This episode is easy to split into three sections. The first is the conversation between Sengoku and Law. There was something special about it. I feel like in the concise and straightforward responses, quite blunt and immediate, there was respect. These two forces connected and impacted by Corazon have met face to face, and as Sengoku stated, can share his memory. Sengoku going so far to give Law some words of advice after comically playing dumb about the D’s. That is, to not try and find a reason for why someone loves him. And further, if the two of them want to do something in his memory, it should be to always remember him and for Law to live his life as he’d like. It’s true, Corazon didn’t love Law because Law was a special boy who could save the world from his evil brother. It wasn’t conditional like that, and as hard as Law worked for Corazon’s ambition, you’d have to wonder what he’d think about it. That is, Law risking everything and living, not for himself, but for Cora. I presume Sengoku is right about what he’d say, he is Corazon’s second father after all.
The second point to bring up is how, as reiterated by the flashbacks, this is a clear beat of progress in Luffy’s strength. The first time he fought an admiral it was Kuzan. He challenged him to a duel, lost handily without harming him once, and saved his crew by forcing Kuzan’s respect for their agreement. Then Kizaru, someone who dismantled the crew and of which created a scenario where Luffy had to 1. Be saved, and 2. Tried to flee. Lastly, in Marineford, the best Luffy could do was run for it, and attempt to make it to Ace while being constantly saved from the admirals facing him. To give him a chance to fight one after all this time of probably never even exhausting such powerful people, we can see how much he’s really grown. And as the fight commenced, despite Fujitora not being a logia, I wouldn’t say that mattered, Luffy can use haki now for those cases and in a case like Fujitora, he totally exhausted him. By declaring he would fight any admiral and emperor in his way rather than run so that he could become the king of the pirates, he made a statement that rather than Luffy having to change his straightforward and stubborn ways, as long as he grows from his losses and weaknesses and refuses to stop fighting, he’ll be able to make it in the world. It makes me think of Shanks' words to Luffy at Whitebeard’s funeral. “By experiencing both victory and defeat, running away and shedding tears, a man will become a man. It’s okay to cry. But you have to move on!”
As for the fight itself, I understand why Fujitora didn’t fight against Doflamingo but I still hold he could have far more and given the credit to Luffy rather than risking the slaughter of a kingdom, and to see him look far more intimidating now than ever, fighting the heroes of the kingdom who are of no threat to the innocents, it only made me feel even more critical of where his priorities are. Conceptually I love the guy, but I definitely find his methods questionable. That aside, the motivations of Luffy and Fujitora here were adorable and awesome. Luffy calling out all of his attacks before he did them, even apologizing when he had a slip of the tongue, at first made me think this was Sabo 2.0. A fight that was nothing more than appearances. But, when Fujitora showed how angry he was that Luffy was pitying him for being blind, also suggesting that he has a strong sense of pride, it made it clear it was not that. Rather, Luffy can’t bring himself to attack Fujitora without announcing his moves because he’s blind but mostly because he likes him. It was so endearing that Fujitora had a moe laughing fit and showed some pity for Luffy too, sharing the sentiment. He suggested in a fight people can’t be that honest, he doesn’t want to do this either but his position calls for it! It’s a sentiment that we saw in Punk Hazard as the navy, who respected the pirates, insulted them. As always, Luffy doesn’t care about any expectations or norms that he doesn’t love, and it made for a lovely scene. I take it that Fujitora never planned to let the Straw Hats escape, rather, he gave them time to heal and then gave his all trying to capture them. He has a sense of honour when it comes to enemies he’s fond of and, rather than abusing their weakness, he put this capture up to chance with even odds. |