One Piece, Chapter 1065: The Six Faces of Vegapunk
A very interesting chapter! It realistically is just a single fight, and the introduction of the rest of the Vegapunks as well as the Jinbei Seraphim. Pretty cool on its own, but not entirely unexpected as far as characters we're waiting to show up in this arc goes. But... but the execution, plus the final revelations at the end? Superb!
Zoro and Brook have a discussion with Caribou about how since it's a government island, they needed to stay behind in case someone (like CP-9) comes to bail Vegapunk out. It is interesting that it's Brook instead of, oh, Robin or someone who's being cautious about counterattack, but eh. Caribou is also with them, out of his barrel, and Zoro just kinda "lets him go" and thanks him, when Caribou's scared shitless of the government island. I... I still really wonder what Caribou's point in the story is at this point? He's overheard a bunch of real important information from here and there that I am a bit curious what the payoff is going to be.
Lilith leads the Straw Hats into a room via a hologram door that became solid, and they come face-to-face with Seraphim #04, Jinbei, fresh off a clone tank. After a bit of a confusion on the identity of the Seraphim (Usopp makes the sensible guess that it might be Jinbei's son) but Franky quickly recognizes the flaming, non-speaking Kid Jinbei as a Pacifista... who starts shooting laser beams all over the place.
Now all of this isn't really surprising to the audience... but what is surprising is Sera-Jinbei jumping into the floor and swimming through it. That is, of course, Senor Pink's Sui Sui no Mi, which Franky recognizes... and, well, whether Senor Pink got killed in imprisonment and got his fruit stolen, or, more likely, Vegapunk is able to duplicate his ability the way he duplicated Kizaru's lasers, remains to be seen.
But Sanji and Robin zoom in to protect Nami from SeraJinbei, unleashing a Diable Jambe kick and a Gigante Fleur barrage onto SeraJinbei respectively. He's taking it like a champ, though, and uses the very interesting combination of creating the terrain around him into water and his Fishman Karate. Usopp uses an exploding skull bomb, and Franky unleashes his Franky Radical Beam.
And then we cut away to the other Vegapunks we've not seen before! 'Flair' Edison is clearly collaborating with Lilith in fooling the Straw Hats into this SeraJinbei trap, and he's kind of a... dwarf-thing in a robot suit with bunny ears? He complains about how this Seraphim is just a kid and this is way too much risk for them... before getting distracted about ideas for new inventions. Vegapunk 'Wisdom' Pytahgoras, meanwhile, is this old-school clockwork-looking robot that reminds me of an Astro Boy enemy, who's just obsessed with collecting data. We later see he's even tinier than Edison, being a little orb with noodle-limbs that acts as the 'head' of the larger body. Also, Lilith is there complaining about budgets.
And then we cut to probably the most interesting Vegapunk in this dynamic, 'Desire' York, who's pigging out on food and later shits and sleeps -- and apparently she's taking care of all the Vegapunk bodies' bodily functions. A very unexpected addition, considering everyone else has been a mad scientist trope! In the midst of this all, Pythagoras notes that someone's Lineage Factors do store some of their muscle memory and capabilities, something about 'green blood', and something about accelerating the Seraphims' growth...
...before Shaka shows up with his Daft Punk helmet and his extremely cool jacket, stopping the Seraphim from fighting any further, and -- in something I kinda missed out last chapter -- uses the boots that they provided the Straw Hats to lock them in place. It's magnetic boots that forces the Straw Hats to stand in place. There is a very hilarious moment when Shaka introduces himself as Vegapunk, and Usopp goes "yes, I am Vegapunk too" which is hilarious.
Franky geeks out about the future technology as Shaka expounds about how this island looks like the future... but Shaka then talks about how it's contrary -- that Egghead is actually an island of the past. As Shaka talks to Franky about the highly advanced kingdom of 900 years ago, Team Luffy comes across a giant-sized mecha battlesuit in the palce that they are exploring in this island.
Dun dunn dunnnn?
DUN DUNNN DUNNNNNN!
Yep! We're working off of Breath of the Wild rules, Horizon Zero Dawn rules... there's an ancient, advanced civilization that's so super-advanced that their technology ends up being out-of-place robots in an archaic land. But I do really think that this has been foreshadowed pretty well, what with the mysteries surrounding the Void Century, the World Government withholding the progress of technology (which does still fit into their control freak mentality), Vegapunk constantly introducing themselves as 'humble, unremarkable scientists', the seemingly contradictory technological progression in the world, everything about the Enel cover story... it's still not obvious and a bit of a surprise... but man. The revelation that the Ancient Kingdoms are actually far more advanced than we thought they are... does this have anything to do with the Devil Fruits? How does this relate to the Ancient Weapons? What happened to cause the World Government to take over? How much of the ancient technology is left behind?
What a goddamn cliffhanger, is what I'm saying!
Random Notes:
- This isn't the first time we've actually seen an escalator. Marie Geoise has that slave-powered travellator, and, rather strangely, Perospero created a Candy Escalator in Totland! Whether it's meant to be a tie-in or just a coincidence, I'm not sure.
- Lilith did talk a fair amount of creating alternate power sources with fire or an artificial sun... but we all know the best power source is COCA COLA.
- FUTURE KICK!
- That non-sequitur 'even the cat can help' bit is a Japanese idiom likely lost in translation. Basically 'I'll take help from even the cat' or something along those lines is an idiom that means 'I'll take all the help I can get'. I know this from Pokemon, where the move 'Assist' (where a cat Pokemon will borrow moves from its party members) is originally 'cat's paw', referencing this idiom.
Void century! Void century! We're heading for the deep lore now! So exciting!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Vegapunk actually managed to recreate devil fruits? We know he worked on creating some before with Ceasar's SMILE being a cheap knock off compared to Momo's dragon fruit. They also have ties to the revolutionaries, so maybe Vegapunk lied to the WG about it being a failure?
I guess King whole backstory and lunarian blood is gonna come into play with these new seraphim. Think they made them powerful young so they can grow up even stronger?
Void century! Void century!
DeleteI really do wonder how the devil fruits thing is going to be handled. I've seen a lot of speculation that the true nature of devil fruits might be something tied to these lost technologies -- that maybe they're not magical, and that SCIENCE isn't replicating them. No, maybe the Devil Fruits themselves are the result of ancient Void Century technology, and Vegapunk is merely trying his best to... well, it's probably the equivalent to a caveman trying to figure out how to create a gun from stone-age equipment, I guess.
There's always that confusing bit about how Vegapunk thinks Momonosuke's dragon fruit is a failure. We know it isn't, so I wonder if he actually lied to the World Government, or... or if Vegapunk's such a perfectionist that the different colour is what makes him think it's a failulre?
King's Lunarian heritage isn't the only thing that Vegapunk or MADS have been experimenting with, after all. We've seen the giant-making research crop up several times too, most prominently the Big Mom arc. Good ol' Vegapunk is just shoving every single possible DNA he can get on. He's basically making DBZ!Cell, isn't he?