Imu Underestimated the Warrior Generation of Elbaph, BIG TIME!

One Piece Chapter 1173 Review/Recap

Everyone, we are in for one heck of an a**-whooping, because the Straw Hats and Giants are about to end Imu’s career! On the last piece of One Piece, we saw the free Straw Hats, New Giant Warrior Pirates, Gaban, and Jarul begin their counterattack, and it is glorious. Jarul not only cleared Loki’s name, but he got all the Giants to take up arms by effectively declaring war on the World Government. Ever since the God’s Knights showed up, we’ve had to see them run roughshod over Elbaph with little capable of stopping them. But in typical Celestial Dragon arrogance, Imu underestimated how deep their warrior spirit runs. And in this chapter alone, the Straw Hats and Giants manage to make not one, not two, but three major holes in Imu’s plan. The best part is that the blame for one of them lies squarely on the Knight Sommers.

Recap

In the West Village, we see Zoro, Hadrujin, and Stansen facing down the domi reversi’d Giant Warriors as they try to kill Jarul. Zoro asks for permission to cut the brainwashed enemies down, and Hadrujin agrees, as long as he spares their pride. Then the enemy taunts the two about their dream of uniting all Giants, and they tell Zoro to waste them.

Zoro jumps high into the air and over the Reversi’d Giants, keeping them from trapping him while he proceeds to hit them all with a Crossing of the Six Paths. Then he jumps in between Dorry and Brogy, prompting the two to aim at him. He dodges, and their attacks just hit each other, much to everyone’s surprise!

Elsewhere, Brook has somehow crawled his way to Gunko, who he starts calling Princess Shuri. He says that he knows her from his past, and that she had killed her father and his patron, calling her a “patricidal princess.” That seems to cause Gunko’s memories to return once again, as she yells at Brook to run, inadvertently undoing her arrows. However, Imu proceeds to retake control and they viciously attack Brook, demanding to know who they are. Elsewhere, Usopp, Jinbei, and Nami are freed, but Robin remains trapped in thorns and asks them to save the kids. Thankfully, Sanji seems to have gotten to their location.

Elsewhere, Sommers has almost led the captive kids to the ship, mocking Colon when he dares the Knight to fight them like a warrior. At that moment, though, Ripley and the kid’s families catch up to them, only to be blocked by the nightmare Nika. But since they’re a generation of warriors, though, they don’t hesitate to fight the monster. This gives Gerd, Goldberg, and Road enough time to unleash a joint attack that’s so powerful, it blows a hole through the monster’s torso! It begins to fall onto Sommers who bats it away to save himself. Instead, though, it lands on top of the ship and destroying it in the process!

Review

Oh, that is beautiful! That is what I call the beginning to a counterattack! I had to keep myself from laughing at the look on Sommers’ face! He just single-handedly ruined his master’s plans to abduct those kids, and without them as hostages, Imu will never be able to make the Giants do what he says! Once again, the arrogance of the Celestial Dragons is biting them in the butt. Of course, this isn’t the only thing that Imu underestimated about the Straw Hats and Giants.

Exhibit A: Zoro’s brilliant plan. When we first learned about Domi Reversi, the technique looked broken as they come. It spreads by having its victims surround anyone not controlled, infecting them like a plague. As Zoro proved, though, it doesn’t affect if you don’t let yourself get surrounded. As long as he was above them, he’s safe and able to hit them. In addition, while having Dorry and Brogy hit each other might seem bad for them, it’s about to get even worse. My theory was that Zoro’s plan was to reignite the two’s rivalry and have them start fighting each other again. While that didn’t happen this chapter, I think Oda’s set things up so that it takes place in the next few chapters. Because despite what Imu thinks, their abilities can’t take away someone’s free will altogether.

Gunko and Brook do know each other

Which brings us to exhibit b: Gunko and Brook. We’ve already seen how Imu can use their pacts with the Gorosei and God’s Knights to possess their bodies like puppets, and how they can turn people into demons under their thrall. However, this control isn’t as absolute as they think. Rocks was able to resist enough to ask Roger and Garp to stop him. Harald was able to break control for a short time. And as we’ve seen with Gunko, someone can regain their memories and free will even if Imu tries possessing them.

Most fans already figured out that Brook somehow knew Gunko when she was a kid, but this chapter confirms it. It seems like their relationship didn’t end well, though, as Brook thinks she killed her dad and his patron. However, I don’t entirely buy that she did that of her own free will. Now that we know that she wasn’t born a Celestial Dragon, but abducted by Imu, it’s safe to say that Gunko has been under Imu’s control. My guess (which is probably right) is that Gunko was forced to kill her dad by Imu. As we’ve already seen, Imu couldn’t erase everything about her past, as shown by her fondness for Brook’s music. Hopefully, if Brook can keep putting pressure on her, she could throw Imu off altogether, if only for a while.

Imu Underestimated the Warrior Spirit of Elbaph

And, of course, we have exhibit c of how Imu and the Knights screwed up: underestimating the warrior spirit of the Giants. BIG TIME. They thought that the rest of the Giants were as peaceful and compliant as Harald was, but they were wrong. Dead wrong. The warrior spirit of Elbaph is still alive. All that Imu has managed to do was to convince them to channel it into something productive: fighting evil. Once this is all over, Elbaph will declare war on the World Government.

I’m having the time of my life reading One Piece right now, and for good reason. Imu is about to watch all their plans go up in smoke, and if the rumors about the next chapter are to be believed, they’re about to lose all their leverage. It’s all downhill for Imu and the Knights from here!

I Give “The Warrior Generation” a 4.5/5

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