Crazy episode, one that I think showed the strength of the world building in One Piece quite phenomenally. The world is seriously changing. Garp and Sengoku both essentially retired, I can't imagine Garp can continue fighting as he had after he was forced to let his boy Ace die. And Sengoku feels its his time to pass the torch to Aokiji as the next Fleet Admiral, which I must say is an excellent pick. Out of the three admirals, he is the only good pick from the understanding we have of the other two. Smoker is continuing to chase Luffy by moving to the New World branch of the Navy, I suppose he did take up the job of stopping pirates from entering the Grand Line so Luffy is his responsibility in his eyes. Coby has awakened Haki as many of us expected and with the courage he challenged Luffy and Akainu with it's put him on a path of growing truly strong. With Moria dead, and Blackbeard and Jimbei betraying the navy its opened up three Warlord spots, we can presume some rookies will get in there but no matter what seeing 3 new Warlords should be fascinating. Meanwhile we have Crocodile and Jimbei still influencing the world in their own ways and no longer tied to the government. Finally, Blackbeard is most definitely going to take the spot of the 4th Emperor. If my eyes didn't deceive me it also appears that Blackbeard 'took down' a rookie, so did he kill one of the supernovas? We know Luffy, Zoro, Law, Kid, Killer, Hawkins, Capone, and Urouge are alive. Therefore, it would have to be Bonney, Apoo, or Drake if my math is right... I feel this will be important going forward.
Luffy has made some serious allies. Like a young Roger, strong willed and supported by Shanks, who also helped his friend Hachi, Rayleigh took a liking to Luffy. And Jimbei respects the hell out of him for how he fought for Ace, someone they both loved. So to introduce the scene as, 'Mugiwara no Luffy who caused the riot at impel down, burnt enies lobby to the ground and played an instrumental role in the war, Jimbei the former warlord, and rogers second man Rayleigh' are here and strolling back into the war zone like it's nobody's business got me incredibly excited. It was also more than exciting, it was powerful. Luffy, Jimbei, and Rayleigh sailing in to ring the bell of a new era, to say goodbye to Ace and pay respects to those who fell during this war, and to finally start moving on. Nobody can stop Luffy from giving a proper goodbye, not even the navy, and not himself either. <3 It's notable he had a tattoo that read, "3D2Y", one very reminiscent of Ace's! I read it as not 3 days but 2 years as someone else has mentioned as well.
So, the end showed us most of the supernova's have gone past Luffy and moved into the New World. Most are over their heads. We saw that weird magnetic force which pulled Capone upwards. We saw the lightening island which would be a hell for anyone as well as the Granny who freakishly approached Urouge. Then we also had some not so bad takes, Kid was doing fine although it felt to me he was in over his head not even realizing it as he psychotically attacked the fleeing pirates for being cowards. And Hawkins seemed to destroy Brown Beard which read to me as him doing exceptionally well out there. I can't wait to see our crew venture out into a world so much harsher than anything before it. It's also quite striking that the Grand Line, the place that pirates were said to go to die in the East Blue is known as Paradise in comparison to the New World. |