I love how chaotic Big Mom is. Takes me back to when Law was told in PH that Luffy already has the selfishness of a Yonko, and that one time when Luffy started a serious fight with Zoro in Whiskey Peak because he thought Zoro cut down the people who showed them hospitality.

@Greg:

If you want to hear the long version of my story there's 'Greg's Bizarre Adventure'.

OP Magazine 9 is ridiculously cool. If this came out in 2011 I would have absolutely lost my stuff.

I can't post pics etc. because it's before the street date but a number of Oda's storyline design images from the past have been revealed and some of differences between them and the final products are just mind-blowing. Take for example that 'Gold Lion' (aka Shiki) was originally intended to be one of the three Admirals during the Ohara flashback. Whaaaaaaaat!?

Shiki's epithet is "The Golden Lion"…
Matching the color + animal theme of the admirals...
O_______O
Incredible.

@Jawad5:

For me it's 2 different people
From what I understood
The one roger is waiting for might be luffy, someone who will also reach laughtale/raftel and continue what he couldn't .
The one of legends/of Promise/The chosen one might be someone else (the new Joy Boy, the one related to Noah, the ancient weapons and the opening of wano's borders, etc…)
1-Might also be luffy - the predictable cliche narrative
2-Might be someone like robin/momo - less predictable but still makes sense
3-Might be let's say no one it was all a lie / or it was buggy - the I SUBVERTED YOUR EXPECTATION!! path which is horrible <-- this one is going for "unpredictability" just for the thrill of it.

4. It's all the friends Luffy made along the way

@Jabra:

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding going on here. You're not getting anywhere with just one Will, lol. You need several:

1. Will of D.
2. Will of Goldo Roger
3. Will of Poseidon
4. Will of Acesu
5. Will of Joy Boy

If you have them all you can combine the power of the Wills and summon Captain Strawhat, child of the prophecy

! https://s19.directupload.net/images/200222/nq4o7tng.png

(Will of Acesu is optional because it actually does nothing, but it doesn't hurt either so whatever)

Will of Acesu allows him to summon his trusted ally Sabo

By far the best chapter of the arc so far.

@Jabra:

At this point there is only one humane solution for Wano, really.

! https://pm1.narvii.com/7234/04c4e41dd6436f599f273f334ce77b837a71be44r1-800-450v2_hq.jpg

The Wanonese had a damn good excuse to be as scummy as they are in the present day (and I thought the flashback would salvage that to some degree), but they are largely just awful people, past and presence.

I'm not joking, evacuate a handful of people (some from Ebisu Town or what) and then just nuke the place and forget about it. Green Bull still needs his great entrance anyway.

Several decades after the nuke Wano enters the great age of anime.

Well, that makes Oden's motivation for accepting the offer pretty clear..
You can start a civil war and have a lot of your people die, you can refuse the offer and have them slowly kidnapped, or you can accept and hope that in 5 years they'll keep their promise.

All in all, a lot of this flashback is about tests of resilience for Oden.
Three days to not let go of the chains, 5 years of humiliation and having the people lose faith in you, one hour of boiling.
He voluntarily failed the first one for a justified cause, the second one turned out to be arguably in vain (arguably because he did protect thousands of lives for all those years). I wonder how exactly the third one will end (aside from him dying).

The only thing I'm left to wonder is why Kaido needed those people. The chapter mentioned tortue.. is it just a hobby of Kaido?

Was the hostage situation awkward? yeah, but I don't see a problem with the general outcome.
Kaido tanked that hit. Like he tanked all hits so far, and didn't try to dodge a single one. Like how his commanders are tanking hits all the time. Complaining about how Oden managed to strike Kaido just like that reminds me of how people complained about Ashura Doji wounding Jack. And what did that get him? Jack could still fight. It's the same guy who was being pounded by Inu and Neko for 5 days and 5 nights and later took a hit from a country-sized elephant's trunk. And just like him Kaido got back up moments later and hit back. It's not like Kaido is invincible, he was captured and tortured numerous times. His defining feature is not that he never lost, but that he came back every single time and slowly got his way. Like how Jack couldn't defeat the minks but he still got his way in the end.
They charge at any challenge, and take any attack head on. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, but they come back every time. They're one of the most stubborn crews in the whole world, and being wounded doesn't take anything away from that. If anything, it makes any prospects of Luffy beating him ever so slightly more believable. Whatever happened 20 years ago, he's still the highest obstacle Luffy ever had to surpass.
All the hostage situation did was allow Oda to cramp the fight and its outcome into one chapter.

@Tarek:

From chapter 819:
https://i.imgur.com/taOThCc.jpg?1

This was weird and fucked up, I like it. I love that panel on the last page where they cross the bridge. Expectations for the rest of this flashback are high.
I'm a little bit disappointed though that the theft of Ryuma's corpse and shusui was completely skipped. I really want to learn more about Ryuma.

I think expanding on Ryuuma is one plot-line too many for this arc. I'm sure Oda would be happy to, but he needs to stay at least somewhat focused.
I think the Monsters one-shot is more than enough until Oda decides to make a spin-off or a side-story one day.

I can't see it being anything grandiose. Even on his own ship, he's the captain because it's his adventure. Otherwise he's just chilling with his friends.
EDIT: I agree it might be something childish, but more in how simple and unambitious it sounds.