Elbaf is the Land of Giants and…LEGOs?

One Piece Chapter 1127 Review/Recap

On the last piece of One Piece, we saw Shanks and Blackbeard make moves to solidify their power. More importantly, though, the Straw Hats were celebrating their escape from Egghead and their impending arrival at Elbaf, the homeland of the Giants! But when everyone woke up from their night of partying, All the Straw Hats that had joined before Alabasta were missing. Even weirder, though, when Nami woke up, she found herself in a Viking outfit and in a place that seemed to be made out of LEGOs.

Plenty of fans seemed to think that, somehow, half of the Straw Hats had ended up on Elbaf while the other half got left behind. As it turns out, those fan theories were correct! But it doesn’t explain why they’re in a place that looks like it’s made out of LEGOs.

Recap

Near the great tree of Yggdrasil in Elbaf, the resident Giants are dealing with numerous problems. A fire’s broken out in the forest, the (giant) bees are falling from the sky, and it sounds like an earthquake’s hit! They have no idea what’s going on!

In the giant LEGO castle (named Big Steinn), Nami’s freaking out. She has no idea where she is or why she has a new outfit or why the place is made of LEGO. She’s barely able to make sense of anything as she and Zeus fend off the giant animals in the castle. Fortunately, they manage to find Usopp. Unfortunately, he’s being used as a plaything by a giant cat. And when Nami saves him from the beast, it gets mad and chases after them.

After quickly realizing that what they’re experiencing is real and not a hallucination (and the cat turns into a lion), Nami and Usopp are cornered with no way out. Just when it looks like they’re about to be cat food, though, the Monster Trio of Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji show up and put it in its place. And much to Nami’s dismay, they’re not worried in the slightest about their circumstances. Or when they hear the roar of another animal nearby.

Review

So, it looks like some of the fans were correct. Half of the Straw Hat Pirates have somehow wound up in Elbaf. Of all the ways for Oda to bring them to the island that we’ve been wanting to see since Little Garden, I wasn’t expecting it to turn out like this.

Nor do I think Usopp expected his long-awaited arrival in the land he wanted to see so badly to be so traumatic.

As for how they got there without knowing, I’m as clueless as the Straw Hats are. Nami thought the booze they drink was making them hallucinate, but that’s already been disproven. Truthfully, I’m not even going to bother theorizing, as I’m sure I’ll be wrong. That, and I’m way too curious about the fact that the castle, and many of the other buildings, seem to be made of something akin to LEGOs! Though there might be an explanation for that.

LEGO originates in Denmark, which is part of the region historically known as Scandinavia, AKA the land of the Vikings. It’s possible that Oda decided to have Elbaf take elements from all aspects of Scandinavian culture rather than just their Viking ancestors. Hence why the houses look like they’re made out of LEGO. Honestly, though, I’m not going to complain. LEGO has been a big part of my life since I was a little kid, and if this is Oda paying homage to it, then that’s fine by me.

Welcome to Elbaf, Everyone! The land of LEGOs and Giants

Regardless of how they got to Elbaf, though, the first five members of the Straw Hats have arrived. Chopper seems to be the only one MIA, but I’m betting he’ll turn up soon enough. Truthfully, I’m more worried that their fighting with all the animals will end up getting them on the bad side of the Giants. Sadly, we have to wait two weeks to find out more as Oda goes on break.

Welcome to the Elbaf Arc, people! Here’s hoping it’s worth the wait.

Also, did you notice the way Luffy and the other dealt with the cat is a callback to the alligators from Alabasta?

I Give “Adventure in the Land of Mystery” a 4/5

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