Perhaps one of the many reasons why Sanji is unhappy despite making a deal to save everyone is that anyone in their right mind knows Luffy would rather choose to die than accept the compromise and leave. That is, unless something changed from Marineford. Or, so I think… I could be wrong as they did almost leave Usopp if he didn’t apologize to them. There is at least a modicum of possibility. By the way, I finished Water 7 in the manga the other day and Luffy waited in a room at all times for Usopp, just like he attempted to refuse moving here. It’s not made to be a big event and rather given in a line of dialogue but I thought that was a charming detail.
Pudding was shown to have looked up to her older sister Lola. She stated the same line that Lola did when it came to disobeying Mom to help Luffy “we’re family so she won’t kill me” and she’s certainly comparing herself to the free spirit that Lola was. This sets up her arc to be one of finally disobeying her family without fear of consequence it seems and this also retroactively made Lola a far more interesting character.
The quirk of Lola asking everyone to marry her and her zombie constantly seeking one man who didn’t want her is now more than the abhorrent admirer trope. Like with many characters such as Senor Pink, the act of something strange and potentially one dimensional now represents much more. Rather than feeling like a pawn who cannot even choose her own wedding dress and plays an unwanted part in the suffering of others like Pudding, a marriage of which she has no control, Lola took marriage completely into her own violation. Her zombie wanted to change a man’s opinion, she wanted to marry someone because it was her doing completely and there was no incentive on the other side, in fact a negative incentive. Her human self asked people to marry her completely on her own incentive. That must be an empowering thing to do, a rejection of the lack of control you had under Mom, a statement that you now have control, and that you are now free. The fact that I ‘admire’ this ‘abhorrent admirer’ now surprises me and I really respect what Oda did with this. That is not even mentioning the fact that she potentially saved the world from Big Mom’s tyranny by rejecting to marry someone who would set Mom up to beat the other emperors, not mentioning Blackbeard and mentioning Whitebeard to suggest she meant in the last era of course. Awesome stuff, seriously! The callback of the vivre card is making strong pay off by linking an old supporting cast deeply into the present.
Luffy, still locked up, tried to provoke some conflict with Mom but she controlled her rage. It creates an endearing character trait, Mom attempting to control her emotions for the sake of self interest, but slowly being pushed to the state of rampage that we initially saw her in, destroying her capital. What triggered her rage, the straw that broke her back, was Brook and Pedro’s plan going into action. I am so eager to see more of this, I’ve wanted more focused Brook content for ages. Due to the opening I’m somewhat expecting Pedro to take on Tamago with the loaded history they have, and Brook to take on Smoothie if this all goes wrong. Speaking of Smoothie, her character is not much explored just yet, her eagerness to fight and her comments on that being fun do create an aura of a warrior who loves her job, but her design has absolutely won me over. She is unique and attractive. Perhaps surpassing Nami’s bountiful chest that has taken a constant spotlight. Speaking of that, now is the time to say I have embraced fanservice, as the pace slowed down, it’s at least good at keeping attention!
I didn’t even find a good time to fit in the Tamate box during this post. Wasn’t that full of the pills Hordy used? The ones that had a bad side effect of stealing your life away and making you a shriveled up old man? Well if Mom had a chance to use those then at least she has lifesteal and can possibly counteract the downside. That said, she should be in for a surprise when she finds out what’s really inside. |