Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3yZ4vsJDHc

Cover Page and Alabasta

On the cover, we see Yamato receiving medicine as well as dango dumplings from O-Tsuru, Kin’emon’s wife. If you remember, Tsuru offered Tama some medicine for when she was sick at the start of the arc, and also offered Luffy some dango. On her eye you may notice a large scar, caused by when Holedem tried burning Okobore Town. This was not visible in the original manga publication at the end of Wano, but was fixed in the volume release to show her scar.

Beyond O-Tsuru, you may also notice Urashima Taro in the background, who was the wrestler that Luffy had a sumo match against, but he’s actually far from the only easter egg here. Right below him is what looks like Tokijiro, the man who had attained the blueprints of Kaidou’s castle before passing them off, while on the other side among the women smitten with Yamato is O-Some, the girl that Sanji rescued from Queen alongside, of course, her pet rat Chuuji on her palm.

The next reaction shot takes place in Alabasta, or particularly in the town of Yuba. This is evident by the writing “Yuba” on the den den mushi, but you can actually recognize Koza and his father Toto on the left, as well as Erik, Koza’s close friend from the revolution, on the right. Matsuge, or the camel “Eyelashes”, can also be spotted next to the den den mushi. The town certainly looks a lot better than it did during the events of the Alabasta Arc, but as we saw during a cover story, it has recovered and improved a lot during the timeskip.

Igaram has returned to Alubarna after failing to locate Vivi at the Reverie, and is lamenting her disappearance alongside Karoo. Meanwhile at the Tomb of Kings, the mausoleum where Luffy and Crocodile fought, Chaka and Pell are overseeing Cobra’s funeral. Now if you recall, this entire tomb should have collapsed entirely, but I suppose they simply rebuilt it after the end of the arc. On top of it are the symbols that were originally seen at the tomb, which includes the two guardian deities of Alabasta, the jackal and the falcon. Chaka and Pell are seated respectively on both sides of these deities symbolizing them continuing to guard over the country.

Imu and Lily

Meanwhile at Pangea Castle, Imu walks up to a massive portrait of what is almost certainly meant to be Nefertari Lily. Her resemblance to her descendant is no doubt uncanny, which further explains Imu’s interest in locating Vivi. In this case, Imu is likely reflecting on Lily once more as like he said before, it’s her fault that the poneglyphs have been scattered across the world, and thus she’s partially responsible for what is happening right now with Vegapunk.

While it’s true that Imu has had an interest in Lily’s involvement during the Void Century, with some fans even going as far as to speculate that Imu may have had feelings for Lily or something, he also didn’t seem to view her in the best light either. Imu already hated Lily for having helped scatter the poneglyphs even before being sure of her betrayal, so the question begs why would Imu have a giant portrait of her in the chamber of flowers? Was Imu really smitten or fascinated with her? Or what if, potentially, we could see this the other way: we’ve talked about the possibility that when using the Ope Ope no Mi to attain perennial youth, Nerona Imu may have also used its other ultimate ability with the personality switching operation to switch bodies with Lily, inhabiting her body, and killing the original Lily after the swap. So perhaps this portrait could be a portrait of Imu directly, rather than Lily, though still making Imu reflect on Lily’s actions from back then? Particularly as if you zoom into Lily’s eyes, even in the highest of resolution of pictures, they are purposefully darkened by Oda, as he may not want us to see if they match with Imu’s current eyes. It would be a very Oda move to show us Imu’s design without us even realizing, but at the same time, we are veering off into speculation here.

As Vegapunk talks about infinite renewable energy, we get a brief look at some unnamed country. However, given their tattered clothes and poor conditions, this appears to be a rather poor country, which would explain their elation at hearing these news.

Stussy

Moving on to Stussy, we follow from her struggle last week, where she mentions not knowing anymore who to live for. This is because, having been born as a clone of another person, she always felt as if she had no real meaning in life, but Stella was the only person that saw her as her own individual human being. But in this case Edison, who is also one of the Vegapunks, praises her for her inner conflict of wanting to spare Kaku as proof of her humanity. This even reflects a bit on Kaku, who is someone who originally wanted to live a more normal life as a shipwright in Water 7, but ultimately had to follow his orders, making him empathize with Stussy here. It’s just really nice that, even among all the chaos of Vegapunk’s message, we can still see such an interesting character arc taking place.

More Cameos

As we move once again to Kamabakka among the revolutionaries we can spot not just Ahiru, Jiron, and Ushiano, but also Usakkov, who broke out of Impel Down with Ivankov. But of course there is also Moda, the girl from Lulusia that followed Sabo and joined the Revolutionaries. There was some debate on if this girl was the same Moda as the one from Ace’s cover story, mostly due to the fact that canonically they have different hair colors, but according to recent Vivre Cards, she seemingly is the same Moda, and Vice-Admiral Comil’s appearance in this chapter would also suggest that since he too was connected to Moda.

If you don’t remember from that cover story, Ace helped deliver Moda’s milk to Vice-Admiral Comil, the commander of Marine Base G-2, which thanks to it helped the Marines of that base drink far more digestible coffee rather than the horrid bitter coffee they had before. Even in this chapter you can spot Comil drinking a cup of coffee, and looking panicked that he may not be able to get that good sweet milk coffee form Lulusia anymore now that it’s gone, though it seems he may already be aware of the kingdom’s disappearance given his dialogue, which makes sense as it would’ve been in his vicinity to take care of. Moda herself is also heartbroken to hear that the country was wiped out by the work of someone.

In the Prodence Kingdom, we can see King Elizabello II being startled by the disappearance of Lulusia, asking Dagama, his assistant tactician, to investigate this disappearance. His throne features a crown somewhat similar to his, and we also get a small glimpse at the particular outfits of his royal guards.

Once again at what appears to be Karakuri Island, the citizens who once knew Vegapunk tell him he doesn’t need to apologize for what isn’t his fault. Then again at Wano, Momonosuke mentions Pluton, but Kin’emon tells him to stay silent as no one else is supposed to know about the weapon. This is important given both Pluton’s presence under Wano and Momonosuke’s innate connection to Pluton due to being the only one who can unleash it through Zunesha. Fittingly, a reaction by Shirahoshi follows, the final of this set of three ancient weapons alongside Imu.

Crocodile also fittingly reacts, as seizing Pluton had been his objective all along for the entirety of the Alabasta Saga, and is likely irritated that someone else seemingly got their hands on this power he wanted for himself.

On Tsuru’s own ship, as indicated by the kanji for “tsuru” on the sail, Sengoku is stress stuffing himself full of okaki due to the fact he is likely aware about many of these things due to his tenure as a Fleet Admiral, and is panicking a lot. Sakazuki similarly seems to know a lot about this as well, and is similarly frustrated that Vegapunk is tattling, burning the very cigars he is smoking.

Beyond Crocus and Laboon, once again at the Thena Ghena Kingdom, home of the Longarms, we can spot Sancrin and the other Longarms who acted as Brook’s managers as Soul King during the timeskip.

Putting up the timeline together, York comes to the conclusion of where the transmission den den mushi must be hidden and it appears to be exactly where a lot of fans speculated it would be, which is inside the iron giant. This would actually line up quite well, as when we first saw Vegaunk at the start of this arc, he was stuck teleporting inside the ancient giant. So he may have teleported himself into the ancient giant to place the den den mushi inside of it, and teleported out but got stuck, needing Luffy to help him out, explaining what he was doing there to begin with. This is actually quite devious, as without that technology no one else should be able to access inside of the giant. It’s been mentioned how cannonballs are quite impenetrable, so I wonder if it can sustain even the damage of the Gorosei or if they will find a way to cut the transmission before we get to the really juicy bits.

Finally the chapter concludes with Rayleigh and Shakky at the Sabaody Archipelago, with the former getting drunk as he exclaims that Vegapunk shouldn’t be stealing the fun away from the younger generation. Though in this case, the word “fun”, or “tanoshimi”, could even be interpreted as joy, happiness, enjoyment, which ties into the larger themes of joy and laughing. Particularly as the editor’s message also mentions “Those who know the truth can only laugh!!”.

Vegapunk’s Message

Now, returning onto Vegapunk’s message proper:

I… wish to apologize for my actions.
However before that, I would still like you to know…!! I wanted to create a power source that could become the foundation to develop the world’s industries.
It’s still not finished, however…
The culmination of my research, the Undying Flame “Mother Flame” has finally reached the stage of practical implementation!!
I am certain that someday, this power source will become an energy that will enrich the lives of countries all across the world!!!

In this case, when referring to the Mother Flame, Vegapunk uses a specific kanji reading for it which reads as “Undying Flame”. This proves without a doubt what we already assumed that the “undying flame” that Lilith spoke of at the start of the arc was indeed referring to the Mother Flame itself. As Vegapunk explains it is still unfinished, which is the reason why both Lilith and Stella spoke of the global application of the Mother Flame as a still hypothetical future, even if he has advanced it enough to this point in the present.

However, on a certain day… even if it was a single piece of it, part of that “flame” was stolen!!
I must take responsibility for all of this…!!!
Around two weeks after the “flame” was stolen, the skies in the direction of the Lulusia Kingdom shined with a bright light. I had received information that the kingdom vanished without a trace. And following that, I detected the signs of the upcoming earthquake that will hit on a global scale…!!
Though I may take pride in saying this as a scientist, that immense energy could have only been none other but the Mother Flame!!!
The “flame” that I had created has been used to activate an ancient weapon!!
I do not know who or how they stole it, but…!! That does not change the outcome!!! …I am complicit in an act that took so many human lives!!!
I cannot express the guilt I feel!! I am truly sorry!!!

Once again this further clarifies what we had already assumed as fact but Oda is spelling it directly for us. The Mother Flame is the power source, whereas the ancient weapon that destroyed Lulusia is a separate thing, but that was still powered and fueled by the Mother Flame. Two weeks prior to the destruction of Lulusia, which took place when the Straw Hats left Wano, somewhere around March 19th of the current year as the Raid of Onigashima just ended, York gave the Gorosei a piece of the Mother Flame, which Imu wanted to test by powering up the ancient weapon he had in his possession. And as we’ve established, since Pluton is in Wano with Momonosuke and Poseidon is in Fishman Island within Shirahoshi, then this can only mean that Imu has the final ancient weapon: Uranus.

But this proves that what once sank the world long ago was in fact a man-made disaster!!!
Three ancient weapons existed in the past…!!
Joyboy wanted these weapons to be inherited by future generations!!
But why would he want to pass such things?! Has the world not sunk enough?!
What is evil and what is just here?!!
…The day will come when all the truth will become known!!
But heed my warning: when that time comes, someone will attempt to sink the world in turn!!!
The Void Century is still filled with mysteries!! However, There are those who have come to know everything about this world!!! The crew of the “Pirate King”!!!
Those men who came to know about everything in history, why did they vanish without telling anyone?
Why did they not take action…?!

As Vegapunk explains, three ancient weapons were passed onto the future, and Joyboy had a desire that these weapons would be used for greater good. This is however a tidbit of information that Vegapunk himself is lacking while we, the audience know. We know that Joyboy intended the ancient weapons to be used for good and we know that Roger wished to respect Joyboy’s objective and aided him in that. Vegapunk here even uses some of the same words that Oden did, that they came to know “everything about this world”, which are in turn a parallel to the start of the series when it was mentioned that Roger attained “everything in this world”. However, with that knowledge he simply passed the torch to a future generation and did nothing else.

From the perspective of Vegapunk it may seem that Joyboy is a morally ambiguous figure, and that Roger seemingly gave up on the world, but before you start the slander just as some once did for Oden, let’s keep in mind what we already know about Roger that Vegapunk doesn’t.

Why was Roger too early?

Roger himself said it: he was too early. But why was he too early? A lot of fans act like this is an unresolved mystery but while we don’t know the specifics, the moment when Roger posed that question he literally answered it in the next panels. As he mentioned in Chapter 968, he reflected on the fact that the Mermaid Princess, the future Poseidon that would become Shirahoshi, had not been born yet and Shyarly predicted that she would still take another ten years to be born, and at least 15 until she was mature enough. Meaning that Roger was too early because Poseidon, one of the three ancient weapons wasn’t born. That’s pretty much a fact that he himself has stated alongside posing the conundrum of being too early.

Similarly, Momonosuke, who is an instrumental key to unleashing one of the weapons, being the only one who can command Zunesha and open the borders of Wano, was also still too young to take action in any way, who at the time of this moment was still only 2 years old. We also saw later that Oden made it his objective to open the borders of the Wano Country, which as Sukiyaki explained when telling Robin, that literally meant destroying the physical borders thanks to Zunesha and thus unleashing the ancient weapon Pluton upon the world. So even Oden was in accordance with Roger trying to bring out the weapons in the future, which is why Roger couldn’t take action as he was simply going to die too early. This is a fact that we need to keep in mind Vegapunk did not know, and so from his perspective Roger simply gave up, not knowing he was destined to die unable to do a single thing. This is why he passed the torch to a newer generation.

But this is all because Roger knew, or at least hoped, alongside the people of the past, that a new Joyboy would one day come to help free the world and inherit the will of the original. Even someone like Toki claimed to have escaped from the past and jumped to the present specifically so that she could see a new Joyboy appear who could turn the world upside down, something that we now may realize might literally mean undraining the world, and bringing what they called the “Dawn of the World”.

And as we’ve talked about many times, there’s this wide belief in the fandom that the Dawn of the World involves the destruction of the Red Line and the undoing of the currents of the Grand Line, in a way that the whole world would be unified in one sea, the All Blue and all that stuff you’ve probably heard a thousand times by now, something that at this point we’re also assuming could potentially help lower the sea levels if the Red Line is completely evaporated and leaves a hole in its wake to be filled in by the surplus water.

But the thing is, when Roger found the One Piece he exclaimed “Oh Joyboy, I wish I was born in your era”. And we largely assumed that was referring to the original Joyboy, with Roger wishing he could’ve met him, and that’s still possible, but what if at the same time he could also be referring to the new Joyboy? That he wishes that he could’ve seen Luffy in the present making this dream come to reality and maybe even getting the chance to see Luffy transforming into the Sun God Nika and laughing at how ridiculous the transformations of Nika are? Maybe that could also be why he was born too early.