This week I watched episodes 212 – 233. These episodes had some awesome and unexpected moments. Some of them open doors to new possible story lines that I really want to see play out. A lot of the episodes presented me with more questions than answers.

The first few episodes I watched this week covered the end of the Davy Back fight with the Foxy pirates. Once the straw hats won and got Chopper back, I thought it was going to be over but then Luffy foolishly agree to have another game. At the time I was thinking, “Why would he do that? How stupid could you be? I don’t want to see another round of the One Piece Olympics!” However, it all was worth it once I saw Luffy put on that Afro. Afro Luffy was amazing. I don’t know what it is, but the afro power was real. I enjoyed trainer Usopp as well.

The story really picked back up in episode 227 where we met Aokiji. He’s one of the top fighters for the marines and has crazy ice powers. When I say crazy, I mean he froze the ocean solid from one island to the next like it was nothing. He also has some kind of past history with Robin that I’m looking forward to finding out about. Speaking of Robin he froze her solid!

I wasn’t ready for this. Luckily the crew managed to save her before Aokiji could crush her, but in order to have that opportunity Luffy had to go up against Aokiji. I couldn’t think of anyway a rubber man could beat an ice man and well … I was right. Luffy got frozen solid but Aokiji didn’t crush him. He actually let him go because apparently Luffy’s grandfather helped him out once before in the past. This was the first mention of Luffy’s grandfather I wonder what he was like or if he’s still alive. Come to think of it I don’t know anything about Luffy’s family other than his brother Ace.

After the crew was all thawed out, they headed to the next island, Water Seven. Water Seven is kind of like Sky Island but in the ocean. The streets are all made of water and they have special elevators that fill up with water to get you up to the higher levels of the city. It was all very unique unlike the voices of the townspeople. They reused the exact same voices from earlier in the series. It doesn’t bother me but, I definitely noticed. What was really crazy though was how the reused Mihawk’s character design and made him a ventriloquist shipwright.

Speaking of ships, the crew cashes in their gold so they can use the money to fix the Going Merry but, a couple of unforeseen things happen. The first being how Usopp got jacked by the Franky family for 200 million out of the 300 million berries they got for trading in the gold. I don’t know why they let Usopp out of their sight when he was carrying so much money. He ends up half dead in a street somewhere. The second thing that happens that was a total shock is when the crew gets told by the best shipwrights in the world that their ship is unfixable. They said it wouldn’t even make it to the next island. I don’t know what the crew is going to do about this situation. They are too attached to the ship to let it go and get a new one, but at the same time it can’t be fixed.

Meanwhile, Usopp displays his unwavering courage when it really counts and goes barging into the Franky family’s house to get the crews money back so they can fix the ship, but he doesn’t know yet that the ship can’t be repaired. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I hear the show is about to go from good to great. What did you think about these episodes when you watched them? Leave a comment down below.