The abstract Sunny Security crew reaction in the opening was absolutely literal. I was wrong about Kanjuro being on the ship, it was Giolla of the Trebol army. With her being one of Trebol’s, Violet being under him too, it makes him the most pronounced executive with Diamante as the second most, this may suggest Trebol will be the first executive to be majorly focused on. Giolla has the power to turn everything into abstract art using her mind and she was characterized thus far as being eccentric and pretentious, thinking that only she understands the beauty of her creations and having the ideas overflow through her mind turning reality into something beautiful. The fact that she revealed herself by changing the Sunny before confronting them may imply her inclination for artistry can get in the way of her missions. Anyways, she turned the crew into painting people and it created a frantic situation. The Sunny Security team ended up escaping in a cool fashion, Nami blocking the second attack, Chopper splitting up to open the doors then jumping down onto the submarine with Brook as Nami and Momo took the waver. This quick thinking to refuse fighting on the ship and harming it and the execution of the plan partly proved Franky’s words about their strength but the plan didn’t work. Giolla stayed true to her missions, limiting the Straw Hats escape by hijacking the Sunny and kidnapping Momo. The latter is interesting and it continues to add to the Doflamingo-Wano lads connection and Momo’s fear of him, as does it not care for anyone but Momo. A part of me wants Franky to get a fight with her to get some ship ruining payback, and as for how they can fix the ship I had three ideas. The first is that if she is like Decken then maybe knocking her out or killing her would eliminate the mental connection between her and her art. The second would be forcing her into reverting the changes herself which could be fun. And the third could be as simple as washing off with water but if that was the case I think we’d see the Sunny smudging as the waves hit it.
Ricky refused to get treatment as he didn’t want the others to see his face and he showed disdain for the practice of the colosseum, something Cavendish and possibly Baratolomeo did as well. Ricky criticized the hypocrisy of them forcing their fighters into treatment while letting them die for entertainment. Cavendish earlier criticized the audience as bestial. And Bartolomeo called them all disgusting and harassed them, he notably didn’t want them to like him. It seemed implicit that it was for the same reason that the others find this practice, hosts and audience included, distasteful. After that he internally apologized to Rebecca and had a flashback akin to the toy soldiers, he appeared to be a father figure to her which only strengthens this Rebecca/Soldier/Ricky/Kyros link that has been seen throughout this arc. Say if Rebecca is Kyros’ daughter which goes to show her connection to him, and Ricky is Kyros in disguise then maybe he was forced to disappear due to Doflamingo which would explain his anger towards him and his apology for leaving his daughter behind. If Rebecca was in the single digits back then and now she’s in her twenties then the gap of Kyros disappearing could match up. Perhaps the toy soldier took over for Kyros in raising her when he was gone. The only hole in this theory I can think of is if Kyros is Ricky and Ricky doesn’t like the colosseum then why would he participate within it for so long to become the ultimate champion. And further, if Doflamingo did exile him or something then why would a statue of him be up?
The Don Quixote waiting room did what I suppose is the next step. As Bellamy failed his dream he was out of the story so the way to keep him in is for Diamante to give Doflamingo’s order to Bellamy. The order that if he assassinates Luffy after this round then he will be able to achieve his dream. He has a second chance! I was anticipating that Diamante would play dirty to eliminate Luffy but I didn’t anticipate this as much as it makes narrative sense! It marked something pretty human in Bellamy too, despite his dream being reborn, he’s not eager to kill someone who just cheered him on. He’s definitely not eager to kill someone that I think he admitted his respect towards, saying that where Bellamy has failed to change and grow; Luffy has. Even if he is a rotten person, he has limits and this may be one of them. I’m sure he may still go through with it because it’s really his last chance this time. But, I can’t imagine he’ll do it eagerly. And, I just wanted to say, Bellamy is a testament to One Piece storytelling. He was around back in Jaya and he’s back now, but like Buggy or Crocodile, it isn’t at all contrived. He was working for Doflamingo back then, he’s changed and grown but he’s still under Doflamingo and because of that it makes total sense for Luffy to run into him. Even though hundreds of episodes have passed, Bellamy’s place in the world feels true and he continues to be explored today. That’s like, righteous! I admire Oda’s writing so much.
After those, there are two small moments to touch on. The first is Bartolomeo confronting Cavendish. They are so adorable together, they are polar opposites in a way, the crass punk who wants everyone to hate him and the elegant prettyboy who wants everyone to love him. It makes them just conversing with each other enough to put a smile on my face. But more than that and the cute fork threatening, we had Bartolomeo say that he wants to kill Luffy creating another Chinjao-Cavendish situation. But unlike Cavendish who has a shallow reasoning, Bartolomeo stated their connection runs deep only enhancing our curiosity for just who Bartolomeo is working for. The other thing to mention is that Luffy has become a total fan favorite, tearing through the ring with his friend brutal bull! I would almost say that the people could be swayed by Luffy’s popularity for benefit against Doflamingo but with how everyone looked at Franky for discussing hurting Doflamingo and their love for him, I somewhat doubt that. Regardless, I have to criticize what came from Luffy and brutal bull a little. The giant Hajrudin made an intriguing comment about a giant eating a logia but he was just fodder for the predictable. Whereas One Piece normally makes me care for animals as much as the humans, brutal bull was just an angry bull that was swayed by Luffy. There isn’t a connection there which made for the makeshift funeral and angry punch to feel emotionally dissonant and so predictable that, while fun, it felt stale. Almost like we were just going through the motions. |