 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. And today we have a review of chapter 990, Army of One. And this week was quite the surprise to say the least. I mean, things happened that seemed somewhat inevitable, at least with Drake anyway. But what I enjoyed most about 990 is that it was very toby-rope-centric, in much the same way that 989's main thread was the straw hats. Although sadly, the toby-rope didn't quite get a phenomenal group shot like the straw hats did, but it was still really great to see them providing the primary perspective of the chapter. And you know it was especially great to see who's who making his desires known, which rather shockingly is to subscribe to the Grand Line Review for regular one piece content uploaded straight into his YouTube feed. And you know what? It's a very achievable desire as well for all of you. And just to continue the self-shilling, just letting you know that I now have a Pokemon based channel if you're into that world, link in the description of course. It's a lot of fun, not at all serious, and I promise you will enjoy it even if you're not a Pokemon fan. But commencing this review properly, we need to begin with the man of the hour because for me, this chapter is all about Drake. In the span of what? Like 18 pages, he has gone from mysterious entity to fully fledged ally. And while it might seem kind of sudden when putting it like that, I can't help but love the way it happened. There was something very satisfying about seeing Drake being pushed to the brink of having to make a drastic decision because in his history in one piece, he has very much been the opposite of that. Ever since his introduction on Sabote, Drake has been shown to us as this more middling, calculative force of balance, which was on display immediately when he stopped the fight between Killer and Rouge. And really the only rash sort of action we've seen from him was the immediate decision to fight Scotch, but even then that felt extraordinarily calculated as if everything was going all according to Dinosaur plan. But here we see some actual emotion from Drake for what I feel is the first time in this series. Like the very last panel in the chapter offering his services to Luffy, I feel like I was looking at a completely different character because I'm just not used to seeing anything but a cold, statuistic expression from Mr. Drake. So breaking through all of that is probably the highlight of the chapter for me, even more so than the idea that Drake is now fighting alongside our raid forces, which is still pretty cool, don't get me wrong. I do love having him on board and I believe that now makes six of the worst generation we have actively fighting against Kido, Luffy, Lore, Kidz, or Killer, and now Mr. Drake. That's a pretty incredible number right there and we still have the potential to add at least two more to that. But before we move on, I also just want to say that I love the final page of Drake's springing into action. I know we probably don't have enough examples to go by as of quite yet, but I really like seeing Drake fight in his human form or human hybrid form, much more so than as a pure Allosaurus anyway. I just love his dual wielding of the crazy, foresighted axe thing and the saber. It's a really unique combination for one piece and that seems to get very lost when he turns into a dinosaur and Drake's arms are just like too teeny, tiny to hold anything anymore. And I'm also very curious about how Drake landed on that strange combination of weapons, but for now, I could not be more thrilled about his turn in the story. Although thinking about it from Luffy's perspective is pretty funny because Drake is now the second theoretical enemy in very quick succession. That has come directly to Luffy offering to fight alongside him, the first, of course, being Yamato. And Luffy's reaction seems very similar here. He's just confused more than anything and probably won't care all that much. Luffy is a very simple lad. I mean, all he wants to do is punch a dragon and call it a day. Not deal with these minimally complex alliance situations. However, I, on the other hand, very much enjoy minimally complex alliance situations. So it's hard to go any further without mentioning one, Basil Hawkins, whose importance in this chapter is probably quite greatly overshadowed by the actions of Drake. But this is actually the first time that Hawkins has appeared in Act Three of Wano, which is quite big, although he strolls into this action-packed act very, very casually, predicting the future sitting comfortably as per usual. And now the truly speculative discussion begins, because Hawkins has an incredibly intriguing prediction here, being that a certain man only has a 1% chance of surviving until tomorrow. And there's quite a lot that can be read into this. In fact, the very first takeaway I had after reading this line was not so much wanting to know who Hawkins was talking about, but more so the idea that this, to me, very strongly implies that this is looking more and more like the grand climax of Wano. The idea that by tomorrow, the dust will have settled and the dawn of a new world may quite literally be upon us. And a lot of that is quite dependent on who Hawkins is analyzing, of course, and of which there are many options. An obvious guess would be Luffy, which would mean that we have an awfully long and hard battle ahead, because 1%, well, that's not all that great, is it? However, it would probably be quite narratively sound, because even though it's 1%, well, 1% is more than enough for Luffy to take that opportunity, because it certainly is not 0%. And on the other side of this coin, I personally think it would be very interesting if Hawkins was predicting Kaido's future, although I am much less sold on that idea. If this were the case, I feel like Hawkins would have had a more startled reaction, whereas seeing 1% for someone like Luffy is almost expected. Although there is a moment much later on in the chapter where Hawkins is looking at his cards in a very concerned way, but I think that this may be a new reading. So whatever that was, Kaido would know, I think it's unlikely that Kaido was the 1%. There are other much more morbid options, though one of which might be Trafalgar Law. Law is a figure who Hawkins and Drake both very familiar with and so it makes sense for them to be talking about him. And he's also very much set up as a potential martyr with the whole Ope Ope No Mi and everything. And yet it would be a very sad fate, but one that is very much in keeping with the pattern of the will of D. So from my perspective, it's certainly on the table. And that list isn't exhaustive either. Hawkins could be looking at just about anyone, perhaps even kid, maybe even Yamato or Momonosuke. Like there's so many options, it's kind of crazy. Although I think the arguments for them are much less solid at this stage anyway. What I also really liked about this scene was Drake trying to gently lead Hawkins into betraying the Beast Pirates. And despite how this chapter ended with Hawkins kind of ganging up with Huzo and Queen, he doesn't really outright deny the idea. More state that Drake would be a barrier to him doing so. Although once again, Hawkins is the kind of man whose actions will more than likely be dictated by his cards. And until he sees something particularly shocking in them, he's probably going to remain a Beast Pirate Loyalist. All right, moving on to some great action now. In between all of the toby rope of fun, there were some great panels of the straw hats taking on the numbers with a very direct reference to Thriller Park embedded in. Like Oz himself is specifically mentioned and this is done to draw a contrast between the straw hats then and the straw hats now, which is very, very ever so effective in my opinion. Although I don't think the numbers are quite equitable to Oz, not at all. But I do love the confidence of Luffy just sleeping into combat in Gear 4th, which very much mirrors his confidence going up against Oz in nightmare Luffy form, which is actually kind of wow to think about because we have now completed this very wide circle. Luffy is now in a state where the seemingly unimaginable power that he temporarily attained on Thriller Park is now at his complete disposal. And look, as someone who remembers reading weekly when Nightmare Luffy first appeared, this is quite a euphoric sight to see. It has been an absurdly long journey to get here, but it is a clear moment of growth and it makes me personally feel very, very proud of Luffy as well as the rest of the straw hats actually. And just as a side note, it's fantastic to see Gear 4th once again. It feels like it's been far, far too long and that ultimate hit that Luffy used against the numbers at the end was ever so satisfying. I should also say that Hiogoro had a bit of a moment of his own after seeing Gear 4th going on to equate this form of Luffy to some sort of guardian deity, which was nice because it very much reflects my own thoughts whenever Gear 4th gets whipped out. Luffy just has such a different presence in this mode and looking back on it, I'm actually kind of surprised that we haven't had more reactions like this throughout the history of the series. So moving to battles elsewhere, there was a brief yet exciting scene featuring the Sulong Minx facing off against the absolute beast that is Jack. Rather unsuccessfully facing off against him, I should say. Although this fight does seem to be taking quite a rapid toll on Jack. There were some surprising panels of him bleeding and breathing heavily. So while he is still pretty much single-handedly annihilating the entire Minx Tribe, he is having a much harder time than before, which appears that it may result in one of the most anticipated rematches in this series for me because during the scene, Nourashi and Nekomomushi kick into gear. And it looks like both of them have already transformed into their Sulong incarnations, but the panel of both of them silhouetted under the moonlight is pretty damn hype. Although I am quite a fiend for silhouettes, I love them and I think that Oda is an absolute master of using them, giving you just enough information to create a solid picture, but retaining plenty of mystery for the imagination to go wild. So I can't wait to see these two in their full glory and I'm hoping that they will be Jack's ultimate opponent because wouldn't it just be so wonderfully satisfying to see him go down to the Minx, whom he has caused ever so much pain? It is definitely a bit worrying though, because whilst all of this is happening, Kaido is just looming up there completely untouched. And even though the vassals are not fighting in full force as of yet, things are not looking good for everyone up here to say the least, unless you are Kaido, in which case things are looking pretty great. Moving back indoors now, there was a pretty fun interaction between King and Queen in this chapter, which kind of perfectly sums up their relationship. It almost reminds me of the Zoro and Sanji dynamics are being King and Sanji probably being Queen, where they have this mutual deeply seated respect for the strength of one another, but generally cannot stand their company. And King in particular seems to have a hilariously low opinion of Queen, but also heading back right to the beginning of the chapter, surprise, surprise, Sasaki has not been taken out of action for the rest of the arc. And I don't feel like this is a huge point of note, but it is important I suppose in the meta-scheme of things, because when Dendoro sort of comically subdued Sasaki, there was quite the furor from certain pockets of the online fan base, who were mad that, you know, a Tobi ropo was quote unquote defeated so easily, Oda skipping fights, one piece is a joke, et cetera, et cetera. Meanwhile, I and I think most people thought it was pretty obvious that Sasaki would be back in action, and I'm really glad to see him again here. But yeah, I think this entire situation very much highlights the dangers of over-analyzing weekly installments and taking them as full stops rather than a continuous sentence. So the next time that you or someone you know gets a bit upset about an isolated event in a weekly chapter, just remember, that is probably not the end of a story. And speaking of a continuing story, I really liked that this would appear to set up a potential for you to show down between Sasaki and Dendoro. A thought that excites me more than I would have expected it would actually. And I guess that's because Dendoro, Kyoshiro, the entire existence, that took a while to grow on me, which is a similar process that Sasaki is undergoing at the moment. He's definitely my least favorite member of the Tobiropo. And when they were first introduced, he was very much the old one out to me. But the more I see Sasaki in isolation, the more intrigued I am to follow him and whatever his inevitable crazy ancient zoan double fruit is. And as for things I haven't mentioned yet, Ulti in page one had some time here as well. I don't really know how much of it is worth commenting on though. Ulti continues to be charming and fun, but that is effectively the end of what was contributed in 990, which is never a bad thing. These times of levity are fairly essential in the manga. But other than saying I enjoyed it, there's just not a lot to digest. And similarly, the cover story is nice. It's great to see Shifon and Lola pulling pound up with their combined twinly might. Although the best part for me is just how annoyed beige looks and how that's contrasted directly against how happy Pez looks about the entire situation. It was a really good father son shot that just makes me love Capone Gang beige infinitely more. But that pretty much shows it for chapter 990. And what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below or even join my Discord server. And if you'd like to see more videos like this, then please do go and check out some of my other content or even subscribe to the channel for more glorious one piece business uploaded straight into your YouTube feeds. But for now, this has been the ground line review and I'll see you next time.