Thee Kiddos

Chapter 1118 spoilers

Y'all. Y'ALL, this chapter was so good! And what stands out to me the most about it is how perfectly in fits with the overarching themes of the series.

Bonney unlocking a Nika-like form is SO GOOD, even just on the surface level. The design is wonderful, and I just know that her and Luffy's team-up fight is going to have absolutely wacky cartoon shenanigans, and I personally can't wait. But the themes behind the unlocking of this form make it even better.

Bonney's devil fruit works off of imagination and belief, if she can picture it and then believe it is something she can achieve in the future, she can do it. But, if she looses faith, that power no longer works as well. We saw that earlier in this arc before she saw Luffy (as Nika) and her faith was (in part) restored.

And so her only now being able to unlock a Nika-like form means that she did not truly believe that she could (or would) ever be free until this moment

and as heart wrenchingly sad as that is, for a child to no longer believe in their own future of freedom, it makes sense. Bonney grew up under the oppressive thumb of the world government. She witnessed at such a young age, her father - her incredibly kind, incredibly strong father - have his autonomy, his FREEDOM stripped away by being turned into a living weapon for said oppressive government. Of course she is going to struggle to picture herself as being totally free.

But then she meets back up Luffy, and he asks her to fight with him. And when she says that there is no way that she could keep up with him when he's Nika, he says "Of course you can!" And we see Bonney regain her hope in that moment. We see her regain her belief in that she can be free, that she WILL be free one day, thanks to Luffy believing in her. We see a man that she believes is god look at her and validate her strength, validate her power, and most importantly validate her freedom. Who tells her that freedom isn't something just for him, but rather that it's for everyone. That it is for HER.

And while this is shown literally thanks to Bonney's devil fruit, it also works in the metaphorical sense as well. Luffy is not the only person who can be totally free. That level of freedom is achievable by everyone, whether or not they literally become a version of Nika or not. And Bonney's Nika-like form is confirmation of that. It is the physical manifestation of the idea, and I think it's an incredible way of showcasing it.

I teared up when I got to the Nika Bonney part of this chapter. It is a culmination of everything One Piece stands for as a series, and I'm so happy that it's not shying away from it.

They look so funnysilly in this particular official art it makes me giggle like a little girl

bon apetit atsushi

Something quite curious that I noticed in this chapter is that every time Gunko appears, her only visible eye is the lightest one. In every panel that she appears, either only half of her face is visible, or her right eye cannot be seen, covered either by her bangs or her hat. There's also a moment where she moves her hat only to lower it further over her eyes, and this is the same moment where she sees Brook for the first time, who seems quite confused by her action. Of course, this may not mean anything, but it is a very interesting detail, because it is obviously intentional. I don't remember her darker eye being so hidden in the other chapters she appears in, and this detail caught my attention because in the first chapters where Gunko was introduced, a lot of people connected her to Imu, because of her arrow powers and Imu's arrow-shaped attack, and I saw some people saying that maybe Gunko's eyes were different colors to symbolize some kind of connection with Imu, I'm not really sure what that connection could be, but it could be something related to her powers (or maybe with that regeneration ability she showed in this chapter, since that ability of the Gorosei seems to have been given to them by Imu), or she could share her vision and senses with Imu as a way for them to gain access to information about the world outside of Pangea Castle, or even some kind of brainwashing/mind control if we're being extreme. Like I said, I'm not sure where Oda is going with, or if he's even going anywhere with this, but I'm really excited to find out either way.

i feel like some people are missing the point of these "deaths" a little. like i know the previous arc's death baits don't help my point but i really don't think anyone is suppose to read the ADA deaths as permanent .. especially since fyodor and atsushi don't even do that. they both acknowledge the page and how to can undo everything. the point isn't for this to be the end of these characters stories but to use them show how 1) atsushi handles the intense trauma and stress of watching his family die in front of him and the pressure on him to get the page and undo it and 2) see how atsushi handles this situation since this is one of the few times he is completely on his own with no assistance, no plans and no fall back options.

now obviously i know akutagawa will likely get back into the fight too because of the s5 ending but id still say a lot of this is very reliant on atsushi since this isn't the same akutagawa he knows.

i mean, fukuzawa literally says this

i know many people aren't enjoying this arc, they want skk back, they want back smaller scale conflicts, they want the ADA dynamics back, but people have also wanted atsushi to take back his place as the MC and this is setting up such a perfect opportunity to show atsushi's strength.

Rockstar Nami for @namiartcollab

In the catzai au, is Fyodor an actual rat and Nikolai a dove?

perhaps

Just because I've seen a few people complaining about Dazai "knowing exactly what was gonna happen from the start" I just want to point something out

Dazai didn't know what was going to happen, he had 0 control over the situation, all he did was trust in Ranpo and the ADA.

The point of it all, or at least how I've interpreted it, is portraying just how much he's grown to admire and love the agency. His faith in his "allies" gave him enough confidence to let them handle it, funnily enough Dazai had barely any hand in the planning of it at all!

He put together what each person was scheming by watching the events play out, and don't forget he had Ango communicating with him all the while.

I have no issue with anybody upset over this, I just thought I'd put my take out there. I think the subtlety of Dazai's growth sometimes causes it to go unnoticed, his redemption plays out in small moments like this, hidden beneath much bigger actions.