Chapter 1109: Interception

[The Light of Shandora]

Plus some of his science is inspired by the ancient kingdom, as Egghead is not the island of the future but of the past.

[ljxjlos]

@StrawHatJedi said in Chapter 1109: Interception:

@Captain-M

Thank you for the time zone analysis, particularly the images. I was trying to communicate a similar idea on twitter, but it's really difficult without visuals.

The biggest problem I think is Dressrosa. The Straw Hats entered the New World in the waters surrounding Punk Hazard, so we know it's very close to the Red Line. It was then a one day voyage to Dressrosa; this is much shorter than the time it took to reach Zou, WCI, and Wano.

The Straw Hats were also sailing across the width of the Grand Line in the SE direction toward Egghead and it took six days of sailing.

All of this tells us that Dressrosa should be much, much closer to Marijoa than it is to Egghead.

If it was still night in Dressrosa, or at least, not quite dawn, it would be feasible for a small portion of the West Blue to still have dark skies. The island would need to be very near the intersection point between Red Line and Grand Line, but it could work.

The other detail I'll add is that because the 'end of the line' is still in the North East direction from both Egghead and Wano, it positions the Straw Hats geographically in the first half of the New World. Meaning, this voyage is far from over. At the very least, there's more than one more stop along the Grand Line before they approach Lodestar and Laugh Tale.

As for your comment about Alabasta's river, I honestly think its scale is the most fitting for the One Piece world. It's a shame Oda didn't account for longer travel time between story arcs, because I think a world larger than our own is probably more fitting for the scale of the adventure and the fantastic locations they visit.

Honestly the only thing I would change about One Piece is a little more padding / filler between major story arcs, ironically enough. I love the down moments between big adventures / battles where we get to spend time with the Straw Hats sailing between islands. I feel like it would've benefited the sense of scale as well as the world building if the Straw Hats encountered a few more stops along the way like Gaimon's island where no big battles happen, no major conflicts, but perhaps we get to see another crew member take center stage; an island where Sanji's cooking skills advance, Robin arrives at some insightful discovery, Nami's thieving or navigation skills are highlighted, etc. Given the strength of the Straw Hat's bonds and the fact that Oda suggests they have regimented daily and weekly living routines aboard the ship, I feel like more travel time would have been really beneficial.

In my head-canon, I insert more travel time wherever possible - most notably, between Skypiea and Longring and between Thriller Bark and Sabaody. Those are the two stretches of story where it doesn't explicitly say the Straw Hats arrived at their destination 'a few days later.'

EDIT: I see you already bring up Egghead being in the first half of the New World; I just skipped over that, but should've realized since it's also in your diagram.

I couldn't agree more. More time passing between Islands (or some more small islands to be visited) would quite literally improve every aspect of the series.