You know what I love about this series?
IT KEEPS COMING UP WITH HALFWAY POINTS.
And each is better than the next.
Vol 24- Oda says he's halfway.
Late 40's- Oda says he's about halfway.
They reach Redline.
The crew is separated have to reunite.
Nov-Dec 2009- Oda says in COUNTLESS interviews he's about halfway done 'with the story'.
Age of Whitebeard ends, BB begins.
War (the action climax of the first half) physically ends.
This chapter
And no doubt this will be followed with…hmmm possible time-skip of ambiguous length, reuniting the crew, emerging in the New World and so on.
Wow.
Where does it end?
But for me, personally, this chapter feels like the closing of the first half. Perhaps not the chapter itself, I don't expect to begin reading 590 and suddenly have everything resolved, but that last page where Luffy was incredibly honest and blunt and realizing his physical weakness was just incredible.
I did not expect that last speech bubble EVEN AS I WAS READING THE ONE RIGHT NEXT TO IT. It hit me like ton of bricks and shocked me to the extent that I actually jerked my head away from the page. It was Oda somehow reaching through JUMP and delivering a right hook. I expected some resolution or promise or declaration of improvement right up until the end, but not that. It was heartbreaking to see a character admitting weakness that we've seen from the start to this moment chugging ahead at full speed despite the challenges that appear. And it was completely necessary.
Has he shown concern and even expressed anguish from time to time? Yeah. When he couldn't beat Aokiji there was some regret. I know I'll also never forget his expression when he was sitting on the roof the day after he fought Usopp. But just admitting his weakness to himself bluntly like that is, wow. Never in a million years. Yes it makes sense. We know Luffy to be open and honest about what he thinks so it's to be expected. The shock is in that since he's saying it, he honestly believes that which would be so hard for others to admit.
Zoro says he's 'weak' all the time but that never phases us. It's in his charater and he's usually just talking about physical strength. But the weakness Luffy speaks of is so much more.
I'm flip-flopping on the Sabo/eye-patch issue. Dragon's people are obviously common people, pirates and all walks of life. So yeah okay, MAYBE Sabo became a pirate while being with them. But if not, I dunno how he can be the eye-patched character when Oda said that someone will be a character that 'defines' pirate. And by this point in the story, I dunno guys! BB seems like he's well on his way to being a goddamned pirate's pirate and I still don't see an eye-patch.
The Pirate KING didn't have an eye-patch.
Whitebeard didn't have an eye-patch.
So we're talking about someone the fulfills the role of 'pirate' more than ALL those big-shots.
Will Oda really use that on some who is a Revolutionary?
Sure he could if he wanted to but I dunno about that.
The S mark is incredible. Just incredible.
I can't wait to see where Oda takes this. So excited RIGHT now.