Note: Action -> Inspiration -> Motivation
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It's finally over! Or is it? Yeah it's definitely over. Oooor is it though? Yeah.
That's pretty much how I and probably you as well felt about the conclusion to
the raid on Onigashima we have gotten with chapter 1050 [Spoiler Warning].
So is this the end of the battle? Of Wano altogether?
And what will happen next? While leaving a lot of these questions open, we did get a couple of
really important answers in this chapter as well. Here's a quick recap:
After Luffy's dramatic final attack with an island sized fist, that
blasted Kaido into the ground, we get to see how crazily powerful this punch of Luffy's gear 5th
truly was. It turns out that it carried such incredible force, that it managed to drill Kaido
not only into the ground, but THROUGH the crust of the earth into a magma cave that is revealed
to be located directly beneath Wano. Not only that, but it turns out Big Mom has had
the very same fate after Law's and Kid's final attacks. Which let's be real is pretty wild,
even for One PIece, but I guess it goes to show how powerful Luffy and co have become
throughout Wano. Turns out the thing the saw underneath onigashima wasn't
a hidden room full with poneglyphs and rare devil fruits, but one full with molten flaming hot rock.
Kaido and Big Mom seem to be literally sinking into this pool of Magma, I think it's magma,
because Lava would be when it actually comes into the open. Anyways, the fact that Oda basically
has thrown these two Yonko into literal hell is pretty extreme I think. Not at all what I
would have expected. The implication here seems pretty clear also: These two people are gonna
be painfully dissolved in an instant, never to be seen again. And to top this all off,
the two cracks the Yonko made in the crust, cause an underwater eruption of the volcano,
that used to be Onigashima, as if to say: Yes this is the end of the emperors Kaido and Big mom.
This message is driven home even harder, when the narrator corrects his initial mistake of declaring
Kaido the victor. The actual winner is Luffy. On top of that, Kaido also finally had closure in the
last chapter, realising that Luffy is indeed JoyBoy, bringing closure to his big goal of
finding someone strong enough to defeat him. The straw hats and the rest of the alliance celebrate,
chopper starts treating patients, including my man Zoro, who seems to be in a truly dangerous
condition here. And Yamato gets the remaining beast pirates to surrender, while Momo carries
a whole delegation of the scabbards and Hiyori to the Flower capital, declaring Kaido's defeat and
announcing the new Shogun of Wano. Oh, also a major shoutout to Franky,
who is the only straw hat that really looks like he could still easily keep going after all this.
And so really, this entire chapter is screaming that this fight is over the Yonko are dead.
The big question of course is: Is that actually true? Or is
Oda-sensei throwing us one of infamous red herrings here?
Does it really make sense for Kaido and Big Mom, two characters in dire need of some redemption
and closure, to die burning to death in a volcano? Kaido, who wants nothing more than
see JoyBoy and die an honourable death? And Big Mom, who has no idea yet, that she has
been terrorising her own people in her feeding frenzies? I find that hard to believe. I think
it's also a bit suspicious that it wasn't Mount Fuji the main volcano of the island didn't erupt,
but onigashima at an angle. And the narrator, who hasn't been super reliable recently either,
hasn't declared either of them dead. Also Kaido has a literal fire form.
What I'm getting at here, is that I strongly believe that we will see both Kaido and Big Mom
emerge from this magma pit, possible through Mount Fuji. Maybe strongly believe is a bit too much,
I really hope to see this. However, not because I think Kaido will activate his super ultra
awakening and attack Luffy again. I really think that the fight between the alliance and the Yonko
is over. Luffy has been recognised by Kaido. And most importantly it
doesn't look like Luffy will be able to do any fighting whatsoever for quite some time.
What I would much rather see, is a cathartic ending for Kaido's arc. I've mentioned that
before in my character analysis on him, but I really feel like the best ending for him would
be defending an incapacitated Luffy against some external force, like the Marines or Blackbeard.
But no matter if Kaido comes back or not, I personally think that this was
by far the most epic and awesome battle we have witnessed in the story. We saw Luffy and Kaido
grow and change over many many chapters. Kaido has literally been fighting non-stop for over
70 chapters. He has faced off against the scabbards, against the supernova,
against Yamato and then against Luffy. He has shown why he is the strongest creature,
giving us both a broad variety of fantastic attacks and fighting skills,
but even more importantly a crazy character arc throughout the fight, that taught us more and
more about his motives and character, making his ultimate defeat against luffy's final punch feel
truly cathartic. It forced Luffy to surpass his limits and himself over and over again to actually
earn the title of Emperor, that he got before the arc, as did every single straw hat along the way.
I know that battles and characters are a very subjective matter, but to me personally
Kaido is my favorite villain in the story at the moment. I just hope he sticks around a bit longer.
This has by far been the longest arc and battle in the history of one piece
and especially when reading it back to back without all the weekly discussions
and expectations built up, I find it to be One Piece at its best.
This is driven home by Tama and Tenguyama,
who are heavily featured in this chapter as well. We are being reminded of Yasu and his sacrifice,
all the events to even the way for the raid to happen in the first place
and all the people who were putting their hopes and dreams into Luffy to free Wano.
This chapter also set up a lot of things for the future. Let me start with Zoro and Luffy. Both of
them are completely out after pushing themselves to the absolute limit. And while I think that
Luffy will have to be awake for the final big banquet, that surely will have to happen at the
end of the wano arc, I'm not so sure if Zoro will be waking up any time soon. As I've speculated in
my Elbaf preview video, I think there is a really good chance, that the two strongest straw hats
might be out for the first part of the next arc, giving room for the rest of the crew
to shine and grow more. I'm actually super curious to find out how taxing gear 5 will
be for Luffy and how hard or easy it will be for him to go into that form again. I suspect
it might not be that Luffy can now just use this form whenever, but has to master it first.
I also can't wait for an update to the Straw hat bounties soon. That news bird with the new posters
is always a major highlight of every single arc for me. In fact, I do have a bounty myself. 58M
Berries for the 580.000 awesome people of you that are subscribed. I'm very far from reaching Luffy's
level or any of the straw hats really, but I am determined to at least come for Treble's head,
who has 99M. So please help me with that, by subscribing.
Yamato is another big factor in this chapter for me. In case
you've been around that long, you know that I wanted Yamato to become a straw hat
ever since their introduction. I would be seriously hurt if it didn't happen
after all the hints we have gotten for it. And in this chapter, the beast pirates even acknowledge
her as part of the alliance. Yamato is the one who catches Luffy and who continued his fight
with Kaido until he got back on his feet. I think we will get an answer to that soon.
There is of course the cliffhanger with Denjiro, who proclaims the next Shogun of Wano. Will it
be Momo or will it be Hiyori? If it is Hiyori, then Momo will keep sailing with the straw hats
100%. And given that he has Kaido's powers and is now at least physically grown up,
I would have no issue with that at all. And hell I'll even give him that he has grown
up personality wise as well. He has become a true leader, made hard decisions for himself,
showed real courage and saved his people. If HE became the new Shogun, that would of course
also be ironic, because Wano would get another Dragon ruler, but this time a good one.
Other than that, it's crazy that despite all the celebration and seeming end to the fight,
I still find it very hard to believe somehow that wano will be wrapping up any time soon. There is
still so many lose ends, the government waiting outside the border, questions to be answered...I
don't know. I'd like to think that there is at least an Act IV waiting for us here.
If you want to get a full thoughts and analysis on Luffy's battle with Kaido,
you really shouldn't skip this video right here.