One Piece

[*BananaKing]

Knowing Luffy, he won't join Dragon because it means he'll be serving under someone else. If the war at Marienford taught us anything about Luffy's character, it is he will not take orders from ANYONE no matter how strong they are, how powerful their influence is, or what relations they might have.

I think Law and Kidd have probably steered away from Teach, especially Law. Oda spent time making Law an "ally" of the strawhats and Kidd is being made out to be Luffy's rival so I doubt after that characterization, Oda would have Teach just rip them apart.

But Oda can go ahead and destroy Urogue, Capote, Apoo, and Drake; I didnt like those guys. I would hope Teach didnt defeat Hawkins, I thought he was super cool.

Anyone else glad that Coribou is done with now? He was a creepy and weird character that seemed to serve no purpose...kind of a shame. I was totally expecting him to join up with Hody or something

[durendal]

So who do you think their next opponent will be? Doesn't seem like Big Mama is gonna be their immediate opponent. Would be interesting if the Thousand Sunny suddenly pops up where Smoker and Tashigi is.

[*BananaKing]

I would love to see him face smoker again but I doubt those two will bumps heads again soon. I'm sensing a filler arc to build some tension and get us introduced to the New World itself. This could be like another Baroque Works where the Strawhats encounter some of Big Mam's subordinates before facing the giant lady herself

[*BananaKing]

Who's been reading the Punk Hazard arc?!!!!! Looks like we have a new Shichibukai and he's someone of the Supernova variety

[durendal]

Yeah, I didn't expect that. I also get the feeling they found a new member of their crew. Could his ability similar to that of buggy?

[*BananaKing]

You dont get what's with this samurai do you? He wants revenge on a Shichibukai, there's a shichibukai on the island and he's Trafalager Law. Law has the power to slice people to pieces and rearrange them or choose not to. This samurai is a victim of Law's abilities O.O;

I can't believe I didnt think of Law! What puzzels me is how he was accepted to warlord position? He saved Luffy from Marineford and he was labeled one of Luffy's accomplices during the Tenryuubito Affair...why would the government let him be a warlord?

[durendal]

Ah, I wasn't aware that's how Trafalgar's ability works.

Also, delivering 100 (or was that 1000) pirate hearts to the marines, the marines would be crazy not to ally with him. Besides, there seems to be an opening in the Shichibukai. I know that Teach has renounced his title as Shichibukai and has since become one of the Yonkou. But I'm not sure or remember if Boa Hancock is still a Shichibukai.

[*BananaKing]

I think to protect her island, she stayed Shichibukai. It looks like we have, Doflamingo, Kuma, Hancock, Mihawk, and Law as Shichibukai.

I'm aware of the 100-1000 pirates he sent to the marines, and maybe he did that to become a warlord. I still think he's made himself a stronger enemy of the government than an ally

[odin]

Law being a warlord actually caught me off guard, i was not expecting it entirely although there where hints of it before the reveal, this is getting interesting indeed.

[*BananaKing]

Yeah the samurai and the delivering "hearts" were our clues.

Makes me wonder if he and Luffy are going to be on bad terms. If I remember correctly, Law didn't say they were friends back at Amazon Lily. I believe he rescued Luffy because he respected Luffy's strength and that Luffy doesn't care about the world and the consequences of his actions.

Are those gas-mask men Law's men?

[odin]

dunno, maybe. about the hearts thing...considering that law has the ability to cut somebody without killing him could the hearts that law delivered where people from his own crew or pirates that are loyal to him in order to fool the world goverment? i might be overthinking things and he is really just a cunning and manipulative guy.

[*BananaKing]

I doubt he got rid of Bepo, Jean Bart, Penguin, and that 4th guy. I dont think the "hearts" were literal but an allusion. After all, he is the captain of the Heart Pirates so it is a clever allusion...or I could be reading too much into things.

I am curious to see how strong this samurai is...and what his name is XD Its cool he is Nitoryuu and maybe stronger than Brooke since Brooke ran away

[Jade Tatsu]

Knowing Luffy, he won't join Dragon because it means he'll be serving under someone else. If the war at Marienford taught us anything about Luffy's character, it is he will not take orders from ANYONE no matter how strong they are, how powerful their influence is, or what relations they might have.

Luffy won't join anyone because if he does then he can't be free, which was the entire reason he wanted to be the Pirate King. Not to rule, not to anything else but because he believes that the Pirate King is the freest man on the water.

Anyone else glad that Coribou is done with now? He was a creepy and weird character that seemed to serve no purpose...kind of a shame. I was totally expecting him to join up with Hody or something

VERY glad, though it occurred to me that Coribou is the Buggy for the New World. Buggy wasn't really that dangerous but he could be cunning and sneaky and he could pack a punch when he got people off guard but he was more an annoyance than a serious threat. Coribou struck me as being similar but powered up a bit via the logia fruit for the New World.

Who's been reading the Punk Hazard arc?!!!!! Looks like we have a new Shichibukai and he's someone of the Supernova variety

Law being a warlord actually caught me off guard, i was not expecting it entirely although there where hints of it before the reveal, this is getting interesting indeed.

Dittos. Almost had a heart attack turning the page to read Law on the Island being addressed as a Shichibukai!

I doubt he got rid of Bepo, Jean Bart, Penguin, and that 4th guy. I dont think the "hearts" were literal but an allusion. After all, he is the captain of the Heart Pirates so it is a clever allusion...or I could be reading too much into things.

I am curious to see how strong this samurai is...and what his name is XD Its cool he is Nitoryuu and maybe stronger than Brooke since Brooke ran away

I don't care about the Samurai to be honest. Though I do want to see Zoro fight him merely to continue to prove that Zoro kicks ass!

On the Shichibukai, it hasn't really been said what happens to their crews in most cases. Obviously Gekko Moria kept his but he wasn't really going close to the Government. Crocodile probably ditched his. Don Flamingo definitely ditched his... or rather passed on his assets. Mihawk I don't think had a crew. Jinbei was between crews (I think) and Kuma I don't see as being in a crew much. The obvious exception with a recognisable crew is Boa Hancock but she took the position to protect her Island so again doesn't deal much with the Government. Those that do deal with the Government seem to be alone more often than not.

The position is for A Shichibukai, not for a Captain and his crew though when they took in Teach I think they were desparate. So while I don't know if Law would sacrifice the others, I think he'd think about it if offered what seems to be unlimited opportunity to experiment in a medical field. Most of these people aren't pirates because they are nice people. They are pirates because they don't want to be limited by the rules - though I think Vegapunk is probably given enough license that he isn't contained by rules either.

Anyway all that really says is that I can go either way on Law killing his own crew if he thought it would get him ahead. If he did, I'd be really interested to know why though.

[*BananaKing]

I doubt he killed his crew, they're probably elsewhere in Punk Hazard, it his his vacation home after all. And from what I gather, the shichibukai from 2 years ago had held those positions for years giving them ample time to disband their crews so we as readers wouldn't be bothered with them. The exceptions to this is Crocodile for Baroque Works was essentially his pirate crew, Doflamingo because those that bear his "Smilies" are a member of his crew, and Gekko Moria. I hate to be that guy who points out continuity faults, but Gekko Moria's crew was killed by Kaido, he didnt keep his crew. In fact the wholesale slaughter of his crew kind of made him a little crazy and why he made the zombie army.

I think for when you join the Shichibukai, you are allowed to keep your crew but you are solely responsible for their actions. The World Government wasn't desperate for another Shichibukai before they accepted Teach, Teach just proved himself to be extremely worthy of the title. He also gave them what they needed to kill Whitebeard and hopefully end the pirate era. That was the government's plan but as we know, Blackbeard had other plans for the title and the pirate era only strengthen from Whitebeard's death.

So we know 5 of the current Shichibukai, but who are the other 2? We have Law, Doflamingo, Mihawk, Kuma, and Hancock...

[Jade Tatsu]

I disagree Banana King. I think the Gorosei were very desperate for a new Shichibukai when they accepted Teach. They had just lost Crocodile, and Gekko (they were probably going to take him out eventually) and that was a challenge to the power of one of the three powers of the world - Yonkou, Shichibukai and Marines. If we look at it logically we've yet to see Mihawk doing much Shichibukai things really. Okay so he cut through Don Kreig's fleet and may destroy others but the Marines were very surprised when he showed up at the meeting that time. Don Flamingo and Kuma have seemed to be the more Government oriented or controlled Shichibukai. Law appears to have taken up a position like that too now. So if we go through the list of effective Shichibukai I think it's kind of limited and they had to get someone in there who was feared and fairly capable at the time that they accepted Teach.

Jinbei - no

Mihawk - maybe

Crocodile - Only in Alabasta

Kuma - probably not

Gekko - no

Hancock - no

Don Flamingo - maybe

As a force for deterrent, it seemed a bit haphazard.

With Don Flamingo he passed on his assets to those bearing the smilies but from my reading (which I may have missed something) he was then not interested. They got their butts kicked at Jaya after all and at the Human Auction House Don Flamingo was very uninterested in their problems. It's like he moved on to new better and funner things.

On the current Shichibukai, do we know that Hancock is still a Shichibukai? I mean chances are that she is but I don't see the Gorosei being too happy with her actions and not all of them are going to be charmed by beauty. Did Jinbei give us a list of Shichibukai? I don't think he did but I might have missed that so I'm not sure that we know even 5 of the current Shichibukai at this stage. I think Mihawk is probably still one, same with Don Flamingo. Kuma is a maybe since he might now just be PX-0 and not a Shichibukai. Hancock, probably but not definitely. and we now know Law is a Shichibukai. That leaves anything from between two more to four more in question.

I do agree that Law probably didn't kill his crew but I don't necessarily think they are on the island.

[*BananaKing]

I think the government kept Kuma as a shichibukai so they can abuse his power, obedience, and reputation as a powerful and frightening pirate.

The Gorosei didn't kick Gekko Moria out of the Shichibukai until they (supposedly) ordered Doflamingo to kill him at the close of the War of the Best. If you remember the transmission between Sengoku and Kuma at Thriller Bark, he said we'll keep him as a Shichibukai, if he accepts it, as to not stir an uproar.

As for miss Hancock, there is no proof she helped Luffy and they need her power. There's no doubt that Hancock would agree to remain Shichibukai to protect her istland. The government probably didn't kick her out since they need her strength and most likely dont need to be looking for more Shichibukai. The more they have to replace, the weaker they look; hence why they didn't tell the world that Luffy defeated Moria.

Finally there's my favorite, Doflamingo. Doflamingo has always been a VERY selfish man since we first met him, and no doubt doesn't care about his various screws and buisinesses in the slightest...unless they tarnish his name like Bellamy did. I think that when he became a Shichibukai, his vanity reared its ugly head and he considered himself above having a crew and being a pirate. He's still a pirate but its beneath him to play the pirate game anymore. And by being such a strong and well connected businessman, he has all the finances he needs to live as lavishly as he wants. He's proven himself to be an extremely deadly opponent that must have Haki if he blocked crocodile's attacks. And before you mention, "But what about when he cut of crocodile's head at Marineford!? He didnt hurt crocodile then so he might not have haki." I think he didn't deliberately use haki cause he wanted to get crocodile's attention. Doflamingo is a very, "you make the 1st move" type of man and counters you to show how feeble you are against him. It fits his personality cause he loves to demoralize and belittle his adversaries.

I dont think this samurai is so bad, a little annoying but his dynamic with sanji is making me laugh

[Jade Tatsu]

I think we may have to disagree Banana King though we aren't actually disagreeing on much. I do believe the Gorosei were desperate when the made Blackbeard a Shichibukai. He had the power and he appeared willing but if they looked at him more closely they really should have wondered why he spent 20 years as a Whitebeard before breaking out on his own. And he only brought in one pirate. Sure Ace is important and that gave the Marines the chance to capture Whitebeard but Ace is still only one pirate and Teach did betray someone he had apparently served for 20 years or so... To me that sets off alarm bells and says you have to be desperate to put him in a public position of power. The Shichibukai only have their official standing, they don't serve directly in government but they are public figures and this raised Teach's profile quite a lot.

Additionally, while the Shichibukai members may not have changed much, I just don't want to get it set in stone mentally that for example Hancock is one now when there is a chance she isn't. There is after all plenty of proof of her actions. At Marineford a lot of Marines saw her. At Shabody (spelling?) she directly sailed in front of the Marines which is probably enough proof to say she is still a Shichibukai as they didn't fire on her.Thing is, until someone says it, for the new World it's probably not a great idea to be stuck in stone. The Marines have changed, and we know that, why not the Shichibukai?

DonFlamingo and Crocodile, I will not be surprised if Crocy-boy now owes the Flamingo a favour.

[*BananaKing]

No doubt crocodile will not be serving Doflamingo, he will not be someone's underling. Crocodile took the position of Shichibukai so the government and marines wouldn't interfere with his goals. No doubt its the same reason Doflamingo took the role.

Hrm you bring up a good point on why Teach was made a Shichibukai. I still think the fact that he took down Whitebeard's Second Division Commander single handedly was proof enough of his strength to the government. So yes they might have been a bit desperate but they weren't desperate until they had something to bait whitebeard. So I think until Teach delivered them Ace, they weren't desperate. Then after they received Ace and had a pawn to get Whitebeard to battle them on their turf, they desperately took in Teach because they needed the full strength of the Shichibukai against Whitebeard.

So yes and no they were desperate XD

[Jade Tatsu]

You are quite correct, I don't think Crocy-boy will be serving Flamingo, but he does probably owe a favour. And given that the favour was potentially bought with the fact that he wasn't killed, I think the favour might be pretty big. Or nothing could come of it. I guess it all depends on how Oda wants to progress.

On Blackbeard, if you recall Laffitte, I think it was, went to that meeting of the Marines and Shichibukai in order to suggest Blackbeard as a candidate. This is during the Jaya Arc. While at the time they had only lost Crocodile, the fact that they were effectively losing Gekko I think made the Gorosei much more desperate to take someone of strength. (This is only my belief but I think even then the Gorosei but not necessarily the Marines were beginning to look at replacing Gekko.) During this time though, Blackbeard was hunting Luffy to bring him in to claim the Shichibukai title. He took Ace because Ace was available. With the effective fall of Gekko, even if they left him in place, I think both the Marines and the Gorosei were desperate for the strong replacement Blackbeard presented himself as.

If they had not been so desperate, I think they would have questioned a bit more closely why such a pirate so desperately wanted the position. It's a position of some power but it's not really a position of honour and while I admit most pirates don't necessarily want to be honoured, it can't be an easy thing to fill Shichibukai positions. Hence my insistence on the desperation. It does kind of make me think though what sort of recrimination went on after Blackbeard raided Impel Down. There has to be at least some 'I told you so's' going on.

One thing I really want to know though, that hasn't been shown is where is Aokiji? We know he resigned after losing but where did he go? The Rebels? Possible but I'm thinking it's a bit unlikely. Some quiet island? I don't think so. Jinbei seemed to have a small inkling but he didn't say.

[*BananaKing]

No doubt Aokiji no longer has intrest in the world, he lost the battle between Akainu so he has no standing in the world government and Marines. I dont think Aokiji would join the Rebels, he just doesnt seem that interested in siding with them. No doubt he's living his retirement and watching what happens in the world; he's probably a citizen. I say this because he and Akainu differed on so many things that I doubt he'd work under Akainu. Aokiji has a problem with Akainu's sense of justice, Aokiji is a advocate of Moral Justice or Akainu's Absolute Justice. Aokiji could work as Akainu's equal in rank, but wont serve under him

[Jade Tatsu]

No doubt Aokiji no longer has intrest in the world, he lost the battle between Akainu so he has no standing in the world government and Marines. I dont think Aokiji would join the Rebels, he just doesnt seem that interested in siding with them. No doubt he's living his retirement and watching what happens in the world; he's probably a citizen. I say this because he and Akainu differed on so many things that I doubt he'd work under Akainu. Aokiji has a problem with Akainu's sense of justice, Aokiji is a advocate of Moral Justice or Akainu's Absolute Justice. Aokiji could work as Akainu's equal in rank, but wont serve under him

Banana King, it's already been said that Aokiji left the marines. It was in the information that Jinbei gave them on Fisherman Island. He could have stayed but as Jinbei said, even Akainu is not completely without sympathy and it would have been a great disaster for the marines if he stayed. Aokiji was the appointed successor. Akainu took the position by force and in an organisation such as the marines, that is run by obeying superior officers Akainu was way out of line with his battle. I think the Gorosei and their Commander in Chief Kong will find that letting the position be taken by one willing to challenge for it will come back to bite them on the behind. There was also the line that the Government suffered a massive military loss with Aokiji leaving - that could refer to him alone leaving or that some of the marines also resigned. I'm guessing one or two did and even if they didn't both Sengoku and Garp retired which could also be a loss.

While Aokiji does seem the type to sit back and relax, I don't think he's the type to slip completely into oblivion. If nothing else, he's the logia Ice Devil Fruit user and as such he'd be a target for Blackbeard and his crew.

How do you draw the conclusion that Aokiji has no longer an interest in the world? So he lost a battle. If he really is an advocate of moral justice then he won't be the type of man to sit back and allow absolute justice to stomp over everything. He might wait a bit but I think we will see him still in the future. I am interested though in what makes you say your opening sentence.

[*BananaKing]

Its his attitude when he was a marine. His laid back nature made him come off as uncaring to me. He has the sense of moral justice, that is for certain, but he never seems into what he's doing. Its really an assumption based on the character's attitude until the time-skip

I think the Gorosei wanted Akainu over Aokiji rather than respect Sengoku's appointment. Akainu follows orders and he'll do ANYTHING to get the job done in the name of justice. Akainu followed the orders to kill everyone at Ohara when Aokiji was willing to let the non-scientists leave. The Gorosei seem to advocate Absolte Justice in the intrest of protecting the world and the World Government's image of supremacy and power, so they needed a man capable and trustworthy enough to lead their "police force" to do it. Aokiji would weight the moral options and do what he thinks is right; Akainu would do as he is told no matter whats in his way. I believe that Sengoku and Kong wanted Aokiji but the Gorosei told Akainu he should be the next Fleet Admiral, thus fueling the fires of battle between the two. Whoever came out on top would prove worthy enough to be the Gorosei's dog.

And well, we still have Kizaru XD and I could see Smoker becoming an admiral sometime in the manga, he already is a Vice Admiral and a Logia user.

[Jade Tatsu]

Even if the Gorosei wanted Akainu, the fact that they allowed the fight does not bode well for their continued control of the situation but I base that on the fact that I personally don’t think we’ve seen the last of Aokiji. Even if he does nothing or was inclined to do nothing, I think various factions would hunt him out – 1. Rebels to support them and/or 2. Blackbeard Pirates in their quest to capture and create the strongest devil fruit users. Those two factions rather easily spring to mind.

I would really love to see what the other Yonkou think of Blackbeard though I know we won’t find that out for a while if ever since OP doesn’t really work like that. Sigh… now waiting waiting waiting for the next chapter.

[*BananaKing]

I think Blackbeard isn't concerned with Marine Devil Fruit user, I think he's after pirates. If I remember correctly, Blackbeard wants to be the pirate king (and I speculate he wants to be king of everything) and as a pirate he'd want to get rid of all the competition. The strongest pirates are mostly devil fruit users, so he'd want to take them all out first. He's a mighty big coward when it comes to the marines and I think even now as a Yonkou, he'd not try and fight the marines; hence why he ran from Akainu instead of fighting him and taking his power.

Now a VERY important thing about why I think Blackbeard won't hunt down marines is his utter lack of Haki. Although its not confirmed, Blackbeard doesn't seem to have Haki, a HUGE weakness when dealing with high ranking and powerful marines. Someone like Garp would have a very powerful edge against Blackbeard and I'm sure there are more Haki marines (Sentamoru to name one). All the admirals have haki as do most if not all the vice admirals. Blackbeard's cowardly nature would dictate he hunt down weaker and rookie pirates, like the Supernovas, and rob them of their chance at becoming a threat. We also must consider his Devil Fruit has a very grave weakness, and that is that he must take in more damage and pain from attacks; he cant become pure darkness to avoid anything. Blackbeard has to weigh his targets carefully before he just decides to fight.

One thing I must admit though is Blackbeard got a lot more arrogant now that he has the Yami Yami and Gura Gura no mi and that could cloud his judgement.

I'm calling this now, before Smoker and Law can get too deep into their battle, Luffy is going to come out of no where and interrupt >_<;

[odin]

I agree, Blackbeard is running away from akainu cause he is not ready to face him yet but I am pretty sure he will sooner or later most likely by a sneak attack and I'm guessing that will be in the unavoidable battle between Luffy and Akainu, as soon as Luffy beats him he will take out the weakened akainu and probably steal his powers, I think during the time skip Blackbeard has at least aquired the armor haki since he is aware of the existence of haki, maybe he found a way to forcefully activated or something like that, he is a very smart guy so I know he will be able to do something like that and at least cover his weakness in a way.