I guess I will start with the most obvious thing to speak about, Sabo and Koala. I knew Sabo was alive, I’ve seen him in video games, I’ve seen him on promotional art. Yet, him approaching Luffy here destroyed me. Of course Luffy would break down. His life was largely defined by the “death” of Sabo, it was the moment he decided to be the nutcase he is today and fight with no regrets. Moreover, he still has a brother! And I’ll be honest, I was mad at Sabo. I was mad that he never said a word to Luffy, I was mad that he wasn’t there for Ace. But, despite that, the single phrase while crying “I thought he was going to hit me” made me forgive him on the spot. It’s clear he regrets not being there for Ace, probably like how Ace felt not being there for Sabo. But, for whatever reason he couldn’t be and at the very least, he’s here for Ace now, in spirit. Who is better to inherit the power of Ace than his damn brother?! The happiness of Luffy, bawling his eyes out and exclaiming that he will “save Tra-guy, kick Mingo’s ass, and that the flare flare fruit is in good hands” was so powerful. We’ve seen the pain Luffy went through losing both of his brothers but this is at least a band-aid to patch him up. Sabo, it’s good to have you back man. As for Koala, it was oddly seeing her name where I cried the hardest. She’s still around and she was absolutely influenced by Fisher Tiger, following in Fishman Karate herself it seems. What this explicitly means is that Fisher Tiger’s final act of compassion was not futile. I sincerely hope Arlong meets her again one day, I hope he sees that even if in the moment compassion seemed to backfire in the most unforgivable way, that in the long term Fisher Tiger changed the course of the world with that compassion.
Beyond this moment, Dellinger is a psychopath and a child. He throws tantrums when he doesn’t get his way and stomps around, he talks back to superiors, he sadistically enjoys kicking and bullying his enemies. And Bellamy was as good as dead if it wasn’t for Bartolomeo. I expected Bartolomeo to save Bellamy because he saw him and Luffy speaking and assumed he was Luffy’s friend. Rather, Bartolomeo shows us once again that, although he may dream of being Luffy’s henchman, he is not defined by Luffy. He saved Bellamy out of some adorable sense of honor, because they became “war brothers” once they fought. And moreover, Bartolomeo is just so freaking awesome, blocking Dellinger and laughing in his face, telling him to scram. “I just felt like putting a barrier here.” He quite eagerly made an enemy of the Don Quixote family for a former opponent he just met! He’s a blast, he’s sweet, he’s crude, and his “I’d never walk away on a brother” mentality paired with his goofiness and lovability and dedication reminds of Bon Clay. His character may be way different but he gives off that same energy, and seeing him waddle over to Sabo, telling him to watch how he speaks to Luffy-senpai made me want him on the crew so badly.
But despite how fun that stuff was, Bellamy had a hard time. We saw through his eyes, how he refuses to believe Doflamingo betrayed him. His meaning in life is to follow Doflamingo in his own words, he views him as a hero. We saw how happy he was to get an opportunity to join him, and how crushed he was when he heard Diamante’s words. Further, we have reason to believe Doflamingo does care for his family to a degree, even if he is willing to let them die, yet we’ve seen how he will massacre people too. If they are not in his family he has no sympathy for them and I wouldn’t be surprised if he used Bellamy as a pawn this entire time, never viewing him as someone to protect. Yet, even in the end Bellamy refuses to betray him, he told Luffy he can follow him but Bellamy won’t purposefully lead him out of the colosseum. I bet he has to confront Doflamingo himself and confirm Diamante wasn’t acting on his own. But, imagine if Shanks did that to Luffy, became his hero and then ordered his death, that hurts.
As for the headquarters, we finally know the army’s plan. Use a secret underground passage to reach the underground tradeport and factory to rescue to the Tontatta and destroy the Don Quixote family facilities, ultimately giving the kingdom back to Riku. However, it’s not that simple, they have to take down Sugar. She looks like a little girl but my suspicion was confirmed, she hasn’t aged since at least 10 years ago, and she is the toy maker. Anything she touches turns into one. Therefore by knocking her out she will unleash all of the toys and chaos will ensue, which makes me wonder about how she sleeps. That said, it won’t be so easy, she is so crucial that Trebol, the top executive, is with her all of the time. Which goes to show she was with him even when he was stealing the competitors from the scrapyard. Further, it won’t just be Trebol and Sugar, there will be Lao G, Dillinger, and some others. I’m starting to think Lao G is that old man we’ve seen a few times, I’m sure we even saw his name when the colosseum announced the Don Quixote family. And finally the scene ended with the amazing, Usopp showing his eagerness to fight a little girl and Franky getting fired up and making combat hair while Robin does the usual.
By the way, I love that Kin’emon could have disguised them perfectly as toys the entire time but instead gave them textbook horrible disguises. Speaking of disguises, Sabo is taking the place of Lucy, and Luffy has Bellamy at his side to lead him outside. Diamante may actually get confused and think he is Luffy. Further, the revolutionaries are here, Koala is Robin’s friend which makes me curious if she knew Sabo this whole time, and the fishman is part of their group. I had said “the D will cause a storm again” was an odd phrase if Law meant Dragon but perhaps it’s not so odd anymore. |