 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. And today we have a review of chapter 1002 and holy crap. This time we have what I would describe as chapter 1001's chapter, but even bigger and somewhat better. Yes, this is another 100% action chapter, which comes with a lot of great stuff, but also one slight major negative, which I'll get into a bit later, so as not to ruin all of the hype because this was for the most part absolutely insane because in 1001 we saw the opening exchanges. It was cool because we were gearing up and facing off properly against emperors for the first time, but this week in 1002, we are very much done playing around. Well, some of us are. Each of the worst generation members are getting serious, but the emperors are still kind of screwing around, which is concerning. Not as concerning as the idea of you not being subscribed to the Grand Line Review though, my heart breaks at the very thought because doing so would deliver regular one piece content uploaded straight into your YouTube feed in much the same way that Big Mom delivered sweet thunder justice to all during this chapter. Luckily the subscribe buttons are made out of rubber, so if you would like to protect yourself against Big Mom's attacks, now would highly recommend you press the button. But while it's incredibly difficult to pick my highlight of the chapter because every page is pretty phenomenal, I'm going to start by singling out killer actually. Luffy's are a kid in law, they all had fantastic action pieces here, but the character who surprised me by far the most was killer because he has, I would say, the most impressive of attacks on our dragon lad, something that really kind of boggles the mind as well because his punishment clause seemed to grow and extend or at least provide the illusion of doing so, as well as, of course, being able to what looks like legitimately slice through Kaido. In fact, I'd say that what killer's doing right now is very similar to the act of gutting a fish, which makes a lot of sense. So I am thrilled that killer stepped up during this chapter because honestly, the attacks from everyone else, they were awesome, but they were also kind of expected. We know those other four characters much better and so I think that killer is the definite gem here. Unfortunately, he was also the first to be struck by an emperor outside of the comical fireballs from last chapter. This time around though, it looks like it hurts quite a bit because killer has been hit by big mom's lightning. In a bizarre way, it makes me very nostalgic for the skypeer days because we're now facing off against an opponent who does have essentially NL type powers and in addition to ace powers, sugar powers, hat powers. And big mom is even a swordsman technically, so she has something for everyone really. But killer getting struck really did generate my favorite reaction of the chapter, which came from used as kid. It's always great to see him show some level of concern, which generally only occurs if killer is involved. But I like it because it reinforces that kid isn't a complete monster hard ass. And underneath that steely junkyard exterior, it turns out that kid does in fact have a heart. I mean, yeah, he did literally crucify that guy one time. We'll just forget about that now. I love kid. But while we're talking about this whole lightning business, we should also bring up Zora because there was a nice parallel in this chapter having both of the other first mate style figures being hit and seeing their captains respond accordingly. Although come to think of it, Luffy's response was something like, I'm gonna get you back for what you did to Zora, big mom. And then he proceeded to hit Kaido instead, which why? I mean, it's like getting punched by one of your friends and then you retaliating by hitting like a complete stranger who just happened to be there as well. You're gonna pay for this vicariously. With Zora though, I can't say I'm particularly worried because we've sort of done this before already, haven't we? He got hit by Arnold's lightning blast on scapegoat, stood up and managed to take another hit, didn't quite stand up quickly after that one though. But I would say that post time skip Zora should still be very good to go after this killer as well. I don't think he's been taken out quite that easily. Thinking about it though, it's a really cool situation because this sort of thing does happen in one piece from time to time. The straw hats have now had so many experiences that their maturity is given an opportunity to show. A good example of this would be on Fishman Island when Usopp fought against Daruma and it was a complete wipe because Usopp and Chopper had already beaten someone with Daruma's exact ability being Miss Merry Christmas on Alabasta. So I'm very much looking forward to seeing if we can take some skypeer experience into this fight against Big Mom, like if the next chapter Zora stands up and goes, huh, it's just like that one time in the sky. And then immediately adapts as a result of that experience. Who knows, maybe he'll even figure out how to cut lightning, although I do think that's just the Zora fanboy within me speaking and hoping and praying, please do it. Sadly though, a moment of silence because we did not get my biggest desire in this world which would have been to see Big Mom make the NL face. I mean, she did kind of do it sort of. There's some definite shock there, if you look carefully. It's just not the same though, is it? On the other hand, with Big Mom, I really do think we should make note of just how insanely awesome she was during this chapter which should not be surprising given who and what she is. But when it comes to the Emperor, she is more often than not, you know, the one that attracts the most comic relief but that's not really the case in 1002. Ah, and this chapter, Big Mom kind of rocks. I mean, pun, not intended, but I'll take it. There are moments in chapter 1000 to where Big Mom looks like the final boss of, I don't know, any given action adventure or RPG game. Just casually riding atop a thundercloud with a flaming sword and casting down lightning powers upon the world. What's better is that she also displays some pretty sound judgment which is rather uncharacteristic of Big Mother. Primarily when she warns Kaido about Zora's impeding strike. It's the sort of thing that I wouldn't necessarily have expected of her but it's nice to see that she is acting in that big sister sort of role to Kaido. And currently, if anything, Big Mom seems like the more competent and powerful combatant in this fight. Before she was a big mother, she was a big sister. And while Charlotte Lynn then is a very unfathomably terrible mother, she is a good big sister, so good on her for that. But this is where Zora comes back into the discussion because it would seem that he has gotten over some of the teething issues of wielding Emma and is now prepared to make pretty devastating blows. And I do wonder just what would have happened if Mr. Kaido was hit because it's implied by Big Mom's concern that it would have been a pretty huge game changer. But now that we know that Zora can perform something like this, I think it's only a matter of time before it does successfully land. Maybe in some sort of, I don't know, nice panel showing Zora with a silhouette of Odin behind him, completing some sort of inherited will thing that one piece likes to do. Although having said that, Odin is another name to bring up because Kaido identifies that Emma feels an awful lot like the samurai of old, which is very intriguing because it continues to add to the mystery of Emma and I suppose swords in general, really. I do wonder if Odin legitimately infused Emma with Haki and what Zora is accessing right now isn't so much his own power, but what Odin left behind. Or a mixture because Emma does drain Zora as well. And you know, there was also that piece of foreshadowing from Act 2 of Wano where Hitetsu said something like, you know Zora, Emma is not a black blade yet. So depending on you, its rank may still rise. And JK, unless. Also a very impossibly minor note, Zora is using one sword style with Emma, which is intriguing because generally one sword style is reserved for the Wadawichi Monji. Like when Zora defeated Mr. Wan on Alabasta or even Ryoma on Thriller Bark. I mean, it's not the first time this has happened though. He did use one sword style with the sound like Hitetsu on Fishman Island, I believe. So it's probably happened elsewhere as well. But it is still quite rare and worth pointing out. Emma is now taking center stage with a position usually reserved for the Wado. Friendship ended with Wado. Now Emma is my best friend. Whatever the case, there's still a lot more to Emma than meets the eye. It's also quite an important device to showcase during this particular chapter because without Emma and some of Luffy's efforts, chapter 1002 would end up looking like a bit of a wipe in favor of the Empress. Given that both Zora and Killer got struck by Big Mom and everything. But with this whole Emma thing, Oda makes sure to just remind us that our worst generation allies do still have access to similar style attacks. And yeah, it may have missed during this chapter but the situation is still far from hopeless. Even if I do think things are going to get much, much, much, much worse before it gets better. Having brought up Luffy at some stage during this chapter, though he was a bit of an overachiever in 1002, wasn't he? Absolutely demolishing Kaido with a mixture of fists and feet. And he also has a particularly great moment where Zoro is unavailable to counter-slice Kaido's Bora breath. So Luffy, well, he needs to improvise. Aha, and as it turns out, there are two ways to counter Kaido's Bora breath. One is to cut it and the other is just, well, to not counter it. Which, in all fairness, worked pretty well. This is the kind of brilliant Luffy style thinking that nobody else has access to. Very few people in this series would forego the idea of dodging and it harks back to very early one piece actually. It immediately made me think of Luffy versus Don Kreek when Kreek clerked himself in spikes and was seemingly invincible. But then Luffy was all like, I can still punch you, you scrub. And with that in mind, Luffy doing many, many punch shows was how the chapter ended, which, while satisfying to see, does lead into my one and major negative thought about 1002, which has nothing to do with the chapter itself, but more the experience of reading it weekly. When I came away from this chapter, it very much felt like we were in the exact same position as we were at the end of 1001. It was a great showcase of action-based character moments, but in the grand scheme of things, 1002 didn't really progress the story in any way. It really was just an amped up incarnation of 1001 with some bigger spectacles, which once again, definitely not a bad thing. I really enjoyed it. But I can't help it feel like our one-piece train is still stuck at the same stop here. But hey, as long as it's a fun stop, who cares? Not me, except a little bit. For some more fun now, we move to Mr. Fun Kill, Trafalgar Law, who in this chapter got ordered around a bit by Zorah, which is pretty funny, but also very necessary. They need to coordinate strategy somehow. And given that Luffy and Zorah were in the air, the jump in think later-style brawlers, this is probably the best way to be using Law even if he profusely disagrees. Law also got to use his Gamma Knife during 1002, which is what I thought he was going to use the last chapter. There you go. You know that last chapter when Law said something like, I will deliver surgical death from the inside? And then he proceeded to like drop some pebbles on Kaido instead, this, this is more what I was expecting. With all of that said, the overall state of this fight is, once it's not looking great for our five combatants still, honestly, we really do need our other four shadows from Turkey's prophecy to rock up right about now, but I think we'll still be waiting for a while. I'm actually surprised actually that this chapter was another full on Emperor fight. I was expecting to cut back to the happenings downstairs because at the moment, it feels like we're skipping all of the entree battles in favor of some delicious main meat, which only further signals to me that we've probably got some major hardship to go through against these Emperors. So at this stage, yeah, I'm quite keen to travel elsewhere and see how everyone else is faring against the Tobi Robo, as well as King and Queen. But for something else in 1002, how could I not mention this amazing cover page? As far as Rob Luchi goes, this is probably the most adorable scenario I've ever seen him with. And then you, poor heart tree, while you're in the foreground being assumedly excluded by all of the other pigeons. And by the way, do take a moment to examine all of these miscellaneous pigeons, each and every one of them. A lot of them have these bizarrely distinct hair, I guess not hair, and then plumage styles, that's what pigeons have, right? And many of them have their own personalities and scars. And I think that one of them is even wearing a necklace. So it's just one of those times where Oda went crazy with giving animals personalities, rather than just, you know, drawing a standard flock of boring birds. And in the end, is that not why we all read one piece? Not for the story, not for the epic battles, not for the comedy, but for the birds. But that pretty much shows it for chapter 1002. If you enjoyed this video, then please do feel free to check out some of my other content, comment below, or even join the discussion on our Discord server. But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review, and I'll see you next time.