Episode 912, “Imu’s Spring Break” (with Golfergare)

Summary

The One Piece Podcast – Episode 912, “Imu’s Spring Break” (with Golfergare)

Original air date: March 30, 2026
Host: Maji Media (Zach, Ed, Steve, plus Stephen Paul, Ken O’Connor, and special guest Golfergare)
Main topic: Chapter 1178 Manga Recap – “Waking from a Nightmare”

Episode Overview

This episode is a lively, joke-filled and highly analytical roundtable, featuring the regular crew plus One Piece translator Stephen Paul, One Piece archivist Ken O’Connor, and recurring guest Golfergare. The main focus is a breakdown and spirited debate over the new manga chapter 1178, "Waking from a Nightmare." The hosts also cover a slew of One Piece news, weigh in on fan-voting drama, and dig into audience questions. This episode is a must for fans eager for speculation on the Elbaf arc’s progress, Imu’s retreat, and the future of the story.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Podcast & One Piece News (01:26–16:14)

- Live Action Podcast, OPLA, & Interviews

• New side-podcast episodes every Wednesday, featuring live-action cast/crew interviews.
• Special guests include actors who portrayed Chopper, Dr. Hiriluk, and members of the VFX team.

- Patreon & “Sticker of the Month”

• $5+ Patreon supporters get bonus content; $12+ gets exclusive stickers (e.g., “Emu Eating Faces Party”).
• [04:58] Steve: “Yeah, I do the same thing.” (on blaming COVID for forgetfulness)

- Anime News: Elbaf Arc, New Opening, Casting

• Elbaf arc starts next week in the anime; sneak peeks and new character VAs discussed.
• Opening 29 is “Luminous” by INA THE END.
• [06:43] Zach: “That’s weird. You shouldn’t do that.”

- Dub & International Releases

• English dub is caught up (for now); Crunchyroll adding Hindi, Tamil, Telugu dubs.
• Discussion of Joy Boy’s dub voice, the challenges and choices in localization.
• [11:17] Steve: “Since Japan did it, why not? I think it was a good call.”

- News Bits: “Heroines” Special, WT100 Popularity Poll Cheating Scandal

• “One Piece Heroines” (Nami-focused) comes out July 5th.
• Major fraudulent voting in the WT100 poll (from 80 million votes to 4 million).
• [16:55] Steve (quoting Joey Wiser): “I wish all these people please get a life... You waste it on a fictional character poll.”

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2. Manga Recap: Chapter 1178 – “Waking from a Nightmare” (23:09–54:12)

- Cover Story Gags & Bull Jokes (24:16)

• Fan art: Kidd chased by a bull; various puns about “no capes,” running of the bulls, and “mid” jokes.
• [25:06] Steve: “Why did I go to the running of the bulls with my big giant red cape?”

- Elbaf, Loki, Imu & the Florian Triangle Connection (30:01)

• The crew theorizes on Imu’s speech about a mysterious “giant ship in the mist”—possible link to Thriller Bark’s shadowy triangle.
• [30:13] Zach: “Did everyone do a LEO point that this could be Thriller Bark they’re talking about here?”
• Debate whether this is a satisfying explanation.

- Battle Climax: Luffy & Loki vs Imu (32:33)

• Imu attempts a “diabolical covenant” attack, but it does nothing to Luffy & Loki (possibly too “stupid” to fall for contracts, per Jill).
• Loki’s ice attack freezes Imu and Gunko.
• Chopper can “slap” the demon out of possessed giants, much to Zoro’s comedic flattery.
• [39:06] Steve: “Poof. He hits the ground with a wood and a thud.”

- Aftermath & Elbaf Villages (39:39)

• Fires and damage in Elbaf; the “monster” threat is gone, but aftermath remains.
• “Show it, damn it!” hosts joke (e.g., wishing to see Chopper’s cute victory dance).

- Library Escape, Books, and Biblo the Owl (45:12)

• The owl library is empty but not burned; speculation on Biblo rescuing the books.

- Killingham & Gunko, Imu’s Fate (47:33)

• Sanji and Frankie subdue Killingham; Gunko is left frozen and (potentially) recoverable.
• Imu’s form is seen melting, rebuilding, or retreating—unclear if they are truly defeated.

- Imu Teleports Away, Going “On Vacation” (54:12)

• Panel shows Imu communicating with the Five Elders: “I’ll be leaving the Holy Land for a time.”
• Hosts joke about Imu’s “spring break” and needing travel arrangements.

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3. Manga Recap Analysis & Reactions

- Red Herrings, Pacing, and Withheld Tension

• Concerns that the resolution is too easy; “nightmare” ends quickly, with the “threat” unexpectedly neutralized.
• Some predict this is a false ending and that Imu will return in person, raising the stakes.
• [60:21] Golfer: “Every time [Luffy] goes into old man need food mode, something’s about to pop off... are we about to, like, reascend into even more chaos?”

- Chopper’s Unique Ability

• Whether Chopper’s fruit (Hito Hito no Mi/ Human-Human) plays a special role in the “Dommy Reversi” power’s reversal.
• [89:44] Zach: “I tentatively like the idea that Chopper has this special skill of unknown origin. Because give my boy stuff to do. That’s great. I love that.”

- Devil Fruit Immunity Theory

• Prevailing theory: Devil Fruit users (or D. clan?) may be immune to Imu’s Dommy Reversi power.
• [87:13] Golfer: "...The big prevailing theory at this point is the Devil Fruits are going to play a much bigger part narratively other than, hey, look cool."

- Lifespan & Dommy Reversi’s True Cost

• Imu’s power steals “a portion of thy lifespan” for greater strength. Rumors about Emu’s immortality tying into this.

- What’s Next? Red Herrings, False Calms, and Arc Structure

• Division: some fear this is the end of the Elbaf arc, others are convinced this false “peace” is just a breather before greater chaos (e.g., Imu’s return, Gunko’s interrogation, Astral Realm).

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4. WT100 Poll Drama: Results & Regional Differences (19:01)

• Breakdown of top 5 results by region, jokes about “Lucci” being misspelled “Luffy.”
• [20:10] Ken O’Connor: “I think people misspelled Luffy. That’s what I think happened.”

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5. Piece Together (Listener Questions & Theories) (95:07–128:19)

Highlights:

• Fan theories on Chopper, “Dommy Reversi,” and Devil Fruits.
• Is the Elbaf arc actually over? Consensus leans toward “no—more coming.”
• Where is Biblo the Owl? Jokes about the owl turning up in Zach’s backyard.
• Imu’s destination and what “castle renovations” would annoy Imu (e.g., a room full of Nika posters).
• Ongoing confusion/jokes about whether it’s “this March” or “next March.”
  • [130:08] Ken O’Connor: “Because either I’m not on the show until next March, which is this March...”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [06:46] Stephen Paul: “I don’t believe you.” — Skepticism is a recurring theme.
• [10:02] Ken O’Connor: “So.” — Subtle acknowledgment of show/tell in OP anime music.
• [16:55] Steve (quoting Joey Wiser): “I wish all these people please get a life... You waste it on a fictional character poll.”
• [29:40] Zach: “Hey, I wanted to beat the bad guy.” — Highlighting Luffy’s childlike motivations.
• [33:45] Ken O’Connor: “They easily just kick the tendrils out of their body as if nothing happened.”
• [35:56] Ken O’Connor: “Rag-tasker. No.” — Joke about the squirrel-headed hammer.
• [41:09] Ken O’Connor: “Because of plot.” — Why the fire-fighting system only does so much.
• [52:24] Ed: “And squirrel.” — Luffy shifting his hunger to Loki’s weaponized squirrel.
• [85:50] Zach: “I’m a power scaler, and that’s how I... Yes.”
• [106:59] Ken O'Connor: “Honestly, young looking like he was back on Roger's crew. There's something going on here.” — Elbaf time loop jokes.
• [131:51] Golfer: “Is it crazy to say Christmas is more significant than March? So you refer to it differently?” — Ongoing “this March/next March” running gag.

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Start – 16:00: News Recap (Anime, Dub, OPLA, WT100, Arc Madness voting)
• 24:00–54:00: Manga Recap – Chapter 1178, “Waking from a Nightmare”
• 54:00–86:30: Analysis, speculations, reactions to the chapter
• 95:00–128:00: Piece Together (Listener Mailbag)
• 130:00–end: Outro, plugs, resolution of “this March” debate, Arc Madness bracket results

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Conclusion (Summary Flow)

Episode 912 covers a pivotal and ambiguous moment in the Elbaf arc, raising more questions than it answers about Imu’s powers and intentions. The hosts vacillate between frustration at the rapid winding-down of major threats and anticipation that this may simply be a narrative feint—a “nightmare” with another layer hiding beneath. Lively digressions, running jokes, and deep dives into One Piece mystery ingredients (like Chopper’s true potential and the meaning of “Dommy Reversi”) keep the conversation engaging for both new and longtime fans. The hosts’ chemistry, alternating between analytical and irreverent, makes this episode a thorough companion for any fan who wants to stay at the forefront of One Piece speculation as we sail deeper into Elbaf.

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For full context, consult the timestamps above for your favorite segments or characters. As always, skip the ads (beginning and end) for the purest podcast experience!

Transcript

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[Zach]

This is the One Piece podcast, episode 912 for the week of Monday, March 30th, 2026. My name is Zach.

[Ed]

And my name is Ed.

[Steve]

And my name is Steve.

[Zach]

And on today's show, he's the very special guest translator for One Piece and weekly shonen Jump in Manga. Plus Stephen Paul joins us. How's it going, Stephen?

[Stephen Paul]

It's going well. I'm glad to be here.

[Zach]

Yeah, I'm glad you can make it. We have our. The official archivist. Archivist. I am going to pronounce it like that.

[Ken O'Connor]

Archivist. Yeah, it sounds fancier.

[Zach]

We have Ken o' Connor joining us once again. How's it going, Ken?

[Ken O'Connor]

Hello, everybody. Glad to be back.

[Zach]

And our. I want to say perennial, but it's more than that. Our more frequent special guest. That I'm always as happy as here. That I am always happy. Come here to the show. Wow. I've lost it. It's just gone. I'm blaming this on Covid. Specifically, we have golfer here.

[Golfer]

Howdy, y'.

[Zach]

All.

[Golfer]

It's. It's so great. So glad to be back.

[Zach]

It's contagious.

[Golfer]

It is.

[Zach]

Well, actually, it is extremely contagious. Thank you, golfer, for coming on again. Yeah, I am on the very tail end of COVID at the moment. So if I'm making less sense than usual, that sucks. Today on the One Piece podcast, we go through chapter 1178. We also have some piece together before we get started. There's a ton of one piece news. But I need to talk about our news here at the podcast. If you haven't noticed, every Wednesday we at, barring one, we have been releasing episodes of opla, our live action focused podcast. There it is. Thank you. This season so far, we've already had Mikaela Hoover who played Chopper Brendan, who we just had. We just had on last week's episode. And this Wednesday we have Mark herilic who plays Dr. Herlock on the show.

[Ed]

Again, that name is too close.

[Zach]

Nominative determinism, right? Yes, that's apparently what that's called. I will be searching for that when you listen to the interview this Wednesday. But Steve, you were on the interview for that. I don't know.

[Steve]

Yeah, and it was phenomenal.

[Zach]

That was a Steve Yurko endorsement and review. We also have Rob Coletti coming on the following week. The singer songwriter Aura will be on the following one and the one I think we mentioned, I think I mentioned this last time, but we have the folks from Frame Store who did the VFX for Chopper, bringing him and also all the rubber effects and. And so on to life. Excited for that one. That's, that's all. April, you'll have extra bonus episodes of the One Piece podcast. They'll be on this feed and on a separate feed if you only want to listen to the live action stuff. Now, One Piece News actually before One piece news. Patreon patreon.com One Piece podcast Steve, the Sticker of the Month crew hasn't started yet. We're at the very end of March as we're recording this. But I think the next poll is coming out either this week or next week, right?

[Steve]

That's right.

[Zach]

The sticker this month was. Is it the vegapunk one? No, that's two months ago.

[Steve]

Sorry, it was the Emu Eating Faces party.

[Zach]

Oh, of course. Yes, we mentioned that last week. Again, blaming all of my mental issues on a disease this week. So yeah, check us out there.

[Steve]

Yeah, I do the same thing.

[Zach]

Thank you, Steve. $5 a month or more. You get everything except the sticker of the month and some other fun stuff at $12 a month. And we have other tiers. Just check that all out. Patreon.com One Piece podcast now. One Piece News ELBAF is happening in the anime. Is that next week already? It is next week. The next week. Um, we've got the first trailer came out. I don't know if you all have any thoughts on what you saw? So far I haven't watched it. Thank you.

[Steve]

It's a good looking episode. Yeah, they're definitely coming back with some.

[Ed]

Is there a new opening?

[Steve]

Yes.

[Zach]

Yeah, we'll get there.

[Ed]

I'll have to watch that, right?

[Zach]

Well, it's not out yet. Okay. But next week.

[Steve]

But it's been named Zach.

[Zach]

Yes. The name for opening 29 is luminous by Ina the End, who I believe did Donda don season two, one of the openings. Oh yeah. I believe I should have written that down, but I looked this up. That's weird. You shouldn't do that.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay, fine.

[Stephen Paul]

I don't believe you.

[Zach]

So I have Steven on Ken. His skepticism. Yeah, it looked really. It looked gorgeous. I'm trying to remember like what the direction reminded me of there. It's like almost like that puffy looking. I don't know. I don't know how to quite describe it. Straw hats.

[Ken O'Connor]

But like a softer look to them kind of.

[Zach]

Yeah. Well, definitely they. They are taking full advantage of the ODA red cheeked everyone because of the snow in certain sections of Elbaf. So that part's adorable. But we also have voice actors. Yuichi Nakamura as Loki, which if anyone follow my advice to watch Orb on the movements of the earth would know. The guy with the eyepatch in that show is that same voice actor. And that's the only thing I know him from. But I made a million things. Ryoto Takeuchi, Ayane Sakura is the voice of Gerd. I have not looked up Rotos. But that's no offense to the actor who plays him. Just the character who he is playing. Well, I guess I could look right now. Do I recognize any of these people from a glance?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Ed]

I mean just looks like a wet handed mouth breather.

[Zach]

Oh, that's my hero. Academia has a guy with a giant dog head.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yes.

[Golfer]

There's a guy who's a spray bottle. You should look at the quirks in that one.

[Zach]

It's pretty funny shit that. You know what if someone pitched my hero Academia by just showing me a picture of that character, it would have hooked me. But I've. I've heard enough since that. Yeah, I don't know that's happening. And the next on theme for the anime has switched back to we are. Which really shocked me.

[Steve]

I wonder if that's temporary.

[Zach]

Yeah, I wonder if it is too.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

[Zach]

Yeah. Alex and I are probably the two people who would care about that the most. So.

[Steve]

Because I don't know Only because that obviously wasn't at the end of season one. I'm sorry. I've heard that joke, like, so many times. I have to do the polite. Yeah. Yes, very good. Yes. I'm on the Internet too.

[Golfer]

It's got the same energy as. I haven't seen you since last year jokes on January 2nd. That's what it makes me feel like

[Zach]

every time I hear it. That's what that is. It's like it's. You're not, like, completely wrong, but it's kind of not the intent of what you're saying, you know, like you're.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, it's like last March and this March.

[Zach]

Okay, Ken, get out.

[Steve]

Everyone shut up.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, the cruise whipping boy is here.

[Zach]

Oh, shit. Heard that.

[Steve]

The whole point I was trying to make was that there was no episode preview attached to that episode. And maybe like, on, like, home video releases, they might put this on there. So who knows if at that point it'll be changed to like an instrumental of. I don't know. I feel like they only do it when it's a Kitadani opening, and this is not a Kitadani opening.

[Ken O'Connor]

So.

[Zach]

Yeah, it intriguing because they did it for one day, right? Two in wano. I think they did.

[Ken O'Connor]

Was that the last wano?

[Zach]

No, not one day. I'm sorry, one day. You're talking about over the top. Over the top, yeah. Starts with an O. Brain.

[Ken O'Connor]

Man, that Covid really got you back.

[Zach]

It really just very specifically in a very weird ways, too. Okay, let's talk about some dub news. So, Steve, this is all targeted specifically toward you.

[Steve]

Okay, I'll say. Why don't you read it and I want you to present it to me.

[Zach]

I'm going to present it to you. Erica Schroeder. Joy Boy. I don't know if you had a chance to watch the episode yet, but I know the clips were making the rounds.

[Steve]

I did see that clip.

[Zach]

Yeah, well, you and your four Kids expertise, since you have a master's in four Kids ology. It's true.

[Steve]

Yeah. It does make me qualified to talk to the dubbing process. Doesn't though. I think a lot of people were asking for this, and I think it's a pretty good example of what it is.

[Ed]

It makes sense given what the Japanese production did.

[Steve]

Yeah. And since, you know, Japan did it, why not? Yeah, I think it was a good call.

[Ed]

I was saying this in the group chat that it's Luffy, but it's not Luffy, obviously.

[Zach]

Mm. Just like Joyboy, maybe.

[Ed]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Who the hell does well, Erica's gonna have a lot more work at some point in the distant future. We don't know when maybe.

[Steve]

I don't know how we know Joy. When we finally see, like, an extended scene of Joy Boy doesn't immediately get murked or something in it. You don't know what he's supposed to do in the story.

[Zach]

I feel like it's a good.

[Steve]

Hi, I'm Joy Boy. And then all of a sudden, just, bam.

[Zach]

He's Jerry Seinfeld. He didn't want to be a pirate. Yeah, that's what happened.

[Steve]

And the straw hat just flies off into the air like the feather and Forrest Gump, and then just lands on a young gold D. Rogers head.

[Stephen Paul]

And the name of this man is Blam.

[Ed]

Or maybe it's the giant hat that ends up in the freezer. He's a giant of some kind.

[Steve]

No, no.

[Zach]

The name of this.

[Steve]

That hat's too big.

[Stephen Paul]

That's never coming back.

[Steve]

The name of the biggest straw hat you could find.

[Ken O'Connor]

No, that's too big.

[Zach]

Okay. That's part of the final batch of Egghead English dub episodes, which. 1144.

[Steve]

I mean, yeah. Now the dub is. The dub is caught up.

[Zach]

11:55. Yeah.

[Steve]

Which won't last for long because the anime's back next week.

[Zach]

A week. It lasts one to two weeks. I guess that's on Crunchyroll for those looking to watch that. There's also a slew of international dubs. Thanks to Adil for all of this news, by the way, including in Crunchyroll India, they're going to have Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu from March 30, with more coming in April. And I apologize for literally mispronouncing your language.

[Ed]

I mean, I used to work at a video store that had a significant Indian section. Owner was Indian. We had Tamil and Telugu films as well as Hindi. Hindi is more of northern India. Tamil and Telugu are southern India. India. Indian languages mostly.

[Zach]

I'm glad you didn't say Indiana. Yes, but sorry. So you could look forward to that on now. Today is March 30th. Perfect. And more coming in April. I believe they had just released their. Their dubs for the first time pretty recently. So the fact. I think they're cutting ahead, but I might be wrong on that. I'll let Adil correct me later, which I'm sure. More news. Heroines One Piece Heroines comes out on July 5th. I think it's just that one special with Nami based on the novelization thoughts on the trailer that just came out July 5th. You said July 5th. Fantastic.

[Stephen Paul]

It's more of a teaser than a trailer really. But, you know, how much can you really put in for a 20, 30 minute little thing? You can't give away too much.

[Steve]

I don't know. These days we get like the final, final trailer, the sneak preview to the teaser trailer. But that's just, you know, major motion pictures.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. The art style is really pretty. For heroines though, it's a much different look. I thought it was gonna look more like the art that Oda drew. It's like there is a resemblance. It's not quite the exact same style, but it's very pretty. Whatever. They decide to go with a happy medium between an original style and Oda's art.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm very much looking forward to it. It looks very different in all the best ways from every other piece of One Piece content. And I have not yet read it. I'm sorry, Steven.

[Ken O'Connor]

I was about to ask if you

[Zach]

had read it or not, but maybe I shouldn't.

[Ken O'Connor]

Is it on your desk?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Well, now it will be a story.

[Zach]

I don't think I have that one actually. That might be like one of the few pieces of One Piece I don't own, but I might be wrong. Now it's time to talk about everyone's favorite topic before we get into the manga. The WT100, the world top 100, the second round of that. And the big news this week making us all look like the fools last week is that the Weekly Shonen. That Weekly Shonen Jump published from their editorial department a statement that said in part, we have unfortunately discovered that fraudulent voting occurred during a specific period of time in the currently ongoing second global One Piece character popularity. Accordingly, to maintain the fairness of the event that does not have Bogart in it yet, we have invalidated all of the fraudulent votes and adjusted the current vote count. They dropped from 80 million to 4 million. So that tells you. Thanks to Huntress fan friend of the show. Wow, that's a pretty insane change. And amount of.

[Ken O'Connor]

You can't prove I did anything. I'm just saying that you can't pin anything on me.

[Steve]

So suspicious. So who did you waste your votes on? Ken?

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, who could have I had done it? Yamato would have been number one across every single nation.

[Zach]

And they were. He was. He wasn't. Sanji was though, so. Steve.

[Steve]

Yeah. But hey, you know, going by this week.

[Zach]

Well, we'll get into that. We'll go into that in a minute.

[Steve]

I think the best. I think the best Response I saw to this story, which is now kind of. It's too far up here in our messages. I like to quote the great Joey Wiser by saying, I wish all these people please get a life. Because that sums up it up best. I'm like, wow, you create a bunch of AI, you know, bots to go do something for you, and you waste it on a fictional character poll.

[Ed]

That sounds like a Conan line, actually.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, actually, what this reminds me of is you set up the popularity contest and then they're like, I'm shocked, shocked to find bots in here like, you know, without any protection or any sort of, you know, anti cheating methods.

[Zach]

We don't know if they had none, but I think it's a good assumption they had none.

[Stephen Paul]

I don't think they.

[Zach]

Yeah, I very highly doubt they did. 80 million.

[Ken O'Connor]

I just want. I just want to know who. Who the bottoms were going for. Because it seemed like the most popular characters were still at the top. If, like a really obscure character had breached number one.

[Zach]

Well, it might have been. It might have been for like a split second. Like, it might not have even registered. Like, they might have caught it quick. We don't know.

[Ken O'Connor]

Maybe because I saw it at like. Like, I don't think I saw it. 80 million. I saw, like it at a really high number. Like the day before they made this announcement.

[Zach]

We're at five, by the way. So even since then, there's only been 1 million. So the fact that would also raise a ton of suspicion. Like, okay, I'm gonna throw bots at it and I'm going to do like 50 times the amount of. Or whatever the amount was.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, it was not. Not slick.

[Zach]

No. Next time, can you have to be a little more.

[Steve]

You got it. You gotta. You gotta deposit the stolen money into multiple Swiss bank accounts.

[Zach]

Oh, there we go. And they.

[Ed]

It's like Office Space where they sold too much money.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Stephen Paul]

Even they got caught. Fraction of a cent.

[Zach]

Did they get caught? I forget. I want to spoil the end of Office Space. Okay, let's see where we are in the rankings in Japan. This is five through one. I'll go through them quickly. Nami Trafalgar D Waterlaw Zorro Sanji Luffy I have to say his first time.

[Steve]

You say the full name.

[Zach]

I have to say it so silly because it's such a stupid name. Asia Trafalgar D Water Law Nami Zorro Sanji Luffy hey, what's going on with Sanji? Oh, there he is. Oceania Nico Robin Nami Luffy Zoro, Sanji. North America. The continent I am currently recording from Nika. That's his claim to fame. Nico, Robin, Nami, Luffy, Zorro, Sanji. Suspicious. This is where it gets a little more interesting. Central and South America. Luffy, Rob Lucci. I think people misspelled Luffy. That's what I think happened.

[Ken O'Connor]

And then they clicked.

[Steve]

They marked it wrong on their ballot.

[Ed]

It's hanging Chad's.

[Zach]

It's only two letters. It's three letters off. But it sounds similar. And that's what. Maybe they're using voice to voice to text. Sorry. Luffy Lucci. Zorro, Sanji, Nami, Europe. Robin, Luffy, Zorro, Sanji, Nami. Nami's doing very well, I think. I don't believe all these Middle East.

[Ed]

All the. All these continents where Sanji beats is beating Zoro.

[Zach]

Here's the Middle East. Luffy, Lucci again. Zoro, Sanji, Nami. And last but not least. What is going on? It's like all the Roxes got replaced by Luchi this time because we got Luchi, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Nami in Africa. So.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, yes. Rocks Luchi.

[Golfer]

I'm curious how much it's weighted by,

[Ed]

like, maybe rocks with all the bot votes.

[Zach]

That's what I'm thinking.

[Golfer]

Anime recency, too, with having Lucci right at the end of the egghead.

[Steve]

I suppose

[Golfer]

I can't figure right. Leopards are cool.

[Ken O'Connor]

I wish they would show like a top ten. I feel like the top five is so limited because it's the same, like five characters in different order just shuffled around.

[Zach]

If you showed them, then what would the suspense be for? Who else is in it, you know, at that point?

[Ken O'Connor]

Well, yeah, but like last year, it was like the top 10 were like the big, like, promoted ones, and the top 20 made the color spread. And then the top 100 was that full magazine page. So like, all right, don't give us all the numbers, but let's see the top 10. Maybe. I don't know. I'm just complaining at this point.

[Zach]

Yeah, well, hopefully. Hopefully those bots come through for you, Ken. Reminder that voting open is open through June 11th at midnight Japan time. And I believe you could vote once per day out of 1567 characters, which are not all of them. So enjoy. Now, with that out of the way, we could talk about our Rob Lucci recap. I mean, manga recap. That's what I meant.

[Ken O'Connor]

I'm legit concerned about you. This episode, I think.

[Zach]

Something to say this episode is brought to you by White Claw Surge. Nice choice hitting up this podcast.

[Steve]

No surprises.

[Zach]

You're all about diving into tastes everyone in the room can enjoy. Just like White Claw Surge. It's for celebrating those moments when connections have been made and the night's just begun. With bold flavors and 8% alcohol by volume. Unleash the night. Unleash White Claw Surge. Please drink responsibly. Hard seltzer with flavors. Eight percent alcohol by volume. White Claw Seltzer Works, Chicago, Illinois. Your little one grew three inches overnight.

[Golfer]

Adorable.

[Zach]

Also expensive. Sell their pint sized pieces on Depop and list them in minutes with no selling fees. Because somewhere a dad refuses to pay full price for the clothes his kids will outgrow tomorrow. And he's ready to buy your son's entire wardrobe right now. Consider your future growth Bird budget secured. Start selling on Depop, where taste recognizes taste. Payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details. This is the manga recap for chapter 1178. See, I say numbers like that. I know I said that joke off air before, but I do. You can read this chapter@shonenjump, viz.com or MangaPlus Shueisha Co JP it's available legally, worldwide and for free as soon as it comes out in Japan. And this chapter, if I didn't say, is called Waking from a Nightmare. And what is the nightmare happening on the COVID ad?

[Steve]

Wake me up.

[Ed]

Yes, this is a reader request for Kid being chased by a bull charging at his cape by Anna Akoinot. Is that some sort of wordplay? Steven, do you know?

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, if you read it backwards, it is Tanioka Anna, which would presumably be the reader's name.

[Steve]

So Steven had to hold that in front of a mirror.

[Ed]

Dramatic music that's imposing Japanese name order on a Western name. It sounds like.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, yeah, well, I'm not that you can spell that in Japanese, but yeah.

[Steve]

He's doing the Nika pose. He's doing the Nika pose.

[Zach]

I didn't even notice that.

[Ed]

My thought upon seeing this cover was that this could have all been avoided if Kid had listened to Ed Demode. No capes.

[Steve]

I thought Kid was like, damn, why did I go to the running of

[Zach]

the bulls in Spain with my big giant red cape? Which I believe is a red cape, Right?

[Stephen Paul]

Everybody's red cape cape.

[Steve]

Saying like, hey, there's that use. There's that useless Captain Kid guy.

[Ed]

What Useless Captain Mid.

[Stephen Paul]

Sorry.

[Steve]

You could tell I'm not on the Internet that much.

[Zach]

What are you talking about? That joke is six years old.

[Ken O'Connor]

You see. After Shanks killed him.

[Steve]

Anime watchers saw that a year ago.

[Zach]

I thought that joke first happened in Wano, but I maybe.

[Steve]

I don't know. That's not my mid.

[Zach]

Feels very early of this. The early decade or late last decade?

[Ed]

Early 20s.

[Stephen Paul]

That was like mid 2010s.

[Ken O'Connor]

Mid was mid 2000.

[Zach]

Oh, no. That doesn't sound right.

[Stephen Paul]

Because the first person I heard saying it was Urian Brown on the Shonen Jump podcast. How old is that now? Now that has not been around.

[Steve]

And he's old.

[Ed]

He's a character.

[Zach]

He is. Yes. I think he'd be the first to say.

[Steve]

I think this is a very beautifully rendered cover page. It feels like there was a good amount of time put into this, but also, it just reminds me how overly complicated Kid's design is.

[Stephen Paul]

Indeed.

[Ed]

I like the bull's face. You can tell that the way he. The way his eyes are, that he would have very angry eyebrows if he had eyebrows at bull.

[Zach]

Oh, I thought you were talking about Kid.

[Ed]

Now, the way his.

[Zach]

Like, he's got his eyebrows either, right?

[Ed]

Yeah, he's getting.

[Ken O'Connor]

He's.

[Ed]

He's gonna get that cape.

[Steve]

And this was probably chosen because this is his animal, if I'm not mistaken. Or is that Frankie?

[Zach]

Or they.

[Stephen Paul]

Or is it both? Now if. Now if the bull's owners slapped some Nori paste on its eyebrows like you do with a little dog, like fully cooling. Yes. Yeah. Then. Then it would be really funny.

[Zach]

Oh, God, that would be really funny. Well, get on it. Oda. Any. Any other thoughts on the COVID page? Are you sure?

[Ken O'Connor]

Not really.

[Zach]

Are you sure?

[Ed]

At least they didn't. At least they didn't give the bull, like, sharp teeth with consummate V's. That's angry gritted teeth.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, my God. My mind is. Is not that bad. I would never make that joke. Stephen. Ed, what's on the first page?

[Ed]

Sure. We got Luffy sort of hanging in midair. He can kind of float. Now he's Nika. So, yeah, he floats out and he's yelling back at the crew, hey, guys. And this is what Nami, Frankie. And who is that on the left there of that panel? Jim Bay and Sanji. Sanji, yeah.

[Zach]

And killing Ham's head and body separate,

[Stephen Paul]

but Jim B's just scalping him.

[Ed]

And this is not me reacting. He says. She says, what? That's Brooke and Usopp. And Luffy says, take care of them. And Frankie yells to Luffy, you want backup? And Luffy says, I'll call if I need help, but for now, you should keep your distance. Loki's gonna get pretty reckless. And Sanji's like coming from you and someone starts talking.

[Ken O'Connor]

Is this.

[Stephen Paul]

This is Emu.

[Zach]

This is.

[Stephen Paul]

This is the emu font that we've been using, apparently.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's how I knew it was the font. Y.

[Stephen Paul]

Because it looks like it's Loki's bubble tail, but. No, it is. Yeah.

[Ed]

Loki can. It looks like Loki can talk while firing lasers, but this is Emu saying. Some years ago, a ship of giants was spotted at sea. Their captain was especially gigantic, but they shrouded themselves in deep mist, attacking only government assets whilst remaining unseen. And we saw Loki charging his laser and it starts to fire. And then he fires at Gunko and it goes boom. And Luffy is offended by this. Hey, I wanted to beat the bad guy.

[Zach]

I didn't even realize he said the bad guy. He literally talks like my 4 year old.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, well, in case you can't tell, that's because I didn't want to say him or her. Because we still don't know. Or like, if he recognizes, you know, what's going on with Gunko, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, it's a very weird situation.

[Zach]

What I did want to note though, is this. Did everyone do a LEO point that this could be Thriller Bark that they're talking about here?

[Stephen Paul]

I was thinking Deep Mist is certainly.

[Ken O'Connor]

Wait, what?

[Zach]

Okay, I knew someone.

[Steve]

Triangle.

[Zach]

Florian. Triangle.

[Ed]

Deep Mist.

[Zach]

The shadows at the end of Thriller Bark. Ken.

[Ken O'Connor]

No, I know that, but the eyes.

[Zach]

I thought you were the archivist.

[Steve]

The eyes too.

[Ken O'Connor]

I am the archivist.

[Steve]

But this is why you're whipping boy.

[Ken O'Connor]

Uh huh. All right.

[Zach]

It's golfers.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay, so you're the eyes of the underthrower Bark. The eyes of the Loki is what he's saying.

[Zach]

Okay, yeah.

[Golfer]

And then we see Moose saying at the same time as this rumors spread far and wide of a massive flying creature. And then Loki says, damn, she escaped. Too tiny. Where are you? And Moo says, and so the dots connect. Then we see Luffy dashing over saying, there you are. You'll pay for what you did to Usopping. And Brook,

[Zach]

that is a very funny paddle split.

[Steve]

Maybe. And even. Maybe the boy,

[Ed]

especially he's already a skeleton.

[Golfer]

But especially Brook, they're looking pretty rough. The. The white eyeballs on Usopp.

[Zach]

How could you tell?

[Golfer]

With Brooke?

[Zach]

He's dead.

[Steve]

No eyeballs on. On Brooke.

[Ed]

Get this man some milk.

[Golfer]

Yeah, he just needs some milk.

[Zach]

I'll just pour him. Pour milk on him.

[Ken O'Connor]

That'd Be funny if he got knocked out and regrew his eyeballs. That's how Brooke looks.

[Zach]

That's a good one. I like that.

[Golfer]

And then we see a black beam coming out of Gunko. And it stops Luffy in his tracks. And he says, huh?

[Zach]

It looks like a sludge or something.

[Ed]

And his eyes start to bug out.

[Golfer]

Yeah. Luffy's doing the. I think Oda probably really enjoys that animation in the anime where his eyes really come out like Luffy tunes. Luffy tunes Looney Tunes. And then we see the tendril of. Of Emu in front of the eyes of Loki. And then Luffy doing his spinning feet in the air. And he says. Luffy says, something popped out. And then Emu says, Luffy's doing his Sonic the Hedgehog. Yes.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Golfer]

And then Imu says, if only thou wouldst vanish off the face of the earth as rocks did.

[Steve]

And Imu also says, Wacky waving fable arm Too Ban. Wacky waving fable arm Too Ban.

[Golfer]

We see the pendants and then the spikes that almost look like Conqueror's Hockey flying out saying, diabolical covenant. In exchange for a portion of thy lifespan, I will give ye greater strength. And it stabs Luffy straight through the gut. And it gets Loki through his head. And he says, huh? And then Emu says, in return, ye shall hate one another. Dami Reverse

[Zach]

Ken.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right. Picking up from that. So both Loki and Luffy are reacting to being dummy reversied with a ba bump bump. And then immediately they just kick that shit out of there. Luffy's like, what was that for? This doesn't even hurt. And Loki responds, get off of me. And what did you say? Just say about rocks. And they easily just kick the tendrils out of their body as if nothing happened.

[Zach]

Who throws a tendril at a man? Really?

[Ken O'Connor]

Minor inconvenience. Really.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

And Emu goes on to say, as I suspected. E are both. And quickly interrupted by Luffy doing a gum gum. And it's a gum Emu.

[Stephen Paul]

I knew that would happen.

[Ed]

I think it was Jill in the. In the Discord Chat who said that. W Reverse. He doesn't under. Doesn't work on people who are too stupid to understand what a contract is.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Steve]

You have to the opposite in the real life. In the real world.

[Zach]

Yes. That is true. That's true.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. We don't quite. We don't quite know why they're completely unaffected. But I'm sure we'll talk about that later.

[Zach]

Oh.

[Steve]

It's a new form of. It's a New form of armament hockey called Plot Armor Hockey.

[Zach]

That fits Gear five, I'm gonna be honest.

[Ken O'Connor]

As Luffy is charging up his Gatling, we have Loki still in his dragon form, complaining. The target's so small, I can't fight like this. And Rattask is on his head.

[Zach]

Just. It looks like he's sliding down his back.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. He's like, this is my moment to shine. Here I am. Continuing on to the next page. We see Luffy's attack neck with a Dawn Gum Gum Don Gatling. And just making absolute Swiss cheese out of Emu. Just punching holes right, right through. Imu seems shocked, but, like, not quite, like, in pain, but their eyes are all like. Like the thing that Emu's eyes.

[Steve]

Emu has two expressions right now. It's neutral and exaggerated.

[Ken O'Connor]

It's neutral and. Aw, shit.

[Steve]

Exaggerated. Neutral, I should say.

[Ken O'Connor]

And as Imu's getting turned to cheese, we see Rag. I guess we can call this. I guess it's interchangeable, but Ragtasker turn to Ragnar form Rag.

[Zach]

Tasker. No.

[Ken O'Connor]

Rag. No.

[Ed]

And so there's a squirrel face on the broadside of the hammer.

[Ken O'Connor]

I love this panel. This panel made me smile. Like, I hope every Loki cosplayer makes their hammer so they can flip it around. So it has the normal Ragnar hammer side and then the squirrel side, the little ears on top. It's the cutest thing. And it's.

[Steve]

I saw such a good one at WonderCon over the weekend.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, you mentioned that. I wish you got a picture.

[Steve]

I should have chased after half the time. Like, me seeing cosplays. I'm like, I should get a picture. And it's me. Like, you know, if anyone on the outside looking and just sees a giant man running towards somebody.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Steve]

They might think it's a hazard. I'm gonna, like, tackle them or something.

[Zach]

You'd make a great Loki cosplay. Probably.

[Ken O'Connor]

Speaking of a giant man running at someone, Loki takes Ragnar and says, look out, Luffy. And then Luffy's like, whoa. Wait, what? And then with the hammer, Loki.

[Zach]

Well, I do love that he's a little dot there. That's very funny.

[Steve]

I should note. It's just. Whoa, wait, wait. Not the line from Disney Sword in the Stone.

[Golfer]

Whoa.

[Steve]

What? Whoa. Not that I think is what Ken was going for there.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yes.

[Ed]

But yeah, I do like that he's about to wallop him with the broad side of the hammer instead of the hammer part.

[Zach]

You know,

[Ed]

the face comes out of the broad side of the hammer.

[Zach]

I think he's Yeah, I think he's. I don't think the face is what's gonna hit him.

[Ken O'Connor]

God, that'd be hilarious if it was the face. And just every single time, the poor squirrel face getting bashed in over and over again.

[Zach]

Also, so is Rattatasker like a Pokemon who says his name when he attacks? Or is this Loki saying this?

[Stephen Paul]

No, it's Loki.

[Ken O'Connor]

I think it's Loki. Cause yeah, Ratatasker is.

[Zach]

Okay. Why would you ruin this for me?

[Stephen Paul]

He needs his Ragnar weapon now that he is a human, so. Or a giant, I should say.

[Zach]

No, I.

[Steve]

You know nothing of Pokemon's work, Zach.

[Zach]

I know, and I was waiting for you to make that very specific comment. Steve your page.

[Steve]

And crack. Loki shouts Nibelheim. As he hits. I wouldn't necessarily say. Well, I guess he does hit imu, but puts him in this giant block of ice, including, I should say Gunko is in there as well, but just creates this huge block of ice here, freezing them. And Luffy's like, whoa, that's your finisher, bro. And Swiss cheese. IMU here says, wait, I. Oh, no. This is Loki saying, wait, I haven't gotten in enough, man. Speech bubbles are a crazy thing in this manga.

[Stephen Paul]

That's Luffy.

[Zach]

That's Luffy, not Loki.

[Steve]

Wow, speech bubbles are a crazy thing in this manga.

[Ed]

I had a hard time parsing what this was because I haven't even gotten it enough again. Then he's hits. Yeah, he's. Sorry to say, I should have hit him more, but he's all withered up now from using Nika too much.

[Steve]

Poof. He hits the ground with a wood and a thud. And Loki here says, like, I don't know who that is in there, but this is the quickest solution. I was just too big before. As he collects his breath here. And we go to the fisherman village in Elbaf and they're putting out giant fires here. We see this huge bear in the foreground here. Is that.

[Ed]

Is that one of the sleep tids?

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Yeah, maybe that makes sense. But it's not drawn like a sleep tid.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, let's fire.

[Ed]

And yeah, the bear has the sharp teeth with the consummate V's.

[Steve]

And someone's like, just put out the fire. And someone says, that damn Loki got rid of the monsters, but he didn't leave us much better off. And we go to the huntsman's village. Oh, yeah, these are. Sorry, I should say, yeah, there are the sleep tests. We've got this giant skeleton guy. Maybe Once they're defeated, they just get regular line art.

[Zach]

The. Yeah, maybe the color just runs out and they just turn black and white.

[Steve]

And then this, this big guy says, so it turns out Loki didn't kill King. King Harald. Well, I feel bad for that part, but none of the rest. Look. Look what he's done to our village. Just like always. A real son of a bitch. And then we move over to Nami, who's commanding Zeus.

[Ken O'Connor]

It's like the picture of the. The guy on the bicycle. And he sticks the. The stick in the wheel like Loki

[Steve]

did do this Zeus to keep sending the rain. And he says, I'm trying. And Jinbei here does a big ocean current shoulder throw to knock out some flames. And then this is Lilith saying, there's only so much the ODC system can do. Why not gonna explain. Oh, okay.

[Ken O'Connor]

Because of plot,

[Zach]

Golfer.

[Golfer]

Then we come back to the western village and it is on fire. And you hear y. And then we have it's the. It's the giants posted up again like we had a few chapters ago with Zorro standing in front of them. And they say, is it all over? And they're huffing and puffing. It says if they flip back to white, it's a success. But if they get back up, it wasn't enough. I'm sorry, Captains. I was taken over by some wicked urge. They say, don't let it bother you. We failed to resist it too. And we see some of the giants kind of still looks like they're dommy reverseed, but they're kind of like fading away. And they're like, damned captains, how dare you. They say, hmm, still a handful of them left. And then we see a hoof coming, coming down from the bottom left. And Zorro says, hang on, I'll handle. And then we see Chopper smack. A few of them says, wait, what? Chopper? And then we see the little possession ghosts fleeing the giants and their bubbles pop. They say, huh? Chopper says, hey, Zorro. And Zorro says, what did you just do? Chopper responds, I don't know why, but all I have to do is hit him and it cures their demonic power. And Zorro says, is it because you're such a good doctor? Then we get some. Some old school Chopper being flattered, saying, what, you think so?

[Ed]

I mean, don't I want to see him like draw wavy monster Chopper again?

[Golfer]

That would be awesome.

[Ed]

Yeah, I do like how the monster Chopper is giving him the old Miss Piggy.

[Zach]

Hi.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. Yeah.

[Golfer]

And is it Dory with the ga

[Ken O'Connor]

Ba Ba Ba Ba.

[Golfer]

Or is that Brogy?

[Stephen Paul]

That's Brogi Rogue. And then he's the one in the background doing the sound effect. He's doing the gig. Yeah.

[Golfer]

And then we've got. But that must be it. Well done. And then Hyrudin says, that clears up this area. But what about elsewhere?

[Zach]

Elsewhere. No visible enemies around the Craftsman village. I do want to note we get slightly more creatively named villages this time. This is not Steven's doing. This is Oda's doing. I want to make that clear. No visible enemies around the Craftsman village. But we're dealing with fire, so we still got stuff going on here. The brewers village has no enemies, but plenty of fire. We get it. We get it. You're on fire. Okay, we get it.

[Ken O'Connor]

He's on fire.

[Zach]

We get it. Ken.

[Ed]

What is this? NBA Jam?

[Ken O'Connor]

Thank you, God.

[Zach]

I don't know why, but the guy on the right, top right, looks like it's like a waffle cousin or something. Or like distant relative.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's because of the. The animal headdress thing that he's wearing.

[Zach]

Yeah, I have waffle on the brain too recently, for that's a doppel doppelganger. Fuck. Wappleganger. Wappleganger. And you have to remember these are also all giants, including the completely normal looking woman in like any other context except the two horns. Although I guess you could say that for the rest of them. They could all be.

[Ed]

Might just be a helmet on her.

[Ken O'Connor]

That or she has ancient giant blood.

[Zach]

One or the other, there's just the fire to put out now. Get confirmation on whether the demons are alive or dead. And we get. Hey, is that the astral world above them right there that we never talk about or hear about or see

[Ken O'Connor]

the

[Ed]

top of the tree?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, who knows?

[Zach]

Thank you, Steven, for that. Anyway, we go to the owl library, which is no longer on fire like everything else seems to be. And Robin's like, saul, what's it mean? Saul responds, and the fire. He continues. The fire was definitely raging on inside of here, but I don't see a single chir book. The shelves are all empty. I don't even see Biblo the owl neither, and that's because he's in my backyard right now. But I do.

[Stephen Paul]

On your trellis?

[Zach]

It is on my trellis. No, we saw an owl, like, right before recording this. So I feel like this something I've never seen here. So that's kind of weird. This owl looks pissed in this bubble. I love it. To be fair, that is kind of Just the look that they give you. Yeah, but excellent, excellent. We're all big owl fans in this house. And Robin's like, let's hope for the best. Oh, no, I'm sorry, that's Saul. That makes more sense. And Robin's like, did he ever move all the books? That'd be wonderful. But where is the owl Biblo now? So I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been asking, where's Biblo? Because, Robin, it's in your backyard. Oh, that's true.

[Ed]

More like Bubo.

[Zach]

That also, that also explains the gigantic heap of books in my backyard. Maybe I could find the name of the ancient kingdom. Nah, I'm sure it's not in there. And we cut to Sanji, the Sanji Killingham Frankie factory. As we see Sanji say, well, I guess once we finally settle, started fighting back, it didn't really take that long. This all tied up in a neat little boat bow here. And Frankie says, it's not like we were in an all out war against the whole organization. We've never done that. Knights from the Holy Land. Or not. Or. Or not. It's only three of them. And yeah, breathe, you can kill it. I like. You have Sanji standing on Killingham's torso. Frankie is standing. He's Captain Morgan on.

[Ed]

There's a Captain Morgan pose.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, both of them.

[Zach]

Both of them are right. Yeah. Frankie standing atop Killingham's legs while holding his decapitated head, saying if anything, they were punching above their weight against. They were punching above their weight against Elbaf. Killingham's head meanwhile, is like, oh, I guess that thing got back in my mouth. Remember, disappeared briefly last time.

[Stephen Paul]

I guess Jim bae. Yeah, Jim BAE had to set him down. He was like, hey, Frankie, you want to turn? And he hands the head to Frankie so he could do his, you know, his push and throw. Yeah, I mean killing him.

[Ed]

His head, neck, and his neck hole is still dripping like blood or black goo or whatever.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, the power. Yeah, the power.

[Golfer]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, that. That's just the power. And killing Ham's head thinks, what happened to Great Emu? What did happen to Great Emu, Steven?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. We will go just before we find out. We'll see outside the western village, the, you know, the. The main town of Elbaf as we've come to know it, as a dramatic rumbling as we slowly pan in. We zoom in on what seems to be the halves of Summer's head which are rolling around on the ground.

[Zach]

The giant handprint now Oh, I did not.

[Stephen Paul]

I did notice that.

[Zach]

So there. There. This. This also caught my attention.

[Ed]

How am I not seeing this? I don't understand.

[Ken O'Connor]

Top left.

[Zach]

So you know how you make a turkey?

[Ken O'Connor]

It's a giant handprint.

[Zach]

I'm joking.

[Stephen Paul]

You trace your hand.

[Zach]

Yeah, you. Just. Because that was. I did want to say. Yeah, so this is supposed to be Luffy. However, he did a fist. Like when he punched Summers.

[Stephen Paul]

He punched.

[Ken O'Connor]

It was Loki, wasn't it? I thought. No, punched him and then Loki.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, Loki squished him. But this looks like a humanoid hand. This doesn't look like a claw.

[Zach]

It is actually four fingers. That's what I was also about to say.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, maybe because. Because the. The one on the. Like the.

[Ken O'Connor]

The.

[Golfer]

The.

[Stephen Paul]

The ring and the pinky could be together. It's. It's kind of a narrow panel. Like, you can't really see all the way on the left side if it's. If it splits into two more fingers on the. Off the. The side. But anyway.

[Zach]

Not a plausible deniability there. Anyway. Steven, please.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. So this is where he gets mushed. And apparently it split his head into. Is very reminiscent of Kinemon in Punk Hazard, when they had to put his head back together. And there's also a rather stylized. What appears to be a heart, presumably animated through some wicked force of some kind, perhaps as Sommers is cursing like. Like Joe Pesci in Home Alone. And then he. I guess he's probably. I. If that's like the brain kind of like. Like that. He's kind of like popping it back in like a. Like an Easter egg toy or something. Like, pop. Like, enveloping it as he goes.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

As it connects all together.

[Ken O'Connor]

Brain or his heart.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, I mean, brain is in, like, in the middle of his head.

[Zach]

That's all. I mean.

[Stephen Paul]

Okay, I see.

[Ken O'Connor]

It's like the end of the Iron Giant where he summons all the pieces back together. They kind of just like roll into place.

[Zach]

And I could say I could forgive all of that. But how does his tooth come back? If someone should get fired for that?

[Ken O'Connor]

He can regenerate, so.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, but his tooth. That is what they do.

[Zach]

That's ridiculous.

[Stephen Paul]

What they do.

[Ken O'Connor]

Luffy. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Yeah, I see what you're doing.

[Stephen Paul]

And then we go to Luffy, who. Yeah, it is kind of funny. I mean, I know it's always done this, but, like, it is very noticeable. Like the whole, like. Oh, when you turn off gear five, he just immediately reverts to whatever he was wearing before, like, instantly. Because he Is, you know, completely back in the. The Elbaf gear as he melts into the ground and says Loki. And then I. I like it. You know, we're going back to the food. Like every time Luffy goes into like shriveled mode and he. And he wants food, he always says fugitive. And I like that. That's a recurring bit. And then he also puts in food in parentheses, just so you know what he means. And Loki is sitting cross legged, hovering over him. He says, you think I have food? Go to the village. Why do you look like that? And so Luffy gives up and goes to plan B, which is squirrel, foog

[Ed]

and squirrel.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, and Ratatusk is like. He's just kind of chirps at him.

[Zach]

Okay, is he asking the squirrel for food or does he think the squirrel is food? Yeah, he's asking emergency. Emergency food supply.

[Stephen Paul]

I mean, he might be thinking that, but yeah, in terms of how it comes out, it's just the same thing. And. And Emu is still locked in the block of ice over there like some kind of horrible cordyceps, you know, host and parasite thing just, you know, sticking out of Gunko and silently says nothing, but then just kind of vanishes, retreats from Elbaf and we return to sacred Marijoa. Now, a couple chapters ago, when Emu said that the. The. The Holy Land was a sea of fire, you couldn't see it. The sea of fire was just out of frame. Also laughing. But here we can actually see. It was like, okay, fine, fine, here, let me draw it for you just so you can see it. So yeah, we get a little bit of rubble.

[Zach]

So it wasn't a metaphor. It wasn't. That's a shame. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

And we return to the chamber of Flowers in Pangea Castle where we see Emo in the. The usual position in the midst of this little, little field here. And says five elders. And one of them responds over the phone, yes, great, Emu, I will be leaving the Holy Land for a time. Doom as they react with shock and confusion.

[Zach]

Shit. We have to get his vacation stuff together again. Oh, please.

[Ken O'Connor]

Water my plants,

[Zach]

take out my butterflies twice a day.

[Stephen Paul]

We have to get him through tsa. Oh no

[Zach]

shit. He's not gonna like the state of things right now. That'll do it for chapter somehow. That'll.

[Ed]

And we should be back with another chapter next week, I think.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Ed]

Seven days.

[Zach]

That concludes Waking from a Nightmare and thoughts on the chapter, Stephen.

[Stephen Paul]

An interesting chapter because there's a lot of resolution to it. I mean, especially you Know, okay, waking from a nightmare. I mean, that doesn't appear in the dialogue. So that's, that's just kind of like Oda's, you know, summary of the situation. But there's, there's a lot of questions that it still leaves behind about like, you know, you don't really get definitive answers on, on any of this. You, you get this, this weird kind of tactical retreat from Emu. Although it sounds like Emu is also perhaps just going to teleport or you know, do some kind of method of travel to maybe get back to Elbaf. It's hard to say. You know, maybe. Maybe the, the astral projection here is a, you know, a weak form of what Emu can actually do and they need to, to come in person or maybe they have some other plan. But like, you know, you'll notice that they do the, the Chopper thing again where he slaps the guys and then they just pop out. And it was a very clever use of like Oda coming up with a bit of a joke punchline for everyone to, to like sort of buy like, oh, okay, I guess that's what happened. I mean, sure, that's fine. Like they're not going to get a doctor, right? Like, and that's good enough for Zorro, but like, clearly that is not the actual reason. And I think that's a clever choice on Oda's part because we know that that's definitely not the reason. And there is more. But he's also not telling us what it is.

[Ed]

Chopper's monster form isn't a one punch kill, cuz remember what he had to do to Kumadori? He beat him repeatedly into the ground at al.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, and obviously like, it's, it's just like this, this whole thing with Chopper is, is begging you to ask the question of like, what is different about, you know, him doing this than anyone else? Like why, why is. Why is him slapping them and it's not. It's clearly it's not just like, oh, you have to hit them with your, your skin or whatever because Luffy's hitting them. You know, Luffy's punching them. He's not using a weapon. But that didn't, you know, have the same effect. So yeah, there's definitely something going on there which is. Is unexplained. I think the, the Biblo, like taking the books away was. Was probably the most predictable outcome because it always seemed like that was going to like, it never really felt like, oh no, the books are being lost. I don't know if anyone else felt that way as well.

[Ken O'Connor]

But yeah, I completely agree.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. It was never like, oh no, not that like that's. That's the worst, you know, thing that could happen. It was always like, okay, well that's

[Zach]

the worst thing that could happen if it like.

[Ed]

And that was one of their prim of.

[Stephen Paul]

Right.

[Ed]

Blackmailing them with the. They didn't get the kids either, so there's a total failure on their part.

[Stephen Paul]

Right. But. But then it's like, oh, well, but where is he? Like, they didn't be like, he didn't just swoop in and go like, haha, hey guess, guess what, we're fine. You know, save the day sort of thing. So, you know, there's a lot of like, okay, but it's not really the. The end. But even still, like, it does have the feeling of like, boy, that. That ended quickly and without nearly as much trouble as every step prior to this. So it is definitely a curious chapter for sure.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Ed]

I'm continuing to love the body horror of what's happened to the Holy Nights.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Ed]

With killing him and Summers.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. It feels. It feels like Oda is definitely like opening the door to like give us more and more hint. Like, especially with the weird, like you know, Steve said, wacky inflatable arm too. I was gonna say he looked like a tampon, like popping out. Yeah, it. It like a very, very specific kind of shape that. That he gave Emu there and. And then. And then this weird, you know, sort of heart organ that apparently is powering Summers somehow. So I feel like there's a lot more that's gonna be obvious. More obvious in retrospect, like, oh, that's what, you know, that's what that design motif was meant to suggest or something. But it does kind of feel like maybe we're getting pretty close to kind of blowing the lid off of what Emu's powers are. But who knows?

[Ed]

Maybe Luffy will get his wish. He gets to fight Emu one on one.

[Zach]

If he shows up, add thoughts.

[Ed]

And that was pretty much it. I do like the Zorro and Chopper interaction because they have a special brotherly bond. And Zora was pushing the right button on chopper, complimenting his Dr. Ring skills. But to make him overreact. But yeah, Oda, give us. Give us gag monster Chopper.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah,

[Zach]

Golfer thoughts on the chapter.

[Golfer]

Super fun. The one thing I keep thinking about is the quote from Oda where he said he has to sideline Luffy or he's going to end the conflicts too fast. And I Feel like every time he goes into old man need food mode, something's about to pop off. So it. It feels like this was like the conclusion to Elbaf. Are we about to, like, reascend into even more chaos? And then, you know, Chopper fans were up big time.

[Zach]

Steve.

[Ed]

I guess the straw hats could be like, well, the immediate threat has ended, so we can just kind of leave now. But where would they even go? There's no obvious place for them to go.

[Steve]

Steve, is Elbaf like, one of the last few islands on the Grand Line?

[Zach]

I. I don't think we know the world.

[Steve]

Yeah, yeah. Because I've had some people ask me, so what is like, Elbaf wrapping up? And I'm like, that's. No. Where'd you hear that? That's not really the reaction I had to this. I'm very indifferent on this chapter. Elbaf is the arc of blue balling. Like, we had that with Gabon with like, oh, like, you know, they're gonna chase after Gabon to get the keys. The next chapter, he's like, oh, here you go. I'm bored now. They didn't say that exactly. And this one's like, wow, Loki and Luffy are gonna fight emu. And then they just freeze emu. Or Emu's like. It's like, oh, it's like, this bird's gonna fly. You know, and then they freeze them. It kind of just. And then, I mean, I would never goofy to be, like, undone by Domi Reversi in the span of just a few chapters. This any of, like, it's not as

[Ed]

threatening as it used to be.

[Steve]

Any of the weight, any of the intimidation. Just like, all that's just been lost in just a matter of three chapters. And I just. I don't know, I went from like, wow, Elbaf can really, like, end on a dire note, where I felt like we might lose, like, Dorian Brogy and all that, like, this kind of thing. This. This is a scary thing. And. And now it's kind of just something that Luffy and Chopper can just slap

[Ed]

it out of them.

[Steve]

Yeah, I'll get to that. But just like, it doesn't affect Luffy and Loki. And now it's just like another cryptic. Oh, dot, dot, dot. It's like in. Not to mention. Let me go back from the beginning here. Sorry, getting a little ranty here. But the. What could be the explanation of, like, the eyes and the. The Florian triangle? I don't think this reveal is interesting because it's just said an expository dialogue. It is a reaction to something. I feel like it would have been much more interesting seeing it in play and like a flashback or something. I. Because like, yeah, I think Loki went out to see and it was only like shanks. I think that maybe got him back. I would like. I would much rather like. It would have been a real, like, good Leo point one where I'd really extend my arm and just, you know, hold that pose.

[Zach]

Flex.

[Steve]

Action. I just think, like, just saying like, even like. Oh, yeah, it's that thing, you know, I'm like, okay, years ago.

[Ed]

Like, how many years ago?

[Steve]

I don't know. I, I don't care about. I don't care about the semantics so much. It's just that if that is indeed the explanation for the eyes at the end of the thriller Bark, I'm kind of like, you know, I feel like that could have been revealed a little more interesting. And I think like, a problem with like this Chapter two is just a lot of fun. Things are just happening in dialogue or off screen. Like Chopper doing his cutesy dance because he gets a compliment, which is kind of off screen.

[Ed]

It's. It's in mist and we don't get to see it.

[Steve]

Show it, damn it. Yeah, exactly.

[Golfer]

Yeah, I want to see that.

[Steve]

It's like, I know where they are. They're in Elbaf. I don't need to see a freaking Family Guy establishing shot, you know? So I, I feel like I'm jumping all over the place. But just like the, the, the nerfing of this Domi Reversi thing, it's kind of like I, I, I, I could all like, the stakes and tension I felt are just like immediately gone, you know, it's just, you know, well, now we could smack people. Well, Chopper, Ken. Well, I think even before, like, it seems like Zorro, Dorian Brogy and the other Gu dudes till they weren't evil anymore.

[Zach]

This dudes till they're not evil, you know, that's.

[Steve]

Yeah, like, this is the kind of thing I like in like, say, like, and a Little Garden with Luffy and Mr. 3. But it's kind of just like, oh, why don't we just like, do the thing that wasn't working until it starts working. And I kind of was hoping there was a little bit more creative solution than that. So I just think, like, a lot of tension is gone. I don't mind the books being saved because I think that was. I think that was expertly set up with the fact that things could shrink in the library. So I think that is all well and good. It's still like, it's an ongoing story. It's hard for me to be like, this sucks and it's not going to be explained ever and get improved. But I just think a lot of tension got quickly sucked out of. Of this conflict really quick.

[Golfer]

It almost feels deliberate with how quickly it's kind of been zapped out. Like, it feels like it has all just been kind of kabushed and it's. It's so simply like dealt with at this point that I don't. That's kind of what makes me think the double back is coming with Luffy going into old man mode that, like. Oh, you think you have the answers? Like. Okay, then let me show you what

[Ken O'Connor]

our actual powers built off of.

[Ed]

Emo's sort of zipped out of Gunko. And. Yeah, the, like, the corporeal Emu is leaving Mary Joa of what their next move is going to be like.

[Steve]

Luffy also got troubled up like this on Egghead. You know, it was kind of just.

[Golfer]

Well, that's when everybody shows up.

[Zach]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Steve]

When he was like fighting Lucci.

[Golfer]

So he. He's fighting Kizaru. He hits Kizaru in the dome with the. The Star Gun and then he fades away. And then everybody shows up on the island.

[Steve]

Elders showed up.

[Zach]

Elders. Yeah.

[Steve]

Sorry. I was. I. I think I just had the Luchi fight on the brain. That's why.

[Zach]

And that was maybe because he's at the top five right. Right now. Yeah.

[Steve]

I think Emu taking a sabbatical is interesting. And I would say this last.

[Ed]

What happens to the Holy Land if they're not there? Things get even worse. It's already a sea of fire.

[Zach]

Right.

[Steve]

Who's gonna take care of the cats or the butterflies?

[Golfer]

Did you imagine a Kainu in the flower room or in the Chamber of Flowers trying to take care of it?

[Steve]

Stupid shits.

[Zach]

He does have those Bonsai.

[Steve]

I will say this last panel of Emu is like the most humanly proportional I've seen. Emu. It kind of made me think I'm like. Like, okay. And maybe they're not, you know, just some giant walking, you know.

[Ed]

Yeah. In this panel kind of makes me think that they're dressed like a nun or something. With the weird headdress.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, well, that's always been kind of a motif. Yeah.

[Steve]

Some sort of headdress. I will say. There's just something about it. Like they're not really elongated, especially like how they've been in this chapter. So, like, I'M curious if we're gonna. If this is leading to like some reveal of what Emu looks like at some point. But other than that, I just think it's just a lot of tension sucked out of Elbaf here, where I feel like everything started to steal the Simpsons reference from Zach. But, oh, everything's wrapped up in a neat little package, you know. So I kind of just. I. I like Loki and Luffy teaming up. It's fun. But I kind of just now where it's like. It kind of feels like end of punk hazard where it's like, oh, nobody died. They're. They just have like a nice vin. They have a nice white coating on them. Please remove it.

[Ed]

You know, and Luffy being annoyed that he didn't get to do the final blow or he wanted to fade. He wanted to fight the bad guy.

[Steve]

There'll be plenty of blows left for Luffy.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah,

[Zach]

I don't know.

[Steve]

I just. It. I get a lot of whiplash reading Elbaf because there's one week I'll really enjoy a chapter in the following week. It kind of just feels like a fart in church. Just didn't necessarily care about this. The Zorro bit is funny though.

[Stephen Paul]

Another odd thing about this kind of goes back to less impact than it.

[Ed]

Than it should have. Like a fart in the wind.

[Stephen Paul]

Going back to a previous chapter when. When Emu kind of does this little soliloquy about like, oh yeah, the, you know, the ship of giants was spotted at sea. And granted, you know, we're projecting as far as the. The Florian Triangle thing just because of the mention of. Of mist. And that alone I don't think confirms anything, although it certainly invites you to. To think of that. But like the whole, you know, coming after the ah, Nidhogg, there you were like, you know, the, The. The. The giant dragon creature associated with the myths of Elbaf. Ah, so you were on Elbaf, that sort of thing. And then you. This chapter, you have the, ah, there was the rumor of the ship of giants with an especially gigantic captain attacking the government. And. And they're flying creature of a massive flying creature. And so the dots connect and it really. It just reminds me of like prior to Alabasta when Vivi was like, oh, I've heard about Mr. Two. They said he's a giant weirdo who dresses like a swan and dances like a ballerina.

[Zach]

That was him.

[Stephen Paul]

It is very much like a, you know. Okay, well, you know, you didn't need hindsight to catch this One like, you should have it. It definitely is like, calls into question the see of.

[Golfer]

Of your. Your character here, Zoro, with the Lunarians for the. For the Seraphim after they've already fought them. And he's like, the skin color and the flames on their back.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

And.

[Ed]

Right.

[Steve]

And. And let's say it's not referencing the foreign triangle stuff. If this is just another freaking plot thread, I'm like, come on, Oda.

[Zach]

We.

[Steve]

We have enough. You know the stuff Jinbe said weeks ago, it's like, oh, one of the Three Terrors or whatever it was. And I'm like, dude.

[Zach]

I'm like, no, no, that was. That was referring to the summer nights killing him. And. Yeah. Oh.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, yeah.

[Steve]

Okay. Okay, Cool. Glad I. Because I think when people originally responded, I think I wasn't on that episode. So when I saw some friends talking like, is this like a new thing? And I'm like, oh, God, please no. Please no. God no. I can't handle it anymore. So, sorry, that was. That was a mouthful what I said, but I just. I was very conflicted on this.

[Zach]

So, Ken,

[Ken O'Connor]

I'm with Steve on pretty much everything he said. I thought this was kind of like a lot of the wind was taking out of the sails of the overall Elbaf story here. I didn't think the Florian Triangle thing at all. When Imu was talking about the giant ship. I took it more as like a parallel to Loki and Harold, because Harold was doing the same thing too. Harold was attacking pirate ships coming out of the mist. So it's all right. Loki left Elbaf and in that six year period where he was a pirate, he was doing the reverse of his father still being on the ship in the mist and attacking government ships because he hates the government. So I took it just as a nice parallel. I didn't. I did not think Florian Triangle for a second. But if that is the reveal, I think it's lame. But again, I didn't think that to begin with. It's interesting to see the dummy reverse you not working on Loki and Luffy. Just to go back to that page real quick, Emu says, in exchange for a portion of thy lifespan, I will give ye greater strength. In return, ye shall hate one another. So two things I just want to touch on there. Whenever one piece brings up lifespan, I'm always very like, okay, what are we? Because, like Luffy, apparently every time Luffy used his past gears before Gear five, it was eating away his lifespan. The operation with Ivankov took away his lifespan. So lifespan's constantly a thread in the background, but never really addressed upon. And people have said, oh, Luffy's gonna die young or something like that. Because he's given so much of his lifespan every time he uses his powers. I don't believe much of that. But the fact that Imu here is saying in exchange, a portion of thy lifespan. So he's actively taking lifespan from his victims. And I don't know if that adds to Emu being able to live forever. Because we the characters thought that, okay, someone did the Law's fruit immortality surgery on Emu. That's why they're still around. But what if it's also Emu is constantly taking lifespan from characters and that's why they're still around. Or it could be a combination of both, or one or the other. I don't really know. I just think the fact that he brought up taking lifespan there is interesting. And again, it's not working on Loki or Luffy. And it could be Luffy doesn't have enough lifespan left for this contract to work. Or does Loki not have enough lifespan? Like, are they both doomed to die young for some reason?

[Golfer]

D Clan members.

[Ken O'Connor]

The second part of that is Imu saying, ye shall hate one another. And I think it's just interesting to see now with all the Domi reverses we've seen that there is a basically a contract, but like an order with the power. Like with rocks. It was, okay, you're gonna hunt down every last member of the Devi clan with the giants. Sorry, you're gonna fight along our side. So every Domi Reversi character is given like an order before they're transformed as well. So just again, don't really know where I'm going with this. Just interesting food for thought about how the Domi Reversi stuff works.

[Zach]

Fugue for thought. But yes, continue.

[Golfer]

Fug for thought.

[Ken O'Connor]

What? I say fug.

[Stephen Paul]

Fug for thought.

[Zach]

You did not say that I was my. Yeah, okay.

[Ken O'Connor]

No, no, that's great. I love that.

[Zach]

Okay.

[Ed]

I knew what you were going for.

[Ken O'Connor]

What else? What else? Emu leaving. Like, I don't. To me, like, I feel like we're getting into like a new act of Elbaf where if Emu is heading back to Elbaf now, in whatever way they they travel. I almost got the feeling like, okay, I'm not powerful enough in this wacky waving inflatable arm floating tube man form. Because it's the same form that Imu took over Saturn during the God Valley flashback. It was the same stretched out look. I wonder if IMU is limited if they're not there in their physical form. So if IMU is on their way back to Elbaf and we're getting into like Elbaf round three, that could be something. Yes, but the fact that Gunko is not left behind, like, I. I can't imagine one piece turning into like an interrogation sequence. But like, hey, we have. We have Gunko. And I'm not saying Emu doesn't have control for Gunko, but if, like, hey, Imu is out of the castle, outside of range, on their own, not paying attention, can they question Gunko and get information out of her? Like, hey, listen, tell us what you know before Emu comes back. Before Emu takes you back over, give her to Robin.

[Ed]

You know, someone who can actually contextualize any information that they would've got.

[Ken O'Connor]

I would love that if Robin, like Robin and Gunko in a room alone and Robin plays the bad cop and gets the information out of her. But yeah, I just think leaving Gunko's body behind and now it's frozen and they can like, there's gonna be something more to that. And if IMU is heading towards Elbaf, I think that will be a bigger threat on the horizon. Like, golfer was saying, like, okay, Luffy's all shriveled up and old now, and if IMU instantly teleports their physical form to Elbaf and everyone's exhausted and the fire's still raging, this is the perfect time for a big final, like, confrontation. Because right now, like, it wrapped up too easily. Like everything here wrapped up so easily. I like that Loki was given a weakness. Like, okay, when Loki is too big, he can't hit a small target. That's a good way of like, making him not so all powerful. But we really don't know what's on the horizon. I. I can't imagine things wrapping up this nicely. I don't see it ending this way at all.

[Zach]

Yeah, I'll. I'll piggyback off of that. I thought this chapter was fascinating. I. I am of the opinion that this is a red herring chapter. I. Obviously we won't know that for a little while. Potentially maybe several chapters from now. But I do not buy for a second that this is. This is that like, this is. This is the end of this. Yeah, I don't. I just don't buy this. I. I don't buy this being the. The end of this arc there. For all the reasons Ken mentioned. Yes, the straw hats are not interrogators. They have killing him. The fact that Summers is still alive, like. And there is a very interesting thread that's been left, you know, on the table. The. And the. The way this fight happened between Loki and Luffy and Gunkimu is very fascinating, especially considering what we've seen so far. I. You know, if this is the end of the arc, yes, I will agree with all the points that have been said. I'm. I'm skeptical. So maybe I could list out some. Some things that I've. I've noticed that. That make me a little more skeptical. First of all, yes, we all talked about the biblo stuff and. And we haven't quite reached a resolution there. Summers, whatever the hell is happening there specifically, why is. Why is he alive still? Why are any of the. The. The. For the three demons still there? The fact that Luffy. I do agree with Golfer. The fact that Luffy and Loki, who is also huffing and puffing pretty profusely here. The fact that they're kind of down for the count. Not like completely, but they're. They're worn out. Makes me think something is very close on the horizon. The fact we have. I say this every week. The fact that we have not seen the astral world yet. It's just. And it's like very front and center on that. In the page 12 of specifically, like, dude, there's a whole other level we haven't even seen. There's no way we're not seeing that, right? I mean, there. It still completely confounds me how the king was in the middle level, presumably, like, what's going on up there? What. What are we supposed to. You introduce three levels. There's no way you don't have something

[Ken O'Connor]

in your mind hiding up there.

[Zach]

And if it. And if he never goes to that. I mean, that would really irritate the hell out of me if you can't tell. But by this point, the stuff with. I mean, even killing hams, like, what happened to Emu? Like, there's. This is. Emu is not done, obviously. Now the question is, how does he get there and quick? And we know the answer to that, potentially could be the same way the five elders got to Elbaf. I mean, sorry, egghead. Through the. The pentagram portals. I mean, that's still a possibility. I think separating Emu from Gunko is also plot. Plot wise, crucial for Oda because Gunko needs. I want to say like a redemption arc, but needs, like to have that closure with Brooke. And this gives us A moment to find that. And the fact that that is still open, that is the biggest plot thread that remains open and could still provide some really meaningful storytelling, even if we don't get a lot of those other things that I mentioned. I agree with Steve though, about the Florian Triangle thing, except the one positive spin, if I could throw it on. On There is also what Ken said is it does create a really neat parallel with his father in that Harold was helping the government by hiding in the mist. Not literally the Florian Triangle mist, but hiding in the mist and killing pirates and then Loki goes out there and he hides in the mist and he kills government people. Is like a really fun parallel. Again, show don't tell would have, I think really lifted that moment. But I, I think it is interesting and maybe we will see it down the line again, a cop out answer. But like, when all is said and done, I feel like I'll be able to have a better opinion on this specific series of events because this feels very red herring to me, this chapter, like, given oda's storytelling and even if it's not, it's definitely different. Yes, the punk Hazard stuff is annoying, but it didn't wrap up quite like this. This would be a very outside the box way for oda. Good or bad would be a very outside the box wait for ODA to wrap things up. But I am, you know, I'll go out on a limit. I'll say I'm like 90% sure that we are really just at the beginning throes of this conflict here and that. But that's, that's, that's my two cents.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah, it's possible that, that all of that, you know, sort of unresolved tension. It certainly like the unresolved like storytelling tension as far as, like. Well, you know, it wasn't that it was, it was a very quick and brief and unsatisfying sort of confrontation between the two biggest, you know, the, the two biggest sides of the, of the final thing and the fact that we don't really have any kind of, of a sort of Runway of like what happens after Elbaf. So it's possible that ODA is just kind of like using this as like, okay, we're gonna shift down, you know, back into third gear or whatever and we're gonna resolve some story stuff in Elbaf. And this is just setting up for when Emu shows up on their next, you know, destination. Like, like it's really actually going to lead us, you know, the second half of this is going to be, you know, end game type type stuff could

[Zach]

be like whatever the next sloppy water 7. Like, you know, like something like that story continues somewhere else. I could be. I. I don't know. Personally, I'm. I just buy that we're still in the middle of this. And we've had like how many of the last like half dozen chapters have ended with Emu saying something very like sinister and like Nidhogger or I'm going on my summer vacation. Like it's. It's an. This just feels like we're. There's no. I. I. Like this feels too much like the rug is going to be pulled under me. Maybe I've just. Maybe I'm cynical or the opposite of it. One or the other. But I don't know. I will say the little of the fight that we did get was a lot of fun. Specifically Ratataskar. The real MVP of this chapter. And then some. And the fact that Luffy asks him for food at the end adds a whole other like a Little Chef's kiss to that. More Ratatasker. I. I. You know, the mvp.

[Steve]

He didn't. He didn't resist. Domi Reversi.

[Zach]

I think you're missing mvp.

[Ken O'Connor]

That was. That was plan B. Yeah. You know, reverse the squirrel.

[Zach]

That's true. I'm a power scaler. And that's how I. Yes. But no. I. I love him because he's adorable and giant and funny. And his face was a hammer. His face is hammer. There's Hapo's face. One of those. Yeah. I. I don't know. I'll withhold judgment. It could either be a really shitty chapter or a very. A pretty good chapter. A misleading chapter. But I don't know. I'll hold out a hope that things go downhill. Is that like what I'm doing? It's like, oh, the. The good guys all won here. They're going to beat the government really easily.

[Stephen Paul]

So this was the cope that all the people who wanted the raid on Wano to fail. We're going through like it can't be over yet. There has to be more.

[Zach]

Oh, come on. That thing went on for a long time.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes.

[Zach]

Guys on a God.

[Golfer]

Zoro kills.

[Zach]

Kind of. Zoro kills. Steven intentionally had that. Anyway, maybe Zoro will still kill Kaido when he comes back. We want it. We want him just to come back so Zorro could kill him again. And to see also Kaido's famous dragon technique. That would be fun. That'll do it for the manga recap.

[Golfer]

Any final Thoughts just to double back on one thing. Ken said.

[Ken O'Connor]

The.

[Golfer]

The prevailing theory that I'm seeing online right now is Devil Fruits or Clan of D can't dominate reverse them, which we can't confirm. Loki is Clan of D. But we know both Luffy and Loki have Devil Fruit.

[Zach]

That's interesting.

[Golfer]

Yeah, we Rocks didn't have one. That's the big one we know of. We don't really know about all of his family back on God Valley, so we can, you know, theorize that none of them had Devil Fruits.

[Zach]

That's.

[Golfer]

None of the characters that have been dummy reversed on Elbaf have Devil Fruits. So that's. That's at least the big prevailing theory at this point is the Devil Fruits are going to play a much bigger part narratively other than, hey, look cool

[Zach]

powers D stands for.

[Steve]

I think that. That seems pretty consistent, though. I feel like. Like, Emu would have known that right away, being like, oh, crap, it doesn't work. You got special blood in you.

[Zach]

But maybe.

[Steve]

I think that's a pretty sound. I think it's a sound theory, though.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's a good theory. I. I think that is good.

[Ken O'Connor]

I don't just, like. Because, like, Emu has dealt with Joy Boy and Nika and, like, the past and whatnot. The fact that they were so, like, oh, just as I suspected, and then got cut off. Like, you've dealt with this before.

[Zach]

Did you not try? He clearly has trauma behind Joy Boy specifically. Clearly things did not go well for him, even if he came out the victor sometimes. You know, maybe Joy Boy had one over on. On. On Emu. I. I think that's a pretty good theory. I. You know, the one thing I'll say, I think Stephen mentioned, like, all the inner monologue stuff, which I 100% agree with it. Maybe Emu's dumber than we all thought. Like, let's be honest. Fascistic dictators who rule the world are often lucky, but not often the most intelligent people. So maybe we're giving IMU too much credit here.

[Ken O'Connor]

Like how they didn't realize that Blackbeard and Rocks look exactly the same.

[Stephen Paul]

This is why evil never wins, because evil is dumb.

[Zach]

I'm gonna write that down. I need a thing that. Yeah, evil can't win. Evil's stupid.

[Ken O'Connor]

One final thing. How do we feel about the Chopper situation? Because I thought, like, last week, like, he did the same thing again this week. Like, oh, something's weird with Chopper. Like, he hits the guys and the demons peel off.

[Zach]

I'm going to say I tentatively like the idea that Chopper has, like this special skill of unknown Origin. Because give my boy stuff to do. That's great. I love that.

[Golfer]

Give you stuff to do.

[Steve]

Only human.

[Golfer]

Human fruit with no subtype.

[Ken O'Connor]

We've.

[Golfer]

We've had no understanding of that the whole time.

[Zach]

Humans are boring sometimes.

[Steve]

Also, he was the first one in the everything else. Oda's like, oh, what am I gonna do now?

[Golfer]

We know he loves his retcons. We?

[Steve]

Oda loves the model. Oda?

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. I saw too many fan theories after last week that. Oh, it's actually the human. Human, like Guardian of the forest Fruit that's in the heart. Like the Harley. That Chopper. It's gonna be like another, like, Nika situation. Because the Harley, Guardian of the forest.

[Zach]

What's the Ka'? Hoole? The Owls of Ga'. Hool.

[Golfer]

Guardians of Ga'. Hool. In your backyard?

[Zach]

In my backyard. It always comes back to this owl. What a bizarre series of events. I'm, like, shocked still, that.

[Steve]

That gigantic assassination. So I guess it's like the owl.

[Ed]

No.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Luffy's in your backyard right now. And guess what? He looks exactly like the Fishman island screencap that everyone uses for Luffy. He's just standing there, you know, rigid.

[Zach]

Well, I wake from a nightmare here. Oh, my God. And that's the name of the chapter that we've now ended the recap for.

[Ken O'Connor]

Wait, this is the one thing.

[Zach]

It was too good of a segue, but I can't. Go ahead, say the thing. Say it.

[Ken O'Connor]

It's just the second world. Within the void there was breath. The Forest God tamed demons, and the sun spread the fires of war. So everyone's saying, oh, it's the human. Human fruit model Forest God. If it can tame demons.

[Steve]

Who said this?

[Ken O'Connor]

People on Twitter.

[Steve]

And the thing you just read.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, that was the horror. That's from the mural.

[Steve]

Ah, it says the second episode.

[Zach]

The one we spent two full episodes talking.

[Steve]

Right.

[Ken O'Connor]

The Forest God tamed demons, and the sun spread the fires of war, which is what's happening right now. Choppers taming demons. And technically, the fires are spreading on Elbaf. So does that mean anything? I don't think it does.

[Golfer]

Are we in the second world?

[Steve]

You know, I could say it's stupid, but I think my own reasoning is just like. I don't know. I think it's stupid, but.

[Ken O'Connor]

Exactly. That's all.

[Steve]

Anything's on the board these days. I was just gonna say we need an edit of, like. The best thing to sum up, Zach, these days is the Tetsuo meme from the old Akira dub where he says leave me alone. And every time it flashes. It's just that. Luffy. Maybe we get the Now I'm Monkey D. Luffy. I'm going to be King of the Pirates every time.

[Zach]

Steve, why are you telling people the worst thing I could possibly look at? That screen cap is awful, right?

[Steve]

Oh, it's terrible. It's hack. I. It's such like a dopey looking Luffy. It's like, you know, like the Sanji I have framed where he has his arms crossed from like towards the end of Island. It's like. Yeah, it is funny. It'd be like if that's like Sanji's like main picture on everything now is just.

[Zach]

Well, you heard. You heard him make that the main picture Wiki. I would love it.

[Steve]

Honestly.

[Zach]

That is. It's a really funny Sanji picture like that. That's great. Make a good Luffy picture. The main Luffy picture. Everyone. That's all I'm asking.

[Stephen Paul]

Shueisha should come out of my backyard. Shueisha should. Should come out with an announcement like. We've determined that 80 million bots were spreading this image of Luffy. We're removing it from the Internet and it just disappears from all.

[Steve]

I don't like that drawing Oda did of Luffy that they're using. You know, he looks like Raggedy Andy.

[Zach]

Get that shit off of the screen. We are going to the next segment. That's it. We're done with the manga. Recap. Ken. Okay. Was I actually mad? Yes. Was I actually that mad also? Yes.

[Golfer]

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[Stephen Paul]

Work.

[Golfer]

Learn [e-mail] M365 copilot Zootopia 2 has

[Zach]

come home to Disney Plus.

[Steve]

Let's go get ready for a new case.

[Ken O'Connor]

We're the greatest partners of all time. New friends Gary the Snake and your last name.

[Zach]

The Snake Dream Team. New habitats Zootopia has a secret reptile population.

[Steve]

You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home. Zootopia 2, now available on Disney Plus. Rated PG right now. Can get Disney plus and Hulu for

[Zach]

just $4.99 a month for three months

[Steve]

with a special limited time offer ends March 24, after three months, plan auto renews at $12.99 a month. Terms apply.

[Zach]

This is the Piece Together segment where we take your questions, comments, theories. Let's use it for food for thought. Let's hear about your evil tampons on our first segment.

[Steve]

Jesus Christ.

[Zach]

Is there something wrong with an evil tampon? Steve. Ken, what's our first segment here?

[Ken O'Connor]

Dis. Peace. All right, first up, we have Big Mike. Aopp. Netflix just increased its subscription price. Does this mean they are going to have to pay Emily Rudd 100,000 berries per viewer? Because they are going to show Nami's happiness punch from the front in season three? I hope so. Oh, Big Mike.

[Steve]

Oh, Big Mike.

[Zach]

Why Big Mike? See?

[Steve]

Twice Real people.

[Zach]

Big Mike, you had this shtick going last week, but then you had a really good question. This time it's just telling us bad news and then the shtick. So I.

[Steve]

Bad news.

[Zach]

Sorry. What's next, Ken?

[Ken O'Connor]

Next up, we have Reversy Headback. Opp. I came to you with my heart in my head.

[Zach]

Wait, what's weird? Mine is Resque Weir Heimpatch.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, maybe it's not updated on my Discord. One second. Oh, it just updated, all right. Sorry.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's. Come on. We gotta get the reverse eye patches.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay, I'll make sure I get my apologies. Rescuir Heim Patch. Opp. I came to you with my heart in my head to ask why Gunko had to be fridged like that. Wait, I'm saying now that being Fridge doesn't mean you are frozen like you would be if you were stuck in the freezer. Good, because she isn't even wearing pants. My real question why is why can Luffy and Loki resist the eye patchy reversi when Rox couldn't? Is it because this is the Covenant type of emu bullshit? Because they were both Zoans and Zoans can slap the demon out of people. Do they have the mysterious will of El which Rox failed to get because nobody translated his name into delicious smoked locks?

[Steve]

No. Luffy's power level is just bigger.

[Zach]

You're such a power scaler this week, Steve.

[Steve]

I know. I'm such a bitch.

[Zach]

That's how people should call each other. Power scalers.

[Ken O'Connor]

We talked about this a little bit in the main show. It's still not clear why the dummy reversity didn't work. It is interesting though that again, Chopper has a human human fruit. And Luffy has a human human fruit too. But we know that Loki's isn't A human human fruit.

[Zach]

I imagine Luffy's is human human fruit model.

[Golfer]

Human human fruit model.

[Zach]

Nika, by the way, worst name for a fruit. Human human fruit. Like, come on. What are you doing?

[Ken O'Connor]

Any thoughts on this? Anyone?

[Zach]

I. I like the devil fruit theory. Was that you golfer?

[Golfer]

Yeah. That's just kind of the prevailing theory. And then the one thing I know this isn't like 100% address the question is the name Reverse. He is in there. And the way that game works is the more pieces you have, the easier it is to flip the other pieces because you can surround them much easier. I don't know how 100% it works in, but I keep thinking back on the game because they made such a point to show it in wano and how that all works out for them.

[Zach]

And so let's go. But.

[Golfer]

Yeah, go. That's right. But like that's. That's kind of what I keep coming back to is that like, did this get easier because Emu didn't actually have the numbers? Like the. The Holy nights were fucking around. Their whole thing was just like being sadistic about this and they didn't quite actually take the whole thing seriously. And then they didn't have the numbers they needed when Emu showed up to actually have a force to go up against people that could flip it on them. Like, do they get stronger the more dummy reverse he'd. People are around like thinking back on like rocks. And all the people that were dummy reverse he done God Valley. Like I feel like the more I think about dummy reverse and the like possibilities coming from the game, the more it kind of like I feel like I keep like expanding into it. It's like, maybe that's why it's so easy for Chopper is he can just smack somebody. Maybe if it was an army of them, it wouldn't be so simple.

[Zach]

Maybe Chopper just knows how to cheat at the game. He's just like smash pieces off the table.

[Golfer]

Kind of hits the table.

[Zach]

I'm a reindeer. I don't need to do this. I. Yes, I. I think it is a good point. I like. Of the other dangling threads. The fact that we kind of were introduced to reverse the and actually specifically referenced Dory I think says you just have to turn the pieces back white again. Like because they showed the black and white pieces in reverse. And that's basically what I guess Chopper and the others were doing. So I. I think. I think so maybe I. Let me take a step back because the other thing is they kind of know that if they get Surrounded. That's what flips the one in the middle. And they kind of work around that. I feel like. I don't know, I feel like we're still missing something with either the metaphor or the actual implementation of this power. I do agree that, you know, they weren't going into that. They were going into this thinking, okay, we have pacified giants. Let's just take three guys who are really conniving and think of something really way too obtuse for the situation, and they'll solve this and get these kids that we could kidnap, and then we could use the whole nation against them, blah, blah, blah, blah. Their plan was working pretty well until they had any sort of force against them, supposedly, which isn't an unreasonable assumption. But I. I wonder at this point, how much does Emu care about this plan coming to fruition? How much is he willing to commit personally or in blood and soil or whatever the phrase is? I don't know, Ken.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, next up, we have Enzel. Hey, Opp, Just want to say, hope there's no theory crafting what Chopper is doing to the Domi giants, because Zoro clearly explained why he's able to easily flip them. Do we think this arc is actually wrapping up already or. There's more, seeing as we've yet to see the third area of ELBAF. Finally. Did you see the WT100 changed differently from last week? Looks like bots were being used to update the numbers for Sanji and many others, but it looks like they've been deleted. They've deleted a ton of votes now. Yeah, we Talked about the WT100 at the top of the show, but, Ken, this.

[Zach]

You know, come to think of it, the when will Elbaf end? Thing that we do at the beginning of each arc. I never got one for you.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay.

[Zach]

So you could have a real. You could really test the waters here and either say it's going to be ending next week.

[Steve]

If you need time to mull it over, I can answer the first question, I guess. Yeah, more people are kind of speculating than I thought that this could end. I think there's still a bit of Elbaf left. I think there's a whole Loki thing we gotta settle. And I was really hoping we'd get a second flashback in this arc, but maybe that's not happening because I think we just need more of like a final kind of low key kind of redemption in the eyes of everyone. Elbaf. Or maybe not. Maybe he just is like, yeah, I'm leaving But like, I don't know, like, Nami, you know. Well, Nami was a different case there. I still think there's a bit left to go. Also, like, we have no idea what direction we're heading in. I feel like there's still going to be, you know, I think, you know, golfer was mentioning this, that we. We have, like, a bit more to like, set up, you know, here. Like, something big is gonna happen, and it's good to determine where Loki's ending up, where he's staying or going. But. Sorry, I thought, like, I was thinking of something else too. I just thought.

[Zach]

I don't know.

[Steve]

I. I was kind of hoping for, like, a little bit more with Loki. I kind of just hope it's not all, like, settled in the page. Like. Yeah, you're cool. I guess you're cool now.

[Golfer]

You know, we need the pain arc moment. We need the. The moment where he comes back to the village and they all accept him.

[Steve]

The stick with Naruto for that long. So that's a little lost on me, but I'll take your word for it.

[Zach]

The.

[Golfer]

The. I feel like the giant sun God in the room moment needs to happen that there. Elbaf's literal God showed up. This is the thing I've been the most excited about with Elbaf. Like, with Luffy coming from the underworld and fighting is like your literal. Like, Jesus came back. He's here right now. This guy that you have all of these myths about that you literally, like, think about so much that it's in your nightmares. He's here. Like, what? Like, I've been waiting for the moment for somebody to look at Luffy and be like, do you. Do you know what's going on right now? Or do you even care? Like, he won't care at all. But the elation of the people around him, I think is going to be what's important. Like, for the love of God, I need Kuma to say something to him. I want. I want somebody to acknowledge, like, what he has going on.

[Steve]

I don't know Kuma's going to be saying anything anytime soon.

[Golfer]

Speaking of which, I want him so bad. I want him to be a straw hat. As the chaplain, I fit it into my head that he'll. He'll become the chaplain of their ship. The most devout follower of the Sun God we've ever known.

[Steve]

I feel like Kuma's day Kuna's. Kuna. Kuma's turning sailing days are done.

[Golfer]

He's probably done.

[Steve]

He was doing that for Bonnie and Now that him and Bonnie are reunited, that dude can enjoy retirement. As far as I'm concerned.

[Golfer]

We'll let him have it. But I'm gonna head. I'm gonna. I'm gonna go on AO3 and make my own fanfic of him being so elated to see, I mean, Luffy as the sun God.

[Steve]

Start a church. You know, he could.

[Golfer]

I'd love to see it.

[Steve]

Can't take that church on the road unless he does Zoom.

[Zach]

Or if it's on a boat. A church on a boat.

[Steve]

I mean, they have Jim Bay standing in front of the door, and he's saying, cruise full.

[Golfer]

They've got the video den. Den mushy. Like, they've got zoom in their universe.

[Zach]

There was something I wanted to say to Steve's point. I'm trying to remember what the point was originally.

[Ken O'Connor]

We were talking about where we're going, like the roadmap.

[Zach]

Oh, yeah. The one thing I want to say, Steve, is like, one of the things that is generally missing from the post time skip one piece is not knowing where we go next with, like, literally two exceptions. And the fact that we don't know where we're going next is actually, I think, really exciting and potentially good. Like, is the next one Lodestar island or the end? You know, there's, I think, a like, almost 50%.

[Steve]

I was gonna bring it up. Burn scar, dude.

[Golfer]

Yeah, man. Marks by flames.

[Ken O'Connor]

Burn scar Scupper's.

[Steve]

No, it's not Burn Scar guy.

[Zach]

No, but he's.

[Golfer]

I thought it was going to be Saul personally until it wasn't.

[Zach]

No, it's a burns. The burn scar, though.

[Ken O'Connor]

The scar looks like a flame, but that's not.

[Steve]

Oh, the scar.

[Ken O'Connor]

That looks like it's the black ship that the guy makes whirlpools.

[Steve]

It doesn't line up with Gabon.

[Zach]

No, I. I mean, I agree. Being a little.

[Steve]

It's passive facetious.

[Zach]

A little bit. Is that okay, Steve? That okay?

[Steve]

No.

[Zach]

Oh, what's the next question, Ken? Oh, wait.

[Ken O'Connor]

Next one is from.

[Zach]

Wait. When do you think Elbif is going to end? This is 1178. Do you want me to tell you when everyone else.

[Ken O'Connor]

Has anyone taken 1200?

[Zach]

Yeah, and he's right. Standing. Standing.

[Ken O'Connor]

He's in the room behind me, isn't he?

[Zach]

It's golfer.

[Ken O'Connor]

Golfer took 1200.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

They won't take 1201.

[Golfer]

You know prices, right?

[Zach]

1201. Actually, it's reverse price is rating you because it's the closest without going over. So he's given himself one chapter to Win. But if that's what he wants to do, he could do it.

[Ken O'Connor]

I'm not gonna say, yeah, I'll do that.

[Zach]

But I. I said 12. 27. I was being facetious at the time.

[Ken O'Connor]

27.

[Zach]

I said that on purpose.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay.

[Zach]

Because I'm like, this is never gonna be right again.

[Ken O'Connor]

I can't tell.

[Zach]

It could be right.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. I can't tell if we're entering, like, a third, because here's the thing. I think they could. They could hang out at Elbaf for a while, because I feel.

[Zach]

Oh, you could just watch them hanging out. True. That would be fun.

[Ken O'Connor]

I feel like when they leave Elbaf, they have to leave with intention. Like.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Ken O'Connor]

They have to need to know where they're going, whatnot. I can't seem Going to.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

I can't see them going to Roadstar. And we saw that. Robin seems to know who the man at the burn scar is. So I could see Luffy. We have to talk about this guy at the end here and then head that way.

[Zach]

I don't know. There's. I still think one of the magical parts of a series, like, One Piece, is not. Not knowing what comes next, and they're kind of just sailing into the next thing. I think that that's something that has been kind of missing. Or maybe we're just past that in the series.

[Ken O'Connor]

I think we're past. Yeah, I think we're fair.

[Zach]

When we left Wano, they did not know where they were going next. Yes. They had a lot of like, okay, we could do this. This is going to be, you know, like, there was a lot of prep, but they didn't really know where they were going to end up.

[Golfer]

There's more determination around the people, around Luffy. Rather like Luffy was just like, let's go. The one other thing hanging over us in Elbaf that I feel like we have. We have no inclination as to what's going on is when was it Nolan the explorer says, don't spend too much time there?

[Zach]

No, it was the. That was the. What was the name of the person? As the scientist? The person.

[Golfer]

Oh, Thoreau or something like that?

[Zach]

No.

[Steve]

Louie something.

[Zach]

Yeah. Or no. Or no.

[Golfer]

Yeah. So don't spend too much time there.

[Zach]

What.

[Golfer]

What does that possibly mean? Because it feels like maybe like, in real world time.

[Ken O'Connor]

Are we gonna get.

[Zach]

I. I thought that was more of just like a homage to the little garden thing. Like, I don't know if it was as much. It was like, don't overstay your welcome, maybe.

[Steve]

And I feel like it's. Everyone's gonna be like, why? And then like, he's just like, you get lost. And that's it. You know, it's just that, you know, it's like, oh, does time freeze and all that? It's like, no.

[Golfer]

That's what I've been wondering. Does time move slower on Elbaf than it does the rest of the world?

[Zach]

That is a good question. However. Yeah, Gabon, I think, has been staying there most of his. His life. And I don't. I. I don't think a bond would

[Steve]

be dead by now. No, wait. No, it's slower. Sorry.

[Ken O'Connor]

Honestly, young looking, like he was back on Roger's crew. There's something going on here.

[Steve]

But, yeah, you know what?

[Zach]

I think I wouldn't. I think I would enjoy that more. That would be fun.

[Steve]

However, but we all know that women only women are allowed to age gracefully and not get any wrinkles or white hair.

[Zach]

Except for Dr. Correa and Rockin it. But, yes, she still gets both of those. But I was gonna say Dorian Brokey, though, did fight for 100 actual years on little garden. So you know that part also. I won't stop saying it. Colin is 20 years old and has been living 20 years. Why is he still 8?

[Ken O'Connor]

But divide that by 3.

[Zach]

No, I'm not dividing it by 3. He still lived 20 years.

[Steve]

God. Do you, like, grill your dog about this, Zach?

[Zach]

Every day. What do you mean?

[Steve]

You're like 99 years old in dog years. What's a dog year?

[Zach]

Constantly. Lucy, get in here now. I need to grill you a better leech.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, should we move on?

[Zach]

I know she's not under me because it doesn't stink like farts. Yes, please.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right. JP says hi. Opp. Folks, I have one question. Where is imu headed off to? Wrong answers only.

[Zach]

I think we answered this question pretty far. It's spring break.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, rum springer.

[Zach]

It's 1700th.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, next question. Sue Lehman from block d. Hello, my fellow squirrels. Like squirrels.

[Zach]

Squirrels.

[Ken O'Connor]

It was mentioned a while ago that merry jersey was engulfed in flames, but we have cut back to it since then for a second time, and it seems fine. Hmm. What if this was an exaggeration? What if. What if was just a part of the castle that emu destroyed in order to renovate it for some large and tacky ballroom. I totally think it's likely anymu as imu heads off to some place, possibly to happyland in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane. What renovations would you do to the castle to really irritate the black blob. A whole room full of Nika posters. A room without any butterflies. Thanks and have a great week.

[Zach]

What's the opposite of a room with butterflies?

[Ken O'Connor]

I don't know.

[Zach]

A room without butterfly?

[Ken O'Connor]

A room of caterpillars? I don't know.

[Zach]

It's not really the opposite. That's just the.

[Ken O'Connor]

What's the opposite of a butterfly? Dragonfly.

[Zach]

No, it would have to be something that doesn't fly. Anyway, what's the question?

[Ken O'Connor]

What would we do to renovate the Pangea castle to make Imu hate it more?

[Zach]

Oh, I do like the room full of Nikopos. But you know what? He clearly was like cutting knives into. Oh, who was it in our discord was saying that instead of Domi reversing people, he should just be trying to ship everyone like the dollys, like trying to catch.

[Ken O'Connor]

That was. That was between me, Jill, and David Bednar. We were talking about that.

[Zach]

I do like the idea of him just being this, like. I like the ultimate villain in one piece. Just being someone who ships everyone and is very angry that his ships or her ships are not going the way that they want it to go. Yeah, I actually think that is a very funny, potentially wrong answer.

[Ken O'Connor]

I would take the straw hat out to defrost. He'd come home, he'd be very upset about it.

[Zach]

Yeah, he went down to look at the straw hat. There must have been a reason that they went down to do that.

[Steve]

And Joy boy left him a giant straw hat thong in the sink.

[Zach]

That does not sound like a made of straw.

[Steve]

Must have been a. Must have been a messy divorce for Emu.

[Zach]

Oh, here's the question. What? So we've talked about Emu and not. What's Vivi's ancestors name again? Nefertari? Lily. We thought they were potentially an item or something. But wouldn't it be funnier if Joy Boy and Emu were an item and had a really messy breakup? That's possible.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. Anything's possible.

[Zach]

Or is this the COVID talking again?

[Ken O'Connor]

It's the COVID talking, but anything's possible.

[Zach]

Oh, okay, okay, okay. What's next, Ken?

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, next up, we have Cram doesn't have a pun name. Ahoy. Opp. Banger chapter as always. Or should I say baffling chapter as always, because what the hell was going on? At any point, Elbaf is getting strange. Where is this all going? Where's Biblo? How's Chopper? Such a good doctor. It's all so interesting. My question this week is how can Usopp still win? Godsweep? Have a great week.

[Zach]

I. The one thing either lending to the credence that it was a red herring or lending to the credent. You could look at it either way or that it's actually over, is that Usopp did get a big moment last. Is that last week? So to answer your question, I don't know.

[Ken O'Connor]

It was a very good speech. But I'm personally hoping Usopp does more.

[Zach]

I think. Yeah, there's a lot more. And the, the we talk about like the 10 ton or 100 ton hammer thing, there's like a lot. There's a lot that still remains on the table. Yeah, I still think we're in red herring territory here, but I agree.

[Ken O'Connor]

I think there's gonna be a lot more.

[Zach]

Golfer, you seem to have checked the online comments. More like, what is the consensus here? Do more people think that this is the end, like work? I feel like we're in a bubble a little bit. But like do or to more people think this is the end or do more people think that this is just a swerve for.

[Golfer]

On like specifically for usop or just like the chapter as a whole?

[Zach]

This. Yeah, Elbaf.

[Golfer]

At least as far as I've seen. There's. There's things I can't like. So there's people who spoil this stuff early by putting cryptic images online. So I'm actually. I'll probably have to actually refrain from commenting on this because some of the folks that like I'm pretty tight with on TikTok report on this stuff and then it gets put into my comments. So I kind. I think I might know a smidge too much that I don't want to say anything.

[Zach]

I wonder. The next chapter can't be out yet.

[Ken O'Connor]

It's too early. If the official one came out today.

[Zach]

Yeah, don't do this to us, Internet.

[Golfer]

As far as I understand, when those. When the next volume of Shonen Jump hits seven elevens in non Japan countries, the leakers either get them today or tomorrow. And by like their time, it would already be Monday.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh geez.

[Golfer]

So they're getting those on Mondays we usually get short. It's so bad I won't talk about one piece for four weeks trying to get people to stop doing it. But I get messages and stuff like that. So I think I know one thing a little too much.

[Zach]

Oh, okay. Well, I won't think about what that thing might be. Ken. Next question then.

[Ken O'Connor]

Next up we got Straw Hat Rigby. Hey. Opposite Elbaf is starting to feel sort of a lot like. And not in a way usually not in a way unusually enjoy out of one piece. Anyway, a while back I had a bit of a theory. I posted on Twitter about four weeks ago. So I'll post it here to see what you think. Since this chapter seems to get along with it. Loki has a special bounty. We know this because of the Odabox when we first meet him. We know he left Elbaf after the Harald incident to rage against the Gov for an undisclosed time. So let's say he dragons out somewhere and through a game of telephone through the Marines he gets the five elders that an obsidian dragon terrorized some island. Presume IMU already knows Loki ate the fruit due to possessing Harold at the time of his death. And the elders then order the special bounty on him. Cause they know at this point he's off to Elbaf. He's off Elbaf. Then let's say Shanks gets wind of the special bounty on Loki. He knows the Gov had a specific interest in him. Nidhoggar due to his time in Maryjoa. That's why Shanks finds him and drags him back to Elbaf. But the world government IMU doesn't explicitly know this. A case of hiding in plain sight. You will with that Emu. Says here. Says here about Loki. I'm thinking this is a pretty likely scenario. Despite how messy Elbaf seems to be right now. I trust that it'll all tie together pretty nicely. Have a great week.

[Zach]

Yeah. I keep looking back to that government bounty. The special government bounty of 2.6 billion. What is. That's. That's close to Luffy's. Right? Luffy's 3 billion right now. Right? Or did it go up? I'm trying to remember.

[Golfer]

It's probably gone up since Egghead. But we have not seen it.

[Zach]

Okay. Yeah. I couldn't remember if there was another bounty.

[Ken O'Connor]

No. Last time Luffy Bounty Rush.

[Zach]

So to speak.

[Ken O'Connor]

Luffy's Last bounty was 3 million I think.

[Zach]

Billion.

[Ken O'Connor]

3 billion. Yeah.

[Zach]

With the B.

[Ken O'Connor]

I like that theory. I've been thinking for a while that because we know Shanks became an emperor because of him bringing Loki like to like chain him up kind of thing. That's what got him.

[Zach]

Did we. We know that for a fact that that was the.

[Ken O'Connor]

I think so. Let me just double check.

[Zach]

That was an inference.

[Ken O'Connor]

But I could be inferring then.

[Zach]

But because we also his connections to the. You know. Celestial Dragons and you know that could make him more wanted if he is, you know, undermining them. It's so un. I don't know. Shanks's whole shtick has been very difficult to surmise, like, exactly what's happening.

[Ken O'Connor]

Well, we know Loki was out to sea for about six years, and Shanks was the one that brought him home and tied him up. That's. That's all we know. We know in that time period, that's when Shanks became an emperor as well. So it was inferred that him taking Loki in was the thing that pushed him over the edge into emperor territory.

[Zach]

Hey.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

I guess I wouldn't line up with end of thriller bark, but I guess that doesn't line up with the thriller bark ending. If.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, if the Florian triangle. Yeah. No, that wouldn't make sense.

[Steve]

If Shanks if returning. If Shanks returning Loki is what gave him emperor status.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Zach]

When did that happen? Three years ago?

[Ken O'Connor]

No, six years ago. Loki was chained up.

[Zach]

Oh, you know what? Yeah. H. Okay, there we go.

[Ken O'Connor]

We saved the Florian Triangle.

[Zach]

Maybe we saved the Floria Triangle for another day. The mystery remains.

[Ken O'Connor]

I'm still convinced that it was Zunesha.

[Zach]

And I'm convinced. And I can't even think of a stupid answer for that. Anyway, go ahead.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, next. Next up we have Sheepman Audio. Pp. Do ya'll think that Chopper having a human Human fruit may have something to do with him easily being able to flip those who've been domi reverseed? Additionally, Surely we're gonna get a full IMU reveal now. Now that IMU is heading directly to Elbaf instead of being there via proxy, I'm anticipating the conflict ahead since I can't see IMU just being defeated outright at this time. So will this arc end with them escaping? Gotta love Run piece.

[Zach]

That's Steven's favorite. I did forget to ask Steven that Emu actually uses the first person like pronoun I at the end, which is interesting. And I do agree with this person's theory that I. I think part of the reason the Gunko Emu got defeated so quick is because that the ODA wants to reveal who Emu is to Luffy's face and probably because of the Vivi connection. Also, knowing that Vivi is en route adds another interesting wrinkle to that. I. I. Like. I don't know. That's. I. I definitely think that narratively can fit in very well. I just don't know how or when or why or where.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, agreed. I. I think we're being. We're gonna be on Elbaf longer than we were assuming, so.

[Zach]

Well, at least until chapter 1201.

[Ken O'Connor]

Chapter 1201. All right, next up, we got Whiz. It's either Wispy or Whiz pie. Hey, who? Hey, hey, who? Slop with the return of Eustace Kidd on the COVID illustration this week. That reminds me, do you think we'll see him pop up in the new. In this arc at all? We learned Roto's. We learned Roto's Raven was scooping up people in the nearby waters of Elbaf. So I felt like it was a missed opportunity to not have the Magna Power Guy get stuck in the prison of plastic bricks at the start of the arc. Who knows? Maybe he's hanging out with the. With a rouge up in the Astral realm.

[Steve]

I would like to see him in Lego jail. Like the Brickster.

[Zach]

Yeah. This whole time, like, would. It would be. Agreed. It would also be great just to see Kid in jail at the beginning of every arc.

[Steve]

I. I like. It could still be an option. I think if you introduce kids so early into this arc, it would just be like, yeah, it's like, well, it's like, where's Kid? Where's Kid? I think it's kind of. It works great because it's like, oh, if it's all plastic and yeah, my kid is, like, useless. There is actually, like, it's very creative. But that would be the second time we've seen Kid in a. In a jail cell in this series. So it might just be.

[Zach]

I think it's funny to do that.

[Golfer]

It'd have to be a come of running bit at that point.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

I kept waiting for when we first met Loki. We had. He had all those followers with the gas masks on in the forest. Like, all the humans who live down in, like, that area. If he got shipwrecked on Elbaf, he would be down in the underworld area. I kept waiting for, like, oh, these are all the Kid pirates wearing the masks like they live. I don't know.

[Zach]

Can you.

[Steve]

But can you honestly see Kid doing that?

[Ken O'Connor]

No, I can't. But when you lost everything, who knows?

[Steve]

I forgot about those guys. I wonder if they're gonna go the ways of, like, Knights of Ren where they don't get mentioned again. Oh, wait, those guys. Oh, yeah. Let's kill them.

[Ken O'Connor]

I don't see them coming back at this point. All right. And our. Our last one from Sailor Karna. Hey, Opp. Today's chapter had me thinking Since Chopper was in the Western Village slapping the demons out of people, how are the other straw Hats going to take care of Brook and Usopp? I mean, with Usopp, they could just make him make some temporary bandages. But Brook, there's no milk around. Did they just wrap him up till Chopper is done?

[Zach]

How do you know there's no milk around? There was a school, and there's plenty of malk.

[Steve]

Who are the giant doctors that we know of?

[Zach]

That's the Simpsons, right?

[Ken O'Connor]

Gerd is Gerd. Yeah, Gerd's the doctor.

[Steve]

Gerd's a doctor.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, yeah. She's on the Patch of Loki.

[Steve]

You know, like the kiss. The, you know, kiss your boo boo. Make it feel better. Yeah, just one from her and it's like. That's like a Senzu bean.

[Golfer]

Somebody finally shows Brook panties and he just springs right back up.

[Zach]

Gunko's been there the whole time without pants. That would.

[Steve]

Yeah, yeah. He finally gets what he wants and he's just like, yo, ho ho. I remember you.

[Zach]

You were evil.

[Steve]

I won't ask you of that because that's a weird violation, you know. Too much heat on the Brookst. Yeah, throw him in jail with the Brickster.

[Ken O'Connor]

The Brookster. The Brickster.

[Zach]

The Brickster and the Brickster.

[Ken O'Connor]

Attorney's at law.

[Steve]

Do this one for me. The Brookster.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's great.

[Zach]

Wow, that'll do it. For peace, together. Actually, should I do some. I should probably do a couple Reddit at least, because we have not. I feel like I have not been.

[Steve]

No, it's when I'm hungry.

[Zach]

Okay, okay, okay. We'll do Reddit next time.

[Steve]

Sorry, sorry, Reddit. Sorry. Emails.

[Zach]

Yeah, I'm hungry too. Even though I ate dinner, but I'm always hungry. That's round off on the other side of this commercial break. Or if you're on Patreon, we'll see you in a second. Not sure how to tackle your taxes.

[Steve]

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[Steve]

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[Steve]

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[Zach]

This has been episode 912 of the One Piece podcast for March 30, 2026. We got you in at the beginning and the end of March, Ken. So when can we look forward to seeing you again on the podcast?

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, what's the right way of answering this question now? Because either I'm not on the show until next March, which is this March. Well, technically, this is what.

[Ed]

What?

[Steve]

What? What? What are you talking about? This March can't be next March. It's still March.

[Ken O'Connor]

As. As of. As of right now, this is still March. Next March is going to be 2027, but in two days, that'll be this March.

[Zach]

Incorrect.

[Ken O'Connor]

No, because the current March will be over.

[Zach]

This is the whole year. This is where this started.

[Ed]

Go for it.

[Ken O'Connor]

Go for it. I need your.

[Steve]

Don't get it.

[Zach]

You don't get it, Steve.

[Steve]

Don't get it.

[Ken O'Connor]

Once this march is over.

[Steve]

No.

[Ken O'Connor]

Then the next March is the next March.

[Steve]

No, no, that's not how it works.

[Zach]

It's not how it works. Could refer to the upcoming Wednesday, but after you pass Wednesday and you're still within the week. So like on Friday, it's still this Wednesday. Oh, that happened this Wednesday.

[Ken O'Connor]

Zach, if it's Thursday and I'm saying you and me are getting lunch this Wednesday, why would. Does that mean the day before?

[Zach]

No, I would say next Wednesday or on Wednesday. I would say without a this or a next. That's different. But once. Oh, call for this. Been going on for three years, this conversation in April, I can say this March.

[Steve]

On December 26th. Do you say last Christmas? No, because that's still last year. You got. There's leeway.

[Zach]

Yeah, you know, there. Thank you.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's your best argument yet. Honestly, I'll give you that one.

[Steve]

That's. Yeah. See how effortless? Effortless it was? I didn't even sweat.

[Ken O'Connor]

Is it? But I gave you my heart. And the very next day, you gave it away.

[Zach]

Golfer. I do want to hear golfer stuff.

[Golfer]

Is it crazy to say Christmas is more significant than March? So you refer to it differently? I just want to throw a wrench in this more than anything.

[Steve]

Depending on your religion, do this.

[Zach]

Well, no, for me, March is definitely more significant than Christmas. March, a month of some significance, I suppose, but. Yeah. Yeah. Steve, I almost forgot.

[Steve]

This is why we didn't read Reddit or emails.

[Zach]

Apologies. It's like the Matt Damon at the end of Jimmy Kimmel. Steve, you're also on another podcast this week. I almost forgot. I forgot to mention at the top of the show, but yeah, that's right.

[Steve]

That's coming out. And it's very topical because it's One Piece. Our good friends at Quest of the Best, you know, Miles and Jeff and Tristan. Tristan who was not on the show because he doesn't read or watch One Piece, but we are. We talked about One Piece Movie six Baron Omats. They asked me to come on and talk about it, and I had a really good time. I know we really like that movie. I'm sure a lot of our fans do. So if that sounds interesting to you, please give it a watch or listen.

[Zach]

Yeah, we haven't done like, any of the older movies because of accessibility issues generally, but I'm looking forward to Weird Tightrope. Yeah, it is.

[Steve]

And I. And trust me, I talk about that too.

[Zach]

No, no, no, I. I trust you.

[Steve]

You know, just like the. The state of ever kind of getting some, like, proper releases for those.

[Zach]

It's bizarre how those are things still in purgatory. I don't even, really, like, get it at this point, considering the popularity. But yeah, no, Steve, I trust you. You know, when this marches and. And that's really a great litmus test for people. Steve, where else can people find you and your amazing takes on when months and days of the week are.

[Steve]

I mean, I talk about it on a monthly basis or daily. Listen to me on Proz. Plays games over on YouTube. Listen to me on 4kids flashback website, steveyerko.com, social media, mainly Instagram. Blue sky is just Stevieurko. And yeah, thank you very much for having me.

[Zach]

Golfer. Where could people find.

[Golfer]

You can find me on TikTok as golfer Garebear. We've been talking a lot about Chainsaw man and then on YouTube as the exact same name and I just put up a very long video talking about the end of Chainsaw Man. Appreciate you guys having me back on. I missed you guys so long. I missed all the fun Chopper chapters. I'm glad I didn't miss the last one.

[Zach]

The chopper chapter. That is hard to say. Ken, where can we find you?

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, me? Oh, where can you find old Ken? Where can you find the whipping boy? He doesn't know when marches.

[Zach]

Wow, Steve, I think we've broken him.

[Ken O'Connor]

You know what you did, you did.

[Zach]

Cam, we love you just a Little bit. What is it? It says on golfer shirt again. You matter.

[Golfer]

Matter. You matter.

[Ken O'Connor]

I do matter. Thank you, Zach. I'm Ken O' Connor aka Kanking01. You can find me at Kanking01 on Blue Sky, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, you name it, I'm on it. You can find me anywhere. And also, please check out the one piece art collab on Blue sky under op. Collab. It is a two collab segment, but two collabs. Me and artists doing the episode art this week. Kirby hosted volume two a couple years ago. We got hundreds of artists to draw hundreds of one piece characters put all together in one big collection. Please check that out at your leisure.

[Zach]

Yeah. And if you haven't, please check out Kirby on social media. I know D kirbyj on Bluesky. And assuming anywhere else on social media, yes, I'm being told yes, everywhere. Kirby says everywhere. You could find [e-mail] where I will be posting the picture of the owl in my backyard momentarily because I feel like I have to. Also, if you don't subscribe to us on Patreon, you are missing an image of me being haunted by both Biblo and another haunting figure that can only be described as cursed. You can find that on patreon.com one piece podcast. If if that doesn't convince you to subscribe to us, I literally cannot think of anything else. And I want to mention again, OPLA has begun our Season 2 One Piece live action roundup with just some amazing interviews. This week is Mark herilic who plays Dr. Hurluk. He was such a fun guest and that guy deserves all the praise and, you know, accolades coming to him. So I'm very excited to present that like I think almost hour long interview with him soon. We also have Rob Coletti, who plays Waffle. Not a waffleganger, but the original one. Well, the original one to the live action. And we have Aura. That was a fun interview I did with Kirsten. That'll be out the following week. That was my beginnings of COVID so I apologize, but mostly held through it. And we have the folks at framestore also on Opla, so you can check all that [e-mail] Opla exclamation point, not in the URL. But next week we're gonna go through chapter 1179. And until then, my name is Zach.

[Ken O'Connor]

Wait, Zach, we're not done yet. Oh shit, I forgot it's the final week of Ark. Madness. Madness. Madness. Madness.

[Zach]

Steve, you're muted or the o Didn't come out.

[Steve]

Oh,

[Zach]

Steve's hungry and we didn't get to do Reddit questions. So let's see what's going on.

[Ken O'Connor]

This will be super quick. This will be super quick. If you're listening to this episode.

[Zach]

Hey, I tried Steve.

[Ken O'Connor]

If you're listening to this episode right now on our public discord is the final rounds of Arc Madness. Last week's result, surprising no. 1. Water 7 and East Lobby beat Jaya Skypiea and Alabasta beat Arlong Park. So for the final round, it is water7enies lobby versus Alabasta, the number one seed and the number three seed for the final week. And we are also doing a second poll. We're putting Jaya Skypiea against Arlong park for third and fourth place as well. So next week we'll have first, second, third, fourth place. Thank you all for participating in Arc Madness. This was a fun experiment for the month of March. I think it went very well.

[Zach]

Yeah, this really lasted exactly the month,

[Ken O'Connor]

just a little exactly out. Yeah.

[Zach]

Very well done.

[Ken O'Connor]

Thank you.

[Zach]

I'll say though not surprising like where we ended up. I will say like the. Was it the quarterfinals were all very exciting and close. The semifinals not so much like, yeah, semi final.

[Steve]

Like it's funny like doing a lot of these brackets like semi finals and finals. When things don't get that interesting. It's always like the first initial round in quarterfinals and then everything kind of evens out.

[Zach]

The. The ones that were closest were like the was Drum Island. Arlong park was only like two apart and that is a very tough one. I thought water7nes lobby is probably destined to win. I think we all. What is it, Steve, that you said? I wonder how water 7 is going to win this one.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah,

[Zach]

I like I wonder when all is said and done, will it have like an easy ride, you know, when. When the series is over. But maybe, maybe the reason Oda just ended things in Elbaf like this is because he's like, fuck these like arcs delineation. So I'm just gonna do something completely different. We'll see next week. My name is Zach.

[Steve]

My name is Steve.

[Zach]

See you next week, everyone. Fuck ice. See,

[Golfer]

what episode number was this?

[Zach]

912. See, I say it like that now.

[Steve]

Like on 912 do you say last 9 11? Yeah, I remember 2001 when everyone's like, man, last 911 was crazy. I don't know if our country will ever be the same again.

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