By this point I'm like "ehh, OK". Which sad, but it's the way it is.
Did anyone come close with any theories?
Chapter 1,044: Warrior of Liberation
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Really not a fan of Gear 5 compared to the inception of other gears.
The appeal of the Gears is that in the past they haven’t been asspulls. But rather premeditated tools Luffy came up with to cope with stronger enemies despite his unassuming fruit.
What makes them work is that they all have simple enough concepts to understand and make enough rudimentary physiological sense in the OP world (increasing blood flow by pumping blood, inflating bones, inflating muscle).
Then here we have a Luffy just saying ah this unknown thing is actually my 5th Gear. They could’ve just kept it as an awakening, and heck have Luffy surpass the fruit further by using his awakening to develop a 5th Gear for his next fight.
With also Luffy’s fruit being retroactively changed and the idea that his imagination lets him do anything, does this take away previous setbacks - I.e Lucci thinking Luffy’s gears will lessen his lifespan. - would that be something for a simple rubber man, but not the Sun God who can do anything he imagines now.
Maybe I’ll feel better about this development in the coming chapters. But I feel they’ve given Luffy too many things that should’ve been split amongst more characters. He’s a: D, Joyboy, SunGod Nika, future PK, has previous PK Straw Hat - which to him links him more to Shanks than Roger, Grandson of the PKs Rival, Son of the Most wanted man in the world. Brother to PKs son, Brother to 2nd in command of revolutionaries.
When fate or destiny is established early I think it can work for a character, but to parrot some of the other discord, to introduce the idea that the Gum Gum fruit is special, then establish there’s a Sun God, then have Zunesha appear and say that Joy Boy has returned, then actually say Joy Boy is a term for awakened Nika fruit user which makes them Sun God. All in the span of the last half year is insane.
This feels like a vastly different setup to tense Samurai Showdown which Luffy trained to learn a new form of Haki to match Kaido.
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then actually say Joy Boy is a term for awakened Nika fruit user which makes them Sun God. All in the span of the last half year is insane.
Where was that stated?
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Friction with what exactly? There's no friction in Red Hawk, we just invented this excuse out of the blue and convinced ourselves of it. Greg believes in Lunarian genes, which I think is a more fitting possibility.
In my opinion, the fire is caused by Luffy's body heat increasing to even higher temperatures. As we know, Gear 2nd produces tons of steam and heat, so it igniting into fire is not far-fetched (and I remind you that Red Hawk was a Gear 2nd technique). And like Gear 2nd, this Awakened state has a crazy heartbeat, so Gear 5th probably is super hot too (no pun intented), thus the hair on fire. And the strengthened rubber should allow Luffy to resist hotter temperatures without melting. IMO, this is reaching into the potention of the "Sun God" epithet – which I don't interpret as a literal creationist God, but still relevant to the Myth.
Yeah, now that you explained it better than I could, this would make a lot of sense. And given its a Mythical Zoan type, its not farfetched to see the ability to ignite and manipulate fire in addition to its Rubber physiology. Could also be plasma, given how Luffy has often used air in his techniques, thus the air could have become ionized, thus creating plasma. Given what Kaidou can do with his Azure Dragon fruit, using Fire, Lightning and Wind, it makes sense.
In fact, is anyone amusing the idea that Kaidou will show more of his powers, like summoning down meteor sized icy hail stones, like he did in Pirate Warriors 4?
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Really not a fan of Gear 5 compared to the inception of other gears.
The appeal of the Gears is that in the past they haven’t been asspulls. But rather premeditated tools Luffy came up with to cope with stronger enemies despite his unassuming fruit.
What makes them work is that they all have simple enough concepts to understand and make enough rudimentary physiological sense in the OP world (increasing blood flow by pumping blood, inflating bones, inflating muscle).
Then here we have a Luffy just saying ah this unknown thing is actually my 5th Gear. They could’ve just kept it as an awakening, and heck have Luffy surpass the fruit further by using his awakening to develop a 5th Gear for his next fight.
With also Luffy’s fruit being retroactively changed and the idea that his imagination lets him do anything, does this take away previous setbacks - I.e Lucci thinking Luffy’s gears will lessen his lifespan. - would that be something for a simple rubber man, but not the Sun God who can do anything he imagines now.
Maybe I’ll feel better about this development in the coming chapters. But I feel they’ve given Luffy too many things that should’ve been split amongst more characters. He’s a: D, Joyboy, SunGod Nika, future PK, has previous PK Straw Hat - which to him links him more to Shanks than Roger, Grandson of the PKs Rival, Son of the Most wanted man in the world. Brother to PKs son, Brother to 2nd in command of revolutionaries.
When fate or destiny is established early I think it can work for a character, but to parrot some of the other discord, to introduce the idea that the Gum Gum fruit is special, then establish there’s a Sun God, then have Zunesha appear and say that Joy Boy has returned, then actually say Joy Boy is a term for awakened Nika fruit user which makes them Sun God. All in the span of the last half year is insane.
This feels like a vastly different setup to tense Samurai Showdown which Luffy trained to learn a new form of Haki to match Kaido.
Feel like you misread some stuff. The do "whatever he imagines" stuff is what they referred to for the standard ability of the fruit, a.k.a. everything we've seen Luffy do up until this very chapter. They're just saying that it's Luffy's imagination that let him come up with Gears and what not, they're not talking about his Awakening just yet. Awakening is not some toon force thing that lets him do literally anything, it's all tied strictly to his rubber powers. The only Awakening does as far as I understand is make his rubber body even more flexible and free to manipulate how he chooses, as well as allow him to affect his surroundings like most Awakenings seem to do.
So far, the only actual surprise of his Awakening as far as the theories I've seen is that he can affect his surroundings to the point where he can not only turn the ground into rubber, but also bounce back stuff that shouldn't be possible as shown with Kaido's Boro Breath attack.
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What's the Game of Thrones phrase
"A Lannister Always Pays His Debts"
Which seems to be referenced in Hiyori's last dialogue in this chapter.
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I don´t have an issue with the awakened power allowing him to bounce back the beam. It´s believable given what we knew about awakening affecting others.
I have a big problem with Luffy behaving as if on shrooms.
I can´t get over the fact that this guy I´ve adored for dunno how many years came back from the dead to turn into a crazy person who ROTFLMAO during an important fight when hundreds are being killed and burned alive a few meters below.On the other side, we have a drunk.
High vs drunk.
Two of the loser types I stay away from IRL.
EDIT: Zero tension, nobody to root for.So basically drop the Joy Boy mythical god incarnation WG evading …stuff, just keep gomu gomu awakening and the past two chapters are great.
Oh and Luffy doesn´t look cool in this form. He creeps me out, I can´t help it. Those crazy eyes...Good fruit usage (grab, spin, slam, reflect beam), terrible antics.
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I was watching Merphy and started feeling less anxious about the current stuff :ninja: (to clarify I'm anxious cause it's very easy for Oda to misstep from here on, I'm not part of the group that already were heavily disliking it after the recent chapter, still kinda wait and see if it comes together).
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Like 40 chapters ago when they were all fighting Kaidou and Big Mom at the same time, Big mom fried Luffy with lightning and went "Wha?"
"I'm made of rubber!"
Which we all knew and accepted.
And then immediately after, Kaidou blasts him and goes "What, fire doesn't work either? " And Luffy yells out "cause I've got guts!"
And we rolled with it because its Luffy and funny and awesome and it was connected to the thing we already knew and accepted and it was just a quick thing in an action scene, and we didn't think about it.
But….
(We also got red hawk a decade ago and never any explanation for it beyond what we ourselves decided.)
to be fair…shonen manga logic is very much "guts" or do it with "DON!"....we don't necessarily needed a DF to explain it away. Like how Sanji doesn't need to be lunarian to explain his fire power (but he probably got spliced with lunarian dna b/c his dad probably got dna samples from king).
I don´t have an issue with the awakened power allowing him to bounce back the beam. It´s believable given what we knew about awakening affecting others.
I have a big problem with Luffy behaving as if on shrooms.
I can´t get over the fact that this guy I´ve adored for dunno how many years came back from the dead to turn into a batshit crazy psycho who ROTFLMAO during an important fight when hundreds are being killed and burned alive a few meters below.On the other side, we have a drunk.
Crackhead vs drunk.
Two of the worst types of losers I stay away from IRL and definitely something I didn´t need to see depicted in my favorite manga.
There is nothing funny to me about Kaidos drunk states .lol right? this is why you don't do drugs kids! or do it in a safe manner not where the fate of a country depends on it! But seriously, had the same though about him on shrooms
! @theackwardstation:
! > So much of Skypiea has been brought back to life recently, and these two panels here are more relevant than ever too.https://birdsofherme.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/one-piece-gallon.jpg
two of my favorite panels/pages of all of the entire mangae are the galleon one you linked, and the dancing once around the fire (skypedia again). I don't know why I was always drawn to that fire dance with wolves and having soup, bit was epitomized OP for me. And i'm glad it had some significance now too.
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I think the matter of fact here is not the "evil of drugs", but the "evil of art".
Luffy is under the excitement of music.
I get him. So good.
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Toon Physics Luffy. I'm down with it.
Not sure about his devil fruit being super special awesome, though. It's a lot to take in. Is it a soft reboot? Was it planned from the start? Does it matter? Gonna need more time to process.Like with almost everything, chances are Oda had some idea about this early on but worked the sppecifics recently.
Like, Luffy has been the physical embodiment of freedom since chapter 1. His final form being the one where ha has the most freedom feels like a natural conclusion. The relation to Joy Boy does too, since it connects to the main plot of OP which Oda planned from the start (although it's possible the name Joy Boy was only decided on later on). The connections to sun, skypiea, are also things that seem likely to have had early planning since hints for that have been dropping for ages.
The mythical zoan is probably more recent, because I don't think Oda had devil fruits design to that depth at the start. Awakening is also a fairly new concept. Hito Hito probably didn't exist before Chopper.
Point is, I don't think its as simple as declaring Oda mapped all of this chapter's details in 1997, nor saying that he came up with that during this arc. It has probably been a long and gradual process.
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It's interesting how last two chapters brought on the interesting discussion of whether some people actually understood the type of story Oda was writing or they read the story thinking it was one way when Oda was saying it was another way. Like there are actually some people who thought that Luffy, who has always been painted by the narrative as a special person, is now suddenly believed to have been representing average joe and his journey being about a random kid? Especially when Luffy's behavior, views and characteristics were always conveyed to be one-of-a-kind which is also the reason why he got his crew and started this entire narrative in the first place?
I don't get the strong dislike or people making assumptions and then using those assumptions to create even more assumptions about where they think the story is going. Didn't people in this place, in particular, hate that very thing in the New Nakama threads? So what's the difference here?
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I think Luffy's fruit awakening and Zunesha recognizing him as Joy Boy are not correlated… it's just a coincidence.
Joy Boy has to be a D. thing... anything else doesn't make sense, because of what Whitebeard said to Blackbeard... "you're not the one Roger was waiting for". Why would he say this if it would be fruit related... doesn't make sense...
Luffy's will to live, to survive reached such a high level, that it affected his heartbeat... basically he reached Joy Boy level... at the same time his fruit began to awaken.
But as usual, only time will tell... so we have to wait and be patient.
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I think the matter of fact here is not the "evil of drugs", but the "evil of art".
Luffy is under the excitement of music.
I get him. So good.
oda made it seem like he had a 25% personality change though. not sure how i feel until i get more characterization and him in gear 5
edit:
Oda sort of writes himself into a corner in this panel and validates other people's criticism on plothole of why they didn't capture luffy in east blue or at least try
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It's interesting how last two chapters brought on the interesting discussion of whether some people actually understood the type of story Oda was writing or they read the story thinking it was one way when Oda was saying it was another way. Like there are actually some people who thought that Luffy, who has always been painted by the narrative as a special person, is now suddenly believed to have been representing average joe and his journey being about a random kid? Especially when Luffy's behavior, views and characteristics were always conveyed to be one-of-a-kind which is also the reason why he got his crew and started this entire narrative in the first place?
I don't get the strong dislike or people making assumptions and then using those assumptions to create even more assumptions about where they think the story is going. Didn't people in this place, in particular, hate that very thing in the New Nakama threads? So what's the difference here?
One possible take is that Luffy isn't meant to be an everyman, but rather a non-standard type of hero.
Luffy has been a weird deviation from the concept of pirate since the start. He has always been happier and sillier and funnier than everyone else. Somebody people don't take seriously at first glance.
But he has never felt like an underdog to me, partly because he was the strongest person in every arc until Crocodile showed up. He was always something else, a big talent, something people learned to respect quickly. An undersog is someone like Naruto, who doesn't win a single fight for multiple arcs. And I remember noticing the different between the two mains when I started watching OP.
The last chapter states he has the most ridiculous power in the world. Not the strongest or most OP, but most ridiculous, and dangerous because of that. Luffy could never actually be the physically strongest bt he may turn to be this unstoppable force of freedom that' can't be contained. And the theme here isn't that he is the underdog, or the most talent, but that he is so unique and creative that he can do what others can't
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oda made it seem like he had a 25% personality change though. not sure how i feel until i get more characterization and him in gear 5
Yes, you're right Luffy looks unnaturaly ecstatic in Gear 5th. But I believe Luffy's happiness is due to the pulse of his heart and the music it creates (instead of the "will" of the DF messing with his head). It's very much a physical thing happening inside his body, but also the power of music which provokes intoxication and euphoria. I love it!
It's crazy, but One Piece is absolutely a drunken party manga with absolutely questionable morals, hahaha. Luffy was under the influence of a bunch of drunk vagrants when he was 7 years old. That's chapter 1! lol
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Why does it have to be anything other than Luffy experiencing awakening and having a blast with it..
It reminds me of how Luffy started dancing after the "nothing happened" moment in Thriller Bark and just finding the thing amusing.
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With the red hawk talk, I honestly feel that there is no explanation to it, it's just a classic I thought this looked cool Oda moment. I even checked again, chapter 644, Luffy uses it against Hody underwater which should make zero sense.
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I think reading a pirate story and not expecting alcohol and drunkeness to be prevalent is a bit silly
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Why does it have to be anything other than Luffy experiencing awakening and having a blast with it..
Because it's not just "normal fun", but there's a sense of intoxication. The portrayal is like he can't contain himself from laughing all the time from anything he looks at. He sees a Blast Breath and cracks up, and then overreacts his shock. Even the laugh is different. There is a slight personality change.
_"I'm having fun, for some reason, aha ha ha!!"
"My heartbeat sounds so funny!!"_
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Because it's not just "normal fun", but there's a sense of intoxication. The portrayal is like he can't contain himself from laughing all the time from anything he looks at. He sees a Blast Breath and cracks up, and then overreacts his shock. Even the laugh is different. There is a slight personality change.
_"I'm having fun, for some reason, aha ha ha!!"
"My heartbeat sounds so funny!!"_
Possession. Also, it is ridiculous that alleged spoillers for 1045 are out before the 1044 even cools. Time for a great cleansing.
#Vergoshotfirst #Doflaisapunk
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Possession. Also, it is ridiculous that alleged spoillers for 1045 are out before the 1044 even cools. Time for a great cleansing.
I'm not against "possession" theories and was even advocating for one last chapter. But I don't agree that possession is what's happening this chapter.
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I don't ever watch youtube reviewers for the series nor post them.
But the sheer emotion of this reader? Who only just marathoned the series over the last year and only went weekly recently and so hasn't theorized on stuff for a decade and doesn't have a lot of preconceptions or built in biases? That read Wano in one go instead of over four years? They're just ecstatically connecting pieces left and right and are super excited about it.
And their emotion gets to me and it chokes me up and makes me think and it's just..
yeah okay Oda, ya done good.
There's still aspects I don't personally like but I can accept it.
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It's cool if most people like this chapter and I don't want to rain on everyone's parade. You do you but I'm just not feeling it. Going through my thought as I read the official translation, maybe some of my worries were due to bad translation.
First off, Luffy is immediately back up again, for the third (or is it fourth?) time. This takes away any excitement and tension I had for a fight against the strongest creature in the whole world so far. How can I care about a battle manga where the main character losing a battle seems to be physically impossible? God I'm starting to feel sorry for Kaido. This is so unfair for him, his enemy can't be defeated and presumably Kaido will stay down after being KO'd once. It's like Luffy became immortal a bunch of chapters ago.
It's not the worst thing in the world, but cutting to nameles exposition geezers halfway across the world, telling each other things they already know, isn't the most interesting way to reveal this. A slow, natural discovery done by the main characters themselves is always better.
Yes, this is a retcon and retcons are awful. Yes, the WG never hunting Luffy down because of the fruit is a plot hole. The fruit having a will of it's own also opens up a whole can of worms and is also kinda lazy handwavy writing.
The fruit being super special actually might be really cool and hype in the moment, but this creates so many bad implications (which have been discussed enough already) for the story that it sours a reread for me.
Oh hey, I'm going to say something Positive! I like Orochi. He honestly might be the only well-developed character in Wano. He actually has a full, not rushed character arc. I know what he's about. I've gotten enough time to know what his motivations are. Meanwhile, I can't care about Hyori at all. It's a minor character who's had barely any panel time. Anyway, Orochi's lines are gold. That's exactly what a weasily mofo like him would say. And then as soon as he thinks he got out of it he immediately turns around and becomes an arrogant shit mocking Hyori. Right before begging her for help again.
I have no idea why the fire spirit jumped at him though.Oh boy here we are. Luffy got a power up for no reason that is completely off the charts. Power scaling and progression is so important in a battle manga and this just completely chucks it out of the window. Kaido was too strong, so Luffy needed a massive powerup so the plot gave it to him. Kaido was hyped up insanely much, but I'm not feeling any threat from him, especially not when Luffy gets up every time and literally memes on him. There hasn't been any build up of tension before, so there's no release now. I just can't care. This is the strongest guy in the world right now, and I'm feeling absolutely 0 threat. Let alone the awesome BM from whole cake, even wano's Big Meme is more threatening than this. And Luffy didn't earn this. How did he awaken his fruit? He was unconsious or even dead. He literally didn't do anything. And now he's a 1000 times stronger because he needs to be.
Looney tunes logic can only work in silly comedies, not in a series that wants to have drama with genocidal, torturing, murderous tyranical regimes. Is this a silly comedy for children or an epic comedic drama with slavery, famine and genocide in the background?
The whole point of cartoon logic is that there is none. It doesn't work in a battle manga which needs rules. Look how huge Luffy can flex his arms just because he can. How big and strong can he flex his arms now? Bigger than the planet? Can he flatten Kaido along with the western hemisphere? No? Tell me why not. Limits are out of the window.I have to say. Everyone laughed Kishimoto out of the room whenever he did the same in Naruto. 'Oh look, Kishimoto made Madara way too strong, so there's no way of Naruto ever winning without an insane powerup from nowhere. Lol Naruto is a joke'. How do you guys see this as different from any other cliche shonen powerup from nowhere? I'm genuinely curious how you guys interpret this differently.
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Except Naruto is garbage..
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Could be like a viking berserk going in to a trance?
Sure seems like the nika spirit is getting in him and making him laugh
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Well, reviewing how Luffy defeated Cracker with Tankman, which to me always made almost no sense, as Luffy absorbed/sucked in with his large mega-body Cracker lunging into him a 2H sword - It had to be one of the couple of hints Oda gave that Luffy's body was not normal, only doing what it was doing through his imagination and will-power. Doflamingo made a comment, but that sort of made no sense. Unless it was because he enlarged his body.
Maybe head-cannon, but maybe when fighting various people like Magellan, where he comments his mental strength was insane… perhaps it was that animalistic/zoan-like spirit that made Luffy fight like crazy. Sort of how the awakened Zoan users in Impel Down were crazy brutal. But at the same time, Luffy made plenty of people laugh with the way he fought, being ridiculous. So that tied in nicely with the final awakening
I have come to actually appreciate his awakening abilities thus far (I'm waiting for more). I just wish there was an additional one or two hints that something was abnormal about his fruit abilities. I can even dismiss easily the arguments that the Gorosei should have killed or captured Luffy already if it was that dangerous of a fruit (in their perspective). I find their attempts already to be adequate given their short time in the Grandline/New World, and the 800 years of non-threatening awakening of the fruit.
While the WG deems this specific fruit dangerous in their historical perspective, it doesn't necessarily mean no other fruit can be dangerous to them. I'm almost convinced that Kaidou's fruit is classified just as dangerous, they just can't do anything about it. The WG's attempts of capture, failed execution and attempts to replicate the fruit must mean they absolutely wanted it just as much.
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You know, Luffy's had the deity smoke ring as part of his design since Gear 4.
We really, really should have thought about that when Yamato had it too. And especially after Wano citizens commented on it. But we've had Gear 4 for years so we don't think about it.
Luffy's been inflating his bones like balloons for 15 years for gear 3 and its made his attacks damaging instead of balloon like.
Also Luffy changing the direction of his attacks against Dofla and Katakuri… When Kaidou (a zoan!) imitated it. Being a zoan might also explain Luffy's monstrous recovery time and stamina that we've always taken for granted.
.... have Gears been psuedo zoan transformations all along?
Is this a silly comedy for children or an epic comedic drama with slavery, famine and genocide in the background?
It's been BOTH for a very long time. That didn't suddenly change in this chapter.
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I assume Luffy won't always be in joy boy form, but when he does is he gonna keep laughing like this?
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At first I was upset with the renaming and reclassification of the Gomu Gomu because I thought it would introduce some new powers and change what we have been accustomed to for over 1000 chapters, after seeing seeing the execution I am less angry. The Gomu Gomu properties remain the same except luffy is now more malleable and can change his form in every which way he will, with the additional bonus of having control over the environment. At first I was put off by Kaido cartoonish figure when he was being twerl around because I thought the awakening turn everything into loonie toon but I realize that was just Oda being Oda, putting some fun in a serious fight. I can't say that the reveal was the best or had the right placement but as Greg pointed out the info about Nika and the Gomu Gomu is scarce to the point the guard who leak the info got executed, that shows that it's not info that is out there in the public domain and we might have never gotten it if we didn't come across who's who, that found out in special circumstances. I think we should wait for further info before jumping to conclusions because obviously there are missing pieces we are not yet previ to
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Hiyori going 'The Lannisters sent their regards' on Orochi, lmao.
Oda still cant let go of GoT.
Glad I'm not the only one who was immediately reminded of that. I liked it lol
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I assume Luffy won't always be in joy boy form, but when he does is he gonna keep laughing like this?
Nah. I'm nor worried about any personality overriding jazz. Nika is the laughter god so he's only gonna be so high in his Nika form. Of course by zoan logic his non-gear 5 forms should also be a form of Nika, but whatever this is a special fruit and I'm not gonna nitpick the rules too much. Luffy is still Luffy.
Except Naruto is garbage..
Got a real titan of unbiased critical thinking over hereAt this point I feel like I've been too hard on Kishi. Being a mangaka for so many years and keeping the quality consistent on an insane weekly deadline must be impossible, if even Oda is doing whatever is most fun/easy for him, damn the internal logic.
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The fruit revelation: awful, dumb. Oda at his worst.
The fight after it: great, funny, wacky. Oda at his best.I thought about what to say, but that's a perfect summary.
Being a zoan might also explain Luffy's monstrous recovery time and stamina that we've always taken for granted.
That seems like reaching for stuff to retroactively fit in. Zoro does exist, and he ain't a Zoan. That is, until the Shimotsuki clan is revealed to be the antithesis to Lunarians or whatever.
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Zoro does exist, and he ain't a Zoan.
Sure about this? Just look how nearly identical these two words are.
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Cause using fire is pretty generic within OP really.
But underwater?
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
That seems like reaching for stuff to retroactively fit in. Zoro does exist, and he ain't a Zoan. That is, until the Shimotsuki clan is revealed to be the antithesis to Lunarians or whatever.
Oh sure it is. Just blueskying. Trying to figure out what pieces fit that make some sort of sense retroactively.
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I keep trying to imagine the manic laughter, how it is supposed to sound, and in my mind it just ends up sounding like the joker when he's pleased with a plan, and i can't imagine that is the tone Oda is going for. But i have no template for a happy manic laughter. How does it sound in you guyses heads? Any reference you can think of?
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Love the wackiness of the whole thing. The retcon is pretty huge and I'll need time to sit on it, but it doesn't make or break the series. Luffy being the reincarnation of Joy Boy would've been that.
Probably the first time since Reverie that I've read a One Piece chapter and dreaded the one week wait so much (typical for me during the se seemingly infinite battle chapters).
Of course, the anime spoiled yet another revelation with the recent OST release. The next opening will surely ruin this as well.
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Sure about this? Just look how nearly identical these two words are.
I mean, what are you suggesting? That he ate the Hito Hito No Mi - Booze God and has been awakened this whole time? That's just nonsense, Oda wouldn't write that. :ninja:
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I mean, what are you suggesting? That he ate the Hito Hito No Mi - Booze God and has been awakened this whole time? That's just nonsense, Oda wouldn't write that. :ninja:
16 characters of The Odin fruit
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Y'know that ending scene in mask of the phantasm when she's gonna kill the joker, that orchestral cue followed by that epic mark hamill laugh is what i sorta hear. But happier.
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What I like about this is what I speculated after previous chapter:
You could have some fun character stuff done with Luffy because he's always been about freedom and at this point he's sort of semi-possessed.
But I also like that despite his fruit now being recontextualised as a mythical Zoan, this doesn't remove the learning component of his devil fruit. Basically, the story just renamed the fruit for plot and theme purposes and expanded the limits it can do, but I think Luffy still has to be the one to come up with the uses.
Obviously there's the Nika element, but I think this chapter was still just mostly Luffy being Luffy and the story acknowledged that in distinguishing Luffy and Nika, which I think sort of also at least delayed the 'fated hero' thing for now, too. Nika and Luffy are separate.
If you plainly hate the principle of this entire thing, you'll probably hate this, but I think it dodged the bigger issues for now.
And all of these aside, this power lines up with One Piece's identity incredibly well. For so long Joyboy has been this serious figure and I think we'll still get that Void Century flashback, but I love that it's just revealed to be classic cartoon comedy.
Dunno about the design with the burning head, just like with Gear 4, but I like Gear 5 in concept much more. It's just going full classic slapstick comedy in a very organic way to OP.
Really, I think this final aspect is probably the best element of this.
The fight in this chapter between Kaidou and Luffy was a blast.
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There is one thing I honestly can't understand how anyone could possibly like,.and it's how completely undeserved this ultra mega awesome powerup feels.
I really feel like I'm missing something here. Luffy went completely over his head and had everyone bet their life on him beating Kaido, and was beaten fair and square three times (yeah, i don't buy your sad excuse of bowler hat's interference, you supposedly worked on your observation for that reason buddy), and for that… He's rewarded with God Mode without even an input of his own. He wasn't even experimenting with the fruit powers, he was just going all in on the new haki bullshit.
Each of the previous gears came from a place of insight and creativity, this... Just from the fact that the protagonist can't die.If the new Pokémon game introduced a mechanic making so that when your last mon faints it automatically regains full hp, full pp and an instant megaevolution, I don't think many would find it satisfying.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing
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Five pages of discussion before I'm even out of bed… My time zone sucks for the official release.
Alright, so Luffy has been combined with a legendary sun deity. Short of the One Piece itself, this is the series' biggest possible reveal, right? A complete recontextualisation of Luffy's powers, which have been central since literally chapter one. My gut says this isn't the greatest twist in the world - it's less of an 'oh, everything makes sense in hindsight' and more of a 'never in a million years would I have said this is where it's going.' But that's not to say this new information has no synnergy at all with what we knew previously.
For example, the idea of the Devil Fruit having a mind of its own and influencing its own fate One Ring-style fits in easily. Zoan fruits can be fed to inanimate objects to create a hybrid with the mind of the animal. Evidence suggests the reason that Zoans were the only fruits that could be imitated in Smile form is because you could use living animals to sythisise them. The old wives tales told about the fruits at Ennies Lobby said they put actual devils inside your body. So if the Elders say the fruit tried to escape on its own, I see that as a logical extension of all these points.
Not mention all the symbolism of lions, sunflowers, suns and Luffy that have been in play for a long time now. There's not nothing to go on here, although it's little enough you might be called a crackpot prior to this chapter if you'd try to go all in a theory based on only that.
I'm interested to see what the relationship between Mythical Zoans and the creatures they represent really is. We haven't seen any evidence in-universe of a phoenix or a natural-born dragon (depending on how canon you want Monsters to be), and no one's arguing that the Buddha really lived in OP world's history, so do we say that these creatures only exist in the form of their representative Devil Fruits, and are otherwise fictional? (If the mythological creatures are only extinct, surely they would be Ancient Zoans instead, not that we should be putting too much stock in presumed classifications and names after this week.) And then was it the chicken or the egg when it comes to the fruits and the myths?
In any case, I think the mythological angle spares Luffy from accusations of no longer being himself - or of never having been himself. If the will of the Buddha inside Sengoku's fruit couldn't keep him from earning a reputation as a powerful military leader and kept him in the service of an evil empire built on the backs of slaves, it's safe to say Nika isn't making Luffy do anything he wouldn't already want to do. Is it a bit of a cheap coincidence that Luffy so naturally wants freedom and brings joy and just happens to eat the fruit of the god of all that? Sure, but so is a guy called Smoker getting smoke powers and a guy called Orochi getting Orochi powers. It hits a bit different when it's the main character, but it's nothing that hasn't been done before.
That said, after every other Mythical Zoan was something you could find in real world legends, it's a tad cheap for this one to be an all new made-up god with the exact traits needed for the prior evidence to make sense - a being of rubber and fire sounds made up to fit the clues, rather than clues being given of its existence. It's not something that feels guessable, which can be a frustrating experience as a reader.
It's funny that Kaido talked about Luffy trying to be Joyboy, as if that name was the title, leaving us to assume Nika was perhaps the last person to carry that mantle. But he got it wrong, didn't he? Nika is the mantle and Joyboy was the last to use it. I wonder if we'll see how the two names got twisted up, or if it's just a natural result of the World Government's attempts to erase history.
What I really would have wanted to see leading up to this twist, in hindsight, is Nika being better established long before Who's Who brings him up. A scratching of the name or the silhouette carved into a wall in Impel Down, for example, lingered on just long enough by the camera to make it stick out to hardcore fans. I know we've had mentions of sun gods since forever (hell, there's a thread I started on the topic still on the first page of this board) but not enough follow through between them and the ideas of liberty and broken chains and happiness and rubber now being ascribed to them. Maybe that was meant to click into place on its own when Who's Who named Nika for us i chapter 1018, but that feels like too little too late for my tastes.
I like when I can reread a story and go 'it was right in front of me all along!' but my best recollections of One Piece lore still have me clutching at straws to find the build-up to it.
I'm also not sold on what exactly Luffy's new powers are. I guess we'll be seeing more fire for obvious reasons, but One Piece has been so cartoony from the start it'll take a lot for this new imagination-driven toolset to actually stand out. Like yeah, it's a big shift in tone for Luffy to be able to pick up Kaido and slam him back and forth like he's a loony tune, but he did that to Oars too. I suppose it could be read as a point in this twist's favour that it feels so in line with what we've seen Luffy do previously - it's just more blatant about bending the laws of physics for laughs now. We're probably going to be debating til the end of time what powerups or mid-fight goofball moments were unconscious manifestations of Nika's powers. To what extent can "the most ridiculous power in the world" actually warp reality to get its user's way? I'm not going to go too hard on that point though - this chapter was for the big reveal and a spectacle set-piece. Rules and limits come later. But I do want to see them get at least a tiny bit better defined in the future.
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There's no way Nika was planned before Wano, probably not even before Who's Who. There were many places he could have tried to foreshadow this otherwise - Fishman Island with Fisher Tiger who's symbol is a sun, Hancock, Doflamingo fight/Katakuri fight where awakening of re-hinted as the next powerup for luffy. Even the many flashbacks about Joyboy/laugh tale, or when the gorosei are explicitly talking about luffy. Or even from Blackbeard who has an usual level of knowledge about legends.
Also yes Luffy was shown to be sort of "destined" but there was always a level of seperation from literal destiny, although the destiny beats did get strengthened over time. Luffy was chosen in the sense that no one else had the same way of seeing the world, sense of determination and incredible luck. This is another massive leap and also diminishing the value of his effort.
I'm thinking that the idea was to somehow tie awakening into luffy beating Kaido (would make sense since breadcrumbs for this was dropped since Punk Hazard and impel down) but Oda couldn't find an interesting or satisfying way to tie that to luffy's current fruit and the situation. Luffy with the ability to make things vaguely have the properties of rubber (inflatable, stretchy, bouncy) is more interesting to play with than luffy having the ability to turn things literally into rubber. Also gives him a massive powerup physically for good measure.
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I assume Luffy won't always be in joy boy form, but when he does is he gonna keep laughing like this?
I think Luffy outside of gear 5 form will still be the normal Luffy we know. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if future Gear 5's don't always have the laughter and just have the grin, making the non-stop laughter a side-effect of this being Luffy's first time awakening.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
The idea of Luffy as the next JoyBoy / Sun God was defo planned at least by the time of the timeskip, even if the name Nika specifically wasn't. I'd be willing to bet it goes back further but I can at least say that it's not something decided during Wano.
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But how he wasnt there when Croco-boy dehydratated him and Magellan bath him in poison..
Maybe if you gave Luffy a little more hours in those conditions to finally die he would have awakened there :ninja:
But I actually don't believe the near-death experience is the only reason for this Awakening. Luffy's own development with his DF (and Haki) may have helped with that.
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It's probably that Luffy's mastery of the fruit also caused this.
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