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Louis Arnot was also the author of “Brag Men” the book that contained the description of Little Garden that Nami was looking for way back when. Which was also seen as one of the books being thrown out of the Knowledge Tree into the lake!
Back for the first time in a few months to say that I’m an anime only watcher and the announcement of the six month break made me remember that I have a lot of catching up to do.
Since I last posted I finished pre-timeskip (holy fuck Marineford was sooooo damn good) and now I’m in the Fishman Island arc. Not finding it quite as compelling as Marineford (but how would that even be possible haha) but I think it’s crazy that everything is so connected, the callbacks to Arlong Park made me wonder how Oda even thinks of these things this far in advance. Or even if he doesn’t his ability to maintain continuity is nuts
but I think it’s crazy that everything is so connected, the callbacks to Arlong Park made me wonder how Oda even thinks of these things this far in advance. Or even if he doesn’t his ability to maintain continuity is nuts
I think he manages this because One Piece was never meant to be as big as it ended up being. Oda wanted it to have a 5 year run originally, but expanded on every aspect that came up. The rough draft of the story is still followed and the callbacks and connections were originally on a much smaller scale
Gonna use manga panels cos easier to find and screenshot. Some of those callbacks were set up quite well in the Arlong Park arc itself - the mention of Jinbe and the idea that Arlong was too bad to keep around, and Arlong and his crew's hatred of humans being a reflection of the hatred fishmen face from humans meaning more fishmen might feel the same way. Can't say if Arlong Park being same as the auction house was something Oda knew from the start or something he came up with later.
However I wouldn't say that Oda has thought them all through so much in advance. I think many of the things were concepts in his head of the overall world structure and where the story might go, and he pulls on them when he needs to go in depth for an arc. This might also be why recently he's begun using vague silhouettes and "that person" instead of specifying - he's not ready to reveal design etc just yet.
When we look at the whole of One Piece it's clear there was at some point a plan for a 5 - 6 year series, and something I understand was Oda's intention. Which means we've had some parts planned and set up as payoff, and others sections of the story that just naturally ballooned over the course of just making a manga.
If we imagine One Piece was a much tighter series focusing more exclusively on the three ancient weapons, we can get a sense that everything Fishman was planned out early on, along with parts of Water 7, and Wano's relation to the ancient weapons, crazy enough is as far as we know, there isn't anything we have on Uranus so far.
Knowing the plan was a much shorter series is why....
I think Vivi is going to be very important going forward and end up the 10th Strawhat, to complete the team. No matter what she is going to be hanging around the crew, and everything with the Luffy photo suggests that this meeting is going to happen.
When we look at the whole of One Piece it's clear there was at some point a plan for a 5 - 6 year series, and something I understand was Oda's intention. Which means we've had some parts planned and set up as payoff, and others sections of the story that just naturally ballooned over the course of just making a manga.
If we imagine One Piece was a much tighter series focusing more exclusively on the three ancient weapons, we can get a sense that everything Fishman was planned out early on, along with parts of Water 7, and Wano's relation to the ancient weapons, crazy enough is as far as we know, there isn't anything we have on Uranus so far.
Knowing the plan was a much shorter series is why....
I think Vivi is going to be very important going forward and end up the 10th Strawhat, to complete the team. No matter what she is going to be hanging around the crew, and everything with the Luffy photo suggests that this meeting is going to happen.
I didn't get God's Knights originally because we already have the Cipher Pols and the Marines. Why's there some bullshit new force that's meant to be super duper dangerous? If they were just goonies associated with Garling, alright, but they are depicted as an official organization that's tougher than anyone else. We've already had CP9 that were meant to be the strongest, then we've had CP0, and now another org? Also kinda undermines the marines and the admirals I feel. Dragon saying that things don't start until God's Knights are activated doesn't sit right with me
And now we have one of the absolute worst shonen tropes as an important plot point for Elbaf: random villains with odd abilities appearing and disturbing the expected flow of things. It never shakes up things, it always ends with some scramble that distracts from the established arc
The lore dump is cool and I find the references to Norse mythology fascinating, but man, if there's more of these exterior factors and Vegapunk coming back to life, I don't know what to think of this arc. I am still optimistic but there's some points established that I just can't vibe with
I didn't get God's Knights originally because we already have the Cipher Pols and the Marines. Why's there some bullshit new force that's meant to be super duper dangerous? If they were just goonies associated with Garling, alright, but they are depicted as an official organization that's tougher than anyone else. We've already had CP9 that were meant to be the strongest, then we've had CP0, and now another org? Also kinda undermines the marines and the admirals I feel. Dragon saying that things don't start until God's Knights are activated doesn't sit right with me
And now we have one of the absolute worst shonen tropes as an important plot point for Elbaf: random villains with odd abilities appearing and disturbing the expected flow of things. It never shakes up things, it always ends with some scramble that distracts from the established arc
The lore dump is cool and I find the references to Norse mythology fascinating, but man, if there's more of these exterior factors and Vegapunk coming back to life, I don't know what to think of this arc. I am still optimistic but there's some points established that I just can't vibe with
God's Knights already feels like a plot device in order to fully turn the marines into a third party separate from current World Government, Pirates and Revolutionaries and the question then only becomes "are the God's Knights so strong that their might alongside the inner circle trumps that of emperors, marines and Revolutionaries if even two of those forces ally/combine (tho by that point Luffy already united the pirates as a force)"? Still not quite sure how i feel about them, but all comes down to how Oda executes them and what they will bring to the story.
Chapter makes not just me wonder if Sabo got attacked by that Holy Knight with arrows instead of Imu in that palace. Now we gotta see how many chapters Oda will stretch till Figarland Shamrock clashes with Luffy since no one else on the island except maybe a unshackled Loki would be able to fight him. Also nice to see the similar conflicts and prejudices among the Giants and those ancient giants from the past who dominated the new world once probably saw Joyboy and Nika.
Chapter makes not just me wonder if Sabo got attacked by that Holy Knight with arrows instead of Imu in that palace. Now we gotta see how many chapters Oda will stretch till Figarland Shamrock clashes with Luffy since no one else on the island except maybe a unshackled Loki would be able to fight him. Also nice to see the similar conflicts and prejudices among the Giants and those ancient giants from the past who dominated the new world once probably saw Joyboy and Nika.
I’ve seen many theories after this chapter. Kaido being yet another illegitimate son of Harald. What we’re being told about Loki is clearly incorrect - if you compare, Harald’s sword in his photo is the same as the one stuck in Jarul’s helmet - ofc it might be nothing but then again.
The arrow seems physical enough for her to make giant boots with, but then it is emerging from the ground and not directly interacting with Loki on page 13. The animals also look to be stabbed with them which could be the same attack that Sabo was hit with.
Most of the theories I've seen are that Harald either wasn't as good, or was very stupid, and would have accepted being under the World Government which is what Loki wanted to stop. Jarul fought with or against Loki but the sword made him lose memory of the details of the encounter. But yeah Shamrock and Gunko teleporting directly into the castle is very strong evidence that Harald had some dealings with World Government.
- Loki being blamed for anything bad that happens is, I think, a reference to how Loki was always the scapegoat for all misdeeds and consequences that the Norse Gods have committed and witnessed. I think our One Piece Loki is the same. I am sure he is mischievous and did some bad things, did some bad choices, but was overall blamed for a lot that he had no stake in
- Harald is an interesting choice of name. There are several nordic kings with this name, most notably being Harald Fairhair, the first king of united Norway. Fairhair was very important in the early viking age and was, according to sagas, so violent that some Normans fled to an uninhabited island from him, which is the legendary origin story of how Iceland was settled. Interestingly, Fairhair also had 2 sons from different women, one of them literally receiving the epithet "the Good" and the other being either called "Bloodaxe" or "Brother-Slayer". Furthermore, Eric Bloodaxe, the younger son of Fairhair, is historically obscure (despite being a rather important figure of his time), whilst both his father and half-brother received sagas. That's some interesting parallels to Loki and Hajrudin
- I think the Figarlands are Irish-inspired. Redhaired, one of them is called Shamrock and Shanks has never received a SBS statement about his realf life origin country. That doesn't have to mean anything, Kaido and Big Mom and many others never received that either. It would suit however the Viking motifs and Shanks' connection to Elbaf, many Normans have some Irish ancestry (for example Thorfinn Karlsefni, who was a descendant of the Irish king Kjarvel)
- On that note, interesting that Shamrock says that giants used to rule the New World. Normans were the first documented Europeans to have found the Americas (there are theories about Irish priests that came couple of centuries earlier, but nothing is confirmed), the New World. In our world, they failed to settle the place and forgot about it until couple of centuries later. Maybe in the One Piece world, the giants were the first people that settled the New World
Also, really loved that moment when Zoro didn't undersand the xenophobia amongst giants, and then having to reflect on how humans aren't any different. Very realistic
