One Piece

If this happens, I will eat my hat.

edited 17th Dec '09 5:38:35 AM by New Cope

I draw this comic-like thing sometimes.

Is it made of straw?

I seriously doubt Luffy will die any time soon

Luffy will survive, but I do hope he gets seriously incapitated for at least a while in or just after the battle. By in-universe rules that might be sleep long and eat lots of meat, but this arc piles on lots of No One Could Survive That without actually showing the consequences yet(the whole breaking point thing is done beautifully in the Enies Lobby arc, shifted to Zoro in the Thriller Bark arc, but Impel Down has given us Magellan's poison recovery, epic beatdowns of Luffy and two shots of Vigorous hormones). It would be jarring if they completely glossed over it, even by shounen hyping standards of the lead character.

I know what you said, sugar, but 'platonic' still entails a world of ideas.

I don't know if I've said it anywhere yet, but I'm of the belief that Luffy will die shortly after he becomes pirate king, and do something similar to Gol D. Roger.

If he allows himself to be sent to jail again, it'll probably be to see Mr. 2 again, if Mr. 2 doesn't escape or join the crew.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

I think we'll see Luffy pay a price for cheating the No One Could Survive That! gods out of their proper tribute. We already know that using the Tension Hormones shortens his natural life span, and that he's going to crash (at the very least) once 24 hours pass from his Vigor Hormone injection. What's keeping Luffy moving so far is sheer willpower, which we all know he has to spare.

isn't the story only like half finished? because they made it half way around the world to the Red Line again they still have half the world to traverse

If there's going to be a time skip, after this arc would be the prefect time to do it...

about the halfway there bit - they've already met almost all the major players in the story. All that's left is the sorting out the ancient history bit, and that could be done in one (the last) arc.

Maybe a very brief time skip until the crew reunites. Unlike Naruto's time skip, I see most of the character change here occurring once they've realized or nearly realized their dream.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Didn't Oda say that he wanted to do 1000 chapters, or something? I can't remember.

I remember him saying he wanted it to go on for another 10 years.

You are not alone, and you are not strange. You are you, and everyone has damage. Be the better person.

@wanderlustwarrior: Yeah, probably just a few months at most. Now how long is this compared to how long since Luffy left Fushcia Village in the first place?

I agree with some other people now would be a good time. I think it would be best if after this battle the narrative skipped to the Strawhats reuniting and making how this changed things a series if gradual discoveries. Luffy being unconscious this whole time would make him a perfect Watson.

@Beta Ray: I believe he said in the manga's tenth anniversary (2007) that it was about halfway through the story in the Grand Line. Since they weren't in the Grand Line until about two years in that means 8 years was "halfway". Since he said that two years ago that means there's about 6 years left now.

Oh yeah, and spoilers for next chapter: Luffy does use Haki on the executioners, and he also punches Coby in the gut.

edited 22nd Dec '09 11:35:14 PM by thatother1dude

569 is out.

Holy shit Marco and Joz are down.

I draw this comic-like thing sometimes.

Sengoku's expression on the last page is priceless.

edited 24th Dec '09 7:15:53 PM by Cronosonic

Aokiji's reaction makes me wonder if the "Overlord" Haki is widely known about. It's said that it's a One In A Million Chance so it's likely that only a few folks are in the know about it.

Hmm... I'd also guess that Whitebeard, despite his power, doesn't have it, or he would have used it by now.

I thought we already knew Whitebeard had "regular" Haki, and the only ones we knew had "king's haki" were Luffy and Hancock?

Shanks and Raleigh have the special Haki as well. But I wasn't aware that we had heard anything about Whitebeard's haki.

When Whitebeard stabbed Aokiji, the pirates watching said he did it with Haki. Also, while Shanks & Rayleigh are heavily implied to have the Overlord Haki (and I, for one, think that they do), Luffy & Hancock are the only two confirmed users of it.

Also, my comment on Aokiji above may have been in error. I've since read that the line might be a mistranslation of "maji ka" (the full statement meaning something more like 'Are you serious?' or 'You gotta be kidding me?').

if Luffy ever masters his haki the world is screwed

I knew it would have to be seastone to stop Marco, though I'm still surprised Vegapunk hasn't invented seastone bullets. I still don't want Marco, Jozu (who gets renamed every chapter, it seems) or really any of the commanders, to die.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

I think Seastone bullets are invented/possible, they're just not practical. The Seastone supply is limited, so it has to be used for things that the Marines can use over and over again - shackles, swords, prison cells. Things that they can keep track of.

didn't know it was limited.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

I remember it's been said somewhere, but I forget where. I think the most we've ever seen in one place is either the cage Crocodile had in Rain Base or the bases of Marine ships used to cross the Calm Belt.

At any rate, the World Government has near-complete control over the world's supply of Seastone and they want to keep it that way. I think Wiper is the only non-WG combatant to use Seastone (as a Shichibukai, Croc may have had access to it from their stores at the time), and he was outside of their jurisdiction.