The climax of the flashback draws close, I feel like in maybe as few as two chapters we could be back in the present for the first time since… June? Jesus christ. That’s such a long time to go without our actual main character. There’s more leaping forward in time here with some surprising skips. I’m shocked we don’t at least get a nod to Lola, but maybe it’s being saved for later.

Also I think the choice to say ‘that same year’ in the opening narration box confirms this chapter to be in the same volume as the one before it. Wouldn’t make sense to say that if there’d been the four month gap of volume releases between them, but if they’re separated by two pages it works just fine.

While I criticised the Loki and Ida relationship last week, I think Ida’s death was really well handled in this chapter. The way Harald thinks and speaks of her after this first jump forward brings an ominous feeling that builds to reveal of the grave and the flashback to her actual death. And that itself is a classic tragedy. The talk of dreams and then her arm going limp. The completely silent sequence as Harald leaves and Hajrudin rushes in. The grief on Hajrudin’s face. Loki mourning in silence in his cell. Beautiful stuff. I really liked Ida and energy she brought to the story. It tugs on my heart to see her go.

Oda does something interesting here in having both Saul and Ida argue against Harald’s ideals. Mentor characters in One Piece tend to go to extremes and are rarely outright questioned on it. But here, the scholar Saul wonders about the tradeoffs of the cultural shift. He certainly would have seen what could happen to a nation of thinkers without the ability to defend themselves Ida, who sees the good in everything, seems to have been attracted to the warrior aesthetic and sees value in embracing one’s roots. I think Harald has a pretty insurmountable counter-argument for her when he says that same culture kept them from marrying, but these two conversations lay a groundwork of doubt over Harald’s dream and the idea of unquestioningly inheriting his will. You can’t turn Elbaph back into a blank slate, not withing losing more than you intend to. Finding a balance where the nation holds onto some independent security and retains a culture it can feel proud of is going to be key to setting Elbaph up for the future. We might be about to see a different kind of inherited will where a person’s dreams aren’t just completed by the next generation but augmented into a better version of themselves first.

The dramatic tension of Harald’s meeting with the Elders is undercut somewhat by the absurdity of the panel where he walks after them with only his enormous foot in the frame. Oda’s pretty lucky he drew this hall so big back in 2018, or maybe he knew all along he was going to put giants in here. (although I saw a pretty funny fan edit showing how big Harald is actually meant to be next to the Elders. And hey, there’s an awful lot of empty space in the top right of the middle panel of page 9, so was he maybe drawn bigger then erased and shrunk down for better framing?) There’s an obvious jump forward in the middle of the scene which makes we wonder if we’re going to eventually return here and learn how Imu explained his existence to Harald in a way that left Harald still willing to trust him. Did Harald have to verbally agree to something to confirm his Depths Covenant? Did he have to make physical contact with Imu to start the process of the mark transforming? Or could Imu forcibly upgrade any Shallows Covenant in his presence?

(Shanks not being here to receive his mark isn’t a surprise, but I’m so curious about his plan. Did he get what he wanted, or did he know the promotion would mean being trapped and had to bail when it was offered regardless of where his plan was at?)

Okay, so a thought I had when first flipping through this chapter is that when you get down to it, Imu and Rocks kind of had the same plan for the giants. Imu wants to recruit and control Harald and use his status as king to turn the nation of Elbaph into an unstoppable army that completes his dominion over the world. Rocks wants to befriend and recruit Harald in hopes the resurrected Galleila giants would follow his authority and fight to make him king of the world. You could even say that Rocks is dreaming bigger, targeting the legendary ancient giants instead of smaller modern ones. The difference between them is that Imu can’t even bring himself to wait five minutes before trying to remove Harald’s will with mind control while Rocks lashes out at Kaido for just suggesting that Harald or Galleila be brought to heel by force. And you have to wonder what would have happened if Imu was a bit more patient. Let Harald abdicate the throne but tell him his successor also needs a mark. Both Loki and Hajrudin are much more willing warriors that could be groomed in the direction of making a giant army before fully taking over. This now being the early years of the Great Pirate Era, maybe Imu was feeling the pressure to crack down hard on the pirates inspired by Roger, and that made him rush.

But thinking Rocks and Imu’s parallels also makes me think of the way Luffy and Blackbeard are often compared for pursuing the same goal by totally different means. It makes me wonder if Blackbeard has an additional goal for after he acquires “the world,” like Luffy’s secret objective that comes after being Pirate King. Or like Imu, does his ambition fall short compared to the grander vision of a true dreamer? Just a tangent…

I enjoy the posing of Harald trying to resist while being made to move against his will. The unsteady wobble perfectly conveys a puppeteered look in a still image. And Harald, to his credit, acts quickly and decisively when he realises he’s been betrayed. It’s unclear what his plan is, but I’m almost inclined to guess he might order his own death when he figures out he’ll lose control, and that’s the scene Loki and Jarul arrive to.

It’s possible we could be back in the present in as few as two chapters. Next week is all the massacre, the one after summarises the steps from there to Loki being locked up and brings us back to the battle for Elbaph. We’ll be lucky to even see spoilers for that by the end of the year, with the December breaks looming, but given the unfinished panels this week I’m happy for Oda to take the break he needs and recharge for the home stretch.