Sabo let us know how much faith he has in Luffy from the get go, proudly telling Rebecca that he’s the brother of the man that will become the king of pirates. He recollected on his time as a child with his brothers and while doing so he had the flames of Ace alongside him. This whole montage made me super emotional, I’m so glad Sabo is alive and the bittersweet nature of carrying the late ace with him is beautiful in itself. He, Hack and Koala came here to find the weapon manufacturing like the Chinjao family did yet they haven’t accomplished their mission yet. Apart from that, Sabo was named as the #2 of the army, Robin and Koala are adorably close friends and she showed that she knew the others quite well, and Bartolomeo had his funniest moment yet. His realization that Usopp was Sogeking with the magnificent visuals and overlap, merging the two combined with his shock is so funny. And alongside that, it continues the sweet detail that outsiders know Usopp as Sogeking, something Doflamingo showed us too.
There were many loose ends this episode to possibly set up even more chaos. Franky is up and functional, sneaking away from the navy and Don Quixote family while Fujitora has to make his next move. Kin’emon had another hilarious and cute moment with Wicca where he played an awful Doflamingo and had to get rid of his costume as he continues to head for Kanjuro. Zoro lost track of Pica, had a nice shot looking over the kingdom, and should still be on the lookout. Burgess is in the basement having lost all chance to get the flare flare fruit being a true wildcard. And to carry over something we shouldn’t forget, Bellamy should have been focused on already. He should be confronting Doflamingo but he’s been seriously MIA.
The last scene gave a hint of the theory I made over how One Piece could go if it wasn’t a battle shounen. The family was devastated and shocked, they thought Doflamingo was dead and Kyros handled an enraged Baby 5 and Buffalo fine, throwing Buffalo out the window and saving Riku. Gladius showed up to place him in the room and ultimately Pica did as well showing us where he disappeared too. It was a brief taste of the immediate aftermath we would feel from Doflamingo’s downfall. Yet, as Luffy tried to uncuff Law adorably slowly showing us #devil fruit eater problems, Doflamingo crashed that party. A question of how he is alive must now be answered, an obvious answer would be that he is in fact a logia despite how he doesn’t seem to be one from first glance. And I also wanted to mention Law’s remark to Luffy about the alliance being over. He wants the factory destroyed and he’s willing to sacrifice himself to get Doflamingo killed, that is clear, but what would benefit him from denying freedom now, putting his life at greater risk? In my mind, unlocking his cuffs would be a net positive but he threatened Luffy’s life so he wouldn’t. Was that possibly an act of kindness, to not threaten Luffy’s life anymore than it already is? I’m not sure.
A huge question I’m sure many of us were asking is, how the hell will Doflamingo respond to all this? The revolutionary army is here, the factory is being attacked at this moment, Caesar and Momonosuke have escaped his grasp, all the toys have been returned to their former selves provoking a collapse of the kingdom and a revolt, and the flare flare fruit was eaten by Sabo. Not much could go worse. The answer he gave us at the end was that he’d have to use the “birdcage”, something Law is deeply familiar with in a way that evoked Robin’s awareness of Buster Calls. Now, what would that accomplish? I can’t imagine it would reverse the damages, is it damage control? |