This chapter was a bit of an infodump while giving the Strawhats a reason to hurry the hell out of Fishman Island.

Dear anime, feel free to animate this fight.

For the Marine’s sake, I think Akainu is a far better choice than Aokiji to lead when you factor basically every personality trait the two have. Akainu leading is definitely ideal for the Marines, and the man was responsible for killing Ace after all, so I find the reward fitting after Sengoku stepped down. I also find Akainu’s idea of justice far more suitable for what the Marines really want to do; continue keeping the void century a secret and shutting down Pirate crews. Aokiji would’ve just been more of the same like Sengoku. Now no longer a Admiral, Aokiji becomes a wildcard that could rebel against the Marines, maybe even join some faction… or join the Revolutionaries.

Welcome to the big leagues, Teach.

Also fitting is Blackbeard being labeled one of the Emperors (Yonko) in place of the man whom he stole the Gura-Gura ability from. But even more scary and almost incredibly overpowering is the ideal of the “Ability Hunt”. It’s kind of like an RPG where you fuse different materia or w/e together and can come up with crazy things like Fire Whirlwind or some mix of other techniques; it opens the doors for many possibilities, I just hope that there are repercussions to it and doesn’t come off as overpowering. What would be a great reveal is to see an ability used that makes the reader come to the realization that someone was killed. Finding out somebody like X Drake died that way seems more emotionally investing than just seeing him succumb to the World Government or even see the Blackbeards stealing it from him. Once we find out what their method is for stealing abilities might be when every single bit of information about the Devil Fruits should be revealed. I’m not saying that as a prediction, I’m saying that as a request to Oda to start filling in blanks. steev and I have wondered exactly what Blackbeard did, how the Devil Fruit digests in one’s body, etc.

Hody Jones, more like Oldy Jones, amirite? haha... I kill myself sometimes. 🙂

I remember the pills being all about the Fishmen getting stronger, and it makes sense to have repercussions to it, but what this does do to Hody Jones is decrease his hopes of being involved in things ever again. It’s kind of like dying, but isn’t. I’ll just assume that by a couple arcs he’ll be dead and forgotten. If he comes back, it’s kind of dumb.

As for Big Mam, it seems like her relationship with Whitebeard was shallow. Gimme candy or people are going to die! When you gather a bunch of strong people, somebody has to be the weirdo (see: Gecko Moria, former Warlord) and Big Mam might fit that bill. The effects of the Candy Factory being destroyed sometime ago means that the Strawhats better hightail it out of there, cause you just can’t keep hanging out and eating with Jinbei. There’s also that treasure from Carribou that Nami really wants, but will she get it in time? And in his almost molestation-esque attempt to capture Weakyhoshi, he finally accomplished his main goal in the arc — be a speedbump for the Strawhat crew.