One Piece, Chapter 1172: The Elbaf I Admire; Chapter 1173: A Generation of Warriors
Hajrudin's group arrive on the upper layers, seeing the chaos that's happening with all the dream creatures, as well as the Great Erik, Dorry and Brogy's ship, on fire. Kashi, wounded but alive, catches our heroes up about Domi Reversi. Rodo rushes to save the children, because apparently the cowardly child Bjorn is his little brother. Goldberg and Gerd go with him.
The second half of 1172 has Jarul pick up a broadcasting snail and give a whole speech exonerating Loki and condemning the World Government as the ultimate villains of everything bad going on in Elbaph's history. As Jarul goes on his speech and explains why he kept it all a secret for Harald's sake, we get a badass shot of Killingham, Gunko-Imu, and... well, Summers is taking a nap, so a badass shot of two of the three villains, at least. Jarul tells the World Government that they are not going to be anywhere as patient as Harald was, and that Elbaph is now an enemy of the World Government.
Most of the random generic giants fighting against the dream monsters cheer in agreement, and Usopp goes super-wild as he gets excited that the Elbaph he loves is back. Yes, Usopp, maybe, hopefully, you'll do something this arc, then? The chapter ends with the demonized Dorry and Brogy almost reaching Jarul; while Zoro, Hajrudin and Stansen arrive at the scene. Zoro has a plan, and that's the cliffhanger.
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(That cliffhanger didn't amount to much, by the way, Zoro's plan seems to just be slashing the giants, which is basically business as usual for ol' moss-head)
Zoro hops on top of the heads of the Reversi'd giants, avoiding the, well, reversi game piece thing. Hajrudin and Stansen, meanwhile, go around the crowd. Zoro unleashes Three Sword Style Secret Technique: Crossing of the Six Paths, taking out a bunch of the weaker giants. Cool! We haven't seen rokudo no tsuji since Fishman Island! Zoro finds himself in the middle of Dorry and Brogy's attacks, both of whom swing down at him... and the art is a bit unclear here. Zoro seems to propel himself down by slamming the air (something he did in Wano and Thriller Bark), and this causes Dorry and Brogy to attack each other, slicing off each other's shields.
Now if Zoro's plan is to get the two of them to fight each other, it would make sense, especially for Zoro, who has witnessed Little Garden. But the close-up to Zoro's face after he witnessed the two giants clash is one of confusion, which... confuses me. Was that not intended by Zoro? That doesn't really make sense.
But I don't really care, because the coolest part of this chapter is Brook. Brook, who has been squirming away like a caterpillar to reach Gunko... and he starts calling at Gunko by her real name. "Princess Shuri". Brook then goes on a bit of a rant saying things we already know -- Gunko looks familiar to someone from Brook's past, sharing features like the eyes and the love for his music... and even if Gunko wasn't Shuri, she would share blood.
But then instead of missing a daughter-figure or someone he is fond of... we get a zoom-in to Brook's angry face, something we don't really see a lot from this skeleton man. "I had hoped to go the rest of my life without having to think of you again!" Brook actually hates Shuri/Gunko, and there was a huge schism caused by Brook thinking that Shuri killed her father, who Brook identifies as a man that he had 'owed everything to'. So that does fit a lot of the questionable decisions that Brook never brought a daughter-figure up and never looked for her. He actually hates Shuri.
Of course, what seems to be the simple answer was is that Shuri probably got Domi Reversi'd or entered into an Abyssal Covenant, causing her to be taken over and used to kill her father the king. With one of Gunko's few flashback panels having her cry while yelling father, it's a safe enough assumption.
Brook continues to yell at the 'patricidal princess', while Gunko/Shuri has her own inner confused fight with Imu, who is attempting to re-establish control. 'Shuri' regains control of her body for a short enough period of time to yell at Brook to run, and does something with her arrow powers to let go of the arrow powers. This isn't enough to affect the children, but Brook manages to get most of his body out, and more importantly so does Usopp and Nami's group (except for Robin, who is trapped by Summers instead).
Brook doesn't get all of this mind-control stuff and is still riding the high on finding a person that he hates with all of his nonexistent guts. He yells and demands to know who the figure before him is... and IMU charges and slams her trident onto Brook, who blocks it with the random Elbaph shield he has. Imu is just yelling and demanding to know who Brook is to Gunko, but Brook, Soul King Brook, Humming Brook, Straw Hat Brook... stands firm. Blocking, not for the first time in the series, a god-like being way more powerful than what he should be facing.
I am sorry, I did not expect coming into this arc to have motherfucking Brook, my favourite Straw Hat, get both a second backstory and the honour of actually facing off against potentially the final villain of the series. You fucking go, Brook.
Anyway, Summers is sitting on top of the giant kids and is mocking them, while Colon is just being defiant as usual. The other kids panic, while Summers is about to lead them into their ship, mocking that this is the last time they'll see their homeland. The group of mothers (and Oimo) finally catch up, but they are interrupted by one of the Mumas, specifically the God of Destruction Nika. However, despite some fear from the kids, the mothers just pull out their weapons and start hacking the Nika apart. They still have warrior's blood within them, after all, and they are also going to get their damn children back.
As the Muma Nika starts stabbing the ground, Rodo, Gerd and Goldberg arrive. The three of them do a combo attack, their own version of Ikoku and Hakoku called Three Generals: Gokoku Sovereignty. I guess it's just an Elbaph thing that when you swing multiple weapons together, you just create a destructive beam of force. The fake Nika gets blown off towards Summers, who instinctively creates a giant thorn-club to bash the fake Nika away... and the fake Nika smashes and destroys the getaway ship. This gives us a hilarious Summers expression, and I am completely okay, by the way, of the direction that Summers is basically this arc's punching bag.
Anyway, really like the Brook stuff. The Zoro stuff is fun, too, but I really wished I was a bit more clear on what is going on.
Random Notes:
- I don't think I quite realized that the little lifts that carry people up and down the different Elbaph realms are shaped like two boats arranged like hamburger buns.
- Goldberg briefly floats the idea of eating the God's Knights to stop their immortality. Goldberg's shield being mysteriously tied to Big Mom, this is... a rather scarily morbid little suggestion from him. Mind you, I don't believe that this would work; I've seen characters like Wolverine just tear their way out of being eaten by large monsters or whatever.
- No sign of Franky (or Bonney, or Lilith), even though Ripley is there with the mothers group.
- Sadly, Brook as a father is most definitely not a thing now. If the twist that Brook actually hates Shuri wasn't so good, though, I would probably be a bit more upset.
- We have known for near a decade now that Brook's backstory involves him as the leader of a 'battle convoy' of a 'certain kingdom'. If that kingdom has been wiped out or assimilated by Imu in some way or form, it kind of makes sense that it was never name-dropped, I guess.
- One question is how Gunko got the surname of Manmeyer. Did Imu just get that particular Celestial Dragon family to adopt Gunko?
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