One Piece 1141 Review: Unchained

One Piece, Chapter 1141: Older Women

No word from the Gods' Knights side of the storyline, but we do move characters around super-fast in this chapter. Nami and Rodo essentially return to the party with the two wounded guards from the castle, with a gag where Nami continually bemoans 'treasure' this and 'loot' that, while Rodo keeps trying to distract the half-conscious guards.

We also check in with Franky and Ripley, who gives a bit of a world-building setting update on the Adam Tree, and also tells us that the older branches of the Adam Tree is made up of petrified wood and is very flammable, showing Franky the stump that used to hold an entire village that they had to sever and amputate to stop the fire from spreading. Franky makes it a point to note that Elbaf's greatest weakness is 'fire and lightning', which sounds ominous!

In the party, Usopp has gotten super duper drunk, and has really let loose. There is a gag where he asks Elder Jarl about what his type of woman is, and with a zoom-in, we get the title of this chapter. "Older women". Usopp then whacks the sword embedded on Jarl's head, which causes him pain. Dorry and Brogy stop Usopp, stating that if the sword is removed it would cause Jarl to die from blood loss. I don't know if this is a gag, or if it's leading to some foreshadowing about the importance of that sword. There's a nice scene later on as Nami and Jinbe sit and acknowledge happily that this is Usopp's huge dream. 

...which, again, I really hope, even if nothing else impresses me in Elbaf, that we actually get some exploration to Usopp's dream being fulfilled and/or challenged. 

Rodo, meanwhile, has brought the wounded guards to Gerd, who is the New Giant Warrior Pirates' doctor. She is immediately suspicious about Rodo's rather terrible cover story and his poor acting. After some bad excuses, Gerd whacks Rodo with her battleaxe and forces him to spill the beans off-screen. Also off-screen, I guess, Sanji joins this little group because we see him looking for Gerd. 

Luffy and Zoro, meanwhile, has gone down to the Realm of the Dead, finding the wounded Loki and the dead/dying animals around him. Loki is rendered unconscious from a combination of the wounds and the seastone. We get Luffy and Zoro arguing a bit on whether to free Loki. Zoro is still rightfully suspicious after knowing about all of his bad reputation, and Zoro's way of testing whether Loki is actually wounded? Jump up and kick him in the wound. And his next comment when Loki faints, "if he's dead, that's his fate". Pretty badass! Irresponsible and brutal, but badass. 

Zoro decides to obey Luffy at that point and starts going around unlocking Loki's chains, although he tells Luffy that he's going to leave one seastone around one of his legs to keep him subdued at the very least. There's also an interesting discussion where Zoro wants to feed the wounded Loki with the available meat of the fallen animals, but Luffy has considered these guys his friends after that encounter with Conqueror's Haki, which is nice. I don't think Loki would appreciate being fed the meat of his dead pets anyway. 

Luffy's attempt to go get a doctor is interrupted when the entire New Giant Warrior Pirates -- plus Sanji -- falls down on a ship down from the upper realm to the Realm of the Dead. Hajurdin was in such a hurry to save Elbaf that he ignored his crewmates' concerns that the flying clouds would disappear in this lower realm. It's a very Straw-Hat-impulsiveness thing for them to do. Luffy goes full Balloon (which is impressively large) to cushion the fall... but then we get a gag of the boat being launched away and we hard-cut to a wounded, post-fall Hajrudin thanking Luffy for the rescue. 

Hajrudin begs Luffy not to free Loki, and gives us perhaps one of the less abstract reasons why -- ever since they were kids, Loki always lied and betrays other people without a second thought. This warning comes a bit too late, however, because the last two pages is a nice shot of Loki, chains of, looming above Luffy like the monstrous giant that he is. That is a very cool shot, and we end with a shot of Loki smiling. 

Pretty cool! We've been building up Loki for a while, and I really do wonder what we'll have from him!

Random Notes:

• Inari Shrine Pilgrimage Cover Story: Who's Who and his goons are beating up Page One while Ulti cries. How villainous! What a setup for a heroic rescue and a heel face turn for the two likable villains!
• Brook, who is also drunk in the party, is playing a guitar while his head (which we know is detachable) is attached to his crotch. Yes. I was very confused what I was looking at when I saw that panel. 
• So... 'Older Women' is the chapter title, huh? That feels so random. Yes, I know Jarl said it as his preference. But it really adds nothing to the chapter as a whole, which ends up causing a bit of a conspiracy theory because if it's not relevant in the future, why else would it be given so much focus as a chapter title? 
• I am more than a bit disappointed that this marks the end of Nami's involvement with the 'main' group, though I guess we're getting Sanji in her place. But I really would've liked a bit more focus for our supposed main characters, you know?
• The giant world tree burning? This is very World of Warcraft, from probably one of the last good expansions before I feel the lore of that game jumped the shark something fierce. 
• I like that despite being on our side, Oda is still consistent on keeping Rodo as being kind of an unpleasant person. His inner monologue has him note that he really doesn't give a shit if Loki raises hell as long as it's not in Elbaf. 
• It was a bit hard to tell because we only had humans to scale with him before (and also, he was chained up) but Zoro notes that Loki is "as big as Oars" and the final spread of him standing up makes it clear that Loki is quite a lot bigger than an average giant like Hajrudin or Dorry. 
• I actually like the mental image of Zoro scurrying around like a bug unlocking the chains on Loki while Luffy and Hajrudin are talking, very explicitly ignoring all of the warnings that Hajurdin's gang is saying. 
• Loki's weapon is apparently called Ragnir.