Well I’m glad to be back in the present and playing with Luffy again, but as flashback endings go, this one wasn’t quite it. When I think of a successful flashback, I think of returning to the present with a new perspective on the relationships and motives of the primary characters, and this sequence was side-tracked too hard to give Loki, Hajrudin or Gaban the focus needed for that. While I’m glad it isn’t going on any longer, it feels like there’s a whole section missing to make sense of some major details.

But we’ll start positive. If you want to see some fun attention to detail, put the opening page of this chapter and the walk through the castle from chapter 1137 side by side. All three of the panels on this first page showing the carnage inside the castle is a direct match to an older one. You can see how the castle has been stripped of ornaments, hangings and carpets by thieves over the years. The activities of thieves and branches and roots growing in have caused more damage in the present, but just about every scar and crater in the flashback remains in its place in 1137 with near-perfect continuity. There’s just one window in the arch over the doorway that has a broken frame in the past but only broken glass in the present. What can I say, attention to detail and continuity of space thrill me.

I also like the spread of Loki sitting with Harald’s body. The shot is framed well, and we keep the mystery of Loki’s exact powers and their effects going by covering Harald with his cape. At a glance though, between Loki’s complete cape and Harald’s ripped one underneath, I thought this was a much gnarlier panel than it actually is. Can you imagine Oda doing that kind of gore?

We learn a tiny bit more about Imu through the end of the contract. It’s interesting to see them being so upfront about their plans, decision-making and weaknesses with the Elders, I didn’t think that had quite been their relationship before now. And another hint about the D…

It’s in the aftermath that the flashback’s ending really falls apart. Gaban knows. Shanks knows. Jarul knows. A number of guardsmen know. And Loki was still allowed to be vilified and locked up for all those years. Following One Piece often means waiting for explanations, and I’m sure we will revisit some of this when we see more of Shanks’s life later on, but I can’t imagine it having more impact there than it would doing it right now. While there is some conflict in where we leave things, it’s mostly about the others thinking Loki is being reckless in going to attack the World Government so directly, not that these people are actually opposed to each other.

Loki implies after returning to the present that revealing the truth would undo everything his father had done, like it would be seen as a failure of the methods of peace that would cause Elbaph to return to war, but it’s tacked on in such a throwaway way that it doesn’t feel genuine. Oda could have demonstrated that faith in Harald was important to maintaining the ways of peace before they had a generation raised knowing nothing different, but we didn’t see enough of the changing Elbaph. Maybe if Jarul, an in-power leader who might be more on the pulse of the population’s wavering had talked through the idea of losing progress we could have justified the cover-up.

And why did Shanks step in and lock Loki up instead of assisting him. We can see how strongly he hates his family. Did Loki take it too far and start attacking WG nations instead of the WG itself? Was he going to get himself killed and Shanks wanted Loki alive for when the time is right, based on info he got either from Roger or his time in the Holy Land?

There’s also Loki and Hajrudin. I expected the flashback to turn Loki’s freedom into a big moment for Hajrudin. Time spent showing how Hajrudin was sidelined, or how they interacted after Harald got them living together, or some kind of post-Harald interaction that gave Hajrudin the wrong idea (or showing how he was taken in my the speculation and rumours) could have gone a long way. But this is already the series’ longest flashback. Rocks just didn’t leave room for that kind of introspection. It’s tragically ironic that the best part of the sequence was the worst thing for it overall.

I wonder what could have been if Oda had saved God Valley for a future Shanks story and kept a tighter focus on Elbaph for the short term. Ugh, but maybe he felt like he needed all the bits about Domi Reversi and how to fight someone who’s been turned for the Elbaph story. It’s a messy bit of work.

And nitpick section two, right as we go back to the present there’s a continuity issue with how things were left. Hajrudin’s crew, along with Zoro and Sanji, were meant to be taking the lift up while the others heard the story, but apparently they chose to stick around. I know these things can happen in storytelling. As readers, it can sometimes be easier for us to keep track of little things like that. The author might have two or three versions of an event in their head, and especially if they did an experimental draft of one of the alternatives before committing it can be hard to remember six months down the road which one became canon. It’s a trap I’ve fallen into as a writer. But I don’t have an editorial team paid the kind of wages Oda’s editors must be raking in. You’d expect them to be helping him catch these things. It feels sloppy otherwise.

There’s also the chance that they did catch it and chose to ignore it. Oda came up with a new idea in the last seven months (!) that requires Sanji taking Gaban to the top. Is it better to abandon that idea for something he’s less passionate about, or to cater to the small handful of fans dedicated enough to keep track of these things? The Egghead flashback had a similar issue with Luffy’s placement, being in Franky’s hand before it and lying off to the side after. But if he hadn’t been moved off to the side, Oda couldn’t have done Kizaru feeding him, which was a big moment for Kizaru (even if it took an SBS a volume later for it to be confirmed).

Getting back on topic, it’s interesting that Hajrudin says the misjudgement on kinslaying doesn’t undo his other crimes. An allusion to the rampage period we still haven’t seen?

The last spread definitely makes an exciting start to the battle potion of the arc. Ice powers as well as lightning for Loki? It’s hard to say what’s coming from Ragnir and what’s coming from Loki. Oda tends to play fast and loose with his mythologies, which makes it hard to rule out anything at this stage. I really like the rendering detail that went into the frozen draugr – the crayon-textured shading needing to be refracted across the ice with lines of white to show fissures in the surface. There’s some great visuals ahead after the break.