One Piece 1171 Review: Back to the Present

One Piece, Chapter 1171: Ragnir

A bit of a delay on my part due to some IRL issues, but we got a break week anyway so that turned out all well and good. We finally return to the present day storyline, with the flashback story being wrapped up in this chapter.

With Harald dead from the events of last chapter, we get a denouement as the chapter pans across the destruction and death throughout the castle, and Gaban notes just how hopeless the fight would've been if Loki and the 'treasure of Elbaph' wasn't there. Shanks gets to thinking about Harald's optimism, and gets a bit frustrated. Gaban stops Shanks from... hurting himself or whatever he was going to do, and tells him to quit his bad habit: 'don't you dare regret your birth'. Gaban tells Shanks to keep a level head, while Shanks is quite rightfully outraged about Harald's death and what he could have done to prevent it. 

We get a great half-page spread of Loki crouching over Harald's body, with the flames obscuring Harald's upper half, which I thought was a really strong panel. Loki is quite upset at his father's death, muttering about how it's "a joke" that this is what he gets for loving his country. Loki then tells Jarul,  Gaban and Shanks that he's going to take all of the surviving soldiers (so there are survivors) and that he is going out to sea. As everyone reading the Harald/Loki fight surmised, despite Harald's wishes, practicality reigns here and no one would believe that Loki would be the one to succeed Harald's wishes. Loki swears the room to silence as he goes off to sea, intending to avenge his dad. 

While this is going on, we get a last cutaway to Imu's mansion in Marie Geoise. Imu is shocked that an ancient giant of Harald's strength, empowered by the Abyss, was killed in Elbaph. Imu then prevents the Gorosei from sending more God's Knights to Elbaph to investigate, which explains why they've only investigated in the present day due to... whatever is going on in Mary Geoise thanks to the Revolutionaries. Interestingly, Imu notes that performing the covenants exerts a toll upon Imu, an interesting caveat to the otherwise game-breaking powers. 

Imu then gives a recap of basically what Loki has described, noting that Harald's views, as an eccentric and heretic, would lead to destabilization if he actually joined the World Government. And it was such a shame that Harald was lost, since he was such a unique pawn... but Imu doesn't seem to be too surprised by it, finishing his little speech that "Elbaph is of the D." and that they are incompatible in the first place anyway. 

And this is where we cut back to the present day. 

Loki was yelling at Hajrudin, asking what he should've done, whether he should've undid everything that Harald has done just to 'tell the truth'. It is a typical bit of getting everyone on the same page, and it was something that was going to be done either way, but I really love Hajrudin and Luffy's expressions as Loki and Gaban are talking about them. 

Hajrudin unlocks Loki's chains, and the two brothers have a little warrior's reconciliation, even if Loki isn't exactly smiling at it. It's a nice little moment in the midst of conflict. The rest of the chapter has one of the Mumas, the Draugr, fall down from the upper realm and start rampaging. Loki yells at everyone to go up -- and everyone does, basically, including the wounded Gaban. Luffy stays behind to see how Loki fights, and he lifts out the squeaking Ragnir... and bashes the Draugr with an attack called 'Nifflheim', freezing the giant solid. Okay! So presumably Loki/Ragnir is going to have an attack for each of the seven realms of Norse mythology!

Random Notes:

• This whole discussion about Shanks regretting his birth and that being his bad habit is quite interesting because that line of character thinking is something I associate with a different mentor figure to Luffy, which is Ace. Now Ace and Shanks's parentage, as far as the audience is concerned, is wildly different. Ace was born from Roger, while Shanks was born of the Celestial Dragons. It is quite different, and it is something that I do hope the story will draw parallels between. 
• I absolutely agree with Loki and co's decision, because no one is going to trust Loki and he's not the right temperament to be a king anyway. I don't agree with their decision not to inform Hajrudin at all. 
• Loki notes that he can 'fly up', which... may be a hint about his devil fruit powers? 
• The pre-flashback stuff has Gaban note that he's going to stay down in the lower realms with Chopper looking after him, but I guess the choreography got changed around a bit with how we had a oddly extended sequence of Gaban requesting Chopper and Sanji bringing him up with the rest of the fighters. 
• It would appear that the thunderbolt was probably one of Ragnir's powers, presumably 'Asgard' or 'Vanaheim' or one of the upper realms.