← The One Piece Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript421 lines
- [00:00]
Greg
Ugh. You said you were over him, but his hoodie's still in your rotation. It's time. Grab your phone, snap a few pics and sell it on Depop.
- [00:09]
Stephen
Listed in minutes with no selling fees.
- [00:12]
Greg
And just like that, a guy 500 miles away just paid full price for your closure. And right on cue. Hey, still got my hoodie? Nope. But I've got tonight's dinner paid for. Start selling on Depop. Where taste recognizes taste list. Now with no selling fees, payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details. During Lowes Pro Savings Days, the job works in your favor. Myloes Pro Rewards members buy more and save more on materials they rely on every day. Get up to 25% off select molding when you spend $1,000 or more and up to 25% off Pergo Evercraft laminate flooring.
- [00:48]
Stephen
Put Pro Savings days to work for you.
- [00:50]
Greg
Members get more at Lowe's. Valid through 327. Selection varies by location while supplies last loyalty program subject to terms and conditions. Visit the Pro Desk or lowe's.com terms for more details.
- [00:59]
Stephen
Subject to change. Sam is the One Piece podcast episode 910 for the week of Monday, March 16, 2026. My name is Stephen.
- [01:39]
Greg
And my name is Greg.
- [01:42]
Stephen
And Simba is here as well. It's SGS week. Along with brand new art. Got a new new image to show off every time we get together. Brought to us by Kirby who has done. He, he has been doing some very heavy lifting recently with, with Steve away and traveling and you know, being super busy. Kirby has done some awesome stuff. I'm very happy with how this one turned out.
- [02:17]
Greg
Unbelievable. And the, the time frame is just like, I mean to watch it being done basically in real time. Like here's the idea. Okay. And here's the result. What?
- [02:30]
Stephen
Yeah, yeah, very very quick work. Very very high quality stuff. So yeah, super happy to have him, him around to, to help out with that. That's a lot, a lot of fun to like pick out, you know, go through options and you know, tweak, tweak the results and stuff. And really, really cool to have so many great artists around to work with us. But as for the show, this is our SGS which is modeled after ODA's SBS segments. This is our special off week podcast where Greg, columnist for V Jump One Piece.com series advisor for Netflix and me, Steven, translator for One Piece manga in Shonen Jump and manga plus break down the latest events and share our expertise.
- [03:18]
Greg
So here's the part Were there air quotes on that?
- [03:22]
Stephen
Yeah, as many air quotes as the. The folks want to imagine. They're all over the place. But, yeah, last time we had a break, we were. We were thwarted. You were busy with your. Your translation work. How did that.
- [03:39]
Greg
How has that gone?
- [03:40]
Stephen
How have you been?
- [03:42]
Greg
That has been. It's been challenging and fun and educational, and that has just been an absolute pleasure to do. Very busy. But, boy, it just shows that when you work with people that are easy to work with, what you can accomplish is just amazing. And I've never had a bad editor in my experience, in my very nice, very short, and my short list of experience compared to someone like Stephen, obviously. But I've never worked with a poor editor, but my editor right now has just been, in terms of working with me on time and making adjustments for time, just unbelievable. And they've been extremely accommodating and a pleasure to work with, as always. As always. Again, no. No shade to any previous editors whatsoever. But just, I mean, really, really on the spot. And we. I got it. Let's do this. Okay, decision made. And just really wonderful. And Die has. The story is like. It just. I feel like I'm a kid again reading it. Honestly, I feel like I'm back in the 90s back just pretty much reading Dragon Ball, which is great because if it was even slightly complicated, I'd probably have a much more time, a much more difficult time translating. But like I said, time and again, it's just like, you are bad, therefore I will beat you again and again and again. And it's really fun. Obviously, it's more than that. I don't want any Die fans listening and being like, well, you know, Pop is. Is a really complex character. I get it. I totally get it. But, like, at the end of the day, It's a very 90s series, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it just feels like a completely different world compared to today, Especially reading a series like One Piece, which does have many, many layers to it.
- [05:51]
Stephen
Right.
- [05:52]
Greg
Die, while it has its layers and it has its rules, I think the thing that I don't miss the most from 90s and maybe 80s action tropes are just the commentary from the crowd who are telling you the story.
- [06:09]
Stephen
Right? Right.
- [06:10]
Greg
Like, it happened once in Dressrosa and like, Oda basically makes it a gag. You know, there was like the straight man. He did it again in Thriller Bark with basically, like a straight man and skull meat zombie who were telling you the story as it goes along. And he makes fun of it every time it happens. And you do somewhat take that for granted that the characters are moving the story along and giving you their motivations, but they're doing it in a way that's quite clever that you don't realize you're being told it, whereas some of them are just, did I tell the story? My wife was just like, Greg, this is unbelievable. This exposition is like. Because she does a lot of the formatting for me and she'll set up the format of what the characters will say and then I type in all the lines and everything. So she's doing it. She's like, my God, Craig. She's like this character just like spit out in a single panel, like, the entire motivation of the story and what's going on. And they're not even the one fighting. It's amazing. But we're actually. I shouldn't say where we're up to because I don't think they've made that public. But we are chugging along with Dai and making progress there. So that's been a lot of fun. A lot of Starbucks.
- [07:33]
Stephen
Nice. That's cool. Yeah. It's good to hear that the process is going smoothly. It's always nice when you can say that about, about some, you know, creative behind the scenes.
- [07:49]
Greg
Do you ever translate outside of the home?
- [07:54]
Stephen
Every now and then. You know, I do have a laptop. I have a desktop computer at home where I do most of my work and I do have a laptop that I can take with me. And so occasionally. So like last year my wife ran the Chicago Marathon. And you know, because of the, the time difference and just kind of it being a big first time thing for her, she wanted plenty of extra time. So we, we spent like, way longer in Chicago than probably most of the people who were traveling there for the event. And so, you know, I had to bring my laptop along to, to make sure that I could at least keep up with a few things. So, yeah, it does happen from, from time to time.
- [08:38]
Greg
So it's situational and as possible, not a choice.
- [08:46]
Stephen
Yeah, like, well, right. If, if I'm going out of town and it's kind of unavoidable, like if there's going to be a simul pub or something where it's like, it's going to happen in this window and I don't want, and I have never said like, hey, can you please arrange like a pinch hitter for me to do this this week? I never do that. So I always make sure that, um, I have it available if I need to and sometimes I've gone out and it has not like the. Oh, the, the files never came in or whatever. Like it just didn't happen. And so I didn't need to use the laptop and that's fine too. It's not that hard to, to travel with one.
- [09:25]
Greg
Wow.
- [09:28]
Stephen
What's your. What's your. Well, yeah, well, I'm curious where you're going with this.
- [09:33]
Greg
What is your secret for not falling asleep at the keyboard? Because I cannot. I mean, I can, I can if I'm like super wide and awake and I got it. But like if it's the nighttime or I have a, like an orange light on, like I just, I'll conk right out. Like after a page I need to go to. If, if it's at nighttime, basically I need to go to Starbucks and just sit there in my little corner, my little comfy thing and just concentrate and do my thing and I will not get sleepy. I can work continually. And it's not like coffee. I don't even drink coffee. I get a Frappuccino and yay sugar. But I have to work there at the nighttime. I can't be comfortable. I can't be quote unquote comfortable or feel comfy at home because I'll conk right out after like a page.
- [10:37]
Stephen
That's interesting. Yeah, we must be like, maybe not polar opposites, but my, like my daily schedule, I usually find that I get started around midday. Like I'm a little bit of a late starter. And then like, and specifically in the mid afternoon is when I get the most tired. Especially like, like before my wife gets back home. And something about like the number of hours that I've been up at that point, that's, that's when I'm like fighting off, you know, Mr. Sandman. And ironically I usually like once, once I've had dinner and then it's getting later in the evening. Oftentimes that's when I'm the most efficient actually.
- [11:25]
Greg
Wow.
- [11:25]
Stephen
Like I'm going the fastest. But I do, you know, the both of us are kind of night owls. So, you know, I'm not a stranger to staying up on the later side. So. Yeah, that's my, that's my usual schedule.
- [11:44]
Greg
Do not know how you do it, man. Especially with novels. I mean with pictures at least, like I get that little dopamine. Like ah, pictures, yay things fun. But like with a novel, it's just crushing. Text after text after text. And I think of all the work and the volume of work that you've Done. And it's just like, how, how does he do it? I'll just think sometimes, like, how the hell does Steven do it?
- [12:06]
Stephen
Yeah, sometimes I wish I knew the answer because maybe I would get some better habits or something. But no, it's just, it is what it is. And yeah, I've been super busy too. You know, strangely enough, it's weird because you look at the news, you know, of what's going on in the world and all the, you know, you see all the horrible stuff out there and then you read about the, the, the specter or the, you know, the guillotine of the, the, the AI bubble that's hanging over every professional's head and wondering like, okay, when is my job going to be safe? But for, for whatever reason right now it seems like everybody that I work with is like dumping more like here, could you do this? Can you do this? Can you do this? So, so I've been very busy recently, but you know, I'll take it for sure because you never know what will happen soon. But yeah, I got been working on some cool stuff and very excited to talk about some of it in the future when it is more public.
- [13:09]
Greg
This is obviously a rabbit hole among rabbit holes, but like AI translation, what do you think about that? Because I had some thought. The guy interviewed me a couple years back and I was like, look, at some point in history it will be an issue for translation. But like I just, I don't see us being there anytime quote, unquote, soon. And I guess soon in this day and age being 10, 10 to 15 years. Because like I, I see it happening and I see every. I'll see something that's like, whoa, cool. Like what did I say? I think I saw one the other day where like somebody was speaking and they said something in centimeters and it was like auto translated to 2 inches depending on like a GEO thing. And it was like, that's, that's really important. That's impressive. But the, the human element to it is still missing.
- [14:10]
Stephen
Right.
- [14:11]
Greg
And I do not see it being like, it's really good like in, as in so much as conveying information. It does that very well for auto translation specifically I'm talking about. But that human element just seems to be completely missing as of yet.
- [14:33]
Stephen
It's definitely improved a ton in the last couple years for sure. But yeah, and especially like when you're, when you're talking about manga in specifically. Yes, just because like, yeah, the things that the people are saying, the text that you're looking at is it it's all dependent on the imagery that you're seeing as well. Like, you know, you have to. You have to actually parts. It's not just text. It's understanding what you're looking at and putting your. Yourself in the character's shoes to be like, oh, this is, you know, they're reacting to this, about what's happening to them because of, you know, what you can see on the page and that level of context. I think unless you get, you know, an even more wild, you know, paradigm shift in terms of. Of AI power, I have a hard time seeing that becoming like something that they can do reliably on, you know, automatically. And so that, that's the sort of thing where it's like, no matter what, you're gonna have to, you know, you're gonna need someone to, to actually sit in the driver's seat and, and, you know, kind of dictate what's going on here, because I just don't see that being parsable in the, in the way that, that you can with just pure text. But completely. I don't know. I mean, as far as I can see, you know, at least. At least with the stuff that I work on, it, it feels like it's still kind of business as usual. But, you know, you never know. Things. Things can change quickly, but that's why I'm.
- [16:13]
Greg
Life comes pretty fast.
- [16:15]
Stephen
Grateful to have, you know, more opportunities coming through as far as more general news. At least, you know, one piece style news. We can say this. Eiichiro Oda appears on One Piece podcast. That's right. Netflix's official one Piece podcast for their show, which is not actually a podcast. It's just a little video thing that they put together. Words mean nothing these days, but I just did. I really wanted to say those words specifically because I know that wherever Zach is right now, he just felt an icy grip clutch at his heart. And he doesn't know why. And it's because, yeah, Odo was on a podcast and that's an air quote if, in case you. In case you didn't hear that. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't, I haven't watched that yet. We. My. My wife and I, you know, she. She was curious too, because specifically we were talking and she was like, okay, you know, we, like, we watched through, I think, part of the first season and she was like, you know what? Like, I will listen to the podcast. I listen to you guys all the time, you know, because. Because you're talking and so I follow and we do watch the anime but she doesn't necessarily read the manga and of course there's so much background material that like she has no. Like she's never watched or seen or read any of the old like pre time skip stuff for for example. And so she was like. She was like all right, I'll watch it. And then you know I can. I can give my opinion as someone who you know has no. No frame of reference for. For this stuff. So we have been watching through the. The. The new season two which has. Has come out and we haven't finished it yet. But that's been interesting. It's been really interesting to see all of the discussion like on our. On our Discord, our. Our crew Discord and our public Discord and just seeing all of the. The different opinions going around, the things that people like, things that they don't like and the ways that people disagree about that stuff. It's been really fascinating to see but you know it's been. It's been a long time coming as far as getting the second season out. So nice to. To have it finally out there.
- [18:42]
Greg
It is one of the series of all time.
- [18:48]
Stephen
Yeah. Let's see. I don't know if there's a much. It feels like that's been kind of like the entirety of the. Of the news at least as far as as one piece stuff goes. But we will have the manga back next week. Should be returning. I'm eager to see what happens next. But as for us, as for this episode, I think we will be covering the latest three chapters. 74, 75 and 76. We'll see what we have to say, what we have to discuss about those and we will see what the folks have to ask us in our SGS segment. So what do you say? Shall we get right into that?
- [19:34]
Greg
Let's sashay on over.
- [19:36]
Stephen
All right. This episode is brought to you by White Claw Surge. Nice choice hitting up this podcast.
- [19:43]
Greg
No surprises.
- [19:44]
Stephen
You're all about diving into tastes everywhere
- [19:47]
Greg
in the room can enjoy.
- [19:48]
Stephen
Just like White Claw Surge. It's for celebrating those moments when connections
- [19:52]
Greg
have been made and the night's just begun.
- [19:54]
Stephen
With bold flavors and 8% alcohol by volume.
- [19:57]
Greg
Unleash the night.
- [19:59]
Stephen
Unleash White Claw Surge. Please drink responsibly.
- [20:02]
Greg
Hard seltzer with flavors.
- [20:03]
Stephen
8% alcohol by volume. White Claw Seltzer Works Chicago, Illinois. This is the manga recap. Four chapters 1174, 1175 and 1176. That's our three most recent chapters. I think we have our files all up for perusal. So I will start us off with a little synopsis. 1174. Summers momentarily panics over losing the ship to carry the giant children away, but changes his tune when he realizes he can enjoy their tragic deaths instead. The children remember all the times they were scolded as their parents tried to get them to do the right thing. The parents leap forward to hold the kids, thorns and all, as they start to plummet over the dock, only to land on Loki accompanied by Luffy in Gear five form, who is now an enormous dragon.
- [21:16]
Greg
So, what do you think the strongest thing in the world is?
- [21:22]
Stephen
Do you know what? I literally just not even thinking it was just sort of like, okay, strongest thing in the world. And I was like, oh, it's a dragon. Obviously, it's the dragon. Was my first thought. And yeah. And then eventually I was like, oh, right. It's the essay title. It's the thing that. That is the actual centerpiece of the chapter. Not the. Not the cliffhanger at the end, but the love of the parent for the child, which I thought was a very, very effective scene. I really did enjoy this chapter.
- [21:59]
Greg
I mean, I was gonna say Tyrannosaurus wearing gold Roger's hat, but okay, No, yeah. So it is love. And that was a very. I would say this is probably the closest Oda has gotten me to tearing up recently. That. That scene with Ripley is something else. I mean, he does a good job here of presenting an impossible situation. Now, I know there's a lot of, like, talk about, like, oh, and this is again, the gift of hindsight, but like, well, why didn't they just, you know, try to ever burn the thorns or whatever? Right? Because of what's coming down the line. Right. But okay, put all that aside. Like, what's on display here, like, that kind of love. Like, what do you do in that impossible choice? And I guess this is the answer is like, you show love. If you have no other choice, then the only thing left is to show love. And that's really telling. These are some. It's an impressive show of character here on both the children and the parents part. So that is quite lovely. It's. It even allows me really to forgive the fact that just because they fell onto the back of the dragon does not mean they would survive this enormous plunge to their death.
- [23:29]
Stephen
Yeah, I was a little. Yeah, I was a little like, I don't know, maybe this is a thing that. That would occur to you since I'm not as. As up on the. The traditional snacks, but the. The hara Senbei which is what Luffy calls his. Like his. His trampoline or his cushion move or something. I don't know. I guess. I guess maybe it's just senbe because it's round. Do you think that's the. That's the extent of the. The association there?
- [24:04]
Greg
I guess because. Round and flat.
- [24:06]
Stephen
Yeah.
- [24:07]
Greg
Yeah, I guess.
- [24:07]
Stephen
I guess that makes sense.
- [24:11]
Greg
But. But yeah, I mean, if we accept that, then we have to accept the. The chopper and all those, right? So it's like, what is. What is Luffy's greatest. I don't know. Defense, Defensive or protective? How would he even say that? It's not defensive. It's protective shield.
- [24:29]
Stephen
Yeah, I guess.
- [24:30]
Greg
So his like Paladin Luffy. Like, what is his greatest ability?
- [24:34]
Stephen
Yeah, Lu. The tank. Right?
- [24:36]
Greg
And like, what. How would he. I don't know. Yeah. I guess you couldn't go any gear with this, right? Because the moment you go like a gear or anything, like, it'd have to be super hard or something. And that would defeat the purpose. But like, yeah, it. It. That. That's fine as long as we accept it. He's super fluffy and that's okay. But still, like, okay, all right. He's nowhere near as fluffy as Chopper. Like Chopper, you're like, okay. Chopper's like that experiment from high school where you have to protect the egg and drop it out a window. So he's like that cushion. He's like the container. Whereas Luffy's just like, I'm just super rubbery. And it's like actually probably hitting rubber at that speed would murder you. But that's fine. As you mentioned, the dragon. The dragon. Cool spread. And I don't know if you heard me kind of waxing some praise on this, but I do like that. Finally, Oda really seems to be digging into the giant aspect of the Ark in terms of power. We had the setting. He already did the setting. That's when we got there. And we got to see how everything looked. And he had big impressive sets. But here we're actually seeing the giant aspect of it brought into the action, I guess the action resolution part of it. And he didn't need to do that. That didn't need to be a part that he brought into it. But the fact that it is is impressive because it's. It's bringing the setting into the action. And that's cool that he's able to meld those two. And what I mean by that is basically he's. He. We already had the setting of the giants, right? The giants are Big outdoing the giants is the scale of Loki. And you see the giants compared to Loki and it's just like, whoa. Like, he is. He is huge compared to the giants. And obviously compared to the Straw Hats, even bigger. And it's just like, wow, that's. That's an amazing scale. And then that was outdone by the Sleep Tits because the Sleep Tits have this. This great spread where they all show up on the horizon over the tree, the branches, right? And they dwarf the giants. And. And that was just like, holy shit. Like. Like everything seems to be going swimmingly for everybody. And then they show up and it just like, what are they gonna do now? Like, these things are huge. This chapter, we now get Loki, who is absolutely dwarfing the Sleep Tits. I mean, it's not even. It's not even comparable. He's enormous compared to them. And even. Because that is. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that is giant Luffy on him, right? That is Luffy in his giant form.
- [27:47]
Stephen
Yeah. He's the size of the squirrel, who we already know is also gigantic in size.
- [27:53]
Greg
Right. So the scale here. And he keeps upping it like, this is absolutely fantastic. Just great to see on display. I love to see that he's playing with the theme of the Ark and using it skillfully. Theme of the arc, the setting of the arc and using it skillfully. And I want to believe that he's going to do it once more and we're going to see something that absolutely dwarfs Loki's size. My only question is, can he resist the urge to show Loki in this form being small? And the point I'm trying to get to here is kind of the elephant in the room. No, no real secret here. Like, is, is Loki going to be domi reversed? Like, can that. Because when that happens, like, will he get even bigger and badder? I mean, obviously he's gonna look like more demonic. But like, can that. Can that happen? Can that occur? And if it does, could he possibly resist the ability to. To show Loki being smaller? Like, it goes from the giant. It goes from the Straw hats to the giants to Loki to the Sleep Tits to Loki again, as the dragon. Would his next large scale thing dwarf Loki as the dragon? And that's what I'm constantly going back and forth is if Loki gets turned, then he can't do that. Or at least it's not as easy. He has to bring in another element. But if it. If it is something that he brings in, then he can actually show even Loki being smaller scale. And I don't know, I'll stop. I'll throw it to you. But, like, that's. That's what's going in my mind ever since I saw this spread is like, what could he do next? Because I don't think it's going to end here.
- [29:57]
Stephen
Yeah, I like. Because the thing is, like, as you say, the scale is so huge that you just have to assume, like, okay, well, this is clearly like the most powerful thing that could possibly be. Right? Like. Like, there's nothing can stop Loki from, you know, achieving his. His goals, whatever. Whatever those might be. And if he's going to be taking out the sleep duds, if he's going to be removing the threat to Elbaf, then. Then it's over. Like, there's nothing else to be done. You're just, you know, we'll. We'll see him do some. Some gigantic stuff, and then that's. That's the end of it. The tension is. Is gone. And. And so, yeah, that. I think that's. It certainly begs the question, as you say, of, like, well, and. And we'll. We'll get to it in the next chapter. But, you know, Emu. Being aware that. That the. The Nidhogg is on the island here, it certainly props you up to expect, you know, the next one up in terms of increasing the tension of the arc.
- [31:08]
Greg
All right. I think. Yeah. Since we do have some more chapters to get to, obviously, I think I'll leave it at there for that for now because there are some more twists and turns coming. But. Yeah, that was the first. That was my first thought is, okay, how can he go bigger? Specifically because of scenes like the Jaya scenes where it's like you. You see the. The Mary and then Mashita ship, and then.
- [31:32]
Stephen
Right.
- [31:32]
Greg
What is it?
- [31:33]
Stephen
The giant turtle is.
- [31:35]
Greg
It's the turtle next, right? Yeah, right. And then the. The. The shadows.
- [31:40]
Stephen
The shadows. Yeah. Yeah, I was. I was thinking of the exact same thing. Yeah, yeah, that's. It's. Yeah. And that. And that scene is great for that exact reason of, like, oh, my God, why is they. So. Why is this so huge? What are we going to do about this? So. Yeah, yeah, looking forward to that. All right, we'll go to 1175. Loki keeps the dream monsters at bay as Luffy and Zorro reap leap into the fray and their combined powers thoroughly squash summers. Loki's powers are revealed to be the mythical Nidhogger fruit, which grows in relation to the size of its owner. He unleashes a mighty Thorheim that obliterates the Sleutids but draws the attention of Imu.
- [32:29]
Greg
All right.
- [32:29]
Stephen
Yeah. This one was just kind of action, action, action. Pretty, pretty quick read, all things considered.
- [32:38]
Greg
Ibarancha 1 to 10. Why did you score it a 10?
- [32:50]
Stephen
Because. Because the snakes, they look like. They look like the Tim Burton sand worms. Right. Beetlejuice and. Yeah, sand worm and the. You know. So he had some like that in Nightmare Before Christmas, too. Yeah, yeah.
- [33:03]
Greg
Yep. That name is just. It's. It's Chef's Kiss. Ibarancha.
- [33:11]
Stephen
Right?
- [33:12]
Greg
I loved it.
- [33:13]
Stephen
Yeah. I think I. I think I. I tried to do a. A punny thing, and I think I just had to do thorn launchers because. Yeah, if you. For people who don't realize that Ibarra is thorn in Japanese, and so the Ra in Ibarra becomes an Ibaran Cha. So it's a nice little portmanteau there.
- [33:33]
Greg
Great stuff.
- [33:35]
Stephen
Yeah.
- [33:37]
Greg
So he is taken out with extreme prejudice. His face is shattered, and I guess he's fine.
- [33:47]
Stephen
But, yeah, he can survive the. He can regenerate the punch to the face, but not the gigantic mythical dragon, Stomping Claw, or whatever it is that he did to squish him.
- [34:07]
Greg
What I did want to talk about, or ask. Not talk about, rather than ask you, is how do you interpret Yaru's story here about what happened in the past? Because I am not entirely clear on what is myth and what is actually happened and what is together, what is not in terms of our little squirrel friend here in the Hammer. Like. Yeah, are we supposed to take things as separate as together as mythical? Is. I'm really not sure how literally we're supposed to take both his story and the depiction on the screen. So. On the screen, on the. On the. On the pages.
- [34:50]
Stephen
Page. Yeah. Yeah. This was. And I don't. Honestly, I don't think anyone really has, like, the. The answer, aside from Oda, but let's see. So, yeah, we go past the. The discussion about the sizes and.
- [35:08]
Greg
Right.
- [35:08]
Stephen
And then Ragnar the hammer blocks him. And then we get this panel that you're talking about where Elbaf has a legend of a, you know, a war God, a fighting God, who has the weapon named Ragnar. And he faced off. He turned into a giant dragon, faced off against the. The God of the sun, where he was accompanied by his faithful, you know, confidant, the ice squirrel, Ratatosk. And once he. Once Ratatosk had lost his. His master, then he. He transfers to the weapon. I. You know, he switches to the Weapon. He. He possesses the weapon. I don't know. That's a lot of different verbs there that you could. You could use. But yeah, so this. This image that we have here of, you know, a big, big Norse God with a hammer and his squirrel fighting against what is clearly Nika armed with a sword and a shield.
- [36:12]
Greg
Ah.
- [36:15]
Stephen
The Oda has clearly established that, you know, Nika exists within like the. The pantheon of. Of Elbaf gods, because they keep talking about him. So it's not like this came from a different culture. And so I think there's enough room that you could argue, well, this is all just mythology and, you know, it's. It's just stories that they have told themselves. That's part of the tapestry of the background. But given the way that. That ODA really wants us to think of, you know, of Joy Boy and Na as these kind of three dimensional figures, it. It does feel like would be foolish perhaps to write it off as like, oh, this didn't happen. This was just a story. Because he's probably got some way of contextualizing this within the actual world history somehow. I don't know what were your initial thoughts about this?
- [37:18]
Greg
I am most confused about this. The damn squirrel and the hammer.
- [37:26]
Stephen
Like, I think Zach was too like that. That was a big discussion. Yeah, yeah.
- [37:31]
Greg
It's like, I don't. I don't say I don't understand because I can see lots of different possibilities, but I don't see which one ODA is going for in terms of like what the current ragnier is. We get that it's a big heavy thing on a stick. I think we just. I mean, that was like, we spent like, we even named it. The last podcast that I was on for the main show about that is like, you know, the big hammer stick. But like is the current. It's a fruit power. Right? I mean, I think it's safe to assume that it is a weapon that quote unquote, ate a fruit or ancient tech that ate a fruit. Something like that. Right. On a stick. Is that fruit based on what we're seeing here in the panel? Is it based on this or is it the actual being? And the reason this is so weird for me is because expresses this. It by. By Ratatoskr expresses this love for or admiration or affect. Affection. Affection. It expresses affection for Loki. When we. We see Loki do the transformation.
- [38:56]
Stephen
Right, right.
- [38:59]
Greg
Which suggests to you that, like, it's not just a fruit that at some point in history it ate. It feels like this is the actual being this is the actual squirrel that at one point was the. The dear friend of this ancient giant. I mean, literally ancient. Ancient giant.
- [39:16]
Stephen
Right, right.
- [39:18]
Greg
So what happened? Did that squirrel actually get transferred into the fruit? Like, like, is it. Is it the squirrel being. Transferring the fruit or. Or was. And this is, I guess the point I'm getting to. Was it always that way? And is what Yadiru is showing here is just like the idea because we see the hammer and the squirrel separate. So is that Yaru's impression of it or was it always this squirrel and hammer? Because if we can determine that there are so many different theories that you can come up with, but unless until you, You. You don't understand what that connection is or which. Which it is, it's really hard to try to draw conclusions.
- [40:03]
Stephen
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think. I think the, like the. The act of transferring Ratatosk or like having him quote, unquote, take over the. The sword. That probably. I guess that knowing what we know about the. The way that everything works, it seems like the most sensible explanation would be that, you know, that, that the. The squirrel passed away or whatever, and his, His. His. His spirit or the concept of him or whatever, you know, that that became a devil fruit was then applied or, you know, or the essence of him, whatever. Whatever forms the devil fruit itself. You know, that process got applied to the, the hammer and then, and then that. That becomes through. Through the myth that becomes, you know, sort of described as like, oh, well, the squirrel took over the. The hammer.
- [41:08]
Greg
Damn it. Are we still clear on the. The ages, like the, The. The quote unquote Daiichisekai. Dainisekai. Daisansekai. Like we. We are in Daisan Sekai, and I think that's totally clear. But like, Joy Boy, was the second. Is that safe to assume?
- [41:26]
Stephen
I think so, yeah. And so the first era would be.
- [41:31]
Greg
Is the first. Then Nika. So would it go Nika like. And I do believe that Nika existed. I mean, that's, I mean, whether you call it deity or not, like, by the second world, it could have. He could have been a deity. So I mean, sure, that's, that's easy to. But so is what we're seeing here something that happened in the first world and by the second. By the second world that it had already become a devil fruit and it attached itself. It. It became affectionate for whatever the parallel to Loki was, or rather Nidhog to
- [42:12]
Stephen
the, to the giant.
- [42:13]
Greg
Yeah, to the giant dragon in the second. And is that why it has affection is because it's basically the Nika Fruit part two in that it knows it. It's from that era. It's based on something from that era.
- [42:27]
Stephen
Right.
- [42:29]
Greg
Like, is that it, or am I completely off and like. No, it's like, it's actually this period in this period where we're combined into one or, like, I just. I don't know how much we're supposed to trust what we're seeing in the picture here as being fact versus myth. And I tend to. Recently, Oda has trended to being more like, what we see is actually what we get or what it was.
- [42:57]
Stephen
Right.
- [42:57]
Greg
He's not being as tricky as he used to be in the past, especially with one of the, like, clearest pictures of Nika we've ever seen.
- [43:07]
Stephen
Yeah. I mean, especially if he is setting up details to help him kind of tell the story of, like, how. How the. The. The powers that we call devil fruit powers, you know, how. How that became established that it was something else before. You know, like, if we're. If we're working on our whole theory about the. The stuff that we see in the mural with the. The lights and being carried around and things like that. If, though, if those are, like, you know, essences of. Of some kind of power of dreams or, you know, whatever you want to call it. And. And they were all based on real things that existed once. So maybe the, you know, the first age is like the. You know, we would consider them legends, but they were actual, you know, fantastical beings, like. Like Nika, like, gods and, you know, magical things. And. And then by the second era, they had become devil fruits, which are just kind of memories of them.
- [44:10]
Greg
Right.
- [44:10]
Stephen
Then. Then, sure. I. Then I don't see any reason to assume that. That what we're seeing here was a thing that happened. You know, it just made. It may not. Maybe it didn't look exactly like this, but, you know, that this. That this was the. The tale of the thing that actually happened has survived in some form through the giants.
- [44:35]
Greg
Oh, this is. I'm at least glad that, like, it's not just me. It's not a me thing. And it's like, I don't know, this whole panel had me thinking about more than anything else in the chapter, because I'd really love to know which it is. Like, is this the survive. Is this a surviving thing? Or were they two separate entities? Honestly, if we're just supposed to take, like, logically, what makes sense if Nika was there, if Nika did exist, then if it did exist during. During Nika's era. If Nika was this kind of uniting individual who just made. Who gave people like a joy and made them laugh and was silly, then I think we can expect the same to be true of Ratatoskr in that it was simply a squirrel that cooperated with a giant in this frozen landscape and the legend of that became the fruit which was then passed into the weapon in, I guess I would have to guess the second age. If that's wrong, then I guess this is just the depiction of the myth. But like, I don't know. I really don't know which way to go. I would love to hear what listeners think, actually. So, yeah, hopefully there's some questions about that.
- [46:10]
Stephen
Yeah, yeah. Or we'll see if we learn something more by the next time we get together and discuss things, which is certainly possible. And yeah, of course, we get some awesome demonstrations of that very mighty power. And then. Yeah, and then what do you make of this last scene? This little bit of recognition? There you are.
- [46:45]
Greg
Oh, there you are. Exactly where you should have been. Yeah, that honest, that kind of soured the chapter for me. This is just another like, Imu the fuck. Like you're supposed to be all knowing, all controlling, you know, all powerful. We've got the. Survival of Blackbeard's offspring showing up looking up exactly like him. Now, this thing, which was, I guess, always associated with ancient giants or at least in proximity to them, just so happens to be in like, one of the like, maybe two or so spots that the world government doesn't have its fingers in in the world, like Sokuni Itanoka. Like, really, Imu, like, I mean, I know we're supposed to believe that. Well, Oda is setting up the fact that Imu is fallible, but like, this is some really, like, for an ancient being that should really know a lot of shit to have that kind of line. I don't know, it just. It fell on its face for me. Not, not, not another notch in Emu's crown.
- [48:09]
Stephen
Yeah, it certainly kind of suggests whether he intended it to be like this or not. Like, it's kind of like, oh, you. You kind of have to re. Rationalize a lot of stuff of like a lot of the things that make Emu seem all powerful are. Are like, oh, this is like Emu's powers at their most expansive. But you're not seeing all of the. The drawbacks that he has to kind of right to. To. To balance them out. To explain why, you know, Emu doesn't just completely control the Entire world with, with perfect power and everything. Stuff like the, you know. Oh yeah, you know, I can't, I can't just make, you know, an infinite number of nights if, if someone dies, that's a big blow to my power. Etc, Etc, stuff like that. But yeah, the more, the more of that you see, the, the less, you know, impressive your. Your big bad villain becomes.
- [49:07]
Greg
I'm cool with the power stuff. Like I can tell you I like that, like the Horcrux idea. I love all that. Honestly, Chef's Kiss because it makes it like 13 goes to Scooby Doo where they got to go collect them all. And it's. That's. That's fine, right?
- [49:22]
Stephen
Sure, sure.
- [49:23]
Greg
But when you make it so that like your villain is just like. And it's not like, I don't want to say like I'm complaining because we have the power of being the reader. So we are. We know more than what's going on at pretty much any character at any point. Right? Because we have both sides. Both perspectives. Well, but not both, all the perspectives. But I mean again, when you take the Big Bad like this and just show them something that should be pretty obvious, especially with their hundreds of years of knowledge of the world and the assumptions. I mean they're basically two places that are super strong in the world that the world government doesn't have its fingers in. Elbaf and Wanokuni, you might be able to argue Alabaster, but Alabasta is obviously so poorly defended. It has no defenses against it whatsoever. Like if the world government want to stampede in there tomorrow, they could. But this is just. It does not sit well with me in terms of making your. Your big bad, which undeniably at this point emu is mm or whatever is. Is inside, you know, controlling Emu etc, etc, all that.
- [50:44]
Stephen
I wonder, like, do you think it would have been. Do you think it would have been better if instead of like, if it's just like you tweak the wording a little bit so that instead of it of like ah, so there you were. It becomes like ah, so you're back. Like, like suggest that maybe even know yet.
- [51:01]
Greg
Holy shit, that would be so much better. Like, oh, that's. That's it right? Like you hit it. It's like so you're back. I mean it just. That's so much ah, so much cooler. I'm sorry, it's so much cooler than like, oh, so that's where you were, huh?
- [51:27]
Stephen
What?
- [51:28]
Greg
Okay, yeah, good call, sir, Good call. But I guess if Oda wants to set up the fact that Emu is a fallible. Probably a human who's just being influenced by something. Then. Then mission accomplished.
- [51:52]
Stephen
Sure.
- [51:52]
Greg
Yeah.
- [51:55]
Stephen
All right. Shall we cover our most recent chapter?
- [51:58]
Greg
Alrighty.
- [52:00]
Stephen
1176. Lilith uses energy converters to stop the library fire and Block bottles the energy into Super Vega Cola for Frankie. The combined powers of Frankie, Jinbe, and Sanji put a stop to killing him and his monstrous Lindworm. Dory and Brogy agree to end their duel via beheading, which returns them to normal. And reluctantly, Zorro and the giant pirates prepare to do battle with their demonic kin.
- [52:38]
Greg
Yeah. So once again, the solution to taking care of this really tricky new type of villain that we've seen. I don't know how we can possibly beat this this time, because they're our friends and we don't want to harm them. The very clever answer that Oda has come up with is, you hit it really hard.
- [53:03]
Stephen
Yep. I mean, he could have. I guess he could have helped rationalize it. Just to remind people that it's like, yeah, well, the reason that they weren't doing that before is because the, you know, the powers make them super strong. So it's just. It's not as easy as it sounds. But, yeah, as an answer, it is a little bit on the simple side.
- [53:28]
Greg
So, I mean, the entire reason we felt tension this arc. Right. In terms of fighting these villains specifically, and by villains, I mean the turned giants.
- [53:39]
Stephen
Yes, yes.
- [53:40]
Greg
The antagonists as a collective, not just Dorian Brogy, is the fact that they are. They're good people. So that presents. I mean, it's another thorn problem. It's like, how the hell do you do this to your own friends? Right. And it turns out the answer is just to, like, to just kill them. Like, go all out. And as you said, like, like, it's like, but. But they're so strong that, like, that's hard. Okay. But you lose the tension of, like, but I'm going to harm my friend. That's. That's where a lot of it came from, is like, how the hell do they get out of this? How do you solve this problem? And a lot of. I don't want to. I do not want to resort to this all the time because it sounds like. Not emo. What's the word I'm looking at? What is the word I'm looking for? The person who says, oh, it was cool back then, or cool when I liked it.
- [54:37]
Stephen
Oh, hipster. Y hipster.
- [54:39]
Greg
Thank you. Not emo hipster. Because it Sounds like hipster. But pre Timeskip, One Piece was more about finding out a clever way to get around this. And with Kaido, we all expected how is he going? What is the clever way to get out of this? And so far the answer has been hit it really hard. Which is more of the dragon ballification of One Piece that I'm not super happy with, but it is what it is. And I mean the plus side to it is we probably get to see some really cool battles from now on. And like more of like, you know, early Zoro versus Luffy kind of stuff where like there's no possible way these two people would ever go like, like deadly force against each other.
- [55:30]
Stephen
Right.
- [55:31]
Greg
Usopp and Luffy like was a great fight, but I don't think any of us really thought they were fighting to kill each other just to best the other. This is. This sets up where we can have some really literally knockdown drag out battles between characters who are potentially friends. And again, that goes back to my whole idea of like the whole world being basically dummy reversed against Luffy by the end of this thing so that Luffy is against the world and he, he, he is the shining light in all of that that comes back and brings back light to the earth. But it's. To me, it's not the greatest. That the solution is just to fucking kill him.
- [56:18]
Stephen
Yeah, I mean I do think that like, to me it's. It seems like what he's doing here is. It's kind of the. I don't know, it's the flip side of the. The coin of like, you know, oh, what's the strongest thing in the world is. Is love. But then also it's. It's kind of the, the balance that he's trying to do with the, the theming of this arc, which is like, how do you combine the softer side with like the, the you know, the nature of this culture, which is very warlike. And so now it, it's, it's. Oh like, you know. The reason why they're so excited, of course, is because this like puts them in their element, right? Of like. Oh yeah, you know what. What's. The first thing we know about giants is Dorian Brogy. They've been fighting for 100 years against each other. And so this just kind of puts them right back in, you know, that in. In that mindset in a way where they're. They are now like guilt free, I guess. And. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think. I, I don't. I don't know, like how he's going to, to, to spin this, if he's going to find a way to depict it that makes it seem like cool or funny or, or what? You know, he's kind of doing both right now with this last, last spread, but I don't know. Yeah, I think that's, I think it's going to tie into like, you know, his, his kind of theming of, of the arc of, of the culture of Elbaf in general. And that's, that's why he's kind of set it up like this.
- [57:58]
Greg
I think we, we discussed this last time, but like, he seems to have made his decision about whether it's. Do you, do you just protect, do you just collect knowledge or do you fight? And didn't I say this last time is like his answer to all of that is yes.
- [58:20]
Stephen
Right, Right.
- [58:23]
Greg
You do all of that and in doing all of that, you can protect what you love with your life. And in doing so, you increase the passing down and spread of knowledge. Which just seems to be like the role of the giants in this world is to do those three things. That's what they want to do and should do. And I don't know if anybody was expecting Oda to have to choose one of those, but it does not seem that he has chosen one. It's that, no, you need all of those to protect your culture and who you are. So interesting choice on that end, thematically. Agree. Shonen action adventure does not score very high in solution to dealing with Domi Reversi because it really. I wasn't a super big fan of God Valley being used that way or this way in this arc in the first place. And now knowing that all they really had to do was just kill Xebec and that would have flipped him like, oh, okay. Really?
- [59:38]
Stephen
Yeah.
- [59:39]
Greg
Which also brings to mind like, I guess, is Zeebuk still alive? Because all they had. I mean, is he held as a demon or if they, I mean, it doesn't matter. If they killed him, then they still have him. So did they keep him and execute him or is he still around?
- [59:53]
Stephen
Right, right. Well, you know, the last thing he sees is Garland walking up on him. Right. So.
- [59:59]
Greg
Right.
- [60:01]
Stephen
You would have to assume if that were the case, that, you know, they, they took him prisoner instead of finishing him off. But.
- [60:09]
Greg
Well, we see him walk up on him, but he could, if he, let's say he did finish him off, like, he would just flip and then he'd be fine. So does he finish him off again?
- [60:19]
Stephen
Oh, no. No, I thought that was like he, like when they, they knocked him out. I think that did. Did that flip. I don't. I don't remember, like, how he looked, how he was drawn in that scene. I'd have to go back and, and look at that chapter again. But I thought he was back to normal. Was he when he was dying? Yeah.
- [60:40]
Greg
Okay.
- [60:41]
Stephen
Or, you know, when he was kind of incapacitated, let's say.
- [60:44]
Greg
Because this is post time script, Greg, So he's not rereading the chapters multiple times per day.
- [60:51]
Stephen
This might just be us not remembering all the details. Since that was a little while back.
- [61:00]
Greg
I'm trying to pull it up right now just so I can see in real time. And I'll try to make some kind of attempt at conversation so I can mask what I'm doing. Trying to go back and check things here. And I think I'm missing chapter. Oh, he does. Oh, he does look normal. You're right. Yeah, he does. Yeah, he looks normal. Okay, so 1166.
- [61:28]
Stephen
1166.
- [61:29]
Greg
Okay, so he does look normal. He is normal by the end. Well, okay. Okay, so that's. Okay, so they, they flipped him with the hockey thing. So you can flip them with hockey and you can flip them by killing them. There are two methods.
- [61:45]
Stephen
Or maybe their hockey just. It did like, it was a lethal hockey blast.
- [61:51]
Greg
Okay.
- [61:53]
Stephen
That knocked him back.
- [61:55]
Greg
So did they kill him with the hockey? Is that what did it? So it's not. Okay, how do I feel about this?
- [62:05]
Stephen
Kill, quote, unquote, kill.
- [62:06]
Greg
This is real time, so subscribe. And like, this is a real time reaction from.
- [62:12]
Stephen
Yeah, we'll flash it up on the screen. Real time reaction. Real time reaction.
- [62:16]
Greg
Do I like this? I do like the fact then that if that's what happened, I do like the fact that he masked it in the ark and that they actually did kill him, but it was just shown as him being turned. So it was powerful enough hockey that it could take him out and he turned and then he offed him there. It's still hitting him really hard. Yeah, but. But I will admit that I like the execution better. I do like the execution. That's a solid job by ODA in terms of portraying it. But the answer still is, to me is boring in terms of it's just a Dragon ball whose ki is. Whose doraki is higher. I'm not crazy about that. But I must respect how he pulled that off then, how he portrayed that. Okay, all right, so point for this chapter. That's a level up. Okay.
- [63:24]
Stephen
Okay.
- [63:27]
Greg
I'm Glad we had this conversation.
- [63:29]
Stephen
Would you say that, you know, if the key to saving the children was that the strongest thing in the world is love? Does this chapter mean that the strongest thing in the world is violence?
- [63:48]
Greg
Is. I guess the strongest thing in the world is love and violence.
- [63:54]
Stephen
Nice. I like it.
- [63:58]
Greg
And rock and roll and
- [64:02]
Stephen
love. Violence.
- [64:04]
Greg
The strongest thing in the world is violence. I think that's the. I think that's the title there.
- [64:08]
Stephen
Okay,
- [64:14]
Greg
Thoughts on. And. Okay, so point up on the chapter. I do like that. But originally. And this is not. This is not take. Take one or give one. Take one. But originally, from the start, was not a fan of Jim bae, basically doing exactly the same thing that he did to Wadatsumi in Fishman Island. And Frankie just doing a strong right again.
- [64:38]
Stephen
Yeah.
- [64:42]
Greg
I feel like I got to stop here. Like. Like, just talking about negative aspects of it because I'm being really hard, but. But like, I was not crazy about them just kind of doing like, okay, so this is their moment for now. I'm still leaving the door open for now. But like, Jim Bay punching really big, bouncy things really hard is happening again. And Frankie doing Frankie post times good. Frankie just has not had the transformations that I ever imagined when I first saw him. And to just get another strong right. I'm sorry, it's not doing it for me. Cool that he got a power up. But yeah,
- [65:25]
Stephen
yeah, no, that is pretty much exactly how I felt about it is like, okay, great, cool, power up. Good results. You know, we're still waiting. But yeah, it is funny now that you mentioned it because. Because it is the exact same move. Like, I think if you had asked, if you had told me, like, okay, remember, like, think of the scene where Jim BAE takes out Wadatsumi in. In Fishman island. And like, I closed my eyes and like, imprinted the image, like, onto the screen. Like, it would look exactly like this. Like, it literally looks like the exact same pose and everything. It's probably not the exact same, but, you know, you could fool me.
- [66:10]
Greg
Yeah. So good for them doing their thing.
- [66:16]
Stephen
Yeah.
- [66:17]
Greg
What are your thoughts on energy?
- [66:21]
Stephen
This is my other issue with the. With the. The chapter or with the.
- [66:27]
Greg
Okay.
- [66:28]
Stephen
With the power up, which is that it doesn't. It's still. Like, I. I'm not a big fan of the. Like, well, Elbaf just has everything. Like, everything works here. Whatever limitations I came up with for other islands, they're all applicable. You know, they. They're all valid here in Elbaf. And it, like, I. I Get that, you know, he. He wants to. To keep things simple or he wants to. To open all avenues for, like, solutions to storytelling problems and, you know, getting over hurdles and things like that. Like, I understand, but usually it's easier to, you know, to take it with a grain of salt when. When he at least, you know, puts a little effort into coming up with some mumbo jumbo explanation. And this one just felt very transparent to me, where it's like, oh, well, yeah, Elblift just has more energy. So here you go. Here's. Here's more energy. So that didn't do a lot for me.
- [67:37]
Greg
Okay, my verdict is out on the concept of energy, quote, unquote energy, because I think he can do some really great things with it in terms of the overall story of one piece. But I do not enjoy how he presented it. He did a little bit of foreshadowing in the fact that when we got there, there's the whole concept of flying, right? Like the rainbows, the hovering, the rainbow roads. You get a lot. So you're like, oh, there's some Fushigi something here. However, there is a difference between him doing that and how he introduced something like the dials. And that's why I'm not a big fan of this is because with the dials, we basically got to Skypie, we saw that there was a bunch of crazy shit going on, and little bit by little bit, front loaded the Ark by saying, oh yeah, we have these, these dials that can do this crazy shit. Like, they, they help us in our daily lives. They're basically our technology. And bit by bit, he was able to show us how those can be applied to battle situations and, and manipulated, magnified, used in all these crazy ways. This meant that while we were going through the Ark, we could come up with all these theories and these ideas for how they could be used. Whereas this was. Oh yeah, there's Fushigi, no Chikara here, right? There's this weird strange power, magic power. Yep, done. There's. There's really no application of it. I think maybe we get the scene of like Vegapunk versus Lilith being like, well, I guess I need to get to work. There's something I can do and, like, we can talk about that. But the having. If he had introduced this concept of like from the start of like, look, I can make these hover things, the entire arc, the entirety of it would have gotten us through God Valley. Talking about how these, how this energy could be applied or what it could do or couldn't do. And that's where I think he dropped the ball. Is not introducing this concept strongly from the get go in that it can be applied in these different ways that kind of back and forth between us talking from week to week. I think he could probably do this. And what if Frankie used it or what if Sanji put it into the suit? Or just that kind of stupid week to week stuff was completely missing. And it's just kind of lonely not having that week to week when knowing we could have had it. So that's why the execution of it. I'm a little bit like, okay. But the concept of it feels fine because he set it up from the start. Now, does this relate to why the author. Who was it, Louis Arnott who was like, don't stay there too long. Where does this energy come from? Is it a growth energy that is related to the world and is this why giants are giant? Is there something here that is a literal growth energy that is making these people huge? Or is the reason that he can do this hover? What is it the over capacitor thing? Omni something or other converters? Yeah. Like, is that because gravity is. Is experiencing some kind of like energy boost here or weakening of it? I don't know.
- [71:16]
Stephen
Like, basically if he. If he does the same thing he did with. With upper yard, right? Where it's like, oh, everything grew huge because the, you know, the conditions are different here or what.
- [71:28]
Greg
Yes, right. Yes, exactly. If that's what he's going for, then awesome. I mean, that's been threaded through the whole story, so great. Do love that. But the application of it feels like a wasted opportunity. I think we could have had a lot of fun talking about how this could have been used if he'd just given us a couple hints earlier on.
- [71:58]
Stephen
Yeah, the possibility is absolutely there. But as. As it stands today, it's not very thrilling what he has given us. Anything else which.
- [72:13]
Greg
Which sounds like. I. I really don't like to. To sound so negative about it.
- [72:18]
Stephen
Like, right. If you're.
- [72:19]
Greg
If you're like, yay. I'm tuning in to listen to Greg and Steve bitch about one piece for an hour and a half. It's. No, that's. That's not the point. It just like. I guess it's. I don't know if you ever read the Cosmere. It's like expectation is like the death of entertainment. And when you expect so much from the guy, especially in this arc, which obviously he's had in his mind since the early parts of the series. And I'm not saying he had the whole arc planned out, just the idea of elbow and what to use there. Right. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. And I guess that that would bring me into, like, kind of my. The last things I have to say is like, okay, so Zorro gets his scenes next, and we'll probably, you know, get through that. But what is waiting next? Like, what could. Do you think the Straw Hats have won the arc? Luffy beat his enemy. Is this. Is this the celebration for our heroes?
- [73:30]
Stephen
I don't know, because I could see it go both ways, but I. I do feel like, yeah, it's like, okay, it. I think it just comes down to, like, okay, is Emu going to make a greater move through Gunko, or is this ultimately going to be like a punt situation where it's like, okay, well, I'm gonna get ready for you and, you know, get. Just wait for my next move. And then, you know, beats a temporary retreat. And then, you know, everything is. Is fine and dandy and. And I. I think based on a lot of the. The ongoing discussions that we've had about, you know, where. What. What is Elbaf's role in the story in terms of, like, movements. Story movements and. And getting us closer to the ending of the story. Like, I think we've been pretty consistent about, like, well, things have to get worse. Like, they have to get more dire. The stakes have to rise in order to push us onward to the. The conclusion. And so I would, you know, I would kind of like to see, you know, the other shoe drop, as it were, but you never know with. With. With Oda in one piece sometimes, you know, you really set yourself up expecting, like, something really huge, and it just turns out that's not really what he. So I can't say for sure that that's where we're. Where we're going yet.
- [74:59]
Greg
I want to say that something is coming and that we would have to rush up to the top of the tree in order for the proverbial escape. If Loki is gonna be used as Loki, then, yeah, via Gunko, would he be able to do the domi reversi on Loki and therefore flip Loki into an enemy? I mean, I think that's what a lot of people are expecting and that sort. I mean, Loki would become physically larger. Correct. Am I forgetting this too? When you jump, you physically get larger, right?
- [75:39]
Stephen
They make them larger.
- [75:41]
Greg
So that would be the factor that kind of dwarfs Nidhogg, Right, that I was talking about. But the problem with that is, and I don't think I was clear in explaining this before, is that if you do that, then you don't get the. The pre Nidhogg to compare it to, right? Which is like kind of Otis theme is like each time is one compared to the next, compared to the next, compared to the next, and you lose that. It doesn't mean that he needs to do that as a rule. So, yeah, he could just flip and like show us some giant nidhogg. Compared to who is like, basically, who could essentially perch on Bug Drezel, right? Like, that might be the scene that what, what he pictures in his mind is like he started the ark by showing us this fuck off huge tree. And what if he ends it with a dragon that just perches on top of it and then flies off like that? That would be. That would be impressed. Like that. That would fit it, actually. That would fit the scale because it starts with the. The tree and ends with the tree. And if that's what he's going for, cool. But I don't know what. What could possibly bring the straw hats up the tree further and moreover, what Usopp can do. And I'm not saying that he can't, but I'm wondering what he can do in. In the arc. And I don't know if this hit you the same way, but the millisecond that they were like, we have hover abilities here, I was just like, holy shit. Usopp can technically have a way to
- [77:13]
Stephen
lift Ragnar, levitate the.
- [77:16]
Greg
Yes,
- [77:18]
Stephen
yeah, yeah.
- [77:22]
Greg
And hold his. His 5 billion ton hammer.
- [77:29]
Stephen
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it would be very disappointing if we did not get something along those lines for Usopp, even if it's not that scenario specific scenario.
- [77:41]
Greg
Right?
- [77:42]
Stephen
You know, like, like Oda. Oda has not shied away from reminding us that, like, Usopp is thrilled to be here. And he. And he's, you know, he's hanging on every, like, development as far as, like, what it means in relation to his kind of image of. Of the Elbaf that he dreamed about. So, you know, you can't. You just can't leave this place without some. Something cool for Usopp to do. I. I also wonder too, this is just a thought that occurred to me and I don't think this would. That this would actually be something Oda would. Would necessarily use, but it was kind of like a bit of like a, you know. Oh, Krillin, you. You forgot you don't have a nose. Sort of a Thing. But like, if. If dummy reversi, you know, in order to like do the Othello thing, like you kind of have to flip over on the ground. Right. So like, what if. Like, how is emu gonna dummy reverse Loki if he's flying the whole time?
- [78:48]
Greg
Is that. Yeah. Is that a rule or is it just like, would it. Would a portal open underneath him?
- [78:53]
Stephen
Right, right, right.
- [78:54]
Greg
Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I overall elbow in. I think Elbaf in itself overall, as an arc together is probably going to be a very fun read. But week to week it has. It has been comparable to, I guess wano in terms of enjoyment for me is that like, there's a lot going on. There's a lot that's interesting actually. So much that I'm even obviously forgetting things like the God Valley stuff. But overall, I'm not dying to see what happens next week. It's more like I'm wondering if this is correct or not or like, I wonder where he's going. But it's not like I gotta read the next one. I think the last one or was I gotta. I can't wait until next week was probably, I guess coming back from the, like the, the times. The. The. The pre. Excuse me, pretax. The God got it on the. On the brain now the flashback just kind of like kept going, kept going, kept going. And it was like finally when we were able to come back from the flashback, we got a little hint of the forward momentum in the chapter. I think that was the. Probably the. The time in the arc where I was most like, what's going to happen next chapter. But yeah, here we are and there will definitely be a next chapter of one piece to look forward to what I can.
- [80:34]
Stephen
Yeah, it's definitely been a more spectacle focused arc than like a, you know, cliffhanger. Like what is. What is the thing that's going to happen? Right.
- [80:44]
Greg
Yes, exact. Thank you for saying what I couldn't in five minutes.
- [80:52]
Stephen
Yeah, well, we will find out next week what ODA has in store for us. But it sounds like we have run the gamut of what we have to say about these ones. So why don't we see what the listeners have to say. Score more with the college branded Venmo debit card and earn up to 5% cash back with Venmo stash. Got paid back with. With the Venmo debit card you can instantly access your balance and spend on what you want, like game day snacks, gear, tickets and more. The more you do the more cash back you can earn. Plus, there's no monthly fee or minimum balance. Sign up now@venmo.com collegecard the Venmo Mastercard is issued by the Bancorp Bank NA Select Schools available Venmo Stash terms and exclusions apply at venmo me stashterms max $100 cashback per month protein is now at Starbucks and it's never tasted so good.
- [81:43]
Greg
You can add protein cold foam to your favorite drink or try one one of our new protein lattes or Matcha.
- [81:49]
Stephen
Try it today at Starbucks. And we are back with the SGS segment where we take your questions, your comments and whatever else you are curious to know from us. And we will start as usual over on Discord from our Patreon subscribers. If you are a Patreon subscriber or if you would like to be one, you can get on our Discord channel. We have a special section for Patreon members and there is an SGS channel where you can submit your questions. So we'll start with those from M Stranger I'm Stranger says hey Steve and Greg. My name is also Greg, but I don't speak Japanese. Two questions. How did you both learn Japanese? And was it hard to go from from a North American version of Japanese to Japanese Japanese? And two, we know it's going to happen one day. So what is Gear six and will it be Luffy's final form? So yeah, let's start with the question of how we both learn Java. It's probably pretty similar, I believe. I know we've talked about this before.
- [83:21]
Greg
Yeah, I think we did. So not to try to avoid answering as clearly as possible, but I do think we've discussed this in great detail prior to this on the podcast. So if you do want to check that out, maybe some of the earlier SGS is unfortunately I can't give you like this one or that one, right. But I think we did spend a significant amount of time talking about this in the past. But the the Cliff Notes version of it for me would be like, like what, what I did to succeed would be I When I was 13, I was able to get a tutor over summer from a local college and she was a Japanese student, an exchange student. And through contacting the college they were able to arrange a couple sessions with her. And she was a kind of a Sparta teacher, a Spartan teacher in that she was like, yeah, very strict in that I met her two times a week and I met her on a. Let's just say it was Monday. I Met her on a Monday and she was like, all right, by Thursday, I want you to learn hiragana. And it was okay. So, yeah, if you're laughing like, you know your courses in school, like, when you. When you learn hiragana, I learned later that you will. You will spend a semester learning hiragana.
- [84:57]
Stephen
Yeah, yeah.
- [85:00]
Greg
So. But I had no. I had no concept of that, number one. And number two, it was summer vacation, so, like, I was made of free time. This is. This is when I was like, like 12 or 13. So I started with that and I came back to her and I was good. Like, I could write. Like, I wasn't writing well. I still don't write well. I'm chicken scratch in English or Japanese. But like. But she was like that. That's it. She's like, good. And she was like, okay, now katakana. And like, by the next week that I met her, I had to learn katakana. So katakana is for anybody who doesn't have reference. It's the same thing as hiragana over again, except written slightly differently and fucking impossible to read. So, like. And so I'm looking at you, you motherfuckers, as long as well as she and Sue.
- [85:53]
Stephen
But.
- [85:56]
Greg
So that was the start. So it was very, very harsh start. Okay, for me, but it was a summer vacation. I didn't have any time, and I threw everything I had into it, and I did that. So that was my start. She had to leave before the summer was over. So I only actually had like two months, maybe studying with her twice a week. And after that I was on my own and I studied by my own. I saved money and applied to something called the Japan center for Michigan University's JCMU center in Japan, located in Shiga Prefecture in Japan. And it is a study abroad location where you study in Japan and you. It is just a hardcore course in Japanese for. For all, all levels. It has introductory and everything. So, like it. It is a strong course, but you can come into it fresh or you can come into it with a significant knowledge of Japanese under your belt already. And I saved up through a lot of my Dragon Ball article writing at the time and through what I. My savings, I was able to pay for a year studying abroad at jcmu. So I did two semesters there, and that left me basically where I am today in terms of my Japanese ability. Just. I don't have any problems with daily life. I'm not going to be talking about the intricacies of the stock market in Japan. I don't have anything like that. But I also, I wouldn't have an issue being by myself. So that's, that's the condensed version of how I learned. Of course I can give all sorts of advice on books and how to study and whatnot, but if you want a path like that's it. I did tutoring, I did self study, I made sure I saved money so I could study abroad. And studying abroad was probably one of the best choices for me because in the course of the year, over the course of the year, I was able to get where I am with my Japanese ability now, which is to be able to do translation. So. Very useful.
- [88:08]
Stephen
Yeah, that's actually, that's interesting. I did, I don't think I had heard some of those details, so. Oh, okay, cool, cool to hear those. But yeah, my, my story is, is, is pretty simple. It's just that I, I started it as an elective in, in eighth grade and I kept taking it all through high school and, and you know, this is, this is American high school. So, you know, it's not very hard. They're not pushing you very fast and it's pretty easy, but you don't learn a ton. You know, it's not very efficient way to, to master another language. But it gave me a good foundation and it got me used to like kind of trying to grapple with Japanese and from there, you know, in another semester or two in community college and stuff like that, I, I, I kind of discovered manga or I just, I discovered that I had good access to manga in Japanese and it was specifically a suffering, you know, probably one piece, honestly, more than anything else. That was like the drive to like, oh, I wanna, I wanna know, you know, what's going on here. I want to be able to, to read this dialogue and to like actually experience this the way that you're supposed to. And there was no way to do that otherwise at that point in time. So, you know, that was the drive, that was the thing that, that got me was like, okay, just, just keep, just keep studying. Just keep looking up all of these words one by one and keep trying to put them together into, you know, understandable sentences and you know, learning and seeing things in different contexts and forming more of a, of a three dimensional understanding of what these different words and verbs meant. And eventually, you know, that process kind of helped me get to a level of being, you know, fluent, being enough, you know, having enough skill to, to actually do what I do today for, for a job. So yeah, very important to have a, to Have a goal in mind or something that will push you, you know, to keep going through the boring or the tough parts where you feel like, I don't know if this is worth it, or I don't know if I actually care enough to keep dedicating all of my hard earned free time to studying this thing. Well, you really need something that is going to drive you to get to that finish line, which is not really a finish line. It's just another checkpoint on the way. But, you know, that's. That there's certainly the life lesson that I learned from that whole. That whole process. The other question was, what is gear 6 and will it be Luffy's final form? Man, I cannot imagine a Gear seven. So let's hope Gear six is the final form. That's how I feel about it.
- [91:15]
Greg
I'll say the next one is Gear Thousand because. Because Oda number one, right? Thousand Sunny. The power of a thousand suns.
- [91:26]
Stephen
And.
- [91:28]
Greg
Yeah, what is it? I mean, it's kind of hard to say what I think to justify what I just said with saying, like, it's the power of dark and light combined. Right? Like, that sounds really weird having just said the power of sun. But I would like to think that he would combine dark and light in some way. Which is. Which is kind of the answer to Elbow, really. Like, what's going on Elbaf right now is it's not just one way. And maybe the reason, like, the world hasn't found its way yet is because it always tried one or the other, but the answer is not both. It's a balance. It's the answer to not one or the other. It's a balance between the both of them. So maybe Gear a Thousand and teaming up with darkness.
- [92:11]
Stephen
Okay, a little closer to the mic. I think we're losing you a bit.
- [92:16]
Greg
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
- [92:18]
Stephen
Okay.
- [92:18]
Greg
I'm getting comfortable.
- [92:20]
Stephen
I had a feeling. All right, we'll go on to King Doji, who says hello, very special guests. Oh, hey, Greg. I'm sure you've answered these questions before, but I don't think it has been since the SGS started. So as a heavy quotations. New guest, you need to answer these questions before. New guest questions.
- [92:42]
Greg
Okay.
- [92:42]
Stephen
Okay. So, all right. This is the stuff that we. That we always give any new member. You know, someone who is coming onto the podcast for the very first time. Oh, which is. What is your favorite straw hat?
- [93:00]
Greg
I don't have a favorite straw hat, but without a. How's my mic, by the way? Am I All right.
- [93:10]
Stephen
It's still a little quiet.
- [93:11]
Greg
It's still a quiet.
- [93:12]
Stephen
I'm just jotting down a. Did not answer question.
- [93:16]
Greg
How am I now?
- [93:17]
Stephen
Good.
- [93:18]
Greg
Okay. All right. Okay. This is. This is good because I'm comfortable and I can talk and not answer the question. No, I do not have a favorite straw hat because it has changed over time. And first, if you want to, like, know who. When I started reading one piece when I was a. When I was just fresh in college, it was Zorro, because Zoro was super cool and he was a samurai guy and Mr. Bushido and all that. And then when I got to be a little bit older, I got to know my girlfriend and wife. Like, all of her friends were like, you're Frankie. You're so Frankie. You're like super Frankie. Which, in retrospect, is maybe a little bit racist. But, you know, it's that, like, that's. That. That's fine. So I got to really enjoy Frank. Like, I just. Eventually, I just gave up, and I was like, all right, fine. I like Frankie. And when I got involved with the series more and more, I saw, like, how important Luffy is to the. Not just the core of the story, but, like, to the story existing and, like, how much work Oda has put into creating this character. So that's where I gained a real appreciation for Luffy as not just a character, but a. A linchpin in the series. So those three are basically who I've. I've been closest to throughout the duration of the series. If I had to pick one which I think is the most important, then it is Luffy, without question, who I think is the coolest then Zoro, without question, as he is designed to be. And who is the most. Who do I connect with the most or feel the closest to in terms of personality or maybe aura would, I guess, possibly be Frankie. But. Yeah, so those are the three that are the closest to me. That trifecta.
- [95:14]
Stephen
All right, next question. Your favorite villain,
- [95:19]
Greg
Arlong.
- [95:21]
Stephen
Oh, nice. Yeah. Okay, next one is, like, kind of the third categories. Who's your favorite? Non. Straw hat. So not a villain, but not one of the. The heroes. So it could be any. Any other type of character. I. I was just another. In other words, first you pick from, you know, 10 straw hats, and then you get to pick from whatever, 20, 30 villains. Now pick from a thousand plus other characters. Who's your favorite?
- [96:03]
Greg
Yeah, It's. It's over 2,000 now. We just counted.
- [96:06]
Stephen
Yeah, That's right. Yeah. I forgot to say that in the intro that we were. We got to reconvene a little bit much, much shorter than last time to update the survey Names the world top 100.
- [96:29]
Greg
You won't hear this anywhere else, but with Steven's blessing, I was able to name some characters. Name. I was able to give the English names to some of the characters in the series. I won't mention who they are because I don't care to have anybody know. But it's just fun for me and Steven. But yeah, let's see. Is there a question that's like, who's your favorite guy? Or who's your favorite gal? Is there one of those down the line?
- [96:58]
Stephen
No, no, this is the last character question.
- [97:02]
Greg
All right, fine. Then in that case, I don't know how, because she's my favorite gal in the series. And that would be Dr. Kreha. She is one of my favorite characters because she is just the coolest character that I can think of. And her resolve is what it really struck me because her being who she is sold Chopper for me. So, yeah, probably.
- [97:41]
Stephen
Nice.
- [97:42]
Greg
I like. I just. I love her attitude.
- [97:45]
Stephen
Mm. Next one is your favorite arc.
- [97:52]
Greg
I really like Skypiea, and I was a fan of Skypie when Skype was still Skypiea. And there are a lot of people who I know did not like it back in the day, but no, I read the writing on the wall, and I knew that that was going to be a big one coming down. But the line. But I got to say, Arlong Park, I can't. Can't deny that Arlong park is what solidified the series for me as something really special. So. And that's why Arlong is my favorite villain.
- [98:27]
Stephen
Right on. And then the last one, I don't know how you know how wide your knowledge goes on this one, but we do also ask folks, what is their favorite opening in the anime.
- [98:41]
Greg
What does favorite mean?
- [98:43]
Stephen
Right.
- [98:45]
Greg
Does favorite mean most exciting? Does favorite mean the one that most represents the series to you? Because if we're talking about what does favorite mean that it represents one piece to you, then it will be. We are. Every single time.
- [99:04]
Stephen
Yeah.
- [99:07]
Greg
If it's the one that I get the most pumped, then it's believe, because the visuals and that with the music, and I was a huge. Am a huge Eurobeat fan, so that was just. That was super exciting. But it's not quintessentially one piece to me. I love it, but it's not the quintessential one piece. And then, I mean, you have a bunch of others which Are just. Are amazing earworms and. And fit the arc at the time. Such as the impel down theme. Just amazing theme that fits the arc perfectly at the time. Really well done.
- [99:51]
Stephen
Right on. Yeah. Those are our actors. Yeah. The inside the Actors Studio questions that we give everybody.
- [100:04]
Greg
Cool.
- [100:06]
Stephen
We will move on to S. And P says hey Stephen, Greg and Simba. What do you.
- [100:12]
Greg
Oh, I know who SMP is now. I remember them from.
- [100:15]
Stephen
Oh you do?
- [100:15]
Greg
Okay. Yeah. Okay, cool.
- [100:18]
Stephen
Yes. I think a frequent, frequent question questionnaire. What do you guys think about the idea that ancient weapons have multiple parts? Maybe you have heard or theorized about this before. Take Poseidon as an example. So Shirahoshi being the Sovereign slash controller and then the. The sea kings. Coyote being the. The. The pull the. You know, the beast of burden. And whatever the role of Noah is as the vessel. The same could be said for Pluton. Perhaps Momonosuke being the only one who can give Zunisha an order. So Zunisha and Pluton. What. What if it is somewhat the same for Uranus, Loki or whatever animal it is? Or it could actually just be Loki after this huge dragon transformation. And Uranus the one who destroyed Lulusia.
- [101:14]
Greg
Yeah, I completely agree. I mean me in my super shonen mind, like I would love to. To take that literally and have like transforming like gut die.
- [101:28]
Stephen
Yeah, yeah. Giant robot style.
- [101:30]
Greg
Yeah, giant robot style. I mean that, that, that is my dream to see a flying mecha dragon. But yeah, no, I. Yes. I don't know about Noah being part of an ancient weapon because I think Noah was constructed more as a part of a way to save the people.
- [101:51]
Stephen
Right, right.
- [101:53]
Greg
But that doesn't detract from the fact that by its nature already, Poseidon is a multifaceted weapon. It's not a. It is a single per. It is a single identity. She is a single identity. But it's not as simple as being a thing because she controls all those different moving parts. So yeah, I had a really funny image edit that I never posted, which was I took a picture of God. What's his name? Who does. Honey, I shrunk. The kids actor.
- [102:33]
Stephen
Oh, Rick Moranis.
- [102:34]
Greg
Rick Moranis. Who does Rick Moranis play in Ghostbusters? I can't remember his name.
- [102:39]
Stephen
Oh yeah, I. Yeah, I don't. I don't remember. I'm not like as super into Ghostbusters to know all the side characters names, but yeah, he's the. He's the little dweeb guy.
- [102:51]
Greg
Yeah. And him and Dana Spangler like just after they made out on top of the building. And I put Shirahoshi on, on Sigourney Weaver and Loki on, on his head. Just like chapter 1230 or something. And I am the Gatekeeper. I am the Key Master.
- [103:11]
Stephen
Yeah. Wow. Interesting. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if Loki being connected to Uranus where. Because it seems like obviously if. And Vegapunk seemed to think the same thing. If whatever they use to destroy Lucia is Uranus and, and that's the, the third Ancient weapon. It seems like it's pretty much fully functional already. So I don't know where Loki would necessarily fit into that. But it's interesting.
- [103:45]
Greg
What if. What if. And I just had this thought, so that that means it's not fact checked at all, but what if Nidhogg was the Ancient weapon? And this Mecha Dragon that I've been going on about the entire time, like what if that was designed and built after Loki? Like he was designed to be the Mecha Loki? Oh, so what if it is the Ancient. Like what if that was the Ancient weapon, but it was based on the quote unquote, actual Ancient weapon.
- [104:22]
Stephen
Wow, that's. That, that's cool.
- [104:27]
Greg
That would make the, the whole cloud thing like it's still like aerial, right?
- [104:31]
Stephen
Mm, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Very curious.
- [104:38]
Greg
God, I want to see fucking dragon Mech in the series so bad.
- [104:44]
Stephen
Yeah, well, however many more years. Five more years, it's gotta happen. Our next one comes from Reversy Headback who says what's a one piece fact that you could swear is true but have no way to verify. For instance, I distinctly remember that in Law's first appearance, his knuckle tats read D E T H before pretty quickly being corrected. But I've never been able to find proof of this.
- [105:16]
Greg
What was it he ended up, I think. No, there was something, there was something about his knuckles. I have this documented, I think even
- [105:26]
Stephen
somewhere maybe in your mistakes.
- [105:29]
Greg
I don't think it's in there. I don't think I made it up to that point. Unless I did, but.
- [105:37]
Stephen
Or did I?
- [105:38]
Greg
I could check that right now actually. But no, there was something about his knuckles. It was like it was spelled wrong and I think in order to spell it correctly they needed to extend it to like his thumb or something.
- [105:53]
Stephen
Uh huh.
- [105:54]
Greg
D E A T H. Yeah. No, I don't know if it was specifically like D E T H. It might have been completely. But like I remember that there was something that was spelled wrong incorrectly and they had to to expand it by bringing it out to his thumbnail or something like that. I'm pretty sure that's a thing. No, no, I know it was a thing. I just don't know if that was the exact spelling or not. I remember that because that was a big deal back then. Arlong park, if you probably go back to the history there.
- [106:25]
Stephen
Yeah. You might be able to find a post.
- [106:28]
Greg
Let's see, what chapter do I go up to? I go up to chapter 551. I think that's in there. Sengoku's hands fulfill Inazuma. Inazuma's scar is missing. So that would be impel down stuff. So yeah, I guess
- [106:43]
Stephen
because it would have been Sabaody they're talking about, right? Unless it was like right after he
- [106:47]
Greg
reappeared in the spotted patterns on Law's pants are missing. Claws. Moria's toe claws are missing. Ah. Chapter 504. Law's Finger Tattoos are Missing. Law's Fingers Tattoo. Chapter 504. Law's finger tattoos are missing and so is the large tattoo on his right hand. The tassels are also clearly missing from the scabbard of his sword. Jesus Christ, Greg the Giant.
- [107:23]
Stephen
That's what he used to do for fun.
- [107:25]
Greg
Lawmark is missing from the back of Bebo's jacket. That's another Lawmark. No, those are all the ones I have.
- [107:33]
Stephen
Okay, so we had missing tats. But.
- [107:35]
Greg
But those are ones that are. Are from the volumes.
- [107:40]
Stephen
Right.
- [107:41]
Greg
I did not initially log what was wrong in the comic and then in, in the volume I only looked at the volumes and what was wrong in the volumes. So these are all mistakes that are still in the series. So. Yes, but I do think that was a thing that happened. Yeah, I remember there being a. It was a big deal. If you go to Arlong park, it's in the history there somewhere, I guarantee you.
- [108:07]
Stephen
Yeah, I wish I had like. I'm sure there's something that I know or could or have have experienced or noted at some point that would fit this category but I, I wish I could like actually think of something off the top of my head, but I don't know if I can do any better than that. So we'll move to.
- [108:29]
Greg
I can't think of anything. Yeah, and as far as from myself, like if I have one. No, I, I do not have one because basically that's me talking about one piece every single day as I just did earlier. Oh yeah, they didn't flip him. He was, he was just a flipping. Oh Greg, you're Completely wrong. Oh, I'm sorry,
- [108:46]
Stephen
Zach. S says Steven, they are making you write haiku and Akane Banashi now. Good job. Can you talk about that process? It was funny. Yeah, I got a couple comments about this because there was a, you know, there was a chapter, just a random chapter of Akane where a character in, in a glib, you know, frame of, of mind decides to quote a little haiku on the spot. And, and that surprised me because like I feel like every single time there is a haiku in a manga or you know, or if there's something similar along those lines like I. There were definitely scenes in Wano when, when Odo was doing the like sort of like the, the wrap up stuff or the, the things that were kind of based on you know, like not, not barkers but like, you know, poets that were kind of like Tonka style where it's not necessarily 575 but it's like 775713 and you know, whatever. And I remember I, I did all of those. Like I made sure that the, the, the syllable counts fit that, that rhythm too. So this is actually something that like anytime that comes up I always am like, boom, right on the, right on the dot. And I think just maybe people don't generally notice it or remark on it unless they, they, they mention in the chapter that like, oh, this is a haiku. But I always do that. And yeah, I don't find it that hard. I think it's just, you know, you just kind of play around with a few different structures and make sure like, okay, I can do this. I just need a, you know, two syllable word to round out this line. And if the one that I really want is a three, then I have to tweak the rest of it and you know, just kind of make it all work. It's, it's pretty fun. I enjoy living up to the, you know, the haiku requirements there. It's a fun little puzzle to solve. Are there any haiku in, in die Adventures of Die?
- [110:56]
Greg
I'd fucking die, man. I just, I would collapse. The worst thing is just those scenes which, I mean, good for you. The Oda avoids is where they copy paste old scenes and preserve the dialogue. So when you're writing it out, your editor doesn't just go like, oh, this is the scene from here. You have to provide where each of those scenes were. And there was one of those fucking like, let's impress the reader with all of this, with all of these memories where they just copy pasted everything across the page. From like the entire series so far. And it was just like, that is the worst. Yeah, so that was exorbitant amount of time spent on that. But nothing flowery. If there has been in terms of like chapter titles and things, nothing that has caught my radar. I am not Googling every single thing that I come across. That is not to say that I'm trying to avoid it. I am working with Super Die fans and they've been incredible. They know all this stuff, so they always let me know if there's something that I'm missing that's an allusion to this or that. But yeah, nothing again. 90s 90s shonen anime Bad guy Bad beat.
- [112:16]
Stephen
Bad guy hit big. Yeah. We have another comment from S P. This was just the other day. So clearly once. Once we knew we would be convening here to to do this episode, S P wrote in to say hello once again. In one of the recent episodes, Sam talked about how maybe the devil fruit awakened and evolved. For example, he said Kaido's fish fish fruit was maybe originally a fish fruit, but someone awakened it and evolved it into the fish fruit model Seiru or Azure Dragon, so that when Kaido eats it, he becomes the dragon instantly. Although I have a problem with that example, he does have a similar thought with one of he. I have a similar thought with one of my longtime theories about Vegapunk's Devil Fruits being human dreams slash desires. It's an ideal that. It's the idea that there is no Nika fruit at first, but because Nika, the legend or original liberator that was, was just an original user of Gomu Gomu and people assumed the Rubber Party property is part of Nika's power slash legend. So the fruit evolved and turned into the human human fruit, Nika.
- [113:33]
Greg
That would help me feel better if true.
- [113:38]
Stephen
Yeah,
- [113:41]
Greg
it's funny, we were just talking about that panel earlier of Yaru, right? Like, remembering that, and I was thinking to myself, I was thinking like, Nika is real. Like Nika existed at one point in history, but like, what were they capable of? Were they truly capable of all these magnificent things?
- [113:58]
Stephen
Is Nika an actual God?
- [114:01]
Greg
Well, okay, no, I do not think that. I don't think that Nika was an actual God. But did Nika have the ability to stretch or to do silly things? So like, did Nika have the actual gum gum fruit and were they just super stretchy? And based on that, did people create this idea, this concept of Nika that was the Nika fruit and then had that ability in it. Because there's a couple points in the series where, like, it's important that Luffy is physically made of rubber, right? The actual, like, substance, rubber,
- [114:41]
Stephen
or at
- [114:42]
Greg
least, you know, part of his skin is. Or magically it is whenever it needs to be. Blah, blah, blah. Right. And not logia standard, but, like, it is rubber. So, like, then why would that make sense? Like, what? How could they justify that with it just being this, like, quote unquote God? How can you say, well, like, he was a God of rubber, but he was the God of the like. It feels like law almost. With like, powers that just extend way beyond what what they quote unquote should be. So, like, did Nika have a rubber fruit? Was Nika able to do all these crazy, silly things that that gave people joy? And did the Nika fruit become based on that and then thereby inherited. Inherited the properties of said rubber? That's a great question in terms of whether does it literally power up or not. I mean, it's Oda's story. He can do that tomorrow if he wants to. Right?
- [115:41]
Stephen
Right.
- [115:42]
Greg
So as a concept, does it work? I think it can, because he can make it work. And we don't know how they were made yet. So yeah, I like it as an idea.
- [115:57]
Stephen
Our last one on Discord here comes from Bortolomeo says. Hi, SGS crew. I had this thought the other day. Do you think it's possible the One Piece is depicted somewhere on the Elbaf mural, but we can't tell because we don't know what it looks like? Basically, what are the odds Oda is pulling a hiding in plain sight trick with the Final Treasure? After all, whatever the One Piece is, it must play an important enough role that it can influence or has influenced the history of the world.
- [116:30]
Greg
So. I don't want to say that I know whether or not Oda has conceived of what the One Piece is or is not yet. But I do know that through a certain point in the story, Oda simply did not know what the One Piece as a physical thing was. And he developed that over time. And some of you might be surprised about how quote unquote, modern One Piece was at the time when he was still going over that. I'm not gonna say it's anytime recent, but you might be surprised when he was still like, I wonder what it is. So with the Drums of Liberation, unless Oda says this in an interview, I have no reason to believe that during Skypie, the ton ton ton ton, like that rhythm, I have no reason to believe that. That was drums of liberation whatsoever. Did he go back? Was he rereading skypiea as he often goes back, the series is, or was on his desk and he has all these little notes in it. Right. I think even at one point, like, fans were trying to, like, figure out where his. His. His fusen is.
- [117:53]
Stephen
What do you call his bookmark is? Yeah, bookmarks.
- [117:56]
Greg
Yeah. Like, they're trying to figure out where his bookmarks were and, like, what. What pages they were. And so I think he probably went back and fit that into the story. That's. That can or cannot be a retcon, depending on your definition of a retcon and whether you're an optimist about it or a pessimist about it. But the point is, he retrofit that into the story. So is he able to. I would. I doubt that Oda could resist the urge to retrofit whatever the one piece is into the story. So, like, I would find it very hard for him to have gone back and, like, found, like, ah, okay, and like, found some design or some theme or a location and. And have been like, this is. This is what I want it to be, and then based it on that. So is it in the Harley? It absolutely could be. I would be surprised if Oda couldn't. Could. Could resist that temptation. He goes for that stuff.
- [119:05]
Stephen
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, of course, when I think about, like, oh, what's. What are, like, the hidden meanings that we're, like, we're looking at, but we don't necessarily know what they are yet. And all of our talk about, like, what is this? What are these, you know, spiky orbs that people are carrying around? And what do those represent? What do those stand for? And, you know, it could be a thing where, like, yeah, maybe. Maybe the, the one piece isn't like. Like, if that's, like, analogous to, to devil fruit powers, you know, that. That wouldn't be like, oh, that's what the, The. The one piece was. But maybe some aspect of it does tie into. So it's. Maybe it's not like, literally in the mural, but you can see exactly where the mural kind of interfaces with what we learn about the one piece. I could see something like that, although I have a hard time imagining, like, you. You look at it and then it's like, oh, my God, I didn't see that. You know, there's a little treasure chest, like, hiding behind this one guy. You know, I don't. I don't necessarily think we'll we'll see anything like that. But, but I totally, I totally agree with your. Your points about his, you know, the, the ways that, that he can coalesce the story together by, by drawing on, you know, his past. Past stuff.
- [120:27]
Greg
Well, look at his X. Look at the X, the X and the O in one piece that he always does on his signatures. I mean, he's telling us where the one piece is. I mean, that's the red line, grand line. X is the world and that's where it is. So, I mean, in terms of, like, he is drawing that symbolism. So has he drawn the one piece in some way, in some form that we could. I would have to say that I think he has. But whether he intended it to be that at the point or whether he's retrofitting it in. Well, you know what YouTubers are going to do, whatever YouTubers do. So. Yeah, go to. He had it concocted the whole time, guys. Yes, go to. He had it all planned out.
- [121:12]
Stephen
Yep. All right, so that's all for our Patreon questions on Discord. But even if you are not a subscriber on Patreon, you could still use. I will check on Blue sky and on Twitter, the site formerly known as Twitter with the hashtag SGSS Sensei, all one word. So I will start over on Blue sky with Emil Nordpol, BSGuy Social, who says, Dear SGS Sensei, what is the meaning of the name NES Lobby? I wonder, I wonder if he asked this because I brought up a couple weeks ago, like, some of the debates that, that happened on, you know, the, the Forum Arlong park back when, when water 7 was still happening and we didn't even know how Ennis Lobby was. Was spelled yet, and I was talking about that. So I, I wonder if, I wonder if this is related to that.
- [122:13]
Greg
Well, it's, it's. I mean, this is something that we did discuss back in the day, but I mean, the answer is quite obvious and that it is the Nintendo Entertainment System.
- [122:24]
Stephen
Exactly. Thank you. Thank you.
- [122:28]
Greg
Yes. Yeah. So, yeah, glad we could answer that.
- [122:36]
Stephen
Right. Yeah. And the lobby is like the, you know, when you go to the dentist and they have the NES set up in the lobby for you to play before your appointment. Yeah. No, I have no idea. I don't. I do not have a good answer.
- [122:53]
Greg
No, that's a really good point. Funny, the second I heard the question, I was flashing back to those discussions about, like, well, it means this Greek thing or that, like Greek term.
- [123:02]
Stephen
Exactly. Yep.
- [123:03]
Greg
Yeah. Yeah. Still no idea. I Wonder if it's going. You know what? It would probably be some like, Oxloyd Bell. Right. Ox Lloyd or Oxroyd. I'd forget what the.
- [123:20]
Stephen
Yeah, yeah, the one from the time skip.
- [123:23]
Greg
Yeah. He has an idea about like, this thing that occurred in the past, and maybe it was the name of the old island that was there. And maybe Ennius is like. I mean, like lobby, meaning entryway. Right. Like, because it is a hole. Like, maybe it is.
- [123:39]
Stephen
Yeah, that's. That's a good point. Yeah. Lobby being the entryway to the. To the world government or whatever. Yeah, Whatever they called the area behind the gate.
- [123:52]
Greg
Yeah. I was also going to say, like. Like, maybe because of the whole. Maybe it's the entrance to, you know, the center of the earth or like, like. But basically seems very clear that it was an island at one point that was destroyed. Right. Similar to Lucia.
- [124:11]
Stephen
Yeah.
- [124:12]
Greg
Yes.
- [124:12]
Stephen
I mean, he definitely brought that very much up to the forefront when. When the whole speech was going on. Vegapunk speech about the. The sea levels and stuff like that. Yeah. So, yeah.
- [124:26]
Greg
And maybe it was like that was. That was the entrance to this land, you know, Ennis at one point or something.
- [124:32]
Stephen
Right. But yeah, I mean, that would be awesome to learn something like that in the. In the future.
- [124:38]
Greg
Yep.
- [124:40]
Stephen
Ice Fisher tenacity. Ice Fisher 10 says hello. During a reread of Elbaf, the line from Loki on the last page of 1143 telling, hey, ridin to look at the woods had me a bit confused. I honestly do not know if Jeff. If Japan uses the idiom to miss the forest for the trees, but is it possible that's what Oda was referencing? With hindsight, we know that Hyrudin didn't have the whole story, so at that moment, it feels to me like Loki was trying to get him to see the forest through the trees. I could be misinterpreting this line and I'd appreciate any insight as to how you understand the original text. Yeah. So if I'm recalling correctly, this is. They're. They're down on the. You know, on the surface when Loki's. Loki's chained up and. What was it. It was before we see all the. The. The God knights coming up and kind of messing with. With stuff, but, like, you know, something bad is going on or is about to happen. And I want to say that I came. I. That I did come to this same conclusion eventually, where at the time it wasn't clear if there was more. If, like, if there was something that we weren't Aware of that. Oda was setting up with that. But in retrospect, it seems clear that, like, there, aside from, like, the, you know, the little people who hang out in. In the. The underworld and, like, tend to Loki or whatever it is that they do, there's not a lot going on down there. We don't, like, you know, there. There was no, like, lurking threat or something that would have changed that situation. So I think I did, in retrospect, come to that conclusion that he probably did mean it in. In the idiomatic sense. But I don't. I think part of the reason why I didn't see it that way initially was that I. I did not have a conception that. That they did use that idiom in Japanese. Like, to miss the forest for the trees is kind of an English saying. I don't know if you've ever experienced it because he just says, like, look at the forest. Right. It's like moriomido or something like that in that scene. I don't know. You might not. You might be like, what the. Are you talking about, Steven?
- [126:58]
Greg
Me?
- [126:59]
Stephen
Yes.
- [126:59]
Greg
Or listeners. Me. I have no idea what you're talking about whatsoever.
- [127:03]
Stephen
All right.
- [127:04]
Greg
No, I'm just. Listen, I'm entertained. I'm just like. I've got my popcorn here and. Because I don't remember the scene even at all.
- [127:11]
Stephen
Yeah.
- [127:12]
Greg
So.
- [127:12]
Stephen
Yeah, right.
- [127:13]
Greg
Well, study for me.
- [127:15]
Stephen
Right, Because. Because it turned out that wasn't necessarily a very pivotal scene. So that was just kind of a random. A random.
- [127:22]
Greg
Do they have that idiom? I don't know whether they do or not. Have you since.
- [127:25]
Stephen
Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying is I've never seen that before used in a way before. But. But given the context and the fact that, like, it doesn't really seem to line up with anything that we see, I kind of have to assume that that is what. What it is. So I forget either. I don't remember which volume that might have been in. So I. I want to say that either I did adjust it or I have. I kind of like, high as something to take a look at when. When I get to it again. So we'll see if that. If that changes when the. The English volume comes out.
- [128:01]
Greg
Let's see. Nihongo no kiyomite morio mizu.
- [128:07]
Stephen
Okay, all right. So, yeah, look at the. Look at the forest. Don't look at the trees. Or without looking at the trees. Huh. I wonder where that. You know, I was like, was that. That wasn't like a Shakespeare thing or was Shakespeare just referencing that himself with the. The forest moving in Macbeth, I think. Anyways, all of that is. Is an aside. We'll go on to 16th century England
- [128:40]
Greg
in John Heywood's 1546 collection of proverbs. Cool.
- [128:48]
Stephen
Zach B. At McLovin B18 says he has. He is dated when he thought of these questions. So he's written out three questions here and he has attached a date to them for fun as to when he came up with them. So his SCG asks questions. When you do read one piece, which version do you read more and do you enjoy one more over the other? December 30, 2024. I'm guessing that's like which language? Because I mean, if you read one piece, like there's only one read, there's only one. One piece to read. Right. It's just the model.
- [129:29]
Greg
Yes and no. Yes and no. I don't know how far they're going with this one. But you have the volumes, right? Or you have, you have jump. You have the jump versions, then you have the volumes, then you have digital versions, then you have digital color versions, and then you have the Sol Shuhang, the omnibus giant jump size logs which have not come out in the past, I don't know, maybe seven years or so now.
- [129:56]
Stephen
Yeah, yeah,
- [129:59]
Greg
but you do technically. I don't know how glasses push we're going for here, but I prefer the logs if I have access to them because they're huge and they're easy to read and they're jump sized, so you usually don't miss anything. The volume versions are very cut in addition to the jump editions. But the jump edition, the jump editions are cut. The volume versions are usually cut, although I think they made some exceptions during Marineford.
- [130:35]
Stephen
Yes. Yeah, we were talking about that just the other day.
- [130:38]
Greg
Okay.
- [130:39]
Stephen
That one random volume where they did include the full art.
- [130:43]
Greg
Yeah, Very strange, very strange. But there's actually a lot of details that people have missed over the years from background characters and mob characters that are cut off in both jump and the volumes. At one point I actually had a breakdown of like what the most complete version of it was to read, and I believe it was. The logs were the most complete. Like you could see the most of Oda's original picture in the logs, but that's usually my preferred version in Japanese, obviously. Duh.
- [131:23]
Stephen
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, no offense, Stephen. For, for me, yes. Yeah. For me, obviously I have, I do have full sets of the. The Japanese and the English and obviously. Yeah, I will almost always defer to the The Japanese. Although I do enjoy like once. Once the English volume is finally out, it is sometimes nice just to read it and to. To like go through it and. And like, you know, to. To read through it so fast that I don't have time to like, think about where my thought process was for all these like different translations and. And little. Little problems and challenges that that came up. Sometimes it's nice to just kind of like actively shut my. My brain off and see what I came up with, which is. Is always a nice change of pace since usually when I read manga, even though I enjoy reading manga in Japanese, it. It is like immediate work brain, like it just clicks on. You know, the process clicks on and I'm. I'm translating stuff in my head, which is not always what I want to be doing when I'm reading stuff. So. But yeah. Next question. Do you think this is fun? January 24, 2025. Do you think we'll see the full meeting of Shanks, question mark and the five Elders? And he says in parentheses now confirmed to be Shamrock from the 1 volume 114 SBS. So we were just talking before the show that I don't have my. I don't have volume 114 yet. So I actually have not seen the SBS. But I'm guessing this means that Oda confirmed that when we saw what we thought was Shanks talking to the five Elders, that that would have been Shamrock, which is pretty, pretty, pretty apparent once. Once we learned that he had a twin. But
- [133:23]
Greg
he has whole like. Okay.
- [133:27]
Stephen
Oh, well, just the question is, do you think we'll ever see the full meaning of that of like what he said to them about a certain pirate? That's a good question, because I don't think we ever found out necessarily who he was talking about. Right?
- [133:48]
Greg
If it's. He's. He's Zvek's son. I'll put my fist through the wall.
- [133:57]
Stephen
Yeah, yeah. And they just all face palm immediately
- [134:04]
Greg
like, oh God, it's the naked gun.
- [134:09]
Stephen
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
- [134:16]
Greg
I would hope that it's Luffy.
- [134:17]
Stephen
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's kind of like what I always thought when it was like, oh, he's pro. Is this Shanks? He's probably talking about Luffy. You know, that's what I always kind of had assumed. But that would be interesting knowing that it's Shamrock now if he was talking about Luffy too. We'll see. And lastly, September 29th of 2025. Do either of you have any standout career highlights? Boy. Well, been translating one piece for 500 chapters. That's pretty cool.
- [134:55]
Greg
Congratulations also. 500. That's right. Yeah. I think really, for me, I mean, I've done some pretty crazy stuff, but at this point, like, thinking about, like, what has kind of sustained me through all of it has been just achieving that initial dream of getting to this side of the ocean and starting a married life here, being able to teach here and being able to continue to teach and holding on to that position, which in and of itself has been a lot of hard work. Harder than it seems, because people don't normally do what I do, especially not through the JET program. So there was a lot of. There was a lot of fighting to get where I am, and not just against other people. I don't mean just fighting against others for a position, but against literally a government. Some Luffy. Against the government. To be able to keep doing what we do and how we do it, and there are some losses and there are some wins, but to be able to. The career highlight would really be just getting to be able to keep what I do day to day in my day job is really, really special to me and the people who have been a part of that all the way through. And I mean, that related to personal life and you, Stephen, obviously, and the podcast members with. With everything related to hobbies and whatnot. And through everything that we've. We've been through, the ups and downs is really, in terms of a career highlight, that first step is. Is getting the job over here. And that was. That was so, so big to me. So that. That really is it, because without that, there's. There's nothing else. So. Yeah.
- [137:03]
Stephen
Wow. Nice. Yeah, I mean, I have a lot. I have a lot of other, you know, highlights. Like, obviously, you know, getting to work on one piece was a. Was a dream come true. And of course, you know, like. Like you said with your stuff, it is. It is a lot of work and a lot of headaches and definitely not all sunshine and rainbows, but. But definitely a dream come true. And. And I've had. I've had a couple other moments that were like that where it was like, wow, you know, I can't. You know, I never would have guessed that I could have gotten the chance to do this, so. But it's. It's hard to. To top the. The time that I've had with one piece specifically. Let's see. Nacho at teal. You feel it? That BSGuide Social has a question. Hi, guys. This is from. This is from today. So this is recent. Hi, Guys, I wanted to know, what do you think Oda is hiding with the capture of Loki? Did he learn that Rox had a son? Was Shanks hiding him from Blackbeard? On that note, I think the Lola Affair fits Roto silhouette and personality better than him. Thank you. I'm not really sure how to parse this.
- [138:26]
Greg
I. Okay, so I got the second part. I think the. I don't know if you are, but, like, the intimation is that, like, is he suggesting that maybe it was Roto who went to see Roto dressed up as Loki or was taking Loki's Persona and went in place, or is it just a pithy comment that, like, yeah, he. I think it fits. If we're talking, like, in terms of, like, personality first. I don't know if it was just, like, a funny comment or not, but because I take everything seriously, I'll try to address. But if it was Roldo who was going there trying to be Loki, then in terms of the. The type or what he fits, I honestly feel that Shirahoshi fits Loki's type. I think that Loki does because of my whole idea for the. I think we discussed this last time was the. His whole, like, he probably has this like. Like, bishoujo kind of like. Or, like, ideal behind him. Even though he looks like this, you know, cruel, horrible thing, I think he might, like, like, really show. Be Shojo looking, like, ladies. So I don't know if. I don't know, like, I get where he's coming from, but. Okay, good.
- [139:43]
Stephen
I was gonna say not Nacho included in this post. The. The picture of. When I guess it was Chiffon was describing, you know, the. The betrothal with Loki. So there's the silhouette of Loki, you know, given the little present to.
- [140:00]
Greg
To low flower or something.
- [140:01]
Stephen
Yeah, yeah. But it's obviously. And it's one of those things of, like. Okay, well, obviously, you know, don't expect Oda to do, like, super accurate silhouettes way before a character appears, because that's just kind of kind of his style. But, you know, he kind of looks sort of brute.
- [140:21]
Greg
Like, he.
- [140:21]
Stephen
He kind of looks kind of stumpy and. And. And wide and kind of goofy a little bit and not, like, cool in that sense. So maybe that's. That's what this per. You know what. What Nacho is. Is saying is that the.
- [140:36]
Greg
The.
- [140:36]
Stephen
It seems to fit Roto's whole deal better as, like. Yeah, yeah.
- [140:44]
Greg
Okay, so we're on the same page. So that is exactly the image that I got in my Mind. Because that's the one that everybody's thinking about, right? And the biggest thing there is really the size difference, Right. Because it's such a dramatic size disparity. This has the potential, like, if he. If he did go down that road, like, if he's like, oh, yeah, it was really roto the whole time. Road. The whole time. If he does go down that road, that's what I would call a retcon. That would be a. And, like, he's. He's fixing a mistake. Retcon. If you look at the old Big mom, like, even the old Big mom is. That should be a retcon. Like, people can argue for it all they want, but, like, looks wildly different there than. And, sorry, people don't have any perspective for what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the. The conversation. Fuck. Who was it, Garp, who was talking about the Emperors? And we get the. During the end of Water seven. Well, I mean, the return to Water seven after Enies lobby. And we get the shadows of the Emperors. And if you look at Big mom there, Big mom does not look like Big Mom. And even if you look at the shadow of Big mom, like that dramatic shadow figure of mom that he drew with the menacing eyes and the mouth, like, it can be, but it really doesn't match up well. Like, it's. It's all for dramatic effect. You can argue that, like, yes, it does fit the general idea. But, like, no, he was trying to be dramatic and give you this, like, horrifying, terrifying image at the time. And it doesn't fit perfectly. It's not. One, two, one. The problem with the ro. With the Loki and. And chiffon thing is that it's so dramatically different. Like, it's not even close. Like, Ancient giant should have been so much bigger than that. So the question is, does Oda want to admit is he okay with that being just an image in her mind, or does he want to make it seem like he was. Like, it was planned.
- [142:54]
Stephen
He was doing something there?
- [142:55]
Greg
Yeah, yeah, he was doing it the whole time. And. And that's. I mean, if he does that, like, let's say he does make it. Like it was actually road that went. Fucking people will lose their minds over Gota stuff. And I guarantee you it is not that that is a retcon. That would be a retcon. Yeah. In terms of personality, though, I think that we're gonna find that Loki actually has a soft spot for Bishojo. So I think it's all gonna fit, especially you know, with most. Of course, stuff. Shaggy. Shaggy stuff.
- [143:28]
Stephen
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we'll figure out what, you know, this part of the story when we get to whatever that, you know, reveal, whenever that reveal happens. Because, yeah, we still need. There's certainly some questions still open about Loki's backstory. And then I think what this other part of the question was. What is Oda hiding with the capture? I'm guessing he's referring to Shanks capturing Loki, like, bringing him. Yeah. Under heel. But what is he hiding? Did he. Did Loki learn that Rox had a son? Was Shanks hiding him from Blackbeard?
- [144:07]
Greg
That's. That's a great question. I have not given that a lot of thought, so I really can't answer that myself. Personally, I'm not. I'm not super interested in that. So I just really haven't thought about
- [144:19]
Stephen
it,
- [144:21]
Greg
which is selfish, but it is what it is.
- [144:23]
Stephen
Yeah.
- [144:24]
Greg
Sorry.
- [144:24]
Stephen
No good answers for you there. All right. And then over on Twitter, we have our usual friend, Op Champagne Bala, who does have one quick little hit of questions. This will be our last stuff to go over. Theories on editor Fukuda regarding Oda said Shamrock's intro chapter was big and could only be known if he revealed the one piece. So does that mean
- [145:03]
Greg
there was that whole comment? Right? I. I never read the. The Japanese, so I'm not super.
- [145:07]
Stephen
Yeah, I don't. I don't know what this. This is referring to.
- [145:10]
Greg
I know that something was said in some interview. The editors are basically hype men at this point. Do you ever see that Key and Peel sketch with the hype man that is just, like, too overly exuberant, just turns into an animal.
- [145:25]
Stephen
Yeah. Yeah.
- [145:28]
Greg
Not to say that he's lying. I don't think he's being completely disingenuous, but one of his best editors. Who is it? Onishi. Onishi also said, like, yeah, Oda is definitely planning on ending the series in about seven years, and he said that over 10 years ago now. So.
- [145:49]
Stephen
Yeah. Yeah.
- [145:51]
Greg
These people just say shit. So I'm not saying that that's not based on anything. There is something that's probably tied into it. But having not read the Japanese and knowing the editors for what they say, grain of salt. But also something that. When you know what it is to go back and go, oh, okay, maybe with the red hair or something, maybe with the hair of the children or, like, being born twins, et cetera. Like, does twins and twin power. Does it come back to that? Why is the hair this way? Why? Maybe something with that.
- [146:23]
Stephen
Okay, the next one. And I know we definitely talked about this before. Who do you think the four gods intro'd regarding the moose sacrifice? So this would be in the flashback of. Of Skypiea.
- [146:38]
Greg
Yep. Where.
- [146:40]
Stephen
What was it? It was the God of the rain and the God of the. Did they say? I think there was a God of the sun, because that's why people keep asking about it. But then God of the river, maybe, and God of the forest, something. Something like that. I forget what the. The four exact things are, but. I'm not sure what more to say. Like, if. If this is going to be something that he's going to work into a. You know, into. Into back into the story somehow or not. I don't know. I. It certainly does not seem to me like anything that he was planning for later because, like, at the time that he wrote that, because, like, the idea of, you know, a civilization worshiping gods, especially the story that he was telling, which is that, you know, they were. They were worshiping these gods that were forsaking them and, you know, turning to. To human sacrifice in order to. To try to solve their problems. Like, that's a very, you know, that's a very real world. There's plenty of examples of stuff like that happening in human history. So I don't necessarily see that as something unless he does, you know, retcon it into. In. Into his backstory. But I don't know if you have anything to add to that.
- [148:05]
Greg
I don't really, because even that whole section, like, I'm not sure how much he was planning to. To tie in or not when. When he wrote that, like the. The whole sun God thing, I think probably, you know, I mean, that's. He. He has had sun be a common theme, but like, as. As far as attributing each and every one of those to something, he can actually absolutely bring it in if he wants to. And it's all down to the. If he wants to or not. Otherwise they just might have been ideas or theories or like, you know, the firefruit user or the. This user. That user at the time. Probably not the cocaine user.
- [148:47]
Stephen
Let's hope not. Is Roger's egg an eagle? Parentheses Norse myth? So I don't know what. Which Norse myth this would be.
- [148:58]
Greg
Isn't it the eagle that looks out for the. The Ragnarok? I think there's an eagle that looks out for Ragnarok or something like that. And isn't there like another smaller eagle that sits on its beak or something like that? Yeah. It's really cool. I love Norse mythology, but yeah, something like that, sure. I mean, I don't want to say no to anything about what the a could be because my whole thing has always been, is it a dragon? Is it one of the original dragons? But yeah, it could be. It could be that. I don't want to say no.
- [149:34]
Stephen
Yeah, I had not. I was not familiar with an eagle in Norsemith, although I did like. And I recognized exactly what he was doing with. What was it when, when they're, when they're in the LEGO set and you get the, like the animals that are named after, you know, the Roto's pets basically, and that he has the one raven that he called. What was it? Moo. There's, there's Hugin and then there's Munin.
- [150:07]
Greg
Oh, the, the.
- [150:10]
Stephen
Yeah, they're the two. Yeah. That, that Odin uses. They're like his, his familiars that they, they hover around and they, they, you know, they do stuff for him. And then he combined them, he combined the names into one name. And that was just kind of like the, you know, he tossed that off as like the name of the one raven that, that works for, for Roto. And like, I thought that was, that was fun and clever, but I'm not really familiar with a, with an eagle. I'll have to go look that up.
- [150:39]
Greg
Yeah, I think it's cute. I think there's one that like, it's like there's a giant eagle and then a little mini eagle it like sits on or something like that. Maybe I'm mixing two, but
- [150:48]
Stephen
last one here is the Emerald is the Emerald City. In Laugh Tale it would line up with the wizard of Oz and people
- [150:58]
Greg
are really on this Emerald City thing.
- [151:02]
Stephen
Have they been talking about that recently?
- [151:03]
Greg
Oh my God. I don't know about recently, but ever since I can remember Arlong park forms even everyone was the Emerald City, the Emerald City Arc. And there was this massive.
- [151:12]
Stephen
Yeah. The danger of making up fun side details is that everybody wants to know at this point.
- [151:21]
Greg
Oda's trying to bring in everything that he's made in some form or another. Right. So I'm sure there's some city we'll see at some point in the world where everything is green. I mean, you could even make it like Emerald City is like it's a moss covered city. Right. Like when they drain this place or they go to this place, like, it's just, it's all covered in like seaweed and therefore it's green. Right. So I mean, it can be anything that he wants.
- [151:43]
Stephen
Yeah. Which scene was that? Was that from like Jaga or something?
- [151:47]
Greg
That was from Mocktown. And they're talking about like you believe in. Sorry, Jim. You believe in the Emerald City. That's bullshit.
- [151:54]
Stephen
Mm. Yeah. So knowing those guys, obviously, whatever it is, it is real. But who knows if we'll ever see anything like it. If anything, I feel like, you know, the fact that if it was laugh tale, I feel like that would have been an evidence that we wouldn't hear, you know, a hint for it from something because. Because that would have meant that, I don't know, some. Somebody on Roger's crew was, was telling stories and that just doesn't seem to. To. To jive with what we, what we know about them. But that is it. Some good questions there. Good, good stuff to. To ponder. Once again, you can submit those questions anytime. I do check, you know, I check the timestamps, make sure we find the ones that haven't been read before. You can do that on Twitter or Blue sky with the hashtag SGSS Sensei. Or if you are on our Discord in the Patreon section, there is an SGS channel there to submit your questions there as well. But I think that's going to do it for this week. So why don't we round this thing off.
- [153:10]
Greg
Alrighty.
- [153:12]
Stephen
This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits
- [153:21]
Greg
right in with a full lineup of
- [153:23]
Stephen
non alcoholic beer styles you can enjoy. Bold flavors all game long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water in the second half. Stock the fridge for tip off with a variety of non alcoholic craft styles
- [153:35]
Greg
available at your local grocery store or
- [153:37]
Stephen
online at athleticbrewing.com near Beer Fit for.
- [153:47]
Greg
Foreign.
- [153:52]
Stephen
Well, it has been another wonderful and enlightening episode of the SGS and as always, would not be possible without you. Greg, thanks for coming by.
- [154:04]
Greg
Thanks for having me. It's always a blast.
- [154:07]
Stephen
Yes. And this is normally the part I'm actually, I'm going to give you. I'm going to cut you a break here because I know this is your least favorite part of the show and I will say if folks want to find out what Greg is talking about recently, go follow him on Ximusha108. I know you have been, you know, weighing in on a lot of. Of commentary about, you know, latest manga stuff and some of the questions people had about the, the. The Netflix series and so on.
- [154:41]
Greg
So I figured out the algorithm. There's actually a secret to it, and it is don't tell anybody. Just anything that matters. Just don't tweet. Just quote, retweet, retweet what shows up in your feed. Literally. Literally did that. And 15,000 likes and then 11,000. And then it was just like you've gotten a million interactions in a week and it was just like, holy fuck. So like, yeah, that's all I had to do all these years, was just quote, retreat. Okay, all right. And all I had to do was talk about how sexy Hancock is. That's all. And I guess that's the secret to it.
- [155:17]
Stephen
Nice. I mean, many people have done just that. As for me, I am over on Bluesky at StephenPaul BSKY Social, and I think, as I hinted at earlier, I've got some real fun stuff. Usually I just talk about, you know, what's what, you know, what, what the latest Shonen Jump simulpub stuff is that's coming up that I worked on. But I do have some other cool stuff in the works that I am excited to talk about once. Once it's either announced or it's a little closer to. To release. So definitely had my nose to the grindstone in on a variety of projects lately, which has been fun getting to do some different stuff. As for the podcast itself, you can check out our site, one piecepodcast.com follow us on social media. Our Twitter is semi inactive, but every now and then we will retweet something important. Blueskyonepiecepodcast.com where we share the latest news, deal posts, character anniversaries and events and such. We are on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you find your podcasts. One Piece Podcast. Of course, you can no longer call us at 347497 Magi call no time does not work anymore, but I'm gonna say it. Just fun. And yeah, I think. I think that'll be it for us for. For a couple weeks at least. We'll see when the next break happens if we're able to. To get together again. Although we do have a new volume, so, you know, there. There might be an SBS coverage instead. We'll see. Just kind of depends on how things shake out. But for now, my name is Steven.
- [157:10]
Greg
And I'm Greg.
- [157:13]
Stephen
And we'll see you next time. Simba's been meowing up a storm over here.
- [157:19]
Greg
Yeah, little psychic power, Sam.