to after a break week.

What could Oda possibly be cooking with a Kozuki Moria? Our man Gecko Moria hasn’t shown up in years and hadn’t seemed to be angling for an endgame role, but now there’s all these questions about what he found and what he kept from Wano during his invasion in Oden’s backstory, besides Ryuma and his sword of course. The Kozuki cypher (Poneglyph language) maybe? And if Cross Guild continues its trajectory of being a collection of former Warlords, that could put them in the race for real.

This chapter has a lot of things we already knew happened, just going a little deeper into the how and when. Shakky chooses Rayleigh over Roger. Yup, that’s foregone, but I like the ‘being tied down’ joke. Rocks finds a woman of his own and moves on from Shakky. Go figure we’re told of this and not shown it. The back and forth among all the big names at the bar is a lot of fun, and it was good thinking to use their obsession with Shakky to set up a no fighting rule that lets it all work as dialogue without having to escalate to battle. Still, I think I’m at my limit of watching the last generation’s legends fawn over their collective love interest. The nature of a flashback gives a story flexibility to shorthand things that would want more detailed showings to develop in the present – doing a love story as a montage rather than a character play for example – and we’re well past that point for this tangle of relationships. Time to bring it all to a head.

To get to the actual substance of the chapter, there’s Harald and Rocks’ fight. I’m shocked to see Harald actually going through with it so suddenly. And obviously it reflects poorly on him to betray a friend to win the World Government’s favour; I’ve called out Harald’s naivety repeatedly in these reviews. But for all the people online I’m seeing ready to fully condemn him for this, Harald articulates a decent point about political optics and his responsibility as a leader. He’s still ultimately in the wrong and making a bad choice, as we know from the present, but the motive of working within the system as he knows it to give his people a more peaceful life is noble. I don’t envy any leader who has to find the balance between short-term peace and long-term good. All that said, I think Oda might have stumbled in this flashback by making Rocks too charismatic and leaving out the crimes and cruelty. Even when we see him allegedly stealing donations meant for starving children it turned out the collectors were embezzling it! Maybe it was assumed the physical abuse of Loki would be enough to set readers hard against him and make Harald’s hesitation more understandable. Maybe I’m forgetting the child abuse too easily in my lust for anti-Government action. At least Dragon is only neglectful…

And the other thing of note: God Valley and Garling. So there was something more than resources there. I might be reading into things, but it’s interesting that they’d choose to hold this whole hunting trip to get it instead of just having the Marines invade or extort the leaders like they’re doing for Elbaph in the present. Was it an excuse for the Celestial Dragons to go in person because a normal Marine or Cipher Pol agent wouldn’t have clearance for what Garling found? A Poneglyph? An Ancient Weapon? And we get further confirmation that the Holy Knights are looped in on Imu and his desires.

And the kids! I’d forgotten for a while that Shanks had been established as a West Blue baby after learning of his Celestial Dragon heritage. But this actually makes a lot of sense now that it’s happening. What I want to know is the relationship between Garling and the mother (obvious source of the red hair ever since Garling was revealed to be blonde), since these panels don’t read as a Ginny situation. Especially considering Garling was at least willing to bring the offspring back to the Holy Land to raise as nobles later, something we know is not a requirement. But if Garling really did show this woman some kind of sincere, consensual affection, why did he turn around and bring the Celestial Dragons’ genocidal game to her doorstep? Surely this will be its own flashback later.

A slightly flat chapter for sure, but likely an important one in the grand scheme. I’m daring to set my hopes high for the main event kicking off next week.