He Was Holding Back...

I think Oda just gave us one of the biggest clues about the ending of One Piece, which is all about the true cost of becoming the pirate king. And mate, it is much darker than I ever expected. Before we do all of the things though, I would like to say that One Piece is on the cover of Weekly Shonen Jump this week. That's not too unusual in and of itself. I mean, One Piece it is the flagship title of the entire magazine. However, what is unusual is that Luffy has been drawn as a spooky ghost, which I do think is very interesting given the content of the chapter, especially with all of this talk about how the title of pirate king is given to someone whose death is rejoiced. This cover was drawn for Oon, which is a festival commemorating one's ancestors, and it said that their spirits are allowed to temporarily return to the world to celebrate. But again, I find it both intriguing and a little bit eerie given the content of the chapter, which is also reflected in the title of the chapter, which we'll get into very quickly as we pick up exactly where we left off with Scopa Gabban rescuing Luffy and putting on quite the impressive display against that there emu. I tell you what, made as much as Emu tanked some attacks from Scopa Gabban, Luffy had it worse. He got some pretty tough love in this chapter from our missionary. In fact, if you saw a lot of these pages out of context, Gabban almost looks like the antagonist, just the way that he's, you know, he's holding Luffy by the neck and just tosses him away. It's almost reminiscent of when Jinbe had to restrain Luffy by the neck after Marineford. Back then, Jinbe had to remind our Luffy that he still had his crew. And in this chapter, Gaban needed to remind Luffy that the lives of his crew are all on the line here, so maybe cool it with all the weird genie stuff. And Gaban says something that will no doubt go on to become an iconic piece of One Piece dialogue, which is that the pirate king is a title given to someone whose death is celebrated. The higher you climb, the more enemies you gain, which is generally quite the opposite for Luffy from our perspective anyway. The higher he climbs, the more allies we see him make. But that is not necessarily true from the perspective of the world at large. Remember that Luffy is overwhelmingly viewed as a villain of the planet with his most recent alleged act of sinister being the murder of the beloved Dr. Vega Punk. Most of the world believes that Luffy murdered him and so Luffy's death would right now be celebrated as a good thing by the general population. That may change in the future, but right now, oh, they would rejoice. And it makes me wonder if the ending of One Piece may be somewhat bittersweet. If Luffy does follow Roger's path, you know, gains the title, but goes all the way to the gallows just like Roger did and Luffy does die and the world rejoices. It's a pretty morbid thought, and I'm not sure that Oda would want to go out on that note. Even if Luffy was to start another era comparable to or even greater than the golden age of piracy, but Gaban's words could be a narrative omen. The title that Luffy seeks, it comes with costs. And I think this may be a line that we don't truly appreciate until Luffy does finally become the pirate king, or perhaps not until the very end of One Piece. If you've watched this channel for any length of time, then you'll know that I have a slight tendency to be a bit obsessed with fictional pirates, which means that my office has gradually transformed into what can only be described as a museum dedicated to poor financial decisions. 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So, definitely check Displate out. Highly recommended. But for now, it's back to you, me. Thanks, me. So, good. He tosses Luffy away and decides that he will become the main character of the series by fighting Emu. And of course, Emu does pull out a new weapon for this chapter, as he has in pretty much every chapter since he appeared in his true form on Elbaf. And I don't expect this trend to stop anytime soon. Emu has access to a total of 19 weapons that belonged to 19 founding families of the world government that is scattered across the highest tier of the empty throne. And so far, prior to this chapter, we have only shown and named seven. So, 12 more to go. Well, 11 more to go after this chapter. And against Copagaban, Emu draws Hornibami, which means bone eater or bone devourer, which is really bad news for someone like Brooke because this weapon seems like it would be tailor made to remove him specifically from existence. However, unlike most of the weapons that we've seen so far that exist purely in myth, Honibami is actually very, very real. It's called the Honibami Toshiro with the Toshiro part coming from the swordsmith Toshiro Yoshimitsu. And it was made during the Kamakura period which is a century approximately between the years 1200 and 1300. I mean not exactly. It started a bit before and it ended a bit after but in a European context we'd be talking about the high middle ages. So it's quite an elder blade and it was passed down through a butt ton of shoguns over the years. But it has all sorts of legends associated with it. The hornibami is said to be able to shatter or crush bones by just being pointed at someone or by pretending to cut someone with it. And funnily enough, when I was researching this, I stumbled upon a Japanese blog from 2021 that equates the legends about the hornami to the existing sword techniques of some guy named Rowan Noahoro from some obscure manga series called One Piece. I don't know, never heard of it. And the more I read into this sword, the more I do think that Oda has used its legends as inspiration for Zoro's attacks, because it's a sword that seems to do most of its damage through reputation more so than action. It's also kind of interesting because it wasn't originally supposed to be a sword. It was originally a naginata, which is the kind of blade that Whitebeard uses. However, it was then shortened and transformed into a sword, retaining both its name and legendary status. And as a result, it's quite a bit thicker, thick with so many C's than your average sword because it wasn't supposed to be a sword. Hence why it is said to be so heavy and why it crushes bones rather than cuts bones. And in terms of where this falls within the 19 families, the bone theme has immediately drawn comparison to the Yo-kai form of St. Ethan Baron of Venus Jurro. particularly since it's now speculated that in addition to each of the 19 families having their own sacred weapon, the 19 families may also have their own unique Yo-kai transformations. So the Botsu horse is the final form of the Nusjura family. The spider would be the Jarcia Yo-kai and so on, which would mean that Figeland Garling may have a new transformation, something that represents the Figeland family rather than just inheriting Saturn's old and new spider form. That's a big maybe. Nothing's confirmed. All speculation. And look, I don't know if this uh this bone connection is enough for me to confidently say that yes, this is the Nusura weapon. However, there is a 1 in7 chance of that being the case because we already know the shepherd and remos family blades. So, it's not all that crazy. What is crazy is Emu's abilities. Although there is an idea that we may have already spotted a restriction on his powers in the last chapter because when we were introduced to the funky axe, Emu was speaking as if he didn't know which weapon would be appearing next. And if you go back on everything, this impression, it kind of makes sense because every time he draws a new blade from behind him, you know, behind he can't see what's happening, but every time he grabs one, he has to look at it and confirm and go, "Ah, you. I remember you." He has to name it before he can use it. So, it could be that emu can't just go ahead and summon any one of the 19 weapons that he wants at any given time. It could be randomized or the weapons have some other ordering system to them. The example I would give to illustrate this would be Kite from Hunter Hunter. He has an ability called Crazy Slots, which allows him to conjure nine different weapons, but he doesn't get to choose which weapon he uses. It is randomized each and every time. And Kite has to use these weapons before he can return them and roll crazy slots again. So, I'm not sure if that's the same or a similar restriction to what Emu has, but he is using each one before he summons another. But in addition to all of this action, Scopic Gabban, he goes ahead. He drops his pants and he shows some massive balls in this chapter by naming Joy Boy in Emu's presence. Gaban asks Emu if Luffy is really all that similar to Joy Boy. Remembering that whatever happened between Emu and Joy Boy, Scopa Gabban likely knows that story to some extent. the Roger pirates. They discovered the truth of their world on the way to laugh tale. And the first thing that emo asks is what Scopaban knows about him, which to clarify, I don't mean him as in Joy Boy. Emu says, "How what do you know about Moo?" Which I have to say very self-centered. And it sounds to me like there's a bit of a secret to protect you. Something that may be unbecoming of a being now known as the world. And what Kaban replies is that he knows Joy Boy's words, which isn't very helpful to us right now. But it does seem to confirm that Joy Boy has left a message in the world. beyond his apology on the Fisherman Island ponoglyph. A message that may require all 30 pornoglyphs to understand the full scope of as well as whatever the treasure is on L tail. However, I really really like what Scopagaban says next, which is essentially that he doesn't give a [ __ ] He's not interested in some dude from the ancient past and what he's doing is strictly to realize his captain's dream. It's a very Luffy kind of attitude to have to not care so much about the greater context about why anything is happening, but to be laser focused on a personal connection. So, what Gabban actually says is that he wants to see his captain's dream through to the end. And then Emu, he gets a bit curious. He then asks, "Well, who is your captain, strange man?" Which, by the way, before we get to that, Emu, he's pretty damn chatty all of a sudden. I'm not entirely sure that he should be because it's been a little bit. However, in this chapter, Emu, he starts his mysterious bleeding again. It's a very good reminder that something is going on with Emu and that he is on a clock. And in fact, when Scopa Gagaban unleashes his haki, Emu doesn't just start bleeding from his mouth, but also the top of his head and possibly even his eye. And this isn't damaged. Scopagaban at this point, he didn't hit Emu with anything, nor is it leftover damage from being hit by Luffy or Loki. Because every time we see Emu in this chapter before this point, he has a perfectly fine, clean face. But as soon as this colossal burst of conqueror's haki comes out, it is as if the pressure of that haki is crushing Emu's body and he can't help but leak out of every orifice. And this is definitely Scopa using conqueror's haki. Sometimes it's a bit vague and difficult to tell in the manga, but this is quite clearly a very large scale of conqueror's goodness, which is what Gabban noted was the weakness of the holy night. And so there is the potential that conqueror's haki could also be a weakness of Emu as well. And that might be why Gabban told Luffy to stop messing around because in gear fifth at the moment, yeah, Luffy does he sprinkles in some conqueror haki every now and then, but it comes secondary and sometimes tertiary and whatever comes after tertiary to what other weird ability that he wants to use at any given time. And Gabban here is showing us what pure concentrated conqueror Haki is capable of. So I do wonder what would happen if Luffy fought Emu with the same sort of mindset that he used to originally fight Kaido during the raid. There was a point during roof piece where Luffy was almost solely using Haki and it did become a bit of a conqueror slugfest before he awakened his devil fruit. And I don't love this idea because it involves going backwards in terms of progress. But that kind of fighting style appears to be more effective against emu than becoming a cartoon. But what I think needs to happen is for Luffy to blend the two styles. One reason why I personally rejoiced at the advent of Gear Fifth was because a lot of the focus on Haki was streamlining the fights and bordering on making them a little bit boring, which is what Oda felt as well. And that's why he said he created Gear Fifth. So, what we need is the freedom of the Gear Fifth spirit with the concentration of this conqueror spirit. And that combination would probably give us something closer to what Joy Boy was all those centuries ago. In any case, I went on this tangent because I thought that Emu was getting real chatty for someone who, while he is objectively superior to everyone else on this island, still needs to accomplish his mission here with the utmost of haste. And stopping to have too much of a chat with Gabban could be what allows us to run down the clock and something something save. However, upon hearing that Gabban's captain was Goldie Roger, we do have a small one panel flashback from Emu, which is much more important than you may immediately give it credit for. It's a pretty standard shot of the empty throne and the five elders, but this one panel takes place directly after Roger was named the pirate king. And emu, he's having a bit of a winge about it because Roger, he is a D, a disgusting D, which tells us two things. One is that as I've always suspected, it was not the world government who had any say in naming Roger the Pirate King. I'm not sure where the actual genesis of the title comes from, but my thought was always that it was almost certainly big news Morgans who chose to use it and wrote two simple words that ended up changing the world forever. And I still do believe that Morgans's publicized the title. However, this does make me question some things because here Emu says not to spread Roger's name, by which he means not to spread the D. because emu finds it abhorrent that this filthy D is being celebrated which is the decision that led to the very beginning of One Piece where Roger was referred to by the narrator as Gold Roger rather than Gold D Roger. So I find it quite cool that we get to see when and where that decision was made because it frames the entire series. But also when Roger was announced as the pirate king via the newspapers, this change, this edict from Emu had already been enacted in chapter 968. The Roger Pirates are reading a newspaper naming Roger the pirate king with the name Gold Rodger. So it appears that the pirate king title may have been spread by word of mouth at first and before it was published in the world economic journal the world government got to Morgans and they bribed the bird to make this a small alteration to Roger's name. But in any case after all of that chats scoper Gabban yes he does exude his massive [ __ ] and here Gabban's attack is called Kamudo meaning divine gate. And this is very cool because it appears to be named in conjunction to Roger's most famous technique, divine departure, which is Kamadari in Japanese. So Roger and Scopa Gabban both have an attack with Kamu aka Divine in their name, which means that I am fully expecting one silvery to complete this trilogy and display his own divine attack in the future. And as a man who was able to learn divine departure from simply watching Roger. I also wonder if Shanks has access to all of these divine attacks from watching Scopa Gabban and Ray Lee. However, Gabban then proceeds to use Yachi Takaru, which is an amped up version of the move that he used against Luffy and Zoro in chapter 1,40, which was called Yasco Takaru. The original move literally means 80 tribal leaders, and the one in this chapter means 8,000 tribal leaders. So, if you wanted to do some, you know, some power math, the move here that he uses against Emu is 100 times stronger than the one that he pulled out against Luffy and Zoro. But I do love that before Gabban unleashes this attack, he apologizes to the treasure tree atom because he had no intention of quote eating it, which refers to Scopagaban's mountain eater epithet. The treasure tree atom is not Ripley. But in the ensuing attack, he cuts off some some pretty mighty chunks of the tree. It is not a small amount. It may look small because we see these trunks fall off in a wide shot of Elbaf and it's very easy to forget how big the tree is when we don't see a giant for scale. But I'm just saying if this is collateral damage anyway, then I know a certain straw hat who could make use of this atom wood to perhaps upgrade a certain thousand sunny. It's not just the crew members who all need their upgrades like Frankie's Cola, Sanji's Haki, and Dusop's relevance. It's also our ship which needs to carry us all the way to the end. or use the wood to build a ship for Loki or something like that because it is such a large amount of Adamwood and unless Elbaf plans on using it as nurse logs. Then I think that Otis having Gabban do this to make use of the woods in the future. And you know what? It might not be for the Straw Hats. It may be that Elbaf itself uses this wood to construct a fleet of ships to join Luffy in the final war. However, this chapter ends on a bit of a weird note. After Gibban and Emu fall into the underworld on the cutoff branch, we cut to Loki's group and Usopp are sensing something, which is the second time that Oda has done this, Usopp is now being used as Nami's guide as to what's happening all the way over there due to his amazing apparently observation haki. So again, I think that Oda seems to be setting Usopp up for something here with that Haki. However, the chapter ends on a panel of Scopic Gabban lying on the branch with his left arm cut off. And I guess it's implied that Emu did this in their clash. probably didn't happen accidentally because of the fall, but it's a really odd and kind of jarring way to stage this. To me, it actually feels like we're missing a page of Emu, you know, actually slicing the arm off. I get the implication. They did a clash. Scopa Gabban did some axe moves. Emu did a sword move, and that sword move probably cut off one of Gabban's arms. But the way Oda portrayed it just doesn't doesn't feel quite smooth, if that makes sense. But Scopa Gabban perhaps unsurprisingly has lost his left arm because that is always the arm that Oda chooses to remove. Whether your name is Shanks or it's Kiku, maybe Hawkins or Eustus Kid, whatever your name is, you are all having your left arms removed. And a commenter on this channel did once pose the theory that Odin does this for the sake of continuity because he has so many characters that he lops arms off. What he has to do is always choose the left arm so he doesn't accidentally draw the wrong arm missing on whatever character it is. Makes it easier to remember than going, "Oh, Shanks missing left arm, Eustace Kid missing right arm, Hawkins left, Kiku right, etc." However, Gabban losing his left arm does mean that it could be permanent according to this trend. As when characters lose their right arms like Trafalgalore and Dress Rosa, they tend to be reattached with no issue, which could also happen because Chopper, he is always available and he managed to put Ger's fingers back pretty quickly. So, this isn't necessarily a permanent loss for Gabban. However, that entirely depends on his survival right here and now. Scopagaban is now alone in the underworld with emu and I am feeling less confident about his survival at the moment. In One Piece, old men who have lived long fulfilling lives tend to be the most vulnerable class of characters outside of flashback mothers. And we could be gearing up for another Whitebeard and/or Vega Punk moment where an old legend passes and mate, just imagine if you were Luffy in that position. this dude basically dies because you decided that you wanted to be a genie instead of fighting seriously against the god of the world. That would certainly be a moment. But as always with this manga series, death isn't a topic one can propose lightly, no matter how likely it looks. And until the very moment that it happens, I am going to say that Gaban's survival is much more likely. And there is a point in this chapter where Luffy is commanding his own body to heal itself. Almost as if he's willing that healing into existence using his imagination with Gear Fifth so Scopa Gabban could be saved by a strangely healed Luffy. But regardless, I want you to let me know what you thought about this chapter in the comments below.