I only just noticed that Violet is in the opening with the Don Quixote family. I wonder if this was a new addition, like when Blackbeard’s crew was added to the Marineford opening, or if this was always the case and I missed the glaring spoiler under my nose. Going off of that screen we can confirm that there are three major executives alongside Doflamingo for the major threats of this organization and a ton of little guys like Buffalo and Baby 5 to keep it interesting. And speaking of Violet, the episode started with her and Sanji once more and created a shift in Doflamingo’s plan that may be futile given how late it is, but may be just enough to mess it up. Violet was so moved by Sanji she proved she is quite the passionate person after all, she fought against her own men using her tear.. whales, I suppose she materialized her feelings, and then she tried to sacrifice herself; telling him to run and planning to take the blame of betrayal. However, Sanji being a sweetheart has been given a fantastic motivation to fight and be as hot headed as ever, he thinks Violet is indeed being forced to fight for Doflamingo and in turn she let him see her memories. Memories that prove what has been building up, that Doflamingo has been ahead of absolutely everything. I’m quite glad Sanji made this partnership because he is one of the best crew members for it. His quick thinking, protective, and even tactical mind means that he will act quickly and do what needs to be done. He instantly called Law to warn him with 2 minutes to spare, telling him to run. This still doesn’t answer the question if Doflamingo knows about Law’s play with the navy, yet with Sanji getting her memories first hand, I’d say it’s looking bad. I also didn’t mention last time but it seems Doflamingo is using the CP0, potentially like how it seems Law is using Fujitora.
We got a brief glimpse at the colosseum, not much was advanced but Luffy was shown to do his usual and quickly befriend the animal involved in the competition. The other notable detail was that the Funk Brothers clashed with Chinjao and his grandchildren before the round even begun foreshadowing them to be a major conflict. Then we got to see some more of Rebecca as she woke up from a dream featuring the toy soldier. As expected, their relationship runs deep, even shown to go back to her childhood. The soldier promised to be by her side forever and didn’t want her to join the colosseum, he even gave her some words of tough love so that she would stop crying. In fact, as he adorably road on the shoulders of Franky, he suggested that because Rebecca was crying they should hurry. I think so far everything has suggested that she’s put in a position that she needs to fight Doflamingo and the soldier is going against him from the background as to help her. He suggested that he would cry too if he could. With the link between her and Kyros, her and the soldier, and her shared hatred of Doflamingo with Ricky who may be Kyros, I think they all tie together. Lastly, he said that they should go the flower field, this being the same location as Wicka was leading Zoro. This goes to suggest that he is indeed working alongside the Tontatta.
Finally, Green bit with Robin and Usopp. These sequences have been some of my favorites because the two are a blast together. Usopp whispering to her from afar or doubting that Robin was holding a little person before seeing she actually was and screaming was so good. Then the Tontatta knocked them out with sleeping gas and Leo, a warrior of the tribe, showed he ate a stitch stitch devil fruit allowing him to sew Robin to the ground. Leo also stated that they can grow any plant as they did in fact create the giant overflowing green bit. It was a bit fetish-y, having tons of miniature people try and strip Robin and crawl in her dress; not that anything is wrong with that, and Robin had some time to shine. She deducted that she may be able to escape using her powers but if she could deal with them without doing so it would be best. It was some risk reward thinking, less danger, can secure Usopp is okay, and can make it out without making enemies with a colony of people. To her surprise, the oh so credulous little people believed her completely when she said she was a nice person, the chief even coming out and going through the exact same process moments later. The Tontatta, now characterized as quite naive and credulous as a whole, started to celebrate Robin and offer her food before turning on her again.
And that is when I laughed the hardest I can remember when it comes to One Piece, and know that I laugh pretty hard all the time at this anime. The moment the little guy ran out yelling at them not to strip Robin for weapons because she is “the heroes partner” it clicked for me. It is literally destiny that if Usopp is surrounded by a bunch of credulous, naive children then he takes up the role of being some amazing hero. Having me realize that happened and that there was absolutely no other outcome of this scenario possible had me laughing for like ten seconds straight. And we haven’t even seen him taking up the role of hero yet! I especially adore Robin’s slightly disgusted expression upon hearing how Usopp is manipulating these poor idiots. |