One Piece 1192 Review: God Speaks!

One Piece, Chapter 1192: We Won't Stand For It!!!

I sat on whether I'm going to do a standalone review for this chapter or not, mostly because there isn't a whole ton that happened here. It's another combat chapter, but also one that has one rather big moment in the middle that I really liked. 

The first couple of pages of this chapter is just an action scene. And Monkey D. Luffy is back up and fighting Imu alongside Loki. (Hajrudin seems to be staying back after that Gokoku combo attack, but it's mostly understandable). There's a couple of neat scenes of Loki swinging his hammer around, and Luffy does a 'Dawn Kraken Gatling' where he twangs his arms to make Imu's little homing flame-sprites detonate earlier. Imu also shows off 'Tohu-wa-Bohu', the twin blades mentioned earlier in passing, which he uses together to create a shield.

The most important thing here, however, is the argument between Scopper Gaban... and Usopp of all people. That's right, stand down, Imu, the real god is speaking. 

Gaban is quite flummoxed -- not that Luffy is back in the fight (which I do have to call shenanigans on) but on why Luffy is still fighting. But Usopp walks up and starts listing down all the giants that the Straw Hats have made friends with. Dorry, Brogy, Oimo, Kashi, and Hajrudin's crew. Love the little moment where Usopp claims that Hajrudin's crew swore loyalty to him, and Hajrudin in the background corrects it to Luffy. Which... honestly, Hajrudin, that whole 'God Usopp' thing was your fault. 

But Luffy having friends is a reason for him to fight for a place, and Usopp knows that Monkey D. Luffy will never abandon his friends (and the homeland of his friends) unless something terrible happens. Gaban retorts that Luffy's survival is important to Elbaf's history because of all the Nika and Joy Boy and prophecy stuff, and Usopp says that Luffy -- and he -- won't give a damn about any of that. I really like the little line that Usopp yells at Gaban about how 'you've been projecting Roger onto him for a while now'. 

And in a very good line from Usopp, he rants about how people can place hopes and expectations on Luffy... but only up to a point. If those expectations threaten Luffy's freedom, 'we won't stand for it'. Usopp knows Luffy, because he sees Luffy as his friend and captain. Becoming all-white, becoming the reincarnation of the Sun God and all this other brouhaha won't change who Luffy is, and who Luffy is is someone who's going to fight for his friends. Gaban is a bit surprised at all of this, wondering where Usopp has been all this while. 

The rest of the chapter is just more action scenes. Luffy and Loki do a combo attack that Luffy calls 'Gomu Gomu Thor Bullet'. It slams onto Imu in the same way that Gear 5 cartoonishly stretches out Kaido's body a couple of arcs ago. Oh, and it breaks Tohu-wa-Bohu. Sure. The action scenes are like... it's there, I'm happy we're getting them but I'm also not the most invested in this battle due to, well, frankly, a lack of stakes in a way? 

And that's something that I do feel like I want to emphasize about these last couple of chapters. I do agree fully that Usopp and Gaban exploring Luffy's role as being 'Luffy' versus being Sun God Nika, The Prophesized One, The Next Coming of Joy Boy, Gol D. Roger's Inherited Will, etc etc etc is amazing. It works great with the themes about freedom and what it means to Luffy, and in a way we've seen this in action in a different way with Nico Robin and how the Straw Hats want her around because she's Robin, and all the Devil's Child and poneglyph-reading abilities come secondary to that. In the same vein, Usopp and company believe in Luffy because he's Luffy, and less so because of the Joy Boy or Nika stuff. And in a genre oversaturated with the great big chosen ones and parallels to the past, I really love that it's not just Luffy but also his crewmates who 'won't stand for' all this malarkey about people trying to make Luffy into Nika or Joy Boy or whatever. It's a nice and a bit overdue ever since Wano.

Likewise, I am very happy that Usopp does have his big moment! It could be a bit more grandiose, but I do really like that Usopp's big moment is to do a huge speech. I've never thought that Usopp's big moment in Elbaf should be like, picking up Ragnir and bashing Imu in the face. Even if he had a big moment a la Stampede, it would be good enough. But this is a nice moment for Usopp. I hope he gets to deliver more commentary in the next couple of chapters, and maybe get a line or two off against Imu. 

But... but the fight is really getting repetitive and doesn't quite have the same level of tension as it has before. The moment Luffy randomly recovers his stamina last chapter by thinking really hard and handwaving it with food, it kind of felt like all the tension deflated away. Usopp giving that speech to counteract Gaban is a nice clash of ideas of what Luffy should be vs. what Luffy is. And I understand that as a character with motivations, Luffy would not turn his back on Elbaf. But for him to jump straight back into Gear Fifth wackadoodle no-consequences stuff after being punished maybe four or five chapters ago... it feels very off. In an ideal world there's a way for One Piece to have its cake and eat it too, but we're leaning a bit too much into not letting Luffy learn a lesson. He can learn a lesson and be goofy at the same time, but he can't really do it if the story makes him feel invincible and protected by plot armour. 

Random Notes:

• It is interesting that Imu is actually doing much worse in the battle after bulking up and transforming. That's not how it normally goes for supervillain transformations, but Imu is also a bit interesting since he's working off of a time limit. 
• So, Thor Bullet. I feel like it would've had more impact that Luffy's doing another Thor attack if we hadn't seen him randomly do Thor Elephant Gun back in Dresrossa. Like, the movie version in Strong World is all right since it was situational and we saw the buildup with the lightning cloud, making it look like something super-special. 
• I know he did a Thor Rifle earlier this arc, but it's in Gear Fifth and also had him reach out and grab lightning, so that's a bit more explained. 
• While it's both pronounced 'Thor' with katakana, Thor Bullet has the kanji be 'raijin' (thunder god), whereas Thor Rifle and Thor Elephant Gun had 'kaminari' (lightning) and 'raisho' (thunder general) respectively. 
• Also, Loki can... charge Ragnir's attacks? It's an interesting sequence, making it look like a video game character doing a charged blast. 
• Usopp did kind of just teleport there, didn't he? I guess he hitched a ride, unseen, on either Hajrudin or Loki. It's just surprising that it's not brought up at all. 
• Usopp also wasn't around to hear a huge chunk of Gaban's speech that he's deconstructing regardless on whether he arrived with Hajrudin or Loki... but we've been having a fair amount of focus with Usopp's Observation Haki in the couple of scenes that we checked in with him, so I'm not going to hold it against him.