Man, this was a satisfying one to read. Oda couldn't have done a better job if he'd asked me personally what he should cover. First, he draws a connection between King's Fire and the idea of humans spontaneously combusting, which I wrote a whole thing about and edited an image for last week. Then, he names King's race Lunarians and says they lived in a land of gods, tying in a whole long of longterm lore I've been very interested in for a while.
And hey, here's something I said last week:
@Captain:
It's interesting to see that Ashura Doji's body has snow falling over it. I was pretty sure he fell inside the dome. Maybe the fake Oden's explosion blew a hole in the wall we didn't get to see at the time.
I wish I'd spent more time on this, because I knew Jack and Inu were fighting near where he fell, and I've been saying for months that the move to the clear skies over the capital would lead to a Sulong revival, so I should've figured out exactly what was coming this week! It feels so obvious in hindsight! And yeah, the Sulong encore, foreshadowed by the moon in the background of the cutaways to the capital, has come to pass as predicted. Finally, Momo's transformation takes place, fulfilling a whole lot of foreshadowing and tying up thematic threads as predicted.
Basically we've got a whole lot cool lore being discussed and some clever, mostly environment-driven foreshadowing being fulfilled, the kind of stuff that feels good to see because it just clicks into place in hindsight. I love it.
Going on to the rest of the chapter, Kawamatsu and Izo being regulated to fodder cleanup for the final stage of the battle is a little disappointing. I know we don't have time for any more major fights, but I liked those guys. They deserve spotlight moments too! Marco and Izo's interaction was nice though.
It's great to see the Zoro/Sanji/King/Queen fight be an actual 2v2 with dialogue going back and forth and attacks not always going to the same opponent, forcing the two Strawhats to cover each other. You love to see it, especially since Robin and Brook missed their shot at a duo fight just a few chapters ago. Queen has a whole lot of nerve asking if a human does what Sanji does while his body is doing what it's doing. Zoro's comment about Sanji's eyebrows is A+ banter. I wonder what else King's sword is hiding. It's status as a killer machine can't possible be limited just to the notches appearing and disappearing. Maybe his suit will also show off some sneaky enhancements in-line with his new status as a not-swordsman.
I could be wrong on this point, and please correct me if I am, but is this is the first time ever, in 24 years, that we've seen Zoro specifically use his mouth sword in a fight?
We now have a direct parallel being drawn between Zoro, the last Shimotsuki daimyo and Ryuma. This is curious because the SBS already confirmed Koshiro and Kuina to be direct descendants of the Shimotsuki line. Does that make Zoro a cousin to them or something, if he's really meant to be an actual Shimostuski too?
Jack's hybrid form is just the right level of ridiculous (and good to see Oda going for more unique designs than just a buff guy with animal sleeves and cowling) and Fukurokuju using his earlobes to fly is perfect. What a character!
I like Neko calling Perospero Lickspittle as an insult. Wouldn't shock me if Stephen brought that one back from an initial drawing board of possible English adaptations of Perospero's name.
And finally, we have Momo looking awesome. Not much to say about how right this is as an ending for his arc, because I said it already both when this development was pitched and in the thread with the poll. That reveal panel is fantastically dramatic. Luffy looks every bit a king with his coat billowing and that enormous beast lowering its head for him to get on. The callback to Momo's introduction, nine years ago now, really sells how far we've come.
The first part of the WT100 poster is also out and looking great, but as expected, it's not a colour spread for this chapter. But I think I read that we are getting real colour pages next week. Will part two of the poster be there on top of a normal spread? Or will the colour spread be the middle part of the poster, and the volume will collect the full thing together ahead of chapter 1024 in the same way the chapter 1000 colour spread was released across two issues of Jump but published together in volume 99. Either way, man, I'm happy this week, and I expect to be happy next week as well.