A few thoughts on this chapter, which I hope to send into One Piece Podcast:

It seems to me that the Blackbeard Pirates' Devil Fruit, excluding the ones who already had them like Lafitte and Kuzan, seem designed to enhance what they're already very good at. Strength for Burgess, teleportation for Van Augur the sniper, diseases for Doc Q, gigantification for Wolf, liquor for Vasco Shot.

Thinking about this reminded me of one detail that's always stuck in my mind about Blackbeard: He was the first character we ever saw explicitly hunting a specific Devil Fruit. Everyone else up to that point we either don't know how they got it or it was an accident. Makes me wonder how long he had this plan of his in place to power up his people with Devil Fruits the same way Kaido wanted his army of Zoans.

One last point on the Blackbeard pirates (this was mentioned in the spoiler thread), back in chapter 803 there was a discussion between Dragon and Koala about weapons made of "Drunken Iron Ore", which only a few places could produce. Now we learn Blackbeard has a literal booze man. There's a possible connecting line being drawn there.

Also, the way Garp's ship launched itself into Fullalead, the Thousand Sunny won't be able to escape them with Coup de Burst now.

Thinking about the reveal of SWORD as the Navy's "Mission: Impossible" unit, I wonder now if Kuzan isn't playing a long game. I expect that's already a theory, but now I wonder if we might not get a reveal that Kuzan won the duel that terraformed Punk Hazard, gave Sakazuki the Fleet Admiral position anyway, and leveraged that into Sakazuki's support/cooperation with his own plan, which might be why Sakazuki has had to play desk jockey, he's honor bound to not go whole hog and run things like Kuzan would. There's also the possibility that both were in on it from the get-go, the entire duel was a sham, and the entire goal was to give Kuzan a way to leave the Navy in spectacular fashion. Sakazuki has been obeying the true Fleet Admiral all along.

This chapter prompted two theories from me.

The more serious of the two is Joy Boy may have been the reason for the rising sea levels, and this is the sin he and those associated with him (such as Zunesha) bear.

The much less serious theory is there's a giant stopper plug at Laugh Tale that was placed there by the previous Joy Boy that is the cause of the rising sea levels, and only an Awakened user of the Nika fruit can remove it.

Also, it would be the supreme irony if, for everything the Five Elders did to try and stop this message for fear of what it would say, they didn't know about any if it either.

@Leviathan said in Chapter 1113: Stalemate:

I seem to recall that they said the sea level rose after the Lulusia island was destroyed. Perhaps the sea level rises a bit every time the superweapon is used.
If that is true, the one piece world might have once had a much greater landmass, but the faction that would become the world government gained access to this weapon, and kept using it to destroy their enemies, unconcerned with the danger since they had/created the red line to live on. Wouldn't it fit the world nobles to drown the world if it meant holding on to their power? If so, Vegapunk would correctly surmise that they will just keep using it to get rid of malcontents, until everything below the red line has been swallowed up.

The Mother Flame is recent and has only been used once that we know of. Though whatever it's derived from may be a factor.

@The-Franky-Tank said in Chapter 1113: Stalemate:

Interesting start to whatever we are getting out of this broadcast. We've had small tidbits of the rising sea levels between Water 7 and Wano being the most prevalent cases. Add on the Celestial Dragons taking the highest point in the world where they would be affected the least, it all adds up to this aspect having not really been prevalent as a topic in the greater One Piece world. The bigger thing though of note was Vegapunk not ascribing good or evil to "him", which I can only assume as being referred to Imu.

Way back in Alabasta in chapter 161, Vivi noted that the sea has started getting more and more into the main river that feeds the kingdom.

One thing I really like about the Bonney reveal is how it hits Saint Saturn right in the arrogance. I'd bet anything that Saturn never once considered that anybody on Egghead would have higher authority than him. I also like how it's a nice payoff to the whole hierarchy of command bit.

A long while back, in an early Egghead chapter thread, I equated the command hierarchy to the Three Laws of Robotics. Pacifista will obey anyone present with X authority, unless those orders are countermanded by anyone present of Y authority or higher, anyone present with Y authority will be obeyed unless countermanded by anyone present of Z authority or higher, etc. As a result, I can't help but think of this as Saturn getting Zeroth Lawed.

@StrawHatJedi said in Chapter 1106: On Your Side:

I just don't want to see Luffy defeat Saturn, unequivocally. Luffy vs. Kizaru should be the big fight, if there is one. The Straw Hats need to escape, not achieve a conclusive victory here. Egghead is going to end up in WG control one way or the other, so there's no point in standing their ground and fighting here, especially with so many people like Robin, Stussy, and now Franky & Stella already seriously wounded.

I disagree. If the Straw-Hats escape, it's largely just more of the same Marines attack Straw Hats, Straw Hats flee. I think, even if Saturn himself isn't taken down, that this absolutely should be some kind of big victory for the Straw Hats' side. Something worthy of the name Egghead Incident. The pattern of the Straw Hats' interaction with the Navy as a group ever since Logue Town has been either "fighting retreat" (Alabasta, Enies Lobby's Buster Call, Dressrosa) or "outright loss" (Long Ring Long Land, pre-Time Skip Sabaody), with an occasional "Enemy Mine" (Punk Hazard).

It's at least one reason my initial thought from the moment I realized the Sabaody supporting cast was reassembling that this would be the ideal time for an admiral to be defeated (the Marines are the last big obstacle besides the other Emperors and the World Government, Kizaru is perfect to be beaten because he isn't too new for his defeat to diminish the admirals [Ryokugyu] or too honorable to be an enemy [Fujitora], and he's beaten the Straw Hats before, so we have a baseline with him).

I hoped to see the Buster Call defeated, and am fine with it happening with the giants' help.

@Cockycent That makes sense, I can see where that might imply Saul was a captain. At least of the group in Ohara.

My belief is that Roger starting the Great Pirate Era was his response to discovering the truth. I don't know about the rest of the Roger pirates, other than Oden who had his own crises to deal with, but I could see them thinking this was their captain's plan and they have faith in it. Or they just legit didn't care. That's always an option.

Then again, there's definitely something more to all this that Vegapunk doesn't know.

Just look at Crocus who, as lighthouse keeper at Reverse Mountain, was well positioned to guide incoming sailors. However he gives the Straw Hats incorrect/incomplete information about Laugh Tale that, if followed, would take them to Lodestar instead.

On the subject of not arresting other Roger pirates, a thought occurs: it probably wasn't that hard for most of them to go into obscurity. It largely depends on how well known the less infamous members were. The Government would definitely be interested in any single member of Roger's crew they could find, but how easily are they going to figure out who random Roger Pirate A was? They likely didn't know Crocus hooked up with them, since he returned to his lighthouse job after, didn't figure out Buggy was in Roger's crew until after they'd arrested him for unrelated reasons, and even assuming they knew Shanks's connection to Roger, he'd gained enough power to not be taken easily. Meanwhile, Oden was unreachable in Wano and Rayleigh dropped off the grid entirely by all indications. Don't know why they haven't persued him in the time they've known he's on Sabaody, but that's a whole different question.

Honestly, I'm starting to think the World Government went after Tom precisely because they couldn't get anybody else but still needed an example made.

One thing I like in this chapter is it explains the timeline issues York was having trouble with during the announcement

I feel it's also worth noting that that Vegapunk had less than a week to react to and plan for what was going on (excluding the days post-memory wipe and the week spent confirming the culprit).

The way I read it is Vegapunk knew he and his were screwed, other than York, and acted accordingly. Despite what Stella asked of the Straw Hats, escape was never Vegapunks' true plan. My take is he opted to lose the battle (the Buster Call at Egghead) in the hopes he would ultimately win the war (whatever the aftermath of the broadcast will end up being)

While perhaps arrangements should have been made to get the Satellites out or warn Sentomaru ahead of time, anything else would, far as the 3 Vegapunks were concerned, have only delayed the inevitable or wasn't an option in the first place. Plus, as Vegapunk noted, escape would only ensure constant pursuit from that day on and the Vegapunks' ability to fight back is essentially tied to Egghead.

As also noted in the chapter, dealing with York wouldn't do anything about what was to come. At best, it would deprive the World Government of additional information but they were already acting on what they had, so it's a moot point, really. The memory wipe is questionable, but did ensure York couldn't do even more harm by leaking their precautions early.

While there's merit to bubble traps and holo decoys, the Pacifista and Seraphim were vulnerable to being taken over if, as indeed happened, an Elder came in person (remember the only reason that didn't screw them over entirely was the Seraphim being disabled beforehand and Vegapunk long-ago putting Bonney in charge of the Kuma-pacifista).

While it's unclear what resources Dragon has access to, remember after Dressrosa he was routed from his primary base and their big attack on Marie Jois was an infiltration headed by only their very best and brightest.

Vegapunk likely wouldn't have opted to show the Government's actions live because, horrible as they are, he doesn't understand why they're doing it. It's the same reason why his broadcast went out of its way to avoid implicating the WG, even as we now know Vegapunk was fairly certain they had and used the Ancient Weapon.

If I have a point of contention it's that, after all that happened, the Straw Hats still can't claim a definitive, unambiguous victory over the Navy. They haven't truly had one since Axe-Hand Morgan. The closest they can claim is Enies Lobby, since they achieved their goals in rescuing Robin, but even then the moment the Navy came in force with the Buster Call it became a fighting retreat that would never have succeeded if not for good fortune (The Merry's arrival) and some quick pre-planning (Sanji closing the Gates of Justice). One thing I was hoping for in this arc is that the Straw Hats would face a Buster Call level military force and manage to defeat it.

Unrelated to any of the above, a youtuber has finally done what I figured someone would do once the broadcast completed and created a read-aloud of the broadcast in full without other action. Sadly, he doesn't do a voice, but if I find a version that does I promise to share it.

Short version: The Gintama of harem anime.

Long version: By the time he graduated middle school, Rentaro Aijo has confessed to girls he loved 100 times and each and every time he was rejected. Praying to the gods at a temple, he's told that but only will be blessed to meet his destined soulmate in high school, but he will have one hundred of them. He runs into the first two immediately, but soon after learns that if he chooses one, the other will die.

Rentaro's solution: openly date them both and invite any later soulmates into the harem. As of this writing he's at 26 girlfriends and counting.

The anime started this weekend and is currently streaming on Crunchyroll: https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GNVHKN933

As noted by the post below, the "or they'll die" thing is basically just an excuse to not pick one girl and never really comes up again. The series is all about the hilarious antics Rentaro's Family get up to as the girls are quite the quirky bunch, and Rentaro himself isn't any better.

A playlist of the trailers two for the anime in general and one each for the first five girlfriends.

The anime opening:

The anime ending:

Finally, a Youtube video quickly describing each girlfriend up to #22:

With next chapter hyping a reveal of "the truth of the world", I recently had the off-the-wall thought that the One Piece universe is, in fact, a fictional universe In-Universe. It was a story of some kind, a tale full of laughs, but once it was over the World Government decided to keep it as stagnant as possible so that the story never picks up again and stays as it is. This is why the Gum-Gum Fruit is such a threat in particular, it creates a legitimate cartoon character that can drum up new interest and get a new story going.

Alternatively: The Void Century is literally that, a void of 100 years caused by a story's Time Skip. Even outside the fictional world theory, it's a thought I've had before that there literally isn't anything in the Void Century.

@danie said in Chapter 1060: Luffy's Dream:

Robin should have told Brook what happened in Arabasta 2 years ago. He thinks Arabasta has never suffered under misrule.

I'm not sure if rebellion fermented by outside forces counts as misrule.

@Nitwit said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:

Well, saw this.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1002434881952948377/1014215593978777653/IMG_1238.png

Don’t know what to think of it but it might piss off a lot of Americans who own those guns as most would refuse to get rid of them.

I believe there's usually a grandfather clause that covers these situations. You can't get in trouble for having the thing that was banned if your had it before it got banned. For instance, I recall hearing during Prohibition people were able to keep the liquor they already had, they just couldn't get more.

@MDL said in The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You:

Chapter 191: Rentarou's Family's Flowing Soumen

Pool shenanigans and noodle shenanigans.
The "serious" company strikes yet again!

And yet no pool noodle shenanigans.

Alas, another time maybe.

The Kurumi, Nano, Mimimi bit of probably my favorite, with Ahko's "Nuuu." being a close second

@Deicide said in Chapter 1127: Adventure in the Land of Mystery:

@sgamer82 said in Chapter 1127: Adventure in the Land of Mystery:

For what it's worth, the referring to Gear 3rd as Gear 4th is in the original Japanese as well.

I'm aware of that, but I think it's just an Oda mistake.

---

@Kishido said in Chapter 1127: Adventure in the Land of Mystery:

To many mistakes in the chapter...

What makes me think these are just Oda mistakes is that we got that scene at the start with the "giants". They talk about fire in the forest, the fallen rabbit god, the bees... Nami is not there to hear about it, there's no SH interacting with them. So, when Luffy, Zoro and Sanji appear talking about having eaten the rabbit (thus causing the fire) and attacked the bees, Nami wouldn't know of those things.

It's possible the production of this chapter was a bit late so there was little time to proof read it, or maybe there were some late changes so they missed some places to fix them, so more mistakes than usual went unnoticed. I think a lot of it will be fixed in the volume.

However, it's possible that Oda does intend to things to feel off. I think the "giants" are not giants, for instance.

@access-timeco said in Chapter 1127: Adventure in the Land of Mystery:

I really can't see how "drawing inconsistencies" would relate to "it's an illusion".
If it was something like "oh, this Zoro has both eyes open, it's an illusion", sure, ok. But "oh, this sword was missing on one panel and back on the next"... huh? Why would an illusion work like that?

One or two gaffes slipping through I might agree that this was just errors. But Oda isn't typically so sloppy as to have roughly half-a-dozen in a single chapter. The only explanation for that, to me, would be that Oda's so excited about finally getting to Elbaf he indeed got sloppy.

I'm going to assume it's deliberate and meant to signify something strange is going on until explicitly told otherwise.

New chapter: Momiji must stop groping cold turkey while her groping muscles heal from strain.

There's also an interview with Nakamura.

@Deicide said in Chapter 1127: Adventure in the Land of Mystery:

Thoughts:

• Luffy calling Gear 4 is clearly a mistake, since he does not transform. This is just basic Gear 3.

• The amount of continuity mistakes in this chapter (like Luffy having a sword in a moment, then nothing in his back, then it's an axe) is making some people think this is all an allucination. However, having the people of the village reacting to the events with no Straw Hat nearby to interact with them makes this all very real, though I guess some details could still be illusions.

For what it's worth, the referring to Gear 3rd as Gear 4th is in the original Japanese as well. That plus the large number of art gaffes makes me agree with those who think they're deliberate.

Not sure if we're looking at hallucinations or illusions but something is clearly off with the situation.

I was so focused on Saki interacting with Yaku I hadn't considered how she'd be with someone like Matsuri, younger but ignoring the whole senpai dynamic.

Bit late but new chapter is out, I'm which Saki meets the Family and, for no particular reason or impetus, Hahari dresses everyone in gakuran uniforms.

Also, Saki's birthday is April 1st, and she was born at 11:59:59 pm, rendering her literally the youngest she can possibly be while still remaining in her original year group.

@Kdom said in Chapter 1123: The Void Fortnight:

I'm not sure it works in the case of Rayleigh since he made a surprise attack. Nobody should be hostile when he did the haki blast

Rayleigh was physically present at the auction house and knew who was and wasn't a threat, so he could consciously aim.

The idea for Joy Boy's blast, as I'm understanding it, is because it can't be consciously managed it was set, for lack of a better term, to only hit those that were actively being hostile towards Emet.

@access-timeco said in Chapter 1123: The Void Fortnight:

Yeah, that's what I meant when I mentioned "unanswered questions Oda had brought up before".

I'm responding more to the "afterthought" portion of the post. You may be right about it, but it's at least something Oda had enough awareness of to set up some time beforehand.

Also one thing I saw pointed out elsewhere is Vegapunk doing things this way gives him some extra agency in how things turn out, even if he he himself didn't know it.

@access-timeco said in Chapter 1123: The Void Fortnight:

@Alfiere said in Chapter 1123: The Void Fortnight:

Almost everything else i can kind of rationalise, but the reasoning behind the memory wipe eludes me. Especially when you also leave a memo with some of the info erased but not the crucial ones.
York on her own was able to fool the other 6 for however long so effectively that even after the leak was discovered it took another week for 3 Vegapunks to pinpoint her among only 4 suspects. How is it impossible for the 3 of them to do the same in reverse? Why keep the other 3 in the dark once you established that there is only 1 traitor? Even if you're resigned to die, why not leveraging on your surprise effect on York to reverse her plan against her and do the most damage control possible?
Also, how is it possible that the wildest of wild cards, meaning an emperor, Bonney and the giants coming to eggehead, ended up not mattering at all?

These things happen when you first write the story and only after you shoehorn in the character actions to fit it.

Yeah, it was a very weird chapter. It addressed some unanswered questions Oda had brought up before, but all of it reeked of "afterthought" instead of something he had envisioned prior to the events we saw.

Particularly weird is the panel where Vegapunk is overwhelmed by the news of the parties arriving on top of the other on Egghead... except the Cipher Pol. only got there later than the SH/Bonney (when Vegapunk was down in the Labophase with Luffy). And the Marines, with Borsalino and Saturn, only on the next day.

The chapter feels so sloppily put together even the confirmation of "we are finally going to Elbaf" in the end felt weak after all that.

There was some setup for this. In chapter 1,116 York was confused by the timeline of events, since Stella made the video after realizing the Mother Flame had been stolen but without being aware York was the traitor (since she knew his surprise at the reveal wasn't feigned). This seeming contradiction confused her at the time, but the flashback explains that York was right about the timing but, as noted by Vegapunk before the memory wipe, they were going to experience the revelations all over again.

One thing I like in this chapter is it explains the timeline issues York was having trouble with during the announcement

I feel it's also worth noting that that Vegapunk had less than a week to react to and plan for what was going on (excluding the days post-memory wipe and the week spent confirming the culprit).

The way I read it is Vegapunk knew he and his were screwed, other than York, and acted accordingly. Despite what Stella asked of the Straw Hats, escape was never Vegapunks' true plan. My take is he opted to lose the battle (the Buster Call at Egghead) in the hopes he would ultimately win the war (whatever the aftermath of the broadcast will end up being)

While perhaps arrangements should have been made to get the Satellites out or warn Sentomaru ahead of time, anything else would, far as the 3 Vegapunks were concerned, have only delayed the inevitable or wasn't an option in the first place. Plus, as Vegapunk noted, escape would only ensure constant pursuit from that day on and the Vegapunks' ability to fight back is essentially tied to Egghead.

As also noted in the chapter, dealing with York wouldn't do anything about what was to come. At best, it would deprive the World Government of additional information but they were already acting on what they had, so it's a moot point, really. The memory wipe is questionable, but did ensure York couldn't do even more harm by leaking their precautions early.

While there's merit to bubble traps and holo decoys, the Pacifista and Seraphim were vulnerable to being taken over if, as indeed happened, an Elder came in person (remember the only reason that didn't screw them over entirely was the Seraphim being disabled beforehand and Vegapunk long-ago putting Bonney in charge of the Kuma-pacifista).

While it's unclear what resources Dragon has access to, remember after Dressrosa he was routed from his primary base and their big attack on Marie Jois was an infiltration headed by only their very best and brightest.

Vegapunk likely wouldn't have opted to show the Government's actions live because, horrible as they are, he doesn't understand why they're doing it. It's the same reason why his broadcast went out of its way to avoid implicating the WG, even as we now know Vegapunk was fairly certain they had and used the Ancient Weapon.

If I have a point of contention it's that, after all that happened, the Straw Hats still can't claim a definitive, unambiguous victory over the Navy. They haven't truly had one since Axe-Hand Morgan. The closest they can claim is Enies Lobby, since they achieved their goals in rescuing Robin, but even then the moment the Navy came in force with the Buster Call it became a fighting retreat that would never have succeeded if not for good fortune (The Merry's arrival) and some quick pre-planning (Sanji closing the Gates of Justice). One thing I was hoping for in this arc is that the Straw Hats would face a Buster Call level military force and manage to defeat it.

Unrelated to any of the above, a youtuber has finally done what I figured someone would do once the broadcast completed and created a read-aloud of the broadcast in full without other action. Sadly, he doesn't do a voice, but if I find a version that does I promise to share it.