One Piece Spoiler thread (read, do not enter if you aren't reading manga)

[P-Sleazy]

Oda is about to do a timeskip? Maybe? Will he show us breif moments of what goes on in these two years? or will he allow the anime to fill us in on the going ons of the two years as he has asked them to do on several other occassions?

The One Piece manga has just gone on a 4 week haitus. I for one am shocked and surprised by this, yet very much anticipating whats going to happen. So what have we learned in the past couple or so chapters?

Luffy and the gang will be split for 2 years.
Mantra is a form of Haki.
Haki is a means of rendering the devil fruits useless.
Garp and Sengoku resigned.
Buggy possibly a Shichibukai?
Jimbei possible 10th cruemember?
Coby quickly rising in ranks.
Capt. Morgan still hasn't returned for Luffy's head since he broke out of prison.
Zoro training under Hawkeyes!
Usopp is a full of shit (literally, he's fat and maybe when he works off the weight he won't lie so much).
Robin is working with Luffy's dad, Dragon.
Ace is dead.
Whitebeard dead.
Shanks is still a badass.
Garp wants to kill Akainu.
People higher then Sengoku have power over the Shichibukai.
Aokiji possible new pan-fleet admiral (replacing Sengoku).
The three types of haki revealed, and explained (finally!).
The rio poneglyph lies at the end of the grand-line!
Everyone understands that its important to support luffy more now rather than rely on him.
Blackbeard aiming to replace Whitebeard as part of the Yonkou? what is his aim?
Blackbeard potentially direct rival of Luffy?
Smokey got promoted!
Luffy quickly made connection between Haki and being able to hit Smokey!

So where do we want to start on this?

[greed]

Well none of the Strawhats are young enough to change much during the timeskip appearance wise, other than maybe Chopper. Oh man teenage Chopper's gonna be hilarious if Oda goes that route.

I honestly can't wait to see two years later, super stressed out Buggy trying to hide the fact he's well, Buggy, from the World Government so they don't decide he's not a useful Shichibukai. Or that after 2 years of actually trying that hard we'll see why Gold Roger had him on his crew.

I kinda saw a timeskip coming but I did not expect two goddamn years. And though the upcoming break was pretty obvious, I was really hoping for some resolution of that encounter between Duval, Shakky and the Kuma.


Also Franky's subplot was the most super thing ever. God I hope he hasn't got around to getting skin by the time he reunites with the crew, I've grown attatched to terminator Franky.

[IHateMakingNames]

I wouldn't surprised if Oda gives the Straw Hats updated designs. Probably just mature them up a bit, since most are currently later teenage, you'd expect some change. I doubt Chooper will change, since his human form is a grown man, and in all his flashbacks he looked the same as he does now in every form. Plus we've seen what he's done with some characters, specifically Shank's crew, to give them big ol' changes after time. The difference with Usopp's dad makes me expect Usopp is coming back a new man.

I didn't expect a two year time skip. I figured the Straw Hats power ups were happening while Luffy was at war and recovering.


Four month break is sad, since One Piece is the best manga. Guess Oda wants the break to plan and finalize everything that happens in those two years.

[greed]

Originally Posted by IHateMakingNames

I wouldn't surprised if Oda gives the Straw Hats updated designs. Probably just mature them up a bit, since most are currently later teenage, you'd expect some change. I doubt Chooper will change, since his human form is a grown man, and in all his flashbacks he looked the same as he does now in every form. Plus we've seen what he's done with some characters, specifically Shank's crew, to give them big ol' changes after time. The difference with Usopp's dad makes me expect Usopp is coming back a new man.

I didn't expect a two year time skip. I figured the Straw Hats power ups were happening while Luffy was at war and recovering.


Four month break is sad, since One Piece is the best manga. Guess Oda wants the break to plan and finalize everything that happens in those two years.

Point about the design changes, I was actually more thinking a change in personality for Chopper though. Going from bratty kid who sometimes acts mature, to bratty teenager who sometimes acts pretty mature.

Also dude, I'm pretty sure it's a four week break unless the translation I'm reading is wrong. Four month, shit don't scare me like that.

[Amake]

As Oda explained in a lettercol, the main characters just happen to turn the same age every time they have their birthday, the lucky bastards. I think it's been at least five years since they set sail. So I wouldn't expect them to get older just cause a couple of years pass quickly.

So, any bets that the comic will end before chapter 1000?

[IHateMakingNames]

I meant weeks. Not sure why I said months.

Also, what Oda said before was just one of his joke answers to explain some real life to manga discrepancies. One Piece has been in serialization for five years, but the in-universe time has been unspecified. But now we have stated time skip, so they'll be aging.

[phil_]

Originally Posted by IHateMakingNames

One Piece has been in serialization for five years...

Thirteen, sir.

I'm a little worried about this haki thing. Part of what I liked about One Piece was its willingness to say "It works because, look, see, it worked." It let there be weird, impossible powers like Inazuma's Scissor Fruit. Pointing out classes of magic powers seems a bit counter to that (though, fruits are already classed, so this isn't entirely new). I could go on about ultimate techniques that take a lifetime to master but everyone can do, but I think I can wrap up my feelings much more succinctly by saying this: when someone fires a beam, and no one freaks out about a beam because beams are cool, One Piece is dead to me.

I don't see that happening, but it could. Time skips lead to Dragonball Z, after all.

[krogothwolf]

Yeah, there should be an different in appearance for the characters that are aged 17-19 at least. I don't know about you, but looking at pictures between my 17/19, 18/20, 19/21 self I do look different enough to be noticeable.

[IHateMakingNames]

I went with five because IQ had said they have been sailing for five years, which I assumed meant how long the manga has been running. In hindsight I think she meant supposed canon time.

We've seen the strongest people fight already, and there have been no signs of Haki getting much better than what Rayleigh described. Oda seems pretty good with power caps, so I wouldn't expect much higher than what we say with Whitebeards war. I assume things will get better, but in a more personal way during one on one battles.

[P-Sleazy]

Other thing I'd like to mention about Haki is that its not like he's just pulling Haki out of nowhere. He's been showing us Haki throughout most of the Manga, even as early as the first few chapters when Shanks lost his arm and scared that fish away we now have an explanation for how he did it and it was because of Haki. And it also explains why Smoker didn't directly attack Luffy's dad in Logue town since Dragon most likely also has Haki at his disposal and Smoker knew the result of that fight before it started so he just stood there instead. Finally, he connected it to Mantra from Skypiea and that when Coby was hearing voices our thoughts were "OOoo snap! Its Mantra!" and then the doc being all "Ooooo Snap! Its Haki!" we actually know now that Mantra= Haki, Color of observation.

Sooo, when we finally got a firm description of what Haki is, I see it less as Oda just adding a whole power level, and more as him explaining things that have been happening all along and we were like "wtf? why did that happen?" or "how'd he do that?"