Episode 860, “There Weren’t That Many Live Roaches, But…” (SGS #23)

Summary

The One Piece Podcast – Episode 860 “There Weren’t That Many Live Roaches, But…” (SGS #23)

Release date: March 17, 2025

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Episode Overview

This week’s episode features Stephen (manga translator) and Greg (One Piece columnist and Netflix advisor) in their regular SGS (Stephen-Greg-Simba) format, covering three recent chapters of One Piece (1140–1142) during a manga break. The show dives deeply into new character reveals, translation decisions, thematic analysis, and listener Q&A—all with the signature relaxed, witty banter between the hosts. Along the way, they spotlight the ongoing Elbaf arc, share amusing personal stories, debate fan theories, and unravel the intricate cultural and linguistic threads woven throughout the series.

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Sections & Key Topics

1. Intro: What is SGS & Hosts’ Personal Updates (01:34 – 12:01)

• SGS episodes are One Piece Podcast’s manga break segments, modeled after Oda’s SBS, where Stephen and Greg discuss the latest chapters and answer fan questions.
• Simba, the honorary cat member, has chosen a new favorite blanket, much to Greg’s amusement.
• Time zones and daylight savings woes.
• Greg reveals he’s now a minivan owner—he prioritized an HDMI port for gaming on the go: “I set up my phone as a tethering device and then play Final Fantasy 14 from my car on my car monitor. We are truly living in future times.” (04:33)
• Stephen tells a harrowing story of cleaning an extremely messy “horror apartment” left behind by a family friend, leading to the episode’s title: “There weren’t that many live roaches, but… there were hundreds if not thousands of dead ones.” (09:51)

2. One Piece News & Announcements (12:01 – 16:48)

• Volume 111 recently released.
• The English dub has caught up to Japan for the first time; anime returns April 13th.
• Sports crossovers: Lakers game and Seattle Mariners featured One Piece events.
• Comments on the growing mainstream reach of the franchise.

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Manga Recap: Chapters 1140, 1141, 1142

Chapter 1140: “Scopper Gabon” (18:13 – 47:28)

Major Points

• Scopper Gabon playfully trolls Luffy, showcasing experience, comic mischief, and classic manga vibes:
  • “Scopper toying with Luffy and getting him super mad… it reminded me of Roshi messing with Kid Goku back in the day.” – Stephen (19:29)
• Gabon acknowledges Luffy’s Nika form, references Shanks, and hints at future meetings.
• New Holy Knight Reveals: St. Sommers & St. Killingham.
• Debate: Translation choices for “Killingham,” with Greg and Stephen discussing British, Chinese, and mythological references behind the names, and the role of localization.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “There weren’t that many live roaches…” – Stephen, relating podcast title to a rough apartment-cleaning ordeal (09:38)
• “I cannot, in good conscience, call him Killingham when his name is literally just Kiringham.” – Greg, on translation choices (20:47)
• “Character design and their dialogue, their accompanying dialogue just paints an entire picture of who they are…” – Greg (24:07)

Key Analysis

• Comparisons to CP9 Enies Lobby introduction.
• Greg’s speculation: Are the Holy Knights building a “pirate crew” theme with their insignias and “crossbones” motif (38:10)?
• Ongoing mysteries: The meaning/order of family names, uncertain powers, and subtle symbolism in new character design.
• “Game” motif: Celestial dragons and nobles turning deadly events into ‘games’, echoing God Valley.

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Chapter 1141: “An Older Woman” (48:16 – 65:20)

Major Points

• Exposition: Weaknesses of Elbaf—fire and lightning.
• In-depth character moments: Luffy vs Zoro banter, reminiscent of their early dynamic.
• Usopp’s arc: Begins his “legend” as a brave warrior—Greg discusses the cultural logic and drinking party structure in Japanese society.
• Loki’s imminent release and new giant pirates’ antics.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “There’s some perfectly fine meat right over there.” – Zoro’s deadpan logic, referencing unconscious enemies for food (49:38)
• “It’s kind of like, it’s the license to forget, I guess, social hierarchy. Once the drinks are being shared, then that’s—everyone is more or less an equal at that point…” – Stephen (57:12)
• Usopp smacks Jarl, setting up the “Excalibur” gag (58:09)
• Nami’s subtly maternal moment toward Usopp, praised as “sweet and special” by Greg (59:37)

Key Analysis

• Deep dive into Japanese “nomunication” (drinking party culture) and its impact on social interactions—explaining Usopp’s behavior.
• Speculation on chapter title’s meaning (references to an actual older woman from Jarl’s past?).
• Discussion of Loki’s weapon, “Ragnar”: Is it logical to leave it with him? Oda’s tendency to skip protracted “get the weapon” subplots in modern arcs (66:41).
• Ongoing Norse/Edda etymology for names—Oda is “going on vibes” more than strict source material (70:04).

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Chapter 1142: “What I am Most Afraid of” (73:10 – 90:55)

Major Points

• School chaos: Imaginary beasts attack, kids are sleepwalking along a mysterious path.
• Loki uses his hammer to destroy Yggdrasil, setting a fire—upward movement of plot and characters.
• Revealed power sources: Monsters are born from giant children's nightmares, blending “game” theme with horror and dream logic.
• Thematic acceleration: Oda is “stepping on the accelerator” with more story progress in one chapter than usual (73:10).

Notable Quotes & Analysis

• “This is Oda stepping on the accelerator. I have not seen him do a chapter like this in a traditional story arc.” – Greg (73:10)
• Creative translation: Saul’s attack name “Midterm Ex-Slam,” balancing the Japanese school exam pun (76:42)
• In-depth speculation on Sommers’/Summers’ power: “Hedgehog’s dilemma/rose thorns”—the more you love, the more you’re hurt if you touch the children (87:49)
• “He looks like he got prison shanked.” – Stephen, on the gym teacher’s wounds (88:31)
• Fan theories on the significance of giant children, bloodline elements, and potential for experimentation by the Celestial Dragons.

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Extended Thematic Analysis & Recurring Debates

Translation and Localization Insights

• Deep discussion on naming decisions and etymology.
• Handling of children’s “misspelled”/mispronounced words in Japanese and their English adaptation (116:09).
• Challenges in conveying cultural puns (e.g., school exam moves) and layered allusions.

Elbaf’s Thematic Focus: Inclusion, Family, & Social Change

• Parallels drawn between the treatment of biracial characters in Elbaf and the experiences of mixed-race (“hafu”) individuals in Japan (97:23).
• Arc’s “family” themes: What does it mean to belong, accept difference, and coexist peacefully—exemplified by Conan and the history of Elbaf’s royals.
• Layered messaging about weapons (armament/disarmament debates) and societal direction.

Power and Symbolism in the Holy Knights and Villains

• Detailed speculation on new antagonists’ power sets (roses, thorns, sleep/dreams), their possible “game” twist, and links to classic villain reveals.
• Analysis of visual design motifs (crosses, bones) and world government/celestial symbolism.

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Q&A Segment (109:04 – 162:10)

Sample Questions & Answers:

• The significance of Scopper Gabon’s epithet “Mountain Eater”—theoretical links to Yama (god of death), fire, and other classical/mythical influences (109:04).
• How Oda represents children’s “child speech” in Japanese vs. English translation (116:09).
• Are the “abyss” powers/teleportation actually the same as the “void” or “emptiness” referenced in earlier arcs? (121:27)
• Speculating on object-Devil Fruits (Ragnar as a devil fruit weapon) and the fate of the Oro Jackson and the giant egg (158:34).
• When will the series’ mysteries be revealed? Potential for Oda to share drafts or unused ideas after manga’s end (135:43).
• Is Marijoa or Pirate Island the likely next arc? (145:23)
• Fan theory debates: Is Emu Joyboy, and what kind of form or reveal will Oda craft for the series’ final boss? (151:19)

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Host Banter, Humor & Memorable Moments

• Ongoing good-natured ribbing over translation preferences, obscure Japanese language pitfalls, and One Piece trivia.
• Greg’s Monster Hunter triumph: “They turned an 800-hour game into under 100 hours. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.” (164:49)
• Running jokes about Simba and the podcast’s relationship with now-obsolete Skype voicemail lines.
• Spirited, authentic reflection on fandom reactions, fan theories (Usopp’s legend, Loki’s weapon), and series structure.

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Episode Summary

Tone & Language The episode maintains a highly engaging, conversational, and insightful tone. Stephen and Greg combine deep analytical knowledge with lighthearted humor—balancing dense lore discussion with personal stories and playful debate. They frequently reference classic manga, Japanese culture, and Oda’s storytelling philosophy, sharing both their expertise and their genuine affection for the series and its fandom.

Structure & Flow The episode is structured as an extended, chapter-by-chapter roundtable, weaving in translation insights, fan questions, and speculation. Each segment flows naturally, with ample callbacks, observations about One Piece’s development, and meta-commentary on fandom and authorial intent.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• “There weren’t that many live roaches, but there were hundreds if not thousands of dead ones.” – Stephen (09:51)
• “I cannot, in good conscience, call him Killingham when his name is literally just Kiringham.” – Greg (20:47)
• “Scopper toying with Luffy and getting him super mad… reminded me of Roshi messing with Kid Goku.” – Stephen (19:29)
• “Usopp is afraid of everything...if he slept Usopp and it was everything that Usopp was ever afraid of, and what if he conquers all of it...holy shit.” – Greg (157:16)
• “This is Oda stepping on the accelerator...he just does as much as he moves everything forward as he does here.” – Greg (73:10)
• “It’s kind of like, it’s the license to forget, I guess, social hierarchy…Once the drinks are being shared, then that’s—everyone is more or less an equal at that point…” – Stephen (57:12)
• “He’s going on vibes” – Stephen, on Oda and Norse language choices (70:04)
• “You can’t keep someone behind the wizard of Oz curtain for this long and not have a very compelling answer.” – Stephen (154:09)

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Final Thoughts

This SGS episode delivers the deep-dive, big-brained One Piece analysis longtime fans love, with top-grade translation insights and cultural expertise—plus the infectious charm and camaraderie of Stephen and Greg. From the literary to the laugh-out-loud, listeners are left with new perspectives on Elbaf, tantalizing theories, and an even bigger excitement for what's next in the world of One Piece.

Transcript

[Stephen]

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[Greg]

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[Stephen]

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[Greg]

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[Stephen]

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[Greg]

Details@lowe's.com Terms subject to change Sam.

[Stephen]

This is the One Piece podcast episode 860 for the week of Monday, March 17, 2025. It's SGS week. My name is Stephen and I am Greg and Simba to round out the trio is, well, he is outside of my office. Normally he would be napping in here and Greg always is tickled by hearing him start to whine whenever we do our little time sink. But he has decided that he loves this blanket on the couch now and like you know, it's like well you know, he'll eat his food or whatever and we're looking around like wait, where did he go? Where is he? Where did he park himself? And he's just on the couch with like his front paws on this little blanket that is on there. So he is not present but he is in spirit for this recording. So the sgs, if you are not familiar, if you're new, is modeled after ODA's SBS. This is our special off week podcast when the manga is not in session where Greg, who is a columnist for v jump1piece.com any series advisor for Netflix's One Piece series series and me, Stephen, the translator for One Piece manga in Shonen Jump and manga plus break down the latest events and share our expertise.

[Greg]

So well, Steven Sers's expertise I share, I have no idea what I share.

[Stephen]

It's there's a word for it but.

[Greg]

It'S 5:30am and I had a late night so oh boy, I, I, I Share something, a presence. That's my, my press.

[Stephen]

Well, you know, we'll take it because that's, that's the best we can get, thanks to time zones, which, yes, are even weirder this week because we did go through the wonderful daylight savings time.

[Greg]

Oh, did you?

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

All right.

[Stephen]

I know it's a, it's a foreign concept in Japan, but that's, that's always.

[Greg]

Important for calling home. So like.

[Stephen]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Greg]

Okay.

[Stephen]

Yeah. It felt like a weird one this year, but yeah. What's up with you? Anything else? Anything interesting?

[Greg]

Got a new car.

[Stephen]

Oh, that's right.

[Greg]

So there's that. Got a minivan. Pretty, pretty nice one. The, the only requisite I had for it was that it has an HDMI input so that I can plug my Steam Deck into it and play the Steam Deck on the car tv. So that was a process finding that vehicle. But we eventually did and I am a happy camper. So now during breaks at school, I off to the car.

[Stephen]

Wow.

[Greg]

And set up my phone as a tethering device and then play Final Fantasy 14 from my car on my car monitor. We are truly living in future times.

[Stephen]

Yeah. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think. Did you say that you are now a two car household?

[Greg]

Oh my goodness. Yes, we are. We are now a two car.

[Stephen]

Not so strange in America, but not the case in Japan.

[Greg]

Oh, yeah. This is, this is a freedom unlike I have ever tasted. Like going to college, living in a dorm. Nothing. Nothing compared to, to a, a two car family for, for, for two people. Yeah. Lots of, lots of gym time, which is, makes me a happy camper. Yeah.

[Stephen]

That's good. Yeah. So for me, I'm trying to, I'm weighing. Do I, do I want to tell this story or not? I think I, I think I do.

[Greg]

I think you do. I think you do.

[Stephen]

So I didn't mention this the last time I told you off air about like what was going to happen last time we recorded. So it was a couple weeks ago now. But I didn't share this story because it didn't really have anything to do with the, the main, the main podcast, but I have a, a tale to share about cleaning a horror apartment.

[Greg]

Oh man.

[Stephen]

Which. Yes. Yeah, I was, I was telling you like, oh, we got this thing coming up and you know, I don't know what it's going to be like and so I'll try to keep it short, not, not go too into detail because there's a lot of detail to explain. But basically, basically the short story Is like, my. My mom was helping out a friend with some rent, and so her name was on the lease for this little tiny studio apartment. And the friend had some, I don't know, mobility issues and, you know, was kind of. Kind of. I don't know if she's technically a senior, but she's. She's. She's fairly old, I would say. And she ended up. I don't know if there was some breakdown or, or what, but after a couple years, this lady moved out to live with her son or something. Like she found another arrangement, but she kind of ghosted my mom. And so the property management came in and saw the place and were like, okay, like, everything is still here pretty much. So we're going to have to pay someone to take, you know, we're going to have to pay someone to junk all of this furniture and whatnot. And you probably want to see what this looks like because that's going to pay a lot and the security deposit is not going to cover it. And we're going to have to, you know, take you to small claims court or whatever in order to collect, you know, the remainder and whatnot. So basically we were like, okay, we'll. We'll clean this. This place out. And I don't want to overstate it because it could have been. It certainly could have been worse. Like, this lady was not on the level of like, what is it, Hoarder House or whatever the show is where, you know, you see the people that save every single thing. It wasn't quite like that, but it was. It was the worst thing I have ever seen. Personally, I may be sheltered, but yeah, I'm. I'm gl. I'm grateful that there were no rodents there. We didn't have to deal with mice or anything like that. Everything was insect in nature, but holy cow, this place was absolutely disgusting. And there were only three of us, which I think if. If our original date had worked out, we would have ended up with closer to like eight people, which probably would not have worked because this was not. Is just a studio, like, single room apartment. And we would have been, you know, falling all over each other. We only had three people, but we were super efficient. And I would say in probably like six hours of work or so, we. We probably got it to like 70% habitable. But yeah, so, like, I think she took her bed, but everything else, like, all the furniture was still there. The cabinets were full of, you know, all the cooking stuff, all the food. The fridge was totally full of food. We. Which Was rotting. And yeah, all the, all the sinks and all the drains were, were messed up in some way or another. I ended up cleaning out the kitchen for the most part. And I only there, there weren't that many live roaches and they were small. They were like, like the, the end. End joint of your pinky finger, let's say. So that's the episode title.

[Greg]

That's the episode title right there. There weren't that many live roaches.

[Stephen]

Oh, let me write that down.

[Greg]

Oh, that's an awful sentence to say.

[Stephen]

Yes, but there were hundreds if not thousands of dead ones. Yeah. Oh yeah.

[Greg]

No, no.

[Stephen]

And this lady had, she had had cats. Although according to my mom, I think they had, they were elderly already and I think they had all like maybe two of them I would guess. I think they had passed like a year or two before. But all of their like hairballs and whatever else was like stuck on these nice wood floors. Like it was not a bad place. Like, like they had nice, nice wood floors. I think it had been probably redone prior to her moving in probably 10 years ago or something like that. And yeah, so like most of the time after cleaning out the, or just kind of dumping everything out of the kitchen, I spent probably three hours or so just using wet like mop style Swiffers and just like every square foot, just like, just nothing but cleaner and friction trying to get all these stains out of this, this wood floor. And yeah, there, there are plenty more details. I, I kind of feel bad about sharing even what I already have because there was worse stuff involved. But it was, it was a crazy experience and I'm glad that, I'm glad that we all decided, okay, we did what we can. That's it. You know, like the lady came to relieve us basically because she was going to leave and so we handed the keys back and we were like, okay, that's it. This is what we can do and I will never have to go back there again. But that was quite an experience. It was a, it was a truly a, you know, no good deed goes unpunished kind of of scenario. Because my, my mom was not happy about this lady. Pretty much just kind of leaving, leaving the scene of the crime and running away and you know, not helping out at all, but rough stuff.

[Greg]

Oh my gosh, I'm sorry you had to experience that.

[Stephen]

Yeah, it wasn't fun. Let's see. Thank you. So aside from that, you know, let's, let's talk about more, more fun things we are going to be discussing. What do we have three chapters I believe this week which is 1140 Scupper Gabon, 1141 an older woman or older women and 1142 what I am Most Afraid of. And we'll we'll have some fun commentary on that, I'm sure. But before we get into all of the the recaps and whatnot, I'll do the usual Patreon plug. You can subscribe to our [e-mail] One Piece podcast in order to get some extra fun stuff that will make each episode a little more fun. You get some bonus recordings from the usually from the middle where our one of our amazing artists will you'll hear them unveil the sketches for the episode art that you will also be able to see on Patreon and you can hear our reactions, hear us discuss who which title we want to use, etc. Etc. And that that's always fun. That's always one of the highlights when we're recording the show is to find out what sort of silly stuff are our jokes, what what form they might take in terms of art. So you get to experience a little bit of that yourself if you are a subscriber over there. So do check that out in news. Let's see. We do have a new volume, volume 111 just came out recently and I'm not sure depending maybe on how long we go, we might try to tackle that also in this episode with the rest of the the podcast crew. Don't worry Greg, you're off the hook. But we should get to that sometime soon. I don't know exactly when. I just got my copy today actually so I skimmed through it but have not had time to really digest it. But that should be fun. We did talk last week about how the thanks thanks in part to the the current hiatus of the anime production. The English dub is now caught up with Japan, which is quite a milestone. Long time coming. Very cool. And I do believe that in just a month or so we should get the the new episodes will be returning. It is April 13th. I want to say something like that when the anime resumes in the Egghead arc. So that should be fun. There's been a lot more stuff going on with like oddly a lot of a lot of sports crossovers in the in the US we had the Lakers game which some of our LA folks were talking about recently and there have been some more crossovers I want to say maybe the Mariners baseball team which for a while there they were the they were the most popular team in Japan because of Ichiro and. And also. Well, I don't know if it had anything to do with the popularity, but it was part owned by the president of Nintendo or something like that, or one of the old owners of Nintendo, so I believe that he has passed on. But yeah, the Mariners, long time fans in Japan and so they're. They're doing some kind of one piece crossover thing as well. And I think there are probably some more things that I'm forgetting. But yeah, it's definitely been a big area of expansion, which is cool, I guess. I don't know how effective it is, but it does. It seems like it does get the. The nerds out to the. To the game. So that's something, you know, anything to. Anything to expand the. The crossover bridge the gap between the jocks and the nerds is always good, but I think that will probably wrap us up for news. So what do you say, Greg? You want to get into some of these chapters?

[Greg]

Nah, just.

[Stephen]

Okay.

[Greg]

Right here.

[Stephen]

I'll do it myself.

[Greg]

All right, let's do it.

[Stephen]

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[Greg]

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[Stephen]

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[Stephen]

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[Stephen]

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[Greg]

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[Stephen]

This is the manga recap for chapters 1140, 41 and 42. And I think I will. You know, we'll just go through them in order. So let me give my. My very broad summary of 1140 here to refresh the audience's memory and 1140 scopper Gabon trolls Luffy with a game of keep away, kicking ass and taking note of Luffy's Nika form before eventually resigning. Gabon recalls Shanks telling him about Luffy and says to come see him again if Elbaf is still intact. When they leave Gunko Summons St. Sommers and St. Killingham, two quirky holy knights. And Shamrock tells them to capture the kids to take them to Mary Joa and they can use their powers to make it a game, quote unquote.

[Greg]

How should we attack this? Shall we go through all the chapters, summaries and. And, and then do them all or shall we do one at a time?

[Stephen]

I just figured one at a time.

[Greg]

One at a time.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

All right. Okay. What was your standout moment in this chapter?

[Stephen]

In this chapter? Standout moment. Yeah, I mean, I think. I think I, you know, at least the. The part that I enjoyed the most was, you know, just the. The banter and the, you know, the. The comic mischief of, you know, Scopper toying with Luffy and getting him super mad. That was, that was. That seemed very Toriyama esque to me, actually. I don't know if I ever said that, but it. It did seem. It reminded me of like, you know, Roshi messing with. With Kid Goku back in the day, which was obviously very fun.

[Greg]

That's a good point.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Yeah, it does come off that way. I am. I went the complete opposite end of the spectrum. The reveal of Summers and I have been dreading this moment, Steven.

[Stephen]

Okay.

[Greg]

I have been dreading discussing this character's name with you.

[Stephen]

Okay.

[Greg]

Because.

[Stephen]

All right.

[Greg]

I strongly disagree.

[Stephen]

Oh, okay.

[Greg]

But I also submit to you in your translation powers, but at the same time, I just. I cannot in good conscious call him killing him when his name is literally. Just kidding. Gum.

[Stephen]

Did you. So you wanted King like K I R I n?

[Greg]

Yes, Yes, I have been. I mean, I have been so afraid of this moment for the past, like three weeks.

[Stephen]

Well, I think. No, I mean, I think it's because.

[Greg]

I don't want to step on your toes.

[Stephen]

It's a. It's an interesting topic to discuss because I totally, so I totally see this, you know, multiple ways. I could have, you know, chosen, you know, I could have called him Kitting just with it, with an R instead of the Ls. I could have called him, I guess like the Chinese way, which would be. Would be like chilling ham, where it was Q I L I N. And ultimately I went with killing him to make it sound more, I guess, British. I guess. You know, whenever you have the. The ham at the end, I feel like that's. That's a very British way. And yes, obviously that's the. That's the reference that. That Oda is going for, I just figured. Or the. The imposition that I'm making on the reader to pick up on that is that it's something that, if you see where it is, like it's. It's a. It's a semi concealed, I guess, name source, where, you know, I kind of took it in a. I don't know if localized is the right term for it, but, you know, I kind of gave it a little. A little bit of flair. But it is. But the, the source of the name is still, like, I feel quite apparent, at least in the way when you, when you pronounce it. But it might not be as obvious. But I totally, you know, like if. If Oda had. Had written out already, you know, Kininghammer or you know, one of the other options, I would have no problem, of course, whatsoever in using that. I think those are also pretty perfectly fine. I just went with something that also kind of sounded a little. A little cooler or a little more stylized. That's kind of how I see it.

[Greg]

I was like, he's totally gonna go with Keating and the gam. With the, as you said astutely, the ham at the end. I was like, oh, that's totally gonna be it. And then it was like killing him. And I was, oh crap, I gotta call him killing. Oh man.

[Stephen]

But all right, well, I apologize for cramping your style.

[Greg]

Oh, no, no, no, not at all. But okay, so the reveal of those two characters was hands down the best and standout moment of the chapter for me. Because I don't know about you, but I completely flashed back to the reveal of the yet unrevealed members of CP9 during Enies lobby.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

The start of Ennis Lobby. And it was just a great moment because character design and their dialogue, their accompanying dialogue just paints an entire picture of who they are and what to expect of them in addition to, I mean, even stuff that doesn't. I mean, quote unquote, doesn't matter. Like their fruit abilities. There are even. Obviously one was far more obvious than the other. But even. Even down to the. The absolutely absurd heart boxers. Yeah, which. Which is just like. It's a dumb joke, right? Like, it's a great stupid joke. But like, as we'll discuss later, like, that might even come back to being a hint about this individual's fruit powers, which is just so, so, so badass that, that Oda can do this. And I love it. I really miss seeing these, these kind of. And, and how he does the, the, the, like the slim cut of the character of the close up of the character over. Over the top of them. Yeah, it's been a while since he's done that too.

[Stephen]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Greg]

All over. Just felt like a very classic one piece scene. And I, I was just. I. I spent a very long time looking at these two pages and, and I love. And how cool is it that we have technically? Technically. I mean, if you want to, you know, get into it. I mean there's. It's a little bit different than a traditional dragon, but still a Kirin is quote unquote dragon type.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

And given the weapon here, we now have a Dragoon in one piece.

[Stephen]

Nice. I didn't think of that. That's cool.

[Greg]

We have a Ryukishi in. In. In one piece. That is so cool.

[Stephen]

Now, now if he. If at some point in the future, like in a fight scene, he just kind of launches himself off. Off page and we don't see him for a few pages and then he comes back and lands on somebody, then. Then we'll know it's a. He's a real Dragoon. That's Final Fantasy reference for you. For you old folks.

[Greg]

So yeah, without. I mean, the whole Scopper stuff was fine. It was. It was fun. I enjoyed it. There are some people. I don't know if you were privy to this or not, but there are some people who are really pissed that Scarper was able to. To roughhouse Luffy like that.

[Stephen]

Really?

[Greg]

Yeah. I. I did have to. To silence some people because some very long time established fans just because they were. They were very vocal about how. And insistent about how unpleasant it was for them to read that section. And it was just like, you know, I, I'm sorry, I really can't get into that because this is. It was done in an interesting way. Luffy obviously doesn't want to be in this fight, so he's not taking it, quote unquote entirely seriously right until the end. And then when he does, Scopper's like, oh yeah, I'm out. Which I think is. Is. It was. It was hilarious to begin with.

[Stephen]

Yes.

[Greg]

Super funny. But also I. I think he realizes that like, yeah, these two are the real deal. And I think that was a half serious like. Yep. But I don't know anything else about this. This chapter for you. That was fine. We. We just discussed our. Our main, like our standout moments. But how about.

[Stephen]

I do. So looking at this, you know, going back to the. The two. The introduction of the two new characters. Okay. I do have two questions for you. I. I'm curious to know if you had any thoughts or any insight on these because I Remember being a little bit confused by. And you know, I, I certainly am not, you know, expecting you to. To know the answers because I was completely stumped on. On what they might mean. But did you have any take on the. The family name for Keatingham Dimoshi Fu?

[Greg]

Oh, I have not looked into it at all.

[Stephen]

Okay.

[Greg]

I've done this. I've been doing something for a while now which is where if I see a name or a reference that I don't immediately understand, instead of spending three hours on Google and Twitter and 2chan trying to figure out what it is, I just read it and just enjoy the story because it's just become so tiring, especially after wano with all the characters that I just kind of got. I don't want to say tired of it, but it just. What's the word? It's not anxiety.

[Stephen]

Burned out.

[Greg]

Burned out? Yeah, from all. So I just, I kind of roll with the punches now and just say, okay, there's another name I don't understand. Cool. But the vibe I immediately got from it was like, how do they. I don't even know what this musical. I guess he's a composer. His name is in English, but. Rafmoninoff.

[Stephen]

Rachmaninoff.

[Greg]

Okay. Yeah, that's the vibe I got. And I don't know if he was going for that or not like a.

[Stephen]

Sort of Russian sounding. I mean, yeah, when it ends with shifu like that, it sort of sounds like, you know, civ, like siv or something, you know, ziv or something like that. Which, which might sound, you know, vaguely Slavic I guess. I.

[Greg]

So I have not actually Fujimori maybe. Is he going for a reverse Fujimori?

[Stephen]

That's the thing is when I saw. So. So the first thing I did of course was Google that name which at the time that this chapter came out, I will tell you, the number of hits for Remo Shifu in katakana on Google in Japanese was zero. There were zero hits. It had never been uttered before, at least according to the, you know, the, the, the web searchers over at Google. So it was not going to be a direct reference to anything. It was going to be something a little more veiled. And so I had that same thought where I'm like just the type of syllables that these are. It strikes me as like, it's probably like a jumble, like a word jumble of something else. And so, you know, I'm like spelling them back like Fushimori. I don't like that's not a name. But Fujimori is like you know, like, the. You know, there was the guy who was the president of Peru or whatever. And, yeah, I couldn't really come to, you know, a. A conclusive answer on that. And so that's why I actually. I actually left it in, basically, in Romaji. Like, it's Remo Shifu. Because I didn't know. Like, maybe it's right. Maybe it is a little word scramble thing where if you re. Rearrange the letters, it's supposed to, you know, spell out something. Maybe it'll have something to do with his powers, which, you know, we don't know for sure yet. But, yeah, I really did not know about that. Maybe somebody has cracked it by now. I have not looked. I didn't look before this. I just saw this when we, you know, flipped through the chapter, and I was like, oh, right. I never. I never really figured out what that was about. The other thing, which I believe I translated this in a way that was vague enough to go both ways. So Summers, I think you would agree, like, and I think Steve, like, picked up on this because our. Our Art of Summers on that episode was the dude from Big Lebowski. Like, he just has this very strange vibe to him, like, beyond just his design, but also, like, he's. He just has this very casual conversational style where, you know, he's. He's sort of like. Like, when we see him, he doesn't realize that he's been summoned yet. And he's, like, yelling at some. You know, he's. He's berating someone over the phone, basically, and complaining about stuff. And I remember being a little bit unsure because he says, here, let's say he's like, oh, yeah, don't we need an hour? And then he says. So he's talking about food here or, like, rations. And he's saying, so what's up with the. What's up with the rations? Like, you're not going to let the gods starve, are you? And given the circumstances, I actually could not decide for sure one way or another if he was referring to, like, the. The general food situation in Mary Joa. Like. Like, do we have food arranged because we can't let the gods starve? Or if he's actually just complaining about, in other words, the rations for this mission or whatever. Like, what's. What's our food situation? What are we gonna get? Because you're not gonna let us. Us gods starve. And so I ended up kind of had, you know, cutting it down the middle in a way that you could interpret it either way, but I didn't really know for sure. Did you. Did you fall one way or another when you read it or.

[Greg]

Interpreted unquestionably because Oda's been threading it in over time. I. I got the. The food situation.

[Stephen]

Yeah. Okay.

[Greg]

Because they. They blew up those reserves. Eh?

[Stephen]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Greg]

I. I com. That's what I completely got from it.

[Stephen]

I just wasn't sure because I believe that that term hyoro, which is the kanji, are literally like, you know, soldier food or soldier ration or something like that. You know, I was like, okay, is that like. Is that like wartime food supplies? Or is that, you know, the food that you give to the people who are actually fighting? So anyways, I just thought I would do that. An example for the listeners of the. The ways in which, like, you know, when Oda likes to throw information at us where we don't necessarily know what they're referring to, or it's being, you know, kind of veiled in a very heavy sort of character tone that sometimes you just don't know for sure if he's doing one thing or the other. And he might be doing one of those two specifically, or he might be just kind of messing with your head and. And trying to make you guess. But a minor point for sure.

[Greg]

I know, but. But fun to discuss. I always like to get your. Your insight there, because most of the time I had. I will not have considered what you.

[Stephen]

Bring to the table.

[Greg]

So, yeah, love the designs here. I do like that we get basically, again, through artwork, through just clever character design, we get the confirmation that this is essentially our pirate crew. Because one thing that Oda has been very careful about is that more or less, with every single enemy entity or organization that Luffy and his crew have come across, you can make the argument that they are a quote unquote pirate crew of sorts of. In that there is something that they are robbing people of. Number one and number two. They have a design that somehow vaguely at least resembles crossbones. And what we have here is very clearly on their armbands, likely the sign of the God's. What do you call God's Army?

[Stephen]

I call them Holy Nights. I know some people call them God. God's Nights.

[Greg]

Holy Nights. Perfect. Yeah, perfect. I go with Holy Nights. Fine. Unlike killing him. And I'm sorry, I. I'm just gonna.

[Stephen]

I'm just looking at the. I'm like, do we know. Can we tell what the insignia is supposed to be? Or is this going to be another thing where Excellent. Yeah.

[Greg]

So like, we. We can't perfectly tell what it is. He has not drawn it in detail, but one of the best depictions is. Is on Killing Kittingham's armband.

[Stephen]

That's the one I'm looking at right now.

[Greg]

And we can very clearly tell that it looks to be a cross, first of all.

[Stephen]

Yes.

[Greg]

And given their association with holiness, with the kamigami, the gods, I suppose, the celestial dragons. We also see a cross theme in his beard by him. I mean, Summers, a cross theme in his beard, which is probably going to be a common theme for the knights. All right. They're going to probably have this cross theme threaded into their design somehow. Right. Looking at the armband, it actually looks like bones. It looks like.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Almost like Whitebeard style crossbones.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

However, that does not mean that they necessarily are. I mean, it really looks like them, but they very, very much might not be. It could be similar to the Mihawk flourishes. I don't know if you. You know, I'm talking about like the.

[Stephen]

The hilt sort of style.

[Greg]

Yes. That you see on his sword and appeared very early on the dons. Whenever Mihawk appeared. It could be just that. So that's crossed in the center. Turn that sideways and you have a perfect crossbones. Right. Like a pirate crew. Classic pirate crew crossbones. There seems to be a circle around that. Then horns, perhaps.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

And that. That looks to be the. The. The entire symbol. What that stands for, what it means, I don't necessarily know yet. I think. Let's see.

[Stephen]

I mean, the. The. The cross. That particular cross symbol. Like the. I guess. What would you call it? Like the equidistant cross or the. The perfect cross or something. Obviously does call into mind the. The world government insignia with the four, you know, the four ends representing the four Cs. Yes, I think that's.

[Greg]

Could very well be.

[Stephen]

Yeah. An influence.

[Greg]

What's interesting is that it leaves. That it appears to leave the center open like that. Right, That's. That's cool. I don't know why that is, because usually the. The. The world government symbol has that. It's closed in the center.

[Stephen]

That's right.

[Greg]

Whereas this appears to be open. Yeah, yeah. Um, Which. Geez. Now that you're mentioning it, that just reminded me that of course, even that is a pirate symbol. My God, if you turn it side. Geez. And you know what I just recently realized is that the impel down, like that's why he went for that weird design. Like, I know it's the I. And the D. Right. Like, like, duh. And obviously it's also intended to resemble, you know, the Nazi symbol as well, which I just won't mention for the algorithm, but. Right, but. But the other thing is it also vaguely resembles a crossbones. Not, not very much. It's one of his biggest stretches. But, like, it's, it's, it's in the realm, so. Yeah, that's okay.

[Stephen]

I'll point out, too. I, I think probably some people are going to scream at us if we. If I don't mention you when you talked about the, the cross in Shep in a summer. Summer's beard, that he is also from the shepherd family. So he is related to Peter. Jew Peter, who has the, The Jew kanji as his kind of the middle of his name. Which. That kanji is basically just a cross. It's a short horizontal and a long vertical. And so there, there were definitely folks who jumped on that as like, maybe that's kind of his version of putting that cross into his design. If it's not in his name, like with Jupiter, then it's on his design.

[Greg]

Daddy.

[Stephen]

Another daddy.

[Greg]

Yeah, Daddy. Jupiter, maybe could be.

[Stephen]

Although if. Well, I guess. Yeah, we know Jupiter is probably really, really old, so.

[Greg]

Oh, that. Yeah, you know, that's, That's a good point. Yeah.

[Stephen]

So he could be. He could be ancestor.

[Greg]

Great, great grandson or something.

[Stephen]

Yeah, yeah, it could be that. Or. I mean, who knows? I. I don't know if. If Jupiter's still, you know, active, as it were, like that. He could be a direct sun and this guy is a normal mortal, but, you know, clearly related in some way, though.

[Greg]

That's a really good point. It's one of those. I hadn't put two and two together. Like, I know that the, the, the gold, the elder stars are very old. And like, I know that, that he was related to this guy, but I just hadn't considered the fact that. Right. He could absolutely be like his great, great, great, great, great grandson, the doi. Of course. That's cool. All right, Summers, which I was wondering, where do you get summers from? Oh, wait, hold on a second. This goes back to the Fujimura. What? Because the first thing I thought of when I saw that name was the comedian. The comedian duo. Summers.

[Stephen]

Summers, yeah.

[Greg]

Yeah. So, like, what Summers? Japanese comedians. What if one of those is Fujimori?

[Stephen]

I didn't think of that. I don't think so, but that would be pretty.

[Greg]

Otake and Mimura. Okay.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Okay.

[Stephen]

No, I would have known that, like 10 years ago. I would have I would have known that off the top of my head when I actually watched it was more recent on my, my comedians, but.

[Greg]

All right, this last line here coming from Shams. Shamsk. What. What did you. How did you interpret that game initial? I thought that was an interesting way to end a chapter is a puzzling and teasing phrase.

[Stephen]

Yeah. I mean, I thought back to, you know, like they, they, they made. The God Valley was basically a game. Right. Like, it just seems like there's a, there's a theme of the celestial dragons or at least this. The Figgerland family guys really liking, you know, turning like sort of life and death situations for other people into a game of sorts, which, you know, obviously is, is both horrifying to consider and also kind of infuriating that it's like they're, you know, they're, they're doing this evil stuff and they're also kind of making a mockery of you at the same time by. By turning it into fun and games for themselves. But yeah, I don't know. What did you think?

[Greg]

I wasn't sure whether to, to think of it as if he's just being threatening or if he's literally saying to the two of them, like why don't you turn it into, into a game? And what's important is because he says considering your powers. Right, right. He's like considering your powers or the both of your powers. I think you can turn it into a game. And that's, that's the literal translation. There would be a more eloquent way to put that if he isn't intending what I thought and he seems to be, but I thought that he was directly saying like you can. Is there a way that, that you can quote unquote, play with, with your prey?

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

In that sort of sense and jumping ahead a bit. But they seem to be doing a kind of Pied Piper ultimately routine, which kind of let me pat myself on the back for that one because he seemed to be going in that direction. It's like considering what you can do with your powers. I think that it wasn't just being like you're going to turn this into, into a, into a, a game, like in a threatening way in a, in a kind of mustache twirling villain sort of way, but rather in, in like you can, you can actually. I don't know a better way to put. Put it than play with your prey, but like Emono de Aob like a way to very much look down on, on what they're going to do with them. In a. In a evil, whimsical way. Yes. I think that's the best way I could put it. And that seems to be the case. So that really got me thinking a lot about the powers. And what does this mean? The only thing that was very frustrating for me was I couldn't tell whether this Thorn design sword here, whether that was part of his powers or whether that was just in the design. I couldn't really tell from the chapter. So that. That was frustrating because. Yeah, that gives you a lot to think about.

[Stephen]

But he. He does have a rose on his lapel there on his breast. So maybe that's just part of the mo. Part of his motif. His little accent point is that he's. He's got the. Got the rose on the thorns.

[Greg]

And that at this point, that didn't really hit me because celestial dragons are so. What's Gygoshi.

[Stephen]

Like? Extravagant or extravagant?

[Greg]

Extravagant. Perfect. Extra. They're so extravagant and out there that like I figured like a rose. Of course a rose. It looks so stupid and like self congratulating. Right?

[Stephen]

Yes.

[Greg]

But I don't know. We'll come back to it because that's. I think something from the. From the next two chapters that we can discuss. But yeah, I overall really just. I. I loved that scene because it flashed me back to some classic one piece, which is going to be a theme actually for these. For these chapters.

[Stephen]

Nice. All right, well, why don't we move on then to the next one. 11, 5. 41. And in this one, Ripley explains to Frankie that fire and lightning are the weaknesses of Elbaf. While the feast goes on, Gerd inspects the injured castle guards and suspects Roto is hiding something. Luffy and Zoro see the aftermath of Shamrock's meeting with Loki and argue over what to do with him. The new giant pirates crash land on Luffy's gum gum balloon. But it is too late. Loki. Loki is very nearly free.

[Greg]

Stand out for this chapter for you.

[Stephen]

Stand up for this chapter.

[Greg]

Should I go first? You want some time to think?

[Stephen]

Sure. Yeah. Why don't. Why don't you go first?

[Greg]

Okay. Zora and Luffy's banter. You mentioned the banter in. In the last chapter. For me, these two being the focus of attention for like part of the chapter and just getting to. To just Luffiest Luffy and Zoroist Zorro each other was just sublime for me. That. Oh my God, Steve. Did you fall through the floor? When Zorro's like, there's some perfectly fine meat right over there.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Oh, my God.

[Stephen]

Yeah, it was. It was really fun to translate that too, because it felt like. And this is one of those things where, like, you know, there. There could be a variety of reasons for this, whether it's like, differences in the language or differences in like the sort of the thought process of the. The author. But sometimes as a translator, there. There are scenes that you get where there's people talking back and forth and like, you. You get it, and you're like, oh, I love. I love this. This back and forth that we're getting. And I want it to go in like, this direction or something. Like, I want them to take it to this level. And sometimes, you know, the author just sort of stops it short where you're like, oh, it was just getting good. Like, I really. I wanted to see this continue. And I feel like in. This was definitely a case where Oda, like, just stuck with it. And the. The. The way that it ratchets up and the way that they go after each other was like, just what I want. Like, it was so funny and. And it felt like it was really. I don't know if powerfully written is the right way to describe it, but, you know, like, like, he. He really had them going after each other with like, the, you know, like, yeah, yeah, it's meat. And he's like, no, no, no, those are my friends. I'm. I'm gonna go hunt some more. It's like, well, meat is meat. And then Luffy's like, no, they're friends. You don't eat friends. You know, it just. It felt like a movie scene or something. Like a. Like a classic Hollywood movie scene. And that was really fun to work on.

[Greg]

Yeah, it's so cute. Oh, my God. And then just a great moment with the ship falling out of the sky. That's awesome. Very unexpected and silly. And Luffy, quote, unquote, saving them. I love that. The physics of this is perfect for manga because Luffy does save them, but you think like, oh, great, like, they landed on Luffy. Wonderful. But think about that logically for like, a second. Like, okay, they landed on him. What happens the split second after the Force? They don't calmly land. Yeah, they didn't just land there. Like, they're going to be bounced off and. Absolutely. Like they're bounced off and they come back and you see them. They're completely fucked up. Luffy, thank you for saving us. But.

[Stephen]

Thank you. Thank you for only almost killing us instead of letting us die.

[Greg]

Yes.

[Stephen]

Yeah, it's perfect.

[Greg]

What a chapter and of course, Loki is. Is free. Lots of silliness there. Leading up to his being freed. Zorro's logic again. I'll kick him. Bam. Oh, he's alive. He's not faking.

[Stephen]

Yeah, the. One of the fun things too about that of them them are you not so much about like the get. Get the meat and stuff, but like when they're. When they're actually talking about what do we do with this guy is. I saw people. Again, not to, you know, harp on various anonymous people out there, but people who were getting annoyed with Zorro that like, like, why is he. Like, why is he like the buzz kill here or you know, whatnot? Or like, why is Luffy ignoring him? You know, why are they butting heads? And it's. It's funny because if you. If you think back, there's a very similar situation right at the start of the series where all you ever hear is, don't mess with Roronoro Zoro. He's a bad guy. Like, they caught him for a reason. He's dangerous. He's a wild animal. And what does Luffy do? He completely ignores. Like, oh, that sounds cool. Like, let me. Let me check this guy out. And it really is like almost exactly the same situation with Loki here. Obviously Loki is a different character, but it is fun to see the consistency in Luffy's reaction toward him where, you know, he's. He's going off of what his instincts are telling him and not what other people are warning him about.

[Greg]

It's like poetry. It rhymes. That is a very astute point. It's. It's almost a mirror, actually, to the start of the series. Just situated. And that makes Zorro Kobe, I guess.

[Stephen]

Yeah, kind of. Yeah.

[Greg]

Kobe. Does Kobe have a last name? I don't think so. Okay. No. The other standout in the chapter, and I was already. If you follow me on SNS and whatnot, then you already know my. My feelings on this. But the other standout moment was Usopp starting his legend, which is a perfect start to it. And this is something I didn't get into. But like, the flow of how this is set up is so perfect. And I don't know if. If this is entirely appreciated by. By Western readers or western fans. But like, how did you feel about Usopp being in his cups and interacting with Jarl like this? Like, were you like, yes, that is entirely natural. And like, it's the best way that this possibly could have gone. And I don't know if you know exactly what I'M referring to, but, like, did it feel natural to you?

[Stephen]

I didn't have any problem with it. I'm not sure what you're. You're setting up, though.

[Greg]

Okay. This is exactly how a Japanese drinking party will go. Without question is the. So what he does to Jarl is obviously greatly. Greatly respected among his. His people. Right, Right. And he is a. Despite the fact that he is advanced in his age, and he seems to have, you know, some cogn. Cognition issues, which elephant in the room we all know the source of. But how Usopp interacts with him would be very strange under any normal circumstance. And Japanese readers would be like, what the hell is us up? Like, how is he allowed to do this?

[Stephen]

Right, right.

[Greg]

In the context of a Japanese drinking party, this kind of interaction, like, where the younger people are doing something extraordinarily rude to the. To someone of a higher position, it is maybe not exactly forgiven, but it is certainly forgotten because of alcohol. That is how a lot of. What's the word for it? I think there was a word buzzword for it a couple years. It's like nomunication. Drinking, communication.

[Stephen]

Yes. Okay, gotcha.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Stephen]

Yeah. It's. It's kind of like. It's. It's the. It's the license to forget, I guess, social hierarchy. Right. Like. Like, once the. Once the drinks are being shared, then that's. Everyone is more or less an equal at that point, that they. Their differences are kind of removed.

[Greg]

Yes.

[Stephen]

In ways that would be unthinkable otherwise. Yeah.

[Greg]

Yes, in ways that would otherwise be unthinkable. So for Usopp to. To talk to the way that he. He talks to him. And maybe this is not as clear in. In. In Western. I mean, I'm sure Stephen did his best to convey this, but, like, he's being extremely rude to Jarl. How he refers to him and talks to him, first of all. And then that escalates to. That sets you up for, like, they're accepting this. He's taking this. He's taking this, he's taking this. And then he smacks him.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

Which. Which is like, even. Even though they are drinking, the giants are still shocked that. That he's doing that.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

And Jarl, of course, is just like, oh, right. Like, it hurts even. But because they're drinking, this is allowed. And then he continues, you know, with the, like, somebody act that Excalibur out of him. Right. Which is a great line. All of this is being. Is. Is the setup for what will eventually happen there. That is the Chekhov's Excalibur. And he is going to have been the. Oh, by the way, I'm sorry, I'm just looking at it now. The fucking Brooke on his crotch gag. How have we not gotten that before? I, I just, I have no idea how. How. This is the first time Oda. Oda has done that. But, but like it, it is a brilliant setup for the start of the Legend of the Brave Captain Usopp. It is so well done from a Japanese reader's perspective at least, just because the build up to it is entirely logical and it's done in a very entertaining way. It is so smooth. It is silky smooth. And not only that, but it also sets us up for a very sweet scene with Nami. That was a really, really nice little exchange there she had with Jinbe.

[Stephen]

Jinbe.

[Greg]

Yeah, we don't often get that side of her too often. I mean, outside children, like, she has a very soft side for children.

[Stephen]

Yes.

[Greg]

But to see her viewing her crew member like that and vocalizing, that was really, really quite sweet and special. I do appreciate that very much. So great scene. And I'm just kind of assuming that everybody is in on this at this point. But what I'm referring to, just to summarize the whole thing, is that somebody's going to be yanking that sword out of Jarl's head. I don't know if it's going to be Usopp or Usopp related, but the point is that he's starting that notion, that idea here.

[Stephen]

Yes.

[Greg]

And it's obviously something that he wants to do. He has. It's like, what's the perfect setup? It's just like, it's someone who has a, like a convulsive disorder to like, I don't know, you see a, you see a line of, of pencils and one of them is like out of line. And you're just like, I gotta move that pencil back.

[Stephen]

That ocd.

[Greg]

Yeah, that's the sword for, for us.

[Stephen]

I, I'm curious if you had. Again, I'll go to some, some, some text stuff, I guess, but I was curious if you thought the, the chapter title, Being an Older Woman. Obviously that is a, you know, referring to the joke here or. I don't know if I don't think Jarl is joking, but obviously Usopp sort of completes the joke by saying, you know, oh, well, there, there is no older woman. Like, you're the oldest guy in the world, basically.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Stephen]

And I thought it was very curious that Oda chose to use that as the chapter title. Do you think that was just like he thought that was a really funny thing to add, or do you think that there might actually be something else to it?

[Greg]

Oh, there is. There's absolutely something else to it. That is. I mean, it's a good throwaway line, right? Like, it's a great joke, but. But no, that is. There's somebody who is much older than, than him who, who he was into. I wonder, I wonder if it's the. The old mermaid princess.

[Stephen]

Oh, that'd be good, huh?

[Greg]

Yeah. But no, there's. There's definitely something there. Somebody who. From history. It's. It's because he's so old that it's, you know, it's. It's going to be somebody from history who he was. Who he was into. But yeah. Yeah, I think. Yeah, okay, there's that. There was one other. Oh, I guess just. And this is a little bit of a tangent, but just to kind of drive home how. How much all of this drinking atmosphere of the parties and whatnot, how that can be forgotten and forgiven. So there was a time many moons ago when I got blackout drunk at a. A work party. And I slowly, over a period of hours the next day, received texts from my co workers about what had gone over, what had gone on. And I was able to kind of piece together a hangover style, how the night went down. But I'll limit it to the start of the evening. But the last thing I really remember was going into a bathroom. We were in this old Japanese store style, like, skun place. Sk is like. Is like. Bird is like chicken meat and cartilage, like, oh, yeah, not cartilage. Yeah, car like mixed together. Yeah, yeah. And it was this old, like, tatami place. And I went into their little small bathroom and like, that's the last thing I remember. One of, one of the texts, like, I have many texts, but one of the texts I got was, do you remember dancing with Kacho? And Kacho is like, section chief.

[Stephen]

Section chief, yeah.

[Greg]

And I was just like, what? What are you talking about? And they're like, yeah, you. You and Kacho were basically ballroom dancing in the middle of the Tommy Room in front of everybody. It said, what? And at that, it was at that point that, like, images flashed and like, yes, I do vaguely remember having this man who is my obvious superior in work in my arms, grasping my arms lovingly and swirling around the room in the center. Never spoke of it again. Like to, to him. Never. Never spoke of it again. It. It did not happen as as far as everything is concerned. But like, the people who were not drinking absolutely remember it. But like, yeah, nothing that was. That. That's just. It reminded me very much of. Of how all of this goes down. So very much part of. Of natural Japanese culture on display here. And just love it, love it, love it, love it. Beautiful, beautiful story writing by Oda.

[Stephen]

Cool.

[Greg]

Very cleverly done. Anything else? I think. I mean, there's lots going on in the chapter, but just little subtle things like that.

[Stephen]

Yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't know if this is even worth. I mean, I guess we could talk about it, but there is the. There. There is the. The topic which it kind of goes over. Spills over into the next chapter too, which is the. Now that we know for sure, obviously you could have guessed that that big handle sticking out from Loki's back when he was tied up was probably his. His main weapon. But it. Now that he is actually grabbing it and we find out that it is named Ragnar for, I guess, what, iron lightning or metal lightning or something. Yeah. And which is, of course, you know, supposed to be reminiscent of Mjolnir Thor's hammer. It does beg the question, like, is it. Is it boorish to ask why would they leave the weapon with him? Or. Or is this like a. Don't ask stupid questions. Like, it's. Because it's cool. Like he needs to have his weapon to do something cool with it as soon as he gets free. What did you think of that? Yeah.

[Greg]

Let me see if I can owe to logic this.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

I suppose you could make the argument that if they believe that I think it was. Correct me if I'm wrong. I am not rereading things. I'm not doing what I did in the past and trying to make sure all my T's are crossed. My eyes are dotted when I'm reading everything, so I'm not going to remember it all perfectly, but Shanks is responsible for him being in this state.

[Stephen]

Yes, Shanks brought him to heal. But, you know, we don't necessarily know if Shanks literally was the person literally.

[Greg]

Put those chains around him. Okay. All right. Okay. So I think if we believe that this is a. If, if there's in the know that this is a weapon that can cause this kind of destruction and that this kind of destruction is literally the weak point of the. Of their. Their livelihoods, of their entire nation.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

Then perhaps they believed that that was Ayate Gyakuni, the. The. The most safe location because they believe that he was perfectly Tied up and being held there. So in a sense, in order to get to that weapon, which is the, in some ways, perhaps ultimate weakness of their entire nation, perhaps they believe that that was Gyakuni, the most safe place to put it, because nobody's going to take it from him, and he can't get to it in that position. So if they believed he. Him to be secured there. And evidently he was right. He wasn't getting out without Luffy. Yeah, he certainly would have. If he had the ability, then yeah, that might have been the safest location for such a device.

[Stephen]

I'll buy that. That sounds like a, like a pretty rational reason for it, but it is probably the sort of thing that if. If someone doesn't say that in this story, I do. It does seem like the sort of thing that he would probably answer in. In an sbs, maybe, but it does. It. It does save us a little bit of trouble since, you know, it is not. It would not be the first time if. If the hammer was somewhere else and there had to be some sort of little mini quests to get the weapon. It would not be the first time. In fact, you know, even just. Hey, what was I just saying about Luffy? Luffy and Zorro get the katanas. So that would not be the first time that we had a little get the weapon thing.

[Greg]

But yeah, 15 years ago, I don't know if this would have been the case. Right.

[Stephen]

Sure. Sure.

[Greg]

Fifteen years ago, I think Oda would have had a subquest or something.

[Stephen]

Right, right. So maybe when he gets free, he's like, wait.

[Greg]

Wait until I get. Right.

[Stephen]

Yeah, yeah. But it does save us a little bit of time to. To get right to the point.

[Greg]

Gangnir Gung. It's not Gungir. It's Gungir.

[Stephen]

Ragnar.

[Greg]

Ragnar. Ragnar. Yeah, sorry, I'm getting like. Like Lance of Longinus and like everything.

[Stephen]

Yeah, it's interesting because he's. He's done a lot. He. In addition to, you know, the. All of the other sort of terminology and place names and things, I have been like checking quite regularly whenever he throws a new name or a new spelling for something at us just to see if there is like a direct. Because I. I do have some. Some Old Norse, you know, sort of dictionary sites on. On the speed dial, as it were, because I have had to use them before.

[Greg]

That's right. You have extreme experience with this.

[Stephen]

Yeah. And. Oh, not. And not even just for like. Like Vinland Saga, but for. For. For other like, sort of fantasy, you know, because since obviously a lot of this stuff is very popular in, in RPG culture, if you will. And so I have had to, to look up stuff like that. And, and I keep checking to see like, okay, like for Ragnar, you know, I'm looking for like, okay, is there like, if I look up R a G, like am I going to find like, is this the root of something that means lightning or means iron or something like that? And no, no sign of it. So I do think that Oda is kind of going on vibes as far as the, as far as some of his distinctly unique spellings here. Like, like, I haven't found a lot of direct Norse or Icelandic or other sort of, you know, Norse related. Since this is kind of the mythological backing etymology for some of his, his choices, which is a little. It's interesting. I mean it, it means that I generally am just like, okay, well what does it sound like? Let me just go based off the sound. But I, I kind of half expected to see more of that like sort of direct dictionary reference, but so, yeah, I don't know if he was picking on anything in particular when he came up with that name or if he just, you know, wanted something that sounded like Mjolnir. So I guess that will put us on the Most recent chapter 1142, our little summary here. Chaos erupts at the school as imaginary beasts attack Saul and Principal Tusk or Kiba fight them off momentarily. The kids are sleepwalking along a suspicious arrow. As more beasts arrive, Loki uses his conveniently placed hammer to smash Yggdrasil, blasting it with lightning that starts a fire. And Anze describes the day's assignment of drawing the scariest thing imaginable. The monsters are right out of the kids nightmares. So this one was very frenetic. I thought there's a lot of back and forth.

[Greg]

Yeah, a lot of back and forth. As, as I put it after I first read it, I was like, this is Oda stepping on the accelerator. I have not seen him do a chapter like this. In a traditional story arc, steer arc being, you know, the crew comes to a mysterious island. There are events going on in the island. They get involved in the events, they solve the events and then they go on to the next island. That being the traditional story arc. Right. I have. I don't know if I've seen a chapter where he just does as much as he, he, he. As he moves everything forward as he does here. In this single chapter, you have multiple fronts with advancements on, on each front is frenetic. As you say. But it also, it makes sense. But I've just, I've never seen him work at this speed before this. Traditionally, the contents covered in this chapter would probably cover two to three chapters, and it would be slow reveals for each. Little bit. Like just finding out where the origin of these creatures are would have been like at least two to three chapters. But no, we get it all in a single one while having other developments as well. And that, to me was impressive. It is a satisfying story for the weak, but it also advances the story to a great amount, which is the first time I have to admit that I'm not sure if my prediction for two years for Elbaf will be correct. If he is going to continue that kind of pace, he might be able to do it in a much quicker time. This is like, especially with his breaks included. This is like a month of progress right here in this single chapter. So impressive. Okay, but on literally, I mean, chapter title aside, first page, did you see the, the serpent? And were you like, okay, something's up?

[Stephen]

Yeah, well, I mean, I, Yeah, I, I could see clearly from the, from the texture, right? Yes, the screen tone is. Yes, it's that, it's that ink style look that was probably markers that, you know, it immediately looked off.

[Greg]

He's got the, you know, S.K. look to him.

[Stephen]

Right, Exactly. Yeah.

[Greg]

Yes. Which is unfortunate for longtime fans because if you're a long time fan, you're like instantly like, oh, that's like, this is a, this is a fake. This is a fake thing. Yeah, there's no way that's real.

[Stephen]

It's the, it's the, the little thing from, from Mad Max where he goes. No, that's bait. That's bait up there.

[Greg]

Yeah, perfect. So, yeah, but again, well played, Oda. Well played. I, I do like the fact that like this will, that, that will definitely get some, some new fans. Uh, so that's cool. Uh, Saul coming in with, with a. Ah. How did you translate this? That's. That's hell.

[Stephen]

Oh, this is good.

[Greg]

This is a hell attack. How did you, how did you do this?

[Stephen]

Okay, so I'm glad you mentioned this because actually I did not. When, when we went over this on the, the podcast, I did not have the Japanese up in front of me, so I didn't explain the actual kanji for this. So. Yeah, it is kimatsu Shiken is what he says. And the kanji are Ki is, is oni, so ogre or demon. And matsu is the kanji. It's used in a couple different ways, but it is. One of it is sort of like, like mashed or smashed. Like, it is the. The matsu is combined with cha to make matcha, for example. So that's why it's powdered, because it's all ground up. So it's kind of like ogre smashing. And then she can, is a tough one. She is like boy. It can mean a lot of different things, but it's like, it's sort of like, like will or, or like intention or motivation or cause. And it's used in a lot of different compound words. And then ken is just fist. So obviously you put them together and you know, you have something like, like ogre smashing, you know, righteous fist sort of a thing. But when you say it out loud, kimatsu shiken in modern Japanese, that's like end of term finals, like a final test. And so I actually, and I'm curious, I wonder how you will react to this. I wasn't sure if, if I used the word final, if it would track immediately. Like if you didn't know that it was a school related joke. I wasn't sure if final would come off like, like a school test final or if it would be some other version of final. So, so what I actually called it. And you know, maybe I'll, maybe I'll go back on this. You know, obviously there's, there's, there's room, there's wiggle room, but I called it midterm ex slam. So instead of exam, I used slam. And yeah, so. And I did explain this on the, I did explain on the podcast for folks that, that it probably should be final exam, but I just wasn't sure if that would parse, you know, right immediately as a school related joke because he is a teacher. So.

[Greg]

God, so good.

[Stephen]

It is, it is a great, A great attack name on oda's part. Really, really fun.

[Greg]

Stephen, I, I forgive you for killing him.

[Stephen]

Okay, great. Thank you. I'm glad. I'm glad I've redeemed myself.

[Greg]

Oh, that's so good. Please do final. That would be so. That's so great.

[Stephen]

I think. Yeah. The thing too is like, it does because it's like I, I was worried that it would sound like, you know, final rights or something like that. Like, like you wouldn't necessarily know it was a test. But also like, that does sound cool too. Like, because it is sort of like him. I mean, in, you know, what is it? It's a, it's a cool sounding attack name that's like promising doom for the. For the target of the attack. So you know, it's, it's okay if it is a little dramatic sounding, but yeah, fun, fun scene.

[Greg]

Where's that X Men, Jeff, the perfection Michael Fassbender thing?

[Stephen]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice.

[Greg]

Beautiful. Okay, so there's, there's that going on. I was very curious how you do that. I had no idea how you're going to work around it. And you did it. You exceeded all expectations.

[Stephen]

I, I will say and I, and I don't, you know, I don't often toot my own horn, but I, I will say I did see a lot of, of people commenting that like that they thought that was a great name. Maybe that was just because like I, maybe the scanlation was not as good or something like that. And so people were confused by it. But I did get a lot of props on that. So I felt very, very accomplished.

[Greg]

Awesome. What do you, what do you think Ragnar here? What do you think it does? Do you think it's a, a fruit? Do you think it's, it's a, a pseudoscience thing?

[Stephen]

Do you boy?

[Greg]

Does it like, does it like hearken aner. Does it like hearken the, the, the Goro Goro fruit?

[Stephen]

Right? That's right. Because he had that. So they couldn't, it couldn't have the same power, literally. Oof.

[Greg]

Unless it was a, A like a smile situation where it's a double. I mean we have not seen logias that can do that. But either way it would be interesting.

[Stephen]

Yeah. I mean, because yeah, we don't even. No, like they didn't. They, they did not. Do they even hint that this weapon existed before Loki pulls it out and uses it like, you know, in the, in the early chapters. I don't recall anything like that.

[Greg]

So I don't recall he might have been drawn with it at some point like in shadow form or something. Like, I'm not that into it.

[Stephen]

But, but in terms of like, like background of like, oh this, you know, he, he wields an ancient weapon that's been passed down through the kingdom for, you know, decades and generations, etc.

[Greg]

So yeah, I got nothing.

[Stephen]

Yeah, I don't know. Although you know, and again like to, to, to. To tie it to the, the theme of the, the older woman stuff, like anything in Elbaf just because of, of where we are in the story and kind of how Oda is revealing stuff. Anything could have come from hundreds of years ago and whatnot. So you know, the fact that like if it is possibly an artificial devil Fruit. That doesn't necessarily mean it had to have been invented and given to him by Vegapunk. It could have been.

[Greg]

That was. Yes, that is my. Sorry, I failed to mention that, but that is exactly what I intend there.

[Stephen]

Gotcha.

[Greg]

You have the very end scene here, which is cool. If you go through Norse mythology. Yes. You'll find origins for a lot of these things. That's a given. My absolute favorite was, without question, the mom. When the kid mentioned, as soon as you get the, like the fukusen. The foreshadowing of the kid being like my mom, which is hilarious, by the way. Absolutely. I was like, there's totally going to be a mom. And I didn't know when he was going to do it, but out of the gates, he's got her in there in the end, so great job. Got some draggers and things. That's cool. How did you interpret Summers last line here? How did you do this? Because I have been super curious. I've intentionally not asked you about this.

[Stephen]

Now, are you referring to the question to Gunka or is it the, the love is. Yes. Yeah, that was a tough one. And, and, and the, the, the guys asked me that too. Let me make sure I know the exact wording that I, I used because I was not sure I gave him my, my opinion. What did I say? I said to love, to know love is to wound one another. And I, I took it as whatever this, this game is or this, this thing where, you know, right now they're talking about a time limit, Right. And the kids, the kids getting to the ship. I expected that it would, it would factor into like whatever, like whatever sort of moral quandary, you know, whatever kind of saw like torture game they're setting up for the adults of Elbaf to try to do to save the kids, that it might play into that. Like something about, you know, like the, the love that they, that they have is going to wound them in the end or something like that. It's hard to. It's hard to say for sure. Did you have any thoughts or any, you know, connections that you drew?

[Greg]

Okay. Summer shows up wearing heart boxers. He's wearing a rose. He has a thorny hilt on his sword. And he's talking about love here.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

And the gym teacher is saying, don't touch the kids. You can't touch them.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

Right. Gunko is leading the children. Pied Piper style.

[Stephen]

Yes. Yeah.

[Greg]

They appear to be asleep via Killingham's power, which is hinted at the fact that he's constantly falling asleep Right. And that also seems to be related to the dreams, which is probably his, I don't know, awakened ability, I'm guessing, like, making dreams real.

[Stephen]

I would have thought the dreams were summers, but yeah, I mean, obviously, dreams and sleep, they go together, so you could be right.

[Greg]

So here's my thing for summers. I believe that he has rose abilities and that the children are essentially roses, and that the more you love someone, the more you care for them. If you touch them, you will get stabbed. You will get thorns, essentially. So they're essentially untouchable. The more that you have a link to someone, the more that you have love for somebody. It's a hedgehog's dilemma, basically, which. Thank you, Evangelion, for that. Right. The closer you get to someone, the more you will hurt. Maybe not each other in this case, but you'll hurt yourself. So I think that he set all of them up with thorns that will protrude when someone who loves them or has affection for them gets near. And if you have a very strong connection to someone, it's very possible that it could kill you because this is just their gym teacher. Right. I believe that's. That's probably why he got injured, is he was trying to help them and he got hurt that way.

[Stephen]

Interesting.

[Greg]

So I. And of course, the rose is the depiction of. Of love. And he also had the heart boxers. And as you know, every rose has its thorn.

[Stephen]

Thorn. Yeah.

[Greg]

And I did look into it. I looked into some poison pictures, and yes, he does bear a passing resemblance to the. To the lead singer. His. His hair. The cross beard. Not. Maybe not so much, but. But yeah, dude definitely does have his hair tied back like that. And it's long, flowing locks. So. Okay, it's there. That's my. That's my summer story.

[Stephen]

That's. That's good, though. Yeah, I hadn't. I had not put together the. The. The. The. The rose aspect to it because, yeah, he does. Like, if you look at the. The gym teacher, like, he. He looks like he got, like, prison shank. Like, he's got dots and spots all over his. His body. And I didn't. I didn't really spend too much time thinking about how did, like, how specifically did he get injured? Because as I said, you know, it's a very frenetic. Like, there's a lot of back and forth and there's. They're kind of constantly running. Like they're inside and then they're outside and they're on the deck, and then, you know, we're moving somewhere else. And it's obviously by design to. To really sell the kind of. The panic of the situation of feeling, you know, powerless that that stuff is happening. And you don't. You don't even know what it is, but much less how to stop it. And so that was one of those things where, like, I never really figured that out or had a. Had a bead on what specifically had happened to the teacher. But that would make a lot of sense if there. If it was a physical, you know, like, literal thorns, that Pokemon. So I'll have to be on the lookout for that.

[Greg]

Then what would really be interesting is if it is true that, like, the. The more affection or the more feeling you have for someone, like, the greater you get hurt.

[Stephen]

Yeah. If it actually works that way.

[Greg]

Yeah, yeah. Because if they do that, if the crew eats that, then, like, how cool is that? Like, this guy is instantly super op against them because the crew cannot work together. They can't get close to each other. They can't connect. And how did the. How did it start is like, when Luffy was like, oh, man, this. This Gavin guy is really tough. Hey, Zorro, let's team up. Okay.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

They can't. They can't do that. Which is a cool way. Would be a cool way to separate the crew. I don't know if that'll necessarily go down that way. It's fine just having the kids do that, but, like. Yeah, having people with strong connections and being able to use that against them, especially with the connection being stronger, the greater the. The damage that would inflict. That's a very cool way to keep people separate.

[Stephen]

Yeah. What did you make of the. You know, I guess the. I don't know if they even stated it, but they did mention, of course, they are taking the kids back to Mary Jo. They don't say what they're going to do or. Or why, but, you know, I feel like there's. There's some pretty short lines to be drawn between the. The concept of. Of taking giant kids and. And some of the, you know, sort of the background themes of the. The. The larger story. Right. Of all the. The giant soldiers, they've been looking More.

[Greg]

More gene therapy, gene extract. Well, I see. Gen.

[Stephen]

The bloodline elements or whatever they.

[Greg]

Yes, yes, the bloodline elements. That's right. Lineage factors. Is that it or is that one of them?

[Stephen]

I think blood bloodline elements was what I called them.

[Greg]

Oh, bloodline elements. Yeah. I got to start using that because I've. I've been using lineage factor just out of. Out of Habit. And I have no idea where it came from. It was just one thing that I found. But like, okay, bloodline elements. I got to use that in my articles now. But yeah, that seems to be the reason. Um, in general, celestial dragons, as I got into last time, just seem to.

[Stephen]

Be.

[Greg]

What'S more, not gerbil, hamsters.

[Stephen]

Guinea pigs.

[Greg]

Guinea pigs. Thank you. They just seem to be guinea pigs. There's going to be a podcast where it's just Stephen helping me remember English words.

[Stephen]

Well, the funny, the funny thing is you were, you were searching, but you didn't say the one that the Japanese call it, which is Mormon. That's what they, that's what they call, you know, a guinea pig is Mormoto.

[Greg]

I, I, I, I snuck it in there. I was like, it was under my breath.

[Stephen]

Yeah, yeah.

[Greg]

Yeah, that's, that's basically all they are, why they're looking for. Well actually why they're looking for it, I don't, is im. If IM is stuck in Joy Boy's body, then why would he need all of this bloodline element therapy? Like why, why would they need all of that? Is it do they want to create a weapon or does he want a vessel for himself? Because if, theoretically, if he's in Joy Boy's body, then he should be able to create that himself. Right? Unless Joy Boy lost the ability to do so. Is there a way to lose Devil Fruit abilities? And if so, is that why they're trying to create it? Because if he can transfer his consciousness, are they trying to create the perfect vessel for im? Obviously they want giant, giant gigantification, giantism. That seems to be what they're going for. Is this, this kind of breeding things that they want and I hope it does come back at some point. We see the punk hazard frozen criminals, the people frozen in the room. Like we see what all that was for. I mean like you said, short lines, you can draw all the connections. But like it would be nice if he did bring all that together for some reason. Yeah, any, any way you look at, it's pretty grim prospect. The only like long distance thing that I see here and the big problem is, and this is actually what I just finished writing about, I wrote about Scopper for a Shueisha article and it was okay, they want giant kids. Did they necessarily know that one of those kids is a half child or a half giant, half human son of one of the, the Pirate King's right hand men?

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Do they, do they know what they're tapping into there? Like what, what What. What force they're going to unleash, should they. Should they mess with. With Coron.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

That'S going to be quite a. Quite the. Quite the showdown. If they do do that, he is going to be pissed.

[Stephen]

Yeah. I mean, there's still. Obviously, there's open questions as to like, how. How retired is Gibbon here? Like, is it, you know, will. Will he ride back into battle, like, full. Full tilt for something like that? I mean, you would hope so if Gibson, given that we're talking about his family and we don't see any reason to doubt that he's dedicated to them. But, you know, it has been kind of a theme of, you know, the folks from the older generation kind of turning Luffy down and saying, no, I'm kind of. I'm. I'm done. I'm retired. I'm not doing the. The adventure thing anymore.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Stephen]

It's also interesting this a little bit of a tangent, but like that, I. I don't feel like. Well, I, I don't believe that Oda has differentiated in any way Codon from the rest of the kids. Like, he doesn't seem like he's smaller than the other giant children.

[Greg]

He does not seem to be, no.

[Stephen]

Which I'm not sure if there's a specific reason for that or if ODA just didn't want to, you know, to do the kind of play the averages down the middle, sort of like small plus large equals medium sort of thing. But I thought that was. That was interesting that you can't necessarily tell him apart.

[Greg]

I think that. That we're going to find out that that's kind of one of the. For the. For the Ark, by the way, is that what does it. Because there have been multiple times now. I mean, it's kind of like, oh, duh, like he's been throwing it up there several times. But it just started to connect with me, with Conan's existence kind of coming to the forefront here as being put in danger. But, like, he seems to be dealing with what it means to be biracial in a society that is. That's closed, essentially.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

Which seems to be kind of like his family theme for the arc, if you will, if you can. I mean, there are multiple hidden themes, but this one for family theme theme seems to be that because being biracial in Japan is kind of a big deal that nobody talks about, you're a very unique individual within the society, and how you are handled and how you're accepted is based entirely upon how you look. If you look More Japanese people will assume that you are just Japanese and treat you very much like that. If you look different, then you will be asked like, oh, how long have you lived in Japan? Or, oh, your Japanese is so good and you've lived there your entire life.

[Stephen]

Right?

[Greg]

It is. It. I'm not trying to paint like some hellscape. It is. No, it's not. But, like, it is a sensitive and an important topic. And I think he might be touching upon that, especially with the whole Loki and Hyrudin thing. And we also have Rhode, who brings that directly to the forefront. Like, why is. Why is road this kind of, like, weird character who was. Who was otaku? And like, he was. Okay, he was bullied. So, like, he has a reason to hold some of these strange views. But, like, why. Why do we want to side with him? What, like, where is he coming from? It's like, because that's a lot of the people that live in Japan, they have these similar views about outsides and not outsides. And what does it mean to have half blood? And like Hyrudin, if I remember correctly, he was ridiculed for being half.

[Stephen]

He.

[Greg]

Was. Was he considered not. Was he considered, like, not viable for the. For the throne?

[Stephen]

Oh, yeah. What was the. I forget what the. What the. What the thing that he. He said was. Because, yeah, he was the. Hain was considered kind of the bastard son. Right. He was the right son from the non. Not the queen or whoever. I don't remember if there was a detail that, like, she was from a different. Different, you know, clan of giants or different country of giants.

[Greg]

Okay.

[Stephen]

Or not. I wish. I wish I could remember.

[Greg]

I thought there was something about there. And that's like, why he wouldn't be viable but Loki would. But, like, I think that's. That's what he's going for in the ARC is like, what does it mean to be biracial? And how can society accept them? Of course, there are. There are many back. Hidden themes here. You also have the. The question of armament, which I think is a big yes question among fans right now. Is he for armament? Is he for disarmament? I would be interested if he took a third route, which is it's not pro or anti, but like, what. What do we need to do to make our society better? How can we have a happy medium where we can protect ourselves and be a happy society, but also live in peace? Like, what. What can we do to make that happen? If you can answer that question, then, like, that would make for a Compelling story rather than like this good, this bad. I'm very interested to see how he'll address that.

[Stephen]

Yeah, yeah, I picked up on that pretty, pretty quickly. You know, when. When he started talking about that. That topic of, you know, are we. Are we really warriors anymore? Like, how have things changed? Whatever. Okay. I did find. Yes, it was. Hiredin's mother was from a different giant nation.

[Greg]

Right.

[Stephen]

Okay. So. Yeah, all right. And that. And that was why, you know, Nami was like, why are you. Then why are you with him? If you. If you think that, you know, it's not right for him to lead this nation or whatever. And.

[Greg]

And then.

[Stephen]

Yeah, then it goes into the. The. The. The personal connection that they have. So. Ah, yeah.

[Greg]

Oh, which means that what's his name has some high giant blood. I'm sorry, this is just popping in my head, but who's Nya. Who's the Nyah Blackbeard guy? I always forget his name.

[Stephen]

Avalo Pizarro.

[Greg]

Avalo Pizarro. He's. He. If those. If that isn't just a decoration that he's wearing. He has some ancient blood in him. Ancient giant blood. Interesting. Okay. Or he's. I don't know, maybe he's some obscure fish that. I don't know, that has horns. Right. Oda can always pull that.

[Stephen]

Yes, but.

[Greg]

But yeah, yeah, okay, I see that people have taken to calling. Calling Nika Black Nika, which is weird to me.

[Stephen]

Like the original, the one that we see depicted, that's Nika.

[Greg]

Yeah, like, to me, that's Nika. Like Luffy is the interpretation. Like.

[Stephen]

Yes, Luffy. Luffy is the white Nika. Yeah, yeah.

[Greg]

See also, what is. What's going. Is. Is Nika is. Are his eyes just obscured or is he a Cyclops? What's going on there? Do you know what I'm talking about? This Nika in the end.

[Stephen]

Yeah, yeah. The. The one being drawn. I don't know. We were. We were talking about that and some of the other like, details. Like the details of the. The. The one who appears to be Loki, maybe. Oh yeah. Who is, you know, has like the two. Is the sword and the. The hammer. And I. I feel like the kids because. Because the. The topic was coming up of like, well, did they like this Loki has a big like a big reddish looking beard. So did Loki have a big beard before that? And that's when they saw that. And. And I was kind of thinking, I don't think they've ever. They probably have ever seen Loki or if they have, it was A long time ago. And so I think that these are just. I mean, they are literally. It's an exercise in imagination. Right. They're supposed to be drawing. They're the thing that scares them most. So they don't necessarily have, like, the strongest mental image of what that thing is, and that's what makes it more scary. So.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Stephen]

Yeah. I don't know. The. The. The Nika in the. You know, the. The drawing. Na. Here kind of looks like. You know, I. I was comparing him to, like. Like one of the Muppets or something. Like, he's got the same vibe that I. Yes. Okay. All right. I'm glad we're on the same page then. Yeah. With the. The obscured eyes and the kind of weird oval nose, it does look very Muppet is. But, you know, I wouldn't necessarily take any of the details too literally as far as, like, how. How Naa actually appeared, just because.

[Greg]

Exactly. Oda's not going to reveal it here.

[Stephen]

No, not.

[Greg]

This is not. Yeah, no, no, that's. It's classic oda. So.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

All right. Also, these things are off huge.

[Stephen]

Oh, yeah.

[Greg]

My God. The giants are, like, in distant. The giants are tiny to them.

[Stephen]

Yes.

[Greg]

What the hell?

[Stephen]

That's fun.

[Greg]

I think that'll do it for the chapter. For me, we can go into minutia for eternity, But. But those are the big points.

[Stephen]

All right. Yeah. I mean, yes, there. There's probably a few more things we could discuss, but why. I think we have some questions that have our names on them, so why don't we wrap.

[Greg]

Also, do we have. Let me just ask. I have to be thorough here. Do we have any voicemail or voice messages? Because a friend. A friend was actually mentioning, like, are you going to be on SBS or sgs? And I was like, yep, yep, got it. And he's like, I might leave a voice message, and it's just like, Zach will probably spit out his coffee.

[Stephen]

Yeah, we did.

[Greg]

We.

[Stephen]

We did get a couple. I feel like the majority of voicemails that we've gotten over the years are either Alex or Steve just, like, doing a bit and pretending to be someone else. So. So I don't know. But yeah, Zach has been checking. I think the. The deadline that they're going to shut down the. The voicemail. The Skype voicemail thing in. In, like, May or something like that. So he has. He has been checking, but he would have to download that and share that for us to. For us to share it, so.

[Greg]

Well, disruptive. If you're out there, you're listening. Then you got until May.

[Stephen]

Okay? All right, we'll look forward to that. But for now, let's answer some questions. Abercrombie is an official fashion partner of.

[Greg]

The NFL and I'm CD Lamb, wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. You know I'm here for Abercrombie's Cowboys gear. That's not a question, but I need.

[Stephen]

A whole wardrobe to go with it. No shade to the guys, but I'm.

[Greg]

Used to having the best tunnel fits. This season, Abercrombie has me covered. Shop NFL by Abercrombie in the app, online and in store. When did making plans get this complicated?

[Stephen]

It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together.

[Greg]

Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss.

[Stephen]

A meme or milestone.

[Greg]

All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone.

[Stephen]

Learn [e-mail] this episode is brought to you by Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels and music are made for each other. They share a rhythm in the craft of making something timeless while being a part of legendary nights. From backyard jams to sold out arenas, there's a song in every toast. Please drink responsibly. Responsibility.org, jack Daniels and Old no. 7 are registered trademarks. Tennessee Whiskey, 40% alcohol by volume. Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee this is the SGS segment where we answer all of your burning questions and you are free of course to send pretty much anything. Let's keep it family friendly, you know. But the, the first segment we will go to and the the best and most reliable way if you are a Patreon member and you get on our discord and you get, you know, you use your Patreon link or whatever or, or show your your proof of purchase whatnot. You can get access to our Patreon section and there is an SGS channel specifically for asking us as well as a dispiece channel for regular podcast episodes. So we'll start with that with SNP who says hi Steven, Greg and Simba. This is a very early question. So this, this was submitted like within a week of our last episode. So it's a few weeks old now. It's a very early question.

[Greg]

It's aged. It's aged.

[Stephen]

Or maybe fun fact like like a good cheese. As we already know, Rayleigh's epithet is Dark King. May all you two probably already know the original Japanese was meant to provoke Or I guess to associate with Hades, the God of the dead, king of the underworld in Greek mythology. So I was wondering, does Gabon's epithet Mountain eater, Yamagurai mean anything else too, in the original Japanese? And I found out that Yama is the God of death and justice in Hinduism. What do you think about that? Is it an intentional move that both the right and left hand of Gol d Roger have something related to death in their epithet? Or was that just a coincidence? Interesting. So. So Yama, instead of being mountain being, you know, the. The Yama, I guess, is Yama. Does that Enma. Is that the. Is the Enma the Japanese version of. Of Yama? I'm trying to.

[Greg]

I. I would have to assume so.

[Stephen]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Greg]

Because. Is that. Is that why they called him King Yama in the early Dragon Ball at Z?

[Stephen]

Oh, did they. Did they call him that in the.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Stephen]

Okay, then it must be.

[Greg]

Which is an oddly accurate translation for the. For the ocean dub.

[Stephen]

Jesus, that's fun.

[Greg]

And if you know what. What that sentence just meant that I said, like, congratulations, you're older than you. Yeah, most things. Hmm. That's an interesting question, because you can't totally deny the fact that Sanji is. Is unrelated to Hell because he has the ifrit, right? Like, he's got the fire, the Diablo.

[Stephen]

Diablo.

[Greg]

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But that just got me thinking, is that. Can the two of them be related to something that is fiery? Because he mentions that he's, you know, about passion and he's got all this impassion in himself.

[Stephen]

Right?

[Greg]

Which is. Which is why I think that it's going to come out for his son, right? Like. Like whoever messes with his son, like, you're fucked. But Mountain eater, you could make the argument that what about what else would eat a mountain other than fire? And you would have Yamakaji, which is. I mean, there is an actual Yamakaji character right? In the. In the. In the show. The. The.

[Stephen]

Yeah, he was the Chujo, right? Yes. I was gonna say he sounds like a Vice Admiral character.

[Greg]

Yes, he's Vice Admiral.

[Stephen]

Was he that. Was he the one who was, like, smoking the cigars, am I thinking.

[Greg]

Yes.

[Stephen]

Okay.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Stephen]

Nice.

[Greg]

Yeah, he's like the. The Popeye, but Bluto blue.

[Stephen]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very beefy looking.

[Greg]

But you could make the argument that what eats a mountain other than a fire? You. I guess you could make that connection, and maybe we'll learn more as we see, you know, how passionate he can be. Because, you know, Oda seems to do that. Like a burning passion seems to be his shtick. Plus, oh, if he is, he does have that scar on his, on his face, right? That looks like a flame. That could be the burn scar.

[Stephen]

Yes, I know that there have been some, some speculative comments to that nature. It.

[Greg]

Yeah, it's not a burned, it's not a scar that came from a burn, but a scar that looks like a burn.

[Stephen]

Yeah, right.

[Greg]

You could make that argument as well. And that is something that I think Oda would do on purpose with flame at least being connected to the like, one being literally a Lord of Hell and then the other being flame. I think he would go to that extent.

[Stephen]

Yeah. I mean, it would mean some, you know, like, like stuff that, that he's been doing that he's, you know, riding around on a big black ship and he's got the whirlpools and, and whatever else that people associate with that character, which, you know, we have not seen tied directly to Gibon. But that doesn't mean that those aren't the same character. It just means that Oda is saving that, that reveal, that connection. Reveal until later. But I don't know. I'm leaning away from that, but I, I can't, I certainly cannot rule it out for sure.

[Greg]

Interesting thought. I've been trying to draw a connection between the two because the right hand seemed to have such a, a strong theme. But that's interesting. It could be, I don't know about, about Lord of Hell, but you could definitely draw a flame connection at this point.

[Stephen]

I wonder too. Maybe I'm just thinking of like what the, the, what he did with all of the Atamayama stuff, like the, the, the head, that's a mountain. There were a lot of references to that in Wano, and that was all from like a rakugo arakugo story. So sometimes when you see like kind of distinctive phrases like this, I, I, I am, I am not speaking from a position of, of knowledge here, but just sometimes when I see that, it sets off that, like, I wonder if Oda is just referring to like a rakugo story of some kind. Like, you know, he's, he's making a fun little obscure reference that he enjoys that, you know, maybe not, you know, everyone will, will pick up on, but that he wants to put in there as a, as a fun little, little reference. But like Fujimori, like Fujiform. All right, we'll move on to King Doji, who has. These are some good questions, actually, just on the topic of Japanese stuff. King Doji says hello very Special guests. My questions are questions that got missed on this piece proper because of either a way too long episode or Stephen was simply not there. So here they are. One question. One. The children of Elbaf a few chapters ago were saying words that were misspelled. I've seen this before in Spy Family where Anya says that she goes for family ootings instead of outings. And I'm sure it comes up with other kid characters. How is this represented in Japanese? So I have not read Spy Family, but I do, I do believe that in Japanese, just for Greg's reference here, it's that they go out on. They go out for odekake, which is, you know, exactly. Okay, so you do.

[Greg]

Super cute.

[Stephen]

They said they spelled adorable ootings instead of outings in the English version. So I don't remember which specific scene it is that they, the kids are doing. I think it was, it was during all of the, the scenes about, you know, being a warrior, using violence or like saying bad, bad words and stuff like that, when the kids were really like harping on each other about that stuff. And so I had them, a lot of them kind of misspelling the words. So usually what happens there is that Oda is using, he's having them say words, maybe words that are a little more complicated. Like they sound like grown up words. And what happens in Japanese is when you're writing out normal sentences, you know, you use a fair number of kanji with them. And this is one of those things where I know when, when people are like Japanese 101 students, they, they always have, they always end up with that question. It's like, do I really need to know the kanji? Can't I just use hiragana? And the, you know what you end up with when, when you, when you, when you finally learn enough about Japanese, you realize, oh, no, you have to have the kanji. Because if you don't have kanji, it's fucking impossible to tell sometimes, like what people are, are saying. It's so hard to read without kanji. And because there are so many homophones, there's so many words that sound similar but can be written with different kanji. And once you know, you know all the kanji, then it's very easy to figure out. Even if you haven't seen this word before, it's often easy to figure out what it means just from looking at the kanji. So what happens there is Oda is going to be writing them in hiragana, which basically says if you, you know, if you don't remember what we've talked about for years about like the pirates of the sun, for example, that it's written in hiragana. The sun is written in hiragana rather than kanji and katakana or katakana. Sorry, yes, you're right. And Oda himself explained in an SBS that like, yes, they explicitly do that because they don't fully understand the sun. It's not a lived experience that they, that they know and understand. They've, they, they've heard of the sun, they know what the sun is, but they don't really know what the sun is and how it feels to have it, you know, beating on your skin every day. And you know, the way that it, it gets hot and it gets cold and all the, you know, the different aspects of life with the sun. And so to them it is somewhat of a foreign concept. And so it's a similar thing here with the kids is when they, when they're saying some kind of complicated word, if it's just written out in hiragana, it means that they're repeating it because they've heard it before, but they might not like, really know what they're talking about. And so my way of, of handling that is to have them misspelled. So, you know, you kind of, again, you get the same sense that like, they don't really know what this is, but, but they're, they're talking about it anyways. And it's just a, it's a nice thing that English and Japanese can kind of do the same thing with the way that their writing systems work. I'm not sure how other languages do it, but that's kind of my general go to when I see that happen.

[Greg]

So one of our gripes at work is a constant thing that we deal with over here is people assuming that we can't understand Japanese the first time we work with somebody new. And to be kind to us and to be accommodating to these foreigners who couldn't possibly know our difficult language. They will send us emails written entirely in hiragana.

[Stephen]

Oh no.

[Greg]

They're just so removed, they're so out of it that they think that hiragana equals simplicity and easy. It is the exact opposite. You get an email, it's a wall of hiragana, and it's absolutely fucking impossible to. I mean, it's not impossible, okay, if you spend enough time with it, yes, you can read it, but like, it's an exorbitant. It is far more difficult to read an email Entirely in hiragana than it ever is using kanji.

[Stephen]

It's got to be. It's got to be like. Like if you've never seen cursive before, and then someone hands you this really flowery cursive script and you're like, okay, I think I know what this is saying. But like, God, it's. It's takes so much brain power to, to figure it all out, man.

[Greg]

It's like, maybe it's like a, a. A more recent version of Old English. Like if someone sent you an email in Old English, you'd be like, yeah, I got a. I got a the. And I got a me and a chicken, but I also got an octopus in there. Not sure how that got it. Yeah, that's, that's. That hell. Good question.

[Stephen]

That's rough. Yeah. Um, and the. Excuse me. The other question is, is the abyss? And this is good because we didn't. We didn't talk about this. Is the abyss that Killingham or killing him, Killingham mentions in 1140, the same abyss that showed up in the Harley. Was it the second world void, the third world emptiness, or something else entirely? Okay, so this is interesting because I don't think anyone else asked this or made this. Made a connection between these. These two things, but the abyss, the term abyss came from Oda. So, yeah, obviously, you know, you can tell from the context of the, the dialogue in the chapter that abyss in the story refers to that. That pentagram pattern, the five. The five sided star that both the, the five elders and now the other holy knights here have been summoned through. And that is written along with the kanji that. That means, you know, five sided star or pentagram. It is written with the katakana abisu. So it is, you know that that word comes from Oda. It is not. So the, all the stuff about the, the void and the emptiness and, and whatnot in the Harley, the Does not have anything to do with the word abyss here. And, And I don't think I used. I didn't use abyss in the translation of the, The Harley and the, the mural and all that stuff that we talked about. So they are, they're totally separate. But it is interesting that, you know, that is another synonym of, you know, that, that concept, if you were able.

[Greg]

To send actually craftsman through it, you know, while they were traveling, if they were able to create something, I guess you, you could say it was made in abyss.

[Stephen]

I was like, where is he going with this? Where is he? Yeah. So, yeah, I guess the short answer is that there's no. There's no connection. But it is an interesting choice of terminology on. On Oda's part. I mean, it makes. It makes me think of like. Like a shadowy tunnel, right? Like you think of an abyss. It's like a deep, deep depth or something. And, you know, who knows where they're passing through when they come out of the. The other end. But, you know, it's a fun word association. I guess we'll move on then to Felix Cutler, our friend, who says, hi, sgs. Another quick fire round. Okay, so we have another something versus something.

[Greg]

Oh, man.

[Stephen]

And he says, remember, don't take it seriously. Don't take it seriously, Greg. Okay. Lions versus Tigers.

[Greg]

Tigers.

[Stephen]

Tigers. Yeah, he. He capitalized both of them, so you could interpret that. That as like sports teams first, for example. And so I would say, because the Tigers are the. The baseball team, and I like baseball more than football, I will also say Tigers. Next one. Final Destination versus Scream.

[Greg]

I have never seen either one.

[Stephen]

Oh, my God.

[Greg]

So let's say. Let's say Scream.

[Stephen]

Okay.

[Greg]

I. I don't know because Drew Barrymore.

[Stephen]

Yeah. Yeah, I saw Scream. I don't remember if I ever saw Final Destination, but I saw. You know, I remember all the jokes about it because it was a very funny, a very silly movie. But, yeah, I'll say Scream 2. Okay. Watching movies in silence or watching movies and talking.

[Greg]

Depends on the audience.

[Stephen]

Yeah, I. I wouldn't. I would not talk in the theater, but at home. Yeah, I'm. I'm fine with talking.

[Greg]

Yeah, at home, like in silence. Right?

[Stephen]

A little awkward. Yeah. Very tense.

[Greg]

Yeah. I need more context in your next round.

[Stephen]

More.

[Greg]

I cannot answer that question.

[Stephen]

Okay. Podcast versus radio.

[Greg]

Is there a difference now?

[Stephen]

Oof.

[Greg]

I would say just for clarity. Oh, okay. I think I see, like, listening to radio programming versus podcast program. Downloading a podcast and listening to it. Oh, that is good. Now, nowadays, radio is. Is simple, but podcast is way easier to listen to.

[Stephen]

Yeah, I definitely listen to podcasts way more than. Than radio. So I'll go podcast. He says series versus movies. I'm guessing this is TV series versus movies. And he does. He does include in parentheses, what do you enjoy more? So there you go. That you have a direction for that.

[Greg]

I don't know if I can answer that. It depends. Okay. It has to be. I can only answer this based on volume. There is no more one than the other. It's just what. What has been more entertaining for me by volume recently, and I guess it would have to be serious.

[Stephen]

I feel like I'm going back the other way now. Like, just give me a movie and I can be done with it after two or three hours.

[Greg]

I agree, but it has to be that entertaining for me. And I don't know many movies that I can think about. Like, have you ever thought about this? Like, the movies that you watched as a kid were like, the first time you experienced a kind of story. I remember them vividly. And now when I see a movie, it's just like, consuming media, and it's just like. It's just something to. To kill time. Whereas a series is. I actually have to sit down and think about it and think about the connections to characters if I enjoy it. And that's why I've also become, like, such super snobby with my series. But, like, I. By volume, I enjoy them more now than. Than movies just because of pure enjoyment of the medium.

[Stephen]

Football versus soccer in parentheses. What's the correct word?

[Greg]

I have no pride as an American in that respect, so I will say football.

[Stephen]

Okay. See, I would.

[Greg]

Majority of the world agrees.

[Stephen]

Yeah, the majority of the world agrees, but Japan and America are like the two countries that actually call it soccer, so I'll just say soccer. And. Last one. Apples or pears?

[Greg]

Pears.

[Stephen]

Oh, I. For me, this is easy. Apples. Yeah, I like. I. I enjoy many kinds of apples. Not as many kinds of pears.

[Greg]

I enjoy many kinds of apples and many kinds of pears. I think the best kind of pear is probably better than my favorite apple. Ooh.

[Stephen]

Okay.

[Greg]

If. If you placed them both in front of me, I would choose the pear before the apple.

[Stephen]

All right.

[Greg]

But. But I like apple confectionaries way more. So, like, not even.

[Stephen]

Oh, yeah.

[Greg]

Oh, but apple tarts are really good. Okay, all right. It. I don't think. Seriously, Greg. I don't think so.

[Stephen]

All right, moving on to Big Mike, who says at the end of the series, when the Straw Hats leave Laugh Tale and Luffy disbands the crew, will Buggy end up on Laugh Tale, find the One Piece and get the credit for defeating the Straw Hat and becoming the Pirate King? And then will he have to deal with the negative consequences of getting chased by the Marines, get executed, and start the Next Age of Pirates while the Straw Hats live free for the rest of their lives? Boy, that's some wicked karma for Buggy.

[Greg]

That's. Yeah, that's. That's pretty. It's pretty cruel. He'd get both sides, right? He'd get the Marines, and probably Croc and Mihawk would be pissed at him. Too. Right? Yeah.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Let's just say I don't see that happening. But I don't want to say no forever because nothing is impossible in one piece at this point.

[Stephen]

So, yeah, I don't know about that specific scenario, but the, the pattern has, has. Is really established at this point that that buggy continues to fail upward and get credit for things that he probably doesn't deserve. So I certainly can't rule it out. The, the, the. The opportunity is right there for for Oda to do something along those lines. Next is wisdom. Pythagoras who says, hey, OSGs been a while. Hope all is well. What do you think about the idea of the devil fruit held by the royal family of Elbaf to be Ragnar itself? It would simplify a lot surrounding the idea of the fruit being passed down across generations. I think back when the fruit was first described to have been taken by loki in chapter 1130, it was said to have been eaten, but I was unsure if there was room for ambiguity there in the original text. Actually, I don't remember this at all. So have we been just like completely, completely forgetting some big detail that I have forgotten?

[Greg]

I, I'm on board with this line of thought. I don't know if there's a particular line or pick your detail that you could twist this way, but I want there to be some sort of twist with the, with the fruit. Like he, he got. He. He is in possession of it, but he didn't necessarily eat it yet. Or he's in possession of it, but it's a object that quote unquote ate a fruit. Right. Like something like that. I want there to be something of that nature with each chapter. It seems increasingly unlikely that that is the case, but I don't think there's anything that makes it impossible yet. Simply because we are to believe that Seastone is incredibly resilient and incredibly tough. So he couldn't just. Even if he didn't have a devil fruit per se, he couldn't just work his way out of it. But we do know that he is lying and that he does deceive. He's being classic Loki, in other words. Right. So it is possible that he has not. I think it is possible that he has not eaten a fruit and he was simply held in place by the strength of the Seastone. I think that is still viable.

[Stephen]

So I'm, I'm looking here. So I completely forgot. This is what happens when, you know, the, the series comes out at the schedule that it does. And, you know, we get distracted with, with other, you know, very juicy morsels to, to pick over. Okay, so this was the line from 11:30 which I had forgotten. His desperate desire. It's talking about Loki. His desperate desire for a legendary devil fruit passed down through the Elbaf royal line led him to kill his father, King Harold and eat. Eat the fruit. So yeah, unless. Unless again, that's also like a.

[Greg]

And who said that?

[Stephen]

Right? It's just a rando giant.

[Greg]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Stephen]

So that could be just a story that they've, that they've decided is, is the truth. But you know, we will find out more.

[Greg]

We already know they have bogus information about what went down that day.

[Stephen]

Yes.

[Greg]

So yeah, yeah, it's, it's still viable at this point. If we find out, the moment that we find out that he is actually weakened by the seastone and he's not just putting on a facade, then that will be the, that will be the, the case that he has indeed eaten the fruit and he has that power.

[Stephen]

All right, last question on the Discord here is from S And P. So we may have already answered this one actually. Hello, Greg. Stephen. Greg and Simba. So for Stephen, can you talk about Killingham's name? The name seems to refer to Kirin slash Chilean. But you decided to use killing instead. Is this meant to be a killing pun? I sent the question for dispiece that week, but you are off so I thought of sending it now. So yeah, I think I, I think I did cover cover kind of my, my thought process on that when, when we were talking about that in the. The recap. So hopefully that, that answered your your question already.

[Greg]

We need like a, like a psychic award when we answer SGS questions in the, the episode proper. We need some, some sort of like symbol or, or ringing or buzz or sound effect. Like we, we psychically answered your question in advance.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

We, we, we Kimbo and Shoku to your question.

[Stephen]

Yeah. So we do have some, some other questions on social media and I will go through we, I, I will look for the hashtag SGS Sensei. That's all one word, no, no dash in there on both Twitter and Blue Sky. So I will start here. We do have a couple from a longtime listener, Emil Nordpole, Bsky Social, who says, dear SGS Sensei, what are the odds that we get lots of behind the scenes info from ODA as soon as the series is finished? I guess it depends on what kind of info you're thinking of.

[Greg]

But I mean I think what windmill is going for Here is probably like sketches and like how far in advance did you create or. Yeah, did you intend this to be a thing? How far in advance was Luffy actually going to have eaten the Nika fruit, et cetera, et cetera? I'm guessing that's what you're kind of going immediately after the series finishes. Which version of the series? Because we have now 1, 2, 3. We'll have four versions of the series going. I don't know how long the live action will last. But there's that. There's of course the manga. Then you have the Toei animation and there's the Netflix animation. Yeah. Which is coming down the pike now obviously both Netflix adaptations, there's no indication that those absolutely will go to the end of the. The series. The manga material. Toei will absolutely, certainly without question go to the end of the manga material. But until all of those stories, we'll get something right. It'll be similar to which. Which one was it? We got the full reveal. Right. Of the. Of the. The cast drawn as they were intended to after Jim Bay joined. Right. Like we got that. Oh, we actually cut out Jim Bay from the. The cast picture.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

That sketch of the original from the early sketch. And then after it was. What was it? Famously, I think it was blue deep or green. Green. Green. It was in green. And they physically cut it out.

[Stephen]

Yes.

[Greg]

Of green.

[Stephen]

There was a very obvious space over one of their shoulders. Yeah.

[Greg]

Yes. I think we'll get a number of details but you have to consider from a advertising standpoint, they still need to retain a lot of that mystery until one, the series is over in all of its forms and two, it's just until we get the sequel series or the continue series or whatever happens in the future and. Well, it probably inevitably happened at this point just because it is so large. If you read my 90 page thesis, you'll. It'll. You can get some of my ideas on how that will go. It doesn't necessarily need to be about the straw hats, but they need to retain some of that mystery so they can kind of dole it out over the years before that starts. So there's some sort of. Of commercial gain for them. So after it ends. Yes, I'm sure there will be a small spurt, but probably not as much as people might hope for just because it doesn't seem realistic from their perspective to put it all out there.

[Stephen]

Yeah. And. And if they, if there was going to be something larger, I, I agree. I don't think it would be as soon as the series is finished. I don't think they, they would say set up like a whole clearinghouse of like, you know, flood the zone with all of the behind the scenes secrets and the things you didn't know were going to happen and, and blah, blah, blah. I think that Oda is, he certainly, you know, despite his, his famous, you know, kind of refusal to let his, his pictures be shown, he's obviously over the years, you know, been very comfortable with doing interviews and you know, being on TV and things like that. So I don't think he's going to be a recluse and you know, just sort of shut out the rest of the world. I think he, he would certainly be forthcoming about some of that stuff, but it also depends on, I guess how he feels about it, if he thinks it's interesting to share or if, if some of those, some of the potential secrets and you know, maybe second guessing or, or you know, ideas that he had that he didn't end up using. Maybe he decides like, well, I don't really want to admit that I thought about this or you know, maybe I don't want people to think, oh, this would have been better than what Oda actually drew or something like that. You know, he might have reasons for not wanting to share every little thing that he potentially could, but I do think that he, he would, you know, help them put together some kind of, you know, sketchbook and stuff like that of, of interesting tidbits from behind the scenes.

[Greg]

Yep, completely something to look forward to.

[Stephen]

All right, next question from Sanad. Chi's inherited will at OPP got me into B Sky. BSky Social. Dear OPP Sensei, oh no. Whenever I see Gerd or Ripley, the first thought that pops into my head is wow, I can just walk underneath them and look up their skirts. Please help me. OPP Hashtag SGS Sensei. This has two likes. Who is liking this comment?

[Greg]

No comment. Yeah, I cannot safely respond to that.

[Stephen]

Please seek help. We'll move on. Sean Griffith. Sean Griffith at dot. BSGuy Social says hi SGS Sensei in one piece. Chapter 1138 before the mural reveal, Ripley says maybe that simply means this was nothing more than a child's dream. This line really stuck with me. Could this be a meta reference on the overall story of One Piece itself being dreamed up by Oda in his childhood? I mean, I think that's a fun, that's a fun lens to interpret it. Obviously it does. I think we talked. I, I feel like if you went back and listened to the episodes we definitely commented on the sort of meta nature. What is it? Oh, God. What is it? Saint Elsewhere? Is that the. The TV show that had the infamous.

[Greg]

The snow globe.

[Stephen]

The snow globe ending. Yeah. Where it was all in the kid. The hospitalized kids sort of fantasies or something.

[Greg]

Yes. Yeah. Or perhaps far worse, the. What is it? They wake up and it's in the shower. What is that famous one? You know.

[Stephen]

You know, I'm afraid.

[Greg]

Right. They lampoon it in. In Family Guy, I think.

[Stephen]

Oh, God.

[Greg]

It was like one. One show was a spin off of another show and like in the final episode, it was the dream of one of the characters from the original show.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Empty Nest, was it? I don't know, but that is a completely valid. I, I think that's something that carries through. Right. Because if you know One Piece and you know Oda, then you know that. Yes, he. He was. He's been dreaming this story up, this, this fantastic world and these characters up since he was in middle school. So, yeah, you could view it that way. I, I agree. That's valid. It's clever.

[Stephen]

All right, our last. I'll go over to Twitter. We do have one on Twitter from B. Champagne Bala, who, as always, has a bit of a list of short questions here. Let's see. Why was Kuros escape in the live action? I don't know if that's something, you know, that could be like a writer's room sort of a. Sort of a thing that.

[Greg]

I think we got this question before and I think. Okay, let me pull back the curtain a little bit.

[Stephen]

Okay.

[Greg]

I think we got this question previously, and I believe I did answer it in detail.

[Stephen]

And then you decided, you know what, this is maybe a little too much detail.

[Greg]

Yes. Okay, so let me just. Because I don't want to disappoint you, because I know you went through the towel to send in the question.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

And I think it was like an 11th hour call. And I think I had. I was like, I'm good with this. I'm fine with this. And last time I was like, you know what? Maybe not. I did answer your question. I know the exact answer to your question. Unfortunately, it would not be responsible for me to answer that question. There's a very good reason for it. And personally, on a personal level, I think it's a really cool reason. I would love to talk about it, but I would. I'm not. I'm not like some people who work on the live action, so I'm not going to put anything out there that I shouldn't I don't want to point any fingers at anybody out there, but.

[Stephen]

And yeah, I, and I will, I will. I will back up Greg here and, and say that it was not like some kind of incredibly salacious and like, oh my God, I can't believe he said that. You know, it's not that Greg is like keeping some, some very juicy secret. I think, you know, it's as he says, it's sometimes it's just this was stuff that was not really necessarily meant for the public to know. And if it was, then, you know, we would have explained it or, or come out with it some. Someone else would have said it. But Greg doesn't need to be the, the one to break the, you know, the, the sanctity of the writers room.

[Greg]

If, if we ever meet in, in public and you. You still have that question, I'd be happy to let you know.

[Stephen]

There you go. All right. Most likely next arc to go to PI. I can see that's Pirate island and fight three way against Blackbeard and Cross Guild. So. Question mark. So I guess the question is, is the most likely next arc to go from Elbaf to Pirate island and engage in a three way pirate war?

[Greg]

Depends how far these Celestial these holy knights get with their plan because depending on whether they succeed or not, there is viable reason for them to try and follow them back to Marijoa.

[Stephen]

Interesting.

[Greg]

I always come back to Steven's very adept use of Osamu Tezuka's description of a story like a tree branching out and that it must always be moving upward and forward. It can go to the side, but it cannot go back. And going back would be a big issue for the series because we do have this forward momentum. Forward, forward, forward, forward. It's constantly being been covering ground where they've been. There's been some to the sides, of course, but always forward. For them to go back to Marijoy is a big deal from a lot of perspective. From. From a narrative perspective, from the storyteller's perspective, they'd have to have a very good reason to do. To. To do so because it's a long way back. But there is also the question of at that point in the story, will they have a medium that allows them to travel faster and further with less with fewer consequences? And can they still continue forward after that? Considering all of those factors, are they more likely to go back to Marijoa if the. The the plan is successful to steal children, or are they more likely to go forward? From this point, I cannot answer that question. I do believe that, that their journey will take them to the other side of Redline that they have not been to yet, but the new world side of, of Reverse Mountain, I should say. But I don't know when or if they can go back to Marijoa reasonably to have it make sense in the story for them to continue moving forward. Because what if they go back and they, they finish everything they need to do at Marijoa, then do they need, can they go forward from that point? I. I don't really know. There, There are a couple major question marks in the series. They. I can see where the series needs to go to finish. But even at this point in Elbaf, I don't know that marijuana is the big question question mark. Like, do the straw hats go there or not? If they do that, that changes a lot. I don't know what your feelings are this, Stephen. I know I feel like I seem like I'm rambling, but it's like also like I am totally Charlie dang the threads on the board here.

[Stephen]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, to me it's also like, does a, does a. Conclusive or otherwise, you know, like, sort of like taking care of all the business in Marijoa arc for, for lack of a better word. Is that the straw hats or is that the revolutionaries? Like, you know, in other words, does Sabo and, and Dragon in them, do they like try to settle a score with Emu and the, you know, senior senior management and is that like part one where then Emu, you know, transitions go, goes to laugh tale or something or wherever, you know, a final, you know, Luffy confrontation would happen? You know, is that, is that like a two part sort of thing? Because I do agree. I, I, and I still do think it does. It doesn't necessarily add up unless they do go past and they, and they. Well, no, because they just, yeah, they just went past Marijoa so they, they wouldn't hit it at the end of the end of the grand line. So yeah, I, I don't really see the Straw hats doing that necessarily. But you know, we have, it's tough, right? We have a lot of player. We have, we have several different factions that could, you know, end up on a collision course in Marijoa. So I don't know.

[Greg]

The question was about Pirate island, but like, but like that it's. Before we talk about Pirate Island, I think we need to talk about that, like how that will be handled. I'm in agreement with Stephen. I don't think they can go there but you just never know.

[Stephen]

And. And as you said, especially with travel.

[Greg]

Becoming easier and the f. The abyss like that.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

Teleport power. Come on.

[Stephen]

As. And as you were saying, you know, the. The. Especially in the most recent chapter, the. The pacing of moving the story forward was. Was very quick by Oda's standards. So, you know, he. He might be getting through this arc faster than. Than we realize. It just depends on what else he has in store for us as far as the. The plot goes. Okay, next question. What's the best time to get an emu reveal? And what do you think they look like?

[Greg]

Ooh, I'll. I'll go with my current without very much thought on this, because if I try to think this out, then we're going to be here until the next sgs, so I'll just go. What I brought up with last time is that currently, I think it's a good bet that Emu inhabits Joy Boy's body currently. That is my best idea.

[Stephen]

And. And if I'm offering an alternative, that. That does not, you know, hinge on. On the. The sort of the body possession angle. I. I think that Emu. I can. Can only be one of two things. They have to be either incredibly beautiful or absolutely hideous. Like, they have to be either like. Like a 800-year-old monstrosity that, you know, you'd be like, oh, God, bring back the black silhouette. Like, I don't want to see this. This person because they look like such a freak, or they're going to be revealed to have some kind of otherworldly beauty or something, or, you know, some kind of almost alien, like with the. With the giant eyes and whatnot.

[Greg]

Yeah. Blackbeard gets to be our big pirate boss. Right?

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

But Emu gets to be the Zorro of bosses, if that makes any sense. You know what I mean? Zorro is everything that is cool and badass, okay? That. That Oda cannot portray through Luffy.

[Stephen]

Got right.

[Greg]

He is the. That's the word I'm looking for. Edgelord. Zoro is the. Zoro is the Edgelord that Luffy can never be.

[Stephen]

Uhhuh. Gotcha.

[Greg]

Yeah, because he. Oda, absolutely downright refuses to make his main character the Edgelord.

[Stephen]

Right.

[Greg]

Look at Blackbeard. He's goof. Like, he. He looks. And I'm sure he's gonna look terrifying with his whole powers and everything. He'll. He'll. He'll make him look great and terrifying. That's awesome. I like that. But like, Stephen is absolutely accurate in that, like, Whatever ODA wants to make his. His last boss look like, like, like, like how cool or how badass or how scary or how, like you said, like, otherworldly beautiful. Everything he wants to make in a classic last boss is going to be an emu. So we'll see it to. To whatever extreme it is, it's going to be an ODA extreme. And yes, I completely agree with Stephen, that Joy Boy or not like that. That vessel that he is in right now, whether it's his original body or somebody else's body, will be. Will be an extreme.

[Stephen]

Yeah, because you can't. You can't keep someone you know behind the wizard of Oz curtain for this long and not have, like, a very compelling answer. I think, you know, there. It has to be interesting at the very, very least, otherwise you're gonna be like, who's this weirdo? All right, next question. Can Katarina travel the abyss? Is that. I guessing this is referring to the fact that she touched Saturn, so she can presumably disguise herself as Saturn. That's a tough question.

[Greg]

Depends how you interpret mark. Entirely depending on how you interpret mark.

[Stephen]

Right. Like, is it like a physical badge.

[Greg]

Or is it a physical badge on them? Is it a physical tattoo? Is that tattoo on his arm, like, is that the mark or is it something else? Is it something inside them? If you think it's just the tattoo or that that. Is that like. Like, even though. And the tattoo we're referring to is on Summer's left elbow, I think. Right. Like, if that's what you think it is, then, yes, it should be possible. I agree. If you think it's something else, then. Then you can't make that argument just from having copied his physical body.

[Stephen]

Right? Yeah, it's too tough. It's tough to say. I. I really wish I. That's one of those things where I'm like, I just. I really want to know how. How are they doing all this travel? Like, what is. What is the. The common tie that is connecting all these characters that they can use this weird. This weird power. There's a lot of. A lot. A lot of questions being juggled there.

[Greg]

It doesn't help that he used Mark in Katakana. There is no kanji for it, so you can't determine what it actually is.

[Stephen]

Right. Who will be Elbaf's arc boss? Is it gonna be. Do we think it's Loki, or do we think it's just the. As you say, the. The extra CP9 members here that we're dealing with with.

[Greg]

Can killing him still Sleep someone and still activate a power. Because if he can, then whoever has like a worst nightmare or a worst dream or is. Oh my God, what if he slept Usopp.

[Stephen]

Here I'm thinking of like Loki or something. Like, like what. What if he, you know, sleepwalks? Loki, maybe that. I guess that's. That's something where Oda could simply say like the, the rule of power. He's just too powerful to succumb to, you know?

[Greg]

Yeah, well, like, you make a good point. Like, what is Loki afraid of?

[Stephen]

Right, Right.

[Greg]

Like what is if. What if Loki is afraid of something, then what is that? But like, Usopp is afraid of everything. So like, like, like if he slept Usopp. Because it's. Oh my God, it's so good. It's so. It's. It's fear, right? And like Usopp needs to be the brave warrior. So like, what if he slept Usopp and it was everything that Usopp was ever afraid of? And what if he conquers all of it, including the kid's dreams? Holy shit. Oh my God.

[Stephen]

Now don't set yourself up for disappointment here.

[Greg]

Oh my God. But that's what it is. It's because it's fear. What are you afraid of? And it's all. It's all Usopp. He's going to conquer those fears. He's going to pull out the. Well, I don't know if he's going to be the one to pull out the sword. That's complicated. But he is definitely the impetus for that idea. But. Wow.

[Stephen]

And the, the final question on this list, and this will be the final part of our sgs, is does the Oro Jackson hold the final road poneglyph? That is interesting.

[Greg]

That'd be. That'd be a saddest. That'd be a cathartic answer to it, wouldn't it? If they get to explore that. And that's kind of their last step is getting to explore. That's. That's kind of neat. I like that. If you have any thoughts. But actually that. That brought up another thing in my mind. But go ahead.

[Stephen]

Yeah, I mean, I don't remember. Again, this could be something where like someone said had some random one off comment that I just forgot about that like, oh, well, they destroyed the Oro Jackson after they. Or whatever. I don't, I don't recall. I don't think that we have any definitive word on what happened to it, but. Yeah, I know. I was just gonna say that like, given the way that, you know, Roger The Rayleigh Gibbon that the. The. The principal figures of this crew do seem to pop up and kind of in a way guide the. The. The course of the. The story to. To kind of keep us on track. It. It does seem like that's a. That's a nice way to kind of round out that story perhaps is if that's. If that's where they find the last road pone glyph. And then maybe we find we get the final piece of story before we actually go to laugh tale from. From one or more of them. That would be cool.

[Greg]

So this is. If you will indulge me, this is just something that I. I stumbled upon while doing that Gavin piece that I was referring to earlier. But the oral. Mentioning the oral Jackson brought it up. But it's. That giant egg was on the Oral Jackson.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

What if Gavin is in possession of that or has been in possession of that? And what if it's here on the island? And what if. What if it's hatched? If it is indeed an egg? And what if. What if there's an actual dragon here somewhere? Like, I thought if the tree does fall, that would be a pretty baller way for them to escape on the back of a giant dragon. Oh, like sunny loaded up and all.

[Stephen]

Yeah.

[Greg]

And all the giants safely. That would be kind of cool.

[Stephen]

I mean, what. What better place to hide a giant egg or the thing that would hatch from the egg than the. The island of Giants.

[Greg]

Yes. What if it's like Dark Souls style? Like, what if that's actually like sleeping or resting at the top in the. The Land of Heaven, which we have not seen anything right from, if I recall correctly. Right.

[Stephen]

And they. They. They were drawn diagrams and everything to. To show the relationship of the three. Three worlds. So. Yeah, you figure we have to see that at some point or it has to. It has to factor into the story somehow.

[Greg]

It's interesting that the. The ragnar is struck has stricken the bottom of the tree, so the fire will travel up the tree. So there needs to be an upward movement from this point forward.

[Stephen]

Ah, that's good. Yeah. And. And it gives Oda his. His favorite thing.

[Greg]

All right, so sorry, that was my little self indulgence. Yeah.

[Stephen]

Yeah. It gives Oda his favorite thing, which is a reason for people to run and evacuate and tell them to keep running and just. Just keep running.

[Greg]

Yes.

[Stephen]

Oh, boy. Yeah, that's. That's. That's. That sounds pretty likely. To be honest, I would not at all be shocked if. If that's where that's where we're headed after this.

[Greg]

This.

[Stephen]

Very cool. All right, well, I'm looking at the cumulative time on our session here, and I think that. That we can call this an episode. What do you think?

[Greg]

Or two.

[Stephen]

Yeah. Or two. All right, let's round this one off.

[Greg]

Okay.

[Stephen]

Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from Evglis.

[Greg]

After an initial dosing phase, about 4.

[Stephen]

In 10 people taking EBGLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin.

[Greg]

That'S still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.

[Stephen]

EBGLIS Librekizumab LBKZ, a 250mg 2ml injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults in children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled. With prescription therapies used on the skin or top topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. Epglis can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to Epglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine.

[Greg]

When treated with Epglis.

[Stephen]

Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection searching for real relief. Ask your doctor about EBGLIS and visit.

[Greg]

Epgliss.Lilly.Com or call 1-800-LilyRx or 1-800-545-5979.

[Stephen]

This has been the One Piece podcast episode 860 for the week of Monday, March 17, 2025. Another wonderful and enlightening episode of the the SGS. And as always, it would not be possible.

[Greg]

Enlightening. I see what you did.

[Stephen]

Yeah. Yeah. Without you, Greg. So what's going on with you? You got anything to. To share? Anything you want the. The folks to know about before we go?

[Greg]

I got all the crowns in Monster Hunter wilds.

[Stephen]

Oh, yeah. So you're done. It's. The game's over already.

[Greg]

I have a few more fish to catch, and then I think, like, one or two trophies and I think I got to kill a bunch of more specific monsters. And then I think we're good. I think. Yeah. They really shaved it down. By tweaking one item, they turned an 800 Gaur game into under 100 hours. I don't know if that's good good or bad.

[Stephen]

But yeah, yeah, that's a, that's double sided sword there.

[Greg]

Yeah, well all right. But yeah, that's it. And if you're looking to find me, you can find me wherever the wind blows free.

[Stephen]

All right. And if folks want to see what I'm posting about, it is over on Blue sky at Stepaul B Sky Social. And I've been telling folks, you know all of the simul pubs I'm working on. Obviously One Piece and Akane Banashi are every week or most every week on Shonen Jump and Manga. Plus there's also monthly is Shoha Shoten which is almost over I believe. And now we have a bi weekly release for Trillion Game which I've been working on. That one has just gone gone live so you can read the last couple chapters there. Although I believe somebody was telling me it is a mature series so they don't put it in the app. You have to go on your browser, your Internet browser to check that out. But aside from that, you can check out our [e-mail] follow us on social media Our Twitter account piece podcast is mostly inactive now. We are much more busy over on blue sky@one piece podcast.com. that is where Adeel, our hard working news guy shares all of the latest news and reminds everyone of the various anniversaries of important events in one piece. You can also find us on YouTube and Apple Podcasts and Spotify. So basically wherever you like to listen to your podcasts, you can find us there. And as we've been talking about you do you do still have about two months worth of time where you can call our Skype voicemail line and leave a voicemail. And that is at 347497 Magi. That's 347-497-6254. Call anytime. And I only know that because I wrote it down. So don't worry Steve, I would not have remembered it either. So yeah, we'll see. I. I'm really curious to see if we end up with like a nice little selection of them to to play when when Skype is truly dead. But yeah, it'll be the end of an era for the podcast.

[Greg]

Wait, Skype is truly dead?

[Stephen]

It will be soon.

[Greg]

What's happening? What?

[Stephen]

Shutting it down.

[Greg]

Are you kidding?

[Stephen]

No, no. They announced this a little while ago. Yeah. Really?

[Greg]

Wow.

[Stephen]

I do believe Zach still is in possession of the phone number. I think. I'm not sure how I'm not sure how he registers that through Skype, but who knows? Maybe he'll. He'll find some way to. To hold on to that number. But at any rate, to do it the. The old fashioned way that we've been talking about on this podcast for so long. You can call that number 347-497-6254, and that'll do it for us. We should have the manga returning next week. Although as of this recording, I still have not seen it yet. So we will find out when that. When that comes through. But until then, my name is Stephen.

[Greg]

And I'm Greg.

[Stephen]

And we'll see you again together in a couple weeks.

[Greg]

I can't believe they're getting rid of Skype.

[Stephen]

I got nothing.

[Greg]

I. I'm sorry. I had no idea. I am dumbfounded. Wow. I thought that was just one of those things that just exists. Okay.

[Stephen]

Huh?

[Greg]

Trip Planner by Expedia. You were made to outdo your holiday, your hammocking, and your pooling. We were made to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel.