One Piece 1154 Review: The History of Elbaph

One Piece, Chapter 1154: Can't Even Die

We get a bit of a speed-run through Elbaph's history, and I do like that we finally get some nods to events we've seen happen prior in the story. 63 years ago, which is around the time of Loki's birth, is also when Big Mom killed Jorl and laid waste to the village. We don't actually see Linlin beyond a single shot, so I do like that the focus is still on Loki and Harald's stories. 

But turns out that around that time -- around the time that Big Mom rampaged and Loki was born -- Elbaph was struck by a particularly terrible winter and famine. Estrid is still yelling that the child is cursed and yells at her guards to kill baby Loki... who at this point is still goo-goo-ga-ga ing around but being of Ancient Giant heritage, baby Loki is the size of a large animal, like a boar or something, compared to the guards. 

This famine led to a lot of infighting amongst the giant tribes, and as tribes raided each other and they questioned the rules preventing them from pillaging humans, one of the starvation-struck giants even attacked Ida and little boy Hajrudin, under the very flimsy excuse that Hajrudin's brother (who he has never met) was the source of the curse and that he'd be a sacrifice to appease the gods. That hungry giant also attacks Ida for being an outsider... and of course, it's at this point that King Harald finally returns, having been away from the country since partway through chapter 1153. 

In a very badass shot, Harald shows off that in the time that he's been away, he's forged bonds with the other nations of the world... and upon hearing the starvation that has besieged Elbaph, a giant fleet of different ships arrived to bring relief and food for the giantkind. As the crisis is averted, Harald made a promise that he will help the smaller races if they ever need help... and, of course, apparently nowadays Elbaph is a bit more isolated than it was before so clearly things didn't go the way Harald wanted it to. 

Estrid then dies. Ding, dong, the witch is dead! No one apparently explained to King Harald about the circumstances between Estrid and Loki's relationship, though, because Harald still mourned Estrid and the guards gave Loki with his eyes bandaged up to Harald... and Harald apparently just took them at their word that Loki 'has an eye condition'. Not sure about the reasons why they did it (were the guards afraid that Harald would also discard Loki?) but at this point, baby Loki had 'abandoned any chance for love', which is absolutely tragic since while Harald is a bit distant and prone to leaving Elbaph, he seems like an all right dad? 

We also see a bit more of a time-skip, with Harald ordering the construction of the bridges we see in modern-day Elbaph, something that was lacking in all these flashback scenes. Loki is raised, however, by the regent -- Estrid's brother, who we don't see much of but seems to be as terrible as the queen-bitch herself. We learn that the bar we see in the present day and learn that it's founded by Ida, deliberately as a way to be closer to any humans that arrive in Elbaph. 

More interestingly, however, is a conversation between Harald and Jarl. Harald apparently snuck into a Reverie, not being invited, and would've even found himself imprisoned if not for a 'murder' which we'll learn about at the end of the chapter. Jarl explains to Harald that the World Government's denial of communication and aid to Elbaph is probably due to a much longer grudge, which as readers we can sort of surmise. Jarl identifies this as the giants having some sort of great enemy in the past... but the history is 'sunk under the sea'. Ominous, and has a lot of conclusions you could make about ancient kingdoms and whatnot. 

Jarl also mentions a 'Galleila Band', with the kanji reading 'Warhammer Band'... which Harald remembers as giant hammer-wielding shipwrights that even had ancient giants among their ranks. Jarl notes that the entire Galleila Band isn't a myth, but they've all been taken prisoner... and it disturbs Jarl to think what force on the world could capture a hundred giants, with rumours about them being frozen.

Except we, the readers, have seen them. So have half the Straw Hats. In Punk Hazard, actually, there was a frozen room of giants that went completely unexplained beyond some vague ties to Caesar Clown's giantification experiments. And people who have compared the two chapters very quickly identified that the silhouettes of the Galleila Band matches almost one-to-one with the frozen giants. And even before Punk Hazard was devastated by Akainu and Aokiji, it has always been a giant laboratory. So... yeah, a bunch more completely random questions. Who had 'Punk Hazard frozen giants' and 'tie-in to the Galley-La company' on their Elbaph bingo card? 

Meanwhile, Loki grows up. The regent, Estrid's dipshit brother, continues to verbally abuse baby Loki, and he grew up... and as he grew up, things around him die. First the horse, and then the regent himself. I... I don't think Loki is responsible for either of those, but honestly I also wouldn't be particularly surprised if he did push the dipshit regent off the tree. 

Meanwhile, Harald continues to be a great king, connecting branches and bridges all over Elbaph. Throughout this scene, while everyone is cheering at Harald, two asshole guards tell Hajrudin off for being a bastard, and this is the first time we've ever seen Loki smile chronologically, with a huge shit-eating grin that's a lot more distinct since the rest of his body is shaded. 

And later on, as Loki gets a bit older, he raids villages with his little army of Underworld creatures, under the mentality of 'Elbaph is the land of warriors, we don't need weaklings'. We've glimpsed some of these rampages, so Loki isn't innocent at all from it. Young Hajrudin stands up against Loki, however, and Loki just utterly beats the crap out of the much smaller Hajrudin. Even while young, Hajrudin was already talking a lot of the same values that Harald and Ida spout about human/giant equality, while Loki scoffs at them. 

Young Gerd and young Goldberg are there and they (and other nameless villagers) crowd around the beaten Hajrudin and help him. Notably, this is after Gerd has lost a friend in Linlin, so her being so deathly loyal to Hajrudin (despite Goldberg's warning) is a nice little character arc. Loki continues to mock and bully and beat up the guards who talk back, and we get another great small panel as Loki bites his lower lip after his victory... right after seeing Hajrudin surrounded by people, and seeing a mother protecting her child while glaring at Loki with hateful eyes. 

And then the next scene is a huge 'kabammm!' as Loki falls down to the underworld... and he's crying. His bandages are off, and he cries that he "can't even die". So yeah, after Robin in her flashback a couple of chapters back, we actually just saw a child trying to commit suicide! Hell, he did it, he just failed at it. It's quite depressing, and seeing this right off the bat of the cocky attitude that Loki had moments earlier is even more jarring. 

The narration sums it best -- "no matter how much he harmed or destroyed, Loki could never fill the hole at the center of his being". 

And at this darkest hour in poor Loki's life? Four figures show up, having also sliced a random Elbaph mountain in their way. Three familiar ones, and one not-so-familiar one. We've got Whitebeard, Shiki and (original) Stussy, who crowd around the fallen Loki. And leading them is Rocks D. Xebec, finally in the flesh... and he's a cocky shit who refuses to accept no for an answer, wanting to know if this is Elbaph and if Harald is around. 

But more striking is Rocks's design, whose face in particular is a dead ringer for Blackbeard. He's got wilder streaked hair, a nicely-cropped set of facial hair and a far better dental plan and workout regime than his son, but his image bears a striking resemblance to Blackbeard! And the narration confirms it -- "Father of Future Emperor Blackbeard". 

So yeah. It's nice to see it somewhat confirmed after it was a common pet theory among the fandom for years now. Blackbeard named his ship the Sabre of Xebec since forever, so everyone suspected he was Xebec's son or at least some inherited-will connection. This one just confirms it. But Rocks is also identified by the narration as being the cause of all the chaos in the Reverie eight years earlier (which was the source of his discussion with Jarl)... and the 'murder' that happened? Xebec apparently murdered a Marine Admiral. Interesting! Again, seeing Xebec a fair bit more is definitely interesting to me -- more of what he represents than who he is. Rocks is connected to so many characters in the story now that I'm really curious to see just what he's all about, and how he's connected to so many of our characters... and to Loki in particular!

Random Notes:

• The Yamato Cover Story: Kiku and Boss Cho bring Yamato and the dino-siblings to a shrine of a hero of Wano... who's "born in the West Blue and laid to rest in Wano". As far as we know, I don't think any character actually matches this description, but a case could be made for good ol' Ryouma? It's a bit of an oddball to be throwing at us, for sure. 
• What I can see from this chapter is that the random guards and soldiers in Elbaph are quite stand-up people, aren't they? The guards trying to stop Estrid from yeeting baby Loki off the tree, the ones trying to calm Loki and trying to talk down Estrid's bullshit, or even the guards trying to stop Hajrudin and Loki from fighting (one of which even calls Hajrudin a prince!).
• The exception, of course, is the two guards present when Harald was giving his speech about bridges, who tells Hajrudin off for being a bastard. 
• I was looking around (admittedly half-heartedly) for Nordic stories of babies being thrown off the Yggdrasil and can't find one, but in Greek mythology Hera did throw Hephaestus due to being disgusted by his deformity. 
• 'Asura' the horse from last chapter have been officially translated as 'Asla', making him somewhat similar in spelling to Nordic mythological figure Aslaug, mother of Sigurd 'Snake-in-the-Eye' Ragnarsson -- who is significant here because he was born with the image of a snake in his eye and was doing heroic things even as a child, making him a potential inspiration for One Piece's Loki. 
• In her rambling, Ida yells that Hajrudin is the 'smartest cutest boy in the world who will grow up to be the oldest man in the world', which is gloriously highly specific and sounds like something out of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or something! I love it. 
• The bar isn't run by Ida in the present day, but she might just be retired, right?
• Ida's bar has a tap made up of a fucking battleaxe. She may be a giant civilian, but she's still a giant! 
• Shiki interestingly wears a very wano-esque kimono. He's always worn kimonos even in his original movie design, but with that one Kurozumi being able to copy his face, I wonder if he's actually born there?
• A nice little detail to their personalities is that Shiki sees big giant baby Loki and marvels at the 'monster', showing how his character has always seen strength above all; while Whitebeard is more concerned that a child is crying. 
• Galleila (ガレイラ) and Galley-La (ガレーラ) actually are spelled slightly differently in the original Japanese, so it is meant to be homonyms instead of a name being repeated. Galley-La is explicitly founded by Iceberg less than a decade prior to the story, so they're clearly named after the giant shipwrights, but there's clearly some connection, isn't there?