Rockstar Nami For @namiartcollab

BUNGOU STRAY DOGS CHAPTER 121.5 WILL BE WRITTEN ON MY GRAVESTONE

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.

The Holy Knights have the same regeneration ability as the Gorosei, so if we don't find a way to deal with it in this arc, we're screwed

*me looking at Rouge* “you will be so girlboss”

I did quickly go through the manga, with the help of the fanwiki, to see how much that "Atsushi's orphanage headmaster visions have been caused by Q" twist holds up (as sometimes, new plans come up as you write, especially if your series is over 10 years old)

In the first chapter, Atsushi has a flashback of the orphanage staff kicking him out, but they do not have individual identities. The first apparition of the headmaster as himself is when Atsushi is under the influence of Dogra Magra, in chapter 25, "Q":

His next apparition is in chapter 28, when Atsushi is being held in the Moby Dick, right before Lucy comes in and chooses to help him (note: that scene also compares Atsushi's abuse is to another person's, Lucy's.)

After that, there's chapter 39, "Portrait of a Father", where Atsushi doesn't hallucinate him, but we learn about who the man was to Atsushi, and witness his funeral.

His next hallucination is in chapter 52, at the very end of the Cannibalism arc. He explains to Akutagawa that the headmaster has been been haunting him less since (the final fight on) the Moby Dick, but has been silent since the funeral.

There are a few more mentions of the headmaster that I haven't mentioned, but a very notable one is that Atsushi saw becoming stronger and his upcoming fight against Akutagawa as a way to free himself from the headmaster's influence, much like Akutagawa saw it as a way to gain Dazai's approval.

I don't think we see Atsushi hallucinating the headmaster after this until chapter 122, but the Dazai hallucinations start showing up in chapter 63, so really not that long after the previous one. The next Dazai ones I could find were in chapters 78, 105 and 121.

The conclusion is therefore that Atsushi hallucinating the headmaster has been a very active and purposeful part of his journey as a character since very early on. It started manifesting after Atsushi's breakdown while under the influence of Q's ability, and it's taken various approaches as Atsushi faced different struggles, but it's always been there.

While wearing Dazai's face, the hallucination was given more credit in Atsushi's eyes, but its words were barely less sharp and hurtful. However, they did tend to push Atsushi into acting, rather than cowering and giving up.

We're seeing Atsushi heal in real time, no matter how messy it is, and I'm so proud of him.

toodaloo

I just know they will have even more chemistry than in the anime

Namivivi is going to be so good... Everyone say thank you Emily 🫶🏻💖

The implication of Vegapunk's mentioning of history getting rid of the rare races

within the larger context of both the rest of his speech as well as what we've seen of these rare races seems to be that they are being hunted down not because of any perceived strength but because of connections to the void century.

I think it's more obvious with Pudding, as the three-eyed race are capable of reading poneglyphs. There is a clear through line present as to why the World Government would view it as necessary to kill off the three-eyed tribe. They could easily uncover and spread the history that the government is trying so desperately to keep in the past.

With King, I'm not sure what connection the Lunarians could have to the void century, but I am fairly certain that they have to have one. If the World Government only wanted them for their strength, they would not be trying to eradicate them, and instead be trying to either enslave them or otherwise use them. But thinking back to Wano, and Kaido and Kings Backstory, it is fairly clear that the government had every intention of killing King after they finished experimenting on him, making his strength a secondary and a convenient thing that could be toyed with before killing him (experiments that are most likely linked to the creation of the Seraphim). Why not just recruit Lunarians to the Marines like they did with the giants, another race known for their strength? Unless they also have a connection to the void century that would make their existence far more problematic for the World Government. Perhaps the Lunarians were large players in the 100 year war, much like how those with the will of D were implied to be. Or maybe it's because they were said to once be the residence on top of the Red Line before it was overtaken by the Celestial Dragons.

I honestly don't think we have enough info to go off of yet to properly make predictions, but I do believe that King, Pudding and the like are going to become very important moving forward.

I miss her dearly