One Piece 1083 Review: Admiral Level

One Piece, Chapter 1083: The Truth About That Day

So yeah, we get the actual flashback to what happened at the Reverie, which I believe was a chapter released almost 5 years ago? Honestly, I didn't really think too much of what is 'revealed' to us this chapter are particularly groundbreaking. Partly it's because the fandom has speculated a whole lot about this, but also because... well, it's kind of as obvious as 'Sabo survived!' last chapter. It's not a matter of if he'll survive, it's a matter of how he survived that's the question. 

The conversation between Sabo, Dragon and Ivankov is a recap of what went on, and it's interesting to know that they had three objectives. We know that they destroyed a symbol of the Celestial Dragons (which is a very Iron Man 2 "I made god bleed" vibe) and they rescued Kuma and the other slaves. One thing we didn't know is that Sabo and company went and blew up Marie Geoise's food reserves, which is... not something I didn't think they would do, but siege tactics would be extremely useful and one way to win in a siege -- as Kingdom taught me -- is to starve out the enemy. Off-screen, the Revolutionaries are sinking supply ships that carry food and resources up to the very well-protected (but thus very hard-to-reach) land of Marie Geoise. There's also Ivankov's line later on where he got very excited at the World Nobles experiencing a modicum of poverty that some people in the world do.

Interestingly, Dragon also notes that there's uprisings in twelve nations among the world, eight of which was successful... but one of them is Lulusia, which we know got orbital-nuked out from the face of the planet. It's rather depressing to realize that four nations' rebellions, inspired by Sabo, ended up just... failing.

Dragon also mentions how the real battle will start when the Celestial Dragons mobilize the God's Knights, which was mentioned in passing as a group that'll watch over the conflict between different Celestial Dragons... but as how Dragon describes it, it seems like they're basically a whole new group like the Shichibukai or whatever. And... I'm going to assume they're around the same level of the Shichibukai or CP-0, or slightly stronger, otherwise it does beggar some disbelief why the God's Knights haven't joined the Admirals in attacking the Yonko. Unless there's some actual reason why the God's Knights aren't involved. Maybe they are just Celestial Dragons, and refuse to partake in the wars of the common folk or some shit?

Anyway, I also really do love how Dragon and Sabo acknowledge that they know that King Cobra is a good king and a good man, but as callous as it is, it's far more useful for their cause to fuel the flames of rebellion. It's honestly typical propaganda, and if you know anything about how history is handled, a lot of presidents and rulers in real life are portrayed to be much better or much worse than they actually are. 

We get to see the picture in Big News Morgans' propaganda, showing Sabo looming scarily above the dead body of Nefertari Cobra, and we get a full-on flashback to the Reverie. It is very cathartic to see the Celestial Dragons all running around in panic as their Holy City gets set on fire. Even when panicking, these Celestial Dragons continue being complete jackasses, getting angry at the 'common folk' for being so jealous that they take away their food. Honestly, the idea that their lives are potentially in mortal danger didn't even cross through their mind! And even as they call for help, one of the Celestial Dragons demand that the bodyguards all get executed. 

One of the Celestial Dragons is whipping a very classic looking pirate slave, and is ready to execute him for being so tired that he's making him walk. And then a crow swoops in and knocks his gun away. Interesting that Karasu doesn't actually just... like, okay, maybe not kill the guy, but maim his face or some shit. Karasu gets a couple of named attacks, while the government guys open fire on his body. And Karasu gets riddled with rounds so much that he explodes into dust... or rather, soot. We finally learn his Devil Fruit name, and it's the Soot Soot Fruit, and he swoops through them and blasts them with some soot constructs. 

Lindbergh goes around shooting and freeing random slaves, instructing them to go to the East side of the city and escape... while Karasu clashes with Fujitora. He sends in a horde of crows and Fujitora is slashing around, and I do believe that I have been underestimating the Revolutionary commanders. As this chapter makes clear, the Admirals are prevented from using their strongest attacks and abilities due to the collateral damage to the Celestial Dragons, but still, the fact that Karasu and Morley are able to go toe-to-toe with them is honestly pretty impressive. 

Particularly like the giant fighting between Morley and Ryokyugyu, who transforms into this giant broccoli Groot kaiju form. They look insanely big next to the houses. I know Morley is a giant, but is Morley able to transform his body into even bigger? The Celestial Dragons yell at Ryokyugyu and demands his head if any of them get hurt, frustrating the wood-man. There's a hilarious panel where Fujitora is about to call in a meteor strike... and I do wonder if Fujitora did get a little pissed off at the nobles. As the token 'man of the people' among the Admirals, I really wouldn't put it past Fujitora. 

We then get to see the rest of the old CP-9 agents, all dressed in CP-0 outfits, where they comment that in any other battlefield, the two Admirals would easily trounce the Revolutionaries, but the Revolutionaries are, well, doing pretty well to stand their ground. Notably, they're not fighting! They could be fighting Linbergh or someone.

The chapter then continues with Sabo looking for the keys to the slave neck-bomb collars, upon which he stumbles upon Kuma, being ridden by the recurring jackasses Roswald and Charlos. Charlos still wants to take Shirahoshi as his pet, and he really needs to get whacked in the head again by Mjosgard, huh? This is when Bonney is running around, too, so an encounter between them is inevitable. Speaking of which, Vivi is arguing with Lucci, mocking Lucci's insistence of 'protection' because he did jack-all in protecting Shirahoshi from Charlos. Meanwhile, Cobra is about to get his fateful audience with the Gorosei, and he is very optimistic about the meeting and even tells Chaka and Pell to stay behind. 

Again, I don't think it's a particularly huge revelation that Cobra gets killed by the Gorosei (or the God's Knights) and this meeting will go south, leading to all the events we knew happened after the Reverie. It's not a question of whether Cobra died or whether Sabo is innocent, because we knew those two things are true... it's just that what kind of information is revealed to them, and I really am excited to see the next chapter more than this one, honestly. 

Random Notes:

• I honestly didn't think too much about it, but everyone and their mother thinks that the central silhouette among the God's Knights looks a lot like Shanks. It's... it's honestly generic enough for me, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone from Shanks' family is one of the God's Knights. Don't really think Shanks himself is one, though. I don't think that's the twist Oda will do.
• There has also been a lot of speculation that the Shanks that meets the Gorosei almost a hundred chapters ago isn't really Shanks, but this Shanks-lookalike among the God Knights. 
• Normally I don't really talk about the cover art when there isn't a cover story going on, but man, it's kinda surreal to see Doflamingo taking care of a wounded baby bird, huh? Despite Doflamingo's cruelty I wouldn't even call this too much out-of-character, considering how Doflamingo does take good care of his family to a point.
• The uprising in Lulusia does give us an idea of what's going on in the other eleven nations that had an uprising -- they overthrew their kings, which they saw as puppets of the World Government. In addition to the whole 'let's not pay the heavenly tribute' thing that Dragon mentioned in this chapter, of course. 
• Are the Gorosei God's Knights?
• So it's not a murder-of-crows logia, but just... soot. I guess Karasu really likes crows and ravens, huh? Can't blame him, those are cool birds. 
• We've seen Kalifa and Blueno in non-canon movies as part of the CP-0, but this is the first time we've ever seen Jabra, Kumadori or Fukurou at all after the timeskip.