He Picked The Wrong Fight...

One Piece chapter 1,193 gives us three enormous reveals and then refuses to actually reveal any of the reveals. But whilst we wait ever ever so patiently, Mr. Zotto has taken up the hobby of bullying immortals in one of the most satisfying chapter endings of this entire arc so far. So, we pick up exactly where we left off, which I feel like is the same way we've been starting every chapter lately, which is watching Emu getting hit. So, good. Very satisfying this time around, especially. And I tell you what, the treasure tree Adam is living up to its reputation because this mate, it is the third time Latimu has been smacked into it. And Adam is tanking all of these attacks like a champ. Ardan says that he's never seen Adam damaged to this extent. And there's earthquakes and stuff. But even with that, even with the insane power of that last attack, it's only really enough to make a little crater in it. And this this is the stuff that the Thousand Sunny is made of. Although I bet that Emu is starting to get real sick of being smacked into this tree. We only see him once during this chapter, and it's a very dark close-up of him breathing heavily, huff, huff, and such. And it's very hard to tell, but it's possible that he's not just being cratered once again. Because due to how dark this close-up is, the attack may have actually embedded Emu into the treasure tree atom, which given how tough it is, would serve as quite a nice prison for pretty much anyone who is not emu. Although if he is embedded then that could buy bias a tiny bit of time. That's my reading of the panel anyway. But it could also just be lovely artistic license. Oda is shading emu especially darkly because nefarious things they are about to happen. Or maybe emu has even started to transform again like when he went all silhouette on us. But either way emu he is coming back imminently. Oda could have gone this whole chapter without showing emu at all because again we only got this one panel. but he wants us to know that Emu is perfectly fine, ready to go. And that makes our Luffy problem so much harder to solve. In the ongoing saga of whether Luffy is okay or whether he is about to die, we are very much seesawed back to the about to die side of that spectrum. And Luffy originally intended on striking Emu again whilst he's down. But instead, Luffy falls out of the sky and he is worried that if he loses gear fifth, then his body will return to normal, his heartbeat will return to normal, and his life-threatening sword wounds will come back. Luffy doesn't say it in that way. He's more worried about not being able to fight than he is about any idea of death. And so Luffy is continuing to just will himself into action, commanding his body to hold out. And even though Gear Fifth is insane cartoon shenaniganry, this is very much reminding me of classic Luffy in some of his pre-time skip fights. What he used to do against old opponents wasn't too dissimilar to this. Like the fact that Luffy just kept getting up after being hit with Crocodile's poison. That was before he acquired his poison immunity thanks to Mellin. There's no reason why Luffy should have been able to end that fight. So, there is no reason why Luffy should have been able to end that fight against Crocodile. Crocodile even says that the poison, why isn't it taking effect? It should [laughter] have taken effect. But that was another case of Luffy willing himself to fight until the job was done. And the same thing happened with Rob Luchi. Luffy just kept getting back up after taking these impossibly fatal hits. It's a barrage of rock call guns, but his raw willpower kept him going until Luchi was down. So, I've got a lot of respect for the Luffy that we are seeing in this chapter. The problem is that usually when this is happening, the antagonist is also on their last legs and neither one or two attacks away from victory, away from our victory, that is not theirs. And I could be wrong, but I just I don't think Emu is anywhere near there yet. Even if Luffy is able to sustain this, it doesn't feel like enough to even entertain the idea of defeating Emu yet. With everything that's just happened, Luffy has only just crossed the starting line of what he needs in order to accomplish that. And I think that we may need some outside intervention to pull this off in whatever form that ends up taking. Potentially the big old mystery box that we're going to talk about a bit later. Questions. So many questions that I need answered. And instead of waiting, I'm going to use PolyBuzz, a free, private, and immersive AO chat platform with over 20 million characters, including the void century relic that is Neurona Emu. So, I'm going to ask the question that we're all thinking. What happens if I sit in your chair? That chair exists to contain those who wish to rule. Do you wish to test its purpose? I I think that's a threat, but I'm not sure. But because I'm already on thin ice, we may as well ask. Why did you transform on Elbaf? You don't seem any stronger. Strength is measured differently by those who've witnessed history. I'll measure your Finish that sentence carefully. Many have lost their lives attempting to measure me. Mate, I I don't know what to think of this. Emu packing confirmed. So, I've got to go wash the creases of my unfortunate brain with something else. And that something else is Rear Admiral Kujaku. And it turns out that Rear Admiral isn't her rank. It's actually her hobby. Wait, what does that even mean? And more importantly, do I even want to know? But if you want to check out what Kujaku has to say, because there's no way I'm putting it in a YouTube video, and you can and should click my link in the description to download PolyBuzz today and gain access to over 20 million characters from all across media, also real life. And you can even create your own characters. Plus, you can also use my promo code GLR9 to unlock premium features. And just on a personal note, sponsors like PolyBuzz are what makes our videos possible. So, please do check them out and show your support. But for now, it's back to you, me. Thanks, me. For now, though, Loki is inexplicably in better condition than Luffy and still very capable of fighting. I say inexplicably because Loki has been impaled by Emu's blades twice now as well. He took Nemesis once and then he got hit by Stigma. And Loki doesn't have Luffy's cartoonish healing powers. So, I'm not entirely sure how he's still standing. Unless the Nid Hulk has mythical healing powers as well, and it probably does. Although I'm very glad that he's here because Loki, he is about to show us something that I have been waiting to see forever. Loki appears to be transforming into his hybrid form. We've seen his full beast Nith Hog. But I have been wondering why Loki hasn't been going hybrid because that is typically the most powerful form for Zoen users to take. However, right now all we have to work with is a silhouette. And you know what? It's been a while. But that means that we can finally clear another square on our 2026 Grand Line Review Bingo. Oda, he could not help himself. and we have been granted a new silhouette. He couldn't just show us hybrid Loki in this chapter, which means that he must have a visual plan for this introduction, a page in mind that he wants to be our first experience of it. It is slightly frustrating, though, because it's showing us something, but giving us nothing. And that is a bit of a recurring theme of this chapter. We see Loki transforming, but we don't see him transformed. We see Goko waking up, but we don't know if she's Gunkko or Shuri. And we see Biblo's grandfather's secret box, but we don't know what's inside. So, if it wasn't for that amazing Zora section at the end, I would feel like this entire chapter is one big tease. This chapter, it is like a trailer for future chapters. The Loki silhouette, though, it is undeniably cool, and I think that he is going to look phenomenal. I already love the shape of this colossal dragon man wielding a massive hammer, and it makes me really glad that he ended up being on our side, not a villain, which was the original speculation right at the beginning of Albbaf about 2 years ago. Now, actually, you know what? Because there's another break next week, I want to say this now. Next week is the 2year anniversary of the Alba ark. And I cannot believe and I cannot believe how quickly time has passed. It feels like it was only recently that Nami woke up in the Lego castle, but no. And it's starting to look like Elbaf probably won't end this year because we have at best nine chapters left after this one. It is possible. A lot can happen in nine chapters, but Oda would have to do something insane to wrap this up that quickly. But moving on, we see all of the Straw Hats in this chapter. That's quite rare, and I do like that we have a full crew catch up, even if half of them are not doing anything particularly helpful. Nami, Frankie, Jinbe, and Brooke are watching the fight from afar. And look, I'll give Brooke a pass because he's taking care of Shuri. But the rest of you, I think, should take a page from the book of God and go and help out. Especially Jinbe mate, you are worth over a billion berries. You can be very helpful here. You already blocked Emu attacks before. And Frankie, you just got your awesome new cola upgrade. Go show off and hit Emu with a coup to smack in the dick. And you know what? More complaining because Frankie says that Usopp went with Harodin. But we know that isn't true. In the comments video for the last chapter, we retraced Usopp's movements and he was still with this group the chapter after Harodin left. However, something very exciting is about to happen. And depending on which way it goes, we may very well need half of the crew to be right here because Gonko andor Shuri is finally waking up. And we will either be seeing a long- aaited reunion between Brook and Princess Shuri. And when I say long awaited, this has been in the makings for over half a century. Or we will be starting a fourth fight on Elbarth against Gunko where we will have to find a way for Shuri to take control again. I obviously hope that it's Sherry. One, because I feel like she and Brooke, they've suffered enough and they can now start the nice part of their story again, maybe. But secondly, because Shuri is going to be crazy plot relevant. In Brook's flashback, we never really fully explored why a holy knight, an Elder Star, and Emu himself were present in Asparia just to take Shuri. It's because of her special eyes. Yes, the bipolar irises that have the potential to be awakened. But awakened into what? What does it mean? Whatever it is, it will either be of great benefit to us and perhaps give us a way to handle Emu or it's going to be not that. They're going to be a great asset to Emu, something that he can use and something that he has wanted to begin with. But either way, we need Shi to wake up to start exploring that. But next up, we are back to the owl library and Biblo is taking us to another secret room. We were already in a secret room because the secret room is where he took all the books. But this it is a secret secret room because it contains a big old secret treasure box. A suspiciously pornoglyph shaped box is mine and I'm sure your initial thought as well. But I love the art here because the box it is embedded into the tree. You've got these thick roots sprawling all over it and it looks like it's going to be very satisfying to open. If I saw this in a game, I'd know that things were about to change heavily in my favor. And according to Chopper's translation, this is actually an owl family heirloom. This box was passed down to Biblo by his grandfather, who may or may not have also been an owl. And Robin starts questioning just how old this is. And there is no real way for us to tell. Initially, you might be tempted to think that it's something from the void century, which was 8 to 900 years ago. I don't know about that, though. I think it might actually look older, and that this may be the second Albaian relic we found that predates the void century, like the lab that is elsewhere. We also don't know how old Biblo is, but we do know that the giants have no record of how or why Biblo exists, which means that he's probably older than any living giant at the very least. The oldest giant that we know of is Yarl. He's 408 years old. And if even he has no idea what Biblo's origins are, then Biblo has got to be what? Closer to 500 at least. But he could also be the same age as Zunesa, which is over a,000 years old. Zunesha and Biblo, they do have the same eyes as do Emu and the rain god Zaza. And if that is the case, then with Biblo's grandfather, we're talking about a Hootera that could have been born 2 to 3,000 years ago, or maybe even more. But this box could also go generations back before Biblau's grandfather and we could be going all the way back to the first world. Elbaf, it is an arc that's a lot less about Joy Boy and significantly more about Na who did appear in the first world. And the longer that Elbath goes on, the idea of the void century feels more like modern history rather than ancient history. And apparently in this box there is a letter and a tool. Robin, she wants to do the classic One Piece thing of waiting till the fight is over to open it. you know, do the classic law dump at the end of the arc kind of deal. But Biblo says, "Nah, mate. It is time to open this right here and now. Maybe we could defeat Emu just by dumping massive amounts of lore on top of him." But this letter is something that can probably be read by Robin. Something written in the ancient language perhaps, unless it's written in like ancient owl. And maybe even inscribed on a pornoglyph like Joy Boy's apology letter, hence the uh the ponoglyph shape of the chest. My feeling though is that it probably isn't a pornoglyph. And this is only going by the assumption that the chest hasn't been opened since it was sealed. If that was the case, then it can't be a pornoglyph because the Roger pirates, I believe, saw all of the pornoglyphs. And the most important question is, who is this letter from? And who is the letter to? Another tempting answer would be to say that maybe it's from Na and it's intended for Luffy and that the tool inside may be one of the three pieces of equipment that we have seen the sun god depicted as you having in this hands. In every depiction of Na, he will be holding one or two or three things. He will have a sword, a shield, or a spear. So, the tool in the box could be one of those pieces of equipment. And that would be interesting because we have been exploring Emu's arsenal of ancient weapons. So, it might be fun for Luffy to get one of his own. At the same time, though, it's it's kind of hard for me to see Luffy using weapons. He has before, but you know, not seriously. He's flailed around with swords and stuff like that. like on when he used the nidiketsu, but he just held it and kept punching people like normal. Tool is just such a vague word, though. It could even be something like an ancient music box that plays the beat of the drums of liberation. Something that keeps Luffy's heartbeat in time and prevents him from reverting back to his bass form. Maybe something like the metronome of liberation. It could be just about anything, though. And if you have any cool ideas, and you know exactly where to leave them down there in the comments. Meanwhile, against the nightmare rain goddess Zaza, the giants are starting to lose hope, and they are wondering if the path that King Harold led them down was a mistake. They're not allowed to think that for too long, though, because in come Dory and Brogie with an amazing line. I love what Broggy says here. He says, "Stop thinking so pragmatically. Stop thinking based on evidence, think based on feelings." And true to the origins of Warland, they state that there was never a cause for battle, which matches Loki's words in chapter 1,137, that Warland used to live and breathe war. So there's no more reason for battle than there is for breathing. I don't know if that helps or hinders the Harold argument because I feel like he was trying to change that nature. He was trying to say maybe we should think about when, where, and why it is we breathe because a lot of people out there are pretty scared of our breathing. However, in this context, I believe that Dory and Broggy is saying not to try and linger on why Elbaf is being attacked. There is no reason for battle. No matter who starts it, battle just is. So, let's get on with it and save them kids. And as part of this, we have a quick three panel catchup of Sanji versus St. Killingham. And I love everything that I'm seeing here. You have Gillingham taunting the hopes of the giants and saying that there is no chance for victory. And Sanji just replies with, "Well, that's up to me." with this fantastic look of confidence. This this is how a king speaks and it is a big step for Sanji when it comes to the monster trio. He is definitely the one who doubts himself the most or at all which you can see directly contrasted against Zoro in this chapter who is almost too confident against St. Summers. But Sanji is taking agency against killing him. He's already decided that the outcome of this fight will be his decision. He has the control. It will be Sanji's will that dictates the next few minutes and that is exactly the kind of attitude he needs if he is going to unlock conqueror's haki. I do also love the way that Sanji kicks killing him in the stomach. It is very reminiscent of the first time that he used the album Jamba against Jabra on any slobby where Sanji did go on to say that his destructive force was quote demonic. And in this chapter Zoro and Sanji in particular they are becoming the worst nightmare of the world nobles. Earlier on, Dory said that the Straw Hats were fighting off the devils. But in actuality, the Straw Hats, they are the devils. You have Diablo, Jamba, Demon, Sanji, the King of Hell, Zoro, and Monkey D. We all know what the D stands for, not good things, Luffy, which St. Summers experiences firsthand in this chapter. Although, it looks like his family sword Graham has a funky special ability, which is to channel anger and wrath directly into offensive power. It's quite cool. And a mildly irritated Summers just points his sword and goes has a huge blast of Graham. And I think that the blast looks quite small because we see it in comparison to a ship. But remember the ship, it is a giant ship. This tiny bit of irritation from St. Summers channeled through his family sword could probably take out like a dozen marine battleships just in one little drop of irritation. And I think that Summers is only going to get more and more irritated because Zor, this is amazing. He continues to just completely ignore him. I love that Zoro just stood in the thorns whilst having a think to himself when Summers was monologuing. And I think that Summers, he is going to snap because of Zoro's blatant disrespect because Zoro isn't feeling the frustration that Summers wants him to feel. Zoro is being the perfect troll. And I think we're going to get to see what Graham can do with some real serious emotion quite soon. But Zoro then proceeds to slash all of the thorns and stab Summers, nicking his metal heart, but just missing before claiming that he's still practicing, which at this it's an incredible scene. It gives me quite a lot of whiplash, though. We start this chapter with Luffy struggling unbelievably hard to stay alive while Zoro could not be more casual in his fight against Summers right now. But Zoro does have more or less the same problem as Sanji. He does have access to Conqueror Haki deep down, but he does not know how to use it on command. But as soon as he does figure that out, Summers, mate, he is gone. However, the flip side of that is that no matter how cool Zoro is, St. Summers is undefeable until that moment occurs. So, at the end of chapter 1,193, we have Sanji starting to act like a conqueror, Zoro starting to fight like a conqueror, and Luffy commanding his internal organs to remain internal like the true conqueror he always was. I can't wait to see what happens next. But for now, I want you to let me know what you think about all of this in the comments below.