I’d Rather One Piece | Week 7

This week I watched episodes 274-318. As per usual it was quite a ride. The Straw Hats made their final stand against CP9 and the World Government at Enies Lobby. Everyone in the crew pushed past their limits and showed off their own special new techniques that they used to defeat their CP9 opponents.

We finally got Robin’s backstory. It was pretty touching — almost tear jerking. For a kid to grow up being mentally abused and mistreated without parents and then being hated by the other kids on the island just because of her devil fruit powers is pretty messed up, but not nearly as bad as what happened on the day she was reunited with her mother. A buster call was issued and everything she had ever known was burned to the ground. She escaped thanks to a little help from Admiral Akoiji, but then she had to live a life on the run because the World Government put a huge bounty on her head. Every person who took her in, betrayed her. She was afraid of this happening again with the Straw Hats and decided she’d rather die before going through that again. Luffy and the crew showed her that would never happen when they shot down the World Government’s flag showing that they were willing to go against the whole world to get her back.

After Robin’s will to live was restored, they still had to go get her back — and they went through each member of CP9 to do it. I enjoyed every single one of these fights. I probably could write an entire post on each of these fights but I’ll just give you the highlights. By highlights I mean I just plan on talking about each members new abilities.

First up is Nami, she uses her new Clima Tact to create 5 illusions of herself as she creates weather indoors to strike down her opponents. Control of the weather is a pretty fitting ability for a navigator.

Next up is Chopper. Chopper doesn’t necessarily get a new ability per se, but he does do something we’ve never seen him do before. When pushed beyond his limits three times in battle, he takes a third Rumbleball and transforms into a huge mindless beast. He crushes his enemy but almost does the same to some of the members of his crew, but they get him back to normal.

Then comes Sanji. He heats up his leg and disables his opponent with a powerful flaming kick.

Zoro transforms. I still don’t know how, but he gets four extra arms and two extra heads and uses nine-sword style to defeat his foe. It was pretty awesome to see.

Luffy pulls out two new techniques, and both take tolls on his body. The first of these techniques he calls second gear. He uses his legs as pumps to make his blood flow faster giving him increased strength and speed. You can tell when he’s using this technique because his skin gets a red tint from the extra blood flow and steam comes off his body.

Luffy’s second technique is called third gear. He increases the mass of one part of his body and shifts it around as it gets bigger and bigger until he can disable his opponent with a giant fist or kick. This is super powerful but when the technique is over Luffy shrinks super small. This leaves him pretty vulnerable for awhile.

Despite all of Luffy’s new found power he struggles greatly against the leader of CP9. He digs deep though and gets the job done in epic fashion.

The crew manages to escape with Robin during the middle of a buster call because the Going Merry comes to save them and lead them to safety. Sadly, after they get away, she breaks and the crew is forced to say goodbye and burn her at sea.

Once everyone makes it back to water seven we find out about Luffy’s father and grandfather. We also learn some really interesting things about Shanks and his relationships with White Beard and Gold Roger. Hopefully this next arc will expand a lot more on this new information. I can’t wait see the Straw Hats next adventure and their new ship.

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The Otaku Couple