Episode 898, “Imu Eating Faces Party”

Summary

The One Piece Podcast

Episode 898: “Imu Eating Faces Party”

Date: December 23, 2025
Hosts: Steve, Steven Paul, Delaney
Main Theme: Jump Festa 2026 News, Manga Recap of Chapter 1169 ("My death cannot come soon enough")

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Overview

This end-of-year episode is a festive and unruly “no cuts” edition, gathering the podcast’s core members and special guest/translator Steven Paul to discuss the latest in the world of One Piece. Main topics include celebrated Jump Festa 2026 announcements (live action, anime, and Oda’s message), the upcoming episode 900 charity livestream, and an in-depth manga recap of Chapter 1169, set in Elbaf and focused on Harold’s tragic downfall. The hosts also tackle big fandom questions about Shanks, significant lore implications, and the show’s future.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Jump Festa 2026 & Podcast Milestones

[04:00–06:16]

• Celebrating Episode 900: Upcoming livestream on January 4, with rotating guests and charity engagement; instructions to follow on the show's BlueSky.
• Marc Maron Gags: Running joke about podcast legend Marc Maron "conceding" to One Piece Podcast.

“Marin resigns in disgrace. They're too good at podcasts, he says.”
— Delaney [04:59]

• Jump Festa Explained: Japan’s San Diego Comic Con for manga/anime. One Piece again delivers big announcements.
• Segment Order for the News: Hosts decide to cover live action, anime, then Oda’s author message.

2. Reaction to Live Action News and Merch

[07:09–11:26]

• Live Action Chopper Reveal: Initial trailer reaction, focus on Chopper’s design and mom’s excitement.
• Cast’s Appearance: Jokes about shirtless Sanji and “stupid sexy Inaki” (Luffy's actor).
• Merchandise Overload: Big push, especially LEGO, which is soon to be discontinued.
• Fan FOMO: Steve and Steve Paul discuss whether to collect LEGO sets.

“Stupid sexy Inaki and Taz.”
— Steve [07:36]

3. Anime Updates: Elbaf Arc

[11:26–13:23]

• Elbaf Arc Teaser: Trailer appears oddly LEGO-themed; hosts joke about filler and set design.
• Release Timing: Anime arc comes April; Netflix S2 (live action) likely in March.

“It’s just all cuts from Oda’s shitty LEGO City.”
— Steven Paul [12:09]

• Family Song (with new Frankie): Noted as a minor but fun musical update.

4. Oda’s Author Message

[14:32–22:36]

• New Animated Film: Oda breaks “gentlemen’s agreement” to tease its production difficulties.
• Possible Directions: Speculation—will it go canon like Demon Slayer? Hosts doubt it, but note seasonal anime shift enables that possibility.
• Manga Teases: “Man with a burn scar,” key characters meeting, “breakneck speed” in storytelling as Oda ages; Oda candid about health and urgency.
• Fans' Perspective: Oda infamous for poetic, vague Jump Festa teases (“someone will die” = the Going Merry, not a human).
• Hashtags Are Dated: Running joke on Oda’s outdated promo methods.

“The story will be moving at breakneck speed...because I’m old.”
— Steve [20:02]

5. Detailed Manga Recap: Chapter 1169 – “My death cannot come soon enough”

[24:48–109:06]

Cover and Color Spread

• Rocks Pirates Spread: Hosts analyze Oda’s “deadline energy,” possible alternate covers, and fan reactions.
• Art & Layout: Commentary on character placement/colors, green screening, and deliberate choices.

“It looks like when you go to Sears and they've got like the family portraits but like they’re weirdly superimposed...”
— Delaney [31:35]

Return to Elbaf (Flashback)

[33:13+]

• Setting: 14 years ago, Gabon's house; Shanks learns about Ace, ponders destiny.
• Harold’s Breakdown: Struggles to resist Imu’s orders, realizes he’s a danger to Elbaf, beg for death—a scene embodying the chapter title.

“My death cannot come soon enough!”
— Harold [approx. 38:00]

• Loki’s Entrance: Comedic sitcom entrance, immediate chaos.
• Attack & Immortality: Castle guards stab Harold; his wounds heal instantly, shocking everyone.

“I truly am immortal. I can feel my body recovering.”
— Harold [41:24]

• Harold’s Despair: Desperately tries to get Loki and Jarl (chief) to kill him before control is total.

“Tell the people what a fool of a king I was. Kill me and be a hero.”
— Harold [50:10]

• Catastrophic Battle: Loki and Jarl attempt to restrain Harold. He snaps, kills guards, and fights for the "treasure of Elbaf".
• Devil Fruit Tension: Harold orders Loki to eat the Devil Fruit (the “treasure”), then reverses, fighting Loki and Jarl for it.
• Vicious Violence: Jarl impales Harold, who in turn kills Jarl.
• Shanks & Gabon Intervene: They injure Harold, Loki dashes for the treasure.

The Forbidden Hammer

• Loki Reaches Treasure: Giant hammer (“Ragnar”) in the secret room, chest with Devil Fruit.
• Hammer Moves Alone: Inexplicably attacks Loki with a laugh and thumping sfx—implies it is alive or possessed.

“Who did that?!”
— Loki [end of chapter]

Cliffhanger & Chapter Pacing

• Odd Ending: Chapter cuts abruptly—hosts debate if the incomplete feel is intentional for suspense/pre-holiday break.

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In-Depth Analysis

Hammer Mystery

[64:06+]

• What Is Up with the Hammer?: Is it a sentient weapon, or is someone (with a devil fruit/invisibility) manipulating it?
• Norse Myth Gags: Speculation if it’s Mjolnir analog; Marvel “what if” jokes.

“I'm kind of stumped...it got me here.”
— Steve [70:37]

Harold, Loki, and Elbaf Legacy

[71:51+]

• Tragedy in Motion: Harold desires to be a scapegoat for Elbaf’s freedom; Loki’s reputation set up for future misunderstanding.
• Potential Martyrdom: Discuss Loki’s path to "hero" status, the coverup, and links back to present day.

Shanks, Sacrifice, and the Tattoo Lore

[84:42+]

• Re-contextualizing Shanks’ Arm Loss: Is Oda retroactively tying Shanks’ "sacrifice" to the covenant tattoo and his freedom from Imu, or does the symbolism remain about inspiring the next generation?
• Danger of Over-Explanation: Hosts debate if tying every event to intricate lore dilutes emotional weight—worry about “making everything utilitarian” ala modern media’s trend.

“The whole point of that sacrifice was that Shanks lost some of his strength to ensure the future generations had a chance.”
— Steve [90:22]

Oda’s Narrative Craft

• Praise for Dialogue Flow: Steven Paul breaks down how this chapter’s character interactions flow logically, contrasting to recent years’ sometimes rushed, context-deficient exposition.
• Old School Feeling: Delaney and Steven note the chapter’s classic One Piece pacing—emotional, coherent, and tightly written even without “massive revelations.”

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Piece Together: Fan Q&A

[111:03–139:22]

• Live Shows: Listeners ask about more live episodes/panels—hosts discuss logistical hurdles and changing con culture.
• Shanks, Harold, & Loki’s Fate: How will Harold go down, and will Shanks’ role justify why Loki calls him a coward? Speculation includes betrayals, reversals, or unfinished business.
• Abyss Portal Plot Hole: Why did the World Government not use the portal to Elbaf sooner? Hosts adopt a wait-and-see attitude, noting possible story-side justifications.
• Easter Eggs: Character ages during God Valley incident with pop culture references; the Volume 114 trivia—Luffy not appearing in the story itself for an entire tankobon for the first time.
• Steven Paul on Spoilers: How hard is it to hold in chapter reveals as the official translator? Answer: “It is tough. The private cross that I bear for being the guy who gets to see it early.”

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Notable Quotes

• “With Subaru Kimura, the new Frankie. I haven’t looked out for it yet. I assume it’s the one that they did with Jinbe, except it’s with Kimura in there.” – Steve [14:14]
• “Screw NDA. It’s like, yeah, I want to make another movie, but these bums...” – Steve [16:24]
• “Oda doing teases for his own manga sound like how I sound when I’m just trying to summarize a chapter.” – Delaney [19:37]
• “If you eat that fruit, it will be the end of the world, Harold. Do it, Loki. Make sure Harold doesn’t get that fruit.” – Jarl [55:05]
• “You have to kill me. And take the throne. Tell the people it was me. I’m terrible. Let it be known I was an awful person. And clearly we know with hindsight that is not what happened. Setting us up for tragedy.” – Steve [71:51]
• “You cannot mess with that sacrificial act in chapter one of the series. Like, it is core to what the series is.” – Steven Paul [91:16]
• “Oda is good at presenting things that are a bit scary in terms of… where the fuck is this gonna go? And then levels it out. He has the ability to land on their feet and go, surprise.” – Delaney [101:11]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:57 – 06:15: Intro, Episode 900 news, Marc Maron gags
• 06:16 – 13:23: Jump Festa news: Live action, anime, merch
• 14:32 – 22:36: Oda’s message: New film and manga’s future
• 24:48 – 109:06: Manga Recap Chapter 1169 (detailed, including cover spread, Elbaf flashback, climax)
  • 38:00: Harold’s self-immolation plea (“My death cannot come soon enough”)
  • 41:24: Harold’s immortality discovered
  • 50:10: Harold urges Loki to kill him, great king tragedy
  • 55:05: Jarl’s last stand, “If you eat that fruit, it will be the end of the world, Harold”
  • End: The hammer attacks Loki (“Who did that?!”)
• 109:06 – 139:22: Piece Together Q&A (fan mail, theories, epic sidetracks)
• 140:56 – end: Wrap-up, plugs, comedic outro

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Final Thoughts

This episode delivers signature One Piece Podcast warmth, humor, and deep engagement, closing out the year by covering high-impact news, emotional manga developments, and lively fandom speculation. The lack of editing amplifies authentic reactions and in-jokes, while the hosts weigh the balance of lore and emotional payoff in a series racing toward its conclusion.

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Next Up:
Don’t miss the monumental Episode 900 livestream on January 4, 2026!
Happy holidays from The One Piece Podcast crew!

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Transcript

[Delaney]

This episode is brought to you by McAfee.

[Steve]

I got a message that our flight.

[Delaney]

Was canceled, but they can put us.

[Steve]

On another flight and we just need to confirm our credit card info.

[Delaney]

Wait, I got a security alert from McAfee. It flagged that message as a scam.

[Steve]

McAfee's scam detector automatically spots and alerts.

[Steven Paul]

You to suspicious texts, emails and deep fake videos.

[Delaney]

Learn [e-mail] online protection hey, what's up, y'? All? Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. My favorite thing about the holidays? Decking out my whole house. It's not a competition. But if it was, well, I'd win the season with Wayfair Outdoor Inflatable Santa. Got it on Wayfair Trees, lights and ornaments. Wayfair hosting must haves like dining sets, beds, sheets and towels. Wayfair for everything in your style, delivered with fast and free shipping. Visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app to win the season. But again, it's not a competition.

[Steve]

Wayfair Every style, Every Home Sam. This is the One Piece podcast episode 898 for the week of Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025. My name is Steve and I'm the only host on today for the last, last podcast of the year. Maybe that's a good sign, right?

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Everyone'S just sick with holiday flu. And by everyone, I just mean one person. Everyone else is busy. But I am clearly. As you can tell, I'm not alone. I'm joined by our very special guest translator for weekly Shonen Jump In Manga plus and over in Shonen and the Viz website. Can't do the intro. I'll do it again. Who cares? Why am I doing it? You're not going to edit this out. Very special guest translator for One Piece and weekly Shonen Jump In Manga Plus. Here comes Stephen Paul. Here comes Stephen Paul. Right down Stephen Paul Lane.

[Steven Paul]

Here comes the special boy. That's me.

[Steve]

And if you couldn't tell by that infectious laughter, it's only Our editor Better clap once. You better clap twice. If you're going to cough, please mute your mic. Our editor D. Laneys on the show.

[Steven Paul]

Ho ho ho.

[Delaney]

I'm here and I'm here.

[Steve]

Filled with podcast cheer.

[Delaney]

Welcome to the no Cuts episode where every uncomfortable pause where I try to find a joke remains in.

[Steve]

I mean, that's just how I talk all the time.

[Steven Paul]

That's an episode.

[Steve]

Yeah, it's your average episode. But this is anything but your average episode. Because while we do have a manga recap for chapter 11, 69. What is that title? It's My death cannot come soon enough, which is what you'll be saying halfway through this podcast. This is good. Yeah, this is all gold. Leave it in. Yeah, we'll be doing a manga recap and we'll be doing our Piece Together section. We take your questions, comments, concerns, theories, all that. But we got a pretty beefy little news segment to get into at the start of our show. First things first, I want to talk about the One piece podcast's episode 900 livestream. Maybe you've heard about it, but if not, on January 4th, we're going to be doing a. A pretty lengthy livestream throughout that day with different guests cycling in and out, different segments. Of course, we'll have a manga recap too, for that episode, but please tune in. And it's going to be a charity livestream as well. All the details for that right now are, I think, are just on our blue sky, but follow us on there if you're not. Join there if you haven't. And tune into that for our big, monumental 900th episode. Marc Maron's gone. So now we gotta, like, we gotta. We gotta claim the throne.

[Delaney]

Marin resigns in disgrace. They're too good at podcasts. He says.

[Steve]

We gotta have him on. We gotta have him on.

[Delaney]

We got him. That's the rules, right? When he concedes his spot, then we get him on the show and we do the. The honorary parading of shame where we have more episodes than you. That's just how that works.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

And then he'll. He'll upset Zach, and Zach will audibly get up and leave. He'll be like, hey, Zach, come back. Come on, Zach. Come on.

[Delaney]

Babe. Wait, Babe.

[Steve]

I have not listened to Marin in a long time, but maybe he should get into one piece now that he's not too busy.

[Delaney]

Now you've got all that free time.

[Steve]

Most of our listeners, like, who the hell was Marc Maron?

[Steven Paul]

Or.

[Steve]

Who the fuck WTF is Marc Maron? Edit that. Yeah, that's me promoting our 900th episode charity livestream. So check it out. But the biggest news coming out this weekend for One Piece fans is that Jump Festa. Jump Festa 2026.

[Steven Paul]

Right?

[Steve]

They always call it the year that's coming up. Right. Just occurred in Japan. And of course, that's like, if you don't know, it's basically their San Diego Comic Con where they promote a bunch of stuff that's upcoming for the year. Every manga kind of has a special presentation. Words from the Author hyping up new projects, anime, etc. Etc. I think you all know, and One Piece is no stranger to that. Always dropping a bunch of big things. And this year was no exception. So let's get into that. I'm trying to think what would be the first thing we should cover here? Maybe, I mean, the message from Oda.

[Steven Paul]

If you want to. I usually they kind of go. They start with the live action and then they talk about, like, they kind of get closer and closer to the. The source, if you will. But.

[Steve]

Okay, let's go in that order. Why not? The biggest thing for the live action was they showed a little teaser trailer, a little snippet of Chopper. It's a scene where Nami first sees Chopper walking across the room and he gets scared. He terribly wrongfully hides behind the doorway.

[Delaney]

Shamefully, one might say shamefully.

[Steve]

You want to talk about shame? Here's my thoughts. Watching that little trailer. Stupid sexy Inaki and Taz.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, there's a lot of bare midriff there.

[Steve]

I mean, Sanji was not wearing a shirt and wearing bandages during the scene, but like, Luffy just looks like he got out of the steam room.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was in the sauna. Yeah.

[Steve]

It was so jarring. I was like, what the hell is going on?

[Delaney]

The whiplash between. The whiplash between Sexy Tazin and Yaqui and then the crack cocaine for moms. That is Tony. Tony Chopper in the Netflix show. Because as I've mentioned before, my mother's only window for reference into one piece is the Netflix series, which, you know, make of that what you will. And as soon as I revealed that Chopper was a character who was coming in the. What was it? Ta Dum. They announced Chopper last year or this past year, I suppose. Oh, she was beside herself. It was like, you've known he was coming the whole time. You knew this was happening. And I was like, yes, this. This was in like 1999. My sister was like one year old when this happened. This is old news. We're moving on to new news. I really was kind of surprised when the whole bit. Because the clip is all the different voice actresses that they have internationally. So obviously the new casting for Chopper and then the Japanese voice and then all the other foreign actors, and then they. It's all the same scene over and over again. And then they shoot you back to In Yaki with his arms outstretched in his shirt, just his scrub board out. It's very jarring.

[Steve]

Yeah. I encourage you to mess with your mom and just tell her, like, False things that are gonna happen in the story. Like, I heard someone say, like, oh, I thought Ace suffered a certain fate, but then he's shown up in Wano's like, yeah, he's, yeah, he's around. Ace is still in Wano.

[Delaney]

What's Wano? This will definitely be relevant to you one day. Yeah, one day you're going to need to know who the four emperors are. This will matter.

[Steve]

Now, like, we heard, like, a, like a decent bit of chopper of that tudum like, presentation, but after this trailer, I really am more of a fan of Mikayla Hoover's performance. From what I heard from that scene, I think it's, that's pretty good. It's very cutesy, you know, but I liked it. I was like, oh, that's adorable. So just a brief tangent with the live action. Wow, they're going all in on that merch now. Yeah, there's so much merchandise. So much, So much divisive merchandise. Say, in terms of the straw hats.

[Delaney]

Go Calypso man, this is getting those.

[Steven Paul]

The Legos are everywhere, that's for sure.

[Steve]

Oh, yeah, I know. Yeah, they announced that those are going to be discontinued next year. And I'm like, I'm sweating. I'm like, well, do I get all of them? I don't own any of them yet.

[Steven Paul]

Because, yeah, neither do I. I, I.

[Steve]

I want the joy of building the Lego. And then I'm like, worried about where am I going to put this thing?

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, that's, that's the.

[Steve]

As I look to my right and see an overstuffed shelf of one piece crap. But yeah, and that's live action news. And then what was next, like, the anime?

[Steven Paul]

You would say, yeah, we have a little trailer for. Teaser trailer for the Elbaf anime arc. Which is. What is that? Is that April or is that April also? It is April. Okay, so, yeah, March is the Netflix show.

[Steve]

Correct.

[Steven Paul]

Season two.

[Steve]

Was that like an official April or have we. Okay, yeah, March.

[Steven Paul]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yes. They've been saying that for a while. Yeah, Elbaf. So clearly, whatever, you know, bits of the first episode or two that they've got already done. So it is kind of funny. I was, I was remarking in our, our private chat that, like, it's kind of funny that you get this Elbaf trailer that's like trying to get you hyped up. And then, like, if you know the manga, you're looking at it and it's like, this is just all cuts from Roto's shitty LEGO City. That they're all stuck in like in the first couple chapters.

[Steve]

He put a lot of work into that.

[Steven Paul]

He put a lot of work into it. But that is not the Elbaf that I wanted to see.

[Steve]

Even the, the. What do you call it, the promotional image. Basically the. The thing you'll see as the thumbnail on Crunchyroll and Netflix. It has the LEGO aesthetic. And I'm like, right, right. That's only going to last about a couple episodes.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah. Pretty short lived, but.

[Delaney]

Especially if they're not making a million episodes a year. So it's like. Okay, so the time we're spending in the LEGO area will be drastically reduced as opposed to the schedule we've been running on where I don't know, maybe three episodes. You would have been in the LEGO castle.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah. If they start throwing in LEGO Elbaf filler, then we know we're in real trouble with the.

[Steve]

The new season format. What's a reference? I don't know if Steven will understand this. Yeah, we'll get one piece. Enter the Shadow Realm where Delaney.

[Steven Paul]

Delaney. Delaney.

[Steve]

The filler arc they inserted right before the Battle City finals or just completely kind of derails. No, just me. Okay. Bleach. I don't know.

[Delaney]

I sleep in a big bed with my wife.

[Steve]

I refuse to believe.

[Steven Paul]

Got it.

[Steve]

I sleep in a big bed with my two.

[Delaney]

And you're correct to do so.

[Steve]

Speaking of the anime too, they also. They did a new rendition of Family. The. The song that Greg cringes at every time he used to endure when he went to Jump Festa, but with Subaru Kimura, the new Frankie. So.

[Steven Paul]

Right, right.

[Steve]

I haven't looked out for it yet. I assume it's the one that they did with Jinbe, except it's with Kimura in there, but. Yeah. What else we got here? Yeah.

[Steven Paul]

I think. Is it just the. The message from Oda at that point?

[Steve]

Yeah, I mean like there's a bunch of like small things and merchandise and all that, but really the big thing here is the message from Oda. Lots and lots of promises here.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, right. Yeah, he mentions. So I'm like Skippy, I'm doing like, you know when Nami reads a letter from Sanji and she's like skipping past all of the stuff, I'm like, okay, where's getting past all the promotional stuff? And then. Yeah, he did say what a better.

[Steve]

Reference than I could have made. On topic too.

[Steven Paul]

He did. He did say that. Or he. He mentioned is the first mention that we've had of the Next animated film, which he, he claims they have not said he's allowed to say. So he's, you know, he's breaking the gentleman's agreement here to, to say that it has been, it sounds like it's been interesting. It's been a difficult process. I don't know if that means, like, coming, like nailing down a story or what. I would assume that's probably what they're talking about. But he, he's kind of joking that like, by bringing it up and, and mentioning that it exists, it will light a fire under everybody to hopefully get them moving a little quicker. But as usual, he just says like, oh, it's going to be really exciting. You're going to love it. So the people are like, huh? Yeah.

[Steve]

Oh, yeah, that's right, the monkey. And then you see a bunch of people scrambling in the back, bored artists or making stuff up real quick. Yeah, we're due a movie. We are due. Yeah. And I do find it funny that ODA's like, screw NDA. It's like, yeah, I want to make another movie, but these bums.

[Steven Paul]

What are.

[Delaney]

They gonna do, fire me?

[Steve]

Yeah, yeah, he's too powerful now. They've made leg Legos. It's over.

[Delaney]

He's too powerful. Dave made Legos. I've got Legos now.

[Steve]

I should do copyright for the Elbaf arc. But yeah, sorry, I'm like, I'm looking, I'm trying to do the Nami thing and failing at it myself here because. What was it that again? It said something. Yeah, new film. Sorry, it's the third paragraph here. Something I'm sure all of you will be very interested in, which I wonder what that could be. I'm guessing it's gotta be tied to a well known popular character, but I've talked about this many podcasts before and I think maybe this discussion was happening when God Valley was going down about these canon movies that are all the rage now because Demon Slayer's doing it, making so much money, getting nominated, getting nominated for Golden Globes, you know, Chainsaw man, etc. But I'm curious if one piece will go that way. If not, maybe something more in the spirit of, you know, the last few movies. Because, like, you know, Red is tied with Shanks and then we had Stampede tied with like the Roger Pirates and all that.

[Steven Paul]

So, yeah, I, I don't think that they would go the, the quote unquote canon movie route. But I will say scheduling your show so that it is now in a seasonal format is like the first step towards getting There, you know what I mean? Like, they're not, they're not gonna stop. You know, when the anime is continuous and it's always airing and they're always moving through the new material, you can't stop that to. To say, okay, here's the next chunk of the story will be in this movie. But if they're already parceling out the time to say, okay, this is going to be this season, this is going to be this season, you know, that's the first step towards doing something like that, which I kind of don't. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily want to see that, but I get why people would think about it because it does seem to be a successful. They've shown that it can be successful.

[Steve]

Yeah. And that's the biggest thing of all. That's.

[Steven Paul]

Yes, right, right.

[Steve]

Making money. But I don't know. We'll see. It's could be an interesting year. One piece anime. It's just bold new territory doing seasonal and all that. But. Yeah, I could only just speculate at this point though. But in terms of the manga stuff, promising. The man with the burn scar, that's a big one there. Another pair of characters coming face to face. Let your speculations run wild. What was.

[Steven Paul]

Was it Zach who was pointing out like he was. He was showing like the last couple statements that he said, and he always has some that's like, so and so will somebody is going to do something and you, like, that could be anybody. Like what? That doesn't mean anything. How are we. You know, you can't even look back.

[Delaney]

Yeah, Oda doing teases for his own manga. Sound like how I sound when I'm just trying to summarize a chapter. Oh, people met and they did things and the chapter happened and they went to a place.

[Steve]

It's called Hashtag makingyourmove. Also, I don't think hashtags are very relevant anymore.

[Steven Paul]

No.

[Delaney]

Well, sick, sick. Hashtag reference, Steve.

[Steve]

I can't wait to see. I can't wait to see how dated things are when they're like, hashtag this. I knew to weather that storm. Be like, no, don't do that. Don't put that on a shirt. The, the one thing that, that, that troubles me is saying the story will be moving at breakneck speed. And he's talking about, you know, because, you know, he's getting, he's getting older. But the good thing is he's saying like, hey, I'm looking out for my health. You know, I'm looking out for my health first. And Foremost. So I think that will explain why things move so fast. And it's, it's just what one piece is going to be now where we. We got to move things along. Lots of like, pages long actions will happen in one panel now. And that's just how it be. Sorry, I'm just. I think I'm just getting a little projection. Yeah, I'm getting a little wistful maybe, but I think that that comes as no surprise. But at least, like, Oda is kind of just saying, like, hey, things are gonna be moving kind of quick. But also because, yeah, I'm old.

[Steven Paul]

He, he, he also, like, we're just getting, like, he says we're just getting out of this very long flashback. So he, he knows, like, what he's pivoting to after this in the story. So I'm sure that's what he's thinking about when he's making these comments of like, okay, I'm gonna have a bunch of stuff going on real soon. And that's all in the works for the manga. So, you know, that's kind of what he does with these statements. He just kind of gives us a little State of the Union on where the story is.

[Steve]

But other than that, you know, good for him. But let's see what happens. I know, like, these messages aren't always a guarantee of what is going to happen the following year, but you never know. I always just think of one of the straw hats is going to die. Maybe not the exact phrasing. To me, that's the most infamous Jump festa.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Speech from Oda.

[Delaney]

Wait, did he actually say this? Like the one of the straw.

[Steven Paul]

I'm sure he said.

[Delaney]

What was this?

[Steven Paul]

I'm sure he said, the one a nakama is going to die or something like that, which, you know, is cryptic, is interpreted as right, being one of the. The straw hats. And so it ended up being Mary.

[Delaney]

Oh, okay. All right. Okay. Damn.

[Steve]

But other than that.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Delaney]

So he's just been leprick like this forever. This has just been his life.

[Steve]

Well, you never want to show your hand.

[Delaney]

No, you don't. But it's like he didn't have the same level of power back when he killed Mary, as opposed to now, where it's like billions of dollars are on this thing and he's now just blackmailed Toei into getting a fucking movie going. Times have changed.

[Steve]

I love to see Toei be like, what the hell is he talking about? We're not doing a movie. What movie?

[Delaney]

There were never plans. We never. We were Done after Red. We told you this. It's like.

[Steve]

Or it's just the. Just play the scene. Was it from. Was it a phoria or something? Is this message about us?

[Delaney]

Is this fucking anime about us?

[Steve]

But yeah, that. Other than that seems like a good time at Jump Festa overall. But enough about that. Why don't we get into the manga recap? Let's go.

[Delaney]

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[Steve]

Of your closet in 2004, never to be seen again. But if you can find it in.

[Delaney]

Yourself to dust them off, there are a lot of people who will give you money for them. Sell on Depop where taste recognizes taste.

[Steve]

This is the manga recap for. For chapter 1169. My death cannot come soon enough. And it's a thank you. Thank you. Going for the Oscar. And of course we have a cover spread this week. So that means one piece has graced the COVID of Weekly Shonen Jump once again. Steven, what's going on on the COVID.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, well, it's a special. As you may know, this is being the end of the year. This is the first of our special double issues where you know, it's, it's. It's gonna last. We have to last it for two weeks rather than than one. And that means that there's more than usual on the COVID And this time they've got a big fancy stained glass style illustration with all your. All your favorites, you know, sized by order of importance. And so naturally Luffy is front and center and throwing. He's holding up a fist for daps on to the reader.

[Steve]

Well, don't dap him too hard. You'll shatter the glass.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah, sorry.

[Steve]

The only image I had is just Luffy smashing the mirror in whole cake. He dapped too hard.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

And yeah, like I mentioned, that means we have a color spread. And what we have is a big old rocks pirate spread filled with most of them. First thing I thought was this was very reminiscent to the strong world color spread with all the straw hats, minus Nami and the suits.

[Steven Paul]

And this is like this quote unquote. I mean, I know it's hand drawn, but like this font that he does, like, you've seen this like half a dozen times on color where he writes a word with these types of letters.

[Steve]

And I like the skull because it reminds me of the stuff Oda has drawn for the professional wrestler Minoru Suzuki. It's very similar to his little skull and crossbones. But this was not originally what Oda had planned because. Wow. Did he have a bunch of other ideas, as we could see from the work in progress video on the One Piece staff on the Instagram page. I'll get us out of the way. I'm a little begrudgingly admitting I'm like, I like some of these other concepts more here.

[Steven Paul]

Sorry, you guys. The concept itself, like, is pretty straightforward. Like, what you see is what you get. Like, yeah, it's the rocks pirates. They're just posing like there's nothing. There's no twist to it. They just look cool. That's about it.

[Steve]

Yeah, I think it's like one of your badass. Get all the crew together. They're sitting, but there looked like a lot of really fun stuff going on. There was potentially going to be an Amazon lily, kind of like four paneled, one of all the captains of the Kuja Pirates.

[Steven Paul]

But I mean, yeah, I guess we saw Shaq and them, but it still just kind of seems like really like that. But it would have been cool, you know, we don't get that enough, I guess.

[Steve]

I mean, I'm curious if, like. Because I could always just assume that some of these are just the straw hats. But I'm wondering if any of these potential sketches were going to be the rocks pirates, kind of like hanging out on an island or fishing or something.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

God. I'm going to do the thing Steven accused me of earlier projecting here. This one kind of feels like Oda did it at the 11th hour. Like, crap. I still don't have anything. Yeah, because it's a little rough around the edges.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, I'm not a big, super big fan of the coloring either. Like, the palette work, you know, some. Sometimes they feels like the colors sit together a little better than this, but something about the. Like, the flesh tones on this are a little odd to me. I kind of. I kind of like that part.

[Steve]

Like, okay, that's fair.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Like, it has like this watercolor kind of aesthetic where, like you have like this green hue to the skin. It's. I Think that source of light is really cool. And then I look at the left and it's just. It's one pass with a warm gray copic.

[Delaney]

Yeah, it's such a weird quality like between the. Cause obviously if you're reading like if you're looking at it on the app, it's. You start with like the bright tone on the side and like granted I think it's interesting the green but it does also look like when someone fucks up a chroma key and like a cheap green screen effect. So like you can see like the green mingled like in their hair because the text not that good. And then you go over to the other side.

[Steve]

Who's the tongue guy again? The guy that we think is related to Caribou.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, I was gonna ask the same fucking. Damn it. I was like, hope Steve knows this.

[Steve]

Damn it. Yeah, I gotta get better rocks. Pirates and Whitebeard. Pirates are my. My weak spot right now.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Don't remember any of those guys.

[Steven Paul]

I do think it's funny because. Yeah, it took me a second to realize that he. Because it kind of looks like Kaido is like flipping off. Like he's looking the other way and he's like yeah, we'll you also.

[Steve]

Yeah, I thought that was. I. Yeah, I thought that was Kaido flipping off originally.

[Delaney]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

But it's a Wong Chi, right?

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, I think that's. I think that is Wangji. That's right.

[Steve]

I was gonna point out like if they're in front of a green screen like half this dude wouldn't be give a shot.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah.

[Delaney]

Meanwhile Shiki in the back looks like straight up unfinished like that. Truly the most afterthought character in the batch is just this half sketch of Shiki.

[Steve]

The problem is him and Ganzui. You could tell. I just read that off wiki with that muddy background. They kind of just get lost. They kind of get washed out.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

But I love the. I love the Miss Buckin and Whitebeard. Well, I guess she's stussy.

[Delaney]

I really love that. You know what I just realized? It looks like. It looks like when you go to Sears and they've got like the family portraits but like they're weirdly superimposed. So like that's. It's either shitty green screen or weird mid aughts family portrait where they like super like the dog over the picture of like the family sitting together.

[Steve]

Yeah. Like it's the person in the foreground and then the background is like the force ghost of somebody. I Like this one, but I don't love it because it immediately made me think of the strong world one. And that one had so much attention to detail in the background and wasn't so muddy, but, you know, yeah, the.

[Steven Paul]

Black suits really seal the comparison there.

[Steve]

Like.

[Steven Paul]

Oh yeah. It is just the same concept though.

[Steve]

I do like the Stussy and Whitebeard interaction. It's very cute. And it's just.

[Delaney]

I really like that for the evidence.

[Steve]

And I'm like, there's not a straight bone in that man's body. This is the look of a man who's just like, no, stop flirting with me. And then he sees a grown man that looks like Butters from South park and says, I want to go home with that guy. But like I said, I like it. It just feels like, ooh, this one felt like it was making a deadline, so. And then Rox has a tiger like Scott Steiner or Princess Jasmine.

[Steven Paul]

The Hangover.

[Delaney]

Rox. Exotic.

[Steve]

Alrighty. I hope your death hasn't come soon enough yet, because it's time to actually get into the manga again. Oda box here. 14 years ago in the Sun World Elbaf. This is Gabon's house. And young Shanks is saying, whaat? Captain Roger had a son? Gabon says, apparently so. That's what Garp told me at least. And this is probably Shanks responding, I'm amazed that he survived the navy search then. And he laughs and says, you know, he smiles and says, well, in that case, I guess he's like a little brother to me. And Gabon says, you're not wrong about that. You and Buggy were our sons. And Shanks looks off in the distance and says, if he's got Captain Rogers blood, then I guess he'll be the next generation's king of the Pirates. And Gabon says, hey, it ain't a hereditary position. Sometimes those with the greatest expectations placed on them fail to achieve that greatness. And I just, I feel like this is Gabon looking to the camera and saying, Marineford.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah. It also feels. It almost feels like, did you hear that, Boruto? And you know, whatever other when I.

[Steve]

First read this panel, I'm like, oda, are you listening to yourself? Mr. Zorro's great, great grandson of. Yeah, 116 samurai blood.

[Steven Paul]

Miyamoto Musashi. Yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

Freaking Mr. Here's rocks. By the way, he's. He's the father of Blackbeard. Yeah, no, I'm not gonna make that a cool reveal. Just he's the son of Blackbeard or father of Blackbeard So I was like, are you sure you believe that?

[Steven Paul]

Oda.

[Steve]

And Chenk says, you think so? And this is Gabon laughing like it's what makes life so fun and unpredictable. As we. And it's a cute little panel. It's a. You know, we zoom out and see the house and Shanks is like hopping off of this big. Well, the bonsai trees are small trees, right? Or are they also the big trees?

[Steven Paul]

I mean, that looks. Yeah, well, bonsai would be. A bonsai is basically like a shrub that they prune to look like a tree.

[Steve]

Well, this is Elbaf, so this probably is like.

[Delaney]

Yeah, just a regular bonsai.

[Steven Paul]

It's. Yeah, it's a regular tree. Yeah.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Steven Paul]

I guess this confirms too, that when we saw. When we saw them hanging out in the bath, that that's literally the same. Like, this is the same day that. That all the. The shit went down. Which I'm not sure if it was really stated before this, but now it seems that it is.

[Steve]

Which shit are you referring to? Besides two men sharing a hot jacuzzi?

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, that scene that we saw them earlier hanging out at Gabon's house. And now we see that it is literally the same day that everything went down at the castle with Loki and.

[Steve]

Oh, sorry, what's to come in this chapter? Yes, for some reason I thought you were talking about the. The whole Marie Geoie, Mary Jo ethics.

[Steven Paul]

No, no, no, no.

[Steve]

All right, Delaney, what's going on on the next page?

[Delaney]

Well, the Oda box is gonna tell us and actually answer the question we just had, which is meanwhile, the fateful scene at Elbaf's Alrest castle. And we see the castle and hear Loki cackling. Duh. And everyone panics. Oh, no. Loki. I mean, Prince Loki has returned. Chief ja' Rul is here as well. And outside of the royal chamber, we see everyone hearing the calamity outside. And Harold is just kind of standing there surrounded by his men, still with the body on the ground. And they're all asking amongst themselves, why did he. Your Majesty, he was coming to chain you up like you said. Um, and Harold is just standing there frowning at the guard that he just attacked, thinking, why did I cut down my guard like that? It was like my body moved on its own. Was it to fulfill Imu's orders? To eliminate those who would stop me? And we hear Imu echoing. Form an army of warriors. Am I incapable of fighting back? Can those orders even alter my very thoughts for the rest of my life? And we look at the mark on his shoulder. For as long as I continue to live, my presence will only make this country worse. My body is a blight upon its safety. It was a waste. It was all for nothing. 144 years of life down the drain as he's thinking about his family and all of his service to the world government. And he panics and he thinks, my death cannot come soon enough. And he screams, quickly, kill me. And everyone in his guard goes, huh? What? And he thinks to himself, I refuse to let Elbaf be enslaved. And he screams, hurry, before it's all taken over. And he starts just swiping at. Swiping at his guys. And they're all panicking. They're asking, what are you doing, Majesty? And we see Loki in the corner popping the door open. And he says, hey, Pop, I'm.

[Steve]

He's. He's entering in like it's a sitcom. Yeah.

[Steven Paul]

Coming off the camera side. Yeah.

[Delaney]

Wacky Uncle Loki, Cousin Loki.

[Steven Paul]

I'm glad that I. That these were. That some. Some elements of this scene were familiar enough that I was like, wait, have we seen, like, this exact line of dialogue before? And, yeah, this. This. He's kind of like weaving in new stuff with, like, the first time. I think it was the very. Was it the very start of the flashback? I think it might have been, yeah. Where. Where we. We also saw this exact moment where Loki hops down in front of the castle and along with Yaru.

[Steve]

I don't. I don't think it was necessarily the start of the flashback because the flashback started with Harold, but this was something that. This was like a little mini flashback that happened.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, it was like a little intro to the flashback. And. And. And then I, like, went back and looked at it and I was like, oh, yeah, he's like, literally, like, repeating the dial. So I was like, okay, I better make sure that. That at least the parts that we saw before are matching here.

[Steve]

Yeah, it kind of like all, like, we've seen all the different perspectives, and now it's all kind of just meeting back at one point. And now it's just. I think it's just a straight line now.

[Steven Paul]

Yes, yes. So. And now we see again another thing that we saw also previously in silhouette. And it kind of looks like silhouette here, too, I guess, probably just because maybe ODA doesn't want to. To, you know, confront us with the gore of it. Or maybe it's just because, you know, it's to remind us of that scene. But, yes, we get the part where Loki busts in the door. And he sees the image of all the guards standing in a circle and stabbing through Harold with their spears or their halberds or whatever, which you can do if it's a polearm. You don't do this if you all have guns. Don't stand in a giant circle. Shoot at the guy.

[Steve]

I feel like I've seen something like a scene from, like, a movie or show recently where that happened. And, like, half the people shoot at each other, but it turns out in one piece.

[Steven Paul]

This is.

[Steve]

This is what the cooks of the Baratie did to Sanji. And some people might forget because call.

[Delaney]

That a circle Merc.

[Steve]

In case you're like. If you're more familiar with the anime, they changed it to those giant pitchfork forks. But yeah, in the manga, they're all pointing guns at him.

[Steven Paul]

I'm like, oh, it's not so smart. Yeah. But, yeah, this is the scene where Loki busts in on them. It's like, what's going on in here? And hair. And Yarrow says, Harold. And meanwhile, Harold, while he's getting stabbed through, is thinking, how can this be? I truly am immortal. I can feel my body recovering. So even as he's like, you know, stuck in this grimace of pain, he can tell that it's not doing anything to him. Whatever damage he's getting is just recovering immediately. And so he. His hand grabs the hilt of the sword and he's thinking, stop it. Run for your lives, men. As he, you know, winds up for the big baseball swing here with a cool overhead shot so you can see how just how all these guys are. And then he unleashes it. It's a huge, you know, Elden Ring boss attack that he just sends all of them flying and they're all screaming. And he's thinking to himself, what can I do to die? Someone help. And Loki and Yarrow are both just flabbergasted. I. I love Yarrow's expression. It's like. I mean, it is legitimately shocked, like he has a very good reason to. But it also is also a little bit muppety. It's kind of funny.

[Delaney]

It is. He hit him with the Gene Kelly windmill.

[Steve]

Oh, old films. Steve, we're back at Gabon's house and Shanks, which almost reads timidly talking to his adoptive father, being like, so basically, Harold and I, you know, what did you do? We signed the showers.

[Delaney]

I know I promised I'd be back by nine.

[Steve]

We signed up for the confidence, but just the shallowest one. Okay, it's not a big deal.

[Steven Paul]

All right, we're gonna sit down here until you finish this whole tattoo.

[Steve]

Which actually, if that did happen, it would be even worse, but yeah, but yes, this is. He's talking about. Him and Harold are both the chalice of confidence for the great. The great one in Maryjoa. And Shanks shows off his sweet tat. He says, even with just this Shallow's covenant, we can't resist as long as we're within that freak's range and Kabon's like, what an odd power. And Shanks reminisces on something we've never seen before, but a meeting with Heralds. And Shanks says, so once we were out of the Holy Land, we finally had the chance to talk openly. And we see flashback Harold and Shanks. And Harold holding up Shanks. Palmer says, I knew it. You are from the Red Haired Pirates. But that's all we see.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, so that's. That's clearly the follow up to like when they. When they had that weird little like, don't talk to me, Mary Jo.

[Steve]

I don't know. I don't know why he talks like Tommy Wiseau.

[Delaney]

Don't talk to me, motherfucker. Get out.

[Steve]

Shanks continue.

[Delaney]

Tommy, we.

[Steve]

Shanks and Ben Beckman, my future wife. Shanks and Gabon continue here. But now we have this great wide shot and we see in the background is. No, I got this. Ripley, Ripley. And I almost said gimlet. I got this. Colin. Colin, it's been a minute.

[Steven Paul]

Yes, yes.

[Steve]

They left a pie to cool on the windowsill and Shanks and Gabon are eating it or it looks like a tart or something like that, but it's a really, really cute drawing here. And Sheik says Harold was delighted about the deal he made to get Elbaf added to the government once he was in the Knights of God. But to do that, he has to sign the next level of confidence. Yeah, it's just the world government pyramid scheme, you know, just kind of.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, he has to sign up 20 more people.

[Steve]

And Kavana says, is that bad or something? And Shanks gets very serious here. He says, through the covenant, the holy Knights of God gain superhuman strength and an undying body, as well as the ability to generate an abyss, a means of traveling long distances. And we see kind of a vague holy knight here, kind of shrouded in darkness. They don't see their face. I thought it was summers, maybe. It's supposed to be, but yeah, it's.

[Steven Paul]

Got the long hair, but we see the eyes.

[Steve]

We see flames and we see that, like Pentagram circle. I forget if we have an official term for that.

[Steven Paul]

The Abyss.

[Steve]

Mambistic. Oh yeah, Bold abyss meaning. Yeah, proper noun there. Vshang says, but in exchange, no matter where you are, you cannot defy the orders of the Great One, whose voice will reach you at any range. So if he agrees to the Covenant, Heralds will be forced to do what those people say. Knowing how greedy they are, I can't imagine they would keep their word and give them what they promised. Gaban ponders silently for a moment, and Shanks continues, says, I don't think Harold should join the. Huh? And, oh, too late for that. As what we're seeing those black hockey lightning bolts coming off from the distance from the castle. And oh, the irony as we go.

[Delaney]

To the next page, where Loki is now wailing on his dad with all the guards staring up at them and Loki screaming, hang on a second, dad, what am I supposed to react to first? The fact that you haven't died with all those wounds? Or the fact that you're trying to kill me and the castle guards? Where's this monster strength coming from? And Ja Rule, who I guess has just been hanging out, pulls out his sword and he says, what happened to you, Harold? Come back to your senses. And below the fighting, one of the guards screams, guards, to the royal chamber. Help. Stop the king. He's been taken by madness. Are they fighting? Hurry. It must be that damn Loki. Save the king. And as they all run out of the room, Jerul and Loki pin down Harold with a big old dome. And I believe that's Jerul screaming. Explain yourself, Harold. What happened? And Harold says, chief Ja Rule, I've made a terrible mistake. Very soon I truly will lose my mind. Listen closely, Loki. Do as I say. I want you to tell the people of Elbaf exactly what happened here. That I killed my own guards. That I used joining the world government as an excuse to do their dirty bidding.

[Steven Paul]

Hmm. And on the next page, he continues, they still got him held down. He's just kind of monologuing here. Ultimately, they lied to me. And look at me now. I'm about to hand over the people of Elbaf to the government to be their slaves in battle. And Loki reacts to this. He says, what do you mean they tricked you? And Harold continues, they never had any intention of honoring my request. Which, you know, it doesn't take 2020 hindsight to. To see that, Harold. You know, you think regular foresight would have.

[Delaney]

I just didn't think it was gonna eat my face.

[Steven Paul]

And The. Yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty much. And the guards are like, oh, your majesty. And then Harald gives a fateful order. He says, chief Jarl, feed the treasure of Elbaf to Loki. And they're like, what? He said. And Harold says, with the power of God, I will be unstoppable. Elbaf, being enslaved by the government is the very antithesis of my dream. That makes me the worst king in the history of Elbaf. And then, you know, he kind of leans forward to get right up in Loki's face. He says, so you must kill me to take the throne, Loki. Tell the people what a fool of a king I was. Kill me and be a hero. Once I'm dead, my reputation means nothing to me. All that matters is Elbaf's future. Am I wrong? And we get some very impassioned, you know, close ups of Loki just kind of taking this in with a grimace. And, you know, Harold is. Is in tears now with the. The. The emotional force of this, uh, this moment. And Loki's like, you, you'd really do all this for. And he doesn't get a chance to finish that because we get, you know, there's a little, like, kind of little. Little crackle. Like, you know, the change is coming back over Harold. And he's like, please, Loki, you're the only one who can do it. And then we kind of. You. It's kind of a weird. I guess it's a reset here that we just instantly flash back to outside of the castle and you just hear more shouting again. And then we will go back into the castle.

[Steve]

And Steve.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

We get this big old hunk of panel of Harold taking this huge swing, obliterating a bunch of these guards. They are, boom, non factor, coughing up blood. All their weapons.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Actually, I'll repeat. I thought, like, oh, yeah. And all their weapons are broken. I'm like, oh, no. But there's like a shield. Yeah, that's broken. Yeah, that's a weapon. And Harald, he glares, he grimaces. And we hear an announcement. There are criminals within the castle. A guard's like, huh, your majesty? He says, seal the front gate. Right away, your majesty. You know, and they chain up the door.

[Steven Paul]

And why did these guys strike me as like, the banana guards from adventure time? Just like, what? Oh, you said. You said something to me. Okay, can we do it?

[Steve]

Damn, I need to. It's funny. I just watched the elephant. I'm like, I gotta watch the rest of adventure time. These good references are lost on me. But yes, Harald made that Call. But as soon as he did, a guard jumps on his back and steps him right in his big thick, one piece neck. He says, you kill them all, you're not the real King Harald. And Harald grabs his fellow. He says, but I am Harold, and I am now a vessel of the Great One. And the hole in his neck just oozes and drips blood. And he, you know, he swings his fist and says, no one shall escape to tell the tale of what happened here. And sends a bunch of these guys flying.

[Delaney]

That's grody as fuck, by the way. Like that's that shit that they did to Michael B. Jordan and Sinners when they took a chunk out of his neck. Like, look at that. Like you can see right through it. Holy shit.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, then it's the T1000 thing.

[Steve]

And then Harold's gonna be like, come on, let me in.

[Delaney]

I'm King Harald and I'm feeling much better now and I want to come back inside.

[Steve]

I'm feeling much better.

[Delaney]

And one of the guards is on the ground then he's reaching out and he says, hurry, Bron. As he says it, Harold's foot just fucking comes down on his head with a big old very violent crack as he stalks towards Loki. And he says, I will give this country over to imu. And Jerul screams, hurry, Loki. Loki's running the pat, pat, pat. He's like, why do I have to eat some devil fruit that I won't be able to swim anymore? What got into him? He's like a totally different person, which is a good thing. Mild understatement. The herald with his mustache looking huge says, don't you dare eat it, Loki. That fruit belongs to me. Loki screams, you just told me to eat it. And oh, this is. What the hell? Just. Oh, joya.

[Steven Paul]

Oh yeah. Oh, I see.

[Delaney]

I see it now.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Delaney]

Yarl.

[Steven Paul]

Stabbing Harold, stabbing him. Yeah.

[Delaney]

Took me a second because I was like, is this a very small person getting stabbed or is this size differential between Jarl and Harold? Which it is. And Jarl screams, if you eat that fruit, it will be the end of the world. Harold. Do it, Loki. Make sure Harold doesn't get that fruit. And Harold body checks him and chucks the sword directly through his skull. Like it's not even like a big while.

[Steve]

He's still impaled with Jarl sword while.

[Delaney]

He put the sword in him. It's not even like a big, big action moment. He literally just turns around and the sword is in his face. And someone screams, chief Jarul. And Harold says, you gave me that blade years ago, Jarul. Now you can have it back. I'll eat that fruit and take Ragnar for myself.

[Steven Paul]

That's a real cold line.

[Steve]

That's, that's hard as fuck. I'm not gonna lie.

[Delaney]

That's so good. And Loki still, still booking it. But Harold's gaining on him. He's screaming, you cannot have it.

[Steven Paul]

And meanwhile, who should show up but two little pipsqueaks. It is Gabon and Shanks. They got their weapons drawn and somehow they, they managed to, you know, put some, some big old guts of blood on Harold here as they jump past him. And you know, we get some, some cool momentum shots of them looking, looking tough. And Jarl says, it's come on. As Harald falls backwards in screaming in pain. And they, the. The humans land right next to Jarl and they're like, jarl, what's happened to you? And he repeats his catchphrase that we, we've. We've come to know. He says, the helmet saved my life.

[Steve]

You hear that, kids?

[Steven Paul]

She was very proud. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Could save your life too. And yeah, Harald falls to the ground and Jarl tells them, please stop Harold. Don't let him go after Loki. But he seems to be down for a moment. And Gabon says, based on what you said, it looks like the worst case scenario has come to pass. Because he recognizes clearly that whatever this, you know, demonic power is, it has taken over Harold and removed his, his good senses. And Shanks is trying to tell Harold, look around you, come to your senses. He's doing the Obi Wan.

[Steve]

You gotta say more like, come to your senses.

[Delaney]

You are my brother.

[Steven Paul]

Come to your senses.

[Steve]

Oh God, I'm trying to think. Yeah, if Haruin was here, what would she. What would he do? He would do his duty.

[Delaney]

Only emu deals in absolutes.

[Steven Paul]

My God. Oh man. And yeah, Harold says, ah, Shanks, this undying body is a wonderful thing. I feel superior to all other life. Which is, you know, hey, like, if you ever need to make your villain sound like, make sure everybody knows he's a villain. Just to make him say, I feel superior to all other life. That's a pretty dead giveaway.

[Steve]

Or unless you're like Bakugo from my hero academia or something.

[Delaney]

Eugenics, the normalist of takes.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah, King. You mean King Murder explosion or whatever the he called himself. So Shanks is, is thinking, damn it, is there any way to break the control over him? And meanwhile, we see a lock fall to the floor as Loki has reached the special treasure room. He busts open the door, huffing and puffing. And we can see that there is a chest there, just a big old dragon quest chest, as well as a very familiar looking large rectangular hammer. And he says, this is that storied relic of Elbaf, the forbidden devil fruit. But it looks like the hammer is kind of juddering there. It's kind of, it's, it's rattling. And then he's like. And suddenly the hammer, seemingly on its own, just takes a swipe at Loki. He has to, you know, do a Neo dodge to, to get out of the way as it's going, making some really weird sound. And Loki exclaims, whoa, who did that? And that's it. That's, that's our last thing of the year is a shocking hammer attack unprovoked.

[Steve]

The manga is off for two weeks.

[Steven Paul]

All right, well, for, for, for one week.

[Steve]

Oh, for one week. Are we back next week? No. Wait, what am I.

[Steven Paul]

No, we are, we're back in two weeks. Yes.

[Steve]

Right before New Year's.

[Steven Paul]

Mm, yes. Although I will, I will say just for, for those who are susceptible to. I, I feel like I give this explanation every year, but it's. I, you know, nobody has any reason to, to know this except for the people who work on jump. But we get these, we get these double issues. There's four every year. There's one in May for Golden Week, there's one in usually about August for Obon, and then there's two in a row during the holiday season at the end of the year. And what happens is so the, the publication schedule will be okay, so we, this is our chapter, this is a double issue. So there will be no Jump next week. And then the week after that there will be another issue, also a double issue. And so the week following that there will also again be no Shonen Jump. But behind the scenes for the production of the issues with all the mangaka and the editors and everything, rather than being like, okay, we're gonna. You do a chapter, you'll get one week off and then come back in, do another chapter and then you'll get another week of vacation off is they produce them consecutively. So they go one week, one week, and then they have two straight weeks off. And the reason I say that is because I've already seen the next chapter. And that also means if you are on the Internet, if you are averse to spoilers, just be careful because there's going to be super early spoilers. Probably by the time you, you hear this, they're already out there. And I know that some people, you know, don't want to get spoiled. So just to let you know, the chapter is already done, but we're not going to see it for two weeks.

[Steve]

Thank you for that reminder. Forgot. We do kind of run into that around this time every year.

[Delaney]

And knowing is half the battle.

[Steve]

Not this year. That's why we're gonna go into the next manga recap right now. I'm just kidding.

[Delaney]

We're breaking new.

[Steve]

I would break NDA. Why can't us, Right? Yep. So, yeah, that's gonna do it. Your last chapter for 2025. And I said that really slowly because even though I retained everything Steven just said, I was making sure I was right because I'm forgetting what day the holidays are falling on. But yeah, so that.

[Steven Paul]

What a chapter it was.

[Steve]

I feel like we could just kind of just do like a. You know. Yeah, I don't think we need to really like break it off here. The first thing I just want to point out is even though this is a full chapter, this is like, for at least you know, looking at the Viz websites. The full 19 pages or. Actually, no.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, with the double spread, it kind.

[Steve]

Of throws it because it feels like it needs two more pages. I think that ending, that doesn't feel like an ending. That's.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, it's very much in. Well, I guess it's not in media Rest, but it is like he's just kind of cutting it off in the middle of action, which is not usually.

[Steve]

His dialogue has like a follow through. I feel like there'd be another. Another two pages in. The last panel would just be like a panel with the hammer floating and be like, what's going on? And then one piece is off next week. So I was a little thrown off by the ending here.

[Steven Paul]

But. Well, I mean, it's there to. I think kind of to be a little. A little bit of like a slap in the face of like, what the hell just happened. So I'm curious to know, like, what. What. What was your thought of what. You know, you. You two, when you see this, like, what the hell is this hammer? What's going on here?

[Steve]

What do you.

[Steven Paul]

What do you think it is?

[Delaney]

I. I'm.

[Steve]

Why is.

[Steven Paul]

Why is it having on its own thoughts about it?

[Delaney]

I mean. Right.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah. Like, what's in it's making sounds like.

[Delaney]

The fact is, is that obviously I'm gonna go straight to Mjolnir, but I'm like, what a. Like they're not. They wouldn't do like Thor. Like, this is not a. I. I would be really shocked.

[Steve]

But what if Loki was the chosen.

[Delaney]

What if Loki was. Oh, my God, Marvel's what if. What if Elbaf Some.

[Steve]

Yeah, what if. Yeah, like, what if Ant man met Abomination from the Incredible Hulk? What if.

[Delaney]

What if.

[Steve]

Like that.

[Delaney]

Sorry, what if F1 racers, but also Avengers Tower.

[Steve]

Sorry I cut you off.

[Delaney]

No, no, no, it's fine. I have. Also because, like, Loki is the only character I would say, in Elbaf who is, like, actually named after a. I'm gonna say, mainstream Norse God.

[Steven Paul]

Right.

[Delaney]

Like, this isn't a thing like, oh, it's Odin and Loki. And, like. Like, they're not named like that. So, you know, I'm sure this is going to like someone. But honestly, I kind of thought I had the lay of how this was gonna go. I'm like, why the fuck is Mjolnir here? What else can we possibly add?

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, well. And. And just. Just for those who. Who may have forgotten since, you know, we haven't seen the present day in a while. This is Ragnar Loki. The hammer that Loki does use in the present day, but he has not been. He has not been using. We haven't seen him with it in this flashback. So this seems to be the point where he gets that hammer. Yeah, like, but we also don't know what it does.

[Steve]

I don't know why it's making a sound. I felt like if it was just moving on its own, it wouldn't have this weird kind of audible sound effect here. I'm wondering, is there some sort of trickster here at play? But the problem is we already know that there's an invisible devil fruit. That.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, that. That was my first thing. And I. I think I. I feel like I said this to Greg when we were talking about. About the chapter was like, my. My spidey sense of, like, this looks like a. It looks like absolute. When Absalom shows up in Thriller Bar doesn't show up in Thriller Bark, I should say. And it looks like when the Tintatas were, like, moving stuff around in Dress Rosa and we hadn't seen them yet. And it was like, what the hell? Why are these things disappearing? And they're, like, talking about fairies. And then, you know, we didn't actually see the Tentatas until later. That was the. The vibe I got immediately from this.

[Steve]

Do you think? I mean, the fact that we saw, like, the negative hollow ghosts with what's his name, Gilbastar, makes me like. I don't know, I guess there's nothing saying that Absalom had this devil fruit power so early. I wonder if this is just gonna be another. But like, who would this be?

[Steven Paul]

I.

[Steve]

Don'T. I can't think of anyone else right now.

[Delaney]

See, that's why I went straight to like, is this just like a Norse riff? Cause I'm really struggling to think who else could be involved that we haven't already. Like, we've got Gabon, we've got Shanks. We have what feels like a very complete cast apart from maybe like. But I can't think of any of the holy knights who would have a power that's on this track. Because I wouldn't be surprised. I will say the only character I wouldn't be surprised would be one of the holy knights. If it's like, oh, surprise, I was here the whole time. But that's kind of the limit.

[Steven Paul]

I think we literally see the lock falling to the ground. So unless this guy had bluenose powers to. To sneak inside the room, you never know. These days, this thing seems like these.

[Steve]

Passed around every 15 years or so. I. I will say, doesn't that define the whole purpose of Thor's hammer? What's it called again?

[Delaney]

Mjolnir.

[Steve]

How to pronounce it?

[Steven Paul]

Mjolnir is the. Yeah.

[Steve]

I mean like, only those worthy can move it, so.

[Delaney]

Right.

[Steve]

I feel like.

[Steven Paul]

True, true.

[Steve]

I'm like, this can't. Like, this can't necessarily be someone else moving it because then that kind of defies the purpose of it.

[Steven Paul]

Right?

[Steve]

Or maybe not. Maybe Oda is just playing off of those expectations. Like, it's like, no, anyone could move this. It's just pretty heavy. But this like gek gek, GEK gek. That sounds like a laugh. It sounds like a cackle, but it's such a. Yeah. I don't know if Steven could really elaborate any further on this. It's a very odd little sound here.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah. Well, I mean, as you can tell from the way that the font work is done, this was like a hand drawn thing. It wasn't like in. In. In like a speaking font. So that, that could mean that it's like just a sound effect and he chose to put it in a bubble. Or it could mean that it's a. You know, it's a vocalization of some kind, which probably more likely.

[Steve]

Yeah, you kind of. It got me here. I don't know. Well, it's gonna. Because we're in. Harvardin's not even on Elbaf isn't Harden. Like, I thought Hardin was gone. The new giant pirates are a thing.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was off doing other stuff.

[Steve]

I. I feel like. Well, it can't be, like. It can't be Harold getting back up and, like, calling for it or something like that because he's. He's been incapacitated.

[Steven Paul]

This cap. Captain America, he's standing behind Loki. I knew you could do it.

[Steve]

Oh, but wait, no, that's bad right now.

[Delaney]

Yes. No.

[Steven Paul]

Yes.

[Delaney]

Fuck.

[Steve]

I'm kind of. I'm kind of stumped on that. And, yeah, I don't really need to discuss any further without any more evidence.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, I mean, that's just. That's just a fun. Fun thing to wonder about while we wait for the next chapter. But that's really just kind of like a little. It's almost like a non sequitur at the end of the chapter because, you know, the rest of it was very.

[Delaney]

Dramatic, I guess why I was juicy. I'm kind of half and half agreeing that it feels like a incomplete thought. Because it is one of those things where it's like, okay, we as readers, you know, we do now live in a post Avengers world. It's like, okay, so ideally, a majority of people will have the wherewithal to be questioning, like, why, like, why the fuck this very suspiciously shaped hammer is moving on its own. And that, to me, felt like an interesting enough cliffhanger to leave it off on. But I'm also. I also do agree that it's like, this is a very abrupt sequence of events to end things on. Yeah, I agreed, though. Non sequitur. What does it mean? Fuck you. I don't know. Wait till January.

[Steve]

Why don't we talk about the whole it's like the Herald and Loki and Jarl kind of confrontation here? Yeah, sorry. What I meant exactly was just the, like, with Harald being like, hey, it's like, you have to kill me. And it's like, take the throne. Tell the people it was me. I'm terrible. Let it be known I was an awful person. And clearly we know with hindsight that is not what happened. Setting us up for tragedy. It's the real Dark Knight ending. Loki's the hero we need, but not the one we deserve. So I'm fascinated to see what's gonna happen there with how they're gonna cover it up. Because it's setting up clearly. This is setting up for Loki to be the martyr, or just a martyr with all the illusions, with Shaggy saying, like, oh, you're actually a nice person, and him doing the Mr. Burns who told you.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Steve]

All right. So you're the devil himself. Actually doesn't apply there, but it's. Yeah. I'm curious to see where this goes, like. But I just. I'm enjoying this kind of just this redemption for Loki here, or just more like just the reveal, like. Oh, he's. Yeah, it was a facade he. He was putting on this. This tough guy, you know, this little bastard act on. But he's truly the hero of this nation stuck being chained up. But it was also Shanks that. That captured him, Right?

[Steven Paul]

Shanks captured Loki. Yeah. So.

[Delaney]

And then we assume. And then we assume it was Sean. Yeah, but it's. It's actually Chunk. Yeah, no, I guess he was there, so. Hell if I know how that came about.

[Steve]

I forgot. Did. Was it mentioned that, like, Shanks caught him at sea or are we.

[Steven Paul]

I think they did say that. Yeah.

[Steve]

So I was wondering. Yeah. Because he's only been chained up for, what was it, five or six years?

[Steven Paul]

Six years. Six years, yeah.

[Steve]

So I'm curious why Loki ran away. Probably to be like, oh, you know, let's let them know that, yeah, I killed him. I did it. Try to catch me. But, yeah, I really just enjoyed this whole interaction. And truly, Loki feeling like he is. Well, it's truly feeling like Loki is the son of Harald here. I mean, he is by blood. I think I'm getting that confused with what's her face kind of adopting him. Yeah.

[Steven Paul]

Eda. Yeah. Yeah.

[Steve]

But, yeah, I just. I feel like this is just. It's just. It's another chapter of moving these characters into place with a lot of intrigue here. But I feel like there's nothing too much that I could really kind of get into. I don't know about you guys.

[Steven Paul]

I mean, there's not a lot of, like, I guess aside from what we already discussed with the last page, there's. It's not really like, oh, let's. Let's dig into all the mysteries that this chapter has. Like, it's a pretty straightforward chapter. You know, it gets you from point A to point B. And. And I. I thought it was very satisfying in. In that regard. I have this. This. This concept in my head of, like, there's a. There's a graph. Each chapter is like a graph and with an X and a Y axis. And so the. The Y axis is the amount of time that passes until the end of the chapter. So, you know, it will go in a linear fashion, and then the X axis going across is like the amount of Information. So you start the chapter at point A, and then you end in point Z. And how far that is depends on how much the chapter covers. And each within that, that graph. Each line of dialogue that Oda writes, every little bubble is like a certain length. It's like a horizontal bar. Like, think of it like. Like Tetris pieces or Jenga blocks or something. And those that block contains how much context, like, how much information and how much context this line has. And every line is adjacent to the one that comes before it. And you stitch them together to, you know, to have a conversation where, you know, characters are talking. And ideally, you want there to be, like, a certain amount of overlap between each line of dialogue because that means, okay, character A says something and character B is responding to that. And you can see the logic progressing from point to point. And this chapter, I think, does a really good job of that. Like, it's. It's very. Feels very satisfying to read because the conversations are very cohesive and together. What Oda has not done very often, or not often enough, in my opinion, since. For the past, like, let's say, 10 or 15 years, you know, in. In the. In the post timeskip era is a lot of times because he's in such a rush to get from wherever he is to, like, get. We need to get further through the story. We need to get further through the story. And I have fewer pages than usual, and I have to, like, be picky. I have to be choosy about. What I show is he starts stacking these dialogue boxes in ways where they're not necessarily even connected. Sometimes there. There's like, a gap between them. That's the place where there's no context and the reader actually has to fill in the blanks on their own to understand why we went from this line of dialogue to that line of dialogue. And it's because he's in such a rush that he doesn't have time to, like, flesh it out. And it's, you know, it can be really frustrating. I think about that a lot. The reason why this is a thing that I think about is because it is so crucial to the, you know, the act of translation of, like, how. How much of, you know, how much of the difference of styles from the Japanese to the English is due to language and how much of it is due to the style of the author. And I can, you know, I can help with the language stuff because that's kind of my job is to like to. To know, okay, where is the, you know, where is the conversation, like, where are there gaps? What, what does this signify? These are things that, you know, when you work with Japanese and English, which are very different languages, you learn how to, to do these things. But, like, these big context gaps like Oda sometimes does, where, like, characters are just saying random things and, like, you're like, does this have anything to do with the thing before? No, it's like it's different scene or it's a different. You know, he's like, trying to make so many points that he doesn't take the time to actually make all of them count. And this was an example of, like, a chapter where he really sat and he was like, all right, this whole scene, like, with, with Jarl and Loki and Harold, where, you know, the, like, Harold is. He's explaining, like, what's going on, like, what, you know, his, his. His wishes that have. Have been ruined through his own, you know, mistakes and through the manipulations that have been placed on him. And what, you know, the, the, the, the. The priorities should be Elbaf's future and all this stuff. Like, you know, he really lets you have all the. That emotion across. And that's where I felt like. It felt like an old school chapter of one piece in that respect, where, like, you know, I, I couldn't look at it and point out any part where I was like, well, I wish they had talked a little bit more about this. Like, I, I feel like we really got everything we need to know in this scene. So I thought this was a really, really great, satisfying chapter. Just great, good dialogue, good emotional moments and. And whatnot. So I loved it.

[Steve]

Yeah. It kind of feels like I'm eating crow because with me kind of alluding to, like, the manga's breakneck pacing at this point.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

And Steven just made, like, a good argument for this chapter. I'm like, no, this is, you know, like, this was really focused. Everything kind of, you know, led into the next thing, you know, cohesively. Yeah, I think, you know, so. Yeah, that just because I'm like, oh, not a lot happened, doesn't mean, like, this, this isn't a good chapter. I can't imagine what this podcast would have been like when we were like, I don't know, doing like, Drum island.

[Delaney]

Or Skypiea, you know, what's with the train? Why are we talking about this train?

[Steve]

Oh, you. Oh, those words would never come out of my mouth.

[Delaney]

I know. Steve, you'd never betray the clan like that.

[Steve]

No, no, I would never be.

[Delaney]

Never belittle a train.

[Steve]

Yeah. Like, I. I think the. Yeah, the. The purpose of this chapter was to just demonstrate that, you know, Harold's gone, you know, at this point. Like. Like. Like Harold's like. Like, yeah, like, he's a lost cause, even.

[Steven Paul]

Like.

[Steve]

And. Yeah. And having. And having the. What's great about. Like, what's brilliant about this chapter, I think, is instead of having this exposition about the covenant and the tattoos and all that. I hate to throw Hunter X Hunter on the bus, but I feel like what turns me off with Hunter X Hunter is just the exposition dumps from the narrator, as opposed to, hey, here are two characters having a conversation. That's like, they would have this conversation. It's important to their relationship and their dynamic, but it's explaining what's happening at the same time in another sequence. It's really doing a good job of. I can't think of the right literary term for this, but just. They go together. It's like poetry, rhymes.

[Delaney]

The flow. The flow of information is good, which is. I haven't been on for. This whole God Valley thing has been kind of something I've taken umbrage with, which is that it does. I know all of this information is important. I don't think I'm being told, like, random bullshit that's not actually for my benefit. But it does feel like the way you broke it down, Steven, definitely makes sense, because I feel like a lot of times there have been a lot of interactions where it's just like, I've got to get this. I got to get this. I got to get this. And obviously, obviously, with God Valley, that's something that's gonna be very chaotic and in the moment, and it's gonna have a frenetic nature already. But then you switch back to this, which may not technically accomplish much, but the flow of it between, like, you know, Shanks and Gabon and then what's going on in the castle, it all flows into each other so much more naturally that. I don't know. I don't hate the God Valley stuff. I haven't been, like, just not to give that impression. But it is a noticeable difference in the way that this whole flashback has been written. I feel, especially the stuff before we got into God Valley, all the way back when we were doing Loki's birth and their childhood with Eda and all that, like, that felt more like what this chapter feels like. So that. That big gap in the middle where we just did, I guess, which is now the secondary purpose of this flashback, which is to set up how Shanks loses The arm, which I wanted to ask you guys about how we vibe with that.

[Steve]

I've talked about this on the show, and I was just talking about this with Alex off mic when this chapter came out. I don't know. Stephen, would you like to go first? I feel like people have heard me before.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah. I mean, I'm still waiting to see. I'm, like. I'm tempted to say that, like, it, like, may, you know, maybe that there's a part of this that's like, well, Oda just kind of forgot what he was writing Shanks to be like initially.

[Delaney]

But forgot about the Iron Fleet.

[Steve]

You sound pensive.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, well, I'm remembering, too, that, like, you know, even the. The whole, like, Shanks literally losing his arm in the first place was not even Oda's idea, right? Like, it was. It was like his. His first editor said, like, oh, you should have him lose the arm, because it'll sell. You know, it makes the sacrifice more meaningful, and it makes it hit so much harder. Right? And so I feel like, you know, I. I don't know.

[Steve]

Maybe.

[Steven Paul]

Maybe. Yeah, I don't. I don't want to say that, like, Oda. Oda forgot about her. That he. He, like, didn't like that or something, and that he's. He's, like, repurposing or, like, reusing it for kind of dual purposes here to be like, this is how also how Shanks gets out of the. The thing. Because I. You know, we've already talked about that a bit on the. On the. The podcast, and I don't. I don't want to be tempted into thinking that it was. That it was right, like, that you can minimize it. You can be like, oh, well, it was just a matter of convenience. Two birds with one stone for Shanks. Like, oh, hey, you know, hey, wow. I can get rid of this tattoo, and I can inspire the future King of the Pirates in one blow. Yeah. What? Great move. Sh. Smart thinking there. You know, I feel like that's. That. That would be a very. I don't know, transactional way of. Of viewing it and. But I don't know. I really don't know. Like, if we're gonna get. Maybe we'll get another scene with Shanks where he actually addresses this and talks about how, like, oh, yeah, now, you know, now that I saved Luffy, you know, maybe he'll. He'll reflect on what it means about. About the. The tattoo or something. Because when. How. How many years ago, like, how many years after this would he have saved Luffy?

[Steve]

This is 14 years ago. So Luffy's five. So he meets Luffy when Luffy's seven, right?

[Steven Paul]

I don't know. That's. Yeah, I guess that's what I'm asking. So it was. It would have been a few years, but not that long after this that that that happened. So. Yeah, I mean, I guess I. That makes it less likely that Oda could write another thing where it's like, oh, well, actually Shanks got rid of the tattoo somehow and. And then he got his arm chopped off, you know, by the. Chomped off by the. The sea beast.

[Steve]

Yeah. Because I'm. I'm wondering what's gonna happen here because obviously like Harald cannot die, you know, while he has his tattoo. This thing pretty much ensures that he's immortal. So it's. But like Shanks hasn't. Didn't go all in. So I'm wondering if it's still kind of like, well, Shanks could still cut off his arm. And since he's not immortal, you know.

[Steven Paul]

It severs the link.

[Steve]

I'm wondering just like. So why did he still have his arm up until that moment? It just recontextualizing. I'm just humoring it by re. Contextualizing it. It. Because if it was simple as oh, if I cut it off, then, you know, then they can't trace me. It's like, so why didn't you cut it off? Yeah, but then I.

[Steven Paul]

Well, he also says in this chapter that like the. Getting the. You know, the. The next level is the thing that really kind of kick. Kick starts the whole process. Like he's. He's just kind of. As long as you're within the emu's range, whatever that happens to be, maybe that's just like Mary Jo. I don't know. That's what. That. What Shanks has. So maybe because he only has like the starter level tattoo, maybe that that means that like once he's away and just kind of sailing the world, he's sort of scott. Relatively scot free from. From emu.

[Steve]

Yeah. And I was just thinking that kind of explains like what the red haired pirates are up to. Because it's like, yeah, eventually Shanks is hanging out in the east blue.

[Steven Paul]

Why?

[Steve]

You know, and maybe it's just. He did that just like, hey, this is like the weakest sea. The world government's not gonna come out this far. I'm okay.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

And from what I could recall, Shanks was not an emperor at the time of chapter one. He became an emperor between. After he gave the hat to Luffy. And at least like the present, that was the pre time skin.

[Steven Paul]

Okay.

[Steve]

So I'm wondering maybe once his arm was cut off, he's like, oh, I'm kind of free to do what I want now and I can go wherever I want and not worry about being under control. And then that's when Shanks really kind of just rose to stardom. So I could see it tying into that.

[Steven Paul]

There's a narrative you can build, right?

[Steve]

Yes. I think there's some positives that could come out of this. My only thing, and I've talked about this before with the podcast, I'll try not to try to make this a little more unique. I'm just worried that this recontextualizes this whole sacrifice.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

And it kind of misses the point. Like, I think the wrong, like the wrong interpretation of this sacrifice would be. Yeah, but actually he was. He was a former knight for the evil world government. And then like, he decided that if he sacrifice his arm, he'll be free. And it's like, no, the whole point of that sacrifice was that Shanks lost some of his strength to ensure the future generations had a chance. It's like, that's the point of that. When you break it down. That's the point of that scene. You can't lose that. It's just like, no, actually, Shanks was pulling the strings and. And he decided to. And he said this was the right moment when he would lose his arm. And it. I think that. I don't know.

[Steven Paul]

I don't want to.

[Steve]

Like, for.

[Steven Paul]

For a minute there, like, it did look like there was a faint possibility that that was what Oda was doing. And like, like around the. The Shanks and Shamrock chapter. And then like, immediately it was like, oh, no, this is just Shanks. He. He was just acting and, you know, was. Was undercover. Basically. He. ODA could give us a little more context of like, like, maybe how. How do they react once Shanks leaves and they realize that, like, oh, he's becoming a great pirate now. Like, like, did he he us over or something? I think that would go a long way to like, helping kind of contextualize his actions or how his actions affect the larger picture. But I do agree with you. Like, I. I think that's one of those, like, third rail things in one piece. Like, you cannot mess with that sacrificial act in chapter one of the series. Like, it is core to what the series is. Like, you cannot do anything that messes with that. And that's What?

[Steve]

I. Yeah, that's what I say. That is like. It's like the. The. That is like the thesis.

[Steven Paul]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

And as soon as you're like, well, he did it so he didn't have to be involved in this. This, you know, dark, you know, deep government. Forgetting my terms here, pick your favorite. I. As soon as you do, you try to make it like, oh, but it's interesting. And, oh, how the thread unweaves. I'm like, that's. There's no heart to that anymore.

[Steven Paul]

Right.

[Steve]

It's only cool context.

[Steven Paul]

Yes. Yeah.

[Steve]

So I think, like, maybe it just like, yeah, if it's kind of like a two birds, one stone thing, like, oh, it just happened to be my left arm. Like, I'm willing to accept that. But if it's kind of just like, oh, yes, now it's like, it's not too underhanded. But if Shank's like, this is the perfect time for me to lose my arm, when you could have cut it off at any moment.

[Delaney]

People have taken their limbs off for far less in the One Piece universe. Like, this is not like Zeph's got a fucking word to have with you. If he was like, oh, well, there's surely no reason I would ever want to remove a limb just for the hell of it.

[Steve]

Kyros is staring daggers at you, too.

[Steven Paul]

Mr. Three had Zoro ready to cut his feet off. Like, Jesus.

[Steve]

Yeah, like, quit being such a big baby about it, Shanks.

[Delaney]

I. I don't know. Well, the reason that I was. I was thinking about it is that I am. I'm torn.

[Steven Paul]

I.

[Delaney]

Like. And, I mean, part of the reason I was mulling it over, like, all morning was because last night, I had my monthly patron movie night. And the film that we watched was the 2025 remake of Snow White, which I went out of my way to not watch.

[Steve]

I checked, letterboxd, and I was wondering what tailspin you were in that led to you watching that.

[Delaney]

What had gone.

[Steve]

I should have messaged you. Should I?

[Delaney]

Are you okay? No. It was a little Christmas, like, special. It's like, all right, we're all gonna get through this together. And it just struck me how much everything is explained to the point where, like, everything has the utility. It's like our political system is based off of Steven is walking away.

[Steve]

Mark Merritt's like, no, Stephen, Paul, come back. Come on. Stephen, Paul.

[Delaney]

Stephen, Stephen, Paul, come back. Come back. But they explain everything with complete utility. It's like, oh, well, they make apple pies and that's their only political system. Oh, Snow White.

[Steve]

Are you kidding me?

[Delaney]

Snow White had long hair. And they.

[Steve]

Apple pies are part of the plot line.

[Delaney]

Apparently a kingdom with prosperity means apple pies, like, all the time. Apple pies are.

[Steve]

She just like, baking apple pie.

[Delaney]

Apple pies are Marxism when you think about it.

[Steve]

God, this is.

[Delaney]

There's a backstory for the haircut. They're like, oh, well, the queen cut her hair off because clearly no one would choose to have short hair. This is why they do it. But, like, that's what I was thinking about.

[Steve]

Like, oh, this is not a visual podcast. So you can't see me just like kind of motion with my hands, like, pleading for Delaney insanity here.

[Delaney]

I need to stop.

[Steve]

It's happening. It's happening with one piece too. And I guess it's not just like a. A one piece fandom problem or just like a fandom problem.

[Delaney]

It might be a cultural.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

And like, we're living in an age where IPs are being restored and like the Legacy sequels, where every little thing is actually super important. Like in Ghostbusters. Like, what was something that was like.

[Delaney]

The idolization of Ghostbusters, like, the mythos of Ghostbusters.

[Steve]

Ghostbusters did a Luke's lightsaber thing or Hans Dice thing. I'm trying to remember what exactly it was. It's something that Egon had. And I'm like, that's just a bit in the movie.

[Delaney]

Wasn't it like a candy bar? Like a Twinkie or some shit? Like, actually the Twinkie is like, there's a secret to the Twinkies. Like, no, there's not the Twinkies. A metaphor made by New Yorkers.

[Steven Paul]

You want to know what the nadir of this is? I. I watched recently 2025's Happy Gilmore 2. Which.

[Delaney]

Which, like, how did you find one worse than mine? Stephen?

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, no, no, because every single line that people like from the first movie gets repeated in the second movie. Like. Like it's like quoting from the Bible. It is. Is so self referential. And yeah, it's. It's nuts.

[Steve]

It's. Yeah, it. It's just. It's a current. We're in a really dark period of just movie making and storytelling, cinema, where everything.

[Delaney]

Everything is utilitarian. Like, it's. It's after years of media critique where it's like, well, why would someone do that? That doesn't make any sense. Well, now we gotta explain every single thing that happens in a plot. And I see shades of it here, like, with The Shanks thing, where it's like, well, actually, how would a guy with that much hockey ever lose against a fish? And it's like, Like, I don't know. Because there's a kid in the boat and he's gotta save the kid in the boat. And that's the. Like, that's it. It doesn't go deeper than that. You don't make smart decisions when you've got a fucking giant fish attacking a child. You just kinda do what you're doing. But you know, I have also heard.

[Steve]

And also that's. Sorry, sorry. I'm just like. I'm saying, like, that's a better story than it is. Oh. Like Shanks saw the future in this young boy and decided that he had to for just happened. It's like just. Just leave this fruit in front of him so that he would meet his like, fate and eat it. But then also he wait for the perfect opportunity for something to happen where he could get his arm cut off. You know, it's kind of just like, then why not just let one of the bandits do it to you?

[Delaney]

Yeah.

[Steve]

At that point would have saved you a lot of trouble. But it's like, I think just like this, this ongoing, like, need to be like. Like to create all these twists and turns and all these deep meanings behind things when kind of like something on the surface level is just a better story all around. It's simplify, man.

[Delaney]

I don't know, Minimize.

[Steve]

Sorry, Delaney.

[Delaney]

You were saying when minimalism was invented by Ephraim Minimalist Jr. Yeah, no, it's. I mean, I don't want to judge. Cause we don't know, like there could be anything. Yeah, there's time. There's plenty of time. And I would be unsurprised if this were left hanging and then picked up at some point later. Or maybe they are just gonna wrap it all up by the end of this extended bit with Harold and Loki. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I'm not gonna jump to anything. I can see where it might be interesting. But I did also think it's like, hmm. I think maybe we're getting a little bit too into the details, which has been a bit of a problem where it's like, surprise, everyone's related. It's actually Once Upon a Time all over again.

[Steve]

Yes. I mean, yeah. Like I said my reaction to that Gabon panel and I'm like, pop your kettle, Oda. Sorry. The Ghostbusters thing was driving me nuts and I. Afterlife. Yeah, Janine had her. They showed the lucky Co. You know, like. Because that was like this. This MacGuffin when all it was. It's a bit from the first movie. She's like, oh, here's a coin I got from the World's Fair. It's my lucky coin. I want you to have it. And the joke is just. Egon doesn't take it because he says we might not be coming back. It's just meant to be a joke.

[Delaney]

It's not even the full joke. It's not even the full joke. It's the tee up to a joke about how they're gonna die.

[Steve]

Yeah. And then you just. You turn it into sacred item, you know, the sacred text.

[Delaney]

You know, I mean, it is different for Oda because like he's. This has been his entire like 360 peripheral vision for fucking years. Like, I'm sure that it's a very different thing from the way that we now mythologize certain events, especially something like Shanks saving Luffy. Than.

[Steve]

It is more like Ghostbusters than anything. I love Ghostbusters. I'm sorry, but I'm like, I. Some of my fellow millennials are fucking nuts.

[Delaney]

He bullies you because he loves you, but it's a different experience. And I. I will say this for Oda. He is good at presenting things that are a bit like, a bit scary in terms of. From a storytelling perspective. I'm like, this could get unwieldy. Where the fuck is this gonna go? And then levels it out. He has the skill that every writer wants to have, which is the ability to land on their feet and go, surprise. This is what I was intending to do all along and actually sell it. Because very few writers have that skill that not everyone can.

[Steven Paul]

I let. If we break this down. So, like, let's assume that this is all we get with Shanks. Or, you know, maybe they'll. There'll be a little bit more in the. In the. The throne room. But it's maybe not. Like Shanks's personal history is not really the important thing at this moment. We're. We're telling the story of why Elbaf is the way it is right now. But, you know, here we have a scene where he's talking about the. The power of this. This mark and what it can. Can do to you. He's there with Gabon, so he's telling Gabon. And it's crucial, you know, it's central to what happened to. To Harold. So like, if we get back to the present day and then. And then we're faced with Loki and we're. We're fighting against the. The holy knights, who again, same power that. That we're dealing with. And Gabon is present as well. I would not be surprised at all if, you know, like, we get a little moment where Gabon says something about like, yeah, this reminds me of another conversation I had with Shanks where, you know, he's. Oh, yeah, you know, there's this weirdest thing like it, you know, that I. To save this little kid and blah, blah, blah, and. And he finds some way to. To. To tell you what happened from Shanks's perspective that. That maybe completely obliterates the whole, like, oh, it was all a scheme to make the story cooler, you know, like, Oda can do that. Like, he's. He's a smart enough writer to. To find a good rationalization. So I would not be at all surprised if something like that happens towards like the. The. The denouement of this arc when everything's cool enough.

[Delaney]

I've been expecting. My line of thought, just as a reader, is that. But once we get to laugh tale, I'm thinking like, okay, I'm anticipating the Shanks bomb, which is like, okay, we're just gonna kind of get like, the perspective. Like, the last big flashback I would have to assume would be Shanks. Like, there's no other. Like, this explains a lot about him, but he's still not the focus character. Technically. It's still Harold. And I think that you're right though, Steven, is that we're gonna. If whatever the payoff to this is, there's a very strong chance that because the focus of this flashback is the state of Elbaf, it'll get meted in somewhere else, presumably where it can actually be the focal point of the conversation rather than. And be distracting from whatever the hell's going on.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, like, I would be kind of pissed if we got like an extra three or four pages of Shanks describing all of this stuff when there's a really dramatic and really important scene happening at this very moment that would be diminished because of that. So.

[Delaney]

Especially because we're not going back to Shanks. We're going back to Loki. And by the way, a lot of really fucked up shit going on on Elbaf that we have been very pointedly neglecting for the better half of a year. Like, are there not still children, like, out on a bridge, hanging over the sky.

[Steve]

Falling down a well?

[Delaney]

And we're not sending Lassie.

[Steve]

They set the library on fire. So I guess that's not happening anymore. But I don't know that happened in, like, what may.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah.

[Delaney]

The last time I was on the show, I think, is like, when we started the flashback and now here I am. Oh, my. We're still going.

[Steve]

Yeah. I feel the whole time moves. Time moves forward slower on Elbaf theory that I think Greg shot down. But I'm like, yeah, that's what's happened. The manga's Elbaf. And then like, here, time is going by way too quick. I'm gonna be old and gray before this flashback is done.

[Delaney]

You look in the mirror and you're Jerul. It's been you the whole time.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, we're going to come out and have a flashback. It's like, It's. It's part two of the. You know, the bat, the classic Batman. 66 episodes. Like, oh, shit, I forgot Batman was stuck in the contraption. You know, all the kids are in trouble. That's. That's what it's going to be like.

[Steve]

Yeah, it's gonna be like. Wait, who's like, Jim Bae's part of the crew.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah. Ace.

[Delaney]

Ace the. The. The. The flame. Pirate it. No, no, no. I'm talking about Ace the. The. The flame. Flame fruit. If something happened to Ace, I. With respect, I would know about it.

[Steve]

Still dead. I. I don't think we're gonna see any elaboration on Shanks. I think, yeah, that's best left saved for obviously much later, maybe at Laugh Tale. Yeah. And I think this. This flashback is detoured enough, so I really want it, like, stay on top of it. And I think it is doing that. Yeah. It's on Harold and Loki, and I think that's where it stays where it's staying. But the Shanks was just talking.

[Delaney]

No, sorry, sorry. This is. I just. It's what you were saying about what we were talking about with like, the flow of information is that this will probably be relevant later, but right now it is just a very good way to explain why the fuck Harold is popping off in the throne room. And that's like. That's why the flow feels so much better. Cause I don't feel like we've stopped the chapter to go on a weird tangent about plot setup. This is relevant right now and it helps the chapter keep moving. And I think that's why this one is one of the better ones.

[Steve]

Yeah, it serves the story in the chapter now, but it's also setting up crumbs for something else down the line. Something that Oda's no stranger to. He always does that. And I think that's what's kept one piece so fresh is kind of just. Instead of just. Just dumping everything, like, up, like, here's this new plot device or this plot line. I'm just gonna get right into it. No, he's always set things up, like, way in advance, like God Valley. God Valley was set up during.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Freaking wano.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

So.

[Steven Paul]

And he. He saved this. This little expository bit about, you know, the. The. The added powers of the. The covenant. He could have gone through that when they were talking about it in Mary Joa, you know, when we first found out about it. But he said he held this back for. For this, you know, later moment that where. Where it actually is, you know, very, very pointed to what is happening. So it's kind of like, you, good job.

[Steve]

Instead of just like, yeah, going in this, be like, oh, well, they can't save Harold now. Or it's. It's kind of just. It's. It's save this information to like, hammer down the sad reality. Like, oh, actually, this. This is what's going to. It's like, this is what's happening. This is why Harold can't be saved. I was not expecting this long of a discussion here for this chapter. So, you know, so it, you know, it's a good one.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

If it just inspires this much talking. But I enjoyed this a lot. I don't know if any of you guys had anything else you wanted to declare. Mention.

[Steven Paul]

I think I'm. I'm good.

[Delaney]

I'm yapped out.

[Steve]

Yep. I'm. I'm spent. But we still have a. We still have the fans questions, comments, concerns. I keep pointing at the camera, but this is an audio podcast.

[Delaney]

You're doing the Parliament Point Fans, friends concerns.

[Steve]

Piece together.

[Delaney]

Experience a membership that backs what you're building with American Express Business Platinum.

[Steve]

Get 2 times Membership Rewards points per.

[Delaney]

Dollar on eligible purchases in key business categories as well as on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more on up to $2 million in eligible purchases per calendar year. American Express Business Platinum. There's nothing like it. Terms apply. Learn [e-mail] Business Platinum TIS the season.

[Steve]

To cozy up with all your favorite holiday movies and shows you coming where.

[Delaney]

To the North Pole, of course.

[Steve]

Like a very Jonah's Christmas movie and Home Alone on Disney.

[Steven Paul]

Did I burn down the joy? I don't think so.

[Steve]

Then snuggle up with the Polar Express.

[Steven Paul]

And National Lampoon's Christmas vacation with Hulu on Disney Plus. I think we're all in for a very big Christmas treat this season.

[Steve]

There's something for everyone with Hulu on.

[Steven Paul]

Disney plus bundle subscription required terms apply.

[Steve]

Visit disneyplus.com hulu for details. Kraft Mac and Cheese Is the Best Thing ever. It's even better than pop music.

[Delaney]

You look just as natural enjoying us at age 13 as you do 55. Kraft Mac and Cheese Cheese best thing ever.

[Steve]

This is the Piece Together segment. We take your questions, comments, concerns and leave a nice warm fruit tart on the windowsill for these little heat like yeah, actually. Yeah, there's no joke behind that joke behind it at all. I think we all just deserve a nice little fruit tart that's as big as a house.

[Delaney]

But Marxistly.

[Steve]

Did Ripley bake an apple pie to put on the windowsill to serve as a symbol of Marxism Mark their house says reds only. Oh boy. Okay, so anyway, we're gonna kick off this segment like we usually do with a segment called Dis piece that's with answering all questions comments in our Discord channel but exclusive to certain members of the Patreon. So we're gonna start with Big J of today and he writes hello. I hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday and a special shout out to all the parents who are all sick.

[Delaney]

I'm sure they really appreciate it.

[Steve]

They're all sick because their kids got them sick. Getting to be a father has been such an amazing adventure and has only deepened my love for the series. Once again. In the long list of recommendations from the opposite, here's looking at you Gold Bond. I saw oh Mary with my partner last night after Alex had mentioned when talking about the Cole Escola playing Mr. 2. Thank you Alex. I can't believe I've been listening to you all for almost 10 years. Started around when Carrot went su long when the One Piece magazine with Oda's interview special episode was posted on Reddit late 2017. I can't believe whole cake was just about 10 years ago. 10 too. 2 questions. Any more live shows? It was really cool to see the podcast live. I've been more focused on experiences such as live music and shows. Just saw a Rockugo show in NYC last weekend. Any oh so any more special episode or rankings or read throughs? These were what I binged first when I started listening. Also, can someone make a playlist of all the ranking and specials like the arcs of consequence? I'd pay extra on Patreon for that. Well, first of all, thank you so much for listening to our show for 10 years. Thanks for sticking with us. I appreciate It. It's. God, so much has changed. I mean, for us and just one piece in general, but really appreciate the support. But let's get into the questions. Live shows. I. I think I could speak for all of us when I say probably not anytime soon, just because, as you were talking about, with a few of the hosts and cast members being parents, it's very hard to get everybody together. I think we would have liked to have done one in New York again this year, but I think just the timing just didn't work out. So it really depends. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna get your hopes up. I'm not gonna guarantee anything, but I don't think anyone is completely opposed to them. It's just a matter of venue, timing, and everyone's availability. Conventions used to be the best place for that, but not all of us are even going to that many.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, you're kind of it, Steve.

[Steve]

Yeah, yeah, the last holder. But even I'm not like, I'm not even, like, tabling at many cons these days. I'm usually just.

[Steven Paul]

Sungwon's head bodyguard.

[Steve]

Yeah. So I'm not. But I always thought, like, I think it's okay to talk about this. I think if we were to still try to do panels at conventions, we can't do it the same way we used to, because believe it or not, even like 10 years ago, there was no one piece representation at conventions. So we could just go in there and just be like, we're the One Piece podcast. We're gonna host a panel about one piece. That's the panel.

[Delaney]

You get your one.

[Steve]

I don't think you could do that anymore, right? Yeah.

[Delaney]

This is what you get, motherfucker.

[Steve]

It's like, we're gonna talk about it and everyone in the audience is gonna. Sorry, I'm getting maybe a little too self conscious there. I. I think my opinion that if I were to, like, do panels again, I would want to do something special and not just, let's. Let's talk about the manga recap, the live shows. I don't think that's such a bad idea. Like, oh, it's like a live recording of a podcast. But the.

[Steven Paul]

The problem too, is if. If you're like, oh, well, we, you know, okay, we got to pick a really big convention to, like, make the most of a panel for us to actually get to. Well, most of the big conventions at this point, like, they don't really. They're not really booking, like, oh, here's a fan panel about, you know, random big Popular series. No, like ax. You can't do that anymore. They will kick you out of the building.

[Steve]

No.

[Steven Paul]

If you even suggest.

[Steve]

Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy to me. Just a little over 10 years ago, we were still doing panels.

[Steven Paul]

Not anymore.

[Steve]

Yeah, that. That is. That is gone. AX is just a strictly industry thing. They get the hell out of this room. Studio Trigger has to promote something. You know, that's what it is now. Yeah. I don't know. I'm not gonna ask for suggestions for panels, but I feel like what would inspire me to do a panel at a convention again is just bringing something.

[Steven Paul]

Different.

[Steve]

And not just something like doing hot takes or something. And that's just.

[Delaney]

Whatever.

[Steve]

I don't know. Sorry that I went on a long tangent there, but your other question was playlists with rankings and the read throughs. I could have swore Zach did that on the SoundCloud, which I think is still up.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, maybe on the Patreon, he's.

[Steve]

I haven't looked myself. Trust me, when I. When I go on the Patreon, I do my sticker thing.

[Delaney]

I thought there was a compilation on YouTube. Am I crazy? Did they. Did they not do that? Maybe I'll double check.

[Steven Paul]

I know Zach compiled the arcs of consequence into one, one big video, but. Yeah, the problem too with Patreon is that it's not really good for, like, here's like, our pinned post. Like, here's where you can get all of the. This normal stuff that. That we offer, since it tends to be more like. Like, here's the newest post. Although I, you know, I don't know, maybe there's a way to do that that I'm just not familiar with.

[Steve]

But, yeah, it's like, Patreon's a little tougher to navigate. And trust me, when there's podcasts I like listening to on Patreon, I have to search. Well, it's up to the creator's discretion to really kind of make all these playlists, but I think it's a good idea. Yeah, it's funny, I looked on our YouTube page real quick just to see what our playlists were, and these haven't been.

[Delaney]

And I was literally just talking the same thing.

[Steve]

There's a season and these episodes are in the 5002, and I like that our favorites playlist is fully visible and the thumbnail is the Wilhelm Scream from the Dragon Ball Z Kaiga.

[Delaney]

A likely place for it to be. Okay, Yeah, I think you're right. I think the only one that we have is just the Big compilation of arcs of consequence that they did a couple years ago that the nine hour arcs of consequence, though, you know, nine hours to nine hours of arc rankings to veg out to.

[Steve]

And I don't think you have to pay any extra for there to be playlists. I think it's just. I think that that should be available to you so much like apple pies.

[Delaney]

You should just be allowed to have those. Yes, that's the mark of prosperity. Free playlist.

[Steve]

There's nothing more Marxist than warm apple pie and baseball.

[Delaney]

Warm apple pie, baseball, and a podcast in every pot.

[Steve]

All right. Return sword patch says Blader chapter is always opposite. Now that's what I call Shanks. I feel like they're pitching episode titles here. Dangerous Game, as in Jarl got shanked through the head. Also, Shanks is here. Okay, anyway. Okay, anyway. How do we think Harold is going to go down? I gotta think that the reason Loki calls Shanks a coward in the present is because Red Hare is going to be the one to ultimately murder him. Harold. Right. Like there will be some situation where Harold is temporarily in control of his own senses and Shanks ends up shanking him while his guard is down. Taking out the dummied king is gonna take some teamwork. So I assume something has to happen to give Loki that cowardly impression even before he got captured.

[Delaney]

This person is braver than I am for not phrasing it. How is the dummy gang gonna go down than just leaving it there?

[Steve]

Maybe I knew. Yeah. Why is Shanks a coward?

[Steven Paul]

Or. Or maybe. Maybe Shanks has a chance to do it and then he doesn't, you know, kill Harold and. Oh, and Loki runs away or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Exactly. Yeah. I don't know. That's. That is kind of a. I. I kind of forgot about that. It's like, I don't usually think about, like. Oh, yeah, right. Shanks captured Loki because it. You know, we still haven't kind of seen where that wraps back around to the present day. Maybe that's coming at the end of this flashback. You know, this is what we need another chapter or two to explain before we get back to the present.

[Steve]

Why not? What's another volume of flashback?

[Steven Paul]

Yeah. At this point.

[Delaney]

Oh, those kids. Those kids aren't going anywhere.

[Steve]

Usopp the Great writes Hey ho Opp and Happy Holidays. Well, that chapter was a nice balance of lore, dump and action. But now we know that Shanks does have a tattoo and can be influenced if he is close to IMU and the box. I think that Joy Boy was. Was a giant. And that is the gum gum fruit. The hammer. I have no idea. Always looking forward to the next part of the story as it unfolds.

[Steven Paul]

Hmm. Joy boys. The gum gum fruit. But doesn't Loki eat the gum gum fruit?

[Steve]

Well, we know.

[Steven Paul]

Oh, oh, I see what he means. Because it's the Nika fruit. It's not the gum gum fruit. Right.

[Steve]

Maybe because we know Loki is a devil fruit user, but we still don't know what it is.

[Steven Paul]

We don't know what it is.

[Steve]

Yeah, but did they say like he ate the treasure of Elbaf?

[Steven Paul]

I mean, I'm just, you know, drawn a conclusion that that would be an interesting wrinkle to throw in at the last second of like. Well, I didn't say it was that fruit. He actually ate this other one.

[Steve]

No, not that. Not that Treasured devil fruit. That treasured devil fruit.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

I could have swore. I thought. I. Like there was a passing line that said like, oh, he ate like a treasure. Measured.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, I think. I think he did before the flashback. Yes.

[Steve]

So I could see how it could, you know, it tie in with the Nika fruit and all that, but I don't think so. I think it was already set up to be something else. And I'm still trying to think how the government had it had had in their possession in the first place. It'd be weird for like say like, oh, like Emu was able to manipulate Harold to bring it back to Mary Jo and then what, they just hot potato it around or something? So I don't think it is. I think it's maybe something else. Salakkarna writes. Hey Op. Hey. Hey Opp. Happy holidays. I hope everyone is on for this week's episode because you guys are great. Well, I don't know who's great. The people that showed up here who got their flu shots.

[Delaney]

This is a charitable but, yeah.

[Steven Paul]

I'm.

[Steve]

Cutting them off saying nice things, but may your cups never empty and your bellies are always full. See you guys and gals in the next year. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to just write something nice and I'm sure the sentiment is appreciated amongst everyone and always appreciate your support. Looking forward to seeing you in the new year. So thank you for that. Next one is from Big Mike. He says, here are the ages of the characters. 38 years ago during the God Valley incident in 1987.

[Steven Paul]

Oh, boy.

[Steve]

Garp is 40, Roger's 39. Edward Newgate is 34. Stussy is 38. Linlin is 30, Struzan is 54, Rayleigh is 40 and Shocky is 26. Making their age gap two years more than Luffy and Hancock's. Wow. Also currently that makes Shaky the same age as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and former U.S. president Barack Obama. Now, the cynical members of Generation X. Kaido. Kaido is 21, Dragon is 17. Big news. Morgans is 15, Ivankov is 15, Ginny is 13 and Kuma is 9. And now the millennials teach is 2. Shanks and Shamrock are 1. Wow.

[Steven Paul]

When you put it in that context, it makes so much sense, it's easier.

[Steve]

For me to remember. I lie.

[Delaney]

I can't get over how is Shaky like Obama?

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, she's currently the same age.

[Delaney]

Yeah, no, that's what I'm saying. It's like I didn't really think that I was gonna hear when that question. When that well, rather update got started, I was gonna hear about how shaky's like the former President of the United States.

[Steven Paul]

Believe it or not. Both Pizza wolves. Would you believe it?

[Steve]

I just like I. I just find it funny that Kaido and Dragon are. No, Kaido and Dragon being Gen Xers Makes a lot of sense.

[Delaney]

Yeah, that tracks.

[Steve]

Straw Hat Rigby writes. Hey Opp. Happy Holidays. So something has been bugging me, and that's the Abyss Portal. If the portal has been there since Harold has. Since Harold has received the Higher Contract tattoo, why the fuck has an emu or the Holy Knights used it at all before now? We know the government emu wants the giants for their military might, and they have had the literal. They've had this literal direct connection to the island for 14 years. In story, obviously we see in chapter 1168 the abyss portal on the ground. Usually I'm a wait and see type of person with questions like this, but it seems like such a and immediate oversight. That's just making me crazy. There just better be an insanely good reason in story why the portal was just left alone for so long until right now we know that the Abyss Portal doesn't need someone on one end to summon people there. Since Shamrock and Gunko appear in the castle at the beginning of the arc on their own and the giant guards say, how did you get past us? Making it seem like there wasn't an inside person summoning them there. Summoners. Summers even asks if they just traveled there on their own to visit Harold's grave, showing that they just went of their own accord with no one on Elbaf. Summon them there. Summoning them there just seems Like a really big issue in the story. And I hope Oda delivers a very good reason for it all. Have a great holiday.

[Steven Paul]

Well, I mean, you just, I guess that's assuming that they had a reason to go there, which, I don't know that they did in the time between, You know, like, Luffy is there now. So, like, that's, well, let's see. What, Let me, let me see. What, what did the, what is the. They, they included the pages from Blah blah, blah. Oh, that was just. Yeah. Gunko shows up and says, we're looking for Loki. I don't know. I feel like, I feel like, yes, we don't really know. We don't have a, necessarily a good answer, but we also don't have a good answer why they would need to be there either. So I, Yeah, I don't know. I, I don't. This doesn't seem like a pressing issue at yet to me, Delaney.

[Delaney]

No, see, when the, when the question started, because it's been long enough, I kind of assumed like, oh, is it gonna be that is the abyss portal tied to someone being there who has the tat? But that I did forget that Shamrock and Gunko, I guess, did just portal in. Unless that was one of those things where they made the portal and they didn't really get shown. I think that person is correct that like, like, from the way it's framed, the abyss portal is there. I, I, I guess I, I, I'm on a wait and see basis on that one, but it does. That's an interesting question. I'm curious to know why that's hanging around.

[Steven Paul]

I do, I do think that based on what we have seen Emu doing and not doing it, it feels like they do not actively ever like, physically leave the, the castle. Like, we've never seen them going outside. They're, they're only in the, the flower area or sitting on the throne. And, and the, the, the times that we've seen them outside, it's, it's been possessing like Saturn and stuff. So I do feel like there's probably a power reason or just a character characterization reason that Emu doesn't go in there. And so maybe the holy. I mean, there's only a couple holy nights. Maybe they have more important missions or something that were not relevant until now. So. Yeah, Steve.

[Steve]

All right. Yeah, I'm still here. Sorry, I had to respond to another message here on Discord. The thing that we use for this segment, it's annoying. And then our last is going to be from prison Mike, who Could be too late for questions. It's not. And this is directed at Steven, who's here.

[Steven Paul]

Hey.

[Steve]

Anyways, Steven, how many times have you had the WTF moment? As you get to look at the early release to translate, like, you can't wait to discuss, but you can't tell anyone for a week or however long, and you're just barely holding it together. And to get to talk about it.

[Steven Paul]

Hey. Hey. I'm Marc Maron. This is wtf. He showed up after all. Wow.

[Delaney]

Oh, my God, he's here.

[Steve]

We've referenced Marc Maron three times, so he has to appear magically now.

[Delaney]

Beetlejuice.

[Steve]

That smell. It's cigarette smoke. Christmas Day, and Marc Maron's here to podcast with us.

[Delaney]

I shall keep podcasting in my heart for always. Yeah, sorry.

[Steve]

You there, young boy. Get the finest zoom mic in town.

[Delaney]

Steven. Steven, please.

[Steven Paul]

I think. I think Marc Maron was 30 during the God Valley incident, probably. Okay, how many times have I had the WTF moment? As I get to look quite often, obviously. You know, I'm a fan of the series, obviously. So I do get that. That, like, whoa, this happened. Oh, man. And, yeah, it is tough. It is. It is. The, you know, the. The. The private cross that I bear for being the guy who gets to see it early is like, I can't go shouting it from the rooftops to anyone who will listen. What will happen? I think the. The most that I do is if it's something that's super, you kind of like what I did a little bit. Like, what I did at the end of the manga recap where I was like, hey, watch out. Like, spoilers are going to be around sometimes. If there is something where I'm like, oh, this is not the usual level of, like, spoilable material. Like, this is going to be a big thing. This is going to be something that people share everywhere. Like, sometimes I'll let. I'll let these guys know. Like, I'm not going to say, like, what it is, but I'm just like, hey, guys, just watch out this week because, you know, it's going to be Right, right, right. Especially for people like Steve who are like, you know, on Instagram and places where it's just like. I mean, the entire thing is visual, so you're just gonna get immediately slapped in the face with the pictures of stuff, you know.

[Steve]

You know me. I'm the most social. Social media addicted of all of us.

[Steven Paul]

Oh, yeah. Get off the damn thing.

[Steve]

The problem is because every, like, you know, because I don't really? Check Twitter that much. But then, like, the demons consumed me and I was just browsing it the other day, and now Twitter just shows accounts that people are applying to that.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah, they changed that. Yeah, that's annoying.

[Steve]

And with Instagram, like, I saw a minor spoiler just because it was promoting threads. And threads is like the biggest. Threads are so click baity. It's. It's rough. But we always do appreciate those warnings. And you all there, take heed. Take warnings. There'd be spoilers about it anyway. I don't know. Enjoy your holiday. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, go to the movies or something. What do you do?

[Delaney]

Or else you're gonna get visited by the ghost of Steven Paul, Steven present, and Steven Future.

[Steven Paul]

Oh, I like that. That's good.

[Steve]

Steven Future. I think Stephen Pass is kind of like, oh, wtf? I want to talk about this chapter.

[Steven Paul]

I want to listen to wtf.

[Delaney]

Surprise. It's actually a time loop. And I've been Mark Marin all along.

[Steve]

That was cigarette smoke I smelled. That's gonna do it for this piece. But Steven, do we. Yeah, we gotta have something else.

[Steven Paul]

We have a little handful of comments over on the subreddit archipelago. That is Reddit.com r one piece podcast. First one from amiibohunter says, hey, opp, this chapter was a ton of fun. I loved the God Valley flashback arc, but I am so excited to be back in Elbaf. What a brutal chapter. We got Attude's head getting crushed and two impalements on one page. On the COVID we see Gonzui, I think, eating grapes. And I noticed those grapes are gigantic in comparison to Stussy, who was right next to the grapes. Did Strusen. Did Strusen make giant grapes for Gonzui? Wow, this is like a tongue twister. Or did the rocks pirates find giant grapes somewhere along the way on their journey? These are the questions I must have answers to. Thank you, opp, for everything you do every year for the fans. I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season and new year, celebrating in whatever you see fit with people who bring you comfort and joy. I'm looking forward to another year of opp. Oh, thank you.

[Steve]

Thank you so much.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, those are definitely some monster grapes for sure. Yeah, I don't know, maybe that's just a God Valley export. A giant grape. You don't hear about them because you just think of the. The tragedy.

[Steve]

God Valley Vineyards.

[Delaney]

Fruit of the Loki.

[Steven Paul]

Wow. Yeah, I like it. Taffy Lackey says, yo App Manager is a horrible day for Elbaf with the massacre in the castle. I feel the worst for all the family and friends of the guards. So many lost their sons, their dads, their brothers and so on. It'd be reasonable for all of them to hate Loki given the available information. But even if they were given the full truth that Harald killed them all against his will because of the evil shadow ruler of the world, it'd be entirely reasonable for them to hate Harald for it. I'd hate Harald if I was in their shoes. Yeah, it's a bad situation. It's very bad. And our. Our third and final comment here is from Ice Fisher 10, who says. Felicitations opp. An exciting jump festa to ring in the new year with anticipation. Could we be in store for a canon movie perhaps? Wow. You just. You. You took that idea right from. From our. From our intro. Regarding the manga, I want to point out that the yet to be released Volume 114, which will contain these past 12 chapters, will be the first volume in one piece history to not feature Luffy in a single panel, excluding all ancillary pages that aren't the actual story. Neat, right? Do you think he'll still make the COVID though?

[Steve]

Wow. This was the question I was going to ask. That's nuts.

[Steven Paul]

That. I guess. Yeah. So I guess Odin's flashback was like. Was like what, like eight chapters in one volume and eight chapters in another. So there would have been a little bit of Luffy on the outsides.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Steven Paul]

Wow. That is crazy. Yeah.

[Steve]

I. Because that's the thing. How could you put Luffy on the chapter Unless they do like a Nolan Calgara thing where they're. Oh, what a nice book.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

Because I feel like this feels like a thing where you have to have Luffy on the COVID He's the main character. But there's. I mean, there are a few that he's not on.

[Steven Paul]

That's true. Yeah.

[Steve]

That's usually because it's. It's on like the villains.

[Steven Paul]

It's a two part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like when he did the. The wano. The three part one where it was all the straw hats. So obviously he was only on one of the three, but. Yeah, yeah. That's a good question.

[Steve]

Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm looking at my shelf right now and it's what. I think it's four for sure. I think this is a trivia question. We got one time. Because I know it's. It's four, but. Yeah, I don't know if there's anything else out there. But I can't get over that. These flashbacks are so dense.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

But. Yeah, I wonder. I'm trying to think because what kind of context can you have them in there? Because Luffy. Maybe it could be like something with Luffy. With Loki. Yeah, but we'll see. We'll see. Something to chew on. Thanks for writing in.

[Steven Paul]

It's a good question. Yeah, that's it for Reddit.

[Steve]

Alrighty. If. Well, if. You know, if. Yeah, because that's. Yeah, let's go do it for piece of guy. If your deaths did not come to you soon enough yet. Just hang in there. Stay with us. We're going to close out the show and then you're free. You can do with your life as you wish. Yeah. All right.

[Delaney]

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[Steven Paul]

This episode is brought to you by Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels and music are made for each other.

[Steve]

They share a rhythm and the craft.

[Steven Paul]

Of making something timeless while being a part of legendary nights.

[Steve]

From backyard jams to sold out arenas. There's a song in every toast.

[Steven Paul]

Please drink responsibly. Responsibility.org, jack Daniels and old number seven are registered trademarks. Tennessee whiskey, 40% alcohol by volume. Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee.

[Steve]

This has been the One Piece podcast episode 898, the last of 2025. I have a question for you too. I, you know, I, you know, I watched some videos, listen to some podcasts and some people say like, oh, the year 2012 and 2025, do you guys say 2000 end Blankety Blank? Or do you say like 20, 2025 or just 2025? I'm curious.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, that would be pretty pretentious, I think. I don't do stuff like that.

[Delaney]

I like when people say 2,025. But like as someone who has to say years frequently, it's like I would be put like, you know, it's all well and good. It's like welcome to the the One Piece podcast year of 2025. And then you continue your sentence doing some other off the cuff. Writing that into a script is a dog decision and I want you to want better for yourself.

[Steven Paul]

When I was a kid at. At school, there was a. There was a family. I remember these brothers that had. Had moved here from. It might have been like Saudi Arabia or something like that. And I just. I have this very vivid memory where the teacher was asking, like, what the date was like, like to. To test us or something. And this kid who. Who clearly English was not his first language, but that he had said, you know, whatever it was a January, you know, 17th, like 1993, which was. Just blew my mind that you could say the year that way when I. When I was a kid like that. And that was a very, very vivid memory that you just pulled back for me, but.

[Steve]

Which was pretentious, I would say, just asking the question or.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah, he had a good excuse. I think he was doing the best with his knowledge.

[Steve]

I think I was just. I was just kind of curious because I've heard some people say that, and I'm like, how many people do say that? Is this what people want to do?

[Steven Paul]

Are we starting? Is this what we're doing for 2026?

[Steve]

2026, 26. I think I'm just gonna go back the 90s. To me, it's like 19 and 99.

[Steven Paul]

Nice.

[Steve]

See, that sounds too much like two separate things, but I guess like 2000s, you could get away with it.

[Delaney]

Yeah, that's a bit earlier in the century. It's like, it's glorious. 19 and 99. And we're here watching the Hindenburg.

[Steve]

Can you believe it? We're still here.

[Delaney]

Can you believe it? 19 and 35. What will they come up with next?

[Steve]

But thank you both Steven and Delaney for hopping on doing the show with me. Thank you to our fans for being patient and waiting for this late episode. I appreciate all my other co hosts, fellow guests who could not make it, but we had a really good manga recap for the last chapter of 2025 and a little bit of piece together. And we have some great stuff to look forward to in early. God, now I feel like every time I say the year, I feel like I'm emphasizing way too much on 20.

[Delaney]

You jinxed it.

[Steve]

26? Yeah, no, it just sounds. No, now I'm like, oh, am I coming off too pretentious? Because I'm saying the year the way I do. But in early 2026, on January 4th, we're doing our. Our episode 900 live stream. It's gonna be a big day of podcasting and one piece stuff. Stay tuned to our social media for further details on what we have in store and what we have scheduled. And obviously we'll have a manga recap as well. But yeah, I want you two to plug your stuff, let people know where you can find you. Steven, why don't you start?

[Steven Paul]

I'm on BlueSkyVenPaul BSky Social and you can read One Piece and Akane Banashi when they return in two weeks on ShonenJump.com or MangaPlus Co JP.

[Steve]

And Delaney.

[Delaney]

You can also find me on Blue sky at Infinite Snow, BSGuy Socialith Think Infinite Snow Productions on YouTube and on Patreon, where you get monthly movie nights. Although also a lot of people are patrons of this podcast, which Zach jokes that it's ostensibly also my Patreon, which is not true because other other people you are supporting. But you know, if you've ever been interested, there are little perks and benefits to my Patreon as well. I am a bit more active on letterboxd at present, which I only state because I'm putting together like, you know, lists and reviews and stuff. And I try not to make that like a social thing. Like I don't have any investment, but I like having a diary. So if you want to know what I'm watching, boom. There you go. Keep an eye peeled because we might soon be launching mine and Vero's fun new project, Girl Perverts Asterisk. We've been ready to launch, but life has gotten sort of in the way and we've been holding back a bit. But I think we should be launching soon. So that's on Instagram and bluesky and I believe also on Twitter. And yeah, I think that's it for us.

[Steve]

Cool. And I'm Steve. You could find me at my website, steveyerko.com your socials, your bluesky Instagram. Steve Yerko is usually just my handle on all those things. Listen to me on 4Kids flashback. We're recording some more episodes that we're gonna be putting out there. Listen to me daily on Prozd, plays games over on YouTube. And for the podcast you can find us at our website, which is One PiecePodcast.com follow us on BlueSky. Subscribe to us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Contact us via our email onepiecepodcastmail.com Sign up for our Patreon where we could pay Delaney. And also don't forget about the sticker club tier. That's for what is that, $12 and up? Yes, it's $12 and up. Gets you.

[Delaney]

You have One job, Steve.

[Steve]

Yeah, no, I have several jobs. I have two.

[Delaney]

I'm gonna.

[Steven Paul]

I gotta.

[Delaney]

I gotta go.

[Steve]

But we have the sticker club. You get a monthly sticker usually based off of artwork from the podcast episodes by me. We put up a poll every month for you to decide which of two illustrations will be made into a sticker. As of this recording, I mailed out both November and December stickers together. So if you've been signed up since November, you're getting both. You could figure it out, but those are going out to you. Thank you for your patience. Other than that. Yeah, that's pretty much it.

[Steven Paul]

Yeah.

[Steve]

So sign up to the Patreon there. I believe that's the only way you get access to our discord as well. Or maybe it's free to join. I don't know. I haven't checked in a while. I haven't joined in a while. I've been there. But thank you so much for listening to us. Whether it's been 10 years, more than that, or maybe if you just found us recently. We really appreciate you listening to us and. And we'll see you all in the new year. Enjoy your holidays. Hope it's fun. Maybe you're spending it listening to this podcast. I'm sorry if you are.

[Steven Paul]

No, I think. Don't say that.

[Steve]

That was a good podcast. No, I just mean. I don't know. I hope that's not the only thing you're doing is listening to this podcast. But hey, if you're spending your holiday listening to this podcast and you're enjoying it, I need to stop. Thank you. I need to stop being so self deprecating because it brings down my other two friends here and I should really wrap it up. So on that note, my name is Steve. Thanks for listening. Happy holidays. See you all in the next year. Gift of the maji.

[Delaney]

That's how delays.

[Steve]

That's the podcast. That's the podcast.

[Steven Paul]

Just stop it there. Just.

[Delaney]

That's a show.

[Steven Paul]

And Doug, here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual.

[Steve]

Fascinating.

[Steven Paul]

It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug Limu.

[Steve]

Is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

[Steven Paul]

Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you need@liberty mutual.com.

[Delaney]

Liberty Liberty.

[Steven Paul]

Liberty. Liberty Savings.

[Steve]

Very unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts.

[Delaney]

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