第76回：Cool Hand Rook

If you’ve been waiting in anticipation for the other shoe to drop in the Whole Cake Island arc, Chapters 856 and 857 gave you your ticket to the hype train!

As some fans expected, Bege is indeed involved in a plot to dethrone Big Mom!

Chapter 856’s mysterious shadowy figures hunting down Bobbin supported the notion of *another* mysterious twist to the Vinsmoke and Charlotte wedding. The leftmost figure has Bege’s signature triangular outline but Capone’s lines from Chapter 857 suggest that he wasn’t present. Is this an unknown lieutenant in Capone’s crew?

The right-most figure, judging from Vito’s account, is likely our ‘handy’ friend himself.

As for the bulky silhouette in the middle, the straight edge of the right arm as well as the slight cock of the head is a dead-giveaway, Gotti with his gun arm!

There’s plenty of room for speculation and theories but with the story moving ahead at breakneck speed there’s no way this column can keep up! Instead, let’s slow things down a bit and gaze adoringly at some background details.

Bege is designated as a ‘Rook’ which should pique the interest of fans who were careful to note Bobbin’s designation as ‘Bishop’ and Baron Tamago as a ‘Knight’. Apparently, Mom applied a chess theme to her crew members as well her dispensable Homie army but what’s the difference between the titles?

Well, whether or not there’s a hierarchy between the units remains to be seen but, if Oda-sensei places the same value on units as when he depicted the chess soldiers, a Rook is *pretty* significant.

Rooks are considered more valuable than Knights and Bishops (which are equal in value). At the Cliffside Pekoms told Bege he was taking Mom too lightly but a Firetank/Strawhat combo under the perfect conditions shouldn’t be taken too lightly either!

Oh! And did you see Capone’s giant castle attack!? Please let there be a tank-tread golem-castle in One Piece’s future!

The details of Roger’s journey around the world and through the Grand Line are still largely a mystery but this episode helped fans gain some insight to the Pirate King’s grand adventure. Dogstorm told Nami that *normally* a trip to the end of the Grand Line reveals a great secret about the world, a secret which may be fully deciphered only by travelling back through the Grand Line *a second time* and deciphering the Poneglyphs.

This suggests that Roger travelled through the Grand Line *twice*. Although the date of his first trip is unknown, it seems that his first meeting with Rayleigh -as seen in Rayleigh’s flashback- was prior to his first trip through the Grand Line. Exactly how many crew members did he travel to the end of the Grand Line with on his first trip!? Was it just Rayleigh? Did two remarkable men fight their way through the Grand Line together!?

Zunisha’s rumblings cause destruction and panic throughout the Mokomo Dukedom but in an anime-original scene, the Strawhats and Law rise to the occasion by offering rescue and safe transport to the locals.

While one’s mind boggles at how Franky might apply pressure to a chain it’s best to remind yourself that physics don’t matter, only Franky’s resolute heart and whale heart are what count here!