Well of course I read it as soon as it came out, however I have reread it several times since then and read the comments posted on this thread regarding the chapter. If anyone still cares to read it, here is my input about chapter 651.
We start off with Sanji, Luffy and Zoro tracking down Caribou. Now here is where I would like to mention something. Did you notice how in the last chapter, it was Luffy who hinted at Caribou (some creature) residing in the palace and than he sought confirmation from his 2 strongest guys. And they said…
"now that you have mentioned it…"
This may not be a big thing but after additional connection from this chapter where we see it is Luffy who finds Caribou or at least so it is implied with Luffy saying: "Zoro Sanji I found it already"
As I said it may be nothing, but it could very well imply that as far as observation haki goes, Luffy's is at a level that is higher…
There are two things regarding Zoro I really liked in that scene. First, the fact that he isn't all that dumb and he connected the dots by saying Caribou must have hid the treasure in that swamp like body of his. The second thing is a really well done gag, when Luffy asks him which way is the town and after Zoro replies, Sanji just casually adds that they should go the opposite way. That was really subtle and nicely done by Oda.
So we move from there, to the candy factory where we get a new character introduced. To be honest with you guys, I don't really dig Pekoms looks/design it is however interesting to say the least, that he is some kind of a lion but like some have already mentioned, is talking like a human, so, while we can explain why is that with Chopper and while we had some guesses why would that be the case with Bepo (Law's ability) this time around, this makes things complicated. Awakened Zoan has crossed my mind however those we have seen in ID were incredibly dumb and Pekoms, while he has his charms, is looking quite a bit more intelligent than that.
So what is Pekoms? It could be that Oda just let us know there are those kind of "people" in the world as well, or what I think is far more possible, that he has a Zoan DF LION and this is just the hybrid form.
Ok let me move on. Well than comes the entire set up for the gist of this chapter. You just know something will go horrible wrong when you see Fish folk trying to explain how the Candy are missing because of an attack from Hodi's gang and Luffy walks in...
I was waiting for the "bomb" to fall but even so it was damn funny. It is just in a way Oda does this stuff and makes Luffy sound so carefree in the process.
It was also this scene, which let's us know that Big Mom's crew or at least these 2 are well informed about Luffy's deeds. Pekoms says it to himself right away: "So this is the FAMED pirate" which basically means, ok we figured Luffy must be well known now even in the NW, well here we go a confirmation from Oda.
Than the second character gets introduced. This one seems more important, this one's design is also the one I really like. A lot more serious theme to it, more mature.
He seems to be the type, not to rush things, which is well displayed by his words, and attitude (casually drinking that tea) . Now I don't know why, but something about his design screams some type of spider ZOAN, but that is probably not the case, just something I immediately thought about. Also what is that next to his body on page 8 of manga stream. A gun?
Ok, so this guy explains something very important. He not only explains the deal Big Mom has with FI, he basically denies her good intentions explaining that she only does it for the benefits. Which instantly puts her on not so good guys zone. It is also worth noting, that she is not offering any kind of physical or actual protection to FI. Just her Flag and that is it! IMO she basically doesn't care if the entire place gets destroyed as long as her supply of Candy is coming in regulary.
Ok so than we get a bit of a map relocation as we head to the NEW World and again someone has noted it may be important that the brackets which present the entire scene say: " IN A CERTAIN SEA in NW" It may give us some hint on how New World is actually "built" but it can also be just a way Oda chose to word it and it is perfectly normal.
So the first introduction we get with the Yonkou Big Mom is on some Cake like Island where she claims that she ll have some tea party... Now am I the only one who notices a lack of piracy in that entire department, or...?
A serious pirate wouldn't exactly host a Tea party, in all of her excitement towards the sweets she even sings the words "so excited, so excited"... Now that is a bit weird I would say and imo speaks a ton about her character, which may be a lot more immature than the other famous pirates we have seen so far.
To continue her description, people her are discussing the option of her having either the Acid Acid Devil fruit or the Cake Cake DF or something along those lines. Based on, two facts, which are well worth noting!
First one, which is imo a bit less important is her own words saying her stomach acid is overflowing, but what I think speaks more in favor of this comment is like someone mentioned the fact, that may be the reason why she eats all those candy, to calm down her stomach...
Well I personally don't believe this theory and find it too direct as well as not a enough of a serious ability for a Yonkou, together with the fact that the above points are really a stretch of a theory.
The other comment and a guess I have seen floating on this boards, is imo a lot more serious with a lot more serious "proof" to base it on. We can see or at least deduce that she just ate her subordinates or at least some people and if she likes sweets so much...why on earth would she eat human flesh...
There are only 4 possible options
- the inhabitants of that Cake Cake island are a bit special and candy like
- Her crew is consisted of some weird DF like people who taste like candy or something...
- She has someone in her crew to change people with their DF to candy
- she herself posses such a fruit
And I must say that option 3 and 4 are by far the most logical one and what would further on back the 4th one are these two notions. First of, this DF is incredibly hax, I can't even begin to describe how incredibly hax it is, to be able to turn your opponents into some type of food. It would explain how on earth she became a Yonkou but surely there must be some limit or some special way to go about it, just like with Law or probably Bonney for that matter.
Second notion is, that since we all know Oda likes Dragon Ball and respects Torijama from who he took on many ideas, we all remember the great evil of Majin Buu and his ability to turn people into food...?
Well here we go...
Those are just some thoughts on that, but let us continue. The three eyes girl...there is something, something really strange with her and it is not the three eyes thing. She seems to be sitting on some chair in that cave or who knows where and the chair looks a bit odd as well.
Than we see the dots and her closing the eyes, while Moma is eating her lunch, which would imo suggest disapproval of her actions. Either way she looks really sad in that first shot we get to see her up close. And just as we wonder about the girl, this guy walks in, name Bobbin from the way it looks. He returned together with some nasty looking crew, from what seems to be the burning down of an entire country because they failed to deliver the sweets that were promised to BM. Which by the way nicely rounds up the words which minister of the left has spoken in the last chapter when he said, that this is a monster who would destroy an entire country for sweets and if there was any doubt before this, it is crystal clear now. Big Moma is definitely a MONSTER and if we draw a simple line, on the side where the BAD GUYS of the series lay.
The guy Bobbin whether he is just drawn funny as he swings his head, or it is that he actually has multiple faces or masks I really like his design and speaking of which, here is where Oda really surprised me. Big Moma is really that, Big and to make it all even scarier she is really grotesque looking as well. The only part of her image I got right was the scary part and when we see her screaming on the top of her lungs when Bobbin tells her FI just called in and no Candy for her is in order... she just looks psychotic. I must say this. Everything we have learned about her till this point, together with this image of her we just got may mean we may be facing the most dangerously sick, evil, and twisted enemy yet.
Moving on back to FI where Tamago confirms that if the Sweets will not be delivered the " MONSTERS" of Big Mom's crew will invade and destroy FI. It is interesting how he uses the term, monsters...
And here we get to a point where Luffy really shines. First the entire reaction. What the f. destroyed? We just saved this island dammit.
And here the phone rings and yeah, although we have seen it before, it was still a bit unexpected and definitely hilarious and cool at the same time seeing Luffy picking up that phone and not only that, but to start the conversation like only he knows how.
I am Monkey D. Luffy a man who will become a pirate king. Heh that line nearly killed me. It is interesting how calmly Big Mom responds and even more that she connects his name to Garp and not Dragon ...but Garp, it may have some deeper meaning... to which she adds, the man who stirred up the war. Meaning his actions were not even close to that of an ant or a Yonkou would have surely missed them, but yeah ok we knew that already.
Now the following words and expression from Luffy is nothing short of Epic and I will remember it well.
"There is no more Candy. I ate it all!"
And to say it with that look on his face, that is important. It means that Luffy, as naive as he can often be, has grasped the entire situation and taken it very seriously in fact this is the point we know Luffy will make it clear to BM that he is seriously pissed, that she would go and do one thing he cannot stand above them all, and that is to hurt or threaten his friends and that is just what she indirectly did. However he does show a lot of maturity even at this point, which is something worth noting and consider as his character development. He decides to offer his entire treasure he just looted to compensate for the "losses" and that is more then being generous especially if we know that Luffy is at no fault here.
Than we get dropped an additional info on two things. Firstly how Big Mom operates, when Tamago explains 2 ships of her were sank and truth be told they are hurting a bit on the financial side as well.
Second is naturally Captain Kid being the one to have sunk them
With first piece of info you do wonder, is her crew big? Well I think it must be in order to have multiple ships and perhaps not even knowing of their status…
Second piece of info confirms to us what was already hinted. When we saw all of the SN apart from Law in the NW we saw a lot of different situations. We saw Kid continue with his killing like it does not matter if it is the old or the New World, we saw Apoo, Begge, Bonney, and Urouge getting themselves in quite of a mess and we saw Drake openly confronting a Yonkou and Basil doing alright as well. It may be just different situations but it may also be something a lot more symbolical. It may imply the strength of those crews. And looks like Kid is doing "great" in the NW, still doing things his own way, so far not being forced to bend the will to someone else. And to see 2 of those Super Nova's openly confronting a Yonkou takes a way a bit of what Luffy will do in a second...
After Big Mom refuses his proposal and says he is her target now...
Now this I think is important. Luffy says it is dangerous to let her be in charge of FI like this and he basically states his priorities and we can be sure, there will be no: "lets sail the NW and have adventure" from the get go...not after this. Because he made sure to tell her, it is his priority to take her down and thus protect FI, making it his turf in the process.
What is also important to note here is that Luffy does it and says it only because he believes that is the only way to protect FI. So imo we are not seeing him taking over things like territories from Yonkous or even caring much about it for now. However, if he was about to learn that entire New World is somewhat in some kind of enslaved state and that only way to save them from that is to declaring his turfs... Well than we just might see some more of that declarations which in turn eventually make sure he becomes known as a Yonkou. But let us not jump the gun yet on that one.
This was one of the best if not the best chapters of One Piece for me personally. But most definitely the best in this entire Arc. It revealed to us so much, left pieces for us to try and connect and made sure to bring some really funny and epic moments which were most importantly very well built.
It was to say short: An amazing chapter of One Piece.
I enjoyed it and will probably read it again and again. Sorry for the long post, hopefully I didn't just write it for myself
Blue
