Harald's dream, it is appearing, was never going to work out unfortunately, not because his intentions weren't there, but rather... this is The World Government we are talking about here. Moving the Goalposts absolutely would have been done by them.
Self-professed Wild Card who thinks cynicism isn't so bad.Linlin seeing the other pirates making fools of themselves over Shakky turns out to be why she never bothered with true romance. She thinks love is a sucker’s game.
Disgusted, but not surprisedShakky really was the Boa Hancock of her time. And like Boa she falls for the one person who isn’t totally smitten with her on sight. Though unlike Luffy, Rayleigh isn’t totally unaffected by her charm.
Disgusted, but not surprisedIf the theory that Shakky was the stolen "Crown Jewel of Hachinosu" ends up being true, it would certainly put some of the lines said by the Rocks Pirates after touching down on God Valley in a new light.
I'm looking forward to seeing what else gets revealed in this flashback.
Edited by dragonfire5000 on Aug 15th 2025 at 12:46:50 PM
"I squirm, I struggle, ergo I am. Faced with death, I am finally, truly alive."![]()
Shamrock looked like a cute little goober, too. Used to Be a Sweet Kid incarnate.
...And if we're going to go down that rabbit-hole then this flashback is now whole five layers deep.
I kinda dig it. At this point im in it for the memes.
All jokes aside though, It's clear that this flashback is not just to explain what happened when Harald died, but also the context of the history around it.
You lost!...Loki probably didn't need Lola either.
I say this as a fan of Lola's character... but it was probably for the best for both characters that neither of them ended up with each other.
Of course I do! I agree! They will be way happier with whomever they end up with. I more or less meant that I loved the subversion of the whole Lola rejecting the "Hot Guy" in most other stories she would be seen as "ungrateful" and "needing to put out" One Piece says fuck that and she ends up married for love. I hope Loki does too, even if he too falls in love with "Adventure" like most of the Straw Hats.
This is mostly out of universe, and me being glad for whatever piece of escapism I can get. Besides, no man in One Piece is said literally in universe to be hot or desirable. The closest are Cavendish with his fangirls and maybe Sanji, because besides his simping he's hot and does have some people loving him.
As long as this flower is in my heart. My Strength will flow without end.One Piece doesnt really engage in lookism, so you are right, it wouldnt really have happened. But the sheer amount of IRL saying that fat people should just settle for less and it goes double if the person is actually hot or traditionally desirable. Lola was literally introduced by Oda desperately looking for her true love, and most men running from her, after having rejected Loki. This is canon and did happen. And then Toei with one of their fillers assumed the reason she rejected Loki was because he was a loser beneath her.
And then Oda comes "Nah, Lola just said "See you later boy" and moved on with her life". And Canon Loki looks like a really traditionally good looking for IRL standards guy. This is just so good for me.
What One Piece is subverting is the IRL biases on beauty that are common IRL.
Edited by AegisP on Aug 29th 2025 at 8:01:28 AM
As long as this flower is in my heart. My Strength will flow without end.Seems more like the joke is Lola, who was introduced proposing to Luffy who she just met and has thousands of rejected proposals to random men, and the punchline is that she rejected Loki who proposed to her, rather than any purposeful attempt at subverting lookism.
So to me, Harold right now comes across as kind of ignorant of the Marine/WG.
He notes that people have a bad impression of giants because they have periodically waged war against other islands for their own benefit. So, he wants to restructure giants society into a more progressive one that favors peace. That part I understand.
I also get that he wants to have Elpaf inducted into the world government in order to signify and expediate that political and cultural transition.
But, it seems like Harold doesn't really understand that the world government/marines don't really care about giants as people. They still use them as slave labor or as shown in the Big Mom flashback engage in giant-child trafficking. He also has no guarantee that being part of the WG will actually mend fences with other races. Afterall, the Fishmen despite engaging in very limited hostilities with humans still get discriminated and disenfranchised by the WG/Marines. It seems weird that Harold would believe that the WG wouldn't just use him then discard him especially since the first thing they asked him to do is be an attack dog.
In-universe, the WG still has a good reputation overall especially at that point in time. We as the readers know that's all horseshit.
I get the feeling that this is the tipping point that makes Harald see the WG's true face, and it's why Elbaf's giants aren't already the WG's attack dogs.
Edited by M84 on Aug 30th 2025 at 1:30:54 AM
Disgusted, but not surprised

Soooooo the God Valley Incident was the Pirate Trojan War the entire time, huh?