Video version: https://youtu.be/lYYkf940DCU

Imu and Ragnir

The chapter opens with Imu confronting Ragnir directly, telling the big squirrel that he must’ve been waiting for someone who could help bring revenge to Imu. While we don’t get more specific details, I think it’s quite easy to make an assumption, being that Ragnir wishes to avenge his former master. That master being the original War God who apparently betrayed and fought back against Imu in times of old, though again this is from his perspective, and seeing the way Ragnir reacts I’d wager the War God’s response was likely justified. Given how Imu and Joyboy seemed like they may have been close in the past, it would seem that a rift may have happened between their comrades, and the War God may have taken Imu’s side before switching to the other, until he was ultimately killed.

We were further told that Ratatoskr the ice squirrel then went on to possess the Ragnir hammer, which seems to suggest that either the Ratatoskr fruit was previously owned by someone different but reincarnated and was then fed into the hammer, or that somehow Ratatoskr was some kind of entity that was then turned into a devil fruit. But it’s also possible this may have been the legend embellishing things and that Ragnir already possessed the fruit back then, particularly as Imu keeps talking to Ragnir directly rather than calling him Ratatoskr. Eitherway, all this time Ratatoskr has clearly waited until someone worthy enough could help him avenge his old master, and conveniently enough, the opportunity presents itself here.

Imu also cites a certain “Douzan” that he once killed, which could be anyone, but given the context, we could assume might be the name of the old War God. It is a more uncommon but real Japanese name, but if we assume this was a giant from Elbaph, then this gives us a chance to retrace his name. After all, giants of Elbaph are named after three categories: one is figures in norse mythology and history, mostly used for the royalty, including Harald, Ida, Estridda, Loki, and Hajrudin, which takes from Odin, although Gerd is also a notable exception, but might make sense if she ends up marrying Hajrudin). Secondly is just general norse names or from other figures used for most of the more common citizen characters, like Ylva, Aegir, Skaldi, Ronja, Born, Olav, and so on. And then there’s the third category, where the names are likely taken from wrestlers given how much they match up, mostly used for the Giant Warrior Pirates: Brogy would be Bruiser Brody, Dorry is Dory Funk, Ripley is Rhea Ripley, Colon is Carlos Colón, Road is Road Warriors, Goldberg is Bill Goldberg, Raideen is James Raideen, and there’s plenty of Johns to pick in wrestling for John Giant.

Now, there are some exceptions, but generally they fall in those categories, and sure enough, if we look through the history of wrestlers named Douzan, we can find Rikidouzan, a legendary wrestler in the Japanese scene. Known as Mitsuhiro Momota, he took the wrestling name Rikidouzan (力道山), which is composed by the kanji of “power”, “road”, and “mountain”, loosely translating as “mountain of strength”. Historically he has been called the “father of pro wrestling” in Japan, so the fact he is considered one of the founding fathers of wrestling in his country quite nicely parallels how the Douzan of the One Piece world was also this legendary figure in Elbaph history.

Regardless, Loki once again attacks Imu with an attack called Ragnajinheim (鉄雷二武界). Phonetically it reads as “Ragnajinheim” (ラグナジンハイム), fundamentally being a combination of “Ragna” (from ragnarökr and Ragnir), “jin”, which means “god” in Japanese, and “heim” (meaning realm, used in the names of several realms and seen in other of Loki’s attacks), while the kanji reading has the Ragna part be formed by the kanji for hammer and lightning like before (鉄雷, also used for Ragnir’s kanji reading), whereas the “jinheim” 二武界 is formed by the kanji for “two”, “martial”, and “realm”, fundamentally meaning “the second realm of war”. This is quite interesting as we’ve seen Loki already use other attacks named after realms like Nibelheim or Thorheim, but in this case he’s actively mentioning the Second World.

Imu fights back by coating his spear in Omen once more to unleash a really long blade. This one is called “Gram”, phonetically reading as “Guramu” (グラム), which refers to the legendary blade in Norse mythology. Also known as Balmung, it is a magical sword that the hero Sigurd used to kill the legendary dragon Fafnir. This is quite fitting, because Imu is using it here too to hunt a dragon. The kanji reading reads as “fundouken” (憤怒剣), which means “blade of wrath”, particularly using the kanji for the word “wrath” that is used to refer to the deadly sin.

At the West Village, the parents fight back to protect the children from Zaza, including Ripley, Ange, Oimo, as well as Ylva and Bent’s mother. Zaza manages to snatch seven of the kids according to Killingham, those being Colon, Ylva, Olav, and Johanna with one hand, and Bent, Mag, and one other not quite visible with the other. It seems the other three could not be caught but Killingham just decides to move along. In a close up of Zaza’s face we get particular emphasis on her ringed eye, and given how both Nika and Imu possess red ringed eyes, I wouldn’t be surprised if a god like Zaza does too. In this panel though, Oda accidentally draws Zaza without the veil over her nose, but I imagine that will get fixed in the volume release.

Over with the Straw Hats, Brook begins to connect the dots that Gunko is being controlled, and with that, we transition finally into the Brook flashback 70 years into the past, as we enter Brook Piece!!

Brook Piece

The story takes us back seventy years in the Esperia Kingdom of the West Blue. To give an idea, this was the year 1471, at a time long before the Rocks, long before a lot of current legends, when the likes of Gol D. Roger or Edward Newgate were but little children. This was at a time when Brook was 20 years old and still worked at a certain kingdom of the West Blue.

As a refresher, up to now, this is all we knew about Brook before this flashback. Before joining the Straw Hats, he mentioned he was the “Knight commander of a certain kingdom’s military squadron”, using the word “goei sendan” (護衛戦団), which can mean military squadron, or escort squadron, basically a group of knights or guards, of which Brook himself held the title of “dancho” (団長) the same title that someone like Shamrock currently holds, translating to “Knight Commander” and being the leader of a squadron of knights (though again different from the title of “Supreme Commander Garling holds”). But we never got much more than that, and the best we could assume is that it was from some kingdom in the West Blue.

This kingdom, now us knowing it being called the Esperia Kingdom, has an interesting name. Esperia is an actual location in Italy, but is more generally historically known as being associated with the Esperides (Ἑσπερίδες), nymphs from Greek mythology that embody the evening. In English they are usually localized as “Hesperides”, but it seems like Oda here is following the original Greek spelling. They were said to live in the far West in the old world, as in the end the English word “west” is, believe it or not, derived from “esperides”, or more specifically “esperos” or “vesper” in Latin, which means “evening”. Of course, you can deduce as to why this is the case, because the sun sets in the evening to the West, and thus “evening”, or “vesper”, became “West”, and the embodiment of that was the Esperides. As such, it is incredibly fitting that Esperia is found in the West Blue. According to myth, the Esperides were said to live in a garden on the western far edge of the world, where they grew golden apples, and from which the infamous apple of discord, which the Goddess Eris used to lead to the developments of the Trojan War. This symbolism with East being where the sun rises and West being where it falls makes me wonder if Oda intentionally juxtaposed Luffy being born on Dawn Island in the East with Teach’s homeland being God Valley in the West, though it’s worth noting Teach himself was born on the Grand Line at Shade Port and only went back to God Valley after Xebec sent him there.

The Kingdom appears to be built over three levels, with a ground level where the Port and the Opera House can be found. From the port, a bridge connects to a second smaller island atop which there’s a small tower, perhaps a lighthouse. At the center of the island is a plateau, atop which is then a second plateau where the royal palace rests. Behind it is a colossal harp, which is fitting, because this is the Kingdom of instrument making, which seems to place great importance to the arts of music. Other musical motifs can be spotted such as the musical notes depicted atop the pinnacles of towers, or the music note shaped hedges in the palace’s gardens. In a sense, it’s a bit reminiscent of Elegia, the Paradise kingdom that served as the setting of Film RED.

As we are introduced, we see that at the wee hours of 4AM, Brook decides to wake up the whole kingdom with his music, as soon as dawn begins to break. This is a habit we see Brook carry over to his days as a pirate, where he would wake up the Rumbar Pirates early in the morning with his obnoxiously high pitched tune. The song he sings here however is “Good Morningyo”, which is a pun between “Good Morning” and “Ningyo”, or “mermaid”. If you’ve also got a good memory for One Piece, you may have realized as soon as you read that title that it was an indication for an upcoming Brook flashback, because Brook sang this very same song towards the end of Fish-Man Island in Chapter 653. Although in that case he called it a “new single”, with some differences to the lyrics, but it gives a similar idea. It seems Brook had the dream of meeting a mermaid which finally got to pass all those decades later. He even wraps up the lyrics with another pun, being “bad endingyo”, once again combining “ending” and “ningyo”.

It’s hard to see exactly what instrument he is wielding, but the sound effects would suggest it’s a guitar rather than his usual violin, which I’d have to assume would have to be electric to make enough noise to be heard, as a pair of amps can be seen on the rooftop he sings from as well. As dawn breaks, he jumps into the air, in a pose almost reminiscent of that of Nika, which wouldn’t be the first time he’s done this, as he did a similar pose in Chapter 635. It seems that Brook is a figure equally as detested as loved, beloved for his strength and service to the kingdom but hated for his annoying behaviors, which isn’t that different from how he was with his crew later on.

Among his troops though, of which he is the Knight Commander as you recall, he is quite beloved, with his men begging him to teach them his “hayagiri” technique. Hayagiri (速斬り), literally meaning “quick slash”, likely refers to Brook’s technique where he is able to slash someone so quickly they don’t even notice it, with the damage applied to them only visible later. This has been Brook’s trademark technique ever since Thriller Bark, with his most iconic version of it being “Hanauta Sancho: Yahazugiri” (鼻唄三丁矢筈斬り), which translates as “three verse humming, arrowhead slash”, with the explanation that by the time he has walked three meters while humming, the target becomes slashed as if pierced by an arrowhead. What some may not know even to this day, is that the move itself is directly lifted from a famous old rakugo play in which a swordsman by the name of Shirai Gonpachi slashed his targets before they even realized with a move of the same name.

At the royal palace we see Brook doting on a little Gunko, or as she was known back then, Princess Shuri, which as we’ve explained before is a common Japanese name, singing of course the iconic Binks’s Sake. While Binks’s Sake is known as a famous song that was “sung by pirates of old” according to Brook, it makes sense that a music lover like him would know it even when he was still a knight. We see that at this time Princess Shuri is 7 years old, which would make her 77 in the present as Brook said. She already had heterochromia rather than being something later caused by Imu it would seem, which makes sense as Brook recognized her different eyes. Her nose also always appears to be runny in every panel, which would be a funny reason as to why she keeps it covered all the time, as maybe even now it still continues to run. The blade on her back indicates she idolizes the knights like her mother or Brook, and she also has a unique laugh, being “dehehe”.

Fascinatingly, this is actually the first time we’ve ever seen Brook’s eyes. Yes, the first time in the whole manga, because every time we saw him in the past, it was always with sunglasses on, with the eyes being even covered during his time of death. We saw a brief drawing of Brook as a child during one of Oda’s color spreads in Chapter 726, but even then he was wearing sunglasses. Here we finally get to see the eyes, which fascinatingly have eyelashes jutting downwards. This is quite bizarre, as a lot of people already said that Brook looks a lot like Teach did. A puffy afro similar to the one Teach had as a child, puffy lips, and now pretty much even the same eyes. Considering he’s from the West Blue… is it really possible that Brook had some Davy lineage within him, long before God Valley fell?

We are also introduced to the king of Esperia, being King Reuven (or alternatively Ruwen, Luwen, Leuven, or something that fits that phonetic spelling). His wife, Queen Candelle, is Brook’s object of admiration, so the King threatens Brook with Capital Punishment for treason, as he feels like he might just try to dispose of him to end up with Queen Candelle. Brook assures however that he has no such evil desires, simply wishing to steal his wife only after he’s died naturally, like a true gentleman. What is interesting is that Brook refers to the king as “aniki”, which means “big bro”, before correcting himself to King. It’s difficult to say if Brook was simply being friendly with the King or if the two are actually related. It would make sense, as the king also has those puffy lips and eyelashes jutting downwards, and his claim of sedition would make sense if the throne would go from him to Brook after he died. It makes sense that being the second prince, Brook would have a high ranking position within the government of Esperia, so at least it adds up, and more than anything, the fact that Brook feels like he needs to correct himself makes it sound like someone who accidentally called a family member directly rather than by his title rather than him being just on friendly terms, because if the King was okay with being called “aniki” then Brook wouldn’t need to correct himself. This also adds to the gag of the King being jealous that Gunko treats Brook more like a father figure rather than her actual father, which would also work out logically if he were her uncle.

A guard however quickly interrupts to bring up an attack by a Gang cavalry unit, and the fact that this takes place in the West Blue makes it clear very quickly what kind of Gang this is, surely being from one of the Five Great Families. This is made clearer in the map of the kingdom where a skull and crossbones featuring a fedora hat can be seen, an indication of a criminal gang. As a reminder, the Five Great Families are the organized crime families that control the West Blue’s Underworld, which have had a great hold over the underworld of the ocean until Bege caused the whole system to fall into chaos when he began taking out the family heads for fun some years ago. In this case, they refer to this as the Murlon Family, which was likely the predecessor of Don “West Blue Gang” Marlon, the member of the Rocks Pirates, who would then be succeeded far in the future by Capone “Gang” Bege. Marlon was likely named after actor Marlon Brando who played in the Godfather, but Murlon is likely just a riff on that. The mobsters appear to be after Queen Candelle, who is currently at the Opera House enjoying a performance, but the king is unable to contact her because all den den mushi in the opera house are set to “silent mode”, a funny joke about the concept of setting phones to silent mode when one is at a theater due to good manners, something even more commonly applied in Japan.

Candelle

The gang appears next to the Opera House, riding atop zebras, likely because those zebras are as striped as their outfits are. But Brook quickly deals with them, having already slashed them in the morning but his cut being so incredibly delayed that even hours later it finally goes into effect.

With that, we are introduced to Queen Candelle, an incredibly handsome monarch bearing the ouftit of a knight, with Brook claiming that she could quite hold her own in a fight. It would seem that she was the former Knight Commander before Brook took the position, but ended up marrying the King, likely after meeting in that position. Oda draws her with a very masculine beauty, with her knightly appearance contrasting with her feminine charm, which an apperance so stunning that even the women are falling for her. The character design is highly reminiscent of that of Oscar, the main character of the shojo manga the Rose of Versailles, starring Oscar François, the daughter of the Knight Commander of Versaille’s Royal Guards who poses as a man to succeed her father, giving her this strong masculine and feminine charm. Rose of Versailles is a historically acclaimed manga which Oda even cited enjoying finally getting around to reading in recent years during one of his author comments. Interestingly he also considered blonde as one of Gunko’s hair colors when designing her, which makes me wonder if he also wanted to go for a similar blonde hair for her mother just like Oscar.

The question remains however, how did things fall apart? We know that Gunko would supposedly end up killing the King, whom Brook referred to as his “benefactor” (恩人), but he now believes she likely did so under manipulation. We did get a brief panel of her calling out “father” (although her appearance would suggest she was a bit older than now), seemingly crying at his death, before she was taken to the Holyland, but that’s as far as we know. I think really here the key is why exactly Gunko was taken to become a Celestial Dragon, as she definitely appears to be quite special. During the time of God Valley she was a God Servant Blade, only to then later finally join the God Knights, but she was already serving Imu before then and was already granted perennial youth quite seemingly, a privilege not even the likes of Garling and other God Knights were granted if they weren’t in the Gorosei.

Furthermore, now Gunko is a member of the Manmayer Family, but was she always born a Celestial Dragon, or was she “adopted”, perhaps in a similar way to how Harald or Loki were invited to join the God Knights (although in Harald’s case it doesn’t seem like he particularly inherited a family name, so could she perhaps truly been born as one?). Ridiculous as it may be to suggest, I wonder if perhaps Candelle was Manmayer Candelle, a God Knight and Celestial Dragon, who infiltrated this kingdom in a similar way to how Garling inflitrated God Valley and seduced a local woman there, who we now know was named Magnolia, until he had two kids with her. Perhaps in a similar way, Candelle was trying to locate the members of the Davy Clan like Brook and the King? Particularly in the same way that Oscar was undercover in Rose of Versailles, Candelle is doing the same here, and Murlon even said that Candelle deceived him in the past.

Alternatively, maybe this conspiracy theory means nothing and Imu somehow took interest in Gunko here for some other reason. Maybe Esperia was victim to a Genocide Tournament, as we don’t know if it’s Government affiliated, or perhaps it was victim to some other grand disaster. But Brook now calls it a “fallen kingdom”, after which he seemingly would’ve escaped to live as a pirate, wishing to leave the past behind after witnessing Shuri’s betrayal of killing her father, oblivious to the real truth until now, as we are to uncover it alongside him!