#op ch136

[salteytakesonmanga]

Something that I think keeps One Piece fun to read is how many times things go wrong, and in unexpected ways. We thought the lapins would be a problem because they were dangerous monsters that would attack them, but even with Luffy unable to fight the lapins themselves were relatively easy to deal with. What actually gave them trouble was the environment.

If the only challenge your protagonists face is simply a “stronger” enemy the only way to move the story forward is to just keep making everyone stronger, stronger, stronger. Enemies with weird skills, environmental challenges, preparing for one type of problem only to find yourself confronted with a different one means coming up with new and varied solutions, and that makes the characters grow in interesting ways.

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece #sanji #luffy #nami #technically

[salteytakesonmanga]

I don’t know much about how Japanese people feel about their healthcare system, but speaking as an American, Wapol’s blithe attitude about how a system he created and controls can’t be changed because of “politics” is hitting a little too close to home.

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece #wapol #dalton

[salteytakesonmanga]

I’d forgotten how many of the major themes of the series are introduced in Drum Island!

This is the first time we’re introduced to the idea of a country presenting itself with a rosy and idealized image to the world while the reality is very different. Drum Kingdom as a kingdom of medicine, but it’s only medicine for the royal family. Sabaody as playground, but only for humans, and only if you’re not enslaved. Goa as a clean and beautiful kingdom, but only for nobles. Dressrosa and Whole Cake as happy fairytale lands that hide a terrible hidden cost. Even Enies Lobby as the seat of justice, even though the court is a sham.

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece #dalton

[salteytakesonmanga]

This is so realistic. Of course you’re going to miss the turn when you ABSOLUTELY can’t afford to miss it (even if this winds up working out okay for them.)

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece #usopp #vivi #nefertari vivi #technically

[salteytakesonmanga]

Sacrifices are a big theme in this arc, so it’s interesting to compare how it’s handled here versus how it was handled throughout the East Blue arc. Even though it’s still a “sacrifice,” there are a lot of differences. The situations are different, the individuals are different, and so you have to deal with them differently.

One Piece demands a lot of nuanced thinking from its readers. You might come into this arc thinking “ah, once again we’re going to be reminded that sacrifices only cause needless suffering and we’re supposed to ask our friends for help” but then you realize Oda is taking the theme in a completely different direction, while also not undermining his earlier point at all.

We’re going to have to get comfortable holding contradictory and equally correct ideas in our head at the same time, and making up our own minds about it.

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece #dalton #don

[salteytakesonmanga]

This is such a badass line.

Oda does a really good job of keeping his characters balanced. Dalton is designed like a very typical macho character: huge and bulky and muscular, square jaw, a soldier, grim determination. But he also made Dalton a very gentle person, humble and caring and sensitive. That gentleness isn’t made into a joke, he’s not a “gentle giant” or a comically bumbling guy who doesn’t know his own strength. These two aspects of Dalton aren’t presented as contradicting each other or being opposite sides of him, they’re just who he is.

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece #dalton

[salteytakesonmanga]

To Wapol, this is entirely immaterial. Other people’s lives only matter to him as much as he can use them. Essentially, “l’état, c’est moi.” The state is me and I am the state. The nation does not exist for any other purpose but my benefit, and without me this country is nothing.

I think a lot of people tend to get hung up on technicalities in situations like this. Wapol is probably actually correct, according to the laws of the kingdom. Dalton would be the one who is the criminal here. But to Dalton the real crime is Wapol’s selfishness and the way he treated his citizens.

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece #dalton #op chess #wapol

[salteytakesonmanga]

It’s interesting how the source of each villain’s entitlement is slightly different. Beauty, rank, strength, race, and now class… Each one of these things makes some people think they’re intrinsically better than other people, and that’s a good enough justification for the way they exploit and mistreat others, and of course each one is bullshit.

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece #wapol #kuromarimo

[salteytakesonmanga]

All four of these men - Dalton, Chess, Kuromarimo, and Wapol - are around the same age, in their late 20s or early 30s. Knowing that gives me a different perspective on what kind of dynamic they must have had. Despite saying they were “equals,” it feels more like a group of school-age bullies led by one rich kid and his sycophants with the token gofer reluctantly trailing behind them. (Just say Mean Girls, Saltey, it’s what you were thinking anyway.)

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece #op chess #kuromarimo

[salteytakesonmanga]

Oda had a lot of fun with the fashions and background characters for this cover series. (Django is apparently standing in front of the Doskoi Panda store!)

#one piece #op ch136 #one piece cover stories #saltey takes on one piece #django #doskoi panda #i was like #i wonder why my engagement was so low yesterday #is something wrong? #and then i remembered the straw hats basically don't appear in these chapters at all #so nobody could find anything through the tags lol #anyway #on with the show

[salteytakesonmanga]

The in between stages of Zoan transformations are really freaky. Dalton looks like a stereotypical devil here, which is probably something Oda played up on purpose. It could simply be to make this scene cooler but it could also be meant to hint about how Dalton sees himself as sharing the blame with Wapol for the state of Drum Kingdom.

We get a little about Dalton’s history during Chopper’s flashback, but I’m curious what debt Dalton had to the previous king. It’s not especially important to the story, but considering how long Dalton stuck around despite his troubled conscience it must have been a pretty weighty one.

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece #dalton

[salteytakesonmanga]

I have questions about Wapol’s physiology

Obviously since his fruit power allows him to incorporate the things he’s eaten into his body, his treatment would be more “repair” than anything else.

#one piece #op ch136 #saltey takes on one piece