Episode 884, “Shakky Races” (with Anthony Bowling)

Summary

The One Piece Podcast – Episode 884 “Shakky Races” (with Anthony Bowling)

Date: September 15, 2025
Host: Maji Media
Notable Guests: Stephen Paul (official One Piece translator), Anthony Bowling (voice actor, ADR director)

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Overview

This engaging and multifaceted episode dives deep into One Piece Chapter 1160, “The God Valley Incident.” The discussion is both heavy and lighthearted, addressing the chapter’s unflinching depiction of atrocity and spectacle alongside classic character shenanigans. Special guest Anthony Bowling brings his industry perspective, while the regular panel explores serious themes, Oda’s storytelling craft, and long-standing One Piece lore. The episode’s title is a riff on “Wacky Races,” highlighting both the gallows humor and serious critique running through the conversation.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Welcoming Anthony Bowling – Industry Updates

[02:12–03:50]

• Anthony shares his recent move to LA and ongoing projects, including an unannounced Hulu/Disney+ show and the upcoming “My Hero All’s Justice” game.
• He talks about voicing Frankie in “Spy x Family," dubbing progress, and the emotional intensity of the current One Piece arcs:

  “Still getting my anime roots right there… enjoying how One Piece has just been exploding narratively.” (Anthony Bowling, [03:50])

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2. Catching Up with the Dub & the God Valley Arc

[04:34–06:49]

• The group discusses the anime and dub’s current pace—nearly caught up, with a particular interest in the emotional Kuma flashback.
• The God Valley arc is praised for blending flashbacks and present events.
• Anthony remarks on fandom connections created by the dub:

  “I freaking love that. It's cool things to start mixing my fandoms together because I think that's what the dub is about.” (Anthony Bowling, [05:03])

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3. Serious Real-World Parallels: One Piece Symbolism at Protests

[08:59–13:25]

• Noting international news where the Straw Hat flag appeared at political protests in Indonesia and Nepal.
• The hosts plan a future “deeper dive” episode about One Piece’s symbolic impact globally.
• Anthony reflects:

  “It kind of just puts a nice little fire in your heart. When you think about, like, wow, what are we living through right now? It's kind of cool.” (Anthony Bowling, [11:39])

• Ed and Zach compare One Piece’s reach to “Star Wars” or “Marvel” in terms of global cultural saturation.

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4. Manga Recap – Chapter 1160: The God Valley Incident

[14:06–87:06] (with comic relief in betweens)

a) Cover Story, Oda’s Comments, and Cultural Jokes

[15:20–19:59]

• Oda discusses his love for Odoroki peaches, sparking a sidetrack about Japanese regional foods.
• Jokes about the never-ending Yamato cover story and speculating on where it collides with the main plot.

b) The Atrocities & Spectacle of God Valley – Tone Whiplash

• The hosts vividly break down the opening pages:
  • The sadism and dehumanization of the “rabbit hunt” (paralleling historical genocides).
  • Hunger Games/Running Man-style entertainment for Celestial Dragons, highlighted by mass murder as sport.
  • The horrifying panel of a woman dying as she begs Dragon to save her sons.

    “This chapter is half like... Grave of the Fireflies serious… and then the other half is like ‘here comes the Rocks Pirates and the Roger Pirates!’ …very different tones.” (Zach, [27:29])

  • Little Blackbeard/Teach and child Shanks get highlighted in the trauma, pushing empathy even toward future villains.

    “You have to go out of your way to kind of have that sympathy and be like, man, I get where [Blackbeard’s] coming from. And I don’t think I ever would have thought that…” (Anthony Bowling, [31:30])

c) Deeper Analysis of Language and Subtext

[29:40–31:18]

• Stephen Paul discusses the linguistic choices Oda uses for prejudice and systemic violence (“shun,” “isolate”)—how such language normalizes atrocity before open genocide.

d) Character Spotlights and Humor to Break the Tension

[35:57–47:07]

• Jokes about cartoonishly evil Celestial Dragons, “Wacky Races” comparisons, and fan-casting old Hanna-Barbera characters in the God Valley setting.
• Memorable moment:

  “My wacky knowledge is not this deep. I feel like a fake wacky racist.” (Zach, [08:01])

e) Dragon’s Moral Dilemma

[48:10–53:27]

• Dragon, as a young Marine, agonizes over defying authority to save children (Shanks and possibly Shamrock).
• His choice to tranquilize (not kill) a Celestial Dragon is shown as pivotal—possibly the event that indirectly saved Kuma, Ivankov, etc.

  “It turns out Dragon is the reason that his revolutionary officers were saved to begin with. Which is... I kind of like that aspect.” (Alex, [51:10])

f) Arrival of the Pirates – Mayhem and Motivation

[54:26–66:34]

• Rocks and the “all-star” Rocks Pirates crash in; the Roger Pirates follow shortly after. Joyful, chaotic bickering about Shakky/treasure/devil fruits.
  • Standout joke: “For the most beautiful woman in the world, I think I could.” (Whitebeard via Anthony Bowling, [58:38])
• New context for their rivalry and hints about the upcoming Davey Back Fight parallels.

g) The Holy Knights of God – Lore and Translation Notes

[73:12–81:16]

• Debut of the “Holy Knights of God,” with Stephen Paul providing a detailed breakdown of the term’s Japanese origin and decisions in the official English translation:

  “…Depending on how you interpret the context, you could translate it into several different versions of ‘Kami no Kishidan’… I had to compromise. I came up with ‘Holy Knights’…” (Stephen Paul, [79:40–80:53])

h) Garp’s Entrance – Hope and Complicated Heroism

[82:13–83:56]

• Garp smashes onto the scene, cheered as a hero, highlighting the narrative complexity since he’s technically defending the Marines/Celestial Dragons—not the victims.
• Reactions cycle between triumphant nostalgia and questioning Garp’s true values.

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5. Thematic Takeaways & Reflections

a) Chapter’s Emotional Impact and Narrative Techniques

[87:11–114:42]

• The crew expresses whiplash from the tonal shifts:

  “Half of it is the most stomach-churning material…and then you go from that to: ‘Here’s the starting lineups for the Rocks Pirates!’” (Stephen Paul, [87:46])

• The violence and spectacle invite parallels to real-world horrors; Oda’s skill is praised for using both pathos and parody to convey systemic evil.

b) Critique and Praise for the Flashback’s Structure

• Some hosts and listeners (esp. Alex, [92:51] and [144:55]) express fatigue with flashback “detours,” feeling the story is sometimes too bogged down—but acknowledge the historical/lore “puzzle pieces” are satisfying when they click.

  “Get to the fireworks factory already.” (Alex, [92:48])

c) Fan Questions (Piece Together) and Community Engagement

[123:30–147:38]

• Listeners ask about everything from Dragon’s possible fart powers to the nature of the Celestial Dragons as “untouchable” ruling classes in real world history.
• Speculation about Shanks’ and Teach’s backgrounds continues, along with humor about names, character design, and translation choices.

d) Closing Thoughts

• Most hosts feel the “fireworks” of God Valley are imminent, with the arc’s emotional and historical weight well established.
• Anthony Bowling comments:

  “We're finally getting a lot of this deep lore… any little action can cause huge ripples… holding the glue together on the world is great…” (Anthony Bowling, [84:42])

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Notable Quotes & Highlights (with Timestamps)

• “Cartoonish evil is also real evil.” (Zach, [45:54])
• “You have to show all this atrocity around him to make Blackbeard seem like a victim here… I don’t think I ever would have thought that.” (Anthony Bowling, [31:30])
• “My opinion on Gunko is going to depend solely on whatever her affiliation with Brook is.” (Alex, [143:47])
• “The chapter’s the most stomach churning stuff I’ve read in the series.” (Zach, [114:13])
• “I just want to get to the fireworks factory already.” (Alex, [92:48])
• “A lot to like in this chapter, and a lot to hate. A lot of characters to hate—very hateable.” (Ed, [92:54])
• “This flashback seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting for many characters. It’s like Oda said, ‘I’ll just do them all in one go.’” (Alex, [95:56])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:30] – Main episode introduction and guest intro
• [11:39] – Anthony Bowling on One Piece’s real-world meaning
• [14:06] – Manga Recap (Chapter 1160) begins
• [27:29] – Tone shift discussion: atrocity vs. spectacle
• [31:18] – Language of dehumanization analysis (Stephen Paul)
• [54:26] – Rocks Pirates spread and motivation discussion
• [73:12] – Holy Knights of God: translation/explainer
• [82:13] – Garp’s triumphant entrance
• [87:11] – Chapter review and emotional impact
• [123:30] – Listener Q&A / Piece Together

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Episode Tone

The episode expertly balances the harrowing with the humorous—a trademark of deep One Piece discussion. The hosts never shy away from heavy topics, critiquing both the world of the manga and its cultural impact, but also use their camaraderie and “Wacky Races” jokes to create an accessible, heartfelt space for fans at all levels.

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Takeaways

• Chapter 1160 is one of the most emotionally affecting and thematically rich in recent One Piece history, unafraid to juxtapose the very worst of humanity with larger-than-life pirate chaos.
• The podcast panel, including One Piece’s own translator, offers unique insight into both the artistry and translation dilemmas behind major reveals.
• Listeners should expect a continued blend of earnest analysis, black humor, and fandom celebration as the God Valley incident barrels toward its explosive conclusion.

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For more art, outtakes, and member extras, fans are encouraged to check out the show's Patreon and join conversation on Discord. Next week’s episode will be an SGS (Stephen & Greg Show) as the manga is on break; regular manga discussion returns in two weeks.

Transcript

[Stephen Paul]

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[Zach]

And now a message from McAfee. Your package couldn't be delivered.

[Stephen Paul]

You owe thousands in unpaid tolls.

[Alex]

You won a free gift. If texts like these sound familiar, McAfee can help.

[Zach]

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[Alex]

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[Zach]

This is the One Piece podcast episode 884 for the week of Monday, September 15th, 2025. My name is Zach.

[Ed]

And my name is Ed.

[Steve]

My name is Steve.

[Alex]

And my name is Alex.

[Zach]

And on today's episode, we have very special guest translator for One Piece and weekly Shonen Jump. Stephen Paul is with us. How's it going, Stephen?

[Stephen Paul]

Going pretty good, actually.

[Zach]

Also forgot to mention, so Manga plus, if you didn't. Oh, yeah, it's both those sites. Yeah. Great, Stephen. We also have, joining us after a little while, I think it's been, we have former ADR director for One piece voice actor and just prolific fantastic Anthony Bolling. How's it going, Anthony?

[Anthony Bowling]

Thank you so much. Last time I was here, I know exactly when it was. We were discussing the return of Robin's bangs. That is how long it has been.

[Ed]

Yeah, it was still ELBAF then.

[Anthony Bowling]

Still.

[Zach]

I was gonna say it wasn't that long ago.

[Steve]

Technically, we're still in elbaf.

[Anthony Bowling]

Yeah, Technically we're in a flashback within a flashback within an inception.

[Alex]

What's really funny is that like yesterday I was hanging out with some people and somebody asked me what I'm thinking of the God Valley arc so far.

[Ed]

Where's the lie, folks?

[Zach]

They're not wrong.

[Anthony Bowling]

They're not children.

[Zach]

Exactly. Anthony, so great to have you back on the show.

[Anthony Bowling]

Thank you.

[Zach]

I know you're going to take off after the manga. Probably depending on how long we talk, which is, you know, we all know, who knows. So I'll say at the top, do you want to let people know what you're working on that isn't under some sort of NDA or that isn't.

[Anthony Bowling]

No, I want to reveal all the NDAs.

[Zach]

Oh, okay.

[Anthony Bowling]

No, right now I am I am actually working. I just moved to LA like a month and a half ago with my wife. So congrats. A lot of new opportunities and stuff here. So I did actually land here and I am starting work on a project that will be premiering in like three weeks on Hulu and Disney plus. So I will, that can be announced, but that hasn't been revealed. But we have the platform right now, so that'll be cool to look out for. And then I just finished working on. They announced the My Hero All's justice game. That's something that I've been working on, which has been kind of cool. Still getting my anime roots right there. So that's, that's what I've been doing. And then we got Spy Family coming back in October. Get to see everyone's favorite Uncle Frankie. That is not a robot. A different type of friend for a different type of person.

[Ed]

So I don't understand people who like that series and their favorite character isn't the dog.

[Steve]

I mean, there's lots of characters that.

[Zach]

Like, yeah, but your favorite character in everything, like the humans.

[Anthony Bowling]

Yeah, dogs always, I think, go up there. So, but that's, that's, that's what I've been working on and doing right now and enjoying how one piece has just been exploding narratively.

[Zach]

How has it been not being as like day to day?

[Ed]

The narrative is metastasizing.

[Anthony Bowling]

That's true.

[Zach]

That's not false.

[Anthony Bowling]

Yeah, I, I, I love watching it as a, as a fan, I mean, reading it in my head. Of course. It's always like I'm casting and listening to it and then just kind of.

[Zach]

Like, like, now Steve does that too.

[Anthony Bowling]

It's, it's all of us now. Now I'm back in the fold with everyone. Except I can kind of text Emily and be like, hey, so who you, who you got?

[Zach]

Who are you thinking about?

[Anthony Bowling]

Who are you thinking? And when she got James St. John for that, it's like, Ansom. Ansom is rocks. This is great. I freaking love that. So it's cool things to start mixing my fandoms together because I think that's what the dub is about. Like, hearing these people from all over. You get your nice manga experience. Then it's like, okay, what's going to be fun? Where's my, where's my amusement park?

[Zach]

And, you know, like, I'm behind on the anime and my plan is to, now that the dub is caught up, which is still surreal and it will one day hit me and I'm sure you guys as well Although you were in the trenches, I am very much looking forward to watching the Kuma flashback in particular. Just. And losing. Just crying for days, I assume. Yeah, I, like, I've been afraid. That's like one of those kind of things that I'm like, do I have the emotion? Yeah, I know.

[Steve]

Catching up on the latest batch has done me wonders for these current chapters.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

It's a good kind of refresher, so.

[Ed]

Well, yeah, we. We see more of the God Valley incident than we had previously seen this week, actually.

[Zach]

Good. That's a good segue because if you want to. To, you know, have a good refresher of what originally happened in God Valley Part one, that's a good way to do it. Yeah, it's. The dub episodes are out as well, right? I know the. Or some of them. Yeah. God Valley.

[Steve]

Yeah, Zach. They're not fully caught up, but right now, like, the latest of episodes go up, like, about midway through, like, the Kuma flashback, so only, like, a handful of episodes behind.

[Zach]

It's incredible.

[Steve]

Airing weekly.

[Zach]

Yes. Insane.

[Anthony Bowling]

I love the flip that kind of happens where the God Valley incident is kind of this thing. And now it's like Shacky Races, where they're all just in their cool.

[Stephen Paul]

Like, I write that down.

[Alex]

Shaky Races, dude.

[Ed]

Yes. Like, which one?

[Alex]

That's the episode image.

[Ed]

Who would be.

[Anthony Bowling]

Man, get them all in there.

[Alex]

Like, she.

[Ed]

She's Penelope Pitstop.

[Anthony Bowling]

Oh, my God, Yes.

[Ed]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Wet and rocks. Is Peter perfect in the Turbo Traffic?

[Zach]

Steve? Might as well just get started now.

[Steve]

Which one is voiced by Paul?

[Anthony Bowling]

All of them.

[Steve]

That's what I want to know.

[Zach]

All of them. That was my.

[Alex]

That would be the Hooded Cl. But he's not in Wacky Races.

[Ed]

Garling is Dick Dastardly and Summers is Mutley.

[Alex]

Oh, my God.

[Zach]

Are we done? Fan casting? Sorry. Wacky Races.

[Anthony Bowling]

Hold on. Can this be a Wacky Races cast now?

[Alex]

Unfortunately. Unfortunately, Capone is not in this arc, so you can't.

[Anthony Bowling]

The Anthill Mob.

[Alex]

The Anthill Mob, Right.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Those were always. Those were my boys. I always rooted for them.

[Zach]

What's great is that it'll work great with Gen Z. They'll.

[Anthony Bowling]

They'll love it.

[Stephen Paul]

They'll really connect.

[Steve]

Oh, yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

You get Caesar Clown or someone to be Pat Pending.

[Alex]

That's right. Professor Pat Pending.

[Anthony Bowling]

That's one of my favorite. Anyway, sorry.

[Zach]

My wacky knowledge is not this deep. I feel like a fake wacky racist. I'm not even. I would never call myself a wacky racist cartoon.

[Anthony Bowling]

The Dick Dastardly car right here. Just.

[Alex]

Oh, My God.

[Steve]

Oh, that's sick.

[Alex]

So my favorite thing about, like, the blur background in zoom is that, like, for a second there, it looks like it's like pix slated. Like, Dick Dastardly drives like a dick car.

[Anthony Bowling]

Here I have this dildo car.

[Ed]

That's Ace and Gary's car.

[Alex]

That's right.

[Zach]

Oh, that's what it is.

[Alex]

Okay, what's everybody staring at? Nothing.

[Zach]

We are going through chapter 1160. No way to segue 1160. The God Valley incident. Not to be confused with the Mountain God incident, which is from a different flashback. Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of with the Wano thing on the front, but we'll get there.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

I also want to mention here at the top, that one piece has been making news in some very interesting, like, literally revolutionary ways.

[Ed]

Well, we mentioned it a few weeks ago with regards to Indonesia.

[Stephen Paul]

Indonesia.

[Zach]

And it's been happening in Nepal as well. And I first, like, the. The images are incredible enough that I was like, this has to be AI or something. Like, these can't be real and. No, they're real. And they were on, like, Getty Images has, like, all of these. They. It's. But at the same time, I'm not. We're not gonna have a full discussion for it now because we are planning on doing a deeper dive into that with hopefully Dr. Gomez and Kirsten Carey and some really. Some. Some really astute and researched discussion, which I am looking forward to because I would never call myself, believe it or not, an expert in Indonesian or Nepalese politics and. Or, you know, generally international affairs. So for that reason, I want to make sure when we talk about it, we don't just, you know, discuss it as if we don't know what we're talking about, which is what we would do if we talked about in depth here. However, it is, at the very minimum, surreal to see the straw hat flag.

[Ed]

Like, if there is a. If there is an interesting connection between Indonesia and Japan, it's that one of the previous Indonesian dictators Sukarno had. His second wife was Japanese, and she. After. After he left. Left office, they. She went back to Japan and has become a minor TV celebrity.

[Stephen Paul]

I would say major TV celebrity. She's definitely been her. I've seen her on TV before.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Japan.

[Stephen Paul]

Very strange.

[Zach]

Wasn't. What's his name from Peru, Right. Also Roberto Jimori? Yeah, yeah. No, that's.

[Ed]

No, there are people of Japanese descent in Peru as well.

[Zach]

No, I know, I know, I know. I mean, I've been to Peru.

[Ed]

I know Peru and Brazil and his.

[Zach]

Daughter, I know is. Was at least a prominent. Anyway, I don't. Again, international affairs, not my. Not my strong suit. We're here on the One Piece podcast to talk about this week's chapter. But I want to let people know that we will be doing probably an episode of the show, maybe a fight Together episode about that and maybe an article about that. So look out. We're gonna. We're gonna flood the zone and it's rad. And give you as much. Yeah. Give you as much real information about it as we're able to here on our little, you know, show here.

[Anthony Bowling]

What. What a time. What a time to live in. Sorry, not to interrupt, but just the fact that this, this, this podcast, the getting together and discussing something that is so joyous and fun and now it's like real world, but also for like these symbols and everything that's happening, it kind of just puts a nice little fire in your heart. When you think about, like, wow, what. What are we living through right now? It's kind of cool.

[Ed]

I mean, I wasn't really surprised when it came, when it happened in Indonesia because Indonesia has always been one of the biggest concentrations of One Piece fans. I think it's because it's an archipelago.

[Zach]

I don't know if that's the whole reason, but 100. I mean, I may. I mean, it's probably relatable on that end. I think we all wish we lived on an archipelago, but at least to be able to say that. No, I agree. I was. When I was talking about. With everyone on the show, it's like Star wars level, like, of just seeing the. I'm like trying to think of, like, what kind of pop culture media saturates in such a way that it like, shows up in. In these kinds of situations. And Star wars was the only thing popping into my head like right away. Maybe. Maybe Marvel's there.

[Anthony Bowling]

I don't know, maybe a little Star Trek because of the kind of adjacent as. As a philosophy people. Yeah, hold on to that. So it is definitely evolved now into something different, which is incredible to watch. Just like the power of that storytelling that we are all a part of too, that's just kind of weaving together, which I think that's what feels kind of awesome in that sense of like, we're in for a big ride and we. And who knows what it could be.

[Zach]

On that note, let's move on into the manga recap and keep your ear to the ground. For more on that, I'm Christian McCaffrey.

[Stephen Paul]

Pro running back and Abercrombie is an official fashion partner of the NFL. I'm not kidding when I say NFL by Abercrombie broke the Internet last year and I think this season's lineup is even cooler. And so does my wife who keeps stealing all my hoodies. Stay fit for the season and Abercrombie's new arrivals. Shop NFL by Abercrombie in the app, online and in store.

[Zach]

When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together, use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn [e-mail] this is the manga recap for chapter 1160, the God Valley Incident. You can read this chapter and all chapters of One Piece as soon as they come out for free, legally and worldwide. No better deal than on shonenjump.viz.com and mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp plus you get to read it in Steven's finely put translation, if I do say so myself. As if I had anything to do with it. Anyway, Ed, what is going on on Oda's comment?

[Ed]

Yes, Oda has. What Oda's into this week is he's saying, I'm addicted to these Odoroki peaches from Yamagata. Twisting them open in two and eating the whole thing, including the skin, is the best. This is one of those things. Like every prefecture and probably every little town in Japan has its food that it's notable for. And you buy it in the gift shop when you go there.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, yes.

[Ed]

And apparently these Odoruki peaches, twistable.

[Steve]

Meanwhile, in America, we kind of just like every state is like, what food do you deep fry?

[Zach]

But, you know, equally correct. Well, actually, much less correct.

[Ed]

I was reminded of. I'm reminded of the Zach, I mean, you watched Yakitate Japan with me, right?

[Zach]

Of course. Yeah. I love it.

[Ed]

And they, you know, they had to like, they get randomly assigned a place and have to use regional ingredients in the bread competition.

[Zach]

I mean, having, you know, my cursory knowledge of Japan, having been there twice, like, it totally is true that there are like when we went to Hida Prefecture, it was the Hida milk that was like the big thing. They were famous for their milk. As if. And it was very good. Don't get me wrong they had like, milk ice cream, which sounds weird, but was tasty. But it's like, that's a thing that exists everywhere. Like, we get it. But anyway. Yeah, peach discussion.

[Ed]

So, I mean, apparently they're known as hard peaches that don't get soft as they ripen. They don't sound very juicy to me. They've also noted for being mealy, which doesn't sound great.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's gross sounding.

[Ed]

Maybe they have very good taste. I don't know. Texture sounds off to me.

[Zach]

This is why you're not on the tourism board for. But I forgot where it was.

[Ed]

I actually don't know where Yamagata Prefecture is.

[Zach]

Google tells me. Anyway.

[Ed]

Oh, it's up near Sendai.

[Zach]

Okay. There you go. Yeah, it's in the north. It's on the. It's on the west coast.

[Ed]

Anyway, Ed, what's going Somewhere between Sendai and Niigata?

[Zach]

I'm putting the end to this peach discussion, much like Shanks did. That's what happened, right? What's. What's going on in the COVID It's.

[Ed]

Ogre Child Yamato's golden harvest Surrogate Pilgrimage, Volume 42. The Shrine to Oden and his companions overlooking the flower capital and. Actually seems a little small, but.

[Zach]

Well, Yamato, remember, is like 30ft tall.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Could be a bigger monument.

[Stephen Paul]

I think this is a very lovely picture.

[Zach]

Yeah, I do too. The assistants did a great job on it.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it looks.

[Ed]

Yeah, the. The. The cherry blossom petals fluttering in the breeze or whatever they are.

[Steve]

I am every time. I don't know, like, every chapter. Now I. I see every, like, Yamato cover just from, like, the image. I'm thinking, oh, is this the finale? But no.

[Zach]

Why? Oh, that. We haven't, like. Have we not gotten enough out of it. It's been 42.

[Steve]

I feel like.

[Zach]

No, I mean, I agree with you. I'm being somewhat facetious, but, like, sorry, I was not.

[Steve]

I was not on last week, and I would have been right there in town square getting tomatoes thrown at me with the rest of y'.

[Zach]

All.

[Steve]

I had similar opinions.

[Zach]

Oh, did we get tomatoes thrown at us? Yes.

[Steve]

Yeah. But the Moria thing, I was like.

[Zach]

Well, that was two weeks ago. You were also right.

[Steve]

Was the Moria thing last week?

[Zach]

That was two weeks.

[Stephen Paul]

No, my. My rant was. Was last week.

[Zach]

Steven's rant was last week.

[Ed]

It's been a while since we had all four hosts on at once.

[Stephen Paul]

That's true.

[Zach]

Yeah. It's a cosmic aligning.

[Steve]

It's like getting all the warlords together.

[Zach]

Shit. It is.

[Steve]

Yeah. I was kind of just like. I. I don't know. I. I thought Steven. Steven's rant was very entertaining and had some merit to it. I'll just leave it at that. But I don't know. I saw that. I was like, is this the end? Is this the end?

[Zach]

But nope, it never is. But.

[Stephen Paul]

Now I am gonna laugh. I am gonna laugh if it's like next week is the last one or not next week. Two weeks I should say. Next chapter is the is. And it's like Yamato is just sitting there like. Like happily like wow, this is. What a. What a great thing. Am I forgetting something? Like did I. Did I forget to do something and like just never leaves. Wano is just like hanging out at home.

[Anthony Bowling]

No, they're just going to show Yamato by Luffy ship and that then everyone will know.

[Alex]

Ah.

[Anthony Bowling]

The next member of the crew, Yamato will just be there and they're just going to shatter everything.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Of course he did deliver the sword.

[Zach]

Right.

[Steve]

That was like his whole.

[Zach]

Yes, he did. That was like.

[Steve]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

If the flashback goes on long enough, Yamato might be there by the time we get back.

[Steve]

It's kind of like the. The previous one with. With Jerma where that was always running neck and neck with what was happening.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

But what would be. Okay, my ideal way for it to go is the. It keeps going and Yamato is like getting closer to the straw hats and then the chapter, he shows up. It literally collides like simultaneously time like the other one, it collided. But it was like a flashback in the COVID story or something like it like the time didn't quite. But like if he literally walks off of the COVID story into the main story, I think would be very funny.

[Anthony Bowling]

Just. Just deadpools it and it's like I'm here now.

[Zach]

Yep.

[Alex]

But I think that if Yamato shows up in the main story again, it's going to be like end game after Albat.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

I think we're going to get to see a fleet shot and there will be probably like a Momo Yamato Kinemon. Like you'll see their ship next to like something else. Bon Clay. They'll be out with a prison ship. Who knows?

[Zach]

There's a lot of opportunities there. Do we know that there was a shrine to Odin? That was Odin that was instructed and the vassals.

[Anthony Bowling]

I don't think so.

[Stephen Paul]

No. Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. Anyway. Yes. It's pretty. And the assistants. He really Put to work this week. And usually it's just, you know. Yeah, one person.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, he drew some very nice petals and clouds.

[Zach]

Yeah. I don't even know. I assume you drew Yamato. Yeah, because the stick figure legs are excellent. No offense to Oda would love him. It's just that the COVID story is not usually the focus, which is fine, nor should it be usually. Anyway, Ed.

[Ed]

Yes.

[Zach]

I know you had a lot of jokes for this very, very funny page that we're about to go through. So I'm looking forward to it.

[Ed]

All right, so we start with the announcer on the stage with the Davey clan hostages saying, feast your eyes upon the Davey clan. And we hear from the crowd, boo. Or boo the most hated of people. This is still the announcer talking, but they say you can go back generations and you'll never find a single person who loved your kind. That's the audience again. I think you're just more buccaneers, aren't you? Shun them. Isolate them. Their lives pose a danger to us all. A danger to us all. A danger to us all.

[Zach]

Was that.

[Ed]

Sorry, if I. If I repeat it. It helps you to remember. Yes, that was the. That was the obvious joke I was going to make. And then you can see shit flying on stage. Garbage. And knives. Not so fast, folks. Don't throw anything yet. Yeah. The announcer continues, yet being the pivotal.

[Steve]

And here come the knives.

[Anthony Bowling]

It's a sad day for.

[Ed]

You can call them Davy Whackers.

[Zach]

This is indeed a sad day for hunting. Black day for hunter.

[Anthony Bowling]

The black day for.

[Stephen Paul]

And for baseball.

[Alex]

Yeah, I just realized those chests are huge.

[Zach]

They are.

[Steve]

Easy, tiger, easy.

[Anthony Bowling]

And did you guys already discuss. I think it changed last week, but it went from like.

[Zach]

It went from six to nine. Yeah. Yes.

[Anthony Bowling]

That just means more prizes.

[Ed]

Nice.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, Maybe the chests are like the novelty checks. They're just. They're just representative. They're not. Or they're not representative. They're just.

[Anthony Bowling]

It's Chekhov's chests.

[Steve]

Really hope one of them is a getaway to Universal Studios in Orlando.

[Ed]

Fucking Ed McMahon over here.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

All right.

[Zach]

Okay. Where were we? Chekov's chests. Yeah, go ahead.

[Ed]

And the audience again says, someone says if we can wipe them out once and for all, this is a blessed day. And then we go down here at the bottom. Bottom is a two page spread. He runs a. Oof. And the announcer goes, hey, no knives, my friends. If they die, that's a penalty on you laughing as you do. Yes. And little. And little teach here has got this horrified, worried look on his face then. And notice he has eyelashes like Perona does. Or is he always.

[Zach]

He's always had eyelashes. I mean, they're definitely prominent here, but. Right. Right, Steve, I'll trust you on that.

[Anthony Bowling]

Really showing his innocence here.

[Zach]

Well, the eyelashes.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. This is like.

[Ed]

Yeah, as much as you can.

[Stephen Paul]

This is like. I don't know if you've ever seen that movie. Come and see. It's like a World War II, like, Eastern Front movie. It's one of those like. Like, you know, short list of like the most horrifying movies ever made sort of thing. Because it's about like, you know, war, kids in war being traumatized. This is very much out of that.

[Anthony Bowling]

That Grape of the fireflies.

[Zach]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, that. Oh, I've told that story. Go on. I watched on a plane. Bad idea. Don't do that.

[Ed]

You know, you're more likely to cry at movies on planes anyway.

[Zach]

Really?

[Ed]

Well, you know, I think it's something about the altitude.

[Zach]

Yeah, you're right.

[Alex]

Is an actual right.

[Zach]

Graves of the fireflies was very funny. I shouldn't have been crying.

[Alex]

I mean, the first time I watched A League of Their Own was on the plane and I was just like. I was inconsolable. In the last like 10.

[Zach]

I was really sorry.

[Steve]

I'm. I'm not emotional. It's just the altitude.

[Ed]

It's an observed phenomenon. I don't know if there's any scientific basis. Basis behind it, but I've heard it from multiple places.

[Steve]

Cried. I've cried watching a movie.

[Ed]

I cried watching a wall E on an airplane.

[Anthony Bowling]

I cried watching highly elevated weddings. Sky weddings. I cry at all the time.

[Steve]

I know it's not gonna work out, but we're really high up.

[Zach]

Sorry. Okay. Please.

[Ed]

Okay. And back up to the top there. And we see St. Saturn saying, you did well to find them Garling. And he. And Garling replies, it was simply an act of fate.

[Zach]

My stupid hair found them like a homing beacon. Sorry that.

[Ed]

Back to the. Back to. The announcer says, now let's introduce the favorites to win the individual competition. And elsewhere in a home we hear I'll be dead soon. Please take my boys to someone kind hearted.

[Zach]

What a weird way to. Sorry. The inflection. Go ahead.

[Ed]

Yeah. To raise them into men. Just don't let him have them. And this is the. And we see the bloodstained hand of shanks mother on dragon's chest. You can tell it's dragon by the eyes.

[Zach]

And the eyebrows that don't exist. But. Yeah, go ahead.

[Ed]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Super Saiyan we actually. I guess we see Teach's mom, right?

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

And her cool Yu Gi.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh hair.

[Ed]

One other thing I like here that I didn't mention is the Celestial Dragons going feral with their claws and fangs in their. Inside their bubble domes.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ed]

Segregate them.

[Zach]

There's a few things to mention on this page. Like, it's very weird, I'll say even before we get into it because the tone I'm sure that we're conveying is never gonna be quite right this week. But this chapter is half like what we were talking about, like Grave of the Fireflies. Serious. Like just awful, awful, awful, inhumane. And then these Hunger Games. Yeah, well, that, that in that part. And then the other half turn.

[Ed]

Turning what? Turning like turning murder into a TV show or the Running Man.

[Zach]

Well, then it's just like. And here comes, you know, you know, the. All the big teams that. No, we did that already. And then it's like, here's the Rocks Pirates and the Roger Pirates and the Gurfleet. And it's just like they're two very different.

[Ed]

It's.

[Alex]

It's setting up like.

[Zach]

No, I get it. I get it. It's just like I'm prefacing it in that in our discussion. I feel like it's. They're two very different tones.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. It feels like an NFL pregame show or something where if.

[Anthony Bowling]

In the NFL, if they were going to show you the teams right before they were like. And here are all of the wars happening across the world and now here come your Los Angeles Raider.

[Zach]

Like, it's a bad way to produce it.

[Steve]

They each say their name and their position.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Wang Xi. I stay back on the island.

[Zach]

I did also want to note the little look we get of the Davey clan, presumably on the bottom.

[Alex]

Oh yeah, the hat.

[Ed]

Nice hat.

[Zach]

We got an oars looking guy in the background or something. At least a guy with a big.

[Ed]

Yeah, with the big.

[Zach]

The big.

[Ed]

Underbite.

[Zach]

Underbite. Sorry.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

And yeah, as we mentioned, the. The Celestial Dragons as this like despicable force. Feral bureau mob. Like that panel is very powerful and just like, I don't know how in the Japanese how direct it is either, but it's very good. And it's.

[Steve]

Yeah, this is what it is.

[Stephen Paul]

It's interesting too, that like, you know, for, for so, so like. Okay, so. So they, they're, you know, in the crowd they're saying like, you're just more Buccaneers, aren't you? So I guess that is supposed to be intimating that the, the Davey Clan are part of the bucket, or they are a family from the buccaneer, you know, culture or ethnicity or, you know, however. However the. They're distinguished, which is kind of a, you know, a bit of an odd, like, sort of offhand way to. To reveal that.

[Zach]

Are you sure that they're not just comparing them to the.

[Steve]

I don't know.

[Stephen Paul]

That's the thing. Yeah. Like, it. You can kind of take it that way. Although I think if that was the case, this is a weirdly in it. Like, I don't know, there could be much clearer ways for. For him to. To say that. But, you know, the. The idea that, like, this. This is clearly like a sort of, you know, genocidal movement. And so the. The choice of the words like shun them and isolate them and segregate them and stuff, it feels like, like that's like a step back from what they're actually depicting here. Like, they're just like, kill. You know, what they're. What they're actually doing is. Is killing them. And so I. I felt like that was maybe like a. Like a pointed use of language by ODA to, I guess to kind of show like, how this. This sort of attitude or how this sort of arrangement begins. Right. Is. Is. Is in the. The shunning and the isolating and cutting off people from the rest of the world and. Yeah, it's.

[Ed]

Their lives are a danger to us all.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, right.

[Anthony Bowling]

Well, and you're. And you have to also set this up because we know.

[Alex]

Well, when you put it like that.

[Ed]

You have to kill them.

[Zach]

Yeah, right.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

Well, you. You put Blackbeard here at the end of the story, and you have to show all this atrocity around him to make Blackbeard seem like a victim here. Like, you have to go out of your way to kind of have that sympathy and be like, man, I get where he's coming from. And I don't think I ever would have thought that this also lines up.

[Ed]

With the child teach that we saw in the sbs, where he's sort of sitting alone in a corner.

[Steve]

Yeah, yeah, he looked a little bit older and a little.

[Zach]

I don't know.

[Steve]

That wasn't cherry pie at sbs. Yeah, right.

[Stephen Paul]

But if he's been through this at this point already in the.

[Steve]

Yeah, I think so. I think that's a slightly. Because I think that teach kind of lines up more with the teach we saw join up with Whitebeard.

[Ed]

Can't sleep. Garling's gonna kill me.

[Steve]

He looks. He does. This means nothing. But he just Looks. He looks like a little Hody Jones.

[Alex]

Yeah, kind of does.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, he looks crazy. It's pretty wild.

[Zach]

I mean, he's a D. No, he isn't. Or is he? Yeah, not according to Whitebeard. Or not clearing. Yeah, Whitebeard.

[Alex]

No, he's a D. But he's not the one.

[Zach]

That's not the one that Roger was waiting for. Right. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. No. All very well. I'm sure we'll talk more about it at the end.

[Stephen Paul]

There's still more of this.

[Zach]

Oh, we're on the first spread. Let's go to the next one. And we get dragons inner monologue here as Shanks's mom's arm flops to the ground. Presumably dies here, I assume saying, I don't know who you are, but I want to save your kids. If I don't do something, I'm going to collapse under the weight of it all. And he's breathing as he rushes away holding his gun. And presumably the children, as we'll see a little bit more in detail later. Back to the main event, as a celestial dragon says. And this line for line, I believe matches up with the Cod Valley stuff in Puma's flashback saying, we've already introduced the 13 super rare rabbits. They're worth, by the way. Also, rabbits are great animals. Stop hunting them. I know there's a lot of them. 13 super rare. I know this is the time to stick up for rabbits when we're talking about actual genocide. They're worth 10,000 points each. In addition, there are 150 rare rabbits. The hunt will begin in one hour. All you rabbits better.

[Ed]

Oh, there's a little kuma and.

[Zach]

Yeah, so we got kuma because that's what they're. He's one of the rare ones. I think they talk in the super rare ones in the Kuma one they talk about. Yeah, I thought they specifically mentioned the buccaneer thing too. Yeah. The hunt will begin in one hour. So this panel is back for the pregame show. The this panel is almost verbatim and horrifying. Just assume I'm saying that for each panel going forward. And you see the citizens of God Valley who are in the west blue. That's why we have cowboy hats. Also, I'm putting two and two together saying that we have only three weeks and we're free. So just run for it. It's our only hope. There has to be a place to hide. So they are, you know.

[Ed]

Oh, yeah, but they're at the bottom of that first page. Are like, is he serious? Are they really going to start killing us?

[Zach]

Oh, yes. Yeah. Thank you for catching that. Yeah. And you even get a. There are children infirmed. There's an old man in a wheelchair. There is a. I mean there's. There's every type of person you see on that page and the following one. And then you get the grotesquest of the grotesque. The, the one, the celestial dragon on the right there reminds me of some cartoon character, but I can't put my finger on it. I feel like that's a Steve or Alex question. But which. The one on the right in that middle panel. Yeah, on the second page. But the one with the like the ostrich. That.

[Ed]

His top knot thing?

[Zach]

No, the face. That bizarre looking, classy face looking face.

[Ed]

The big grin and the sharp teeth.

[Steve]

Kind of looks like Eduardo from Foster's home.

[Alex]

Well, no, the one on the right. You mean the one on the right under the unibrow.

[Zach]

Yeah, the one to cover by the panel a little bit.

[Steve]

Nobody needs a unibrow.

[Zach]

Okay.

[Alex]

I don't know. I will say that the, that the, that the guy up there at the top of the page with the hat, with the sideburns kind of looks like Mo Sizlak.

[Zach]

Mo Sizlak, Celestial tracking.

[Steve]

I don't deserve the chef.

[Stephen Paul]

No, no, no, the. Yeah, the. The guy running away.

[Zach]

Oh, oh, you're right.

[Anthony Bowling]

Could be Bogart's dad. Because of the hat.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yes, that's how that works.

[Steve]

They're chomping, they're champing at the bit for bogard.

[Zach]

Well, don't worry, you might get it this chapter.

[Anthony Bowling]

That's true.

[Zach]

Yeah. So you have these three, just vile looking celestial dragons as they are laughing, look, looking, doing their best Elmer Fudd impression and trying to find the people hiding here.

[Ed]

Meanwhile, yeah, they are hunting rabbits.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Alex]

It's rabbit season.

[Zach]

Yeah. And you have a baby. Not quite. Oh no. Then starting Hagwa, I guess is the cry as one ostrich laden celestial dragon runs by and finds the family who beg for to spare their life and are thereafter not granted their wish, which is seemingly being recorded, I assume for the celestial dragons watching, but I assume.

[Ed]

It'S broadcast live in Maryjoa.

[Zach]

Yeah. Oh, yes, you're right. It comes on the next page, Steven, actually. Yeah, you could correct me in real time.

[Stephen Paul]

Okay, yeah. So we see a number of, you know, various scenes of horror, you know, playing out clearly all over this island. People begging to have their lives spared and their. Their loved ones spared and just, you know, maniacal laughter as the, the Celestial Dragons continue to, you know, to create more victims. And then you cut to the land of the gods, which is, you know, the, the Celestial Dragon quarters of Sacred Mary Joa, where you just hear the, the like, you know, the, the crowds hooting and hollering basically, and, you know, counting up the points as they're. They're in the square, you can see they've got a bunch of screens up and the, the MC is saying, oh, the Figgerland family is in the lead, but the Bavet and Manmire families are in close pursuit. So this would seem to suggest that there is a. There's both an individual points winner, which is what, you know, figureling Garland Garling was doing. And then there is also the family competition, which was mentioned last chapter, where, you know, the families themselves are also doing a cumulative point competition. And then we see Garling himself, you know, slicing some. Some people up. And the, the Celestial Dragon women are screaming, you know, they're, they're shrieking over, yeah, Lord Garling. And you have some people who were making bets. Who did you bet on? Oh, the shepherds in the family competition. Guko for the individual race. And the guy says, you sure? She's great, but she's still just the knighthood's pet devoted Blade of God. And speaking of which, we do see her.

[Ed]

That sounds important. I don't know why that would make you less likely to bet on her.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, so let's. So, yeah, well, we see Gunko here. She's. She's dressed up in a more like ceremonial look. She got like the epaulettes and the, you know, the fancy, you know, ceremonial looking.

[Zach]

Still no pants.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, she's. Well, at least she's wearing like a skirt. A skirt of some kind.

[Alex]

Don't you hate pants?

[Stephen Paul]

And she, she does have her arrow powers, so. Which she is using against the. The people fleeing. And the MC says, chuck up another excellence bonus for the Manmire family. And we see devoted Blade of God, Manmire family, Saint Gunko. So we don't really know for sure what this term means because it's not really, you know, explained or defined, but based on the context. So the, the devoted part is also like. I don't know if you can kind of pick this up, but it's. It's devoted, but like devoted in like a subservient kind of sense. And that could be. This is just me kind of speculating that could have something to do with Gunko's relationship with Emu, since we know or we. We Assume.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ed]

The Holy Nights are sort of like the personal bodyguard of Emu, it seems.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, kind of. But also like we've seen Gunko or we believe that we've seen. I mean, she had the same eyes in the flower, you know, chamber with.

[Ed]

With possessed.

[Stephen Paul]

Right. So there, there may be something with that. It could also be like, I don't know, it could be like a provisional title or something. Like if she's not a full fledged member of the. The Holy Knights or if she's like on loan or something.

[Anthony Bowling]

Isn't she adopted?

[Stephen Paul]

We don't know for sure.

[Anthony Bowling]

It was kind of hinted like the wording kind of made it sound like they found her or something like that.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, yeah, we. Well we, we know that she has something to do with Brook's backstory.

[Anthony Bowling]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

And so it's possible that she was from his kingdom originally, maybe. So. Yeah, I don't know. I mean there's, there's definitely plenty of questions. But the. Yeah. The way that the. They say this, the knighthood's pet devoted Blade of God, suggests that like, she's not really an equal with the rest of them, at least at this point in time. And so, yeah, I don't know.

[Alex]

She's saying, gonna go, what does it take to be canonized in. In Celestial Dragon hood?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, just. Yeah, that you just have to. To have the, the Celestial Dragon.

[Zach]

I. I will say though, that since we're on the topic, we don't. It's. It's pretty clear that outside of the Five Elders, the Celestial Dragons don't know about Emu existing. Right. I think that's been.

[Stephen Paul]

I don't know that we know that for sure.

[Anthony Bowling]

Because God Knights might know.

[Zach]

Well, the Holy Nights, I think too.

[Anthony Bowling]

The Holy Nights, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ed]

The Elders definitely know.

[Zach]

And the Elders, because they're like vessels.

[Stephen Paul]

We've seen, we. We've seen the like, the nameless Celestial Dragons react to like Vegapunk's speech in a way that like, suggested that he was referring to Emu maybe. And, and I think we talked about at the time that we didn't know if they, if they knew or if they just understood implicitly that he was saying something sensitive to their rule or not. So, you know, again, that's also not for sure known, but I. I wouldn't be surprised if they do know about Emu. Anyways, to continue the scene, we see some. I don't know if these are agents. We can't really see them. We just see this guy's close up on his face who's saying, I'm so jealous of Saint Garling. He's going to beg this beauty to be his wife. As he looks through the bars at wherever they're holding shaky, but they're saying, look, nothing's official yet. You don't know. And meanwhile, we do see the much younger Saint Summers, who is still a grown adult. So he clearly is pretty old in the present day. And he is stomping on a tree with a little boy stuck up on the branch.

[Ed]

He's trying to shake him out, I think.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. He's trying to knock him down. He's got his thorns around the base of the tree and he's like, you could imagine he could easily get this kid. He just wants to, you know, to enjoy this sadistic game that he's playing here. Oh, you got yourself real high up there. Don't worry, you could jump down. I've got a nice cushion of thorns waiting.

[Ed]

Summer Z just likes fucking with kids.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, he's. Well, yeah, he's terrible. He's a piece of shit.

[Ed]

He drinks their tears.

[Stephen Paul]

The kid is crying and he's like, no, stop. And he's looking down at the glinting sharp thorns.

[Zach]

Alex.

[Stephen Paul]

That's Alex.

[Alex]

Okay? So please don't. That's my son.

[Ed]

This guy has the same design on the back of his shirt as the kid does, I think.

[Alex]

I mean, it's a Target.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. They put him in those.

[Alex]

Yeah, they all shop at the same store, so.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Yeah, yeah. God, this is so hard to like.

[Zach]

Sorry I gave you.

[Alex]

No, no, it's okay.

[Zach]

I tried to give you one crazy page and one serious page.

[Alex]

Yeah. The guy is trying to catch his kid. Don't worry, I'll catch you. And you hear Chunk. So I guess they both died. Cool. We love it. We love to see it, don't we, folks?

[Zach]

I was thinking this whole chapter, like, about other people and ourselves, too, like, reacting to the. To the chapter and being like, yeah, this is like, oh, who do you think's the strong? And like, that kind of just feels very unimportant. Yeah.

[Alex]

Being a parent reading this like, this.

[Zach]

Was a brutal chapter.

[Steve]

I don't want to make too light of it either.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

I could just. I could commit to the hanging their baby bit, but I don't know. Like, this is so cartoonishly evil. But it's still like.

[Zach]

But as we've discussed before, as we've discussed before, unfortunately, cartoonish evil is also real evil. Like, this is. Yeah.

[Steve]

I think what's just what was really jarring about these, like, Few pages here is. I'm so used to. I mean, characters have died, like. Like, inconsequential characters have died off screen, obviously, but kind of just to see it happen more and more, it's clearly like, oh, the. Like, I don't know. We're not gonna have another Charlotte Moscato situation here. Like, these characters are dying.

[Alex]

Yeah. We're not gonna see their parachutes. Like, it's not like.

[Zach]

Yeah. I mean, the next panel we see literally, like, dragons.

[Steve]

There's no hospital on another planet for.

[Zach]

They're going to the dungeon.

[Steve]

I think it's to one piece's benefit that really didn't, like, bask in a lot of death. And now that we're kind of in the final saga, as some people want to call it, seeing more and more consequent, like, just consequences. And.

[Alex]

Well, you need to see this because it's. You. Like, it's gotten to a point where, okay, we need to know exactly how evil and ruthless these.

[Steve]

Absolutely.

[Alex]

These enemies are. So it gives, you know, it gives us more of a. Like.

[Zach]

Like.

[Alex]

Well, no matter. No matter, you know, Blackbeard or Luffy. I definitely ain't rooting for. Like, I'd rather root for either one of those than anybody on emu side.

[Zach]

Yeah. And sort of. And I would add that it also, like, gives. When we get back to the present day, one day in the story, it really. There is no hatred. I have more than for these folks, the Celestial Dragons, if you could call them that, like Gunko, we see here, like, we get highlighted each of the ones that are, you know, important in the current day too. And boy, do I want to see them just go through the worst of, like, what you could possibly go through. Go ahead.

[Alex]

Yeah. So Dragon comes upon just dead bodies strewn all over the place. It's a pretty horrific sight. He's out of breath, and his inner monologue says, if I defy the Celestial Dragons and try to save someone, I guess he's holding back puke. He says, my entire platoon will be beheaded.

[Zach]

Dad, that was a real panel, that one. Specifically, I. That's resonating.

[Alex]

Yeah. And then, like, we go back to his marine ship, and the commander says, is everyone here then? And his superior says, of course, sir. And they go, stupid dragon. Where's he gone? He better not be on that island. So Dragon turns the corner, and a celestial dragon is about to come upon a scene that we saw during Kuma's flashback, actually pretty much verbatim, right. Where Ivankov is trying to lift up Kuma and the rest of those rabbits over there. And the Celestial Dragon says, ooh, I found him. The 10,000 point buccaneer. And we hear Ivankov say, don't waste your time dreaming of salvation from this sick game. We have to escape the game itself.

[Ed]

And you cannot lose if you do not play.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Alex]

And he says, let's get off God Valley together. And Dragon is sort of touched by this and said, they've still got hope. And we see this Muppet ass Celestial Dragon saying, get a taste of my killer 10 shot rifle.

[Zach]

How dare you besmirch the name of the Muppets with.

[Alex]

Yeah, we see Kuma in that in his crosshairs. And we see a gunfire. But it was Dragon's tranquilizer gun. And he says, oh, damn, I've really done it now. You see that Celestial Dragon just sort of conk out and he's got one of the snot bubbles to show that he's asleep.

[Ed]

Oh, shit.

[Stephen Paul]

Going through the glass bubble.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

You want to talk about. You could see their parachutes. When I read this chapter earlier, I saw Dragon Mercury murdered this guy.

[Ed]

Which would have mentioned the tranquilizer dice in the last chapter.

[Zach]

Yeah, but you know, like, I was torn. Like, of course, as a reader, you want to see him just shoot this guy. But.

[Alex]

Well, Dragon's trying to go through and get the bandana that gives you infinite ammo.

[Zach]

No puck, I get it.

[Steve]

All their dog tags.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

But the reasoning here is that if Dragon had. I mean, I don't know what's gonna happen next in Dragon's story here. Much beyond what we see. But if, obviously if he kills a Celestial Dragon, that's a much different and much graver issue for him. So I assume there's a story reason. But we'll see.

[Alex]

So I think this is interesting because turns out Dragon is the reason that his revolutionary officers were saved to begin with. Which is.

[Anthony Bowling]

It's crazy.

[Alex]

I don't know if that's like, that's a fun, oh, everything's connected. But I kind of like that aspect of it.

[Steve]

I wouldn't look too deep into it, but I kind of enjoy the connective tissue here.

[Zach]

It's more like a poetic or literary like. And the one who saved you was.

[Alex]

Yeah, yeah. I don't think that, like, it needed to be like that. But this is one of the least egregious for sure.

[Steve]

It would have been worse if it was like, oh, Dragon knocking out a Celestial Dragon was what inspired everyone to become revolutionaries. That would have been hack. You know, this is Just more like, I think if. If something would have happened here, you know, Kuma is also, you know, like I said, watching this flashback. He's a tank. Like, he could, you know, he. I feel like if he ate a bullet, he probably could have like, still survived here, but he would have been like, ow, you shot me. You a hole.

[Stephen Paul]

You could be like. Like, you could explain it that, like, later on, if Dragon finds out, like, if he doesn't make contact with them right here, then, like, if he finds out, you know, if he sees news about Ivankov or Kumar, whoever, later on, he's like, oh, those were those kids that I say, you know, that I remember from. From God Valley. And then he goes and makes contact or something. Presumably that's how we all get started.

[Zach]

Presumably he doesn't make contact. We don't like, get.

[Stephen Paul]

No, because he runs off. Yeah.

[Zach]

But we also do know that Ivankov and Kuma, like, have a connection to what Dragon is doing for many reasons later in that flashback. So Oda could write that either way and maybe that's an. Maybe we will come back to that scene. Sometimes it's future flash.

[Steve]

Irony.

[Stephen Paul]

Another irony.

[Steve]

Irony can be great, you know.

[Zach]

Yes. Yeah, I agree. I agree.

[Steve]

I think because it wasn't like, oh, because I found out I was saved from being shot at God Valley. That inspired me to be revolutionaries. Like, no, no. Kuma found out about Dragon, the revolutionaries on his own. So I just. I think it's more of like, it's a coincidence that I think poetically, it's nice, but it isn't like, if this didn't happen, I don't know.

[Alex]

Yeah, it's not like Star wars prequel bullshit.

[Steve]

Yes.

[Alex]

I just noticed by the way, that like, I guess he's got the babies in his backpack from the page before, there's like two little things sticking out, so.

[Zach]

Oh, you're right.

[Ed]

I see what you mean now.

[Alex]

I guess Oda needed to fill out this panel or this page a little bit. So the next panel and a half is a celestial dragon on a chocobo, shooting more rabbits and giggling with glee. But then I guess there's an explosion here. And we hear to the east of the island, what is it says a celestial dragon. And then we see the ocean and it's the rocks. Pirates. And not just them. There are all kinds of pirate crews pulling up. Yar, man, it's been since the early viz days since we've heard of Yar.

[Stephen Paul]

I throw them in every now and then.

[Zach]

No, this is well deserved.

[Alex]

I like it.

[Zach]

It's a well deserved yarn.

[Stephen Paul]

You gotta let it fly sometimes.

[Steve]

Yeah, you save it for the super Salty pirates.

[Zach]

Which the vox pirate should be. But before the little thing I want to mention. Very, very, very corner of the left bottom corner of that page that almost looks like poneglyph like script. But I'm sure it's just some on the sail. Yeah.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

You know what I mean?

[Ed]

Yeah, I can see what you mean there.

[Alex]

It's interesting.

[Zach]

I'm sure that will be in another pirate.

[Alex]

Is that what it says?

[Stephen Paul]

No, that's what it looks like.

[Alex]

Detective.

[Zach]

The detective Pirates.

[Alex]

Reacts. Ra's All Ghoul's ship.

[Zach]

Okay, Detective.

[Anthony Bowling]

Does it matter who is talking to the Admiral in the. In the lower right panel? The. Of course sir. Would. Is that. Do we think that's anyone that Dragon knows? Is it supposed to be a Kainu? Is it supposed to be anyone? Or is it just someone who knows Dragon in his like a throwaway?

[Alex]

Might have. He might have been a superior who was yelling at him. Yeah.

[Steve]

Let me jump back to that chapter just to see because I remember him.

[Anthony Bowling]

Cuz there's that.

[Zach]

Oh yeah. They do mention this specifically in that original. Right.

[Ed]

I think this guy just understands that if Dragon's on that island, it's his ass too.

[Anthony Bowling]

So he's kind of okay. I didn't know if he knew it because I know they've hinted before it like. Well, Dragon and Ainu had a relationship. I didn't know if he's going to pop up somewhere in another flashback.

[Zach]

Like I think his head Sakazuki would have been like kill that. You know.

[Steve]

I think it's pretty implied that it's this guy from the previous chapter. The guy with the side.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. And they also. And they. Well they do mention Dragon and the Kuma flashback briefly. Right. I'm just like remembering that. I think they do say something like that, right? That line stupid Dragon. Where did he. Or am I making that up? But the second thing also is he does mention that. What is it that his like entire team will be killed if they find out about this on like the next page or wherever. So I'm sure good cover for that Anyway. Anthony, go ahead.

[Anthony Bowling]

What now? We got beautiful two page spread that we've seen before. It's the rocks pirates showing up now with a little bit more context now that we can see a little bit more of Streisand or Streusen on the side. Streisand. Stussy, you have Whitebeard rocks. I think that big fish guy's Barbell is what they named him. Yeah. And then Big Mom, Big Catfish man. Yeah, Catfish Man. Gloriosa, Silver Axe, Old Drunk, Captain John and Shiki all in their cool poses. And Streisand says, all right, folks. Shaky Treasure, Devil Fruits. And Stussy's looking at him and says, there's no point to us killing each other over them. I propose a temporary team up.

[Stephen Paul]

And I think these are all rocks.

[Steve]

This is all rocks.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

Oh, this is all rocks. Sorry.

[Stephen Paul]

Giving his speech. Yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

Yeah. Well, I want it to be the other one. I'm the captain now. And then Rox says, bring back the treasure and we'll split it even. No complaints about that, I trust. And now we get to see at the bottom of this, a reaction from pretty much every member of the Rocks Pirates, starting with Barbell. But we can't split Shaky. And then Golden Lion Shiki in his Barbados Slim. Boys. She's gonna fall in love with whoever saves her first, obviously. Silver Axe. Yeah. You're not gonna beat me to her, John. Shakky's gonna fall in love with whoever gets the most treasure. Whitebeard. You have fun with that. I'm just concerned about my friend, and if she falls in love with me, well, I'm not complaining.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Ed]

I just think it's funny that for, like, this one panel, Shiki has, like, big yami teeth.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Zach]

I thought it was funny for this one panel that Whitebeard is straight, but here it is.

[Anthony Bowling]

Yeah. He's like, you know what? I could.

[Zach]

You know what? For Shakky.

[Anthony Bowling]

For Shakky. For the most beautiful woman in the world. I think I could.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

To be fair, take one for the team.

[Zach]

Yeah. Good for him.

[Anthony Bowling]

And then, of course, hearing that, Stussy yells back, what are you talking about? Newgate and Gloriosa thinking, but if I save Shakki, then maybe Roger will be grateful to me and. Hmm, perfect plan.

[Steve]

If you do anything he says, he's bound to fall in love with you.

[Anthony Bowling]

Huh? If I let him be with other people. And then Streisand giving us a little update. Wang Zi stayed behind on the island. We'll ban him from her bar. And I'm sure we'll never hear from him again or he won't ever do anything cool. Big Mom. You're all fools. The entire world could turn upside down. And Shaq, he'd never pay attention to you. And then poor Kaido is like, hey, are you really gonna give me a Devil Fruit? Lin Lin, please.

[Zach]

He's such a He's an overcoat.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Such a little brother. Here.

[Anthony Bowling]

Yeah.

[Zach]

I want a devil fruit. Linlin, can I have devil fruit?

[Anthony Bowling]

I always love it when they do these big. Just character. It makes it so like the fact that we have the Rogers Pirates and Garp and all these others but like two page spread for the Rocks Pirates here and you get to see all their little personalities. I love it. I, I live for shit like this.

[Zach]

Well, I love how they.

[Ed]

I love the consistent relationship with Kaido and Linlin. She's always been his senpai one son.

[Zach]

Yeah. I, I also just like. So I'm like looking. What is it? Chapter 1095 is when we see this originally or 1096. Sorry. And I love this spreads. Like if I had to compare the two spreads. This one takes it like hand and foot like over the other one. It's just a gorgeous one. I love how everyone looks in it. It's. It's a really. I, I think personally well composed of all these ridiculous characters like this makes me like the Rocks Pirates a little more even. This, this, this one.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

And it, it's super useful too because you know, Oda is a master of like a little characterization goes a long way. Like he can, he can really paint a picture of who a person is in like a very small bit of dialogue. And it works very well here because you know, the Rocks Pirates we know were infamously like competitive. They were not getting along together. You know, they did not have, despite Rox's, you know, rather significant personality, he was not a magnetic one in the sense of that he held them all together the way that like, you know, Whitebeard did or Roger did. And so I think like all these chances that he, that ODA has to, to show them bickering and to kind of pit them against each other. I think it's useful to you know, to depict like why they would have gone their separate ways after this.

[Anthony Bowling]

Man, I still am going to subscribe. I think I said it last time I was on the show, but I. They had kind of hinted and because Buggy was named a Yonko, I was like, man, they're going to have to do like not a power scaling but it's going to be something like a Davey back. And then with this hitting and then with kind of the Rocks Pirates seeming like. Is Barbell Sunbell's brother from the Rogers crew? Did they get in. Is that the fight they had? Did they have a Davey back? And maybe instead of losing his Jolly Roger, I don't know if this is inconsistency or what? But since Roger's flag has the mustache, did he take his flag by making Roger shave his mustache off and saying, we're not taking your flag, but I'm making you shave so you don't look like you're Jolly Roger. And that's why he's so pissed.

[Zach]

I love that. That's the first. That's the first reasonable explanation as to.

[Stephen Paul]

Why I love that.

[Steve]

Because I think I brought that up on the podcast. I was like, how come the Roger Pirates have a mustache on their Jolly Roger?

[Anthony Bowling]

Yeah. I think that's why he's so pissed that Rox is like, shave off your mustache. I don't want your flag. But, like, no one's gonna recognize you. And he's, like, pissed about it Took.

[Steve]

Me so long to grow it.

[Zach]

First of all.

[Alex]

Also, I forgot about Sunbell. So that's like, yeah, they're definitely brothers.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

Why does he think he won Barbell from the Davy back?

[Stephen Paul]

Nice.

[Zach]

The amount. I want extra filler episodes. Rollerblading through that Davey Back. I would totally watch that.

[Ed]

You know, like green light or the. It was roller derby.

[Zach]

No, roller derby. Yeah, roller derby. You know what? I know everyone hates the Davey Back fights for some reason because they're wrong.

[Steve]

But speak for yourself. Or no.

[Zach]

Or just everyone who's not here.

[Steve]

Yeah, he doesn't speak well.

[Alex]

No, the fill. Well, the filler episodes are bad.

[Zach]

You know, I don't care. I would take a spin off series of just Davey Back Fights Through History at this point, because that sounds fun.

[Anthony Bowling]

That's the extra DVD you get when you get the complete set. They're like. And you also get David Back Fights.

[Zach]

Through History, narrated by Ken Burns.

[Anthony Bowling]

Burns Davey Back.

[Zach]

Kendra says PBS presents Davey Back Fights Through History. Yeah, this is has to happen, Alex.

[Alex]

So we see a navy ship firing cannons. Fire explosions. Kablam. Pow. Oh, excuse me, honey. And they're all hitting looks like Rox's ship. And he's saying, ignore them. Charge through. And we see these marines, and they're like, look out. And there's this really awesome panel of rocks saying, you're wasting your time, Davey. Follow my lead, rocks pirates. And I forgot there's a marine with.

[Ed]

Like, a penis nose that's like.

[Zach]

Those noses is a staple of the Oda character design since poor Chemi in. In Luffy's flashback, at least.

[Alex]

Yeah. So I forgot that I was doing a macho man voice for him. You're wasting your time. Maybe. Follow my lead, rocks pirates. And we see the prow of Rocks's ship basically slam into God Valley. And I don't think I've ever seen the figurehead before, but it's literally just a dead body.

[Zach]

That is so amazing. Like, what a. That's a pirate figurehead.

[Steve]

You want to see a dead body?

[Zach]

It's like, let's just throw that guy up there and make him out.

[Ed]

I don't know why he looks like the guy. He looks like that guy from Rocky Horror Picture show to me.

[Alex]

I wonder who it was.

[Stephen Paul]

One Eyed Willie.

[Zach]

We'll find out, I'm sure, in our next flashback. Let's go back to.

[Ed]

I didn't get that for the longest time, but the whole movie, the Goonies is a dick joke.

[Alex]

The whole movie, just the one dick.

[Ed]

Just the best in search of One Eyed Willy.

[Steve]

Yeah, I don't think it's connected at all. It's just. It was more like reminiscent. Like when I saw that figurehead on. On the map on wherever the hell is parts of the ship. It reminded me of one of Oda's old author illustrations where it was just like the skeleton.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, yes, I know what Brook might be.

[Steve]

Yeah, I don't necessarily. It's like, oh, it's connected. No, but just that was the immediate vibes I got and just made me think, oh, yeah, One Piece is a really, really old series.

[Alex]

I mean, it's also a huge dead body. So it could be like a giant.

[Zach]

That's true.

[Alex]

Like you killed a giant and put it on its prow. That's.

[Zach]

Or it could just be.

[Steve]

I'm the other way.

[Ed]

I was just. The guy I was thinking of is Riff Raff from Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[Alex]

Right. Yeah, yeah, I get it.

[Zach]

It could also just be a guy who's just like, as tall as Yamato or something, you know, like everyone's.

[Alex]

No, he's huge. Like, you can see rocks jumping.

[Zach]

I know.

[Alex]

I'm.

[Zach]

I'm just being facetious. Yeah, go ahead, Alex.

[Alex]

And Rocks is also pretty big for a person. So we also get to see the scale of Rox's ship compared to Navy ships, which is gigantic. It's a big galleon. Like, it's like kind of reminiscent of Dunn Krieg's ship when we first see it.

[Ed]

The one that gets chopped in half by Nihon. Yeah, that's the same.

[Alex]

So we see Marine Marines falling off of their ships and. Yeah, just a total badass. Oof. Just ramming speed and just totally obliterating these ships. And the celestial dragons are running buck wild like oh, no.

[Zach]

Pirates have arrived. What are you doing, Navy? If a single hair on our heads.

[Alex]

Is must, you'll all be hanged from the neck or other parts of your body.

[Ed]

That's even worse.

[Zach]

Sure.

[Alex]

And the marines are, you know, cowering in their boots because. Oh no, my boss's boss's boss is gonna fire me.

[Zach]

And he's also murdering innocent people. Oh, should I say something?

[Alex]

Yes. And we hear over the loudspeaker, urgent report. Attention needed on the western coast. It's the Roger pirates. And Dragon hears this. And you know, I see every, every.

[Ed]

Every week I mention this, but Roger's fucking Goldberg ass tribal tattoo on his bicep is hilarious threat.

[Zach]

Dragon, Dragon, don't mix up your Rogers and Dragons. Yeah, it's a joke there. I don't know what it is.

[Alex]

Yeah, but so Dragon. Yeah. Dragon hears this report. He. He grabs the children. I thought he had them.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. What is going on with the sequence of. Of the kids? Like they're in a manger or something and then he's holding them and like, you know, he.

[Steve]

We didn't see him with them before.

[Zach]

And he might have checked on them. Maybe they were in his backpack.

[Stephen Paul]

There's a lot of yada, yada going on here.

[Alex]

Well, you know, I think we don't, we don't do. We don't. Yeah, we don't see the front of Dragon. So maybe he's wearing a Bjorn, like a.

[Zach]

No, but he has both his hands to his side in one of those panels. So.

[Ed]

Yeah, one hand holding the gun, the other hand sort of. Hang in there.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Alex]

I'll tell you what, this is definitely going to be corrected in the volume art wise. We'll see, dad.

[Zach]

We'll see.

[Alex]

The baby's in post.

[Zach]

They just need to get I. Look, I can recommend lots of great products for him to carry. Two twins, I'm sure. Yeah.

[Alex]

For example, an Ergo baby.

[Zach]

Ergo baby, I was gonna say. Oh, when they get older, they should wish they did. Yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

The Bjorn, Bjorn Fruit.

[Zach]

The Bjorn pure. Oh, actually, maybe that's the one Dragon has. We all know dragons, the one.

[Anthony Bowling]

He has this Bjorn be. That's why you never see him using his power, because when he's facing away from you, he's got it right in front, but it's empty and he's crying.

[Zach]

Yeah, we said he was a bad dad. Look at him. Rescuing. Rescuing twins. Here he goes.

[Alex]

We were wrong.

[Zach]

We were wrong.

[Alex]

So he takes the. He takes the twins, he's saying uber uba and he's. He's he's very. He's shocked at the babies aren't even crying. He goes, are you boys staying quiet? It's a miracle.

[Zach]

Alex, your take.

[Alex]

So very good, baby.

[Zach]

Realism. Realism on the two twins staying quiet during warfare.

[Alex]

Yes.

[Zach]

Okay.

[Alex]

And I'll tell. Well, my baby is very. He's very chill when it comes to loud noises.

[Zach]

Even you are very lucky, and you should count yourself lucky.

[Alex]

He also sleeps through the night.

[Zach]

That's. Whoa.

[Alex]

Yeah, that's good.

[Zach]

Damn. With a Y. Damn.

[Alex]

Yeah. Damn. And we see a really funny panel of celestial dragons running towards camera. And we hear the Navy say, move all the celestial dragons to the center of the island. They must be harmed under any circumstances. I'm like. And I'm like, yeah, move the center of the island. That's like lambs to the slaughter. And these Navy soldiers are totally in shambles. What's happening? It's like it's the end of the world. First rocks, now Roger. Yeah. We hear over the loudspeaker that the Roger Pirates have landed. And we see another explosion from another side of the island and screaming. And we go to the next page.

[Steve]

And see the Roger Pirates, starring Roger as Roger. Yeah, Similar to what we saw during the Kuma flashback, but different panel. The Roger Pirates are all storming in here, and Roger swings his sword in the air and says, I'm gonna go rescue Shaki. None of the rest you have a shot of. So focus on the treasure. And then they immediately kick his ass and leave him back there.

[Zach]

I'm like, wow, Roger lost. Hashtag Roger lost.

[Steve]

He's like, okay, okay.

[Zach]

So we.

[Steve]

And as a. As a power scaler, I am. I have many questions here.

[Zach]

Let's get into this.

[Anthony Bowling]

It's like when Nami hits punches.

[Zach]

Lucy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a fist of love, I think is what they call, like, I'm gonna do this.

[Steve]

The rest of you just shut up. And they all beat him up, which is great.

[Zach]

Doesn't that look like Pearl running through Steve, your favorite?

[Steve]

No, that looks like the. That looks like the. The sea Captain guy who I said looked like. What's his name?

[Anthony Bowling]

Yep. Blue now.

[Zach]

Oh, you did. I remember.

[Alex]

Or.

[Zach]

Bluto in the bar. Bluto.

[Anthony Bowling]

That's the other thing. He looks like Bluto. Not Bruno. He looks like Bruno Mars.

[Alex]

Kind of looks like Mega victory Bell.

[Steve]

But yeah. So they. Oops, sorry, I accidentally closed down the chapter.

[Zach]

Give me a sec here. Wow, amateurish.

[Steve]

So they stormed the island and. And garling here can hear them off in the distance and he says, damn it. Can't focus on the game. And these Celestial Dragon says, what is going on here? Just do something. And then we.

[Alex]

I just want to say that there's a fucking skill issue with Garling because he can't slaughter civilians who are unarmed. What an idiot.

[Ed]

Yeah, there's too much stuff going on here.

[Zach]

Yeah, what an idiot. Can't murder callously in multitudes.

[Anthony Bowling]

I'm playing a game.

[Ed]

There's too many pirates here.

[Steve]

You're distracting me.

[Zach]

It's like golf noob, except it's murdering people.

[Steve]

Yeah, but to.

[Zach]

So it's just like golf is what I'm saying.

[Ed]

Where's the guy with the pedal? Next to the green holdings. Like quiet God.

[Steve]

You guys watch a lot of golf?

[Zach]

No, that was the extent of my knowledge of golf is that you have to be quiet. That's all I know.

[Steve]

And I asked you to do the same while I read this.

[Ed]

Or like when the Chair Empire at the US Open scolds the New Yorkers for talking during the serve.

[Zach]

Hey, we're talking here.

[Steve]

But we get another spread mirroring the Roger Pirates here. These are the Holy Knights of God. And this is Garling with a bunch of other people. I'll get through his dialogue first. Here he says, pull the navy back and protect the celestial dragons. The Holy Knights of God are stepping in. And we see some familiar faces here. We see Summers is there and the rest but some new characters.

[Anthony Bowling]

Mad Mayor Chicken.

[Ed]

Who's the person? Who's the lady with the hat? She kind of looks like a member of Dr. Teeth in the Electric Mayhem.

[Anthony Bowling]

That's the man, Mayor.

[Stephen Paul]

We've seen her more than any other person in this group.

[Steve]

The person wearing the takoyaki house skull we did see in Kuma's flashback.

[Alex]

Yeah, yeah, right. That one time.

[Steve]

But we got this. We got this giant, like oni woman with a cigar.

[Alex]

Kind of looks like Lelo. Lelo. What's his face?

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, Vito.

[Alex]

Vito. Yeah. With the huge hands and the weird mouth.

[Ed]

The two tone hair reminds me of.

[Alex]

Who is Inazuma?

[Ed]

Inazuma.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

Or the other Holy night. The Cure. The killing dude.

[Stephen Paul]

Killing.

[Anthony Bowling]

Killing him. Yeah.

[Steve]

I first almost thought killing him.

[Zach]

Yeah, I assume.

[Alex]

Could be that family.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

And then we got this other like, big monstrosity in the background.

[Zach]

Just.

[Steve]

Yeah, I'm getting. I'm getting wano vibes again from this assimilation.

[Anthony Bowling]

And then cool Dark Robin.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, well, that's also the baddie on the left.

[Alex]

I don't know. Kind of looks like Toki, you guys.

[Zach]

Oh, shut Up.

[Anthony Bowling]

Let him cook.

[Zach]

Shut up. Yeah, go ahead, please.

[Steve]

And we cut to a wide and we hear pirates are landing on every shore. Fight back battleships. Don't let them disembark. But we hear something, which is probably something Colin from over at transponder sound. We hear it might be too. It's like it might be too late for that.

[Alex]

So the, the big dude in the back, the monster looking fella, he's got wings.

[Zach]

Yeah, he does, but he has, he has Magellan esque wings. Like they are not. I am the wing extra here. No, I know none of them are functional, but very few people have functional wings. I think in the one piece.

[Alex]

Dude, he looks like, he looks like a labyrinth. Muppet.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah, definitely some out there.

[Alex]

Yeah, he kind of. Yeah, kind of looks like a little.

[Stephen Paul]

But yeah. Oh, let me, let me talk a little bit about the, the, the holy Knights of God here because this is kind of. It's a bit of a compromise.

[Ed]

So is the nomenclature consistent?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, so here's the thing is in the Japanese, so we did, we did modify this, but in the Japanese, the, the English, you know, subtitle which we have here was Knights of God. And Greg, Greg told me about this since he often is asked to consult, you know, with the, the Shueisha folks on, you know, when they have questions about like, oh, we want to spell it this way or we want to spell it that way. And they did tell him apparently like in order to like help explain the context, that the wording Knights of God was very specific. Like in other words, it was referring to a, a single God. And this kind of goes back to the, you know, the issue that I had with trying to translate this term. So the, the term for these, these knights here that we have seen for the last, you know, several volumes is the Kami no Kishidan. And so that literally is Kami is God. As you probably know if you read skypiea and Viz. No Dragon Possessive. Yes. Your Dragon ball. No is the possessive particle. And then Kishidan is, you know, knight Knighthood or Knights. Knights Brigade.

[Alex]

They're also a band of punks.

[Ed]

Yeah. Didn't they sing one of the themes?

[Alex]

Yeah, two. They sang two.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, they have, they, they, they use different kanji though. But so, you know, obviously the question is, well, why didn't I translate this group as the, the Knights of God originally? And I'll take you back to when we first saw this mentioned the, the term we first saw used was during the reverie actually when all the. Was going down and that was when we first kind of saw like, oh, there's there. You know, they have the place called the Land of the Gods, which is where, you know, the Celestial Dragons live and stuff. And then when things started going south at the Reverie, you know, some random mook is going like, you know, oh, the Holy Knights are being deployed to, you know, to. To quell the. The chaos happening or whatever, you know, the Kami no Kishidime. Uh, and at that time, here's the issue with trying to translate this, and I think you'll see, you'll see the quandary that I have is that depending on how you interpret the context, you could translate it into several different versions of Kami no Kishidan in English, which would each be like, definitionally distinct from one another. But you have no idea which one it might be accurate to the way that Oda is talking about, because Kami no Kishida. So you. You could parse it as the Knights of God. You know, God being like a singular God, as in maybe like the knights that serve Emu, for example. You could also be. You could also refer to them as.

[Ed]

The knights who say im the.

[Stephen Paul]

The knights. Knights of Gods. You know, like, God does not necessarily have to be singular. It could be plural. And we know that the Celestial Dragons are considered gods, so they could be the knights who serve the gods. You could be considered them the God Knights, as in they are gods who are also knights. And at the time, we didn't even know that they were Celestial Dragons. They could have just been like a special police force that are allowed to serve, you know, the Celestial Dragons in Mary Joa. And so each of those would be different, which, you know, if I had gone with a more specific definition or translation, you know, we could have easily turned out to be one of the other ones. And then all of a sudden, the name doesn't make sense anymore. So I had to compromise. I came up with, you know, I went with Holy Nights because I'm like, okay, well, it's not going to really match any of those definitions perfectly, but at least there's some overlap where, you know, they could all. They're all kind of holy or relating to, you know, to devotion towards something divine, you know, in one way or another. So that was kind of the compromise had. It wasn't perfect and it wasn't, you know, I wasn't like, oh, this is the best possible translation. But I was sort of like, well, I don't know what, you know, what these guys deal is. And so now, of course, you know, when was the reverie like volume 92 or something? 90, 91. Yeah. So here we are, like 20 plus volumes later. And then finally, you know, we hear from through. Indirectly through an editor, like, oh, yeah, there it's. It should be Knights of God. It's like, okay, well, thanks. Thanks a lot. So, yeah, we. Our compromise here is, is we kind of smash the two together. So it's like, okay, Holy nights of God. Maybe we'll continue using this or transition to Knights of God somehow. But yeah, it will be shifting a little bit.

[Zach]

To be fair, they would put a hat on a hat. I feel like if anyone. Sure. We're the very deific holy knights of God who serve and are the best. Anthony. Next page.

[Anthony Bowling]

Holy nights of godly service.

[Zach]

There it is.

[Anthony Bowling]

All right, so next panel shows Newgate Shiki, some of the rocks pirates doing a big cross attack. And we hear. I think these are the marines just all screaming just kind of around the island. The pirates are all charging onto the island. We don't know what they're after.

[Zach]

Ah.

[Anthony Bowling]

Liced by this attack. And then we see a word bubble, someone saying, hold on. As we see a hand, it looks like throwing a cannonball.

[Ed]

I've seen that one before.

[Anthony Bowling]

I've seen this before. And Garp is training for the big game. And we see a panel of Garp throwing this cannonball. Don't chop up my men like a plate of veggies. And we see a huge explosion as everyone's thrown back from this cannonball. And a shot of Rox and Roger, sensing Garp, their boyfriend, is now on the island. They both get to fight over him now. And we see after that a bunch of marines and Garp's ship. Oh, that ship. It's Vice Admiral Garp. And a spread of him fist in the air, holding another cannonball.

[Zach]

Oh, shit. It's my favorite. That's my favorite ship. I love the.

[Anthony Bowling]

I think the dog. I think this is a weird. Like I've never seen. And I could be wrong. Like Garp. This kind of.

[Ed]

Yeah. Why doesn't Garp wear his headdress anymore?

[Anthony Bowling]

Yeah, why?

[Alex]

Who.

[Anthony Bowling]

Who are you? He comes in here. Here I am, baby. Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah, baby. You've been waiting for this.

[Anthony Bowling]

Yeah. And the marine scream. Reinforcements have arrived. It's Vice Admiral Garp. And then we can see Bogart on the side there with his sword. Very cool. Garp's name is revealed to be G.A.R.P. s fleet underneath him.

[Zach]

Wow, they're changing more names.

[Stephen Paul]

What?

[Anthony Bowling]

No, it says Garp's fleet and then a bunch of marines with hearts in their eyes say, yes, we're saved. And the chapter ends on a close up of Garp with that trademark smile. And we see that to be continued as Garp's gonna probably whip some ass.

[Zach]

The manga is off next week. The cliffhanger this week is less for the reader and more for Roger and Rox, who look genuinely surprised by unfolding.

[Alex]

Roger really looks like Ace there.

[Zach]

I mean, they're related. And VOX really looks like Blackbeard, apparently. Well, parents just like their kids. Yeah, always true, but sometimes true. Yeah, the SS Wolf Woof is what we call the kerb ship back in 2010. That's a favorite. Anyway, thoughts on the chapter? Anthony, I'll start with you since I know you have to go at some point.

[Anthony Bowling]

Limited time on Earth.

[Zach]

As we all do.

[Anthony Bowling]

No, as we all do. It's just been like hit after hit. We're finally getting a lot of this deep lore that I think I'm always a sucker for those puzzle pieces falling in. And just like, like you were saying, it's not heavy handed here. It's. It's a genuine like, hey, any little action can cause huge ripples. And even going back and being like, look at Dragon. Like you, you've never seen him do anything. No, he's done something. And that little choice made the series. So I think that going back and kind of holding the glue together on the world is great because it's still within those themes. And like now that we're in uncharted territory with like what happened, it really.

[Ed]

Shows how the world as it exists currently is decadent and depraved and must be destroyed.

[Anthony Bowling]

And that this is all a flashback here. So I always like it when they pull in. Like that was one of my favorite parts of Wano was getting to see Odin and Roger and all of that. So I, I always welcome these kind of lore dumps because, you know, we don't know if we'll ever get to see this again. So we might as well dig into this history so that once we're like in the battles and everything, we're in it, we're in the present. So I really like where it's been going. I want to get back to Elbow. I think it's weird how we kind of have shifted so much, but I.

[Ed]

Feel like I say this every week, but I'm gonna say it again. But I guess the more interesting thing about this to me is how it relates to the straw hats and their journey yeah, we'll see that eventually. That's what excites me most.

[Anthony Bowling]

And the differences in like the crews and how now kind of Rox's intention for why he's there is kind of shaping a lot of like, man, I don't know what's happening. So it's kind of like the whole cauldron's getting stirred up right before the final battle and we got to see.

[Ed]

Where it settles and like rocks you want to be king of. This is wrong with you, buddy?

[Anthony Bowling]

What does it all mean? So, yeah, man, I'm, I. The artwork, the, the, the pacing and everything, we're getting back to like some classic stuff where it's like, man, we're getting close to the end of the year. Could feel that, that.

[Zach]

Or depending on your point of view. Great. Anything else, Anthony?

[Anthony Bowling]

Nah, man, that's just kind of. I might dive in here and there, but that's just kind of the overall that I felt.

[Zach]

Steven, what were your thoughts on this one?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's, it's such an odd chapter because, you know, like we kind of talked about in the, in the recap. It's like half of it is like the most stomach churning material. You know, like we've seen atrocities in one piece before. You know, we've seen horribly tragic and sadistic events and things, but I don't, I don't know if we've ever seen them quite to this extent where it's like, it's not just the violence, but also the juxtaposition of that with like the, the glee of.

[Ed]

And they've turned it into a spectator sport.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah, it's just it, it is so horrific in the way that it's, it's shown and you know, you know, from context that like, it's not just that they're, you know, they're, they're making a spectacle of this, but that also it's the people who are the most powerful people in the world. And there's like, you know, you can't even imagine how such a, an injustice could be rectified in the, you know, the world that we know in, in one piece. And then you go from that to like, here's the starting lineups, you know, for the Rocks Pirates and the Roger Pirates and blah, blah, blah. And you know, you just have these like, you know, aura, aura farming shots of all the, the crews like looking cool and getting ready to clash. And it is kind of a whiplash of, of tonal, you know, inconsistency, I guess from, from one part makes his dynamic entry. Yeah, in Garp, it is kind of interesting to. To note, like, the, I guess, the, The. The uncomfortable situation that. That Garp resides in here where, like, he's coming to the rest. You know, he's coming to the rescue of the other Marines who are trying to fight the pirates, but obviously they're doing so on the behalf of the Celestial Dragons. So it's kind of mixed feelings of seeing him show up. Like, yeah, you know, we know Garp's great and everything, and we know that his heart is in the right place, but, like, you know, how will we get from this triumphant moment?

[Ed]

Garp has compassion for his subordinates, but not for civilians, apparently.

[Stephen Paul]

How will we get from this moment of Garp's triumphant entry to, you know, his kind of disillusioned, you know, you know, his, his sullen state afterwards of having been kind of forced to, you know, to. To work for the. The Celestial Dragons and why he doesn't like to talk about it and stuff like that. So, you know, I don't know.

[Steve]

We.

[Stephen Paul]

We got a lot. You know, there's a. There's a lot of, you know, impact panels here, but obviously it's just kind of setting up the action for later. And, you know, it's definitely a point where it's like, okay, I. There was a. A mutual friend of me and, and Alex's, I think. I, I feel like he posted like a, like a picture of like, okay, this is the point where we're like, tapping the wristwatch now of like, okay, like, how long is this gonna go? Like, it's. It has been going on for quite a while and, and this just seems like a setup for more. Maybe Oda will do his usual thing where he just kind of like, flash forward to here's the. Here's the end or here's the aftermath or something, because I don't know how much longer he can continue to. To show it at this pace, but, you know, it's like, okay, now we have a break, so two more weeks to wait. And, and how. How closer will we be to actually getting back to the present day in Elbaf when it returns? It's. It's been a little while, so. Yeah. Tough chapter to read for multiple reasons, I would say.

[Zach]

Yeah. Ed, thoughts?

[Ed]

Yeah, it's the chapter. The best thing thematically for me in this was again highlighting the. How disgusting the world government is and the Celestial Dragons in particular, and seeing sort of dragons sort of ambivalence and even how disgusted he is about it and what he, like, who actually raises shanks? And does he give Shamrock back to his father or what did he do? There's more to that.

[Steve]

I don't know.

[Ed]

But, yes, I do love the showing, the personalities and in particular, the rocks pirates. Like, I find that Gloriosa and I think Stussy very funny in this chapter as you're talking about it then.

[Zach]

But.

[Ed]

I do understand this sort of feeling about, like, okay, what. What else do we have to show here? Do we have to actually have to see how Roger and Garp actually defeat rocks? And what are the. What are the actual goal. What's the actual goal here? And how does it affect Loki and Harold, who's. This is. This is ostensibly their story. That's. That's why we're. We got black borders and flashback going on. But overall, there's a lot to like in this chapter and a lot to hate. A lot of characters to hate. Very hateable.

[Anthony Bowling]

Very hateable chapter.

[Ed]

Yeah, but overall, I mean, I want to see the. What kind of resolution Oda has planned for this flashback as it is. It's intriguing. That's all I've really got to say.

[Zach]

Alex, your thoughts?

[Alex]

Yeah, I mean, this chapter is fine. It's a. I hate. I hate that one of these chapters is in a flashback, but this is a classic. All right. We have to kind of move the arc along a little bit chapter. Like, just. It's. It's not filler, per se, because there's some important stuff that happens and some really, like, it was hard to read some of this stuff, especially, like, you know, child murder. But, like, ultimately, I think this is a fine chapter. And, yeah, I literally want to get to the fireworks factory already. Like, this is.

[Ed]

You read this and you're like, well, no one stand up for these civilians, these small folk.

[Alex]

Yeah. Like, really, the.

[Ed]

Maybe that's what Dragon wants to do. Maybe that's the whole point of the revolutionaries.

[Alex]

Yeah, maybe. I think. I think maybe. Yeah, that this is like a. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna retread everything. Everything I said last week and the week before that about, you know, our. You know, the. Why is this flashback within a flashback within a flashback? But the. I. I really. I did. I did like seeing these pirate crews interact and stuff like that, and.

[Zach]

I.

[Alex]

I do want to see them kind of like, kick ass in the next chapter, but I also want to see this kind of move along already. I feel like we've already, like, this chapter kind of felt like, hey, let's set up some pieces And I'm like, but these pieces have already been set up.

[Ed]

Was that last chapter where we basically. It was heavily implied that Wangji was the one who sold Chucky to the world government for this.

[Alex]

Almost, almost 100. And I believe Wangji was the one that is defeated during Rocky Port. Right. That's, that's why.

[Ed]

Oh, yeah. And he is. And he is. I think he's, he's banned from the bar.

[Alex]

Yes. Well, it doesn't matter. He's pretty much, I think after this, he's pretty much the ruler of Pirate Island.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes.

[Ed]

Right.

[Steve]

So he turned it into a. I don't know. He turned into a Shake Shack.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

Shake Shack.

[Zach]

That's good.

[Alex]

That's good.

[Zach]

He just finished drawing Shacky races. And then you throw that in. Anthony.

[Anthony Bowling]

Oh, I'm sorry.

[Alex]

So my. Yeah, I guess I'm like now estimating, like, oh, we still have like a little bit to go now. Still, like, we have to see the rest of this incident, which can probably, I'm guessing, is going to take another two chapters at least.

[Ed]

And I think you can definitely wrap it up in under five chapters.

[Alex]

Stop. And then we have to. And then we have to see the rest of Harold stuff. And then Loki's stuff. Like it's, we have to.

[Ed]

Then it's finally back to the Straw Hats.

[Steve]

But is it though?

[Alex]

I don't even remember what the Straw Hats were doing.

[Zach]

No. Then we have to see what's actually happening with. To everyone else on Elbaf, this is.

[Ed]

A story about Luffy.

[Zach]

And then we get to Luffy after the Straw Hats. So it's, it's.

[Alex]

I mean, I'm sure we're going to see Dragon and his father interact at some point in this flashback, because I guess, yeah, this flashback seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting for many, many characters. It's almost, it's. I think I mentioned this last week. It's like, almost like Oda said it. I'll just do them all in one go. That's what it seems like. Which is fine. And I'm enjoying this for what it is. But yeah, just can imagine dragons.

[Ed]

Like, dad, you care about all these underlings, which is all your, all your subordinates, but you don't care about the people that they've been assigned to kill and yet protect the people who are killing them.

[Alex]

Yeah. I don't know. Get to the fireworks factory already.

[Zach]

Steve.

[Steve]

Yeah, I think my stuff is kind of gonna be echoing what Alex said. I, I, I will say, coming out of this chapter, I didn't have too many negative thoughts about it. I think the constant lore and bloodline stuff and it's been talked about, there's no reason for me to bring it up again, was souring me a little bit, I think. You know, I. I'm arm in arm with some of my fellow co hosts here, where I was like, yeah, I wasn't crazy about, you know, the previous chapters either, for a few reasons. But this one, what I kind of like about it is like, yeah, we've seen a lot of this stuff in Kuma's flashback, but it was almost like. It was almost like. I'm sure there's a term for it where it's not the full narrative. Like, oh, like, you. Like, you only remember certain parts of it. So it's almost like, because we had a spread of all the rocks pirates, but we were missing Silver Axe and rocks. So now I kind of like how it's the same thing. And now it's kind of just all of a sudden, rocks is there. It's like, oh, yeah, we're going to the island and we're doing it for Shakki, you know, so it's kind of entertaining that now we're kind of getting, like, almost like the complete version of it.

[Zach]

The Rashomon thing.

[Alex]

Yeah, no, it's not even Rashomon. It's like, oh, I. I didn't really finish this. I didn't have a fully thought out idea, but now I do, so let's redo it.

[Steve]

It's weird. It's kind of like, you know how, you know, like, in this, you know, speaking of Kuma's flashback, how we went back and we saw some old characters and. But. Or just like any anytime Oda, like, yeah, like, maybe like, throw the stuff and throw a bark. Oda redrew. Like, one of the. One of the things I respect about Oda, though it does take up a lot of time, is he'll never reuse old panels. He always redraws it. Like, so I. I was gonna kick out of that. And it kind of feels like this, but, like, the Kuma flashback is still so recent, so it almost feels like, oh, yeah, this is him, you know, getting. It was like redrawing it again. But, yeah, now we have. It's almost like we got all like, you know, you had. You started buying the rocks pirates action figures, but you didn't get all of them. So you're like, oh, I finally got rocks. And he was hard to get because he was leader class. He was expensive. He was an expensive toy.

[Ed]

I finally got catfish, man.

[Steve]

But other than that, it is another Moving the Pieces into Play chapter. While I'm not begrudging this chapter, I kind of think it's necessary because you're not going to put a little Marvel Comics Stanley X where it was like, see chapter something. Something to know what's going on here.

[Zach]

Yeah. True Reavers.

[Steve]

Excelsior. Excelsior to a previous volume.

[Ed]

Yes. I mean, it's interesting. ODA definitely doesn't subscribe to the Stan Lee rule of Every chapter is somebody's first chapter or somebody's first comic book.

[Steve]

Yeah. I mean, there's no way in hell someone's gonna. I think I'll give one piece a shot. I'm gonna start with chapter 1160. So I think it's not a terrible thing. They're redid this. I mean, and it's fun panels, too, but I think. I think for this flashback, it's important because if it just cut to. And now they're all fighting and I'm like, who? Wait, wait, who again? So I don't hate it. Yeah.

[Ed]

Why?

[Steve]

What, where, when and why? I don't hate it, but I don't particularly love it. But I don't have much grievances coming out of this chapter. I think, you know, we talked about it earlier, just a lot of the deaths and like, just like the. Just devaluing, like these people, like they're treating them like they're not even human, was rough to see. And I think it was, you know, it is kind of showing it was one piece. It's like, yeah, we're kind of getting to some really serious and. And some going against, fighting against the world stuff. We gotta see how deplorable these people are. You can't just blow up their ships anymore. It's.

[Ed]

Yeah. Why Joy Boy has to exist.

[Steve]

Exactly. I think that's a good point. So I think the first half of the chapter was rough to get through. You know, it's poignant as well, but I think we haven't seen too much of this rabbit hunt here. So kind of like just to. Goes to show, like, yeah, this is. This is deplorable. And these people should be, you know, I was gonna say ashamed. I'm like, they don't feel ashamed. They should be obliterated. And no, I just think that the God Valley incident is turning into someone's house party. But then the word got out too much. And then you got all these people showing up and they're punching holes in your drywall and they're like, you know, they're taking a shit. Taking a shit. Kissing in the pool, you know, it's like that. Despite all that, I don't really have too much else to say. But I think like, yeah, get in the way. And I gotta admit, I think the Rocks Pirates spread is pretty cool.

[Alex]

It's fun.

[Steve]

It's a lot of fun on Whitebeard.

[Alex]

I still don't know why the. Like, who gives a. About Silver X? Like he's. He just seems like he is the most.

[Zach]

I will say who.

[Alex]

Who may or may not be related.

[Steve]

To Drake create a wrestler I've ever seen.

[Zach]

I do. I do like the fact that he is just a character who's supposed to give Shiki a hard time. And I'm fine with that because I.

[Alex]

It's. It's. It's really funny. Like, it's a good.

[Zach]

It's a good dynamic. I feel. I like looking at. That's just me. I like. He's not.

[Steve]

I like looking at sheiks, but like. Sorry, sheiks. No, that's shanks. I like Shiki's teeth there in the bottom of two. I just want to just take some floss and just go through the teeth there.

[Alex]

I had an idea about like. I don't know, I guess this is probably the flashback. I think Steven, you might have said this where we're going to see the rocks of pirates, like really like split off from each other.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. And I mean, they were defeated in God Valley. That was the. Yeah, that was the cause of their breakup.

[Alex]

And I think that like, you know, I look at Linlin and Kaido and Kaido's still like, hey, Linlin, we're friends, right?

[Zach]

Ha ha.

[Alex]

And I think like the catalyst is going to be like. She's going to be like, oh yeah, have this devil fruit and it's going to turn him into a giant koi. And he's just gonna be flopping around and shit because.

[Zach]

Oh, shit. They did say you have to train something like that.

[Steve]

You don't just get the dragon. I want him. I want him to look just like Kinemon in disguise from Dressrose.

[Alex]

Like a magic card.

[Zach]

You mean Momonosuke? It was Luffy McCoy the disguise.

[Alex]

Luffy and the Kinemon.

[Zach]

Oh, you're right. You're right, you're right.

[Alex]

I wish that would be. That would be hysterical. Or he would look exactly like what Luffy thinks of Merman.

[Steve]

That would be like great callback. Are you kidding? Yeah, that or he just looks like.

[Alex]

And then now that's Fan service.

[Zach]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Alex]

That would be very funny. But I feel like that's probably, like, this is where he probably gets captured by the government and is experimented on by Saturn or whatever, because we know he busts out of the lab or whatever with Alberto. Right. Albert Langdon.

[Steve]

Albert.

[Zach]

Alberta.

[Steve]

Albert.

[Zach]

I think you mean. I think it. I think King's name is Saskatchewan.

[Stephen Paul]

Saskatchewan.

[Zach]

Thank you, Steven.

[Anthony Bowling]

I.

[Steve]

That. That would explain why the government then tried to recreate Kaido's Devil Fruit.

[Zach]

So.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's.

[Steve]

I like, I. I'm warming up to the rocks pirates. I like that. It's just like, this should not be. It's. It's only gonna just, like, end in disaster. So I kind of like seeing it. But also. Yeah, it's. I. I think also I want to chime in with the previous chapter, you know, with. With Roxanne. Like, oh, I. I gotta go. I gotta get my family. I want my family back. I think he's.

[Alex]

I think stand. Tom Jane.

[Steve]

Because there has to be some sort. Like. I feel like Rox. This is me maybe guessing here, but, like, I always was under the impression of, like, Rox was such a bad dude and he had to do. He was. He was potentially gonna do something so heinous that the. The navy had to team up with the, like, the King of the pirates or. Or the future King of the Pirates to take him down. I don't know. I feel like, because you were talking about the confusion with Roxanne. You're too soft. And then they fired at Harold's ship. I wonder if I could just. I'm like, oh, I gotta get my wife and my kid back. And Harold's like, all right, you do that. And like.

[Alex]

I mean, that's definitely how you get to Harald. Like, that's how you tug. Rox is like, that's how you manipulate him.

[Steve]

I just want.

[Zach]

He's pretty.

[Steve]

Hear me out here. To be fair, because there's always been this weird error around Blackbeard. Like, he's mysterious and his body is weird.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Steve]

I'm just wondering if.

[Alex]

Yeah. Weird body.

[Steve]

Is this some sort of Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 thing where it's just.

[Alex]

I think we talk about this, right? Where it's just like he's inhabiting a younger.

[Zach]

Yeah, we've talked about that a few times here.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

I still think it's possible it's something like. I just think he. It's not so much he cares about his family. It's. It's. He's using them for Something.

[Zach]

He wants to use them.

[Steve]

Because I, I think, I think it was just, it's just like, why, like, why did. Because it, right now it just feels like a rivalry between Roger and Rox. Like, Davey Xebek, Viva lacherteau. I just think, like, Rox has to be scheming something where Roger and Garp are like, we really got to put our differences aside right now and take this guy down.

[Zach]

Well, what is it? Like, the best lies have a little truth in them. Like, the fact that he was revealing his ancient family name may have been a way to distract from the fact that he was lying.

[Steve]

There's probably some truth that I don't think the Davey clan thing is made. Like, I'm, I'm sure he's, I mean, I'm sure that's his real name, Davey.

[Stephen Paul]

But I just thought, yeah, I'd hide. I tried it too.

[Steve]

I just think he's up to something. Yeah, he's up. He's up to something here.

[Alex]

I hope so. I hope so. I've seen a lot of people online be like, oh man, Rox is actually a good guy. This is great. He should be the Pirate King, not Gold Roger.

[Steve]

I, I, I just, I let your.

[Ed]

He's the goat, guys.

[Alex]

He's peak.

[Zach]

You know, let me say also that Rocks is very different from like the standard pirates of this age, because his goal has nothing to do with the One Piece. It has nothing. Ever since. Actually, this is pre looking for the One Piece age even. But it's, it's very different from the ordinary pirates that we've seen, because his goal is to be king of the world and he has this very overarching plot like, that seems very similar to the kind that Blackbeard does. And, and Blackbeard, we recently learned his mission was also to be king of the world. So I like the FMA 2003 bull crap kind of idea.

[Steve]

I hope Blackbeard still has, though. It's like, it could just be.

[Zach]

Well, maybe Blackbeard has just. Oh, well, they do have the thing that he never sleeps. So maybe he's like, what's the Cavendish.

[Alex]

Rocks at night and Teach during the day.

[Zach]

Yeah. Or like the Cavendish Hakuba. Yeah.

[Alex]

Oh, now that's interesting, Steven. Yeah, there's a reason why Hakuba was even a thing. Sort of a like, hey, this is a thing that exists in the One Piece world.

[Steve]

So sympathize with Teach, I think. I like that Teach is kind of.

[Alex]

Like I already have now. Unfortunately, what I like about teaching him as A scared baby.

[Steve]

But it just so happens like they're kind of just light and dark, you know, pardon the phrase.

[Zach]

I. I don't think Teach. Teach has never come across in the way that there's like an Arlong or Hody Jones or. I'm just trying like. Or do Flamingo or. The problem is I don't sympathize with villains.

[Steve]

It's like, it's a shame what happened to some of them. Maybe other than Doflamingo, maybe things could have been different for them, but.

[Zach]

Yes, but what I was going to say is that I don't think Blackbeard has ever evoked the emotions that those three have. You know, like, I never have felt in the same way as those. Like, I don't want to sympathize with those three, for example, but I. Blackbeard has an interesting personality beyond just. He's not like seeping pure evil. He has a. He has like a character, you know, like, he is a bad dude. Absolutely. But unlike these Celestial Dragons, for example, he has like more dimensions to him that. I don't really think that this is ruining anything about that character for me. I think he. I think for Blackbeard, three dimensions is not a bad thing. For Arlong, I feel like he works because he's a two dimensional. Even like Enaru, I feel like is another good example. Like the. He's a bad dude. That's all you got to know. And that's fine. I just don't think Blackbeard has ever been that. For me, it's just like.

[Steve]

No, I just let him be bad. No, he's a bad guy.

[Zach]

He's just a psychopath.

[Steve]

I just don't want to get to the point where it's only the Celestial Dragons are just like.

[Zach]

Like the black.

[Steve]

Like. Or just like the. Yeah, these are the bad guys.

[Zach]

They are. I don't know.

[Steve]

I. I don't want to like drag out this conversation for too long. Just saying like, there's definitely. I think there's more than what it seems here. And I feel like we're hopefully past the part of put of setting up all the pieces. It's like, you know, it's like playing a board game that's very elaborate and there's a lot of setup there and you gotta just like, you gotta hang tight. You're playing Mousetrap and you got to set up all the pieces. But then like once that's done, then you could finally start playing. So I'm hoping once we come back it. This is just Pure mayhem in the best kind of way in a true spectacle. So I, I'm feeling better coming out of this chapter than some of the previous one. That's it.

[Zach]

Anything else? I'll try and make it quick though. There's a lot I want to say, but I'll try and make it quick. I, I agree with what's been said and I also disagree with what's been said in that I, I also feel like we've got in. What is it Alex? You said like five chapters of setup of this God valley but at this point we're like invested. I do want to see the rest of this. Like I, at this point. Give me all you got, Oda. If it's too much, I'll complain about it at the end, but tell me now. Like. And I've. I am such a broken record with this. But like the weekly experience is never. Isn't the, isn't the optimal way to like enjoy it at durationally. Like you we mentioned that. Oh and there's a week break coming up and you know like. Yeah, but I don't think ODA is really caring about that. I think at this point he's like I'm gonna tell this story because I want to tell this story. So that's true. But also. Yeah, I just wanna, I wanna get to the fireworks factory. I do agree with that but I think we're just about there. It feels like we are. I agree with Steve. I thought the rocks pirate stuff was. Was cool. I. I was a. I was a very. I was a. This is. It was a real whiplash of a chapter. Like we, we talked about this a lot but I think the stuff in the first half is some of the like Alex, I don't know if you agree but like it definitely feels like the most stomach churning stuff I've seen or I've read in the series.

[Alex]

Yeah, I mean it's.

[Zach]

Which is saying something for one piece.

[Alex]

There's. There's obviously like you know, a reason why there's only like a couple panels worth. It's pretty hard to. Hard to watch, hard to read, whatever.

[Zach]

But I also get why it's there and why it's important and.

[Alex]

No, no, no, me too, me too. I get it.

[Zach]

Like I'm not like we were talking about the Emmys and Dan Gilroy. We have to mention when there was an award show we reported on that live from andor winning that and I was just.

[Alex]

That's true. Yeah.

[Zach]

The. Not to spoil and. Or too much but please watch season two if you're listening and. But they, they do the stomach churning but like gripping kind of thing, so. Well, it like, is a good way to remind you of why it's important to see in media like these things that do happen in like their full or as much as a comic could in this case, like their full horror. The. The scene, particularly the one that Alex, that you concluded with, what's his name? Jeff Bridges. Not really Jeff Bridges. Summers. Summers was like beyond heartbreaking for me. But I, you know, all of these atrocities are happening in the real world in different ways certainly. But the advantage, taking advantage and stepping over both the. The rights and lives of people without choice is just like. It like hits extra home with even what we were talking about at the top of the show. Like, I, like I. We talk about whether ODA is aware of the political things that he's saying. But it just feels very, very real and prescient to see these sorts of things which make it extra stomach churning for me personally, subjectively, which again is not bad. That's what fiction is supposed to do. I think, like good fiction mirrors the things in real life fantasy, you know, like, puts them on a grander or more outlandish scale and presents them to you in a either digestible or very hard to digest way. And I think that was pretty well done. It is such whiplash then that we do get like the cool rollout of all of these characters in the second half of this chapter. It's like two very good chapters for two very different reasons with no real transition. But like, I get why it's done. Like, I don't know. I did want to correct myself from earlier. So the part after Dragon tranquilizes the. The guy is actually in the Kuma flashback. There's like a whole back and forth with Ivankov and Ginny and Kuma that go on after that. And you never see Dragon. So there's the conclusion to that, I have to say, of the recent batch. And I'll end here. Of the recent batch of like flashback chapters, this was the most affecting since the Loki climbing the mountain part.

[Alex]

Well, sure.

[Zach]

The tree. I always forget it's a tree. It looks like a mountain because it's gigantic. Yeah, no, I mean like emotionally resonant, which is, you know, what I look for in a flashback. Personally, I will not rehash my qualms with the structure of this flashback because I've said it. So I'm just gonna try and go along for the ride at this point and see where things end up and Maybe give my two cents after we, we round off. I do want to mention, though, that remember these holy knights of God who look, you know, the way they look here, they're probably aging significantly after this, so evil Robin will look like evil olvia at the end of this. And that's, that's the important takeaway here. Unless they don't age. You want evil Ovia? Genocidal ovia. Yeah. And, oh, I think I forgot who mentioned the shamrock thing. Like, how do they get separated? I'm very interested in seeing that.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, that could be really good.

[Zach]

I'm like, the thing is, yes, we know a lot of the main points of what happened, but there are some really big question marks. Steve, I think just, like, credit to you, like, hit on a lot of the points that have been in, like, the back of my mind that I have really been able to elaborate on. But also, like, how the pieces on the board end up where they do. Why is Rocks the big, like, baddie that Roger and Garp have to team up against or vice versa? Why, why is that, you know, the results of all of this, like, human hunting and, and all of that. I, I, I really enjoyed this chapter. Structural qualms aside, I think this is, this is up there for me for the, for the flashback so far, adding only. I am very curious. I, I, Please pay attention how people do cover this one. I like, this isn't, this isn't to put shade on anyone. I'm just, like, I'm personally curious how people will discuss some, like, really deep and dark stuff in the first half of this chapter while simultaneously having to discuss the, the, here's the lineup. You know, like, it's just peak. That's, that's kind of what I mean. Like, because half of the chapter really appeals to that, and, like, I totally get it, but the other half of the chapter is dark as shit. So, like, how do you reconcile that as anyone as a reader or as a, as a commentator? It's, it's difficult. Any other thoughts?

[Steve]

There's balance.

[Zach]

Hey, I'll leave it there with that challenge. Yeah. Let's take a break, and we'll come back with the next segment.

[Alex]

Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from Ebgliss. After an initial dosing phase, about 4 in 10 people taking EBGLIS achieved itch relief and clear, or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year.

[Zach]

With the monthly dosing EBGLIS Lebricizumab LBKZ a 250mg 2ml injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who.

[Anthony Bowling]

Weigh at least 88 pounds or 40.

[Zach]

Kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis that is not well.

[Stephen Paul]

Controlled with prescription therapies used on the.

[Zach]

Skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to ebglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe Eye Problem Tell your doctor if.

[Stephen Paul]

You have new or worsening eye problems.

[Anthony Bowling]

You should not receive a live vaccine.

[Zach]

When treated with Epglis.

[Anthony Bowling]

Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if.

[Zach]

You have a parasitic infection Searching for real relief?

[Alex]

Ask your doctor about epglis and visit epgliss.lily.com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979. Love Espresso Drip Coffee and Cold Brew.

[Zach]

With the Ninja Luxe Cafe.

[Alex]

If you can crave it, you can brew it. Espresso Balanced Drip Coffee Rich cold brew in a flash with Barista Assist technology.

[Zach]

You brew with no stress and no guesswork and make perfect silky microfoam hands free from dairy or plant based milks. Shop the Ninja luxe [e-mail].

[Alex]

Stuck in.

[Zach]

A lo fi loop again.

[Alex]

Hit shuffle and refresh the everyday with Mentos Gum. Pop a piece and turn that sleepy soundscape into a dance floor. Freshen up your moves with Spearmint. Find freedom with Fresh Mint. Get juicy with Red Fruit, Lime and Tropical.

[Zach]

Or choose a different way to refresh the everyday with your favorite Mentos scum. Yes, defresh. Welcome to Ken Burns's the Piece Together segment where we go through questions, comments and theories. That's all I got. First segment comes from our Patreon subscribers and Alex what do we call it?

[Alex]

Deuce Piece Our first dispeaser is Big Mike who says hey Opp, I have a theory about Dragon's powers. Throughout the series it's hinted that he has some sort of wind ability. So my theory is that Dragon's wind powers are really his farts that he's embedding with Haki. And the reason he doesn't look much like Luffy or Garp is because that is the face he's making from holding in his farts all the time.

[Zach]

Oh shit. No punishment.

[Alex]

Start the SBS that's great.

[Zach]

That's one of our best questions we've ever gotten.

[Alex]

Yeah, I love the wrong answers. Only ones. Sailor Karna says. Hey, Opp, in lieu of recent events, do you think the story will change similar to Pell's death and resurrection? I'm starting to think that the reason we're getting the God Valley info is because what is happening in our world?

[Stephen Paul]

Well, sadly, there's never really any short. You're never short of options to draw inspiration from with, you know, whatever is happening in the world at any given time.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. I wonder, like we mentioned, like, Oda, whether Oda had a full idea of what was going to happen at God Valley. I think he's had one for a long time. At least. The bullet points and the celestial dragon behavior is kind of par for their course. Like.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, he's been consistent with that since.

[Zach]

2009 or 8, whenever we're first introduced to them. Yeah.

[Alex]

Yeah. I don't think that it has anything to do with, like, current events. I don't. I don't think that that's how ODA operates.

[Stephen Paul]

Right.

[Alex]

Yeah, it's.

[Zach]

If anything, it might have to do with historical events. Like, we talked about Jones, and he definitely drew inspiration from past events for that.

[Alex]

I mean, like, you know, if you read a history book, these things are cyclical things.

[Zach]

Yeah, exactly.

[Alex]

All the time.

[Zach]

That's the problem.

[Stephen Paul]

If anything, I think Oda would feel like he would feel self conscious about being a hack if he was like, oh, this is the thing everyone's talking about this week. Let me draw in my manga. I think he would be like, oh, my God, what am I doing? If he. If he caught himself doing that.

[Zach]

No, he would never. Yeah, you're right. And you know what? If anything, I mean, I'm not. And we talked about this a little at the beginning and now, but. And in the manga. But like, with what's going on with One Piece and how it's being used as like, a symbol of freedom around the world. Like, I wonder if anything he would be going in the other, other direction. I feel like Oda would be, like, scared. Like, there's a very, like, imagine you're for good or for bad, you know, Imagine your work being, you know, used in that sort of way. It's probably pretty surreal for him. I don't know. I can't. I'm trying to put my.

[Steve]

Like, you don't want to see. You want to know. You don't want to see Luffy become.

[Zach]

Like, the next Pepe, like, kind of.

[Alex]

That or I mean, I mean, we're on our way a little bit and I don't like that.

[Zach]

No, me neither.

[Alex]

Aspect of it.

[Zach]

Calvin pissing on something on the back of a truck. Oh, poor Calvin.

[Steve]

That's just for people who just like, I don't like this sports team.

[Alex]

Boo.

[Steve]

You know?

[Alex]

Yeah. Boy, I hate Mazdas.

[Steve]

Boy, I hate Mazdas.

[Zach]

Boy, do I say that a lot?

[Alex]

No, I think the reason that we're getting the God Valley info now is because we're trying to wrap up the story and I think there's a lot here that needs to be on the table in the main story without us having to keep going back to flashbacks in order to tell it fully. And I think that he's just sort of saying like, hey, let's just. I know we're in the Herald and Loki flashback, but let me just put this on the table. I should have done this ages ago. That way the current story can sort of fly without any treading of any flashbacks. I think that's probably from a narrative point of view, why we're doing it. We're doing God Valley now.

[Zach]

All right, so we've gone from farts to current events. What is our next question about?

[Alex]

Well, how Steli Goddess Goa back says, hey, hello, my fellow plates of veggies. Man, the celestial dragons infuriated me in this chapter, but it got me thinking. Oda likes to draw from wells of history for when he mirrors atrocities in the world. Are they an equivalent for the celestial dragons in our world? People the government would want to protect at all costs and severely punish those who manage to harm them. Curious to know your thoughts, as always. Have a good week.

[Zach]

Wow. Similar to the last one. Yeah, go ahead.

[Alex]

Well, I think, I mean, I think you already. I mean, the cyclical nature of things. Yeah. Like again. And I think you know, Stella, how Stella got his Goa back. You sort of. You sort of answered your own question. I think you did.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Because those people do exist in this world.

[Zach]

They do, yeah. The one thing I think the one thing is.

[Alex]

That's all I'm going to say about it on.

[Anthony Bowling]

On.

[Alex]

On Mike.

[Zach]

Well, we could talk. I mean, we've talked about ice. The ice cubes are delicious to eat if they're listening for some reason. What I was going to say though is that unfortunately, I think the. The bigger thing is for the reader, like the. The real world stuff is just really up front for us. So it's a lot more obvious like at this moment, like this stuff has always existed in history. And it's always existed in one piece, but the world hasn't been. I mean, there's always stuff going on somewhere, but, like, depending on where you are and what you're experiencing, it's less or more front of mind, I think. Yeah.

[Steve]

I just think. Well, it's more like. Yeah, the stuff has always been happening, but now it's just. We have more. It's more accessible to see.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's a good point. So, yeah, yeah. Get off of social media.

[Alex]

Yeah, get up. Please do it. Social media is poison. Draw Cram finally makes their move. Says, I like Dragon. I see. Ahoy, Opp. Banger chapter, as always. Love how chaotic it all was and seeing the pieces get put on the board for what's to come. And great to see Dragon be a proactive character. My dispiece last week was correct. My question for this week is, what do you think the names are of all of the holy knights? Be as creative as you like. Have a banger week.

[Zach]

Oh, that's a good question.

[Steve]

Garminarnar.

[Zach]

Is this a wrong answer?

[Alex]

Hole in the wall where the men.

[Zach]

Can see it all.

[Alex]

I think I'm gonna name the one. The one lady who might be related to killing him. Vitina. Because she kind of looks like Vito.

[Steve]

The.

[Alex]

The.

[Steve]

Yes, The Schmoozled Dwarfs.

[Alex]

The Schmoozledwarfs.

[Stephen Paul]

That's the. The big guy.

[Zach]

Just. Who is that? Who's the smooshelder?

[Steve]

I don't know. It's one of.

[Zach]

It's the.

[Steve]

I don't know. The lady that looks like Robin.

[Zach]

I'm gonna say right now. So the one with the big guy.

[Alex]

The big guy in the back is Sully Sullenberger. What's the name of.

[Zach]

The Miracle on the Hudson pilot?

[Alex]

No, no, I was thinking of the Monsters, Inc.

[Zach]

Character.

[Alex]

Sully Sullenberger. What's his name? Sully. Sully. It's just Sully.

[Zach]

It's just Sully. You're adding the last name? I want it. So for the one who's the co Skeleton, looking really badass should have a really boring name, like Gary or Smith. Davey. Yes. No, just should be something like boring, kind of like normal. Like Steve Hunter. Garth Hunter. That's too cool.

[Steve]

Name it. Like someone's, like. I was gonna say old, but I feel like these characters still made like someone's fan character for, like, evil Saiyan that shows up post Boo saga and, like, kills Chi Chi or something. Or Videl to make characters mad.

[Alex]

What's the most badass vegetable put, like An.

[Steve]

Put. No. Oh, they don't name after vegetables. They just put like an X in front of their name and like. Like Xeron.

[Alex]

No, dude, that's.

[Ed]

That's.

[Stephen Paul]

That's Kingdom Hearts.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's Saban.

[Steve]

I was about to say that is Kingdom Heart too. But it's. It's a. It's a Saiyan.

[Stephen Paul]

But they're evil.

[Zach]

So the evil.

[Alex]

Say it.

[Zach]

Evil Robin. Slash evil Olvia would be, I guess, Olvia backwards. So that's all Velo. That kind of sounds like a name.

[Alex]

Olive.

[Stephen Paul]

He's probably gonna call the. The hot lady, like Rose because she has a flower name. Because she's from Amazon Lily secretly or some.

[Alex]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, that's.

[Alex]

Yeah, probably like that.

[Zach]

Steven.

[Alex]

My name's Oliver. Oliver Close off.

[Zach]

No, that's Gunko's like alternate.

[Alex]

Yeah, Gunko's name is Oliver. Pants off. That's really.

[Zach]

I'm gonna write that down. I know it's too late.

[Alex]

Our Pants off.

[Zach]

Oliver. R. Is that R the inverse of the D thing?

[Alex]

It sure is. It stands for. I don't know.

[Zach]

Whatever.

[Alex]

Who cares?

[Zach]

Written down, it looks like a real name. Go ahead.

[Alex]

Yeah. Anyway, thanks. Thanks Cram. We will have a banger week. Rox's first wife, natch, says, hey look, Blackbeard's mom has stupid hair too. Do you think the reason he wears a hat is because he inherited his parents spiky anime hair? After all, he had to be hiding his lineage if the government was willing to make him a warlord. Just like they probably wouldn't have offered Ace a spot if they knew he was the son of Roger. Surely they would not offer spot on the government sanctioned pirate squad to someone who is close to Roger Rocks. Or say, a certain clown. That would be hypocritical, critical shit.

[Zach]

That's a good point about Ace, actually. Like, we were talking about how stupid it is that they look alike and that no one realized that maybe. You know what? Maybe cartoon. Maybe Emu is face blind. Maybe that's.

[Alex]

Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I mean, it's. I think it's incredibly dumb, but maybe it's more of a. Like. Well, it's better to have this person on our side than against us. So we don't have another God. Valiant.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's just that like everybody involved, like, it's like they don't want to be like accidentally racist or something and assume that like, because they look alike, they're related and.

[Zach]

Yeah, like Ed. How Ed called Roger or whatever it was.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Steve]

Maybe this is a moment for Me to kind of bring up something that's kind of related to the previous chapters. Because with the whole, like, I'm surprised that Oda revealed his hand so quickly that Rox was Blackbeard's father. I just thought, like, that could have been a really cool story beat instead of just like a piece of text. I'm wondering if a part of it was just maybe Oda just knew. I'm like, everyone's going to immediately clock that he looks like Blackbeard.

[Stephen Paul]

He didn't have drum like that.

[Steve]

He did every week. Yeah, true.

[Zach]

I don't know.

[Steve]

He's an artist. He's got his artistic voice. But like, every week is probably constantly people be like, oh, son of Blackbeard, what's he gonna do? So maybe Odysseus is like, let me just get out of the way. Because I just thought, I'm like, I don't know, like, what would have been better? Like, what better time to reveal that he's the son of Blackbeard. Then during God Valley, where he's all sudden, we find a young teach and he's saving them. That's why I think there's more to rocks here. He's cooking up something devious because it's like Oda's like, oh, if you were losing your mind over the reveal that he's Teach, his father, just you wait. And I realize I've been drawing on camera the whole time.

[Zach]

No, do not. I want to see it.

[Alex]

Wow.

[Steve]

Because I'm like, why am I looking at the corner of my screen?

[Zach]

And I realize I'm like, oh, I. I wanna.

[Alex]

Number.

[Steve]

Number five.

[Zach]

I. I want to add. I actually think. I actually think VOX has been looking a little with your face a little less like Blackbeard lately. Like, I.

[Alex]

No, you're. No, no, I think you're. That's wishful thinking.

[Zach]

I have to look up pictures.

[Steve]

He looks so much like black.

[Zach]

I know. He looks a lot. I'm trying. Maybe I'm just being.

[Alex]

Well, I think. I think it'd be kind of funny if, like. So Teach right now currently doesn't really look a whole lot like Blackbeard because he has tiny nose. But what if. When. When he.

[Steve]

You talking about his nose is huge?

[Alex]

No, when he gets baby teach, when he gets absorbed by rocks or whatever and. And goes FMA 2003, his nose starts getting bigger and bigger. Like as he gets older, like a.

[Zach]

Pinocchio, except for evil.

[Alex]

His face just turns into Rox's face. It's not that Rox looks Like Teach. Is that Teach? Looks like rocks.

[Zach]

Whoa, whoa.

[Alex]

Mind blown.

[Zach]

I have to look up pictures of Teach here.

[Steve]

Well, you can't say before a child is born. It's like, want to know who you look like? Your son.

[Alex]

I mean. Yeah. All right, next one. Vegapunk's hairstylist who says, ahoy, Opp. In the COVID story. I no longer see the Jolly Roger in the flower capital. Can't wait for Yamato to return in volume 100 of his pilgrimage. Anyway, anywho, God Valley, part two. Electric boogaloo, baby. Love that. We're getting more and more dialogue. Dragon taking down dragons. Full Davey crew. And our man Garp coming in to remind us why he's the legend. Can't wait for the next exciting chapter. Y' all keep doing the Lord's work and making one of the best podcasts ever. Love you all. Now that's what I call a compliment. Thank you very much.

[Steve]

Yeah, thank you.

[Zach]

It's.

[Alex]

We don't get that enough.

[Zach]

Yeah. Compliments.

[Steve]

We know in this day and age, you have many podcasts to choose from.

[Zach]

That's true. Thanks for.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I guess Wano didn't really care about the straw hats after all. Taking down the flag.

[Alex]

Unless. Oh, yeah, Unless somebody's there already. Who took down the flag? His name is probably Kaido and Big Mom.

[Zach]

More likely they forgot.

[Steve]

With the same energy of a parent storming in your bedroom and be like, take this off your wall.

[Alex]

This says parental advisory, and I'm advising. We have one last dis piece before we move on to our next piece Together segment. And that is from Sheetman who says, howdy opp. Ski ba ba ba ba. I'm the sheep man. Sorry I had to do that. Where do you guys think Dragon grabbed a marker from Demark? The treasure chest with Shanks and Shamrock's names on it. How else could Shanks have kept his birth name given by his mother? Just food for thought. Have a swell week, everyone.

[Zach]

I often think about those things because that is not the first time I feel like that that sort of thing has happened. Like, how did you know the name? Am I wrong? I feel like that's happened before in one piece.

[Alex]

Well, I think that, like, so. So, you know, I. I guess Shanks, like, eventually goes back to the Holy Land and that's when he would find out his name. But I'm pretty sure they still call him Shanks when he's a cabin boy on Gold Rogers Crew, so. Yeah, Geez, Oda did that one.

[Steve]

Something I forgot to ask during the longer recap is, do you think that the mother is part of the Davey clan?

[Alex]

I don't know.

[Steve]

Like, is. Are the God Valley residents. No, the God Valley residents aren't Davey clan because, like, the DB clan.

[Zach]

Some of them are a few. Yeah. Like, they've hidden themselves there.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Steve]

I kind of wonder if this lady is, you know, I hate to say it, is Shanks a secret D? You know, probably. And he kind of well knew. And I can't help but wonder if him taking a Like or him going to Windmill Village and meeting Luffy is somehow some sort of debt to Dragon.

[Alex]

That's what I said.

[Zach]

But then Shamrock would also have all of those qualities. Is the thing to.

[Steve]

I. No, I. I think only one of them got away. I think Shanks is the like. Yeah, I think I. Somehow they're gonna end up in the treasure chests and the Roger Pirates get the Shanks chest. And Garling's like, well, at least I got a prize out of this. You guys talking about? It's like, oh, it's my son.

[Alex]

That's what we did last week.

[Steve]

Same thing I was saying. You guys talked about this last week.

[Stephen Paul]

Do you think she told Dragon? She's like, okay, this one is Shanks.

[Steve]

He's the good one.

[Stephen Paul]

Shamrock is the evil one.

[Steve]

I sure hope so. They're like, bark Shamrock, you go, Shamrock keeps hitting Shanks.

[Ed]

Dude.

[Alex]

Oh, my God. Jesus Christ. I was about to say, like, Shanks.

[Zach]

Shamrock several times on the show.

[Alex]

Yeah. Put Shamrock in the attic so you can make a pigeon rat.

[Zach]

Yep.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, my God.

[Zach]

What's. Is that season 10?

[Alex]

No. Or nine?

[Zach]

I think it's eight. It was eight or nine. Okay, go ahead.

[Alex]

Not season 10 for sure. So I think that, like, it's very possible that they have, like, I don't know, little medallions with their names on them, like Lone Star. Or maybe they have, like, onesies that have their names on them. Because I feel like. Yeah, I don't know. But as for. If Shanks is a secret D, then that means Shamrock is a secret D. And maybe that's the reason why Fingerland Garlic Garlic decided to kill her. Because he didn't want people knowing that he.

[Zach]

No, I feel like did the D. I feel like he was just like, you're worthless. I'm gonna be killing you anyway soon. Maybe I'm doing you a favor here.

[Steve]

Maybe it was just a shower. Is like, you're hot. It's like, I'm pregnant with your child.

[Zach]

Why didn't he take the kids after he killed her?

[Alex]

That's a good question. I don't know.

[Zach]

Or did she, like, get away and then something was like, he's a deadbeat dad. Oh, I know that he's the real.

[Alex]

He's the real bad dad of One Piece.

[Zach]

He also looks like an idiot. I can't emphasize enough how stupid he looks. Okay, yeah.

[Alex]

No, no, no. So, Zach, I want to call you out on this because I don't. You can't say that his hair looks really fucking stupid all the time and just forget about every single One Piece character that has stupid hair. Like, hero look.

[Zach]

Oh, it's not just white beard. It isn't just his hair. It's the whole shebang.

[Alex]

No, but I mean, what I'm. What I'm saying is you're judging his haircut based on the fact that he's a shitty person. Those two things are separate.

[Zach]

I'm saying both. And not just the haircut. It's the whole thing. It's like. It's that he thinks he looks cool. That's the thing. It's that he exudes that he's supposed to be cool and that a lot of other people reading probably do think he looks cool. But not only is he a shitty bad guy. Yeah, but not only that bad guy. Yeah. But he also. Talking about earlier, it's like, we don't want to.

[Steve]

We don't want to sympathize with Gunko.

[Zach]

Yeah, we've talked about, like, I like Gunko.

[Alex]

You know, Buggy has really stupid hair. Have you seen those sideburns? They're crazy.

[Zach]

Okay, I did my hot take last week on that. But the Gunko, like, has a cool outfit here, but she's a gigantic, terrible, like, gigantically terrible person. I don't have any words.

[Alex]

My opinion on Gunko is going to depend solely on whatever her affiliation with Brooke is.

[Zach]

Yes, agreed. I think her power is still stupid, but less stupid than I think a lot of you guys think it is.

[Alex]

But no, I think it's a pretty dumb power.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's a Jojo's power. That's. That's all.

[Alex]

Anyway, that. That does it for this piece.

[Zach]

Do we have anything on the Subreddit Archipelago?

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, we do.

[Zach]

We should probably do a few other.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah. We got the hot take of the episode from Born to Boil over on the Subreddit Archipelago. This is at www.Reddit.com r One Piece podcast. Born to Boil says. I don't think I've ever been this bored with One Piece. How is Rocks Shacky and God Valley? Important for Harold. He's shoehorned into his own flashback, and the God Valley is not even told from his point of view. I don't like it. Elbaf is probably the best one piece has been in years, but this flashback really doesn't work. Flashbacks used to be about a single event that defined the main character. The last three big flashbacks have been more about cameos and fan service, and it is just frustrating to read.

[Alex]

Wow. It's almost like Alex was right.

[Stephen Paul]

What?

[Zach]

That's what Alex has been saying is what he's saying, right? Yeah, that's. That is a very. Like.

[Alex]

That sounds like many Alex's are saying this.

[Zach]

Many Alex's are saying, I agree. And I am trying to enjoy the ride.

[Alex]

Yeah. At this point, I said my piece and I'm just like, okay, whatever, let's just enjoy this because there's no getting off of it.

[Zach]

I just think we're in a different place in the story and we mentioned this and look, I have lots of qualms with it. I completely empathize and maybe agree with a lot of that, but that's. I want to see where it ends up before. Like, I have.

[Stephen Paul]

Sure.

[Zach]

I'm gonna reserve my thoughts to the end.

[Stephen Paul]

All right. Black Northwind says hello.

[Zach]

Pp.

[Stephen Paul]

I remember writing this one, but I will write it again. How likely is it going to be that Gunko's arrow powers don't work on Zorro and we could see the return of the NRU level reaction phase? I do think it would be really funny if that.

[Zach]

That would be.

[Stephen Paul]

If that blew off her bandages and you actually saw her face.

[Steve]

Hashtag Zorro kills Gunka.

[Stephen Paul]

Tongue out.

[Zach]

Oh, don't write a sound effect or something, Stephen. That's.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, right. Right. Yeah. Stephen Paul did this intentionally.

[Zach]

Did this intentionally also.

[Stephen Paul]

Crazy idea, but maybe Brook's music charged with his soul power might drive Imu's power away from Gunko or. Or even crazier put so much fear on killing him's created nightmares that they all lose the will to fight. Have a nice day.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Sorry. Interesting.

[Zach]

I'm watching Steve draw the image, and I did not know the nostril, like, actually was in the picture he was drawing. Everyone could see this on our website at this point.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

I don't feel bad about saying it, but. Jesus Christ, he's doing that part now. Patreon.com One Piece podcast if you want to see the sketches. Yeah, yeah. I don't have anything else to say.

[Stephen Paul]

All right. Our last one on Reddit is from Emil Nordpole. Who says repost from last week? Hey, obp. I'd like to contribute to your discussion from two or now three weeks ago about how fast to ideally read one piece whenever a new manga volume drops. One piece or any other series, I read one chapter of it a day. Which I feel is the perfect balance between steady progress and having a little time for each chapter to Resonate. Imagine starting one piece now and having at least 3.2 years of daily chapters ahead of you without even counting the new chapters that come out while you're reading.

[Zach]

Steven, I feel like the way you do it in your rereads. 3.

[Stephen Paul]

3 chapters is like the sweet spot for me.

[Zach]

I don't have that kind of control. Like that's good for you and for this person, but I don't.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, that's a. That's a good amount where it's not too long, but it's still a decent chunk every day. And you can do it in. Now it's a little over a year.

[Steve]

But someday I hope to follow in your footsteps. Yeah, I don't know. I gotta read other manga. I can't just be a one person piece guy.

[Zach]

I think we've already made our.

[Steve]

Yeah, kind of.

[Zach]

Now we have to sleep in it.

[Steve]

Like I. It's so funny just running into people at events. So I'm going to catch up with one Piece and I'm like, you picked the good person, the right person to talk to.

[Zach]

Anything else, Stephen?

[Stephen Paul]

That's all for Reddit.

[Zach]

So we're gonna go to emails. Can someone do our email? Strong start. Yeah, strong bad.

[Steve]

Ah, email.

[Zach]

Steve.

[Alex]

Good. Great and good.

[Zach]

Wow.

[Alex]

Volleyball tournament.

[Zach]

Okay, there it is. Teen girl Squad. Daddy Long Legs the father says. How did you know after all these years, you found out my real name? 2 weeks ago in an email, I brought up the supposed voicemail episode that made never came to be. It's no coincidence that piece together has been shorter ever since. I'm not Daddy Long Legs the father. I'm Davey Long Legs the father. No, wait, that joke doesn't work. Them reading their thing. No matter. My people have been oppressed for too long. Reveal the messages sent by the listeners. Uncover the truth of the void males. Sincerely, Davey Long Legs the Father. Disclaimer. I did not leave a void Mail Voicemail. I do have them all saved.

[Alex]

We.

[Zach]

I. I forgot about them during the last break where we could have done them. They. They will come. I'm not. I am not purposely squashing them. We. We have them. And not just the one Alex left us. Which we've already played. Or I'm sorry, not Alex. Someone who just sounds like him. That. That's it. That's the only email. I just want to read that. You could always send us emails@one piece podcast gmail.com. but we also have Blue Sky. Only a few. I'll go through these quick Ice Fisher Tenacity says with the reveal of the Bavette family, do you think ODA plans to reveal all 19 of Mary Joa's family names in the main story or leave a few for the sbs? Also, which holy family name do you like the best so far? Which. Which Nazi do you enjoy? Like that's what that feels like.

[Stephen Paul]

Who's your favorite?

[Zach]

What do you think?

[Steve]

The next chapter?

[Zach]

Which fascist history that is no offense to this person. It's just like it's. It feels like the.

[Alex]

Ooh.

[Zach]

But like I get the importance to the story about the 19 names because it's about who the 19 families are. I'll. I guess I'll rephrase this question. Do you think besides the Doflamingo family, are we going to. Or Don Quixote. What was the last name? Don Quixote or is right.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Anyway, do you think there's any other last. The, you know, surnames or families that we've already heard in the story that you would think might show up? Or I'll just put that thought in people's heads. Listening.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Which Corey is your favorite? That's kind of how Patrick or Trick.

[Zach]

The TM says from last week. I know the scale of the blueprints are off, but do you think the original giant Galila were the creators of Pluton's blueprints handed down by the water seven Shipwrights?

[Alex]

Yes.

[Stephen Paul]

Sure. Yeah, why not?

[Zach]

Looks like a fish who's. Now I'm skeptical. Whose Blue sky handle is Chinese government Bot says this completely normal question though. Now I'm really confused. Was anyone expecting Dragon slash revolutionary origin story in the flashback story? Well, Chinese government.

[Stephen Paul]

No, can't say that.

[Steve]

I. I just wonder what little Loki thinks of all this.

[Stephen Paul]

AJ I didn't even expect to see Rox in the flashback. I thought we were going to see him like in the modern day as like oh, he's still alive or whatever. But I mean it makes sense. But.

[Zach]

AJ Kozlowski says y' all kind of joked recently about Frankie being a D. But what if Cut D flam John Kleckner says this has been a hell of a 3 minutes. Who taught Loki how to count Doflamingo trick. The TM also responded Frieza, which is true in the anime, but in the manga, those chapters read quick. Like not understand.

[Stephen Paul]

I mean it always goes quick. And Teriyama knows how to pace his.

[Zach]

He is. I would have been pissed reading those weekly though. I feel like.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, especially shorter.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah. But I mean it's so good. But also like oh my God, pick up the face. If I were weekly, I mean, I probably would have been driven nuts. I think that is it. For peace together. Why don't we round off the. I was just confirming. Why don't we round off the show?

[Steve]

A massage chair might seem a bit.

[Stephen Paul]

Extravagant, especially these days. Eight different settings, adjustable intensity.

[Steve]

Plus it's heated and it just feels so good. Yes, a massage chair might seem a.

[Stephen Paul]

Bit extravagant, but when it can come with a car.

[Zach]

Suddenly it seems quite practical. The all new 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan.

[Steve]

Packed with premium features like available massaging front seats.

[Stephen Paul]

It only feels extravagant.

[Alex]

This episode is brought to you by State Farm.

[Anthony Bowling]

Checking off the boxes on your to.

[Alex]

Do list is a great feeling. And when it comes to checking off coverage, a State Farm agent can help you choose an option that's right for you. Whether you prefer talking in person on the phone or using the award winning app, it's nice knowing you have help finding coverage that best fits your needs. Like a good neighbor. State Farm is there.

[Zach]

Was that all Simba?

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, that was all.

[Zach]

Okay. Because I'm like wow, I heard a cacophony there.

[Steve]

I didn't hear him at all.

[Alex]

Oh, I belched.

[Zach]

I know I didn't hear that. This has been the One Piece Podcast episode 884 for September 15, 2025.

[Anthony Bowling]

Thank you again gentlemen. I always love coming on here chatting with this. Always a great time man. Any. Anytime man. I'd love to.

[Ed]

Oh yeah. Do you have any want to promote or people to interact with you?

[Anthony Bowling]

My. My Insta Anthony Bowling Va. That's what the kids are doing. I guess you can look for me on. Don't look for me on X.

[Steve]

It's.

[Zach]

It's.

[Anthony Bowling]

It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a battlefield there. That's. No one needs to go there anymore.

[Zach]

Don't call right now. But yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Bowling]

Or at all. Don't even mention it. But yeah. Insta. And yeah, that's. That's pretty much what. What we've been doing. So awesome.

[Zach]

Thanks, Anthony. A few housekeeping notes here first. If you subscribe to us on Patreon, not only do you get the episode images, the sketches, the alternate titles, alternate art. But you also, if you are subscribing to us at $12 or up per month, you get to be part of our free. You get to be part of our sticker of the month crew. I just said $12 or up. You get to be part of our sticker of the month crew. We've done already for July. The initial members got to get the Loki in. God.

[Steve]

Here, Zach. I'll step in. Hey, everybody, please, please. Thank you so much for signing up for this tier so far. Been a little bit hiccups. It's a new thing. I know some people have not gotten some Loki stickers. Some have been in contact with me. And you'll get those with the August stickers, which I just like I ordered, and they showed up real quick. So we're gonna start mailing those out. But here's the thing. There's some people and there's some people who've even contacted me saying they've added their shipping address to the Patreon account. Some of you still don't have your shipping addresses attached to your Patreon account. If you do not have that, you will not get these stickers. So please make sure that you have that listed so we could get these to you. As for our September poll, I posted that last week and it is going to like around 8:00am Pacific Time on Wednesday. The poll will close. And that is between either our double fisting margarita gabon design or Kaku on a pennyworthing. Was that what it was?

[Zach]

Yeah, it was Kaku Penny perthing Penny farthing.

[Steve]

Sorry, but you also. Pennyworth is Alfred's name.

[Zach]

You also missed out on saying so that the.

[Alex]

He's writing a butler.

[Zach]

You didn't say the episode title, which was the one Seungwon was on for the one with Gabon.

[Steve]

No, because I wanted to get the poll out there.

[Zach]

No, no, no.

[Steve]

I had to work. I know I was not about to hot link all the images.

[Zach]

No, no, I didn't want you to. I just really like the title being Shmopo Gabon and Schmorg Areitaville, it's one of my favorite titles of the year. So for that reason alone.

[Steve]

So as soon as that poll closes and it's kind of neck and neck and I think for the most part, all. All of the patrons who are signed up for those tiers have voted. So if you have not yet, you better go check that out before that poll closes. And once it does order that, if.

[Alex]

You need a tiebreaker, I will Vote for the Gabon one.

[Steve]

Yeah, well, you got to sign up for our Patreon.

[Alex]

What?

[Steve]

But I also with the Dorian party.

[Zach]

On.

[Steve]

If you're a patron and you're in the Grand Fleet discussion, the channel in our discord, I posted, I went and added more artwork to the Dorian brogy design. So it's like a nice complete illustration. So I did fit that in. But yeah, a lot of life things happening right now. So I apologize for those that haven't got their stickers yet. But also yeah, if you haven't gotten anything, please please contact us. Just send us a DM on Patreon, even send me a message. We'll do our best to make sure you got it but make sure your dress is listed and also make sure you're actually on the right tier. That is all. Thank you so much for your support so far. Looking forward to getting more of these.

[Zach]

Out and gigantic thanks obviously to Steve and Vero for working behind the scenes with all of that and in front of the scenes and in the scenes. So yeah, please, if you don't follow Steve or his artwork or prozd plays games or at conventions or are you doing this?

[Steve]

I don't have to do a sign off.

[Zach]

I guess you don't. I'm already doing it for you. But please do if my endorsement means anything. Stephen, where could people find you?

[Stephen Paul]

I am over on Blue sky at StephenPaul B Sky Social. We will have or actually okay, before I mention this, I will say again. I have a new series out on Viz called Kurumizawa's Folly. Yeah, second chapter just came out.

[Zach]

It's already like 100 something like just the two chapters are like 30, 20 something pages.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah. You got plenty to read if you are interested. And it is a pretty cool and kind of strangely, you know, set, set in time. It's a period piece in certain ways and very, very interesting premise for that one that is on the. The Shonen Jump. It's a Jump plus series so it is found on the Shonen Jump. You know the. The lineup there and on Manga plus so do check that out. Also, you know, as you may have heard, noticed or heard us mention on the show, there is no chapter next week and so me and Greg will be recording our SGS for your episode next week. So if you would like to send in any questions for us to answer, you can do so if you are a Patreon member, you there is a SGS channel on the Discord or on. I will check on Twitter and on Blue sky on the hashtag sgss. Sensei. No, no punctuation. Just sgs. Sensei. So, you know, put your. Put your questions there. Get them. Get them in now. And hopefully we'll have a nice crop to. To go over on the show next week.

[Zach]

And for those who, for some reason don't listen to the sgs, you are missing out on some of the best podcasting that exists, particularly about One Piece. Stephen and Greg are uniquely qualified to talk about One Piece and are always filled with amazing anecdotes both related and unrelated to One Piece.

[Stephen Paul]

Especially unrelated.

[Zach]

Especially unrelated. If you want to hear about roaches or gems or throwing up. What else? Throwing up or whatever else, you could check that out every. Every off week. Except for some of them. Alex, where could people find you?

[Alex]

Find me on Blue sky at dude, exclamation bisky and fuck Ice.

[Zach]

I like your new sign off, Alex. It's well done, Steve. Anything else you want to plug that? I have a plug for you.

[Steve]

I'll also say fuck Ice.

[Zach]

Okay. Okay.

[Alex]

So poser. I'm just kidding.

[Steve]

I'm. Oh, yeah. Let's not build a community.

[Zach]

I can't beat that. You can follow us@one piece podcast.com patreon.com One Piece Podcast. One Piece Podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Ice, what else you could. Oh, well, so as we mentioned, SGS next week. The following week. I just want to confirm here live.

[Stephen Paul]

I think that's when you will not be on.

[Zach]

I won't know. I'm not gonna be on next week. But that's an SGS, so that works out okay. Yeah. So 21st. Yeah, 22nd. Yeah. We have Chris returning the following week. Chris Dobbins. Excited to have them on. And I think for 1161, I think that's everything. So for the One Piece podcast, my name is Zach.

[Steve]

My name is Steve.

[Alex]

And my name is Alex.

[Zach]

There he is.

[Alex]

And Ice, everybody.

[Stephen Paul]

I didn't want to be the only one left out.

[Zach]

Yeah, there you go. 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.