It's out: https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1020635
BREAK NEXT WEEK! Ch 1115 comes out May 26th.
It's out: https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1020635
BREAK NEXT WEEK! Ch 1115 comes out May 26th.
We start with Yamato's pilgrimage. Nice to have a route, we can guess what he will encounter in his way.
What is Akainu thinking? This is not his usual "angry because I can't do nothing here" face. Is he taking Vegapunk's message seriously? Can it define the marines' path forward? Knowing the world is going to be destroyed may cause the marines to question their role.
When last chapter came out, many were quick to say the world has been slowly sinking since the beginning, and went out to find "proof" of that in "Oda's foreshadowing". I instead pointed out Vegapunk was talking about the sea rising after Lulusia's destruction. I got it right.
Vegapunk is likely going to connect the Lulusia event to something that happened in the Void Century. I say there's a high chance that the world has been partially sunk before, it may even be Imu's ultimate goal. He didn't achieve total victory back then.
I'm so disappointed at Saturn just leaving the crew alone. What a waste of such powerful ominous tease we got two chapters ago. Back then, I praised the tension being built, but I said I was worried Oda would kill it with some contrinvance in "2 chapters or so". Oh, well...
Saturn left behind:
All that for what? To beat random snails in a wild goose chase, without any knowledge of where the right snail could be, or even if it's in the island at all. I can't bear such stupidity, sorry. Saturn is the worst villain we got, by far. Great power is nothing without brains.
Saint Shalria not knowing about the Void Century is interesting. How further from the truth the Celestial Dragons are? Could Homing's and Myosgard's conversions have happened because they found knowledge that most Celestials aren't aware of?
When Luffy attacked Warcury before, his hand was hurt and on fire. We couldn't be sure if the fire was from Warcury, or from Luffy's own Red Roc attack. Now, however, Luffy used a non-fiery attack, and again his hand is hurt and on fire. This means Warcury's resilience is another mysterious trick.
Every scene outside of Egghead got its location introduced either in narration or in a panel showing the place. But there are two exceptions: Smoothie's and Marguerite's scenes. Also, Marguerite's companions are all Kuja Pirates, so she may be at sea, not Amazon Lily. It's also interesting that Oda showed Marguerite, not Hancock or Nyon.
Could both the Big Mom Pirates and the Kuja be on the move? Both crews have reasons to go somewhere after recent events.
I know a lot of people got excited by this chapter, but for me it was really meh. There were no unexpected revelations from Vegapunk this time, and the battle itself has the Straw Hats again getting it easy by happenstance, not a result of their own struggle.
Now we wait 2 more weeks...
Interesting, so Joy Boy was the first pirate in this world's history.
If you told me this chapter was going to be a very slow dip with reactions from so many people and seeing the chaos that is still unfolding on Egghead, my initial reaction would've been this would be a very annoying chapter. However, the pacing and the way we see so many characters from the past 1100+ chapters reacting on top of the increasing desperation of finding the way to stop the message made for a very enjoyable chapter for me. I forgot there was another break after this, but like last time, it gave enough info to chew on but not make me dread a two week wait. Seeing Saul chilling while all of this going down was definitely the best part of the chapter for me.
Seems like the obvious implication of how to stop the recording is to take out the mother flame. Makes a lot of sense, with it being the one thing on the island they want to preserve, so it makes them decide it it's worth letting the whole message out to keep it, or if they deem the potential info that will be made public is something that absolutely must be stopped. Feels like it could go either way, since we aren't getting the full story the whole recording could play out with plenty of questions to be answered. On the other hand, depending on what else Vegapunk could spill may be something that Oda and the Elder's don't want to readers/world to know about. I'm still leaning towards the recording cutting off eventually, mainly on the fact that if the mother flame is destroyed, they have one Vegapunk who can help rebuild it if need be (assuming the theory of that's where the recording is coming from being correct). Also seems like an Oda move to finally give some info and tease a big piece of information only to cut it off once again.
Really looking forward to seeing this arc wrapped up. Feels like once the message ends, we are past the climax of the arc.
One thing that stood out to me in this chapter: Charlos's sister did not appear to recognize the term "Void Century". That strikes me as significant. It makes me wonder if the World Nobles simply don't care or if, for them, there isn't a Void, they know what happened, or at least their version.
Another thought also occurred, how much of the Celestial Dragons' behavior would be explained by the possibility they've just been having an 800 year-long End of the World party? They already know what Vegapunk is saying, the original 20 Kings had no way to stop it, so they're just going to party hardy as long as they can until the end and their descendants turned into what we have now.
@The-Franky-Tank said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Seems like the obvious implication of how to stop the recording is to take out the mother flame. Makes a lot of sense, with it being the one thing on the island they want to preserve, so it makes them decide it it's worth letting the whole message out to keep it, or if they deem the potential info that will be made public is something that absolutely must be stopped. Feels like it could go either way, since we aren't getting the full story the whole recording could play out with plenty of questions to be answered. On the other hand, depending on what else Vegapunk could spill may be something that Oda and the Elder's don't want to readers/world to know about. I'm still leaning towards the recording cutting off eventually, mainly on the fact that if the mother flame is destroyed, they have one Vegapunk who can help rebuild it if need be (assuming the theory of that's where the recording is coming from being correct). Also seems like an Oda move to finally give some info and tease a big piece of information only to cut it off once again.
I think you're misreading the scene. Saturn is trying to kill the Den Den Mushi present near the Mother Flame.
Taking the MF out itself would be useless in stopping the broadcast, because it's being done by an organic creature.
As someone who waits for the official, Golden Week (and Christmas) are especially painful cause the spoilers drop so early. Avoiding all OP content for almost 2 weeks is really annoying, but it was worth the wait.
About time we see Doflamingo again. Appears to be confirming what people speculated last chapter, that the reason the CDs live on the Red Line is because it'll be safe when the world sinks. Is Magellan still guarding him from the assassination attempts, or are they just bros?
Shalria is only 17 years old (what a messed up 15 year old she already was 2 years ago lol), so I don't think it's necessarily surprising that she wouldn't know. Though I like the idea @sgamer82 had too.
Good to see some other old favorites. Tonjit, Mayor Boodle, Marguerite.
Saw the Motherflame from Enels Cover Story (ch 472) on Rogersbase stream, pretty cool.
Joyboy being the first pirate fits perfectly imo, being a pirate in OP never seemed to be much about pillaging anyways except for Bellamy I guess and more about living outside of the WGs rule.
@King-Cannon said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
@The-Franky-Tank said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Seems like the obvious implication of how to stop the recording is to take out the mother flame. Makes a lot of sense, with it being the one thing on the island they want to preserve, so it makes them decide it it's worth letting the whole message out to keep it, or if they deem the potential info that will be made public is something that absolutely must be stopped. Feels like it could go either way, since we aren't getting the full story the whole recording could play out with plenty of questions to be answered. On the other hand, depending on what else Vegapunk could spill may be something that Oda and the Elder's don't want to readers/world to know about. I'm still leaning towards the recording cutting off eventually, mainly on the fact that if the mother flame is destroyed, they have one Vegapunk who can help rebuild it if need be (assuming the theory of that's where the recording is coming from being correct). Also seems like an Oda move to finally give some info and tease a big piece of information only to cut it off once again.
I think you're misreading the scene. Saturn is trying to kill the Den Den Mushi present near the Mother Flame.
Taking the MF out itself would be useless in stopping the broadcast, because it's being done by an organic creature.
Perhaps I didn't word things as well as I could have. I'll grant that it's an out there theory, but I was trying to say I think the actual answer to stopping the message is to destroy the mother flame. I don't have the most solid argument, but my main part of the theory is that since Vegapunk would want to prevent the message from being stopped, it would make sense in a way to make the one thing they would want intact from the island to be the key to the whole thing. Yes, right now they are killing anything organic because that's the assumption, but that doesn't mean that is what they are supposed to destroy to stop it.
@The-Franky-Tank said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
@King-Cannon said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
@The-Franky-Tank said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Seems like the obvious implication of how to stop the recording is to take out the mother flame. Makes a lot of sense, with it being the one thing on the island they want to preserve, so it makes them decide it it's worth letting the whole message out to keep it, or if they deem the potential info that will be made public is something that absolutely must be stopped. Feels like it could go either way, since we aren't getting the full story the whole recording could play out with plenty of questions to be answered. On the other hand, depending on what else Vegapunk could spill may be something that Oda and the Elder's don't want to readers/world to know about. I'm still leaning towards the recording cutting off eventually, mainly on the fact that if the mother flame is destroyed, they have one Vegapunk who can help rebuild it if need be (assuming the theory of that's where the recording is coming from being correct). Also seems like an Oda move to finally give some info and tease a big piece of information only to cut it off once again.
I think you're misreading the scene. Saturn is trying to kill the Den Den Mushi present near the Mother Flame.
Taking the MF out itself would be useless in stopping the broadcast, because it's being done by an organic creature.
Perhaps I didn't word things as well as I could have. I'll grant that it's an out there theory, but I was trying to say I think the actual answer to stopping the message is to destroy the mother flame. I don't have the most solid argument, but my main part of the theory is that since Vegapunk would want to prevent the message from being stopped, it would make sense in a way to make the one thing they would want intact from the island to be the key to the whole thing. Yes, right now they are killing anything organic because that's the assumption, but that doesn't mean that is what they are supposed to destroy to stop it.
Even if the Mother Flame isn't as directly connected to the broadcast as that, I've wondered if maybe Vegapunk was using it as a "hostage" of sorts. Along with direct security like the Punk Records shield and the decoy transponder snail, housing the source of the broadcast in the vicinity of the one thing the Five Elders wouldn't want destroyed ensures that, even if they were to ultimately succeed, they would do so slowly, with enough time for the broadcast to mostly run its course.
I've also seen the suggestion the whole thing's a double-blind and the broadcasting transponder snail is hidden somewhere else entirely (I've seen suggestions of Ohara itself, but one suggestion I saw was within the Iron Giant, which ties into how we met Vegapunk tele-fragged inside of it)
I imagine Saturn's rationale for going to the power station is that the snail may be in the one place they can't outright destroy. Due to unofficial translation, I considered that maybe Saturn wanted to remove the Mother Flame somehow, so they can just explode the lab and kill everything on it, but the official makes it more clear that he's there to whack random snails in hopes of finding the right one, which, frankly, is a terrible terrible strategy.
How could Joy Boy be talked about as separate from Nika if Joy Boy also had the Nika fruit
Two things I forgot to mention on the spoiler thread:
Magellan taking a Den Den Mushi to go listen to the news with Doflamingo. I need a SBS with some background on their relationship now.
Vegapunk knowing the Mother Flame would be used by the WG in a few days to eradicate an island is something worthy of note. So he knew there was a traitor among his Satellites? Remember the Elders only got the MF because York secretly handled it to them, it was not something they were supposed to know about.
@access-timeco said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Magellan taking a Den Den Mushi to go listen to the news with Doflamingo. I need a SBS with some background on their relationship now.
My take is that Doflamingo requires extra attention because of assassination attempts (like in Ch 907 or 908, I don't remember which), so Magellan usually keeps an extra watch on Doffy. However, since Doffy is such a knowledgeable fellow, Magellan took a liking at long conversations with him.
@access-timeco said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Vegapunk knowing the Mother Flame would be used by the WG in a few days to eradicate an island is something worthy of note. So he knew there was a traitor among his Satellites? Remembers the Elders only got the MF because York secretly handled it to them, it was not something they were supposed to know about.
I'm intrigued about it as well. A lot about the arc will stop making sense if Vegapunk knew there was a traitor do begin with.
@access-timeco said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Vegapunk knowing the Mother Flame would be used by the WG in a few days to eradicate an island is something worthy of note. So he knew there was a traitor among his Satellites? Remember the Elders only got the MF because York secretly handled it to them, it was not something they were supposed to know about
If we stick to facts, nothing indicates he is aware that an island is going to sink. He knows an earthquake will occur and the sea will rise, period. We don't know exactly how these phenomenon are related to the weapon that sank Lulusia
Maybe the rising sea level has nothing to do with the Mother Flame and it's a sheer coincidence that it happened right after ?
Or, and this would further tap into Vegapunk as a grey character, the very existence of the Mother Flame is causing this regardless of if and how the elders use it. His sin would then be to have created an unlimited energy source and not realized (or knowingly ignored) the threat it could pose.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
I'm intrigued about it as well. A lot about the arc will stop making sense if Vegapunk knew there was a traitor do begin with.
I think he just knew about the MF's destructive potential and that the WG could exploit it if they ever found out. You don't need to be a genius to realize that any new scientific breakthrough will eventually be researched for military use.
@King-Cannon while completely believable, Vegapunk apparently didn't guess something was going to happen based on intuition. He has solid data provided by sensors.
Granted, we don't know exactly what this data is. It could be energy level readings that tell him someone is using the Mother Flame to charge a weapon and he is well aware which one thanks to his Void Century research.
@Seafarer33 Yeah, I want to see exactly what he knew and how he came to that conclusion.
As far as I can guess, Vegapunk sensed the aftereffects of Lulusia and compared it to some knowledge from the Void Century, which allowed him to make his prediction.
But, if Vegapunk knew the Mother Flame was used for it (which this recording heavily implies), then he should know someone delivered it to the Elders, thus there should be a traitor, thus Vegapunk should be prepared to not be fooled into the whole Labophase Death Game situation.
@Seafarer33 said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
@King-Cannon while completely believable, Vegapunk apparently didn't guess something was going to happen based on intuition. He has solid data provided by sensors.
Granted, we don't know exactly what this data is. It could be energy level readings that tell him someone is using the Mother Flame to charge a weapon and he is well aware which one thanks to his Void Century research.
I think he just used a seismograph to obtain seismic data, and the readings indicated a global quake based on underground vibrations from Lulusia's destruction.
He could suspect the MF could have been used, but it depends on how much he even knows about the WG's secret weapon.
@King-Cannon The thing is that he talking about "Flying too close to the sun" as one of his sins is that he knew or suspected it was his fault, and this recording was done before the Egghead events.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
@King-Cannon The thing is that he talking about "Flying too close to the sun" as one of his sins is that he knew or suspected it was his fault, and this recording was done before the Egghead events.
None of that would've been definitive evidence of a traitor among the satellites anyway. It could've been the work of a Cipher Pol/Marine spy, or a rogue researcher...
In fact, I think all the Cipher Pol agents visiting him would have raised those suspicions too. But alas, he couldn't really prove who was doing it.
A lot of people seem to think the Mother Flame will power up Luffy to a new level, wouldn’t that contradict Luffy saying Gear 5 is his peak in Wano?
I'm a little amused that Oda just decided to map out Yamato's journey for us ahead of time. We'll start with Oda introducing something new with Kibi (probably something with Nekomamushi and Neko port); Rebuilding things in Kuri; Finding out who's watching over Udon prison; Something happening in Hakumai (since that's the stop for the sword); and finally visiting the graves in Ringo before returning to the capital. Guess they'll make it all the way around instead of getting interrupted in one of the regions.
Not much to say about all the cuts to different reactions around the world. It's nice that we have the full spectrum of shock, belief, disbelief, etc. Everyone instantly believing VP would've been rather annoying. The only interesting one is the Impel Down one to remind us that the whole prison definitely can't remain in use if the seas continue to rise. Which is good. We thought there'd be a big breakout destroying the place, but maybe instead we're just gonna have all the prisoners relocated (and an incident during it) so the empty prison can be destroyed later.
As I expected, Saturn just came across the Sunny crew by coincidence to climbing up at that spot. His goal was the lab and he was just marching past the crew. I wonder if there's a possibility though that he got them infected with poison as he charged through and shoved them away. Chopper looks extra disturbed here. Maybe he's gonna have to throw together a cure in the panic. Doesn't initially show it, but the scene moves so fast it could come. Otherwise the motherflame room is just another checkmark off the list that Oda felt he wanted to show us before the arc ends.
I guess the flames are getting so bad down below that Dorry and Broggy have their entire lower bodies engulfed as they're running through them by now. You'd think that'd be causing some real damage fast. Presumably, that should have taken care of most life signs down below that aren't around the giant ship.
Edison's part looks to be done, but also probably too simple to just work perfectly. Now that Edison's an isolated blip of life on the radar, I could see Mr. Worm come to snuff him out and coincidentally stop the clouds from expanding early. That way, we'll have the big question of if the clouds got far enough out or not as the strawhats blast off, and we can get Edison's final moments (instead of just seeing his body limp as we leave).
Looks like having Luffy fall out of Gear 5th was completely pointless outside of Oda wanting to make the joke with the bad tasting giant food. Could've just left Luffy in Gear 5 if the rotation between debuff and full power was gonna be single minutes.
The actual meat of the chapter is that the Elders are getting so desperate that they're changing tactics to "eliminate any life you can sense." While it might seem a tad egregious that Saturn just rushes past the Sunny group with this logic, but it's not the worst case of protagonist bs we've had. The Elders are taking the cold efficient approach, so they're starting with all the voices they can still sense around the main lab. You're dealing with Vegapunk's brains here, so any approach to guess the most likely place just carries the risk that Vegapunk predicted you'd predict that. Instead they're just starting in the middle, where most likely the most pings on the radar still are, and going to work their way out from there. We'll probably see the Cipher Pol agents wiped out just to remove them from the radar, however unlikely it'd be that one of them is hiding the snail. Once they've cleared everything (except probably the Seraphim, Lucci, and maybe Kaku), they'll move back towards the Sunny crew as the last remaining source of life they can sense up there.
Down below, the fire has likely snuffed out any voices that aren't converging on the giant ship, which is where Venus already is and Mr. Pig is heading (while slowing down 3 of the biggest voices). Any outliers can probably be taken out by Mr. Worm tunneling around the island.
The next chapter should really feel like a culling as the Elders start taking out every non-protagonist voice while Vegapunk continues dropping lore.
Not surprised some of the CDs are unaware of certain truths. I would go even further. The Gorosei don't know every single thing either. They just know more than the regular CDs. Im might be the one that knows everything, while there are possibly blanks for Im related to the "good" side.
I want Vegapunk to start justifying the 10min prep for a video Den Den Mushi. So far, audio only would have been enough. Show some stuff old genius !
We've seen Warcury Conqueroar the entire island, disabling marines away from the coast.
We've seen Luffy's Conqueror Haki knocking down 50,000 fishmen.
What's stopping Warcury or any other Elder with Conqueror from just knocking out every snail in the island? Plot convenience.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
We've seen Warcury Conqueroar the entire island, disabling marines away from the coast.
We've seen Luffy's Conqueror Haki knocking down 50,000 fishmen.
What's stopping Warcury or any other Elder with Conqueror from just knocking out every snail in the island? Plot convenience.
If they pulled out something like Warcury's roar, it would likely damage some stuff within the Labophase anyway due to the wind and vibrations, which is what they are avoiding doing.
@King-Cannon It doesn't need to be the roar, just basic Conqueror. It won't cause that much damage to the environment.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
@King-Cannon It doesn't need to be the roar, just basic Conqueror. It won't cause that much damage to the environment.
I was under the impression basic Conqueror has limited range, and that the island-sized bursts tend to be more environmentally unfriendly. More force, more range, essentially.
In any case, it's not like it's confirmed Saturn has CoC and strong enough to cover an entire lab. Only Warcury has been shown doing it, and he's quite a distance away.
@King-Cannon So were the marines being affected by Warcury.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
@King-Cannon So were the marines being affected by Warcury.
Because they were in the direct range and direction of the roar?
Like, you can see it travelling around the island, blowing trees and rubble away. It's not that hard to see.
@King-Cannon In Onigashima Big Mom was dropping random Beasts Pirates she wasn't even aware of while fighting Kid and Law, and it's not like the castle collapsed from that. We are talking about knocking out snails here.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
@King-Cannon In Onigashima Big Mom was dropping random Beasts Pirates she wasn't even aware of while fighting Kid and Law, and it's not like the castle collapsed from that. We are talking about knocking out snails here.
Yes. But that doesn't mean everything is possible, y'know.
Like, Big Mom was KO'ing people around, but those pirates were close and in the same floor since Nami and Usopp were the ones facing them right after escaping her. In other words, there's still a range limitation since we don't see pirates from other floors falling unconscious.
The Labophase is also away enough from the ground that it's arguably in a longer distance from it than Warcury and the nearest shore.
I'm not going to keep arguing about this because it's frankly a nitpicky, uninteresting argument and a waste of time that boils down to:
"If a giant boar god roars in a forest and there are no snails to hear, does it make a sound?"
@King-Cannon said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Yes. But that doesn't mean everything is possible, y'know.
But that's no excuse to not try. The Elders are desperate, but then trying smarter tactics never come to their heads. Nope, let's whack snails one by one with a stick.
@King-Cannon said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Like, Big Mom was KO'ing people around, but those pirates were close and in the same floor since Nami and Usopp were the ones facing them right after escaping her. In other words, there's still a range limitation since we don't see pirates from other floors falling unconscious.
Big Mom wasn't even trying to blast Conqueror around, it was just a side effect of her merely fighting nearby there.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Big Mom wasn't even trying to blast Conqueror around, it was just a side effect of her merely fighting nearby there.
Random bystanders get KO'd all the damn time with Conqueror bursts, or did we forget the random dude getting KO'd by Luffy vs. Kaido CoC clash?
And it's frankly irrelevant to the situation now. Like, if you are really that unwilling to believe that random snails up in a building kilometers in the sky cannot hear and faint from a big pig burping down below, then that's your problem.
@King-Cannon If someone tries and it fails to stop the transmission, fine. The story shows it's not that simple.
But no one even trying? That's like Whitebeard not trying to break the metal walls in the Marineford Bay with his earthquake because he assumes it wouldn't break. That's not how it works, in that case the story made a point of showing it failing so he'd need to come up with another solution.
The villains not using their powers to solve their problems is incredibly infuriating, which makes me come back to how Saturn forgot he can paralyse people with a glance or spit poison nukes.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
@King-Cannon If someone tries and it fails to stop the transmission, fine. The story shows it's not that simple.
But no one even trying? That's like Whitebeard not trying to break the metal walls in the Marineford Bay with his earthquake because he assumes it wouldn't break. That's not how it works, in that case the story made a point of showing it failing so he'd need to come up with another solution.
The villains not using their powers to solve their problems is incredibly infuriating, which makes me come back to how Saturn forgot he can paralyse people with a glance or spit poison nukes.
You want him to spit poison nukes near a place that can cause a massive nuclear explosion if messed up with?
Sure. What can possibly go wrong?
But seriously, we were given several reasons for why the Elders simply cannot go wild. It's not like they're being stupid, they're being cautious because they have a lot at stake.
It's why the first thing Saturn does in the power plant is turn back into a human. He can't go around trampling on things as a giant spider.
@King-Cannon said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
You want him to spit poison nukes near a place that can cause a massive nuclear explosion if messed up with?
The Straw Hats are outside, he didn't need to nuke the facility, just them and their ship.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
@King-Cannon said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
You want him to spit poison nukes near a place that can cause a massive nuclear explosion if messed up with?
The Straw Hats are outside, he didn't need to nuke the facility, just them.
They were close enough that there was enough of a risk (what if the poison orbs were deflected like how Luffy did beforehand?). And what would happen to the cloud they were in if there was an explosion there?
Honestly, I'm not sure why you're so hellbent on arguing this. Oda literally lists reasons for the Elders to do things a certain way and what they risk missing out on if they are careless. They are allowed to act like they are doing in this situation, since they are forced by special circumstances to hold themselves back, but also be quick.
@King-Cannon said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
They were close enough that there was enough of a risk
I'm pretty sure people can control the strength of their powers in One Piece...
@King-Cannon said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Oda literally lists reasons for the Elders to do things a certain way and what they risk missing out on if they are careless.
No, Oda is being extremely lazy here. The elders not only keep making bad decisions, they also forget their own capabilities.
This could all probably be solved by simply having Oda include 1 panel showing the Elder's CoO "scan for life" across the island to tell us where most of the remaining "voices" are. Tell us there's several hundred voices in the lab (give or take) vs. 10ish outside the lab vs. a few scattered numbers down below vs. the Giant ship numbers. Obviously you rush to deal with the biggest number first.
Which, granted, I think Oda might do anyway in the next chapter, but eh, you could cut any 1 of these reaction shots around the world to do it earlier.
Also maybe just have Saturn come up above at a different corner and miss the strawhats altogether (unless Oda's planning to have a poison crisis for Chopper to handle from their brief encounter).
@Marcotty Yes, there are dozens of ways of conveying the measures taken better than Oda did. We spent two chapters teasing Saturn approaching the crew... just for him to ignore them and move ahead. Likewise, we could see Saturn's thought process to know what alternatives he saw and why this is the best one.
Instead we got this contrinvance in which he passes right by a heavily guarded point where the right snail could be, with a Vegapunk that may know where it could be, and just dismiss it as less important than whacking random snails one-by-one. How come he can't suspect the Straw Hats could be protecting the snail right there? Or that it's pointless to get Lilith and try and get the snail's location from her?
"Oh, he's in a hurry". Well: paralysis + poison, then move on. Feels faster than moving through while they are all shooting at you.
And we have this haki that knock out weak living beings in mass, without needing pinpointing every target, but they can't use it because... uh... the power plant is so fragile will explode when we never saw that haki use cause such extensive damage before?
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
Instead we got this contrinvance in which he passes right by a heavily guarded point where the right snail could be, with a Vegapunk that may know where it could be, and just dismiss it as less important than whacking random snails one-by-one. How come he can't suspect the Straw Hats could be protecting the snail right there? Or that it's pointless to get Lilith and try and get the snail's location from her?
Regarding Lilith, I suppose it's fair to believe she wouldn't know the location of the broadcast since York also doesn't know. Mars pointed out they all share the same mind, so this feels like something VP did by himself and didn't upload it into the Records.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
"Oh, he's in a hurry". Well: paralysis + poison, then move on. Feels faster than moving through while they are all shooting at you.
This one is just a bad argument. Like it assumes Saturn can just easily and instantly paralyze and poison anyone. Like, would any of that work on Brook for example? What about Robin, who doesn't need to move to use her ability? And in fact has experience dealing with giant spiders?
See, a villain being competent doesn't require the heroes to just let themselves fall prey to them.
@King-Cannon said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
See, a villain being competent doesn't require the heroes to just let themselves fall prey to them.
Oh, but that would mean the heroes would be challenged and forced to struggle, making it a good story, and we can't have that nowadays. Better to save them with happenstance and villain incompetence.
@Deicide said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
And we have this haki that knock out weak living beings in mass, without needing pinpointing every target, but they can't use it because... uh... the power plant is so fragile will explode when we never saw that haki use cause such extensive damage before?
Big Mom's Haki roar had enough pressure to shatter glass, so it's definitely not a safe technique to use in a lab. I'm assuming Warcury's roar is the same.
And again, we're not sure Saturn has it. It could be something exclusive to Warcury for all we know.
This chapter really wants to give Vegapunk's message space to resonate and lean hard on the idea that it's something that impacts the whole world. It definitely slows things down on the weekly read, but it's probably going to be best for the long-term pacing and story structure to make sure this section has gravitas. Months or years from now, whenever we all end up doing our Egghead rereads, we'll be glad this came on slow.
Just something to keep in mind through another break week.
We start with an idea of the route and ultimate goals of Yamato's cover story. These things don't always go the way they're initially set up to be, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a disruption from this path in a few chapters' time. What worries me here is the emphasis on Yasuie. If there's one character from Wano I could see Oda yet again reviving, like he did with Pound in Bege's cover story, it would be this guy. Yeah, his death looked pretty certain at the time, but remember he was carried off to be buried by the traitor Kanjuro, who I believe at some point expressed some kind of desire to use Yasuie's afro as paint brush bristles. If Yasuie was even barely alive after being shot (and falling) Oda has set up both the means and motive for him to have made it to the present. Remember you heard it here first.
There's a few nuggets of information to glean from the global reactions throughout the chapter. The Water Seven segment suggests that whatever's causing this goes beyond just the rising tides they deal with. So it might be more than just the Mother Flame holes like where Lulusia used to be displacing the water. Doflamingo hints at the idea of fleeing to Marie Geoise like he knows what's up. But on the other hand, we have Shalria never having heard of the Void Century, which says a lot about how much the average Celestial Dragon knows about what's up.
We also get Saul! Yay! And can we put to rest the idea that he's the burn scar man now? Sure, we don't see his face, but if the assumption is that he was either burned by the flames of Ohara or took an ice burn when Kuzan froze him, we'd be able to see evidence of that on his arms and legs too.
And the real man of the chapter: Chou Chou the dog back for the first time since his chapter 619 cover story appearance. Love that Boodle even put Chou Chou's face on his transponder snail.
Getting into the meat of the chapter, I feel like a little too much stock is put on Vegapunk's earthquake prediction by the world's skeptics. I mean, you're taking him at his word that the message is pre-recorded. I could video myself reading a summary of this chapter and claim I did it weeks ago and perfectly predicted everything. Ah, but I'm nitpicking.
It's great seeing even more of the Strawhats combining their powers against Saturn, even if it's over so soon. I don't have any trouble filling in for myself the other Elders reminding him the broadcast should be the priority and moving him alone, but the transition from him baring down on the lab to being in human form in the Mother Flame room is very abrupt. The darkness in the chamber suggests it's deep inside the building, not something that can be reached with only a few seconds of smashing. The art for that spread though. That is a stunning machine. And we finally see the fire that powers the whole island. It's drawn similar to the little coil of flame that burns on the Seraphim's shoulders, isn't it? Not to mention the thoroughly discussed resemblence to the murals Enel found on the moon. They're one of my most anticipated things to learn more about.
Edison's plan to save the Sunny is clever, I'll give it that. Despite knowing Vegapunk set the whole thing up himself, I hadn't thought the answer could be to just make more clouds. We'll see if he gets pull it off though. It's always dangerous to discuss a plan so fully so far from its execution.
I didn't expect Luffy to be back in Gear Five so soon. Even accounting for the food power up for the giants, Oda's kinda selling short the one weakness this form is meant to have. It wouldn't fully shock me if Luffy had originally been planned to stay powered down, but the plan was changed last minute either to match him up with Joyboy or because he needs to be in Gear Five for the ancient robot to keep moving.
And finally, Joyboy hints, let's go! I think the parallel with Luffy making the giants laugh would have worked better if he wasn't doing the exact same giant flaming sore hand gag he did literally two chapters ago. Come now, Oda, you've got more jokes in you than that. But the first pirate; now that is some interesting lore. Of course, in the real world 'pirate' basically just means 'sea criminal,' so Joyboy probably wasn't the first of those. There have been people stealing from others on the water for as long as there's been boats, and there's no way the ancient civilisation got to Vegapunk's technology level without working out seafaring. So obviously we're going to be looking at a more One Piece-y definition of the term, almost definitely much more akin to Luffy and Roger's freedom-focussed idea of piracy.
The break for next week hurts, as does my suspicion that we're getting close to the end of Vegapunk's lore dump. I don't think Oda means to give away too much of Joyboy's life before we get the full flashback. Maybe some cliff notes leading into the ancient kingdom's name before one of the Elders finally pops the snail. But we'll see. I've been wrong before and I'd certainly love to be wrong now.
Fans making a fuss over Yamato being Oden while those close to Oden don't really mind.
Oden's route in the flashback. Capital - Hakumai - Ringo - Kibi - Udon - Kuri
Maybe he meets Onimaru. Capital - Kibi - Kuri - Udon - Hakumai to drop off the sword - Ringo - Capital. If he meets Onimaru, it is after the sword is delivered.
I think Yamato helps preview the new daimyo of each region and also a preview of the future of Wano from the Beast Pirates being useful, change of how people treat some who are different, etc. Might even meet some outsiders. A lot of these cover stories have some new characters that are new to the story. I didn't see Grus being a key character later on.
The shortest story has to be like 15 or 16 chapters, so this might have at least 12 more covers left.
you know the world's gonna sink when those Jaya mfers laughed at it.
I'm still sure JoyBoy is just an epithet, not his actual name.
not long now before Imu debuts in anime, next chapter is a good fit to reveal the lord of censorship.
the theory of JoyBoy being a king still stands strong. He could have his reasons to become a pirate but taking piracy as his first occupation ? i don't think so
most likely scenario after he lost the war ( alongside his great kingdom ) he took to the seas ( basically escaping ) then naturally he became wanted since his enemies took over thus accidentally became the first known sea criminal. established his crew, hid his treasure, traveled to his allies ( Wano ) entrusting them with his ship ( Pluton ) and wrote various messages to the future after the fortune teller said to his face you ain't the one. How he died is quite a mystery, definitely not in the great war, I'm sure it was after. most likely died a pirate and not a ruler.
@Cockycent said in Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus:
The shortest story has to be like 15 or 16 chapters, so this might have at least 12 more covers left.
Unless this does what the Germa one does and intersects with the main story in real time to really skew things beyond prediction, I'll be really surprised if this is anything less than 30.
Aside from there being five locations to visit which will surely need at least two chapters apiece I'd be surprised if there were less than 3 pages per location giving how many Wano residents there are to check on, and the handful of spots we never actually got to that didn't fit in, like Ryuma's grave. (Not that we ever saw the Fishman Island karate dojo...) Otoko is a must given the sword. All the scabbards. Tama, Speed, and Beast Pirates. etc. and Oda's need to fit in some sort of action bit somewhere in there no matter how minor, so fighting a giant boar or some street thugs or something.
So I'd think we'd need at least that 15, plus resolution whatever that may be. Yams leaving the island in an unexpected way?
The shortest cover story set was the strawhat separation which out of sheer necessity was brief, and only 16 pages... but the next shortest was Wapol's which was 23, and then the super also time dependant Buggy story, which was 28, and Jinbe's which was also 28. All the rest have been 30+ chapters, the longest being the Decks of the World after the timeskip with 48, but that was covering a lot of ground... and Caribou's for some reason being 46 and the Strawhat Fleet also being 46.
(Decks of the World-part 2 showing people reacting to Luffy's 500 million bounty was only 25, but... it was very soon after the previous Decks and a second helping so that makes sense.. it was a weird one since traditionally Oda would have just thrown a full chapter at it to cover the same material... but I guess Punk Hazard leading right to Dresserossa limited his options)
Germa, the most recent was 33 and that intercepted the actual story in real time which was new.
And all of those had color spreads breaking them up, and Oda takes more breaks than he used to, and as a result has a higher concentration of color spreads. So I'll be pretty surprised if this cover story is done before the end of the year.
Dare I hope that Yamato meets back up with the Straw Hats and joins them….l I’m not sure I can take the heart ache if he doesn’t a second time
With all this ability to massage the world in real time, Vegapunk could have turned on the cameras and show the world everything that the marines and the elders are doing now in Egghead. If Vegapunk main goal was to wake up the world against the WG, this could have helped a lot.
I guess Vegapunk recorded his message after the disparition of Lullusia. That way he could forecast the earthquake. But as he said that event was not natural. So is the anouncement that the world will think a forecast that the world gouvernement will abuse of the mother flame and not a natural sink as I initially understood ? Maybe this is what happened during the void century and a reason why it should not be known.
Sandman said that A&Mu reads a.to.mu which emphasizes the analogy between the mother flame and the nuclear energy. Vegapunk looked into the forbiden void century because he wanted to know tye energy source this advanced civilization used and ended up with a mass destruction weapon. Well he is not a clone of Einstein for nothing.