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With a series that invites the sheer quantity of intense speculation that One Piece does, creator Eiichiro Oda has to throw us some curve balls from time-to-time in order to keep us all surprised and on the edge of our seats. As we enter what he has deemed the series' "Final Saga," we have some expectations about how things will go. The last of the franchise's final boss characters will be rounded up and put in the proper order of rising explosiveness, the long-awaited power-ups handed out, and the emotional pinnacles and mythological breakthroughs are within sight. We've read a manga before - we know how these things go.
Only Oda, as usual, seems discontented with the rote assignments that usually conclude a massive adventure story. Here's how One Piece continues to keep us guessing.
Spoilers for One Piece up to Chapter 1109: Interception
The last page in the latest chapter (1109: Interception), which seemingly announces the arrival of the rest of the Five Elders, doesn't fall in line with many templates developed for them to date.
These are the old dudes that sit around in their castle and gaze upon the world with casual indignation. They are seemingly untouchable, and the one who's already been wrasslin' with main character Luffy is shown to be impervious to damage in battle. And now they all might be showing up? Considering how long they've cast their shadow over the events of the manga, another series might hold its cards a little closer to its chest. Oda, in snowball-going-down-a-hill fashion, seems to be unleashing them on readers all at once and thriving on the chaos. Every chapter is a buffet of hints, action set pieces, and grand disclosures.
This comes just after Luffy's throwdown with Kizaru, a powerful character who entered the series over a decade ago by beating up every other powerful character in sight. Former antagonist Rob Lucci showed up, only to have Luffy wallop him. In fact, Oda has completely filled the post-Wano story with devastating losses. One might have counted on characters like Trafalgar Law and Eustass Kid to be able to rest on the laurels of their recent victories for at least a little while. Instead, they were brutally dispatched by characters on a higher level than them.
Of course, One Piece isn't just a bunch of people being dealt surprise defeats. For years, fans predicted that the giants of Elbaf would return to focus in the story, and they have. Those that knew the arrival of Dr. Vegapunk would trigger a cavalcade of revealing details have also been proven right (and will likely get even more satisfaction once Vegapunk's postmortem message to the world airs.) But we're living in the post-Gear 5 era of One Piece, a titanic upgrade for Luffy that didn't appear in the form of a self-serious powerhouse but instead as a giggling demi-god who did just as much gleeful bouncing as punching. It was Looney Toons filtered through battle manga.
Oda has always been adept at the art of the payoff, blending long-term teases with unexpected declarations that make one wonder just how much of One Piece was intricately planned from its early stages and how much comes from his innate skill at weaving things into the story that might come in handy later. But the Egghead Island arc often feels like a disruption of the chess board, taking all of the characters and positions that seemed predestined and dumping them all out on the floor. The story itself has entered Gear 5.
The idea of what will emerge from all of this chaos makes One Piece's endgame all the more curious. Since the first chapter, the titular treasure has been Luffy's focus, and has also been shown as the primary obsession of other major characters, so in a way much of this feels like a toppling of any narrative obstacles that might stand in the way. But it also sets a precedent for the events to come, one where the pieces are all familiar, but the way that Oda approaches them might be stunningly different from our assumptions. Nearly 30 years after it began, One Piece is still wildly unpredictable.
With one small change the One Piece anime is now finally living up to the legendary manga.
