With this chapter the arc is at a turning point. The Strawhats’ turnaround of the situation is feeling close to complete and major villains are being downed effortlessly. Within the next couple of weeks we should be able to see if the arc is wrapping up here, or if there’s another leg to the battle. Loki’s power is so overwhelming I could almost believe this was it, but there’s just a little too much that’s gone unaddressed for a little too long (the burning library, Killingham and Gunko/Imu) for me to trust that impression.

As nice as it is to have Robin free and the whole Strawhat gang back in action, but it’s a bit weird that no one thought to try burning the thorns before now. I mean, there’s a huge bonfire at the library where this all started. I guess maybe the connection to burnable vines is harder to make when they’re invisible like they are around the kids, but I dunno, this still feels like a handwave to wrap up all of Sommers’ influence in this chapter to me. The question is, where does this group go now; into the fight or to save the library? (They could split up too.) Whatever happens, I hope it sets Usopp up for an Elbaph moment. Even after Wano didn’t need a Zoro moment and Egghead didn’t need a Franky one, I’m still hoping for Usopp’s connection to the place to be factor into the plot.

Getting a better look at dragon-Loki now, and yeah, still awesome. The rendering in this chapter makes it more clear he has a few layers of manes around the back of his head, neck and shoulders. It would be very Oda to give some of these the pink of his hair or the purple of his cape to offset the black body. You know how these things tend to go. Anyway, I love the sleeptids freaking out in the reveal panel here, great detail.

I was wondering the other week about the snakey vines Sommers was using and whether they’d be more than just an aesthetic, and I’m pleasantly surprised to see them turn into a trio of thorn machine guns. I also love that the platform they’ve made Sommers has a back to it. Such a fun power set.

And while it didn’t have the same emotional weight to me as the last chapter – I guess just because of the two weeks assuming it was wrapped up – the kids coming around to protect their parents in turn is a fantastic bookend to the kidnapping saga. And it shows the new generation has the hearts of warriors, whether they’re able to physically fight or not.

Luffy taking out Sommers is given a multiple spread treatment to really sell the idea that this is it. The spiral rendering for the haki coating does a great job of conveying the spinning aspect of the rifle move, and just gives a lot of visual interest to the page. What are the mechanics of the Thor moves though? Here, Luffy has to grab a lightning bolt. On Dressrosa, it seemed to be electric all of its own accord. Back then, I’d assumed this represented Conqueror’s Haki. We’d just been introduced to the idea of lightning coming out of a clash of conqueror’s, and during that first instance with Chinjao, Oda obviously hadn’t finalised the look of the effect because it comes out with normal lightning instead of the black stuff. Ugh, I’m overthinking it. Probably better to just roll with the punches for these kinds of things.

Another curiosity is the shattering effect. Looking back at Harald’s breaking, you’d be forgiven for thinking Ragnir’s ice powers were involved, but maybe that’s just how God Knights go doen when you hit them right. Sommers doesn’t seem as out of energy as Harald was when he shattered though, it still takes that deeply satisfying stomp to finish him, so it doesn’t seem like it’s a sure kill either.

I kind of like that the Nidhogg fruit is special to giants because it scales with them. It’s still technically a genetics superpower, but one that stacks up logically rather than ‘only this one family line can lol’. Tracks with Hajrudin thinking a giant with a logia fruit would be tough to beat. Doesn’t track with Momonosuke and Kaido becoming the same size of dragon even though one is more than twice the height of the other but oh well.

How about the God of War being an opponent of the Sun God? My Reversi Loki stocks are rising. But it seems like it didn’t stay that way the previous era, because we see them fighting side by side against a greater evil in the Harley mural. And it would be a bit odd in the Elbaph lore to be such fans of the Sun God if he was really an enemy of their main god. So Jarul is probably not giving us the full story.

And another twist – if you have my specific set of interests – is Ratatoskr apparently being a regular, living squirrel and transferring itself into Ragnir. Isn’t this interesting for the topic of Devil Fruit weapons? Til now, the assumption had been that you somehow physically fuse the fruit with the object, but maybe it’s not that. Maybe it’s closer to Caesar’s process for growing artificial Devil Fruits. So consider, they don’t really go into it, but it was implied that live animals were being used on Punk Hazard to make the fruits. Why’d it only work for Zoans? Because they were taking the spirits or some other aspect of real animals and putting them in the mixture, which also explains why the animals bits of the Gifters came with minds of their own. Is there any real evidence of this being the case? Think about all the centaur-looking lab assistants. The story is that they were paralysed by chemical weapon fallout and that Law used his powers to give them the lower halves of animals when he came on-board. Why were there a bunch of animal legs just lying around at Punk Hazard and where were the top halves? Connect the dots buddy. So what if the Devil Fruit weapon process is similar – the extraction of the spirit and its infusion into a thing (rather than into a mixture used to grow an edible fruit). The idea of them being weapons that “ate” fruits is a bit of a misnomer, but I can see how the terminology would have come about if the process was rediscovered by Vegapunk around the time he was researching artificial fruits. And the fact that it can be done voluntarily and while keeping the subject’s memories is pretty incredible too. I wonder if a human could do it…

The question does remain of Shamrock’s Cerberus sword in this theory. BUT we know that Vegapunk has his own method of creating artificial Devil Fruits, derived from the bloodline elements of someone who ate the real fruit instead of using a live animal as raw material. Because of course he was able to replicate Kaido’s power without having to find a real dragon to slay (or kill one of his genetically engineered ones). But I think the problem here is that this method wouldn’t come with the spirit that provides the key animating factor to the object, so let’s consider other possibilities. Maybe it’s three dogs together. Maybe a scientist genetically engineered a cerberus to be sacrificed into the sword. Maybe cerberus is like the other mythological creatures that guard the levels of Impel Down, just randomly existing. I think it can all fit together.

Loki’s Sleeptid hunt is a banger squence to end on. The detail in the art and the sense of scale are incredible. The expressions of the fleeing monsters crack me up too. And the mix of silhouette, traditional anime screentones and the highly textured crayon look of the monsters in the panel where Gunko watches them go to pieces in the inferno is a standout.

Is it a contradiction that Imu is shocked to see Nidhoggr in Elbaph? After all, Harald was going to try and eat the fruit during his rampage. But I don’t think those were Imu’s orders. Evidence up to this point suggests that Imu’s control doesn’t fully override the original personality and memories, but twists them into a dark, cruel version of themself. Imu doesn’t mention the treasure or the fruit when giving Harald his marching orders, it’s only after Jarul mentions it in front of him that he seems to remember and start pursuing it. I think it’s a choice made by evil Harald based on his own knowledge rather than a specific command he was following. All the talk of wanting an ancient giant to eat the fruit to unlock its true potential in the flashback came from Rocks, although it’s a fair question how he learned those kinds of secrets that even Imu can’t access.

One final note: the Holy Land is looking pretty calm considering Imu’s earlier comment about a “sea of fire”. Was that just meant to me metaphorical about the unrest, or has the conflict not reached Pangea Castle yet or what? Putting a pin in that.

We’re now nine chapters in to volume 115, meaning the next few weeks should provide our end-of-volume cliffhanger. If the Loki reversi is happening, that’ll be the time to do it. I figure that gives us at least a volume, maybe a volume and a half of fighting, then half a volume to a volume of wrap-up before moving on to the next stage of the story. But it’s all up in the air still. I wouldn’t want to repeat the classic One Piece commentator mistake of getting too attached to a pet theory and making it the story’s problem when it’s deconfirmed. The truth is that things could still go in any number of directions, and that’s what makes the next couple of weeks so critical.