Chapter 957: ULTIMATE

MrBits

Right now the thing I'm most curious about is how far Oda's going to take the Old Gen/New Gen parallels.

Is Blackbeard going to have "New Gen" Kaidous, Big Moms, and Whitebeards in his crew? The Whitebeard one is especially interesting to me because for most of the series people have been theorizing about Luffy having a "Whitebeard to his Roger" at the end of the series, and this adds another layer to that. Maybe one of Luffy's "Whitebeard candidates (Law/Kidd/etc.)" joins up with the Blackbeard Pirates for the final arc?

kdchronos

I'm just going to say that i think that Rocks were maybe not an alience, but more like WB and the other Emperors, Xebec was the strongest Pirate and he invited them to join, only Roger and his small crew didn't accept, like how Spades pirate were part of WB or the worst generation were part of BM and Kaido.

Also since I think no once has mentioned it, but I think Balkin was part of that crew, because Marco said she was active around 40 years ago.

Monquito

I would be interested in Kuma's fruit(not Kuma) to join the crew, because it seems at some point they must jump back to Mariejois/Gyiojin Island, and it gets super easy to do so with the Paw Paw fruit.
Unless a teleportation fruit gets introduced eventually.

Shiebs

@Monquito:

I would be interested in Kuma's fruit(not Kuma) to join the crew, because it seems at some point they must jump back to Mariejois/Gyiojin Island, and it gets super easy to do so with the Paw Paw fruit.
Unless a teleportation fruit gets introduced eventually.

Did you mean to put this in the next crewmate thread?

Monquito

@Shiebs:

Did you mean to put this in the next crewmate thread?

Haha yes.

*Don't do drugs kids.

uniaka ikuzakas

@Monquito:

Kind of a shame no marine is comparable to Garp as a rival of their PK era.

With Smoker being a failure and Coby still too far from Luffy, maybe Drake gives us the surprise.

Well, luffy is the new garp and new roger at the same time, that is why he will be the best ever. Not only he follows the roger's footsteps, but he also follows garp, like how both beat continent buster head chinjao, both take on rocks crew.
But yeah, luffy could use rival, he does have fujitora, if a bit too old. And maybe that is why luffy will be better then roger, because he doesn't have rivals, since roger was on par with wb and garp.

Kishido

I want to see the guy who me Crocus

smokingfrog

About the god valley disappearing after the incident, couldn't it just be because of the insane battle that took place there?
I mean after akainu vs aokiji, the weather and typography of the island changed, soafter all these super legends fighting full throttle surely would have devastating effects to the island.. almost taking it to the verge of sinking it…

mr.blues

@Kishido:

I want to see the guy who me Crocus

I doubt Oda remember that cover story.

xan

I am curious to know why Xebec was intent on attacking the tenryubuittos. And additionally, why Roger felt it as a need to protect them. Roger would have known about them and there would be no need for him to protect them at all unless they possessed something that Xebec was keen on getting which would cause a much worse chaos than the tenryubuittos currently do? There should be something about this island that attracted Rocks and hence the cover up

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Blissed

@mr.blues:

I doubt Oda remember that cover story.

I highly doubt that.

Zhenja

@erickalex:

Don't know if anyone said that, but I think the "taboo" that rox used was the double akuma no mi usage, and maybe blackbeard know about this at beehive, or have some kind of conection with rox, as noticed by his ship's name.

I'm sure the Gorosei said that Blackbeard is the first person to be known having two Devil Fruits, and the Gorosei of all people should know if anyone before Teach had multiple fruits. That would've been the perfect time to mention Rocks.

Would be funny though if the whole thing about eating a second fruit will kill you, was made up by the WG/Im to prevent someone getting really powerful.

Razh

@xan:

I am curious to know why Xebec was intent on attacking the tenryubuittos. And additionally, why Roger felt it as a need to protect them. Roger would have known about them and there would be no need for him to protect them at all unless they possessed something that Xebec was keen on getting which would cause a much worse chaos than the tenryubuittos currently do? There should be something about this island that attracted Rocks and hence the cover up

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

No short flashback can explain it properly. It looks to me like there should be several subplots convening in God Valley for it all to work. Pirates, their individual relationships, marines, their relationships with pirates and Celestials, Celestials, their slaves, relationship between Celestial and pirate/s, relationship between slave/s and pirates, how it turned out they were all at the same place, and so on…

So yeah, excited about that flashback coming up at some point.

Daz

@Miss:

I find it hilarious when people say this is THE BESTEST CHAPTER EVER!! Like… literally nothing happened lmao. We just got bounty numbers -- which are irrelevant to the plot -- and confirmation that BM and Kaido were in a crew together; mostly shit people had already guessed at.

I mean I get it, it's cool that we found out Garp and Roger beat them up and that there's some dead guy named Rocks but god damn y'all lol

I don't personally understand it either, but I've increasingly come to realize that many people consume this manga in a wildly different way from myself; at this point I couldn't care less about the Lore and the Fanservice and the HYPE and the fodder for speculation and theorizing, but for a lot of people thats the main draw. But I'm here for the characters, the drama, the good old fashioned visual storytelling. My favourite chapters are stuff in the vein of 198-199, and this chapter gives me almost nothing on that front. Its mostly just people sitting down, getting very important info told to their faces.

People say that "Odas worldbuilding is so great!", but its deployment here is just so blunt and artless. He used to be better at inserting it more organically, or at least spicing it up. If you go back to chapters 233-234, where Whitebeard, Sengoku, Kuma, Doflamingo, the elder stars and Blackbeard proper get introduced theres a ton of small character moments and cool, memorable visuals. The focus shifts often, but everything feels like complete little scenes that feed into each other rather than bare-bones reaction panels; in other words you learn a lot of new stuff but its conveyed in a way that feels entertaining in the moment, instead of just exposition-dumping with the promise of entertainment later.

Or even better like when the universe-expanding serves to further the drama of the current arc - Water 7 introduces Admirals, Cipher Pol, Impel Down and Pluton as a warship, but this is all 100% in service of Robin and Frankys character arcs and the current story.

Like, did we really need 5 consecutive pages of bounty updates? Hell, the entire chapter reads like a wiki-entry.

wolfwood

Sengokus transformation into mellow cool old dude is pretty satisfying.

Goodbye old hardass, we never truly knew ye.

JohnTnaig

Would have been better to get all that info about Rocks from Big Mom and Kaido instead. We could have gotten a nice chapter long flashback and saw their interactions in the crew.

desa

@Daz:

Like, did we realy need 5 consecutive pages of bounty updates? Hell, the entire chapter reads like a wiki-entry.

I can definetely agree with that. The reveal of the dead emperor bounty clenched it for me.

wolfwood

With all the teasing Vegapunks weapon better be incredible.

I assume we won't get to see it for another few years tho

Roronoa Zacho

@redon:

onepiece_staff Instagram account published this week Color Spread "making of".[hide]

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3B5A8JhRzf/

They published too the original manuscript pages with Shanks, Big Mom (Charlotte Linlin), Kaidou, Shirohige (Edward Newgate) and Gold Roger Wanted posters :wub::wub::wub:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3BTj0MhtDH/

!

[/hide]

This is some super sweet stuff! THX for the share/find!
EDIT: "Making Ofs" are Always sweet, Independent from the chapter Content ;)

desa

@wolfwood:

With all the teasing Vegapunks weapon better be incredible.

I assume we won't get to see it for another few years tho

Its a hose to stop all those pesky devil fruit user.

Roronoa Zacho

@desa:

Its a hose to stop all those pesky devil fruit user.

A Swimming pool, like the one that was in Sunny's dock 4.
But made out of Diamonds, so Mihawk can't Scratch it.

Monquito

Just realized Teach's poster here is different from the one Im-Sama was stabbing.

Mr. Prinz

With all the teasing Vegapunks weapon better be incredible.

I can only assume SSG stands for Super Saiyan Goku :ninja:

Like, did we really need 5 consecutive pages of bounty updates? Hell, the entire chapter reads like a wiki-entry.

I agree, that the chapter does not feel organic in conveying all these numbers, but this "page by page escalation" to me is just another device of shifting the pace of the story.
It somehow reminds me of the defeat of the New Fishman Pirates on successive pages. It's quickly dealt with.

wolfwood

I honestly wonder if those pre-spoilers guys saying greatest chapter ever may have gotten to know more stuff that they thought was included to in this chapter. Because lets be honest even the least hyped among us felt a little disapointed when this was all we got.

Nilitch

Garp the hero stuff seems to be like Ned Stark the badass swordsman
He stabbed him in the back or something

Captain M

@.access:

Don't know if it was mentioned already, but now that I was thinking about it, can the Marine send people to Wano? I mean, Wano is not part of the WG, so they shouldn't have any authority there. Sending officers there to arrest a criminal (particularly one that is in good terms with the local governor) wouldn't mean invading and disrespecting Wano's sovereignty?

EDIT: And it took me forever to realize this, but I just noticed W7 was exactly that. They sent their assassination force to act undercover on a state not affiliated to the WG. Then they came out of hiding, attacked and threatened the local governor and… nothing? Hopefully in the future we can see Iceburg leading an alliance of countries against the WG.

Yeah, the World Government puts up a front of being a United Nations type organisation that's out to preserve stability and make sure everyone's following the rules, but they're really not that at all. They're an authoritarian empire with a theocratic oligarchy who've gotten so powerful and wide-reaching that countries join them voluntarily instead of being conquered. Disrespecting sovereignty is not something they're likely to give a shit about. They don't even try to hide that the Celestial Dragons and their upper echelons are above the law; they wear it as a mark of pride. Cipher Pol openly manipulates the media with bribes (and tries to use force if the media doesn't play ball) and the Government has no qualms about assassinating or genociding member or foreign states if it protects their interests. There's no moral or ideological wall between them and a hostile invasion of Wano, only logistical issues like manpower and probably a lack of recent experience with ground invasions, since they generally either coerce nations into joining peacefully or just bombard the island from offshore.

They've obviously spent a long time pumping out propaganda and conditioning member states and allies not to question them when they do shit like that. It's going to take a huge global culture shift to get the WG's shady fascist stuff to start outweighing the protection their Navy offers. I hope Oda's able to use either the Revolutionaries or the events of the final war to put that process in motion before the story ends.

Incidentally, this is why I'm always skeptical of Navy characters being propped up as morally righteous or defended as "just doing their jobs." The system they serve is too far gone to salvage even the best of intentions. I'd love to see a lategame Navy schism so the genuinely good-hearted Navy characters can start doing the right thing free of the World Government's influence.

uniaka ikuzakas

@wolfwood:

With all the teasing Vegapunks weapon better be incredible.

It's the shrink ray. A gun that shrinks the warlords to ant size and then marines smash them with their shoe. Or maybe it's the death ray of tesla.

Or time travel machine. Marines go back in time to end mihawk back when he was only 1. Credit goes to War Machine. Just hope they don't open some multiverse.

Monquito

I could picture it being a super android.

wolfwood

@Monquito:

I could picture it being a super android.

Kind of like that turned out to be bullshit spoiler of a creature with Akaini, Kizaru and Aokijis powers.

Monquito

@Captain:

Yeah, the World Government puts up a front of being a United Nations type organisation that's out to preserve stability and make sure everyone's following the rules, but they're really not that at all. They're an authoritarian empire with a theocratic oligarchy who've gotten so powerful and wide-reaching that countries join them voluntarily instead of being conquered. Disrespecting sovereignty is not something they're likely to give a shit about. They don't even try to hide that the Celestial Dragons and their upper echelons are above the law; they wear it as a mark of pride. Cipher Pol openly manipulates the media with bribes (and tries to use force if the media doesn't play ball) and the Government has no qualms about assassinating or genociding member or foreign states if it protects their interests. There's no moral or ideological wall between them and a hostile invasion of Wano, only logistical issues like manpower and probably a lack of recent experience with ground invasions, since they generally either coerce nations into joining peacefully or just bombard the island from offshore.

They've obviously spent a long time pumping out propaganda and conditioning member states and allies not to question them when they do shit like that. It's going to take a huge global culture shift to get the WG's shady fascist stuff to start outweighing the protection their Navy offers. I hope Oda's able to use either the Revolutionaries or the events of the final war to put that process in motion before the story ends.

Incidentally, this is why I'm always skeptical of Navy characters being propped up as morally righteous or defended as "just doing their jobs." The system they serve is too far gone to salvage even the best of intentions. I'd love to see a lategame Navy schism so the genuinely good-hearted Navy characters can start doing the right thing free of the World Government's influence.

Sounds like communism, but ok.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@wolfwood:

Kind of like that turned out to be bullshit spoiler of a creature with Akaini, Kizaru and Aokijis powers.

Je, it did sound like bs, but what about a sexy super android with Foxy's powers?

NamiRobinFrankyAce

@Miss:

I find it hilarious when people say this is THE BESTEST CHAPTER EVER!! Like… literally nothing happened lmao. We just got bounty numbers -- which are irrelevant to the plot -- and confirmation that BM and Kaido were in a crew together; mostly shit people had already guessed at.

I mean I get it, it's cool that we found out Garp and Roger beat them up and that there's some dead guy named Rocks but god damn y'all lol

I prefered 956 too. But you have to consider the fact that often its more important HOW you narrate something than the actual thing you're narrating. Altough it would have been even better to see the actual flashback of the God Valley event,the narration of Sengoku was still intriguing. And it creates new mysteries because now everyone wants to see this flashback.

wolfwood

@Monquito:

Je, it did sound like bs, but what about a sexy super android with Foxy's powers?

That moment when you realize that Foxy could kill pretty much anyone.

BingBang

@Gakusya_Mcbride:

So you have the contrast getween Roger and Garp and Luffy and Smoker, then you get the contrast between Rocks and Blackbeard. I wonder if the final battle is going to be Luffy and Smoker, or Aikainu, or kuzon, or one of the admirals vs. Blackbeard as a parallel to that battle. A lot of the players seek vary simillar.

Koby and Luffy. Koby goal is to become and admiral and Garp had the same status before that battle.

LightningAce

@Monquito:

Kind of a shame no marine is comparable to Garp as a rival of their PK era.

With Smoker being a failure and Coby still too far from Luffy, maybe Drake gives us the surprise.

Luffy's Marine rival will be any of the Admirals…either Fujitora or Akainu. You know either Luffy or Sabo will face off against Akainu in a grudge match for what he did to Ace.

Fujitora has respect for Luffy, and Luffy clearly likes him...

@erickalex:

Don't know if anyone said that, but I think the "taboo" that rox used was the double akuma no mi usage, and maybe blackbeard know about this at beehive, or have some kind of conection with rox, as noticed by his ship's name.

He was looking into taboo subjects i.e matters regarding the Poneglyphs and the void century.

@uniaka:

I hope they send this marine after mihawk:

! [qimg]https://i.imgur.com/Ifgb6eE.png[/qimg]

Mihawk would 1 shot that weakling. I hardly think this guy's power would affect a supreme grade blade sword clad in haki..

auem

@LightningAce:

Luffy is a spitting image of Garp when he was younger…
How is this even a discussion?

Then may be Dragon is married to Garp's daughter and took his family name.:ninja:
Funny trying to refute a point by giving logic along the same line.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@wolfwood:

I honestly wonder if those pre-spoilers guys saying greatest chapter ever may have gotten to know more stuff that they thought was included to in this chapter. Because lets be honest even the least hyped among us felt a little disapointed when this was all we got.

Highly unlikely. I doubt anyone of those hyping people have chance to know pre-published stuffs regarding main story. Greg is different but his hype was well within reason.

Kaido King of the Beasts

Roger and Garp teamed up to take down Rocks; Luffy and Smoker teamed up to take down the one and only Caesar Clown. These legends will be told side by side in the coming decades…

uniaka ikuzakas

@Kaido:

Roger and Garp teamed up to take down Rocks; Luffy and Smoker teamed up to take down the one and only Caesar Clown. These legends will be told side by side in the coming decades…

Wait until the new and improved cyborg smoker comes to wano with vegapunk's weapon and takes down BM while luffy takes down Kaidou.

wolfwood

Smoker will eventually take Luffy down by accumulated smoke damage to the lungs.

uniaka ikuzakas

This post is deleted!

Darkestsith6

@wolfwood:

Smoker will eventually take Luffy down by accumulated smoke damage to the lungs.

Black Lung Sanji is Smoker's natural enemy in that case.

StrawHatJedi

Not that I think it will be a 1:1 comparison, but Koby is a much better 'Garp' analog than Smoker.

But I also think Luffy's journey and relationships need to be different from Roger's. There will be similarities, but this is Luffy's journey, which, presumably, will have a different ending than Roger's.

So, in broad strokes, it makes sense for Luffy to have a marine rival frenemy, echoing the relationship between Garp and Roger. I get that Smoker might seem to fill this role on the surface, but Luffy surpassed him a long time ago. Koby is on the rise. He has risen through the ranks, learned Haki and the Six forms, and his dream is to become a Marine Admiral. Not to mention, he was personally trained by Garp. By the end of the series, I think Koby will be powerful enough to be considered the Marine rival of the Pirate King. Where Koby is advancing through the ranks toward his goal, I feel like Smoker is teetering on the edge of rejecting the Marines wholesale.

I think Smoker has been brought through the story in pursuit of Luffy for a very different reason, but to elaborate would go beyond the scope of this particular post.

I9829Taeyeon

Man, give Luffy, Smokey and Coby 20 more years and their "rivalry" might become as juicy as Garp's, Roger's and Whitebeard's.. they're squirts right now (Luffy's still a squirt in way.)

still, curious when Whitebeard had the title World's Strongest Man the first time. Rocks being Roger's first true rival doesn't sit well with me. hhmmmmm..
He was 36 on the last days of the Rocks.. seems like not as glorious as Shanks' and Mihawks rivalry that echoed in their early years..

MiyamotoMusashi

@ITaeyeon:

Man, give Luffy, Smokey and Coby 20 more years and their "rivalry" might become as juicy as Garp's, Roger's and Whitebeard's.. they're squirts right now (Luffy's still a squirt in way.)

still, curious when Whitebeard had the title World's Strongest Man the first time. Rocks being Roger's first true rival doesn't sit well with me. hhmmmmm..
He was 36 on the last days of the Rocks.. seems like not as glorious as Shanks' and Mihawks rivalry that echoed in their early years..

The vivre card said when Roger was still alive and well, meaning way before Great Pirate Era, due to his fighting style and the immense destructive power.
But with the latest chapter, it became apparent the vivre cards should be taken not completely seriously.
And even then, the titles seem more and more non-absolute but simply something people started to call them as such.

wolfwood

@ITaeyeon:

still, curious when Whitebeard had the title World's Strongest Man the first time. Rocks being Roger's first true rival doesn't sit well with me. hhmmmmm..
He was 36 on the last days of the Rocks.. seems like not as glorious as Shanks' and Mihawks rivalry that echoed in their early years..

It is an inspiring tale showing that you can create fruitful rivalries well into middle age. Dude managed to start again and reinivent himself in his forties, not everybody can pull off that. Most dudes that age just get a flashy sportscar and hit on women waaaay to young for them. Whitey however went fat George Foreman and took the heavyweight title on the ass end of his career. Now if only he hadn't spent all those years fighting on someone elses undercard.

desa

@wolfwood:

It is an inspiring tale showing that you can create fruitful rivalries well into middle age. Dude managed to start again and reinivent himself in his forties, not everybody can pull off that. Most dudes that age just get a flashy sportscar and hit on women waaaay to young for them. Whitey however went fat George Foreman and took the heavyweight title on the ass end of his career. Now if only he hadn't spent all those years fighting on someone elses undercard.

Isn't that his giant boat with the bold name of Moby Dick and the sexy nurses he has running around.

uniaka ikuzakas

Luffy is more Garp then any marine. Coby and smoker are more similar to sengoku/aokiji then garp.

wolfwood

@MiyamotoMusashi:

And even then, the titles seem more and more non-absolute but simply something people started to call them as such.

If Mihawks title turns out to be like that a sizable chunk of this board will need theraphy for post-traumatic stress

@desa:

Isn't that his giant boat with the bold name of Moby Dick and the sexy nurses he has running around.

Well sure he also did that. But lets focus on the oldtimer doing stuff oldies shouldn't be capable of pulling off.

desa

@wolfwood:

Well sure he also did that. But lets focus on the oldtimer doing stuff olders shouldn't be capable of pulling off.

Is it really that incredible when 2 others managed about as much? And Big Mom still has the energy while Whitebeard could barely leave his chair. I think we should focus on her and her great job at proving that in this man dominated world not only women can succeed but they can have it all. Family, power, Sexual liberation.

Let's stop praising the old pervert (and possible deadbeat dad) and praise this mother that truly broke the mold and is still fighting for equality everywhere.

wolfwood

@desa:

Is it really that incredible when 2 others managed about as much? And Big Mom still has the energy while Whitebeard could barely leave his chair. I think we should focus on her and her great job at proving that in this man dominated world not only women can succeed but they can have it all. Family, power, Sexual liberation.

Let's stop praising the old pervert (and possible deadbeat dad) and praise this mother that truly broke the mold and is still fighting for equality everywhere.

Wait are BM and WB the same age? I never picked up on that. I thought she was somewhere betwenn baby of the group Kaido and grandpa Whitebeard.

desa

@wolfwood:

Wait are BM and WB the same age? I never picked up on that. I thought she was somewhere betwenn baby of the group Kaido and grandpa Whitebeard.

Whitebeard would be 74 she's 68. 6 years difference.