Episode 928, “The Gunko/Brook Situation Is NUTS….”

Summary

The One Piece Podcast, Episode 928

“The Gunko/Brook Situation Is NUTS….”

Release Date: July 27, 2026
Hosts: Zach, Ed, Steve, Alex, Ken (archivist)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into One Piece manga chapter 1189, exploring its latest lore reveals, character moments, and the increasingly high stakes of the Elbaf arc. The crew touches upon chapter analysis, recent One Piece news (including the Netflix LEGO adaptation and the 29th manga anniversary), and pivots into a hilarious, lore-heavy Piece Together segment focused on legendary swords, giant drama, and the enigmatic motivations of the World Government. As always, the tone is energetic, irreverent, and layered with inside jokes, running gags, and One Piece trivia.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Banter and Podcast News

• Birthday Shoutouts: Early happy birthday to Ed, sharing with long-running inside characters and friends of the show (00:39).
• Archival Guest: Ken “the archivist” O’Connor returns, welcomed by the team (01:19).
• Host Anecdotes: Zach comments on talking to a high school fan from the “Power Your Story” podcast, reflecting on longevity and generational fandom:

  "It's crazy that kids know about One Piece, and it made me feel extra ancient that he was born, I believe, the same year we started this." – Zach (02:00)

• Spin-Off Announcements: Plans for a more relaxed One Piece read-through podcast in the works, echoing prior marathon rereads (04:43).

2. One Piece & Fandom News

• LEGO One Piece Teaser: Ken details the just-released teaser for LEGO One Piece—a retelling of the Netflix live-action adaptation, complete with original voice cast:

  "It's a minute long, not much there, but it seems to be a retelling of the first two seasons of the Netflix series... but with Legos." – Ken (08:18)

  • Hosts joke about the endless retellings of East Blue arc (08:44).
• 29th Manga Anniversary & Puppet Show: The release of “A Lazy Day on the Thousand Sunny” puppet short is briefly discussed:

  "The Jinbei puppet's humongous. They're all scaled, it's pretty wild." – Alex (13:30)

3. Manga Recap – Chapter 1189: "King of the World Won't Do a Titanic"

Main Events

• Cover Story:
  • Reader request: "See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" monkeys themed after the Monster Trio (Sanji, Luffy, Zoro) being scolded by Nami for a laundry mess—later revealed to be paint, not blood or poop (17:06).
• Battle on Elbaf:
  • Luffy is impaled by Emu and pinned to a giant tree, hockey weakening, as allies scramble to understand what’s happening.
  • Comic relief: A spar (Svar) piloted by Hyogoro and Gerd crash-lands, with Chopper cushioning the impact via Guard Point, accidentally slamming into Loki's nether regions (24:29).
  • Gerd tends to Loki’s wounds; flashback to Jarl urging them to go help Loki.
  • Emu’s use of increasingly mythical swords on Luffy, each tying into world-building around the 19 Kings' weapons—the swords that founded the World Government.
• Lore Drop:
  • Flashback between Loki, Shanks, and Gabon reveals Shanks warning that taking revenge on the government would be futile, as the true king ("Emu") wields power beyond reckoning (31:03).
  • Emu monologues about the history of the Empty Throne, 19 royal weapons, and how that power was consolidated (38:50).
  • Zoro’s duel with Summers (one of the Holy Knights), Summer unleashing weapons named for legendary blades and biblical artifacts.
• Gabon’s Heroic Entrance:
  • As Emu winds up for a third, potentially fatal strike on Luffy, Gabon intercepts with a dramatic save, cutting the tree branch and shifting the momentum (45:42).
  • The visual: "Gabon at the end. Love that. That shadow work is intense." – Zach (46:05)

4. Host Reactions & Analysis

Lore and World Building

• Discussion of the Empty Throne and the 19 royal weapons, with further nods to biblical and mythological symbolism.

  "It's not just for aesthetic. It's symbolic of these nations throwing their specific weapons down. And then for this asshole emu to just use them, not only sit on the throne, but use them, I think is a pretty good motif here." – Steve (55:27)

• Speculation on the "war" the World Government prepares for—against a force greater than themselves, whether cosmic or cyclical.

  "If you're king of the world, who do you fight against? ... Doesn't this have to be a force that is much... beyond them?" – Zach (65:37)

• Ongoing wonder about what motivates Emu: Defensive paranoia? Ancient prophecy?

Character Emphasis

• Appreciation for secondary characters like Gabon and Harudin stepping up; concern for their safety in light of "marked for death" storytelling (57:01).
• Praise for Elbaf arc focusing more on the Straw Hats’ agency compared to the Egghead arc.
• Noteworthy paneling: Discussion that this chapter shines in print/large format, not on mobile (48:02).

Comic Highlights

• Ongoing jokes about sword names, pronunciations (Longinus/Long Gynus), and turning inside jokes into improv skits (40:00–45:00).
• Potty humor around cover-story paint-can ("kaka"), relentless puns, and running gags about anniversaries and birthdays.

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Notable Quotes

• On Emu's Stabbing Spree:

  "Luffy getting spit roasted by emu, a ship crashing into Loki, and y' all not holding space for a Wednesday, per my last disc piece. For shame." – "You can't be serious" (Listener, 81:45)

• On Newfound Lore:

  "It's so video gamey, kind of Kingdom Hearts... very appealing to me about it." – Ken (59:54)

• On Comic Timing:

  "Yes, it says 'kaka' on the can. You mean, you don't can your poop?" – Ken & Alex (19:49)

• On Straw Hats’ Roles:

  "I think the things that Elbaf has been doing better than Egghead is putting the Straw Hats front and center a lot more." – Zach (63:08)

• On the Gravity of Imu's Monologue:

  "Feels like Imu's getting caught up in his villain monologuing a little bit too much. ... But he could have killed Luffy much sooner." – Ken (103:46)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:39: Host intros and birthday shoutouts
• 01:19: Welcome archivist Ken
• 02:00–02:29: Reflections on generational fandom
• 04:43: New “read-through” podcast project, hinting at changes in format
• 08:18: Announcement/discussion of LEGO One Piece Netflix teaser
• 13:30: Puppet show for 29th manga anniversary
• 14:17–20:09: Cover story jokes, reader requests deciphered ("kaka" = poop)
• 20:11–31:03: Manga recap begins: Emu impales Luffy, Straw Hat reactions, Svar crash-landing, flashback setup for Loki revenge story
• 31:03–39:12: Flashback: Shanks explains the true nature of the “king of the world” and futility of vengeance
• 39:12–41:18: Zoro vs. Summers—a clash of named holy swords, deepening the weapons/Empty Throne lore
• 45:42: Gabon’s heroic save—a major turning point in the chapter
• 48:02: Host analysis of chapter readability and art (not phone-friendly)
• 55:27: Steve on symbolic meaning behind the empty throne/royal weapons
• 63:08: Zach on Straw Hat focus in Elbaf arc
• 65:37: Zach sparks deep speculation on who the World Government’s supposed enemy is
• 104:07: Monologuing villains and Luffy’s fate—classic shonen tropes

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Piece Together Segment Highlights (73:09+)

• Fan questions on legendary/mythical weapon inspirations for Oda’s 19 swords (Fragarach, Gram, Muramasa, Longinus, Excalibur, etc.):

  "Do you think the Nefertaris had a powerful weapon Emu can't access? ... Please speculate irresponsibly." – Reverse I Packs (73:41)

• Speculation and laughter around future sword names, platform game references, Star Wars and Final Fantasy crossovers.

  "Give him a Keyblade. Give him a Buster Blade. Give him the Blades of Chaos from God of War..." – Ken (76:38)

• S&P's research: An exhaustive breakdown of the mythological meaning behind each named weapon so far (88:43–91:03).

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Memorable Running Jokes

• Sword Name Mispronunciations: Extended riffing on how to pronounce “Longinus” and others, including “Long Gynus,” “Longienus,” “Long Janice”—often in Peter Griffin’s voice or with adolescent jokes (40:08–44:49).
• Kaka (Poop) Can: Multiple callbacks to the cover story’s “paint can” actually being labeled “kaka” and ensuing jokes (19:49).
• Glup Shitto Index: The upcoming Kings Bracket promises “more glup shittoes than the glupshitto bracket” (108:40).
• Podcast Self-Awareness: References to pacing, trivia, and the podcast’s own long-term lore (Throughout).

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Final Thoughts / Wrap Up (105:05+)

• Shout-outs to artist D.KirbyJ, editor Delaney, and musician Kirsten Carey.
• Ken introduces the new "Ranking of Kings" Discord bracket—an exhaustive contest for every character with "King" in their name, from canon to deep cut SBS/film cameos.
• The episode ends with the usual mix of pun-heavy jokes, light bickering, and encouragement to check out live shows and join the One Piece Podcast Discord.

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For New Listeners

This episode exemplifies The One Piece Podcast's strengths: an insider-y but inviting conversational atmosphere, deep anime/manga analysis, in-jokes about fandom and translation, and geek culture references. It’s a deep cut episode that mixes scene-by-scene manga recap, fandom speculation, and lots of laughter. Perfect for longtime fans, and still accessible—if occasionally scattershot—for those newer to the Grand Line.

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Listen for:

• Lore drops about the World Government, Emu, and the "weapons of the world"
• Hilarious sword and poop jokes
• Thorough, knowledgeable host analysis and friendly ribbing
• Detailed fan Q&A on the symbolism behind One Piece’s arsenal

Skip: Podcast plugs, ads, and opening/closing formalities.

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“Thou shouldst be honored to die by the Weapons that created the world. Dude.” – Zach, dramatizing Emu (44:35)

Transcript

[Steve]

Foreign.

[Zach]

This is the One piece podcast, episode 928 for the week of Monday, July 27, 2026. My name is Zach.

[Ed]

My name is Ed.

[Steve]

My name is Steve.

[Alex]

And my name is Alex.

[Zach]

Hey, all the hosts here today. Also, early Happy birthday to Ed.

[Ed]

Nice. Thank you.

[Zach]

I sent an offer and we'll say it on here again. Shares. I think shares a birthday with Flapper. So we know. I think we've talked about this before.

[Ed]

And friend of the show, Mike Patton. Happy birthday, Mike.

[Zach]

Mike Patton, who I wish was a One Piece character also.

[Alex]

But we have a lot of double birthdays on the podcast. I share one with Donnie.

[Zach]

You do? Do I share1 besides USAT think you do.

[Alex]

I thought you did.

[Zach]

I don't know. We'll find out. We also have our archivist on today, Ken o'.

[Steve]

Connor.

[Zach]

Hi, Ken.

[Ken]

Hi, guys.

[Zach]

Hello.

[Ken]

Thanks for having me back.

[Zach]

Of course. It was a requirement right before we start the show. I don't normally have things to plug, but I'll do it at the top because I got to talk about One Piece with a high schooler as part of the Power your Story podcast, which is basically run by high schoolers in the Chicago area. So I got to talk to Alberto. You could give that a listen. Just. Just search Power your Story podcast. I do want to mention that, though, I was talking earlier about how it's crazy that kids know about One Piece, and it made me feel extra ancient that he was born, I believe, the same year we started this. And he started listening from us at the beginning. And that's really the crazy part, I think.

[Ken]

Wait, he went all the way back to episode one?

[Zach]

Yeah, he started Episode.

[Ken]

Wow.

[Zach]

My voice sounded different, which is just. How could you even. How could my voice have sounded different?

[Ken]

The light in your voice left. What happened?

[Zach]

Well, 2009 was a different time.

[Ed]

Went to law school.

[Zach]

I was on cnn, and then it kind of.

[Steve]

And we all went out for frosty chocolate milkshakes after every podcast.

[Alex]

Zach, I feel like following that time, you're like, he made a life decision to. Well, I'm going to do all the things that will make somebody the most tired in their entire life.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Starting with going to law school.

[Zach]

Yeah. Yeah. And that is why I'm not really awake right now. But how are you guys? Alex. It's been Alex and Steve. I feel like it's been a little while at least, or a couple.

[Alex]

Great.

[Ed]

Great.

[Alex]

Yeah. No, I mean, you know, kid life.

[Zach]

Kid hashtag is the thing.

[Alex]

Totally. Yeah.

[Steve]

That's the life I've Been living.

[Zach]

How are the cats, Steve?

[Steve]

Guys, look at. Look at my new starscre.

[Ed]

Whoa.

[Alex]

That's sort of like a child, Steve.

[Steve]

I. No, I meant I'm living like a child. I. Man, I might be able to take him to Cece's Pizza tonight with me.

[Ed]

Nice.

[Alex]

Hey, well, at least you opened that one, Steve.

[Zach]

I want to fly myself and Noah out there just so you could be the really cool, I guess, older or younger brother that, you know, he could hang out with.

[Steve]

I'm not even on uncle status anymore. No, you.

[Zach]

Well, once you showed the toy. You're bringing a Cici's.

[Steve]

You know who else could fly Starscream.

[Zach]

You have to do the sound effects. Yeah, okay.

[Alex]

Oh, hold on. No, you have to. You have to transform him into a jet first. Let's. Let's wait 10 minutes.

[Zach]

That's ridiculous.

[Steve]

Perfect content for an audio podcast. Do we put this on Patreon? The video.

[Zach]

The video. No, we don't.

[Ken]

No, it's just the audio.

[Steve]

It's just for Ken, just stalks.

[Alex]

It's a little something for Daddy.

[Steve]

The archive is.

[Zach]

Oh, yeah, yeah. That's part of his job. It's his job description.

[Ed]

Okay.

[Zach]

While Steve tries to get his Starscream back. Slash, cat.

[Alex]

Aw, yeah. I want the listener to imagine Jupiter jumping up and stealing Steve's Transformers toy from him.

[Steve]

No Jupiter, No.

[Alex]

Making a nest with its parts.

[Zach]

The other piece of podcast related news is I don't believe this will start the next break, but it will probably begin the one after that. But we are going to attempt to start a one piece read through podcast a la what we did in 2015 and 19, but a lot slower, a lot less intense, and with some slightly different angles. So keep an ear to the ground for more information on that. I believe Kirsten Carrie will be helping me on that fun project, but when I let people know, because we've been having a lot of breaks and I've been floundering. I'll put it that way. Speaking of, our anime recaps should be back. I'm going to put Sam on notice here if he's listening next week. Sam. Next week.

[Ed]

And when did heroines come out?

[Alex]

Two weeks ago?

[Steve]

Three weeks ago.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Ed]

Okay.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah. We're not that far behind. Well, we'll talk about the reason why I brought that up in a second, but first you can check us out. Also, one last piece of news from the podcast side. Patreon.com onepiecepodcast we're at the end of July. Steve and I know we had a winner for last month's sticker of the month Crew club. It was.

[Steve]

Yeah, that was the Buggy.

[Zach]

The buggy one. Right. That's what it was. I was surprised. They were neck and neck for a while and then Buggy just.

[Steve]

Yeah, I think like Buggy kind of just asserted dominance and just the ones

[Ken]

after getting spit roasted last week for him.

[Steve]

But yeah, he literally still got you still. As of this release, you know, this podcast release, you still have a few days to sign up for the Patron if you want to. I said that with an accent. I was like the Patreon.

[Zach]

Yeah, I don't know why you're saying that.

[Ed]

And speaking of Buggy, it's almost Buggy's birthday.

[Ken]

Is it?

[Steve]

It's Buguggy's birthday.

[Ed]

August 8th.

[Alex]

Happy birthday, Buggy.

[Steve]

Celebrate with a big plate of beef.

[Alex]

Buggy McGaggy Yagi's birthday.

[Zach]

So, yeah, you could check that [e-mail] OnePiecePodcast As Steve mentioned, you have a few more days if you want to get that sticker. Otherwise the August sticker will be voted on sometime in the first week or so of that month. Yes, yes. And Ken said very good things about the last one.

[Ken]

Oh, yeah, I love the Loki sticker.

[Zach]

Yeah. Thank you. So, yeah, check that out. And also I saw your standees, Steve. I think I probably mentioned them when you were in here and they look awesome.

[Steve]

Yeah, those aren't new. No, from last year.

[Alex]

But.

[Zach]

Oh no. Was it the gear 5 one that you made recently or that was new?

[Steve]

No, that was last year.

[Ken]

That was last year.

[Steve]

Last year.

[Zach]

God. Time is.

[Ken]

It's very cool. It spins. It's really cool.

[Steve]

I don't table too much anymore, so.

[Zach]

Yeah, I know that's probably much more. You see, you're not doing the thing that Alex and I are doing and trying to do the most exhausting things possible.

[Steve]

Oh, no, I do that. I just do another in other ways.

[Zach]

Yeah. Like with Starscream at Cici's. Before we get to the podcast, two small pieces of news. Ken, I'll let you take the reins here. Lego One piece.

[Ken]

Yes. The official teaser trailer came out on Monday. It's a minute long, not much there, but it seems to be a retelling of the first two seasons of the Netflix series. So all the Lego pieces and models are based off the Netflix cast, voiced by the Netflix actors. It's cute. It's a minute long trailer, so there's not much there, but you know what it's gonna be, so it's very cool.

[Alex]

That's on the toilet commercial.

[Ed]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Finally, a retelling of East Blue.

[Zach]

So how many iterations of East Blue have we had? Like, like legitimately.

[Alex]

Are you including the manga?

[Ken]

You got the manga, the anime, the. The One Piece anime.

[Steve]

Episode of East Blue. Episode of Nami, I guess would count, right?

[Alex]

I would. I would definitely count an episode of Nami because it has that, like, it has that little preamble in the beginning that just does a speedrun of East Blue up to that point.

[Steve]

How many times has the Luffy and Shanks passed by?

[Alex]

Way too many times. Because that's like what. You have the Hand island special too.

[Steve]

Multiple TV episodes.

[Alex]

Multiple. Yeah.

[Steve]

At this point, they just kind of Hand Island.

[Alex]

Yeah. Which if you've watched Widow's Bay, then Hand island.

[Steve]

And I haven't. So I just still think of it in the One piece context. Hand Island.

[Ken]

I appreciated that, Alex.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, we heard the other little bit of news. I mean, yes to my thoughts, I guess. My $0.02 Legos. It looked cute. And Jacob is, you know, it's. We know the cat. We know the voice is the one piece live action voice cast.

[Alex]

I think it's kind of funny that, like, they sound way more lively than their.

[Zach]

They do.

[Alex]

Than their regular live action.

[Ken]

Oh, that's kind of true. Yeah.

[Alex]

Counterparts.

[Zach]

Well, McKenu is a very low bar.

[Alex]

Yeah. Very low Bar for McKenu. But even in Yaqui, I really wanted him to be more how he is during the press junkets. You know, I don't think we ever talked about our thoughts really on season two. But that was my biggest. My big beef is that I think that. That. That he embodies Luffy, but really outside of the show more than anything else. And it's after something I want to see on screen versus, you know, playing hide the wiener with Jimmy Fallon or whatever.

[Zach]

Hide the wiener.

[Alex]

I don't know. I don't. I don't know.

[Steve]

For some reason, I wound up watching

[Alex]

some sort of Fallon plays on his. On his. On his talk show.

[Steve]

I forget. I don't know if it was like Variety or something, their YouTube channel. Like, it was them competing in a trivia contest. And I was immediately like, man, these feel way more like the straw hats than they do in the show. Whenever I was like, that just happened.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

And Sanji's like, it's like, oh, I want to take on a date, but only if that's okay with you.

[Zach]

That kind of makes me wish you're

[Steve]

pretty, but, like, in an inner beauty kind of way. Unless you want me to compliment your looks?

[Alex]

What if Sanji did the hover hand?

[Steve]

Yeah. Live action Sanji is Hover Hand Sanji.

[Zach]

The other little piece of news was that the 29th anniversary was this past week for one piece. So for all those listening who are younger than One Piece, it's the first

[Ed]

chapter of the manga.

[Alex]

Yes.

[Zach]

Yes. And they also released a puppet show. What was it called? It was a Lazy Day on the Thousand Sunny.

[Ed]

Yeah. It's very cute.

[Alex]

I wish it had One Piece.

[Ken]

Puppet pals.

[Ed]

Yeah.

[Alex]

A little bit.

[Zach]

Team America. Closer to that.

[Alex]

Yeah. They're like marionettes. And I think that's like a genre that's really taken off over in Japan. Right. Thunderbolt.

[Ed]

Thunderbolt Fantasy. Yeah.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, is that what Joey was. Okay.

[Alex]

And then there's another show that I remember Joey was talking about a couple years ago that was like. It was like a wuxia type show, but it was all done with marionettes and it looked really crazy.

[Zach]

Was this the guy who he interviewed that did this in one of the color walks?

[Alex]

Yes.

[Zach]

Statement on it.

[Alex]

I believe that's the guy like that he interviewed in a color walk who like made the marionettes. And he apparently has been sending him one member of the Straw Hats every. Every year for the last 13 years or something like that. So now that they are all assembled, I think that's. They used them to make the. Make that little short.

[Zach]

Yeah. 29th anniversary. Like 29 is not a number that like requires partying and celebration.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

So I could see that. Like, oh, it's a good excuse to do this.

[Alex]

Like. Like I said, there's no subtitles, but I like the context that I got. Was that like everybody's waiting for the toilet or something.

[Zach]

There was one of those. Yeah.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

There were a few different. It wasn't just one.

[Alex]

The Jinbei Puppets. Humongous. It's so funny. Like they are to scale. It's pretty. It's pretty wild that they're all scaled with each other.

[Zach]

It is. That was super fun. Not much else for me to say about it. I don't know if any of you guys have opinions, Thoughts?

[Steve]

Nope.

[Zach]

I guess we'll talk about the manga. Today we're going to be going through chapter 1189. So why don't we get straight into that right after this. Then we have piece together no trivia, because we haven't done that in a very long time. Unless I come up with it. And we have a lot of extra time because I'm sure we won't have anything to Talk about in this manga

[Ed]

we to bring David Bednar back to play fun games.

[Steve]

We could, but we won't.

[Zach]

See you on the other side. This is the manga recap for chapter 1189. King of the world won't do a Titanic Hashtag Leo.

[Ken]

Yeah,

[Zach]

do that. This chapter is all chapters.

[Ed]

Imunardo DiCaprio.

[Alex]

There it is.

[Ken]

Are you sitting on that, Ed?

[Ed]

No.

[Ken]

That was great.

[Ed]

I was just thinking about Emu on the bow of the Titanic.

[Alex]

What was the line, Steve? I was like, no, that's the Fabrizio scene. The scene with roses.

[Ed]

Jack.

[Alex]

I'm flying.

[Zach]

This chapter and all chapters come out. Shonen Jump viz.com mangaplus Shueisha Co JP But Ed, what's going on on in Oda's comment this week?

[Ed]

Yes, let's see here. This week, Oda is getting family time in. I watched One Piece Heroines with my daughter and she loved it. I'm glad it's appealing to girls. Please check it out.

[Alex]

I'm really glad we've gotten to the point with One Piece merchandising that they're selling One Piece heroin now.

[Zach]

Yeah. Yeah. That's hunt.

[Steve]

Gotta get the girls.

[Zach]

They love that heroin.

[Ed]

First taste is free.

[Steve]

Heroin is always just a. It's just a weird word.

[Alex]

It is, yeah.

[Zach]

Any thoughts on the comment? I mean, it's cute. I think as a. They're probably preteen teenage. Like, they're probably in the stage of development where they are like, ugh, dad did that. Ew. Like. Or maybe not. I don't know. Like that's. I.

[Steve]

To be honest.

[Zach]

Fair.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Alex]

I do wonder. Like, you know, you never know how much time he actually spends with his family because that his schedule was released years ago, but now he takes so many breaks that I'm sure.

[Zach]

Yeah. I think things have probably changed.

[Alex]

Like two hours of sleep a night.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Smoking a mountain of cigarettes.

[Steve]

Did he hear the Cats in the Cradle for the first time? And he was like, oh, no.

[Zach]

Ed, what's going on on the COVID page?

[Steve]

How could I bond with my daughter? I know. I'll show her a spin off that's

[Ed]

focused on women on the COVID of the chapter. This week we have a reader request for not he See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. Monkeys getting scolded by Nami for what? Looks like they got blood all over the laundry that was hanging out to dry.

[Ken]

Oh, that's not blood.

[Alex]

Oh, because they're monkeys. It's probably poop.

[Ken]

Exactly.

[Ed]

We can see that the naughty monkeys are also The Monster Trio. We got the Hero Evil Sanji monkey, the See no Evil Luffy monkey, and the Speak no Evil Zoro monkey. And some of the scars are like the eye scars are there for Luffy and Zoro, but Zoro's chest scar doesn't seem to be there.

[Alex]

I don't think Luffy's chest scar is there either.

[Ken]

Yeah, Luffy's. The Luffy monkeys, though, I mean, they're

[Alex]

obviously just supposed to resemble them. They're not, you know, one to one.

[Steve]

And the I'm ready for a new cover story.

[Ed]

Sanji Monkey has Hard eye.

[Zach]

We were. Well, I am a little surprised. Have we seen the Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil thing? Yes.

[Alex]

And color spread I think we must have.

[Ed]

Right?

[Steve]

I mean, there's like the hot spring color spread with like Robin and Nami definitely has a little bit of that.

[Ed]

Also.

[Steve]

This feels like a retread.

[Alex]

Yeah. I also feel like there's been at least one sbs, you know.

[Zach]

Yeah. Those aren't Oda though.

[Ed]

So, Zach, you're mentioning this before we started recording, and I think you're right that Nami's tattoo does look a little wonky there.

[Zach]

I think she looks a little wonky here. I mean, do you. Do the artists in the room agree?

[Alex]

I think she looks fine. Yeah. That tattoo is jank. I think that'll get corrected in the volume.

[Steve]

Where are her legs?

[Zach]

She doesn't need legs. But I

[Alex]

guest artist, Rob Leafield.

[Steve]

She doesn't have a big chest in this one, so that tracks.

[Zach]

Yeah, I don't know. I think she's way too low.

[Ed]

You're right.

[Steve]

No, it looks like the top of her tattoo. Like they didn't like chisel off the top, so it's still like blocky.

[Zach]

Yep, yep.

[Ed]

She's way too low. She's way too low because she's top heavy.

[Steve]

At first I thought it was tipping over like, oh, nosebleed. But then I'm like, oh, that's only Sanji's deal.

[Ed]

So the Sanji monkey looks like he's getting been shot with a gun.

[Ken]

There's a bucket in the corner. I just can't tell if it's a bucket of paint or a bucket of paint.

[Steve]

Oh, maybe they were throwing paint.

[Alex]

It says paint. I think I see like an A there. Yeah, it looks like a paint.

[Steve]

See, that's very important.

[Alex]

If Steven was here, he would probably be able to tell us what it is because it does say Japanese. Tends to not cover up that bit, actually.

[Steve]

A bucket of poop.

[Ken]

I Thought it was poop when I first saw this.

[Zach]

You know what? The poop is much funnier. I.

[Ken]

It's kaka.

[Steve]

That translates to poop.

[Alex]

Oh, yeah, that's what it says.

[Ken]

On the.

[Zach]

On the.

[Alex]

On the. On the can, it says kaka, not paint.

[Ken]

You mean you don't can your poop?

[Alex]

Not unless. Tells me it's very valuable.

[Steve]

I buy mine at the farmer's market.

[Alex]

Oh, very good.

[Zach]

Can we please start the chapter?

[Ken]

Yes.

[Ed]

In the aftermath of Luffy getting stabbed through the chest again, he's.

[Ken]

And

[Ed]

his emu. Gazes penetratingly.

[Zach]

I don't like that adverb. Yeah.

[Ed]

So he decides to. And they pull it out and stab him again. Pinning him.

[Zach]

No, it's the same. It's the same stab. I think it's just.

[Ed]

Yeah. And pinning him to the tree. Yeah. And over onto the next page, Usopp is noticing something. And say, what? And Nami urgently is like, what is it, Usopp? What happened? Usopp starts to respond. He's like, Luffy's. And Nami says, luffy's okay, right?

[Zach]

Yeah. That's still Usopp. Yeah.

[Ed]

Oh, yeah.

[Zach]

Luffy. Luffy's okay, right? Yeah. Nami responds, what?

[Ed]

What do you mean? Don't scare me. When has Luffy ever not been okay? And Jimbe interjects, consider what it means that this enormous giant was defeated, dummy. And Loki is offended. Ugh. Hey, Fishman. Who's been defeated? There's no doubt that Luffy's hockey suddenly grew much weaker. And Ragnar is just looming in the background there menacingly.

[Ken]

Menacingly.

[Zach]

Yeah. So menacing.

[Alex]

Ragnar is definitely the. The MVP of. Of this. Of this arc. That's my big takeaway. I think.

[Ken]

I do like the constant joke where, like, everyone's like, oh, Loki's dead. Or Loki's defeated. Like, I'm not quite dead yet. I'm not that defeated.

[Zach]

It continues in this chapter, actually. On the next page. Alex.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Yes, next page. So I guess we're over, like, several feet away. The ice has melted. Shuri is unconscious. And Frankie says, there. The ice is totally melted. Now, don't heat her up too quick, all right? And Brooke, of course, in the most serious of moments, you know, being a skeleton has to crack a joke or two, says not to worry, I have no body warmth. And so he's shaking an unconscious chariot and says, what happened to you after that? What happened all those years ago?

[Ken]

It is you, isn't it, Princess Shuri?

[Alex]

And Ragnar interjects and is having a little argument With Brooke, who says, hey, please don't interfere here. And USOP readies his. His kabuto and he goes, it's safe, right, Brooke? If she's still the scary version. So everybody's still got their guard up, obviously. Meanwhile, we smash cut to. I forget what these boats are. Are called these. These rowboats.

[Zach]

There's. Oh, it starts with an S. Sky or something. Or.

[Alex]

Yeah, these. These.

[Ken]

There's Zvars. Svr.

[Alex]

The Svar. Yes. This var carrying Hiredin. And Gerd is plummeting towards them. I feel like it's. I think it's really funny that Hardin is basically the Harrison Ford of flying these things where he's pretty good at flying them but can't land them for.

[Ken]

Yeah, this is like the second or third time he's crash landed on this thing.

[Alex]

Yeah. So. So Loki's just sort of mining. Loki's just sort of minding his own damn business. And Gerd says, we're going too fast. Hired in. And there everybody's screaming. And Loki notices. Pretty. Pretty late in the game. And on this page we have a pretty good action panel of the spark crashing and splitting in half, launching Hired in. And Gerd, of course, is cushioned by Chopper's guard point. His enormous guard point, which also seems to be hitting Loki right in the nuts.

[Ed]

So,

[Alex]

boy, if this was a 90s kids movie, somebody would say, that's gotta hurt.

[Ed]

And the guard point makes the noise. Boof.

[Alex]

It does make a boof. It does make a boof sound effect.

[Ken]

Boof. Deez Nuts.

[Alex]

Nuts. Yeah, they went on an odyssey. All right.

[Zach]

That's also what Ragnier was thinking about too, but differently.

[Alex]

Yes. So when the smoke clears us up, Usopp's freaking out because he was on Everybody was Almost Killed. And he goes, what are you guys trying to do? Hired in, Gerd, Chopper. And Gerd hugs. The Chopper's guard point is so huge, it is about as big as Gerd, which is great. And she says, ah, thank you, Chopper. You're so cute and helpful. And we haven't. We haven't seen Chopper do this in a while. And he goes, oh, yeah? Well, you can't butter me up, you jerk. Doing his little. His little mansai act. And while that's happening, things get deadly serious again. And Gerd notices Loki's gigantic sword wound and says, there's no time to waste, Loki, show me your wounds. And we move on to the next page wherein, you know, Gert says, oh, no, you're all bloody. And Loki says, yeah, and some of that was because of you. What are you doing here? And Hirin sort of gets up, he comes to a little bit, and we see like a. A Nini flashback, I guess, in the events of what led them to. To come here. And it's Jarl who says, if you're just going to fight, I wouldn't then go to Loki instead. And. And then Hardin basically says, but the children. Think of the children. Won't someone please think of the children? Which is. I feel like we say this all the time on. On the podcast in the last, what, two years?

[Ken]

Last two years, at least.

[Alex]

These kids have been in peril for about two years now. But Yara continues, he says, even if you save the children, it is only a temporary reprieve. Do you really think that this plan to rule over Elbaf came for the decision makers at the Reverie? No, of course not. I think it's.

[Ed]

This is one of everything's Decisions are made in meetings.

[Alex]

That's right. Yeah. This is one decision that wasn't made in a. In a committee. No, no, I think it's him. He says.

[Ed]

And

[Alex]

Hardin just sort of like, you know, is looking off in the distance and goes, loki, do you know who that guy is? And Loki says, yeah, I think I do. But before we can figure out what exactly Loki is thinking, we're back to the fight between Emu and Luffy. Luffy is, of course, into the tree with the sword here.

[Ed]

Like a butterfly.

[Alex]

Like a butterfly, indeed. Just like a little butterfly. And Emu says, thou canst not move now. That sword devours thy vitality. And he materializes. Another. Another story. This looks like a Claymore from his little Hertz donut, as we've been calling it. And Luffy's pretty. Like, he's pretty worse for where he's covered in blood. He is still in gear fifth, though. So I. I do wonder, you know, how much stamina he's. He's currently got. But then, yeah, he's got. He's got this Claymore Emu. And he says, monkey D. Luffy, my hateful name. Thou hast two brothers of different names. And we move on to the next page.

[Ken]

I have to continue that.

[Zach]

You too?

[Ken]

Yeah. The Emo Evo.

[Zach]

Yeah, we've.

[Alex]

Yeah, give it a try.

[Ken]

All right. One brother slaughtered by the Navy. And Luffy is huffing and puffing as Imu continues, the other prominent within the revolutionary army. And then IMU hits Luffy with the double penetration blade of the sea God. Fragarrak.

[Alex]

Fragglerock.

[Zach]

Fragglerock.

[Alex]

When the pilgrims came to Fraggle Rock. See, I thought it was pronounced Rugalach,

[Steve]

probably.

[Ken]

What? The actual name of the sword or.

[Alex]

No, I was making a joke. Oh, yes.

[Ken]

I'm like, how do you get in that? All right. But yeah. He stabs Luffy.

[Zach]

You have to say the.

[Alex]

Yeah, actually, Gary Goldman.

[Ken]

Gary Goldman.

[Alex]

That's part of his, like, whole thing. Is that, like, nobody says the anymore. What are they going to do? Hate us?

[Zach]

Too late. Go ahead.

[Ken]

Yeah. Blade of the Sea God Fragarach and Emu continues. In any case, a set of most uncouth brothers. And as Luffy screams out in pain with the dot, dot, dot and exclamation points and someone I think is that. I guess it must be Loki laying down, saying, it's gotta be him. The one Red Hair talked about. Then we get a flash back to the day that Loki killed Harold with Gabon.

[Zach]

And which flashback was this two flashbacks ago?

[Ken]

This was technically the Loki flashback after the God Valley X. But Loki says in the flashback, I'll use this power to avenge the memory of my old man and his soldiers and Shanks and Gabon. Look on him. Before Shanks goes on to say, wait, Loki, I understand your rage, but what do you want, red hair? Loki interrupts, are you going to stop me from getting revenge for my father? And Shanks continues, I considered Harold a friend too. I'd be right there with you. But think carefully now. The government was trying to take control of Elbaf. That's not their end goal. It's preparation for a war.

[Alex]

Dun, dun dun dun dun dun.

[Ken]

And Loki's like, huh? Is the world government getting into a war with someone else? And Shank says, well, that ain't no, that's still Loki. Sorry. Well, that ain't my problem. My father died an unjust death. His soldiers were killed along with him. I want vengeance for all these crimes. That's all. And Shanks goes, and who's guilty? Who will you strike down? And Loki retorts the world government. And Shanks says, the man who manipulated Harald was the king of the world. And ya rule is. What do you mean, Shanks? The entire concept of the world government is that there is no king. Who. Gabon's like, careful, Shanks. Shanks is like, no, it's fine. No one will believe it. And Loki's ha. So I guess that king is the culprit. I'll take his head nice and simple. And Shanks is like, you're still not getting it. The king's power is impossible to measure. Go to the Holy land. And the. And the mystery will only deepen rather than come to light. If it were that simple, someone would have already done it. And then it cuts to a brief little shot of rocks because Rox was in the chamber with Imu and did not kill him or couldn't kill him. And that kind of, like, shakes Loki a little bit with that realization. And Shanks goes, it's not yet the time to fight. And Loki's like, I don't want. Shut your mouth. You don't tell me what to do. I don't care where this guy is. I'll destroy anything in my way. Shanks is just, all right, buddy. Don't be foolish, Loki. Then we get out of the flashback back to Loki, present day. And he says, I left home and spent a few years abroad.

[Alex]

In the end, gap year, Loki's gap year, he's gappier.

[Ken]

In the end, I never did. I never did find my way to him. So if that's the king of the world right there, I'll never get a better chance.

[Zach]

Steve.

[Steve]

And now we hear, this is Howard in here saying, a simpleton's idea of a plan. But Loki still is offended by that. But Haradin says, but I've got no problem with it. Give me a chance to avenge my father, too. And we cut to the straw hats and Jinbe, arms crossed, saying, this is quite an absurd story. And Nami kind of looks like hiding behind him, saying, there's a king of the world. Then what are the five elders for? And meanwhile, Brook and Ragnar are still kind of going at it. Brook says, no, stop trying to interfere, if you don't mind. And Ragnar's going,

[Ken]

you can't say that. Ragnar.

[Steve]

Chopper says. He says, I froze her because she's dangerous. And Brooke is like, what? You're the one who froze her. Yes, she was dangerous. She was dangerous. Was. But I'm certain that she was being controlled. You see, this girl. Take a deep breath. Is like a daughter to me. Oh, thank God. Okay. Whoo.

[Alex]

I don't think that was ever. That was never an issue. That bit I don't think was ever an issue.

[Steve]

You never know yet. You never know. You never know. You never know. And then again, just because there's a father daughter relationship here, you never know. You never know.

[Ken]

And then you have Ragnar's YouTube thumbnail.

[Steve]

In response, Brook said, what?

[Ken]

It has the arrows in the diagram.

[Alex]

You won't believe. Brooke said, explained.

[Steve]

Yes.

[Alex]

And just Ragbear going, like, brooke's relationship just really explained. That's what it is.

[Ken]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Steve]

I feel the seeds being planted already, and all of a sudden Robin just sprouts up saying like, how interesting. But she.

[Zach]

She.

[Steve]

She appears to summon Chopper to the library, which apparently is just over there. Chopper turns.

[Zach]

This was very funny, I thought.

[Steve]

This is like Homer looking out like the kitchen window at like the abandoned prison or something.

[Zach]

Or the. The one where he parked the Homer. The great one where he parks in the back. Hi. Hi, kids.

[Steve]

Behind the house. But Chopper looks over at the entrance of the library and Saul's like, hey, hey, kid.

[Ken]

Saul's okay.

[Steve]

Hi, Chopper.

[Alex]

I could play that.

[Steve]

And we cut back to this wide, and there's just smoke filled air where Emu and Luffy were fighting. But now it's mostly just Emu fighting. And he's. And he. He summons an axe through his dark ring and says, next is. And Luffy is huffing. He says, this will do more than slash thee. Alas, the third will be Acts of Xing Xian. It's Chinese.

[Alex]

Probably Kano. Probably right?

[Zach]

Yes.

[Ken]

I'm waiting for Tashigi to show up. Like, hey, Mr. Emu, how many swords do you have?

[Alex]

Tashigi gets a nosebleed.

[Steve]

Tashigi remembers her goal.

[Ken]

Oh, right. I like swords. I forgot.

[Steve]

Geez, when's the last time that was done? Talked about Tasha. You ever getting around to taking all swords out of the hands of bad guys? Taking them out of the hands of bad guys? Shut up.

[Ken]

It's like she's playing giant kids. What was that now?

[Alex]

Well, now she's a member of sword. Yeah, it's right there in the name.

[Ken]

She's collecting people now.

[Alex]

She's collecting people?

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Sword. The Navy's version of. It's like, I'll have your badge.

[Ed]

Internal Affairs.

[Steve]

Yeah. No, their version of. Hey, I'm trying to eat lunch here.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

He says he summons the axe of Xingshan. It's a big axe. And Luffy's often an urgent. I guess this just enrages him because he's just enrages Imu because he's still alive. But we go to the Sea Cloud Port in Western Village.

[Zach]

Ah, the Western Village.

[Steve]

The Western Village. And Zoro is unleashing a King of Hell. Three Sword Serpent 103 Mercies. And Somers Here does his. Not his shiki laugh, but his gi.

[Zach]

Ha ha ha.

[Steve]

And they clash swords here as Zoro finishes here with Dragon Damnation. And Summers just says, Graham. And he adds a little variation. His laugh. Here he goes, Oh yeah, that's Sorry, I just said it wasn't. She's laugh. And then I do the Sheikh. We all know that Summer pronounces a gif, and Shiki pronounces it Jif.

[Alex]

That's right.

[Ken]

Yeah, that sounds how you remember the.

[Alex]

The universal greeting, right? Ba weep GRA weep ninibong, weep ninny bong.

[Steve]

So soon, like, Oda's gonna run out of laughs. And that will be one before long, you know? And then we see a shot of the Empty Throne here. And this is Summer saying, 800 years ago, the 19 kings who created this world took an oath of equality, thrust, thrusting their weapons into the floor around the Empty Throne. And Zoro's kind of just like, half paying attention.

[Zach]

He's like, I'm trying to cut you with my swords. Stop talking about swords.

[Steve]

He says, blade of Chaos. Tohu vohu. Nemesis Longinus. Which is how that's pronounced.

[Alex]

No, it's not. It's not pronounced. It's Longinus.

[Ed]

Longinus.

[Zach]

Longinus.

[Steve]

Hey, hey. In Evangelion, it's Longinus, so.

[Zach]

Oh, Evangelion. Not even trying to hide it.

[Steve]

Fresh in my mind lately.

[Ken]

Oh, you just rewatched it, didn't you?

[Steve]

Don't take it up with me. Take it up with Studio Khara.

[Zach]

I will.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Continue. There's more swords. There's more swords.

[Zach]

Yeah, there's so many swords.

[Steve]

Yes, you all have a case of. You all have a severe case of Longinus

[Ken]

Long Gynus.

[Steve]

And you have a. You have a stigma for how these should be pronounced.

[Alex]

Longinus and Lucy.

[Ken]

Stigma.

[Steve]

So there's Stigma. Then there's Muramasa, and that Muramasa Sounds familiar.

[Alex]

I mean, it's a famous Japanese sword. Ancient Japanese sword. Mythical, perhaps, or real. I don't know.

[Ed]

I don't know.

[Alex]

And you know, I don't know who was supposed to wield it. It's not.

[Ken]

There's a question in our test piece. We'll talk about all different sword names later. So.

[Zach]

Okay, listen to the Piece Together segment for that. Yeah. Okay, good. I'm glad.

[Steve]

They are the 19 weapons of those who brought the world to heal. And then. Yeah, this is all Summer's here saying. Like, the Great One used omen to bring them back and grant them to us. There are no lies among the legends each family passed down. You see, Roanoa, Zorro. This is power that conquered the world. And Zoro, he's huffing, puffing. Did he get, like, knocked back or something?

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Hard.

[Zach]

Yeah, they look like a kind of hard to Tell. Yeah.

[Alex]

Yeah. Their blades clashed and it knocked him back.

[Ken]

Yeah, he flew backwards.

[Steve]

Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. You gotta, like.

[Ken]

It looks like sort of.

[Steve]

The panel has to be. The panel has to at least be, like, five inches.

[Ed]

That was. That's not blood. That's hockey bolts.

[Ken]

Oh, yeah. They have black lightning coming off. And then Zorro gets flung back by Summers.

[Zach]

Yeah, there's a lot happening, but on the next page, not much happens. As we see here, Summers continues his soliloquy saying monologue here from the shepherd family. This one has a really cool name. Get ready. It's called Graham. Isn't that cool?

[Ken]

Named after my favorite crackers.

[Steve]

Pretty cool, huh?

[Zach]

Zoro's like, graham. What? Teddy. Teddy. Graham.

[Alex]

Graham who?

[Ed]

I'm about to make a s' more out of you.

[Alex]

Graham Skywalker Grass.

[Ken]

Polo Graham. Marco's father.

[Alex]

Oh, my God.

[Zach]

Yeah. Polo.

[Ken]

Graham could be Polo into a sword

[Zach]

that turned Marco's dad into a sword.

[Ken]

Funniest thing I've ever seen.

[Zach]

You see, that would have. That would have made it worth having him even be in that flashback briefly. It's like, oh, yeah, this is some guy's dad. I hate it. I hate it. Pickle. Graham. And here's the longinus.

[Alex]

Stop it. It's not how it's pronounced.

[Zach]

It is now, especially for killing him.

[Steve]

Yeah, killing him. The Third children.

[Alex]

Oh, my God.

[Zach]

Oh, my God.

[Ken]

Your Long Janice is showing.

[Alex]

Sorry, that's how Peter Griffin would pronounce this.

[Zach]

It is. I was thinking vagina. Isn't that the joke in chicken?

[Alex]

Vagina. The family Saj McBiscuit. Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. This spear has been passed through the Reboshifu family. It's a longinus. Look at my longinus.

[Steve]

What's it called?

[Zach]

It's called a longinus.

[Alex]

Okay, Zach, I'm loving the voice that you're giving this guy. Like, so much like you're putting the stank of your hatred for this character on in the voice. It's fantastic.

[Zach]

I'm getting more into voice.

[Alex]

You also said rifushifu.

[Zach]

I was really channeling how stupid he is.

[Steve]

And it just Rishu shifu on the shifu.

[Zach]

It's the Remo shifu, and it's turning its emerge a little bit. And we head back.

[Alex]

I just think it's neat.

[Zach]

I just think the longinus is neat.

[Steve]

It's the Spear of Longinus, Mom. It's Longinus.

[Zach]

That's what I said.

[Steve]

Longinus.

[Zach]

My cheeks hurt from laughing. And here, if we go back to Imu, thou shouldst be honored to die by the Weapons that created the world. Dude. It's turning into something else. Sorry, Luffy.

[Steve]

Why are all the knights stoners now?

[Zach]

Why not? Why not?

[Ken]

I mean, summer's always had that big the dude energy from Big Lebowski.

[Zach]

We've been doing that for him. Luffy's pupils, which disappeared long ago. He does not look happy to have his third sword penetrating him. It hasn't happened yet because, you know, we really should have gotten the idea of when we saw it was an axe a few pages ago. But here it is. Scopper Gabon has two of them, and he could stop any emo kid coming in here. So, yeah, Emu throws his. Not throws. Swings his axe down to hit Luffy. Butterfly. Luffy and Scupper comes in, saves the

[Ed]

day, and they clash. Ka ching.

[Alex]

And the tree gets cut.

[Zach]

The tree does get cut.

[Alex]

I didn't notice it until just now. Yeah, the tree gets cut in threes.

[Zach]

Oh, it does. You're right. Oh, the Luffy section gets.

[Alex]

The Luffy section is going to be by itself.

[Ken]

Interesting. I didn't catch that either.

[Zach]

Very cool. Gabon at the end. Love that.

[Ken]

That shadow work is intense.

[Zach]

Yeah, it is.

[Alex]

What a scary man.

[Zach]

Shonen Jump is off next week, I believe. I think it's for Oban, so don't blame Oda for this one.

[Alex]

I thought you were going to say Obama.

[Zach]

You said Obana.

[Ken]

Obana means totally.

[Alex]

We got him.

[Zach]

I might write down. That'll do it for the chapter.

[Ed]

Ed.

[Zach]

Thoughts. Thoughts on this one.

[Ed]

I mean, they're getting more lore about the. The founding of the world, but it doesn't really make sense. Like the. It doesn't help me explain which part.

[Zach]

The. The law of Gynus or the.

[Ed]

They all put their. They all weapons down in front of the throne and swore an oath of equality, which doesn't seem like something that they would do or they would stick to, but. And then they got their weapons back from Emu. But why?

[Zach]

It's a good question.

[Alex]

Well, I think it's because. What? Emu. Since Emu sits on the throne, he has access to all the weapons that are up there. Maybe. I think that's part of it. Like, it's not his. Yeah, his little. His Felix the Cat bag of everything or whatever.

[Ken]

Yes, it's the ring on his back. Since they all have the rings now, they're pulling them out of those Omen rings.

[Alex]

But it's also giving them a bit of a upgrade. Like a strength upgrade, too.

[Ken]

Yes. Yeah, it revitalized them also. Yeah, they do everything.

[Ed]

Love to See, Zoro being cool in this chapter too.

[Zach]

Well, I don't know if Zoro was cool as much as he just got pushed back, but I mean, he has this guy, so he looks like an idiot, but yeah. Anything else?

[Steve]

More than you did this week.

[Zach]

That's true.

[Ed]

I don't really have much else to add, honestly. This is a hard one to read on the phone.

[Zach]

Yeah, that. I think I mentioned that earlier. No, this is not a good phone chapter, though.

[Alex]

Yeah, I'm just going to go out on.

[Steve]

I don't think any are.

[Zach]

Yeah, I was going to say, I don't think one piece is meant to be read on that. Alex. What were you going to say? Sorry.

[Alex]

Say it in the 70 millimeter IMAX, Alex.

[Steve]

The way it was intended.

[Ken]

The way Oda intended.

[Alex]

Yeah, yeah. One piece. The orange box edition,

[Ken]

as Oda intended.

[Alex]

Yeah. Orange brick. Is that what that was? Yeah, the orange bricks.

[Ed]

Yes.

[Alex]

Yeah, I, I really liked it. This chapter is doing a lot, isn't it? Where to start? I think it's interesting that we see the rest of the conversation between like Loki and Shanks and, and Jarl.

[Ed]

And Gabon was there too. Right.

[Alex]

And, and Gabon was also there. I, and figuring out exactly how much Shanks knows. And I love that he said, go to the Holy Land and the mystery will only deepen rather than come to light. I'm like, yeah, that's true. That's. There's more question. There's been more questions than answers for a very, very long time.

[Zach]

It was a very, it was very, it was a satisfying line to see.

[Ed]

Shanks. My favorite part of the chapter is when Hyrudun is like, that's a child's idea of a plan because, like, exactly how, like we don't know enough about Emu's power to know how to defeat them.

[Alex]

Yeah, but they're still going to do it anyway, which is interesting. I, I, I hope they're, they're going to be, they're going to end up all right there. I think that the, the weapons that he's pulling from, you know, his hurts stone at are being the 19 weapons that the, you know, ancient kings laid down in solidarity. I love that. I think that's a cool way to factor that in. And also sort of, you know, it, it ties the empty throne and Emu sort of together a little bit and.

[Ed]

Sure.

[Alex]

Omen giving them, giving the rest of the holy nights, like, you know, super strength to whatever. Sure, why not? Why, why not? Right.

[Ed]

I mean, it's, it's also a problem For Elbaf that the tree is cut now like this.

[Zach]

That's not that.

[Alex]

That's just a branch. That's just a big branch.

[Ed]

Oh, never mind.

[Alex]

Yeah, that's just a big branch. It's not. It's.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Zach]

You can actually see another branch on the. Below it too. Yeah, some of the pages. Yeah.

[Alex]

That's not too bad. Yeah, I think. I like that. This chapter basically says, however you think Emu is going to be defeated, it won't be that easy across the board. And I think, you know, it's not going to be brute strength. I mean, at least we hope not. Like, you know, it won't be like a giant punch. I mean, not that I'm gonna complain too much about that, but. And I like that they're. I don't know, they're having. They're having an argument. The. This Brooke and Sherry situation. It's nice to see the rest of the straw hats getting to do other things too. Like, we know where everybody is. We know where all of our players are. It's. I feel like we've. We tend to go through so many chapters without even seeing.

[Ed]

Like to see other half is doing Usopp and Chopper. Especially in this chapter. Chopper getting to do his gag. He doesn't do very often anymore.

[Zach]

And Usopp got what might have been observation hockey there too.

[Alex]

And what? Robin taking Chopper to the. To the library. I'm not.

[Zach]

To the library.

[Alex]

I wonder what that. I wonder if that has anything to do with Chopper being able to turn the Domi Versi giants back into regular giants.

[Zach]

I thought it might have to do. So he was just before this talking with Ragnarok an animal. Because remember, Chopper has that power to talk to animals. Maybe the owl.

[Alex]

Oh, yeah.

[Ken]

That's what I thought too.

[Zach]

Shit.

[Alex]

That's right, the owl. Biblo Biblo.

[Zach]

The one in my backyard.

[Alex]

Biblioteca. Yeah. No, that's a good. That's a good freaking point.

[Ed]

See, don't be a Stabilo teca.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Apparently it's right over there, according to Chopper.

[Zach]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Alex]

But anyway. Yeah, I really enjoyed this chapter. I thought that there are a lot of really cool panels too. Yeah. Obviously you can't. You know, there's a lot of. A lot of. The action, of course, leaves a lot to be desired. But we've. I feel like we've discussed that to death lately. Yeah.

[Ed]

Loki. I mean. And Luffy's gotten stabbed a lot the last couple of chapters. He's fucked up.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Alex]

And the thing that gives Me pause about him, like, not being too worse for wear is that he's not reverted back to his regular form. But maybe this is.

[Zach]

Alex, here's a question.

[Steve]

Why.

[Zach]

Why do you think? How is it he has gotten stabbed so repeatedly into a branch and he is conscious for a lot of it? I mean, not the whole chapter, but he is, like, hanging on there. Like, what do you think there's a reason.

[Alex]

I wonder if it's willpower. I also. Okay, so, man, I want to see.

[Ed]

I mean, Luki still has cartoon powers. I want to see him punch Emu so hard in the head that, like, the little bird on the spring comes out like a cuckoo clock out of his mouth.

[Zach]

Oh, yeah, we haven't seen that one yet. Yeah, that's a good one.

[Alex]

So why did he bring up. Why did he bring up Ace and Sabo? I don't understand that.

[Zach]

Yeah, that was a weird one too.

[Steve]

Because they're cool.

[Alex]

Because they're cool. Yeah. A hateful name now has two. Like, okay, what I don't get is that, like, he calling him Joy Boy and now he's calling him Luffy. And I feel like there's. What's the. What's.

[Ed]

I think the point in the last chapter was he is not.

[Zach]

I think that was the point of. Yeah, that was the point of the last chapter. Because, yeah, up to that point, he had been. But he's like, oh, no, you're too weak. You aren't.

[Alex]

Yeah, but now he's like, okay, Monkey D. Luffy. Well, what about these other.

[Zach]

You're not so great, you know? Yeah, you.

[Ken]

Yeah, I think he's just monologuing and like, hey, you have one brother who was a pain to the knee. Another one who was in the army.

[Zach]

Like, I thought it was supposed to be for the reader. Also, like, to be like, oh, this is like a he's in mortal danger sort of situation. Because we're talking about his brothers. Because Ace, ptsd, like, even might be.

[Alex]

I don't know.

[Ken]

It's just insult. It's just insult to injury. That's all it is.

[Alex]

I guess.

[Zach]

So he didn't mention his father, though. Dragon or his grandfather.

[Alex]

Yeah. Or just like, I guess bringing up more fact that, like, these three brothers, you know, have given the world this much trouble. That kind of a thing.

[Zach]

I thought that's what he was saying. Yeah, it does feel random.

[Ken]

It could just be like, God thing. Like, I know who you are. I know your family. I know your name. Like, don't. Like, don't act like I Don't know who you are kind of thing. Like, I know all.

[Zach]

Yeah. Yeah, could be that.

[Alex]

Anyway, that's it for me.

[Zach]

Steve, your thoughts?

[Steve]

Well, I think I kind of like the lore behind the empty throne now with, like, all those weapons. It's not just for aesthetic. It's kind of symbolic of these nations throwing their specific weapons down. And then for this asshole emu to just use them, not only sit on the throne, but use them, I think is a pretty good motif here. I enjoy that aspect of the character, for sure. And in terms of the plan here, I don't know. I don't know why I'm getting like, a sense of, like, the mark of death on some characters when, like, you know, it's still one piece. I have a hard time believing, but I don't know, like, Haradin and Kaban getting involved here has me worried a little bit for them. Like, this Luffy won't die here, but I feel like it would make sense for someone to die to kind of be like a damn, like, this is what we're going up against. But it's still one piece.

[Alex]

Like, I don't know. Gabon dying would actually serve a lot of. A lot of weird purpose, especially with Colin, too.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Like, how is, like, oh, if he dies, his dad would die. I've died, you know, fighting, like a warrior thing. I don't want to die. I love Gabon. I think he's great.

[Ken]

Yeah, same, but hired.

[Alex]

And I don't think we'll die. I don't think. I don't think we're. I don't think we're gonna. We're gonna get that, though.

[Steve]

But it is nice for him to get to do something because, yeah, he's kind of. He. He's really kind of played second fiddle in this whole arc, so. But got a. Yeah, I think this would be. This will be really good for his character to kind of get involved here and kind of put him on level with Loki. I know, like, Loki's so much stronger, so much bigger, but at least it's kind of like. It's like, hey, don't forget about me. I will say I kind of just, you know, kind of laughed at the. The. The quick flash of the. Of Rocks being like, there was one cool guy who challenged the king's power. He was super cool. Coolest guy ever.

[Alex]

A super cool robot.

[Ken]

It was that easy.

[Ed]

Someone would have done it by now, but Rocks wasn't good enough.

[Steve]

And look, he's like, oh, what? My. My hero. The coolest guy ever. But I. There's intrigue with Shanks here because saying, like, now is not the time to fight. So it just makes me wonder, like, cool, like, now it's like, what. It's like, what. What is part of Shanks playing here? Like, how much was orchestrated with getting that gum, gum fruit, meeting Luffy and all that. It made me wonder a lot about that. But besides, I think a lot of the artwork is really good this week. A lot of clean drawings. Action is still a lot to be desired here, but there wasn't too much of it. But yeah, I do enjoy Gabon a lot too. Be a shame if something were to happen to him, but I kind of feel like there needs to be a huge tragedy. Well, no, I don't know how this arc's gonna end. I don't know if this is gonna be a huge loss or this is gonna be a victory here.

[Ed]

I mean, what's going on with Brooke and Shuri now? Do we really have an idea of where that's going?

[Steve]

Can we keep her?

[Ed]

Yeah, she can hang out with Lilith.

[Steve]

Someone asked Ragnar. He apparently knows all the answers. First, you got to sit through, like,

[Ken]

a raycons ad Ragnier's Raycons.

[Steve]

But yeah, I thought it was good, but things are ramping up. I like, I said, like, I was most happy to see Gabon and. And Haruin kind of step up here. And I do enjoy these guys, like, all these knights getting, like, bonus items getting hooked up here. I think that's like, a really fun aspect. Yeah. Decent chapter, Ken.

[Ken]

I love this one. The swords, the weapons are like, immediately, like. It's so video gamey kind of Kingdom Hearts kind of like. It's something very appealing to me about it.

[Ed]

It feels rpg.

[Ken]

Yes. Yes, exactly. I do like how. Because they've kept the. Like the Celestial Dragons have kept the 20 families, like the 19 families. So I don't say pure, but, like, they've kind of like, kept them going through all these years that Summers and Killingham are using their family's weapons like it's the ancestor of their family, which I think is really cool. It makes me wonder, though, because we know the 20th family, like the Nefertari family did not join them. So where's the Nefeltari weapon sword? Will we see Vivi get that eventually? That's thinking that's a little too much theory crafting. But, like, I would like to see, like, if there's a 20th weapon out there. I'm certain it's going to play a part back into this or what was

[Ed]

the Don Quixote families? I don't know.

[Ken]

It's like, because Emu lists a bunch of the weapons.

[Alex]

Just a literal birdcage, but also it's people.

[Zach]

I mean, Don Quixote Miosgaard was also Don Quixote, so that lineage is still in marijuana.

[Ken]

Yeah, there's still Don Quixote family members on the.

[Zach]

Don't worry, guys. There's still Don Quixote in Mary Showa.

[Ken]

We got plenty of them. Don't worry. I think it's interesting too, that Oda shows a couple panels again. When Imu pulls out the second the Blade of the Sea God. He holds it up to the branch before he stabs Luffy, and you see the branch darken and decay. So, like, the swords, like, it may not be a lethal thing because we're talking about. How is Luffy not dead yet? Like, it could be. Like, they're not lethal weapons, but they could be just draining his life force. And like, they've touched on that a couple times in the series. Like, oh, how many years of your life, Luffy, are you gonna take to heal here?

[Zach]

I wonder how long he was supposed to live originally, because.

[Ken]

Yeah, so maybe it's feeding into that. Yeah. We'll talk more about the weapons though, in the. The disc pieces. But like, just the fact that they're all. They all seem to be based off famous weapons in like, mythology and other stories and whatnot. They all have the names allude to certain things. I think is very cool. I just want to see more of the actual fight between Zoro and like, Zoro and Sanji's fights. Because we're getting little glimpses of them. I want to see them go, like, all out fighting. And yeah, I hope Gaban doesn't die, because that's how it feels at the end there. But I feel like the ray did the. When he fought Gunko, he sacrificed himself and fell off the tree. I felt like that was his moment of like, I'll die for my son and stuff. Like that last panel of him with

[Ed]

his Haki darkened face.

[Ken]

Yeah, no, that last panel is very, very cool. Yeah, it kind of looks like one

[Ed]

of those old dudes who turned themselves blue with all the colloidal silver with the.

[Ken]

I know what you mean, but yeah, no, very good chapter. I thought all the sword stuff was cool. And Ragnir continues to be the MVP of the arc, like we said earlier.

[Zach]

Yeah, I'm gonna. I'll keep it brief. There was one thing I want to mention that I think hasn't been mentioned. And I told Ken I would write it down before, so I've remembered. But I'll briefly say I agree. I think the. I agree with what's been said. It's a very dense chapter, considering what it is. I like that we finally are getting a little bit more out of that conversation with Shanks, since we knew there was more there. But, you know, I think we mentioned when we left, both flashbacks like, okay, there are more. There's more to be filled in there, and the more we see that, the better. And the Usopp observation hockey moment, Nami, Robin, you know, the rest of them, seeing them all have a role in here. I do want to reiterate. I know it's been said, but I think the things that Elbaf has been doing better than Egghead generally is putting the straw hats front and center a lot more. Is it perfect? No. Are they still sometimes sidelined? Absolutely. But I think this. I think the straw hats are more front and center here, you know, onigashima aside, than they've been in quite some time. So I am really digging that. The. The one thing that I did want to mention was the one panel I think Ken read at the bottom of page nine, Shanks, this thing saying, be careful. The government was trying to take control of Elbaf, but that's not their end goal. It's preparation for a war. And I don't know why this is the first time it occurred to me in this chapter. I think maybe it's, you know, Loki directly saying, is the world government getting into a war with someone else? That made me think, you know, that's a very good point. There's no one. If you're king of the world, who do you fight against? Like, this isn't just like. Like we've been saying this whole time, you know, oh, they're fighting against the Ds. They're fighting against, like, this ancient kind of comeuppance that they're. That they're expecting, but emu. And. And all of them don't seem like the kind that would prepare for a war just because of paranoia. Like, is this, like, I hate to say the thing, I always say this, aliens or something, like, when I say that, I mean, is this just because. What is bigger than the entire world? You know? Is it just that they're fighting the pirates that exist? Because they've been doing that this whole time anyway. Why would that be different from what they're already doing? Doesn't this have to be a force that is much that is not necessarily, like, superior to them, but is beyond them. That now they are preparing for this war against them, that they're going to move their pieces into. Into place here.

[Alex]

Well, you know, Emu talked about this already, right? How, you know, time is cyclical and during the last war or whatever, blah, blah, blah. And I, you know, when you refer to the Harley, you know, it seems that, like, every single age ends with this gigantic war. And I don't know, I think it's literally just like. Sounds like it's just like everybody versus Mimu, right? Like the world.

[Zach]

I agree that that is like, where we're. Where it feels like we're heading.

[Alex]

Or space. It could just be space. Yeah, the spaces. And Anaro.

[Zach]

Well, I say that because, like, literally. Yes. Like, just reading it as, you know, us here, you know, obviously we could feel the. Oh, it's Luffy and all his friends versus Emu and you know, like all the friends we made along the way versus Emu and. And the government. But that doesn't really make sense from the government's point of view because they don't know that this is, you know, a potential threat. And you know, like, going back, Shanks is saying this, like 40 years ago, when or however long, 20 something years ago, whenever Harold died. So this is like this preparation for war. It must have been going on for as long as they've been trying to recruit the giants, which has been sure sometimes. So it is not. It is not just fear of. I mean, unless they're like, oh, I believe the Harley and they know the future somehow. Like, we know this is going to come, so therefore, we have to prepare. It could be that.

[Alex]

I mean, I also think it could be just paranoia, like Emu's paranoia that, like, Joy Boy is going to come. And, you know,

[Ken]

Joy Boy, I think it's Emu. Just like Imu like, realizes, like, hey, I'm in power. Like, the world is in the shape that I want it to be. That's not a guarantee it'll always stay that way. Like, even looking back at the brook Flashback. Why did Imu interfere with a nation that made musical instruments? Why is he still consolidating power when he's already king of the world? Why is he prepping for the Giants? Why is he doing things?

[Zach]

There's a big difference between. Oh, go ahead, Ken. Sorry.

[Ken]

Why is he having Vegapunk make the mother flame to power? Uranus now to take out Lulucia. Emu's constantly doing things. And I think once Luffy came onto the stage. Once Marineford happened, once Joy Boy reappeared, the status quo changed. Like, all right, let me get back to getting this job. Like, it's kind of like I got to speed up my production a little bit.

[Alex]

I think that that has a lot to do with that. I think. I think that.

[Zach]

See, maybe this is just me, but all of the things you list. I agree. Blake. You know, reading it, you know, it's. I think this entire time, I've been, like, taking for granted. Okay, this is because Emu is paranoid and he wants to beat Luffy. But the fact that this has been going on so long, this is not the sign of someone who's just consolidating power to stay in power. This is someone who is consolidating and creating new power because he is preparing to make a move and proactively. And it's what they said in volume 19. I forget the specific chapter, but at the Reverie, the five elders being like, we have to shake up the world and all this, like, it is time to. To take these steps. Alex, what are you going to say?

[Alex]

You know, we've posited that, like, this isn't the first planet. You know, maybe it's the next planet. Right. Like, it's. That's. That's what his aim is. Like. I've done everything I can, and we plan it.

[Zach]

Now it's sinking the world too.

[Alex]

And it's now sinking. The world is sinking. So we have to move on to the next one.

[Ken]

Time for a new.

[Ed]

I. I think.

[Alex]

And when you. Yeah, when you go to Back to the Ohara chapters and you see the globe and you see how many moons or planets surround what.

[Zach]

What called the blue Planet.

[Alex]

The Blue Planet? Is that what we're calling.

[Zach]

That's what he called it.

[Alex]

Yeah, he called it the Blue planet.

[Ed]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Which makes sense because they're all blues. The se.

[Alex]

Yeah. So I don't know. Like, the problem is. And this is the problem with reading week to week is that we only have so much information, so.

[Zach]

No, I agree. The reason I bring it up is because this is the first time it made me kind of doubt all my preconceived notions of why the government was doing what it was doing. I think at this point, I was just like, oh, yeah, obviously this is because Luffy's gonna be a threat. And there he's afraid of Joy Boy and all that. And that still might be. Yeah, that still absolutely might be true. But the. The fact that Loki kind of. It's the fact that what does the World government have to fear.

[Alex]

I'm watching you, like in real time, tear down your Pepe Silva yarn yarn situation.

[Zach]

I wish I actually had that.

[Ken]

I mean, not to recontextualize things. Like right now, the Holy Land's being invaded. Things are on fire. The entire reason Imu showed up inside Gunko for a minute like, hey, we need you guys back. We're losing this fight. What's going on here?

[Zach]

I agree.

[Ken]

And then the Loki Luffy stuff happened. Like, all right, I gotta go take care of this myself.

[Zach]

The thing that's been bothering me is that he has been doing this for a while. Like centuries. Like not the entire, you know, pre Void century, but anyway, I just want to mention that that was that. That's all. I'm sure we'll get back into that at some point in time, but I know we have a lot of Piece Together Food for thought. So why don't you all listening grab some food for thought and we'll see you in the Piece Together segment right after this.

[Steve]

This episode is supported by FX's the Shards, a seductive drama from executive producer Ryan Murphy. Set in 1980s Los Angeles, the series follows a group of glamorous, deeply entangled high school seniors drawn into a life of wealth, beauty, parties and excess. At its center is Brett, whose reality begins to unravel when the arrival of a new student coincides with a series of mysterious murders. FX's the Shards premieres August 5th on FX and Hulu.

[Zach]

This is the Piece Together segment where we take your questions, comments, theories, and decide what Fragarach tastes like. Could really be anything. Alex, what's our first segment?

[Alex]

Well, I'll tell you one thing. Certainly it probably tastes like a giant trash heap, right? That's the all knowing trash heap from Fraggle Rock. Anyway, our first dispiece is from Reverse I Packs. I Packs. But like Axe. Like the.

[Ken]

No. First one is.

[Alex]

Take this OPP Blade of the Muppet God Fraggle Rock. Now that I have you where I want you, do you think the Nefertaris had a powerful weapon Emu can't access? Or maybe three of these ancient weapons since at least Muramasa and Longinus are named for real world legendary blades. Will any of the others be named after cool mythical weapons like Excalibur or Yaoi Paddle? Or even Mjolnir? Please speculate irresponsibly. I think Ragnar has. Has taken the Mjolnir mantle there. I think that's. That's sort of the.

[Ken]

It'd be weird to have Another hammer?

[Alex]

Yeah, yeah. A one to one. I'm sure Excalibur is in there though. Emu's whole blade thing. Nobody. I mean, Ken, you might have played Final Fantasy 5. It sort of reminds me of Gilgamesh's whole thing.

[Ken]

Yes, absolutely.

[Alex]

Yeah. Where. So Gilgamesh is a boss in Final Fantasy 5. Sort of like comic relief. But part of his whole thing is that like he can either slash you with Excalibur, which it, you know, will deal heavy damage, or Excalibur, which deals like one damage. Or is it zero? I don't remember, but zero. It's pretty funny. That's. Yeah.

[Zach]

Oda loves Final Fantasy, so speculate irresponsibly, fellas. Right now, what other like extremely famous swords are there? Just.

[Alex]

I will say that. I will say that there's a huge disc piece coming up that. That does detail all this.

[Ken]

Yeah. There's more sword talk later on.

[Zach]

As long as there's more sword talk, I'll be okay.

[Alex]

I think it'd be really great if one of them was the like the spring loaded hammer thing from the four kids. One piece.

[Ken]

Complete bullshit.

[Alex]

That would actually be amazing. Like he pulls out the. Yeah, he pulls out the hammer. The hammer gun.

[Ken]

Awful.

[Steve]

Trying to think if there's any other like, good like.

[Alex]

Or the vice that's in the one shot.

[Steve]

The what?

[Alex]

Or the vice that's in that one shot.

[Steve]

Oh, it was probably like a different version at the time.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Ed]

God.

[Steve]

Did they have any sword edits on that one? I don't think.

[Alex]

I don't think they did.

[Steve]

Yeah, I'm trying to. Maybe I'm just thinking of other dubs.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Beats me here.

[Ed]

All right, well, it should just have

[Steve]

Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber in there.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Yeah, right, sure.

[Steve]

And then like someone should be like, how did you get this? And then Maz Kanata will come in and be like, that's a story for another time.

[Alex]

That will never, ever, ever get expounded upon.

[Ken]

Give him a Keyblade. Give him a Buster Blade. Give him the Blades of Chaos from God of the War. Give him every weapon. Video game.

[Alex]

Like a giant hot. Like a foot long hot dog. Yeah.

[Zach]

Do you really want to hear that story? It's probably like Singing Sword.

[Alex]

The Singing Sword from who Framed Roger Rabbit?

[Zach]

Oh my God.

[Steve]

Oh, yes. Are you talking about Luke? Are you talking about Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber and Force Awakens?

[Zach]

Zack. Yeah. Aren't you or what? Did that come up again in Skywalker?

[Alex]

It's.

[Steve]

I Think it's not so much where I was like, man, I was hoping to hear about that. It's more like don't write it in a shitty way if you're not going to bother explaining it. Like, don't write it in a way where you're going to explain it.

[Alex]

That's. That's, that's J.J. abrams whole thing, man.

[Zach]

Yeah, I've seen loss.

[Steve]

Turns out Moscanata was on Cloud City that day.

[Zach]

That's definitely an answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Alex]

She is super into gas mines.

[Zach]

What's the next one?

[Ed]

Polo.

[Ken]

Wait, alex, we skipped one. Ice Fisher tenacities from 7:20. We still have to do.

[Alex]

Oh, okay. All right, sure. Hi, Opp. After what Zach said about Brian Drummond for killing him, hearing Marianne line read for Kendall and with the Elbaf stub release date announcement on the horizon, I wanted to share my Elbaf Duff fan cast with you. Fan cast fancast with you before they inevitably get proven wrong. Melting emoji. If you like any of these castings and. Or have any thoughts of who you think would be great for a role, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Not to toot my own horn, but I really cooked with Loki, Ripley, Harold, Ida and Shamrock. Or Ida. Sorry.

[Ken]

Okay.

[Alex]

There's a lot.

[Zach]

Save this for you too. Yeah,

[Alex]

I'm like, I'm going through this. And aside from Marianne, Fred Tatascuray, Tatascore, Tatascori, Tata Score and Trey Baker.

[Ken]

I don't.

[Alex]

Don't think I. Oh, and Bryce Papenbrook. I am afraid I don't know most of these people.

[Zach]

No, I definitely know there's a lot.

[Steve]

I think there's some good choices here. There's a lot of actors here. I don't know. I will say, bold of you to assume Troy Baker would work non union ever again.

[Alex]

Yeah,

[Zach]

yeah.

[Steve]

It ain't happening, but from what I know from some of these actors. Yeah, it would be good.

[Alex]

Yeah, I could see some of these kid. Brooke. Oh, that's. Oh, Persona Kitty. It's nice. Yeah.

[Steve]

I think the best thing is like check out the. Their posts on disbeys here for it.

[Alex]

Yes, no, agreed. This is. This is not like super conducive, I guess to a audio podcast, but yeah, if you're on disc piece, check out their comment. Pretty good.

[Steve]

They made graphics and everything and references to other characters they played. There's effort here.

[Alex]

Yeah, there's good work. Ice Fist for Tenacity. I'm proud of you. All right, Polo Cram. Now a sword says ahoy. Orchestral Piano Practitioners Banger chapter. As always, awesome chapter with a good final page. So full of hype moments and aura. I gasped. And as. As expected, the Chuds are getting boosted by Omen. Enough to be a threat to Zoro And Sanji. Absolutely loved the gags. With the new Giant Warrior pirates crashing into Loki again and with Ragnar. My question this week is, why is Summer's sword named after Marco's dad? Has Oda become a hack? Not to be confused with Jinpei's best friend? Reusing the same name twice in one arc, Is Emu actually a pineapple, hence the blade's name? Please discuss. Have a great week.

[Steve]

I always love getting reminded of Marco's dad.

[Alex]

Polo Graham. I feel like it's come up a lot lately too.

[Steve]

In the sbs. I. I have not listened to.

[Zach]

It was. Yeah.

[Alex]

And it was like, it was confirmed that, like, yeah, he's. That's Marco's dad. And Marco is born on a Whitebeard ship. Like, that was.

[Zach]

Yeah, I guess.

[Steve]

I guess he. I guess, like, if you want to guarantee, like, you getting the sbs as you ask, we're like, oh, this gentleman looks a lot like Marco. And like, he could. Like, he's perfectly around the age of being Marco's family member of sorts.

[Zach]

Is Rocks related to him?

[Steve]

I see Odochi and Ouchi's like, sorry, I was looking at pornography.

[Alex]

It was a pornography store. I was buying pornography.

[Steve]

It's like, why, yes, that is Marco's father, Mr. Starch.

[Ken]

That's.

[Alex]

That is actually sort of how it went too.

[Steve]

Look, I wasn't even on and I could just.

[Ken]

Yeah, no, you got it.

[Alex]

Yep. You sure did. Okay. I mean, yeah, we actually did. We. We definitely mentioned this in the. In the recap.

[Ken]

That joke.

[Alex]

Yeah, we sure did. Sure. You can't be serious. Says, hello, my fellow angry squirrels and ship crashers. I enjoyed this chapter. The funny ice squirrel gabon coming in at the end with an awesome save. Brooks replied to the funny ice squirrel and a lot of the funny bits. But God, even Summer's laugh is annoying. I hope this old guy dies soon. But despite that, things sure are bleak lately. Luffy getting spit roasted by emu, a ship crashing into Loki, and y' all not holding space for a Wednesday, per my last disc piece. For shame. What's next? We're all gonna.

[Steve]

What?

[Alex]

Yeah, well, I'll get back to that in a second. What were you gonna say, Steve?

[Steve]

What does holding space mean?

[Ken]

How do you not know?

[Steve]

I mean, enlighten me.

[Ken]

I don't understand why you hold space for them.

[Zach]

Yeah. You give a chance for them to shine. Yeah.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you guys were part of the wicked press junket here.

[Ken]

I knew that's what you were going to. Yeah, I didn't realize that was happening.

[Steve]

Yeah, I didn't realize that was a thing.

[Ken]

Yeah, realize.

[Steve]

You know, that was an actual. Realize it was an actual concept, not something made up on Tumblr.

[Alex]

Anyway, back to this dispies. What's next? We're all gonna hear that Magellan recently started an all lettuce diet and will be stuck on the toilet for a week with explosive diarrhea. Actually, you know what? That would be pretty amusing. Any Poo.

[Ed]

Ha.

[Alex]

Emu's super fun game of which swords shall I impale Luffy with? This chapter is kind of like that game Pop a Pirate for. That's the barrel game. Right? Where you have. Yeah, there's a barrel. And you. You stick the plastic swords in there and a pirate will pop out of there. What game do you think Luffy should play with Emu instead? Where Luffy has an advantage. Hungry Hungry Hippos would be a good one because no one's beating Luffy in an eating competition. Competition. Thanks and have a great week.

[Steve]

That's easy. I am rubber and you are glue. Bounces off of me and sticks to you.

[Zach]

I am Nika. And you are. Wait. I am Nika.

[Steve]

You are Emu. I have lots and lots of powers. And there was a lot of talk about Pooh this week.

[Zach]

So do you.

[Ed]

Anyway,

[Alex]

Matt. Matt R. Says yo. BP Dope chapter this week. Emu seems to truly be a force to be reckoned with. Reckoned with. Here's my question for you. Could Emu microwave a burrito so hot that even they could not eat it?

[Zach]

Excellent. This is why we're better than the sbs. Yes.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Zach]

I feel like if he has any mortality at all.

[Alex]

He does. He coughed blood when he landed on.

[Zach]

I think it's. Yeah, that's why. It's because he didn't wait long.

[Alex]

It was too hot.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ed]

Yes.

[Zach]

What's Next?

[Alex]

Straw Pirate 9 is next. Who says? Thank God for Gabon. I did not appreciate seeing Luffy stabbed a second time. A third would have broken my heart. Broken heart emoji.

[Zach]

It would have literally broken his heart, though.

[Alex]

Yes. Breaking my heart. The lore about the sword around the throne was cool. And I loved Usopp sensing Luffy was in trouble. Also, Brook's whole conversation with the scroll. Lol. So cute.

[Ed]

Indeed.

[Alex]

I agree.

[Ken]

I love Ragnar so much.

[Alex]

Ragnar is pretty great. We love. We love a giant patch of Issu. Right?

[Ken]

Yeah. Yep.

[Alex]

Exact same fucking thing. Snp. Okay, so here's the big one that we. That has been alluded to a bunch. SNP says have a very good track record.

[Zach]

So I think we should go into that. I think he. Is he the one who predicted the Shirahoshi thing and I don't know, the mossy.

[Alex]

Okay, so this is technically. I will say that this is technically a question for Steven. It's is the first half is Steven.

[Ken]

The second half is for us.

[Alex]

However. However, I'm going to read it anyway because.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alex]

And you know, next time Stephen is on, he can elaborate. So I guess Ken, bookmark this one for him. Seems. So the question for Steven seems like a lot of the weapons have the following pattern of weapon of something, dash the name. Can you elaborate a little on acts of Xingchan? Like is it the name part or is it the weapon of something part? Because Xingchan is clearly the name of a Chinese mythology giant similar to Gram, Nemesis, Longinus, et cetera, but it can also mean punishing Heaven. So it's kind of similar to Blade of Hatred, Judgment, Spear of Holy Life, et cetera. Or is it both? Maybe like acts of Punishing Heaven. Xingcheng. Don't need to read this part if you don't want to. It's for reference and discussion. Okay, so wait, wait.

[Zach]

Before we move on, can I just say, have any of you just looked up the Wikipedia for Jing Tan Zhan and seen the 17th century drawing of it?

[Ken]

Wow.

[Zach]

Something happened in the 1600s in China, because that's.

[Ken]

What is that monstrosity?

[Alex]

Shit. Okay, can you describe someone? Well, it's literally a headless giant, but the head is actually its body.

[Ken]

Yeah, his torso is face.

[Alex]

This kind of hole is actually. Yes, his torso is like an Adult

[Zach]

Swim show from the 2000s.

[Alex]

No, it looks like a. It looks like a one off character from Aqua Teen Hunger.

[Ken]

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Zach]

You got it.

[Steve]

Isn't this. Isn't this just crumb from. Ah, Real Monsters?

[Alex]

It is.

[Zach]

That's.

[Alex]

Yeah, it's. This is amazing.

[Zach]

Why did. If we don't see something, if we don't see Oda redraw this in some capacity, I'm gonna be upset.

[Ken]

That's Emu's true form.

[Alex]

God.

[Zach]

Like I just.

[Alex]

It's the final boss in Ghosts and Goblins, right? Like the big torso face.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Ed]

All right.

[Steve]

Wow.

[Zach]

I'm just floored by that image. Yeah.

[Alex]

Everybody listening Should. Should take out their phone and do that because.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's.

[Alex]

It's cool.

[Zach]

It's like incredible. Incredible.

[Alex]

Okay, so this is S and P. Did a really cool thing and listed off the nine blades that were mentioned. And they're sort of, you know, what they represent. So one blade of judgment. Nemesis. That's goddess of retribution in Greek. Take their word for it, not mine.

[Ken]

If you play Hades 1 and Hades 2, you know, Nemesis.

[Alex]

I see. I see. Also.

[Zach]

Also not a great story as an evil villain.

[Alex]

Yeah. Two, blade of Raph Gram, which is a magic sword in Germanic Norse mythology that killed an evil dragon.

[Zach]

Great cracker.

[Alex]

Yes. Actually, did you know the graham crackers were invented to promote abstinence? Okay, did we talk about this already?

[Zach]

We've definitely talked about.

[Ken]

Definitely talked about that.

[Alex]

Okay. Yeah, it's so funny. Blade of hatred. Stigma. Stigmata. Perhaps Crucifixion. Wounds on Christ perhaps. Perhaps that is what that is. Spear of Holy Life. Longinus. Another one related to Christ's crucifixion. Of course, as we all know, it's the spear that stabbed Christ while he was.

[Zach]

I did not know that.

[Ken]

In his. Longinus.

[Alex]

Yes.

[Zach]

Oh, take that, Jesus.

[Alex]

All right. The Blade of Nothingness. Tohu. VA V. I sent this question last week. Yes. Blade of Chaos. Tohu. Same as above. The other part of the biblical Hebrew text. 7. Blade of the sea God. Fragarach. Fragarach.

[Zach]

No, but it's funny.

[Alex]

Magic sword of Irish sea God, so.

[Ken]

Oh, that's cool.

[Alex]

So that's probably like. We've probably been pronouncing it all wrong. I don't really know how.

[Zach]

Yeah, my Irish is not.

[Ken]

Yeah, I should know this.

[Alex]

Yeah. Come back next week with.

[Zach]

Yeah, you have an O in your name, so.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah, come back here. It's also called Frigorthok, or is that called. You know. You know what I said? Yeah.

[Steve]

You know what?

[Alex]

Thrucker's Og.

[Zach]

Yeah. Gaelic is like the most difficult language to.

[Alex]

That's a freakazoid reference.

[Ed]

Right.

[Alex]

Thrackerzog.

[Zach]

What's the next one?

[Alex]

Yeah, somebody, Somebody, somebody Chime in next week.

[Zach]

We're in the.

[Alex]

See here. Okay. And then this is. Next one's Acts of Jingchan, a headless giant in Chinese mythology usually referred to as a warrior God. Look it up. It's a very funny looking image. And Muramasa, actual swordsmith that made a bunch of swords that are considered like cursed blades, like real life Kitetsu. So that's interesting. Muramasa was the swordsmith, not the sword, in many video games. The Muramasa is a very powerful sword that you can get.

[Zach]

I will say Oda was pulling. I assume was pulling from the game and not the actual.

[Alex]

Possibly assume, like in every Final Fantasy game, you can get the Muramasa.

[Ken]

What is Sephiroth sword called?

[Alex]

That's the Masamune, which is the, like, boilerplate, you know, legendary sword.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Miyamoto Musashi. Was that his sword? God, I don't know. Talking out my ass. All right, so that was S. P's question for Stephen. S. P's question for the crew. Is there any famous weapon, slash mythology you want to be used in this? There are only 19 weapons around the Empty Throne, except for the Nefertari family, of course, which is maybe some Egyptian sort of weapon. P.S. also, even this attack, pick two, Gazing Eclipse, has a goddess name in the original. Original Japanese. Female deity from Aztec mythology. And that would be an attack that Emu used on Loki during their fight. S and P also included a very clear picture of the Iron Throne here with all of the weapons around it. Now, I'm going to use that a little bit as a grain of salt because I feel like, you know, this is sort of the weapons equivalent of the first time that we saw seven warlords.

[Zach]

I will say, to be fair to him, to Oda, I guess, is that. So far, they do seem to match up pretty well. I mean, there's only one axe there.

[Ken]

No, there's two axes.

[Alex]

Where's the axe?

[Zach]

There's only two axes.

[Ken]

Six and six and thirteen.

[Zach]

Thirteen. Yeah, you're right.

[Alex]

My axe.

[Ken]

Three looks.

[Zach]

Six does look exactly like

[Alex]

a spear.

[Ken]

Three looks like a spear,

[Alex]

kind of.

[Zach]

Three looks like a.

[Ken]

Just because it's wooden and it's wrapped at the end.

[Alex]

I guess it could be that they're

[Ken]

vague enough where he can make these anything he wants them to be.

[Alex]

Yeah, that's.

[Zach]

I think that's true. They're not quite that vague. If they were, they could have just been like, very. The fact that they weren't just generic swords, I guess, should have been a tip off that we might see them in some shape or form.

[Ken]

Even his attack the other week when he used the Stigma Sword like it was a big black energy blade, then he reduced it down into its normal sword form. He could get wacky with it. I'm not gonna go back to this image. I'm like, there's only two axes.

[Zach]

You might not, but I know people will. That's what the Internet is for, right? Yeah. By the way, I don't know enough about Egyptian Weaponry or ancient Egyptian weaponry, but just, you know, looking. Is this a khopesh? A khopesh. I'm doing the Kh for everything.

[Ken]

They're not sickles. They do have those curved blades, like a scythe. Yeah, it's not quite a scythe, but

[Zach]

yeah, it looks kind of almost.

[Ken]

It's like a hooked blade between the two of those.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Alex]

I still have the Xin Zhang image Wikipedia open, and I just saw here, however, Xinjiang persevered, using his nipples as his eyes, using his navel as his mouth, and brandishing his shield and axe. Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, it does say that. Oh, my God.

[Ken]

This is Frankie's hero.

[Alex]

This is great.

[Zach]

This is my hero.

[Ed]

Wow.

[Zach]

Boku. No.

[Ken]

Boku no.

[Alex]

Okay, well, I'm gonna continue. Thank you, SNP for this.

[Zach]

Yeah, no, this is. This is a good reference at the very least. Yeah. Cool. Yeah.

[Alex]

All right. Sailor Karno says. Hey, Opp, how's it going? Was anyone else shocked by Killing Ham's coloring in the anime? I thought he was blue. It's. However, Oda colored him in the the volume, so it didn't check me.

[Ken]

Yeah, no, he looked fine to me. I didn't really notice anything off. He's very bright, very colorful.

[Alex]

Yeah, I saw. Like, a lot of people were complaining, like, oh, these colors are terrible. Toei, what are you doing? I'm, like,

[Ken]

copying.

[Steve]

They have never heard of a manga in their life. No.

[Zach]

Is this just like the Kirin colors usually?

[Alex]

Yeah. Black and gold.

[Zach]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ken]

I think maybe his orange, like, jacket is throwing them off.

[Zach]

Maybe that jacket isn't the greatest jacket. But also, killing him sucks. So, like, what are you guys even arguing about? Also, the weapon he uses normally. That, like, weird trident thing that we've talked about. It's not the same thing, so.

[Alex]

It is not. No.

[Zach]

Yeah. I don't know what he did with

[Alex]

that one, but he threw it out. Wasn't the holy weapon or whatever. All right, Ice Fisher Tenacity says for this week. Hi, Opp. Holy jamoli. This chapter was dense. Luffy trying out Gum Gum Pincushion didn't seem very effective. Usopp remembering he's got color of observation hockey. Love to see that. This whole Sea God Rain God business continues to perplex me. Additionally, it's great to see Robin and Chopper again. Biblio is about to spill the biggest of beans. And as for the 19 world weapons, I think this confirms that the ones we saw in front of the throne are, in fact, replicas. And I hypothesize Lily gave hers to Joy boy. Oh, that's kind of interesting.

[Ken]

I think it'd be funny if the elders were hanging out in the throne room and, like, they see the swords, like, just pop out of like, like existence. Like, ah, yeah, Emu picked the hammer. Great job. They're watching them.

[Alex]

They continue. Lastly. I'm super happy, see hired and get some love. The Poetic Edda tells us about not just a nidhogg and its pal Rata task, but also the cosmic eagle with a great hawk adorning its brow like a helmet. Harridan deserves a power boost. I say that it's only fair that he should get to represent that eagle with a powerful tool, the Helm of Awe that ate the hawk hawk fruit. I don't know if he'll get a power boost. That'd be kind of neat. I'm looking forward to seeing him in

[Zach]

action there, I think, and we talked about a little bit in this chapter. I do like how he is the. I don't want to say the smart one, but he thinks through things, and he's definitely a strategic person or giant. So it's. I feel like whatever he does come up with will be more calculated in a good way than anything Loki would do. And maybe they work together as brothers in that respect. That would be kind of fun.

[Ken]

I just think. Go ahead.

[Alex]

I. I do think that, like, because of the flashback, the, you know, the satisfying conclusion to that drama would be for them to bury the hatchet or rule together in the end or something like that. I think that is the hatchet, one

[Zach]

of the weapons that Emu has.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Xinjiang. Xinjiang's the hatchet. No. You know, I think that your hatchet

[Zach]

has eyes on its torso.

[Alex]

Yeah. I mean, then again, I mean, what.

[Ken]

What.

[Alex]

What was. Steve, you mentioned that, like, some of these characters look like they're marked for death. I mean, I guess if he did die and had like a, like, reconciliation, like his dying words to Loki or whatever, that would be kind of like, poetic and a bittersweet end to that, that arc. So I don't know. I wouldn't. I mean, I wouldn't count. I guess I wouldn't count Haradin off the chopping block quite yet.

[Ken]

Then I was always worried how this arc will end because, like, there's still no king in Elbaf because Loki didn't take the throne and Hardin didn't dig it either.

[Zach]

So, like, what's in the astral world

[Ken]

and what's in the astral world? It's like, if Loki. Like, does Loki stay in Elbaf as king to guard it, does he leave and leave Hardin behind? If Hardin dead, like can that not happen? So I feel like they have to address that at some point. It's just nice seeing him defend his brother after hating him for the entire arc before the flashback.

[Alex]

All right, Tyler says. Holy Schnike's. Opp. I compared the end of the last image to Luffy's fight with Crocodile, but now I take that back. Things are really getting dark before, darkest before the dawn. But the big celebration was at the beginning of this arc, so dot dot dot. Anyways, things that were nice to see. And here's a little bulleted list. Usopp being the one to instantly notice Luffy being hurt. Hayered in coming to help his big little brother and having the serious talk with him. Vying for brotherly revenge of course. Took the old man Jarl to make him do it. Shanks. It's always good to see him. Haha. And acknowledging this is all still set up for something much larger, like a daughter, the epic shading on Gabon, and a long banger of a chapter with lots to sink your sword into. I mean, teeth. Like, what did Robin and Saul find in the library? Best wishes to you all and all the listeners out there. Have a great week. Yeah, the more we talk about, the more I think about it, it's definitely Bibelo related.

[Ken]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Alex]

All right, Big Mike, I haven't vetted this, so let's. Let's strap in. Who do you think Emu and the Holy Knights are preparing to go to war for? Is it something symbolic like the war on piracy or some type of ideology? Or is there actually some.

[Zach]

Sorry, I'm imagining the color coded system for that.

[Alex]

No, no, I'm imagining like. Yeah, like Nancy Reagan or.

[Zach]

Oh, I was. Oh, the war on drugs. I was like the war on Terror.

[Alex]

Oh no, I was thinking like the parental advisory, but that's not.

[Ken]

That's.

[Zach]

That's a good. That's a good guess too.

[Alex]

Yeah. Or is there some other faction out there that they're at war with? Maybe it's the remnants of the ancient kingdom who fled to outer space during the void century. And hopefully if ODA has season four of the live action series on his mind, if they're getting ready for pre production, maybe Eniru will be the one to bring them to the world. I wish I could get scolded by Nami like the monkeys on the COVID page. There it is. There's the classic son of the length Big Mike moment.

[Zach]

Well, I hate to Say this, Big Mike. But you can't. She is a fictional character.

[Alex]

Fictional characters. Last piece for this one is Sheepman. Or is it Sheepman? I remember last time made that joke. I said that. Yeah. Sheepman. Howdy. Opp. From page seven of the chapter, Emu asks how many will it take to end thee? Since there's 19 weapons, I now have the image of Luffy having 19 different weapons stabbed into him if Gabon didn't make the save. Additionally, if Luffy were to survive, all the Imperils would. Emu just start throwing hands. Gear 5 afro. Luffy would be unbeatable. I think. I. Honestly, I think we were about to just. He has an axe. Therefore he can't get stabbed with it. Really? I think that was meant to be the killing blow,

[Ed]

right?

[Alex]

I mean, this whole.

[Zach]

I forgot to mention this. This whole scene really remind me of Sabaody the Shabondi.

[Alex]

Oh, with. With Rayleigh coming in and saving Zoro. Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. Like it's. It does feel like that sort of that level of desperateness of like be having just like overpowered. I. I don't know. It's definitely not the same level. But you know, there is a desperateness to the situation. And the fact that Gaban is coming in does not make me feel like anyone is going to be really in great shape at the end of this.

[Ken]

It feels like Imu's getting caught up in his villain monologuing a little bit too much. Like he's like, oh, I know your brothers. And like, oh, look at these weapons. And he could easily killing blow Luffy with that second sword. But he didn't. It's just more torture.

[Zach]

I feel like he's set up for years. Can that. Bad guys don't know when to shut the hell up.

[Ken]

They don't. I feel like he's working through his Joy Boy issues by slowly torturing Luffy. But like, I think the ax would have been the killing blow. Because at that point, what do you do there? But he could have killed Luffy much sooner. I feel like.

[Zach]

Why didn't he start with the axe?

[Ken]

Exactly.

[Alex]

Why?

[Ken]

Why?

[Alex]

I do think it's funny that he is like a classic monologuing villain though. Because I feel like even Crocodile was just basically Stab. Okay, bye. You're gonna die now. And. And yeah, I think Emu can help himself. That's it for. For dispiece this week.

[Zach]

Let me see what else? If we have anything else. I was expecting this to like go on forever and ever.

[Alex]

No, we actually got through this pretty Quick.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Alex]

All things considered.

[Zach]

Yeah, I know. I think that's it. But why don't we round off the show?

[Alex]

Why don't we?

[Zach]

This has been episode 928 of the One Piece podcast. Going through chapter 1189. It's the One with all the weapons, just in case you forgot. And very likely another amazing, ridiculous image from Kirby. Huge shout out. Do you already. It's D. Kirby J, right? Or am I missing? No, Ken tells me I'm correct with a slight nod. D. Kirby J. Everywhere where you get your Kirbys. That is our artist. Please follow them, check them out. You could also please check out our editor, Delaney. I think her newest video is out now, right? No, not yet. Soon it was on Patreon. Maybe that's why I'm thinking of it. You could check her out if you haven't. And also, huge thanks to Kirsten for the music that you're hearing in this episode. Check out Kirsten, Carrie, wherever you get your Kirstens. Steve. Where could people find you?

[Steve]

You can just go to my website, steveyerko.com, follow me on socials like Instagram and Bluesky. Listen to me on Prozd plays games 4 kids flashback and yeah, that's about it.

[Zach]

Alex

[Alex]

Bluesky Bisky if you're going to be at Otakon this next week, I'm doing Super Art Fight Friday night at 7 something and unleashed on Saturday at 9 something. Check the schedule. I don't know off the top of my head,

[Ken]

Ken, you can find me anywhere online or kind king01, blue sky, all the normal places. And please check out the One Piece Art collab at opcolab. BSGuy.com Again we're posting a character every single day from volume two, which we did a couple years ago. We're currently in the Onigashima section of Wano. So we've just posted all of the Toby Ropo and there's some really good art there. Go check it out.

[Zach]

My name is Zach. You can check me [e-mail] on Blue Sky. Check out the One Piece podcast at onepiecepodcast.com, patreon.com One Piece podcast if you want to get in that sticker of the month club that is $12 a month. Or you could get alternate art, alternate titles and a lot more for just $5 a month. We have like 10 or at least 10 years worth of stuff on there, so please check it out and wherever you get your podcasts for their YouTube. As you may know from this week's image, as well as Apple podcasts, Spotify and more. Before we leave today, though, we have something fun to do. It's not trivia, but it's something that Ken has been doing. Ken, what's our yes, what's our next journey here that we're about to take?

[Ken]

For those of you who have been enjoying the brackets we've been hosting on our Public Discord, the new bracket is currently live. We are doing a ranking of kings. I went through as many characters as I could and any character who is a king, their epitaph has a king in it. They have king in their name in any shape or form. I dug pretty deep. I found a full 64 character roster to do the bracket. So this first week, the votes are

[Zach]

up for this one.

[Ken]

Yeah, no buys at all. So the first round of voting is up. If you want to join, please join our Public Discord server. Go to the brackets of consequence section. There's two channels. One with the current polls you can vote in and then our bracket discussion channel where everyone is talking about all these random characters. Someone said that there's more glup shittoes in the ranking of Kings bracket than there was in the glupshitto bracket. Yeah, but yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot in here.

[Zach]

Can we go through these quick and explain who some of these people are to me? Like, I can't believe that I don't know who some of this.

[Ken]

This will take far too long to go through all these.

[Zach]

Can I ask you who? I'll just. I'll just ask you the ones I don't know who are Nashi and who, who is Ramen and why should I know them?

[Ken]

Okay, so here's a lot of the ones that are just food names are from the Reverie. They were shown like once. Like, oh, here's King Taco, here's King Ramen. Like, a lot of like are just food. Food kings.

[Zach]

The food kings.

[Ken]

Some of these here, like, who's the

[Zach]

great king of Ango Moy?

[Ken]

That is a character from. I think it's a character from SBS volume seven that Oda mentioned. I think it's an SBS only king.

[Zach]

Steve, did you know this?

[Alex]

Oh my. Kings.com pronounce it.

[Steve]

I just know it's pronounced angle moi.

[Alex]

Angle moi.

[Zach]

Angle moi.

[Alex]

Angle angle. You angle me.

[Ken]

We got some things in here. Like we have Montblanc Nolan because he was labeled as the king of liars. King Cannon from Movie two. Their characters, Mo Bambi.

[Alex]

Some of these people and Kieran Lyon, also from Movie three. That's fun.

[Ken]

There are characters here that have King in their name, but that's the only High King Bear Buck, King Hamstussy. There we have Soul King Brook, of course. Kaido, who's King of the Beast. Yeah. So again, I went through and pulled out all the notable ones that I dug.

[Zach]

Like, the hell is Jeep? Just like Korabrand.

[Ken]

You don't know King Jeep? Let me pull that one up.

[Zach]

I forgot what it is. I really don't. And there's a King Bols in addition to.

[Alex]

No, no. The King Bull is the. You know, from Water seven.

[Zach]

Oh, you're okay. It was capitalized, so I was confused.

[Ken]

Jeep is one of the random kings that tried to betroth their son to Shirahoshi during the Reverie. There's like, three. Yeah, King Jeep.

[Zach]

I'm just imagining an actual Jeep with a little.

[Ken]

In Japanese, it was Jeepu, but it was translated to Jeep for the official release.

[Alex]

That's great.

[Ken]

Again, those three kings are in there for one scene showing off their son Sashirahoshi, and she's like, thank you.

[Zach]

Top Musica is a king?

[Ken]

Yes. His epitaph was.

[Zach]

Oh, it was an epithet.

[Alex]

Oh, you know what, Ken? You missed one. A really important one. I mean, I'm sure Ms. Chopper. Chopper becomes king of the animals in the third movie.

[Zach]

Oh, to be fair, that would have

[Ken]

been a good one.

[Alex]

In between Karen Lyon and My Bombi, there's Chopper.

[Ken]

Yeah, I didn't think of that. All right, so I missed that one. But Top Musica was the demon King of Songs, as it was his title.

[Zach]

And who is this character King? I don't know who that is.

[Ken]

You're talking about, like, Albert King. Okay. Yeah.

[Zach]

Okay.

[Ken]

Yeah. So we have a ton of randoms here.

[Zach]

I don't know who a lot of these people are, which is pretty amazing after having done this for so long.

[Ken]

I was telling people in Discord, like, you can either vote based off the name and, like, by. Because one person's like, I'm voting for all the food ones, no matter what. I'm like, okay, that's fine. But like, some of these, if you look into them, like, oh, yeah, that guy. There's a lot of, like, fun ones to look at here.

[Zach]

There's the Hitler one. That's Chap. Don't vote for that.

[Ken]

That's Chap. Please don't vote for Chap. I like. We have one round here. Kuma and Imu are going off round one against each other. Wow, I thought that was Funny. I think that Sniper King and Roger are round one pairing.

[Zach]

That is a rough round one.

[Ken]

Again, these are completely random. I put them all in. Just hitting.

[Zach]

Most of these are just nobodies against nobod buddies. And then you will have like. Yeah, okay. Fun. I am very much enjoying these polls and, and, and the tournaments. If you want to take part in it listener, just join us on Discord. The link is at the top of the One Piece podcast.com website. Join us there. It's available for everyone. But if you want the disc piece stuff, that's $5, that'll cost you.

[Ken]

But yeah, the brackets are free. But they're fun and they're random. So if you guys like them, please keep interacting with them.

[Zach]

But if you want to talk behind people's back about people's decisions, then you need to join the Grand Fleet.

[Ken]

Yeah. Take all your hot takes to our Grand Fleet channel.

[Zach]

Throw the hot takes there. So it's not just Ken asking how everyone's Friday is.

[Ken]

God, shut up. All right,

[Zach]

but next Friday or this Friday.

[Ken]

It's Sunday. What are you talking about?

[Zach]

Anyway, ice, everyone. We'll see you next week. My name is Zach.

[Steve]

My name is Steve.

[Alex]

And my name is Alex.

[Zach]

Goodbye, everyone. Sam.