Yeah, we are fucked up
I love how Dazai’s role in the whole go after the fingernail guy thing was just to narrate what everyone else was doing.
Oh Ranpo found you guys in 5 seconds. Atsushi and Junichiro took out of all your back up. Kenji over here just destroyed your door and Yosano’s going to hunt you down for sport.
Like Dazai didn’t do shit but he showed up anyway just so he could happily talk about how proud he is of everyone else’s contributions.
"friends don't look at each other like that" well okay you coward you do whatever you want however i WILL look at my friends like they're the most important thing in the world. i love them with my whole heart and i will hold their hand and stare at the stars not because i wanna fuck them but because they mean the world to me and i care about them. fuck you
one piece new chapter not as big as last two but huge to me cus this old man just stirred up a new theory i wont let go of
hey thats an interesting tattoo is it the mark to traverse the abyss as this new kirin character says?
Ah could it be that Shanks got his arm bitten off on purpose to remove a mark that can call him or bring Imu and their knights anywhere?
Cutting a tether to his celestial dragon family and betting any power he has left on the new generation of piracy. An additional reason he hadn't left for the One Piece until now and why he didn't go with Roger, being a liability that can hand a secret over to Imu. Idk anything is possible!!
Regarding the mark mentioned by Kiringham, I am convinced that this is the tattoo we see on Sommers' arm. The pattern looks a lot like the Summoning circle, and since this mark is what allows someone to use this circle, it makes sense for this tattoo to be the mark.
Gunko's angry reaction to Kiringham's statement that only people with this mark can pass through the "abyss", and that's why they would have to take the children with them by ship, makes me wonder if she has some kind of bad story with that. If she really isn't a World Noble, could it be that whoever had the ability to give these marks to someone (probably Imu), didn't want to give this mark to her at first, perhaps because they didn't consider her worthy of it? So she would be the only one of the Holy Knights who had to travel by ship. Thus, Gunko, who we have already seen to be a very defensive person when she punished Loki for refusing such a "wonderful" offer as joining the World Nobles, would have taken Kiringham's speech as insulting her in some way, even though Kiringham doesn't seem to think so.
I also saw some people talking about how Shanks could have let his arm get eaten when he saved Luffy to lose that mark, so no one could summon him, since we see that the person doesn't need to agree for the summon to work. I find this theory quite interesting, mainly because Shanks was already a year old when he was found by the Roger pirates, so it is likely that this mark had already been placed on him. Maybe it was because of this mark that Roger found out about Shanks' biological family? It is possible that Roger discovered this mark along with the rest of the Void Century story, and, knowing that he was going to die, decided to tell Shanks the truth so that he could find his "family" and decide for himself what he would do with his life.
The Holy Knights get more and more interesting with each chapter! Honestly, I'm loving them as antagonists!
I have more questions about Gunko every time she appears because so many things about her don't seem to add up. She is the only Holy Knight who has not received the title of World Noble or had her family name introduced (she also does not have a Saint in her name, but neither does Shamrock). She's also the only "celestial dragon" we've seen who has the power of a devil fruit (and we know from Hancock's story that they despise devil fruits), her uniform is very different from the others, and her eyes having different colors seems like it's going to be important in some way. Her powers are very similar to Imu's aesthetically, so I don't think it's a coincidence that she is the one who summons the "abyss" (the pentagram "portal"). Also, her name means "army child", which may imply that she was recruited (perhaps as a child) and trained to be part of the Holy Knights.
Kiringham being introduced in his hybrid form immediately catched my attention. Does his normal appearance reveal some kind of secret about him? He's the only Holy Knight introduced so far who wears the same bubble on his head as the other World Nobles, and the one he wears even appears to have something to help him breathe, so it's possible he has some sort of respiratory illness, or was only recently recruited, so he may have never actually left the Holy Land, which would explain why he was so nervous about being late even though he was already dressed and transformed. Personally, I feel like he could be quite young? As I said, he seems to be very nervous and curious about Elbaph, which probably means he has never been outside of Mary Geoise, and the bubble could be to prevent him from being corrupted by the air from the “filthy world”, also, the way he talks reminds me a bit of a teenager, but that could just be the translation I read.
Having a Holy Knight from one of the Gorosei's family is really exciting, and I hope this helps us answer some questions about the elders. Sommers also seems to be the oldest of the four, and it's the first to take responsability after finding out that Shamrock needs to go back to Mary Geoise, so he probably has been a Holy Knight for a very long period before the current time. He's also the first person we see actually concerned about the food thing in the Holy Land (which is kind of crazy, but okay).
And I don't even need to start talking about the whole Shamrock situation.
Also, the fact that Sommers so casually asked if Shamrock and Gunko were visiting Harald's grave is pretty weird. Like, we know what World Nobles are like, why would they care about Harald? He wasn't even affiliated with the government (and they wouldn't care about him either if that were the case), so why would they travel such a great distance just to see his grave? Why is this a possibility?? Was Harald also a Holy Knight? That's the only way I can see it being reasonable. We can see from their interactions in this chapter that the Holy Knights seem to get along pretty well, so two of them visiting the grave of a deceased colleague would make sense. This could explain why they tried to recruit Loki specifically and not another insanely powerful individual, since he would be the son of a former member, and we know how much they care about bloodlines.
So something that caught my attention with the Dragon symbolism stuff with the world nobles vs how it’a used in the RA led me down a rabbit hole that I found interesting enough to share.
So the whole thing stems from two instances of dragon claws being depicted in One Piece.
So! First we have the Celestial Dragon Claw, four clawed, used as branding to mark word noble “property”. Then we have the Dragon Claw Fist, three clawed, a fighting style that we can assume was developed by the RA using the Finger Pistol of the Six Powers as a base.
The difference here is the number of claws, which is what lead me down the rabbit hole in the first place.
The consensus is that the claw number of a depicted dragon is actually a class indicator. Bear in mind that these observations stem from Chinese folklore and its place in Imperial Chinese law, so it might not hold water. And as always do correct me if I’m off in any of these points.
The number of claws and the colorations of dragons in Imperial China was an extremely important thing, and misrepresentations of these could quite literally get you and others executed for acts of treason.
Five clawed yellow or gold (or red during the Ming Dynasty) dragons are a symbol of imperial power for the emperor alone to use. It was illegal for nobles and civilians to wear anything depicting a five-clawed yellow or gold dragon in Imperial China. It was considered- as stated above- an act of treason, and offenders (and their families) could be imprisoned or executed for the crime.
Four clawed dragons are a symbol of nobility. Lesser in the hierarchy than the imperial dragon, but still a mark of high status. It was illegal for civilians to wear depictions of four-clawed dragons. Again, a treasonous act punishable by death or imprisonment under Imperial law.
Civilians could depict dragons with three claws. This was allowed.
So, we can make an assumption here that through these observations, the RA use the three clawed dragon as symbolic of the class warfare that is happening in the One Piece world. But there is another thing!!!
There are these things called Dragon Dance Competitions, where a nine-segmented dragon puppet is manipulated by a team of dancers and musicians to have the dragon chase a pearl- a symbol of wisdom- across the allocated space. These are very interesting to watch, and I highly recommend giving one a watch, since there are plenty of them to see on YouTube. Do take care if you are photosensitive or sound sensitive, as they are bright and loud.
A tradition for these competitions and others (such as lion dances and dragon boat races) is called an “eye dotting ceremony”, which happens at the beginning of the competition. An authorized party comes by to paint the pupils on a dragon to symbolically awaken or- relevant to this post- empower it.
The Celestial Dragon’s Claw is a symbol nobility, and likely has high amounts of regulation on how it can and cannot be used, with infractions on those regulations met with imprisonment at best, and cipher pol or a buster call at worst. It would be highly guarded, and was used to brand people to mark them as property, as we know.
The dragon depicted in the introduction to the Dragon Claw Fist that Sabo utilizes? Three claws, no pupils. It is an unempowered civilian dragon- a weakling by dragon standards- and it is beating the shit out of a World Government official.
Class warfare symbolism. Revolutionary symbolism.
(this translation may be incorrect, so if you read this remember to check the official translation! This post only has the pages with dialogue, also, read from left to right)
Dazai: Think about it. It's what people do to remember the past.
Atsushi: H-here is... the agency?!
Dazai: Physical distance doesn't matter in the fourth dimension.
Dazai: To get from point A to point B on this sheet in the quickest way... what should be done?
Atsushi: ? Go in a straight line, of course...
Dazai: Normally, but we are in a higher dimension.
Dazai: Just do it like this.
Dazai: It is possible to intercept all the places here... and attack the origin point, which is ame-no-gozen.
Atsushi: Will you do the same with me?
Dazai: If you understood, let's fly.
Dazai: Focus.
Atsushi: Dazai-san! You...!
Dazai: Just look...
Past Dazai: I want to recruit you for the Port Mafia
Akutagawa: Jinko...
Akutagawa: Why did... you protect me?
Dazai: I want to recruit you for the Port Mafia
Akutagawa: Why am I... remembering this now?
Akutagawa: I just... hated... this world that let my street friends die for nothing.
Akutagawa: I wanted revenge... for being born into this world.
Dazai: If you're ready... I'll give you what you want.
Akutagawa: What I want? Are you... able to give me a meaning to live?
Dazai: I am.
Atsushi: Akutagawa...
Dazai: It's taking too long to activate your ability! You won't survive like this in the organization!
Akutagawa: I didn't feel any pain. Dazai-san was the one who gave me a meaning to live. But...
Akutagawa: ...He disappeared without any explanation
Akutagawa: And when we met again, he had a new subordinate.
Dazai: "My new subordinate is much better than you"
Akutagawa: Jinko! Jinko! Jinko! Jinko!
Akutagawa: Feeling humiliated and resentful… I feared I would never be accepted. This motivated my heart. And I bet everything on the tiger's execution.
Akutagawa: And then.. then...
Akutagawa: Fool... go now
Dazai: We arrived.
Dazai: The true body of the god is beyond this door.
Atsushi: Where are we?
Atsushi: It's big. And it's completely sealed…
Atsushi: It doesn't work, it's too heavy. It doesn't even move.
Orphanage director: You stupid brat. No one will save you.
Orphanage director: You don't deserve to live.
Dazai: I can only get you this far.
Atsushi: Thank you. I couldn't have gotten this far alone.
Dazai: I was the one who called you to the agency. Who brought you into a dangerous world. It's the least I can do.
Atsushi: No. You are not Dazai-san.
Atsushi: Because of the nullification ability… he couldn't become an illusion and talk to me. And you sometimes… didn't behave like Dazai-san.
Atsushi: You thought I wouldn't listen to you… if it wasn't in this form, didn't you?
Atsushi: You're right…
Atsushi: Director. When your illusion disappeared… I started seeing Dazai-san. Then…
Director: It was… the only way.
Director: I don't have… the right to talk to you. That's why…
Atsushi: You are just a shadow… created as a consequence of Q's ability.
Director: Yes. The real me is already dead. But…
Atsushi: Enough. I don't want to talk to you.
Atsushi: It's no use. It's not moving at all. But… if I don't defeat the god behind this door, everyone will…
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