Chapter 445 "THE ZOMBIE" Discussion

Raoul

I'm also getting a Chopper developement vibe from this arc. Because of the mad doctor deal etc.

It's true that Chopper has already evolved a great deal all by himself, on the courage departement for example. Like how he started like a complete coward in Skypiea, with the "save me attitude", then becoming quite the courageous little fellow through his fight. Courage that he kept, if not improved through W7/EL, even ending as a rampaging beast.
And now, Dr.Hogback offers possibilities for…medical developement?!

There's so much stuff he could learn from another doctor (assuming Hogback's responsible for all the funky creatures on the island).
Just from what I can think of right now, there's so many possibilites. Chopper doing transformations on Franky anyone?

I was also thinking Chopper might finally find, like, a goal for his journey.
He wanted to travel and see the world at first, and he's doing it now. Gaining a more specific goal now that he's been travelling for a while would be nice, no?

Impel Down

@Taz:

I see the Uso/Na/Cho trio have gotten lost in Halloweentown. Love those out of shape, sprinting zombies.

Btw, keeping with the theme of mythic creatures in this arc, that man/lion thing is obviously supposed to be a "Manticore". From Middle Eastern legends, it was supposed to have the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion and the face of a man with three rows of teeth. Standard human-flesh diet.

http://www.sorcererscompanion.net/Manticore.jpg
http://www.unbsj.ca/arts/english/media/illustrations/creatures/manticore.gif

So, it seems all of Hogback's creations are actual mythical creatures. I mean, Cerebus, Manticore, Centaur, bat-thing (I'm sure that's something), dancing trees.

ITSALION

Those are called ents.

AD-HD Pirate

Omg!
Hildon used to be a hobbit!

gnomey

@IT'S:

Those are called ents.

Quoted for truth. Was going to drop that line but you beat me to it.

bedrock

@ IT'S A LION!: very fitting choice for your avatar

raj

@ultimateclima:

@raj impel down was pointing out that Vivi is useless.

Good to know.

I figured someone would think Rai was raj or raj was Rai or something which is why I didn't capitalize the 'r', but whatever.

Anyway, I would imagine Hogback might get a nerd boner from Chopper and all of his weirdness and I would imagine the Monster Point being explored in the coming chapters.

CosmicDebris

Ents don't dance, they're too slow.

Taleran

5 bucks Chopper gets a new form, Shoots a beam and gets his numbered chapter

What Luffy predicts usually comes to pass

Kma

@Taleran:

5 bucks Chopper gets a new form, Shoots a beam and gets his numbered chapter

What Luffy predicts usually comes to pass

Hahaha I was watched the episode not too recently when Luffy thought Chopper was going to shoot a beam. Too funny

Anyways man this chapter has some creepy creations. That man lion is really disturbing. I'm so pumped for the next chapter! Can't wait till I see Hogback.

Also sorry if this has been asked, but Hildon refered to Hogback as a D right? I don't know where to find Stephens translation…
I read 2 scanlations, 1 used D the other didnt so im uncertain...

ChopChopCannon

Zombies, eh? No problem for the Pirate-King-to-be and the aspiring buddha swordsman, surely?

My predictions:
Brooke will turn out to be evil, join the crew permanently or turn out to be Dr. Hogback.
Dr Hogback will turn out to be evil.
Those guys that were taking Nami, Usopp and Chopper through the graveyard will turn out to be evil (what? After that whole CP9 thing, you can't trust anyone.)
Zoro will find a new sword in this arc.
Luffy will kick ass.
After Luffy's done, there won't be much of the place left standing.

FireFistAce 0

@Kma:

Hahaha I was watched the episode not too recently when Luffy thought Chopper was going to shoot a beam. Too funny

Choponpa? (For the DB illiterate, that's a play on Chopper - Dodonpa) or Tonahamemeha?

Anyways man this chapter has some creepy creations. That man lion is really disturbing. I'm so pumped for the next chapter! Can't wait till I see Hogback.

You know, it reminds me of the "Red Lion" from the Ripley Scroll:

Also sorry if this has been asked, but Hildon refered to Hogback as a D right? I don't know where to find Stephens translation…
I read 2 scanlations, 1 used D the other didnt so im uncertain...

D is ALWAYS written in romaji when it's shown.

Let's take a look, shall we?

It's not in Stephen's scripts, but right here on Page 4, lo and behold:

Hildon says that, so it looks like it's a yes.

ChopChopCannon

Anyone else noticed that the man-lion thing and the zombies have stitches, and Hogback (I will not refer to him as 'doctor' until I see proof that he's a good guy) is a surgeon?

FireFistAce 0

@ChopChopCannon:

Anyone else noticed that the man-lion thing and the zombies have stitches, and Hogback (I will not refer to him as 'doctor' until I see proof that he's a good guy) is a surgeon?

Not just that, he's apparently a D.

Chopper seems to think he's a good guy, so I'm okay with that. Besides, we already have an evil D. I don't think there will be two.

Taleran

thats usually the case in monster movies

bedrock

@ChopChopCannon:

Anyone else noticed that the man-lion thing and the zombies have stitches, and Hogback (I will not refer to him as 'doctor' until I see proof that he's a good guy) is a surgeon?

yeah, it was mentioned several pages earlier…

ChopChopCannon

@Fire Fist:

Not just that, he's apparently a D.

Chopper seems to think he's a good guy, so I'm okay with that. Besides, we already have an evil D. I don't think there will be two.

Oh, excuse me. Chopper thinks he's okay? Oh, well I can see he's a good guy now. [/sarcasm]

Chopper is naive.

Aeque

I think someone said that Hildon referred to Hogback as D just as a shortened form of Doktor.

FireFistAce 0

@ChopChopCannon:

Oh, excuse me. Chopper thinks he's okay? Oh, well I can see he's a good guy now. [/sarcasm]

Chopper is naive.

That's true, but the mere fact that he's a D probably cements that claim. It would be horribly cliche for Oda to have an equal number of good and evil D's. All we need is one evil D (Blackbeard). As it is, Dragon walks the line between good and evil.

AD-HD Pirate

I think someone said that Hildon referred to Hogback as D just as a shortened form of Doktor.

Exactly.
Besides, D as a doctor? No way in hell.

bedrock

AD-HD, do you want to drive everyone insane by changing your avatar every hour?

AD-HD Pirate

AD-HD, do you want to drive everyone insane by changing your avatar every hour?

Yeah, that is my ultimate goal.
BWAHAMAMAWHAHAH!

…Sorry if it bothers you.

FireFistAce 0

@AD-HD:

Exactly.
Besides, D as a doctor? No way in hell.

Whenever D is written in Romaji in One Piece, it's usually used for the specific purpose of indicating a member of the D's. Even if it was an abbreviation for "Doctor", I doubt it would be written in Romaji.

Besides, The D's aren't stupid, just simple-minded. There's a difference. Garp, Dragon, Saul, Ace and even Luffy have ALL displayed shows of intelligence; Hell, even Blackbeard learned the workings of his Kuro Kuro no Mi in a relatively short amount of time.

If a D can be a Vice-Admiral, a Pirate King, a Revolutionary, and another Vice-Admiral, why not a Doctor?

AD-HD Pirate

If a D can be a Vice-Admiral, a Pirate King, a Revolutionary, and another Vice-Admiral, why not a Doctor?

I don't know…
It just doesn't fit. Maybe it's just me, but I can't imagine D being a doctor.

Throes

@AD-HD:

Exactly.
Besides, D as a doctor? No way in hell.

The katagana by the "D" says "Doctor", so yeah, D was used to represent Doctor. For any specific reason, who knows, but it's there.

bedrock

@AD-HD:

…Sorry if it bothers you.

Just joking - one really cannot please everyone everytime …

cdjgamer

no one could predict this arc 10 chapters ago just keeps getting more strange and cooler

gnomey

@AD-HD:

I don't know…
It just doesn't fit. Maybe it's just me, but I can't imagine D being a doctor.

Maybe not a brilliant surgeon. But a nutty little fuck that just keeps stitching people together, probably because he thinks its cool? Yeah, that fits.

Sadly, Hogback is both, so we'll see.

skarlath

I'm new here, but I've been doing the one piece for a while…
i think the major thing to remember is that this is WAY too early to be figuring stuff out
although I do hope this is a shorter arc

gallowsx

Yeah i agree.. i think its too early to be sure that hogback is a D…. we need further confirmation...

you can speculate if he is a D or just called D because of doctor... but u cannot be sure, and start developping theories on it :S

And besides if he's a surgeon he's a Mr, not a Dr... but its too early to say he's called a D therefore he is another D member....

Gizmo

Here's the reason why Hogback doesn't seem to be D material: he's apparently been on that island for a reasonable amount of time.

All D's have that sense of adventure, and always are moving. No matter what D it happened to be they always where on the sea sailing from place to place. Hogback seems to be on Thriller Barque for quite some time. It'd not like a D to be stationary.

Hitotsumami

Maybe Hogback lost his shadow too.

skarlath

@ultimateclima:

Here's the reason why Hogback doesn't seem to be D material: he's apparently been on that island for a reasonable amount of time.

I thought that they said (basically) D has just come to this island

meaning he just arrived

he could be building up an army

kinda like dragon, or luffy, or blackbeard, or even garp (if you wanna count coby and helmeppo… and I DO!)

so sounds like D material to me

lets see how he faces death... maybe he doesn't!

Pants-eater

Dr. Luffy…

Nup, I don't see it.

Israfel856

Loving the arc so far. As long as it isn't ridiculously long like the last few, this one may end up as one of my favourites.

bedrock

Up to now I was thinking that Dr. Hogabank (EDIT:shit! I got caught in the Vegapunk similarity) surely would be pure evil, but I just realized, that Oda could easily complicate the story by putting him in some Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde - setup. Perhaps he lost control due to some experiments with himself? This would also further complete the classical horror references.

HEATXZ

Could there be any chance that a Griffin will appear?

Impel Down

Why not? I also realized that Usopp used fire against the zombies, which is exactly what you're supposed to use against zombies. Foreshadoing?

*Meh*

Actually, fire is what you use against mummies because they are dry and usually heavilly wrapped; zombies are either oozing with putresence, and thus too wet to burn or, they are relatively fresh and are less flammable than their clothing-unless they have been embalmed with formaldehyde or alcohol, in which case they are not terribly distinguishable from mummies. Zombies are best disposed of by acid or caustic agents, as it ensures they cannot rise up again. Pattern-spray firearms (shotguns, riot guns, elephant guns) and hacking tools (axes or machetes) are effective for taking zombies out of commision, but depending on the means by which they were granted undeath, may prove to be temporary countermeasures at best. This concludes today's session of 'Surviving the Undead'.

AWB

Everyone knows you need only blow their brains out.

Taleran

Which shotguns are usually best for. (geez anyone that's played Metal slug would know that)

Mr. All Sunday

Haven't you ever read the Zombie Survival Guide? Flamethrowers, rifles, katana, and sub machine guns are the best weapons to use against zombies.

*Meh*

I would stress that the terms of undeath render zombies into roughly two catagories: Killable and Unkillable.

Killable zombies are very familiar due to their overexposure in horror films. Destruction of the brain is all it takes to put them down permanently. Unfortunately, it's also the only thing that can put them down permanently.

Unkillable zombies are exceedingly rare in any work of fiction, due to the fact that they can survive anything. Even with their heads reduced to scraps of flesh by a shotgun from close range, they will continue trying to kill you. The only means of stopping them is to completely destroy their body.

Impel Down

I think Usopp's fight (if he has one) will be against some kind of uber-zombie.

ChopChopCannon

@Fire Fist:

That's true, but the mere fact that he's a D probably cements that claim. It would be horribly cliche for Oda to have an equal number of good and evil D's. All we need is one evil D (Blackbeard). As it is, Dragon walks the line between good and evil.

See my signature.

Blackbeard is NOT the evil one here.

Also, going along with your theory that the weapons created the Grand Line, maybe this zombie ship/island thing is just another byproduct?

Impel Down

Okay, what does any of that have to do with this chapter? Or even this arc?

ChopChopCannon

@Impel:

Okay, what does any of that have to do with this chapter? Or even this arc?

Well, I mentioned Thriller Barque, didn't I?

Also, Brooke mentioned his shadow was stolen. Perhaps it was stolen by Hogback?

Impel Down

That's what I've (we've) been thinkin' the whole time.