One Piece, Chapter 1113: Stalemate
And... we finally have the message of Dr. Vegapunk, and the whole chapter kind of builds up to it. We first get to see St. Marcus Mars walk up to Punk Records, seeing the giant brain of Vegapunk... which isn't just a cartoonishly large brain like an old-school cartoon but also includes the skull, skin and hair of Vegapunk itself. It's literally like he lobbed off the big, expanded head we saw in some of the flashbacks and shoved it into a sci-fi Bacta Tank or something. Mars makes some comment about the giant brain in Punk Records before crushing what seems to be the streaming Den Den Mushi, but turns out that it's a fake decoy. Which... you could kind of guess that it was in the cliffhanger of the previous chapter.
We get to see the rest of the world, and some reactions from people, and... many of these are guys we haven't seen reacted to Vegapunk's announcement before. And I assume this first scene is Oda's little nod towards the Netflix live-action, because it's Kaya, Merry and the three Usopp Pirates hanging out and listening to the announcement in Kaya's mansion. We get to see Laboon and Crocus in Twin Capes, and we get to see Vegapunk's old hometown of Baltimore where Franky was sent in the timeskip. We also get to see the Tori-no Kingdom where Chopper was sent in the timeskip, and a brief shot of Hachinosu.
It's at this point that Mars realizes he's been duped, turns back into his demon bird form and bursts out of the Punk Records all cawing and being angry and stuff. While Saturn might've fucked up a bit badly in the previous couple of chapters, I think Mars now holds the idiot ball and the other Gorosei seem rather angry with him particularly since they know Vegapunk means to finish what Clover of Ohara started... and it's great to see the more human faces of Saturn and Ethan actually sweatdrop a bit. Again, they were so pissed when Clover is just about to say the name of the Ancient Kingdom to a bunch of Cipher Pol agents and ordered his execution. Vegapunk's going to say a whole lot more to the entire world.
Ethanbaron is about to attack Bonney and Franky, and Franky's ready to fight back against this demon skeleton centaur samurai Gandhi... but then SANJI zips in and kicks Ethanbaron right in the jaw and god damn, that panel... it looked like it hurt. Ethan's jaw actually looked like Sanji dealt some serious damage to it, and while it doesn't quite get as big of a panel as Franky beating Red King or Kuma beating Saturn, it's still a pretty badass shot! And Sanji actually seemed to make Ethanbaron bleed, Armament Haki notwithstanding, which is, again, pretty impressive.
Ethanbaron's body transforms and I'm not sure what's going on, but it seems that while his head is covered in flames (Sanji's or his own?) the horse head of his Bakotsu beast mode emerges out of Ethan's shoulder and chomps down onto Sanji's body. But even as the Vegapunk announcement is going on in the background, Oimo and Kasshi zip in and dogpile Ethanbaron, and Bonney uses her powers to get a "giant-ish" future, goes giant, and is about to stop her cylindrical boot down on Ethan's ass.
As Vegapunk continues to talk, he also notes that this particular message is designed to be transmitted the moment his heart stops beating... which, again, to remind everyone to a character that hasn't shown up in a while, Kizaru was the one that shot Vegapunk straight in the heart. There are a couple of interesting stuff about just how Vegapunk's arranged for this. People are confused, and we get some cameos from Duval in Sabaody; Caesar Clown and Judge who reformed Neo-MADS in the cover stories; and Morgans bawling about how all this streaming stuff is going to totally kill print media.
In a nice callback to themes explored earlier in the arc, Vegapunk notes that he doesn't want to assign morality to anyone, since science and progress aren't moral, they aren't good nor evil. Vegapunk does say to not judge 'him' who struck him down, which... honestly is ambiguous enough to be able to mean Luffy (who the public would think is the killer), Kizaru (the guy that fired the proverbial bullet), or even either Saturn or Imu. Both Luffy and Saturn seem to be what Oda wants us to consider, since Duval was reacting to how Vegapunk was supposedly being held hostage by Luffy; and the shot cuts away right to Saturn afterwards, but it is interesting to think about who Vegapunk is talking about right here.
Speaking of Saturn, he scuttles up towards the Straw Hats on the clouds and finally Robin realizes what's going on. I think this was the reason why Robin was kept offscreen throughout the whole post-York sequence, because Robin actually knows what the Gorosei sound like due to overhearing their call with Clover so many years ago. She basically goes into a bit of a PTSD when she sees Saturn.
And Saturn realizes who Robin is and is about to attack with his noodle spider-legs. But with a yell of "PROTECT ROBIN!" the rest of the Straw Hats move in to fight Saturn.
Again, this is just like Enies' Lobby and I love it. Luffy isn't here, but the rest of the Straw Hats are holding their ground against someone far, far scarier than the judges of Enies' Lobby or CP-9. This is Saint Jaygarcia Saturn, Godhead of Science and member of the Gorosei, in his full ushi-oni spider form, with enough capability to go toe-to-toe with Luffy. He's here fighting against some of the weakest Straw Hat members... and they're just there willing to jump straight into helping and protecting Nico Robin, gods be damned.
Pretty gerat showing of what they did, too. Chopper's Guard Point is able to block one of the claws. Nami knocks Robin out of the way and sics Zeus in club form to knock back against two of Saturn's claws. Usopp is shooting some explosions, and BROOK CUTS OFF ONE OF SATURN'S LEG. Again, not the most impressive thing to do to a creature that we saw could regenerate, but it's fucking badass. It's even more fucking badass because these are the weaklings of the Straw Hat pirates, and when they said they would fight the world to protect Robin, they damn well mean it.
And as Mars panics about where the message is, as York tries to figure out where Vegapunk hid the snail... we also get a brief discussion from Saturn and Topman that they can't destroy the island without losing the Mother Flame, and that's their priority.
And Vgeapunk drops the first of hopefully many lore bombshells... "the world is going to sink into the ocean".
A huge WTF moment, but not one that hasn't been foreshadowed before. Lulucia's destruction caused water levels to rise everywhere... Aqua Laguna's been terrorizing Water Seven. Long Ring Long Land has themes of it being flooded periodically. Marie Geoise and the Lunarian Kingdom are located on the very top of the Red Line, a big-ass mountain that is presumably a bit more immune to sinking. And if the world is going to sink in a time that can be quantified, it even fits suddenly explains why Gol D. Roger is "too early" for a certain thing to happen.
And... I really don't have much to say. Love to see Sanji and the weaklings separately engage the Gorosei, love the huge revelation, love seeing people all around the world. And I await what comes next!
Random Notes:
- I do really like the double-page cover page for this chapter, with Robin playing chess and the rest of the Straw Hats as the chess pieces, with the theme of Luffy being a king piece that can run around the battlefield with gleeful abandon because he's the motherfucking sun god. It even fits with the 'Stalemate' chapter title!
- One of the theories that I think makes sense for Vegapunk is that the 'Stella' we've been seeing all this while is now counted as a satellite as well, and the true 'core' Vegapunk is the brain. After all, the Nomi Nomi no Mi didn't deactivate and reincarnate elsewhere, and Mars even makes comments whether Vegapunk is really alive or not.
- Yep, in the Netflix show Merry's dead and the three Usopp juniors don't exist!
- Some of the background characters in Baltimore are actually cosplaying as Franky or the Thousand Sunny, and... somehow, despite blowing up the island, it appears Franky's at least somewhat more popular than we expect there.
- It is weird and somewhat odd that Mars doesn't actually kill the Den Den Mushi once he sees that it's a regular one and not a streaming one. You'd think he wouldn't respect or care about a Den Den Mushi's death, but I guess Oda doesn't care to kill animals the way Araki does.
- We also do get shots of other random countries that we've not visited before, like what I assume is the hometown of the Long-Arm tribe, some random placce where people live in tents, and a place where it's raining.
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