第192回：A Mother’s Flame

As we head into the new arc there are so many mysteries getting solved one after the other but there are still plenty of mysteries left to be solved! Not the least of which are mysteries from the past like the secret of Luffy's mother! While there are plenty of theories and speculations from fans surrounding her, there's one person who might actually be a good 'hint' of what kind of person she is!

While I don’t believe there’s any blood-relation between Luffy and Dadan (nor would I want it any other way) I do think that this concept of what Odacchi had for Luffy’s mother was transferred over to Dadan. But…what’s the association to the Mother Flame? Well, let’s just say that for all intents and purposes, Dadan is a stand-in for Luffy’s mother. Whether she ever appears in the story or not we can’t know for sure but, as far as we know, the woman who *raised* Luffy was Dadan and throughout Luffy’s journey she’s been watching him from afar like a proud parent.

However, as of late, we’ve seen her take the brunt of a lot of emotional stress related to her ‘sons’. After the assumed death of Sabo she saw Ace then Luffy take to the sea and within just a few years Ace was dead and she was left helpless, only able to blame Garp. Now, yet again, she’s left in East Blue clutching a newspaper without even the ability to take her frustrations out on Garp.

In short, a mother can only take so much heartbreak before she’ spurred to action and I believe that sooner (rather than later) Dadan is going to take her bandits with her and fight to protect Luffy and his crew when they’re needed.

The government might have some sort of secret weapon, but I guarantee you, hell hath no fury like a REAL mother’s flame!

At long….looong…last, it seems that the Strawhats will finally be traveling to the island of giants, Elbaf!

And just as much as we’ve been anticipating this development, so have Luffy and Usopp! In fact, they’re reacting exactly the same in this chapter as they did in Chapter 129!