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SMOKER'S HEART HAS BEEN STOLEN!
And not figuratively either.
He didn't really stand a chance against Law though, did he? He's in a completely different league.
The whole heart scene was kind of gross, I dunno, I didn't expect One Piece to actually show us the heart...but I'm glad they did.
Dr. Heart Stealer indeed.
Anyway, that fight was short, snappy and looked pretty damn good too!
Really happy to see more Smoker and Law too because they're characters I've been gagging to see more of for the longest time.
My prayers have been answered!
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This is a serious episode so it is a little bit weird to mention here, but I definitely feel like we've gone back to East Blue-era in tone. Marineford hit an all time high for serious tone and tragedy, and the story overall constantly built up and became one of Luffy losing his superiority over the world. Like now and East Blue it often involved Luffy and the other cast having a less guided and fun adventure, it explored them and what they could do, and the seriousness would come but in bursts. Arlong, Crocodile, Eneru, and Lucci all built on each other and made Luffy and in turn the crew have to push themselves more. Ultimately leading to the end of Thriller Bark and Summit War which was proof the cast was in over their heads. After the time skip we’re now as strong as ever and the adventure and fun and spontaneous feeling is back. It’s like a true reset. We even get to see how our characters changed personality wise and power wise as if we were learning about them all over again.
So, to speak on this episode I'll start with the Law/Smoker/Tashigi stuff. Tashigi is such a tragic character in my eyes. In Alabasta she tried so hard but lost to Robin and then Crocodile mocked her for only being able to speak about justice, that she was too weak to enact her justice. They let her live too, and here Law did something so reminiscent to that. He cut her, let her live, and dropped a line that both made me very sad for her but also incredibly excited for Law. “You talk like a master swordsman. Let me tell you something navy soldier girl, the weak can’t even pick their way to die”! Definitely a line I’ll remember for a long time to come, it was stone cold, he made an absolute fool out of Tashigi and didn’t even know her name. But, I felt for Tashigi as I was saying, she tries so hard, she’s totally Coby-esque in her willpower being her strong point but her facing people she struggles to fight alone. I hope she can one day get some real spotlight rather than just being Smoker’s little puppy who tries hard but never succeeds.
The fight both let me understand more about Law’s power, but it also confused me more. Firstly, to start the conflict with Smoker and Law trading slashes, Smoker morphing around him and putting him in a chokeslam, and then at the last second Law substitution jutsu-ing himself out of there set the tone. It was a reminder that these two have insane powers. During this conflict Law changed the bullets coming at him with the snow which partly counters my theory that you could snipe him outside of his room yet also doesn't as if the room isn't set up you could get a sneak attack on him, and if he isn't quick enough to observe it, it will still hit him. Smoker mostly kept Law on the defensive as he rushed at him and Law launched everything he could at Smoker, it was awesome, and for the killing blow to be obscuring Smoker’s view and ducking his jitte and knocking his heart out, that is awesome too. I think it was last thread I was saying the only way I could have imagined Law being scary is if he holds people's hearts in his hand, and yes it was certainly scary for him to actually do so.
But what confuses me is why Law’s cuts which seem to slice everything in the room apart don’t cut Smoker’s jitte, is it haki related, is it due to him stopping the slash before it has enough force, or is it the sea prism stone? Another thing is why Smoker was seemingly pierced by that initial rock when he’s a logia and it should have easily passed through him and not really stunted him at all. Another thing is, if Law can swap hearts like we've seen, why did he have to scalpel the heart out, why not replace his heart with something else in the room and step on it or something? These questions definitely confused me during the fight. It does appear that Law’s cuts go through the entirety of the room he’s created and he can only manipulate things through momentum or replacing them with other things. It also made sense that if Smoker did land a hit and pin Law down like he did with Luffy in Marineford the fight may have been done!
Luffy's group are riding Brown Beard to the others and we confirmed that despite Brown Beard being "boss", the master is a higher position and they are in this together. The winter coats all looked good and I loved how sweet it was for Brook to want to join on their feeling of cold.
Master got information on all that’s going on, despite this being a bad situation he quickly decided that everyone has to die and called in “Joker”. Monet seems to have taken interest in the Straw Hats and is keeping her eyes on what’s going on for master. We also heard that the dragon is “Vegapunk’s dragon” so Vegapunk created it and master has been using it. Master’s real identity is more and more interesting. So far Law, Master, and maybe this “Joker” are the only ones who seem that powerful on their side, but Monet is intimidating too so she may be.
Lastly, with the Sanji scene we saw that the kids have become exhausted and freezing, maneuvering around is getting hard. We had some hilarious dialogue with Nami being mad about Sanji being a pervert in her body, but especially so in Franky telling Nami “not to button up his aloha shirt”! No one takes the hentai out of Franky! I also found it very interesting that Chopper was able to feel cold in the way a human would through this experience, and it's good to keep in mind that Brook not having flesh can’t get cold!
Edit: I discussed Law with my friend and realized that every time he body swapped people he did cut out their hearts, or at least what looked like their hearts for the Straw Hats(my friend thinks he's swapping souls which could explain a lot and explain Smoker's body functioning without a heart). Importantly though, this seems to imply he can only swap things on the outside of the body with other things like that, if he wants to do things with their insides he has to cut them out first. After using scalpel or cutting the Straw Hats he can then manipulate them however he wants and "shambles".
I also feel that he does have some more weaknesses despite such a strong power. Namely, he has to be able to keep up with someone and react to them, and he can be vulnerable without a room up so that's susceptible to surprise attacks.
Trafalgar's battle with Smoker was awesome but it was apparent that the fight's victor was already decided from the start. Removing Smoker's actual heart was brutal as hell and to think that he'd done this at least a hundred times already is rather frightening.
I guess this is what the new world is going to be, the bigs fighting the bigs. Pretty epic devil fruit fight. I bet Law wants more power so he's shifted alliances to anyone who will advance that. Going to be necessary in the New World.
Clearly got the high budget animators in for that fight sequence. Quite the breath of fresh air over some of the recent fighting we've seen.
What I'm confused about now is how Law was able to hit Smoker multiple times, especially with that unexpected finish. With all the repetition and monologuing by sideline characters, why didn't they confirm Law making use of Haki? Surely that's the only way he managed beat Logia-type Smoker as he did? I dout Smoker as a now Vice-Admiral would be getting that lax against an opponent as skilled as Law.
Highly doubt they'll kill off Smoker now when he's been to Luffy what Garp was to Roger. Will be a question of how Smoker gets his heart back from Law and which side Luffy will be taking, if any.
Damn can’t believe law best smooker. It was not completely one sided, but law was never in danger. He is a true force in this world right now. I’ll be interested to see when Luffy arrives how he falls into this 3 way.
Still wonder what gas monster doing here. Crazy arc