Episode 900, “10k Ton Hammer” (with Geoff Thew and Miles Atherton)

Summary

The One Piece Podcast

Episode 900: “10k Ton Hammer”

Release Date: January 5, 2026
Special Guests: Geoff Thew (Mother’s Basement), Miles Atherton (Anime by the Numbers), Greg Warner

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Episode Overview

The crew celebrates their milestone 900th episode with a lively panel including regulars Steve, Ed, and Alex. Although co-host Zach is out sick, the rest of the team powers through a dense manga recap of One Piece Chapter 1170, “Contrary,” joined by returning guests Geoff Thew, Miles Atherton, and series expert Greg Warner. The discussion travels across the latest chapter’s dramatic beats, ponders Norse mythology connections, muses on Devil Fruits and powers, and mixes in plenty of inside jokes, speculation, and listener Q&A.

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Main Segments & Key Discussion Points

Opening: Marking 900 Episodes

• [00:00–05:00] The team reflects humorously on hitting 900 episodes, sharing memories of meeting their guests at conventions, and poking fun at podcasting longevity:
  Steve: “Miles gets to join the exclusive club along with Steve Martin. Tom Hanks.” Alex: “You can wear this jacket, but then you have to give it back!”
• Zach’s illness gets mentioned as the reason for restructuring the episode, but spirits remain high.

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Manga Recap: Chapter 1170 “Contrary”

[10:53–43:00, 50:00+]

Cover Page & Author Comment

• [10:53] Oda’s author comment: “I watched the Amy Winehouse movie and I learned the meaning behind the lyrics. Now I like the music even more.”
• [12:00] The cover: A reader request for Jinbe as an eel railway worker, with all Straw Hats drawn chibi/childlike, prompts jokes over why it “feels last minute.”
  • Greg: “I think the 10 on the eel is for unagi joo... a pun on the meal’s name and the bento specifics.” [16:42]

News Bits

• [05:00–10:20]
  • Egghead arc's OST by Kohei Tanaka is now streaming.
  • New LEGO One Piece sets get praise:
    Jeff: “They very faithfully recreated Nami’s horrific trauma in tiny bricks. Then you can smash it.” [07:34]
  • Joking speculation about a LEGO One Piece movie or video game, with lament about One Piece’s spotty video game history.

The Chapter: Plot Breakdown

• [17:50+] The story resumes with Loki and Harald’s confrontation.
  • Loki faces an animated hammer defending the national treasure Devil Fruit; the hammer is ultimately revealed to have eaten a beefy squirrel Zoan fruit.
    • Geoff: “I'm not sure if that means he's a squirrel who ate the hammer-hammer fruit, or a hammer that ate the squirrel-squirrel fruit. But he looks like the squirrel from Summer Wars.” [24:18]
  • Harald, powered by the “Depths Covenant,” is nearly unstoppable but is weakened by attacks infused with Supreme King Haki.
    • Gabon (to Shanks): “If these guys have any weaknesses, it’s against those of us who can infuse our attacks with the color of the supreme king.” [19:02]
  • Shanks’s own celestial heritage and the origins of Supreme King Haki are debated. Flashbacks show Roger Pirates battling the Holy Knights to protect Shanks.

The Devil Fruit & Transformation

• Loki eats the dormant “national treasure” Devil Fruit. The group speculates on the Norse/mythic inspirations behind Loki’s transformation.
  • Greg: “The easy one to go for is Nidhogg. He was literally at the roots of the tree; Nidhogg gnawed on the roots. The cry is otherworldly.” [43:44]
  • Alex: Links to previous arcs’ dragons and Vegapunk’s artificial dragons.

The Climax: Father vs. Son

• Harald regains clarity in his final moments, thanks Loki for acting out of love, and accepts his fate so Loki can save Elbaf.
  • Greg: “Steven made a great choice with the line, not ‘I love you, son,’ but ‘I love you too, son.’ There’s a very clear difference... he realizes everything Loki is doing is out of love.” [40:36]
• Loki, now bursting with Supreme King Haki, delivers a massive hammer blow—emotionally highlighted in a powerful two-page spread.
  • Geoff: “Beautiful spread... what a way to end it.” [41:58]
  • Steve: “I love the messiness... you can feel the movement. The impact kicks ass.” [86:38]

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Analysis, Lore Speculation, & Tangents

Mythological Connections

• [43:00–54:00] Intense debate over whether Loki has eaten a Nidhogg, Fenrir, or Jormungandr-based fruit, or perhaps something that ties even more deeply into One Piece’s mythos.
• Discussion around how Devil Fruits, the Adam & Eve trees, and ancient murals tie together.

Haki & The Knights of God

• Supreme King Haki’s special role: Only those with this inherited willpower can truly hurt the Holy Knights.
  • Geoff: “Supreme King Haki is a specific hereditary thing that some people just have.” [57:01]
• Are the Knights Nepo Babies? Audience jokes at their expense as spoiled, untested, semi-immortal elite.
  • Miles: “Pages like this make me proud to be an American, which is hard to say normally, because in Japan, it’s very hard to get proper black ink in print…” [32:20]

Theories on IMU, Devil Fruits, and Haki

• Several rounds of theorizing on the nature of Imu, connections to Joy Boy, and whether Haki itself is rooted in Imu’s power.
• Greg: “IMU was the Abomination, and they supposedly beat the Abomination, but it got trapped inside Lily’s body, and through the power of the Op-Op Fruit… became an eternal body.” [59:51]
• Geoff: “Supreme King Haki… could be an equal and opposite power that can temporarily disperse Imu’s influence.” [63:44]

Old-School One Piece & Oda’s Planning

• The group muses on Oda’s improvisational genius, how he’s paid off plot points after decades, and whether certain locations/arcs were in mind from the start.
  • Alex: “Oda is a fantastic improviser and knows how to make lemonade with all the lemon trees he’s planted.” [77:32]
• Skypiea, Little Garden, Water Seven, and the Florian Triangle are referenced as seeds with long-term payoff.

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Listener Q&A: Piece Together Segment

[112:02–134:54]

• “What will Bellamy do with the unbreakable fabric?”
  – Steve: “He will make men’s underwear. Because we all know men will continue to wear underwear even after it’s ripped.” [114:49] – Miles gets more practical; Geoff proposes a gift for Gladius, the hat-popping villain whose hat could finally survive.
• Why does Imu call Luffy “Joy Boy” and not his real name?
  – Theorized as Imu seeing souls/auras, stuck in cycles, perhaps suffering memory degradation. – Greg: “Joy Boy just sounds like a title… I think we will find that Joy Boy is a title as well.” [117:46]
• Devil Fruit Taxonomy Details:
  – How can an object “eat” a fruit? How is taxonomy determined? The group agrees these are prime SBS material.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (Selected with Timestamps)

• On the spread:
  “That hits you in the hard hole.” – Greg (68:59)
• On LEGO One Piece sets:
  “They faithfully recreated Nami’s horrific trauma in tiny bricks. Then you can smash it.” – Geoff [07:34]
• On the squirrel-zoan hammer:
  “He looks like the squirrel from Summer Wars.” – Geoff [24:18]
• On the Elbaf Devil Fruit debate:
  “To me, it seems like Nidhogg is the obvious choice, but I do enjoy thinking about what the other options are.” – Greg [49:21]
• On Oda’s planning:
  “Oda is a fantastic improviser and knows exactly how to make lemonade with all the lemon trees he’s planted.” – Alex [77:32]
• On the flashback’s power:
  "I'm so glad the five elders might actually have been kind people originally... there's that spark of a person in there." - Greg [106:51]

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Closing Thoughts and Roundtable

[71:34–111:20, 137:14+]

• All panelists agree the emotional stakes and the art have rarely been better.
• Greg offers praise for Oda bringing God Valley into the flashback to flesh out the Knights of God:
  “He needed to craft the Knights of God, and God Valley does a decent job of setting them up...” [98:58]
• Wistful praise for Oda’s longevity, humor about being dads, banter about Magfest and the anime industry.
• Steve, Alex, and guests thank each other and the audience, promote their various projects, and look forward to the next 100 episodes.

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Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–05:00 – Celebrating 900 episodes, guest introductions, podcast memories
• 10:53–43:00 – Manga Recap of Chapter 1170, with Norse myth and power system discussions
• 43:00–54:00 – Detailed Norse mythology parallels and what Loki’s fruit really is
• 57:00–65:00 – Theorizing Haki, Imu, Devil Fruits, plot structure
• 77:32–81:40 – Oda’s improvisation, worldbuilding, old arc callbacks
• 112:02–134:54 – Piece Together Q&A from listeners
• 137:14–end – Wrap-up, plugs, closing banter

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Takeaways for Non-Listeners

• Chapter 1170 brings a dramatic, emotionally charged climax to the Elbaf flashback, introducing a new giant-scale Zoan user (a hammer with squirrel powers), a heartfelt father-son confrontation as Loki is forced to strike down Harald, and pivotal lore about how Supreme King Haki can counter the Knights’ unkillability.
• Podcast tone remains light and irreverent, filled with deep canon speculation, Norse mythology, and in-jokes, making it welcoming for both hardcore and casual fans.
• Greg, Geoff, and Miles contribute uniquely informed perspectives, from mythological deep-dives to meta-commentary on manga publishing and even One Piece’s reach into pop culture and collectors’ items.
• The episode blends celebration, high-level analysis, and the community spirit the podcast is known for, while never shying away from critical analysis of both story and Oda’s methods.

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Quick-Reference Quotes

• “They very, very faithfully recreated Nami’s horrific trauma in tiny bricks. And then you can smash it.” – Geoff Thew [07:34]
• “Not ‘I love you, son,’ but ‘I love you too, son.’ There’s a very clear difference in the Japanese.” – Greg Warner [40:36]
• “Oda is a fantastic improviser... knows exactly how to make lemonade with all the lemon trees he’s planted.” – Alex [77:32]
• “Supreme King Haki is a hereditary thing… that’s been passed down possibly from the original supreme king who was usurped by the celestial dragons.” – Geoff [57:01]

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In Summary

Episode 900 is a fitting tribute to the podcast’s longevity, combining intense and heartfelt manga analysis, mythology geekery, and the warm camaraderie that has made The One Piece Podcast a fan institution. Chapter 1170’s flashback is unpacked in detail, shaping new lore for the One Piece world, and the hosts—joined by guest experts—juggle serious commentary with classic podcasting silliness.

Transcript

[A]

Sam. Welcome to the One piece podcast, episode 900 for the week of January 5, 2026. My name is Steve.

[B]

My name is Ed.

[C]

And my name is Alex.

[A]

And welcome to our monumental 900th episode. That was supposed to be something else.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

But yeah, unfortunately Zach got sick, so we had to reschedule some things. But don't worry, you're still getting a manga recap pieced together. And we're joined by some very special guests. First, from the Quest for the Best, an anime podcast. Please welcome back Jeff Thew and Miles. Sorry I introduced you guys both at the same time.

[D]

Well, just introduce yourself.

[A]

I introduced you.

[D]

I'm Jeff. Hi. Thanks for having me. I am I. The Quest for the Best Guy. And also mother's basement on YouTube.

[E]

Hi, I'm Miles and I like anime, especially One Piece. So very happy to be here. Thank you for having me again. I think this is my 10th time, I think at this point.

[C]

Whoa.

[E]

I'm thinking, right? Yeah.

[D]

It's like my fourth, I think once.

[E]

A year for like the last decade. So really great.

[A]

Miles gets to join the exclusive club along with Steve Martin. Tom Hanks.

[C]

That's right.

[B]

John Goodman.

[C]

You can wear this jacket, but then you have to give it right back.

[B]

Yeah. I still remember the first time we met you. I think it was one of the last times Otakon was in Baltimore.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[E]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I mean, I had been to your panels at AX before, but that was the first time we, like, talked as normal human beings. It was really nice.

[F]

Yeah.

[E]

I was just a fan before.

[D]

And now you're on the 900th episode.

[E]

Very pleased.

[D]

Isn't that cool?

[A]

Something else. But let's not forget our good friend, columnist for one-piece.com and one of the co hosts of the SGS segment on this very podcast. Our good friend Greg is joining us. How's it going, Greg?

[B]

Third Animania, Greg Warner.

[F]

I'm trying to hold my laugh back just from the1-piece.com because people will type.

[A]

The wrong thing in and then they.

[F]

Go to a Swedish hoodie website or something like that.

[A]

Some Russian website. Was like, we have all the cartoons on here.

[F]

No. Yeah. It's great to be here and talking. I mean, it's always wonderful to talk to Steven, but I sometimes forget that there are fans, One Piece fans other than Steven. So this is great to get to talk to you. Like old times.

[A]

Yeah, There's a few of them.

[C]

My heart, it bleeds. I will say that it's weird that Steven's not on I haven't seen the two of you in the same room at the same time, so it's weird. There's got to be some sort of Clark Kent, Superman thing happening here.

[A]

Jordan Hyde. Could be.

[F]

Simba Fruit is actually Steven. Yeah, it's Simba.

[C]

Ooh. Simba ate the Steven. Steven fruit.

[E]

Yes. And Craig, I hear you're going to be revealing who you play in the live action One Piece season two today.

[F]

Oh, yeah, I'm Panda Man.

[A]

Of course.

[F]

Yeah, you can look forward to that.

[C]

That'd be really cool.

[A]

That would also look really hard for him.

[B]

I just remember when we were doing a. I think we were doing a Steven storytime once and we were looking at the Panda man on the COVID of the volume and he was a. It was dope. Flamingo was. The Panda man was transformed into Panda Man. I called him Donkey Panda Man. Flamingo. I think we titled the episode that.

[A]

I think that was volume volume 77.

[E]

Sorry.

[A]

All I had to do is look.

[E]

To my shelf off the dome and.

[A]

With good mic etiquette, I am talking away from the microphone. But that's okay.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

Yeah, 900 episodes is a big deal. As I talked about last time I was on and unfortunately we couldn't make it a bigger deal than what it was. But we still have a manga recap that we're gonna do for chapter 1170. Contrary. Contrary to popular belief.

[C]

Country popular what?

[A]

I don't know, I just. I was trying to improvise.

[B]

Loki was never popular.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

We'Ll do that. We'll do a Piece Together segment and that'll be about it. We don't have too much news coming out from a couple weeks ago with Jump Festa, but Alex has some news he would like to share. And why don't you tell us what it is, Alex?

[C]

All right. Well, as you know, I do enjoy One Piece's BGM a lot. I have not watched most of Egghead, so I can't really speak to where this album lands, but in my ranking. But the original soundtrack for egghead by Mr. Kohei Tanaka has dropped on streaming.

[B]

Services and it's been hundreds of episodes. But I'm sure it's time to bring back the dude and Zax Dance Carnival.

[C]

Maybe we're both dads now. It's the dad and Dad's Dance Carnival. Yeah, this is a two disc album. It's got a lot of BGM tracks. It looks like basically all of Egghead has new music, which is pretty cool. It has the next episode preview music on there too, which I was very happy about. Also, a new version of Family dropped with Subaru Kimura of the new voice of Frankie.

[A]

But Alex, hold up. We don't care about that for this one. Yeah, well, Alex shouldn't speak on behalf of everyone on this podcast.

[C]

I'm sure he's fine. I'm sure he's a fine fellow. Whatever. I miss Yao.

[E]

I mean, the version on my ipod doesn't even have Frankie on it, so.

[A]

Yeah, my favorite's always been the Robin one. I think that's like kind of the one that when I was really getting the series, that's the one I would constantly hear.

[C]

I mean, it's the. Honestly, it's literally the same one. They just remove audio channels and replace them with new actors. It's the same song that they've been using for the last 20 years.

[A]

Okay. Yeah, but they shuffle it around and then, like, the newest crew member kind of gets to, like, grandstand a little bit.

[C]

Kind of. Yeah, it's.

[A]

Yeah, it's a little more than, like, four words. It's one of Greg's favorite songs.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

We know how much Greg loves the stage.

[C]

We know how much Greg loves family.

[F]

I have no idea what you've been talking about for the past five minutes.

[A]

Well, on that, you see, anime is a term for animated, you know, cartoons.

[C]

Also known as Japanimation.

[A]

Japanimation.

[B]

Sorry, I have a bit of news as well.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

My nephew completed the Arlong Park LEGO set I got him for Christmas, and he loved it.

[C]

Yeah, that's the best review that LEGO could ever ask for.

[D]

It's a real cool one. They very, very faithfully recreated Nami's horrific trauma in tiny bricks. And then you can smash it.

[C]

So in classic LEGO fashion.

[A]

Or. And you could have. I don't know, you could have LEGO Batman show up in there too.

[D]

If you. If you want, he can come by and he'd be like, hey, be an orphans. Sucks, huh? And then leave.

[C]

It is kind of wild that. Like that, like, since LEGO has gotten hold of ip.

[F]

Oh, that is possible. Yeah.

[C]

Like. Like.

[A]

Seriously, if they're about to buy Warner Brothers, they sure as shit can.

[D]

Coming soon.

[B]

The LEGO One Piece Movie.

[D]

Imagine that would be so good. A LEGO One Piece Movie or One Piece in LEGO Dimensions. If LEGO Dimensions was still a thing. A LEGO One Piece video game, it's.

[B]

It'll be no, like, Netflix real LEGO One Piece Movie.

[C]

Wow, that's almost as good as a One Piece video game, which I haven't seen a proper one of those in, like, 25 years.

[E]

I banked at least 40 hours into one of those on the Wii. It was okay.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

No unlimited adventure, probably.

[D]

Yeah. The new RPG one was not as great as JRPGs go, but like, cool.

[A]

Here's a quick summary of One Piece Odyssey. Do you like the Alabaster arc? Then here have all the Alabaster arc in the world.

[C]

Oh, yeah. You finished the Alabaster arc, huh? Well, how about you like to go back to Alabasta?

[B]

Why does everybody always want to go back to Alabaster?

[D]

You know, I would really. I would kill for like a good One Piece sandbox game. Like with Luffy Schmovements.

[B]

Sandbox.

[D]

Just like.

[B]

Or a Jakku.

[D]

Yeah, back to Jaku. I know, but like, for real, like, like just, you know, being able to use the gum. Gum fruit to just like, schmoove around and like, can do Spider man off buildings. I know they say, like, the Spider Man.

[C]

They already did that.

[D]

They kind of did it, but it. It. It was janky and it sucked. Well, because I want good movement.

[C]

That's exactly. They're. They're.

[D]

They're.

[C]

They're gonna. That's the best they're gonna do, man.

[E]

Please still sponsor this podcast. Bandai Namco, we love you.

[D]

That's not like. That's not strictly true. I mean, the. The. The Attack on Titan game was that Bamco? I feel like it was Bamco. But the Attack on Titan game had pretty good maneuverable gear. Nonsense. Yeah.

[C]

Obviously not the same team.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Anyway, that does it for the news.

[D]

That's the news.

[A]

I mean, you know, one piece was off, you know, because of New Year's, but it's back with the new manga chapter. Speaking of, why don't we hop right into that? Let's do.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

This is the manga recap for chapter 1170 contrary. Before we get started, on the COVID page, we have an author comment from oda. What's it say?

[B]

Yes, here it is. He says, I watched the Amy Winehouse movie and I learned the meaning behind the lyrics. Now I like the music even more.

[A]

All right, so Oda, like, they tried to make her go to rehab and she said, no, no, I get it now.

[B]

I feel like I had this discussion when we were like, ranking, opening and closing themes on our rankings episode back in the day, and I'm like, guys, I actually looked at the translations of the lyrics for this, and this one fits the theme and the arc pretty good.

[C]

Interesting.

[A]

They truly were shining, running forever.

[C]

Good gravy.

[A]

It's just brown and water Ed can you tell us what's happening on the COVID page this week?

[B]

Absolutely. It's a reader request for Jimbe as a station worker for the eel railroad, giving passengers eel bentos for lunch by 420 land.

[D]

I. Whenever. Whenever 420 land suggests a cover, I always wonder if it's 420 like that. You know, Maybe. Does he know friend of the.

[C]

Friend of the podcast for 20 land?

[A]

Oh, that's right.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, Friend of the podcast. I love this one specifically because I feel like maybe Oda did this in the 11th hour, which is why all the straw hats are like chibified and like kids. But I do like that it's like.

[B]

Post gear third Luffy kinda.

[C]

Well, it also looks like Post gear third Sanji. Post Gear third Zoro. Post Gear third Nami.

[A]

I do like the preteen Robin, though.

[D]

I like. Yeah, I like how she's babysitting the rest of them.

[C]

Yeah, it's fun. That's very cute.

[D]

Like, Nami's so cute with her little backpack and Zorro and Sanji just like racing and it kind of looks like Sanji. Like. I mean, we can't see Sanji's face there. Kind of looks like he just doesn't really care. And Zoro's just like, I'm gonna beat you there. I'm gonna be first. And he's like, yeah, okay, whatever.

[C]

I think it's kind of perverse that. That Jinbei selling unagi in front of the giant eel.

[A]

Yeah, but those are my children.

[B]

I don't understand the eel railroad.

[A]

Yeah, it's more like a water park.

[F]

The.

[B]

Or one of those hydraulic tubes at the bank, maybe.

[D]

Yeah, there was. Have you guys seen Zootopia 2 yet? No, no, it's actually like really good. I just saw it last night. But yeah, they got hydraulic tube transport in there.

[A]

Like, I wouldn't be surprised if Oda saw it.

[D]

I. Yeah, actually.

[C]

Interesting.

[D]

In Japan, you've been to a Toho theater before, right?

[A]

I have not.

[D]

Who here has. Who here has been to Japan?

[A]

Well, I mean, I've been to Japan.

[E]

You've been to Japan, right?

[D]

Well, yeah, Miles has.

[C]

But approximately half of us live in like two. Well, two of you guys live in Japan.

[D]

Yeah, so it's so. But so Toho theaters, they have at. At the start of every movie that they play there, they have this don't film the. The don't film the movie skit that they do, where there's this guy with a camera for a head and these two guys with like police sirens for heads. And it's, you know, tokusatsu suits. And they like chase him. They chase him down. They do a bunch of parkour. It's a really, really cool sequence. And this is their version of the.

[B]

Nicole Kidman video from amc.

[D]

Yeah, they sell merch of them and everything. You can, like, buy figures of them. But the thing is, for Zootopia 2 specifically, they gave them fursonas. So like the two Siren Head guys are Judy Hopps and Nick. And then there's like this third. Like he's just like a furry criminal with the camera head. But like they. Yeah, so they gave them original fursonas just for the start of Zootopia. And there's this whole thing at the start, animated by Disney. I don't know if this is showing up in American theaters, but like. But the characters are like, oh, no, don't use your phone. And the snake guy, like, grabs a guy's phone out of his hand and swallows it. And then it like. It's just a bunch of like, fun little visual gags there.

[A]

There's our fursona of Nicole Kidman. When Zootopia 2 came out here.

[E]

I.

[A]

Was going to say. The only thing I was going to point out is like, wow, is this really, like, necessary for the police force to like chase down this guy filming a movie theater? You could just kick him out. You know, it's like. It's like. It's like bystanders. When a cop is just chasing down someone who like, ran through a red light.

[D]

I mean, like, the issue is it ends up making guys who film stuff illegally in movie theaters look so cool.

[A]

Like, he makes me want to do it.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. He does all this, like, parkour and stuff. And it's like, oh man, I thought I'd be like, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's the exact same effect. Except, you know, the Japanese are well behaved, so they won't.

[C]

But I'll tell you what I would download is this chapter of One Piece.

[E]

Hell yeah.

[C]

What's going on? The first page.

[A]

No, actually, you wouldn't download of One Piece.

[C]

Oh, yeah, yeah, please. Great.

[F]

So the eel here has a 10 on it. And the kind of joke. I mean, obviously Luffy has the 5 6, which is the gomohaha. But the 10 on the eel is for unagi joo. Jew being 10, but also a type of Unagi eel bento, which is what they're actually purchasing there. The square bento specifically. So it's kind of a pun on the Unagi Joo. You have unagi don.

[A]

Right.

[F]

Which is the circular bowl. And unagi joo is a square bowl with eel. So it's kind of fun.

[C]

I wondered if there was some sort of deal with that.

[B]

And what's Jinbei got in his right hand there?

[C]

Says eel on it. I think that's just a box of a bag full of bento.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[E]

They.

[D]

They stack them up like that in bags when you get in on the train.

[E]

Nice. Cool.

[A]

Most of us have been to Japan anyway. Ed, what's going on on page two?

[B]

So we pick up where we left last week. And Loki is down. He's been knocked down by a hammer. And, yeah, Loki's got this sort of grimace on his face. He's like, bastard. As he wields his. Shakes his hammer at the opening where the hammer flew out of. Hey, who threw this hammer at me? Come out and show yourself. I know they're in here. He walks into the treasure room where the box is. But I might as well get that devil fruit now. Don't mind if I do. I hear a cracking and crashing down. And the hammer comes down, makes a big crater in the floor. And that Loki jumping up off of some Looks like bits of what off the jagged bits of floor. He's sort of doing a little. Little ninja warrior stage here, it looks like, with it running with his hammer and more cracking.

[A]

And now this is. You know, this is Harold, who I. I don't. I don't know for sure if he's speaking out. Yeah, he is speaking out loud, but it's. It's a fancy font here. But he. With a grimace on his face, he says, you waste. Or maybe is he talking telepathically? I don't know if anyone.

[C]

No, no, He's. He's in. He's in evil mode right now.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

By the bubble.

[A]

You can't see his mouth anymore because of his mustache. His mustache got too big and evil. He says, you waste your time, Loki. That devil fruit is a national treasure. It has lain dormant for centuries. Not because no one chose to eat it, but because no one could eat it. Not a single one of them was chosen by Ragnar. And we see Loki running away from Ragnar constantly chasing him, like, slamming down. He's like. And we're back to Harald here looking fierce. And he says, but with the strength I now possess. And we see some hockey bolted weapons from Shanks and Gabon here they come in swinging, and they cut off Harold's leg from under him. Lets out a yell. He kind of grits his Teeth and looks back down at them. And this is Gabon saying he suffers immense pain from his wounds and the recovery effect is drastically slowed down. Give him enough consecutive hits and we could manage to knock him out of commission. If these guys have any weaknesses, it's against those of us who can infuse our attacks with the color of the supreme king. And Harold looks down and yells out a big Gabon. As we go to the next page. Alex.

[B]

Yeah, his Gabon has clearly played the tutorial.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

No, he's got new game plus.

[C]

Yeah. So Gabon's qte attack seems to have worked. Harold's ax comes right down and says, you really dare make an enemy out of me? Shanks and Gabon jump out of the way. Gabon says, of course I do. I can't let you roam free in this state of madness. And Shanks says, how do you know the weakness of the knights of God, Gabon? And Gabon proceeds to tell us. They came after several times trying to take you back. And we see this sort of like little flashback here. We know you have a child with red hair. He must be the son of our commander. Hand the boy over.

[A]

Can you say that anymore? Like you're speaking through like a megaphone. We know you have the kid with the red hair on there. He's getting a prop. He's getting a bottle.

[C]

Okay, guys, we know you have a child with red hair. We've seen him. He looks just like our guy. Come on.

[B]

Do you think it like the garbled. Like the New York subway PA systems.

[A]

Hand over the boy with the red hair and we'll burn your ship to the ground.

[F]

No other character in the series is drawn with the same tone in their care.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So we have a little flashback. You know, they. They've encountered him. And Gabon adds, each time they did, we beat them black and blue. And Shank says, now that you mention it, I still remember that summers guy saying something like that. And Gabon readies his axes again and says, just some fond memories of the distant past. I was surprised to learn there was a proper combat force in the holy land, though I assume those celestial dragons were all chumps. And Shanks says, yeah, they hardly ever come down to our world. They really believe they're gods. Makes me shiver to think of the life I might have had. And Gabon says, we call that fate.

[B]

I guess Gabon thought they were all.

[C]

Like the humans from Wall E. I mean, that's basically. Yeah, that's basically your run of the mill celestial dragon.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

Hedonists. So they. They jump back into action against Harold who is still fighting without a leg like a total boss. And you can see it trying to.

[B]

Trying to regenerate down there.

[C]

Yeah, kind of neat. Shank says, I want to save Harold somehow. Gabon. And Gabon says, yeah, but you were the one that taught me about the despair of what it might. What it means to become a knight of God. Seems Loki is our only hope, so.

[A]

No, there is another.

[C]

There is another.

[A]

Jeff, what's going on on page eight?

[D]

So Loki's staring down the hammer, huffing and wheezing. I keep telling you to get out of my way, you stupid hammer. Does this mean you're supposed to be the guardian of the national treasure? How does a hammer move on its own? What's your deal anyway? Just give it a rest. And he smashes his hammer against the hammer. It explodes as it flies at him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, flies at him with a little fwop fwoop fwop fwoop fwop. And his hammer explodes against it. And he says, ah, my hammer. And the hammer.

[B]

The hammer was just like a hammer to me.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. And the hammer goes clank, clank, clank. And has a little exclamation mark. And then he pops up and he's got a little. He's a little squirrel man with a hammer for a head. I'm not sure if that means that he is a squirrel who ate the hammer hammer fruit or a hammer who ate the squirrel squirrel fruit. But he looks like the squirrel from summer wars.

[B]

The Ken, Kenji's avatar.

[A]

Oh, the avatar.

[D]

But he's got a little lump on his head and he's crying and he.

[C]

Goes, kuru, kuru, sh.

[D]

Meanwhile, we cut back to the fight where Harald says, begone. How do we end this fight? He's got supreme king Haki too. That's a first.

[A]

I'm willing to bet those are the hammerhead squirrels native to Elbaf. That many have story about Miles. What's going on?

[E]

In the next page we've got Jarl saying, guards, find some way to hold Harald back. You must not let Harald have that devil fruit. And we see the castle. We zoom out on the castle. Then we come in closer and see some of the devastation that Harald has wrecked. And you see the man himself filled with a bunch of different blades of different types and some of the remaining guards standing up against him. Then we see our little hammer rodent friend next to the treasure chest that happens to just be on the ground for some reason. And Loki's looking into it and he why is it on the Ground. This is not food safe. This is not also just, like, aesthetically pleasing to have just a treasure chest on the ground? What is this inside of Jabu's job?

[A]

It's kind of funny when you think about it. This looks like Loki's, like, laying down on the floor on his belt, crouched.

[E]

I mean, the chipmunk man's not small, but certainly not. Yeah, Loki's gotta be not contorted.

[A]

Human giant.

[E]

Loki grabs what looks like kind of a fruit, I guess they all look like minuscule to these giants. And he bites into it. Chomp. And he throws his head up in pain. His arm starts to. As he feels the power of the devil fruit come through. And then I assume it's Loki saying, whoa. And there's a big wad, and there's darkness everywhere. And it looks like our little guardian squirrel is happy about this exchange, saying, that's the best I can do. Then we get some heart coming off of him. He's happy.

[D]

I. I like thinking about. I mean, so that little squirrel, right? He's bigger than anyone the Straw Hats have fought, except for ors, right?

[F]

He's huge.

[D]

Like, while we're. While we're going kuri dee dee dee, he's actually going cootee dee dee dee.

[A]

And it's like, shakes all the fours.

[D]

Yeah. Just echoing.

[C]

Yeah, you forget. That's. That's pretty crazy. Did not even. Did not even register at this point. We've just been following giants for the last.

[A]

I'm surprised. Like, whenever the giants talk, the Straw Hats aren't, like, blown away, you know.

[E]

They are in a sad.

[C]

Brother, your breath.

[D]

Oh, man. Especially the one with all the Lego. I bet his breath stinks.

[B]

Roto.

[D]

Yeah, Roto. Yeah.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

It smells like Cheetos.

[A]

Cheetos and Mountain Dew. Gamer fuel.

[D]

They send it in by the Viking keg.

[B]

I'm just wondering about this BWA that Loki says. I almost kind of sounds like the elephant noise. Really?

[A]

I was gonna say not cut. Not quite a Pawu, but it's not a Pa'.

[E]

U.

[C]

No. That's an interesting.

[A]

Not quite a rich.

[F]

I looked into this, and prior to the chapter's official Release, the only YouTube, or excuse me, YouTube, the only Google result that you could find for this particular kind of howl came from an owl. So that's not to say that it is an owl. I personally don't think it is. But the idea is that it's a haunting kind of cry. It's different from a howl, it's different from an elephant kind of cry. But there is an ethereal, otherworldly feel to it. That's the vibe that I got.

[C]

Interesting.

[E]

And as you said, that Alex zoomed in on himself on his zoom camera.

[C]

And I'm like, he does it automatically. There's nothing I can do about it.

[A]

The timing is impeccable. It's very funny sometimes.

[E]

Love the. So instead, that should be more of a, like. Kind of like, more ethereal. Right? Is that what I should be going for?

[F]

Yeah. I'm gonna like my image. It's also. It's got the exclamation points, too, so it's rough. Right. So mine's like. It's got, like, a reverberating kind of aspect.

[D]

Yeah, that's. That's a real good one.

[E]

I. I was.

[C]

The way you did it was sort of like Sir Bedivere and Monty Python and the Holy Grail trying to.

[A]

Woo.

[C]

As in surprise and alarm.

[B]

But is he the one who's trying to escape the horny nuns?

[C]

No, that's Sir Galahad.

[A]

Now, Alex, the way you did it. Sounds like the new Krayt dragon call from the updated Star wars trilogy.

[C]

Oh, yeah. Obi Wan stepping on a Lego.

[A]

Ooh.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. For those who aren't in the know, they've redone Star Wars Episode 4 a gajillion times, and there are three separate, different Krayt dragon sounds that Obi Wan makes.

[A]

And the most recent ones, Han Solo doesn't shoot first anymore. Crazy.

[E]

In the chapter when Odin is saying bo, however you want to pronounce it, his eyes have a little lightning element going on there. I don't think that implies lightning, by the way. I just think it's kind of dielectric because it's in a completely black background. Like, Oda loves using all the black ink at Shueisha headquarters. He's been doing it a lot this hard.

[B]

The black paint from Mihawk.

[C]

Well, I was going to say that since Tite Kubo stopped doing bleach, everybody's. Everybody's been granted use of all the black ink.

[A]

Yeah. There's no longer a tariff on black ink in Japan.

[D]

Man, I love the, like, humor in bleach of, like, one of the most powerful guys in the entire universe literally having dominion over black ink.

[A]

Is that in the end game of bleach?

[D]

In the end game of bleach, one of the top guys of all of Soul Society, his power is literally black ink. He controls all of the black ink in the entire bleach universe.

[C]

That's not way.

[D]

That's not real no, no, it's real. He's one of the top guys in the entire soul society, and he's one of the only guys who can fight the guy who. Who's like, literally. God.

[C]

That's. That's really funny. That's.

[D]

I love Genesis.

[B]

We never get to see hell again after the first time in bleach.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Oh, yeah. I'm so looking forward. Yeah, that's.

[C]

Boy, that's. That's funny.

[E]

Pages like this make me proud to be an American, which is a really hard thing to say normally, because in Japan, it's very hard to find a print version of this where the blacks are properly black enough.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Well, it's.

[E]

Because. So nice and crisp.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, well, the Weekly Jump. Weekly Jump is basically just on cheap, recycled paper.

[D]

It's a newsprint.

[E]

So even the taco box aren't, if you.

[F]

If you'd like very much. The reason for that is because of the distribution centers. They. Many of them spread out from the Kanto area. So if you're in the Tokyo area and you purchase your jumps quite early, then you will almost be assured to get a deep black print version, because those are the earliest printed versions and the ones that you see spread around the country, like where I live in Fukui, it's almost like white paper. It's just like there's. There's almost nothing on it because they come from later presses as the ink runs out as it goes. So they don't. They're not constantly reinking it so that every issue is created equally and they.

[B]

Have an age on the shelf either.

[D]

So.

[F]

Yes.

[D]

So there is actually a reason to, like, camp out and get the earliest jumps that you can from your local conbini. If you live in Tokyo.

[F]

If you live in Tokyo and yeah, you go to the more central areas, especially areas that are closer to the distribution centers, then yes, you will get.

[D]

Okay, that's. I kind of wish I'd done that for the latest issue because the COVID is just gorgeous.

[C]

That's a pretty wild anecdote.

[B]

Well, the covers are the glossy pages.

[E]

Right.

[B]

This is just the interior pages.

[D]

That's so much cleaner. Yeah. Like, most of the ones I've gotten look like a phone book, you know?

[F]

Yeah.

[C]

Kind of worn. Wow, that's pretty awesome.

[D]

Do you have the newest issue? The COVID is just so pretty.

[F]

I have every issue.

[D]

Ah, hell yeah.

[C]

Read every issue.

[F]

I have every issue of Jump with one piece.

[E]

Pretty.

[D]

That's awesome.

[A]

I got a small little collection, a little hobby.

[F]

They're in a Basement in New Jersey.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Climate control, baby.

[D]

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's hard to find room over here to store that many jumps.

[C]

Yeah, I can believe it, Steve. Okay, it's up to you. And this is a. What a page, Brett?

[A]

What a page. On page, you know, 12 to 13, you know, we had. Or whatever you want to say on the previous page. Now we have a gw, which is more of a. Just a ominous sound effect here as Harald has slain all these guards. And he's just, he's in the process of pulling out a spear. And I have another one. This is brutal. And he's surrounded by a sea of flames here. But he, he turns his head and he says, so you ate it, Loki. And then he takes a. One more swing with his axe at this guard. He says, then show me that legendary power. Oh, this is, this is. Harold's getting knocked away by something mysterious here. And then he's quickly back on his feet.

[B]

He's missing part of an arm there.

[A]

Oh, it's like this, what looks like a three claw slash went into him. And he's missing an eye, most of his shoulder, his bicep, and a little bit of his chest here. And that regenerates. Before he could fully regenerate, though, he gets another, another hit to his jaw here and he slams down to the floor. And we see like his, you know, his cranium here is regenerating as well as his mustache.

[B]

But yeah, wipe your wishes. He had that powerful mustache.

[A]

But what we see here is, we see the shadow of a creature with horns grab Herald by the head, but he shrinks back. This is Loki shrinking back down to his human form. Ragnar draped over his shoulder here, but not for long. As he swings it above his head, it crackles with some hockey bolts here. Harold is huffing and puffing, and as he stands up, regenerates, he says, I knew it. Loki, you possess the blood of the supreme king. As we go to our next page.

[F]

Greg huffing and a puffin. Loki is, he realizes, oh, you've got your senses back. And just for the moment is basically, look around. He's like, there's no making up for this. And Loki's like, but you're being trolled. And he's like, oh, wait, no, no, you're being controlled. Sorry, I expected a bigger laugh out of that one.

[C]

Oh, sorry.

[D]

I mean, yeah, I was literally like in my mind.

[F]

Yeah, I was like, pause for laughter and no laughter. Fuck, I fucked it up. Okay.

[A]

These days the lingo would be like, Loki be like, they're. You're. They're being six, seven, I don't know, or something.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

You're getting skibidied.

[F]

Skibidi.

[C]

Yeah, I've just been toileting.

[F]

Yeah, I just aged myself.

[A]

So is Harold gonna make a post and saying I was not owned?

[C]

Is that it?

[B]

Don't put in the paper that I got owned.

[D]

Loki, my son, on my gravestone, make sure you write that I wasn't owned.

[F]

So they actually do have a little back and forth here about Loki kind of basically gets keyed into what's going on. He's being controlled. And Harold does a little bit of exposition telling us that he's starting to feel like he himself is a God. And then it switches over to the like, hey, take care of things when I'm not here. And Loki's starting to get pissed off and he's just like, you know, you're the worst, you know, forcing your son to do this. And he's like. And Harald just. He realizes all of this and he understands that everything that Loki is saying and doing is out of love. And as I have one other thing I wanted to say thank you for what you did for Eda. And, you know, burning down the village is a. The brewers village won't bring her back. But I'm grateful that you felt that way. Keying us in that Harald knows that he can trust Loki to be a leader so that he can die knowing that the giant's future is in the hands of someone who can and will defend them because he does feel strongly and he does feel bonds. So that's kind of important for the reader to, I guess not uncut, but subconsciously feel that Harrold knows that he's doing a property thing here by letting himself be killed and he has no other way out. But he says, yes, this is the end of it for me. Loki is saying that he'll never forgive him. And again, Harald ignores all of that, realizes that how Loki feels is the exact opposite. And Steven made a great choice here, saying, not I love you, son, but I love you too, son. There's a very clear difference in the Japanese as well, in that he. He realizes that everything that Loki is doing and saying is completely out of love for Harald and for basically the giants themselves. And with a curious body, body, what appears to be a lightning bolt, but could be something else, oddly enough, strikes the heart of the castle.

[A]

Interesting.

[D]

And on the next page we see that energy infused with also Supreme King Haki tearing through Harald and ripping his body Apart. Just smashing through him with the hammer. Beautiful spread. I mean, there's been a lot of really good art in this. In this chapter, but, like, what a. What a way to end it. And then at the bottom, we see Loki in tears, just sobbing. Snot coming out of his mouth or snot coming out of his nose. Mouth open, you know, just. Just absolutely despondent. And Harald's voice goes over these. These panels of their memories together. Loki, my son. All that matters is Elbaf's future. And on the last panel, we see all the little kids outside playing in the snow, oblivious to the tragedy that is happening in the castle. Beautiful ending to this whole flashback, I think. I mean, there might be a little more next chapter, but even if it's not the end of the actual flashback for the climax.

[A]

Climax.

[D]

Just Chef's kiss. Magnificent.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Loki with that Shohei Ohtani swing.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

The animators are gonna go nuts.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely.

[C]

I mean, lately, the animators have been going nuts. Character walking. So, yeah, I feel like.

[A]

I think this. Like this. I was thinking going through this chapter with, like, Harold just walking through the palace and just slaying all these guys. I'm like, you, like, bump up the tone, make it. Make it as ominous and dark as possible. I would say.

[D]

Shohei. That's good. That's. That might be. That might be the. The episode chapter.

[A]

I don't know. Yeah, yeah, we'll find out. Alrighty, let's. Yeah, let's share our thoughts, feelings. Greg, it's been a long while since we've had you on for a manga recap. What are some of your thoughts about this chapter?

[F]

All right. I don't know how to go through this. I'm so used to just going off with Steven on a panel or two and then talking for an hour. So I got to reel myself in here.

[A]

We don't have that much time.

[F]

I know, right? So. So much I want to talk about. But what. What is Loki? I guess a lot of options. I guess the. The easy one to go for is. I don't know the actual pronunciation of this. Sorry. Nidhogg. Nidhoggar. However you want to say it. Pronounce it. I'm not going to say it right.

[C]

I think is. Yeah.

[F]

Nidhogg is the accepted. Yeah, all right. I guess that's an easy one to go for. Um, I mean, he was literally at the roots of the tree. His nidhogg gnawed on the roots. You could draw all sorts of parallels. The. The call, the cry is otherworldly for sure. It seems to have a connection to Ratatoskr. If I'm pronouncing that right, I don't even know. Sorry. But when the squirrel sees him, it. It has these, like, like, loving eyes. And those two are connected. Right. Like, didn't Ratatusker go back and forth? I didn't. I haven't. My. My. My latest interaction with Norse mythology is. Is God of war. So I don't know if this is correct or not, but I. I thought Ratatoshka ran back and forth between Nidhogger and something like that.

[C]

Yeah. I think Nidhogg, what eats the. The roots, chomps on the roots of Yggdrasil. And Ratatasker goes back and forth, but interacts, I believe, with Nidhogg. This is something that I didn't find out until earlier today. This is like a Ratatasker is a part of Norse mythology that completely escaped me. And I haven't played Ragnarok yet, so I have not really encountered Sungwon's character. Really.

[F]

Okay, so I guess the easy one that you could go for here is Nidhogg. Sure. What if it's not Nidhogg? What could it be? I guess you could also make a wolf guess as well for an actual, like, Fenrir type fruit.

[D]

I think the silhouette, like, really sells it as some kind of serpentine beast, you know?

[C]

So, yeah, I think that, like, Nidog is probably like, Nidog, Fenrir and Jormungand, if I am even pronouncing that right. But that's the serpent.

[F]

Yeah, the world serpents.

[C]

That brings. Yeah, that brings the end of days.

[D]

Yeah. Jormungund would be. Yeah, would be the. The other, I think. Obvious interpretation, but, like, I. I really think it's the Nidhogg like that just lore wise. So much lines up with, you know, Ratatoskr, the. The roots and everything. And just the. The shape of it, you know, it just.

[C]

Well, to that point, too, but, like, to that point too, we see the Nidhogg, of course, earlier on in this particular arc. Right. It's one of the kids, like, worst fears, you know, Otis subconsciously putting that in our, like, in our midst. And I was gonna bring this up, I guess, when it was. We went around to me, but since this is already a topic of discussion, the Nidhogg kind of looks like one of the dragons in Punk Hazard, the small one. And I don't know, I feel like there's some sort of weird, like, the dragons that Vegapunk is sort of like creating, I don't know, the west dragons. Yeah, they're. They're all. I mean, well, at least his main one is a Western dragon. But then the small one looks exactly like the Nidhogg. So I wonder if there's like, Western dragon, Norse dragon, like, western, eastern, north, you know, I don't know. I'm trying to piece something together.

[F]

I have not seen this in a long time, and I could pick the volume right off the shelf, but is it a wyvern?

[C]

It kind of looks like one a little bit. Let me see. I literally just was looking at this earlier.

[F]

Okay, sorry, that's shit I had to learn for the Monster Hunter World Translation Guide. Like, dragons are different than wyverns, blah, blah, blah.

[D]

But.

[F]

But I guess for me, ultimately, it's coming down to, like, what if it isn't Nidhawk, Then what could it be? If it is Fenrir, my most interesting thing is that he could control lightning because he's basically like an ultra mink because he can just create ultimate static electricity. That would be fun. That would be silly fun. But my only question here is, what. What is that even lightning at this point? Because Oda's been very careful that, you know, to have the sound effects right for, like, crackling. For hockey. For King's Hockey. I'm sorry, I don't know what it is in English. Supreme Kings Hockey. King's Hockey. I don't know.

[C]

Yeah.

[F]

But you could also make the argument that, like, he. Why this is such a special fruit is because he can literally control hockey. Like, what if he's actually summoning hockey to him at that point? What if it's not literally lighting, but actual hockey? Which also brings to, like, to question, like, well, then what is an Eris fruit? Like, is an Aeris fruit actually something that's all sort of tinfoil hat shit? But, like, stuff that Oda could do if he. If he wanted to, he could explore. Like, oh, yeah, this fruit wasn't actually this fruit. I mean, all bets are off after the gum. Gum fruit became a completely fucking different thing. So. But, yeah, to me, it seems like Nidhogg is the obvious choice, but I do enjoy thinking about what the other options are.

[D]

I'd also throw out. I mean, readers or listeners won't be able to see this, but from the mural, the silhouette does kind of have the same shape as this thing that looms over Yggdrasil in the Elbaf mural, which, you know, could be Jormungand. Or the Nidhogg. But you can also see, like, lightning coming off of the Ark from sky.

[C]

Taehyung.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And hitting the tree there, so.

[C]

Huh. That's interesting. What if Ragnar is a conduit to the user? The Goro. Goro. Whatever. Rumble. Rumble. Is that what we're calling it? Enter is fruit somehow?

[A]

Like, whoa, hold on.

[C]

Whoa. Whoa. Yeah, No, I think that'd be kind of fun. Yeah.

[A]

Summons in like a Pokemon.

[F]

This is a really deep topic that you can really get into. But like, okay, which came first? Or what was the original? Was the Devil Fruit those. Those inscriptions right on the tree? I don't know if they're technically inscriptions. The carvings on the tree, were those. Were they original creatures, or were they Devil Fruit created creatures? Which were they. Which came first? Because the Devil Fruits were created on dreams, right? Were they trying to emulate these creatures or these things from mythology? And did they become them? Or were there actual beings that the Devil Fruits were then based on? Depending on which way you fall in that, I think you can have all sorts of different discussions about what he is here. Is he that creature? Is he actually the creature of legend? Or is he the Devil Fruit assimilation of it? I don't intend to go into that now or here, because it's not the time or place for it. But it is a very interesting topic for discussion.

[E]

I mean, I do have a point. When you look at the castle getting zapped on page, what is it, 15, it goes zap, zap, which is not the. Not the language they've used for Oda's use for electricity in the past, but it does seem electric. And I mean, I've never heard. But being able to call upon lightning and let's pretend it's calling on Eniru, like, let's just go with that. Alex's fantastic theory. I don't think there's ever been a case where two Devil Fruits have been so deeply connected before that that I can think of. But that would bring in some really interesting implications for maybe how you can make a Devil Fruit power. Kind of like next level is there's kind of like a fusion with another Devil Fruit user that's kind of baked.

[C]

Into it could be like, if Akainu and Ace weren't friends. I mean, Magma wouldn't be able to burn fire or whatever the fuck.

[D]

Well, I mean, if you think about it, the fruits, you know, if it is somehow a creature tied to Yggdrasil. Fruit's gotta grow from something, right? So what if Yggdrasil is the tree from which the. The sea devil grows its fruits, and therefore Loki has eaten the sea devil itself's fruit.

[C]

Well, in this case, it's Adam, right? Not Yggdrasil.

[D]

Yeah, Adam. Yeah.

[F]

Yeah.

[D]

But.

[C]

But then what about Eve? Because there's the two big trees.

[D]

The.

[C]

Fishman island one, the Fish Man.

[D]

Yeah. I mean, they might both be reflections of the original tree. Right.

[C]

That's interesting. Yeah. We also, I mean, like, there's several schools of thought with that giant mural, and we've. I feel like we've discussed it to death and yet not even scratched the surface. But, you know, there's implications that perhaps there's, you know, this is the third planet, or, you know, this is the third stage of the same planet, or what have you. There's. We still don't have nearly enough information to go off of quite yet, but it's definitely fun to speculate.

[F]

I'm just going to go out and say that all supreme hockey stuff aside, pretty sure that the lightning can be summoned because it's a squirrel and it's just really fluffy and.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right.

[C]

I really hope so. Like, that bushy tail is literally like the. The ultimate.

[D]

Yeah, but I mean, again, we keep forgetting about the scale of Ragnar. Ragnar is larger than any mink we've.

[A]

Ever seen, bigger than the Burbank ikea.

[D]

So he could. He could literally just have Thor's hammer powers because he's so fuzzy. You're right.

[E]

That.

[C]

I really. I really hope that is the case, just because that's the goofiest. Like, I don't. I was. Yeah, I'm. I'm pretty. That's going to be my personal head canon until something's revealed. I like that.

[E]

That.

[D]

That's, like, the thing is, that's the most ODA explanation for it, right?

[F]

Yeah.

[D]

Like, ODA always goes for the gag above the lore, almost always. So I don't know. I feel like that. That makes the most sense now that you've said it. I'm like, that's my headcanon, too, from that.

[C]

It's really funny.

[E]

One thing about this chapter that was pretty funny was kind of revealing that the. The. The knights are Nepo babies. Right. Because, like, what's. When. When Gabon is like, oh, yeah, we've been fighting them off for you this whole time. Shanks. Like, we deal with them all the time. It's no big deal. It's like, yeah, of course. Because the only reason they have any ability to do anything is because they're immortal and have this otherworldly power. It's not like none of them have been able to use Haki before. This is kind of the implication this chapter provides.

[D]

And they barely leave.

[C]

No.

[D]

Yeah. Like, they barely come down to the rest of the world to fight. They don't have any experience. It's literally just emu. Gassing them all up. They. But I. Yeah, but that.

[C]

No, I think something I never even considered that's. That's interesting. I mean, I didn't even think about the whole. Like, they haven't. Have we seen instances of them with hockey at all? The Gods God Knights.

[D]

No. Only. Yeah. I mean, that's not something I even.

[C]

Like, I thought to notice. That's interesting.

[D]

Maybe Shanks his brother. I think maybe Shanks brother. But I'd have to go back. And we haven't even seen him fight that much.

[F]

So is hockey a good thing? We've just assumed that it's a good thing. But are they. Because they're infused with it and it's. Seemingly anyone with proximity to IMU appears to have it. Are they really just summoning part of IM and is im? Since everyone has hockey. Right? Everyone in the world has hockey.

[E]

They just.

[F]

It's. It's latent.

[D]

Yeah. So I.

[F]

Does everything come from im?

[D]

My interpretation of hockey is like, so. So the. The. The regular forms of hockey that we see, you know, armament. I forget exactly what they're called, but, you know, the sensory hockey, the armament, and the other one, they're all manifestations of individual willpower that kind of reflect the kind of person that is using them.

[A]

But.

[D]

But Supreme King hockey is a specific hereditary thing that some people just have. And in this chapter, he says, you have the blood of the supreme King. So what that says to me is that's some kind of latent willpower that's been passed down possibly from the original supreme king who was usurped by the celestial dragons in the Void century.

[F]

It would probably be Emu.

[D]

Well, no, IMU is the one who usurped whatever the ruling class was before.

[C]

No, I mean, if there was a ruling class, though, that's the thing.

[D]

The implication, the way I've been interpreting it so far, is that whoever built the maxim and the. The civilization on the moon ruled over the world until the celestial dragons knocked them down and, like, changed the world order. And, you know, there's. There's some kind of war in the Void century, and I. It seems like Joy Boy was like a third party in that war. Trying to. To create a free world and got knocked down by the celestial dragons. So my kind of interpretation of that would be that the supreme king would be whoever ruled over before, had his lineage spread out throughout the world. Because we. There's also like the Xebek clan, we know are direct descendants of the original king of the world. That's what. Yeah. Of Davy. Yeah. Who was the original king of the world. So.

[C]

Okay, let's rewind for a second and pause it. That. Greg, your theory that. My theory is all Haki is derived.

[F]

From Imu could be. I don't know about all Haki seems to be, but my idea is that Imu was the Abomination, and they supposedly beat the Abomination, but it got trapped inside Lily's body. And through the power of the op. The op. Op Fruit. Um, it. It became a basically an eternal body. And that entity that the abomination was is eternally trapped inside her body. And it's the reason they're so interested in giants is because it's trying to recreate that body to take total domination.

[C]

Interesting for those. And this is not like. I wouldn't say call this record reading, but everybody who's listening, who hasn't listened to the last SGS segment where Greg details this connection. Connection Fruit theory. It's super interesting. It's a very, very cool theory. I would recommend, after you're done listening to this, go back and listen to that one. Pretty dope. So the. I didn't even think about like, oh yeah, how come everybody's like, limbs turn like jet black whenever they use armament.

[F]

It's called colors. Right. Why is it called. If it's colors, then why is it black?

[C]

Like the absence of color. Yeah, it's kind of interesting. And that's like just. And now is IMU a silhouette or is this just like.

[D]

This is IMU's whole a being of living Haki. But I mean, that's.

[C]

Now that's interesting.

[D]

Like he could just be some kind of eternal will that just, you know, has carried on. Cause we don't see any real shape to Imu. Right. So maybe it's not a silhouette. Maybe it is literally just like a blob. It could be Haki.

[F]

There's that sketch on Oda's desk that he conveniently left out when he did that picture of the emu doll at his desk. If you look carefully in the lower left hand corner, there's a blurry sketch. And if you zoom in and flip, looks exactly like the outline of IMU and it also has a somewhat 4 ODA, a feminine look to it. So it could be an actual design for IMU's actual body, but that doesn't discredit anything. It absolutely can be. Also, things could have changed and there's not even any proof that that definitely was Imu. It's all speculation, but just all sorts of interesting stuff going about Imu and especially what this blackness is, what is this power.

[D]

But I also find it interesting because like you would assume based on the way that the covenants work, that the knights are being fueled by whatever has kept Imu alive for like the last most of a thousand years. Right?

[C]

Well, I guess whatever that mark is. Right. I mean that mark is some sort of a connection to Imu. Now I think the elders definitely have their life force specifically. Like they're, they're being literally like we saw Saturn basically get his life completely just sucked out of him. I mean, I think it's, it's pretty obvious that those guys are, they're being fueled by Emu's power of evil or whatever.

[D]

I think they're, they're. Yeah, they're like flesh puppets at this point. Right. And that's probably the deepest covenant below the depths of, you know, the abyss covenant or whatever. So like the knights have the depths covenant and then probably the five elders have the abyss covenant that lets them turn into those big demons. But like, I almost wonder if that's, you know, with the revelation that they are weak to Supreme King Haki, that implies to me that maybe they're fueled by Imu's Haki and then whatever Imu's like rival being was the supreme king from the void century has an equal and opposite power that can like temporarily disperse IMU's influence. And that's how he's able to tear off Harald's arm and by destroying the depths covenant, briefly bring him back to his senses because like, you know, he still regenerates. So obviously the, the depth's covenant is like soul deep. It's no longer a situation like with Shanks, where by having his arm taken off, he's no longer under the influence of the Shallows covenant.

[B]

Right.

[C]

We haven't, I don't think we've talked about that at all. Right. The fact that we see his tattoo, like if his tattoo is not on his body, then he regains his consciousness. Did we talk about that at all?

[A]

You're talking about Harold.

[D]

Harold, yeah, but also that. So like Shanks talks in like a couple chapters ago, he talks about how like, if you're around Imu. He can control you if you have the shallows covenant on your arm. And. And he.

[C]

It's a proximity thing. You have to be close enough.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

And he gave that arm up to save Luffy in chapter one. He got that tattoo bitten off of him. So Luffy freed him from Imu's control in the very first chapter of One Piece.

[F]

Yeah. Which unfortunately for Harald here, it's like, oh, guess we could have just saved him by chopping off his arm.

[D]

But no, it grows back.

[A]

I was gonna say, like that almost could work, but yeah, like Shanks and Gabon could have just kept spamming. Chopping off his.

[D]

Yeah, just keep chopping his arm off every couple minutes for the rest of.

[A]

No, stop it.

[D]

Like, maybe you could like build like some kind of brace that just like holds. Holds the regenerating skin back forever.

[E]

Butter Slasher. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Cauterize the wound.

[D]

Cauterize the wound. I don't think you can. I don't think you can cauterize through this healing factor. If it regrows mustaches, it's. It's, you know, it's. It's unbeatable.

[C]

What if you've got like the. The depths covenant or the Abyss covenant, whatever we're calling it. And like you just like, yeah, I just shave my beard today.

[D]

It just immediately comes back, keeps growing back. He can never change his hairstyle, man. You know that. Like that.

[E]

I mean, you could use hockey infused razors to.

[C]

Like every time to shave, it just becomes five o' clock shadow immediately.

[D]

You need like a servant with the supreme king hockey. Just to like infuse it into your razor and give you a shave to have like a couple hours of a clean face before, man. Poor the poor Figgerland family with that stupid moon hair that they've got going.

[C]

I don't know why everybody keeps calling it stupid. I think it's bad as hell. Like, it's really fucking cool.

[A]

You also think Matt tonight is bad as hell?

[C]

He is. He's really cool, guys. He's a fucking moon man who plays the piano and sings like Frank Sinatra. Of course he's fucking cool. And he's. And he loves McDonald's.

[E]

He's.

[C]

Mr. McDonald's.

[E]

McDonald's. But things like Sinatra is a bit. A bit generous, don't you think, Alex?

[C]

He croons. He's a crooner.

[A]

He's more like a Sammy Davis Jr. Fine, fine.

[C]

Boublay. Michael Buble. Is that a reference that hip to the times?

[A]

I don't think any of Our references have been hip to the times.

[C]

Mac tonight is basically Michael buble, but.

[E]

For McDonald's, Boublay's got 10 more years before he gets his ARP card. So, like, you know, true. It's still fine.

[D]

It's still hip. Yeah, he does not need a hip replacement yet. It's still hip.

[C]

Yep.

[E]

Anyway, so I guess to correct myself, they're Nepo babies, but not Nepo babies enough to have Supreme King hockey.

[C]

Anyway, Greg, what did you think of the chapter?

[F]

I really enjoyed the ending, the exchange with. Between the two of, you know, like, I hate you. You know, it's really nasty what Loki says to him. And, you know, he's. I love you too, son. Like, that's. That hits you in the hard hole.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

[F]

Yeah, I do like that.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

Yeah, the whole. The whole ending had me tearing up. First time I read it. As. As they say in Inuyashiki, one piece was so damn good this week.

[C]

Well, Jeff, on that, on that note, what did you. What did you think of the chapter?

[D]

I mean, I like. It was. It was a banging fight. Like, some of the best action panels ODA's done in a hot minute. I really love the. The spreads. Like, not just the spread at the end, but like the. The staggered panels of the Loki as whatever he is taking out Harald in like a couple swipes. The ev. Every single panel on that page is beautifully composed. I especially love, like, the. The first one of like Harald in the middle of the flames. That's like such a good use of negative space and, you know, contrast and like, the framing of him just. It looks so cool. So, yeah, art wise, it bangs. There's a lot of, like, I think really big lore drops that were just kind of like subtly implied, you know, through the little things, like the blood of the Supreme King and, you know, the revelation that Haki or that Supreme King Haki is the weakness, which should now come into play as we go back into the main Elbaf arc in hopefully a week or two. I really. I really want to. I really want to get back in there and see them start kicking those guys butts. But, like, I think it's also very smart to save that for the end of the flashback, so it'll be fresh in people's minds as we come in. Like, now we know how to beat these guys. Now we can. You know, there's like a lot that has come out of this flashback in general, and this is one of the best chapters of it. So I, Yeah, I just liked It a lot.

[C]

Super. Miles. Thoughts, Feelings?

[E]

One of my biggest concerns with this entire arc has been kind of demystifying the older generation of pirates. I have been so afraid for them to make Shanks a character in a proper sense. And I guess when I said Oda was a genius when I was 19 years old, I was on to something. Because somehow even finding out things about Shanks that kind of, like, do change my opinion of him a little bit on the negative side have kind of, like, mostly worked themselves out. And getting this extra level of detail of this past era of one piece characters has only further validated how cool they are in the modern sense.

[D]

And so go ahead to the Shanks point. I actually think, like, it's. There's been flaws revealed in his character that make him a lot more interesting. I think, like, he was originally just like, the coolest guy. Right? You know, he was this just role model for Luffy who didn't like who, you know, wasn't that much of a character. But not like we're seeing depth to him and like, we're seeing heroism in his overcoming his own background, but also, like, the flip side of him saving Luffy of like, oh, okay, so he, you know, he actually maybe didn't want that arm so much. Like, obviously he was still holding onto the arm. He didn't chop the arm off himself earlier. But, like, it makes sense he was willing to give that up. But also, he having been a Celestial Dragon, he probably knew exactly what the Gomu Gomu no Mi really was and had, like, plans for it and was like, oh, now I have to protect Luffy at all costs. So, like, there's, you know, Luffy saw it as just, oh, my good friend. He taught him that lesson about friendship and. And Shanks is his friend. Right? Like, I don't think that that's disputable. He really likes the kid. But, like, there was this greater depth to it that doesn't undermine Shanks's character or that that moment for Luffy, but does recontextualize it for us now. Miles.

[C]

What? Yeah. Which. To what. To what new revelations were you referring to? Exactly?

[E]

So I'm kind of just talking about this arc as a whole, which are this flashback as a whole, which now is coming to an end. But honestly, the flashbacks for the last year or two have all been in this vein of like, maybe pulling back the curtain more than I would normally be comfortable with. You know, one of the reasons why these figures are so interesting and compelling to us is because we, you know, don't know everything. And so I guess I'm. I'm very much in agreement with Jeff. When I first read the Shanks backstory of, you know, what losing his arm kind of did mean, it did certainly change my opinion of him in the moment. But I kind of have sat with it and thought, you know, basically, I'm where Jeff is on this, but in this chapter in particular, it's kind of. I was kind of remarking as I was reading and I made one of my notes about this. It's just. It's kind of cool that I can look at, see Shanks backstory at all, even if it's not like the most important moment in his life. In this chapter in particular, it's a very important moment, but not for him. And it doesn't undermine everything he's done. And in fact, it makes it more interesting. So that's. That was one of my biggest takeaways. I just thought it was cool as hell. It's kind of the payoff of, like, three different flashback story arcs over the last 150 chapters in this chapter. So I'm. It was a bit fan. It felt a little fan service for me. Not necessarily in general, but for me, I'm like, ooh, paying attention is now rewarded.

[D]

It very much so. I really think that this, like, what he's doing with the flashbacks now and finally paying off all of these mysteries that he's left hanging for literally a thousand chapters. Is Oda really making good on his idea that One Piece would be the first shonen manga with a good ending?

[C]

Dragon Ball? I mean, yeah.

[E]

What's wrong with ub?

[C]

What's wrong with Dragon Ball?

[A]

You know, not enough people talk about Dragon Ball, I think, because, like, nine out of 10 people probably only watch the anime. By only watch the anime, I mean only watch Dragon Ball Z and super and all that.

[C]

Dragon Ball is a cute ending.

[D]

It's good, it's cute. But it's like he didn't plan for it from the beginning. And you can tell.

[C]

Okay, well, here's the thing about. The thing about One Piece and Oda is that ODA is a. In all of my decades of reading One Piece, I have come to the conclusion that ODA is a fantastic improviser and knows exactly how to make lemonade with all the lemon trees that he's planted. You know, you go to your yard and you're like, okay, one day these are all going to be lemon trees. I'm not sure exactly what they're going to look like, but they're going to be lemon trees and. And when we get there, you know, I'll decide what kind of lemon trees they are, but they're going to be lemon trees regardless. Like, that's. That's sort of how I've viewed Oda. I. Gun, for me, gone is the mysticism. Like, wow, I can't believe he's planned all of this since the beginning. There's definitely some shit that he's planned since the beginning. Yeah, there's definitely some shit that he's had, like, an idea of.

[A]

But the way some people talk, like, they act like he had the. The full transcript ready to go and.

[D]

It'S like, yeah, I. I don't. I don't think that. Obviously, I don't think he's had most of the reveals planned, but I do think that, like, he knew who Shanks was and what the celestial dragons were from the start. I think that he knew that he.

[F]

Knew who Shanks was.

[D]

Yeah, I think that the big picture ideas of what the one piece is and the history of the world and. And all the stuff that is being revealed in these flashbacks, or most of the stuff that is being revealed in these flashbacks is stuff that has been informing his writing. Maybe not as fleshed out as it is now, but he had, like, the core of that idea from the beginning.

[C]

Sure, Yeah. I mean, yeah, that much is pretty cool.

[A]

Cause even thinking back with the water level, the sea level rising, it's. You can tell he had that plan since Water seven, because that was a huge plot point.

[C]

Since Water seven, at least. I mean, that's.

[A]

And then just like the stuff with Skypiea, because I feel like this is some sort of mysticism here where people talk about skypiea being unnecessary and all that. All I ever hear that is just like. Sounds like more like a strawman, anything but, like, I will say, like, yeah, maybe Skypiea didn't have anything that was pivotal to, like, the arc that follows it, but there's so much, like, lore and mythology in that that's paying off now. So I. Yeah, it's.

[D]

It's our. It's our first taste of the deep history that he had planned, I think, from from day one. And like, you know, Skypie is where we see our first glimpse of the Joy Boy pose. There's so many little things in there that. That, like, I think. I think he knew the history of the Void century, for example, from the beginning and has been holding that back intentionally. But there's, you know, there's obviously a lot of other Things where he's just like, oh, yeah, you know, that's a neat, neat place to bring back that Vivre card that, you know, we had going. You know, like, maybe he. Maybe he had the Vivre card thing planned. But it takes you this way, Jeff.

[E]

How much of Elbaf was planned when he was writing Little Garden? Because I don't imagine it was very much. I don't imagine this arc existed other than, you know what, that's a good place to go back to eventually. Let's put a pin in that as a second half of the grand line place to visit.

[D]

Well, I mean, like, I think the mural, at least the history depicted on the mural and, you know, the idea of giants living on a big tree was probably something he had going from.

[A]

Well, since the end of Waller 700's lobby. Because the Adam tree. Does the Adam tree mention it was Elbaf or was that just.

[D]

Okay, no, it was just the Adam tree. But I.

[E]

Hey.

[C]

Hey. Don't sleep on the Florian triangle, right? You can't. Can't.

[E]

That was pretty early. Yeah.

[C]

A hill I will never die on.

[A]

But it's a triangle.

[C]

You'll die as long as. Well, as long as the day. The day Galila show up and reveal themselves as those giant looming things at the end of Thriller Bark, I will stand up on my chair to nobody and say, ha. I told you.

[D]

But also, like. Like I. I do think the Sunken World thing has also been planned from the beginning because, like, you know, you think about like, Whiskey Peak. There's no peak there. It's just. It's just called Whiskey Peak. It's in every island is the peak of a mountain. So maybe that's a really old. I don't know. That's.

[C]

That's. I mean, it also could just be a cool name to call something.

[D]

It could just be a cool name to call something. I'm just saying, I.

[C]

Miles.

[A]

Maybe Oda was just a fan of twins.

[C]

We're running real late, Miles. What's. Do you have any other thoughts? Feelings?

[E]

Just another very quick one, which is, if this is such an important devil fruit, why is it in the chest on the ground?

[A]

Well, you got this. You got this freaking hammer protector.

[D]

Yeah, because the squirrel won't let anybody move it.

[E]

Just put it on a table, put.

[F]

It on the screen.

[C]

It's very much the Mjolnir. You must be worthy to pick this thing up. Actually, I have a. I have a question. And this is also like, Greg, I thought about asking you this question.

[B]

How.

[C]

How. How many Tons. Do you think Ragnar weighs about, okay, 10, maybe. I don't know. Like, I feel like.

[F]

I see where you're going with that.

[A]

10 tons? 10 tons.

[C]

Well, I'm. I really want. I really want. You know, like, I think we talked early. Early, early.

[F]

That would be a clever one. That's clever about.

[C]

Yeah. Usopp's lies coming, coming, coming to fruition. You know, I. I really. I don't know how or. Or, you know, any conceivable way of. Of making this happen, but I. I really want it to happen.

[F]

What's the highest he went. What did he do against 10 perona?

[C]

Perona was 10. Yeah, it was five against Mr. 4Medicootie. And then. And then 10 perona. And we haven't seen.

[F]

So what do we say?

[C]

So this.

[F]

So this is real. Real life right now. Right. And this is real giant. So what are we saying? It's Otis. So a factor of 10. So I don't even know how much this. I have no concept of it whatsoever. But a hundred.

[C]

I mean, that's. That's such. That is such like a. Yeah.

[E]

Well, no, if we look at the last page, 16 to 17. Because that is Ragnar he's using, right?

[C]

Yeah, sure.

[E]

So if he's using Ragnar. Ragnar is at least three humans tall. So let's call it 15 to 20 meters tall. And it's wider than it is tall. So let's call it 30 meters by 20 meters by 20 meters.

[C]

And it's. It's. It's also weighty enough to crash through a castle floor.

[D]

Yeah, I mean, it's.

[C]

It's like, just by sitting there, it's.

[D]

Basically the size of Harald's chest. Right.

[C]

Like, which is. Let's. Well, in. In real word, in real world terms, what would you say that's the size of a building?

[E]

I'm saying 12. 12,000 square feet, minimum.

[F]

100 tons is the weight of a blue whale.

[C]

Okay, that's. That's. That thing is easily a blue whale.

[D]

Yeah, that's. That's easily as big as Laboon. So, yeah, sure.

[F]

And. And this is. Let's exaggerate. So let's say if we have. Can. Would it be 10. Can you line up 10 blue whales? I would say that because of the density of it, you know. Okay, so let's say a thousand tons.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[F]

I would guess that Oda would go for it, and he'd say it's a thousand ton hammer.

[C]

Yeah, Hell yeah.

[E]

I mean, we're talking about like, 20 tons. If it's steel based on what I'm seeing. And it's going to be heavier than steel.

[C]

Yeah. Hell yeah, dude.

[A]

I love this callback, by the way. This is so good.

[C]

I mean, come on. Like we haven't had. We haven't had one of those instances where. Where his lies come true.

[A]

It just made me miss old Usopp fights.

[C]

I mean, by and large, he still doesn't have.

[F]

We're going to have Excalibur. I mean, that's coming soon. So he was like, oh, let me take out that Excalibur. And so it is literally going to.

[A]

Be coming out of Jarl's head.

[C]

Oh, that's right. The head in Jarl's head. That's right.

[F]

Yeah.

[C]

I totally forgot about that. How could I forget? It's lodged in there. Right this moment. The helmet saves his life.

[D]

Yeah. No, it's definitely not the size of Laboon. I'm looking at Laboon. I don't know why I said.

[E]

I did. I did my math wrong. It's about 3,000 tons if it's 20 by 20 by 30ft.

[F]

Wow.

[E]

And it's steel. So if it's steel, it's 3,000. It's gonna be heavier than steel. So I think 10,000 is actually not unreasonable.

[D]

A 10,000 ton hammer.

[E]

I love it.

[D]

I think so much.

[C]

This is my favorite thing that we were talking about.

[D]

I really hope that Usopp gets to swing it at some point, you know, somehow or, you know, I mean, the squirrel could just do the swinging for him, but he's holding on to the bottom or something like that.

[C]

Okay, there it is.

[E]

I like that. So 10,000ft of tinfoil or 10,000 tons of tinfoil we got.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Jeez.

[C]

Steve, Steve, what are your thoughts on.

[A]

The thing made of wobble metal tin?

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

This chapter, for me, it really comes down to that last spread. I love it so much. What a great, like just impact panel one. I haven't like, I haven't felt like, like a real, you know, oomph out of one in a while. And this one is beautiful. Like you said it was sketchy and. Yeah. But I think it like the, it warrants it with this like big bolt of lightning and all that. I. I love the messiness.

[C]

I'm just, I guess I'm just like being like. I was looking at Punk Hazard earlier today and that was like even that has much nice, clearer lines compared to what I was been doing.

[A]

He's not a spring chicken.

[F]

Punk Hazard.

[C]

Yeah, even Punk. Yeah, even Punk Hazard. Yeah.

[A]

But the pose is so good. Cause there could be.

[C]

Yeah, no, it's.

[A]

There's so much fluidity in this here. Like it's. It's gorgeous. Like it. It's not really. Like there's been some spreads that I haven't been a huge fan of, but this one, I could feel the movement in this one. The impact of Kicks ass. I loved it very much. The, you know, the Ragnar being revealed to be a squirrel. Fun, because that's the thing. Just as soon as something in one piece could get very self serious, it constantly likes to remind you that it's one piece and makes it a little goofy here. And that's why I love the series. I don't need to be this grim. But this is, yeah, really some of the most heinous. Like a character has like mauled a bunch of no names in quite a while. But I, I dug this a lot. I. I almost kind of wish.

[E]

Now.

[A]

I almost kind of wish the. The scroll reveal was at the end of the previous chapter, but that's besides the point now. That's the past. But some real fun here. And you know, like a really great last line from Harold here to Loki. I thought it was great. I also like his I'm Super Vegeta pose. I didn't get a chance to mention.

[E]

That.

[A]

But we talked so much about this. I just thought it was really fun. But like, the further it went on, the better it got. And other than that, I'm just really looking forward to the final few chapters.

[D]

On the note of the way Oda blends serious stuff and the silliest gags you can think of. I really like how the joke of Yada Ul being like, oh, don't worry, the helmet saved my life. And it's like the swords all the way through your head turned out to be the explanation for his memory loss that caused him to like lock up Loki.

[A]

It could be. We still kind of don't know what exactly.

[C]

We don't know if he actually lost.

[D]

Yeah, we don't know. But like if that is the reason. That's just like the peek not to.

[A]

Like shut down this theory so much. I think it's more like. It just leaves me to wonder because Loki apparently goes out to sea and I think Shanks is the one that reels him in. Was it. Am I correct or is my memory going hazy?

[C]

Loki.

[A]

Doesn't Loki go out to sea? Because Loki was only captured like six years ago from the current timeline.

[C]

I do feel like my mind must be going, but I Mean, he had to have met Lola at some point, Right. There had to have been some sort of a meeting there. Some sort of encounter with big mom maybe.

[A]

Maybe that's the next chapter already.

[C]

I don't know. That's.

[A]

That's because I could. Because.

[C]

Good point.

[F]

No, it can't, because pudding is not alive yet.

[A]

I'm very curious here because the narrative is, you know, Loki killed Harold, and there's a good amount of time now, so curiouser and curiouser is all I could say.

[C]

I mean, Loki. Loki did kill Harold, but the narrative.

[A]

Sorry, the narrative is he murdered him in cold blood, I should say.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So I.

[D]

And it is interesting that Shanks and Gabon didn't ever speak up about that.

[C]

I mean, it's like talking about him.

[A]

Being the great improviser.

[C]

That's right. So, Steve, do you have any more thoughts?

[F]

Did they witness the event in like. I know they're there. I know they're in the castle, but did they witness that event? I'm not trying to like. Like pull. Pull a gotcha or anything. It's just like I'm.

[C]

Oh, you mean Gabon and Shanks. Are they in the room while this is happening? Yeah, I mean, I would assume so. Like, they. They were fighting Harald up until they were. Loki shows up.

[A]

Right.

[F]

They were there. I don't see them. Peanut, Colorado, though.

[C]

Let's see. The last. The last time we see them is. This is what, sprint 8 and N. Right before he says, oh, he's got supreme king hockey, too. That's a first. And there. Looks like they're on the. They're on the ropes a little bit. And that's the last time we see them. So I guess it's very possible they're in the wings watching all this happen. Oh, wait, hold on. Is that there? No, no, no, there they are. There's. That's Shanks right there on pages 14 and 15. Shanks is sort of like sitting there with his. With his head in his hand, but he's with.

[F]

But he's with Jarl. Is Jarl there?

[C]

Jarl. Jarl is in the same room, like in the main throne room. Right. Like, that's where all this is taking place. So, yeah. Jarl is in the main throne room with the two of them, it looks like. And with Loki and Harold, but looks like Harold and Loki are surrounded by flames. So it's very possible that all of this is obscured.

[D]

That's. There's.

[C]

I mean, we'll probably find out.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

Sooner.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

And, like, I mean, we're Getting to the end of the flashback now, you know, we're gonna see. Exactly. Maybe Loki was, what, just my job.

[F]

To question all those little, tiny, annoying.

[E]

Oh, no.

[C]

I mean, that's our Greg.

[D]

I have one sort of other thought on the flashback, which. It's a character writing thing that I really enjoy. What it's revealed about Loki and this interpretation of Loki as sort of a trickster character. I really like that Oda wrote that as every single, like, sinister and manipulative thing that Loki says is actually him covering up his true feelings. And he, you know, he, like, he's not honest, but he's not honest in a way of, like, he can't be honest with himself. And he's, like, hiding his own sincerity. And his dad sees through that at the end. That's just, like, beautiful in general, but also like a great interpretation of the character from Norse myth. Just really love that.

[C]

Steve, do you have any more thoughts before we.

[A]

No, that's really all I have to say. I just think this was like a pretty well pulled off climax here. I think the squirrel stuff was funny. I think the herald stuff was frightening. And then there was thunderbolt and lightning. I did the reverse lyrics there, but I enjoyed it very much.

[C]

All right, that leaves me. We basically. We've discussed this chapter. Death. What.

[A]

I'm saying.

[C]

What. What were you saying, Steve? Oh, I see. He's giving me the no go ahead signal with his hands. Yeah. So we've talked this. We've talked about this chapter to death. What could I else could I possibly say?

[F]

I could keep going. You don't want to get me started.

[C]

Hey, look, we have to save that for the sgs, bud, all right? No, I think that my biggest problem, I think with this whole six months and everybody gave me flack for it, was my criticism that God Valley derailed everything that was happening here. Now I think that God Valley is needed to tell the story that ODA is trying to tell. So I'm not going to pooh pooh that. And it was really fun. But now I'm going to reread this flashback without God Valley so I can get the full emotional brunt of what we have here now. This pastiche that Oda has laid out before us. I'm sorry, this. This palette, rather this tableau, if you will, as Jeff mentioned. Yeah. The nice thing about Loki here is that he's this. When we first meet him, he's. We think, oh, this is going to be the big bad of the Ark. He's this real character. Maybe I did.

[F]

From chapter one. I was like, no, he's good.

[C]

It gave me pause as soon as he mentioned Shanks and tried to get Luffy to like unleash him or whatever. But I, you know, over the course of time, you know, after. After his. Honestly, after his. His spat with Shamrock, that.

[E]

What?

[C]

That's when I was like, oh, okay. He's. He's. He's. He's pretty on the level. But I do enjoy. I do enjoy that Loki is actually like the best character. Actually the most kind hearted, the most good man. Sanji wish he was this kind hearted.

[F]

Except for that time he burned down the villagers.

[C]

Except for the time he. Well, you know, they had it coming.

[D]

They really had it coming.

[C]

I mean, they don't even like forgave him for that.

[E]

At the end.

[C]

He's like, by the way, you burned down that village.

[A]

Hold on. That little brat keeps stealing the food from my charity.

[C]

Respected.

[D]

He's like, you know, But I mean, he's like, you know, it's like, you know, you. As. As a king, you really shouldn't go around burning down entire villages of your citizens. But like, to be fair, they did kill your mom. So like, you know, like, like in the balance of things, go for it. I. Good job. But I can't say good job, but good job.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

The.

[C]

The. I ultimately, I do wish that this was just a like Loki and Harold flashback.

[F]

Yeah.

[C]

Because I don't want to forget that. I don't want to forget that Loki, like that chapter where Loki baby Loki's climbing up the tree, like is burned in my brain. And when you become a dad, that also like changes a lot when, when it comes to shit like this. And then we have this really fun romp through like the whole God Valley stuff was like. It just made it single handedly turned this flashback into the longest flashback in all of one piece. And it's fine. It's all well and good. It's very cool. It was a lot of fun to read. But I also think that, like it. I think that it.

[F]

Can I say it, please? Can I say the purpose of it? Thank you.

[C]

Yes.

[F]

God Valley obviously was needed. The question for Oda was where do you put it in? Because we need it for many reveals that are related to the core of the series. He chose this location because he could flesh out the Knights of God here. Because the Knights of God are ultimately who we're going to be dealing with in this coming arc. At least two of them, the rest of them have good reason to be away So I don't know, maybe they got wrapped into it or something like that. But we have enough nightmares to deal with right on the island, so that's fine. In addition to the Domi Reversi. But the point is that he needed to craft the Knights of God, and God Valley does a decent job of setting them up. So we know who the Straw Hats are going up against here. Obviously they're not featured there. They're not the main cast. They're not the main villain. But the point is we have an idea of who they are, and it's much better than just dropping them. It's like with CP how he did Cipher Pol, and initially they were this mysterious organization. Then he had the Train that introduced us to more of them and in a humorous way. Then we find out that there are more Cipher Pole Nights, so it doesn't feel like as much of a jolt like these. These Knights of the God come out of nowhere and they're. They're amazing. The. The whole mystique of that was dealt with in the early parts of the chapter. Wow. The early parts of the Ark. Wow. How can they regenerate? Wow. They have a history. Wow. How do they know this character? And then God Valley helped to fill a lot of those blanks in, and now we know who the Straw Hats will be dealing with in the action conclusion part of the arc. So that's. That's what it did for this arc. In terms of what it did for the story, it's massive. But it does have its quote unquote place. But I am in agreement with you that it derailed the story of Loki and his father.

[C]

I couldn't think of. I mean, that's very, very well said. Thank you, Greg. But I also, yeah, I couldn't think of a better place to put the God Valley stuff also. Yeah, like, because, like, it's. It's sort of the same stuff with the Kobe and Garp stuff, like in the middle of Egghead. Like that. Like, it's. It's really hard for me to, like, rank Egghead as an arc because it has so much stuff that isn't Egghead in it. But that is a discussion for whenever we do our massive arc rankings again. I have a lot to deliberate there, and it's going to be really boring and a lot of people are going to be crying tears of blood, I promise.

[E]

And Thriller Bark will still be number one.

[C]

That's right. But in the case of this, I love the Loki Herald stuff so much. I really get a sense of what Elbaf is what it was and what it's supposed to become. It's just I, it exceeded my expectations as far as that goes. I've talked off Mike with Steve about Shanks. Steve even brought it up last episode about how like well this could. There's a little bit of weird Shanks retconning with like maybe you know, him cutting off the arm is like an opportunistic thing. But all that I think is remain all that remains to be seen. What I do like is the little inclusion that the Roger Pirates have run into the Knights of God before because it also brings up like, well how do, how do we know his name Shanks to begin with? He didn't have like a little medallion.

[A]

On his neck that sits like a little medallion.

[C]

Like the Roger Pirates certainly didn't name him Shanks because. Yeah, like I bet, I bet like they like the Knights of God probably are pretty resourceful and they figured out that the Roger Pirates had Shanks and like oh, give us back Shanks. Oh, who's that? Oh, he's that little red haired boy you have. Oh well no, we're not giving him back. Fuck you. And then they get into fights. So I mean I think I do like the little aside here about that. They've run into them a bunch. And it also lends credence to Summer's reaction to Gaban when he sees him for the first time in like I don't know, 15 years or something like that. I really do love that instance because it's like, oh, okay, these guys have history. Or like Gabon's really clobbered these guys before so it's. Yeah, so I do like that aspect of the Shanks stuff in this particular chapter.

[D]

I like the thought of these petty immortal assholes just waiting for guys who kicked their asses 40 years ago.

[A]

Like Team Rocket. They're just setting up holes in the.

[D]

Ground, like curb stomp them later. You know, they keep sending the mother.

[A]

Flame to blow up holes in the ocean. They'd be like come on all in this time.

[C]

Well I do. So I do think that that's very interesting. It was brought up right earlier that, that, that these guys have just been sort of waiting around and they haven't really trained at all. Right. They basically just get their jollies just killing civilians every year or whatever during their tournament of, of. Of slicing people up. But I do think that like really their main threat is the fact that they're a conduit for emu. Right? Like that's. We're seeing that right now with Domi Reversi stuff, with Gunko.

[F]

They're just. They're hamsters. They literally are. They're there to breed so that IMU can create his perfect being. The thing that I think a lot of people need to be ready for is that. And that was important that he had that set up in this chapter, is that they don't really come down. We've seen that the Celestial Dragons do come down, but the idea is that it's rare. And that's why I forget his name. Yeah, that's why he's so important, is that if these individuals have their eyes open and they see what the real world is, there can be a change. They can change. I'm not saying that all of them will or that they can, but the idea is that they can, that it is possible. And that's what Oda is setting you up for, is because they have no idea that they're just. They're just IMU's experiments, experimental animals. Basically. He just brings them up there and they breed. And they breed with all sorts of different people, as we've seen with the Bonnie story as well. For all of these experiments. If enough of them realize what they're. What they've been doing and what they've been subjected to, what they're doing and who they really are is just normal people, I think there will be a big change in them. Obviously, that will not be the case for the Knights and anybody who's in the know. But I don't know. I'm just happy that my call that goes more than 10 years or so back, that the five elders might actually be legitimately, like, at one point in their lives, have been legitimately kind people who were doing this for the sake of humanity, to live. They might. That spark of a person might still be in there. But the fact that they are being controlled by IMU and they are entirely under IM's control. I am super stoked that I was right on that. That those two little drops of tears from Robin's flashback informed us of that back in 2007.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

I told you. And you know what? Like, Egghead was so freaking crazy. I completely forgot about that.

[F]

Well, that's. I gave up on it for a second in Egghead, I was like, fuck, I was wrong. Because Jay Garcia starts going on about insects. And then I was like. But then I was doing an article. I was in the middle. I was like, wait a minute. Gunko is talking like imu? What if Jay Garcia and It was like, we're back. We are so back, baby. And, and, yeah, I was back.

[C]

And if you look at what Harold's saying, like, it's, it's very. Yeah. Very clear. Yeah. That there's that side that just takes over.

[D]

It would be so funny if, like, the long con for Charlos would be for him to have this, like, Helmeppo moment right at the end and, like, become a decent human being in the final chapter. He's a total piece of crap. I don't think that's gonna happen now.

[C]

Mjosgard was definitely, like, I used to be a piece of shit.

[E]

Yeah.

[F]

Yep.

[A]

No, I, I, I want Charles to, like, maybe think, like, oh, maybe I was going about this the wrong way before he gets, like, stepped on by Zunesha or something. Zunisha's, like, really long leg has to come all the way out of the ocean just to stop.

[F]

Does Oda do it with Shamrock? If he does it with Shamrock, then Shanks is dead. If he doesn't do it with Shamrock, then there's a chance and he could go Greek tragedy and kill them both. But I don't think he'd do that. And that's super on Oda. He cannot kill a poochie without a replacement poochie.

[C]

I mean, that's true. Look at Ace.

[F]

Yes.

[C]

Yeah.

[F]

And look at Izo.

[D]

Yeah.

[F]

Right? Yeah.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

Who do we replace Izo with?

[F]

His brother or sister, however you want to.

[C]

Kiku.

[F]

Yeah. I have no preference there whatsoever. But I guess Kiku came in the.

[A]

Picture before Izo was even killed.

[C]

It was a preemptive poochie replacement.

[E]

I mean, what if he starts changing that for the final arc?

[F]

It would be dark if he does it, it would be uncharacteristic, and I would applaud it, but I don't think that he can because of his audience, because of his own trauma, because he had enough trouble doing that with Ace because of his experience with Fist of the North Star.

[C]

Mm.

[F]

So it's, it's tough. I, I would. I'd love that he. If he could, but I don't know. It's still anybody's game. I'm not putting my foot in the ground saying it has to happen, but. Yeah.

[A]

Well, I just hope that one day when he's in his big, you know, his plot of land with a bunch of lemon trees, you enjoy it. And he's like, all this good manga, right, is making me thirsty. He takes a big old bite out of his lemon.

[C]

Big old glass of turnip juice. I will Say before I finish off that last. In addition to the last spread. Yes, the 1213 spread or that spread right there, Steve. The one you read. I just love. Whenever I come on, I love talking about page layout. And this is like. This is extremely good shit. I initially read this on my phone this morning and then now I've got it up on my. On my monitor and I can see like the full spread and it's just real.

[A]

It looks so cool.

[C]

It's. It's real good shit. Like, I've got the one. I'm looking up at my framed. I have like a frame replica of. Which spread is this? It's from like Punk Hazard. And lately there's a lot of really cool spreads that I would just love to have replicas of. Just because it's just really, really wonderful panel work from ODA here. I really don't know how he freaking does it every week. I mean, naturally, assistance. But when you've done. When you've been doing this for like as long as he's been doing this and you can still. And you still like, can. This is like a real work of art. I don't know. You really. You really. He really knows how to do this shit.

[A]

I would hope so.

[C]

Anyway, that's me being eloquent.

[F]

What are you good at this manga thing, Oda.

[C]

Hey, that's pretty. That's George Lucas.

[F]

You can make it rhymes.

[C]

It's like poetry rhymes. I feel like. I feel like it's poetry at rhymes. Comes up on this podcast way too much. That does it for the manga recap. Let's go to the next segment, whichever it may be.

[A]

Oh yeah, that's right. I gotta start it. This is the Piece Together segment where we take your questions, comments, theories, and get a refreshing drink from Oda's lemonade stand.

[C]

Okay, that was pretty good.

[A]

Still, for 25 cents, inflation hasn't hit those. Those lemonade stands yet.

[F]

It's 50 yen.

[C]

They upped the price on Black Thunder 25 to 50. That's BS actually.

[F]

That's always here in this chapter, right? He actually utilized Black Thunder.

[D]

But how much of it is inflation? And how much lemonade inflation is those lemon stealing whores ruining the lemon supply?

[A]

Sounds like an old norm tree. And now he's stealing from our lemon tree.

[C]

Lemon stealing whores?

[D]

Do you guys not know lemon stealing?

[C]

What? No, it's.

[D]

It's one of the greatest pieces of Internet content in existence. I'm pretty sure it's from a porno. No, but it's.

[C]

Oh, there it is.

[D]

It's literally these. These people, they're like, we've got these whores coming into our backyard and stealing our lemons. And it's the plot of a porno.

[C]

Wow.

[D]

It's.

[F]

Maybe it is a McDonald joke.

[D]

It might be.

[C]

You know, it's pretty good. All right, anyway, we're going to start with dis piece.

[A]

Thank you.

[C]

We have a few dis pieces. We're going to try to get through them. It's been a long night. Usopp the Great says look over there. Start the disc piece. Oh, has it already started? Damn. Too late. Congratulations on getting to a mature 900 episodes. I heard your improvement with the first 300 episodes, and it's held steady in silliness since then. Been a listener for a long time. By my calculations, a full two, three months of my life. Of a 24 hour day. And Patreon since the opp goes to Japan. I'm retired as of last month, so the long episodes will not cut into my free time as much proportionally. Anyway, my question for this esteemed gang is, what will Bellamy do with the unrippable fabric he developed? Will it help the straw hat pirates get the one piece? The other question is, Imu uses the term Joy Boy almost as a title. Why does he use that term when he knows Luffy's name? What is that about? As a patron, I could keep this up for a long time, but other people think of better questions than I do. So, next. All right, so let's start with this one. What will Bellamy do with the unrippable fabric he developed? For those of you who don't remember, it was in a decks of the world.

[A]

He will make men's underwear. Because as we all know, men will continue to wear underwear even after it's ripped. They will insist upon it. So that way, he'll make it so that men don't have to worry about getting yelled at by their significant other and eventually having to buy more.

[C]

Wow. Sounds like you're speaking from experience, Steve.

[A]

No, but I did notice. I'm like, there's holes in these. Why do I own these? Still.

[C]

Adding hockey to your underwear.

[E]

I have a very pragmatic one. So Bellamy knows a lot about springs, right?

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

And one of the problems with springs is if you try and put springs in a mattress, they will break through the mattress over time. So maybe he can make the most comfortable bed possible using his deep understanding of springs and a fabric that will not be destroyed by said springs.

[C]

Now that's a real the end of The Baroque Works cover story ending there. That's good.

[D]

I like that idea. I think. Yeah. I mean, I think that makes sense.

[C]

Yeah, sure.

[F]

Yeah. I'm just trying to remember this character's name, which is really hard. It shouldn't be that difficult because it's a main character or main villain, but it just goes to show the arc. All right, got it. He's gonna make a hat for Gladius.

[C]

One that won't pop.

[F]

Yes.

[C]

Yeah. There it is.

[F]

Yeah.

[C]

So the other. The other why. The other question is, why does. Why doesn't Emu say Luffy's name and he says Joy Boy instead?

[D]

I I so that, to me, seems like a pretty significant point because he also, when he meets Rocks, he calls him Davey. He doesn't call him, like. So I think that might be a memory issue on his part or he.

[C]

Might just be an idiot. Yeah.

[D]

Oh, no. Yeah. Or like a really, really, really, really old guy with a bad. Who's, like, a little bit demented, like, literally has dementia and is, like, seeing the descendants of the people who he used to hate and, like, can't differentiate them from their reincarnations or their descendants or whatever.

[A]

Do you think when imu meets Frankie, he's gonna call him Cuddyflam? That'd be really.

[D]

That'd be really funny. Um.

[A]

Mayhap that was my joke answer. Anyway.

[F]

I have not looked into this or checked this, double checked this at all for the Davey. It's. The character's name is Davy Jones, right? In the series.

[D]

Yeah. Davy Jones.

[F]

Yeah. So Davey would be the family name. Yeah, yeah.

[D]

Jones.

[F]

In which case, in Japanese, him calling him or it calling Xebek. That name would probably be more like calling out somebody by their family name. You're one of the so and so. Like, easy example Adams family. An Addams. Oh, you're an Adams. So it seems to me it would be like. That doesn't mean one way or the other. It's just. That's the impression I got. As for the Joy Boy, again, this goes back to what extent are things actual. Oh, God. Such a. I'm sorry. I'm trying to squish everything I want to say down. It depends whether you think that the original Joy Boy was actually Nika or if there was a Nika God at one point or another. But if he sees the fruit as being that existence, then it seems like he would. Or it would simply call Luffy Joy Boy because that is that existence to him. It is the. And Joy Boy just sounds like a title. I think we will find that Joy Boy is a title as well. That's not for sure. But just so many times in one piece, we've got like, oh, that was my title. Or that's not the real name. Or that was just the name of my chums in Pirates. I mean, the first time was when we assumed that all these characters were actually just named 1, 2, or 3 or Bon Kure or something. Right? And then it turns out like, oh, they actually have real names. And it's like, oh, duh. Of course they have real names. This sounds like another episode. An example of that. And that's. I'll cut it there for me.

[E]

Didn't the elephant call Luffy Joy Boy 2 in Zo?

[F]

Yeah.

[D]

I almost wonder if, you know, if Imu is like a creature of living hockey or whatever. Can it see? Or is it just perceiving people by their auras? I mean, he's got eyes, but like, are they eyes?

[C]

What if those aren't Imu's eyes? Maybe they're Imu's nipples.

[D]

Yeah. Or just his.

[F]

Yeah.

[E]

Yeah. Maybe they just light up in the dark. Who knows?

[F]

Gives new meaning to nipple light.

[D]

Yeah, but I like, I wonder if it's if. If he's seeing like the. The people or he's just seeing the, like, whatever spirit inhabits them when they eat a devil fruit.

[C]

I think that he moves just this ancient being that just has his way of speaking about, I don't know, the cyclical nature of the world, whatever the fuck the world is. That's my take on it. We got a couple more of these, so let's keep them rolling. Big Mike says, hey, Opp, now that we're into the new year, if the straw hats weren't pirates and were just ordinary citizens of the world government who would pay their Heavenly tribute on January 1st, and who'd wait until the last minute and PAN on April 15, get audited and have to work undercover for Cypher Poll. The heavenly tribute pays for everything. Policemen, trees, sunshine. Let's not forget the celestial Dragons who just don't feel like working. God bless them. Okay, thank you. Big Mike.

[E]

Isn't there an SBS about this? Basically, I'm sure more along these lines, no one would.

[C]

What would their jobs be?

[E]

Yeah, but no one would pay taxes.

[D]

Absolutely. I mean, yeah, No, I don't think anybody would. Like, Nami definitely would not pay her taxes and would actively commit tax fraud.

[E]

No, she'd file them. Her and Robin would file taxes, but that's it. They wouldn't pay a dollar yeah.

[D]

They would not pay a dollar. Yeah, yeah. Nami would be like. Nami would be committing accounting fraud. Every year.

[A]

Usopp would write off so many things as expenses.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

Well, that's food. I need that to eat to live. Yeah. To do my job. I think.

[D]

I think maybe Zorro would pay his taxes.

[E]

He wouldn't find the tax office. He wouldn't find the mailbox. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

No, he would.

[D]

He would try, though. I think he would try.

[F]

Sanji might have to in order to keep the restaurant.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sanji. Sanji, I think, would be like a responsible chef and would have to. Would. Yeah. Chopper. Chopper would pay his taxes January 1st.

[C]

Well, Chopper's a good little boy.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Ratataskar Ragnar. Ragnar patch. There it is. Says. Okay. Recording rodents. This is our first devil fruit. And in the largest order of mammal. So what are we thinking is the name of Ragnar's devil fruit? Squirrel. Squirrel. Modern ratatasker. Mouse, Mouse, Model squirrel. Just squirrel.

[E]

Squirrel.

[C]

I want to know how all the devil taxonomy works. Since both the cow cows are even toed undulates. Do you think we'll ever get someone with a cow cow. Model whale? Does the fish fish category cover all fish or does it spread to all vertebrates? Since fish aren't a real clade, does it apply to only mythical zoans? Or is there a fine line between fish fish and sala sala? Would a frog be Sala sala? Where does it end?

[F]

They should cut this question in half and send it to Oda. That's a really good question. That's a really good SPS question.

[C]

Yeah. Reverse eye patch. Fucking do it, man. Yeah, that's reverse eye patch.

[F]

Nice.

[C]

They change their dame every week. Just like our next.

[A]

I was gonna say the. The name of the squirrel fruit would be like the Squeakity squeak. Squeakums squeakums squeaker squeakum times two fruit.

[C]

I do like that. Yeah, obviously. I think that the hammer ate a devil fruit.

[E]

That's.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. That makes the most sense.

[A]

Which is interesting because I thought that was something invented by Vegapunk.

[C]

Here's. Okay, so here's. I'm gonna go on a little mini rant. I want to know how the fuck an item can eat a devil fruit. Because they've been teasing this since the Mr. For a Merry Christmas fight. Apparently Vegapunk came up with technology to do it. How the fuck can you make an object?

[A]

You gotta do it away parents Miss.

[C]

Merry Christmas even said, ah, don't worry about that.

[A]

Like you gotta do the cliche of bullshit parents are teaching their children about sex. It's just they use two like dolls and they're just rub them together. Just take the two items.

[D]

Maybe he based it on Big Mom's devil fruit power. Like, maybe he found a way to replicate the effect of like briefly imbuing an object with a soul to bring it to life, give it a mouth, it eats the devil fruit and then becomes an object again.

[C]

Oh, wait. You know what? I just thought of something. What about Kuma's fruit? Kuma was under his care for like a really long time. Think there's a possibility, I don't know. Using like, because I think he was able to extract, what, Kizaru's laser beams, right?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So why not? I don't know.

[F]

Anyway, I would like to think that it's just. It's the simple and dumbest thing is like when you bite into a devil fruit, the first bite is what. What does it. Right? Like no other. Even if you bite whoever the millisecond first. So what if it's not a person who bites into it? What if you take a knife and you cut the fruit and if juice falls out, the first thing that falls on gets the fruit. And like that's. That's the secret. Like that's the whole megamont hole technique. Like that would be funny. It would be. It would be as jilly as.

[C]

No, what would be funnier is if there are a fuck ton of knives that have devil fruit powers.

[E]

I was about to say a lot of planks would have devil fruit powers at that point then.

[D]

Yeah, like, can you imagine? Just like, like some. Some chef somewhere. Just like, you know, because devil fruits show up in random batches of fruit, right? So he's like chopping, you know, randomly chopping food up. Suddenly like chops one fruit, his knife gets up and runs away on him.

[F]

It sounds like an episode of There.

[C]

Could be a whole pirate. 100%. There could be a whole pirate crew that's just knives. Like knives that all ate like zoan or human type fruits or whatever. Ah, one piece. All right. Cram. We all know cram this week. Cram is cram trary. Oh, that's funny. It's only when I say it out loud. I get it. Ahoy, OPP Banger chapter. As always. What an emotional roller coaster of a chapter between the funny ragnar reveal and the tragic farewell. My question this week is a very serious one. If there's only one of each fruit, then how come Loki is yet another wielder of the infamous Silhouette Silhouette Fruit. I like Kaido, Big mom, all the Elders and Emu Oda get new material. Have a great week and year crew. That was less of a question and more of a well, I'm using. Thank you Cram.

[F]

It's a plot hole.

[C]

Yeah, the plot hole. Plot hole Fruit. Well, that would be the. That was the opo fruit for a while. Straw hat pirate9 says hey opp, I hope the live Charity stream is a big hit whenever we do it. I also hope this what an amazing chapter. I loved learning that Roger Rayleigh and Gabon kicked the Holy Nights butts when they tried to take Shanks away. I awed with joy. On the flip side, I was so sad for Loki and Harold. That last page was as beautiful to look at as it was sad. Yeah, I think we're all in agreement. Sailor Karna says Hey opp, happy 2026. I got two stickers last week in the mail and it made me really happy. Thank you. Because things are rough and it brought a smile to my face. You guys are awesome. Well, the person who makes those stickers is on this call, so yeah, thank.

[A]

You so much for signing up for it. Fun fact. Accidentally got a little paper cut on one of my fingers and a little bit of Steve blood got on one of the envelopes. So if you're one of the you.

[F]

Can clone your own Steve.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh my God. That means that sticker is going to be like a walking Steve by virtue of our devil fruit conversation.

[A]

I did not need to mention that, but I know it's like, oh, my finger's bleeding a little bit and I saw just like a little bit of. A little bit of random on the envelopes. I was like, oopsies.

[C]

How does an item. How can an item possibly eat a devil? Steve Map Mark says, I really love the main panel on the last page of this chapter. The art is fantastic and for a moment I wished it could have been a single panel two page spread. The however, I do think it works better as it is. I think that including the bottom row of panels is the right choice as it gives emotional weight to the visual impact of Loki's hammer strike. On the podcast, there have been several discussions of how ODA's storytelling and paneling have become more dense over time. I do wish ODA would let his art breathe more sometimes. I can't really argue that his current approach is not effective though, especially when it comes to building emotion and establishing.

[E]

Themes and using more.

[C]

We've discussed this before that like, yeah, I do Wish that. I mean, going back and rereading old One Piece, it's, you know, I miss a lot of how much breathing room there was. And I don't know if we talked about this. I mean, if you guys talked about this at all last week, Steve, or whenever the Jump Festa letter from Oda dropped. But how he talked about how the next year is going to be him moving at breakneck speed or whatever.

[A]

I. Yeah, I kind of was like.

[C]

Oh, I certainly hope that doesn't mean he's going to be rushing through. Rushing through art so much. Because this past year we. Or the past two. Two years, I guess we've been given the. The Unfinished chapter treatment. Not to the extent that Hunter X Hunter fans have been having to endure. But.

[A]

Yeah, it's been. It's been, you know, a more recent occurrence. Yeah, I. But at least he was like saying like, hey, I gotta do this because I gotta think about my health. So I mean that's like, I can't complain too much. It's true. And I'm like, you know what? I'm glad, like the early chapters of One Piece that were focused on the straw hats got plenty of time to cook and then all the stuff about the lore and I'm like, yeah, yeah, work through this a little bit quicker. But just is what it is, you know. I'd rather see Oda remain healthy, you know, and finish the series. That's.

[D]

The current approach is kind of closer to Hunter X Hunter with like a lot of dialogue and smaller bits of art. And I don't mind that. And I think this chapter was some of the most giving the art breathing room that he's done in a while.

[C]

Yeah, he'll do it every now and again. And like the. The flashback has definitely like there's a lot in this flashback that I really loved as far as framing and art goes. So I can't like, I'm not going to totally complain about it. All right, we have a few more. SNP says hey Opp. As it was hinted right before the flashback and confirmed, this chapter seems like the right answer for now for the regeneration of Holy Nights is Supreme King Hockey. One thing was also being talked about in this chapter and was shown in Grux vs Garp and Roger or Luffy vs the Elders is that opponent with Supreme King Haki can counter it. So maybe there actually is something else we can deal with. The regeneration while the Supreme King Haki is just a quick brute force way until we have to fight the next level enemies. So I guess what they're saying is maybe using the highest level of Haki is just a. A band aid versus a permanent solution to defeating these guys.

[F]

Agree.

[C]

That seems to be the case.

[F]

Agree. Yeah, completely agree.

[E]

Yeah. I mean, that was kind of the joke we were making earlier about cutting off the arm repeatedly too. You know, it's not.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[E]

It's not a model device.

[F]

If we knew how to beat them, then there wouldn't be a need for a series because they'd be beatable.

[A]

Yeah.

[F]

It is a temporary solution.

[C]

All right, Sheepman. Sheepman says howdy and Happy New Year, opp. Loved Harold saying thank you to Loki for burning down the brewer's village. I was pleasantly surprised to see this moment as we had not seen Harald's reaction to Eda being poisoned or him visiting Loki in confinement. I thought that Harald wouldn't condone Loki's actions due to wanting peace and prosperity for the future of Elbaf.

[F]

Well, I talked a lot about it.

[C]

There's a line somewhere.

[F]

Yeah.

[C]

Yep, that's right.

[A]

It's like Brewers Town's. Brewers Town was jerks.

[F]

So, yeah, I won't get into it here, but I had a long discussion with Steven about how that scene with Eda, the final scene with Eda is important in that it shows you what the future of Elbaf must be.

[C]

Oh, no. Yeah, where she says that like, oh, well, don't give away. Don't give up your warrior's pride. That's really cool. Boy, what a man. If I didn't have a wife. All right, we have one more disc piece before we get into Reddit. This is from Wispy, who says, hey, O App, Happy New Year. I'm glad ODA keeps finding ways to rekindle the squirrel or chipmunk debate. Well, that's definitely a squirrel, right?

[A]

Yeah, it's been a while with that. I forget what side was which, but. Chipmunk.

[C]

But ain't no northern reticulated chipmunk, that's for sure. All right, Steve, what do we got going on on Subreddit Archipelago?

[A]

We got one little question comment here from Born to Boil. They write, hi, Opp. Happy New Year's. Congratulation. I pronounced it right the second time.

[C]

Congratulations. Congratulations on being incredulous.

[A]

Happy New Year's. And Congratulations with the 900th episode. During the last manga chapter recap, you talked a lot about the hammer and whether Loki was worthy to wield it. I just wanted to mention that being worthy lore is only in Marvel in old sagas. How do you Pronounce the horror.

[C]

Thor's Mjolnir.

[A]

Mjolnir. Mjolnir.

[C]

Yeah. Meow. Meow.

[F]

Mjosgard.

[C]

Mjosgard. It's.

[A]

Mjolnir. Mjolnir.

[C]

Mjard.

[F]

Jesus.

[A]

Mjolnir. Just a Mjolnir. Mjolnir. Just a really heavy hammer. And even Thor has to wear iron gloves in order to catch it. One of the most famous stories is about the hammer getting stolen and Thor and Loki dressing Thor up as Freya in order to retrieve it. Sad to not see this in the manga. Don't sell yourself short. Another thing that is different from the mcu.

[E]

I'm ready to go to market.

[A]

What's Loki gonna say after Shamrock stabbed him a bunch of times? Someone stop that awful, awful man. Another thing.

[C]

Blessed nothing.

[A]

That is different.

[C]

I must have used Freya's makeup kick by mistake.

[A]

Oh, my God. Another thing that is different from the MCU is that Loki is the blood brother of Odin and not Thor. And that he is the father of Fenrir, Jormungand. Jormungand, Hel and others. Could his devil fruit be based on one of those creatures?

[C]

Yes, we did discuss that. We did discuss Fenrir and Jormungand and not Hell. What is Hell, Hela?

[A]

That's what I was thinking. It's a reference to.

[C]

Hell. Is the Grim Goddess ruling the underworld. Looks like us.

[A]

Yeah, this is this. Yeah, we, you know, talked a lot about this here and. Yeah, I guess you could really tell that. Well, you know, a lot of us don't read and we just know Marvel, so. And we don't even read those. Some of us. Not all.

[C]

To be. To be. I mean, I took a mythology class when I was in college because I'm a nerd.

[E]

And of course, you have a comprehensive understanding of every culture on Earth's mythology as a result, right?

[C]

That's right. Every single one. Not just Sumerian, Norse and Greek.

[A]

And that's our only question on Reddit.

[C]

It is.

[F]

All right.

[C]

And that's it.

[A]

That's it.

[C]

That's it for Piece Together. All right, let's round off.

[A]

This has been the One Piece podcast, episode 900 for the World Week of Monday, January 5, 2026. 900 episodes is a hell of a milestone. I'm sad not all of us could be here today. You know, Zach, feel better. Ed, we appreciate you joining us for the first half of the manga recap. We sure talked a lot, but it was a really great discussion. It was a really good crew of people here Today, thank you so much for taking the time and spending it recording the podcast with us. In terms of news for the podcast, stay tuned for when we're rescheduling the live stream. Don't know the details just yet. We're figuring that out, but that is something that we're hoping to do in the near future. As for sticker club, I will be posting the new poll very soon, probably in a day or two. I don't like to post it the same day as an episode drops just because that's a lot of stuff to post on Patreon at once. But stay tuned for that and you'll get to choose your next sticker for the month of January.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

Wow indeed. Other than that, that's about it. It's a new year one piece still going, so this podcast will be here to talk about it. But just want to thank our guests very much today. Jeff, thank you very much for your insight and discussing and notice. I'm going to give each of you time to talk about yourselves. But, Jeff, where could the good people find you?

[D]

Well, they can find me mainly on YouTube at mother's basement and also Basement Life. That's the second channel that I run with my wife Yazzie, where we talk about anime. And, you know, what's good in anime, what's bad in anime? The trashiest anime. I really like trashy anime. Video, essays, vlogs, all that good stuff. Yeah, if you like hearing people talk about anime, including one piece. I put out a video last year about the politics of one piece that I'm very proud of. I actually got quite a bit of help with that from Zach, but yeah, that's my stuff. And Miles can tell you about the other thing that we do together.

[A]

Miles, go ahead.

[E]

We do a podcast called Quest for the Best, which you may be hearing a familiar voice on. Besides the two of us in the next couple of weeks or so. Excited about that. Once we announced. Get that announced. But we're trying to find the best anime of all time. And so we're watching a lot of anime we haven't watched before and forcing our friends to watch the ones that they may have missed.

[D]

And they force us to watch stuff, too.

[E]

Amen. And also do a. I was going.

[C]

To say best anime. Ping pong. There it is. I think you're done.

[E]

Pretty high on all, all of our lists, I think.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, we gotta do an episode about it. Maybe, maybe, maybe you can. Come on, you can, you can, you can talk about ping pong. We need people to Talk about ping pong.

[C]

I fucking love ping pong.

[D]

Yeah, it's. It's on my top 10 all time list.

[C]

Incredible.

[D]

So.

[E]

Mine as well, actually, I think. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's like a consensus hit, so.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, Alex, maybe.

[E]

Maybe we can get you on for that one. Yeah, and I have a blog called Anime by the Numbers. If you care about the business side of stuff too.

[A]

We'll say probably some of the most informative stuff because shouldn't believe everything you read on Twitter is what I'll say about the anime industry, believe it or not. Yeah, Miles's blog is a great place to start. And I'm happy Jeff mentioned his One Piece video last year too, because that was something I was gonna mention on my. You know, if you haven't checked his channel out yet and looking for a video, you could start with that One Piece one for sure. But thank you guys so much for your time.

[D]

Thanks for having us on.

[A]

Of course.

[C]

What do you mean, Greg? I was gonna say, what do you mean you can't read everything? Believe everything you read. I heard that Toei hates Sanji.

[A]

Oh yeah, they hate him. Yeah, they're gonna kill him off this year. Just you watch. On the series premiere of One Piece, one character will die. One Piece season two, you know, MP Season two.

[D]

I think the reason all those. Those rumors take off is because legitimately, the director at Studio Pierrot, who. Or was it Pierrot whoever adapted Bleach, There was a director at Bleach on Bleach who had like a legit Ichiruki agenda and like sidelined Orihime intentionally and added in every filler episode, like romantic implications between Ichigo and Rukia. So that does happen sometimes. But not. Not the Sanji agenda. You're just.

[A]

The only Kubo. It's just like. Just leave the check, you know? No, yeah. Weird, weird comments. I see sometimes that comes through, like on Instagram posts and all that, but. And Greg, where could the people find you?

[F]

I just gotta say that does sound like an exciting endeavor to find the best anime. I would be very interested in finding out why it's Robot Carnival. So please let me know when you find out.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[F]

Yeah. It's a shame that the episode did not pan out as everyone had hoped. But as they say, humans plan and Nika laughs. So it is what it is. You can find me online. Roger Larger also left. You can find me online in various locations and on the. That's the aptly put One Piece.com official site where I do columns. Probably I think it's probably more near monthly now. Also in V Jump, but that's all in Japanese. So you gotta learn your Japanese and come to Japan and purchase V Jump and read my column in the back to get that every month. So probably not for most people listening to this. But if you do have some V jump lying around from the past decade or so, check out the back. I do a column on One Piece there in addition to the official website. And yeah, as Miles brought up earlier, I will be playing Panda man in season two of One Piece Live Action. So you can look forward. No, no, no. Definitely not. But, yeah, that's it. Thank you very much for having me on and this opportunity to speak with everybody again. I really do mean this. It is wonderful to speak with people other than Steven. I love Steven like a brother. But it is just great to be able to gab with friends about the series. So thank you very much.

[A]

It's great to have you on a regular episode again.

[C]

Yeah. Seriously, man.

[A]

Alex, where are you at these days?

[C]

I'm at home with my child and my wife. I'd like to plug.

[A]

I record a podcast in a racing.

[C]

Carpet, so I like to plug families. And being sick all the time, poop. Cleaning up it. It's great.

[E]

No, until you have two. And two different daycares.

[C]

Yeah, we're not. We're not. We'll figure that out one day. One daycare is bleeding us dry enough. No, I'm just kidding. If anybody daycare is listening. We actually love you a lot and you're a lifesaver.

[A]

So let's put on your daddy's podcast.

[C]

Yeah, they're not doing that.

[A]

I hate my babysitters.

[C]

Anyways, I'm on Blue sky at dude, exclamation. I've always been there. I'm going to be there until it gets shut down or bought by Elon Musk. You know, Weeb Simpsons is an account I run. It's also on there. Maybe I'll do a new one. It's been about a year since I made a new one, so why not? I'll be at Magic. Thank you. I appreciate that. I get that a lot, actually, from people. The problem is I haven't really watched much anime, so I can't really, like. I don't know. I've been meaning to watch City the Animation, which I heard is really, really cute.

[D]

Yeah, it's. It's the most beautifully animated thing of last year.

[C]

Yeah. And I saw.

[F]

What's the name of this anime?

[C]

City the Animation.

[F]

How would you Say that in Japanese city, right?

[C]

It's the shittiest animation of all. Shitty. Greg, you scamp. If anybody's going to Magfest in the next couple days, I will be there running around. Super Art Fit will not be there, but we'll be there in spirit, damn it. And some of us will be running around and hanging out with people. So if you see me, say hi.

[D]

I miss on the Magfest.

[C]

Oh, that's right. I forgot. Super Art Fight has a Patreon. Now get on there and watch me watch live videos of me art fighting with real people up on stage.

[E]

Hell yeah.

[C]

Get up there and do that. Get on our Patreon. Super Art Fight. I might as well plug it it. Yeah, we recorded a bunch of shows and that's how we're releasing them. So enjoy.

[F]

Get on up there.

[C]

Get on up there.

[D]

Real fake up there.

[A]

Well, thank you, Alex. And for me, you know, you could follow me on social media at. Steve Yurko is usually my handle on all of them. I will also be at Magfest for those who are used to running into me there. I am not tabling this year, but I will be there helping out friend of the show, Sungwon Cho at the convention. So it'll be my first Magfest wandering around when I'm not helping him out. So if you see me, please say hi and let me know that you're a podcast listener or something.

[C]

And if you see me on Steve's shoulder, say hi to both of us. That's the.

[A]

Yeah, please call us Master Blaster or Mechashima. And you know, thank you, Ed, for coming on the show. And for the podcast, you could go to our website, that's onepiecepodcast.com. listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts should be there. You need to contact us. Please follow us on social media. Mainly we're on Bluesky Instagram also, you know, you can email [e-mail] and please support us on Patreon if you can. We have different tiers, including the sticker tier that we mentioned a bunch of times. That's the best way to support us as well. And I don't know if I always forget is our Discord. Can you join that or is that through our Patreon?

[C]

Yeah, if you're on. Well, I think you can. I think it's paid. No. Can anybody join the Discord? Maybe. But if you're a Patreon subscriber.

[A]

You.

[C]

Can submit disc piece questions. And we gotta read them. Unless they're bad. Like, unless they're inappropriate. Then we're definitely not gonna read them.

[A]

Don't let that inspire you.

[C]

That's right.

[A]

Not read it. Other than that, that's gonna do it. For the one piece podcast.

[C]

900 episodes.

[A]

Say your name.

[C]

My name is Alex.

[A]

900 episodes. We'll see you throughout 2026. We'll see you at episode 1000. Till then.

[D]

Hell, yeah.

[C]

His name is Steve. My name is Alex.

[A]

I did say my name.

[C]

Oh, I wasn't paying attention.

[E]

And my name is Zach.

[A]

I want to be on the show. Strawberry.

[E]

Good.

[C]

Poor Zach has the noro. Norovirus, unfortunately.