 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece. Last week on the ArcReview, we staged the greatest jailbreak the One Piece world has ever seen, and impaled down, and this week we are immediately being flung into the largest scale battle ever covered in the series at Marineford. Marineford is the 22nd arc in the series, consisting of 31 manga chapters and 33 anime episodes, although the anime manages to make it feel like a hell of a lot longer than that. But this is a mammoth event in the series, and something we've been building towards in the background since our humble beginnings. To put it into some perspective, Marineford is like the Infinity War of One Piece. They accept that Marineford came first. So actually I guess Infinity War is more like the Marineford of Marvel. Whatever the case, Marineford features the largest cast of characters that we have ever seen jammed into a single arc. And as a result, Marineford really does not work as an arc to read or watch in isolation. You really need to be familiar with almost every event that has happened in the series to have a full appreciation of the madness that is this war. Although at the center of everything there is but a single character, Portgas D. Ace. Now Ace is a bit of a weird character for me. I liked him during his introduction in the series many, many arcs ago, and following his cover story was pretty fun as well, but at the same time I've never really cared too much for him beyond that. And that's because apart from looking cool, I don't think he's done an awful lot to this point to warrant being worried over. So the heavy emotional lifting of this arc is forced onto Luffy, Whitebeard, and even Garb to make me vicariously care about the impending execution and its implications. I will say that looking back on Marineford, I definitely do care an awful lot more for Ace, but that comes with the advantage of knowing the flashback that will come during the next arc, as well as the knowledge that this is the end for Ace. While I was reading Marineford Weekly, the thought that Ace could actually die was completely absurd. People just don't die in one piece, well outside of flashbacks. And that one guy that Lucky Rue killed in the very first chapter. But we don't talk about that. So yes, I don't think it's an understatement to say that Ace's death is the most shocking event to ever occur in the series, even to this day. So much so that nobody actually believed it when it happened. Theory started to spring up everywhere about how he will be revived or reborn as like Goldie Ace, because oh, he's the son of the bloody pirate king. That was a fairly big shock as well by the way. But alas, when the next chapter came around and Ace's lifeless corpse was still lifeless, hard reality set into the fanbase. And I can't praise this move enough. One of the things I really dislike about One Piece is that you were never particularly invested in the well-being of the character because of what I call the Pell Effect. But Marineford took an important step in rectifying that. And this carries on well into the new world. Essentially these days, if you're not a straw hat, you could find yourself being quite expendable. But of course, Ace's death also served to completely break everything we knew of as Luffy. At this point, he'd had his entire crew stripped of him, traversed six layers of hell and was openly taking part in a war full of people who could squash him at any given second. So what is the worst thing that could happen to Luffy at this point? I guess we could kill his brother. This ultimately showed us a side of Luffy that I for one never thought we'd see, which is complete despair. After Ace's death, Luffy actually loses the ability to function as a human being, which is a low that no main character ever shown and really ever reaches. But it came with the added benefit of humanizing the super strong rubber man quite a bit and it began his journey to rebuild himself bigger and better. There are two other incredibly emotional journeys that I want to highlight as well. And the first belongs to the legend that is Edward Newgate. As a character, Whitebeard surpassed all of my expectations, which is impressive because during his introduction way back in the Jaya Ark, he was labeled as the strongest man in the world. This is an incredibly dangerous thing for an author to do because it creates a glass ceiling of power in the world, which can be very unsatisfying when this strongest being is eventually beaten. However, Whitebeard was handled fantastically. At no stage did I ever feel as if there was anybody present at Marineford who would stand so much as a chance against this man in one on one combat, which is a big statement to make in the presence of characters like me, Hawk and the three Marine Admirals. And although Whitebeard was eventually defeated, it took throwing almost literally everyone and everything at him. And in the end, it still almost wasn't enough. In addition to that, it cost the entire Marineford complex, so the damage was real and Whitebeard passed away as the undisputed strongest man in the world. But beyond all of the amazing action, what really turned me into a Whitebeard fan was the core idea that drew him to becoming a pirate, which was that he simply wanted a family. He didn't become the strongest man in the world through any typical desire like a lust for power, passion to be the best, or even a quest to become the pirate king. All he ever wanted to do was live with a family of his own. And in order to protect his family, he became the strongest man in the world. And that unique legacy is why Whitebeard is still one of the most popular characters in the series to date. But the more underrated emotional center of this arc definitely resides with Garp. Other than Kobe and arguably Boa Hancock, Garp is the only figure in this entire war who was split between both sides of the conflict. His honor for the Marines and his ideas of justice are put to an unprecedented test where he is actually expected to ensure and endure the execution of a man whose safety was entrusted to him. Meanwhile, he also has to deal with his own grandson who is actively fighting against him, which ultimately led to the phenomenal moment where Garp allowed Luffy to punch him rather than using his overwhelming power to prevent Luffy from saving Ace. Overall, it was very easy to empathize with Garp because in this situation, I have no idea what I would have done either. He has a choice between saving Ace potentially leading to the destruction of the Marines as we know it, or he ensures the safety of the world at large by sacrificing Ace. This man takes an emotional beating, arguably a greater one than Luffy actually. And despite all the pain, I really appreciate the opportunity we had to get to know Garp on that kind of level. And then there is Kobe, who I briefly mentioned before, and who would have thought that this pathetic looking boy who appeared in Chapter 2 would become the man he is during this arc. Kobe's sense of justice is clearly defined during Marineford and his actions in delaying Arcaynu for even a few seconds with one of the best speeches in the entire series is directly responsible for saving Luffy's life. But the way he stood up to Arcaynu left me absolutely gobsmacked. Here we have possibly the strongest and definitely most terrifying Admiral we've ever seen, and then there's Kobe. This genuinely made me fear for his character, but I could not be proud of his actions and seeing his growth to this point. It opened my eyes to the fact that even though we don't see Kobe all that often, he is an incredible and essential presence in the series. And I feel like I'm talking exclusively about characters a bit too much for an arc review, but characters are the driving force of Marineford. Any sense of plot during this arc seemingly evaporates, leaving us with only a collective of deeply personal struggles that form an entrancing story. So let's touch on a few more. Fleet Admiral Sengoku. Holy hell, what a tactician and what a devil for it. Seeing this man in action was almost as glorious as watching Whitebeard himself. I do think it's a shame that we didn't see more of him in combat, but his transformation was placed very strategically at an incredibly dramatic and climactic moment where Ace is released. So it was absurdly effective in raising the stakes of that particular scene, and of course the brief moments of Sengoku taking on the entirety of the Blackbeard Pirates is just godly. Transitioning into Blackbeard during Marineford, this man realized a huge part of his master plan and completely rewrote the rules of one piece in the process, becoming the first character in the series to hold two devil fruit powers at once. Blackbeard had evoked a sinister presence for me ever since the events of Benara Island, but Marineford left me completely convinced that this man will be the final antagonist to stand in Luffy's way of becoming the pirate king. And that is an alarming thought, because right now Blackbeard outclasses Luffy in every way. My god, there are so many other characters who deserve mentions such as Mihawk, Smoker, Hancock, Moria, Ivankov, Alkegi, Kizaru, Jinbei, Marco, Dolflamingo, Crocodile, Hina, Buggy, and even Mr. Three, who is essentially the MVP of this arc, having created a wax key to free Ace from his C stone handcuffs. And even though almost all of them played very important parts during this arc, these normally prolific characters are entirely overshadowed by the presence of Whitebeard, further adding to the old man's legacy. Marineford is a clusterfuck in the best possible sense of the word. No matter where you enter this arc from and where you gaze upon the battlefield, something interesting and important is going down. So much so that I think reading or watching Marineford all in one go can be a bit overwhelming. My mind actually boggles attempting to review the entirety of this arc because series-defining moments happen in almost every chapter. I feel a lot like the reporter from the report time short, who instead of actually saying anything insightful, just keeps spouting that words fail him. Because the complexity of emotions and interactions cultivated over the course of more than a decade just can't be efficiently analyzed in a way that does the arc justice. In fact, Marineford is one of the very few times in the series that I have been glad that we had to wait an entire week for the next chapter because it gave us the time we sorely needed to digest the events of each new installment. And it was almost like following the coverage of a real-life war, only without the horror and human tragedy that comes with war in reality. Although the arc certainly isn't without criticism. While by and large, Marineford will appear in the top five and probably even top three favorite arcs of most fans, there are a lot of people out there who do criticize the arc for its non-stop pace with very little breathing room. Although if you are an anime watcher, it's also worth noting that Marineford can be criticized for the exact opposite reason, often moving at a snail's pace and attempting to stretch out and sustain energy over the course of an episode count that should have been half as long. When I look back on the Marineford anime, I think of it as the arc of reactions. Toei absolutely loves long and unnecessary reaction shots to every minor event under the sun, and Marineford provided them with an entire toy box full of characters to abuse. Oh look, Luffy's arrived at the battlefield. Let's find out what Dracule Mihawk thinks about this for roughly five whole seconds. Now let's see what Gekko Moria thinks of this new development. And holy crap, we now need to move to Kizaru's thoughts. And now let's check in with what Whitebeard thinks of everything. It's not as if he has a war to concentrate on or anything. Kobe is pissing himself with this new development. Hino has never even met Luffy. Dol flamingo's only reaction to anything is smiling. Manga's moustache holds valuable input. Jango also isn't pleased with this particular situation, so we'll link running for a couple of seconds longer to emphasize that. More like full naughty. Vista only thinks about flowers. Garp is shocked and Akainu has a lava stick up his arse. Bors Jr. is lying dead on the ground. These shadows count as new characters. What are you doing here, Steli? You weren't even at Marineford. Silly. And thank fuck that's over. Now we can move on with the episode. Now, Luffy takes one step forward. And there you go. I've just summed up about 17 episodes worth of Toei's finest filler, but admittedly the material between all of that is adapted pretty well. But that is mainly due to the credit of how strong the manga is. To me, Marineford was an experience that dwarfed every arc that had come before it and set an impossibly high standard for every arc that comes after it. And that pretty much does it for Marineford. Next week we need to take a bit of a breather after this and examine the ramifications of the Paramount War during the post-war period. If you enjoyed this video then feel free to like, favorite or subscribe and please comment with your thoughts on Marineford. This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.