One Piece 1160 Review: Draconic Rescue

One Piece, Chapter 1160: The God Valley Incident

A bit late about the review on this chapter, but there really isn't a whole ton I think I have to say about it -- we get to see the God Valley incident happen from other POVs that aren't just Kuma, and it's pretty much what we expected from the previous chapter. 

It's revealed that Blackbeard's "Davy Clan" members are some of the 'rare rabbits' that are being hunted down in God Valley. Blackbeard is just watching in horror at the utterly horrifying hatred that the Celestial Dragons have towards his clan, an almost unreasonable hatred that has rather successfully mimicked other kinds of hatred towards a certain kind of people that we've seen before in the story -- the hatred against Roger's children, or the Kurozumi clan. 

And a good chunk of this chapter is just an extended sequence of showing the horrors of God Valley. We already saw a bunch of this from Kuma's flashback, and this being the Celestial Dragons it isn't really a surprise that they're  killing everyone like one would kill ants or enemies in a video game. Particular highlights of their evilness is St. Summers setting up a thorny scape under a tree waiting for a child to fall to his death, before killing him and his father that's running to rescue him. Lots of showcases of the Celestial Dragons killing people next to their family members, while others in Marie Geoise treat it like it's nothing more than a televised sport. 

Again, while we cut away before all of the lethalities, in no uncertain measures is the story showing the mass deaths of a lot of children who are just panicked and crying; while the Celestial Dragons set the whole sequence up just to let the 'rabbits' have the false hope of surviving for three weeks. We get to see more of our named Celestial Dragons like Garling, Gunko and Summers killing people. 

Meanwhile, we have a B-plot running in the background. The unnamed mother of Shanks and Shamrock entrusts the twins to Dragon, who runs around being the only decent man on the island. He runs across a group of dead civilians and panics at the idea that his whole platoon would be killed if he steps out of line. Rather terribly, Dragon's commanding officers just never bothers to report that a Marine is left on the island, showing that while they know something fishy is going on, the Marines are not meant to actually be aware of the extent of the horrors of this purge. 

Dragon comes across Ivankov inspiring the other slaves, and a Celestial Dragon about to shoot all of them dead. Dragon... then shoots the Celestial Dragon! That's so cool, and it's great to see someone stand up against the Celestial Dragons. Somewhat unfortunately for the audience, it is 'merely' a tranquilizer dart... but it's nice to see a Celestial Dragon get some comeuppance. Dragon would spend a couple extra scenes running around the island keeping the babies safe from harm. 

But then people start arriving! The Rocks Pirates arrive, and we get to see a version of the group shot we saw before, but with Rocks and some extra members shown in full glory. That older scene did show Rocks head off and not properly stick to the plan, and we now know why. I like how Big Mom and Kaido are focused only at getting the Devil Fruits (presumably because Kaido is also a bit too young to simp?) but I absolutely love Whitebeard's tsundere response. "I'm here to save a friend! ...but I don't mind her falling for me." Bless you, Newgate. 

Afterwards, we get to see the Roger Pirates landing and ready to rumble, led by the power trio of Roger, Rayleigh and Scopper. Not the most exciting thing, and neither is the scene of Garp arriving to rescue the Marines at the end of the chapter. More interesting is the God's Knights (romanized now as 'Holy Knights of God') assembling. Notably, while Garling and Summers are there, the roster is a bit different -- Gunko isn't there and the girl with the funky hat is instead. There's also a lady with a lance, a taller woman that seems to be Killingham's mother or sister; and.... a furry giant? Huh?

Absolutely a bit more interested to see what the Knights of God can do, although I'm sure that's not the main focus of this flashback. After all, God Valley this flashback might be called, but I'm sure the focus will revolve more around Rocks's story and perhaps a bit of Dragon's. 

Random Notes:

• Yamato Inari Shrine Pilgrimage: Yamato looks over the capital city. It sure is a nice shot, but this really is one of the weaker cover stories, isn't it?
  
• The tankobon printing of Gunko's first appearance has already fixed that, but we get to see another name box for Gunko that explicitly calls her Saint Gunko.
• Interestingly, some of the God's Knights compares them to 'more Buccaneers', and while there are some of the people standing behind Blackbeard and his mom are taller, I'm not sure if the Buccaneers are displayed alongside the Davy Clan members as in all of the rare rabbits together, or if there are Buccaneer members of the Davy clan.  
• Wang Zhi is noted to have stayed behind in Hachinosu. The other Rocks Pirates mock him and note how Shakky will hate him for not coming, but we know that Wang Zhi would be the ruler of the Pirate Island from this point all the way until shortly before present day, so it worked out well for ol' Ochoku. 
• Some people have compared one of the background Roger Pirates to Douglas Bullet, villain of Stampede... but the timelines don't really sync up with Bullet's ageat this point in time corresponding to a child. Of course, Oda could've just changed some things to give Bullet a cameo.