#chapter 550

[everyitachi]

[algumaideia]

He is the son of Gol D Roger???????

I really did not expect that

NO 😭

[calekinnieplus]

Would you look at that? I've read 5 hours today. Not too shabby. Also reached chapter 550, noice

Anyway, Klein just Loves involving himself in matters concerning gods, huh? Not that I'm complaining, it's very entertaining

This time it was a goddamn Sea God, Kalvetua (I had to double check how to spell that name).

Poor Danitz, he is now tied to Gehrman Sparrow for a while. He is definitely fine with that hahaha. (He kinda reminds me of Emlyn, with his reluctant cooperation with Klein lmao)

Edwina Edwards is so cool tho. Imagine havimg the authority to convince a bunch of pirates to attend classes. Badass.

Just Elland is a cool guy, too. I appreciate his fairness. He is great for that (He's like Detective Isengard Stanton: the Sea version heh)

Alger is such a crafty fox lmao. His eye for the perfect opportunity is impeccable, very admirable. o7 to you, Mr Hanged Man. Here's to your future advancement to Sequence 6 🥂 love seeing you more in this volume, Mr Wilson

Audrey and Fors advanced to Sequence 7 and 8 respectively! Good for them! They're so lovely, but they have less of a focus this arc, it seems. That's alright, each character brings something interesting to the table when it's time.

And of course! I can't go to sleep before I mention how much of an absolute BADASS Klein - or should I say, Gehrman Sparrow - has been in these chapters!! HE'S SO EPIC AND SMART AND RESOURCEFUL AND CAREFUL AND STRATEGIC AND RUTHLESS AND- kind. At his core, it's still Klein Moretti. And Klein Moretti is kind. Even in this world, which seems to desire madness and chaos. Kudos to Klein. Keep it up, dear boy

Until next time :)

[everykillerbee]

[amphitriteswife]

Guys he’s actually so hot……okay i’ll go stand in the corner…

[eutanasya]

Lookism 550

[fun-size-sunshine]

It’s so crazy to me how one of my fanfic/fandom involved friends willingly read all of tgcf knowing it was longer than the Bible yet flat-out refuses to read orv

[sunflowercider]

sometimes i remember that a small teen kim dokja looked up "ways to survive" just after surviving a jump out of a window and then i have to like. take a few steadying breaths.

[drowning-moonlight]

Public Executions in One Piece, Inherited Will, and how Gol D Roger Haunts the Narrative

Since I've gotten caught up in the manga, I am struck by how executions - especially public ones - are used as a narrative device and are even used for character development in some ways as well. Specifically in how the characters that are executed may die physically but their Wills and spirit lives on. There are the obvious ones like Ace and Roger but I also see this with character such as Mont Blanc Noland and Kozuki Oden. I see certain parallels between these government sanctioned killings that I'm sure Oda wrote the story that way on purpose.

Historically and in media like One Piece, public executions serve the purpose of not only punishing the person being killed for crimes they committed - real or perceived - but also to discourage others from committing similar crimes. The thing with One Piece though is that most of these public executions backfire on the ones in charge.

Ace and Roger's executions mirror each other in that the Marines and World Government wanted to end piracy but instead both of them being killed actually ushered in new ages of piracy.

Roger turned himself in and the Marines used his public execution as an opportunity to basically say something like, "Hey, we have the King of Pirates here and we're going to kill him in front of the whole world. This will happen to every pirate we can get our hands on. We are able to kill the King himself, we can definitely get you small time pirates too so you might as well give up being pirate!" But Roger's last words of course completely flipped this around declaring, "If you can find my treasure, the One Piece, then you too can be the next Pirate King!" He destroyed the Navy's plans with his final words and kicked off an era of far more piracy than there ever was before. He dies in body but not in spirit. His spirit and Will lives on for literal decades after his death in every single person who goes searching for the One Piece. The Marines may have succeeded in killing the man but they failed so spectacularly with killing his spirit.

Likewise with Ace's execution, the Navy wanted to end Roger's bloodline and pick a fight with Whitebeard, the strongest pirate in the world at that time. By doing this, they wanted to end this New Age of Piracy. If they could kill the son of the previous Pirate King and also kill the pirate closest to becoming the next Pirate King in one fell swoop then surely this would discourage pirates the world over and prevent people from wanting to become pirates in the future. But again it backfired. The Marines may have succeeded in killing Ace and Whitebeard but their deaths - just as Roger's - ushered in another New Age of Piracy. Whitebeard's last words especially kicked off more people becoming pirates, "The One Piece is real!" Throughout the story we see a few times when characters don't believe that the One Piece is even real, and the Navy probably wants people to think that because if there's no big treasure to find, then there's less of a reason for people to be pirates. But Whitebeard stomps on that notion with his last words:

Ace's execution, which was meant to discourage piracy and get revenge on Roger for starting the New Pirate Age, actually sets off more piracy and changes the story from here on out. Though they both die, just like Roger before them, Ace and Whitebeard's death's carry on meaning and inspiration for future pirates. The world of One Piece is forever changed from this one moment. The story and main character is never the same again after this. Again, the Marine's may have succeeded in killing their physical bodies but the inherited Will of Ace and Roger and Whitebeard lives on in the next generation of pirates.

Roger's execution is also heavily paralleled by the execution of Mont Blanc Noland in the flashbacks of Skypeia. This execution wasn't as grand or far reaching as the Marines killing Roger but the parallel is there. Noland was executed by a king for the perceived crime of lying to said king. He wasn't a wanted criminal the way Roger was but their ends are the same.

The framing of his execution is so similar to Roger's. And later in the series, Ace's execution mirrors them both as well.

The visual parallels are so striking that I doubt it was done accidentally. And just as with Roger, Noland's execution spurred on others to look for the lost city of gold that Noland had found, not knowing that it was in the sky instead of in the ocean. Nolan's death didn't necessarily start a new age of piracy but it did inspire people to go looking for treasure. Which is exactly what Roger's death caused. This search for treasure trickled all the way down to his descendant Cricket and also Luffy, furthering the theme of Inherited Will.

Then there is Kozuki Oden's execution by Kaido in the Wano flashbacks. Kaido wanted to kill Oden for the danger he posed and so that Kaido could further take over Wano without the head of the Kozuki clan stopping him. Oden also wanted to open Wano to the rest of the world and Kaido wanted to stop that. But Oden's death had basically the same affect that Roger's death did: inspiring others and carrying on his will. Even Oden and Kaido himself say as much right before Oden dies:

Is this not metaphorically exactly how Roger died too? The circumstances of their deaths are different but they both still die knowing that their Wills will live on after they are gone. They know that they will not be forgotten. "My soul will live on!! For I am a story to accompany you drinks..." Roger lives on in this way as well, especially through Silvers Rayleigh.

Again, Kaido may have succeeded in killing Oden's body but his spirit lives on to inspire others in the future and thus doesn't really die. His execution backfires and Kaido is eventually taken down by those who carried on Oden's Will.

What's more interesting about this than the other public executions in the series is that Kaido seems to be aware that the death of Oden - and later Luffy - will be remembered. "They will speak of you for years to come," he says to a dying Oden. I find that fascinating. And when Luffy "died," Kaido again mentions that he will be remembered:

It's interesting to me that Kaido is aware that their death's won't really be the end for Oden and Luffy, whereas the Marines and WG definitely didn't seem to understand that publicly killing Roger, Ace, and Whitebeard would mean that they would essentially be martyred and live on in spirit. Kaido seems to have more understanding of what their deaths will cause than the Marines do, which I find... odd... and I'm not sure where to go with that thought.

I also find it interesting that Luffy doesn't care or even want to be remembered once he dies. It's just like Oden saying, "They can forget me, for all I care," but he does go on to say he's a story to accompany people's drinks. Luffy, on the other hand, doesn't seem to see his death that way. He says he doesn't need people to tell tales of his great battle and that once you're dead there's nothing left but bones. It honestly feels like sort of a hopeless statement from Luffy and I'm not sure how to interpret it. Roger seemed to know that his last words would insure that he would not be forgotten, so this difference with Luffy is interesting.

Now what Kaido did to Luffy wasn't a public execution like all the other deaths mentioned before but I think this interaction between them still sheds light on the theme of remembering people after they die. Even though Luffy seems to be saying that he doesn't want to be remembered after he dies, I think we can all agree that he will be remembered when and if that time comes.

And it all goes back to quite literally the very start of the series. Roger's execution is the very first thing we learn about in One Piece. It's the very first scene ever shown, the preamble, the prelude, whatever you want to call it. He's the first named character in the entire series. We learn about Roger's death and his impact on the story before we learn anything at all about Luffy himself.

Roger truly does Haunt the Narrative of One Piece so much and his execution is mirrored by multiple other characters throughout the series that it can't be a coincidence.

it's just... the public executions in One Piece truly do hit different than in other media, don't they?

[lloydfrontera]

sick and twisted that if i ever find official merch for tg/ed it's gonna be for the manhwa and its lame jokes instead of mangi's beautiful novel art. like. what's the point of living at this point.

[everyitachi]

[pttucker]

['Jung Heewon's' Story fragment has been extracted!] [Story fragment, 'I've seen the Demon King of Salvation's Black Flame Dragon', has been extracted.] Han Sooyoung narrowed her eyes. "Oh, so really close companions can show each other stuff like that too?" "Hahaha… Well, I think this device has developed some kind of an error." ['Lee Hyunsung's' Story fragment has been extracted!] [Story fragment, 'I've seen the Demon King of Salvation's Black Flame Dragon', has been extracted!] Jung Heewon asked, utterly taken back. "Hyunsung-ssi? Why do you also have that Story?" "Heewon-ssi, have you forgotten? We saw it together, didn't we?" "What is it, what is it? What did you two see together??"

They're all very close companions indeed. 😏

But wait, what does it mean by your fragment being 'I burst Demon King's Black Flame Dragon by mista-' Sooyoung???

Now, I'm going to be charitable and not go with the obvious first answer that comes to mind and assume it has to do with that time you accidentally killed him when you were SUPPOSED to be watching over his unconscious body. But didn't you kill him because you were prioritizing "saving the whale" over saving his life?

Sooyoung...did you go into ORV and change the past by writing the opposite happening?

Or am I just misunderstanding??? Did I forget some other scene involving Sooyoung and Dokja's black flame dragon???

[onejellyfishplease]

finally feeling to mojo to write more Open Your Shell!!

[everykillerbee]

[rsenak]

ive got to do something that has Something to show for it today

[wordspinning]

.