Captain M Entertainment

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.

Were we premature talking about 28 years with the last chapter? Because this week’s colour spread feels a lot more like an anniversary celebration piece than the previous one. The parallels with Roger’s crew. The whole gang together in Luffy’s backpack. It cuts a lot closer to the core of the story than last chapter’s fantasy piece that while beautiful, could have gone with any chapter.

And we get a Pokemon-collab Jump cover too. I’ve seen a lot of ‘what would his Pokemon team be’ type posts and Luffy and Pikachu is an uncommon pairing. I wonder how much say Oda really got in which one to draw – it would make sense if the Pokemon Company wanted their mascot as front and centre as possible, while everyone else seemed to go with more obscure favourites. If I’m honest, I feel kinda let down that this collab happened when it did. I’m not reading anything else in the magazine at the minute. I’m not invested enough in these characters and the artists behind them to see what they pick and and how they draw them. Wish this could have been a couple of years ago, but that’s just me and my media diet, not a real knock on the quality of the piece.

The flashback takes a surprising detour this week. Harald and Rocks were both logical extensions of a story about Loki. And Roger, sure, only one more degree of separation there as Rocks’ rival. We sorta have to visit him every time we wander through his heyday, and I imagine with the end so close Oda doesn’t want to run our of chances to explore him. But old-gen Kuja pirates? Sure, let’s just get everyone in this thing.

I could take or leave Gloriosa basically just repeating Hancock’s shtick, but having Shaky acting as a more popular internal rival brings a welcome change to the dynamic. And speaking of differences, after all the series-wide parallels and comparisons between Roger and Luffy, it’s cool seeing a side of Roger here that contrasts our captain. Not only does Luffy not experience the kind of attraction we see from Roger here, let alone to a great enough degree to throw a fight over it, he’s not the type to attack another crew to purposely win a crew member from them in battle. He’ll go the distance to recruit someone he’s interested in, but nothing he’s done has ever come off like this. And that little love web of Gloriosa, Shaky, Roger and Rayleigh is also something Oda wouldn’t write Strawhats going through. It definitely gets you thinking of what else might have changed across generations.

Switching back to Elbaph, Harald falls a parenting rung in my estimation that isn’t just about being absent and ignorant. He should be right there at Ida’s side telling the longboat captain off for hesitating to help. Who cares if Loki did something dumb first, he’s literally a child!

And Ida continues to rise. She could easily resent Loki as a symbol of the romance she couldn’t continue with Harald. He’s not her son to spark the protective instinct when he nearly drowns. Child or not, Loki acts like a little shit to her in this scene. It would be easy to understand her not liking him. But she still leaps to his defence, and even offers to take him in afterwards. What a genuinely wholesome figure. God, she can’t possibly survive a One Piece flashback, can she?

Switching to Rocks, this Silver Axe guy gets a pretty big introduction for a character I’d otherwise assume was a one-off for hype-building (even considering he’s been mentioned once before). Those X-mark glasses are a pretty cool design element though. I wouldn’t say no to someday learning more about this guy.

I also enjoy seeing that the big skull on Fullalead seems to be a deliberate creation of Rocks’. That’s a pretty bombastic move. And learning it was seen as fish-shaped before that intervention. I can’t unsee Oda’s fish-head avatar in the old version now. And while this last scene seems to mostly be fanservice cameos of old gen big names, it ties some threads between a bunch of noteworthy thumbtacks on our conspiracy theory board. What two Devil Fruits are Rocks after? How does the long lost Galleila crew play into it? (Should we be reading into the ‘they ain’t comin’ back to life’ comment?) Is it just respect for Harald’s strength and boldness that makes Rocks defensive of him, or is there a deeper reason Elbaph needs to be allied with rather than conquered? (And what does that mean about Imu’s ongoing conquest attempt?) Again and again, why is Elbaph so important to everyone?

Thematically, the two fruits have to be the Dark Dark and Gum Gum, right? This feels like as good a time as any to talk more seriously about the possibility that Loki never ate the forbidden Devil Fruit at all, and it was just presumed he did after it disappeared the same day everyone else in the castle died.

Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have put money down on this flashback revisiting God Valley, but now it’s looking a lot more possible. And if you want to tie it back to what this story was originally about, we might see the World Government extract some info from a defeated and dying Rocks after the battle there, cluing them into the things he learned about Elbaph’s importance and prompting them to reach out to Harald and start making ties to find out what the king of giants is really sitting on. That would be my guess.

Whatever happens, this expanded focus on the big names of the old gen rather than the short tease I’d expected has left me very excited to see what’s coming up next.

Twenty-eight years. Ain’t that something. Makes you wonder what you could achieve working nonstop on one project for that long. As is traditional, we get a Jump cover and a colour spread. The sense of scale and level of detail in the cityscape for the colour spread is awesome even if there’s not a lot that’s noteworthy about it outside of that. I like the Zoro penguin and appreciate that Gera Five Luffy only appears as an Easter egg wanted billboard instead of dominating the piece.

We see more of how Loki builds and sees relationships this week. Obviously we’d known that at some point he would be savagely beaten by Rocks, but I didn’t think it would start within pages of their first meeting and that Loki could still think of him as an idol after. Does it not break your heart that little Loki can’t believe his dad would come back after hearing he’s injured, even after it happened? (Maybe someone should have noticed his wounds weren’t consistent with a fall, but a superstitious healer could have not cared, and Harald would then have taken them at their word of what’s under the bandages.) Love just doesn’t make sense to him. Abuse of power is all he’s been shown, and Rocks stakes his claim on more of it than anyone. No wonder Loki found that enchanting. And of course his opinion wasn’t swayed by the beatings; how different could they be to the abuse and neglect he’s been shown by everyone else in his life?

But the real meat here is Rocks at the Reverie, something I wasn’t expecting to circle back to so soon. And to open with the bombshell that he made it to the Flower Chamber and saw Imu directly. Huge. Unmatched audacity. I’m really curious about what they saw in each other though. Rocks doesn’t seem the type to back down from a fight, even a challenging one, so how does he know he can do know more? Was his goal just to verify Imu’s existence? Was he sure of that going in, or did he only realise it after confronting Imu? And that fact that he does get away, when we know Imu isn’t lacking in power and powerful servants (Gunko is literally right there). Did Imu hesitate, or was he forced to restrain himself to avoid spilling secrets to the kings at the Reverie, allowing Rocks to make a clean exit.

Harald being on fire before his clash with Rocks is weird. Maybe if he’d been the one fighting the admiral we could theorise about a former user of the Flame Flame or Magma Magma fruit, but the records don’t show him in combat with anyone but Rocks. Could ordinary Celestial Dragon bodyguards (of the kind the Strawhats beat effortlessly at Sabaody) do that? Or could it have been Cipher Pol?

Okay, so. Last week, a lot of people online were comparing Rocks’ face to Buggy’s as well as Blackbeard’s. I didn’t exactly post about it a whole lot, but I thought that was pretty stupid. The kind of reaching, conspiratorial fan theory not worth putting stock in. The kind of thinking that props almost everyone up to and including freaking Crocodile as Luffy’s mum. So why now is Rocks doing the same pose as Buggy on his bounty poster? That’s way too much of a similarity to ignore. I went and double checked: Buggy is just barely old enough to have been born before God Valley too. Oh god, I’m actually starting to believe there could be a connection there. Argh, what if the red nose actually is fake and he’s got the Rocks/Blackbeard schnoz underneath? That would be an insane twist after all these years. I may have been wrong as a naysayer (potentially, nothing is confirmed from just the poster) but I’m not going to feel bad about waiting for more evidence before jumping on board with a farfetched theory.

The Davy Back Fight coming back as a way for Rocks to build his crew sure is something. As is Rocks namedropping Davy Jones when he speaks to Imu. I’m not sure what thing it is, but it’s a thing for sure.

Despite being set up as a villainous force, Rocks almost manages to come across as likeable in this chapter. Give or take the child abuse. I think he makes some decent points that cut to the heart of the Harald’s issues with the Government. Maybe Harald doesn’t know the worst details yet, but it’s undeniable the Government is in the wrong and should be stopped, and it’s probably going to take force to do it. The underhanded pragmatism he takes to his plans is fun to watch as well (you can see where Blackbeard gets it from). Of course, he loses me when he says he’ll simply make himself king instead of destroying the system just to have it gone. I wonder if he thinks the comment about no authority lasting forever will apply to his own future dynasty as well…

This was a great chapter for the 28th anniversary to land on, setting up all kinds of awesome stuff. I don’t dare hope for more Rocks next week. It doesn’t seem like there’s much more to do with him until God Valley, and somehow I think Oda’s going to keep banking that one. I’m sure we’ll see Loki reacting to the news that he fell there – not unlike Oden getting news of Roger’s execution in his flashback. If this is truly the end of the Rocks portion of the flashback, it could make a decent volume ender as well, trailing off onto Rocks’ pirating career and resetting to Loki at the start of the next book.

We’re truly moving into the endgame with this one. This is the first possible end point for volume 113, and while that would make a pretty short volume, it’s a huge reveal to use for the final cliffhanger. Even the cover story is building into something promising with (maybe) the long-awaited reveal of Ryuma’s shrine. Some have cast doubts if it’s really his, and I agree that it’s pretty run down for someone as well-spoken of as Ryuma, but on the other hand I think it makes sense for Ryuma to be hailed as a West Blue hero. Read Monsters and tell me it’s taking place in Wano. Obviously Ryuma got around a bit during his life.

After racing down the timeline for a couple of installments, this chapter eases onto the brakes to develop Loki and Harald’s characters. One thing I appreciate in One Piece flashbacks is that even while they build up their key characters as monolithic figures, they also spotlight their flaws and blind spots. Vegapunk’s thirst for scientific opportunity and lack of social intelligence leave him working for the bad guys. Oden chases his personal adventure instead of resolving Wano’s issues before they become too bad for him to face. Now Harald proves himself to be an excellent king both for his nation and the world, but he’s so focused on that he turns into an awful father. He clearly doesn’t outright abuse Loki like the baby’s mother and uncle did, but his neglect must have made their rejections cut deeper. It’s not that Harald doesn’t care – the pride with which he lifts Loki seems genuine – but he’s too busy to even ask follow-up questions about what’s wrong with his son’s eyes or why he’s injured.

I’m not sure whether to overanalyse Harald’s tears at Estrid’s funeral or not. Even though the marriage was political and she was unpleasant, it’s a natural place to cry if you have even a scrap of empathy, but it’s interesting how the tears are juxtaposed with the narration explaining how Estrid’s legacy was the nation’s superstitious hatred of Loki. Does Harald cry for his son? But surely he hasn’t been home long enough to recognise the damage done to the kid’s reputation yet.

The other side of the coin is Loki himself. I think we can see the truth of the theme surrounding the new generation’s apparently weakness here: Loki, the most vocal advocate so far for toughening them kids up like the good ol’ days, is revealed to be a neglected child lashing out at a world that rejected him. There’s no real ideology underpinning his love of strength and violence, it’s just the only thing he’s ever known that earned him a modicum of control in his life. And what a miserable life it’s been. The poor kid was set up for failure long before he had the agency to do anything more than reach out for comfort. Mum despised him. Her brother just as bad. Dad wasn’t around enough to notice, let alone intervene. How telling it is that the first time we see him smile is when his uncle’s body is found. He found one thing he could do that eased the pain and tried to take further. He grins again as he rampages through the village and tries to raise his own standing by setting Hajrudin lower. But while killing his uncle earned him some respite from abuse, and hurting Hajrudin earned a grudging, fear-driven respect, it can’t make Loki loved. And you can see how that cuts him. Hajrudin’s friends coming to his aid (Gerd has jumped up a few rungs in my mind for her determination here) even though he’s weaker and illegitimate frustrates Loki, making him double down, but the hate in that one woman’s eyes as she cradles her injured child shatters the facade. Then, grimmer than anything, even his suicide attempt fails. How can you not feel bad for this poor kid?

I’m really looking forward to rereading the early parts of this arc with a better understanding of Loki’s psychology to see better what’s under all that bravado. It also reframes the alliance between him and Luffy. There were concerns that Loki was too violent, too almost-villain-coded for it to work out, but now we can see there’s something broken inside him for that friendship to heal. An actual character arc starts to take shape.

There’s a few other random bits of lore scattered through the chapter. The origin of Galley La’s name? And there’s speculation they’re the frozen giants at Punk Hazard, but putting the pages side by side, I’m not sure the match is as exact as it’s made out to be. Guys, do these characters have the same faces, or are they just drawn in the same ultra-high contrast shadows? Jarul’s mention of an army of frozen giants also invokes a little bit of Punk Hazard, but it feels to me like a separate point he’s bringing up to the long lost Galley La guys. And how would people learn about them from inside this top secret Government lab anyway, and has it even been built at this point on the timeline? I’m more inclined to wonder if this is connected to the land of ice Moria found Oars’ corpse in.

But who is this enemy the giants had in the past? The obvious answer and reading of the Harley mural is that it’s the group that became the World Government, but time will have to tell.

The talk of the Reverie sows some interesting seeds about figures of the past, particularly Rocks being there. Was he a king before he was a pirate? I appreciate that the flashback actually lines up with the four year cycle of the meetings. I feel like a lot of authors think too late about things like that and have to handwave a past version being out of sync, but this all feels planned out.

And of course we get the surprise Rocks reveal at the end. Holy shit, look at this dude. He seems like he’s gonna be fun to have onscreen, in an unhinged, chaotic and probably evil kind of way. Blackbeard’s father too. After a couple of arcs of building up Imu, it was about time to put Teach back on the final boss radar. Not much you can say besides that from just an intro page, but I’m excited to see how this relationship builds up next week.

Our flashback is chugging a long at a fairly pleasing pace. Harald’s story plays out fast enough that we didn’t have to wait long for the real key figures of Hajrudin and Loki to turn up. The same can maybe not be said for Yamato’s cover story, which now feels like it’s running down a checklist past the point of its actual plot being resolved, but whatever.

I really enjoy how expressive Harald is in the early pages of the chapter. That Kaido-like portrait we first see him in would never have had me guessing he could look like that after taking a slap in the face. And man, casually destroying a shark with flicked snot in the second page is such a funny detail. Some real Mr 5 moves. Wait, could the secret Devil Fruit of Elbaph really be…?

And speaking of faces, Ida has a pleasantly unique one in a series full of Nami and Robin clones. And I like how her budding romance with Harald plays on the themes of cultural exchange and connectivity that have been building in the series. Vegapunk spoke of how limiting isolation is to people who can’t find the means to travel between island nations in this flooded world the Government has created, and we see that proved as the giants are enriched by the engineering, spices and fabrics of the humans. The messages about not being superior just because you’re born bigger, and the obviously genuine anthropological fascination Harald develops over different cultures as he gets to know Ida resonate with these ideas. We also, a little later on, get the suggestion that celestial navigation is not widespread knowledge in this world, closing up a logical hole in the log pose system that’s existed from the start. Wonder if that’s information the World Government discourages researching.

Few quick lore notes from this bit – Harald swims to collect a shark for the native population of that one island. While the initial exposition about Harald and Loki and the legendary Devil Fruit implied that Harald had the power and Loki killed him to take it, I’m becoming increasingly sure Harald never ate it, as if the panel of the treasure chest last week wasn’t proof enough. Second, the blood-soaked serpent being confirmed as the Red Line. Ain’t that curious, after Dory and Broggy’s mention of the serpent on Little Garden and then the big snake in the Harley mural. If I wanted to theorise boldly I might even mention the ancient Shandians’ worship of their local giant snakes as another possible connection. And finally, Ida’s South Blue origin. It’s curious how many giant colonies there actually are relative to how legendary they’re made out to be in the story. Saul was also a South Blue native. Sanjuan Wolf and Morley are from West Blue. Oars allegedly from the North. They’re on all seas except East Blue and the first half of the Grand Line. And yet when anyone talks giants, and when the World Government needs giant soldiers for military power, it always comes back to Elbaph. Definitely something special about these giants on this island, and I have to wonder if it’s the Ancient Giant genetics they’ve managed to preserve in such relatively high numbers.

But Harald brings Ida back to Elbaph to collide with the politics of the untraveled leaders of his homeland. Hard to argue against tradition with people who’ve never opened themselves up to seeing things another way. I would have liked to see more of Harald feeling conflicted over being forbidden to marry Ida and forced to wed Estrid. And how the relationship plays out after this happens. We’re not given much of an indication of how much, if at all, Harald was able to see Ida and Hajrudin after this, save for Ida thinking Haj would get the chance to meet his half brother. Did Harald and Ida remain lovers, or did the politics of it, or just jealousy from one side or another, force them to call it quits? My first impression of Harald was of the hind of free-spirited royal who would tell his advisors to shove it and do what he wants in scenarios like this, so why not show how the chiefs threatened him or pressured him into submitting? Or had he always been sailing and harassing other nations to get away from the restrictions and pressure of being king?

Estrid puts forward such a pettily hateable persona as she makes herself at home in the palace. This isn’t necessarily a Spandam or Orochi kind of vileness (up until the attempted baby murder) but the insistent and self-serving faux-mysticism lands a lot closer to a kind of person you might actually encounter in real life. Of course geomancy means all the things she wants go closest to her. Of course she makes up (at least that’s how I’m interpreting it) a prophecy that justifies the removal of someone she was already uncomfortable with. Add to the fact that she’s exactly the kind of generic Nami-clone princess I was glad Ida wasn’t, and it’s not looking good for Estrid.

I like her horse though. That thing’s crazy with the legs and the flaming mane and tail. Imagine how small a normal human would be next to that monster. Too bad it’s doomed to die of Loki’s “curse” in the near future.

Of all the reasons for Loki to wear the blindfold, I’m not sure I would have guessed that his eyes were simply weird in a way that provoked superstition. From his reputation, you might think he wouldn’t care about the discomfort his features cause others, that’s their problem, not his, but like Harald’s marriage, the apparently free-spirited and unstoppable warrior is bound by culture, tradition and expectations. I wonder if this is going to be a theme. And has a more educated, modern Elbaph moved away from these kinds of issues? Maybe Loki missed the forest for the trees, getting caught up on losing the right to rampage and pillage and missing that he could have gained the right to walk around barefaced in exchange.

Loki’s return from the Underworld is a crazy note to end this one on. It’s such a classic One Piece tall tale kind of development. And the dead bear as well? God damn, this kid was something else.

What I’m really curious about after this chapter is what’s happened to both Ida and Estrid by the present day. They don’t see to have been counted among the victims of the massacre of the castle, and I don’t recall any other kind of death for them coming up. I’ve been big on Jarul as Loki’s Shaggy friend, but Ida would make for a really interesting dynamic. Well, we have their fates, alive or dead, to discover, the start of Harald’s relationship with the World Government, which may be the focus of the next chapter, and then the main event after that.

I think there’s a chance the flashback could wrap inside of volume 113 if the book runs long to 12 chapters (that’s three more), but I’m not counting on it, and I’d rather Oda take the time to properly flesh everything out here anyway.