第82回：Tony Tony & Linlin, Kureha & Carmel

In this chapter we glimpsed a significantly different side of Mom than what many readers have come to expect; that of a well-meaning kind soul who doesn’t know the extent of her own strength and, as a result of that, causes more harm than good.

Where have we seen this before? Chopper! Chopper is an excellent parallel to Mom as a character who wanted to help others but whose ignorance made him dangerous.

Chopper was able to overcome this issue by *understanding* the results of his actions and studying hard. What if Mom, due to her intimidating size and power, has never been made fully aware of her actions as they relate to normal humans? If someone had the ability to reason with Mom on the same level, she might be able to get a glimpse into what the repercussions of her actions really mean.

When Kureha met Chopper, she berated him for practicing medicine on kindness alone and that caused a great change in Chopper. So what gives? Why did Carmel fail Linlin? Kureha didn’t discourage ‘kindness’, she went out of her way to discourage *ignorance behind kindness*. Chopper was immediately able to feel the effects of his actions but what about Mom? Would spanking Linlin for killing a bear really have taught her anything if Mom couldn’t understand why she was wrong? Probably not. I think Carmel made a long-term bet that it was better to reinforce positive-thinking in Linlin, rather than actively teach her violence.

Did Carmel’s bet pay off? Well, current-day Mom’s aspirations for Tottoland are commendable, but she clearly *still* has no understanding of her own power. If someone can’t teach her soon, I fear for the safety on everyone in Tottoland! If only there was someone in Tottoland right now who was known for his kindness… Or someone who packs enough punch to teach Mom a much-needed lesson…

Did you know that many of the names of Oda’s giants are based on professional wrestlers?

(Hey, is that Stansen taking a lunch break in the background? Not sure if his age fits but that headgear is definitely familiar)

And the giant simply named Road is probably a nod to the sensational wrestling pair of the late 80’s ‘The Road Warriors’.

That’s a lot of guys, isn’t it? Aren’t there any female wrestler allusions? Well, yes actually! She might not exactly be a giant but Warlord of the Sea, Boa Hancock’s name derives from Stacy Keibler’s personality, Miss. Hancock!

The wrestling references in One Piece don’t end there! Dressrosa was also overflowing with them! Let’s enjoy looking through them another day!

That was, uh…*pretty dark*! Oda-sensei, say it ain’t so! Let’s look at something, no, *anything* other than the grim implications of the world’s worst birthday party.

Our sojourn to Elbaf has given us the opportunity to see *potentially* the first female giantesses in the comic series!

I say ‘potentially’ because there are a few possible exceptions that I can’t be entirely certain of just quite yet. There are also examples of female giantesses from the animated series but let’s take a look at the potential female giants from the manga.

Since we’re talking about the female giants, I’m terribly interested in little (big) Gerd.

In human years she’d be somewhere around her 30’s and it seems far too tempting an age for Oda-sensei to avoid drawing his ideal image of a young female warrior giantess. You’ll definitely want to keep a bookmark in Chapters 866 and 867 for future reference!

Last episode I was itching to talk about the Sola scene so I didn’t get to address the revamped opening but now’s as good a chance as any! Sticking with the upbeat opening ‘We Can’, the anime production team has given the opening a new…face? Well, that’s what I’d like to say but since a brand new series of vignettes have been added to the *end* of the episode, it’s more like the opening has been given a new stylish set of shoes.

With the intro *heavily* promoting the clash with Kaido, should we expect this opening to carry us through to the end of Whole Cake Island? Maybe so! The end of the opening can be switched out to accommodate any arc as long as it leads up to Kaido so the crooning of Kishidan and Kitadani-san could potentially still be on the airwaves until this time next year!

Pekoms sharply acknowledges Yonji’s use of science instead of some kind of physical training or ability as a means of obtaining flight.

This will be an important theme to keep in mind during the coming arc. Technology makes our lives easier, but if we’ve gained power without understanding the *effort to gain said power* are we worthy of it or can we understand those without it? A tough question without an easy answer but this arc may offer some interesting suggestions for answers!

Side note, love this anime-only ‘robo-mecha’ callback scene of Chopper going starry-eyed over Yonji’s mech-like flight ability while Nami shows zero interest ^O^