One Piece - Chapter 1026 [manga]

[marvelB]

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Alrighty, break's over! Here we are with a brief spoiler summary, courtesy of AP's Redon:

-Chapter title is "The Decisive Battle". Splash features Nami.

-The chapter begins with a brief scene during the Fire Festival. Tenguyama wonders if Tama is safe as he recalls her running off to Onigashima with Speed. Speaking of the island, there's a Mary on the rooftop watching the Kaidou battle unfold! As he reports the situation to the rest of the castle, Kaidou fires off his Boro Breath attack, which the younger dragon barely dodges! Luffy then tries convincing Momo to bite the King of Beasts, which the pink dragon is too afraid to do.... at first. But after recalling all the trauma he went through because of this particular individual, Momo musters up the courage to sink his teeth into the emperor, an act that actually manages to hurt him! It didn't seem to do much actual damage though, so Luffy jumps back in to continue the fight.

-Meanwhile, back in the castle, Inu and Neko lose their respective Sulong forms as clouds cover the moon again. As the situation seems to turn dire for the mink kings, Luffy's voice echoes throughout the castle! He asks Momo if he has anything to fear, now that he's managed to bite a Yonkou? He then encourages the young lord to stop Onigashima's descent while he takes care of Kaidou! The rubber man and the emperor then to proceed to clash with each other's Conqueror's Haki! Despite them not touching each other, their strikes are so powerful that, as we've seen in past skirmishes between emperors, THE SKY SPLITS APART!!! It's also thanks to this phenomenon that the full moon is visible again! Inu and Neko use this chance to finish off their respective opponents, Jack and Perospero, once and for all!!! However, unbeknownst to Inu, Orochi has been hiding nearby, watching the battle this entire time....!!!!

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[Hoodspirit]

Originally Posted by marvelB

Momo then manages to sink his teeth into the emperor, an act that actually manages to hurt him!

Not a fan of this, but it was to be expected that Oda would go with Shounen-logic during the aging process.

As for the rest, has been foretold for years that a Luffy Kaido clash would help the Minks. While it probably looks cool, it doesn't trigger my excitement in textform.

There is most likely more to the chapter though.

[Kanon]

Apparently Jack and Perospero get defeated off-panel. If that's truly the case, what was even the point of bringing Jack back? All he did was show his hybrid form.

Oh, and Orochi is alive. Big surprise, call me when someone actually dies and stays dead.

[nfsac]

Orochi will probably be the one to strike down an already defeated Kaidou. There is no Honor among this people anyway.

[OH&S]

I've seen the raws and I'm so goddamn conflicted here. On the one hand, most of the content on the roof is 10/10 material.

HOWEVER

Jack and Perospero's fight being off-screened and us only seeing Inuarashi and Nekomamushi one-shot them with Sulong is complete bullshit. And I'm strongly against Neko playing the major role in taking down Perospero to avenge Pedro; it should have been Carrot.

Quite literally over 100 chapters of waiting for a payoff have amounted to zero catharsis with their defeat.

Oda blundered this so hard. 0/10.

[khoa1708]

anyone else think things are moving way too fast? there's no suspense, no build up, no anything...

major characters getting defeated off-panel
Luffy basically fighting on the same level as Kaidou after getting 1-shotted less than a month ago...
i don't even feel like the samurai side lost any men during the raid... everything just going too smoothly

I know Oda is tired and wants to wrap up the series but this is just bad writing imo...

[marvelB]

Okay, summary updated! Yeah, I'm not thrilled about the Jack/Peros battles mostly taking place off-panel either, I do admit. Especially as far as Jack is concerned (but sadly, getting his ass kicked off-panel has actually been pretty consistent with the Onigashima raid thus far). I loved Luffy's pep talk to Momo, at least. And hey, Luffy's finally at that point where he can split the sky! Guess he's finally earned that Fifth Emperor title for real now, eh?

Originally Posted by khoa1708

Luffy basically fighting on the same level as Kaidou after getting 1-shotted less than a month ago...

Actually, I don't find this so strange since, despite what I said above, Luffy's clearly fighting a Kaidou who's not at 100% peak strength. Pretty much since the raid started, the guy's been bombarded by several enemies who wore him down this whole time (the Scabbards, the supernovas, Yamato), so I don't think it's unreasonable that Luffy can take him on solo at this point. It basically reminds me of..... well, has anyone here played Suikoden II? I'm pretty much imagining Kaidou as Luca Blight here, is all I'm saying.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by khoa1708

anyone else think things are moving way too fast? there's no suspense, no build up, no anything...

Given the number of years since Wano arc started... No, it's definitely not too fast. The problem is that Oda crammed way too many characters into this arc and if he were to show all of their fights, it would take ages.

[khoa1708]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Given the number of years since Wano arc started... No, it's definitely not too fast. The problem is that Oda crammed way too many characters into this arc and if he were to show all of their fights, it would take ages.

the time line in the story isn't years, it's just months... that's why i think it feels rushed...

[MAX_COLA_POWER!]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Given the number of years since Wano arc started... No, it's definitely not too fast. The problem is that Oda crammed way too many characters into this arc and if he were to show all of their fights, it would take ages.

I agree, the arc itself isn't bad, it just has too much stuffed in it. I had a feeling about it ever since Eiichiro wanted to bring Lin Lin back in the fray.

[Tuor]

I can't help but think that Oda felt a bit more mortal after Miura died. He *doesn't* have all the time in the world to wrap up One Piece. Maybe he's starting to prune back the storyline a bit.

[Rainbowman]

Quite a powerful chapter indeed. But what is the cowardly Orachi up to?

[devilo96]

Originally Posted by Tuor

I can't help but think that Oda felt a bit more mortal after Miura died. He *doesn't* have all the time in the world to wrap up One Piece. Maybe he's starting to prune back the storyline a bit.

yeah even oda get 1 week off..but we didnt know when oda will die...maybe tmr oda meet up with truck-kun after he buy food or somwthing

so my guess he want to finish one piece asap

[OH&S]

Almost the entirety of the OP subreddit are losing their minds at the chapter.

I feel so bad I can't enjoy the chapter...

[~Yami~]

whoa.. I'm afraid that we might lose two yonko in this arc. I don't expect any Big Mom's member to get beaten in this arc
We are advancing very fast

[Hoodspirit]

Originally Posted by OH&S

And I'm strongly against Neko playing the major role in taking down Perospero to avenge Pedro; it should have been Carrot.

Quite literally over 100 chapters of waiting for a payoff have amounted to zero catharsis with their defeat.

Oda blundered this so hard. 0/10.

My take on it has always been that Carrot will be the one saving Perospero and not defeating him.
Neko has a very limited knowledge about what happened with Pedro. He only got told that Pedro died because of Perospero just a few minutes ago, so it would only be natural for him to not only defeat him, but go for the kill after he was defeated.
However, there are two more things that were stressed about Pedro's death in the story.
In WCI's conclusion and directly after Pedro's sacrifice it was said by different characters to be Pedro's own decision. In Wano Perospero stated several times that he thinks himself innocent.
So I think it was all set up to make Carrot spare Perospero's life and accept Pedro's decision and grow as a character by letting go of that hatred and earn Perospero's respect too. Something he had denied her in Wano (grass nibbling) so far.

Being able/being unable to let go of hatred has always been a theme in One Piece (example: Nami - Hacchan/Jinbei) and Wano has that thread as well (example: Kurozumi hunt.)

[The Small One]

Originally Posted by khoa1708

anyone else think things are moving way too fast? there's no suspense, no build up, no anything...

To me it's still too slow.
One Piece was never about long and drawn out battles, it was always about adventures and discovery of new islands or knowledge. The battles were just a necessary evil and the faster they are over, the faster we can go back to adventuring.

[OH&S]

Originally Posted by Hoodspirit

My take on it has always been that Carrot will be the one saving Perospero and not defeating him.
Neko has a very limited knowledge about what happened with Pedro. He only got told that Pedro died because of Perospero just a few minutes ago, so it would only be natural for him to not only defeat him, but go for the kill after he was defeated.
However, there are two more things that were stressed about Pedro's death in the story.
In WCI's conclusion and directly after Pedro's sacrifice it was said by different characters to be Pedro's own decision. In Wano Perospero stated several times that he thinks himself innocent.
So I think it was all set up to make Carrot spare Perospero's life and accept Pedro's decision and grow as a character by letting go of that hatred and earn Perospero's respect too. Something he had denied her in Wano (grass nibbling) so far.

Being able/being unable to let go of hatred has always been a theme in One Piece (example: Nami - Hacchan/Jinbei) and Wano has that thread as well (example: Kurozumi hunt.)

I dunno. I can't bring myself to put faith in Oda to do all that after this chapter.

To be clear, the whole Carrot thing is only one angle I can use to criticize how Perospero was handled.

The other and arguably more important angle is the simple failure of setup and payoff.

TL;DR…

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

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But the most frustrating thing about all of this that despite acknowledgement of Oda's health and complaints about poor pacing, Oda probably only needed about 1 volume (10 chapters) more to adequately cover everything he wanted sufficiently. In the grand scheme of things, compared to the arc/saga/series length its not too much to ask for.

Despite all this, my complaints are going to fall on deaf ears because, as I've stated in my prior post, near entirety of the fandom are stoked about the chapter because of its legitimately great parts.

Feels bad man

[Nvis]

Perospero has to be dead or near dead with that attack. I think his arm for cut off too, no?

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Nvis

Perospero has to be dead or near dead with that attack. I think his arm for cut off too, no?

It was his fake candy arm.

I doubt he'll die, but I certainly don't think Carrot is going to ask for him to be spared.