第182回：Oh, Hi Mark III

The Mark III Pacifista line is a technical marvel armed with some stunning defensive capabilities. While they appear to be at a loss compared to the all-rounder Seraphim, what they lack in overall capability, they make up for in (apparently?) ease of production. When Sentomaru unleashes 50 Mark III’s on Egghead, that number is…well, the defensive and, yes, destructive power is truly awesome when considered as a unit. While we know why Sentomaru deployed them, to me the most interesting aspect to explore is why *Odacchi* felt the need to introduce them. They’re not there ‘just to be cool’. Not FIFTY of them. They’re here to provide an extremely useful function the story and to make Odacchi’s job *significantly* easier.

The role of the 50 Mark III’s is to serve role’s traditionally delegated to ‘friendly mobs’. Past examples would be the villagers of Cocoyashi, the Guerillas on Skypiea, the Franky Family, Impel Down Level 5.5 prisoners, G-5 Marines etc. They’re essentially back-up characters whom Odacchi can carefully place like Stratego spy pieces to speed up, or conversely, slow down the plot as needed. As the Strawhats became more powerful, the need for friendly mobs might seem to have diminished considering their capability, but since Odacchi attempts to up the ante every arc, they continue to play roles in the series. In order to be a friendly mob, the group must collectively: willingly or unwillingly assist the Strawhats, in doing so speed up or slow down the pace of the story, and most importantly, be composed of a LOTTA people!

The idea is, our Strawhats are (usually) the heaviest hitters on the heroic side (yes, Luffy doesn’t wanna be a hero, but dramatically he is) so they cannot be outshined by the friendly mobs, therefore, the only way the friendly mob can be realistically helpful is by having sheer numbers on their side to make up for what they lack in pure bulldozing strength as individuals.

So what are the Mark III’s going to do on Egghead? Will they slow things down or speed things up? With the Strawhats being separated from the lower region of Egghead (for now) and a slew of Marines heading straight for them, I would argue that their duty appears to be *slowing down* the action. This slowing down doesn’t necessarily mean it will drag out the story in real time for readers. Certainly it could! But it’s just as likely to create a plausible scenario for the Mark III’s to slow down the progression of whatever Marine forces arrive at Egghead.

Imagine if the Marines appear on Egghead and there’s nothing there to face them. Considering that an Admiral is with them, it’s unrealistic to believe they wouldn’t immediately bulldoze their way through even the most stubborn of barriers and clash with the Strawhats. With 50 rogue overpowered cyborgs working in coordination, it makes sense that the action/antics in the Labo can continue for an extended and realistic length of time, while the Marines deal with the Mark III’s.

In the same vein, if there’s some kind of nasty government permissions workaround, they could easily be turned on the Strawhats and become very, VERY unfriendly mob. And unfortunately, unfriendly mobs usually only serve the purpose to hasten the story, and not usually in a direction that benefits or main cast. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen!

We’ve learned that *something* is special about Kuma’s race and/or identity but it’s still something of a mystery. However, I would suggest that we may already have met at least one of his kind! Thanks to his hatless depiction in Chapter 1072, it’s crystal clear that Kuma’s bear-like ears are different from his human-like ears. They weren’t even present when his head was shaved as a child and THAT’S the biggest clue! What character had animal ears AND human ears?

Bingo! Mohji! Mohji from waaaay back in the beginning of the series! Mohji’s hair grew into those fantastic and absurd proportions! Are Kuma and Mohji from the same race?!

Please, please, please don’t forget about these jewels that Nami found!

I can’t say for certain, but I strongly believe that these jewels will serve as a motivation for Nami to return to this point against every other ounce of survival sense in her body! Spending so much panel real estate to finding them, describing them, then deliberately LEAVING THEM screams of something more than just a ‘for laughs’ Nami gag.

I have a few ideas for how they could be utilized. For instance, jewels can refract, or ‘slow down’ light, yeah? “Scaryyyy.”