Episode 920, “Sgt. Brook’s Annoying Heart Eyes Band” (with Marianne Bray)

Summary

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The One Piece Podcast Episode 920:

“Sgt. Brook’s Annoying Heart Eyes Band” (with Marianne Bray)

Date: May 25, 2026
Host: Zach
Guests/Panelists: Ed, Stephen Paul (official One Piece translator), Jill Knight, Ken O’Connor, Marianne Bray (voice actress)

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Episode Overview

In this week’s episode, the podcast tackles One Piece Chapter 1183, “Good Morning Maid,” with discussion focused on the huge, long-awaited Brook flashback. The team also recaps the latest anime episodes—including the deeply emotional Robin and Saul reunion—goes over anime news, runs through fan-favorite competitions (“Glup Ship Beard”), and answers listener questions.

Their guest is Marianne Bray, voice of Flambe, contributor to many dubs, and prominent anime VA. She joins the core cast for deep-dive analysis, jokes, and a huge amount of world-building speculation.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Opening Banter & News (00:27–07:16)

• Weather banter! (00:27–01:50) – A running joke about everyone’s local rain or sun.
• Marianne is introduced, prompting jokes about staying “in character” as Flambe.
• Podcast anniversary: Next week marks 17 years of the show (03:15). Trivia about things you can do at 17 in different states ensues.
• Anime news:
  • One Piece wins Best Ongoing Anime at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards (05:00).
  • Milan, Italy is hosting a One Piece pop-up store from May 26–June 8 (06:39).
  • New anime episode features a big insert song from Maki Otsuki: “The World Wasn’t Just For One Person” — for Robin’s emotional episode (05:42).
• Fandom competitions:
  • The “Glup Ship Beard” Discord bracket results are in: Sarfunkle wins, beating out King Baum, Whoopslap, and “The Satanist.” (07:26–09:03)
  • Lots of jokes about “waifu in a barrel” (08:44), and minor characters in the contest.

Notable Quote:

“I am a little bit surprised by Sarfunkle taking the crown here, but good for her. King Baum, I thought was gonna walk away with this one.” — Zach (07:58)

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2. Patreon & Community Shoutouts (10:29–13:12)

• The crew plugs their Patreon (ad-free, extended episodes, exclusive art).
• Sam’s recent episode: Zach learning (suffering through) the One Piece card game for the first time.
• “Sticker of the Month Club” discussion — Nami Lego is this month’s sticker.

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3. Manga Recap: Chapter 1183 “Good Morning Maid” (13:45–60:00)

a. Cover Story and Color Spread (14:28–21:50)

• Jump cover: Luffy as a Japanese national soccer team member—a reused color spread due to licensing constraints.
• Panel discusses Luffy’s hat, Yamato’s and Otama’s cute placements, and the “sweet potato” motif.
• Elephant color spread: Oda’s assistants go wild on drawing adorable elephants and musical motifs.
  • Panel nitpicks spatial issues and admires Robin’s odd outfit (“sexy thigh-high boots” with a slouchy shirt).
  • Quote: “Robin’s outfit...those don’t go together!” — Marianne Bray (19:55)

b. Into the Chapter: THE FLASHBACK ARRIVES

• Opening scene: Emu vs. Loki and Ragnar (24:07–30:41)

  • Notable: Emu is depicted with Norse myth-inspired double-bladed sword (Graham), attacked by Loki’s “Ragna” abilities.
  • Trivia: Steven discusses Oda’s use of Norse numbers in attack names—1, 5, 2, and theorizes future attacks.

• West Ass Village & Zaza Freaky’s Rampage: (29:45–34:14)

  • Giants' parents desperately try to retrieve their children in the rain as Zaza holds them captive.
  • Chopper frantically performs blood transfusions on wounded giants.
  • Panel notes how this “child in peril” scenario is both recurring and still suspenseful.

• Sanji rushes in to confront Zaza: (33:53)

• Central Scene—The Frozen Woman & Brook’s Dilemma: (34:52–39:20)

  • Nami and Usopp quiz Brook about his reckless behavior.
  • Brook recognizes the frozen woman as his old princess, Shuri, who should now be 77—but appears unchanged; she’s also a Celestial Dragon.
  • Revealed: She saved the Straw Hats earlier by untying their bindings.
  • The panel speculates on the possibility of “control” or brainwashing.
  • Quote: “Her demonic form, it feels as though we’ve seen three different people in her.” — Brook (38:19)
  • Jinbe says, bluntly, “I hate to rush you, Brook, but we need a decision. Does she live or die?” (38:45)

• The Long-Awaited Brook Flashback Begins!

  • Setting: West Blue, 70 years ago, 4am (39:40)
  • Young Brook, 20, is musical captain in the land of Esperia.
    • Annoying the city awake at dawn with “Good Morning Maid,” the same signature pun/song from Fishman Island (callback to Chapter 653).
    • Locals are unimpressed; Princess Shuri, age 7, is delighted—she trains to be “just like Mama” (the queen).
  • Esperia is a land of instrument workshops; the palace is a giant harp.
  • Oda draws in dazzling detail, with a city of music, uniforms echoing Sergeant Pepper, and thriving royal family.
  • King Reuven: schlubby, “bad guy” design, but heart-of-gold dad joking around with Brook and his daughter Shuri.
    • Funny run: Jill Knight dubs him the “ultimate house husband”; Marianne jokes about Shuri’s snot nose.
  • Queen Candel: stunning, androgynous, badass. She’s also the former battle convoy captain—now replaced by Brook.
    • Strong Lady Oscar/Rose of Versailles/French musketeer energy noted.
  • A gangster attack: The Mulan Rogues (mob on zebras) try to kidnap Candel at the opera; Brook “had already cut them”—a signature Notch Slash move, impressing the city, saving the queen.

Panel Highlights & Quotes

• “Good morning, Esperia! No more waiting for favorable winds, it’s time to set sail, baby!” — Young Brook’s song (40:36)
• “Her outfit is lighter than Brook’s...still Sergeant Pepper-y to me.” — Marianne (59:04)
• “Brook is such a great character to begin with, but this could make it even sadder.” — Ed (63:57)
• “It feels like Oda HAS to get the story out of the way...unlike Sanji’s.” — Zach (80:00, paraphrased)
• Panel theorizes: Shuri’s personality splinters (three versions: brainwashed, Emu-controlled, real Shuri pushing through). “Why this girl from this random-ass kingdom?” — Zach (150:18)

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4. Anime Recap: Episodes 1161–1163 (88:06–120:55)

a. Recap (Sam, Ken)

• Loki and Luffy’s first encounter — chained Loki bargains for escape.
• Elbaf revealed: Giant landscapes, rainbow bridges, “painter” prisms, beautiful and magical.
• New Giant Warrior Pirates reintroduced with theme song and character moments.
• Anime insert song: Robin and Saul’s emotional reunion (“Never Alone in This World” by Maki Otsuki).
  • Devastating montage of Robin’s trauma and her finally asking Saul to “praise me for being alive.”
  • The crew (and listeners) cry along; animation and soundscape are called out as “exceptional.”

Notable Moments

“When Saul hugs Robin and she reverts to her childhood form for a split second...it’s so well done at every single point.” — Ken O’Connor (114:44)

“The success [is] that she found her people and now she gets to reconnect with Saul after all that...I can’t deny I’ve been completely swept up.” — Sam (117:56)

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5. Piece Together: Listener Questions & Wild Speculation (121:15–167:02)

• High-impact theories discussed:
  • Parallelism between Luffy & Blackbeard as “dawn/dusk” D's (124:27)
  • Will the Astral World ever appear? (“They better show it!” — Ken)
  • Analysis of Celestial Dragons' infiltration and Candel’s real intent.
• Goofs and Memes:
  • Brook and Yorkie shipping jokes.
  • Oda-fied music stars ("Jamiroquai, Sabrina Carpenter, Lady Gaga, David Bowie").
  • Competition over how long this flashback will run—bets from 4 to 10 chapters (“Brook Summer!”).
  • Comedy bits about Reuven’s (possible) mundane or embarrassing death.
  • Jill on King Reuven: “If I was royalty, you think I’d put on a bra or anything? No!” (136:27)

Notable Quote

“I want a list of shitty ways that Reuven could die.” — Zach (153:37)

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6. Final Thoughts & Wrap-Up (167:05–171:51)

• Panelists express excitement for Brook finally getting vital screentime and for the rich Esperia worldbuilding.
• Speculation continues: Will Candel be villainous? Was Brook’s musical land a setup by the World Government?
• Plug: Next week is the 17th podcast anniversary (they hope to have Abby Denton on to discuss her favorite character—Brook).
• Outro: Gratitude for guest Marianne Bray, plugs for everyone’s respective projects, and a reminder to visit their Patreon and socials.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You can't just inhabit a seven-year-old girl.” — Zach, joking to Ken and Marianne about voicing Princess Shuri (48:00)
• “Her majesty is very powerful. Ah, Queen Candel, light of my life.” — Young Brook, dissolving into heart-eyes (48:08)
• “Candel certainly dresses like a Celestial Dragon. Or maybe it’s just the very European style coat.” — Listener Sam, reading the mailbag (130:19)
• “When Saul starts crying, it starts like coming down like giant droplets...and then a fountain goes off of just like tears cascading across the entire screen.” — Ken (115:28)
• “Oda draws her outside his usual type; she looks closer to Cavendish! She looks like a boss-ass bitch.” — Zach & Marianne, on Queen Candel (84:04)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:27 – Introductions, Weather Banter, Guest Intros
• 03:15 – Podcast’s 17th Anniversary Next Week
• 05:00 – One Piece Wins Crunchyroll Award; Anime Insert Song News
• 07:26 – Glup Ship Beard Bracket Results
• 13:45 – Manga Recap Begins
  • 14:28 – Color Spread/Japan Soccer Color Spread
  • 21:56 – Chapter Summary Begins (“Good Morning Maid”)
  • 34:52 – Brook and the Frozen Woman
  • 39:40 – Brook’s Flashback Begins (West Blue, 70 Years Ago)
  • 57:51 – Reveal of Queen Candel
• 88:06 – Triple Anime Recap (Episodes 1161–63)
  • 103:02 – Robin and Saul’s Reunion
• 121:15 – Piece Together/Listener Questions
• 167:05 – Final Wrap-up/Plugs

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Overall Tone

• Conversational, irreverent, and affectionate—the panelists banter, tease, and speculate but also clearly share strong emotional connections to the material (notably in their reactions to the Robin/Saul scene and Brook’s long-overdue focus).
• They mix deep textual analysis and wild speculation with equal parts goofball energy and fandom in-jokes.

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Conclusion

Episode 920 is a landmark episode for The One Piece Podcast, not only for its approach to Brook’s long-lingering backstory, but for the emotional resonance delivered by both manga and anime at once this week. The episode is rich in fan analysis, lore theorizing, and a heartfelt appreciation of Oda’s world-building, alongside plenty of off-the-wall jokes about waifus in barrels, Dawn vs. Dusk, and podcast memes. A can’t-miss listen for Brook fans and lore buffs alike, with the next week promising even more from Esperia’s tragic, musical history.

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“All I need is a good morn maid. Good morning, Esperia!” — Young Brook (40:36)

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Transcript

[Marianne Bray]

Foreign.

[Zach]

This is the One Piece podcast, episode 920 for the week of my Monday, May 25, 2026. My name is Zach.

[Ed]

And my name is Ed.

[Zach]

And on today's show we have very special guest. You may know him as the translator for One piece in weekly Shonen, Jump and Manga plus, we have Stephen Paul here with us. How's it going, Stephen?

[Stephen Paul]

Very good. Wishing a happy Memorial Day to all my fellow Americans. Enjoy your holiday.

[Zach]

Oh, you know it. We also have our contributor Jill Knight makes an appearance. How's it going, Jill?

[Jill Knight]

It's going pretty well. Hello, sluts. Happy to be back. Should be a good episode.

[Zach]

We have our archivist, Ken o'. Connor. How's it going?

[Ken O'Connor]

Hello, everyone. Good to be back on this very rainy afternoon.

[Zach]

It's this weekend.

[Jill Knight]

All rain.

[Zach]

All rain all the time. Oh, yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

It is Zaza freaky out there. My folks.

[Zach]

It is Zaza freaky out there. Yeah. I was thinking that all day today, I'm like, wow, it's really ZAZA Freaky.

[Ed]

It's 80 and sunny here in Chicago, so.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, rub it in, why don't you?

[Zach]

Role reversal. 50 and rainy here and whatever it is. Yeah.

[Jill Knight]

California weather. Fire.

[Marianne Bray]

I was going to say In Texas, it's 85 and rainy both. Thanks.

[Zach]

That voice you hear is Flompe. The voice. No, we actually just got the character here, but Marion Bray joins us, voice actress extraordinaire. How's it going, Marianne?

[Marianne Bray]

Good. Imagine if I were on here and I just did the Flompe voice the whole time.

[Zach]

I think you were just in character.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yes. Stay in character the entire time.

[Marianne Bray]

I don't know how well that would go over, but it would be entertaining for me at least.

[Zach]

How are you, Marianne? It's been a little bit, right, I think, since last time we had you on.

[Marianne Bray]

I think. I don't remember.

[Zach]

Time is so, you know, I've moved since then.

[Marianne Bray]

Not far, but, you know, still the process. They're in. So nice.

[Ed]

Yeah, it's never fun.

[Stephen Paul]

It was so long ago that the kids in Elbaf were in trouble and she had to voice them. That's how long ago it was.

[Marianne Bray]

That's true.

[Ken O'Connor]

And now they're in trouble again.

[Marianne Bray]

That's true.

[Zach]

And you know what? There'll be trouble again in six months. We could say that. Almost certainly. But we'll see. Yeah, we'll check out in. What is that? November? Whether or not that's true. Something like that. Before we. Well, first of all, today we're going to be talking about chapter 1183 Good Morning Maid.

[Ken O'Connor]

And.

[Ed]

And we'll actually be back next week for another manga recap.

[Zach]

Yeah. Believe it or not. And Ed has. Ed has mentioned and it is something that has been in the forefront of my mind, I promise. May 31st. So that's. Next week is our anniversary episode returns 17 years 17 podcast will be co

[Ed]

hosted by Brian McGee and we'll all stay up listening to Queen.

[Stephen Paul]

Very nice.

[Zach]

You had that in the barrel. What other. What other 17 year old things will we now be able to do? That's. That's really the drink. A very good beer with a fake ID though.

[Stephen Paul]

With a fake id, yeah.

[Zach]

It doesn't really help. What can you do at 17? Driver's license in New York.

[Ken O'Connor]

Harriet Ruiz.

[Zach]

Is that 17? That is 17. Yeah.

[Jill Knight]

17. Whatever it was.

[Zach]

Oh yeah. We could go see those actually.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Jill Knight]

Wow.

[Zach]

Our podcast.

[Ed]

Can anyone think of one besides Showgirls?

[Zach]

The only one I know is because of Quest for the Best. They did. I think Cleopatra, the anime movie, which I have not seen, is also that. So there you go.

[Ed]

That's a weird. That's a weird movie.

[Stephen Paul]

It's a wild one.

[Zach]

Yeah. I have not seen it. I mean both of the other anime

[Ed]

Ramen movies are actually better. I think that's the weakest of the three. Belladonna of Sadness or 1001 Nights are both pretty good compared.

[Zach]

Ed, have you listened to their podcast? Not to pitch someone else's podcast on here, but I feel like you're a good audience for that show because it's like esoteric anime and you are like Mr. Esoteric Anime. I feel like.

[Ed]

Interesting, huh? Think about that.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Anyway, Today on the One Piece podcast, as I mentioned, we're going through 1183. We are also going to do piece together. I think we have an anime recap. I'll start at talking about some One Piece anime news. The first is that One Piece is once again an award winner this year in the Crunchyroll Anime Awards as best ongoing series. Is it deserved? I assume I can't.

[Ed]

Have we talked about the glub shit beard competition on the podcast before?

[Zach]

We will. Oh, every week at the end. That's the problem. But is it. Have we finished the competition, Ken? Is this the last week?

[Ken O'Connor]

By the time we're done recording this episode, the final results will be in, so.

[Zach]

Well, maybe we should do that at the front. So we'll do that at the end of this little bit of news. There's very little news, so we'll do these quick.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay.

[Zach]

There's also there's an insert song for this week's episode, which if we have an anime recap, you will hear about. And if we don't have an anime recap, I'll tell you right now. So this is. This is the big Robin episode that's there to just make you cry and nothing else in particular, I assume the trying to find the name of the song which I had and I thought I saved it open. Oh, here it is. It's oh, Maki Otsuki. The world wasn't just for one person is the name of oh, it's Maki Otsuki. Oh, I am gonna cry. Shit. That's episode 1163, which is out now. As you're listening to this, the last little bit of news is. Hey, are any of you going to be in Milan, Italy from May 26 through June 8?

[Ken O'Connor]

No.

[Jill Knight]

Dang, just missed it.

[Ed]

I wish.

[Marianne Bray]

So close.

[Zach]

Because if you are, they have a one piece pop up store at the Mondodori Duomo Milano bookstore with decorated window displays, exclusive products and activities. So if you happen to be in Milan, like all of us won't be, you could check that out. Let's do our big piece of one piece news. The WT100 is getting close to wrapping up. Is that this month or. It's next month. Right, it's next month. So. But the real competition is. What, Ken, what's our real competition?

[Ken O'Connor]

Well, for the last several weeks we've been running the Glup Ship beard brackets on our public discord and we are down to the. The results. Should we go over those?

[Zach]

Yeah, this is the finals. So this is. These are the results.

[Ken O'Connor]

These are the results. These are the. The placements. So I'll do this in reverse order. So coming in at fourth place, we have the Satanist.

[Ed]

Oh yes. As voiced by members of the podcast.

[Ken O'Connor]

Really? Now? I had no idea. Third place, Whoopslap. Second place, King Baum. And our ultimate Glup Ship beard winner is Sarfunkle at first place.

[Zach]

I am a little bit surprised by Saurfunkel taking the crown here, but good for her. King Baum, I thought was gonna walk away with this one, Steven. And.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, I guess it's, you know, if it comes down to Oda's pun versus my puns, I guess I can't really complain too much that.

[Zach]

But then are they really our. Are they really our club shit beards at that point? Like it should be your pun.

[Stephen Paul]

The fans.

[Zach]

The fans are wrong. Once again, I think Sarfunkle has a cute yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yes.

[Zach]

Yeah. So now I guess we should all push Sarfunkle. Sarfunkle.

[Ed]

Definitely waifu.

[Stephen Paul]

Muriel.

[Zach]

So for the final waifu in a box. So if you haven't waifu in a

[Ken O'Connor]

box or a barrel.

[Zach]

No, it was a treasure chest, isn't it? Or is she in a barrel? She's in a barrel. God, I don't even know about our glep ship Beard. This is just embarrassing.

[Stephen Paul]

King Valm's waifu could be turned into a barrel. So that's true.

[Jill Knight]

Lady Trey Tree, actually.

[Zach]

Lady Tree. Lady Tree should have been on this. In this competition. I'm actually shocked that Lady Tree.

[Stephen Paul]

I think I. I submitted them both. I don't know.

[Ken O'Connor]

Lady Tree was on there. She lost early on. Trying to see where she lost at. Keep going.

[Zach]

It's a. There's a lot. There's a lot of people, so that could take you a while. Yeah. So that's all. Vote in the WT100 for Sarfunkel. Or if you can't stomach a vote for Sarfunkel, vote for King Baum.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, this was the primary. Now you have to vote for Sarfunkel in the general election.

[Zach]

You have to vote Sar Funkel. No matter. Wait, no, that doesn't work.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay, so Lady Tree lost to peek at the crotch in the very first round.

[Zach]

Oh, okay. Well, she was up against. She was up against an mvp. She was up against an mvp. That's not fair to her. Poor Lady Tree. At least King Baum had a. Had a really good run here.

[Ed]

Was Columbus in there? That would be a good one.

[Zach]

Or Lumbus was.

[Ken O'Connor]

Or Lumbus was in there.

[Zach]

Or Lumbus is our glub shit beard. Columbus isn't. Does she have any characteristics?

[Stephen Paul]

Columbus is only. Or Lumbus's shit beard.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, right.

[Zach]

I'm glad it's finally been said before we get into.

[Ed]

Or as you translate it, it's Lilumbus.

[Zach]

Before we get into this week's episode, please subscribe to us at [e-mail] OnePiecePodcast at the $5 a month level, you get access to all of our episodes ad free and with extended cuts. You also get exclusive behind the scenes from our one piece podcast goes to Japan movie from a At this point and you get many other things, including alternate art and titles this week and previous weeks from Kirby. Last week's art is no exception. By the way, if any of you have deigned to listen to last week's episode, good for you. It involves. For those who don't know. It involves Sam literally torturing me trying to get me to learn the one piece card game and play that for the first time. Did I?

[Ken O'Connor]

It's a pretty good listen though. You're like basically Little Mac engulfers, your. Your Doc Ryan and Sam just punching you down every single chance he could. It was pretty great.

[Zach]

I'll say. One of the Patreon commenters said something like wow, Sam using an emu starter on a first time player is really heinously or evil or something like that. And I knew that because it's Sam and that is Sam's sense of humor. So it's extremely dry and extremely mean usually. So I get it. But yeah, check that out. You could check that out ad free. We also have two videos for that that Sam put together that I hope to Release on our YouTube page this week.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I was going to say he's been playing around with After Effects producing some highlight reels of moments that will maybe make some of the stuff make more sense. We'll see.

[Zach]

But I'm going to be honest though.

[Stephen Paul]

Or two.

[Zach]

I saw what was happening. It made zero sense to me. So like I don't really think much is missing. By the way, I like the. I forgot to press the record button on the. On the zoom for that episode. Not this week. Don't worry guys. For last week's episode. And that is why we don't have the visual elements of that.

[Stephen Paul]

It was the one episode that.

[Zach]

The one episode video.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Really been really been helpful. But you know that's.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's how I can record. I can challenge you to a card game right now. We'll have it on record.

[Zach]

Oh yes. And now I have the thing to play it with. So there you go.

[Ken O'Connor]

Excellent.

[Zach]

I don't like that. I don't like any of that. So yeah. Patreon.com One Piece podcast. We also have sticker of the month club at $12 a month. This month is the Nami Lego I believe. Right. Is the one that's being given this month.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. I think it was until the end of May to get the read a book and then I think Nami comes out next month. I think I might have that reverse.

[Zach]

I couldn't remember if it was April and May or May and June.

[Ed]

Right. Steve couldn't be here tonight to explain it again.

[Zach]

Well, Steve is going to really regret not being here when we get into this manga chapter. Which we'll see why right after this. This is the manga recap for chapter 1183 good. More MAID Kurt Morin mean to all of you as well. And this chapter. All chapters available Shonen Jump, viz.com or MangaPlus, Shueisha Co JP for free, legally, worldwide. The same time it comes out in Japan. Can you believe that? I can't. But it's true. Ed, what's going on? On the COVID of Shonen Jump this

[Ed]

week, on the COVID of Jump, we have Luffy as a member of the Samurai Blue, the Japan national soccer team, which is what they're. They're referred to as like the. Like the German national teams referred to as Demand Shaft. Or the Brazilian team is the Sellassou.

[Stephen Paul]

Wait, the German team is the Man Shaft.

[Zach]

That's what I heard.

[Ed]

Yes. That is what they call them.

[Zach]

The Man Shaft. They call them Delaney Isolated.

[Stephen Paul]

But they don't have. They don't have double entendres in Germany.

[Zach]

That's true.

[Ken O'Connor]

Gunko Man Shaft. Yeah.

[Zach]

So Luffy's hat is blue in this. And also. Wait, Ed, what do you mean this is a thing for soccer or football? I. I am just seeing an old color spread I've seen before for Stephen. How did you put it?

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, yeah. I. I love that. The. The Shonen Jump. I guess because they could not get the rights for the JFA or whatever. Yeah. Or they didn't want to like do some set off some kind of international controversy.

[Zach]

Actually, soccer is. Yeah, that would do it.

[Stephen Paul]

Right. They. They replaced it with an old color spread which.

[Ed]

Sweet potato.

[Zach]

Sweet potato.

[Ed]

And the Ninja Foxes Yamato with the

[Stephen Paul]

red fall foliage which we have all deter. You know, as we. As you heard the intro. It's a lovely fall day today.

[Zach]

Lovely fall May Day. You know where it is Fall? Australia.

[Stephen Paul]

Australia.

[Zach]

So maybe Shonen Jump in America and North America is.

[Ed]

I love how Luffy's upset in this picture because his. His potato is too hot to eat.

[Zach]

Okay, we don't actually have to talk about the potato color spread.

[Ken O'Connor]

I mean, we could. It's a really nice color spread.

[Zach]

Stop it. I know Yamato is in it, Ken.

[Jill Knight]

They are, but so is Otama. Look at her. She's feeding spongy.

[Ken O'Connor]

Aw, Little egg.

[Zach]

Yeah. So Luffy's playing soccer. That's what we're trying to talk about. He's very cute in this photo too. Luffy is cute too. Jesus Christ. What's going on in the color spread then?

[Ed]

Ah, yes. This should be. I think the. Maybe the summertime.

[Zach]

This would have been more fitting. Why didn't they just do this?

[Jill Knight]

Too many clothes.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's true. There are too many for that.

[Jill Knight]

Not for the summer one.

[Zach]

Jill's right. Well, the elephants. The elephants are nudes.

[Ed]

The elephants are blowing bubbles. And, like, they're so popular that Zorro already has a shirt of them.

[Zach]

That's one way to look at it.

[Ed]

And I was. Brooke is shredding on the guitar.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. I was very disappointed that we missed out of. As usual. You know, when you. When they put up the. The process video before the issue comes out. So you see all of the scrapped ideas that. That Oda had. And first he. He starts drawing Dorian Brogy for like an instant, and then he stops and then he's drawing what looks like Luffy having an arm wrestling contest with an

[Zach]

elephant with that one's trunk.

[Stephen Paul]

And that looked amazing. But I don't know, maybe it just wasn't dynamic enough or something.

[Zach]

Because this one with the giants too, like in one of the skit. I don't know.

[Ed]

Maybe he's like, I like elephants, so I'm just gonna keep going with the elephants.

[Zach]

Yeah, no, he definitely wanted to do elephants this week. And that's great, especially since Steve couldn't make it on the podcast. But more particularly, that's what I was hinting at before. But more particularly, though, like, these process videos are like, I'm just getting fomo. Like, enough. Like, it's just like, oh, what could have been. This could have been like, you wish

[Ken O'Connor]

you'd never known this was a concept.

[Zach]

I almost wish this. I never knew. It's just like, oh, it's. Oh, it would have always been elephants, you know, Always.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, this is cute, but I. It. I feel like this is pretty low on the list. Like, this would be like a 10th or 15th percentile color spread. If we were going to rank them all, I'd be like, yeah, I'm not going to remember this one. Really?

[Zach]

I'll say, is this just me? The one thing that bothers me. And then I'll stop talking is the Usopp, like, perspective with the elephant under Robin. Like, why is he so small and she's so large? And where are they supposed to be in space and time?

[Stephen Paul]

Well, she's floating. It's called foreshortening. She's closer to the camera than.

[Zach]

No, I know, but it looks like she's sitting with the elephant, like, resting on it.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Zach]

Do you see? It's like. It's like, I. I know what he's trying to do. I just. Yeah, it just. It.

[Ed]

And Sanji is jumping in with a tray.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Stephen Paul]

As One does Incredible balance there.

[Zach]

Well, Sanji, I mean, doing his moonwalk,

[Ken O'Connor]

Jinbe looks very pleased with himself. He just like, yeah, this is good.

[Zach]

He does this all the time. He literally blushing.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, he's blushing at the elephant.

[Zach]

Wow, these are really adorable elephants. I'm looking at. Aw. Frankie's hair. Elephant.

[Ed]

Pink elephant's on parade.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yes.

[Zach]

Any other thoughts on the color spread? Marianne Chill.

[Marianne Bray]

The one thing that stands out to me, and this is maybe super random, is Robin's outfit. Because she's wearing these like, sexy thigh high boots. And then just like the most casual slouchy off the shoulder blouse. And I'm like, those don't go together.

[Ed]

The oversized T shirt dress.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah, you know what? And the dominatrix boots. It's just a weird. It's an interesting combo.

[Zach]

I do like that her shirt is. What is it? Just elephant. But it says ella with the actual

[Stephen Paul]

elephant and then the fant. Yeah, the fant.

[Zach]

Yeah. Everyone knows the Japanese word for elephant is fant.

[Ken O'Connor]

Zoro's drinking an elephanta.

[Stephen Paul]

Nice.

[Zach]

Damn, that's good. Write it down. But we're not using it.

[Stephen Paul]

Luffy's got his Niku jacket.

[Ken O'Connor]

I like the little meat embroidery patch he has on there. That's cute.

[Zach]

It is a cute. I would get that jacket. Like, we tell. We talk about, like, wanting merch from, you know, the actual manga. I would buy that. Yeah. Because out of context, you'd be like, what is this?

[Ken O'Connor]

Even I feel bad for the sunny all the way on the right. Like. Like, oh, man.

[Zach]

Oh, I didn't even see it there.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, my God. Yeah, it's down, like, by, like a port. Just sitting there like, oh, man, I can't join

[Zach]

any other.

[Ed]

Poor guy.

[Zach]

Poor guy indeed. Wait, is Nami holding a map as to where they're trying to go in this splash?

[Jill Knight]

Skypiea. This is the.

[Zach]

This is how we're doing it.

[Ken O'Connor]

It's really not clear what the. Like, they're all, like, doing. Like, they're like, oh, she's doing the navigator thing. Robin's doing, like, the book thing. But, like, in the context being Chopper's doctrine. Yeah. And the context being blasted off by, like, an elephant splash. It doesn't really make sense.

[Stephen Paul]

I kept trying to think. I was like, what is the joke? It's the trunk upstream. That's what they're doing right now.

[Ken O'Connor]

Trunk upstream.

[Sam]

Good one.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's good.

[Zach]

Good one. We gotta. We gotta leave that there. Let's start with the chapter ed. Yeah.

[Ed]

So this is chapter 1183. Good morning, maid. Which is a pun we've heard before, which Brooke makes.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, yeah.

[Ed]

At the end of Fishman Island.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. In fact, Ed, I wanted to ask if we have, like, a little, you know, virtual show of hands. Did anyone recognize this, like, as soon as they saw. Okay. Ken is holding his hand up.

[Ken O'Connor]

Good morning.

[Zach]

I assumed it was something from Fishman island because it, like, seemed so specific, but I didn't remember. So was this, like, one of your first chapters that you did?

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, it was. If it was not the first chapter, it was, like, probably the second or third. Because it was. Yeah, it was right at the end of Fishman island before they leave. And I do remember, like, oh, I have to do this whole song thing for Brooke. Like, it was really. It was a big test to. Just to start off doing the. The Shonen Jump Alpha back then. And so that was a. It was a. It was a big test. But I recognized it immediately because it's a very. It's a very memorable pun, especially in Japanese, so.

[Jill Knight]

One of my favorites. Steven. I love that pun.

[Stephen Paul]

Thank you.

[Ken O'Connor]

I was gonna ask you, Stephen, because I posted that page earlier today, and I was, like, wondering if you had. Have you had. If you have remembered it, or you had to go back in, like, a giant archive you have of things that were translated.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, No, I had to go back to find the exact wording that he sang. But it was the same song. Like, he is singing the same song, but we're ahead of ourselves. Yeah.

[Marianne Bray]

Oh, damn. So it is a specific song. I didn't realize that.

[Zach]

Chapter 653, the hero hat. Yep. It says a 1, 2, 3. But he does say he has a new single. Well, I guess he may have just released it to the public. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. He was in the vault.

[Jill Knight]

He forgot.

[Zach]

To be fair, I've said this before, like, the best years old. Yes. Well, first of all, all people forget things. We could say that. Almost certainly. But second, he also was on a ship for 50 years or however long with no other people going completely crazy as he was literally dying. So, like, if he forgets things, Oda has a really convenient excuse. He's mentally unstable. What? When that starts, the chapter Red.

[Ed]

Yes. So Emu continues. He's talking to. Yes. Rognir, thou wert. Waiting for one who could strike back against me. And he's still exhausted from taking all that or absorbing all that damage or basically eating Loki's attack. And he continues.

[Ken O'Connor]

Isn't that right?

[Ed]

And Ragnar is like. He's. I guess he's kind of laughing at Him? Or he's just exclaiming.

[Zach]

No. Yeah, I think he's exclaiming.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's explicit. Holy crap.

[Zach]

Yeah. I can't believe they let you write that.

[Jill Knight]

Damn.

[Ed]

And Loki interjects, what nonsense are you talking about? I've never seen someone absorb so much damage. And Loki's also huffing pretty hard here. And Emu. Loki. Straw hat. Luffy. In any case, thou wilt not be my soldiers, so I shalt eliminate thee instead.

[Zach]

Can I do one of my usual. I saw the first page from the Friday release thing. Joey Wiser, friend of the show, said this better than I ever could. This page looks like it's from a completely different manga. When taken out of context like this, every character. There is nothing wrong. If you looked at this even, I'll say, a year ago, not even. Maybe even six months ago, you'd be like, what the hell is happening right now? What is this series that. What? Yasha, you know, like, what is happening?

[Ed]

Ragnar is the care is the character who's most. Most of a one piece character. Who's the most one piece character here.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Jill Knight]

Yes.

[Zach]

You see him in like, sum total for like a little slip of his face. Like, this could legitimately be from a different artist. Like, I think I could, like, strain credulity to, like, you know, I don't know. That's me. Anyway, I thought that was very funny and very true. Go ahead, Steven.

[Stephen Paul]

All right. And then the hostilities resume as Emu does his little made you look on his staff there.

[Ken O'Connor]

And.

[Zach]

Oh, he is doing that symbol. I didn't even notice that. For Summer.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, he's preparing his weapon.

[Zach]

What did we call it again? It was the.

[Ken O'Connor]

The Hurts Donut.

[Zach]

The Hurts Donut.

[Stephen Paul]

Hurts Donut.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

And he says, just like Dozon, whoever the fuck that is.

[Jill Knight]

This is the Dadon vibes. It is.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Sam]

Yes.

[Zach]

Oh, to Zozon. Yeah. Just like. I wonder what. I wonder what Dozon thinks of this. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. We're all going to be eating our words when Dozen turns out to be the coolest character that we've ever.

[Ed]

You know what Dozan is Joy Boy.

[Zach]

Very likely. Yeah, it could be.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, could be.

[Zach]

I mean, it's obviously someone of import, but it's very. When you put it that way, it's very funny. Go ahead, sir.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. And so Loki is huffing and puffing, and he's going to do a Ragnar duel, something. And you can see it's a duel because there are two bolts of lightning shooting out of the clouds. And then we see that Emu is gone. Full Darth Maul here. He's got the double sword. He's got the double edged lightsaber swinging it around in a giant circle. And Loki finishes Haim. So it's the Regna dual Haim. And Emu.

[Zach]

It's Haim. I may believe you. I'm just.

[Stephen Paul]

I mean, yeah, I think I. Either way, it's whether you pronounce it English style or Norse style or whatever. So Emu deflects it with a blade of wrath. Graham. Which is a direct reference to a Norse blade. That. Yeah, that's what it literally Graham means meaning like hatred or anger or something like that in.

[Zach]

So it's double anger.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, well, I, you know, it's just Graham in Japanese. But the kanji are like, you know, blade of wrath and. And this. Let's also with this Ragna dual Haim. So this is the part where I'm like, okay, this is the third time that he's done a ragna attack. And I still don't know for sure what like Oda is doing with it. Like what the. What kind of pattern he is working on. But I can tell you one thing for sure now, which is that all of them are like number based. So the first one was Ragna Izuchi, which was like ragna like one. It's like one hammer blow or one mallet or something like that. So that was one. And then we had the ragna, which I. I translated as quint arrow, which was in Japanese. And even though it was five, like there were way more than five. So that was confusing as well. But five, five arrows. And then this one in Japanese was Ragna Jinham. But the G, the G, it was like two, you know, it was like two weapons or two bolts, you know. And then Haim is like world. And so, so he's done 1, 5 and 2. And at least this time, you know, obviously being two. Two bolts of lightning.

[Zach]

8, 15, 16, 23, 42. Got it. Okay.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

I also want to say Ragnar six, seven, show up.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh God, I have a problem.

[Zach]

I have a problem. Yeah, guys.

[Stephen Paul]

So, yes, they're continuing to battle off in the distance, which you can see from the west ass village here and there. There she is. Zaza Freaky. She is still. She still has children. They're still held captive. And the giants are now, you know, they're being swept away, but they're shouting, take back the children as the rains come down.

[Zach]

I love this panel. This is such a cool one. From this, it's such a small part

[Ed]

of the overall page, though.

[Zach]

Yeah, well, I think it just should be on a different page, personally. Like, I. I like what they're doing here. Yeah. Oh, I did also didn't notice until just now that. That Loki is bleeding in that first one, it looks like. And at the top, in that middle, the Ragna dual page panel.

[Stephen Paul]

I mean, it could be Ragnar Raditoski dropping little pellets.

[Jill Knight]

Well, Luffy does ask everyone if they can poop, so it's fine. It's good to have evidence.

[Zach]

I don't think you have to ask a squirrel if it could poop, but squirrel's talking shit.

[Marianne Bray]

A hammer that ate a squirrel fruit in this case.

[Zach]

Actually, that is a good question. Never mind. You're right.

[Stephen Paul]

Can a hammer that turns into a squirrel poop?

[Zach]

Yeah, that's a good question.

[Jill Knight]

So we go back to the village. Children are our, you know, glubbing away there. Yeah, they're inside Zaza Gabor here, and their parents are swimming, trying to catch them.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, God, they're drowning.

[Zach]

You did say you were doing those sound effects. Great. Okay. That's so good. I'm like, what happened? What happened to Marianne's mic? Oh, my God.

[Jill Knight]

You know, I saved my brother's life once from drowning. I don't remember it happening, but I do have a certificate for it. My grandma made it and everything.

[Zach]

I'll say, when you have kids, you save your kids in the bath from drowning multiple times. I've definitely saved their lives several times. Do I brag about it? Yes. Right. Now. Go ahead.

[Jill Knight]

And we get this awesome panel of the parents all, you know, all bandaged up, but holding their weapons going. We're not letting them be taken away after all we did to save them. You're not taking our kids. As we get the stuff. Really great panel of Zaza just staring down at them from on high.

[Zach]

Freaky.

[Jill Knight]

Yeah. It's such a good little shot as. As Chopper there on Ripley's shoulder. Wait, you guys. You shouldn't be moving around. I haven't finished your blood transfusions. You really will die. God, he has so much. So many bandages. Think about how many bandages these giants are taking up. Like, damn, Chopper, where are you holding this stuff?

[Ken O'Connor]

He went to Costco.

[Jill Knight]

Ah, we do get our toilet paper from Costco, so that tracks.

[Ed]

Griffin continues.

[Jill Knight]

She continues, my life means nothing to me if my son is ripped from my arms. As they. We get this panel here as. I don't know if that's. I don't think that's her. But someone else just gets like shot back with, I assume just the force of a thousand reigns. With Zaza's hand focused on them as she's still clutching on to many children. And the parents are fighting back and the kids are shouting, help us.

[Stephen Paul]

I love the. I love how like he did this. Kind of like they look like God rays almost, but that's like the demonstration of the rain. Yeah.

[Jill Knight]

Also, I love the way she's drawn

[Zach]

though, on the left in that panel. That's the mom from the sleep Tid. Mom, Right? That was drawn, I think the Obama

[Ed]

here.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm pretty sure. Could be. Steven will neither confirm.

[Stephen Paul]

There's a. There's a lot of Obahan moms in Oda's world.

[Zach]

That's fair. That's fair. Go ahead, sir.

[Jill Knight]

And then, yeah, we get a shot here killing him. Going only seven of them. It'll have to do. Let's go, Zaza. As meanwhile, Sanji rushing forward, by the way, rushing towards a female goddess. We're gonna see how this is gonna go theoretically. As he shouts what's happening over there? And he makes his way to the battle.

[Zach]

Yeah, I'm sure that'll go well.

[Ed]

A very serious look on his face.

[Zach]

Really. Just since we're not going really back to the scene, I'll say really impactful. Unfortunately, once again, leaving the same cliffhanger of don't take the children. Please don't take the children. It is effective and that's why it is continuing to annoy me. We go to the next page as we zoom into what is not a poneglyph at the top of a hill. It is an amber. An ice cube. No, it's actually ice cube.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Here is Gunko. We call her Man Shaft. Right, Gunko. Manchef. Sorry. That was Ken's fault, really. Right, Ken? Right.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yep, that was my fault.

[Zach]

Yeah. I just. I need to make sure blame is placed. And we see over this Usopp asking Brooke, who why did you run off to fight that woman? I had to jump it after you because it seemed like something was wrong. Brooke kind of just ellipses this, which is really a cop out answer. And Nami asked, do you know her? Was she some enemy you fought in the past? And Brooke explains, no, not an enemy, but a person I did not want to see. Or so I thought. I'm so confused right now.

[Ed]

Indeed.

[Zach]

Tell me about it. Just generally in life.

[Marianne Bray]

Have you guys made a comment in previous chapters about how she's like the avatar frozen in the ice clock.

[Jill Knight]

Wow.

[Marianne Bray]

Cause, you know.

[Ken O'Connor]

Anyway, we haven't made that joke, but I am confused. Didn't Killingham and Summer say a chapter ago they saw her walking back, but she seemed dead?

[Zach]

They decided not to save her, I think. Or she's.

[Jill Knight]

They.

[Zach]

Yeah, they just like, kind of said, whatever effort, you know.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay,

[Zach]

Brooke continues, if it's really her, then she must be 77 years old right now. And Nami says, so it has to be someone else, right? I mean, she's a celestial dragon. And Brook responds, yes, at the time, she was the princess of my homeland, and I lost contact with her when she traveled to Sacred Mary Geoa. Well, that sounds suspicious right there. And Frankie comes in. Hey, Brooke, that chick still frozen? Perfect translation there, Steve.

[Stephen Paul]

I'm glad that chick got in there. That.

[Zach]

I thought that was me, too. That is absolutely the way he would. Can't tell if she's alive or dead. We can't just leave her there. Yeah. And Usopp says, well, I'm. I'm sorry, Brooks. No, Usopp. Yeah, I was right the first time. What I'm saying is she's a celestial dragon who looks exactly like someone you knew. Doesn't change the fact that she came here to attack Elbaf. And Brooke continues, yes, but when we were tied up earlier, she was the one who undid the rope. And we see a flashback of Usopp triumphantly saying, escape as he gets out of the Bandit. Not bandages, the arrows. And he's like, yes, I'm free. I feel like my mental powers did that. It's a great.

[Marianne Bray]

Okay.

[Zach]

It's all. Yeah, it was funny when it happened the first time.

[Marianne Bray]

And then we have Brook saying, why would she do such a thing? We get a little mini flashback of her saying, run, Brook. As she flies off into the distance, and his arrow, bandage, ribbon. Things loosen. How does she know who I am? And he says, and then she turned back into that demonic form again. Her original personality. The personality that saved us. Her demonic form. It feels as though we've seen three different people in her. And Nami asks, do you think it's possible that she's being controlled? And Brook says, it did not occur to me at first, but after seeing people turned into demons today, I must admit I feel deeply disturbed in my core.

[Zach]

It's been a rough day.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah. Yeah. We get to Jinbe, and he says, I hate to rush you, Brook, but we need a decision. Does she live or die? We can't do anything before that's settled.

[Zach]

I should have Just made you read all the Jinbe is. Well, I guess you did. So.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ed]

Do it or don't. But we got other things to worry about here, right?

[Marianne Bray]

And then Brook collapses into the grass, shaking. He says, a long time ago. Truly a long time ago. She was just a child. And I was a young man too. It was in a country that no longer exists. Esperia. Esperia was a land of music, full of workshops, crafting instruments of all kinds. And then a flashback begins.

[Stephen Paul]

Jim be like, wait, Brooke, did you hear me? Did you hear what I just said?

[Marianne Bray]

I literally said, I hate to rush you. It's gonna be like 10 more chapters.

[Zach]

It's like, okay, anyone have some food or something? Let's just sit down.

[Jill Knight]

I guess Jinbe's not used to the tragic flashbacks yet. He really has to learn how this crew goes.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Marianne Bray]

All right, so we get The West Blue 70 years ago, 4am which really informs.

[Zach]

I thought it is important for like. I get it. I thought that was really funny.

[Stephen Paul]

I did.

[Zach]

See, it's like 70 years ago at

[Marianne Bray]

4:00am yes, and I apologize in advance. I don't remember if this was a song that was played before. I don't know, it must have been.

[Zach]

I don't remember what I was melody to it.

[Marianne Bray]

So I'm making up my own melody. So yes. Okay, so we get some strum. Shaka shaka cha cha. 1, 2, 3, 4. Wake up at the crack of dawn and it's a good morn made the start of a brand new world oh, they say there's many seas that can be surveyed All I need is a good morn maid. Good morning, Esperia. We see a young brook.

[Zach]

That's like a jingle for a product of some sort. That's like perfect.

[Jill Knight]

I finished it up.

[Zach]

No, it's very good.

[Marianne Bray]

It's just rook. A young brook singing over all of the while singing and talking over, I guess a loudspeaker of some sort as everyone is displeased by it. Good morning, Esperia. No more waiting for favorable winds.

[Jill Knight]

It's time to set sail, baby.

[Marianne Bray]

How you doing in the back streets? And everyone's like, shut up, I got a hangover.

[Ken O'Connor]

Be quiet. I'm presuming my dogs are barking.

[Marianne Bray]

Yep. And then we see a close up well of a little girl. And she says, good morning, Brooke.

[Stephen Paul]

What about the port?

[Marianne Bray]

He yells, hey, Irina.

[Zach]

Is that by the way, is that little girl? Yes, it's the same one that we see. I was just making sure. Go ahead, sir.

[Marianne Bray]

And the next Page. We get a nice big spread of Brook leaping high above this city or castle or whatever it is as the sun rises.

[Ed]

Doing a bit of a Nika pose.

[Marianne Bray]

He is kind of. Yeah. As he sings again. Oh, how I wish to see a sexy mermaid someday. And then all the people shut up.

[Jill Knight]

Brooke.

[Marianne Bray]

Oh, Brooke, my fave. I hope you get fired from the battle convoy. Oh, it'll make me lose my soul. Now that's what I call a bad end. Maid. Oh, brother, get me my gun.

[Zach]

That made me laugh.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah, Brooke's having the time of his life. As these subtitles say. This is the land of instrument makers. Esperia. Esperia Palace.

[Ed]

Like Cremona.

[Zach]

This. This is a really great. I love this panel. I mean, this is a lot of Oda's assistants, obviously, but it's really cool. I like the. What is that? The opposite fisheye lens, I guess. Plus the speakers on the roof all. I don't know.

[Marianne Bray]

Oh, I didn't even notice those. That's.

[Zach]

And the little musical note. There's one musical note thing on the top of one of the buildings. And one treble clef thing. Yeah, yeah, it's cool. Very good. Little details. I like it.

[Marianne Bray]

Oh yeah, it's cute. So we get to Esperia palace, the barracks, and there's a close up of a building. And then we see a bunch of adoring Brook fans who seem to, I guess, be in his regiment. Come on, Captain, teach us how you do your quick draw techniques. They look all starry eyed and he says it's not fair that Princess Shuri gets all your attention. This is pathetic, says Brook. What do you think I'm teaching you now? Learn the fundamentals before you dream. And as he walks away and we see a lovely topiary and a giant big ol harp. I wonder what our dinner is tonight. Yeah, I'm starving. And he starts a familiar ditty. Gather up all of the crew it's time to ship out Binksy's brew Sea wind blows to where who knows the waves will be our guide or across the ocean tide the sunset is going wild and a little girl joins in. See the sky, birds singing in circles passing by. And we are introduced to Kingdom of Hesperia. Princess Shuri, age 7. And we get a proper introduction to this young Brook. Kingdom of Hesperia, leader of raid squad Battle convoy. Brook, age 20. A young man.

[Ed]

I think we knew that Brook was 90, but.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah, this officially confirms it though.

[Zach]

No, we. I think it would have been officially confirmed.

[Jill Knight]

Yeah, that was officially confirmed.

[Ken O'Connor]

Is this the first time we've seen his eyes, though?

[Stephen Paul]

Yes.

[Marianne Bray]

Oh, yeah. Because he's not wearing glasses.

[Jill Knight]

No scar.

[Zach]

No scar, yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, that's true.

[Marianne Bray]

But the same. He's got the same like wonderful cravat that he likes to wear and a cute, frilly sort of pseudo military. It looks very. Sergeant Pepper.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, that is.

[Ed]

I mean, I mean, he already had said that like a long time ago when he was first introduced that he was a. That he was in a battle convoy.

[Stephen Paul]

Right.

[Zach]

So, yeah, go ahead.

[Stephen Paul]

He said them both separately in different scenes, which is that he was a member of a battle convoy and he was the leader of the Raider Squad, which is I think from. Feels like a coast guard, maybe. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely a lot of question as for how exactly the, you know, the. The military system works in this country. But yeah, there's. The battle convoy seems to be their troops.

[Zach]

So he's dressed as Sergeant Brooke has no heart band. Is that.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah, I think so. Well, he has a heart currently in this.

[Zach]

Yeah, no, here he does. But if he were to.

[Marianne Bray]

Okay, what a heartless thing for you to say.

[Stephen Paul]

Screw that one up.

[Zach]

What if he were still making those jokes even though he.

[Ken O'Connor]

Human joke.

[Zach]

Even though I have a heart.

[Marianne Bray]

They're like, what a weird thing to say. Dude.

[Stephen Paul]

I love ironic punishment.

[Zach]

I also want to. That's what it is. That's what you made those shitty jokes. Now you're going to have it. Now it's going to pay off.

[Ed]

It's hell's division of ironic punishments.

[Zach]

Yeah, I think it's interesting too, because no one has even commented that we've never seen Brooks eyes that I could think of versus like Doflamingo and who else's eyes? Wasn't there someone recently that I'm forgetting? That's much more obvious. I don't know.

[Jill Knight]

I mean, Brooke is usually a skeleton, so usually the question of where his eyes are, we have that answered.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah. He's got kind of sleepy eyes with the lower lashes.

[Zach]

Bedroom eyes at 4am, you know, anymore.

[Jill Knight]

This is later 4:20 blaze it. That's why.

[Zach]

That's what it is.

[Stephen Paul]

He's got Muppet.

[Marianne Bray]

This must be.

[Zach]

Yes, those are Muppet eyes.

[Marianne Bray]

And then you have Shurdy, who of course has like two colored eyes that look really freaky in black and white. But that's okay. She's cute. She's got a little snot nose. Look at this baby girl and her little baby military outfit.

[Ed]

Her short pants and boots.

[Marianne Bray]

Well, she's a child. Shorts. That's how it goes, I guess.

[Zach]

I think that is like a Japanese. Like, I feel like that's. I don't know. Maybe not. Ken, it's yours. But if you want to give Marianne more.

[Marianne Bray]

I never finished Marianne.

[Ken O'Connor]

Didn't finish you.

[Zach]

Oh, my God.

[Marianne Bray]

I forgot to say her little lines. I was too busy introducing her and getting distracted by sergeant Pepperbrook. But she says, I worked hard today. You think I got any stronger? Just like mama.

[Jill Knight]

Aw.

[Zach]

Okay.

[Marianne Bray]

She's very cute.

[Ken O'Connor]

Marianne, do you want to do a team up where I'll do everything else? So you can keep doing Shuri since you've nailed that voice.

[Marianne Bray]

Absolutely.

[Zach]

You can't just inhabit a seven year old girl.

[Ken O'Connor]

I mean, I could try, but she's so joking.

[Zach]

I'm joking. I'm joking.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay, so next page we have Brook here. Hearts in his eyes. His eyes are gone already. Nether hearts. Yes. Her majesty is very powerful. Ah, Queen Candel, light of my life.

[Marianne Bray]

It's not good to fall in love with a married woman, Brook.

[Ken O'Connor]

What do you mean? Love is free. And then we are introduced to the

[Zach]

Scopper Gabon line too, right?

[Ken O'Connor]

It is. It's great.

[Zach]

And I want to say it's Sergeant Brooke has heart eyes banned.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay.

[Zach]

There we go.

[Ken O'Connor]

It's getting better with age.

[Zach]

Is that how jokes work? Okay, sure.

[Ken O'Connor]

Next, we are introduced to the kingdom of Esperia King. Is this Reuven?

[Stephen Paul]

Reuven, yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

Reuven. Okay.

[Ed]

It's a curiously biblical name for a Japanese comic.

[Ken O'Connor]

Is it? Yeah.

[Ed]

He was one of the sons of Jacob.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, I didn't know. Okay.

[Zach]

Ooh.

[Ken O'Connor]

Which looks.

[Zach]

I don't know my sons of Jacob. I'm gonna be honest.

[Ken O'Connor]

And it looks like he has a pair of pruning shears here. And I'm not gonna body shame this king at all, but he seems a.

[Zach]

Is he the horticulture list here? He's doing all. The king is doing his own.

[Stephen Paul]

He's doing the topiary.

[Zach]

Topiaries. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

I think there's a question. Yeah. Either he is and that's just like his hobby, or he's doing like. Like cobra and igoram. And he was spying on bro and in disguise, he was pretending to be the gardener.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, that's funny. If that's wearing his.

[Ed]

And look how shabby he is with his tank top. And.

[Zach]

Yeah, you can sign,

[Stephen Paul]

you can pack.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, he's interesting.

[Stephen Paul]

And mustard stains on his.

[Zach]

It's an interesting design. That makes me wonder, is he supposed to be evil or is he supposed like. Because he does look a lot Like, Oda's like evil king stereotypical. Like, yeah, design. Design wise. Or is he just gonna be? Or is that subverting our expectations? I guess we'll see.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yes, well, he's. He's side eying Brook, and he goes, I sentence you to death for conspiracy. And Brook's like, oh, too harsh. Please, boss. I. I mean. Your Majesty.

[Zach]

Papa,

[Ken O'Connor]

you were plotting to kill me, weren't you? Of course not. Don't even suggest it. I'll wait until death takes you.

[Marianne Bray]

Come on, Brooke. Forget about Mama. Oh. Oh, no, she. Oh, she's so cute. Don't worry, Brooke. When I grow up, I'll marry you instead.

[Ken O'Connor]

No, Shuri. You're supposed to say goofy stuff like that to me and melt my heart. And then Brook's like, oh, no, thanks. I prefer a wife without the runny nose.

[Stephen Paul]

What? You picky oaf. How dare you turn down my daughter

[Ken O'Connor]

in front of me. I am nothing if not faithful. And then a guard comes in, interrupts this little scene. As she sniffs in, Brook's doing a prototype of his bending at 45 degrees, ducking out of the way of the kick.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, he is.

[Zach]

That's funny.

[Ken O'Connor]

The king very flexible for getting his leg that high up there. Honestly, I was impressed. But the guard runs in and says, I hate to interrupt the fun, you, Majesty. There's a gang on horseback riding through the city from the port. Some of the battle convoys in town, but they're outnumbered. We've sent more from the castle, but I don't think they'll make it in time. And we get a nice little Oda map here of the entire kingdom.

[Zach]

I like how we get an Oda map of it before we, like, actually really see any of it. I thought this was very early for an Oda map.

[Ken O'Connor]

One thing I like, though. On the map, you can see that the palace itself is a giant harp.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's very. Yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

Everything about this kingdom we'll talk about later. But this kingdom is so well designed. And I love all the music themings. And then we go. Go back to King Reuven, and he's like, what are they after?

[Jill Knight]

And then we go to. Back in the city, they've been shouting for Queen Kendell, who is enjoying an opera in town. Oh, sorry. This is still in the palace.

[Zach]

And the.

[Jill Knight]

In the gardens. What is it, the Mulan family? Yes, sir. They've been after Candel for years. When did they land at my port? Said word to Candel not to leave the opera house. And then, unfortunately, they explain, you know, she's following the rules, as everyone should in a theater. The Opera house's transponder snail is on silent mode during the show. Please don't interrupt.

[Zach]

That made me. That made me laugh. That is very.

[Stephen Paul]

A drafthouse

[Jill Knight]

as a little Shuri here. Do something, Brooke.

[Marianne Bray]

They're gonna kidnap mama.

[Jill Knight]

As Brooke is just like the Moulin Rouges, you say? Which by the way, favorite movie. Good shit.

[Zach]

Moulin Rouge.

[Marianne Bray]

I also read Rouges.

[Jill Knight]

I like my version better, actually, because it's a musical and it would be thematically appropriate here.

[Zach]

Well, I think it's a. I think Steven or Oda or both for being clever.

[Stephen Paul]

I know what you mean. Rouge Rogue. They are completely separate words. They don't even sound.

[Jill Knight]

Never mix those up on this exact podcast before in reference to other characters.

[Zach]

I forgot about that.

[Jill Knight]

Yeah, yeah. It says the Mulan Rogues. You say. Why that's odd. I saw them in port earlier today.

[Ed]

Why didn't you say anything?

[Jill Knight]

And we go to Theater Stream. As you know, there's some thugs racing around on horses.

[Ed]

Down on Broadway.

[Jill Knight]

Down on Broadway. Blam. Blam.

[Marianne Bray]

Eek.

[Jill Knight]

As it's a horseback gang, which, I mean, valid. That's kind of seems like an odd thing to do in a kingdom on a street. I'm not gonna lie. As we get this like, really menacing guy here.

[Zach]

A lot of design. I like this design.

[Jill Knight]

Very gangster.

[Ed]

This bald dude Scott face is interesting too.

[Zach]

Scarface. Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Willem Duskaar.

[Zach]

Oh.

[Jill Knight]

And then we go into the Opera house itself which beautiful. And you know, they're singing on stage. I guess they're. I'm assuming the raw means it's clapping time. Applause. I'm not sure. But we get here presumably Kendel.

[Zach]

Ah.

[Jill Knight]

A beautiful performance. And meanwhile, outside. Come on out, Kandel. We have permission to shoot from Don Mulan. If you don't. Today's the day we settle this. You're gonna be Dawn's woman once and for all.

[Zach]

Wait, can I ask? So I read this as Don Marlon at first because that was the name of the Marlon Brando guy.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, that is true. But this is different. So it's possible that. I think people were speculating that maybe this is like the father or grandfather

[Zach]

of Don Marlin because of the timing. Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. When you get two flashbacks in one arc. Keep going. Sorry, Jill.

[Jill Knight]

As. As here we've got another soldier going. Make sure her majesty doesn't leave the. As they get shot. Which, you know, maybe. Look behind you. Just throwing that out there. Situational awareness. As meanwhile, Reuven here. Help Brooke. And meanwhile, Brooke just, you know, laughing, having a good time. It's gonna be fine, boss. For one thing, she's very strong. They can't take her away. Plus, well, I'm rather stunned. They haven't noticed yet. You see, by the time they left the port, they're crying in front of him.

[Ken O'Connor]

And Brook finishes his line. I'd already cut them all. And then we get a panel of every single one of the rogues here being slashed and falling over, blood spurting out, guns firing, just everyone falling to the ground doing the kenshiro. Exactly. And the crowd's like, I just realized

[Zach]

the horsebacks they were riding were zebras.

[Ken O'Connor]

Zebras smash their pinstripes.

[Jill Knight]

That's really great.

[Zach]

It's a really good, good choice from. From Oda.

[Jill Knight]

Very clashing though. From.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Can you imagine being in the port and like a ship rolls up and there's a bunch of guys in fedoras like sitting on zebras that just like immediately start riding off the the ship into the the port. Be pretty amazing.

[Jill Knight]

And knowing One Piece, the ship is probably zebra themed.

[Ken O'Connor]

The crowd is looking stunned at all the fallen mafia's on the ground. And someone, the crowd goes, what just happened? And then someone's like, oh wait, is this one of those. They were already cut things then. It was Captain Brook's quick draw. Everyone's cheering, Three piece.

[Zach]

Hum.

[Marianne Bray]

Notch slash.

[Ken O'Connor]

Apparently they all know this. This is Brook's signature move. And like, ooh, Sir Brooke.

[Marianne Bray]

He's so dashing. Look, there's Her Majesty. What a beauty she is.

[Ken O'Connor]

As the opera doors open up and we have a little narration here. Seventy years ago, the kingdom of Hesperia harbored two great stars. And on the next page we see one. The former captain of the battle convoy and current Queen Candel. And Candel walks out in all her glory.

[Sam]

Hmm.

[Ken O'Connor]

What a scene out here. And we are introduced to Kingdom of Hesperia. Queen Candel. And the narration with the leggings and

[Ed]

boots kind of reminds me maybe that's where Gunko got her sense of style from.

[Ken O'Connor]

Very well. Could be. Yeah. And the narration continues. The other, an unpopular musician, but master of the quick draw sword technique that left its victims unaware they'd been slashed. The leader of the raider squad, humming Brook. In this era, the kingdom was at peace. To be continued.

[Zach]

Oh no, not peace. That's a cliffhanger.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah, no, we should. We should definitely talk about the uniform too though, because it's in of the same ilk as what we saw Brook wearing. It's that kind of looks like ceremonial military garb. Kind of tres trinada. Yeah. I was gonna say people were making comparisons to Lady Oscar.

[Ed]

Yes, I can see that.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. And maybe. What was it? Utena's like, school uniform. She has kind of the similar thing going on with the epaulettes. Yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

It reminds me of, like, musketeer era kind of a little bit.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. It's very French, for sure.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah.

[Ed]

That's why people got the Rosa Versailles vibes.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah. Her outfit is, like, lighter than Brooks, looking back on it. Like, her jacket is white or some light color. And his is D. So are his men's. They're also dark, so I guess that's just because she's the queen. But it's still. Still Sergeant Peppery to me.

[Ken O'Connor]

And she was the former captain, too, so Brook is currently doing her old position. So he replaced this.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. There's definitely some interesting stuff going on. Because you'll notice also that Brook keeps calling him boss instead of. Or he'll be like, boss. I mean, your majesty. And so, like, in Japanese, that's aniki. So it definitely suggests that, like, this is not necessarily, like, your standard sort of hereditary kingship situation going on here. Like, they. There's a personal history or that maybe

[Ed]

the king was Brooks commanding officer previously, or that's how he met the queen.

[Sam]

They were all.

[Zach]

If they were all military. That's why I say maybe a coup d' etat of some sort happened, especially with what. What we know is bound to happen in that the kingdom no longer exists is how we began this story. So they might not be a sanctioned royal family here, but I guess we'll see.

[Marianne Bray]

Well, unless they go to a reverie, and that's why she's not with them anymore.

[Stephen Paul]

Also possible they go to Mary Joa.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's true.

[Marianne Bray]

Maybe they go, oh, look at her fun eyes. I want that. You're my kid now.

[Jill Knight]

It's interesting. She has these eyes. Early on, I thought it was.

[Zach]

Yes, me too.

[Jill Knight]

Later.

[Zach]

Yeah, I was. I was also surprised by that.

[Ken O'Connor]

And which.

[Ed]

Which celestial dragon family was Gunko stated to be part of?

[Ken O'Connor]

Remember the man mirror or the man Shaft?

[Zach]

Man Shaft. Manchaf.

[Jill Knight]

Wow.

[Ken O'Connor]

Wait, Steven, the name Kendel. Is that. That exactly how it was in the Japanese or was there anything behind that?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, Kendaru and. Yeah, I don't know.

[Zach]

Is there any other brightly?

[Stephen Paul]

Well, yes, she does shine. Yes, she's the light of Brook's life.

[Zach]

Esperia is in Italy too. I know. And I don't know if it's near Milan and will be. No, it isn't. It is not near Milan. It. For me, it reminded me of. Of where UTA was from. He's from red. Yeah. Anyway, that's happening.

[Marianne Bray]

I'm noticing now, looking at Candela's hair, it looks kind of waxy.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's interesting.

[Marianne Bray]

Like Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast.

[Zach]

Wow. I get it. Thoughts on the chapter this week? Marianne, you want to start?

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah. I liked it. I thought it was fun. I'm excited for this flashback. I always like a secondary straw hat flashback. Cause you just get more depth. And I feel like Brook is one of those characters that we knew so little about prior to his later great tragedy. So it's nice that we actually are getting to see it.

[Ed]

See how he ends up with the Rumbar pirates or how they came to be.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah. I'm curious. And then also have it tied back with a new character is like a fun way to. To like, I guess, flexibility.

[Ken O'Connor]

You gotta make me feel sorry for Gungo.

[Marianne Bray]

Promise you don't already. I mean. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. I. I'm looking forward to, like, where this goes. I hope it's not, like, too horrendously long, because it. I. As much as I do love a good flashback, I'm also like, man, we've had two flashbacks now in. In Elbaf.

[Ed]

There's no way it's as long as God Valley, but could be much sadder.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah, I mean, it could be more succinct if it does turn out to be a. Oh, they went to a reverie and kind of ended real quick there and whatever. But I don't know. But yeah, I liked it. There are a lot of fun little.

[Jill Knight]

I just.

[Marianne Bray]

I like a flashback because it's a world building and one piece is so good at that. And another new fun island design.

[Zach]

True.

[Ken O'Connor]

So, okay, I was just.

[Ed]

I was just flipping back a couple of pages, and I was looking at King Reuben again, and I was wondering if he has just thin legs or if he has some sort of peg leg.

[Stephen Paul]

I think that's just Oda legs.

[Zach]

Yeah, the baby. Baby legs. Right? Isn't that what we call them? Ed, your thoughts on the chapter?

[Ed]

It's.

[Ken O'Connor]

There's.

[Ed]

It's. It's full of potential. Like, Brook is such a great character to begin with, but. And we know his tragedy with the pirates and Laboon, but this could make it even sadder. And I want to know more about Brook.

[Marianne Bray]

I am curious as to why he says he doesn't want to see Shuri.

[Zach]

Yeah, me too. Add anything else about the chapter.

[Ed]

Reuben is a very interesting. Again, it is a very interesting name. It's a sort of a western bit, comes from the Bible. But I mean, it makes me think of the sandwich.

[Zach]

Reuben.

[Ed]

Yeah. I mean, that's also a way to translate the name, I think.

[Stephen Paul]

Right, right.

[Zach]

Of the sandwich. Because I think it's only Reuben.

[Ed]

Yeah. I think it's funny that Brook is an unpopular musician, but he's renowned as a soldier.

[Marianne Bray]

He's unpopular because he wakes people up at 4am in the goddamn morning.

[Sam]

Right.

[Jill Knight]

Doesn't matter how good your music is. Shut up, dude. Well, it is like how he wakes up the straw hats. I don't know if that's just filler, but I feel like he does wake them up at one point in the anime.

[Ed]

Yeah, I don't have that much to add at this point.

[Zach]

What 20 year old is up at 4 in the morning, hasn't gone to bed yet? Yeah, maybe that was the Jill thoughts.

[Jill Knight]

Yeah, I'm really jazzed about this. I mean, I don't care how long this flash fest is. Those kids can hold their breath, you know, it's fine. They can swim a little bit. They survived the fire, now in water. We still have two more elements after this. We got a few more flashbacks, I think coming up. But yeah, I'm really jazzed about this. Brooke is such an interesting character because obviously we've gotten, you know, full flashback from him. But unlike the other straw hats, he still has so much time like, like his earlier life that we just know nothing about. And he has actually dropped hints about that, you know, little, little crumbs here and there. I find it very interesting that his country no longer exists and that I'm, you know, will obviously tie into the bigger picture of like, you know, how politically things are now.

[Ed]

Yeah, the why of that is going to be.

[Jill Knight]

Yeah, Sting. I wonder if like, you know, maybe Robin's heard of it or something when she like finds out. It's just it. It's so much. We don't have so much stuff from this, this time period. So I'm really excited about this bit. They mentioned an arena too, which makes me think it's like a concert arena. But I think it'd be interesting if it like was like a coliseum converted to like a concert arena. If this is like a country that was at war and is now at peace or something, by the time Brook leaves his country or it's destroyed, he'll have his Scar, and then we'll see him meet up with Yorkie, which I think we'll see in this flashback, which is very interesting.

[Marianne Bray]

He might get rescued by Yorkie. It might be a case of, like, if IMU or whatever destroys Esperia because reasons. It might be. He might get rescued. That might be why.

[Jill Knight]

Yeah, I mean, it could definitely be that happening. He just, like. I don't know if if, like. Like, Brooke and Yorkie were, like, the first two to meet up or if, like, Brooke made his way up in the crew there. It's. I don't know, It's. There's just a lot of. A lot of potential for history and lore for us to learn from this. Like, you know, substantial and not, but just world building more. But, yeah, very excited. Yeah, we'll see where it goes.

[Zach]

Stephen.

[Stephen Paul]

I'm very excited about this. It is definitely, like, okay, so, yeah, we're gonna do. We're gonna do this again. We're gonna do another flashback, but I am okay with it for Brooke specifically, just because this is, you know, like, I mean, sure, we could. We could potentially get a flashback for Jim Bay, let's say, at some point, because, you know, we only know his. His backstory, sort of incidentally through other

[Ed]

characters or, like, what was Nami's backstory before she was rescued by Bell? Merely, like, she was gonna.

[Jill Knight]

Princess. We already know this is gonna happen.

[Stephen Paul]

But. But, you know, Brooke Brook's human life, definitely. I mean, even just from Thriller Bark, we already had, like, hints about this, you know, his position back here. So. And then having that followed by, you know, the Rumbar Pirates flashback at the end of that arc. We were always bound, I think, to learn this story. And so I'm very excited, even if it does seem like an inopportune time. But I also am. I'm optimistic. I don't think this is going to be super long because I think we. I think our standards or our, like, measuring stick for flashbacks has gotten, you know, kind of twisted recently because the last couple have been, like, there have been really several flashbacks in one. Like, we're not going to see any God Valley here. There's not going to be any. You know, if we see Emu, I'm sure it will be something very incidental or very maybe in Mary Joa. Right, right, exactly. That's what I mean. And. And so I think that this is probably, like. I would imagine this could be something Oda could knock out in, like, four or five chapters if he wanted. You know, anything that we get of Brooks, you know, youth, I think, is also just very valuable character building as well for. Especially for a character that, that we have all kind of lamented has been very, very short end of the stick, you know, since the time skip. So I was very pleased about that. And I do love all of the. The detail that Oda put into designing this. Like, there's still a lot of questions like we were talking about of like, what's going on with the king and the queen here and their sort of political structure. It does seem like he's Otis doing something with this that we're gonna learn more about probably in the next chapter or two. And so that's all, you know, very, very interesting. I think so. Yeah. Very, very eager to, to see more of this and hoping that it is, as I said, modestly, length, not. Not too long, which it will probably be. So, yeah, I, I'm. I'm all for it. I'm very excited about this, Ken.

[Ken O'Connor]

I loved this chapter. I've been waiting for this Brook flashback to come into place ever since we saw Gunko first recognize Brook. And like, okay, there's something there. And I just really. I'm excited we're finally here and seeing it. Just the entire intro to the flashback, the whole brook waking everyone up at 4am like so clearly in my head I heard like the speakers turning on like the aux connecting that like, reverb. You hear. I got a concert when things first turn on and the sound is radiating throughout the city. It's almost like his Disney moment where he's singing a song throughout the town and everyone's like, oh, just shut up. It's so good. And it's just a great way of introducing this kingdom. When you're in a musical, it's fine to sing. When you're not, it can become a little bit annoying. So it's funny. Especially at 4am At 4am the crack of dawn.

[Marianne Bray]

That's not even. That's like pre crack of dawn in most places.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. Well, when he finishes his song, he jumps. At the end, the sun's just peeking over the ocean, so it's just about there. But yeah. Esperia as a kingdom looks really, really cool. All the musical theme.

[Ed]

Why is the queen attending an opera at the crack of dawn?

[Zach]

No, I think twilight's past.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. I assume once we see Brooke and Shuri walking, that's later in the day.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah. Because she mentions being like trained and how she did good that day. Yeah. After a day of work, the day is done.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Ed]

Right.

[Ken O'Connor]

Reuven is Very interesting. When I first saw him, he looked kind of like waffle to me. So, like, if waffle was wario, this is like the Waluigi version of Wapple. Like, a little bit taller and lankier and a little more.

[Jill Knight]

I was thinking foxy, actually. A little bit.

[Marianne Bray]

Someone did point out that his chin looks kind of like the lion that. What is forget.

[Jill Knight]

You're right. Absalom's chin.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah, Absalom's face.

[Jill Knight]

Oh, God, yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

The lion's name.

[Zach]

It could be. It could be.

[Ken O'Connor]

It does look like that, though. You're right.

[Zach]

It could be that chin. It could be literally that chin on that lion man. Zombie. Possible.

[Marianne Bray]

Or. I mean, that was theorized that that was the other half of Absalom's actual face, but maybe it was this dude or they just happen to have the same butt chin.

[Stephen Paul]

Or it's anyone else in the world.

[Marianne Bray]

Or anybody else.

[Ken O'Connor]

But it's interesting because the first time I saw Reuven, I got, like, a bad vibe to him. But then the way he was interacting with Brook, and Brook's basically saying, like, hey, your wife's hot. And, yeah, if you die, I'm making my move, but until then, I'll be respectful. And, like, he's saying that to his king and his commander, and, like, he's kind of, like, okay with it. Like, it's not too. Like, he doesn't, like, kill him right then and there. And then, like, he's like, oh, Shuri, why aren't you, like, saying you love me as much as you love Brook? Like, it seems like he doesn't seem like a bad guy. He just seems kind of, like, schlubby a little bit. And we know just because you're slubby

[Zach]

does not mean you're evil.

[Ken O'Connor]

Exactly. Exactly. But we know that Shuri's gonna kill him, too. So I can't wait to see what events lead up.

[Zach]

I forgot about that spoiler alert.

[Ken O'Connor]

Because Brooke mentioned that Shuri killed the king, who is her father.

[Marianne Bray]

I did not remember that.

[Zach]

It was a while ago. It was probably the last time you were on.

[Ken O'Connor]

So I'm curious, because we were saying, oh, this flashback can't go on that long. I'm just wondering, because we know that Gunko has stopped aging. So does Brook see Shuri go to Mary Jo at, like, at a young age, or is she.

[Zach]

It's gotta be around where Gunko is now, which is what's supposed to be like.

[Stephen Paul]

Cause he remembered her crying right. In the earlier scene, but she also

[Ken O'Connor]

was smaller in that Little burst of flashback. So it could be that he saw her as a young girl because he said the only thing he recognized her about her were the eyes, the color hair, and that she was a princess. So we don't know when they separated, so. So I'm assuming this is going to be a little bit longer amount of time in terms of the flashback. And I can't imagine her killing her dad as a little girl. So I think we have.

[Marianne Bray]

It's one piece. I can.

[Zach]

100%

[Ed]

when she's introduced. Looks like she's in her 20s or something.

[Zach]

Oh, wow. I got lucky. So chapter 1149 is where we get these first glimpses of this. So, Ken, do you have more to say? Sorry, I didn't want to.

[Ken O'Connor]

You can interject. Go ahead.

[Zach]

So the thing that sticks out most to me is that the three people in them, that line from Brooke right before we enter the flashback, particularly because Gunko's reaction when she gets those memories at the end of 1149 is, what is this memory? And then realizing it's Brook before getting taken over by Imu.

[Stephen Paul]

Right.

[Ken O'Connor]

Brook even mentions in this chapter that he's seen three different personalities.

[Zach]

That's what I mean.

[Ken O'Connor]

Because we've seen the brainwashed Gunko, we've seen the Imu controlled Gunko, and then we've seen Shuri breaking through the Sunken place momentarily.

[Zach]

Right?

[Jill Knight]

Yeah.

[Zach]

So there's. Well, there's three different sunken Places. I mean, like, that's kind of. That's kind of where things have landed. I'm trying to find. I don't know if Brooke specifically. What triggers her memory in 1149 is the kids yelling daddy as they're about to, like, you know, fly off, and she's yelling father. I'm trying to remember when specifically do you remember, Ken? When it said she killed. I got a.

[Ken O'Connor]

When I pass it over to you, if you want to just. I'll finish up now then.

[Zach]

Yeah, if you finish up, I'll find it. It's got to be around there. Yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

I'm mad we cut away from the Zaza freaky stuff so soon, because after last week's chapter, the previous chapter, I felt like that was gonna be the big, like, set piece. I'm glad that we see Sanji approaching and that is gonna eventually happen. I'm just sad that we're being pulled away. We're being pulled away for a good reason. So not complaining too much, but, yeah, this is a phenomenal chapter. I'm just very excited to see more of this. All right. Go ahead, Zach.

[Zach]

Yeah, I'm trying to. Yeah, I was trying. What is it that.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, what is it that is in contention here?

[Zach]

It's not contention. I'm just trying to find where it says she killed his father. Her own father.

[Ken O'Connor]

I'll pull it up.

[Ed]

Zach.

[Stephen Paul]

He called her, like, the father killing.

[Zach]

Yeah, I was just trying to remember

[Stephen Paul]

when that happened or whatever. Yeah,

[Zach]

yeah, no, this was. This was a really, really fun chapter. So the first half, I do want to talk about a little. This is the Oda. I'm going to set up all the stakes and the drama before we head into a flashback, which he did similarly before the God Valley one. I think it's a lot more effective now, but also makes it equally disappointing when we do head away. I mean, there's multiple emotions to feel with it, but. Yeah, that's definitely an interesting choice as to why now are we heading into this specific flashback? And I'm sure there's good reason.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, but just imagine we get through this flashback and they save the kids again from. From emu. Again. And then he's like this. You haven't seen my third form yet. And then he transforms again, and then Ratatoskar is like. And then goes. 5,000 years ago, 4:00am you know,

[Sam]

I'm

[Zach]

gonna write that down.

[Jill Knight]

Listen, if Brooke had woken me up at 4am he would have been a skeleton way faster than in his life, because same. Yeah, no way, man.

[Zach]

Yes, I agree as someone who has children who wake me up at that hour, but. But I also feel like with Brooke, you know, love the hell out of them. But also, please don't wake me up at 4am Please stop. I would. I'd be angry if I got a ratatask or flashback. No, I wouldn't. That sounds fun. I would totally be down for that.

[Ken O'Connor]

The panel, if you want to.

[Zach]

I'm glad I killed enough time. What chapter?

[Ken O'Connor]

It's chapter 1173.

[Zach]

Oh, it was recent.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, right.

[Zach]

It was when he confronted her, isn't it? Yeah. Okay.

[Ken O'Connor]

He goes. Princess Shuri, is that you? Princess Shuri? No, of course not. I know you can't be her, but you look so alike. It reminds me of her. And I couldn't help but check, just in case. But even if you're not the same person, you'd be blood relatives. Yes. If she were still alive, she'd be nearly 80 years old, after all. And she certainly wouldn't recognize me in the state I am in now. But your face, your blue hair, your mismatched eyes, and the holy Land and your love of my music. All of it aligns perfectly, doesn't Princess Shuri. I never wanted to think of you again for the rest of my life. Not the father killing Princess. The life you stole away belong to the man to whom I owe everything. So that. If that is referring to Reuven here, like, that colors it in a very interesting way that I want to see more of.

[Zach]

Well, the next page is even more interesting because this is when Imu says, gunko is thy memory coming back. And then how darest thou. How dare you, for retrieving the memories that are in your body. It's very interesting stuff. And the thing that I'm most excited slash happy about with this particular flashback is it really doesn't. It feels like almost the opposite of shoehorned in. In that it's like Oda feels like he has to get the story out of the way, like, for good or for bad. You know, like, unlike the. Like, the Sanji won, you know, pros or cons to it. Sure. But, like, that definitely did feel more. I don't know if shoehorn's the right word, but, like, it felt a little more superfluous. Yeah. A little more recony. Yeah. This. We already. He's laid a lot of breadcrumbs, so he has a lot to work with Oda, which maybe it's also because he's gotten better at that over time. Like setting breadcrumbs up like that over a very long period of time versus, like, at the beginning, when it was Sanji is just Sanji. And there's this flashback with Zef on an island, you know, eating his own leg.

[Jill Knight]

I think it's fair to believe that Brooke has more time in his life for a tragic backstory than Sanji has had time. His life for two tragic backstories by the time he's like nine years old, you know?

[Zach]

Agree. Agree.

[Jill Knight]

Poor kid.

[Zach]

Yeah, I'm. I have issues with the second Sanji flashback, mostly because it feels like Robin Part two, You know, in a lot of ways, they like, literally say the line. But that aside, I am. I am excited about this particular one for many reasons. First of all, I also like Brooke a lot. He is definitely the underappreciated straw hat, and, you know, it. Quirks. Some quirks aside, he's been a very. He's been interesting in that he has kind of approached everything with some mystery. I remember specifically in Whole Cake Island. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think the stuff with Capone, he was acting mysterious around Big Mom. And around. Maybe even the fact that, you know, it's. It's gangsters and they're west blue. Right. Is Capone from the west blue? Yeah. So, you know, he. He always approaches these interesting situations with ellipses, even though he seems like this very, you know, wacky. And he is this very like wacky off the wall.

[Jill Knight]

Recognizes the Vinsmoke name, I think.

[Zach]

Right.

[Jill Knight]

That's what happened.

[Stephen Paul]

He did.

[Jill Knight]

He did, yeah. So that's interesting. I wonder if we'll get a little mention here.

[Zach]

And I do. My favorite. One of my favorite things of his during whole Cake island unrelated is how he calls her a young lady, I think is fantastic. But he does have so much to work with there and I love what we've gotten so far. It does feel a little like Oda ripping off of himself with the film red stuff. But I am. This is still great stuff. And we haven't really talked about the Queen Candel and she. I don't think she looks like the ordinary Oda, you know, beautiful queen princess character. Right. I feel like he's actually a little bit outside. A little bit outside. Facially different.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, facially is the same, but the design is.

[Zach]

I don't know. Yeah, no, I think, I think she looks closer to Cavendish than the usual.

[Marianne Bray]

She looks like a boss ass bitch is what she looks like.

[Zach]

She does. She does.

[Ken O'Connor]

She's candle dish. Oh my God.

[Stephen Paul]

Not dish.

[Zach]

Candle dish. Anyway, I don't know if I have much else to say about this. I'm excited to get into it, but I don't really know if there's like much else that, you know, much else to chew on besides what we've already discussed at this point. Next week is going to be depressing, I'm sure.

[Marianne Bray]

Yay.

[Ken O'Connor]

What's over under that Kendell dies. Like to me it seems like that. So.

[Zach]

Bro, it's 70 years ago.

[Jill Knight]

Literally her name.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's true.

[Ken O'Connor]

Jesus.

[Jill Knight]

Well, you know, she's a mom. She's a one piece mom. Like we've been over this. I've got the figure from winning the bets about these things before, like.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's right.

[Zach]

You know, I will also say, you know, even if she is fine and unscathed through this whole thing, it's 70 years ago. So either she is like in a mortal celestial dragon or she is dead from old age or from something else. Because again, 70 years, I very highly doubt she's around.

[Marianne Bray]

Unless she is actually Dr. Kureha.

[Jill Knight]

And I'm waiting for Brooke and Kureha to meet. So she can call him a young man.

[Marianne Bray]

Yes.

[Zach]

Oh my God, that would be amazing. Damn, I love it.

[Stephen Paul]

I like that. This also for this me, for this flashback, we have a meme already built in. So like the Loki one was. What was it? It was that it was a three minute story that Loki is telling to everybody.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Stephen Paul]

And it was like 16 chapters. And for this one, Jim Bay is just like standing there like tapping his shoulder, like his finger on his arm. Like, come on, we gotta get up. Does she live or does she die?

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Jill Knight]

Jim is like, I want to join the fight, but I really gotta know how this story ends.

[Ken O'Connor]

And then Candel walked out of the opera house. Jimmy' like, come on, get to the point.

[Jill Knight]

Brook's like, I had already cut them. It's like, come on, man.

[Marianne Bray]

I cut them three hours ago.

[Jill Knight]

Which actually Brooke has a musical intermission in his storytelling probably.

[Zach]

Now I'm going to sing an unrelated song.

[Stephen Paul]

And then they all stood up and applauded and said the name of my special attack. And

[Zach]

Brooke, not only do I not believe what you're saying.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Jill Knight]

You know what? I do find it interesting if you think how famous that Brook is now as the Soul King. If there is anyone other than Gunko alive from this country who might recognize him from that because his name is known across the world now.

[Zach]

They would be very old though, so they would not really know about his TD's tone dials. Right. That's what they're.

[Jill Knight]

Grandma, what did you listen to when you were young? Oh, this piece of woke me up at 4am every day.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh brother, this guy stinks.

[Jill Knight]

Why did you wake me up?

[Marianne Bray]

Honey?

[Zach]

Get. Get me. My gun just shoots the transponder style.

[Stephen Paul]

Fetch my gun.

[Zach]

Not again. Why are you listening to that racket at 4 in the morning?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I. I will say I did love that. All of the. The stuff in the reactions. It is very usoppy. It is like basically not for note is Usopp intro. So. But it's a good.

[Zach]

I mean it. I think it's. It. Yeah, it's. It's. It's the same but different.

[Stephen Paul]

I mean it fits. Yes, it fits into his characterization as a musician. So like that he's singing songs, he's a musician.

[Zach]

Okay, well, find out new things every day. That's gonna do it. For the manga recap, why don't we move on into the next segment.

[Sam]

This is the triple anime recap for episode 1161 through 1163. And we are joined with. Oh yeah. Oh my God. It's been so long I forgot we had like a thing.

[Ken O'Connor]

Do you not remember my bit?

[Sam]

So I remembered I started doing like really long Yu Gi oh card names for you. Okay, wait.

[Ken O'Connor]

I thought my thing was the Opposite Day every time.

[Sam]

Well, then it moved. It moved like it was. It was hyper hyperbolic. And now.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, that's what you were doing.

[Sam]

Well, yeah, so. Yeah. So like eventually, like eventually I added the Opposite Day thing. And we're done with Opposite Day.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay, good. Thank God.

[Sam]

On Opposite Day.

[Ken O'Connor]

On Opposite Day. So it's never over.

[Sam]

Joining us today is super Anti Kaiju machine Mecha Thunder King Ken o'.

[Ed]

Connor.

[Ken O'Connor]

You had the opportunity to put Kind King in there to make it my actual use.

[Sam]

I was like, like I. I was read because I. I was like collecting them in my notes of like, what things I want to call you eventually later. And I was like. Then like, as I was reading, I was like, oh shit. It's so Super Anti Kaiju machine Mecha Thunder kind King Ken o'.

[Stephen Paul]

Connor.

[Ken O'Connor]

Thanks for having me, Sam. Good to be back.

[Sam]

So we. We begin this triple anime recap for with episode 1161, A Dangerous Deal. Loki of the Underworld and Luffy. And it begins with chapter 1131. Or well, it covers manga chapter 1131. And it begins with Luffy throwing his hands in the air saying, I did it. Because he's excited to. To have confirmation that he's in Elbaf now. And we got the triumphant music going on. But it cuts abrupt abruptly as Loki's like, hey, hey, hey, listen. And this, you know, getting. Getting Luffy's attention causes a conqueror saki burst to erupt from. From Loki. And it is enough to prevent perturb the the beasts of the area. And we. We watch a mysterious cloaked. We watch some mysterious cloaked figures wandering through the snow. Loki says, I am a legend. I am spoken of as a legend in this country. I am the Sun God. What do you make of all this? And Luffy's like, oh yeah, that's cool. Yeah. So Loki Elbafs a cursed prince. He has a special government bounty of 2.6 billion. Luffy's just like, what do I make of it? I. I think you're in chains. And Loki explains that he's been chained up for six years and that he has a favor to ask. And he calls Luffy a rotty. And Luffy has to correct him. Loki is trying to make a deal. If Luffy lets him out, he'll wipe out any pirate crew of his choice. And that the key should be somewhere in the village. And he calls this. This underworld like as like yetis and wolves and snakes and elephants are kind of gathering in the area to intimidate us. Loki is bragging that this is the. The underworld. This is the world where the sun has died. And Luffy, you know, he's looking up at the monsters. They look very similar to the kind of animals he was hanging out with on. On Ruskaya. And as. As Luffy is marveling at this site, the cloaked figures in like gas. Gas masks are. Are arriving. And they are humans who have messed with Elbaf. And they're. They're. They're wearing gas masks because they're wearing like stinky clothes to avoid the beasts.

[Ken O'Connor]

I love these guys. Like, I like them. When they showed up in the manga, like they have very small.

[Sam]

I completely forgot about them.

[Ken O'Connor]

I keep joking because I keep calling the Knights of Ren like the Knights of Loki because they just kind of are a little nobody servants to Loki in black robes. But the way they're animated in this segment, I just remember them. They're kind of bobbing back and forth a little bit. The way they move is very fun in this segment. I remember that stuck with me.

[Sam]

Yeah, a little bit like a little Miyazaki ghosts or something.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yes, very similar to that.

[Sam]

Yeah, these are some. Some glup ship beards for another day. And the figures are wondering if they are able to rob Luffy. But they're warning each other of what happened last time when they encountered the red haired pirates. And then that gets Luffy's attention. But it gets his attention while he's already like, you know, getting the giant lions to give him high fives and stuff.

[Zach]

Stuff.

[Sam]

And.

[Ken O'Connor]

And they're all freaking out like, how'd he do that?

[Sam]

Yeah, how is he friends with them already? And then Loki has to get a jab in and call Shanks a cowardly pirate. And this prompts Luffy to get mad and go immediately to. To fourth gear and tries to punch Loki.

[Ken O'Connor]

That was the quickest transformation to Gear four I think we've ever seen. Like, Luffy like, like snapped. Boom. And just punched. It was great.

[Sam]

And you know, Loki's insinuating that he'll tell Luffy more if. If he lets him out of his chains. That brings us to the eye catch of the episode. And the rest of the crew is trying to cross the giant bridge, but it starts to shake because now Roto is running down it and Usopp's like, oh, it's a guy who looks like he's charred with lightning. And Nami makes a face because she knows that's her. That's her handiwork. And you also have Gerd and Goldberg are shortly behind and. But Goldberg is carrying the Sunny for some reason over his head. Elsewhere in the woods, Harudin has won his fight with the, the weird like lizard moose thing and his crewmate Stanson is helping him to lift it. And they, they're like humming a little theme song for the new Giant Warrior pirates. So they're, they're prolific enough to have their own theme music. And you know, the, the narrator is giving us a classic kind of rundown of the, of the new giant crew. Haru Den's the captain, Stanson's the shipwright, Roto's the navigator, Goldberg's the cook, and Gerd is the doctor here. And Brooke back on the ship with the, on the great Eric with that half of the crew. We have Brooke giving Robin a haircut while everybody watches. Everyone, everyone's just kind of going ooh and ah. And, and, and Jim bae. Jim BAE kind of has this look like as if, as if he's reminiscing about the good old days that he wasn't there for.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, you don't know. You have no idea.

[Sam]

He's like, ah, yes, what are we doing? And you know, Brooke was nervous because he's never cut a woman's hair before. His heart was pounding, but he doesn't have a heart skull joke. And yeah, everyone, everyone's kind of, you know, just marveling at Robin's. She's got her bangs back. Yeah, classic old school bangs. Robin looking, looking cute. Even Oimo is nostalgic. He's like, oh, that's how he looked when we met. And then, you know, the crew is watching as Elbaf is coming into view and. But, but this is cut alongside a shot of a mysterious somebody on the island running and calling out for help because Mr. Saul has collapsed. And that's our cliffhanger for the episode.

[Ken O'Connor]

Dun dun dun.

[Sam]

So 1162, a gargantuan wave of emotion. The dreamlike scenery of Elbaf. And so this is covering chapter 1132 and the.

[Jill Knight]

We.

[Sam]

We have the crew emerging through like, you know, the Nami and, and Sanji and their group. They're like kind of running through the trees. They were like inside one of the trees and they're making the way their way out. And taken in the sight of the forest, Luffy is emerging back up above the. The underworld. And he's catching Goldberg and Gerd running with his ship. And he lands in the palm of Gerd's hands. And kind of asking them, what's up? Goldberg's like, oh, did you just come from the underworld? And then Luffy gets really sweaty because he had promised Loki not to tell anybody.

[Ken O'Connor]

This is a good bit.

[Sam]

Yeah, he's like. He's classic bad liar Luffy, why your hands all sweaty?

[Ken O'Connor]

And why are you standing like that?

[Sam]

And then on. On the shore, we have the bar that. That Shanks was hanging out at when he fought Kid and one of the giant children, Colin, is hanging out at this bar bar. And he's excited to see the great Eric coming from the horizon. And he's like, calling out to them like, oh, you're gonna stop at the bar, right? And we see Dorian Brogy on the. On the deck given, like, hand signs. Like. Like Brogies. Like X hands. Like, no, Brogy's pointing up to the sky. We're going up. And the. The new giant parrots are also trying to intercept them. But Brogy just pulls out like, this clear cube thing. And yeah, they're like sailing towards a. Like a waterfall with the reflective water and stuff. They, like, hold up this, like this prism stone thing that they call a painter, and it creates a rainbow bridge. And like, Jimbe is like, oh, I didn't think you could see rainbows from this angle. Because he's. He's like, I know some science, and this isn't science.

[Ken O'Connor]

This isn't. This isn't matching what I know of the world.

[Sam]

So, yeah, they're all amazed that they can ride up this. This rainbow as if it's water. And we. Elsewhere, we have Roto chasing after Nami and Chopper. And it's just a lure so that Zoro and Sanji could cut down and kick down a tree to crush him and topple him and stop him.

[Ken O'Connor]

Right. They're all concerned because they don't want to, like, attack him head on. They need to make it look like, oh, the giant's gotten into an accident. Like, if a trait kills him, it's

[Sam]

weird that they're, like, so concerned about whether they'll be implicated in a crime.

[Ken O'Connor]

Well, the last thing you want is to piss off an entire island of giants. And if you cut down one of their own, who knows what happens?

[Sam]

I guess I just feel like there's just so many situations where they're. They're not. So.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, it's. It's very. It's a very comedic angle to approach it with.

[Sam]

Yeah. And so you know, Goldberg and Gerd are now also finally arriving, and they like, they basically spank Roto out from under the tree with their axes. And now Zoro's like, see, it was a good idea. Now, now there's no evidence that we did anything.

[Ken O'Connor]

They did a good job making Roto like extra creepy and kind of pervy and like, Gerd was like, so like annoyed like grape as they smacked him. It was pretty great.

[Sam]

Yeah. So. So they're. We're. We're running through the. The island. Yeah. So we're meeting up with the.

[Zach]

The.

[Sam]

This part of the crew and this part of the new giant pirates are acquainting themselves and eventually they make their way to the edge of the island clouds right past. Right outside the woods at around the same time that the great Eric is arriving on the Rainbow Bridge. And we got this very nice shot of like Luffy and Usopp like excitedly running in profile as they're like, you know, remembering their. Their, you know, the times back in the day when they were excited to. To see Elbaf. And they get the. They get a glimpse of the. The full sight of this giant town. And Usopp is crying. And we get a very, very gentle sounding new. A different narrator. It's Louis Arnault who's speaking of somebody who apparently had gone to Elbaf and had written about it as well, as well as going to like, little garden and stuff. And the voice sounds very much like a much more gentle brook. Like, it sounds like Cho almost.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's a good way of. Yeah, that's a good way of comparing it.

[Sam]

And. Yeah, so. So Louis is saying the gargantuan. Gargantuan size is emotion. Is an emotion itself. Who could ever find the right words to describe the view? This is Elbaf island, the Kingdom of Warland. Adventurers, do not mourn your time here. That passes, never to return. And it takes Luffy, Usopp and Chopper like an extra second to bug their eyes out at the Rainbow Bridge.

[Ken O'Connor]

The delay is pretty funny. Like, hey, guys, wait, what?

[Sam]

Yeah, and Louis Arno keeps talking. He says, keep these words in the back of your mind. Do not overstay your welcome. And this is the cliffhanger of the episode as we're watching a. The silhouette, a shadowy figure of somebody else, a certain somebody moving through the woods, passing by a bear, looks very

[Ken O'Connor]

similar to that figure. We saw a couple episodes back at the end of Egghead that was saying, come on to the end of Talbath, certainly.

[Sam]

And then episode 1163. I want you to praise the reunion of. Of Robin and Saul.

[Ken O'Connor]

Grab the tissues.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Ed]

Yeah.

[Sam]

It was quite effective, this episode.

[Ken O'Connor]

I read the manga, and I knew what this episode was gonna be. I didn't think it was gonna affect me as much. And we'll get into it, but, like, I cried. I cried this episode. It got me. Between the animation, the music, and everything, this episode got me.

[Zach]

Go ahead.

[Ken O'Connor]

I didn't mean to interrupt.

[Sam]

I'm not an easy. I'm not an easy crier. Like, I definitely. It tugged the heartstrings, for sure. We have some black and white memories of Robin's childhood, and I like this scene of Spandine giving, like, his version of events to the reporters.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yes. Yeah, that was cool.

[Sam]

I thought that was very interesting, you know, telling them that Robin was the one responsible for destroying all the warships, ships.

[Ken O'Connor]

She killed all the. All the. The people. And then she took down a navy ship. She did all of it. Like, she really building her up to be this absolute devil child.

[Sam]

Yeah. And just like a montage of Robin trying to kind of survive on her own after. After the events of Ohara, there's a scene of. She's, like, looking at the. Like, some sort of, like, map book at a. At a shop.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, yeah. And Ohara is no longer in the book.

[Sam]

Well, yeah, she's. She's, like, jotting down. Yeah, she's, like, trying. She's, like, drawing, scribbling Ohara into the book. And that gets her in trouble. And then the guy, the. The shopkeeper is like, hey, hold on, I know you. And then, you know, there's just lots of scenes of people trying to hunt Robin down.

[Ken O'Connor]

Was this also where they have the montage of her running and the screen, the way it's animated, it's like a white line on the screen, and it keeps rotating and like, she runs horizontally and she runs parallel to the line. But I thought that was really beautifully done, honestly.

[Sam]

Yeah, I thought it was very interesting. Like, it, like the. You know, like, sometimes the. Like, it's a black screen with a white line. And sometimes the white line is, like, horizontal or vertical, as you said. Like, some. Sometimes. Sometimes it feels like you're. It's like. It's like the. The alleyway that she's running down, metaphorically, or it's the path that eventually leads to a dead end. But, yeah, I agree with you. I thought they did a lot of interesting things where it's. It's sort of like, you know, even. Even. Even when it's, like, facing a Completely different perspective. It sort of finds a way to this. This one, like, continuous white streak across the screen. Just kind of finds a way to like, visually.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, it was super well done.

[Sam]

The environment. Yeah. And it result, you know, and then she hits the. The dead end. The metaphorical dead end, which then fades up to the literal scene of her standing on a cliff. Like she's about to kill herself, but she has a memory of her mother. And then that gets her a step back and then she's having memories of Saul and.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Sam]

So the crew is landing at the dock with the rest of. With Luffy's part of the group descending down on something called a Svar, which is like a rowboat. But the oars have buoyant clouds on them, so it's able to float.

[Ken O'Connor]

I like, there's a point here where Lilith is saying like, oh, yeah, in Elbaf, you can use like island clouds, you can use hover. You can use this. This, like all the different things. And it's like. Oh, it's like a Pokemon game where they have Gigantamax and Z moves and this and this. It all works here.

[Sam]

Yeah. I'm digging Lilith as a change of colors.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yes. Yes. That was very cool.

[Sam]

Like, her jumpsuit's now more white and her jacket is like kind of a. It's almost like a dark purple. It's like almost black, but it's like slightly bluish. Yeah, I thought that was cool. Yeah. So everyone. Everyone's just getting reacquainted with each other. Luffy doesn't like Haru Din calling him Big Boss. Nami and Robin are galpelling about each other's looks. Haru Din's introducing the crew to the four new giant pirates. But, like, you got the fifth guy, Roto is like, in the background. Crucified. Like, please talk about me.

[Ken O'Connor]

The Roto bits are really good.

[Sam]

And yeah, they're telling the crew that, like, oh, you're. You're famous here because you defeated Big Mom. Like, even in this backwards town where we don't really work very cut off from the rest of the world, like that. That still traveled. Like, we still heard about that because that's because she's a big deal to us because she did something quite terrible in the past. So now the crew is. So, yeah, so they. They have like a. I guess they prepare for a banquet. But the. We don't see that part. We're taking a ride on the Spar with Gerd because the crew wants to travel with Robin to see the. The giant Library and to. And to reunite with her friend.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, yeah. They. They start marching to, like, the dining hall. And then Robin's like, hey, Luffy. And, like, they all stop. And then, like, they all, like, kind of agree to go with her. That's right.

[Sam]

Yeah. And, you know, Luffy's. Luffy's being all cool. He's like, oh, it's a captain's duty to pay. To pay respects to somebody who helped a crew member. And then Rob.

[Ken O'Connor]

Luffy.

[Sam]

Yeah. Rob is tickled like, oh, it's just how it is. Just how it is. I got, like, Lilith is, like, rocket booting herself up to. To, like. Because Luffy, Robin, and Chopper are, like, hanging out on Gerd's knee as she's, like, rowing, going. And then, like, you have, like, Lilith, like, rocketing up to. To, like, kind of sightsee with them as they're going underneath this, like, arched tree.

[Ken O'Connor]

That was weird. Why did they. Why did they point that out? Like, oh, look, it's an arch. And then they.

[Sam]

I was waiting for them to. Yes, I was. I was waiting for them to be like, oh, is this, like, some significant thing? Or is it. I mean, like, it's cool.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. It's a tree that formed in a weird shape. I'm like, why? Why. Why is that significant to them?

[Zach]

Or. Or.

[Sam]

Or it was like, you know, somebody. Somebody actually bent it to be an arch to signify that, oh, we're heading into this part of the. Part of the island. Yeah. And so we're getting some neat exposition about how kind of the. I guess the geology. The quote unquote geology of Elbaf works. Because, like, the. The beach is the. The sand is technically just like fossilized tree wood. And the water is, like. It doesn't have proper tides, but it moves in waves because of the waterfall. Yeah. So they get on the beach, and Robin's first order of business is to find Saul. But just as she's looking for him, the woman from a few episodes ago comes running and, you know, saying the same thing, like, oh, Saul is collapse.

[Ken O'Connor]

She's been doing this for six hours.

[Sam]

Right. Like, was that scene, like, shown out

[Zach]

of order before or.

[Sam]

Or has she's been, like, doing this for. So as she's been running it, she

[Ken O'Connor]

kept doing it over and over again because they weren't sure when the star show up.

[Sam]

Well, is she in on it? I thought.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, I assume she was. I assume that Saul tells her to do that.

[Sam]

Oh, I. I thought. I thought she thinks Saul is actually close.

[Ken O'Connor]

I could be wrong. I always assumed she was in on it, but. Right.

[Sam]

Yeah, so. Yeah, so we get the, this image of a child, Robin, opening the door and through the, through the frame of the doorway, we see Saul's washed up body, you know, as she remembers it. And you know, once they, once they see Saul. Saul's body washed up on the shore in a similar fashion, Robin, you know, some, some gears are turning in her head. She's like, ah, I see. And she, you know, asks. She asks the crew not to worry about her. She goes on ahead to greet him and just really adorable, just Robin just glowing the whole episode just looking just adorable.

[Zach]

She looks really good.

[Ken O'Connor]

Just design wise, like she's really well done.

[Sam]

Yeah, she's very, she's very like kind of round.

[Stephen Paul]

Very

[Sam]

obviously they're trying to evoke like this kind of refreshing reconnecting with, with childhood.

[Ken O'Connor]

But yeah, it's just like childhood joy on her face the entire time.

[Sam]

And yeah, they're cross cutting between like this, this kind of metaphorical image of like child Robin and, and younger Saul meeting and then cross cutting that with the adult. The adult Robin and older Saul. And so she stops before him, hand like, hands like tucked neatly behind her. She's just not bracing for, you know, for anything at all. She's just ready for him to do his thing. And then Saul, you know, jumps. He's like, he does the, the scary hands, like you know, just the, just the guy like messing with the child.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And she is unmoved. And he starts laughing. And we're seeing now that he's older, he's got a mustache, he's got a peg leg.

[Ken O'Connor]

He's like arms all over his body too. His hand and his face are all scarred up.

[Sam]

He's just like, I'm so sorry, I just didn't know how else to greet you again. And he's like, you know, asks. She gets in his hand so he can bring. Bring her up closer to get a good look at her. Yeah, he's like, oh, you're. You're so beautiful. You've grown up so much. You look just like your mother. And Robin seems flattered by that. She puts the hand on her face, on his. On his face scar. And we're getting the, the memories of, you know, Saul being frozen. And then like somehow he got pushed into, into the ocean where I guess like the heat from the fire and the, you know, the salt water was able to dissolve the ice. And then. Yeah, and then Saul's like, oh. And then I was, you know, reading the papers And I saw the things that they said, all the terrible things they said about you. And Robin's like, shush, I don't want to talk about sad things. So she like, puts her arms out. And then very, very bold for Robin, she says, I want you to praise me for being alive. And he hugs her and he's crying about how proud he is of her. And she's crying too. And get a montage of Robin stuff set to a new song by Mariosky. Never alone in this world. Never was alone in this world. And then. Yeah, and then. Yeah. So we get the.

[Ken O'Connor]

Before they do that montage, though, when she's asking him to praise her, it's her opening both her arms up almost like a hug kind of style. And it's all being done from different angles. And then when he pulls her in close, she reverts to her childhood form for a split second until she hits his beard. And then she turns back into adult Rob. We don't have to analyze or refrain here, but it's so well done at every single point.

[Sam]

Yeah. Yeah. And then like, I like how the. So the. The montage leads into then like a. A credit roll with the song still going. And it's. It's not the. The usual Ned. It's. It's just the song with the, you know, black scrolling text in the little mont. More montages in the. In the side. And it. And it like, eventually it gets to the back to the present day and like, the crew's reaction and they're like them getting all emotional, seeing Robin be emotional and. And like that. That scene from the manga of. Of, you know, like the crew just. Just sympathy crying with her. It's.

[Ken O'Connor]

It's funny. Robin cries first, and then when Saul starts crying, it come. It starts like coming down like giant droplets. And then like on the way it's animated, a fountain goes off of just like tears cascading across the entire screen. And that's what leads into the straw hats crying. It's. It's so well done.

[Sam]

Yeah. Yeah. I thought this episode was. Was. Was quite great. You go first, Ken. Give me.

[Ken O'Connor]

I kind of put my. My opinion in the very beginning and scattered throughout, like, it was just very well done. I thought, like, like, again, I read the manga. I knew this is like, this is the moment people have been waiting for for such a long time. And it was done so delicately. They didn't shove a bunch of extra things that need. That didn't need to be in here. I felt like the song choice was really good. And then, like, when you watch the montages, a lot of them is just like, either still images or small scenes from, like, the One Piece anime for the last. How many years of, like, Robin's, like, not her best moments, but like. Like Robin just interacting with the crew at different times and what they mean to her and her just living life. And that's what she's asking for. She's asking Saul to praise her for living. Like, I don't know, it. It's very. It hit the nail on the head in the best way. I was very moved by it.

[Sam]

Yeah. Because, like, the. The pin that has always had always been in the. The Robin storyline was. Was Saul telling her, like, nobody was born to be alone in this world. You know, like, you'll. You'll find friends someday, I promise. And then, you know, like, obviously we've had so many emotional moments reflecting on that over the years and, you know, like, that's. That's sort of like the. The thing paying off here as well, which is like all these, like, the. The success that she had found her. Her people and she had been living this extraordinary life and that now she gets to, you know, reconnect with. With Saul after all that just the. The. The delicacy of, like, how Robin is drawn in this episode was always going to be such a huge thing. And yeah, I. I find that was a total home run just in terms of. Of, you know, just milking this scene for all the Endearment it's worth. It's. It's like. It was like. It was always like a very complicated emotion of, like, realizing that Saul was alive. Like, what does that mean for the story? But I, I can't deny that I've been completely swept up in. In, you know, this. The. The size of the emotion.

[Ken O'Connor]

Absolutely.

[Sam]

This reunion is. Is the gargantuan size of the emotion. You could say, say the giant size

[Ken O'Connor]

that can only be happening on Elbaf.

[Sam]

Yeah. And I just think that's. This is just such a. A testament to like, how. Just. Just how the little things feel is like kind of the entire point of an episode like this. You know, just like whether the. The music lands, whether the. The drawings land, whether the, you know, the. The. The memory choices in all the montages land. I thought this episode did an excellent job at all of those.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, I saw some complaints. Not this episode, but the previous one where Robin got her bangs back and people like, oh, that wasn't animated very well, or that didn't really have that much weight to it as it should have probably been. But then this episode, I didn't care at all.

[Sam]

I think that's kind of an over. I think that's. Oh, you know, I think we're overthinking that one. On that one.

[Ken O'Connor]

I agree. I'm just so happy that like, there was extra special attention paid to this episode. Like they didn't need to do that. That insert song and all the other like. Like they did extra special things in this one, which I think is. Was the right move. Honestly, it made this one very special.

[Sam]

Yeah. Yeah, I thought. Thought it was a. A. Anything else you want to say? Any stray comments from the episodes? The two episodes before that?

[Ken O'Connor]

No, not really. I'm glad we're. We're in Elbaf proper now. It looks beautiful. Oh, one thing just overall that I think Elbaf is doing super well. The soundscape design for like. Like the. Like. I know it's like it's background noise or background music, but like we talked about a couple weeks ago when they were in the underworld, like the sound of the wind whipping through it felt cold and chilly. But like when they're walking around like the new level now, like the forest level, like you can. Like the. I don't know who's doing the soundscape stuff, but it sounds so like in depth, especially with headphones on. It's very like, it feels like you're there. I don't know what they're doing, but I love it a lot.

[Stephen Paul]

I know.

[Sam]

That was like a point of focus on this new season two of One Piece.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, they're killing.

[Sam]

It was. Was. Was that. They were. They were finally kind of retiring their old sound effects that they were reusing for the last thousand plus episodes.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's great.

[Sam]

And now they're. They're updating them.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. That's all I have to say.

[Sam]

Anything else you'd like to say before we move on to the next segment, Ken?

[Ken O'Connor]

Nope, I'm all good.

[Sam]

All right, thank you very much as always.

[Ken O'Connor]

Thank you.

[Sam]

Let's move on.

[Zach]

Good morning. Piece together segment. It's 4am and it's time for the Piece Together segment, which I already said, where we take your questions, comments, theories, and determine whether we should go into excruciating detail about it or if we have something to get to. Ken, what's our first segment?

[Ken O'Connor]

Zach? Our first segment is disp. This is where we read all of the. Our Patreon Discord questions that we get on the Discord. I don't know why I repeated that twice. Did we read this one. I think this one came in after the podcast right? From Dimmadome from last week.

[Zach]

This is your choice. I think it did. Because it doesn't look. And also you check them off.

[Ken O'Connor]

You do I check them off? Usually, yeah.

[Zach]

So then, good luck.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, here we go.

[Zach]

This is about last chapter, by the way.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. Yes. Mopp with yet another one piece God added to the pool. Last chapter, I think.

[Zach]

Zaza Freaky. That's the name of the.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's the name of the. Yes.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

I think it's a good. Good a time as any to share a thought process. I pondered over over for quite a while now. As any sane and productive member of society would do. I spent a sleepless night or five creating a mind map of all curious one piece information I could think of to then try and connect some dots. And now, apparently having lost it completely, I'm willing to wager that Blackbeard's fruit is as much the Yami Yami no mi as Gomu. Gomu no mi is Luffy's. Instead, I believe he has the human human fruit model. Nika. You know, two bold statements are Hear me out and ready your tinfoil hats. Thanks to Elbaf's culture in Gunko, we learned about another interpretation of Nika being the Destroyer rather than the liberator thing is liberation and destruction go hand in hand. It's the idea of one single event influencing people in different ways. If the Sun God manages to overthrow the current government, all the nobles lose their status quo while their suppressed. While the suppressed might gain freedom. It's a new dawn for the slaves and a dawn duck for the top 1% and a dusk for the top 1%. And since teach and Luffy share an intense longing for freedom but go about it as differently as they can. I would argue that Teach has the destroyer interpretation of the Nika fruit. His alleged logia has weird properties. He has got a move he called liberation. The fruit itself looks just like Luffy's fruit. It's the White Warrior and the alleged Darkness Fruit. It just aligns too well. Not to be at least a bit suspicious. Fully committing to the tinfoil hat I had just now. I remember Vegapunk's broadcast being interrupted by a bad signal. As he said, among you D, there is a as we see Blackbeard in the same panel. So staying true to the checkered fate motive. I could imagine the D standing for both dawn and dusk respectively. And Teach being the dust. And then they followed up with Sorry for the even longer post. It's Perfectly fine. Any thoughts?

[Zach]

Says Ken. It's. Yeah. Although I think of the. Did he mention the Whitebeard thing, like, oh, you are not really one of the D. Or you're not the one he's waiting for. Right, right, right.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah,

[Zach]

I. Yeah, I wonder. And also, Emu says something like that name doesn't really mean what it used to mean. So, like, I wonder how diluted the deep hole pool is not gene pool. Deep pool. But I don't think it's so simple as D means you're a good guy. Like I do. And. Because it definitely is not.

[Marianne Bray]

Well, there's also the possibility that Blackbeard just took the D because he's part of the Davey clan and that's that instead. And it's a different D. I mean, I think it is a different D. But like, that there. There might be that. That he's hiding his name but also putting. Keeping. While keeping it in there.

[Stephen Paul]

He's one of. He's one of those people that just has a normal D initial. Like, it's. Yeah, it's not a special D. People can have. Have a. David Davey.

[Zach]

David. You know, it's just my middle name.

[Stephen Paul]

I don't know if I. Well, I don't know how likely I think the, like, they have the same fruit thing is, but I do. I do appreciate any. Any lens through which you can compare and contrast Luffy and Teach because that. That has been such a strong motif throughout the series for them. So I do enjoy, like, you know, the. The ways that that Dimadam here was able to, you know, to describe them being opposites of one another, because I think that's really cool. But, yeah, interesting stuff.

[Zach]

I think the one thing that I do appreciate that has, like, been coming into, I want to say focus, but like, contrast, at least when we see Emu more and more in the story, is that Teach isn't like, yes, he is like the polar opposite of Luffy generally, and that has been really well set up through the series, but he's also not. It's not so simple. It's not like A is the opposite of B and therefore C is the opposite of. You know, it's not the. It's not always that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. It's that. That there are. As one piece does so well. There are many gray areas. There are many levels of evil. There are many levels of, like, power and, you know, and crime and. Or whatever that. That take place. And I think Blackbeard represents one end of that. And Emu represents a very different end of that. And Emu is definitely looking like. He also has a lot of inverse Luffy motifs about him. But I. I really think Blackbeard is going to be playing a role sooner rather than later for the reasons said and for those motifs and to play into those motifs. Ken.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, next up, we have straw hat pirate 9. Yes. Finally, Brook Gunko flashback is here. I love Brook's home. The island looks so cool. Little Sherry is so cute. I've been dying for this flashback, but darn it, ODA putting it when the children got kidnapped again. Then back on my brain, the back of my brain is saying, think of the children, but the frontal lobe is all Brooke, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke. I was really happy to see Brook so high in the midterm. I hope this increases his number. Also, side note, I'm working hard to get Vivi and Bartolomeo in the top 30. Those are my Blorbos and they deserve to be higher.

[Zach]

Yeah, I don't know if that's.

[Stephen Paul]

Keep fighting the good fight.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah, keep going for it. At this rate, Kirby is going to just at the end of the year be taking that same kids falling off of the tree and just replacing it with. With Zaza's arm and the number 6 instead of 20, 25 and putting a

[Ken O'Connor]

blue filter on it to make the water.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah. Pretty simple, actually. That'll be. And you know what? That would be one of our funniest images, I think, for that reason. So, yeah, go for it, Oda.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay, next up, we have Sam the cocoyasi drunk. Ahoy, Opp. This was a great chapter. I also appreciate that Brook is the musician that is a hit with all the young people that all the older generation absolutely hate, like the Beatles. Something about the King's design makes me not trust him. He seems to fall in line with how ODA designs ugly people. And often ugly people are the bad guys. But I'm sure ODA is doing a don't judge a book by its cover thing. Candel certainly dresses like a celestial dragon. Or maybe it's just the very European style coat. And Brook's crush on Candel is kind of funny because with her being former captain of the guard, Brook was either her underling that took her position or they were co captains. Brook's look is definitely PYT era Michael Jackson. I guess you could call it a pyf for pretty young flashback. But now that Brooke is the latest in ODA's long history of modeling a character after a musician, my question what musician would you want to see? Oda filed? Like, odified.

[Zach]

Oda filed. Odified.

[Ken O'Connor]

Odified.

[Zach]

Oh, defiled. Oh, no.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oda fied.

[Zach]

No, I choose to think of defiling it because it's his caricatures, which are never great. Miku,

[Jill Knight]

put her in.

[Marianne Bray]

That's Gunku already. The blue hair.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Zach]

She needs to point.

[Stephen Paul]

I thought that was uta.

[Marianne Bray]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, right, yeah.

[Jill Knight]

You know, that's actually. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Jamiroquai. Wait, no, he's already done that.

[Zach]

Didn't they. Oh, yeah, they just did. For that choppers thing. They did. They did a reference of Chopper doing the Jamiroquai thing. Like, literally from the video, with his hat. There's so many Jamiroquai hats in one piece. It's really crazy.

[Ken O'Connor]

I want to see Oda draw Sabrina Carpenter.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, of course you do.

[Zach]

Avril Lavigne.

[Marianne Bray]

He already drew her, didn't he?

[Jill Knight]

Avril? Or, like, her replacement?

[Zach]

No, the original.

[Sam]

Before she was murdered.

[Zach]

Conspiracy theory. We talked about that a lot on this show for some reason.

[Jill Knight]

Well, you know, she. Her soundtrack is on one of the One Piece movies, so, you know, she's relevant.

[Zach]

I was joking because of that. But yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Zach]

I'm trying to think.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I was gonna say, oh, Joan Jet, like the other song, but then I was like, oh, well, I think he did that with. Weren't people saying doll was supposed to be like a Joan Jet? Yeah.

[Jill Knight]

Lady Gaga meets suit. And then Luffy is near.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Zach]

Good answer. Good answer.

[Ken O'Connor]

Luffy eats Lady Gaga.

[Zach]

David Bowie. Just generally. Any of them.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's Bartolomeo.

[Zach]

What? No, it isn't.

[Ken O'Connor]

A little bit.

[Zach]

No, it isn't.

[Stephen Paul]

You remember that time when he whipped out his dick and started peeing?

[Zach]

You know what? You're right. Forget it. Forget I said anything.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, next one. Our next one is from Rewirtimade. Good evening. Good evening, Maid. Opp. We finally seen Brook's eyeballs. I feel like my mental powers did that. Now that we know Brook was already fast and could jump real far even when he was a living being, do you think he actually gained any powers from his initial revival? Obviously. Now he can astral project and freeze stuff, but it really looks like he was just as amazing as he was at 20 years old as when we met him at 88. Which is ridiculous. Everyone knows that you're a much tougher fighter in 88 than a measly 20 year old. Do you think Current day Brooke has osteoporosis? No.

[Jill Knight]

He drinks milk. We've seen that healing we know the answer to that.

[Marianne Bray]

You know, Sanji makes sure he gets plenty of calcium.

[Jill Knight]

I need my.

[Zach]

I do genuinely think that one of the jokes about Brook's power is that it doesn't really do anything except that he comes back to life one time. Like, the fact that he doesn't get any extra powers, I think was kind of part of. Did they. They were making fun of him in the Thriller Bark flashback, I think, because it's like you can't swim and what are you getting from it? Like, kind of. Yeah.

[Jill Knight]

I mean, he probably can't run when he's heavier because he isn't like, run over water. That was probably a skeleton.

[Zach]

That's the only. No, no, I know he has powers now, but, like, initially, at least when we were introduced. Except for that one.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, yeah, yeah. The rumbar pirates making fun of him. Like, oh, yeah, you got there, buddy.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah. It doesn't. You sink and I wonder, you die once. I guess.

[Jill Knight]

I wonder if he's eaten it already by the time of this flashback, because there's that one line where he tells the king he's just gonna outlive. And I was like, that's kind of funny if he's got his devil fruit.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

I mean, he also looks significantly younger, but.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, they say Brick was super fast and could jump real far. I'm sorry, I hate to break this to you, but he was just 20. That's the difference. You could do that when you're 20.

[Zach]

Yeah. That is being 20. 20 year olds out there enjoy doing those two things. Because when you're 88 like me. Anyway. Go ahead.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, next up, we have three. Pace, hum, Notch, Slay. Sh. I get it. Hello, my fellow rogues and sexy mermaids. What a chapter. I worry for Ripley saying, oh, well to Chopper's medical advice, but should be more careful. Oh, wait, there's something.

[Zach]

Okay, well, no, it's apo. It's the. These are all. All the blood types puns.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah. Slay.

[Zach]

Particularly the last one. Yes.

[Ken O'Connor]

This does not work in a audio podcast, but this is not slay. I get it.

[Zach]

Yes. Okay.

[Ken O'Connor]

Waiting for Ripley saying, oh, well. To Chopper's medical advice. She should be more careful and not say f this transfusion.

[Zach]

That one's only in one piece.

[Ken O'Connor]

Just because she's being positive and infused with her son, she needs to not be so bloody stubborn. Anywho, what's your headcanon on how Reuven and Kandel met? Like, did they have a meet? Cute. Them being together is a bit weird seeing as Kendel looks like a badass, androgynous queen, but Reuven doesn't look like he's washed his hair the last decade. Thanks. Have a great week and enjoy Binks brew. Lesson 3. Colon, n, parentheses, capital P. Oh, shut up.

[Jill Knight]

You know what? I think I'm on Reuben's side with this. Everyone is being so rude to this dude who's just hanging out, out clipping some topiaries. Like, I'll be honest, if I was. If I was royalty. You think I put it on a bra or anything?

[Ken O'Connor]

No.

[Jill Knight]

You people are gonna have to deal with me looking 100% right. Like, his wife is out there being a boss. He is currently male wife at home taking care of the garden.

[Zach]

Yeah,

[Ken O'Connor]

I wonder if that's the power dynamic. I wonder if Candel, like, is the figurehead or has, like, more power and he's just kind of, like, there.

[Zach]

I kind of hope so, and it could. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. The Oda box did not say Esperia had three great stars. It's only two.

[Zach]

That's true, actually.

[Jill Knight]

What's that term on Reddit? Hobosexual. That people use these days?

[Marianne Bray]

What?

[Zach]

What?

[Jill Knight]

You know when a woman just has a guy who just lives in her

[Zach]

house and she's, like, you know, doing

[Jill Knight]

her job and he's just there.

[Zach]

No, but he's. He's doing shit. He's just.

[Jill Knight]

You know what I support.

[Zach]

The funny thing is, he is. He cares about the upper. He.

[Marianne Bray]

Wow.

[Zach]

He cares about the upkeep of the garden and, like, the. The castle. He just doesn't care about his own upkeep, which. Yeah. Good. Once again, a good house dad. House husband, stay at home dad.

[Jill Knight]

Maybe he just doesn't want to stain his nice clothes while he's trimming the book bushes, you know?

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Damn. Why would you.

[Stephen Paul]

Those are his chores. Just chore clothes.

[Jill Knight]

Chore clothes.

[Ken O'Connor]

Steven, what'd you say? He had mustard on his shirt.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah,

[Zach]

it does look like that, but it's just the bushes he's trimming.

[Stephen Paul]

No, that's definitely mustard.

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, what's next? Next up, we have snp. Hey, O, O, P. Those guys from the Mulan family? More like Mu. Ron. Am I right or like moron?

[Jill Knight]

Yeah.

[Ken O'Connor]

Do y' all think Don Mulan have anything to do with Don Marlon? Is that why Steven picked the L instead of the R like that?

[Stephen Paul]

I didn't call him Don Moron. Yeah, I mean, look, it's. They're very close. In Japanese, it's. It's Maron and Muuron, so you know, the, the, the connect the dots are there to be connected if you, if you want. And it certainly doesn't hurt the, the theories that every mobster in this world wears a suit and fedora, so, you know, they're clearly related.

[Ken O'Connor]

I'm just saying, one tailor shop making

[Jill Knight]

a ton of money, man, they've got it down.

[Ken O'Connor]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Legitimate businessman's club or whatever they call it.

[Zach]

What's next, Ken?

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, we have another one from Sam the Kokayashi drunk last week you guys discussed potential podcast ideas during the break weeks and such for my question to you is, even though it's only tangentially related, what's the likelihood we could get Oops. All Akane Banashi episodes or an upcoming break? Both the manga and anime are reaching a fever pitch.

[Stephen Paul]

If you do it, do it like the, like the bleach April Fool's chapter and just say, oh, we're doing the one piece, you know, manga recap. And then you just.

[Zach]

No, that was fairy tale. That was the fairy tale.

[Ken O'Connor]

Fairy tale.

[Jill Knight]

What a deep cut.

[Zach]

That is the one that made our old friend, our good old friend Jammer really upset because he didn't know what was going on. Yeah, we could totally do that. I think. I think with Akane, it would be much. The funny thing there is we were making fun of what's his face, the fairy tale guy, and how it looks exactly the same. I'll say. I was watching this past week's. Was it 8 or 7 for a Kanabanashi? I think it was 8. And notice Iken is the same voice as Sanji, which is fun.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, interesting. I haven't seen that one yet.

[Zach]

Yeah, no, I just came out, so I'm not expecting. Just because you're the translator of Kanabanashi.

[Stephen Paul]

I usually watch them like midweek because I have a nice lunch break where I'm like, okay, I'm gonna eat something.

[Zach]

I have to do a Saturday night watch through of all my anime because it ends up being an hour and a half of shows. Cause there's so much good shit this

[Marianne Bray]

season for some reason, only an hour and a half.

[Zach]

Well, this week it was like two. At least two, I think, because I was a week behind even, you know, beyond that. So I ended up having to watch like six episodes of stuff.

[Marianne Bray]

So I think I watched too much anime.

[Zach]

Yeah, I don't. I mean, like, I have to carve out the time is the problem. It's just tough.

[Marianne Bray]

That's fair.

[Zach]

I get it. Are you in any of the newest Season stuff. Marianne, I should have asked you that.

[Marianne Bray]

That I'm in Mistress Kannon is devilishly easy.

[Zach]

Oh, totally watching that.

[Marianne Bray]

It is peak ecchi trash.

[Sam]

I'm sure.

[Zach]

I'm sure Jeff threw. Is enjoying.

[Jill Knight]

Yes.

[Zach]

He loves his trash. I know.

[Marianne Bray]

Yes, it was. Because that just came out like yesterday. The top trash for the season. And that was.

[Jill Knight]

That was.

[Marianne Bray]

Sure was on it.

[Zach]

I don't remember what he said, but all right.

[Marianne Bray]

He likes it. I don't. I've been in funnier. I've been in funnier etchy trash. Let's just say 100 girlfriends is coming back next season and I'm.

[Zach]

He does talk about that constantly. I'm really plugging his show this week, but it's fine. Plugs ours too.

[Marianne Bray]

Peak. It's peak.

[Zach]

Yeah, he's. He says very good things about it.

[Ken O'Connor]

Okay.

[Marianne Bray]

Okay.

[Zach]

Good. Good to know.

[Marianne Bray]

And I got to do some stuff for the slime anime and the slime movie, so.

[Jill Knight]

Hell yeah.

[Marianne Bray]

So that was fun. That's my this season stuff. I got to be. I got to do Walla for Witch Hat atelier and that's all I care about.

[Zach]

Good. That's what I was gonna. We need to petition you in that.

[Marianne Bray]

I want to be in it so bad. Like as a character.

[Zach]

Aella for that.

[Marianne Bray]

I mean. It's Emily again. Oh, Emily's directing that.

[Zach]

I gotta get Emily back on. I didn't know she. It's because of when Twitter is how I was contacting her and then I, you know, don't use that anymore. I should probably reach out. I've also just been not great at reaching out to people the last few months anyway.

[Ken O'Connor]

Ken, I. Alright, next up we got. Oooh, it's Krakra Freaky. Our good friend Cram here. Ahoy Opp. I'm writing this at midnight and barely awake. I heard the chapter a few hours late, but banger chapter as always, Brook is my tide fave non luffy straw hat. So the smile on my face when it became clear was his flashback. Which is why I'm still sending a dispiece despite me about to sleep. How do you think he met Yorki and fell in love? Wrong answers only. Have a great week. P.S. candel is a babe.

[Zach]

By the way. This person or Cram is going to be very upset when they wake up at four in the morning since they're staying up so late writing this. Yeah, go ahead, sir. How do you think he met Yorkie and fell in love?

[Jill Knight]

So I'm at 4am and he was Just like, I'll shut up if you marry me. And that's just how that goes.

[Stephen Paul]

They would. They. They met at one of those, like. Like, support groups for widowers or whatever after. After Kendall dies.

[Zach]

So are we gonna. Yeah. Go like.

[Jill Knight]

No, we weren't married, but we could have been if her husband had died.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Brook just checked himself into the group, though.

[Zach]

Are we gonna. Are we gonna see a lot more Brooke dorky fan fiction now? Is that what's. Is that really on the horizon? I mean, I don't know how much is out there.

[Stephen Paul]

The waves cresting?

[Zach]

Yeah, we're. We're about to.

[Marianne Bray]

I mean, since the live action showed them, I feel like. Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, that helped. Didn't he not wear a shirt? Well, Yorkie doesn't wear a shirt at the.

[Marianne Bray]

He doesn't, but I don't think anyone was expecting him to be, like, that hot. And so we. They were thrown off.

[Zach]

Yeah, I was thrown off by that. Go ahead.

[Ken O'Connor]

Well, just. Do we think that the Rumbar pirates, like, do you think they came from the same kingdom as, like, did they say.

[Zach]

They may have. Did your. Did they, like, did Yorkie get, like, a full. Let me look.

[Marianne Bray]

I don't think so.

[Stephen Paul]

I mean, they're a pirate crew. They don't necessarily have to come from a kingdom.

[Zach]

They did come from West Blue. They came from the west blue. And also, they were all dressed like the west blue.

[Stephen Paul]

One of the four, 25% of the world.

[Ken O'Connor]

But just the fact they were all musically themed and they were all like,

[Jill Knight]

well, that could be why Brook, you know, joined up with them. Maybe they were already musically themed. We don't. We don't know.

[Ken O'Connor]

I just want to know, like, if, like, this kingdom and, like, Uda's kingdom and all these, like, there's an archipelago of musical kingdoms. Like, if Brook's kingdom gets destroyed, like, oh, we found this guy floating in the water by, like, a nearby island. And, like, I don't know, everyone's always

[Stephen Paul]

like, oh, you're from the west blue. Do you know Brook? And they're like,

[Marianne Bray]

well, if there are a bunch of musical islands, you think they're all lined up in a row, like, a small bit of music notes.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, that'd be cool.

[Zach]

That would be really cool.

[Jill Knight]

That would be very interesting.

[Zach]

Oda would do that, potentially.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, he would.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oda steal that. That's great.

[Zach]

And it does make me feel better about uta's island, too. If they're like, was she from the west Blue? Like, is that also? Or is that. What was the Name of the island again?

[Ken O'Connor]

Elysia. Yep.

[Jill Knight]

She's not from Alejia. She's from. I don't remember.

[Ken O'Connor]

He's from a box.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Another girl.

[Ken O'Connor]

Another Waifu in a box.

[Zach]

Elysia, though, is in the East. Oh no. It says East Blue, South Blue. Paradise or Calm Belt. Thank you. That's great. One Piece Wiki. Thank you. One Piece Wiki for throwing that down there. Great. Okay, what's next?

[Ken O'Connor]

Next up, we got Whispy. Hey, Opp. I'm rather stunned about that. You haven't noticed yet. By the time you finish the manga recap, I'd already cut you all.

[Zach]

Oh shit.

[Jill Knight]

Guys, I gotta go to the hospital.

[Zach]

We'll go after the Piece Together segment, okay?

[Ken O'Connor]

Loving the surprise of the brook flashback right here, right now. The Loki and Imu fight has not really been doing it for me. Riven's design paints him as the traditional bad guy, but it seems he's actually a pretty good guy. Which makes me think that Candel might be the evil one in this flashback.

[Zach]

No.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, maybe she has.

[Zach]

Don't you do that to her.

[Ken O'Connor]

Maybe she has some greater ambitions to become a Celestial dragon and has married into the royal family for a chance to get to the Holy Land. Lots of possibilities. Thanks, Opp.

[Zach]

No one is default. Everyone is misunderstood.

[Marianne Bray]

I think Reuven married into Candela's royal family.

[Zach]

That's what I thought too. Yeah, but you know. Well, but who says that slubs. That schlubby slubs. Schlubby people can't be, you know, have power and wealth.

[Ken O'Connor]

I have a plan though. I can see Candel wanting to be like. Like a Celestial Dragon. So she marries a schlub. Just like, all right, we're King Queen now. Because that's like Blackbeard is trying to establish full ed to be a recognized kingdom to the world government. What if that's the plan to become a king and queen? Become recognized, Go to the Holy Land and then. Hey, Imu. I'll sell you my daughter Shuri here to be your like your puppet. And then kills the husband and don't need him anymore. Like, I could see, like there's a track there. I don't know if it's right, but I could see that.

[Marianne Bray]

I'm wondering if we aren't gonna get a bit of a like, sort of Nami esque backstory with Shuri where she's framed for stuff. Or they think like she goes to the Celestial Dragons on purpose to maybe try to save her planet and it. Or her planet, her island and it doesn't work and they. Brook thinks that she's the one who destroyed it.

[Ken O'Connor]

You know, I'm assuming at this point that Emu, like that the Shuri that kills her father is like an emu possessed shuri at this point?

[Marianne Bray]

Almost certainly.

[Jill Knight]

It could also be a herald situation where something goes on with the father and she has to kill. Like, we've had Dressrosa too, you know, like, we have more than. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

I think the really interesting thing about, you know, when they talked about the three personalities of. Of Gunko is that the one who is the most mysterious or the one that I want to be explained is like the first one that we saw because, like the one who is. Who was Shuri breaking through. Like, that's pretty self explanatory. And then the demon Gunko is. Yeah, it's just Emu possessing her. So, like, what is this sort of default state of Gunko? Why is she like that? Is that. Is that affected by another facet of Emu's powers? Or is that like. Like her sort of post traumatic, you know, personality adjustment that she has been living with for decades? Like, like, how. How does this all fit together? That's what I'm really interested in.

[Ken O'Connor]

I feel like that's a personality they've kind of like. Like put into her. Like the fact that you're part of the Manmare family, your name is Gunka. Like all these things. Like every bit of it seems like brainwashed, fake nonsense. And then Emu just hijacks her whenever. Like, like, but why?

[Zach]

Like I. But seriously, like, why this girl from this random ass kingdom, you know, she

[Marianne Bray]

probably has some sort of ability or something that. That they want. Or it could just be them being like, she has cool eyes. We don't have a kid. This is our child now.

[Jill Knight]

She could even be a doctor.

[Zach]

Heterochromia.

[Jill Knight]

Yeah, we don't even know if she's technically related to them. She could literally be a celestial dragon that they somehow picked up. Like, there's a lot of things that could be going. Going on here, and it'll just be tragic and we'll see.

[Zach]

Yeah, I'm sure it'll be tragic. If there's one thing we can say for sure, it's gonna be tragic.

[Ken O'Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Zach]

Get ready. It'll be tragic. What's next?

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, next up we have Tyler. Hey. Oh, Opp. Happy Memorial Day weekend. Apparently I comment on all the holidays. Well, as it. As it custom here in the US to remember those who have fallen, let us take A moment and remember our glub shittos who have fallen for one piece.

[Zach]

Look.

[Ken O'Connor]

Looking at you. Absalom. Pound the ear. God. Glut Bunny and Ace. Anyways, the Brook flashback is.

[Zach]

Those are gloves. Shadows.

[Ken O'Connor]

I wouldn't call Ace shadows. Not in our bracket. Get them out of here. Back to Tyler. Anyways, the Brook flashback is here. Flashback to Skeleton Boogaloo. And with the previous flashback in this arc being the longest in the story so far, how long do you think this flashback will be?

[Zach]

Are we having a contest on this like we used to?

[Stephen Paul]

But I already said four or five chapters.

[Zach]

I'd say seven.

[Jill Knight]

I'm going with 10.

[Marianne Bray]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

[Ken O'Connor]

This is all summer.

[Marianne Bray]

I'll say.

[Jill Knight]

Well, Brook, Summer.

[Zach]

Brook. Summer. Maybe that explains why there was a fall color spread. It's because that's when we're gonna get back to the story.

[Stephen Paul]

I'll say. I. I will say, in the future, Glut Bunny will be a very good glut Shito. Because everyone's gonna be like, what the. That bunny had a name? Like they're gonna forget that that was the name of the bunny. Listen, that's what makes a good clip.

[Zach]

That's the one. That's the one. Yeah. I. I should have said the. With that one exception. Yeah, I. So seven chapters, you add what, probably three breaks. So that's like 10 weeks. Or 10 plus three is 13 weeks. How many months is that? Like three months. Yeah. That takes us in. July, August. Yeah, I think the end of the summer is right. Certainly August. I don't think we're getting back to the story before August.

[Ken O'Connor]

Watch the very next chapter. He sums it all up very quickly. Jesus. And then Shuri stabbed him in the back. It was very quick.

[Jill Knight]

To Jim Bay.

[Zach]

Wow. Thank you for. Thank you for telling that story so quickly that we could actually pushed him down the stairs. Oh, wow.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. How's he gonna balance himself on those little features.

[Marianne Bray]

Feet.

[Zach]

That's true.

[Ken O'Connor]

That's true.

[Zach]

It's really easy to.

[Jill Knight]

Somebody loves cutting a topiary.

[Marianne Bray]

Maybe he's like a horse and he breaks his leg down the stairs. Then they have to put him down.

[Zach]

I want a list of shitty ways that Reuben could die.

[Ken O'Connor]

He's gonna fall on the fucking shears.

[Jill Knight]

That's how he gets the mustard.

[Zach]

Its final destination. Except it's stupid ass ways. Reuven dies.

[Stephen Paul]

He tried. He tried to jump like Brooke and he pulled a muscle and fell off.

[Zach]

The.

[Stephen Paul]

The rooftop thing.

[Zach]

The rooftop?

[Ed]

Yeah.

[Zach]

He got up too early because of Brook. And it Caused him high blood pressure for a period of several weeks until. Okay, that was too real. What's next?

[Ken O'Connor]

All right, our last disc piece for today is Big Mike. Hey, Opp, how about a little game of truth or dare?

[Zach]

No truth.

[Ken O'Connor]

What are your one piece sexual fantasies? Dare. I dare you to end the disc piece.

[Zach]

Well, that's the end of the disc piece segment. Steven. What's the next part of this piece together segment?

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, yeah, we'll do that. We will head on over to the Subreddit archipelago or episode 920. Thank you to Electric Dynamite for setting this thread up. This is [e-mail] R1PSpodcast Hey, Opp, excited for another straw hat flashback? They always are the best parts of an arc. What do you think about the symbolic importance of finally showing Brook's eyes? In literature, often showing a character's eyes can be like finally seeing their true self. And Oda has a thing with hiding and revealing eyes. Loki, Doffy, Zorro, Sanji, Kuma, Fujitora, and Kuzan Post time skip. What do you think this can mean for Brook after Oda deciding to hide his eyes with glasses in the original flashback and childhood artwork?

[Zach]

Yeah, I don't think I feel like Oda does it for mystery sake. Like, I don't know how literary sometimes that it would be. I mean, Doflamingo.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's, it's.

[Zach]

Although actually there we do see his eyes. That one moment.

[Stephen Paul]

For Doflamingo, if the eyes are the window to the soul, then, you know, having them blocked and covered up is suggesting that, you know, you're not really seeing the true version of the character until you don't really truly know them, until you can look them in the eyes and see them for who they are, et cetera, et cetera. So in that sense, this could be the missing piece for Brook's story that we never got. And now we're finally going to learn everything that makes him tick.

[Zach]

Yeah, I don't know if I have anything to add to that.

[Ed]

Okay.

[Ken O'Connor]

I can see it being the death of innocence kind of thing. Like at the end of this flashback, if the kingdom is destroyed, he's lost everything.

[Zach]

That's a good.

[Ken O'Connor]

We see him put on the glasses. If he's crying or something like that, he puts on the glasses and just. He never takes them off. Like he never got past this moment. Something like that.

[Jill Knight]

He puts the glasses on, makes a really bad pun. And then the CSI theme starts playing.

[Zach]

Was it there was a Kizaru who did the thing with the glasses, like, when he was crying, or wasn't there something recently where it's like, I'm not crying in the.

[Ken O'Connor]

Are you thinking of Full Metal Alchemist? It's a bad day for rain.

[Zach]

Oh, no, but that is a good one. That's not what I was thinking of. I can't remember. I thought it was. I don't know. I thought it was one of the admirals, but maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, go ahead.

[Stephen Paul]

We have Ice Fisher 10, who says hi, Opp. I never thought this flashback would actually happen. Ian Sinclair must be overjoyed. Yo. Firstly, I think Oda took the first and last characters from the name of the legendary German composer Ludwig van Beethoven to make the name Rue Ven for a Sparius king, the Wild Hare. Ah, this is good. The Wild Hare is a bit of a tell as well.

[Zach]

Oh, he does look like Beethoven, actually.

[Stephen Paul]

He does have the crazy hair. That's interesting.

[Zach]

And also, like, Beethoven does always look really angry. So, like, I'm. Seriously, though, like, that's. Wow, that's. That's a good connection.

[Ken O'Connor]

Catch.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, maybe now I feel like maybe that's how he got to be king, is that he's actually like, a really great symphonic composer.

[Zach]

I mean, that could very well be. Yeah, those legs.

[Ken O'Connor]

Absolutely.

[Zach]

Those legs that he actually does.

[Stephen Paul]

He's got legends.

[Zach]

I have to look at Beethoven.

[Stephen Paul]

Wait.

[Zach]

I have to look at Beethoven to see if he has, like, that kind of. He does have a butt chin.

[Ken O'Connor]

He does it kind of.

[Zach]

He does have a butt chin.

[Stephen Paul]

That's why.

[Zach]

You know what that is. I would. I think. I think that's definitely our answer there as to why he looks like that. Now, was Beethoven a schlub? Probably, yes.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, we know he was deaf, but I don't.

[Zach]

And angry from that movie.

[Stephen Paul]

His personal sanity. Here's our sanitation, I should say. I also got a chuckle when thinking that the queen's name was also a pun. Candel at the Opera. Candelopera. Candelabra.

[Zach]

Oh, that's less. That's less amazing than the first. The Ludwig, I think, is the A. I think that's right.

[Stephen Paul]

I don't know about the other one, but he. He concludes. But much more importantly about Kendel. I'm firmly of the belief she is a holy knight of the man Meyer family. Years ago, she may have enjoyed Esperia enough to make a life there. However, next chapter, I predict she's going to get bored of the opera one day, then call the other Holy Nights to pick her up. Taking Gunko killing Reuven and destroying Esperia in the process. Agree or disagree? ° I do think it would be. I don't know if I would say it's Oda esque, but I do think it would be very interesting for him to be like, oh, hey, you thought she was cool. Like what if she's super evil? And then, and then I'm sure a bunch of people would be like, oh, she's even better now.

[Ken O'Connor]

But I'm pretty convinced at this point. I keep getting more and more convinced of the idea.

[Zach]

I think it is a very good theory. I don't think it'll be quite that cut and dry. But the thing that, that like a Celestial dragon can't just go to the lower world. That's like kind of my. And just like as a normal person

[Stephen Paul]

though the Holy Knights can. Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. I guess she go to the world

[Marianne Bray]

and start a family and then.

[Zach]

Well, I guess that's kind of what now. He did start a family. He had a. He had a set of twins and

[Stephen Paul]

a one night stand.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Very productive.

[Ken O'Connor]

Killed back in the head.

[Zach]

Yeah. And also like, also just even how she seems to be in the very brief moment we see her. And then she walked out of the opera. Like she doesn't. She doesn't seem bothered by the other people because like that would just like other people existing. Bother. Celestial dragons do also call her former

[Jill Knight]

captain of the battle convoy, which would be such an odd thing for a Celestial dragon to be.

[Stephen Paul]

That's a lot of history for her to have in one place.

[Ken O'Connor]

She's playing the long game, clearly.

[Zach]

Oh my God.

[Stephen Paul]

She's like CP0. She's. Yeah, all right. Born to Boil says, hey opp, what do you think about the idea that Biblo is from the Astral World, helping them keep track of what's happening in the Sun World? Maybe a character inspired by Odin or Heimdall. In Norse mythology, when Ragnarok begins, Heimdall warns Asgard by blowing the Gjallarhorn when the giants attack, giving the gods time to prepare for battle. Maybe he is going to warn the Astral World of Emu's invasion.

[Zach]

Yeah. The longer we don't hear about the Astral world they like, the more I'm like Charlie Day pointing at the board. Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

And the more better show it.

[Ken O'Connor]

I swear to God, they better show it.

[Zach]

It's a whole level to the freaking like island we're on. How could we not?

[Ken O'Connor]

That's been on the map several times.

[Zach]

And yeah, I even like Went back to the chapters where they talk about it and stuff. I'm like, come on. Nothing.

[Stephen Paul]

Just caresses screen lovingly. Like, oh, when will you come back to me? Astral World.

[Zach]

Come on, Come on, Astral World. Steven. The thing that, like, baffles me also is why was the king in a castle in the Western port? Like, why is it called Western Village, where the castle where the king of the entire kingdom is like, that doesn' make any fucking sense to me.

[Ken O'Connor]

In the middle level.

[Zach]

In the middle spot. So it's like, okay, it's the sun level. Let's go to the west. I guess we'll just put a. We'll just call it Western Village.

[Stephen Paul]

They have really. They're really bad at naming things there.

[Ken O'Connor]

Well, that was the whole thing.

[Zach]

Yes, they are very bad at naming.

[Ken O'Connor]

Harold was the one who united all the different villages and made the roots between the branches. Like before, they were all just kind of, like, existed and were all, like, spread out. So it makes sense. They don't have, like, names and stuff like that. Western Village isn't that crazy of an idea. And Harold built his castle there.

[Zach]

This is Oda. He has. Look at Esperia. And the amount of, like, culture and history and naming conventions it has already. And. And yet, like. And we have Ludwig van Beethoven just coming in. Apparently. We'll get to the Astral World. That's where the king lives. His palace is in the west place.

[Ken O'Connor]

Well, we don't talk about Roto's shitty castle that hangs out in these. The. What they call the bottom layer. Underworld. Underworld, yeah.

[Zach]

But they did say it was originally something else, which is interesting. Like, he had. He had. He knew the Lego room had a history. And yet, like, the freaking. I can't. It, like, it's. It's. It's infuriating. The right word. It's like, I need to know that answer. Like, that is one of the answers I feel like I need to know. Astral World. And why is the palace in the West? For some reason. Okay, go ahead.

[Stephen Paul]

All right. Fuparante says, hey, oop. Hope you're all having a great Memorial Day weekend. I just wanted to thank Stephen for the Mulan rogues. That is all.

[Zach]

Was that. Yeah. Okay. Well, I guess I can't ask you if there was a pun in the original or not, but because you don't seem to know what I'm talking about.

[Stephen Paul]

Very strange.

[Zach]

So lastly, explain another time.

[Stephen Paul]

Steven Brad Wonder says, hey, Opp Books. Delayed slash. Caught me off guard more than any moment I can remember in One piece. I'd already been cutting.

[Zach]

Cut.

[Stephen Paul]

We really do have a star on the crew. This reminds me of Mitsui from Slam Dunk, who was a phenom before he got hurt, but still eventually returned to be really good at basketball. In Brook's case, well, he died. Same difference, right?

[Zach]

I will say, and I forgot to mention this at the top. I was genuinely surprised we were doing this now. I thought that this, like, I mean, I. I could see the flashback coming maybe a page or two before, but, like, yes, I thought this was gonna happen. I just thought that this would be happening after the climax.

[Ken O'Connor]

I'm very surprised we know right now.

[Jill Knight]

I thought the Zaza stuff was gonna be the focus for, like, one or two more chapters.

[Zach]

Yeah, clearly,

[Jill Knight]

I could just drown for a bit.

[Stephen Paul]

I could have imagined, like, Brook telling, like, maybe an abbreviated version of it that didn't even, like, didn't go into a full flashback where it's just like, a couple silhouettes or something, and then maybe at the end of the arc or whatever. But I guess. I guess what it suggests to me is that, like, Odin needs, like, the ODA needs this setup for Gunko to be, like, turned good, again, basically, or to, like, unlock her, uncouple her from Emu's power somehow or something. Like, maybe that's. That's going to be key to. However he plans to wrap up Elbaf, so that's why he's doing it now. But yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. And it does give more of an emotional core to Elbaf, potentially. So I think it's very annoying because it, like, it makes me more annoyed that the God Valley stuff had to be involved when it did. Like, I. I've said this before. Like, my. My issue is not with the God Valley flashback generally. It is, like, its placement. And now that we're also getting this, it, like. Was it necessary to do that then, is kind of my question, because it really. This is just gonna kill the flow in a different way, probably. Like, not to say that I'm not gonna enjoy it or that it won't be helpful to the story, but I don't know. We'll see. I. I don't know.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Well, that is it for Reddit.

[Zach]

Okay. That's it for Piece together, then. I didn't mean to end it. On that note, thanks, Stephen and Ken for taking us through those questions. Why don't we round off the show? I wonder what Duzon would think of this podcast. This has been the one piece podcast, episode 920 for 5-25-2026 thank you all so much for coming on the show. You could check out a new episode of the podcast next week. We'll be celebrating our 17th anniversary. I was hoping to do something special for that but life get always finds a way. It gets in. It gets in the way. I am hoping to do our rescheduled charity stream at some point soon. But yeah, no, my life this month has been absolutely insane. So hopefully that's something we could do soon. What else is happening? You could check us [e-mail] One Piece podcast alternate images and titles. Huge thanks to Kirby for doing the image this week and the last few weeks. If you haven't checked that out, including last week's image, I do want to give a shout out to St. Saturn stealing the One Piece card game cards from Target or a Target esque place in the One Piece world. It's Bullseye or they sell One Piece Bullseye. Bullseye. Or how do you say Target in Japanese? I don't know. Target. Hey, should I just guess that can. Where could people find you?

[Ken O'Connor]

You could find me anywhere online under kindkings01 whether that be insta TikTok, Twitch, Bluesky. You name it, I'm there. And make sure to check out the op collab on bluesky@opcollab. Bsky Social

[Zach]

Chill.

[Jill Knight]

You can find me as Pirates Unluck on Bluesky and most other social media. And as always in Final Fantasy 14 as pure unluck on the Ultro server.

[Zach]

Some things never change.

[Jill Knight]

No they don't. Just my cute outfits in Final Fantasy 14.

[Zach]

Whoa, Steven.

[Stephen Paul]

I'm on Blue Sky. StevenPaul BSGuy Social Read One Piece Kane Banashi Kurumizawa's Folly. And you know I have nothing to do with it but. But you should go over on YouTube and watch Akane Banashi as well. And I think. Is the dub about to go on? Is that on Netflix?

[Marianne Bray]

It's on Netflix, yes.

[Stephen Paul]

Okay.

[Marianne Bray]

They've got three episodes out, I think.

[Zach]

Oh they do. Okay. I've been watching on YouTube just because it's accessible.

[Stephen Paul]

Right. I have the YouTube channel subscription in my list. But yeah, they've had a strange rollout of that. That show and where it is. But yeah, It's Netflix or YouTube, whichever you like. And yeah, let's get those. Let's get those numbers up. These are rookie numbers.

[Zach]

Are they rookie numbers? I haven't actually looked. Yeah, I mean I feel like people are talking about it as they should.

[Stephen Paul]

I kind of. Yes. I mean I'm sure This will help, but Akani has always had, you know, it is always punched above its weight in terms of feedback versus actual numbers. I feel like the people that actually do read or watch it really, really love it. There's just aren't as many as you would hope.

[Zach]

Yeah, you're probably right. I mean, I'm looking at the numbers and they're not, like, abysmal, but they're not like, blowing out of the water. They're not like millions of people. They're tens of thousands. Marianne, where could people find you?

[Marianne Bray]

I am on the hell site formerly known as Twitter and bluesky and Instagram, all under Marianne D. Hobbit.

[Zach]

And anything else that's not NDA'd that you wanna.

[Marianne Bray]

I mean, I'm forever doing Crunchyroll stuff, so if you're watching anime, you probably are hearing me somewhere. So, you know, I would say you should be watching, but that's just not. We're not that company anymore. I still like to say it, even though it's defined. You should, but yeah.

[Zach]

And you could find me@zach logan.com on Blue Sky. You can find us at One Piece Podcast.com, one Piece Podcast on.com on Blue sky, and One Piece Podcast anywhere you have social media, including Instagram and Facebook. We're technically on Twitter, but I do not post there because, as mentioned earlier, it is a hell site. And what else is happening? Hopefully. I saw Abby Denton posting that. This is like her favorite character having a flashback. So I of course, invited her on next week, so we'll see. She said yes, so hopefully that does happen. Hooray. Hopefully I'll get back to invited guests ahead of time, too, instead of at the very last moment. So thank you, Marianne, Jill, Ken, everyone, except for Steven and myself.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, you just take me for granted.

[Zach]

I do take you for granted. You're very special guest. That means you're coming on every week, right? That's what that means. That's right. Okay, well, we'll see you next week for chapter 1184. Until then, fuck ice. My name is Zoom Zach. And. Wait, I'm the only one. Bye, everyone.