Captain M Entertainment

One Piece arcs have slow and bloated midsections that can be difficult to sit through week to week. This is nothing new; we’ve been doing this dance since Skypiea. But it’s the endings, the post-arc lore bombs like this, that make it all worthwhile.

Now, I don’t want to toot my own horn too much, but I feel pretty validated by Garling being promoted to Elder status following Saturn’s fall, which I spitballed in a chapter discussion thread in February, and Punk Records taking off to fill the role of satellite internet, which I was pitching as a way to escape the siege since at least August last year (though admittedly, I thought it could be launched all the way into space). I believe I also said in one of my reviews, when the escape plan was being made and Shaka said the Vegaclones were expendable that Oda seemed to be setting them up for self-sacrifice, but that it didn’t feel like his style to kill them all, but also that he probably also wouldn’t bring the full set of them on the Sunny, so there had to be a third option. And would you look at that, this week we get the third option.

Cover story first. Minatomo’s disappearance has to be linked to the kidnapping foiled in the last installment. There were theories last from the last one that Raizo could be back to his old ways, but he wouldn’t be interested in Minatomo, so the lead theory that it’s a former Beasts Pirate gains ground.

Right away we get a very interesting inferred character interaction for Lucci and Kaku. Is Lucci lying for Kaku? You can tell from Kaku’s face that something difficult for him has gone down. I’d love to someday see the conversation that preceded this scene, but that wouldn’t have the engagement factor of trying to fill in the gaps short term. And then, where is Stussy? I don’t believe for a second that she’s dead, but would she have made it to Punk Records before its takeoff?

Next, we learn some big things about the Five Elders. We know from the Gum Gum Fruit being a myth even to them that the Elders of today do not date back to the Void Century, but Saturn at least goes back 200 years. So the demonic forms come with a kind of agelessness. And shortly after, that the forms come with the position, seemingly bestowed by Imu and taken away just as easily. The first big clue about how to beat these guys, and a deepening of the mystery of who and what Imu is. And what an unexpectedly brutal and satisfying way for Saturn to go. A fantastic escalation for the series’ endgame.

Earlier than expected, the setup of the cloud machine’s importance pays off. But I’ll be honest, the mechanics of how the clouds are moving to pick up only Punk Records and not the rest of the lab aren’t really clear. And what the heck was York shooting at? Seems like she breaks the connection between the two halves of the eggshell, but that only makes it easier to steal Punk Records. Bit of a weird one.

You can’t help marveling at the sheer entitlement of the Celestial Dragons in their little sequence. How about that guy saying the sinking of the world wouldn’t impact him. Dude, you’re starving to death because you don’t have a way to grow your own food on top of your rock. You’re getting a taste of what it’s going to be like when the lower world goes away right now. And the obvious implication that while they have fewer choices and extras, the Celestial Dragons themselves are still eating well. The guy complaining about fish has a full plate, and another is still fed decently enough that snacks are an expectation. All while the chef serves on a growling stomach. You can see how far things are being stretched to make sure the haves keep having while the have-nots feel the impact first. There’s no saving these guys.

Garling joining the Elders is an awesome development. Can’t wait to learn more about this guy. And will he adopt Saturn’s demon form, or while he get ihs own monster to play. For how relatively late he’s come in this story, this guy’s already been fantastically set up as a villain.

I also think it’s worth noting how the Elders treat Garling when he walks in, before they know he’s joined their ranks. Garling seems to have been about as highly ranked as a non-Elder Celestial Dragon could be, a Holy Knight with the authority to execute an otherwise untouchable nobleman. But the Elders confront him about coming into their space without stated business. They demand deference. He’s told to know his place. There’s clearly a towering difference in rank that they expect to see respected, even though all present are Celestial Dragons.

The new Vegapunk Frankenclone is certainly something. I do enjoy the asymmetry of the giant Atlas arm though. I wonder if this entity will get a new name. I wonder if these guys would consider manipulating the information in Punk Records to mislead or mess with York should she try to reconnect. Hopefully they’ve learned enough to do the things York and the Stella did to prevent info they don’t want seen from syncing.

When I spoke about the last spread of chapter 1121, with the key players of the final saga, I raised the possibility of unexpected rivalries, but I’m still surprised to see Revolutionaries considering the implications of a run at the One Piece. Sabo and Luffy becoming rivals, even if they’re friendly about it, would be a crazy place to escalate things to.

Ivan realises something about the bridge projects, but I’m not sure I see it the same way. They don’t seem tall enough to escape the flood, but maybe they’re not just to live on. They could be ways for the people of the lower world to make pilgrimage to the Redline. Or they could have been intended to slant gradually upward as they extend out. There’s a few ways it could work, but no single one sticks out as the answer.

Meanwhile Dragon leaves us with some relevant social commentary. As much as we’ve all been thinking about Vegapunk’s words sparking rebellions and anger against the World Government, there would definitely also be panic and war. If the WG is smart, it can stoke the battles for dwindling space and keep the peasants below distracted fighting each other for as long as possible so no one has time to think long enough or get a big enough force together to challenge it directly. Will the Revolutionaries have a way to capture the hearts and minds of the whole world and unite them to collective safety instead of personal survival?

This has been the kind of One Piece chapter I’m here for. The sheer amount of work my rewrite project was taking had me a little burned out on the series last week, but all these big developments and hints to future lore and events are a shot in the arm. Can’t wait to see what Oda has in store next.

Egghead lingers on for one last coda, but it’s worth staying for, closing those last few emotional openings that we’d all been wondering about. But there’s kind of not a lot to say about it. The things that happen pay off the arc’s buildup in ways that make sense, and they all work well in those functions. To try and overanalyse what makes them work would just sound like ‘this is a good ending because it follows up on this, this and this happening earlier,’ and at that point I’m just recapping the arc. But we don’t need to go too deep to know this is a good chapter. It just has to be read for the feeling that it works to come across.

The Vivi and Morgans dynamic has proved unexpectedly fun since they got paired up, although I don’t think Wapol contributes quite as much to it. Morgans is still such an enjoyable character on the whole, chasing only the money, whether that means defying the Government to tell the truth, or defying the truth to put a dramatic spin. His attitude toward the world sinking is the ultimate show of how it’s all about him. Big fan of Vivi’s ‘don’t expect to live through it anyway’ attitude here. That’s a girl with nothing left to lose. It makes me very excited to see what her role is going to be in the upcoming arcs and the series’ finale.

I’m happy to see Sentomaru making it out, even if it’s rough how left in the lurch the guy must be now. Too bad for him he couldn’t make it to the giants’ ship. But if Sentomaru is escaping alone, what will come of Stussy and (maybe) Edison? I’m still betting on a cover story.

Borsalino’s breakdown absolutely steals the show this week. It hits home the subtext that’s been building through the arc to make him a much more nuanced figure than I think anyone would have guessed from his introduction at Sabaody. Maybe more surprising is Sakazuki’s acknowledgement of his own insensitivity. Makes you wonder what kind of conversation went down between him and Garp post-Marineford…

It’s good seeing the crew acknowledge their failure to save Vegapunk and process it in different ways. Even with a way to soften the blow and move on almost immediately, there’s good characterisation in Zoro’s harshness, Franky and Jinbei’s rationalising, and Luffy’s despondentness. On the pick-up, I speculated last week that the links between Vegapunks would be a justification – they clearly share the stella’s memories from before their creation. Lilith is obviously taking on traits and functions from the fallen satellites, but it’s not clear how much of their minds and memories are coming with that data. And how is it being transferred with the connection to Punk Hazard severed? Hopefully she stays in the limelight through Elbaf so we can see the actual capacity at which the others are alive through her.

I’m a big fan of the art showing how small everyone is compared to giant furniture as well. That makes me excited for the Elbaf setting.

The last party scene makes for a beautiful spread, especially finally seeing Jinbei as a part of one of these. The new outfits so soon is an interesting touch as well. Are these the Elbaf fits, or will we get new, viking-inspired ones after making landfall?

And the final stinger might just be the guy drinking with Crocus from that one cover story! I’ve waited so long, please don’t let it be a fakeout. What’s with the ‘war-land’ epithet and ominous rumble on the Elbaf establishing shot though? Not sure we’ve seen those before. A somewhat ominous lead-in to the new adventure.

The short pagecount and another break are definitely unfortunate, but with a new island on the horizon, I’m more excited than upset. Oda’s obviously been waiting to draw this one for a very long time, so I’m keep to see what he’s got in store.

The idea of arcs and sagas as a two-tier approach to story structure exists mostly in fan wikis rather than officially released material, but it was an effective way to show how a lot of the overarching pre-timeskip stories came together over multiple islands. Post-timeskip, that model became largely irrelevant as everything started to point towards Wano as one massive saga made up of old-saga-length arcs. But here we are again, at what can only be described as the start of a new saga, for the first time in a dozen years.

Yes, Egghead has a self-contained story locked to its local setting, as all arcs in all sagas have, but as the crew sails away from its ending, we realise how much is left up in the air. Bonney and Kuma got symbolic blows in on the architect of their suffering and are out of immediate danger, but they don’t yet have a place to settle. I was a little surprised that this final act of Egghead didn’t address more directly how much of Kuma’s mind can still be salvaged. This chapter raises questions about what death means for a consciousness as fragmented as Vegapunk’s, and what the implications are of a satellite surviving instead of the stella. The Seraphim remain a threat, beaten only offscreen using easy-win technology the crew won’t have access to again. Overarching villains have been teased, but circumstances aligned to prevent a direct confrontation. It’s like being at the end of, say, Whiskey Peak again. Act one of something much, much bigger.

The cover story’s quick resolution to the kids’ assault on Yamato rings true to the way Oda has tackled themes of prejudice in the past. Think of Hody, who harboured all this hatred based only on the stories told to him by the adults in his life. He was too far gone, but these kids are young enough to have their horizons broadened if other influences are offered. Putting hate to rest by getting to know each other over food and drink feels like a very One Piece thing to do.

But does Oda intend to test this idea by giving Yamato an enemy who won’t be so easily brought to the table?

The opening scenes ease in slowly, (enough so that I wonder if this could be the start of volume 111 instead of the last chapter) and let the fallout of the last chapter’s ending simmer, but S-Snake’s consciousness is a detail worth noting. Are the Seraphim that strong, or are they instead that inhuman?

And in a key example of why I didn’t try to fit an Egghead reread and full arc review in last week, Vegpaunk’s flashback comes right in on the home stretch to fill in gaps and provide the bigger picture. Weekly reading can be tough. You just don’t have the full story until you have the full story.

But the timing’s good for this actually. My copy of volume 106 came in last week and obviously got a read when it did, and a lot of the stuff here builds on things in that volume.

Vegapunk’s personality comes through hard here, and it’s been consistent from the start. He’s a genius when it comes to tech, but he has massive blind spots when it comes to people and politics, as well as simply not knowing what genre of story he’s in. His choices were probably not the optimal way to handle the situation, but they were undeniably the Vegapunk way to do it. Look back to the start of the arc and Vegapunk’s passion for the ideas of infinite energy and widespread access to information. Of course he’s not going to dismantle the Mother Flame before the Government can take it, he wants to perfect it so the whole world can use it. Is that playing with fire, risking handing an authoritarian empire a power source for their ultimate weapon? Werner von Punk hasn’t concerned himself with the negative potential of his ideas before. Watch him dismiss Jinbe’s concerns about the Punk Records database being poisoned by ideologically-driven misinformation. That stuff is not his department, he just wants to finish building things. Vegapunk sold out on his revolutionary sympathies to get Government funding; we see him debate Dragon over this choice. All of these factors run consistently into a personality that would milk the status quo for as long as possible, and try to finish as much work as possible, with his last act of rebellion set to go off only in the event of his death.

His perspective on the decision not to run makes sense as well. The World Government seems so large and so inevitable to a person who has to live with it. Even in lawless lands, the idea of being iced quietly by a Cipher Pol operative would scan as a real threat. Even Wano wasn’t safe from that kind of thing. I can see how running seemed pointless in his circumstances. At least staying on Egghead, the assassins ring the front doorbell and give you a moment to make peace. And, of course, the chance for a death that’s bombastic and impossible to come up. What would have happened to his countermeasure if the Government had launched a smear campaign to discredit him and reattribute his accomplishments to others the moment he fled? This way, Vegapunk’s narrative gets out first.

Now, this is a Shonen manga where a big million to one play of determination and defiance would have been rewarded, like the Strawhats declaring war on the whole Government for Robin, but we can’t expect Vegapunk to know he’s in that kind of story.

A very interesting point of emphasis in this section of the story is the Cloud Plant. The Buster Call sure as hell didn’t care to spare it, but it’s the place Edison was last seen before his signal went dead. If he came to the same conclusion about its importance as Vegapunk-stella does here while hearing the broadcast, he might have gone offline deliberately and made off with a vital component needed to recreate the technology on the run. My stance was ‘died from his injuries until Oda gives a reason to think otherwise,’ and this feels just vague enough to make a reason. The next cover story could be his and Stussy’s great escape from the burning island, slipping onto a ship or through the blockade while everyone else is knocked out by Emet’s Haki bomb. Let’s stick a pin in that one.

And we also get the question of what it means for Vegapunk to die, with his brain separate from his body, and his mind duplicated across half a dozen androids. The lines are blurry; the clones can seemingly share the stella’s memories from before they were created – seen through Shaka being the one to trigger the brief flashback to the aftermath of Ohara. But there’s also a heirarchy. We’re told its the satellites’ duty to die to protect the stella, as if there’s something special or extra about him that the others lack. But the lack of significant mourning or atmosphere of loss over the stella may be because Oda intends us to think Vegapunk lives on through Lilith. Again, things still to explore.

Now the memory erasure. To be honest, this one does feel a little like it was done for the drama. They’ve managed to not let anything slip and keep the information from syncing with Punk Records for two weeks as they set up and execute their contingency, but now it’s a threat that something could come out? Okay, but then he leaves a note revealing everything short of the traitor’s identity anyway. Surely the a scientist’s curious need to investigate the claims on the note would cause more disruption than just holding onto the lie. No, this one was done mainly to keep Vegapunk from giving the whole game away to the Strawhats as soon as they arrive.

On the flip side, the conversation with Sanji fills in a gap I remember talking about as it happened. Why did Vegapunk disappear from Sanji’s side and wander back into the fire off screen when he was poised to escape? I’d said there felt like there was a beat missing there, and here it is. Good work closing that hole, Oda.

This is running long already, so I won’t go too deep into Elbaf expectations from the last page. There’ll be plenty of time for that in the months to come, but I’m pleased to see it looking like something Oda’s excited to draw, with that same passionate energy as the introduction of Wano. He’s been waiting for this, and so have we. Looking forward to watching this final saga continue to develop next week!

See, all you people who ask why we don’t see more of Smoker, all you have to do to make him appear is write a decade-long bestselling rival manga. If you wanted it that bad you’d be doing it already, so get cracking!

In all actual seriousness though, Hero Aca had a strong run and Oda’s tributes to hit both on the cover and in his author comment, are very sweet. Horikoshi has earned a big rest and break after all he’s done, but as much as Oda has too, there’s still obviously a lot of One Piece to go.

This is overall a pretty standard winding down chapter, hitting all the expected beats of powering down the broadcast, giving Emet its moment in the spotlight with the secret weapon and putting the Strawhats and the giants on the open sea, outside the Marine blockade, and ready to sail for the next island. I think we’ll be getting at least one chapter of cooldown between now and Elbaf, probably focusing on the World Government’s efforts to put out the fires Vegapunk just started, or the other Emperors and main players we haven’t seen yet (like most of the Strawhat Grand Fleet) getting their ducks in a row surrounding all this new info.

Koby’s choice to get between Luffy and his dream is very interesting. The question is, who would he have take the One Piece and decide the fate of the world instead? Given his presence on the last chapter’s final spread, could he be planning to get it personally and reform the Marines to his preference?

We get a rare moment of Buggy showing actual competence rather than just failing upward. He’s playing the crowd perfectly to maximise loyalty and morale. Which makes you wonder what Crocodile’s so upset about. Probably because he’s generating loyalty to himself only, leaving out the other two leaders.

I’m happy to see Emet realise the distinction between Luffy and Joyboy. They’re not the same person, and it would get old fast (and do nothing for accusations of reincarnation/time travel) if everything from the ancient past was permanently calling Luffy by the wrong name. Very curious about the idea of making Joyboy a king through. Will this turn out to be the entymology of the current day’s pirate king title?

And I love the panel of the Elders leaping at the Sunny and the giants’ longboat. The sense of scale is incredible.

The longterm stored Haki is an interesting concept. One of the first things we learned about Armament Haki is that it can be made to linger in an object after the user lets it go, enough to loose a powerful Haki arrow, so it tracks to be able to scale that up and make it linger longterm, especially having learned that Conqueror’s Haki can be used the same way as Armament. I wouldn’t want ancient Haki storage to become too regular of a thing from this point, but it’s definitely being set up for one more future maccguffin or deus ex machina, and I can live with that.

What I’m not as much of a fan of, as it appears here, is the Haki blast erasing the Elders’ demonic forms. Haki has never previously been a lockout thing. We’re shown back on Amazon Lily that raw speed and power can overcome Haki, and even with the addition of using it for coating in Wano, Conqueror’s was more of a dickmeasuring thing between the super ambitious than a necessary skill. If the one in a million bonus ability turns out to be a necessary weapon against otherwise invincible demons, I will very disappointed. Worse, at no point in the skirmishes with the Elders up to this point, can I see the trademark lightning crackle of Conqueror’s Haki on Luffy’s attacks. It would be hard to justify him just not using the one technique that would have worked through the whole arc just to keep these guys feeling menacing.

But look. We don’t know what the deal is yet. It does no good for anyone’s mental health or the quality of discussions to imagine the worst case scenario and get mad at it before it’s confirmed. I can wait.

For example, on the topic of not having the full picture yet, there’s the teleporting. I don’t think Emet’s attack forced them to go back, because if it did Saturn would be back on his ship instead of remaining on the island, but I don’t think the situation for the others was dire enough that they would have chosen to retreat. Maybe their recall had to do with Imu’s distress. Mysteries remain about these guys.

And then a Joyboy flashback. That was really unexpected at this point, although the hat and coat in the silhouette are not all that surprising. Scale in One Piece is tricky and not always consistent, but he definitely looks too small to be a giant, and probably too small to wear the Marie Geoise frozen strawhat as well. The X mark on Emet’s arm is a sweet touch, recalling the Strawhats at Alabasta. The way the two speak here make me feel like we’re in for a real tragedy when we finally get their full story and the way they failed. We know Oda doesn’t hold back on the flashbacks.

So that’s probably the full stop on Egghead. At least a semicolon, depending on if the between-island cutaways lean Egghead or Elbaf. The first half of this arc was a breath of fresh air, the second half treated very unkindly by breaks. I’m looking forward to doing my reread and seeing how much things change when I don’t have to wait. But above all else, I’m thrilled to have Elbaf so close on the horizon.

I think there can be no doubt about it – this is the climax of Egghead and the finale of volume 110. There may technically be one last chapter to go at the start of the next volume as Emet makes his final play and Vegapunk signs off, but there’s no mistaking that the moment Oda wanted to build to is this.

First thing of note here is the title. People have been saying this since the spoilers dropped, so you’re probably not hearing it from me first, but the chapter’s title references part of Roger’s quote from the start of chapter 100. “Inherited will. A man’s dream. The tides of the eras.” Both previous parts, at least in Japanese, have also been chapter titles and the titles of the volumes containing those chapters (chapter 145/volume 16 and chapter 224/volume 24). The English releases, unfortunately, have not maintained the same consistency of wording between the original quote and their chapter/volume titles. I really don’t want to become the kind of content creator you come to for a simple review and have to skim over him pitching his side projects, so I won’t go on too long, but catching these kinds of things is exactly why I wanted to start my One Piece Rewrite Project for so long. This is such a powerful set of series-long connections to draw and a shame for English readers not to have, but also not something you can blame the older translators for because it would take more than 20 years of foresight to know how important it was meant to be.

The colour spread has a very pleasant, summery vibe to it with some really strong colour work. It’s the coldest, wettest part of winter here, so I appreciate the reminder of warmer weather. Off-hand, the idea of a giant Nami and a lot of ice cream sounds like its reusing the concept from chapter 1011’s spread, but in practice the two look and feel different. But having seen the prototype with the crew building a model Merry, yeah, I wish we’d gotten that instead. It would have been a much better fit to celebrate the anniversary as well. Can only hope Oda decides to take another shot at the idea at some point.

Finally moving onto the chapter proper, the first thing that stands out is Luffy’s choice to elevate Bonney. He’s winding up his own attack when he notices her feelings, and, even without knowing the backstory himself, encourages her to participate in the final blow. This shows both an emotional perceptiveness and a willingness to share the spotlight that might scan as uncharacteristic of Luffy. But it feels like character growth to me. We saw this behaviour develop through his relationship with Momo, and it seems to have stuck. And boy does that final punch feel good. Bonney’s bit about her loneliness and the family she wanted to have is tragic and moving. Saturn well and truly earned that hit, even if he’s almost definitely not dead yet.

But I can’t help thinking this might have had more impact if this had been the first time Bonney achieved the Nika transformation. Let it be the giants and/or Strawhats who team up with Luffy to throw Mars away and save Bonney for the battle that’s personal to her. But whatever. Maybe the mood would have been wrong to achieve a Nika transformation if Saturn was already on deck. He’s not exactly a figure who inspires joy.

It might also have been cool to see Kuma contribute, but that tiny little smile he offers after it’s done speaks volumes. His survival, combined with Bonney’s little fantasy spot of living with him and Ginny, feels like death for Bonney’s odds of joining the crew. She’s got a home to return to that she’s been missing. Her happiest ending is getting it.

Vegapunk sneaks a few final revelations into his closing remarks. Connections are drawn between the Lunarians, Buccaneers and Three-eyes as races oppressed in relation to the Void Century. The first two we knew about, but as much sense as it makes, what with the ability to read Poneglyphs, the Three-eyes are not something I’d thought about tying into that thread. It’s reiterated, also, that the World Government might have usurped the top of the Red Line from the Lunarians. I wonder if the oni/ogres will eventually fall into this category as well?

And of course, we have the kick-off of the final scramble for the One Piece. Given what’s been said, it makes sense for the Marines to finally consider prioritising it to keep a pirate or Revolutionary from claiming the power the decide the fate of the world.

I’m going all in on the last spread being the key figures of this last war. Maybe Law and Kid could struggle back as wildcards, but I think Oda’s telling us they’ve lost their shot at being major contenders. Plus, we’ve got an existing wildcard in the totally unknown silhouetted figure down there. People are maybe jumping the gun being so quick to call him Shanks-y with so little info, but I am personally a believer in the evil twin theory. What’s sticking in my mind though, is how many of the faces shown are obstinately on the same side presently. Blackbead and Kuzan; Sabo and Dragon; and Sakazuki and Koby, who themselves are subordinate to Imu and Garling. I wonder if the suggestion is that each of these figures has some kind of their own agenda and could end up at odds with any of the others. For some, the divide is obvious. Kuzan’s true loyalties have been the subject of debate for years. SWORD making a splinter group of good Marines is on every final arc bingo card. But Sabo embracing his new solo identity as the Flame Emperor and creating friction with Dragon could be an interesting twist.

So that’s it. The world has caught up to where the readers are and the race for the prize has been officially declared. Things can only get really crazy from here. I’m tempted to use the break week to reread Egghead in full, but I’d rather save it for when the island is definitively done with, Emet and all, rather than have to adjust opinions over a last few chapters like when rereading Wano during the mid-epilogue break month.

Nineteen pages without even the extra two added by a colour spread. Wow. This hasn’t happened since… chapter 869, back in 2017. We’re 10 chapters into volume 110 but I don’t think it’s over yet, not with the amount of 13 pagers in the run. I think there’s a pretty good chance this volume and this arc reach a climax together next week, which would be a cool pair of things to coincide with the 27th anniversary. Held back by extra breaks and short chapters, there’s no denying the broadcast chapters have felt slow on the weekly read – it’s hard to believe there’s only been 8 of them – but this penultimate release builds up a lot of momentum for the finale, and I’m genuinely looking forward to my reread of the full arc once it’s done.

I love the details of the young dragon and the Number poking its head over the gate in the opening flashback, but if you want a real continuity deep cut, you can see in the ’22 years ago’ establishing shot the same rear entrance to the lab Law uses in the Punk Hazard arc, recognisable even without the destruction and snowfall.

I’m not sure how I feel about the murder of Clover’s brother over his D. Does it track fully with what we know the the World Government would be so ruthless with them? On one hand, the Trafalgar famiy’s choice to hide their D seems to point towards persecution. On the other, Garp and Saul’s ranks in the Marines feel like a contradiction. It’s hard to gauge what the world at large really thinks of the D, if they think of it at all, and how dangerous it is to openly be one. But at least Vegapunk’s speculation that Clover was let do on the assumption he would draw more Ds out of hiding offers Oda an out for any Ds that were let live when they shouldn’t have. It’ll be interesting to see if the level of threat is clarified later in an SBS.

As expected, Nusjuro is being kept around to stall the Sunny from taking off and make sure the events of the finale happen in sync. What I didn’t expect is Atlas being the one to get the last action against him, and how tragic that would be. Man, she was my favourite Vegaclone. The big sad eyes as she says she’s leaving Lilith in the crew’s hands are rough. That childlike, Astro Boy-like design doesn’t feel like something that should be cut up and bloodsplattered, let alone killed off. But she gets to end it as a hero, saving the Sunny, the crew and one part of Vegapunk in the process. Hard to ask for a better way to go out than that.

Down below, we get some solid humour with Luffy and Emet. It’s good for Luffy stay as obvious as possible to Joyboy, Nika and their implications. At least, he should continue to not care about them. The Gear Five transformation doesn’t change who Luffy has been without the Joyboy connections up to this point, and Oda will be smart to keep the revelations from influencing the core character.

It’s a tough dose of reality for Emet’s cooler features to malfunction from the years of decay. I’m sure that rocket fist would have been cool. The amount of damage done to it here seems to suggest the robot will not be joining us for the next arc. I think it would be a little redundant for the final move it seems to be building up to be another self-destruct though. Maybe a beam similar to the Mother Flame-powered Uranus that makes an ocean crater out of Egghead?

And then there’s Saturn. I’ve said in my past two reviews that something had to happen with him to put a bow on the Kuma and Bonney story. It’s too personal. He always had to be the final Elder confronted as the crew departs. But we still can’t do lasting damage to him, and though Luffy has shown the ability to pick and throw the demonic spider, I doubt he’d fall for that twice. So who takes Saturn off the ship? The most tragic answer would be Kuma, whose presence is emphasised as Saturn lands. Can he launch Saturn from the ship, or the ship from under Saturn, without it being an ultimate sacrifice? Kuma’s had such a hard go of it, I really want him to get some downtime with his daughter one or both of them is inevitably being drawn into the final battle, but if I was writing the series I’d be seriously tossing up giving the readers one last gut punch to cement the retreat from Egghead as a costly loss for the heroes right about now.

There’s been a decent chunk of fandom negativity over the broadcast these past few months, but I think this chapter built up some solid momentum, and my energy’s high to see how Egghead concludes next week (or maaaaaaybe the week after) and I hope I’m not alone in that.