 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece. My name is Liam and yes, that cloud does have surprisingly luscious lips. No, I do not know why. So of course, we are here to go through chapter 101 because these crazy digits are starting to sound like some sort of binary, but there's quite a lot of unexpected stuff to tackle here including cloud-based lips. But we're going to begin with a quick round of Thunder Cloud or Blunder Cloud, a very simple mini game, the rules of which are as follows. A storm is brewing in the One Piece world and your job is simply to guess whether the entity behind it is our Thunder Cloud Hera or our Blunder Cloud Zeus. Should you guess incorrectly, then your divine punishment will be to subscribe to the Grand Line Review, which will also result in regular injections of One Piece culture administered straight into your YouTube feed. And if you are correct, then you will receive a delightful thunder shock from the cloud of your choice. But which will it be? Thunder Cloud or Blunder Cloud? Make your choice now and we shall reveal the answer in three, two, one and bam, it is a Thunder Cloud. No Blunder Cloud would be capable of this. So if you chose Zeus, and you know a thing to do, and please do say hi in the comments below if you are a new member of the Grand Fleet, welcome. With all of that cloud talk in mind, we're actually going to start with Luffy versus Kido because whilst far from the main focus of the chapter, it's very difficult to ignore another clash of conquerors Haki. And I particularly enjoy that Luffy is continuing to use his legs to face off against Kido's club. It's such a boss maneuver though, like Kido's got both hands on his club just, you know, whacking off. It didn't mean to say whacking off, I meant to say whacking away. Anyway, he's whacking away at full force and Luffy's just like, you know what, one leg. One leg will be enough to stop this Emperor of the Sea. More so than the last chapter, the goal of 1011 is to portray Luffy and Kido on something of an even playing field. I'm not saying that they necessarily are because previous chapters have done similar things like when the vassals were briefly, very briefly, successful in their battle against Dragon Kido. But even with that in mind, reading this is just so surreal. We are making true history here. The future pirate king is challenging the world's strongest creature and not only that, but Kido is respecting Luffy on a previously unimaginable level because that seems to be how Kido works. Typically one piece villains get more flustered and frustrated as the fight goes on and Luffy gradually overwhelms them, but Kido seems to be the exact opposite. He gets incredibly frustrated when opponents can't match him. So the longer this fight goes on, he's actually slipping into a more casual mindset or just, you know, having fun. It very much mirrors Luffy's capacity to smile demonically in the worst of situations quite well and weirdly enough, Kido isn't even the only emperor to mirror Luffy in 1011, but before we get to that, I just want to address advanced conqueror's hockey in general. I have noticed that after the review last week, reactions to this concept were very, very mixed. Less so that it exists and more so that Luffy mastered it seemingly immediately. And I will say that it did seem a bit sudden and a little bit out of nowhere. And I would say that the execution and overall wow factor probably could have been done a bit better. So I see where that side of the argument is coming from especially since we spent so, so long acquiring future sight and advanced armament. So to have this series changing skill being seemingly passively acquired within a couple of pages, sure, it can be a bit jarring. Personally, for me, I have to say that it works well enough because to truly understand this Luffy had to be hit by Kido twice. And that sort of experience is just far more brutal than days of training or even hours of combat against a mochi man. And to me, it also really pays off that act one defeat. After that moment, Luffy spent pretty much the rest of this arc analyzing that defeat. So him finally arriving at an answer here is pretty satisfying for me. And it also incorporates that theme of one piece fate, you know, by one shotting Luffy, Kido may very well have opened the gates to his own downfall. It's just, it's very one piece. So I quite like it, but I do get where the other side is coming from. But elsewhere, kid and killer command quite a large focus during this chapter as our worst generation dream team is all but entirely fractured and split up. And the main point of interest I have with kid and killer is the impending conflict with Basil Hawkins. I mean, specifically killers match up, I suppose. And at the outset, it doesn't seem like a bad match at all. Straw versus blades, huh? My 31 years of life experience tells me that this situation will rarely work out in favor of the straw. Hawkins seems confident enough, though when he's made another bold prediction being that killer has a staggering 92% chance of a bit of the old death, which is, yes, uncomfortably high. But this has made me realize something about Hawkins. Something I think I've been thinking about the wrong way. Throughout the entirety of Wano, because he appeared very early on, I've been anticipating a moment where Hawkins' cards will tell him that the chances of victory are now in Luffy's favor, and then he'll switch sides because, you know, he is a bit of a submissive to mistress fate. But I'm beginning to think it might be quite the opposite, though, because let's say that killer does have a 92% chance of death. And let's say that Luffy is the person he claimed to have a 1% chance of surviving the night. Wouldn't it be quite something to have those predictions stand and then to have everyone succeed regardless? To show Hawkins that even a 1% probability cannot be disregarded. Because I think that's what killer is getting at here. Become the master of your own future. Don't let a greater force tell you how to live. So as much as they would like Hawkins to jump ship and ally up with us, his entire character really does serve as a bit of a brilliant foil for the beliefs of Luffy, killer, kid, and everyone currently fighting to bring down Kaido. Also, in 1011, Hawkins is seen using his big strawboy form, which we have not seen since Saturday. And now I always forget where this is called so I had to look it up. It has weirdly different translations. In the Viz Manga, it's called Demon Face, but in the Funimation subs, it's called Demon Conquering Phase. Phase, not face. And I think that in this case, the subs are probably more accurate because this was a bit of a weird era for Viz. But it doesn't matter because I sure as hell do not remember these creepy spider leg things. What is with the straw spider leg things? I mean, I live in Australia and this creeps me out. It's a pretty promising matchup though. You can never complain with a fight between two worst generation members. Although having just stated my whole idea about defying the odds hurrah, I still have a very bad feeling in regards to killer. With all due respect to Mr. Killer, he just doesn't seem quite important enough to bring down Hawkins, so we'll see what happens. But that leaves Eustace Captain Kid theoretically taking on Big Mama Lone, an idea which I still believe is so poorly thought out. Not necessarily by Oda, but by the character of Kid specifically. Luckily, the situation is a little bit more complicated than a simple one versus one. Which brings us to the star of the chapter, one Charlotte Linlin. Big Mom had another one of her rare humanizing moments in 1011, which was obviously her interaction with Tama. And it was beyond adorable because the Olin mindset popped up and there was some very intriguing character stuff to delve into here. Firstly, I really like that Big Mom thanked Tama for looking after her during the whole amnesia incident. And it's cool to know that she does remember her time as Olin. But more importantly, this looks like it might finally be starting to pay off a couple of painstakingly set up plot threads. Amnesia being one of them. And that was a very controversial part of one, huh? So many people hated the whole amnesia thing, especially after Big Mama gained her memories with no lingering effect of her experience. Well, mere is the lingering effect of her experience. Granted, I wasn't totally sold on the amnesia either. I never am. It's a very difficult device to employ satisfactorily, but I do like that the experience is coming back into play here. And not only that, but it's being paired with the plot point of Okabora Town. We've spent quite a bit of time either in that town or discussing that town. And Okabora is very much the emotional center of the plight of the Wano people. Even with that said, I always thought it was a bit random that we spent time watching Holden being ordered to destroy it. But everything is tying together quite nicely now because these factors have contributed to Big Mom potentially being of assistance to the allied forces here, which is the exact thing I wanted from Olin back in the day. Because when up against such an overwhelming force led by an emperor, we need some rather chaotic factors to ironically balance things out. And a rogue emperor is such a solid device for that. And I don't know exactly how far this will go, but page one has already fallen victim and he's becoming sort of like the punk hazard smoker of this arc. He's now had his dino butt handed to him three times in one story. And if he does get up again, we're definitely in for a fourth. The damage from Big Mom here might provide a convincing handicap for Usopp and Ornami to take him down for good. But it is hard to discount the idea that he might be down and out right here and now because this is a punch in the neck from an emperor we're talking about. Oh, it looked painful. But what I love about 1011 is what it did for Big Mom as a character. I like when our antagonists are given some sort of moral compass, even if it is drastically skewed because I like knowing where they stand. And they also like knowing that even a terrifying soul stealing cannibal has a line because that's what separates every other character in the series from the true evils of the planet which would be represented in the world nobles. A character like Big Mom, even having a mere shred of morality in a very particular circumstance is still far more than we are going to see from the truly despicable individuals. It's sort of like the Kaido-Orochi comparison. I mean Kaido, he's a pretty sick mofo but he does hold a certain code of honor whereas the word honor does not exist in the orache vernacular. More importantly, this whole Big Mom thing is exciting development. The potential for chaos is far greater now and that's very much what I live for with One Piece. And we haven't even touched on the Thunder Clouds yet. Big Mom has a new cloud friend named Hera. Hera does make some sense because if you're unfamiliar in Greek mythology, Hera is both the wife and sister of Zeus because you know, that's just how they like to do things in ancient Greece. And in fact, the parents of Zeus and Hera, the Titans, Cronus and Rhea, they were also siblings. And I believe their parents before them, Uranus and Gaia. Well, Uranus is the son of Gaia, so it's a thing. All right, slight tangent. Greek mythology is so weird. So the big thing about Cronus is that he used to eat his own children. Rhea would present him with a baby and he'd just go like, oh, nom, nom, that's some tasty baby. And it took like five babies before Rhea decided, oh, you know what, maybe it's not a good idea to give my children to Cronus. So instead, she wrapped a rock in a blanket. Cronus ate it. He went nom, nom, nom, tasty baby as per usual because he's a moron because that is the moral of every story in Greek mythology. The gods are morons. Anyway, tangent over, I was not expecting Hera. With the new cloud, I was thinking that Oda might use the comparatively newer Roman copy Thunder God, Jupiter, but yeah, Hera works. And there's this really awkward moment at the end of the chapter where Zeus finds Big Mom and I am not looking forward to seeing how this plays out. I think that this happy little cloud is in for some heartbreak upon learning that he has been replaced. Luckily, all Zeus needs to do is run right into the arms of Nami who happens to be conveniently right there and all will be well. There seems to be a really good potential setup for Zeus to permanently be joining Nami. And I suppose by extension, the straw hats. And then maybe Nami and Big Mom could even have some sort of thunder off because let's be real. The only one who can really match Big Mom's raw power output is Nami, with Zeus and the climate attack. So just make it happen. The only one who isn't Kaido, I mean. Oh, and one more thing we haven't mentioned about Big Mom yet. There was a very sweet flashback to her time in Okuboro town. But seeing the tiny bowl of Oshiruko was great because it draws immediate parallels to Luffy's experience with Tama where she gave him that one bowl of rice. Which, whilst not much, was extraordinarily precious to her just like this one bowl of Oshiruko is incredibly precious to a town that is literally starving to death en masse. And Big Mom had the same reaction that Luffy did which was raw gratitude. It wasn't enough to fill my stomach but thank you for sharing this with me. And in that way, it's hard not to root for Big Mom in this situation, at least for me, because it's a direct copy of Luffy's morality. You hurt the people who gave me food. Well, this is not going to end well for you. So I'm delightfully conflicted here but very glad that all the time we've spent setting up this stuff on Wano is finally starting to tie together. And even better, what we're using to tie everything together is the very first human character that Luffy met. The seemingly most insignificant part of the arc is now converting an entire emperor's army into allies as well as now potentially even another emperor. Tama is everything and don't you forget it. Also, very sneaky thing inserted into this chapter which Azusa very casually confirming that Tama's dumpling-related abilities only work on smile users. Although his statement is factually incorrect because he says if those melee dumplings only worked on anything but smile users and in fact, they do work on something else. A lot of something else is actually, I believe we call them animals because they seemingly work on every animal like Hihimaru the baboon. And look, that's an incredibly small nitpick but either the translation is a bit weird here or Usup was written by Oda deliberately to be incorrect. Whatever the case, they both result in the readers receiving the wrong impression. So, I don't know. Sadly though, the ultimate meaning here is that Tama's abilities will not work on traditional zone users which does make sense because then this raid, well, it would become far too easy. Man would just become to have Usup shoot a dumpling into Kaido and then we're all good. But sadly, this does crush my dreams of an ally Ulte in very much the same way that Big Mum crushed the windpipe of page one. All right, let's talk about this color spread now because it's pretty peak one piece. Some of the most enjoyable art in the entire series comes from Oda just taking the straw hats and putting them in these absurdist situations on color spreads. Like this one where the whole crew was framed by a gigantic Nami and everyone's doing fun stuff like swimming in drinks. Shout out to Robin, Jinbe and Usup there. They look pretty amazing. And there's something really nice and calming about seeing stuff like this because this is one of the weird things about one piece but we very rarely get to see the crew just enjoying themselves. A little bit of it happens right at the beginning and right at the end of the arcs but other than that, the opportunities for levity are really only present in external media like the color spreads. And the words only add to that the whole, it's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating is most of Luffy's worldview summarized into a single sentence, choppers as well. And in fact, everyone's even Brooks whose ability to eat is, I'm going to say questionable. So I love the imagination that went into constructing this but also I'm still not used to seeing Jinbe as a crew member in this sort of context. The fun context that is. So art like this is always welcome and greatly appreciated. And also very quickly this week was also a special cover for Weekly Shown and Jump featuring a collection of main characters and special covers like this, honestly they usually mean pretty bad things for us because one piece will be on break next week as well as every other series due to Golden Week. However, there is a very fun thing here because Luffy is holding a lamp and Brooks soul is emerging from it with a very genie like effect. And I have nothing more to say about this, I just thought it was fun and that you should know about it if you don't already. And not only that, but there's even more specialness to be had this week because we've begun the roll out of the finalized world top 100 character poll results. And in case you're unaware, this was a globally conducted poll where you could vote online for a character every day. It was open for two months. And alongside this chapter, we were treated to the first batch of results being the characters who ranked between 151st and 200th place. And if that sounds like a pretty pitiful ranking, just remember that there were well over 1,000 characters to vote for. So even the ones who landed here have done pretty damn well for themselves. So that includes podcasty Rouge who barely made it into the results in 200th place. But there are some very surprising results in here. Characters you may not have expected to rank solo such as Sengoku in 167th place. That is kind of mind boggling, especially since he was defeated by such illustrious existences as Spandam and Hiking Bear in 163rd and 159th place respectively. You'll also find quite a lot of Bono characters amongst his batch like Black Maria, Yasu Speed, Momonosuke, Toko, Toki actually, and even Babanuki. All of which I imagine may have ranked a lot lower if they weren't currently relevant to some degree. Oh, and one other surprise would be Capone Gang beige in 158th place. I don't know, I just, I guess I thought he'd do a bit better than that, but what can you do? According to the magazine, the next batch of results are going to be announced on Twitter, so that's 150 to 100th place. And then the top 100 are going to be announced on the official One Piece YouTube channel with the results concluding on the 5th of May, which fun fact is Luffy's birthday. So we'll see if he can top yet another character poll. And also I am very, very keen to see where whoops that landed. But to examine some details in One Piece you may have missed, give this video a good old click which examines some pretty wild stuff such as Sabo's first potential appearance all the way back in lockdown. Very intriguing. So I look forward to seeing you there.