One Piece 1116 Review: Information Dump to the World

One Piece, Chapter 1116: Conflict

This is a much calmer chapter compared to the previous two, mostly because we stop short of actually getting a particularly huge big-badda-boom revelation to stop as. No "Joy Boy is the first pirate" or "the world is sinking", and I think it's meant for the more casual readers or the tankobon readers to actually have all the revelations of the previous couple of chapters sink in. Obviously it's a bit frustrating for the weekly readers, but this is the type of repetition that really reinforces the hype of the events going on. 

We do get another shot of Imu glaring on a picture that I think we can assume to be Nefertari D. Lili, all the while the world is confused about the existence of a 800-year war and the world-sinking weapons being out there somewhere. 

We get a shot of the people in Alabasta, with Igaram and Caroo crying over missing photos of Vivi, and shots of Chaka and Pell residing over the Egyptian-style coffin of Nefertari Cobra. Vegapunk gives a whole speech about how he had created an energy source, an infinite energy source for the world... which is the Mother Flame. I think we can already put two and two together. But the big revelation was that a small chunk of the Mother Flame was stolen, and that was what the World Government used to wipe Lulusia off of the map. 

I think the big revelation to me was that it's only a small chunk of the Mother Flame, instead of the World Government having a duplicate Mother Flame or the World Government being able to access the energy from the Egghead Mother Flame. I don't think either way it's a particularly huge revelation, though it does confirm that York's the one behind all of this. 

I do also like that this chapter does help to tie up Vegapunk's character development and the themes around him, because he starts off the Mother Flame speech being so excited about the great stuff that this new source of energy can do... the world can live in abundance, it's infinite energy, yadda yadda... and he actually finally apologizes, a dead man's final recording, bowing down in atonement as he breaks down and reveals to the world that it was his invention that annihilated Lulusia from the face of the planet. It's this thing -- and whatever Vegapunk's going to do after this -- that's really going to make him into a proper character instead of just a wacky plot device, and honestly with all of what we've seen Vegapunk do throughout the flashbacks, it's a surprisingly neat story for a character we just met in this arc. 

There's some reaction to Ethan's massive slash last chapter, but we don't actually see Ethan here. Instead, the focus is Edison yelling at Stussy to get out, and Stussy showing a bit of a heart as she wants to let Kaku out of the bubble, not wanting Kaku to suffer from all of this. It's a combination of Stussy trying to figure out her brand-new humanity, as well as all the Vegapunks trying to insist that Stussy can choose her own direction in life. It's a storyline that feels a bit rushed with everything that's going on, but... at the same time, I also felt like Stussy has enough of a presence that I actually find her little character arc quite fun as well. 

Now the question is how much will Kaku actually help out our heroes, or if he's going to do the bare minimum and just skedaddle out of Egghead... we do see his expressions and they are pretty nicely conflicted. I like Kaku. I am interested to see what he's going to do next. 

Anyway, we cut to shots of the minor Revolutionaries -- these are like the vice-generals who got names a while back but I can't be arsed to look them up right now. What I do remember is Vice Admiral Comil, because I just have a bizarre fascination with vice admirals. He's the random triangle-headed guy with a mane of hair sprouting from the back of his head, and he's the Vice Admiral that Ace menaced in his cover story. 

A side-plot in that Ace cover story is that Ace helped out the milk girl Moda to get sweeteners to make the marine base's coffee taste good, and we get to see Comil hold a cup of coffee in his hand... but more importantly, milk girl Moda shows up in the very next panel, and we've been seeing her as the one Lulusia resident that we keep focusing on. God I love the Z-list plots going on in the background of One Piece. 

Anyway, Vegapunk keeps talking about how the Mother Flame is the only thing powerful enough to wipe out Lulusia, leading to some kings like King Elizabello panicking and saying something he probably doesn't get to say a lot -- telling his officials to go and confirm that an island was actually wiped off the face of the planet. As Vegapunk apologizes, there's a nice shot of the citizens of Baldimore pleading and telling Vegapunk that it's not his fault. He then talks about how there are ancient weapons, and the flooding of the world is indeed man made... 

And we cut to Wano with Momonosuke being super surprised. "Then, Pluton-" he begins, before Kin'emon, for whatever fucking reason, goes anti-spoiler and shushes Momonosuke. It really is a bit weird. We also get a brief no-context shot of Crocodile, the first real acknowledgement that Cross Guild is also listening to all this chaos. Yeah, if they aren't in the game before, you can bet they will be now. Speaking of ancient weapons, we also get to see Shirahoshi and the rest of the Ryugu Kingdom royalty listening in. 

We get, again, interestingly another warning from Vegapunk not to label either side good or evil, since he's just stating facts. It really is something rather sobering with how humanity and history tends to recall wars and conflicts, because of the way our tribalistic brains work. Vegapunk doesn't offer any real answers as to why the world is being sunk, but he also identifies that some people know what happens in its entirety. 

Very interestingly, we get to see a shot of Sengoku just munching a fuck-ton of rice crackers while Vice Admiral Tsuru admonishes him. He's stress-eating, and I can't blame him. More interestingly, Akainu is super-angry, breathing smoke from his mouth and lava-ing up his fists, and the language used does make it slightly ambiguous on whether he's pissed that Vegapunk is explaining everything (which he might already know), or he's just pissed that he doesn't know everything and demands that Vegapunk explain everything. Either way, after so long of seeing Akainu sit on the sidelines, I do want fire dog man to do stuff!

Vegapunk then drops the bombshell that the Pirate King's crew knows everything, too, which surprises the Marines and... does it really surprise me? No, not really. We get a shot of Crocus and Laboon just to hammer it home. 

We cut away from Vegapunk's speech to York, and I do like the little acknowledgement of something that I thought was just a handwave or a plot hole about the memory sharing. York is confused how Stellapunk was able to know about her theft of the Mother Flame, as well as noting that Stellapunk can't actually lie so his surprise at seeing York betray the other Vegapunks should've been genuine. It's something that doesn't add up, since Vegapunk was actually also taking readings about Lulusia, hiding the broadcast snail, and stuff... and this does add nicely to a new version of the otherwise-bland 'whodunnit' plot of early Egghead. 

After her confusion, York randomly realizes where the broadcast snail is and tells the Gorosei... which, again, isn't in the most mind-blowing location, but it's one that nicely ties in a fair amount of errant plot points going around. The snail is in the Fabriostratum, and is guarded by the Iron Giant. I think people figured out that the Iron Giant is going to be connected to the broadcast snail somehow with how we first saw Stella Vegapunk messing around with it, so it's not a particularly huge surprise. I'm just happy that the Iron Giant finally gets to actually participate in the plot instead of just looming ominously. 

The chapter ends with Vegapunk asking the rhetorical question about why the Roger Pirates didn't act despite knowing the whole history, while we get to see the greatest of the still-living Roger Pirates, "Dark King" Silvers Rayleigh... wasted out the fuck of his mind, in Sabaody, telling off Vegapunk about how he's being an ass and he should let the thrill of adventure and discovery be relegated to the youngsters. 

Pretty fun chapter, but it is admittedly one that isn't the most exciting comparatively to the previous batch of chapters. Looking forward to the next one, though!

Random Notes:

• Inari Shrine Pilgrimage Cover Story: Yamato gets a package from O-Tsuru. O-Tsuru has a scar on her face, but bizarrely, in the part of the capital city that she lives in is also... Urashima? The asshole sumo guy that Luffy beats up in the first arc of Wano? He's a douche! He should be in jail. 
• Dressrosa was where I first read One Piece weekly, and a side effect of that is that I have an inordinate amount of love for the Dressrosa gladiators and all of their different, random backstories... despite the insane way that Oda just vomited all of them for us! So seeing Elizabello II and Dagama back is a nice touch. 
• In a nice touch, the hieroglyphs on either side of Cobra's portrait are based on Anubis and Horus, and Chaka and Pell (who are both also based on Anubis and Horus) are seated on the respective side. 
• Between his commune with Zunesha and rading Oden's journal, I'm not surprised that Momonosuke knows a fuck-ton, but when did Kin'emon learn about this? And if Kin'emon knows, surely Momonosuke blurting it out in front of the other scabbards won't be a problem? I guess there's that one random generic samurai in front of Momo? And Tama's there too? 
• You can absolutely bet that despite Buggy 100% not knowing everything (on account on not coming off the boat to Laugh Tale), the World Government will saddle him with the mother of bounty increases because of the whole Roger's Crew Knows The Truth reasoning. 
• I completely forgot to mention it in the body of the review, but we get a random shot of Sandworm Ju Peter sucking up the fallen Cipher Pol agents. I almost want to say that Peter might be saving them, but I assume he's just getting rid of the insects that saw their true forms and also failed them.