People requested it, and here it is.
Discuss the egghead arc in general here
Official Egghead Thread
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Pinned by
Daz
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Long overdue!
I was really expecting this arc to be a short, exposition-y one in the vein of Zou gonig in, but I think that ship has sailed.
It's going to be interesting looking back on this arc when it's done because so far the story structure has proved to be a moving target with control of the Seraphim swinging back and forth between team Vegapunk and team Cipher Pol. We've gone from the new island exploration phase with a Kuma cop, weaponised sea beasts and Lilith making is seem inhospitable, to to a small fight in defence of the island against the Government, to setting up a siege of the Labophase with possible treason in the mix, to effectively neutralising the all enemy's heavy hitters in the space of a single volume.
We're in almost a calm before the storm now, with the Strawhats and Vegapunks more or less having control of the island again before Borsalino's fleet arrive at the speed of plot.
But what happens next? Borsalino and Saturn don't have S-Bear's power to bypass the sea beast defences like Lucci did, so will they have to fight their way in, making a set piece where the island has to be defended from a sea invasion? Will the crew stand and fight or flee? How will Vegapunk protect Punk Records from Government interference while he's away? (All money on launching it into orbit.) And what distractions or heroic sacrifices will thin out the herd of nearly ten people who seem eager to leave Egghead on the Sunny? (Because surely, surely we've learned not to take statements like that at face value after the last time.)
I wonder also if all these little cutaways to things like Law and Kid and Garp and Marco are going to be just Egghead subplots, or if some of them will continue on through future arcs. Kuma seems like one to wrap up in the short term, of course, but the rest of them are a lot to handle.
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My current thoughts:
- I think everything up to Ch 1073 was setup.
- Ch 1074 is likely to go back and wrap up some world events (extremely likely to see more of Law vs BB, or even a conclusion), then we return to Egghead in full as the arc is about to pick up steam.
- There's a hidden villain in Egghead manipulating things. It attacked the CP ships, disabled the defense dome and brought Bonney to the memories. This is very likely one of the Vegapunks, and my prime suspect is Atlas.
- I wouldn't be surprised if Kuma's actions are also provoked by the villain. The Revolutionaries hooked Kuma in some device to fix him, and then he went rogue. THis device was likely supplied by Shaka, but sabotaged up by the villain (if it's not Shaka himself).
- I think Bonney will join the villain. The memories will leave her in a fragile state, and the villain will recruit her with promises of restoring her father.
- We just learned that people on the same level of command over the Seraphim can't overrule each other. This means that the hidden villain, once he takes command over them, can't be overruled by the other 'Punks.
- Bonney is likely turning the Seraphim into full fledged adults in the most advantageous versions of them.
- I feel Boa Hancock is going to arrive in Egghead. We last saw her thinking of leaving her island and hearing about her Seraphim. As S-Snake is essentially a slave version of her, she will take its existence as a personal offense and seek Vegapunk.
- Rayleigh will probably help her find a way to reach Egghead quickly (my bet is that there's a fast travel method between Egghead and Sabaody, since that's where Sentomaru was often stationed for Pacifista tests)
- Kizaru is likely arriving only near the end of the arc.
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So, with what ever happened to Vegapunk and Bonney last chapter, that should be the catalyst for the Straw Hats and Satellites long enough for Kizaru to come. Now, that said, I don't know if there is any Vice Admirals who could really give Zoro, Jinbei and Sanji real tough fights anymore, but Kizaru should pose an ample threat to Luffy, still.
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Way better than Wano so far
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How many companions will the Straw Hats have when leaving this Island?
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I agree with Deicide's theory that we are going to stay in Egghead for a while more.
If we leave it... then I hope for a long overdue sea battle, Kizaru's fleet chasing the Strawhats and Punks -
Straw Hats vs Vice Admirals would be fun
Also who do you guys think Vegapunk was talking to on the snail transponder? I don’t think it was Stussy since she was right next to Lucci and Kaku
Also Sentomaru’s return was super underwhelming! I hope we get to see more of him, he never even used his axe and got immediately one shotted
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@Shiebs said in Official Egghead Thread:
How many companions will the Straw Hats have when leaving this Island?
One, two tops. No way we are leaving with Bonney, 7 Vegapunks, 1 rogue CP-0 agent and 4 Seraphim.
@Shiebs said in Official Egghead Thread:
Straw Hats vs Vice Admirals would be fun
I hope at least some vice-admirals can carry their weight. God, the marines have been more and more pathetic as the story advances...
Also who do you guys think Vegapunk was talking to on the snail transponder?
Stussy. Just because Oda didn't draw the details don't mean it couldn't happen. At this point, with Stussy already revealed as a mole in CP-0, and Lucci and Kaku neutralized, it makes no sense for anyone else to have been called to deal with CP-0.
Also Sentomaru’s return was super underwhelming!
I agree.
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I wish it was Luffy who knocked his ass out for Sabaody, but alas.
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@Shiebs said in Official Egghead Thread:
How many companions will the Straw Hats have when leaving this Island?
I imagine at least 2, with Vegapunk and Bonney prob be the most compelling story-wise, and give justification in meeting up with Dragon. I just don’t think Kuma popping up there to poof them all where they want to be would be more satisfying.
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There has been a lot of fun and cool stuff here, but i'm a little put off by Oda's transparent stress on "this is the endgame, we're in maximum efficiency mode". We're also carrying over from Onigashima the "every tension and danger is instantly defused, everyone is an ally and the protagonists have the upper hand all along" that leave me extremely skeptical about the possibility of a real twist.
Still everything up until now does feel like a lengthy setup for the meaty core of the arc, which I hope will feature in a more meaningful way the actual egghead sci fi gizmos (at least the light punching gloves give me a little bit of hope for a non-haki sh confronting Kizaru. Just a little bit).
Curiosity has its own reason for existing
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@Alfiere said in Official Egghead Thread:
the light punching gloves give me a little bit of hope for a non-haki sh confronting Kizaru.
That or maybe Luffy fights Kizaru, runs out of Haki and needs to use the gloves then. I'd like to see it too.
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I'm sure I'm not the first person to float the idea, but Stussy's line here...
...would be great foreshadowing for Bonney ageing up the Seraphim to unlock their true potential to defend the island.
Particularly with our main characters having no reason to think there would be a higher authority on the Navy ships that could possibly wrestle control of the souped up Seraphs from them. There's potential for the heroes to really shoot themselves in the foot here.
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Feels like sabaody 2.0 or more like the part 2 of sabaody?
Sabaody introduced kizaru, pacifistas, world nobles, kuma and bonney and now we get kizaru again but this time straw hats are ready, the creator of pacifistas, kuma and bonney and feels like this will end with Luffy punching gorosei like he did with Charlos and beating kizaru.
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Egghead has been possibly the weirdest arc of all for me to read. With Wano, compromised as it may be, you were critizising how it fell short in the execution of a relatively straightforward plot. There was a story there. But after the lumbering beast that was Wano, I was hopeful for a smaller story with some breathing room, not beholden to a gazillion plotthreads and to the establishment of Lore. If Wanno was a subpar story buffet, I was ready for a more limited but well-prepared story meal.
Instead, I feel like I've gotten a hyper-compressed story protein bar with a massive bowl of sugary Loreflakes to go with it. And that's before we even start on the utterly dismal state of the Straw Hat pirates as featured characters. I can't even really get mad at Egghead for bungling the execution of its story beats, because said story beats barely feel like a priority. The priority seems to be to deliver pure unfiltered information, and then the storytelling happens around the margins of that. Theres no time for much beyond exposition; you'll still get the occasional character moment or joke, but they're like crammed into speechbubbles of panels that have like five other things going on at the same time.
Theres no time for anything really to build or sit, it's constantly on to the next thing - Vegapunk cloned Jinbe and made him fight the crew?? No time to process this, let's talk Ohara! Now theres a robot! Hi Sentomaru! Bye Sentomaru! In the most recent chapter we get a conga-line of instant status updates and reversals; " Surprise, we're at Sphinx! Surprise, Weevil and Bakkin is at Sphinx, defending it, despite being villanous earlier! Marcoh is grateful to them, with nary a mention of their past WB pirate massacring! Also surprise, Weevil got captured offscreen by a secondary Marine force! Speaking of Weevils heritage..."And it's like, I barely care about Weevil and Bakkin to begin with. At least theres some blips of character to them, though it again doesn't get much room to breathe- like the idea of Bakkin as a "freeloader" is amusing, but not much is really done with it yet.
Beyond that, I feel like Oda is skimping on the fun personality quirks and character interactions, something that used to be his absolute force.
Vegapunk Sr is surprisingly bland and doesn't even grapple with the insane amount of things he's involved with in an entertaining way; the one time he popped for me was when he lamented the color of Momos fruit, otherwise it feels like he should be way zanier than he is.
The idea of him splitting his characteristics into 6 seperate entities is great, but the sattelites feel insanely undercooked as a concept to me. With them being condensed beings of "wrath" or "evil" or "wisdom" you'd expect them to be hyper-exaggerated caricatures, but they barely register; Liliths "evil" extend to being kinda brash, shouty and greedy, but not in a particularly remarkable way. Pythagoras and edison are kind of hart to sort apart and Shaka is a total bore. York and Atlas kind of have some spark to them, but overall the sattelites simply aren't doing enough to grab my attention. If this was pre-skip one piece there'd be almost a full chapter of them having fun interplay with each other, but this feels sorely missing.
And then you have Stussy who's big reveals I can barely muster any will to care about because Stussy is just so insanely unremarkable a character.Idunno everything just feels so...surface. Like Oda is blitzing through almost anything that isn't directly forwarding the plot, including the core storytelling to get us emotionally invested. Like, Egghead supposedly has hundreds-maybe thousands?- of people living there as research assistants, and yet it probably feels the most hollow and artificial out of all of Odas settings. Like a videogame backdrop.
Sigh. Idunno. Maybe I'm being too harsh. But I just reread chapter 244, where Usopp Sanji, Luffy and Conis walk through angel island, and the difference in storytelling is massive.
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@Daz said in Official Egghead Thread:
Sigh. Idunno. Maybe I'm being too harsh. But I just reread chapter 244, where Usopp Sanji, Luffy and Conis walk through angel island, and the difference in storytelling is massive.
The feeling is shared. I've had a recurring impression since the second half of Whole Cake Island that One Piece is sometimes fast-forwarding through events, with too much happening at once to let it sink in and be enjoyed properly. Unfortunately, Egghead takes this to the next level.
On some aspects it's nice (I wouldn't want to be stuck in a CP0 fight for a dozen chapters), but as you said the setting feels very superficial and lifeless and so do character interactions. It's not even a matter of pre/post timeskip. Dressrosa or the early Whole Cake chapters, or even Punk Hazard, offered more breathing room and there was life going on in the background. Whereas here all we saw of the Egghead people is them rushing to safety, to the point where I wondered if they are also robotic assistants.
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I've tried hard to stay positive about One Piece but Egghead feels like a breaking point to me. I can't handle this pacing. It feels like Oda has a thousand story points, world building facts and ideas he wants to get across, but is stressed because it's a lot and wind up loading them in a machine gun and firing aimlessly so we at least get the bullet holes as proof of them existing, even though all it does is tear apart the story.
And it's such a shame because content-wise I really like Egghead. I love Bonney, Kuma, Lucci and Kaku. Vegapunk is fun and interesting. The setting is really cool. But the story doesn't allow itself to linger. There's no opportunity for me as a reader to get to know about these things and start to care for them.
I keep thinking to what my teacher taught me about killing your darlings. Sometimes you gotta axe (or shelf or combine) stuff that you love because it drags the story down. And I wish Oda could do this more. Did we need to know about Kid and Weevil's whereabouts? Did we need CP9 to show up? Did we need seven Vegapunks? Hell, cool as it was, did we really need the bit about Ohara?
My one hope is that this arc is a necessary evil, a way for Oda to get a lot of big facts out of the way so he can take his time with the coming arcs. But I'm worried. Especially for Elbaf. That's the arc I've been looking forward to the most, I love Norse Mythology and can't wait to pick apart the arc for references, but if it's gonna be like this I'd rather not have the arc at all...
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I have to say ch244 was a perfect comparison point when it comes to why Egghead has slowly been letting me down after it's amazing start: characters interacting naturally vs acting as backup dancers and using the medium effectively to convey the mood and depict the drama. Everything from when Luffy points out how -as usual of him- he's been much more perceptive of the feelings of others around him to Conis' breakdown is just certified One Piece goodness. The more Egghead keeps teasing and juggling I slowly start losing interest.
Every chapter feels great in the moment, and the developements seem exciting, yet the moment I reflect on the arc as a whole it feels emotionally under loaded? I just hope when it comes time for the payoffs the drama is allowed to play out in full force and I'm really hoping it's not gonna be just teasing after teasing untill the very end, but an unpredictable ebb and flow of emotions.
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So is anyone else excited at having Bonney and Stussy as traveling companions after this arc?
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@electricmastro hell yes! I already love Bonney and I can’t wait to see her interact with the rest of the crew especially Sanji and the girls
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@Zar Strange to see you feel this way, because I'm having a blast. To me, Oda appears to be carefully placing the pieces of a puzzle, which may not make sense now but will form an awesome picture.
Egghead so far is kinda like Jaya. I don't think it will have its separate Sky Piea setting, but evolve into an act 2 that feels like an Sky Piea.
Each week I see more and more clues, and I think when things start moving for real it will be awesome. And they'll start moving real soon.
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@Shiebs said in Official Egghead Thread:
@electricmastro hell yes! I already love Bonney and I can’t wait to see her interact with the rest of the crew especially Sanji and the girls
Bonney will be interesting to see if she bonds with Nami and Robin more or with the men of the crew more. Oda often pairs the women away from the rest of the crew, but Bonney I imagine would just drive Nami crazy because of bad manners and the like. To see a woman being willing to "roughhouse" more with the men would make for a dynamic I don't think we've really seen with the crew before.
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@electricmastro that's if we see the crew interact at all.
After Oda threw away Yamato I thought at least the trade-off would be a more Strawhat-focused story, yet at the moment they're spectators. In an arc where the number of stowaways is the lowest in a decade, and that before the 7 punks, Bonney and god knows who else come aboard the Sunny... I would love to see what you describe, but I don't dare to let my hopes go up.
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@Seafarer33 said in Official Egghead Thread:
@electricmastro that's if we see the crew interact at all.
After Oda threw away Yamato I thought at least the trade-off would be a more Strawhat-focused story, yet at the moment they're spectators. In an arc where the number of stowaways is the lowest in a decade, and that before the 7 punks, Bonney and god knows who else come aboard the Sunny... I would love to see what you describe, but I don't dare to let my hopes go up.
I dunno why you feel Yamato was being thrown away, since Jinbe and Vivi also got left behind by Luffy and both turned out well, so I wouldn’t think anyone would speak of them like that. But I think it’s rather “unrealistic” to feel the Straw Hats won’t get involved with more people, since the world is getting more chaotic by the chapter and people are inevitably going to cross paths with them in need of help.
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At any rate, prob one of the biggest things Egghead has given so far is Saturn’s name. Not just because the Elders are finally being named, but the implication that other characters out there are meant to represent the planets, like Shirahoshi with Neptune.
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@electricmastro of course they will get involved with other people, and Bonney & the Punks have a high chance to travel aboard the Sunny. Does this mean we will be able to enjoy some actual quality interactions on panel? Not necessarily. As with too many things lately, I dread there may be a couple pages of vague dialog so we will know they're onboard, and then the reader is left to fill the blanks on his own while the story jumps to the next lore dump / world crisis / supernova news flash.
As for Yamato...I hear you, but I don't think it's a topic on which we can see eye to eye. Call it however you like, in my perspective right now she is sitting at the Plot Limbo Cafe for the foreseeable future - which is not at all where I was hoping to see her - and whatever happens later on, it will take a LOT to make up for that and the Wano epilogue fake out.
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@Seafarer33 said in Official Egghead Thread:
@electricmastro of course they will get involved with other people, and Bonney & the Punks have a high chance to travel aboard the Sunny. Does this mean we will be able to enjoy some actual quality interactions on panel? Not necessarily. As with too many things lately, I dread there may be a couple pages of vague dialog so we will know they're onboard, and then the reader is left to fill the blanks on his own while the story jumps to the next lore dump / world crisis / supernova news flash.
As for Yamato...I hear you, but I don't think it's a topic on which we can see eye to eye. Call it however you like, in my perspective right now she is sitting at the Plot Limbo Cafe for the foreseeable future - which is not at all where I was hoping to see her - and whatever happens later on, it will take a LOT to make up for that and the Wano epilogue fake out.
Right, though if what you're saying largely comes from some sort of hatred towards there being more than 10 people on the Sunny, then I'd hope you could at least put that hatred to the side to try to see the plot and where it's going for what it is, preferably with examples and evidence to back it up.
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I wonder if it's possible for the satellites to "re-merge" with Vegapunk Prime and then have their bodies be safely stashed and then separated when they are truly safe?
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I really hope we get to find out what happened at the Rocky Port incident soon, but Oda might just have it be some vague event that happened we never truly find out about
At the very least I hope we get to see Wang Zhi’s design
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I suppose some may hate this arc already out of blaming it for ruining Robin's story by having this person she thought was dead and drove her to move forward suddenly turn out to be alive. Such a reaction shouldn't surprise me seeing as how people already blame Pell's survival for ruining Vivi's story, regardless of any "hope prevailing" theme Oda may have wanted to have there.
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@electricmastro said in Official Egghead Thread:
Right, though if what you're saying largely comes from some sort of hatred towards there being more than 10 people on the Sunny
Hatred is a strong word, I don't really mind wherever the plot moves the diverse Egghead cast in the near future. It's more that in recent years, I have less faith in Oda when it comes to taking the time to put story on a low gear and give breathing room to character interactions and the little details that make the One Piece world come to life.
Recent arcs have been scarce with significant moments between the Straw Hats themselves, because a ton of events were happening at the same time and there were always a number of allies and stowaways competing for their share of panel space. The beginning of Egghead seemed like a step in the opposite direction and a welcome respite; unfortunately a couple months later we're already looking at the prospect of 8+ extra people on board. I can't say I'm confident as to how Oda will handle this many in a satisfying manner that doesn't make events feel crowded or rushed or shallow.
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From the first chapters, when Oda started to involve the marines, I had the impression this wouldn't be a shrot arc like Zou. Still I didn't expect him to fire in all directions like now. The disgressing in other parts of the world in the middle of the arc is a novelty. My feelings about it are mixed. One one hand we all love those moments which until now where reserved to a small number of interarc chapters, on the other hand it multiplies the plot threads in an arc which has already quite a lot now. I want Oda to progress on them all now that he has started but I know it is impossible and that is quite frustrating :-)
On the island itself, I agree with most people that the focus on the lore makes it quite bland. I was persuaded that the people where robots or holograms until they needed to be evacuated. Still it is hard to care about them seing how even Luffy never talk to one of them. That say, this arc is not really about adventure in the land of science and more about Vegapunk and his revelations.
So far he has been a difficult character to grasp. Is he really naive to search World Peace through massdestruction weapons like the Seraphims ? I hope we will have more information on his true personality during Kuma's flashback.
In all these, the Strawhats really have a lack of focus. I know a lot of people had hopes that this arc would give us a bit of the old crew interactions and i understand the disappointment. I have made peace with that and understand that these moments will be no more in favor of focusing on the end of serie. -
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I really hope we get to see the Bonney/Kuma backstory soon
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@Kdom said in Official Egghead Thread:
From the first chapters, when Oda started to involve the marines, I had the impression this wouldn't be a shrot arc like Zou. Still I didn't expect him to fire in all directions like now. The disgressing in other parts of the world in the middle of the arc is a novelty. My feelings about it are mixed. One one hand we all love those moments which until now where reserved to a small number of interarc chapters, on the other hand it multiplies the plot threads in an arc which has already quite a lot now. I want Oda to progress on them all now that he has started but I know it is impossible and that is quite frustrating :-)
On the island itself, I agree with most people that the focus on the lore makes it quite bland. I was persuaded that the people where robots or holograms until they needed to be evacuated. Still it is hard to care about them seing how even Luffy never talk to one of them. That say, this arc is not really about adventure in the land of science and more about Vegapunk and his revelations.
So far he has been a difficult character to grasp. Is he really naive to search World Peace through massdestruction weapons like the Seraphims ? I hope we will have more information on his true personality during Kuma's flashback.
In all these, the Strawhats really have a lack of focus. I know a lot of people had hopes that this arc would give us a bit of the old crew interactions and i understand the disappointment. I have made peace with that and understand that these moments will be no more in favor of focusing on the end of serie.The “old crew interactions” happened in a time before crap started hitting the fan all over the world, like Vivi’s dad getting killed, for one.
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I can't wait til we dive into some more Lunarian lore. The Seraphim are right there waving around those little black wings. I wan't Vegapunk to see Sanji's fire, comment on it and confirm what the heck is actually going on inside his augmented body. With the MADS cover story in full swing it only feels fitting we should get some sort of pay off.
And man if it turns out that one kind of hidden moon being was a Lunarian and cast out early that would be amazing.
Folks who read One Piece… Just better people. ¯\(ツ)/¯
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@RomanceDawn said in Official Egghead Thread:
And man if it turns out that one kind of hidden moon being was a Lunarian and cast out early that would be amazing.
I'm afraid I lost you here. Care to elaborate?
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At the top, residing high and seemingly mighty we have the ancestors of the Skypeans(antenna), Birkins/Bilkins(big wings) and Shandorans(animal head dress).
In the lower left with half of its head obscured there is another moon man. Why is this sky being down below them? Nothing about this person is too discernible but it's curious why he's down below like that. Under the sun, head level with some sort of contraption or platform it's just odd. Lunarians being feared and hated long before they made it to the earth would be fitting.
I don't remember if I first heard this from Greg or what. Waiting for Vegapunk to give us the 411.
Folks who read One Piece… Just better people. ¯\(ツ)/¯
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@RomanceDawn
Oh, I've never noticed the fourth moon person. Thanks for telling me. Now that's interesting. If there's really four of them this should at least quiet down the theory that the three gods Pluton, Poseidon and Uranos are those three dudes.Then again, him being below could mean that he's not part of the trio to begin with. Still now I'm eager to see more of the picture. That pretty much sets it in stone for me that Luffy will make it to the moon respectively this being his dream. Of course there's other ways to reveal that information but to literally see the full picture, we actually have to see it again. Unless of course it will be revealed when Enel makes it back to the main story and shares his findings for whatever reason.
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@Ivotas said in Official Egghead Thread:
@RomanceDawn
Oh, I've never noticed the fourth moon person. Thanks for telling me. Now that's interesting. If there's really four of them this should at least quiet down the theory that the three gods Pluton, Poseidon and Uranos are those three dudes.Then again, him being below could mean that he's not part of the trio to begin with. Still now I'm eager to see more of the picture. That pretty much sets it in stone for me that Luffy will make it to the moon respectively this being his dream. Of course there's other ways to reveal that information but to literally see the full picture, we actually have to see it again. Unless of course it will be revealed when Enel makes it back to the main story and shares his findings for whatever reason.
I mean, Poseidon is always meant to be a mermaid princess like Shirahoshi. She presumably represents the planet Neptune too.
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@electricmastro said in Official Egghead Thread:
@Ivotas said in Official Egghead Thread:
@RomanceDawn
Oh, I've never noticed the fourth moon person. Thanks for telling me. Now that's interesting. If there's really four of them this should at least quiet down the theory that the three gods Pluton, Poseidon and Uranos are those three dudes.Then again, him being below could mean that he's not part of the trio to begin with. Still now I'm eager to see more of the picture. That pretty much sets it in stone for me that Luffy will make it to the moon respectively this being his dream. Of course there's other ways to reveal that information but to literally see the full picture, we actually have to see it again. Unless of course it will be revealed when Enel makes it back to the main story and shares his findings for whatever reason.
I mean, Poseidon is always meant to be a mermaid princess like Shirahoshi. She presumably represents the planet Neptune too.
That's the Ancient Weapon Poseidon you are talking about. Not the same thing as a the god the weapon is supposedly being named after.
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Not major, but i'm a little let down with the arc so far. I wanted more for the crew. There's the Robin moment, but not much more.
I get the trade off because Oda wanted to really get into Bonney, VP, Research Team, Revs, etc, but I felt there was room for the crew to get in there. I see that time coming tho.
So far, top 10 this arc
10 Zoro
9 Lilith
8 Stussy
7 Lucci
6 Teach
5 Bonney
4 Edison
3 Robin
2 Nami
1 VP -
It just came to me that Chapter 1075 (next week's) is likely a volume ender. Good chance of a revelation or twist. Expect a big cliffhanger!
For instance, last volume ended with the Ancient Robot reveal.
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I've been enjoying the arc so far, but it's not exactly been wowing me either. It's all interesting stuff, Vegapunk is fun. I feel entertained when reading each chapter, but I also don't feel all that invested in what's going on on Egghead. Which kinda makes sense, since neither are the Strawhats, they don't really have a strong bond with either Bonney or Vegapunk, so they are just sort of reacting to all the crazy shenanigans going on around them. But at the same time, I also don't feel like I'm experiencing things through their eyes either, like it's been in the past. The Strawhats don't feel like they are the focus, but rather bystanders, and I think that bothers me a little. It's not like Vegapunk's stuff or Bonney's and Kuma's storylines aren't well-told or uninteresting - I feel particularly interested in the later's backstory and have high hopes for that - but I just want the Strawhats to feel like the main characters of the story.
So I don't dislike the arc, really. It's fun. But it doesn't feel like anything special or unique so far. The futuristic setting isn't used enough and most of the Satellites - which still is a cool concept - are honestly a little boring to me. I feel like you could have had a lot more fun with characters that basically embody a certain characteristic.
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@Riddler said in Official Egghead Thread:
The Strawhats don't feel like they are the focus, but rather bystanders
You are not wrong here. The crew is just reacting, they have no personal drive so far. Which is why I’ve been saying that Rob Lucci has acted as the actual protagonist here. He’s the one with an objective , facing dangers, being defeated and standing up again, being betrayed…
He was carrying the plot until 1073. But that is a temporary state. Egghead so far has been nothing but setup. Once the real enemy springs his trap, the spotlight will be back on the Straw Hats.
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As far as the Strawhat's perspective is concerned, except for that part with Luffy, Chopper and Jinbei, this arc so far might have taken place on a highly advanced research ship and nothing would be different. They are just inside a lab and either listening to Shakas Audiobook or watching the CP0 livestream. Their entire "adventure" consists of being passive bystanders in a laboratory. Put this lab in a ship rather than on an island and their involvement wouldn't have changed a bit.
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@Riddler said in Official Egghead Thread:
I've been enjoying the arc so far, but it's not exactly been wowing me either. It's all interesting stuff, Vegapunk is fun. I feel entertained when reading each chapter, but I also don't feel all that invested in what's going on on Egghead. Which kinda makes sense, since neither are the Strawhats, they don't really have a strong bond with either Bonney or Vegapunk, so they are just sort of reacting to all the crazy shenanigans going on around them. But at the same time, I also don't feel like I'm experiencing things through their eyes either, like it's been in the past. The Strawhats don't feel like they are the focus, but rather bystanders, and I think that bothers me a little. It's not like Vegapunk's stuff or Bonney's and Kuma's storylines aren't well-told or uninteresting - I feel particularly interested in the later's backstory and have high hopes for that - but I just want the Strawhats to feel like the main characters of the story.
So I don't dislike the arc, really. It's fun. But it doesn't feel like anything special or unique so far. The futuristic setting isn't used enough and most of the Satellites - which still is a cool concept - are honestly a little boring to me. I feel like you could have had a lot more fun with characters that basically embody a certain characteristic.
I think it’s more refreshing when the Straw Hats can take a step back and learn more things around them than being engaged in fighting 90% of the time, like in Jaya or Zou.
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One theory I heard about the Egghead villain is that it's not any of the Vegapunks, but Punk Records itself that has acquired sentience.
I kinda like it, it's very similar to my Atlas theory (in that Atlas may want to upload itself to Punk Records and take control), but I feel there's one problem with that: the villain would be just an obstacle, not a character.
By having Atlas, Shaka or any other 'Punk be the villain, both readers and characters can feel betrayal and assign a name and face to the evil we are fighting.
If Punk Records itself is the enemy, then it's a nameless, faceless entity. It may be a powerful obstacle, but the personal side of the conflict is gone. It doesn't work as beating it would feel as good as smashing a computer to bits.
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@Deicide said in Official Egghead Thread:
there's one problem with that: the villain would be just an obstacle, not a character.
So, Kaido basically.
