Lots of people have already mentioned this metaphor, but it's really sad to see so many people following what is essentially a dollar attached to a string when it comes to LBGTQ pairings in shonens.

Catching up with this thread has been baffling. I distinctly remember people pointing out how weird it was that Jinbe barely reacted to learning that Vegapunk had made a Lunarian Child Soldier Clone out of himself and also how people were saying that "there's no time to confront VP right now, Lucci needs to be stopped by Nika so everyone can escape to the Labophase, ethics will surely come up later".

And now suddenly there wasn't any time for that? Jinbe just laughs at a mini Hancock being enslaved to the original's feelings when his captain did what he did to free all those slaves? Nami and Chopper don't care about child soldiers? Ludicrous.

I guess if Thriller Bark was happening now Chopper would be mostly fine with Hogback disgracing so many corpses? That's actually way less problematic than what Vegapunk has done with the Seraphim.

Gonna throw it out here before the next chapters throw new curveballs: Imu is definitely a kid.

1.) If he has been alive since the Void Century via the Ope Ope's Eternal Youth Operation, like most people theorize, what better way to show a person that hasn't aged than a kid?

2.) Adding to this, the Sugar parallel where she stopped growing after gaining her powers that are related to erasing people's identity and memories (Void Century). Also, her outfit with the distinct golden crown is something to consider.

3.) A kid ruling over a council of geezers is the kind of striking contrast that I would expect from Oda and that, presented in a certain way, might even make them look like his babysitters (lmao)

4.) If Imu is going to be fully revealed now, in the next 2-3 chapters, I was pondering why didn't Oda do it before, in 1060 with the Lulusia stuff? What needed to happen in the last 25 chapters before Imu's appearance could be revealed?

The answer is the Seraphims: the religious parallels that also feed into Devil Fruits, Lili (Lilith?), Adam and Eve tree, Guardians of Eden, being programmed to be literal slaves of the Gorosei (and by extension Imu), and most importantly, the heavy emphasis on them being kids, which would link them more to Cherubims. But what if the Cherub is already represented by Imu?

5.) The possible parallels with Akira (without spoiling anything huge about Akira):

Oda has referenced having read Akira as a young kid a few times (like when talking about the pronouns the characters use) so I wouldn't be surprised if he was influenced by it in some way.

6.) Almost forgot: Luffy's secret dream being something that is deemed childish even for other kids. Roger was chastised by Whitebeard for the same reason. Imu would be the warped accomplishment of a kid with the same dream.

Let's see how this develops over the next few chapters, but at this point I would need heavy convincing on an alternative to this.

@Robby said in Greg: Teacher of SUPER " OP " course !:

@crlsdc said in Greg: Teacher of SUPER " OP " course !:

Do you guys think we'll ever know something about the 7 times Kaido had been defeated (mentioned in his introduction, chapter 795)?

That was covered in what passes for a flashback he got. He "lost" on purpose so they'd put him on their ships and then he'd eat all their food.

We can assume maybe he lost a few times to some tagteam style Garp, Sengoku, Roger, Shanks types but mostly the flashback writes it off as intentional losing.

I think you're confusing two different things.

In his intro, the narrator says "[...] he had tasted defeat as a pirate on seven occasions... and been caught by the marines or enemy ships no less than 18 times!!"

Later, the narrator also states "ultimately, he sank nine different prison vessels".

His intro makes a clear difference between being defeated or being captured. And in the instances where he was indeed captured on purpose so as to have a free all-you-can-eat buffet (like 1049 shows), he ended up escaping again and sinking those ships.

So I do think the 7 defeats are actually against high-ranking marines or pirates in the past, even though the flashback doesn't mention or show any of them.

@Deicide I think we are made to fill the gaps and assume that Mark 2 might be the Shiro Kuma (PX-Z) from Film Z, considering its unique designs and the fact that all Pacifistas should have come from Vegapunk in one way or the other. Maybe it won't even get clarified precisely because it involves dealing with non-canon material, or maybe it will come at some point like Blueno and Kalifa being CP0 agents as per Film Red.

On a separate note, as for who tipped Morgans all my money is on Caribou, even if it's unrelated to who's messing things up in Egghead right now.

@electricmastro said in Chapter 1084: The Attempted Murder of a Celestial Dragon:

@FolhaS said in Chapter 1084: The Attempted Murder of a Celestial Dragon:

People are relating to Yamato's way of being. Using male pronouns but not hiding his more feminine looks. Being confortable in both the mens bath and the girls colour spread.

Yamatos development as a character as never once been presented as something related to his/their gender yet people keep trying to sell the idea that once Yamato drops the Oden moniker he'll also drop the male pronouns.

At this point, I think it really just depends if Yamato has any personal desire to still be a woman despite what was outwardly said about sons and being Oden and all that.

If Yamato admits to abandoning any and all desire to be a woman even after gaining freedom, then I’ll accept that.

Chapter 1054:

• Aramaki: "Who are you?"
• Kawamatsu: "Sir Yamato...!!"
• Yamato. "I'm Yamato!! The son of Kaido!!!"
• Aramaki: "Son of Kaido?!"

Go ahead. Accept it.

Stop beating around the bush and accept it.

If Kizaru gets defeated by Luffy without help and multiple rounds, then I don't expect a short clash, but a fully drawn-out battle.

Which also means that Kizaru will probably get tossed off the chessboard. I can't see Oda keeping him just to have Zoro/Sanji/Kid/Law defeat him AGAIN in the Final War (same reason I'm reluctant to Zoro vs Lucci happening now).

So better start speculating about what Zodiac animal the next Orange Admiral will represent...

I, for one, love that Togashi doesn't give a flying f*** about fan expectations about HxH's return and just straight up continues from 390 like it hasn't been 4 whole years.

Dragon.

1. The age. Dragon was 17 at the time of the God Valley incident, while Roger and Garp were 39 and 40. It would make sense for Rocks to be older than them, considering he was Roger's first and biggest rival, and he was the Gold standard of a pirate in that era, making all his subordinates and enemies part of the new era: Roger (39), Rayleigh (40), Garp (40), Sengoku (41) and Whitebeard (36). One Piece is filled with examples of men being late bloomers: Roger had Ace with 53, Dragon had Luffy at 36, Whitebeard had Weevil at 39 and Shanks probably shagged Makino very recently so between 37 and 39 years. If Garp was the biological father, that would mean that he had Dragon with 23, almost immediately after just joining the marines (56 years ago) which doesn't seem very realistic for someone that has to devote his life to marine duty. Could be wrong about this of course, and maybe Rocks had around the same age as Garp and Roger, but he wasn't a marine so no duties whatsoever to adhere to, and even then…

2. Garp has mentioned Dragon in ambiguous terms, both asking Luffy is he has met his old man yet, and telling Luffy that he is "the child of my child" in non-gendered terms, which could easily be a red flag if Garp had a daughter (Luffy's mom) instead of a son. That would also explain why he hasn't been punished for his relationship with Dragon or used by the WG to lure him and also why he was so insistent that Luffy HAD TO become a marine while seemingly not caring about what Dragon is up to: they aren't blood related, but he respects that he's trying to dethrone the Nobles that he also very much despises and isn't specially keen in stopping him. Consider also how much emphasis the story has made about sons not carrying the sins of their fathers, because…

3. Xebec's motivations, as explained by Sengoku, were "conquering the world" and "baring its fangs at the Celestial Dragons". The most notorious incident he was involved with was related to opposing people who had to protect Celestial Dragons, and 2 of his most notorious crewmembers aim to change the world and bring more equality (in their own egotistical twisted ways). How curious then that Dragon's whole motivation is dethroning specifically the Celestial Dragons, and that he started the Revolutionary Army after seeing Roger's execution, which was emphasized by Oda. Possibly because seeing the man that defeated his father get executed was the turning point for him to think "hey, my dad had good intentions but his methods were the wrong ones and he was a blood-lusted evil psycho (probably) and he died a forgettable death while this man is starting the great age of piracy, so there's room for change in this world and it's not limited to marines and pirates". That's also why he tells Luffy at Loguetown that choosing to be a pirate is fine too, and why Woop Slap ponders if Luffy becoming a pirate was his dream or his fate, something that doesn't make sense if there was no notorious pirate in Luffy's lineage.

4. With most of the story's examples of Inherited Will being about people receiving it from someone they are not related by blood (Luffy and Shanks, Luffy and Roger, Franky and Tom, Jinbe and Fisher Tiger, Chopper and Hiruluk), it would be pretty disappointing if "oh actually Blackbeard has inherited the will of his biological father that was as evil as he is and it was revealed to him in an epiphany that he had to eat the same Darkness fruit that his father had". Also maybe Whitebeard would have made a comment or two about how this random orphan kid resembles his old captain, but maybe that's just me. And Shanks has Celestial Dragon/Gorosei connection written all over its face so I wouldn't even touch him (though he has a likelier case than Teach at least).

5. Their hair is pretty similar going off the silhouette, so that could be a hint. Also, Luffy doesn't resemble his father very much, not physically nor personality and quirk-wise, whereas young Garp looks 200% Luffy and 60 year old Luffy from the SBS has the fucking Garp smirk. Their brass, explosive and child-like behaviour was also paralleled in Water 7, whereas Dragon is... calm and collected. I wonder why.

6. It would be cool if Garp has family ties with both of his biggest pirate rivals with his son-in-law and adoptive grandson.

7. It would make Luffy even more special (Roger's hat, Shanks blessing, Ace's brother, Sabo's brother, Dragon's son, Garp's grandson AND Xebec's grandson??? no fucking way!!!!) which is a trend that will NEVER stop, specially after recent events. But remember that women are out of the equation so Luffy's grandmas and his mother don't matter nearly as much.

8. Dragon being from Goa Kingdom could be a red herring, factually true if Xebec was also from Goa Kingdom, or whatever third option and it would still fall in Oda had it all planned from chapter 1.

@Robby said in Chapter 1070: The Strongest Form Of Humanity:

@Captain-M said in Chapter 1070: The Strongest Form Of Humanity:

@darktravis I'll grant you that the big reaction can come from emotions other than lust, but there's really not much more than headcanon to suggest the Love Love works based on anything else.

The fact that it works against women, or while they are afraid, and that Hancock can use it against inanimate object and pacifistas would imply its not JUST lust based.

Plus we get things like Hannybal not giving a shit about Hancock but totally feeling that Nami is his type, and that one VA who stabbed himself to neutralize it with pain, or that Luffy is just immune, mean her power isn't just emitting irresistible lust at all times.

It focuses her power and she leans into that, but its pretty clearly not a requirement or a guarantee.

Momonga stabbed himself to PREVENT the impure lustful thoughts, and Hancock was the one to point that out because she's the one most knowledgeable about the power.

And as Daz has said, what works on Pacifistas and objects isn't the Mero Mero Mellow that it's used in this chapter, it's random kicks or Perfume Femur. Whenever she uses Mero Mero Mellow she expects that the opponent gets instantly turned into stone because she's using their lust/innate sexual desire against them.

This doesn't mean that it has to work 100% of the time on 100% of the people, because asexual people have existed since forever, but when it works, the intended giveaway is that the mechanics of the attack is that someone got attracted to the user. It IS lust based.

Not only you're mixing the various ways in which Hancock channels the Mero Mero powers which have been outlined, but you're doing to potentially justify... Japanese pedophilia? Why?

This could all have been way easier to digest if S-Snake used another Mero Mero technique or if the reaction on CP0 agents' faces was any different. But you can't deny any person's reading of the situation as it has been presented.

@Deicide said in Official Egghead Thread:

Guys, I found out something that may be HUGE... For me, at least.

It's about that Blackbeard ship we saw approaching Egghead.

Since this may spoil a future plot twist very few may see coming, I'll spoiler-tag it.

spoiler

Why would Oda single out Laffitte and Devon not being in any of the 2 Blackbeard groups that we have seen post-Wano then? Wouldn't it come across more organically if, say, Devon was with Winner's Island group and Laffitte remained on Hachinosu to fight off Garp to make people wonder who's coming to Egghead? And then diehard fans would then come up with a theory like the one you've presented, with the Koby exchange dialogue being a very clear indicator of a seed being planted.

Instead, I think you may be looking too much into a tiny panel of 1059 that may haven't even been drawn by Oda himself, so it could be a silly little mistake coming from one of his assistants.

Just telling you so you don't get your hopes up and super duper adamant about it like you were with Atlas being the traitor and Smoker propelling Garp's ship.

Can't believe Unrepair was Unmonogamy all along...

Reiko being the matchmaker of the goofballs is cute.

If Kizaru gets defeated by Luffy without help and multiple rounds, then I don't expect a short clash, but a fully drawn-out battle.

Which also means that Kizaru will probably get tossed off the chessboard. I can't see Oda keeping him just to have Zoro/Sanji/Kid/Law defeat him AGAIN in the Final War (same reason I'm reluctant to Zoro vs Lucci happening now).

So better start speculating about what Zodiac animal the next Orange Admiral will represent...

In a perfect world, the Scientific Defense Godhead would fight the Greatest Scientist of the World.

But he probably has 50000 times the Dorikis that Vegapunk has while transformed in his Mythical Zoan so it's unfeasible.

Catching up with this thread has been baffling. I distinctly remember people pointing out how weird it was that Jinbe barely reacted to learning that Vegapunk had made a Lunarian Child Soldier Clone out of himself and also how people were saying that "there's no time to confront VP right now, Lucci needs to be stopped by Nika so everyone can escape to the Labophase, ethics will surely come up later".

And now suddenly there wasn't any time for that? Jinbe just laughs at a mini Hancock being enslaved to the original's feelings when his captain did what he did to free all those slaves? Nami and Chopper don't care about child soldiers? Ludicrous.

I guess if Thriller Bark was happening now Chopper would be mostly fine with Hogback disgracing so many corpses? That's actually way less problematic than what Vegapunk has done with the Seraphim.

Poor girl.

If that's the best answer that Horikoshi can come up with to a society that has fewer tools to deal with more and more people that don't fit the mold each passing day, I can only feel even more sorry for the Japanese minorities that fight the good fight.

Thank God that Ochako won't have to make any significant changes to her way of living. That would be awful, wouldn't it?

Maybe a minor grip, but I wouldn't have used "weak". Exposing yourself while being honest and not being able to put a perfectly crafted facade is being vulnerable, not weak. And that's what we should be searching more in art, more vulnerable and personal approaches to forge a proper style, even when it comes to a performing art that seems as rigid and tradition-based as rakugo.

I really hope that Akane can be vulnerable in her own way.

Lots of people have already mentioned this metaphor, but it's really sad to see so many people following what is essentially a dollar attached to a string when it comes to LBGTQ pairings in shonens.