One Piece 829 Review: Big Mom's Eating Problem

One Piece, Chapter 829: Charlotte Linlin, the Pirate

It's a slower chapter, but still one that revealed a huge ton. Despite being a huge presence in numerous arcs by virtue of being a Yonko, Big Mom herself is still an enigma. We knew she's eccentric, loves food and the structure of her pirate organization, but scant little about the woman herself. Well, this chapter kinda fixes that. We start off with some pretty generic introdump about what the Straw Hats are doing, basically trusting Pudding and sailing to where Sanji is with some obligatory funny moments that I don't particularly care about.

The big scene in this chapter is certainly Big Mom's rampage on her own capital, Whole Cake Island. Big Mom apparently has a huge problem that she transforms into a giant and goes on a rampage whenever she gets a certain craving, and in this chapter she's enraged because she wants a Croquembouche. We see Baron Tamago and a lot of important-looking dudes just be in an insane state of panic because this Croquembouche isn't exactly easy to find or make, and the presence of food/sweet ministers make a bit more sense. They're not just indulging Big Mom's sweet tooth -- it literally is a matter of life and death for these guys.

We see the entirely wasted landscape left in Big Mom's wake with those disney dancing trees and whatnot all left destroyed, and she's going around eating random talking food-people. One of her own children, the Gelato Minister Muscat, tries to talk her down, asking for thirty minutes. Big Mom is completely crazed, and goes 'Life or Treat', which sounds horrifying with her face like that. Apparently if you cower, she will take your life span away, but Big Mom's scary -- so scary that she ripped out her own son's soul and eats it.

Jinbe shows up with a sentient pile of cream puffs, and lobs them into Big Mom's mouth. They were apparently staying in a nearby hotel, and Jinbe tracked them down, and it's honestly quite dark for Jinbe's big heroic rescue to be accompanied with the Croquembouche going all 'we're gonna get eaten save us nooo'. Big Mom immediately calms down after that, and apparently Jinbe gave Big Mom a gift of a poneglyph... but Jinbe asks an audience with Big Mom for another reason. A reason that Big Mom immediately guessed -- Jinbe wants to leave her crew. And Big Mom doesn't look happy at all with that prospect.

Well, Big Mom's insane! If there is anyone who thinks that Big Mom will merely be a quirky-but-ultimately-good Yonkou that will turn out to be reasonable and ally herself with Luffy, yeah. She's crazy. Well, there's a reason why Jinbe took like three IRL years to even join Luffy's crew, I guess. It's interesting.