Christian Ashley and TJ Blackwell dive into the epic Wano arc of One Piece, tackling the all-important question: just how crucial is this arc to the overall story? They kick off with a laid-back chat about the arc's significance, seamlessly transitioning into a vibrant discussion about the Straw Hats' wild adventures and the myriad of characters introduced along the way. From Luffy's epic battles to the intricate world-building that enriches the One Piece universe, they explore the action-packed sequences that keep fans on the edge of their seats. With a sprinkle of humor and insightful commentary, they dissect character growth, villain dynamics, and the jaw-dropping reveal of Luffy's Gear 5 transformation. It’s a deep-dive review that’s as engaging as it is entertaining, perfect for both die-hard fans and newcomers alike!

Exploring the Wano arc in One Piece is like diving into a treasure chest stuffed with epic battles, character evolution, and deep lore. Christian Ashley and TJ Blackwell kick things off by discussing the sheer importance of this arc, painting it as a pivotal moment in the One Piece saga. The duo delves into the specifics of the Straw Hats' arrival in Wano, noting how the arc's length doesn't drag; instead, it feels packed with action and intrigue. They highlight the character dynamics, particularly Luffy’s encounters, and how the arc introduces critical figures like Yamato and the complexities of the Wano country. The hosts share their thoughts on the villains' motivations, especially Kaido's tragic yet compelling desire for defeat, and how this reflects on the broader themes of the series. With their trademark banter, they also touch on the alliances formed during the arc, leading to a climactic showdown that feels both earned and exhilarating, culminating in a discussion about Luffy's Gear 5 transformation and its implications for the future of the story. Overall, the episode is a deep dive into not just the events of Wano, but what they mean for the world of One Piece, sprinkled with humor that keeps listeners engaged throughout.

Takeaways:

1. The Wano arc of One Piece is considered a monumental chapter in the series, showcasing pivotal character developments and intense battles that redefine the stakes for the Straw Hats.
2. Christian and TJ highlight how the Wano arc's length is deceptive, as it is packed with constant action and engaging storytelling that keeps viewers and readers hooked throughout.
3. The introduction of Gear Five marks a significant evolution in Luffy's character, transforming him into a symbol of liberation and chaos, reminiscent of classic cartoon antics.
4. The villainous duo of Kaido and Big Mom raises the stakes significantly, showcasing how their combined forces challenge the protagonists in unexpected ways, making for thrilling encounters.
5. Yamato's desire to embody Kozuki Oden reflects deeper themes of identity and rebellion against oppressive legacies, adding layers to character motivations in the Wano arc.
6. The analysis of character arcs and relationships, especially between Luffy, Yamato, and the Straw Hats, presents a rich narrative tapestry that resonates with fans, emphasizing growth and camaraderie.

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Our show focuses around our favorite fandoms that we discuss from a Christian perspective. We do not try to put Jesus into all our favorite stories, but rather we try to ask the questions the IPs are asking, then addressing those questions from our perspective. We are not all ordained, but we are the Priests to the Geeks, in the sense that we try to serve as mediators between the cultures around our favorite fandoms and our faith communities.

How important is the wano arc? We're gonna be asking this questions and a lot more on today's episode of System Echology. We are the priests of the geeks.

I'm your host, Christian Ashley. As we continue on through our coverage of one piece, arc by arc, I'm of course joined today by the true emperor, TJ Blackwell. How's it going, tj?

Wonderful, thank you.

Excellent. So, tj, what have you been geeking out on recently?

It's kind of. Well, I've really just been working. I've just been working like crazy re Breaking Bad.

I think since the last time I was asked this question, I watched all of Breaking Bad for the first time.

I know you'd started it. I didn't know you'd finish. What are your thoughts?

So good. Unbelievable. I hate it when everyone is right.

And like, oh, why haven't you watched? You're in the wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I hate it when it happens.

I like. Well, I like Breaking Bad in the fact that it is a good show. I don't like it in the hero worship a lot of people give to Walter White.

Very undeserved.

He's the villain of the story.

They make that pretty clear from episode one. But, you know, what is what it is. You know, media literacy is all at an all time low anyways, so that's to be expected.

Me, on the other hand, I just went through another rewatch of the Venture brothers to help me fall asleep at night because I've watched him before, and my gosh, that is one of the most tightly plotted shows in the world. All the one off references that season one will show up in season three or five and what have you. And I mean, they're geniuses. They're very crass.

I'm not very big on that part of it, but when it comes to the characterizations and the world building, they do fantastic.

Yeah. And Brock Sampson.

Oh, Brock Sampson, of course. All right. So T.J. would like to help me go through the events of Wano from beginning to end. I know that's a heavy order.

No Wano. I'm pretty sure Wano is longer than Dressrosa. I think wano is the longest arc in one piece.

It oddly doesn't feel like it is, but I think it is.

Yeah.

Comparatively speaking. I don't know what. Dressrosa just had that. That feeling.

Oh, dressrosa is a slog. Wano never felt like that, but it is longer. Maybe because it was continuous action happening.

Yeah, yeah.

There's Actually always something happening. Which is great. Which is great. Holy crap. There's just so much. So Straw Hats, you know, land on Wano. Takes a lot to get there.

But they're able to do it. It kind of is crafted sort of parallel to them entering the grand line just to have that kind of scale about it.

Because that's how big of a deal Wano is. So that's cool. The Straw Hats get split up when they get to Wano and it's Luffy by himself and pretty much everyone else together.

Luffy and the Thousand Sunny together. Everyone else ends up together and they kind of have to integrate. Wano is very Japan, you know, for the first time in the series.

And it has the isolationism. They're very xenophobic. At least they think so. They all kind of have to blend in. So that's how one of us starts is with them doing that.

We get introduced to, I say some of the more important characters pretty early. What is her name?

Yamato.

Yeah. Tama. Luffy meets her, saves her on the beach. And she's pretty important.

She contextualizes a lot of the hardships that Wano country goes through because of Kaido. And then we get Samurai Luffy. Super important to the story. Yes. Super important to the story. And they.

The rest of the Straw Hats get put up at arms against the Shogun who I hate. He's Orochi. And despite the fact that he has a really cool devil fruit. He's just such a loser, you know?

Yes.

Like he has the Orochi devil fruit. Like he's an eight headed dragon. He's just such a loser. He's so lame by definition.

You think that would be the cool guy, but no.

No. I woulda usually does a good job of like cool devil fruit cool guy. But man, he's a bum. He's awful. Wano is so long. Sorry.

It's been like six years since the start of Wano. At least to me. You know. The manga reacts.

Yeah. So they get into a little bit of trouble there. At one point Luffy ends up in prison for a little bit after failing to beat Kaido. Right?

Yeah.

Or is that. That is okay. Yeah. And then eventually they're able to escape from that. We learn that, you know, Momonosuke and Kinemon and the rest.

Kanjura and the rest of them are actually from 20 years in the past. And whose devil fruit was it that brought them to the res?

I don't remember her name.

Was it Hiori?

I think so.

I think. Yeah. His sister Yeah, I think that's it. Once again, like Kiji said, it's been a while. Yeah.

And the whole idea being is, well, they're looking for us now in the current past. So if we go 20 years in the future, maybe we can find a way to take down Kaido and not be as suspicious.

People aren't actively seeking out for us right now. And the reason for this is that Momonosuke is in the line of Odin and it's supposed to be like the rightful ruler of Wano.

And.

There's all this thing about a traitor being their midst too. But Kinemon refuses to believe in this. And unfortunately we do learn along the way that it was Konjiro.

His whole shtick about being a poor artist is actually false. Which is a pretty good reveal. I'll give it that.

It's pretty good. It's really good.

And in fact it can draw extremely well because he's been drawing with the wrong hand, if I remember correctly, to make it look like he's a terrible artist with his powers. But his whole thing is trying to give them up so that he can get what's his. And that does not end well for him. So Kaido initially defeats Luffy.

We see that Gecko Moria is back alive for a little bit and has attacked the Blackbeard pirates.

Yep.

Let's see.

There's a lot of little stuff that happens in.

Yeah.

Like there's a ton of big stuff. There's a lot of little stuff. X Drake is back in the story, which is awesome. I love X Drake.

But it was to destroy the Thomas village, which we don't actually get to see. We just know he did it, which kind of stinks. But I love X Drake, so I'll take what I can get. Hawkins. Yep.

The alliance starts coming in the Wano because they promised to help Luffy out there. We see CP0 meeting with Orochi. Some machinations there with the world government. Let's see. After that.

You know, there's a bunch of different battles that are happening around the area. A kid ends up in the mine in the the Prisoner Mine too. And this is when Big mom shows up on the scene.

But Amnesiac because of falling into the sea or something like that, and the sea messing with her. Yeah. And like for a moment it feels like she might be one of the good guys. Until eventually she does end up meeting with Kaido.

And we get the unholy villain alliance between Big mom and Kaido, which raises the stakes immensely considering what we saw her doing. Whole cake and what we're seeing Kaido do now. So that's really great. Let's see from there. That's. Oh, sorry.

This is when the battles really start happening on. We see everyone individually going off against different members of, you know, Wano's, you know, armed forces and other invading forces in the area.

What? From there, it's kind of hard to keep in order. To me.

I mean, once again, there's a lot.

There's a lot. It's an incredibly wide arc. There's stuff happening everywhere.

And we get some flashbacks about Odin and him. Oh yeah. We went out of sequence with the Conjuro thing. Sorry about that. But Odin's flashbacks. Of course. We are introduced to Yamato.

We'll get into her in a little bit.

And why, you know, she's important because she is also daughter of Kaido, but wants to emulate Kazuki Oden and as a result has rebelled against Daddy and joins up with the Straw Hats. But doesn't become a Straw Hat.

Even though a lot of people were speculating that's something that would have happened which I wouldn't have been opposed to.

It really felt like it.

Yeah. Marco ends up fighting as well. Joining up against, you know, joining with the alliance against Big mom and the like.

Because he's still got his own things with like, wanting to respect Whitebeard's wishes and seeing like the Next Generation become important. Luffy then fights against Kaido again. And this is when we get to that moment. You've probably seen Memed a thousand times over.

Especially when it came out with the reveal of Gear five, which you explain how that works real quick.

Yeah. So Luffy lost again. Luffy died. And then his Devil Fruit was like finally. And he became Joy Boy. He's Nika. Sun God Nika.

If you've listened to all of these episodes up to this point and you don't watch One Piece, I assume you don't care about spoilers. So. Yeah, it's not the Gum Gum Fruit. It is the Nika. Nika fruit. Mythical Zoan model Nika.

Yes.

Like it's. And it's just full Looney Tunes Wacky Zany. He's just a big goofy guy. Now Gear five is Bugs Bunny mode. And it rocks.

It's almost Toon Force as a power. Like it's getting. Getting really close. It's not full on Reality Warper like Toon Force actually is. If you pay attention to your who would win?

You know, nonsense and the like. But Luffy. Yeah. Bugs Bunny is a great description to make things a little wackier.

Because one thing that's Odo, one of his big things was that no matter how serious got things got in the series, he'd always have a guy with rubber powers making things funny. And this is a natural evolution of that. Where we learned that the Devil Fruit isn't what we thought it was this entire time.

It ties back into the lore with Joy Boy and being a symbol of hope for, you know, to destroy oppression and slavery and the like and make sure that people are actually can live in freedom. So Luffy ends up, you know, fighting against Kaido, doing much better this time around.

Big mom is taken down by a combined group of different, you know, pirate captains and the like, Lawn Kid. Lawn Kid, Yeah. Yeah.

And it's with this that they are actually able to liberate Wano from its current leadership and establish Momonosuke as, you know, the supreme leader of Wano, who then joins their alliance, officially becoming part of the Straw Hat Alliance.

Yep, yep. That sounds about the big stuff. That sounds like all the big stuff.

Yeah, I mean, there's plenty of like, other things that happen, so we'll get into some of that. So like, when you first finished this arc, what were your initial thoughts?

Tj, really? It's actually over, you know, I don't know. It kind of. Wano has kind of a strange ending because of Green Bull.

Yeah.

And Green Bull just kind of shows up like right after, and then it's kind of a non issue. Looking back on it. Like, I. None of that has been retained by me.

A lot of speculation about Green Bull, but just didn't really matter in a lasting way. Surely that'll change soon, I'm feeling. But Wano is a great arc.

Yes.

Just as long as Dressrosa. Not nearly as boring.

Pretty much solely responsible for like the massive resurgence of One Piece fans in America because of the Toei animation switch. What's not to love? Wano is awesome. It's long, it's super important.

Pretty much everything that happens is important in Wano, if not to the story at large. And at least in the arc, it's important. There's nothing here where you're like, oh, I skipped this part of Wano when I read it. Nothing.

It's.

It's just so well crafted.

And then like, you know, a day or two after Wano was finished, Oda announced that, you know, well, now that the prequel is over, I can start the real story. So that was fun.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a good Point. This was when I was reading it. One of those. Okay. Yeah. I'm looking forward to the next one. To the next one.

Because we were constantly getting either new world building or a good fight or some good character moments here. Because, you know, things. I mean, it's been this way for quite some time in one piece where.

Oh, by the way, it was actually, I think Momonosuke's mother who got the. Who sent them forward in time. I was looking that up. But so much is done here.

We've built up Kaido for however many chapters it's been since he was first mentioned forever ago. Then you get him and Big mom working together as a team. Like one of those things. Like, oh, they should hate each other.

Well, actually, no, they kind of get along well. There's still some animosity, but like, this is bad. Like, it was bad enough fighting Kaido, but now we have Big mom here too. Oh, man.

Ups the stakes immensely.

And we continue to see these smaller victories that, you know, the Straw Hat alliance gets, until finally they've regained a really big one here, where they have an entire nation on their side here. Love this arc a lot. So, speaking of this arc, tj, do you have, like, a favorite moment from this arc? And why is it your favorite?

Yeah, the Big Mom, Kaido. Oh, my. No. There's so many. Oh, there's a lot to choose from.

So many of the fights in Wano are what I would consider to be like, Katakuri level, you know.

That's high praise.

There's a lot of them for me. A ton of them. Big Mom, Kaido, Zoro, Luffy. Ace. Nice. Ace.

Not Ace. Law.

Kid, Sanji, Zorro, Beast Pirates. Queen, King. It's so good. It's good. Favorite single moment is probably when we. Well, I mean, okay, obviously, Gear five.

Yes.

Where other than Gear five, when we realize Law has awakened his Devil Fruit and he uses it to kill Big Mom. Huge, huge deal with, you know, with kids Help. Who cares about Kid? He dies soon anyway, you know, as far as we know. But insane moment.

Absolutely insane moment. That was like. For me, other than Gear five. That's the one. And it just shows that Luffy and the Straw Hats are not the only.

You know, they're not the only pirates that are getting stronger. Everyone else is also, like, building up, becoming Yonko level by necessity.

Like, if they don't, then they're kind of out of the fight.

Yeah, and Kid learns that the hard way. Spoiler warning. But that chapter was really funny.

Yep. I agree. I mean, I'll say it. It's Gear five. Yeah, it's the obvious one, but it's obvious for a reason. It's been building up to this.

We've all been wondering, okay, Luffy's gone up to Gear four. What would a potential Gear five look like? Oh, well, it's way better than you thought it would be because you did not understand the devil fruit.

And it's not like a Haha. I gotcha. It's like, no. If you actually pay attention to the weirdness around what we thought the gum gum fruit was.

Oh, there's something more to this. This isn't just an awakening. This is like. There's something more to this devil fruit. And no wonder why.

It was thought out from the very beginning of this story. No wonder people wanted it so bad. And no wonder a lot of people freaked out when he got it.

Isn't it annoying though, that there were people like 25 years, 22 years ago or something like that who were like, Gear two? Doesn't make sense. Rubber shouldn't be able to do that. Yeah, you're right. Well, it's pretty.

Yeah.

Good, Good. Notice. Yeah, that's foreshadowing. Yes.

This isn't inconsistency. He actually planned, you know. Yeah, he hasn't planned out everything that's ever happened in the series, but there's some things you can tell.

Like no way back when he knew.

Yeah, this is your.

Like you said, you're foreshadowing to know.

Yeah, it is special. But that's. That's why I wanted to mention something other than Gear five. Because the awakening of Nika and Zo is like. I can hear it.

The drums of liberation. Luffy's heartbeat is the drums of liberation. And such a good review.

Yeah. So getting the obvious one out of the way, I actually. The first time Luffy loses in this arc is huge to me, because I was like, whoa.

I wasn't expecting him to like, win, but I wasn't expecting him to lose so bad he goes to prison and has to actually have an arc there breaking out. It's like, okay, I can appreciate when an author lets their main character fail, but not in like a. And everything is lost and the world sucks.

It's like, no, no, no. It's a setback. It's a setback that makes sense in no context, but he's still going to get back there and get into the fight.

So when he does get to the reveal of the Gear five and everything there, he. It feels way more earned.

That's so good. And it. Yeah, it's kind of funny to think, like, what if he had killed him the first time?

Would it still awaken as na just skip like 200 chapters right there?

Yeah, maybe. If it did, it just wouldn't have been as awakened as it ended up being. So I still think he probably wouldn't have won.

Yeah, it definitely wouldn't have been as cool because it wouldn't have been his height. Wouldn't have seen it.

Yeah.

You know, but it would have been funny.

Yeah. How about. Who was the character that stood out the most to you that has previously appeared?

Law. Law and Marco and Zorro and Sanji and. I mean, what are you doing? This is a great arc. It's really, really good. But I. I would say Law.

Okay. I mean, that's a good one. Zoro did really well in this arc.

I mean, after how many hundreds of chapters of like, oh, well, naturally a guy who uses a bunch of, you know, katanas and the like, you would expect him to excel in a place like Wano. Well, guess what? He does.

And you know, his interactions, you know, with Hiyori Kozuki and you know, saving her and like almost becoming her knight and a kind of weird way. If this was a different series, this would have been their romantic arc. But this is one piece.

And romance doesn't exist except in the past, because otherwise people wouldn't have babies to exist in the present. Yeah, he does really well. And of course, Luffy has a great showing here too. And that's what you want for your main character.

It's like, oh, he suffers loss, like literal loss, multiple times over, and then comes back and dies and then uses that to propel himself forward using pre established lore, using new revelations that happen as a result of pre established lore to gain the powers of Geophys to take down Kaido and liberate Wano. It's like, man, that's great. And I'll give a little shout out to Momonosuke too. It's like he does learn to stand up for himself more.

Especially when you learn revelation that he's the older brother technically. But thanks to Shinigam by time travel, he is now the younger brother, linearly speaking compared to his sister and what that means for him.

And all he has to do is a leader and the whole reveal, you know, Kondro betraying them.

Kinema not wanting to believe something like that would happen, but like his belief that it wouldn't happen, actually being crucial to the fact that they win because he gives Information to Kanjuro that screws them over, the bad guys over. Like, that's great storytelling right there.

That's so good. It feels weird to say that. Like, it's time for a reread of an arc this recent. Like, we're. We're one arc removed from Wano. Yeah.

It's going to be two arcs probably in like a couple weeks. But right now we're only one arc removed. You know, like, it was Wano. Egghead. We're in Elbaf.

Yes.

And Egghead's pretty short.

Yeah. Egghead isn't that long.

Yeah. So the Wano is the moment. The moment. It's a long moment. Egghead's where it's really not Egghead.

Wano's where it's really like, hey, it's getting serious. Actually serious. Things are getting very real very fast.

Oh, man. The revelations we get in the Egghead arc about the state of the world. Yeah. It's inside, but not to get ahead of ourselves.

So that was previously introduced. How about introduced in this arc? Who was most interesting to you?

I don't know. Like, all of Wano's best characters were introduced earlier.

Yes.

Like Momonosuke, Kinemon, Sanjiro, even Kaido. Like, they were introduced before Wano, but they didn't really become characters until Wano. Most interesting introduced. Probably Yamato.

Okay.

Probably Yamato. Yamato is the first time in a long time where the straw hats show up somewhere and make a friend. And I'm like, that'd be welcome to.

Yeah, cool to have his new straw hat. So, like, I was a little disappointed, but it's not. It's not.

It also makes sense why she stayed behind.

Yeah. So for me, it is probably Yamato and it's the story that he chose to tell with Yabato, which we'll talk about later.

Very interesting for Oda to do because.

It's been interpreted in vastly different ways. Yeah. Yeah. I'll actually throw out Hiyori Kozuki.

I really appreciate the story of, you know, the princess who has lost pretty much everything and yet has found a way to get back into the spotlight, you know, hoping to inspire the people again. I love the knightly things that she has with Zoro as her protector there.

But also like the reuniting with her brother, who once again should be, is technically her older brother, but by, you know, time travel shenanigans, is not the grace that she has in the midst of the wildness around her.

You can appreciate a character like here, but I agree with your earlier assessment that most of the characters who are great here were introduced earlier in previous arcs.

Yeah. Which is not a slight against Wano. There's just a lot of really strong characters in Wano.

We're at a point where there are literally over a thousand characters in this manga. Uh, so when you get a new arc. A new arc, you are going to introduce new characters, which just means you have hundreds more.

But that doesn't mean the hundreds more that are added in are as good as earlier characters. They could be. But you know, it's a lot harder with. To do that with people you already know.

Yeah. You've got to understand some of these characters.

You introduce someone new and they're competing with a character who has had a real life person's amount of time to develop.

Yes.

These characters are older than me also.

Yes. Sobering fact.

You know, it's. It's a tough market to compete in.

All right, so let's get to our villain here. Our main villain, Kaido. How effective is he to you as a villain?

He's. Yeah, he is. What is. What else is there to say? He is. I love it when it feels a lot more relevant recently, but it's.

That's a big thing in Shonen is the establishment of the strongest, which not to tire any lobotomy Kaisen fans out there, but I think. Of course, you know, I'm not going to talk about. Because I do love it, but I think he is. Kaido is a great example of that.

I think he's a really fun character. Is really funny character. Kaido does a lot for me as a villain. And it's also interesting to just kind of like analyze what. What he's all about.

Because so much of his character is like, man, I wish somebody could kill me.

Yeah.

But he won't just like jump in the ocean.

What's behind that idea? Because like, yeah, he has an easy way out of this. As a Devil Fruit user. You know, the surefire way to make sure you're no longer alive.

But yeah, the oppressive states that he gets in are very fascinating for our main villain to go through because he's reached pretty much the peak, the pinnacle of being the strongest. Like, who could take me down? Who could even challenge me? Like, I got everything I wanted and it wasn't enough. Like, where do I go from here?

You're taking over Wano and leading it. Being a pirate Emperor Lord commands respect, and yet it's not enough.

Yeah. And he even. And having him as that. As the Pinnacle helps us power scale, which I hate. I hate power scalers.

But in this context, it is very helpful to let us know that Kazuki Odin, the last person who. The only person who scarred Kaido, how strong he was. And then we got to see how strong Zoro had to be to do this thing. So it's really good.

Kaido's strength is a great ruler, you know, It's a great demonstration of where we are now.

I agree with that. But how about, like, him teaming up with Big Mom? Like, what are your thoughts on that?

Oh, that was awesome. It makes sense. They were like, they were crewmates once upon a time. So getting like, to peek into that was really fun. And now we've.

We've gotten a little bit more exposure. Exposition. Exposition on it. But at the time, it was really fun to see. Like, oh, sure, I guess they don't hate each other. Whatever. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

They're just. They're both emperors. They have their own territories to worry about. But they're both here.

There's a bunch of really annoying kids that they all that they hate.

So.

So yeah, they'll team up. It was awesome. To raise the stakes, like you said earlier, it's like, okay, Kaido, it's whatever we just did whole cake island.

Like, they survived Big Mom. How much worse can Kaido be then? The answer is a good amount. And also, Big mom is here too.

Yes. Because you didn't solve that problem in the last arc. She's still around.

Yeah.

And can cause problems.

So.

Yeah, that's good.

I was a big fan.

Yeah, I'm with you 100% there. It's like having villain team ups are almost always fun because you get to see contrasting personalities.

You know, when there's always, you know, that big crossover like, you know, they did in the 70s with DC and Marvel, you got to see, like, Lex Luthor and Dr. Octopus working together or, you know, something like that. It's like, oh, how did these two egotistical maniacs work together? And sometimes surprisingly well. And that's just like intercompany crossovers.

Like, regular crossovers are great too. Like, when the Masters of Evil are formed, how do they all work together against the Avengers? Or the Frightful Four against the Fantastic Four?

So on and so forth. It's like, it's always good to see the contrast between your villains and your main heroes.

And Kaido and Big mom do a great job here of showcasing yet. This is where we're at right now. You're still not our level. You may have beaten us. But you didn't do it by yourself.

It took everyone working together for this to get done. Which was part of the purpose of the series. They can't do it by themselves. But before that they proved that you could do it by yourselves.

So what does that mean for our heroes now? Will they ever reach where they were at? Or they always going to be like, we have to work together. Which is a good lesson to have. Don't get me wrong.

But the working together for the two villains who previously didn't need to do it also nearly caused the death of everyone pretty much if they had not been as hampered as they were.

Yeah. Also it says some pretty scary things about who's left. You know, from like the old guard.

If Shanks decides to kill you all, you're probably all going to die.

As we shall see fairly soon. If he decides to go out against you, it's not going to be a good day. You're going to have a bad day.

Pick your battles. Maybe kid should have listened to this episode.

Maybe.

Maybe choose battles.

I don't know. Yep.

So another thing we kind of learned here is a little bit of a little more lore on Gol d Roger and Ace and that they previously had been to Wano in the past. Like, so what happens in the story? Why? Why are these things so important to the now present arc?

So Gold Roger Ace. This is where they pick up Kazuki Oden. And it serves to teach the world at large more about Wano.

It serves as inspiration for a lot of our characters that we didn't know at the time. And this is Ace meets Yamato. Ace inspires Yamato to become, you know who she is. Super important. That helps Luffy realize the scale of the world.

Meeting Yamato and having someone to talk about Ace with again. Which is heartbreaking. And I don't remember pretty much anything Gold Roger did here.

The poneglyph. He spends time researching and translating so they can find. I think this is when we actually hear the term Laugh Tale the first time. Right?

No, no, no, no. Sorry. No. I'm thinking of something else. Like I think this is one of the things that lead them the way the pluton is located at.

As well as some things about Laugh Tale. Sorry. Laugh Tale was forever ago.

It's been quite a while. But okay. Yeah. Okay. On a level. They did not abandon the poneglyph story. Yes, they did not.

Robin still has a purpose.

She just don't talk about it much.

Which to be fair, if somebody keeps Things close to the chest. It makes a lot of sense given everything that's happened to her. Yeah.

And it keeps happening to her in Elbaf.

Poor girl.

All right, so speaking of Yamato, one of Yamato's motivations as a character is to embody aspects of Kazuki Oden, who, like I said earlier, had joined with the pirates earlier and now wanted to become a great leader in the like. And she is a daughter of Kaido as well and wanting to like, be rebellious against his ideals. So why does she do this?

What's the controversy around it and what are our thoughts?

She wants to be Odin because Odin stands up to Kaido. As far as, you know, as far as I see it, that's the main drive here. And she believes that that is important.

Someone has to stand up to Kaido and if it has to be her, great. She also is more than like, it's more than an inspiration. She just wants to be Kozuki Oden.

Yes.

So she makes everyone call her. Just makes everyone call her a boy and she's Kazuki Oden. And I do like.

I like the way that they do it in the story and I like the way that the straw hats are just like, okay, whatever, dude, sure. And they just. It never really is important. Like it's not a huge matter of relevance in Wano.

Just doesn't really matter because who cares, you know, this isn't a universe where only men can fight, so no one cares. I do think it's really funny at the end of Wano, they're in the springs and Kazuki is with the guys. Yes. Yeah, sure.

That's where Kazuki Oden would go.

Yeah, be whatever you want.

Yeah.

So the big controversy been tiptoeing around it, especially if you're on Reddit is and even TV tropes has gotten into this a couple of times is whether or not Yamato is trans and the idea of being behind that thought. It's like TJ mentioned earlier, Yamato wants to be Kazuki Oden. Kazuki Oden was a guy.

So being referred to by masculine pronouns by certain characters, does that mean that Yamato actually views herself as a man? That's up for debate, I would say. No evidence being things like, you know, her vivre card always lists her as female.

It's more like it's always idea of I want to be Kazuki Oden. And as a result of that, by proxy, Kazuki Oden was a guy. So if you're going to talk to me like that. That makes sense.

But I don't think Yamato herself identifies that way. Especially, you know, when we do have another trans character in this arc, we did not mention them. Oh, is it oh, Okiku or Yeah, yeah.

Who is male presents female.

Yeah.

Yes. Biologically male presents female. So I mean, you've already got the character there. I don't know why you need to just add to the list.

I think it's more people just wanting to have representation versus the character agreeing with them. So I don't know. What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I don't care. I'm fine with that.

Okay.

I don't know. Yeah, Yamato wouldn't be against it, so I don't care.

Fair enough.

Yamato wants to be Kazuki Odin. Kazuki. Odin's a guy. Should be cool with it.

Okay, well, moving on from there. Kind of touched on a little bit, but like gear 5, like, how effective was it as a reveal for you?

Pretty much perfect. I mean, pretty much perfect.

I mean, you're not wrong. My only big issue was more like meta with as soon as this reveal, people like, yo. Oh, now Luffy can take down Super Saiyan Goku.

Super Saiyan God Goku. Because he has tuned force now. And it's like TJ mentioned earlier, his feelings on power scalers.

I think they're a necessary evil to keep things in line.

But then there are those who take it too far because you know, you need to establish limits on what what character is capable of doing what, you know, reasonably, and you use feats to accomplish things like that. But like, once again, it's the idea that he could is like he's not even close yet. And it's just phantoms.

As soon as you have a character who can do a certain thing. That's why Goku versus Superman is as classic as it is ever since, you know, he showed up in the 90s.

And he always had early Superman influences anyways with how he showed up on Earth. So it was a natural comparison to makes people keep making it. Even though it hasn't been a Superman, hasn't been a threat to him in quite some time.

Ignore Death Battle because they don't know anything about that that we're talking about. But yeah, so yeah, metatextually I have issues but like actual story. None whatsoever. Like, you know, it cost him to get here.

We could reveal about the true nature of his Devil Fruit, which then makes previous things go, oh, that makes more sense. He's not just a rubber man. Yes, he is, but he's also not due to the nature of the fruit.

Why the world government wanted it so badly, why Shanks wanted it so badly way back when. The symbol of rebellion that comes from Joy Boy and everything there helps build up the world even better. Like at 10 out of 10, no notes.

Yeah. Yeah, perfect.

All right, well, TJ, you have anything else you want to talk about Wano before we wrap things up today?

There's a lot of hockey exposition here. You learn a lot about hockey. Conqueror's hockey, specifically. And coding of Conqueror's hockey is like a weird new concept for hockey in Wano.

It's cool if that's like a big thing for you in one piece and you have it at this somehow catch up read gets expounded upon greatly.

All right, out of 10, what are you rating this art?

10.

10. I mean, that's hard to argue against. I can't really think of anything that I'm like not super big on.

Once again, it's more like out of world things that I'm not big on versus like what's actually happening in the story. So I guess I'll just be brave and say 10. This is one piece, man.

This is one piece. Great moments from every Straw hat. Except Connor Robin a little bit.

Yeah. She doesn't get too much in this.

One, but the rest of them, actually all of them except her, it's. It's pretty great. Yeah.

Hers. More post battle stuff.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. So we're also going to be doing a special bonus question today. We're going to ask ourselves the questions. Would we like to live in Wano?

Why or why not? If you're interested in that or any of the questions that we do. Guys, you should send some money to fourth Wall.

That way there'll be a link in the description down below if you'd like to hear your name being shouted out. We'll get to that in a moment for those specific names. So you can hand a little money our way that way too.

At the specialty as we have, we'll say your names loud. But before we head that way, tj, do you have a recommendation for the audience to check out.

One Piece? Otherwise Breaking Bad. It really is that good. Yeah, it's infuriating.

It's infuriating that other people were right for so long and demanding that you be right with them.

Yeah. Really? Is that good?

That's high praise. No, I mentioned that I was listening to Venture Brothers to fall asleep. Now that that's done, I moved on to a new series, and that is Adventure Time.

And you know what? The first season is a little rough, but it's still great.

And that is, you know, because once again, because I've watched him before, it helps me fall asleep if I've already seen something and I can't recommend it enough. It's a whimsical, fun and a series that grows with its audience very well, I'll say. Gets a little more mature as times go. Time goes on.

Not in a really bad way or, like, grim, dark way, but like, no, actually telling mature stories. All right. So I mentioned some supporters earlier.

Thank you very much to Russell Gentry, Justin Vaughn and that Noel and Jeannie Mattingley, you guys of the best. But remember, we're all the chosen people. A geekdom of priests.