Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0q2jNxQpjs

Cover

On the cover, Yamato and Tama infiltrate inside the hideout they found in Udon, seeing what seem to be several of Orochi’s men all gathered around something or someone. The weird detail about them is that they all appear to have cat ears, which as you might remember, are the distinguishing symbol of the Who’s-Who Pirates, Who’s-Who’s crew which later got integrated into the Beasts Pirates. The thing is, they seem to be interacting with someone, so is that Who’s-Who? Or did somehow more of the Tobi Roppo survive and this is where they’re all gathered, preparing for some other kind of coup?

Aurust Castle

Going back to Aurust Castle, we finally get to see the insides of the fortress. By the gate, the straw hats realize the gate has been destroyed from the inside, what we pointed out last chapter could be seen from afar since this damage was not there previously in older shots.

On the inside, we get to see how truly colossal this castle is. While it may not seem as imposing on the outside, inside it is composed by several levels and large halls, to the point Zoro even mentions it’s hard to see the roof. And yet the castle has fallen into disrepair, ravaged by the fight between Loki and Harald, its ruins now being taken over by the vines of the Adam Tree. On one of the columns we can also see the inscription of what appears to be a skull.

The Elbaph Incident

We get a lot more details about this conflict, so let’s break them down piece by piece. First and foremost, the timeline of the event we are told dates back to 14 years ago, in the year 1510, around the same time as the completion of the Sea Train or Ginny’s kidnapping for some reference. This differs with Loki’s capture 6 years ago, showing that 8 whole years passed between Harald’s death and Loki’s capture. But we know his capture was after he set out to sea and was defeated by Shanks, being taken back to Elbaph as a prisoner, for which the people of Elbaph seemingly became fond of the Emperor.

Going back to the event though, Road describes King Harald as an incredibly powerful warrior, in fact bearing a rare title of “Great Warrior”, (大戦士, “dai senshi”). This is similar to the title of Great Pirate that has been given to legendary pirates such as Whitebeard, Roger, or Shanks, as well as Luffy by the giants just a couple chapters ago.

Half-Ancient Giants

Getting too tired to walk, Nami relies on Road to take her, while Zoro also takes the opportunity. Luffy instead rushes ahead himself, seeing him hop on one of the swords from the fallen giants. They walk into a hall covered in skulls, and among them Luffy notices some that have horns on them. This makes them similar to ancient giants, the special race that Oars pertained to. However, the difference is that ancient giants have different traits, such as colored skin, sharp teeth, and especially being triple the size of normal giants. While the average giant is around 20 meters, Oars and Little Oars Jr. were over 60 meters tall. These skulls however don’t look anywhere near as big as that, instead being closer to the size of a normal giant.

Road however clarifies why this is the case, as these aren’t actual ancient giants, but rather half-giant half-ancient giant hybrids. As we know, in the world of One Piece all hominid races can seemingly mate together, allowing for mixed races. We know of the half-human half-fish-men, such as Dellinger of the Donquixote Family, or half-mermen with Chimney from Water 7 being a fourth mermaid. Similarly we know of the watans, being the water titans, or half-giant half-fish-men, which included Big Pan of the Foxy Pirates. We’ve also seen other half-breed races, such as the Seraphim being half-lunaria, or Big Mom having several half-children, including half-longarms, half-longlegs, half-snakenecks, and half-three-eyes. Of course, this arc we also have the half-human half-giant Collon as well. In the case of these more human-like races there’s less details lost in a hybrid due to their similarity, but in the case of more different species, like fish-men, those traits generally vanish a lot more easily. This likely has to do with how genetics work, where more dominant trains remain, while recessive traits end to get lost over time.

This is the same for giant hybrids, such as watans being far smaller than normal giants, with Big Pan being about half as big as an average giant. As such, it makes sense that hybrids of giants and ancient giants would be taller than the average giant, but also not as tall as pure-blooded ancient giants. Road mentioned particularly that Harald himself had ancient giant blood in him, making him taller than other giants and possessing horns on his head. He also claims that pure-blooded ancient giants are believed to have gone extinct, which we know to not be fully true since Little Oars Jr. was around just recently, but perhaps he was one of the last members of his race.

Obviously, we should all be familiar with the tale of Oars, a legendary warrior born to ancient giants in the North Blue, who 500 years ago terrorized the world by becoming known as the “country puller”. This title is often mistranslated as “continent puller”, even though that was never said in the Japanese version, but regardless he was known as the country puller because he literally pulled several islands to form a country almost like a jigsaw. Something that sounds exactly like the modern Wano Country, but again that hasn’t been fully confirmed.

Road seemingly refers to this period of time as the “Era of War” (戦争の時代), introducing us to a new era in the world of One Piece. We can assume this is likely the period in which Oars was active, which was around 500 years ago, somewhere around the year 1000, but we can’t say completely for sure. However, this would make a lot of sense, giving us more insight in the time between the Void Century and the present. The oldest Era in the One Piece World is the Era of Dinosaurs, though that’s basically the equivalent to our Jurassic, Triassic and other Eras, but in terms of those closer to human civilization, they go like this: the Era prior to the Void Century was known as the “Era of Slaves”, spanning all the way until the year 600, 900 years ago. Then there is of course the Void Century, from the year 600 to the year 700, ending 824 years ago.

After that the Government was founded, but we don’t have a specific name, but then we’d go to the Era of War around the year 1000, and finally to the eras of the present. Up until 38 years ago we had the Era of Rocks, which ended in the God Valley Incident. From the year 1486 to the year 1500, or 38 to 24 years ago, we had the Era of Roger, and following his execution in 1500, we had the Great Pirate Era, which lasted all the way to the Summit War two years ago in 1522, where Whitebeard’s death closed that era as well. And so, since 1522 all the way to the present 1524 the world has been in what has been called the “Era of the Worst”, named after the Worst Generation.

Going back to the Era of War however, Oars clearly left a horrible mark of evil and violence in the world, as people even began to call Oars “the Devil himself”, mistaking him for the entity of the Sea Devil that existed in the Void Century and created the devil fruits, so terrorizing was Oars’s presence. However, King Harald, bearing ancient giant blood himself, wanted to detach himself from this ancient image of violence, and so as to erase the legacy of Oars and his terrors, he removed the very horns from his head.

Harald and Kaidou

With this we get an unshadowed look at Harald’s portrait in the last chapter, sitting upon the throne we saw ruined by the room where Shonks and Gunko teleported in. We see, as we noticed last time, that he has a majestic mustache, as well as a tattoo similar to Ripley’s. However, most noticeable is the lack of horns on the head, leaving two large scars, just as Road explained to us. And yet… there is something odd about this portrait… doesn’t it look familiar? Because it looks an awful lot… like Kaidou.

Now this could maybe be a coincidence, but maybe… also not. Kaidou’s race has always been a point of contention among fans and scholars, because it’s never been fully clear. There was a scene where Kaidou told Yamato that “You are the child of oni!!! You are not meant to be friends with humans!!!”, which would suggest that the race Yamato and Kaidou pertain to are called “oni”. Oni of course refers to the ogre-like creatures from Japanese culture with big horns and of large stature. However, it’s never been fully clear if this was meant literally, that oni are an actual race, or if it was a metaphorical comment. After all, being called the “child of oni” could be just a metaphorical comment about them being different, so fans have often debated whether “oni” is an actual race or if they’re just humans who happen to have horns.

Further confusion came from their vivre cards which didn’t list any race, suggesting that they are humans who don’t have a race listed, but the vivre cards have also omitted info that hasn’t been revealed yet, so who knows really. It is also however worth noting that originally Yamato was known as a kid as the “oni princess” or “oni hime”, a term that the subordinates used during Yamato’s flashback before Yamato decided to become Oden. However, after Yamato decided to, and I’m just gonna quote Yamato’s very words here, “become a man” to be more like Kouzuki Oden, this title of “oni princess” was instead changed to that of “young master”, or “bocchan” in Japanese, and Yamato instead became referred to as Kaidou’s son and the young master rather than Kaidou’s daughter and oni princess.

Regardless, that term of oni was always there, and even in the current cover story we have right now, Yamato is referred to as “Oni Child” (with a gender neutral term in this case just as Kaido used it). And fundamentally, what I’m getting at, is that now we have more evidence than ever that these horns are in fact a trait of a half-hybrid race. So the reality is that oni like Kaidou may actually be a half-human half-ancient giant hybrid. This would explain why Kaidou, and even later Yamato, are both really tall, but also have these natural horns. Oda did once explain that the Gifters of Kaidou’s crew wear fake decorative horns, but we’ve seen the likes of not just Kaidou and Yamato, but also Blackmaria, Ulti, Page One, and potentially Who’s-Who seem to have actual real horns. So does Sasaki, but that’s just due to him being a bluespine unicorn fish-man, so he’s a separate case.

So could all of them one way or another be half-ancient giant hybrids, or perhaps from other hybrid groups, like Dellinger of the Donquixote Pirates being a half-fighting fish and thus having horns that way? After all, if Wano was the country that Oars created, it gives an even deeper connection to this whole thing, especially with how Onigashima looks just like an ancient giant, though we don’t know if it’s a rock building in their image or an actual skull, as it’s way bigger than any ancient giant we know of. But hey, it’s also possible that maybe Harald and Kaidou were related, even if only as distant cousins or something like that. But perhaps one of Harald’s brothers or cousins went on to be the father of Kaidou in the Vodka Kingdom, who knows. It’s also worth questioning at this point if Loki has horns as well, or if those are just part of his helmet.

Loki and Hajrudin

Eitherway, back to our incident, as we were told a great conflict occurred when Loki tried to kill his father. On that day, over a hundred giants tried to stop Loki, and despite being mighty warriors of Elbaph, Loki killed every last one of them, as well as his father, eventually eating his legendary fruit. The only survivor was Jarul, who was stabbed through the head by Loki but miraculously survived. Interestingly, the sword Jarul was stabbed with appears to be identical to Harald’s own sword, meaning that Loki may have taken his dead father’s sword and stabbed Jarul with it… unless you somehow want to believe in some bigger conspiracy.

Still, as insane of a feat as this sounds for Loki, is crazy to think that Jarul survived the encounter. Because his partner, Jorul, was veritably one-shotted by a 5 year old Linlin, showing just how powerful an Emperor like Big Mom was.

Loki was resented for the murder of his father, and the people refused to accept him as king. However, at the same time, people didn’t want to accept Hajrudin as king, because he was only Loki’s half-brother. Harald had a lover prior to the queen, the same queen who died shortly after giving birth to Loki if you remember, but his lover could not become queen of Elbaph because she was from another country of giants. As you might remember, it’s been mentioned before that different giant countries exist, with Saul claiming in Robin’s flashback that he didn’t want to be mistaken with the “barbarian” people of Elbaph as other more tranquil giant communities exist in the world.

However, it seems the royalty of Elbaph were quite prideful about their pure bloodline, and so Hajrudin couldn’t become king, leaving Elbaph in this awkward frozen state without king. However, Hajrudin has wanted to prove himself, and not just become king of Elbaph, but take advantage of his mixed blood to become the king of all giants. This isn’t a new thing in fact, this is something we’ve known for over a decade, because if you go back to Dress Rosa, this is literally what Hajrudin says. He claimed that if he could get his hands on the Mera Mera no Mi, Ace’s Flame-Flame Fruit, then he could be powerful enough to become the king of all giants.

We even saw him standing up for people like Road, who was being discriminated against and called as an “otaku” for playing with toys (something also reflected in his weeb speech pattern as we’ve mentioned). Interestingly, one of those bullying him looks incredibly similar to one of the kids we’ve seen at the Walrus School, though given the age different this was likely his dad. Interestingly enough, thanks to Harald’s reforms, that kid turned out more respectful and kinder than his dad who was instead bullying fellow giants.

However, as they arrive on the higher second floor through a set of stairs, the group runs into a bunch of fainted guards, those assaulted by the God Knights. It’ll be interesting if one of them mentions to Luffy having seen the man with the red hair…

Gunko

Speaking of the God Knights, we switch back to them in the Underworld, who have been torturing Loki. It seems they are legitimately intending to ask Loki to enlist in the God Knights, which would supposedly make him a Celestial Dragon, as Gunko mentions him having the opportunity to become a God. This brings into question the possibility of becoming nobility; we know York was able to become a Celestial Dragon, but that sounded more like a very unique case done in exchange for something of immense value, her technical knowledge.

Though I suppose in a case like this it would be a similar trade: the Government is likely interested not just in Loki’s immense strength, but also in subjugating Elbaph under their command. If Loki became a God Knight, they could forcibly enthrone him as the new King and thus take control of Elbaph, one of the strongest military powers in the world, which is likely their real plan. We’ve been told for years that the Government seems like it’s preparing for a massive war to come, with CP0 coming to Orochi during Wano to request even more weapons to arm themselves in preparations for what Orochi’s men believed to be an actual war. So in this case, they might be trying to get Elbaph on their side in the hopes of gaining more military power ahead of this conflict.

Gunko continues to attack Loki, using what is revealed to be called the “Aro Aro no Mi”, or “Arrow Arrow Fruit”, making her a “Yajirushi Ningen”, or “Arrow Human/Arrowwoman”. This deconfirms our idea that this was some sort of mythical Zoan or mythical devil relating to a creature like the ittanmomen, showing that it’s just a normal fruit with no connection to Imu… or is it? Because while it seems to be just a Paramecia, it does still seem to have a connection to Imu. After all, we see that where Gunko steps, black flames appear, which are identical to the black flames generated when the Gorosei appear through the summoning circles, something that connects them to Imu. And from among the black flames, the arrows come out, which suggests some direct connection to Imu, especially since we’ve seen Imu using these very powers. So while this could be a Paramecia, it does still seem to have some link to Imu.

Gunko particularly is able to use these arrows in advantageous ways, such as creating giant boots or giant gauntlets, which if you look closely are just formed by several arrows all tied together to form a solid shape. Loki mocks them time and time again, calling Gunko “dumbass” and then showing his tongue to her, but she ends up beating him so much he seems to have been knocked out, though they decide to not finish him off. And it shows how strong she is that she can even injure someone like Loki. While he is chained up, Shonks believes that even unchained they could defeat him, though whether that’s hubris or reality is hard to say. While we know of Gunko’s powers more clearly now, Shonks’s powers, if he has any, are still a mystery.

Shamrock

However, it turns out that this isn’t Shonks, but rather Figarland Shamrock!! Finally, the big theory of Shanks’s twin has been confirmed, as Shamrock is confirmed to be the son of the Gorosei Figarland Garling, and thus meaning that Shanks has to be his brother as well as Garling’s son. We were already told during Film RED Shanks was a Figarland, and back during God Valley in Chapter 1086, Garling did make the exclamation of “watch me, my children”, likely referring to both of his babies, but one of them would end up by accident in Roger’s hands, being raised by him as his adoptive father, while the other would remain in Garling’s grasp, becoming a God Knight. It turns out that indeed the silhouette we saw of the God Knights from Dragon was someone who looked like Shanks, it turns out the mysterious shadow we saw in the spread at the end of Vegapunk’s message was likely Shamrock, and it turns out that the guy who spoke to the Gorosei was likely Shamrock as well, finally clearing Shanks from the rat allegations after all these years.

In fact, this completely recontextualizes the scene with the Gorosei, as this now brings into question just who was the pirate Shamrock was speaking about. Was it still someone like Luffy or could it actually potentially be what we would’ve never thought about… Shanks himself?? There’s also a theory that brings up the fact that when Oda drew Bonney in male form, she looked an awful lot like Shanks… so could perhaps Shamrock be… that man, setting a potential re-confrontation?

Shamrock appears to hold an important position, as he is known as the “Dancho” (団長) of the God Knights. This is a term you might be familiar with, as “dancho” fundamentally means corps commander, or particularly the leader of a group of knights. In this context it would translate as Knight Commander, but this is still an inferior position to Garling’s, who was known as the Saikou Shireikan (最高司令官), or Supreme Commander of the God Knights.

His name is obviously a riff on Shanks’s name, as Shamrock shares the first three letters with Shanks, both in English and Japanese. Shamrock particularly refers to a type of clover, the symbol of Ireland. Particularly it’s also a symbol in Christianism, symbolizing the holy trinity of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, connecting it to the holy theming of the God Knights.

A bizarre detail about Shamrock’s name however is that it doesn’t have the “Saint” suffix to it, simply being called “Figarland Shamrock”. On one hand there’s the possibility that maybe some God Knights aren’t Celestial Dragons, but this clashes with the fact that he’s Garling’s kid by bloodline, and the fact that his text box literally describes him as being “world nobility”, suggesting this is just Oda not really bothering to put it here, especially as even Garling’s name in the description doesn’t have “Saint” in it either. This is something we also questioned with Gunko, but again it does seem here that she is a Celestial Dragon too given not just her personality, but what we’ve discussed here with Shamrock. I just really wonder what family she is from.

His outfit is certainly befitting of someone of his stature, dressing like a French aristocratic knight, who looks like he may have walked out of the real life Mary Geoise in Chateau de Chambord. And of course, with no scar on his face, longer braided hair, and two arms, with his sword on his left hip unlike Shanks who usually mostly keeps it on his right hip. His knightly outfit kinda matches Gunko, who as we mentioned wears a gakuran, a school uniform that was based on old military outfits, which in this case is likely the more direct connection, with her name being “military girl/child” and whatnot, with both of them essentially being knights working for the Government’s order of templars.

Though Loki hasn’t given them the answer they wanted, they will nonetheless not deter from their objective. Shamrock claims that long ago, the giants gained complete control of the New World. It’s not clear if he’s just referring to them having massive influence over it, or if he instead means that the entire New World may have actually been conquered by the giants, in a similar fashion to the Germa having conquered all of the North Blue. But in this case, the Government wants this power now for themselves. And if Loki isn’t willing to work with them, then Shamrock and Gunko will have to take control by force…