Chapter 620: "The Theme Park We Dreamed Of" Discussion

[Czechmate]

Zeo seems to have learned Soru! See how he ended up behind the crowd without them noticing!?

Praying for this to be a joke.

But on that subject, it may have been stated already but I'm banking on Zeo having a sort of camouflage-ability, relating to his inspiration, the carpet/wobbegong shark, which excels at disguising itself on the seafloor to catch prey.

Truly incredible chapter; I've never been so excited for a flashback. I think the Sabaody/Arlong Park resemblance is insanely cool, and I feel like a large part of the flashback is going to offer evidence to Arlong's motivation for his actions (not in a redeemable sense, no, but in an interesting one. Getting inside the minds of the villains is one of my favourite parts of this manga.)

[Luxor]

^ And all the more because the Arlong Park arc was the turning point for One Piece.

[Spooly]

Awesome chapter, iam really looking forward to this new flashback. Will this Flashback be "join the Strawhat crew" material?

Pandaman spotted :)

[Kaze]

Awesome chapter, iam really looking forward to this new flashback. Will this Flashback be "join the Strawhat crew" material?

Pandaman spotted :)

Jesus Christ, already?

[ponx]

Can someone with a better memory help me here. The flashback took place 15 years ago, would that be around the same time Arlong invaded East Blue? If so, then we're about to see how Tiger died sooner than I expect.

[Jeff]

Will this Flashback be "join the Strawhat crew" material?

Absolutely not. The focus of the flashback will clearly be on opposing views of Fisher Tiger and Queen Otohime on obtaining the same goal. It's going to be a world building flashback akin to the one we got for Skypiea. This flashback is about to unveil details of events that lead to some of the most important plot threads in all of One Piece. It's not going be cheapened by a focus on one character that will end up on the crew.

[otakufan]

I'm really digging the MLK Jr./Malcolm X comparison to Queen Otohime/Fisher Tiger's methods to resolve their people's plight.

I think we're going to see a different side of Jinbei in this flashback, one more ideologically in line with Fisher Tiger/Arlong/Hodi's militant approach to human/fishman relations.

I expect that the Sun Pirates, or at least some of their high-ups, had something to do with Queen Otohime's assassination (maybe Tiger himself, but I'm still not sure when his own death occurred in relation to the Queen's), with the murder itself or the lead-up to it being what ultimately broke the crew up, and likely what turned Jinbei into the man he is now. I think those who followed Arlong were likely ones who, if not directly involved, agreed with the assassination of Otohime and breaking off any thoughts of reconciliation with humans, while those who followed Jinbei were those who were swayed into Otohime's camp, whether before or after her death.

I'm also expecting that Arlong's being "set loose" by Jinbei was actually intended as exile, getting the war-mongering elements as far from Fishman Island and the seat of the World Government as possible, while Jinbei used his new position as a Shichibukai to try and rekindle the late Queen's wishes of peaceful reconciliation. That Arlong turned this exile into the beginnings of his plans of conquest was likely an unintended consequence, something that has been eating at Jinbei ever since.

Can someone with a better memory help me here. The flashback took place 15 years ago, would that be around the same time Arlong invaded East Blue? If so, then we're about to see how Tiger died sooner than I expect.

If I recall correctly, Arlong conquered Nami's hometown eight years prior to the start of the story, making it roughly ten years ago post-timeskip. So this flashback is, in turn, about four or five years before that.

[ChesCa]

Fisher Tiger being Malcom X and the queen being MLK Jr is an awesome point. I hadn't thought of it that way.

I thought of that once I heard about their different ideologies, though I do admit that Jinbei's possible parallel with X being brought up before helps.
*Really dark, looking too deeply into symbolism prediction*
And maybe they were both murdered by people who didn't like either ideology (since it advanced Fishmen interests in some way).
And man, shit just got dark this chapter. The word terrorism even crossed my mind when I saw the Fish Men forcing others to step on a picture of their beloved Fish Queen. It really is turning into a cult. And Caribou...there's just no way he can still have supporters. Just no way. And I dread to see how he will take advantage of this situation. Of all the humans the Hodi pirates DIDN'T catch.

[dasia]

Ponx: It was talked about in ch619's thread Arlong invaded Nami's village 10 years ago (8+ 2 timeskip). We dn't know how

long he has spent in EB prior to this but Jinbei said he unleashed Arlong 11 years ago.

[ponx]

Absolutely not. The focus of the flashback will clearly be on opposing views of Fisher Tiger and Queen Otohime on obtaining the same goal. It's going to be a world building flashback akin to the one we got for Skypiea. This flashback is about to unveil details of events that lead to some of the most important plot threads in all of One Piece. It's not going be cheapened by a focus on one character that will end up on the crew.

And not necessarily collides with a Strawhat-joining-type-flashback. It will obviously be about all the things u've said, AND how it affect the entire fishman/merman, Arlong clearly is the extremist of Tiger's view, and we see that people are hesitant about the Fumi-e, that means that the Queen still has respect of her people. But the most interesting here is Jimbe, he was one of the Sun Pirates, meaning he is very much familiar with Tiger's ideas; but him joining the Shichibukai definitely collides with Tiger. What happened?? Queen Otohime must've changed his view somewhat, I believe that in Jimbe we see a merging between the 2 idealism; and certainly one powerful enough to stand up for his own idealism

Ponx: It was talked about in ch619's thread Arlong invaded Nami's village 10 years ago (8+ 2 timeskip). We dn't know how

long he has spent in EB prior to this but Jinbei said he unleashed Arlong 11 years ago.

Ah thanks for clearing it up, that means we get to see the Sun Pirates in action and lots of build up before Tiger's demise

[Luffyfan]

Meh I'm one of those people who enjoyed Sanji finally being serious, maybe when he learns of the events that happened in the War hey'll cool down a little with Jinbe. I think I loved how Luffy acted the most here though. Next week after the flashbacks end we should either be dealing with

A. Luffy's group learning about what happened to Zoro's group and off to save them

Or

B. Dealing with that mermaid stealing freak, how the heck is that guy going to take the princess? She's so big! He must be insane! I could see oddly enough, him teaming up with Decken but than again both have different goals, one wants to kill her and the other wants to steal her and make money off of her. Still, they could both attack at once.

Over all a good chapter.

[Mike M]

Sanji taking a stand was great. Finally got to see Fisher Tiger.

[Mr. Sandman]

Yeah, the staff's been working on it since December. It's going to be a little shorter this year, and probably going to start around June.

Is fisher Tiger eligible now that he's made an appearance? My bet is either Sabo or FT will win the next one.

[Nekketsu]

This takes place 15 years ago, right? If I recall correctly the assassination of the queen happened 5 years later. I wonder if there will be 2 separated flashbacks, one about Fisher Tiger, and one about Otohime.

[Sonic Youth]

They will probably make a little timeskipping in the flashback.

[Aohige_AP]

The fact that Macro was one of the founding members of Tiger's crew, and not some Sun-pirate wannabe that wore the tattoo, makes him the most despicable fishman ever.
In my opinion.

Not only is he a traitor to his own kind, but also to his captain's ideal.
Bring him back into the story and BURN HIM AT STAKE.

[Super-chops]

No doubt someone has already pointed this out, but I noticed that we have actually seen three of those Fishmen (shown in the flashback) before!

http://manga.animea.net/one-piece-ch...92-page-7.html
http://mangastream.com/read/one_piece/83002268/18

EDIT: oops, JUST beaten to it

[Nekketsu]

Don't forget about Vander Decken's grandpa. I'm sure the guy had an important role in this story, or else he would not have been mentioned.

[Mr. Sandman]

The fact that Macro was one of the founding members of Tiger's crew, and not some Sun-pirate wannabe that wore the tattoo, makes him the most despicable fishman ever.
In my opinion.

Not only is he a traitor to his own kind, but also to his captain's ideal.
Bring him back into the story and BURN HIM AT STAKE.

He's too weak and pathetic to even matter at this point. Hopefully Hatchi sent them flying to the nearest marine stronghold.

[Flux]

Wow interesting chapter. I like where Oda's going. Will be interesting to see how he now fleshes out Arlong and how Nami will deal with that. And Arlong's motivations for building Arlong Park were quite poignant.

Also Gaimon and Sarfunkel is hilarious!