So THIS is why Oda didn’t give us the Post Arc we were hoping for; he’s going for the “While You Were Away” storyline! He had 149 to deal with Wano- now it’s time to see what’s been happening around the world! And BOY OH BOY have things been happening. I REALLY can’t wait to see the Straw Hat’s reaction to the situation. I kind of want to dump it on them all at once, but we’re gonna need like 6 newspaper chapters to deal with that. Good thing the News Coo came last time! But they’ve been in Wano for weeks, though; they missed a few headlines. They have nothing to do with the chapter, by the way. One Piece Chapter 1,059: “The Matter Involving Captain Koby.” Oh dear; what happened to Koby?
REVIEW
Germa 66’s “Aah… An Emotionless Excursion” Vol 18
Caesar uses his Gas Gas fruit to make Oven and Katakuri fight each other! You know who’ll win this fight, but it’s not a matter of “Who-” but “When…… will this drug wear off?” ‘Cause Oven WILL NOT last against Katakuri for very long. And if he displays his Devil fruit powers, then they might just see through the trick immediately. Point Is: The Germa(and Caesar) Are On Borrowed Time. They have to get out of there NOW.
Chapter 1,059
We pick up with Marco returning to Sphinx Island- on the Red Hair Pirate’s ship. Yeah, he hitched a ride with them when they came by the shores of Wano. Shanks once again offers Marco a position on the crew, but he once again refuses, saying he’s “getting too old to play ‘babysitter’ to The Big Time Pirates.” When they get close enough to Sphinx, he makes his wings and flies off. FLASHBACK: On the night of Greenbull’s attack; Yamato made the decision to stay in Wano. Seeing as Kaido’s no longer here to scare off the wussies of the world; Wano’s open to danger- and they can’t have that. Luffy’s disappointed to lose out on the opportunity for a new crewmate, but agrees that Wano needs protection- he wouldn’t be able to be enjoy his adventures properly otherwise.
They warn Yamato that Momo has a strong sense of “Pride;” he could accidentally wound it if he let’s on that he’s staying as Guardian. Thus the excuse about “following in Oden’s footsteps.“ Marco comes by to tell them he’s leaving, and says that Ace would be proud of Luffy for making it to where he is. Luffy thanks him for that, and for helping save his life back at Marineford. Marco remembers that, and asks Jinbe why they were “so ready to spring into action.” He departs, and we cut back to the present- he returns to Sphinx island and notices something(as shown by the “…”).
We then jump over to Amazon Lily, where the residents are getting a chance to recover from the Onslaught the Marines have brought to their island. Realizing that the Marines are only here for her; Pirate Empress Boa Hancock decides that she must leave the island…………. and marry Luffy. Glad to see her priorities are straight. FLASHBACK- Weeks Ago On Amazon Lily: The Immediate follow up to the end of chapter 956, with Koby and the Marines attacking in an attempt to capture Hancock. Vice Admiral Yamakaji tells the troops to record the New Pacifista Models: The “Seraphims.” They may look by children, but they’re DANGEROUS, as shown when 1 effortlessly blows away Marguerite and the other Kuja in 1 shot!
But just as things look up for the Marines; Blackbeard comes onto the scene- wanting to tak Hancock’s devil fruit for himself! And he brings Catarina Devon and Vasco Shot to help him plow through the competition. We jump over to the actually island, where Koby is trying to talk Hancock into turning herself in- promising that they will leave the island and everyone on it alone. Her sisters tell her to sit behind them, but she refuses to let them sacrifice themselves for her- or allow herself to submit to the authority of another ever again.
And then we jump over to see Blackbeard dealing with another of the Seraphim- a boy with a sword. He notes the “brown skin…….” “WHITE HAIR……….” and “BLACK WINGS.” The Pacifista lunges at Teech with his sword, and the Emperor blocks with Armament Haki. But the boy’s strength scares him too much, and he creates a “black hole” that sucks up everything. Meanwhile; Hancock turns a vast number of Marines to stone. But the Seraphim with them doesn’t care; they just continue blasting away! Flashforward a little bit: Blackbeard has captured Hancock. She may have managed to turn Vasco and Devon to stone, but Teech is another matter; he has his hand around her neck, negating her fruit all together. Their new bounties are revealed, also:
- “Pirate Empress” Boa Hancock(Former Warlord)- 1,659,000,000 Berries.
- “Blackbeard” Marshal D Teech(Emperor Of The Sea)- 3,996,000,000 Berries.
Boa warns Blackbeard that his friends will stay petrified if she dies- even the next user of her fruit won’t be able to undo it. This informations makes Koby interject to try and convince Teech otherwise, but Blackbeard sees it as just a “bluff.” He thanks Koby for his intervention during the “Rocky Port Incident;” it allowed him to take control of Pirate Island from Wang Zhi!! But he doesn’t trust Hancock as far as he can throw her, suspecting the both of them will be petrified the moment her powers are back. So he decides to just kill her here and now. Then SILVERS F*CKING RAYLEIGH shows up and tells the both of them to get lost. he has Hancock undo the petrification, and stays to make sure they f*ck off.
Back in the present; the recovery reveals a few things. 1) Shaky is the former Captain of the Kuja Pirates, and former “Snake Princess” of Amazon Lily, know as “Shakuyaku.” Tis why Rayleigh gets a special exception to enter the island. 2)Rayleigh does not think he would have been able to fight Teech as he is now- between his own age and Teech’s power set; he’s glad that his mere reputation made them leave. And 3) One of the Seraphim’s that attacked looked like a younger version of Hancock. And after everything that’s happened; neither of the Pacifista’s left with so much as a scratch! BIG TROUBLE.
Cut over to the Marines; they call in to inform HQ that they’re on their way back- and that Koby has been captured by Blackbeard. Status: Unknown. One Piece Chapter 1,059 END!! Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here, folks.
Analysis
The Sepharims- The Latest Model of The Pacifista by Dr Vegapunk, and the replacement to the Warlords. You know; I had a feeling that Lunarian DNA would be implemented in the SSG somehow. I just felt like- with everything that had been set up- Oda would give the Marines access to Lunarian powers; the durability, extremophilic traits, flight, fire power, and possibly more that we aren’t aware of- it just seemed like a given.
Though I had thought that it would tie together with the Perfected Artificial Devil Fruits Vegapunk was trying to make, given how Zoan fruits were stated to work in Wano. You know what I mean? I thought we would get a bunch of Lunarian Zoans, making the Marines tough enough to stand in the New World. What We Got Was So Ridiculously Better. Wano may not have been everyone’s favorite arc, but what happened outside is shaping up to be fun as f*ck!! Seriously; this is WAY better than what I thought was gonna happen.
- They’re clones of existing characters. There could be multiple Boa’s and Mihawks, and other characters. Can you imagine a clone of someone like Akainu and Greenbull? And if they were able to replicate their Devil Fruit powers(because, as established in Wano- Devil Fruits mess with the Lineage Factor), then you have multiple clones of characters like Buggy, Moriah, Hancock, Doflamingo and more walking around having those abilities- which proved devastating with the Originals!! Imagine Doffy’s clones– Luffy would get SHREDDED!! And if they were at least able to get the Observation and Armament, then all the more.
- And just a side note to that is the fact of the Pirates that they capture- like, say- KAIDO, for example? Can you imagine a Lunarian clone of Kaido with the same powers as the original? We had enough trouble with 1; Luffy had to level up 3 different times- TWICE in the course of the same battle- and he STILL BARELY won that fight!! Just the fact that they’re clones, man; it’s scary to think what the World Government now has at their disposal……
- And then there’s the potential for them to be cybernetically enhanced like Kuma was. So that would be: Lunarian traits + Original Warlord’s powers + Pacifista cybernetics= DANGER DANGER DANGER.
- The narrative implications are astounding. Zoro vs Lunarian Mihawk is the most interesting, I feel; meeting a younger version of the person he strives to defeat- the fact that it’s just a “Carbon Copy” that- let’s be real here– lacks free will- could present a chance to see some of what they were doing in the downtime in the 2 year time skip- something similar to what we saw during Luffy vs Katakuri. Or how Hancock would see another version of herself being obedient to the Celestial Dragons.
- That itself leads into the name “Seraphims-” “Angels that were the closest to God.” These things are going to be around the Celestial Dragons more often than not. Which is, like- a thing? It’s messed up, but Lunarian’s MAIN thing is that they’re super duper durable- they do NOT break easy, As opposed to their other slaves. Multiple of them to be around the Celestial Dragons; ones to be on the front lines with the Marines in combat; it works out. But yeah; imagine seeing a Lunarian Hancock vs the original.
- Doflamingo meeting a clone that serves the Celestial Dragons instead of standing on the “same level” would set. HIM. OFF. It also presents a chance for Luffy to recreate some of his best fights- just a way to see how far he’s come in relation to where he was. And even Crocodile seeing a clone of himself like that might provide some insight into his past.
- Nami vs Children. She doesn’t want to fight kids. But these…………….. aren’t “kids.” Messed up as it is to say; they aren’t real- they’re Artificially grown Cyborgs made to wipe her out. I hope she realizes that………………
There’s also the reveal of Shakky. It paints an interesting picture for Amazon lily; there may have been other times with the Snake Princess has fallen for a man, and that man is allowed to come and go from Amazon Lily. Also; Go. Rayleigh. In any case; it also tells us why Garp was “chasing her around” in the past- she was a notable Pirate! But speaking of Rayleigh: Him vs Blackbeard. Blackbeard knows better, so he didn’t try to fight back against the “Dark King.” But if he had called Rayleigh’s bluff…….. Good Golly Almighty would his bounty have shot up, not to mention his reputation- and the Navy’s chances of capturing Rayleigh. Keep that in mind: They know where he lives- they get reports all the time about Rayleigh being on the Sabaody Archipelago. What they lack is 1)Man power(which has seemingly just been fixed) and 2)The Spine To Do Anything About it.
But had Blackbeard called his bluff and tried that sh!t; Rayleigh- even if he had won- would be in pretty bad shape. That, plus the seemingly LIMITLESS potential I just laid out for the Seraphims, not to mention the Pacifista’s as is, spell out one thing: Rayleigh Would Have Been Captured- and Shakky might have gotten caught along with him. This situation could have ended worse. But thankfully his mere presence was able to get Blackbeard shook. Though as we saw with Whitebeard- that sh!t will not last long. It’s only a matter of time before Blackbeard thinks he can do it………….
But yeah; the Shakky reveal was cool. I kind of wonder if she went through a similar thing that Boa did with Luffy- that “love sickness.” If she did, then she’s……….. FAR PAST where Boa is with her crush on Luffy. They are together, for one, but, you know; she’s not constantly “swooning” whenever Rayleigh looks her way. I don’t know if that’s what waits on “the other side” or if it’s because she got her man, where as Boa’s trying to get with someone who’s primary concern is where he’ll get his next meal, but it’s interesting to think about.
And then you have the situation with Koby. Kobra is pronounced dead; Vivi is missing; Sabo’s missing; and now Koby is in the hands of the Blackbeard Pirates. That’s a lot to take in in 3 chapters, Oda. Alright; we first have to address that d@mn “Rocky Port” incident. You’re holdin’ out on that Kaido flashback, Oda- don’t keep jerkin’ us around on this d@mn Incident!! That said, I don’t think we’re gonna see what happened for a while longer; maybe soon, but not now. But that event- masterminded by Law and stopped by Koby- allowed him to take control of Beehive Island from Wang Zhi! Why were he and Blackbeard there; what was Law’s involvement; and why did Blackbeard know he could beat him, but not Rayleigh? That last one is of particular note; Wang Zhi was one of the ROCKS PIRATES- one of Roger’s main enemies in that era. I don’t know what happened, but clearly there’s something more to that particular fight- Blackbeard vs Wang Zhi- that we don’t know about. Maybe Wang is a similar case to Crocodile; Maxed out Devil fruit and nothing more(that we’re aware of)?
And I mean, seriously; What did Koby do?! Did he end up getting involved in the fight somehow? No, that lacks honor. I’m not sure, but whatever is was must have been crucial. But back to the main point: Koby is captured by Blackbeard. Who- be it through the main himself or having stole that fruit, too- has Moriah’s powers at his disposal. If he kills Koby and makes him a Zombie puppet, then they just gained a powerful asset. But I doubt that he’s dead; probably just being tortured for information. That he is SO DEFINITELY giving up. In the mind of a Marine; there isn’t much that anyone can do to stop a Seraphim- giving him information on them wouldn’t do much good……………. right?
There’s no way that Vegapunk didn’t inform them about the Lunarian flames. It may even be why Vegapunk gave them lasers; less of a reason to use their flames. How Blackbeard will go about capitalizing on that weakness is anyone’s guess, but he’ll find a way to use it to his advantage.
Conclusion
I could talk about this forever, ’cause this reveal was beyond anything I could have come up with. But we don’t have “forever and a day,” so I’ll stop this here. Koby is fine- banged up, but alive. What Warlord’s do you think they have copies of? Just the original roster, or the newbies like Buggy, Law, and Blackbeard? I didn’t even MENTION that; if they managed to copy the Devil fruit, then they now have the Op Op and Dark Dark under their control. F*CK no wonder they don’t think they need the Warlords anymore. Let me know your own thoughts, duckies. Til next time, everyone; Have A magical Day. By~~~~e!!!!
