Well that’s definitely more actual fight choreography than I expected from a flashback. What a pleasant surprise as we say farewell to a legend. If anyone deserved this special treatment it’s Rocks.

I like that the fighting is set up so that every move comes as a one-two punch. Oda doesn’t let Roger or Garp dominate the fight, they work as a sword and shield, forcing you to wonder what could have been if Garp had taken Roger up on his offer to be a pirate. Generally, I would say I’m not here for the action. I’ve seen all the shonen fighty stuff over the years and its tropes don’t motivate like they used to. But the bits where two rivals end up in an unlikely alliance and are immediately completely in sync with each other because of the years they spent getting to know each other’s moves? Those ones are always bangers.

There’s a little bit of wrapping up of loose ends through the middle of the chapter, mostly watching the Rocks Pirates go their separate ways. Marco’s father being called Polo is a 10/10 move, no notes here. But the standout is Dragon’s departure from the island. I’d been wondering how that might happen, and what a power move from him. The respect I have for him and his cause, having now seen its origin. You have to wonder if any members of his squad were convinced to defect with him, or if any of the God Valley survivors he rescued were founding members of the Revolutionary Army (or its predecessor organisation the Freedom Fighters). For being such a minor character in this flashback, Dragon comes out of it shining as a hero.

Garp, I’m not so sure of. He rejects the chance to leave the World Government and its corruption behind, staying because he thinks he can ‘protect the rank and file.’ But how? Garp’s career is definitely doing well at this point, but he’s not the hero of the Marines yet. What power does he have to save multiple battleships’ worth of sailors if the WG decides every witness gets executed? He knowingly struck a Celestial Dragon! Is he just thinking of getting close enough to Dragon to warn him off before the consequences come down? In which case, there’s a kind of irony in that choice being made right as Dragon defects, but then Garp stays for another 40 years, so who even knows what he’s planning at this point. I wanted more from this, but the way it’s framed gives me a nasty gut feeling that I probably won’t be getting it.

There’s some interesting talk about Haki and how it can be used toward the end. Not much that couldn’t be intuited, but it’s cool to see it put into words by Oda. Interestingly, I think this is the first time we’re seeing characters other than Luffy speak of the kind of disabling Haki burnout that comes at the end of a Gear Four fight, let alone actually suffering it. Will we see more of this going forward? Will powerscalers come to realise that Haki isn’t an infinite resource that can be endlessly tapped by any who awakened it, but also that for storytelling reasons we’ll never see a gamey percentage bar showing how close to running out they are?

The final stage of the fight stuns visually. Not just the combo attack spread, which is awesome – the sword slashes doing damage makes sense, but Garp is literally punching holes in the guy is completely savage – but the expression work done on Rocks’ face leading up to it. He must really believe he killed his family to be showing so much pain. And if their escape was narrow enough that Rocks, at ground zero, couldn’t detect it, that must mean Imu doesn’t know either.

We’re in the ending zone for vol 114, and with that narration I could definitely see it wrapping up here, but let’s just see what the next two chapters bring before we lock in any guesses. With so much Loki’s life leading up to Harald’s death, plus maybe glimpses of his pirating career after, all still to cover, I have zero hope of seeing the present before vol 115. A couple more chapters and this sequence will outstrip Oden’s flashback to become the series’ longest. But what could Oda possibly have in the tank that could surpass God Valley?