The presumed crew members are Shakky, Kaido, Big Mom, Whitebeard and Mrs. Bakkin. Of these, Whitebeard is the only dead one. Although I don't think Whitebeard was the captain since Marco said he and Bakkin were "on the same ship".
That crew's captain must have been out of this world. Only Stairs-sama could suffice to keep those trouble makers in line. Or Bi-weekly break-sama!
But in all seriousness, I'm not sure what the purpose of the Locks/Rocks crew is to the narrative at this point. Even if Big Mom and Kaido were former members.
As I've said before, if Oda decided to just start publishing the WE times comic strip or the newspaper or whatnot of the OP world, it would be a bestseller and become the biggest "tabloid" in the world, possibly be the FIRST and best of its kind, fiction news releases! It would hit the Japanese storefronts with such a storm they'd actually have to train carrier pidgeons or birds to deliver it and avoid the waiting lines. And that would make it all the more glorious.
I mention this because the newspapers would be about world events and lore, to a limited extent. Lore in One Piece is a treasure. And it would be worthy of Oda all this time for One Piece to literally be some kind of magic lore-archive that we fans would get to drink from heavily with the ST crew at end of manga. That would gold. That would be true gold! Zehahahah! Forget the Straw Hats! It'd be TEACH'n the Blackbeard Pirates getting that treasure! Ze~hahahahah~zehahahahahah!
And the Locks was something else. A flashback sometime soon definitely incoming. And I still wouldn't be surprised if someone related to Locks joined the Revs, my own crew, or did a big thing at Wano. Something's acomin', something big.
What if Luffy fights BM in Elbaf, anyone think this?
The biggest problem in Luffy going back to WCI is the time. Oda said last year One Piece is about 80% finished and there are many things to happen before OP ends. I really don’t think Oda will “waste time” going back to WCI because of this, the history needs to move forward.
What you guys think? Luffy can beat Kaido now (with help for the others SuperNovas) and in the next arc, he, this time alone, beats BM once and for all.
Crackpot Theory: Blackbeard will take advantage of the Wano War, lay siege to WCI and destroy it. BigMum relocates to FMI, luffy finds out, goes there to free them, fight breaks out, Madam Shirley's prediction comes to pass.
Seroiusly though, the ideal place for Bigmum to finally fall will be Elbaf. Will close a lot of circles
Crackpot Theory: Blackbeard will take advantage of the Wano War, lay siege to WCI and destroy it. BigMum relocates to FMI, luffy finds out, goes there to free them, fight breaks out, Madam Shirley's prediction comes to pass.
Seroiusly though, the ideal place for Bigmum to finally fall will be Elbaf. Will close a lot of circles
Nothing crack pot about it friend. Its an excellent analysis. I would make the same move if i was one of the other Yonko. Shanks might make a play for her ponoglyph so he can get to onepiece before blackbeard does. BB could do the same or just move on her because he sees the advantage in taking her territory.
As to the current subject of discussion: Luffy doesnt ever have to go back to WCI. His fleet could, even while under the command of one of his main crew. There are several options for Luffy after this arc but one thing is for certain he will not ever turn back. Hes on a journey/adventure to find OP he isn't turning back until.
Actually he can. They are the closest thing to Yonko themselves (a Yonko's first mate I mean).
Take the 4 or 5 Yonko aside and maybe the powerhouses of the WG and Marines and you have little to no one capable of bringing the force of WCI with Katakuri at the helm down.
He's very capable.
As I was reminded recently. Cracker alone would be powerful enough to destroy the whole of Doflamingo's crew including Doflamingo himself and he pales to Katakuri much less the entire military might of WCI.
Actually he can. They are the closest thing to Yonko themselves (a Yonko's first mate I mean).
Take the 4 or 5 Yonko aside and maybe the powerhouses of the WG and Marines and you have little to no one capable of bringing the force of WCI with Katakuri at the helm down.
He's very capable.
As I was reminded recently. Cracker alone would be powerful enough to destroy the whole of Doflamingo's crew including Doflamingo himself and he pales to Katakuri much less the entire military might of WCI.
My point doesnt change. He cant protect it without Big Mom. WCI holds Road Poneglyph which all top dogs of New World want and whatever else a territory of a Yonko can keep, like gold or something else of value...
WG, Marines, 4-5 Yonko's are not excluded, they would destroy WCI without BM as leader.
My point doesnt change. He cant protect it without Big Mom. WCI holds Road Poneglyph which all top dogs of New World want and whatever else a territory of a Yonko can keep, like gold or something else of value...
WG, Marines, 4-5 Yonko's are not excluded, they would destroy WCI without BM as leader.
If it's them attacking, then no doubt WCI will go down.
Anyways, onwards to predictions of next chapter...
Luffy saves Hyo but barely parries O-Lin's attack with his Goken.
She continues in anger but is unable to land a hit until Tama or Chopper intervenes to convince her that Luffy is a good guy.
Kinemon makes the big reveal to Shutenmaru.
Zoro and others on the way to a successful escape.
Law and Hawkins continues...
TBH I doubt one chapter will cover all these but surely two should do.
Here i think you missed the point. I wasn't mentioning it storywise, but as a reader. Something like the chekhov gun. WHY Oda would make the poneglyph stolen if Luffy would come back and "fodderize" WCI? Things won't be that straightforward. Either Luffy won't come back or somebody else (Blackbeard) will arrive first and steal it.
Luffy already has a copy, it's served its purpose.
Whether or not Blackbeard or anyone steals it no longer has a relevance as to whether or not Luffy returns to defeat Big Mom.
There are 4 instances where Luffy has stated he will defeat Big Mom.
He said it at Fishman Island because of Fishman Island and because he has to defeat her in order to be Pirate King.
He said he didn't come with his entire crew, but will return later to defeat her.
He said it at the wedding.
Her said it even after defeating Katakuri.
You can't give any good reason why Luffy won't return to WCI to defeat Big Mom given there are 4 pieces of evidence, in fact 7 (3 of which are indirect) in total that demand he will return to defeat her.
You can't compare my sloppy examples to what may come from the minds of people fully dedicated to write the story. I'm just trying to inspire people to come with new theories and possibilities.
Your examples are flawed because they're not in line with the story.
The person writing the story will write things consistent with what has already been stated and been built up. That's how story-telling works.
We know Zoro is going to fight Mihawk in future because that's what has been stated and that's what the story concerning him is building up to.
IF statements that don't take into account what the story has said can easily be repudiated because they are not evidence based, but wish based or just hypothetically based for no valid reason.
Of course not. I'm not even sure she is weaker than Kaido. But how would the nexts arcs look if Luffy was on par with them?
Do you remember the feeling when Luffy smashed those smile users in the beginning of Wano? Yeah, me neither. Because there was none, save maybe for boredom.
It's not something you have to worry about. Oda writes stories to be as exciting as possible. Every fight Luffy has is always a tough fight. Even Hody was a tough fight. Even Whitebeard as strong as he was wouldn't have an easy time against any Emperor despite being the strongest. It's not like they're overwhelmingly stronger than the other. They're just as capable of winning as they are losing to the other, thus why no one is Pirate King as like Roger or has been stated to be the strongest since Roger and Whitebeard died.
BM had an arc already, some would think it's unlikely she will have another one.
I believe you may be over simplifying things here. The chaos was set loose. Even Oda don't know exactly how he will deal with things. And even admitting the writers like to make protagonist's statements come true, i don't think Luffy's words will stop Oda from doing what's best for the story.
Maybe, in the end, BMs downfall in WCI will be only a small epilogue just to make hannibal happy
Again, it doesn't matter if she's had an arc already given that they still have a score to settle. There's still a story to be told and a conflict to end, that's simply a fact. The evidence says so, you say what the evidence doesn't say.
She's an Emperor, so she must be defeated.
He said he didn't come with his crew, so he wasn't here to defeat her, but he said he'll return. That arc was not one to fight or defeat her, it was to save Sanji, so that arc wasn't solely dedicated to Big Mom, but more dedicated to Sanji and katakuri. All Big Mom did in that arc was scream cake. It wasn't remotely a Big Mom dedicated arc. More an arc dedicated to everything other than Big Mom. She wasn't even the main antagonist or villain in the arc. That arc merely introduced her into the story.
i don't think Luffy's words will stop Oda from doing what's best for the story.
Maybe, in the end, BMs downfall in WCI will be only a small epilogue just to make hannibal happy
Oda doing what he said Luffy will do is the direction the story goes in. He's the one who wrote it, so that's the direction he's heading in.
It's not like Luffy was holding Oda's hands and telling him what to write. It was Oda who decided that Luffy would say he'd return, so that's obviously the direction the story is heading in.
There's no objective reason why Luffy going to WCI is bad for the story. It's just your subjective opinion or wish that he doesn't. Just because you deem it bad doesn't make it bad, just your opinion that it's bad. It's no different to claiming something is beautiful, the same thing can be said to be beautiful by one person and ugly to another, and does that mean one of them is wrong? No, because it's subjective.
You have no idea what's best for the story. You only have an idea of what YOU would prefer or what YOU think is best. What you think is best cannot be measured by any standard, therefore, it's simply your opinion of what's best. How Oda decides to write the story may not be the best choice to you, but to him, it may be. Something being the best in something that is subjective and something that cannot be objectively determined.
The only time anything can be said to be best for anything has to be in relation to something that can be quantified like the sales of the OP volumes. If you could prove that a certain story development would generate 15% more sales than the story going in another direction, you could claim x-story progression is better than x for that reason. However, to determine that something is best from a subjective point is impossible because it's simply subjective and based on your own feelings, impressions and opinions differs from person to person.
End of the day, if Luffy went to WCI to actually fight against Big Mom with a fleet where it's a battle between all the Sweet Commanders, Zoro, Sanji and the SH Grand Fleet, I doubt people wouldn't be excited even if it's going to happen at WCI. I can confidently state (for the most part) that no one would care where a battle took place as long as the battle had all the Haki in the world, Awakening, Strongest commanders in the series and exciting fighting choreography.
If Weevil doesn't have the Quake Quake fruit, then he is not as strong as prime whitebeard period. But the statements made about Weevil were more regarding him as a "young" Whitebeard, who may not have even eaten the Gura Gura, in which case yeah, I could easily see him as a hype tool for Luffy to demonstrate he's on the same or similar level.
I say similar because Weevil... looks really, really stupid and there's probably a hilarious or bizarre story behind him. We'll see. Oda can turn it into a tear jerker if he wants.
The DF doesn't change in power whether in one's youth (prime) or in a decline (old age).
The strength of the DF is based on the limitations of the DF.
If Weevil is as strong as Whitebeard in his prime, then it will have to refer to his physical strength in terms of power.
Power is the only thing that is highest in one's prime whereas DFs do not decline in power whether in one's prime or not. DFs actually get stronger with time because it's more likely that Whitebeard would have awakened his fruit in his at an older age as opposed to in his prime. Luffy's not stronger with his abilities at the age of 7 than he is now at aged 19, he's stronger with it now that he's 19 given that he's discovering more and more ways to utilise it.
Weevil can be as strong as Whitebeard in his prime, just without being able to create quakes. Prime also usually refers to one's physical attributes or skills as those are the only things that decline with time and can be said to have been best during one's prime.
If Kizaru is saying Weevil is as strong as Whitebeard, then we have to believe it, otherwise, what was the point in saying it? We know it has to be true because such a statement can't be just said of anyone. We're not going to be told something like "Buggy being as strong as Whitebeard in his prime" because it can't be true.
More so, this is a character who has individually destroyed 16 Whitebeard fleets alone (or with Bakkin who we can assume is formidable too given that she was on the same ship as Rox or maybe she's just great at manipulation as opposed to being strong). If we take it as 2 people to cut some benefit of the doubt towards Weevil, that's still 2 people who defeated 16 fleets... that's a total of 600 Whitebeard affiliated Pirates defeated by 2 individuals. That's a big deal.
It's also easy to judge a book by its cover. Being stupid or looking stupid doesn't correlate with lacking strength. Can look stupid and still be immensely strong. Shutenmaru is obese, yet he's extremely strong. Who'd have thought someone in such shape could have cut Jack down? Weevil may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he must be strong.
More so, we should consider that the further the story progresses, the more formidable characters become that we will come across. If Weevil is being introduced so late especially with his accolades thus far, he must have impressive strength.
On another note, it's pretty much implied Marco isn't coming to Wano because he said he wants Nekomamushi to offer a message to Luffy.
Something I missed until I watched this episode in the Anime. When Nekomamushi went to meet with Marco, he never actually asked Marco to come to Wano. Nekomamushi didn't just hit him with the question, he made sure to ease his way with some small talk and reminiscing. While speaking with Marco, he learns why Marco has no reason to leave Sphinx village due to wanting to protect it from Weevil and being that it's Whitebeard's last memento. It seems Nekomamushi has high pretty high emotional IQ and probably feels it's out of place to ask him to come to Wano given the situation Marco's faced with.
However, there's something Marco says that hints Nekomamushi never asked this far into their meeting as far as is shown in the Manga... Marco asks if he's going to Wano? This implies they've not discussed taking on Kaido, otherwise, if he said Luffy was going to defeat Kaido, then Marco shouldn't be asking the obvious saying "he's going to Wano?" as it'd be obvious; would be like saying "going to defeat Big Mom"... it should immediately trigger one to presume said person is heading to WCI.
If he's sending a message to Luffy, it implies he's not going to Wano, but staying while Nekomamushi sends the message. One doesn't send message to people they're going to be seeing very soon or meeting up with.
Luffy's also doing something that's interesting since entering into the New World. He's becoming someone that people owe their lives to or are indebted to. Zou became indebted to Luffy for making Jack leave their country, and that's ultimately how they became allies. It's highly possible that Marco will not ally with Luffy unless he becomes indebted to Luffy. At this point, Luffy is indebted to Marco for making sure he survived Marineford, otherwise, he'd have died. There's really only 1 definite way for Luffy to earn Marco's help in future (assuming he doesn't come to Wano which is highly unlikely to happen), and that is by defeating Weevil. Weevil is supposed to be looking for Marco, and should Luffy defeat Weevil, then Marco along with the Whitebeard Pirates would owe Luffy a favour or simply be indebted to him.
Should things play out in such a way, very likely Marco and possibly the other remnants of the WB Pirate would ally with Luffy in one of the upcoming wars. Either in the war against Blackbeard which seems to be the most likely scenario in which they become relevant and possibly in the war against the WG which the whole world would would apparently be involved in.
I always belived that when the time comes the Strawhats "destroy" Mary Geoise, somehow they'll destroy FI too since they are connected through the sunlight tree eve.
I think Luffy will destroy Fishman Island, but on purpose as a way to get the fishmen up to the land and live among humans. Shirley's prediction can come true, but not for bad or nefarious reasons, but for good ones.
Or there could be a war there, and Luffy is seen (if SHirley's seen him and not just his silhouette) because convenience, but his purpose is to protect the fishmen against an enemy. Could be Weevil or even Big Mom.
That would make the story 10 times better tho, this is what made the old op so great, it had little moments like this.
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But are we all gonna forget about weevil ? Kizaru himself said he has the power of prime whitebeard, think about that for a sec. I wonder how he's gonna fit into all this.
Weevil's probably going to be an ally or at least, a wildcard if his mom gets removed from the equation. If Weevil really does have the power of prime Whitebeard, then that's pretty scary even without the devil fruit. Luffy shouldn't stand a chance, and Weevil could be one of his final hurdles in terms of power. I don't know how Whitebeard's fighting style was like or when he got gura gura no mi, but Marineford implies that he didn't really use his fruit much in fights. His hype comes from his monstrous strength more than his devil fruit, and I think only nickname he's gotten because of his fruit is the Man with the Power to Destroy the World. Imagine him vs. Kaidou though.
Shojo said he is going to replace Crocodile as a Shichibukai. Vol 24 was the first Manga that I bought, because the anime in Germany was circlejerkering around the Rainbow Mist and Goat island filler arcs, I think it took them three years to get to Skypea arc from that point.
Of course I believed him. He had a gigantic high-tech battleship and almost destroyed Merry with just his voice. We also only really knew what Crocodile and Mihawk could do back then. Then, a volume later he got completely wrecked by Bellamy, who in turn got one-shot by Luffy.
So he obviously was not Shishibukai material at all. Then why did he say that?
Because he believed himself to be powerful, he had a very large crew and he had never experienced Crocodile.
You have to read between the lines. Characters say things and you have to be able to unearth what is true and what isn't. You have to be able to tell what is probably a joke and what is just really a filler comment to just make the story interesting for the sake of drama.
When a character says something, you have to read it in context. We see Shojo, he never actually said he was going to replace Crocodile, he said he would probably. Probably doesn't mean he will. Nothing really leads us to believe he's of such calibre.
Maybe you were a kid then who though robots and high-tech battleships were cool, but those aren't what qualify one as possibly being anything.
We can see he looks funny for one, his crew look funny too, they look like comical characters. Especially when a character is new and depending on how they're introduced, their words have to be taken with a grain of salt until more of their character is known in order to determine whether the things they say are true or not.
Just look at the things he says. He says he wants to be a Shichibukai and follows up with "the fantastic thing about me is I'm 25 and never cut my hair before". That's clearly a joke. It's not the kind of thing that inspires us to take his words seriously within that context.
Buggy for example claims he'll defeat Whitebeard, and he'll become Pirate King, but we know that won't happen because for the most part, Buggy is a comic-gag character. By reading between the lines, we're able to tell exactly when and when not to take things characters say seriously.
For example, Koby says he's going to become a Navy Admiral. Reason we can believe that is because he's a character who truly wished to be in the Navy and fight for the right cause; he was inspired by Luffy who aims to be Pirate King; we see he's hardworking and he's usually serious; all of these factors allow us to conclude that when Koby says that, the author really means he will progress to such a level. We're seeing how Koby has evolved over the years from being an utter weakling to being able to take on submarines that others can't detect and destroy rockets with his bare hands.
If Buggy said he would become a Navy Admiral, we know he's a joke and it's not going to happen. Shojo might have said everything he said, but then again, the context would show otherwise about his apparent ability to be a Shichibukai.
It has nothing to do with experiencing Crocodile, his character was just not a serious one to begin with for us to give him any benefits of the doubt regarding his claims and statements.
Not everything that is said has any meaning or can be taken seriously. Have to read between the lines. Nami might say she hates Sanji, but if you read in context, you know it's just a filler statement to merely build up drama and such. Not something to take as an absolute fact.
When Whitebeard says he fought with Roger and is capable of destroying the world, we know that's a fact. There's no reason to not believe him given his actions, his demeanour, his introduction, his status, his strength, etc. It's all about context.
(highschool style one piece animated by Shaft)
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