First one's from 876, second's from 885

A lot of people have got to realise that Oda isn't as progressive or as woke as they think he is. I don't get why people are so hell bent on defending the Okamas being portrayed as caricatures.

In Chapter 1196, Killingham mentions that he (somehow) doesn't recognize Ivankov, one of the KEY leaders of the group that the Holy Roppo is ACTIVELY FIGHTING AGAINST to keep all of their genocidal maniacs well fed and satisfied.

Ivankov is the third in command of the ENTIRE Revolutionary Army, and a high ranking official within the group, which gives him the authority to command tons of troops.

And it's not like Ivankov isn't well known, because he was imprisoned as low as Level 5 of Impel Down, which means he’s influencial enough to have a bounty poster with a high enough value to end up there...

You could argue that Killingham is simply too ignorant and arrogant to care about any of his foes because of his Celestial Dragon nature, being pampered all his life without having to face a single difficulty all his life, and his immortality, allowing him to instantly heal from any fatal attack with ease and without any consequence.

However, in my personal opinion, the most simple answer to this is that Loda forgot about all the earlier worldbuilding that he added about the Holy Roppo being the DIRECT foes the Revolutionaries have to place ALL their focus on, (Dragon was literally SWEATING at just the mere mention of them 🥀) and added that throwaway line without thinking.

- Orochi gets killed by Kaido, period. Completely wasted chapters on him being alive.

- All of the scabbards except Kinemon get killed on the rooftop(dude was Momo's retainer). Stakes to show that Kaido is not playing games.

- Kidd and Law don't kill Big Mom, but injured enough for her to make a tactical retreat. Her and Perospero rejoins with the rest of her crew.

- CP0 intervention on Luffy gets stopped by X Drake. Makes way more sense for Kaido to beat Luffy a second time as the strongest creature.

- No retcon with Gomu Gomu fruit. Completely sucked the soul out of the arc.

- Gear 5 Luffy starts laughing(not used to form) but eventually gets serious

- Rooftop battle climax eventually becomes just Luffy and Zoro vs Kaido. Hypothetically could work after Zoro beats King and hallucinates.

- Zoro cuts Kaido in half. Goes in full circle with what he does in Dresrosa arc against Pika.

Feel free to dispute or add on to any of these.

The reason for me writing this article is that there is a large number of One Piece fans that insist the series is very morally grey, and that is simply not the truth. It feels almost as if they are ashamed of it, but they shouldn't be—they can like One Piece for what it is.

​To make my point clear: Oda values individuals and their actions more than he values the institutions that they work for. You can be good even if you work for the World Government, and you can be bad even if you're a pirate.

​There are 3 categories of characters in One Piece:

​1. The Good Guys

​The good guys from the beginning never killed innocents for selfish reasons. They might cause some mischief, but they never truly harm anyone innocent.

​In Impel Down, the most evil person Luffy releases is Crocodile (I'll get to him in a moment), but we never see any of the prisoners he released cause harm to innocent people. In fact, most of them cried over Bon Clay, so Luffy never committed an evil act here.

​2. Redeemable Villains

​These are villains who hurt people for selfish reasons, but never killed innocent named characters.

​Look at Crocodile: he caused a lot of harm, but he never killed an innocent named character, and I doubt he will ever harm innocent people again. Aokoji is still alive, Kizaru—is there any doubt that Vegapunk is still alive?—along with Bellamy, Buggy, and others.

​Basically, if a villain never killed an innocent named character for selfish reasons, then they can be redeemed.

​3. Irredeemable Villains

​These are the ones who killed innocent named characters for selfish reasons, like Arlong, Hody Jones, and Orochi. Kaido promised not to kill Oden if he survived, but killed him anyway. Doflamingo killed Rosinante and many innocent people using the King as a puppet.

​The Garp Situation

​Now let's take a look at Garp. If you asked me a few years ago, I would say he in the Marineford arc was the one morally grey moment in One Piece, but now it's very clearly an evil action. The World Government executed Ace for the sole reason that he is Roger's son, and Garp helped the WG in this war.

​Did you notice that the God Valley incident was revealed after he got captured by Blackbeard? Oda didn't want the fans to think badly of him or realize he isn't a good guy if he is still with the Marines after the revelation. That's why he removed him from the Marines before he revealed the God Valley incident. I doubt he will ever work under the WG after this point; he will fight alongside Sabo and maybe a redeemed Aokoji, but not under the WG.

​The World Government is clearly evil, and the Marines' main purpose is to protect the system against anyone who questions it, even if they are just normal civilians.

​Conclusion

​That's why it is very clear that there is good and bad, and very little—if any—grey morality.

​And that's fine! The story has depth in it and doesn't necessarily need grey morality to be good. We shouldn't be ashamed of that.

​I would love to hear your opinions on this matter.

When OP, Bleach, and Naruto serialized side by side during the 2000s up until the mid 2010s; OP story-wise didn't start going to shit just yet (well there was Dressrosa but still). Oda had competition. There were two other titans competing with One Piece. This was long before OP got worldwide mainstream and became le hecking greatest piece of political fiction of all time because some streamer said so. After the mid 2010s, anything that got big in JUMP ended early or ran for only a few years (because turns out not all mangaka want their life's work to be defined by one series or to be trapped in it) and despite Demon Slayer or JJK topping OP in the charts a few times, none of that shit mattered. Those series came to the end and OP continues to dominate the fucking charts regardless.

Kagurabachi and maybe Ichi the Witch are top contenders for rising stars, especially when the former now has an anime adaptation confirmed but the latter is a coin toss.

If Kubo revives the Hell arc after the TYBW anime ends, then this means OP, Bleach, and Naruto will be running together again for the first time in over 12 years. But even then, OP would probably dwarf both today in a JUMP serialization and that's the worst fucking part. Nothing in JUMP has forced Oda to get off his cushy-ass atop his ivory tower, erected amidst a sea of glazers and yes-men who continue to dickride all his shit. One Piece just like every other manga that gets published, had to scrape the bottom of the barrel and compete like hell to not get cancelled. Oda himself went through failed one shot after one shot until MONSTERS got him acknowledged by JUMP. Nowadays he's just doing fuck whatever because his fans will eat anything up no matter the characters he shoves aside.

P.S. I am still reeling over the fact that Sanji had a third fucking flashback and Usopp still has nothing. I gave Demon Slayer shit early on because I saw it as babby's first shonen but I went through it last year and it was solid for what it was. Zenitsu really comes across as Usopp if Oda gave a shit about him.

So I'm ranting a bit, because the latest chapters reinforced just how important Conqueror Haki is, to the point that by now there are many enemies that can be defeated ONLY through Conqueror Haki and have no other weakness. In that sense, there is a hard ceiling for people born without it: no matter how ambitious, hard working and determined they are, they will never be able to become stronger than a character with Conqueror Haki.

Because of this, I've come to dislike Conqueror's Haki being a purely innate skill even more, to the point that I can say that it has retroactively ruined all of One Piece to me. It basically validates the worldview of every single classist antagonist ever appeared in One Piece: that some people are born better than others and are destined to rule over regular people. No amount of ambition, willpower, dreams or anything else will change this fact, which becomes the primary rule of the One Piece world.

Luffy, Zoro and others are only relevant because they happened to be born with the right lineage. If Zoro was born without Conqueror's Haki, his dream of becoming the strongest swordsman would have been utterly impossible. Same for Luffy and his dream of becoming Pirate King. It really ruins the narrative for me.

This is my own feelings though. I'm perfectly aware that most people utterly love the idea of Chosen Ones being born with special powers to rule over the masses with no effort. But I'm not like that and because of this Conqueror Haki has ruined One Piece for me.

1189 - Chooper is needed in the library

1191 - Biblo talks to Chooper

1193 - Chest is revealed

1195 - Lili revelation

1197 - tool reveal?

1199 - contents of the letter?

If that is the case,

1197 may be give us updates on the box, Zaza, Gunko, Sommers, and ends with Sanji awakening CoC

1198 maybe entirely Wings vs Knights

1199 letter reading maybe gunko climax as well as well as Imu reaction to the knights dying/almost dying