Chapter 956: BIG NEWS

[Md-Martin]

Super happy to hear about SWORD. If I had to guess, I'd say it's pretty certain Akainu is not in the circle of it, and that it is a faction working without the Fleet Admiral's knowledge. I'd guess that Sengoku is in charge of it, based on his profile as a strategist. This seems like something he would prepare knowing how shady the WG can be. He was clearly upset with the WG's decision to cover up the breakout of dangerous Level 6 prisoners, and clearly has had Navy spies act as pirates, as seen with Corazon.

I also think it's extremely likely that Kuzan is in SWORD as well working to help take down BB.


As for what BB wants, I have two schools of thought. One is based on the possibility that the WG decided to end the Warlord system while announcing Vegapunk's new Pacifista line. We've already seen him engineer a way to become a Warlord(originally by capturing Luffy) just to gain access to get close enough to Impel Down to recruit Level 6 prisoners. And later he tried to bargain Bonney off in return for a Navy war ship. He clearly likes to take the pieces of the WG and Navy that suit his taste. So I wouldn't be surprised if they did announce Pacifistas as the replacement of the Warlords, with BB wanting to get one to tinker with.


The other possibility is based on whatever happened with Alabasta. Clearly Cobra and Riku were able to explain what happened in their countries, but I'm wondering if Cobra maybe revealed too much. Perhaps he revealed WHY Crocodile targeted Alabasta, over the Poneglyph that reveals where Pluton is.


Now why could that POSSIBLY be what BB is going after? Because it could be that one news story that the WG REALLY doesn't want Morgans leaking. To the point of having their Cipher Pole spy reveal himself to stop. Perhaps it was revealed at the Reverie, and later was leaked to Morgans. He publishes this info, and BB decides to go to Alabasta before the Navy can.

[gyuukarubi]

What is Wano's part 1 equivalent? I can buy Dressrosa as a new Alabasta, but Wano's structure doesn't remind me of anything in particular.

Thriller Bark. You have Oni and Ryuma. The straw hats will reunite in battle for the first time since Fishman Island. What better way to take down Kaido? Zoro clearly will play a part given that he has Enma now. The moon arc will be Skypiea 2: Electric Boogaloo.

I doubt Luffy can even read, let alone write a book.

Dude counted his bounty wrong.

Luffy won’t stay a dumbass forever. He keeps learning and maturing in part 2. He was very clearly different after his battle against Katakuri. Didn’t he also speak mostly in hiragana in early chapters? That’s changed. Plus ghostwriters.

[RuNa]

What is Wano's part 1 equivalent? I can buy Dressrosa as a new Alabasta, but Wano's structure doesn't remind me of anything in particular.

--- Update From New Post Merge ---



I doubt Luffy can even read, let alone write a book.

Dude counted his bounty wrong.

The bounty thing is because of Japanese numbering.

万 = 10,000

15万5000

If you read that really quickly, would you think it said 15,500 instead of 155,000.

I may be wrong here but if Luffy read the bounty quickly, with this mindset, it would make sense to believe it went down without realizing it would need to be read the other way.

I thought it had been shown that Luffy can read but doesn't really care about it. There is a filler episode or movie showing him reading a book and then getting bored but I thought it was at least shown that he reads signs. A lot of this is played for laughs, I can't honestly believe that someone would be that stupid.

[King Cannon]

Thriller Bark. You have Oni and Ryuma. The straw hats will reunite in battle for the first time since Fishman Island. What better way to take down Kaido? Zoro clearly will play a part given that he has Enma now. The moon arc will be Skypiea 2: Electric Boogaloo.

I thought the Thriller Bark equivalent was Whole Cake, since it had the living things that shouldn't be alive and overall surreal imagery. Plus, a sham wedding, mad science experiments, among other things.

Ryuma is literally the only thing tying both arcs together (and Kaido, to a much lesser extent). The whole structure is different since the Strawhats are not really facing a Moria-like enemy who relies on trickery to subdue them.

In any case, I don't really believe those parallels are actually a thing. Oda reuses concepts because there's so much ways one can write stories about overthrowing power abusers.

And even if they were, it's unlikely Luffy would fail a second time, especially to demonstrate his growth and declaration to "protect everything". You wouldn't really accomplish anything by killing off Sabo. Luffy already dealt with enough grief and realization through Ace.

[Ghidorah Guy]

- Sabo's future: becoming the Pacifista'd Nezha/Nataku to Luffy's Monkey King; a temporary antagonist destined to become an ally ( again ).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nezha


-My first thought is that Blackbeard's headed towards Wano...but I could also see him making a beeline towards Alabasta. Not farfetched to think he'd have stumbled on the same intel as Crocodile, being a supposed history buff and all-around enigmatic villains who knows more than he lets on. Whatever the Alabasta incident seems to entail, I could one direct consequence being a military occupation by the WG under the guise of "protection," or bunk accusations of "treason" on Cobra's part...Assuming Blackbeard knows something about Alabasta's connection to Pluton in this scenario -- and popular theory posits that Pluton's buried somewhere underneath its sands -- then it'd make sense he'd be eager to beat the marines in finding it.

Only appropriate that Ragnarok would begin with Blackeabeard sailing Pluton to invade the Giants of One Piece Asgard when he finally decides to move against Shanks. May also help "convince" Kaido and Big Mom to form an alliance as others have speculated...thus pitting Shanks and Elbaf against the Triple Threat of Hela ( Big Mom ), Jormungand the Midgard Serpent ( Kaido ), and Fenrir ( Blackbeard ).

- I wonder if the forces being sent after the former Shichibukai are being intentionally set up to fail so as to lend fuel to some new military initiative on Akainu's part.

"Without the pirates outta control, we need something to take their place. Say hello to the new breed of Marine soldier: the XXXX! Also, they'll be deployed to each and every nation, martial law is in place, kthx abolsute justice"

[gyuukarubi]

I thought the Thriller Bark equivalent was Whole Cake, since it had the living things that shouldn't be alive and overall surreal imagery. Plus, a sham wedding, mad science experiments, among other things.

Ryuma is literally the only thing tying both arcs together (and Kaido, to a much lesser extent). The whole structure is different since the Strawhats are not really facing a Moria-like enemy who relies on trickery to subdue them.

The sham wedding indeed was in Thriller Bark and there was a fantastic setting, but it was mostly Water 7 and Enies Lobby. If we think of Thriller Bark as a play off horror movies, then the concept tying Wano and Thriller Bark together is “theater.” The great escape from dangerous seas and the sacrifice of an ally to do so (possibly in WCI but it still remains to be unseen). Also, “past connections.” Laboon and Brook, Tama and Ace. Who’s to say that Tama won’t join the Straw Hats? Moria could be Orochi in this case.

They also aren’t perfect parallels because each arc is focusing on a core member of the Straw Hat Pirates. I would imagine that Wano will also incorporate some Enies Lobby too.

In any case, I don't really believe those parallels are actually a thing. Oda reuses concepts because there's so much ways one can write stories about overthrowing power abusers.

And even if they were, it's unlikely Luffy would fail a second time, especially to demonstrate his growth and declaration to "protect everything". You wouldn't really accomplish anything by killing off Sabo. Luffy already dealt with enough grief and realization through Ace.

I think Oda is paying very close attention to narrative structure. These parallels aren’t by mistake. And even if Luffy wants to “protect everything,” he isn’t strong enough to do that yet. He needs strength to do that and he still hasn’t attained the strength necessary to become the Pirate King. He hasn’t overcome all his obstacles and enemies just yet.

[Robby]

Is official release permanently Friday now instead of Sunday?

No, its just holiday scheduling in Japan.

Possible, but as was noted in the spoiler thread, one would think that the Revos have vivre cards stored for each member, thus they would know that Sabo is dead or alive, no need to confirm anything.

That would actually be a bad, BAAAAAD idea. If you ever get compromised and enemies get into your territory, (as just happened with the BB pirates) them having access to perfect tracking devices of every major member of the organization would be baaaaaad.

If they were only "is this person healthy" cards, that'd be fine. But as tracking devices... nope.

That said, maybe they did have them and burned them when BB attacked.

[RoboBlue]

Are people joking or what? Pluton does not exist in Alabasta. There is a poneglyph which talks about it in Alabasta. The location was never specified.

That's a good point, but Cobra has read that Poneglyph so he knows whatever hint it gives about Pluton's location.

Wot, Pluton is not the god of death tho.

After it was revealed that the other weapons were Uranus and Poseidon, it became clear that Pluton was actually Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld.
Apparently his name is Pluton in French and German for some reason.

Still, Teach and his crew are much more known for being DF hunters rather than Ancient Weapon seekers. And Mariejoa is way closer than Alabasta.
Getting the Mera Mera is just go and grab. Pluton I imagine would require to first locate it in the vast country of Alabasta, that really is a much complicated task. Besides if Teach knew about it, it would make no sense for him for not going to take it earlier in time.

Going to Arabasta is probably a lot easier than breaking into Mariejoa to get a fruit that's either locked away or in some marine's stomach.
That's assuming Sabo is even dead...

In 907, he tells Kizaru to hold off on going to Wano due to having no idea how strong the Wano forces are. Drake has been a part of Kaido's crew for quite some time, even achieving a high ranking position within the crew. If him and Akainu were alligned, why would Akainu have no knowledge of something as simple as that? Even Robin with her limited time in Wano was able to obtain info on their forces, so it's not like it's a time issue either. I don't believe it's something worth lying about to a fellow admiral either.

That line made no sense even at the time, so I think he is lying.
First off, as far as we know none of Kaido's crew are samurai, which anyone with even basic knowledge of Kaido's personality should assume to mean that the samurai either weren't strong enough to be worth recruiting or refused to submit to Kaido's authority and were slaughtered or enslaved. Now that we've seen Wano, we can confirm that the truth is a mixture of both.
Second, how likely is sending Kizaru in for reconnaissance to backfire? I'm assuming Borsalino wasn't volunteering to fight one or possibly two Yonko.
Third, the line doesn't even sound like something Sakazuki would normally say.

Wait Borsalino... we have no idea how strong the Wano Country's forces are... those samurai...

He has absolutely no reason to assume that Kaido keeps his best men stuck on the island or that Orochi's forces are somehow stronger than Kaido's. Refusing to send even a single marine out to spy on Kaido while he's potentially forming an alliance with Big Mom (which we now know is exactly what happened) was a stupid and cowardly decision, unless he had some kind of ulterior motive.

If it turns out his ulterior motive was to keep everyone on hand so they could immediately be called on to bring in all five remaining Shichibukai... then Sakazuki's an idiot.

[Luffyfan]

Boy am I excited for the up coming events to un fold. I'll tell you, if Coby actually dord manage to get Hancock in prison I'll be pissed. I hope she escapes or crushes Coby easily. However, if Coby and her talk about Luffy they could be new best friends and start the first official Luffy fan club, Bart will join afterwards LOL.

All them government folks going to wish they sent better more powerful figures to capture these guys.

BlackBeared going after Sabo wow if that's the case Luffy would be peeved.

[Captain M]

Well this was a chapter and a half, wasn't it? Oda's spent 20 odd years establishing the delicate structure and balance of power of his world, both in geopolitics and the criminal underworld, and how the two interact, and now he's set in motion a domino chain that will collapse it all. Obviously we aren't going to descend immediately into chaos, the real game changer of Kaido and Big Mom's alliance is going to be caught up in Wano for a while, so won't have much to do with the World Government and the Warlords' turmoil, but the seeds have been sown and the chain reaction has begun. Oda's recent estimate of 5 years was an obvious lowball, but its shows that he sees the ending on the horizon. I believe that more than ever after this chapter.

I feel like I was half right about how much Reverie we were going to see in this intermission. I expected another one like the last, with only tangential references to it, but instead we got a chapter that deals with it directly for the most part. But also aside from the big result of the Warlord vote, it was all so vague we learned basically nothing else. A fatality? An attempted murder? Something happening with Sabo, probably one or both of the latter? Something about Alabasta? Who knows what really happened.

Never expected Morgans to be so much of a fighter. He's coming to be kind of a wildcard in terms of how he uses his influence. Previous coverups and lies (like the Doflamingo one) in his paper, as well as running propaganda comics such as Sora show that he's not one bit above taking the World Government's money and printing their lies, but then he throws his support behind Luffy and rejects the cheque here because he thinks the truth is more interesting. It seems the news depends on Morgans' idea of the most evocative story, true or not. Click Bait Morgans, they should call him.

And on the Morgans scene, what is the deal with Attach? It would have made sense if he was a Cipher Pol plant from the start, given that we first see him working for the World Government before he became a reporter, but if that's the case, was he bothering with a fake face even back then? If that wasn't the real Attach, where is he? Is it just a coincidence the Government chose their own former employee to impersonate? Seems like the kind of thing that'll come up in an SBS sooner or later. Oh, and what's Wapol of all people calling about?

The Sabo stuff is too obtuse to make a concrete theory about. The reactions make his death and him being framed for an assassination equally likely, and puts dying in an apparent assassination attempt not far outside the ballpark. I've had for a while now a pet theory that Vivi will be forced out of the World Government and use her leadership abilities to take command of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, since Luffy isn't interested in being responsible for it. If, say, the World Government assassinated Cobra and Sabo disappeared with Vivi, helping her get onto Sai's ship or with the Dressrosa escort, it could all come together...

Blackbeard; also too obtuse. The official wording, "if the Navy's only going to take it," raises questions. It's not just that they're going to have it, he implies that they'll take possession of whatever he's after but not use it to its full potential, or at all. Curiouser and curiouser.

Sword is another big deal. The clues in the dialogue here paint an interesting picture of Sword's relationship with the World Government and Cipher Pol. We can make a decent guess that Sword's undercover agents are a "need to know" kind of deal, even for the upper levels of Navy command, given how Borsalino treated Drake at Sabaody. It's suggested that Cipher Pol and Sword aren't sharing information about operations with each other either, but not only that, that Sword has moral disagreements with the hypocrisy of the World Government and its agents. I think Oda's setting up a schism for the Navy. We'll see the authoritarians like Sakazuki standing with the Government when the world collapses into chaos while the more reasonable guys caught in a bad system, Garp, Sengoku, Issho, Smoker and so on will make a stand against the Government's corruption and defect, taking a lot of fire and manpower with them. Through this, Oda can build into an ending where the oceans still have a peacekeeping force but where the cruel history of the current Navy can still be confronted and the people responsible dealt with. Film Z was non-canon, but if Zephyr really is out there in the canon universe, I wonder what he'd have to say about all this.

The last few pages of the chapter were great, seeing all the Warlords learning they were disbanded only after they and their hideouts are already surrounded. Very much the Order 66 of the One Piece universe. I don't see any of them actually ending up dead or captured though. I feel particularly bad for the force sent after Mihawk, especially if Stainless is really the biggest name they had to send after him.

Going back to the top idea of the global power structure collapsing, this is how it starts. Vegapunk's Warlord replacement obviously hasn't been implemented yet, given what a surprise the current Warlords got, so the Navy is going to be short on firepower for a little bit after this, especially considering the kind of losses their attempts to arrest the Warlords are likely to cost. Who knows how long it could take for them to get back to full power. Perhaps the vote would have gone differently if Big Mom and Kaido had teamed up a few days sooner, if the Government had known what they'd be up against. Whether they go on to challenge the whole world or whether Luffy beats the two of them into submission, the Navy is facing their worst case Four Emperors scenario at the exact time they crippled themselves with this risky transition. This is how the global conflict begins. This is the best time to be a One Piece fan.

[uniaka ikuzakas]

[MiyamotoMusashi]

That's a good point, but Cobra has read that Poneglyph so he knows whatever hint it gives about Pluton's location.


After it was revealed that the other weapons were Uranus and Poseidon, it became clear that Pluton was actually Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld.
Apparently his name is Pluton in French and German for some reason.



Going to Arabasta is probably a lot easier than breaking into Mariejoa to get a fruit that's either locked away or in some marine's stomach.
That's assuming Sabo is even dead...



That line made no sense even at the time, so I think he is lying.
First off, as far as we know none of Kaido's crew are samurai, which anyone with even basic knowledge of Kaido's personality should assume to mean that the samurai either weren't strong enough to be worth recruiting or refused to submit to Kaido's authority and were slaughtered or enslaved. Now that we've seen Wano, we can confirm that the truth is a mixture of both.
Second, how likely is sending Kizaru in for reconnaissance to backfire? I'm assuming Borsalino wasn't volunteering to fight one or possibly two Yonko.
Third, the line doesn't even sound like something Sakazuki would normally say.


He has absolutely no reason to assume that Kaido keeps his best men stuck on the island or that Orochi's forces are somehow stronger than Kaido's. Refusing to send even a single marine out to spy on Kaido while he's potentially forming an alliance with Big Mom (which we now know is exactly what happened) was a stupid and cowardly decision, unless he had some kind of ulterior motive.

If it turns out his ulterior motive was to keep everyone on hand so they could immediately be called on to bring in all five remaining Shichibukai... then Sakazuki's an idiot.

Actually it is pretty much implied it is somewhere in Alabasta. Crocodile said he can look for it in the kingdom once it is his (meaning he had an inkling of where it is) and Cobra also said the moment Robin had told him, the kingdom would have lost, pointing out it was an immediate consequence, which is impossible if it´s somewhere far away.

Crocodile had no reason to stay and take Alabasta if Pluton was not there, because taking Alabasta was always a means to getting to real power and essentially still taking over the world, in contrast to his goal in the past of becoming Pirate King that was crushed by Whitebeard, and he never recovered from that. Unlike Kuro for example, he was not looking for a comfortable life but simply the power of the weapon to become a different Pirate King.

[gyuukarubi]

The Sabo stuff is too obtuse to make a concrete theory about. The reactions make his death and him being framed for an assassination equally likely, and puts dying in an apparent assassination attempt not far outside the ballpark.

I quite like this. Sabo definitely could’ve killed a Celestial Dragon or a marine. I’m glad you threw out assassination as a possibility as it makes me somewhat reconsider my stance.

[theackwardstation]

You would think when the Marines have to deal with 4 Shichibukai at once plus whatever else is going on, Garp would definitely be a precious force much better fit to deal with any of those than, well... Koby! I mean, if it turns they didn't sent at least one admiral to deal with Weevil, I don't know what they were thinking.

Garp is retired.

[Razh]

Garp is retired.

Obviously not completely.


Anyway, it was hinted Vegapunk made something that makes Schichibukai needless. Mostly likely those Pacifista upgrades. Maybe there's even more than one type.

[Blissed]

That line made no sense even at the time, so I think he is lying.
First off, as far as we know none of Kaido's crew are samurai, which anyone with even basic knowledge of Kaido's personality should assume to mean that the samurai either weren't strong enough to be worth recruiting or refused to submit to Kaido's authority and were slaughtered or enslaved. Now that we've seen Wano, we can confirm that the truth is a mixture of both.
Second, how likely is sending Kizaru in for reconnaissance to backfire? I'm assuming Borsalino wasn't volunteering to fight one or possibly two Yonko.
Third, the line doesn't even sound like something Sakazuki would normally say.

He has absolutely no reason to assume that Kaido keeps his best men stuck on the island or that Orochi's forces are somehow stronger than Kaido's. Refusing to send even a single marine out to spy on Kaido while he's potentially forming an alliance with Big Mom (which we now know is exactly what happened) was a stupid and cowardly decision, unless he had some kind of ulterior motive.

Eh, none of what you've said has really convinced me that he's lying, much less to a fellow admiral. If anything, I agree with those saying that it makes sense that Akainu isn't a part of Sword if our assumptions about it being the group for the "good Marines" is correct. And I don't see how what he said doesn't make sense. Wano is an isolated country outside of their jurisdiction that's controlled by a Yonko. It's one of those things where if he did know, it wouldn't be surprising, but him not knowing is also not really surprising. Pair that up with them not being in the position to intervene in the first place due to the Reverie, and his comment is perfectly fine to me.

If it turns out his ulterior motive was to keep everyone on hand so they could immediately be called on to bring in all five remaining Shichibukai... then Sakazuki's an idiot.

This would never be the case considering that the motion to abolish the Warlord system, and even Fujitora's conversation with Green Bull, all happened after Akainu and Kizaru spoke.

I feel particularly bad for the force sent after Mihawk, especially if Stainless is really the biggest name they had to send after him.

Don't worry, Stainless will survive, since he's actually going after Buggy, not Mihawk.

[Sengokusgoat]

Why would Sword be an anti-Akainu force when it clearly was a thing before he became Fleet Admiral? Besides, the Oda-box says it's part of Marine HQ.

I think this is just some secret force, not anything based on ideology. Drake getting upset with the Goverment doing shady crap behind their backs is natural. Even Akainu gets mad at that kind of stuff.

[Blissed]

Why would Sword be an anti-Akainu force when it clearly was a thing before he became Fleet Admiral? Besides, the Oda-box says it's part of Marine HQ.

I think this is just some secret force, not anything based on ideology. Drake getting upset with the Goverment doing shady crap behind their backs is natural. Even Akainu gets mad at that kind of stuff.

I never said it was anti-Akainu lol, just that it may very well be a group that conveniently has or will have most of the "good" Marines there. Though who's to say it isn't partially based on ideology when the same chapter we learn about it reveals Koby of all people as its 2nd known member, as well as Drake being disillusioned about CP0 being in Wano. The two of them also weirdly seem to not want Marine intervention there.

Either way, I'm not convinced that Akainu knows about it due to the aforementioned Ch. 907.

[wolfwood]

Obviously not completely.

But to that Sengoku point where you can just sit and eat snacks and help when and if you want.

Anyway, it was hinted Vegapunk made something that makes Schichibukai needless. Mostly likely those Pacifista upgrades. Maybe there's even more than one type.

Seems the most likely. A horde of perfected bearbots with added features and even more uncuttable. If the CP0-Wano deal was for a shitton of seastone they might even be made out of that material.

[darkmninya]

Only Robin knows where pluton is ,cobra only know the Location of the Porneglyph. So BB searching for Pluton is not possible, noone know where it is expect Robin.