One Piece is often a stirring affair. Especially in the Egghead arc, where it feels like anything can happen and anyone could show up. In this arc alone, I’ve laughed, I’ve screamed, and I’ve cried. I’ve said, “Ooooooh shit!” in ascending tones. At the end of chapter 1117, I screamed, “OH COME ON.”
Eiichiro Oda pulled some shenanigans on us this week, friends. And I want to know if this is a matter where someone could bang the proverbial TV until the signal is fixed, or if the signal is truly gone out.
Goddammit
The Void Century has loomed large over One Piece recently, ever since Vegapunk started his broadcast. It’s become clear that Vegapunk doesn’t know enough about what happened to give us a full rundown of its secretive history. But we’ve learned some earth-shattering nuggets of info: The world of One Piece used to be comprised of large continents; the use of the ancient weapons during the Void Century caused the sea level to rise 200 meters; and the Lulusia incident heralds the beginning of another mass man-caused sinking.
But at the end of 1118, Vegapunk dangled yet another one of One Piece‘s greatest mysteries in front of us: the will of D. The will of D, as a quick refresher, is the mysterious fate that binds together all the characters in One Piece who have the letter “D” as their middle name. There are quite a few: Monkey D. Luffy, Portgas D. Ace, Marshall D. Teach, Trafalgar D. Water Law … just to name a handful.
We truly have no idea what the D means, only that it has something to do with waging war on the Celestial Dragons. And it seemed, for one hot second where it was unexpectedly brought up out of the blue, like we might learn something.
“I have one final message to impart,” Vegapunk says. “To those scattered throughout the world who bear the name of D … a—” Aaaand, the Five Elders all descend on the Iron Giant, inside which the video transponder is being held. They send it flying and seemingly kill the signal.
“What was he going to say?!” Vivi screams from her viewing spot upon Big News Morgans’ ship. I know how you feel, girl.
Is it truly over? Please say it’s not truly over.
There are a lot of parallels between what’s happened on Egghead now and the Ohara incident, where the government destroyed an entire island because a team of researchers was looking into the Void Century.
You might remember—or even be haunted by—a particular scene from the Ohara flashback. Professor Clover was defending the right of his research team to exist, all while directly challenging a voice—who we now know to have been Saint Saturn—on a government agent’s phone.
“The very existence and idea of this [ancient] kingdom is in fact what the world government finds so threatening, isn’t that so?!” Clover defied. “This ancient kingdom once thrived, and its name was … ” Aaaaand, the government agents shot and killed him.
Incredibly similar vibes to this chapter. Albeit nearly 700 chapters earlier.
However, there’s some major difference between how Oda presents Clover’s silencing and Vegapunk’s silencing. Clover’s silencing happens in the middle of a chapter, so it’s presented as a finished action. Clover also dies from the gunshot wound, adding to that definitiveness.
Vegapunk’s happens at the end of a chapter, turning it into a cliffhanger, despite York’s sigh that “it’s finally stopped.” Also, this pre-recorded broadcast is happening because Vegapunk died. The real questions are whether the Iron Giant is destroyed (unlikely, there are too many unanswered questions and he looks tough as shit) and whether the transponder snail inside is dead (I sure hope not). If the answer to both is no, the broadcast could theoretically resume.
Theoretically, at least. Do I think it actually will? … Eh.
Fortunately, we won’t have to wait long to find out. The next chapter of One Piece will drop next Sunday, June 23, on the Shonen Jump app. New chapters drop at around 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. Please note that any earlier releases are unofficial leaks!
At least the Five Elders getting distracted by the Iron Giant means the Straw Hats and their giant pals can hopefully get away. Which actually means that Egghead might be almost over! Maybe? We could be on to Elbaf sooner than we thought.
