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| This was an unexpectedly cinematic episode. I was blown away by the first two scenes. First, the great character art and closeups, the dark SAD room, the shadows, the droning machinery noises, and the thick tension created from the Law-Vergo dynamic was already incredible. I knew it was going to be good as soon as I saw Law’s starting close up, and it created a sense of dread. The closeup of Law’s earrings from behind, of Vergo’s shoes or mouth, shadowy moments of Laws face, it excellently created a claustrophobic atmosphere, something the droning noises amplified. The dialogue referring to Law as a mischievous kid, as his dog biting Vergo’s hand, “You were too smart for your own good. People like you… tend to die young”. Their past felt tangible and this felt like an older brother in an organization mercilessly beating down those who went against them. I asked, if this was a big deal then why not pop his heart right there? And the reason? So that he could make Law suffer as much as possible, crushing his heart would be too nice. We saw how someone who could move faster than Law could react and especially someone with his heart in their grip could dismantle him. The pummeling Vergo did to Law definitely felt painful, that was the intention and it worked. To have his hat fly off later was a nice touch too. Then right after this scene we had the horrifying Monet vs Luffy. Entrapping him in a constantly growing kamakura igloo that he can’t escape from, essentially creating her own dimension where she can control everything. That was her room, she was able to morph all around it, appearing anywhere she wants, even appearing beside Luffy to whisper into his ear. As this was happening I was realizing that at some point in this arc it’s taken a serious turn. Luffy versus Caesar never felt like it was too much to handle and Sanji started by beating the hell out of Vergo, but Vergo and Monet have shown how fearful they can be. On top of creating a personal icy hell for Luffy, to embrace him with a hug, zapping his energy, slowly putting him to sleep so his heart will stop while admitting in a fight of strength she’d lose made for an incredibly frightening and memorable scene. I particularly loved the use of zooming out and showing Luffy looking miniature, like he had no control over his fate in this room. And it was a fantastic ender of course, when Luffy was embraced I asked myself, how could get out of this and like Luffy, Zoro’s words flashed through my head. Yet, Luffy did what Luffy does best, he found the loophole, used some conqueror's haki to get a chance, and broke the floor apart! The one escape route he had. It was wonderful and so cool. I admit after this point it became less heavy and tense, but it wasn’t bad by any means, just more of what I’d expect! Chopper showed a powerful display until he couldn’t hold the kids off any longer, it reminded me of Usopp back in the Captain Kuro arc as he tried so hard to stop the pirates from approaching his village, going so far to grab their legs as they ran by despite not being able to stand any longer. After that we had the Straw Hats help our baby boy and rush to get to Mocha, and when we had more kids in the scene after the break I actually thought the kids would be mostly dealt with here! That’s when Monet showed up and locked everyone in, she does seem to benefit from Caesar’s plans going well. Also, didn’t Law and Monet both lose their hearts? I’m curious if I misunderstood that or if Monet’s heart hasn’t come up for another reason. I want to briefly mention how Mocha feels a little unrealistic to me. I understand she has more willpower than the other kids, had a more important link with Nami than most, and had some weird withdrawal symptoms that seemed unique to her. I also understand addiction works differently with everyone. But for Mocha to be the only kid who isn’t a monstrous zombie right now, and to not even be tempted to eat the candy feels a little cheap to me. I do think she could be the one to wake the other kids up though and it’s something I can absolutely ignore! I guess I’ll mention everything else in one paragraph because all of it is rather short compared to the prior paragraphs. Firstly, there is a girl who has known Momonosuke since the beginning here and she may be instrumental to having Kin’emon find his little boy. Momonosuke was taken to the “secret room” and he seems to be getting special treatment compared to the other kids. Speaking of the special room, Caesar went there rather than to the SAD manufacturing room and he plans to do something here, this is the only place he can pull it off and it should deal with all his enemies or so it seems. Lastly, Vergo beat on Law especially hard, even when room-ing his heart to his hand, Vergo was too quick to make use of that. And even though I said the cinematic quality of the first scenes somewhat faded, it came back for that brutal heart squeeze, the spasming hand, the close up and distorted face, the machinery around them, the red tint, the claustrophobic noises. It was great and it was luckily interrupted by Smoker whose finally here for his revenge and not held victim to a lost heart, one that Vergo can use at least. Caesar could still crush it. Also, I must add that Vergo takes blows like a freaking robot, that counter shock clearly hurt him to the point of coughing up blood but he always winds back like it was nothing, like he’ll only go down through enough damage added up rather than pain or exhaustion. P.S. Vergo made me realize that my thing is dudes who are awful and cruel but do it all according to business, and Vergo and Kizaru both give me that vibe…… “THAT’S VERGO SAN TO YOU!” blushes intensely |
| LETS GOOOO. SMOKER-SAMA BETTER BEAT HIS ASSSS and why does the bird girl look so hot🥵 |
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| Trafalgar's getting beaten up faster than he can react and it looks like he'd end up being a sitting duck until he manages to get his heart back from the enemy. At least Smoker's there to help him out. Luffy snapping out of his near-death trance thanks to him thinking of his crewmates and Zoro's words when he nearly froze to death was awesome. I'm getting more frustrated at those junky kids than feeling bad for them the more I see them acting like that to the people who are trying to help them as understandable as the whole situation is, oof |
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| Poor Law is getting beat up quite badly. Smoker is her. |
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| nice paced ep after the last one's at 6-7 minutes of recap in beginning Luffy remembering zoro's words was quite touching I'm worried for mononosuke ;-; |
| Damn Law got his ass kicked 😭 Now upcoming Vergo vs Smoker must be lit!! |
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| there's that hauntingly chilling music again, perfect time to use it there, high immersion that original Star Wars style garbage dump lol Vergo one tough cookie |
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