Hello, everyone. SO- slight problem: I made the same mistake I did with chapter 3 of Ichi The Witch and tried to make it a full review. Didn’t learn my lesson as thoroughly as I should have; I only realized after finishing the first point that I realized how little I actually had to say. So if you not seeing this post on Sunday- That’s on me. I’m still getting back into the “swing of things,” guys; my notes have a lot of “little stuff” I don’t need to mention- for multiple series I’m working on(right now, it’s “Ichi The Witch” chapter 5 and “Dead Rock” chapter 16), so I’m gonna have to sit myself down and “re-assess” my notes and decide what does and does not need focus. Though in all honesty, I’m not “feeling” like posting at the moment. I’ve been doing a lot of Manga colorings, as I’ve told you- I’m getting better and faster with each coloring I’m doing- sometimes completing them multiple times in single day. I’m enjoying myself; I have 3 planned right now in between these posts I’m doing. But as you can imagine- it’s taking most of my attention away from what I’m doing here(Ironically since I’m doing it to promote what I’m doing on my blog). I’m trying to keep a proper balance, but keep in mind that I also have work to deal with- sometimes taking up my entire week; sometimes just a singular day.
And I recently bought something online that I hope will help with my “productivity” at work, hoping that I get more assignments so I can get more money and hopefully not just go flat broke after paying one month’s phone bill. The opening I had before explained it all; wish I didn’t delete the whole thing: My job is basically going into the temp office and waiting to be told whether or not I’m going to a construction site, where I pretty much just pick up trash- everything from unused piece of drywall and scrap metal, to the various chip bags and soda cans contractors leave on the ground throughout the day. It’s gross sometimes– yellow liquid in bottles to week old cups of 7-11 coffee(Not Making This Sh!t Up), but in all honesty it’s easier than I thought it would be. When those of my office go to the sites, the contractors give us brooms and shovels to use as dustpans, and it’s up to us to find trashcans to put all the trash in before dumping it in the dumpster. Most of the job is just doing that from around 7:00 to 3:30, as well as trying to keep the broom, shovel, and trashcans we are given. Some sites have to call multiple temp offices to get up the trash, and it basically becomes a “Competition” of trying to keep your equipment.
I’ve actually taken to hiding my equipment multiple times on a site just so I have it when I come back from break. These people are f*cking VULTURES, guys; if they find equipment lying around- they will take it. And you will NOT be getting it back. Once a guy came up with a regular broom(we’re mostly given big push-brooms), and I sh!t you NOT these 2 co-workers walked up to him- asked to “borrow” the broom- and took and hit it. He only had it for about 3 minutes before they got it off him. So I brought a Grabber Arm thing that let’s me pick up trash easier(the thing you’d use to reach something higher than you). Most of the time, I’m having to reach down to get all that trash up- and it is KILLER on your back! That- plus those animals not letting me keep my equipment- I had to get something that would let me work at the “speed” that is asked of me. Hopefully it’ll mean more assignments and thus more money, but it’ll also mean less time working on posts. And I am doing myself No Favors by taking forever and a day to wrap up this opening and getting to the actual post. Don’t know why I’m telling you all this- I guess I’m just trying to make excuses for why you guys aren’t going to be seeing as often as you used to. Very Sorry. Alright, I’ve reached “Brain Fart” and my battery is at 25% so I’m gonna have to stop soon and still haven’t gotten into the actual post. Let’s get into the FIRST PART, at least. Let’s Go, One Piece Chapter 1,128: “RPG.” That “Let’s Go” is a DEEP CUT for those who’ve been following since the beginning………………………..
The Skypiea Parallels
One of the main points I brought up in the first draft was the idea that this arc will be serving as the Direct Parallel to Skypiea- the same way that Dressrosa parallels Alabasta, and Whole Cake Enies Lobby. There are some less overt ones like Zou and Gaimon’s island(“Island Of Unique Creatures”), or Logue Town and Punk Hazard(The Starting Point of The Straw Hat’s journey; Smoker and Tashigi; A Clown manages to get one over on Luffy), or even the smaller parallels to Skypiea in…………….. well, Dressrosa(the Bird cage= The White Vine Cage; a False God taking the land from the former ruler) and- from the looks of it– the entire series. But from just this chapter, I think we’ve already gotten more than a few parallels to Skypiea directly:
- “Temple Of The Sun God=” “God’s Shrine”
- Hilmungandr= Nola
- Yggdrasil(The REAL One)= Giant Jack
- False Gods
- “The Land Of Gods=” Upper Yard, “God’s Island”
The only question I have in regards to this is whether or not this will be a straight up parallel like Enies Lobby- “A Crew Mate Leaves Due To Ghosts of Their Pasts They Don’t Want The Others Caught Up In- Luffy Too Stubborn To Leave- Gets Them To Tell The Truth- Fights The Not-QUITE-Big-Bad But Close To It” in Lucci and Katakuri(Spandam was no threat whatsoever but had powerful underlings to be beaten; Luffy Was Not Ready To Fight Linlin)- or if it’ll be the “Inverse” like Alabasta and Dressrosa were(Crocodile was in the middle of his plan, about to reach his goal– Doflamingo had already succeeded; Crocodile knocked to the sky revealing as a fake by a flurry of punches- Doflamingo knocked to the ground taking him off the proverbial throne by 1 giant punch; the Government covering up Crocodile’s misdeeds- Fujitora ensuring that the event could not be hidden). Skypiea was- in the grand scheme of things- a literal “representation” of the entire series: Those Who Tout Themselves As “Gods” Being Brought Down By 1)”God’s Natural Enemy” and- post 1,044– A True God. This is likely the latter: Eneru was “God vs His Natural Enemy-” this will be “False Sun God vs The True Sun God.” It’s seriously crazy how that ONE moment in the history of a 20 year franchise(a moment that I have so committed to memory that I don’t even have to look up what chapter it happened in) recontextualized an battle 800+ chapters prior.
But that’s less an “inversion” and more like a “recontextualization-” which would make this a parallel. And yet; I don’t know what exactly defeating this guy will mean in the “Grand Scheme” of things. Heck, we don’t even know who this IS yet- we’re just taking a wild guess. Defeating Eneru prevented him from destroying Skypiea, and knocking him into the Golden Bell served to alert Kricket that the “City of Gold” was in the sky- as well as ending the centuries long war between the Shandians and Skypieans. We don’t know the full state of Elbaf yet, but we know from all the dialogue around the island that it’s a “War Torn Land,” so maybe it’ll be a similar beat: “The Fighting Will Stop When Such-And-Such Happens.” Luffy’ll figure it out somewhere down the line; what he has to do to end the fighting on Elbaf. Though it’ll mean he’s dones something even Shanks was unable to do in his time having this nation under his flag– something that, in the Grand Scheme of things, likely hasn’t been that long in comparison to whatever “War” is going on on this island. I could bring up Luffy making trouble in Elbaf bringing him in direct conflict with Shanks again, but I think I said enough last time………….
Who Is The Faux Sun God?
I’m gonna say it’s Loki- the Prince of The Giants from Lola’s flashback. He tried to propose to Lola, but she wasn’t into him for one reason or another. Maybe because he had THIS hobby– or maybe he just wasn’t her “type” like Shirahoshi, and he threw himself into……………….. this. That’s pretty much what I think Oda’s going for: Lola rejected Loki, so he got a hobby that he got creepily into. The hobby itself was ALSO “creepy,” which Lola could probably pick up on. He’s likely to be that “One Guy” every girl encounters at least once in their lives- that one guy that just gives off a “bad vibe;” the one that doesn’t seem to get the memo and keeps trying. Or does something to distract himself from it– something that allows him to have “Control” over something. I guess pretending to be a God to a bunch of Humans is his “thing.” Which would explain why Lola rejected him? Basically: This was either his “hobby” before Lola and was made worse– or something he picked up after her rejection. Either way, he’s kind of a fre@kin’ weirdo.
There’s the deer skull thing on his head- something that certain versions of the “Loki” character(By which I mean the Marvel version and Atreus during his introduction in “God Of War: Ragnarok”) tend to have, with his scepter having the Sun symbol at the end of it. Those his shoes have made people think that it’s actually a Woman. Won’t get into that, but I’ll say that it’s possible. Heck, this might not even be Loki; it COULD just be some other Giant. I’ll also bring up that there are many stories in Norse mythology where Loki has been shown to be a Shapeshifter, so it could be Loki using the powers of some shapeshifting Devil fruit(putting the total at 3 between Bon Clay and Catarina Devon) to look like this. This IS a radical departure from the one depicted in Lola’s flashback. And Loki seems like one of those character’s that isn’t going to change much from their silhouette; character’s like Big Mom and Kaido changed radically from their initial teaser– Joyboy and Imu will NOT. Loki is not NEARLY as important as those 2, but to say that he WON’T be a critical character in what is- let’s not kid ourselves- one of the series most Important story arcs and likely the one that starts building up to Final War; That would just be plain silly. He has a role in this- somewhere, someway, somehow……….
The shapeshifting fruit idea also puts him as parallel to Luffy: Someone Who “Can Fight However He Wants” vs Someone Who “Can Look However He Wants.” EVEN like the actual Nika, if he wanted. An if an amorphous body allows him to stretch like rubber, then………………… it’s not as if he wouldn’t have “ground to stand on.” Especially since Vegapunk told us that Nika is a God of Elbaf Legend, vs Luffy who- despite actually having Nika’s power- lacks the knowledge of who or what Nika is……………. and does not rightly care. It’s not like he’s gonna starts calling himself “The Sun God” or anything, or change the name of his attacks- he’s just gonna do whatever he wants like he always has. Like……… honestly. I say this to say that Loki has way more knowledge about Nika than Luffy does- he could replicate a lot more of his feats than Luffy’s probably done, and could probably do a better job at “pretending” to be Nika than any Human or Buccaneer. Honestly, he’ll be better at pretending to be a God than Eneru. As for how Luffy would beat him if things are happening as I’ve laid out- that’s something that only Luffy would be able to figure out when it comes to that. Maybe haki’ll bypass the shapeshifting like it does for Luffy(at least when he’s NOT Gear 5th), and it’ll become “Will of A God vs Knowledge of a God.” Or, more accurately: “Fact vs Legend.” Something like that………………
Conclusion
This didn’t go how I was expecting- is what I would say if I didn’t know the “routine” at this point. Feels like no post I’m making is going how I want it to. But at least I’m still posting. I know that I’ve said this about a hundred times in the past, but I’m grateful to everyone who supports me. UPDATE: I had work all week. So……… this post never finished, and the next chapter’s early translations are already out. It’s Saturday, October 12th, 2024, at 3:04 pm. I’m not gonna be able to get to the next post in time, so……… Yeah, sorry. I would typically say something after everything, but……….. I don’t feel like it right now. I’m so sorry this came so late in the week. Until next time, everyone…………….
