To start with, I quickly realized that not only did Luffy swap Law for another supernova alliance, but Bege largely plays the same role as Law in the group dynamic. He is a fish out of water, he is the main strategist, he is overly serious, and the Straw Hats, specifically Luffy, are a menace that he must control to maintain his plan. I'm sure you could criticize this by saying it's somewhat boring that we have the same comedy dynamic immediately after Law left the crew, but the fact that I was howling and laughter at seeing Luffy open every door of Bege’s body as he shoved him back inside and then commented on how he should have killed him after all made me realize that there is no reason to. This dynamic is funny enough to repeat.
There was also an interesting balance of tension, and comedy throughout the entire episode. For instance Sanji losing his mind, constantly calling back to that internal scream, until finally crashing into the rooftop was classic Sanji humor. “EHHHHHH?!” It reminded me of when he was trying to save Nami in Thriller Bark and he kept getting lost in her beauty. ‘IS THIS A GODDESS?? Oh it’s just Nami!’ It also reminded me of when he was interacting with Viola, trying to be cool, but losing himself in his emotions and screaming at the top of his lungs every five seconds. This case was Sanji's protective and tactical mind fighting with his heart and creating that composed and cool vs emotional and explosive dynamic. However, if this wasn't One Piece, we could have imagined this scene in a much different light. If it wanted to carry an immensely heavy tone, they could have played the part of Sanji attempting not to give away that he knows the plan, while feeling anger toward Pudding. It could have been a silent and anxiety driving scene.
Instead, this role was largely played by Bege. We saw him walking through the celebration with his assessing eyes, the same kind of body language he used while he was pursuing Sanji and Caesar in Zou; just this time on our side. There was dramatic and serious music overlapping the sounds of celebration and chatter, we saw Judge genuinely feeling triumph and smiling in a way which is rare for him creating a sense of dramatic irony, and Bege literally had to do what Sanji would hypothetically do in another show. He had to not give away the fact that he was betraying Mom when her candy-candy son started pushing him. His side of things was really engaging and supplied the weight of this upcoming encounter, he used his strategy to disguise his men, jam the snailsponders, and get everything into position. The fact that my natural bias is towards enjoying a character like Bege so much definitely helps make his addition to the episode all the more meaningful. I’m glad Gotti cut the doors face off because if they didn’t at least do that, it would feel far too dumb for such a smart character. That said, I’m still worried about it!
Outside of the Straw Hats being a source of many laughs and fun, and Bege being a source of impending chaos and life threatening stakes, Mom also did so by bringing up the Tamate Box. When speculating on what could go wrong I kept Luffy in mind, and the suspicious underlings on Mom’s side, soon Katakuri became an obvious obstacle, and this episode reminded me that the explosive Tamate box and Sanji are even more sources of everything going horribly wrong to worry about. Overall, this was a perfect set up episode; full of fun with a heavy tone, moving everyone into place, and outlining all these sources of potential disaster. It’s like a volcano full of fascinating characters brimming to explode. And another reason why it is so exciting is because the goal here is to save the Vinsmokes. It doesn’t seem obvious to me that this will play out formulaically, the typical Luffy fight and beat bad guy set up. Instead, it feels like an Impel Down scenario, foes which are overwhelmingly powerful, and a goal which can be achieved without beating them. That lack of necessity to stick to formula makes the possibilities and directions this conflict could go feel endless! |