What in the world just happened?
Did we actually just witness Imu wiping an entire island off the face of the earth with
nothing but a pen-stroke?
This panel of a gigantic sphere crushing the island of Lulusia Kingdom into the ocean,
not leaving behind any trace of it, is easily one of the most ominous panels I have ever
seen in the story.
It's right up there with the likes of Zunesha's first appearance or Kaido's or the giant Shadows
in the florin triangle.
But as if that weren't enough already, Eiichiro Oda once again dropped a bomb shell, having
him reveal his true dream to the straw hats and in extension to Caribou, who is stored
away in a barrel on the ship, that people speculated might contain carrot.
Who knows maybe carrot is stored inside caribou who is stored inside the barrel.
Like the Russian nesting dolls.
It looks like the crew will be spending a lot of time with Jewlery Bonney, who is one
of the characters I have been most excited about to get screen time and it looks like
we are about to arrive at the next island, which seems to be neither sphinx island nor
elbaf, but a mysterious winter island.
Once again a classic move by Oda-sensei, going some place none of us could have anticipated.
And I think it's so awesome to finally go back to a winter island after all this time.
I guess Punk hazard sort of counts, but with it's artificially changed climate that was
half lava and half snow and Caesars experiments on it, it didn't quite have the same snowy
vibe as Chopper's home country on Drum Island.
But before we get to the straw hats and all the great and exciting stuff that's going
on with them, I simply have to begin with Sabo's storyline, because holy usopp.
So as you'll remember, Sabo had called the headquarters of the revolutionary army on
Kamabakka Island to inform them about what happened to them.
And we see the entire upper echelon of the revolutionary army assembled to listen what
he has to report, including Luffy's father Monkey D. Dragon, the four commanders, Ivankov,
hack and Koala.
To get it out of the way, Sabo clarifies, what you and me already knew, that he wasn't
the one that assassinated king cobra of alabasta, Vivi's father.
What I found notable here, is that there is no sign that Vivi is with Sabo right now,
which I personally would have expected.
It looks like the princess is one her own somewhere.
Sabo however quickly moves on to the next, much more important point: He mentions the
empty throne inside Panega Castle in Marijois, but before he is able to finish what exactly
he saw in that throne room, he is apparently cut off.
Because while Sabo is on the phone with the revolutionaries, the marines have been listening
in.
Sabo had apparently been in such a hurry to share his news, that he wasn't able to wait
to get a secure white den den mushi, that can't be listened in on.
Either that, or Sabo actively WANTED to be overheard by the Marines, so they would find
out the truth about the government, that even they don't know: That there is a true ruler
of the world, that sits on the empty throne.
Imu.
The marines have successfully managed to track Sabo's location to the island of Lulusia.
You might remember this island from not too long ago.
It was the place where we first got introduced to the revolutionary commanders, who helped
the citizens there overthrow their cruel king.
The Gorosei are shocked by this reveal and actually pity Sabo.
Why?
Remember how the Gorosei talked to Imu about a great cleansing and a light being extinguished
from the world.
Well it turns out that Imu had decided that exactly this island that Sabo is on, Lulusia,
should be that light.
So, at least my understanding of this situation, is not that Imu decided to destroy this place
to keep Sabo from revealing his existence.
Much rather it seems more of an unlucky coincidence, that Sabo is at the wrong place at the wrong
time.
Before sabo can reveal anything, the Gorosei order the marine's communication team to cut
of their transponder snails.
Imu is striking through the island on a map and immediately, We see dark clouds gathering
over the island.
A massive shadow appears, then a bright light accompanied by Imu's frightening gaze and
a giant sphere crashes into the island, obliterating any trace, that Lulusia has ever even existed.
Wow.
The way this was drawn makes it easily one of the most brutal moments in the entire series.
I got actual goosebumps reading it.
I can't even imagine how crazy this scene will look in the anime.
Okay, so.
What in the name of Usopp has happened here?
What is that power that imu has used and why did they decide to take this particular island
in this fashion?
The first thing that probably immediately popped out for you as well, is that what we
just saw here perfectly fits the description of what happened to the island God Valley.
An island that simply vanished from both the map and history.
A part of the world cleansed form existence.
If you ever needed another reason, why Laugh tale is a hidden island with an unknown location:
Now you have it.
If you want a safe place to store the secrets of the world, you better make sure it can't
be nuked into oblivion by the enemy.
As my editor also kindly reminded me, this might actually be more evidence for the big
theory that Laugh Tale either Below Ennies Lobby or in the middle of the giant whirlpool
in the middle of enies lobby, impel down and marienford.
A great way to hide and protect it from Imu by it being directly under their noses.
Or maybe they actually know about it being there and built there best protected places
around it with the gates of justice.
It's also a possibility that the giant hole under enies lobby might be connected to this
crazy weapon as well.
Maybe it struck there before or it could be where it is hidden or stored when it's not
used.
If you haven't checked out those theories, I recommend you do after this video.
On a different note, it's really mean of Oda-sensei to show us that little kid and all this innocent
citizens who just regained their freedom and peace, being all taken out in an instant.
But of course it makes this moment just the more impactful.
No pun intended.
The only possible surviver I see here is Sabo himself, who is a logia user and I doubt that
this giant thing was covered in Haki.
But even then, if the entire island was destroyed and there is only ocean left after this, he
might be in a lot of trouble.
Though I think you agreee that he will somehow make it out of there alive.
It's actually the first actively evil thing we see Imu do, so Oda-sensei is really starting
to set them up as the ultimate villain of the story.
But how exactly did they do it.
The panels here suggest, that Imu or someone else crossing out an island on a map somehow
summons this cataclysmic power.
But that could just be a red herring by Oda.
It's possible that the map is simply meant to symbolise that this island has been wiped
off the face of the earth and not be related to the power at all.
But then again, maybe it is part of the power.
But what IS it?
The most obvious answer here is of course Uranus.
It could be that the government has gotten their hands on one of the ancient weapons.
With Pluton in Wano and Poseidon in Fishman Island, Uranus is still unaccounted for.
Plus the fact that it's supposed to be a weapon connected to the sky that can destroy the
world fits what we just saw pretty nicely.
On the other hand, the ancient weapons were created to oppose the government and it's
been heavily implied that Luffy needs all three of them in order to change the world.
Another possibility, that I made a video about just a few days ago, is that this is some
sort of ultimate devil fruit power, that Imu wields.
It could also be some other sort of ancient advanced technology, like a space ship.
I'm probably also not the only one who remembers the strange moon like object, that sucked
in capone bege's ship after the time skip here.
It also is a giant sphere, thought I'm not sure it would make sense to crash this into
the ground every single time and then retrieve it.
I have a whole different theory about this thing and how it will be important in the
story soon, so make sure to subscribe if you don't want to miss that.
No matter what exactly this thing is, this is the first time that we see some of the
true power of the world government.
Yes having the admirals is nice, but it was always clear, that they would have much bigger
aces up their sleeves in order to control the world for so long.
I'm very curious if Imu's power simply lies in controlling powerful weapons, or if they
themselves can fight as well.
Just as Kaido, the previously biggest calamity in the world, is out of the picture, Oda-sensei
gives us this.
I love it.
The only question is: Why this apparently random island?
Well it turns out Lulusia has been appearing in the story a number of times.
As I mentioned before, it was one of 8 countries the revolutionary army helped to overthrow
their corrupt and cruel rulers.
This by itself might already explain why Imu decided to stomp it out.
But there is more.
This is the same place, that Ace visited during his cover story, while he was hunting for
Blackbeard.
Very fitting that Sabo is now here as well.
It's here that Ace befriended a little girl, similar to Tama and where we get this cover
story of Ace looking very similar to Nika as a silhouette.
Someone also linked me a very interesting theory on reddit form over a year ago, that
argues that Lulusia might have been the hideout for many of the level 6 prisoners that escaped
impel down and didn't join blackbeard.
Bounty hunter Jean Ango tell luffy that the tracked down their location.
The princess of the country, who doesn't exactly get sympathy points in this chapter, is the
one that was kidnapped on the way to Reverie and later saved by Koby.
In an SBS Oda-sensei revealed that this used to be a peaceful place , similarly to what
we see during ace's visit, before the new king Seki took over who made the people suffer.
So it would make a lot of sense time-in wise that after the outbreak of impel down, the
level 6 prisoners came here and helped Seki overthrow the previous king.
Whether or not this is true, I found this an incredibly smart theory and it would give
Imu a much bigger reason to destroy the place, taking out a ton of super dangerous pirates
and criminals, that escaped.
I'm really curious how Oda is going to explain when and how Imu is able to use this weapon
though.
Why not use it on Ohara?
Or on Wano?
I guess you could argue that the marines investigated Ohara first and that destroying Wano would
unleash Pluton.
But it's still somewhat mysterious to me how this is all working.
But let's move on now back to the thousand Sunny, were we follow the crews journey away
from Wano and towards their next destination.
As we can see, the crew is still trying to catch up with and process everything that
has happened while they were in Wano.
Of course, Luffy and Robin immediately throw the idea out of he window that sabo could
have killed Kobra.
After all Luffy knows his brother and his dreams and Robin was staying with the revolutionaries
for 2 years as well.
I absolutely love that Luffy and the rest of the crew is immediately willing to go back
to Alabasta or Marijois itself to look for Vivi.
As a big Vivi fan myself, I am always happy when she is back in focus and especially when
the crew talks about her.
I'm still convinced she will come and join up with them as their crew member, especially
now.
She might already be on the way, who knows.
Zoro is the voice of reason here, telling Luffy that he needs to stay calm and that
Vivi is strong and can look out for herself.
Reason in air quotes, because while it's nice that Zoro believes in Vivi I'm not sure he
makes the best argument here.
He reminds luffy that he trusted in ace to solve his own problems too.
Only, did Zoro somehow forget how that turned out in the end?
In case you need a reminder, it's with a fist sized hole in his chest and Luffy almost losing
his will to live.
Soooo, not exactly the best example to bring up here I feel.
But I get the gist of what he's trying to say: Since no-one knows where vivi is, no
point in sailing the entire grand line looking for her.
Rightfully however the rest of the crew teases him for it, with some fantastic nicknames
including green Kaido and green big mom, which were my highlights.
Interestingly enough, Luffy doesn't want to hear any more news.
Understandably somewhat.
There has been a lot of info dump recently.
However, as a result, Robin doesn't tell Luffy what happened on Amazon lily and that Blackbeard
has taken Koby.
I think in that case, even Zoro might have been willing to go and safe Coby.
I think it's reasonable that Robin doesn't tell him either.
I don't think she fully knows just how close Koby, Zoro and Luffy were.
Then Luffy shares his actual dream for the first time with his crew.
The only other people he told before were ace, sabo and Shanks.
I don't want to spend too much time on this topic, since Oda-sensei once again only teases
it here, but doesn't reveal it yet.
The reactions of the crew are of course great and fit in very well with what we saw from
sabo, ace and shanks before.
I personally felt part of luffy's dream was what he shared with Kaido during the final
of the battle.
And I know the theory that Luffy simply wants to throw the worlds biggest party.
But I think it might be something even bigger.
After all you don't necessarily have to become pirate king for that.
There is also the idea, that he wants to go to the moon.
Again, not exactly pirate king related at first glance.
So we'll just have to wait and see what it ends up being.
Now the crew knows and of course Caribou, who it turns out has actually been on the
ship with the crew, listening in.
My first reaction to this was honestly anger: You have some of the most advanced Haki users
on the planet on this ship and no one notices him?
They did notice him on fishman island and Rayleigh was able to count the exact number
of living things on an island.
But suddenly Caribou can hide in a barrel unnoticed?
But then I remembered that Luffy had actually allowed him to leave Wano on his ship in udon
prison.
So maybe, they all know exactly that he's in there.
Maybe Franky locked him up a second time.
I'm very curious to see what Oda has in mind for Caribou and who he's working for.
Blackbeard?
Crocodile?
Someone else?
We then skip ahead a few days, as the sunny enters the icy waters around the next island.
I already mentioned that I'm incredibly excited that we're going to an unexpected winter island
next.
Though I do want to mention that we haven't been to a single autumn island yet in the
entire story.
Kinda sad when you think about it.
But winter is awesome to.
It's my favorite season.
Now even though the top two contenders for the next island are off the table with Elbaf
and Sphinx island, there are actually two possible winter islands we know of in the
new world, that could be where we are going next.
The first one is the mysterious island Drake went to to get Kaido's attention.
It's unnamed, but everything, including the trees seems to be made out of metal.
It was an island that apparently was very important to Kaido, so it would be a fitting
next destination for the straw hats after they defeated him.
It would surely make for some very interesting interactions with the people there.
It also reminded me a lot of Karakuri Island, Vegapunks birthplace and where Franky was
sent during the time skip.
In the wiki it says that it is a winter island located in paradise, but looking back through
the manga, I couldn't really find the section where it stated that.
SO maybe Karakul island is actually in the new world.
That of course could make it the arc where we finally meet vegapunk.
Which is really overdue.
And then, there is also Yukiryuu island, which means snow dragon island.
It's a winter island in the new world, where shanks received the news that whitebeard tore
up his invitation.
If this island is under shanks' command that would of course also make for a fantastic
next destination for the crew.
I hope that this is going to be a 20 to 40 chapter mini arc, similar to zou, before we
hopefully move on to Elbaf.
And we really need to find out more about Imu and their incredible powers.
There are so many cool options for a overpowered devil fruit that they could wield.
If you are curious which ones, then make sure to check out that video right here or my discussion
of the last chapter here.