One Piece, Chapter 1031: Loki, God of the Underworld
Of course, there's only so much seriousness that any conversation with Monkey D. Luffy can handle. Luffy just overreacts and unleashes a motormouth ramble as Loki tries to engage him in a conversation but Luffy just continues talking and talking and talking until Loki gets pissed, yells a bunch and tries to pull the "I am the Sun God and you shall not speak without my permission" card. Luffy... doesn't give a shit, and doesn't even acknowledge what Loki is saying, which is, I think, a lot more disrespectful than if Luffy had been angry and insulted by Loki.
Loki gives some backstory about how he has been chained up for six years, and how he is tied up to Jewel Tree Adam... which is the tree that Franky mentions the Thousand Sunny was made up of. I think it's been a commonly accepted theory that the 'Yggdrassil' in Elbaf is actually Adam, but we've never had proper confirmation until now. We also get confirmation that Loki has consumed the 'national treasure' Devil Fruit, being tied up with Seastone.
It is interesting that one of the things that Loki brings up is how he wants to be free and the importance of freedom. I'm not sure if this is actually genuine or if Loki is just parroting another thing that a Sun God is 'supposed' to say. Loki then tries to offer Luffy a deal of freeing him in exchange of Loki destroying a pirate crew for him. When Luffy doesn't jump at that, a group of giant creatures show up, with Loki introducing them as the local monstrous inhabitants. Loki gives a whole speech about how deadly these wastes are, and builds them up a fair bit... only for Luffy to instantly befriend them, even lampshading how this 'takes him back', presumably referring to Ruskaina.
There is also a group of plague-masked people that Loki identifies as being so wretched and useless that they have to dress up in rags and pretend to be corpses to survive the wastes. Those humans, meanwhile, just sound indignant at the uncalled-for verbal abuse.
These humans name-drop Shanks, and as Loki recovers from the sight of Luffy befriending the animals, he immediately jumps on the topic, asking Luffy is he's asking about that 'coward of a pirate'. In a surprising jump of panels, we go straight from the otherwise lighthearted conversation between the to straight to a shot of Luffy already in Gear Fourth Boundman, with an angry face and launching a Kong Gun smashing onto the tree next to Loki's head. The art makes it look like Loki was even forced to dodge!
Loki immediately has to backpedal and yell that he's just joking, but Luffy's really pissed regardless, noting that this isn't something someone should joke about. Loki gets pissed off, and we get some internal monologue from him promising vengeance at Luffy for the disrespect, but the scene cuts off before we could see what Loki wants in exchange for Shanks information.
We cut to Team Usopp, where they see Rodo run away from the castle, with them identifying him as the fake sun god for being half-burnt by lightning. He's being chased by Gerd and Goldberg, with Goldberg carrying the Thousand Sunny. That explains where the Sunny went, but the description and the body language seems to imply that the two other giants realize what the heck is going on, that Rodo had kidnapped the Straw Hats, and are chasing him down in anger. Of course, thanks to the power of misunderstanding, the Straw Hats decide to run away from them to the nearby Elbaf village.
Speaking about the Elbaf village, turns out that Hajrudin and the one remaining member of the Giant Pirates, Stansen, has gone to a lower realm to kill a giant moose to feed the Straw Hats as a feast. Hajrudin clearly still very much respects the Straw Hats and I really wonder what his reaction is going to be with Rodo's actions -- particularly since Hajrudin himself has had experience of being involuntarily turned into a toy. I actually would really like it if Rodo was just excommunicated from the crew! They bring the dead moose back to the village, while the reader gets to see a recap of Hajrudin's story.
We cut to the Giants' ship, where Brook has apparently cut Robin's hair to match his pre-timeksip hair, which everyone reacts favourably to. The Straw Hats and Giants note how this is Robin's hair before she set sail, which would be nice and nostalgic to Saul... and right as the chapter ends, we get a random shot of people yelling about how Saul has fallen and he can't get up. Oh noes! I really do think this is a simple misdirection and that Oda won't kill Saul after the fake-out and allowing him to live. Right? Right?
Anyway, nice little chapter. Nice seeing a bit more of Loki, and some introduction to old characters. I really have to confess I don't have a whole ton to say about this chapter, but I still had quite a bit of fun reading it.
Random Notes:
- Yamato Cover Story: Speed joins the party, as Yamato and Kiku charge to... uh... parts unknown to hunt down whoever stole Yasuie's sword. Okay, things are at least moving.
- Loki is noted to have a 'special' government bounty of 2.8 billion berries, whatever that means. Presumably this bounty is for when he was captured 6 years ago? Which... I mean, bounties isn't everything, so I do really think 2.8 is pretty impressive, even if it does fall under Law and Kidd!
- Six years ago, coincidentally, is when Shanks became a Yonko if my memory serves right, so Shanks might very well be the guy that put Loki where he is!
- Among the giant monstrous beasts, I think the polar bear is just the most glad to be there, being happy-faced even when the animals were initially hostile.
- Adam Wood is stated to be strong, but not exactly indestructible... as shown by Luffy's Gear Fourth punch obliterating a chunk of the tree.
- Yes, Luffy got really pissed off and that might feel 'out of character', but the lesson passed down from Shanks was always that it's okay if someone laughs at you, but not when they disrespect your friends.
- A bit of worldbuilding is that there are apparently Sun-Stones called 'Painters' that don't work in the snow, leading Hajrudin and Stansen to carry the moose corpse back.
- I love the reaction of Lilith to Brook's skull joke, with the offhanded remark that everything about Brook is so unscientific.
Loving these starting chapters! Excited to see if Loki is a bad egg or just a dramatic nerd
ReplyDeleteLike the setup of Shanks and curious if we will see him in Loki's flashback
I honestly think we could go either way. The story is leaning very hard into Loki being the new Doflamingo or Blackbeard, this card-carrying villain who keeps dropping left and right how evil he is. Except we know that's *never* how One Piece works.
DeleteThe fact that we start Elbaf with a minor villain who essentially roleplays as an edgy sorcerer even though he's a 'dramatic nerd', to borrow your words, makes me just a mite suspicious too.
I am curious to see if Shanks will actually play a huge role in the actual arc!
I do wonder why he's wearing a blindfold. He clearly doesn't need to see since he dodged luffy chained up.
DeleteI came up woth 3 theories. 1. He's scarred up under there. 2. Fashion choice. 3. He grew disillusioned by the world after being rejected by Lola
It is a reference to how mythological Loki was punished with his eyes being subjected to snake venom or something.
DeleteBut in-universe? I wonder if there's something about his Devil Fruit that's connected to his eyes? Not surprised that he could dodge Luffy because we've seen Fujitora use Observation Haki to Daredevil-sense his way through life.