Greg- I think I commented on this last chapter, somewhere, but my note and impression of the time was, "This is going to really kill me when I read it all as one chunk, its ALMOST choking me up now." Cause the raw emotions and efforts and sacrifices being put forth by the crew were all interesting and touching, but in 4 page increments they didn't have time to build… but once all 8 are together, and you get emotion and determination one after another, its some powerful stuff.
As for the haki explanation, yes, us fanatics who think about the series all the time and examine bits and pieces at length repeatedly, of course its old news to us and we figured it out some time ago. It means Oda's been playing fair. But what about all the other, much more causal viewers?
As it is, it confirmed what we thought, gave a couple more minor details about it, and now its all officially settled information. We're good to go and now we can stop waiting for an explanation after 3 years.
I agree, it was a little underwhelming as a last chapter, but combined with the previous couple it comes together pretty strong.
Oh, and it was already pointed out earleir in here, but did you notice Luffy's hat still has scratch marks from when Buggy clawed it?
@Don:
I think only Zoro being trained by Mihawk is cheap.
Rayleigh said hes going to teach Luffy only the basics..means it
s still up to Luffy that he will be successful in mastering them.
Also Luffy already showed that he has the power in him..he just needs a way to chanel them somehow useful.
And all these exact same sentiments don't apply to Zoro… why?
Do you really think Zoro is going to master every Mihawk technique to perfection and surpass him in 2 years off camera?
I'm not a huge fan of the development, BUT, it actually introduces WAY MORE interesting story avenues between the two down the road. Their inevitable clash should be a lot more emotional now, after being together for two years, than it was before where they were jsut happened to meet once strangers. (And thats without the speculation that Shiryu will off Mihawk. That seems extraneous. Mihawk is officially sided with the government. Zoro is a pirate. They will have to battle evnetually for a variety of reasons.)
Considering that EVERY time we've seen Mihawk since Baratie, he's been exceptionally interested in Luffy and Zoro... first with Shanks, then the shichi council, then again during the war... Mihawk was really eagerly looking forward to seeing how these rookies rose. he even went ALL OUT against Luffy, and Luffy survived. (Be it by luck or aid, is irrelevant, Luffy survived, which was his test) That has to pique his interest.
Note how disappointed he was when he was assuming Zoro failed against the baboons, and that he was expecting Zoro to be struggling against them still. He was annoyed that his interesting spark in his dull bored uber swordsman life had been extinguished. (He lost interest in Shanks after he lost an arm, and he chased Krieg just for the hell of it. And he has no crew. Dude is bored.) And then Zoro instead says "Oh yeah, I already took care of those guys, no problem. That's not the issue."
Suddenly, Mihawk's appraisal is raised, he respect Zoro again, and is delighted and interested in his potential even more. He'd been underestimating him, the delightful opponent he was looking forward to, and he'd been underestimating his current ability! And he wants to train... for the sake of that other guy that Mihawk went all out against... who survived, and had King's Haki! What a thrill, of course he'll take some delight in playing with and shaping that kind of potential.