Chapter 1118: The Most Free
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First two Dragons, now two Nikos, what's next? Two Piece?
Guess we are in the end stretch for Egghead? We got down to three Vegapunks being alive, maybe four if Edison somehow survived.
The broadcast is interrupted and might continue once the giant is out of the water.
Bonney being a force to reckon with is amazing, she deals with 2 Vice Admirals and one of the sea beasts and age's them down to childhood versions of themselves.
But her turning into Nika is kinda lame, but I'm fine with it, if she can turn herself into Nika, I want that color spread with all the Strawhats in Nika form to come back into the story, where she turns everyone into Nika.Anyways, is Kuma back to being conscious? The last page made it seem like he is remembering his promise to Ginny and I fully expect him and maybe the iron giant to deal with the Elders, so everyone including one or two Vegapunks and the whole giant crew gets to escape towards Elbaf.
Though, which is kinda disappointing, I doubt we will find out what makes the Buccaneer so special. Might be revealed in an SBS or in a few years if we are lucky. -
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@The-Light-of-Shandora said in Chapter 1118: The Most Free:
Though, which is kinda disappointing, I doubt we will find out what makes the Buccaneer so special. Might be revealed in an SBS or in a few years if we are lucky.
Eh, there’s enough setup about Buccaneers as a race that they will get lore drops at some point. Probably the same time we learn more about Lunarians and the Void Century in full.
Agree Kuma ex-machina will likely be the thing that saves the day at the end. Dunno how they could feasibly get out of this situation otherwise.
Will say here though my bets are on Lilith and Atlas biting the dust before it happens though. Realize Oda has a soft spot for women but story wise them still being alive is more plot hindering at this point. But has guesses wrong before this arc so not gonna be surprised if I’m wrong about the above now. -
I like how Oda is building up Bonney like Luffy’s little sis, even going so far as to mentor her in the ways of Nika.
I so hope Bonney gets to travel with him to Elbaf!
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Most of this arc concerning Bonney/Kuma have fallen flat for me in impact. Not because of inconsistency or reward, their tormentor just doesn't give them the same energy. Arlong felt a way about Nami. Doffy did as well with Law. Saturn just feels like he is tossing around another bug with the Kuma family. VP was brought in as a valued asset and had the nerve to defy them. They feel like out of all the peasants below them, VP should get it and see it their way.
You can even hear it in VP's choice not to outright say the WG are wrong and the main perpetrators in his message.
Kuma's punch. Bonney transformation. I'm not feeling the weight I think Oda wants me to feel. These moments look cool. What they went through is horrible, but it doesn't feel personal on the opposing side.
I am engaged and interested in if Bonney can apply "freedom" to other objects. I think Oda has to commit to that if he is indeed copying Luffy's DF as some have said he is. If she isn't, she is just simply aging herself.
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@Cockycent It definitely doesn't help that the big moment Bonney turns into Nika came in a chapter entirely disconnected from her plot line.
Bonney bearing Nika's image would probably hit a lot harder if it happened 10 chapters ago, when Kuma's past and her life were being focused on. Now, that whole side plot has been ignored for too long for this scene to feel like a climax that was being built up, the momentum was lost even if Oda threw some panels to remind us the importance freedom has in Bonney's life. -
A very short chapter here, with kind of not a lot to discuss besides the ending, but I definitely enjoyed it. Egghead is clearly developing to its conclusion with one escape ship away and the other close behind. It's exciting to think Elbaf is coming so soon, after all these years.
Even with what we were just told a few chapters ago, I was still a little surprised at how far the Iron Giant had to sink in the opening pages. I'm used to the idea of real world landmasses trailing off slowly into the sea, any big shelves a way offshore. But these are mountain summits. It makes sense for there to be a cliff near enough for such a huge descent.
All evidence seems to say Edison is dead. Maybe. If York can switch her Punk Records syncing off to not be caught betraying the others and Vegapunk can do it to record his broadcast privately, there's no reason Edison can't also have gone dark to avoid detection. But with the giants' ship leaving, he doesn't have much hope of making it off the island, so there wouldn't really be a point to misdirect us like that. Unless he's gonna pull himself out of the rubble to start a cover story a year from now. But taking this at face value, it's kinda similar to the Izo and Ashura situations. Who would have thought the infamously reluctant to kill Oda would now have characters quietly succumb to their injuries offscreen?
Hey, there's something drawn kinda rough and obscured by the Sunny's rigging in Nami's panel. Is that Nusjuro moving between the ship and the sea? Will Zoro have to clash with him one last time to close out the arc?
Okay, so Sanji prevert gags have often gone too far without being funny enough to justify it for a long time now, but the dynamic here, where he proclaims the aid he's going to give the women while Usopp calls out frantic reminders to save the men too, that's a pretty good one. This is how I prefer seeing that character trait play out. And great to see Franky adding to it.
And finally, we have the Distorted Future. I'm on the record saying I don't like Bonney's powers having this much flexibility, but after the Niki-ish future already established, I'm not totally shocked she gets a more fully Nikafied form to cap things off. Like, I wouldn't have guessed it a week ago, but it makes sense in hindsight. I want to wait to see her in action before I make any call on if the implications of this form being shared are good or bad. We've established she can't keep a distorted future up for long, which is one limiting factor. Some people are wondering if she could distort the futures of others to make them Nika-ish too, but I think by the established rules, she would need to be able to picture that person as Nika to make them that way. Someone too serious, too mean, too restrained, or just not loose and funny enough just won't make a good Nika.
While some will argue otherwise, I'm sure, I think this development is bad for Bonney's chances of joining the crew. Firstly, it creates a double-up in ultimate moves, which I don't think Oda would go for. And second, it feels a lot like the conclusion of the Bonney story. Where does she go from here for future power ups in future arcs? What else could she want? She's chased freedom for herself and her father, and she hasn't just found it, she's embodied it. That's a full circle thing. End of the journey. If she slips back to the background with her father between now and the final war no one's goign to accuse her story of being unfinished.
So where do we go from here? It looks like Oda is setting up two final clashes to throw the Elders off and make the final escape. Nusjuuro has to be knocked out of the way of the Sunny, and Mars has to be smashed down from the sky so he can't pursue the giants' ship. Luffy and Bonny are taking on one. Zoro will definitely be involved in the other, possibly with any combination of the group on the Sunny backing him up.
But it can't be totally that easy. I think there's lingering threads with the Iron Giant, and with obvious arc villain Saturn. There's no way the final clash happens, especially one Bonney is part of, without sticking it to him in some way. Maybe he makes spidery jumps from ship to ship to try and come aboard. Or he's secretly in human form on Mars's back, ready to jump down and transform. And can the reactivated Iron Giant generate enough thrust to raise itself from the sea floor and make a final move for its Joyboy? That's maybe not a setup quite on Oda's level, but the bottom line is that it feels like there's one last convergence still to happen as we make this arc complete.
Good to be back on three breakless chapters in a row so we can find out the answer without having to wait.
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Wait why are the ships floating above the ocean? Did Luffy turn everything rubber and ships are bouncing over the ocean? I don't see bouncing sound affects of course. Someone help me out please.
I hope a at least one Vegapunk manages it out for at least a little downtime with the crew. Most of all I want Vegapunk's comment/assessment on Chopper's Monster Point and Sanji's potential Lunarian decent. I couldn't imagine how but if there is a connection between the old MADS headquarters and how Franky managed to rebuild himself initially that might or might not be kind of cool.
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@RomanceDawn said in Chapter 1118: The Most Free:
Wait why are the ships floating above the ocean? Did Luffy turn everything rubber and ships are bouncing over the ocean? I don't see bouncing sound affects of course. Someone help me out please.
I think it's just bouncing. The marines speaking are probably at the apex of their first bounce and don't realise they're about to go back down again. There's not really room for any more sound effects in those panels between the screaming, the heartbeat and the speech bubbles. Maybe next week there'll be space to spell it out more clearly.
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@Captain-M said in Chapter 1118: The Most Free:
While some will argue otherwise, I'm sure, I think this development is bad for Bonney's chances of joining the crew. Firstly, it creates a double-up in ultimate moves, which I don't think Oda would go for. And second, it feels a lot like the conclusion of the Bonney story. Where does she go from here for future power ups in future arcs? What else could she want? She's chased freedom for herself and her father, and she hasn't just found it, she's embodied it. That's a full circle thing. End of the journey. If she slips back to the background with her father between now and the final war no one's goign to accuse her story of being unfinished.
I think it really depends what Bonney's purpose will be after this, which I suspect may steer towards her wanting to ultimately take down Saturn, if not, all the Celestial Dragons for how they ruined not only her family, but killed Kuma's parents too.
She could do this with Dragon, but if Luffy had a hard time beating them, then Dragon perhaps even more so. But in any event, I def see her developing a close relationship with Luffy given the events that have transpired. She might end up becoming even sentimentally closer to Luffy than Law too.
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@electricmastro Bonney and/or Kuma definitely deserve to get some good hits in on Saturn when it all comes to blows at the end of the story, but for now I think they've earned a little bit of downtime together. If Oda wants to give an arc where the heroes have suffered a lot of losses the traditional celebratory ending, putting that cathartic full stop on Bonney and Kuma's tale could be the way to turn the mood around.
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@Captain-M said in Chapter 1118: The Most Free:
While some will argue otherwise, I'm sure, I think this development is bad for Bonney's chances of joining the crew. Firstly, it creates a double-up in ultimate moves, which I don't think Oda would go for. And second, it feels a lot like the conclusion of the Bonney story. Where does she go from here for future power ups in future arcs? What else could she want? She's chased freedom for herself and her father, and she hasn't just found it, she's embodied it. That's a full circle thing. End of the journey. If she slips back to the background with her father between now and the final war no one's goign to accuse her story of being unfinished.
There's this moment this chapter where Sanji talks about the Elders being so persistent in chasing them, and she gets the ".." thought bubble right behind him. I think she's gonna be with the Revolutionaries, this way they get their own Nika connection, which will likely help them connect some dots and liberate a few more islands. She also has very close ties to them as well, so that makes sense too, they will also get a catharsis in getting Ginny's daughter back.
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This is me but with Nika :
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@Captain-M said in Chapter 1118: The Most Free:
@electricmastro but for now I think they've earned a little bit of downtime together.
Unless of course Oda ends up treating Kuma like Pedro. Hmm
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The Elbaf giant crew was so endearing that it got me excited for Elbaf as the next island!
I don’t want York to be taken by the Elders at the end of the arc. Seems a bit early for Imu to get island destroying world sinking Uranus active. Maybe if they defeat and capture York, it could be possible for Saturn to continue the studies and learn about the Mother Flame a bit later on. Taking her out of commission for good seems unlikely, since she looks the least robotic of all Punks (especially with her function being so biological). I don’t see the Strawhats killing her. -
@Chams-0 said in Chapter 1118: The Most Free:
The Elbaf giant crew was so endearing that it got me excited for Elbaf as the next island!
I don’t want York to be taken by the Elders at the end of the arc. Seems a bit early for Imu to get island destroying world sinking Uranus active. Maybe if they defeat and capture York, it could be possible for Saturn to continue the studies and learn about the Mother Flame a bit later on. Taking her out of commission for good seems unlikely, since she looks the least robotic of all Punks (especially with her function being so biological). I don’t see the Strawhats killing her.She might go with the Elders so as to give Blackbeard further reason to get an Ancient Weapon of his own, after what Vegapunk said.
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Do you think Luffy has an idea to beat the elders ? He seems confident. Also I hope it will not take too long before we see the robot do something. The teasing was long enough.
I wonder why Edison was left out. Could he be cover story material ?
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I wonder if Kizaru is going to help the strawhats escape at the very end.
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@hideoushorrendous said in Chapter 1118: The Most Free:
This is me but with Nika :
Not often I see someone that doesnt like spiderman.
Is it the constant laughing getting in the way of tension that makes you dislike it? Or is it a matter of design?
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@Kdom said in Chapter 1118: The Most Free:
Do you think Luffy has an idea to beat the elders ? He seems confident. Also I hope it will not take too long before we see the robot do something. The teasing was long enough.
He will probably try to drop them in the sea but I dont think he has anything specific in mind. He just tend to be run confidently at the villain regardless of it makes the most sense or not.
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Would be cool if for the finale he would figure out how to damage them.
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@Kdom make bigger fist, punch harderer?
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@Razh That'd be super bland and generic. I expect it to be something way more creative like make bigger nika-fist, punch harderer and nikarer?
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@Captain-M said in Chapter 1118: The Most Free:
While some will argue otherwise, I'm sure, I think this development is bad for Bonney's chances of joining the crew. Firstly, it creates a double-up in ultimate moves, which I don't think Oda would go for. And second, it feels a lot like the conclusion of the Bonney story. Where does she go from here for future power ups in future arcs? What else could she want? She's chased freedom for herself and her father, and she hasn't just found it, she's embodied it. That's a full circle thing. End of the journey. If she slips back to the background with her father between now and the final war no one's goign to accuse her story of being unfinished.
Ever since the reveal of her age the chances of her joing became slim. It wouldnt make much sense when she would go away from Kuma. Pretty sure she would rather stay with her father
I would imagine in the future only someone would join who already knows Luffys dream (Yamato e.g.) since it was revealed to his crew.Overall I really like the chapter. The scene when Luffy was asking about Chopper and Usop was a really nice touch: Kids fanboying about a giant's priateship ;)
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Couldn't care less about Bonney and Nika bafoonerry. I'm just waiting to see my mvp Nusjuro school Zoro.
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