Video version: https://youtu.be/7AWwgW27OvQ

Covers

In case you missed it, on the Shonen Jump cover we got the official color scheme of Xebec, which shows him as having white hair with hues of a purple-dark blue mix, with his tattoo instead being a deeper purple and his cape being black.

On the color spread itself we have the straw hats enjoying roasted potatoes alongside Yamato, Tama, and Shinobu, as well as some fellow ninja tanuki and foxes. On their outfits are several writings, such as Nami’s jacket having the writing “Any Port”, Zoro’s hat having “Cast Off” on it, but more importantly is Yamato’s sweater, which has “oden ni sōrō!” written on it, which is part of Oden’s iconic line “niete nanbono oden ni soro”, or “there’s no point to Oden if it isn’t served boiled”. Fittingly, unlike Luffy or Zoro, Yamato has no issues eating the hot potatoes. Interestingly though, Nami appears to have clearer more blue eyes, despite canonically having brown eyes, but Oda has been slightly inconsistent with eye colors in the past anyway.

End of God Valley

Xebec regains some consciousness, realizing that the effect of Domi Reversi has worn off. I do wonder in that regard if all this time that Xebec was suffering from the effects of the Reversi and was still able to communicate to Garp and Roger if it had simply to do with the Voice of All Things or if in fact it may perhaps tie with the speculated Bucaneer heritage. Particularly because as Vegapunk explained, the power of the Buccaneers is seemingly tied with allowing your will to remain in your body even after you lose your consciousness, in the way that Kuma was completely killed and yet his will still persisted in his body. So perhaps even if the Domi Reversi took over, it was Xebec’s will that made him go towards Roger and Garp even without Imu’s explicit request, why we could still see him expressing emotion wihle possessed, and why he was able to communicate via the Voice of All Things.

However, while Xebec still lived and Roger and Garp were passed out, Garling, Sommers, and Maffey arrive to finish him off, as he gives one last thanks to his two rivals. We however cut ahead to Gabin and Rayleigh running away with Garp and Roger. This may seem confusing, but given their dialogue, it would seem that they arrived just as Xebec was being killed, as there wouldn’t be much reason to not save Xebec if they’re already willing to protect an enemy like Garp, and as Rayleigh said, “he was killed”, speaking in past tense, meaning that once they arrived they probably already witnessed Garling killing Xebec. But it’s likely that the God Knights moved to kill the other two and that’s when they stepped in, helping them get away. It’s a shame it had to be off-screened, but I imagine this is where Gabin likely fought with Sommers, and left him with the trauma that he would later remember in Elbaph, but after a brief clash they took the two injured and ran away, with Rayleigh in particular also making sure to keep the straw hat that his captain threw away if you look closely, while the cape instead remained behind.

The island instead began to collapse on itself from the damage, seemingly not from any attack like Lulusia but simply from the sustained damage after such an intense fight, which explains that in fact God Valley did literally disappear from the map beyond the censoring of the Government mentioned last week.

As we finally depart from the island though, we get a nice summary of what happened. Garp seemingly was left with the Marines began to recover. Roger recovered on his own ship. Whitebeard left with Gram, Linlin left with her own treasures and Streusen, Kaidou left flying, Dragon saved several remaining slaves, Shanks remained asleep in Roger’s coffers, and Kuma made it out safely with Ivankov, Ginny, Eris, and Teach. We know that some of the other Rocks Pirates like Shiki did make it out but the fates of the likes of Ganzui and whatnot are a bit ambiguous, unclear if they died here or elsewhere.

As we focus on Roger particularly, we see him having recovered, coming out on the ship’s deck. Behind him are Gloriosa and Mr. Momora. This seems to imply that Mr. Momora acted as the ship’s doctor, which makes sense since this was long before Crocus joined the crew, so during that time Momora may have acted as the doctor until Crocus stepped in to better fulfill that position since he could stabilize Roger’s condition. However, of course, Roger runs upon the treasure chest containing a baby Shanks inside, which would lead down the road to adopting him as his own child. This of course isn’t anything new, as we first saw this scene during a brief flashback in Film RED, and in fact we had also seen it in more detail in the Film RED booklet, where Oda himself had fully storyboarded two pages of this encounter. The second page here is made to look identical to his sketches, but the first one differs a bit, as the original didn’t show things like Shakky or alternatively showed God Valley in the background, which in that sketch was still standing. But the left page is actually a lot more similar to that sketch, even though Roger of course here doesn’t have his later hat and mustache as that storyboard accidentally had. A famous fanart recreation of this sketch had become very popular online, but some fans even mistook it for actually being drawn by Oda, so it’s nice to get the actual official version.

After God Valley

As to be expected, the news spread across the world fast. We see a few different islands where those news reach: first there’s one that has several eastern pagodas. Another one features a house with a triangular roof, and a man with a fedora and a woman with a dress. The next is in a tropical setting with palm trees and tropical outfits, likely to be the South Blue. While the following one instead has a frigid climate, either the North Blue or a winter island, featuring nordic wooden houses well suited for the snow with a large bridge in the middle with a clocktower atop it. The locals praise Garp for his strength, clearly some fellow powerscalers.

We shift to Marine Headquarters, where Garp is furious upon reading the news as he recovers within the medical ward, as of course, Morgans has made quite the profit from the entire dilemma, and he has a debate with Sengoku over their powerlessness to do anything against the corruption of the Government, with Garp sticking to his beliefs of wishing to do what he can to protect others while he is in the Marines. Sengoku says that there’s nothing they can do from “the bottom of the cliff” (崖の下, gake no shita), which is fitting both simbolically but even quite literally, as Marineford is located right beneath Mary Geoise under the cliff that is the Red Line. He also puts into perspective the size of the Government’s power, citing that with the combined power of all the Marines and all the armies of all 170 or so nations, you could account for tens of millions of soldiers across the globe. For reference, the biggest army in the world, China’s, is composed by two million soldiers, so that gives you an idea of the stranglehold that the Government has, with a bigger combined military than most of our world’s biggest powers combined. However, that is of course, assuming that those countries do remain loyal in the case of an upheaval in the system as the world changes. And for better perspective, the core bulk of the Marines’ strongest forces, which took part in the Battle of Marineford, was said to be 100,000 soldiers. But during this whole debate, if you look behind Garp, you can actually spot Dr. Fishbonen, a doctor in Marineford’s medical ward who would later tend to Koby’s wounds four decades later in chapter 594, showing he’s had quite the long career here.

Shifting to a later scene in Marineford, we move to the detainment center of Marineford found underground, seemingly found under the tower on the island’s south-western side, or to the right side of the fortress as seen in the front. If you look at a panoramic look of the fortress, you’ll spot this tower on the bottom right, whereas an identical tower on the bottom left instead houses the medical center, as indicated by the “MED” writing on it. The detention one instead has “DIC” written on it, so I wonder if it relates to something having to do with detention or something like that. Within it, Dragon has been jailed for helping save the slaves, so he’s paid a visit by Garp. There’s clearly tension between the two, as Dragon calls him “oyaji” (オヤジ) which means “old man”, which is already fairly disrespectful, but then changes to “anta” (アンタ) or “you” when he tells him he hates him, basically being unwilling to even call him his own father anymore. Garp seems unwilling to look him back in the eyes, but leaves a key behind, implying he let Dragon escape which would lead him to form the Freedom Fighters. We had a similar scene when Garp visited Ace in Impel Down, but of course that context was very different, as Impel Down was far harder to break out of and Ace was such a major criminal at the center of a massive war rather than a Marine punished for insubordination. But even with Ace, we see how Garp wavered in the face of family.

Loki and Harald’s Grieving

We see Loki’s reaction to Xebec’s death, which gives us a better insight as to why Rocks didn’t let him on his ship, which was very much the same line of logic Shanks had, to not let a kid go out at sea. As the two talk, you can see chatter coming from Ida’s Bar behind them, showing that the crew is likely relaxing there while Xebec is having a moment with Loki. Loki however mentions that in his eyes, he views Xebec as Nika, since he perceives Nika as someone who will destroy the world while laughing, which of course he interpreted from Nika’s continuous apparitions during the end of each world as mentioned in the Harley, just like how Jarul explained to us. But Xebec clarifies he only wants to become King of the World, to fulfill Davy Jones’s promise, whereas the one with the power to destroy the world could actually be Harald, particularly bringing up the Galleila once again, proving it wasn’t just Oda trying to tie things loosely but that they may actually hold some important significance. As a reminder, many of us think they may be the giants frozen in Punk Hazard, and Xebec believes that they are such a powerful asset that they could heavily tip the power of Warland’s military force that when combined with Xebec, they would truly be unstoppable. So I wonder if perhaps Oda is hinting at the Straw Hats or one of their allies somehow being able to find the Galleila in Punk Hazard to unfreeze them so they can join in on the final war, or perhaps maybe if Blackbeard will be the one to find them and recruit them to his side…

We shift to another island with a gigantic spire similar to those of the buildings on it, but appearing more to be made of stone or wood of some form. Here Harald loses control against a giant for transgressing against the humans, but in doing so ends up terrifying the local civilians as well, as he is clearly overcome with grief and rage for abandoing Xebec, whom he even calls his best friend. This is followed by a scene where Harald goes to Marineford, but before that, he speaks with Loki and Hajrudin, asking them to get along. You may actually recall we already saw this scene previously in a prior flashback, and in that scene back then Harald still had his horns, which is consistent.

Indeed, we see Harald go all the way to Marineford and ripping his own horns off in front of the Marines, in order to apologize for the past millenium of giant violence so that humans and giantkind can coexist together. This lines up with what Road told us that Harald ripped off his horns in order to disown the heritage of the violent ancient giants, who had terrorized the world during the time of the Era of War as well as for the actions of Oars the Country Puller. But at this point it seems that Harald decides to not hesitate anymore and devote himself fully to allowing for that peace to coexist, even if it means him becoming a slave and having to submit to the Government.

In the end, this is a difficult choice for Harald, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that it may not necessarily be the right choice either. To me it feels that at this point Harald regrets not having helped Xebec that he understands he already lost that opportunity to stand by his side and change history, so instead he now has to commit to the choices he’s made. Think of it like a “the dice is already thrown”, Harald realizes this is the path he has chosen for himself and he decides to properly commit to it no matter the issues that there may be with it. Harald understands well the corruption of the Government, but like other rulers he believes it may be better for his race to work with this status quo so that future generations of giants can live in peace with humans rather than pointlessly try to fight against the Government and let Elbaph and its people end up being destroyed at the hands of it. Particularly now that Xebec is gone and Harald feels there may be no other force that can topple the Government anymore. It may not be the right choice, but it’s the choice a ruler would make for the interest of his country, even if it means groveling to a much higher power, much like how real rulers of our world may act. Whether you agree with that action or not, it’s down to you. As after all, Harald is playing into Imu’s hands, even if Imu did blame Harald’s mistake for being the reason as to why Elbaph did not fall under their thumb much earlier. But it seems that now, little by little, we’re finally getting back to the point where we’ll finally understand what happened in the castle on that day…

The Phantom Harald

The next chapter picks up five years after the incident 33 years ago, where Morgans, now age 20, is interviewing witnesses about the claim of seeing a mysterious figure at sea. The person talking has a shirt with a writing where the first character is a bit hard to read, but seems like it could spell out “ato da yo!” which means something like “and then!” like he’s trying to continue the story, but hard to say with how weird the first character looks. On the left side of the panel there’s a guy with the writing “hora fukime” written on the side of his head, which means “come on man, make up your mind”. On Morgans himself, you may notice a pair of headphones with the writing “TD” on them, or “Tone Dial”, which if you remember from Gunko’s headphones are essentially modified tone dials from sky islands that record a specific song. Behind him instead you can spot another Pandaman doing the peace sign. The location they are at has a big clock tower, which resembles that of the Rommel Kingdom, inspired by the Big Ben, which was the kingdom where Cavendish became a criminal due to Hakuba, but hard to say if they are the same due to some minor differences.

At Impel Down, a bunch of prisoners complain about these phantom attacks, as seemingly they were captured right after the attack which makes sense if it was Harald. In the next scene, an interviewer asks a fisherman about it, who has the writing “Meque Meque” on his shirt though I’m not as certain about it. The one interviewing him is actually someone we already know though, as his hat has the writing “Royder”. Royder is in fact a reporter who was present at Sabaody covering the Marineford War. You might remember him reacting to the reveal Ace was Roger’s son, and he was named in the Blue Deep databook, though given the lack of a romanization, places like the wiki had him written as “Reuder”. Behind him on the right you can also spot a woman flirting with another sailor, as indicated by the hearts.

Royder asks if this phantom figure was seen in the Florian Triangle (which may I remind, kanji reading as “Devil’s Triangle”, 魔の三角地帯), but the sailor claims that they do not go near that region, essentially implying that this shadow they saw was in fact not the same of the Florian Triangle. So Oda is trying to tell us that the mysterious entity which we saw in the Florian Triangle at the end of Thriller Bark is in fact not these mysterious attacks, which instead prove to be Harald working for the Government, but rather its own completely different thing, which Oda is telling us is something else entirely, and at this point something he is more likely to go back to.

As we skip a bit ahead, we see the growth of the defining pirates of God Valley across the several years: Kaidou now sports a beard and mustache much more similar to his current look, Whitebeard has already formed his own crew and can be seen casting haki lightning bolts from his Murakumogiri, Big Mom continues to age as she looks almost as if she is giving Whitebeard a side glance, with Napoleon above her doing the same. Behind her the sky is clouded, perhaps an effect of her weather abilities with Zeus. Ouchoku has now gained territory over Pirate Island, though interestingly he has a scar over his face, so I wonder if someone tried to contest him for the position and that’s how he got that scar, while Shiki instead started to grow out his beard. The description of clashes over territory between them makes me wonder if Shiki attempted to retake Hachinosu but it didn’t amount to much. We cut further ahead to Roger’s circumnavigation of the world, as we see him with Rayleigh, Gabin, Crocus, Shanks, and Buggy, whose joining of the crew was not explained in any capacity unfortunately, despite sharing the same age as Shanks.

As we re-witness Roger’s execution however, you may spot some familiar faces, as the man with a tattoo on his arm raising his hand in the air can be seen to the bottom left, who was named in a databook as being named “Anjo”, and beyond him you can also spot the guy jumping in the air from excitement. Thanks to Harald’s help in part to pacify the union with giant kind, several giant recruits joined the Marines from different giant colonies around the world, perhaps including Samuwanai where Ida was from as well. If you notice, most of these giants match giants we are familiar with that we saw during the Battle of Marineford. On the far right is the blonde giant woman, next to her is Vice-Admiral Lacroix with his square jaw, then is the giant with the mohawk and the two big teeth, the one with the afro, what could be an unmasked Vice-Admiral Lonz, and the one giant Luffy beat with Gomu Gomu no Rifle.

Imu’s Contracts

Then, it seems that 24 years ago, Harald was finally accepted in Mary Geoise. And with it he was given an offer to make a pact with Imu, in what seems like we are finally being told how Imu’s pact with the Devil works, so let’s break it down. The three of these levels are all referred to as a “keiyaku” (契約), which means a contract, but in this context can more specifically also refer to a deal or a pact. It seems very clear that this is a deal with the Devil, you could even call it a convenant. The three levels are:

• First there is the Senkai Keiyaku (浅海契約), which translates to the “Shallow Sea Contract”. Referring to shallow water, this is the weakest of the contracts, and only seems to be given to those with the rank of Kami no Juujin (神の従刃, which translates to “Servant Blade of God”). If you remember, this is the rank Gunko had at the time of God Valley, which was said to be a rank subservient to the God Knights, which seems to be more of an apprenticeship to those who are yet to become God Knights during a trial period, which had been the case for Gunko at the time of God Valley and now Harald. It seems that the mark on the arm serves as a mark of this pact, and in fact may be the “Mark” (マーク) that Killingham spoke of, saying that only those with the Mark can use the Abyss. As such, it seems that those with the Shallow Sea Contract may be able to make use of the Abyss but I’d wager they cannot make use of the immortality or further powers. Particularly as it doesn’t seem like Harald now was immortal, especially given he was killed, and even someone like Shanks seemingly got his arm eaten and didn’t regenerate it, which we’ll get to later.
• Secondly there is the Shinkai Keiyaku (深海契約), which translates to the “Deep Sea Contract”. Referring to the more profound sea, this contract seemingly applies to the Kami no Kishidan (神の騎士団, or the “Knights of God”). It can be presumed that this contract grants access to the immortality (不死身), but not further powers conferred by Imu, which are only reserved for the highest rank. As we’ve seen, all the God Knights so far have possessed this immortality, allowing them to endlessly regenerate. God Knights can also telepathically communicate with Imu, which is an ability the Servant Blades seemingly don’t have, as the Gorosei tell Harald that only if he becomes a knight shall he learn about Imu. As such, it is only from this point that one may be made aware fully of Imu’s existence, though I wonder if other Celestial Dragons may have some vague idea given how Doflamingo knew about Imu or if he found out some other way. I’m also curious as if to the power of being able to possess the bodies of others is given to all God Knights or if Gunko specifically was an exception in that regard, but the former seems more likely at this point. It also seems as we’ve seen with Gunko that Imu may be able to brainwash anyone they can possess, so maybe Mu was counting to do that with Harald too.
• Finally there is the Shinshinkai Keiyaku (深々海契約), which goofily translates to the “Deep Deep Sea Contract”. Referring to the deepest of deepest areas of the sea, this contract seems to be the most complete package that grants access to all the Devil’s conferred abilities. Beyond use of the Abyss, the Immortality, and the Telepathy with Imu, those with this contract can seemingly also be granted perennial youth, allowing them to live forevermore as long as Imu is willing to let them. This explains why God Knights like Garling or Sommers have aged over time while the Gorosei don’t, though Gunko once again is an odd exception since she seems to be old enough to have known Brook as a child but also hasn’t aged since then. And even knew Imu over 50 years ago even before she was promoted to God Knight so she definitely stands out. Beyond that with this contract this point Imu may or may not also confer a devil power to the individual, though we don’t know if those are tied specifically to the contract or were something separate.

As such to recapitulate, the Servant Blades have access to the Shallow Sea Contract, which gives them the Mark and thus likely able to use the Abyss (though still not fully clear). This included Gunko 38 years ago, Harald 24 years ago after some 13 years of working for the Government, and Shanks 15 years ago. The God Knights have access to the Deep Sea Contract, which includes 38 years ago Garling, Sommers, Maffey, the blue haired Manmeyer, the blonde woman, the guy with the skull mask, and the big bat-like guy, while at present it includes Gunko, Killingham, and Knight Commander Shamrock. Finally, the Deep Deep Sea Contract can be inferred to be only granted to the Gorosei, which includes the original five and now likely Garling has almost certainly been upgraded to that tier of contract.

What’s interesting is that a Gorosei explains that only 13 people have been granted access to the two highest tiers of contract, which means 5 gorosei and 8 God Knights. I wonder if the number is fixed and has to be always the same or if the number shifts and changes with time depending on recruits but is generally kept tight, or in other words if a Servant Blade can rise to God Knight only if a previous God Knight dies of old age or is demoted for some other reason, particularly as they are immortal. In the panel that Dragon was thinking of the God Knights, he visualized 9 of them, with Shamrock at the center, but it’s possible the numbers increased, though Oda could also just have slipped up and not thought about it as much. We also know that some people can be recruited to the God Knights, as not only did they try to do it here with Harald, but Loki got the offer too, which now knowing about his father’s past makes sense, as Imu blamed Harald for his mistake so perhaps they were trying to repeat things with Loki. This also puts into question given her past with Brook if Gunko was always a Manmeyer or if she was adopted into the family one way or another. Interestingly, as we saw with Shanks and Shamrock too, it seems that only one father needs to be Celestial Dragon for the child to inherit the status, which also explains the Gorosei’s concern at Uta’s status as a member of the Figarland Family during Film RED when we first heard that name.

The naming convention of these contracts also makes a lot of sense once you consider that, I’m pretty sure we can all accept without any doubt now, that Imu is the Sea Devil, the entity that was said to be responsible for the devil fruits as its incarnations according to legend. As such Imu represents not just the Devil but also the Sea, the concept of water that paralyzes devil fruit users and many other elements on a symbolical level, especially with the sinking of the world. Even Davy Jones was said to have been cursed by the Devil to sink down to the deep sea floor. As such the contracts being based on the depth of the sea makes perfect sense, showing how deep you sink into the sea itself.

Shangala

The following scene moves us to a new area of Mary Geoise, found within the Kamigami no Chi (神々の地, or Land of the Gods), within what is called the “Temple of Knights Shangala”. The name (シャンガラ) likely seems like a riff on “Shangri-La”, the fictional location of myth that is described as this heavenly temple located high in the skies, like an earthly paradise, which is fitting with the thematic of paradise in Mary Geoise, but slightly modified to be Shangala instead of Shangri-La. The thing is though, this name may actually finally clue us into the etymology behind Shanks and Shamrock’s names, as they both may have been named after this temple of Shangala, thus solving a three decade mystery (though almost certainly a retcon). Though Garling wasn’t present for the twins’ birth, it’s likely he may have told their mother ahead of time what names he wanted for a child when she was pregnant.

At the temple we see an older Garling, now with a beard and his later glasses, who here has the title of “Dancho (団長)”, or Knight Commander of the God Knights. Keep in mind that Knight Commander is a separate rank than that of “Saikou Shireikan (最高司令官)”, or Supreme Commander of the God Knights. Currently in present day, Shamrock is the current Knight Commander while Garling was further promoted to Supreme Commander, so I wonder at this time who was the Supreme Commander in Garling’s place. Garling tells Harald to keep on a long distance den den mushi to be called, which makes me think once again Harald may have access to the Abyss to be summoned at any time.

Mosako

We cut to 20 years ago in the Ryugu Kingdom, where celebrations are underway at Ryugu Palace. Oda transitions clevelry by having the camera literally sink into the water and cause bubbles, as if we move from up above to down below. Neptune, who appears to be friends with just about every old legend like Roger and Whitebeard, relaxes with Harald, and the two talk about their children, with Neptune talking about the prophecy he heard from Shirley when he was with Roger. In the background, we can also spot Otohime with Fukaboshi and a newborn Manboshi, which adds up since he’s 20. Interestingly, Harald refers to the yet unborn Shirahoshi as “your mosamosa daughter” (モサモサ), which is an expression that basically means “your hairy daughter”, in reference to how hairy Neptune is. This isn’t actually a new expression for Shirahoshi, as Roger made the exact same joke, calling his unborn daughter as “your hairy daughter” just like Harald did. Though as a slight distinction, Roger used “moja moja” and Harald used “mosa mosa”, but they fundamentally mean the same thing just written differently, basically “hairy” or “shaggy”. Some Japanese fans also believe that Neptune’s expression “jamon” could be “moja” written in reverse, referring to his hairyness, though there’s been contention to that since it’s likely more derived from the “ja” used by older people to finish sentences or could just be something Oda made up for different reasons.

However, of course, what Oda is trying to spell here is pretty obvious. The “mosamosa” daughter Neptune will have is almost certainly at this point “Mosako”, the mysterious individual Loki has been speaking with through den den mushi. This may not be a shock to some, as several fans, particularly in the Japanese community, already pushed this theory, mostly down to the fact of the “mojamoja” comment that Roger already made, and the fact tht Mosako’s speech pattern was that of a delicate and frail woman which largely fit that of Shirahoshi. This retroactively explains a lot of things. Loki and Shirahoshi have known each other for a while because their parents wanted them to meet each other for a potential future arranged marriage, though obviously that kinda fell through due to Harald’s death and Loki leaving the country, although it seems the two remained friends, especially with how lonely both were, Shirahoshi stuck in the Shell Tower and Loki later imprisoned. We’ll also have to later see how Loki eventually met Lola and fell for her leading to that whole debacle with Big Mom. But going back to our duo, their recent dialogue makes sense, as it explains why Shirahoshi had a recent “traumatic experience”, which was likely her attempted kidnapping by Charlos at the Levely, and it once again reinfroces why Loki called her a weakling just like Luffy did. But as such also puts so much worry as to what is happening to her right now that she had to call Loki and tell him that they may never be able to speak again, suggesting something terrible may be happening at Fish-Man Island. Has Caribou perhaps already tattled to Blackbeard and he’s already moved to kidnap Shirahoshi? I can only worry more for her now.

Switching to Elbaph still 20 years ago, we get an obligatory update on the point when Harald welcomed Saul, also putting in the request for the school to be built, just as we had been told several times. In this scene, you can spot Ripley next to Harald, and in fact you can spot a little person atop the palm of her hand, who is likely Gabin.

Raid of Mary Geoise

We skip ahead to 15 years ago, during the great incident of the Raid on Mary Geoise. The public story goes that Fisher Tiger had climbed the Red Line and tried to break the slaves of Mary Geoise out of kindness, leading a massive raid on the city. However, Tiger later confesed that he had in fact not raided Mary Geoise by scaling the Red Line, but actually had been enslaved there for several years. However, he had managed to break out and it is at that point that he decided to try and free as many slaves as possible during his breakout to make sure he could save as many people as possible or he would be too burdened with guilt. However, there is more truth to that incident than it might seem. It’s unclear if Tiger did indeed break out on his own, as several other Celestial Dragons complained about losing slaves or their cells being broken, with Tiger seemingly already trying to free other slaves. However, a lone figure appeared, very clearly being Shanks. Tiger manages to rip off a bandage off of his face, which causes a couple drops of blood to spill out as we can see, but Shanks instead strikes him on his collar, freeing Tiger, as the explosive collar would’ve stopped him otherwise. He also tells Tiger of the location of the Armory, which gives Tiger the weapons to fight back with which he was seen in depictions of the Raid. We of course see the perspectives of Hancock as well as Koala who were both freed thanks to this incident, and Oda even goes as far as to recreate the panel of the Boa sisters running away exactly as it looked in Chapter 521. It’s clear however that this was an inside job, but not at the knowledge of the Government, rather, at Shanks’s knowledge.

Shanks the Rat

Some days after, as Harald visits the Holyland, which is currently undergoing repairs, Garling introduces Shanks to Harald, who we are confirmed, indeed, was made a Servant Blade after returning to Mary Geoise, where he quite seemingly pretended to get comfortable with his family again all for the purpose of investigating the Holyland, perhaps in a sense to scout enemy territory. To give you a jist of the timeline, this is long after Shanks founded his crew, to the point that he already had all the familiar faces around him, and in fact, he even had already adopted Uta. So this was in fact a deep cover operation with a lot of meaning. Particularly as just the next year after this one is when Harald would be killed while Shanks was in Elbaph, and the year after that Shanks would steal the Gomu Gomu no Mi and meet Luffy for the first time, just two years after this point (though Luffy would only eat the fruit a year later).

This also seems to motivate that the mark seen on his arm, just like we saw with Harald, is indeed the “Mark” of the Abyss, particularly as Harald gets it this chapter when he also becomes a Servant Blade, which makes sense since like we said it looks like the logo of the God Knights. This does seem to support the idea that Shanks sacrificed his arm three years later for the sake of not just protecting Luffy, but also for the sake of getting rid of this Mark, as perhaps having it on limited his abilities on working freely from Imu in some form. And since he wasn’t a God Knight yet, he didn’t possess the regeneration, which didn’t allow him to regenerate the arm and thus be rid of it, finally explaining that riddle.

Harald claims to recognize Shanks from somewhere before, perhaps through some meeting with Roger, though it’s not one that has been brought up so far that I’m aware, although I wouldn’t be surprised if Roger had visited Elbaph. However Shanks plays fully into the role by being dismissive of Harald, so he walks away to walk through the streets with his brother, with several screams of idolation from other Celestial Dragons ringing throughout as indicated by the hearts. However, Harald glances back at the two and can tell that Shanks is hiding something. Indeed, if you remember, Shanks mentioned in Chapter 1152 that he met Harald in Mary Geoise, and that there was something he couldn’t talk about with him in the Holyland, hoping he could do so now before it was too late, which it was. This clearly was that occasion, but I still wonder what it was and if it had to do with the legendary fruit.

And of course, we have to acknowledge the elephant in the room: the bandage. Over time, we had been able to narrow down the time in which Shanks got the scar over his eyes, which was attributed to Blackbeard, up to the point of it being from 19 to 14 years ago, but now we know that it was 15 years ago, before this moment. It’s not clear if he got it just recently having joined as a Servant Blade or if it was still as a pirate before rejoining with his family, but I wonder if it had any relation with his ascent to Godhood. As we saw later with Tiger ripping off the bandage, we can also confirm that individual was Shanks, if it wasn’t clear enough. If you compare him to Shamrock, interestingly Shanks’s current outfit more matches his brother’s current one, whereas Shamrock’s outfit matches more his brother’s current one. You can also notice the distinction of how Shamrock is right-handed, while Shanks is left-handed, until he lost his arm which forced him to fight with his right hand instead.

Loki and Ida

Moving back to Elbaph that same year, we find out that as we had feared, Ida had become ill. A doctor is trying to help out Ida, who you may actually recognize was one of the Giant Warrior Pirates seen leading the attack on Egghead, maybe being the doctor of the crew. Ida asks Mato to take care of the tavern, which is why we saw her running the tavern more recently. Loki tries to help out in his own way, while instead Hajrudin is out at sea looking for a doctor, with help of Gerd, Goldberg, Road leading the way as the navigator, and Stansen too, though the latter definitely looks a lot younger than now, even if you can recognize his helmet.

We get to properly see Brew Village, the hometown of Estridda, which fittingly has buildings shaped after barrels of grog. There the locals confess that they actually poisoned Ida out of paranoia that she is vying for the throne. But in retaliation, Loki massacres the villagers and burns the entire village down to the ground, because all this time, he truly saw Ida as his own and only real mother, even if he never was truly capable of telling her honestly. History told us that Loki burnt a village to the ground as a prank, but the truth of history is always hidden when it is most convenient. Time and time again this flashback has shown us that the accounts of Loki’s life as we’ve been told have been said by people who never understood what he was truly going through. Which does not justify some of his actions, and does not mean he is a purely kind being, but it is clear that kindness within him has been nurtured by Ida, who truly loved him more than anyone else ever would, without ever expecting anything in exchange. And it is that kindness within him that will allow him to finally find the resolution he has always desired.