Personally, I've been getting increasingly annoyed over the years at the conceived notion that Robin was literally the only way anyone was ever finding the One Piece. There should never have been an argument that if someone else actually got all 4 poneglyph rubbings, they'd be shit out of luck just cause they don't have Robin. That'd just be....bad writing. There always needed to be more ways for people to win in the end, but it shouldn't reduce the value Robin really is as an asset to this goal.

Otherwise yeah, this is why I largely skipped over the history lore portion of discussion on the chapter and instead focused on the new current developments of Luffy finding ApplePunk and Shaka's sus level.

This thread should probably be renamed to the "Yamato fanclub" thread. It only has 2 modes: Yamato fans patting themselves on the back on how every panel is more proof that Yamato's a lock. Or someone trying to bring up an opposing possibility getting dogpiled by the Yamato fans on how stupid and impossible it is. The power this 1 character has over fans… I worry for Oda if he actually does go with any rout that ends with Yamato not joining the crew.

I'd say odds are we're going to Sphinx to visit Ace's grave next, and the Yamato question won't be solved until the end of that mini-arc. Until then, Yamato will just be one of multiple tagalongs going to visit Ace's grave. But I'm sure fans will treat them special the moment they step on the Sunny, while the rest of the tagalongs get rejected and ignored.

Mind you, I'm not "Yamato will stay in Wano forever" crowd. I think the closest we'd get to that is Yamato staying with Momo temporarily, and then the next major cover story being entirely about the beginning and first journey of the Yamato pirates. Yamato needs their own journey and is more than capable and motivated to lead their own.

I also just finished the game. Regardless of my personal criticisms, I still think this is a pretty solid 8 or 9 out of 10 and enjoyed the gameplay and story.

There's a few mid-sections that dragged on a bit for me. Specifically Atreus' trip to Jotunheim and adventure with that new girl and then the journey through Vaneheim to help Freya both were getting on my nerves towards the end (the whole "but it's fate!" talk for the former and Freya obnoxious attitude all through the latter). Between both games I think Vaneheim is my least favorite area in general. On the opposite side; Surtr's section is so painfully short and leaving out his ice girlfriend altogether just feels like material was cut to rush the end. Ragnarok itself isn't really all that special gameplay wise, but it's definitely thematically fun. The final boss fights are disappointingly lacking that 1 "big epic moment" factor mid-fight, but they both end in narratively satisfying and enjoyable ways. For his big moment, Freyr was unjustifiably undersold and really should've gotten a bigger role throughout the game for that end payoff of his character arc. Sif was a tad bit of wasted potential, and I personally feel it would've been more moving to see her also fall alongside Thor and leaving Thrud to move on without both of them (and let us have at least 1 female casualty in all this). And if we ever get another game, please do NOT force me to have Lunda as the blacksmith the entire game unless you actually give her a bit of development. I'm dreading more of that southern speech already.

I certainly see enough material for either a big dlc addition to Ragnarok, or a 3rd game covering these final factors and setting Kratos or Atreus up to leave for a new region. Sindri needs and deserves help getting closure. Atreus' journey deserves a few solo sections. Maybe Surtr/Ragnarok survives and has to be taken out as a rampaging uncontrollable monster? Sinmara could be a great final Norse villain if she comes out more bitter about what he's done without her. The Hel Eagle needs it's replacement and then who knows what it might do? The old Jormungandr was almost suspiciously bitter in his 1 appearance in game and then completely absent. Odin may be done, but there are plenty of gigantic ancient near-primordial monsters that could go crazy in facing the new age and need to be put down. All in all, it'd be a gigantic shame to end things here.

Kratos, Atreus, Mimir, and Sindri are the best characters in the game and Thor and Odin were everything I could've wanted and more.

Good chapter leaving me curious on what'll come next from multiple parties here.

Zoro's reaction to Caribou is to be expected, but I'm not totally convinced this means Caribou is actually gonna go off on his own. It's hard to tell if it's just teasing or a serious threat from Zoro, but Caribou is legitimately terrified. They guy could definitely keep groveling or just hiding out around the sunny until something happens to team Zoro. The guy should know Luffy's still his best bet at safety right now, even if the rest of the crew just pick on him.

Franky's about to get distracted by history lore, so it might be awhile, but I hope Franky doesn't forget to ask about Jimboy seemingly having Senior Pink's devil fruit ability. The guy's got the empathy to care about what happened there, and if the Vegapunks respond badly about it, it definitely could end up the wedge that triggers Franky reducing his admiration to the collective Punk. Best case scenario for the Punks being good would be if Pink volunteered for a reduced sentence or something, but if he was experimented on against his will... not gonna look great.

Following up on that history lore; I'm expecting Shaka's main idea here is getting some academic assistance from Robin. Won't surprise me if Shaka strikes a deal with her to play nice and then the rest of the Sanji squad each gets split up to work with a different Vegapunk;

Nami and Lilith for the greedy squad; Franky and Edison to go share invention ideas; Sanji and York to give him a cute girl to feed; And Pythagoras gives me vibes he'd work well with Ussop... or Ussop just gets taken advantage of as manual labor.

Meanwhile it's about time for Luffy (squad) to stumble upon their own part of this dark secret. Bonney's still with them, so they'll still be getting the perspective that Vegapunk is bad and I'm eager to see more of that.

I'm cool with being Team Caribou for now. I'm not even convinced Caribou will actually leave the Sunny to start sneaking around Egghead. The guy is terrified and knows the safest spot for him right now is the Sunny. Zoro's rejection feels more like bullying than a legitimate threat to get away, so he'll probably still be there for whatever drama is gonna crash into Zoro and Brook.

I'm hoping for any multiple body shenanigans possible besides the simple "it's just his daughter" option. That one'd be so simple, I'd actually find it a little boring.

I'd guess Smoker's probably with the Real/Main/Original/Father/whatever it ends up being Vegapunk. It'd be the most logical explanation to leave him out of this chapter.

I'd also wager a guess that Drake getting a name drop with the sword group probably means he's either gonna make it into this arc towards the end. Probably his arrival will be the trigger to get this group of marines to gear up and prepare to help Coby. At first I thought he might be going off on his own or staying in Wano for a future cover story, but this seems like my main guess now; He's just running late.

I like them and hopefully we get to see more potential fruit shenanigan combos to shake it up instead of their og fruits. However, right now there's the concern that Vegapunk(s) can just stop and direct them so easily. Meaning either the Vegapunks have to become the antagonists for the arc/future, or the Seraphims are gonna need to be broken out of the Vegapunk's control and into the main upper government players.

I just would love to see Vegapunk, whichever or however many or whatever, completely outmatch most of the strawhats in a quick encounter off brains and gear.

Have a little barrier or electric shock ready for Robin when she tries to restrain them (or a drug injection to see if it spreads from her clone arms to normal); Know a secret about Judge's research and their own old blueprints to KO Sanji and Franky; Some with Nami's Weatheria and slap Zeus away; Counter Ussop's plants with fun trivia on them and their weaknesses; Target a keystone bone of Brook's and restrain him before his soul fixes it; Zoro's the only one I'm drawing a blank.

Then have the Sunny crew brought into the labs to restrain them in for some research and experiments.

It feels like Oda just walked through the storyline in his head and added a scabbard for every minor thing he needed instead of trying to limit his numbers.

We can't introduce Momo by himself, so of course he needs a Scabbard to himself. Even though Kinemon was inevitably gonna overshadow Momo back then and definitely attracted more of the fans interested in their plotline than Momo himself.

We can't rationalize Kinemon and Momo being OK with a detour to Dressrosa, so we better put a Scabbard there for them to look for.

We need Jack to attack the minks so let's make it because he's hunting down a Scabbard there.

The minks need to be able to fend off Jack for awhile, so let's make them have 2 leaders that alternate day and night and let's make them BOTH Scabbards to help push the mink connection for Wano later.

We need a replacement for Izo since he ended up leaving and we can't have Oden's death without a full count so let's give him a sibling who'll be that replacement Scabbard.

Gotta make Oden look cool by beating up some big gang leader, and it'd be even cooler to have him recruit the guy after, so let's make that one of his Scabbards.

We need someone to save Hiyori from the burning castle, so let's add a fishman and make him a Scabbard.

Then we need Hiyori to end up working as a courtesan in the city to work her way up to Orochi, so the fishman has to go away. But I can't let her do that as a kid without some protection, so I'll make another Scabbard that also goes undercover to protect her.

Let's make sure Izo returns for the big battle, so gotta make sure there's a traitor scabbard who definitely can't be redeemed to switch sides back or anything positive. Guess I'll make the traitor related to Orochi.

Some of it works, but it's been talked to death how easy it would be to combine and reduce the Scabbard count. But sadly, I guess it was decided that Oden wouldn't look cool enough if he was only holding 4 or 5 people up and out of the boiling pot.

I don't remember much of what I posted in the spoiler thread, so I'll just post fresh on current mindset. Always finding ways to delay a coverstory, especially when they get a little interesting again. Shame for that.

Kamabakka is in paradise, so Kuma crashing into the red line should be logical. It was just in the way while he was trying to get into the New World and probably Egghead. I'd guess we'll see a few updates of him getting up and around to the other side before he takes off again. At the very least, one of him arriving up in Mariejois and the chaos of that reaction before he takes off. No way we're leaving Egghead before he arrives.

I'm leaning on hoping there's foul play at work amongst the Vegapunks. A mastermind hiding somewhere is fine too, but there's little foreshadowing for it. I want to see at least half the remaining VPs get stuck in suspicious scenarios that take them out of action. The mystery ally could be anyone, but after Sentomaru's display, I kinda doubt they're really gonna be as effective at stalling cp0 as the VPs seem to think they are. We really shouldn't be leaving before Kizaru arrives, so this should help delay things while the remaining extra ships get to him.

It's good to see Bonney still on the aggressive. Whatever Vegapunk's "good reason" is, it probably won't be enough to stop her rampage at this point. Maybe we can finally get some real usage out of her Fruit and shake things up to cause a mess until Kuma arrives. We gotta get more than just the one joke "accident" moment earlier.

Kidd going to Elbaf. Good for him. I legitimately hope he actually ends up playing the hero and solving whatever plot Elbaf was gonna have on his own. I'm on team Kidd, so give him a win please.

Garp is a strange twist to push at this point. Koby being captured can't just be rendered pointless, so it's not like this rescue can possibly go perfectly. I guess this could be a good opportunity for Garp to meet his end, even though I'd never really considered it. Kinda just wrote the guy off to retire in style with Sengoku to laugh and eat crackers somewhere. Better not try to play the "Aokiji frozen death" card again though. It's not gonna work so soon after learning about Saul.

Cp0 are right next to Vega Force 1, so it'd be a good card to play to see either Stussy take it herself (assuming she's the other MAD scientist) or Lucci destroy it quick before they both presumably join Kaku in trying to destroy the Sunny. Add Brook (and not Caribou, he'd be too scared) and it should be a temporarily bad 2v3 for them until someone else comes to help them.

With all the cutaway updates on various factions we've been having; I'm starting to wonder where the line is on who will or won't get cutaways.

Shanks would be the front runner of who I'd expect to still get one. The government faction hasn't shown us Fujitora or Smoker yet. Cross guild? Will the Grand Fleet groups get a small update seeing them on the move? The other Supernovas in Urouge, Bege, and Apoo? Are Drake and Hawkins even alive to get a cutaway? Jozu or Vista now that Marco's still relevant apparently?

I don't know where to draw the line and admittedly that does make things fun with current one piece for me.

Franky's at least around for the Marineford visit. Brook doesn't even get that and it's a far bigger injustice given how big an issue it's portrayed to the crew that they get to be there for Luffy this time.

I'm onto Dressrosa and AI Luffy has really started enjoying to just spam Conqueror's Haki move every battle. Kinda getting old, but not really something to complain about. Chopper AI's always been bad by comparison as he saves his skill bar so much instead of using skills. Brook's a bit weak coming in, so probably should've farmed him up a little before I jumped in. Was kinda hoping I could've gone to the other Memories first to clean some stuff up, but had to go straight into Dressrosa.

Not exactly the full direction I was hoping for, but still feeling good about Egghead not being over yet. Man, Vegapunk in that cover is the most unsettling single image of any of the MADS group we've seen yet. I wonder if it's just meant to be a joke that VP is really bad at taking photos.

It's hard to tell from the outside, but the cuts inside the main lab do make it seem like the Seraphim caused a lot of damage. But not in the area where Luffy and Chopper are searching.

I'm pretty convinced right now that Vegapunks are gonna keep adding people to the rideshare. It's turning into a running gag that I'm sure Sentomaru and Bonney will get their moment of being told to come along too. The ultimate payoff will be when they end up leaving a different way in the end and Sanji and Franky are depressed.

It's hilarious how not too long ago, the Strawhats visiting Sphinx and Weevil being there was probably the most popular guess at the next location. Then it mostly got dropped once it became apparent we weren't visiting Sphinx. Turns out we were right about Weevil turning up there though. Shouldn't be a surprise that he'd protect the village, as he's always seemed devoted to his Dad. It's just WB's crew and allies he has issue with. I can't really tell if this is just Oda pushing Weevil's story off to the side to cut it as much as possible, or if Weevil's gonna end up one of the big triggers to another massive jail break of Impel Down. Next cover page will definitely show Bakkins being a freeloader.

Finally the Elders move. All this time I've been wracking my brain on how to get the Seraphim to them, so there must be a traitor VP or something to get authority control over them. I never believed they'd actually come themselves. Welp, one of them is coming themself, so that should solve that issue nicely. I hope they're all fittingly named for the planets so we can call them the Elder Sailor Scouts.

Man, it would be nice if the rest of the old cp9 guard are also on that ship. I wanna see Jabra and Kumadori in cp0 gear. It's not like they need to do anything but be there to rescue Lucci and Kaku. Otherwise Hattori is still free I guess.

Franky should be heading outside, but technically it looks like Sanji ran ahead to save the day and he hasn't arrived yet. Caribou is still missing in action, but no telling if he's just hiding nearby or has actually left the area yet. If Vegapunk really is physically missing cause of Bonney and/or the Kuma memories, or some other unknown factor, I guess we've got our issue that's gonna keep us around until Kizaru arrives.

I've played up into Water Seven now and can say, it's pretty fine for a background game I can half focus on while watching stuff on my computer. Not something that needs a super high amount of direct focus.

I just wish the "running" was a bit faster. Makes me miss the speed you could run across Unlimited Adventure/Cruise.

Basically I enjoy roaming the world and collecting everything with whichever character is needed and doing the quests/story and then when most combats start I leave it on auto and look at my videos playing next to me.

This cover story got a lot better when it switched to the past of MADS. Hopefully we get some thing to be concrete with the timeline. Also Judge smiling is.....somehow more creepy than anything Queen or CC.

Seeing more applications of Bonney's fruit is exactly what I wanted to see and I love it. Love the stupidity of people falling for her child-form sympathy act. Her age changing being temporary on other livings things does clear up some questionable aspects of her fruit, but I guess we've also removed any potential for her powers being needed for age experiments or powering up the seraphim. Either way, I wanna see more age changing on all parties present on the island. Ideally we'll get some big emotional uncontrolled power waves from her while she's absorbing Kuma's memories. I don't want the memories to be enough to ease her mind and fix things with her, so hope we need a bit more than just that.

Vegapunk's pretty fucked up and I do hope he gets more flack for how hard he pushes people to do terrible things for themselves just for "Science!"

I'm curious how much damage the seraphim are gonna cause before things get messed up with Seraphim orders. They're hitting the entrance/exit, so Lillith, Edison, and the SHs coming might be stuck and need to find another way out. Or spend a little time destroying/removing the rubble. Could end up delaying them long enough for the Seraphim to move elsewhere again.

The Stussy clone reveal would be deserving of it's entire own post, but all I feel like saying is it should be interesting to see what she's up to. The VPs don't need this much of another ally advantage, so I'm pretty hopeful she's got her own agenda here and the mystery person is someone else. It'd be cool if Bakkin and Weevil are hidden in the shadows ready to work with Stussy for something.

It's kinda weird that Robin, Jinbe, Luffy, and Chopper were left missing from the scenes in the main lab. Maybe those 4 all went looking for main VP and Bonney together? If they all did, then with Sanji and Franky leaving too.... Nami and Ussop getting left alone usually ends up being a sign of danger coming... but that's jumping ahead a bit with assumptions. Pythagoras and York were also skipped over. And no clarification on Caribou's location yet either. Vega Force One mech still needs to get dealt with before Lillith can get in it (since that would make the escape too easy).

There's obviously a lot that can still happen in this arc; but I'm leaning on seeing Bonney moving after this arc and deciding to go rescue her old crew, wherever they may be. Much like how Law had barely considered his future past revenge on Doflamingo, I don't see Bonney as having thought of anything past this confrontation with VP/saving her dad. With that resolution ended, she'll have the self-reflection moment to decide to move on and return to her crew. Maybe they're in Impel Down and Bonney's actually gonna go be the one to cause the big extra breakout that destroys the jail that many of us expect to happen.

Shame I'm stuck behind the group. I pre-ordered a physical copy and for some reason Amazon picked this to be their slowest delivery for me lately. Not expected until Tuesday.

Dave the Barbarian is definitely a reach for an oldie but a goodie I always forget about.

Lilo and Stitch the series is always one of the first for my memory. Although it did have that whole Stitch! spin-off sequel I never saw, it'd still be fun to see a redo of that.

American Dragon, Recess, Kim Possible, the Replacements, Super.Robot.Monkey.Team.Hyper.Force.Go, Ying, Yang, Yo; I'd have enough nostalgia to be interested to see any of them back with a new touch.

I'd even take an attempt at something new with the Hercules animated series (kinda bored of the new fad of making all the Greek myths awful) or Buzzlightyear of star command (as long as it's not too screwed up by that newer buzz movie). Emperor's new school probably wouldn't work.

@Captain-M How dare you not include the great Ceasar Clown to make it 4 extra companions. He will always be fondly remembered for his time with the crew.

I don't remember much of what I posted in the spoiler thread, so I'll just post fresh on current mindset. Always finding ways to delay a coverstory, especially when they get a little interesting again. Shame for that.

Kamabakka is in paradise, so Kuma crashing into the red line should be logical. It was just in the way while he was trying to get into the New World and probably Egghead. I'd guess we'll see a few updates of him getting up and around to the other side before he takes off again. At the very least, one of him arriving up in Mariejois and the chaos of that reaction before he takes off. No way we're leaving Egghead before he arrives.

I'm leaning on hoping there's foul play at work amongst the Vegapunks. A mastermind hiding somewhere is fine too, but there's little foreshadowing for it. I want to see at least half the remaining VPs get stuck in suspicious scenarios that take them out of action. The mystery ally could be anyone, but after Sentomaru's display, I kinda doubt they're really gonna be as effective at stalling cp0 as the VPs seem to think they are. We really shouldn't be leaving before Kizaru arrives, so this should help delay things while the remaining extra ships get to him.

It's good to see Bonney still on the aggressive. Whatever Vegapunk's "good reason" is, it probably won't be enough to stop her rampage at this point. Maybe we can finally get some real usage out of her Fruit and shake things up to cause a mess until Kuma arrives. We gotta get more than just the one joke "accident" moment earlier.

Kidd going to Elbaf. Good for him. I legitimately hope he actually ends up playing the hero and solving whatever plot Elbaf was gonna have on his own. I'm on team Kidd, so give him a win please.

Garp is a strange twist to push at this point. Koby being captured can't just be rendered pointless, so it's not like this rescue can possibly go perfectly. I guess this could be a good opportunity for Garp to meet his end, even though I'd never really considered it. Kinda just wrote the guy off to retire in style with Sengoku to laugh and eat crackers somewhere. Better not try to play the "Aokiji frozen death" card again though. It's not gonna work so soon after learning about Saul.

Cp0 are right next to Vega Force 1, so it'd be a good card to play to see either Stussy take it herself (assuming she's the other MAD scientist) or Lucci destroy it quick before they both presumably join Kaku in trying to destroy the Sunny. Add Brook (and not Caribou, he'd be too scared) and it should be a temporarily bad 2v3 for them until someone else comes to help them.