Thursday 2 July 2015

One Piece 792 Review: This should've really happened last chapter

One Piece, Chapter 792: Prostrate


This is a good post-battle chapter. It deals with the ramifications of what's happened, ties up some loose ends, and delivers a far more impactful post-climax chapter than the bullshit from before, where it's just Gatz taking the entire chapter to blubber the same 'Lucy is awesome Doflamingo is shit we're all controlled puppets freedom blah blah' speech everyone has been giving. It's like we're dragging things out to have a big event in chapter 800 or some bullshit. This is a far superior chapter, but the impact is clearly diluted.

For starters, we start off with a single panel of people cheering -- a lot more palatable than having half the chapter just showing people cheering -- while Sabo looks on, having taken Burgess down. Really, can't we have the fight take place in the last chapter instead of Gatz bullshitting? So many things that could've happened that is far more interesting.

Burgess tries to taunt Sabo because he's a dick, talking about how Ace keeps begging them not to tell Luffy when he was defeated, and just tries to piss Sabo off, talking about how Ace didn't even think about the Marines using his life and how meaningless the gesture was. Sabo grabs Burgess by the face and shoots off this pretty terrifying angry face, while Burgess apparently is goading Sabo to get close so he can... uh, stab the Logia fruit user with a knife? I guess Burgess can use Armament Haki, but it's still kind of a moronic move on his part.

And Sabo just explodes Burgess with a Fire Fist, while proclaiming that he won't have any regrets. Burgess is done, but he's screaming as he's sent flying away so he's dead yet. Pretty good confrontation, but really, bit disappointing that we didn't get to see much of the fight.

Would be really cool to have Sabo actually kill Burgess, making him a hero we root for but with a twist since this is One Piece and no one but Ace and Whitebeard really dies (we haven't seen Monet and Vergo's bodies, so) and it would be a cool twist, but I guess that's a bit too dark.

Koala contacts Sabo, having trying to call him throughout the conversation with Burgess, and apparently they took a 'list' from Doflamingo's base or something. We get a little montage of the defeated Doflamingo pirates -- apparently Trebol is not blown up and Buffalo shows up again -- and they're cuffing them with Seastone cuffs. We don't get a closeup at Doflamingo's glasses-less face. See, these are the things that we really want to know from the conclusion: the Marines arresting the defeated bad guys, the ending of Sabo and Burgess' fight, the Revolutionaries' agenda... not some bullshit speech by Gatz and a godawfully long montage of people reacting to Birdcage being gone.

We also get Fujitora doing stuff, again, another plot point that people actually care about, and apparently he's forbidding contact with the HQ while broadcasting a speech to the neighbouring kingdoms. We get the citizens begging King Riku to be their king, even though he sees himself as a failure -- again, far more effective than just showing them cheering for an entire chapter. King Elizabello apparently also informed all the other kings about Riku's return, and Fujitora shows up and bows down to beg forgiveness because of all the evil that the Government has allowed to run rampant, and how this is undoubtedly the World Government's fault.

Apparently both Fujitora and Elizabello are just conspiring to let the world know how badly Doflamingo and the World Government has fucked up before they get orders to do otherwise, which is pretty awesome! Fujitora just gave the World Government a giant middle finger so they can't cover it up like they did Alabasta. And the chapter closes with a news article that the Luffy-Law alliance has defeated Doflamingo.

Pretty awesome stuff, from start to finish. Why did we need the previous chapter again? This is how you do a proper post-climax wrap up chapter. You can have things actually, y'know, happen in it. Wrap up plot threads. Not just a goddamned montage and an anal speech stretched out over twenty pages. Jeez. So what's up with CP0? They're not doing anything? What's up with Big Mom? Still a bunch of questions, but hey, this is still a great chapter.

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