 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. Today we have a manga review of chapter 944, partner. And that was pretty damn unexpected to say the least, eh? After pretty much a decade of speculation of what he looks like and who he may or may not be related to, we can finally put a face to the name Massacre Soldier Killer. And it's quite a pleasant face considering the name, but I have to say I absolutely love the twist that Killer is also a victim of the whole smile business, loving it in a way that it provides some solid motivation for kids to really have a grudge to deal with on one rather than just going about the whole selfish wanting to defeat Kido thing. The look of pure rage on his face. When he's questioning what happened to Killer, very much reminds me of similar looks that Luffy has given over the course of the series. And well, those looks never end well for whoever he's glaring at at the time. Although it is kind of weird the kid got caught again. To be perfectly honest, the whole kid escaping off panel in the first place left an odd taste in my mouth because for such a major character to simply vanish like that is just weird. And you could say a very similar thing about him getting recaptured. Although I think in the second case, it is seated by Luffy and the guards the kid probably got caught again on purpose. And I think it's fairly obvious why because he wants to talk to and or rescue Killer. So I guess the primary question in my mind now shifts to Killer though. It was a fantastic reveal that he was Kamazoh and I'm really glad that Kamazoh didn't end up being just some other miscellaneous strong dude made up for the sake of Wano. At the same time, I do have to ask why would Killer agree to do Orochi's bidding after having such a fate inflicted upon him? And the best explanation I can think of is the rather simple do what we say and we won't kill your captain or the rest of your crew, standard bad guy stuff. Which is fine, but in the chapter where Kamazoh makes his appearance, he says something along the lines of how dare you insult the Shogun. Which in retrospect, I don't know how much sense that makes. There's just no real need to say that sort of thing in private, especially if you actually despise Orochi. But going back on the rest of the chapter where Kamazoh appears now is a pretty interesting exercise because of course it now makes perfect sense why he was wielding dual scythe weapons, but it also puts a whole new perspective on his interaction with Zoro. I mean, we didn't even know it at the time, but we were watching two members of the worst generation go head to head and surely at the very least, Killer would have known this year. I mean, Zoro does have an alias on Wano, but he still looks exactly like Zoro. So Killer must have been pretty damn confident about his own abilities. And fair enough, because he did get in a good hit on Zoro, which I recall was pretty widely complained about in the fan base. And while I'm sure this revelation puts that to rest, it does give rise to a whole new brand of complaint, which is why Killer was dispatched so easily by Zoro in retrospect. I mean, it doesn't bother me so much because I'm a rabid Zoro fanboy or so I'm told. But if you were to imagine the same sort of thing happening with two other members of the worst generation, like their captain's Luffy and Kid, I mean, imagine if Kid was able to be dealt with in such a brief skirmish. Ah, there would be outrage across the globe. So it's a bit odd, but I'm thrilled the Killer is finally being expanded upon because he's been by far the most mysterious member of the worst generation, yes, even more so than Bonnie. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing his character unfold as we move on. But Killer being inflicted with a smile curse also gives rise to a path for Luffy and Kid to become proper allies in the future. I've already previously speculated that the cure will be found for the condition by the end of Wano. And if that cure was found by say Chopper, then even Eustace Kid would have to consider himself somewhat in-depth to the straw hats for saving his childhood friend. So in which case the grand Luffy kid jailbreak is back on the cards. And I can't wait to see both of their reactions to Big Mom, who is finally here. And not only that, but she's already in demonic hunger tantrum mode, the best kind of mode. As is Queen, by the way, his subordinates were starting to get a little bit nervous about how grumpy this dude is. And I should say that he also very, very casually dismissed a punch from Luffy this week. It was so casual that it was almost comical. And I was on the verge of forgetting about it entirely with everything else in the chapter. But I think it's important to focus on because it really reinforces the idea that Luffy is not strong enough to take on Queen alone. And that this entire arc is going to be about combining forces in order to defeat such overwhelming power. But just while we're still in the prison of mind, I really enjoyed the section where Luffy was watching his crew on the monitor, especially when he was cheering on Zoro, telling him to slash our Borochi. It was a really nice moment of him just supporting the entire crew, which speaking of, are now pretty much revealed to the entirety of Wano now. I really wasn't expecting anyone beyond Zoro and Sanji to get involved because they're causing enough commotion and ruining overall plans as it is. But I have to say, I was hit with a pretty nice wave of awesome when Frankie jumped into the fray because it reminded me that we haven't seen him in any form of combat since the Dress Rose Arc with his infamous fight against Senor Pink. And in this chapter, there was just that fantastic panel of Frankie going all terminated with his obscured red eye that just made me so incredibly happy. As did seeing his strong right in the background of the very next panel behind Zoro. It's just been far, far too long. And when we saw the three panels of Nami, Robin and Noosop getting involved, I was very much hoping for a shot but similar focus on them doing their thing. But I guess you can't have everything. I have to say though, my favorite panel of the entire chapter was definitely the one of Sanji where they fully transformed Alasora's Drake in the background just roaring, beautifully drawn. And the complete lack of a background really contributes to the oh shit moment it represents, just letting the viewers isolate themselves to the figures of Sanji and Drake alone. Unfortunately, in contrast, I'd have to say that I was kind of disappointed by the clash between Zoro and Kyoshiro. Artistically, it just didn't hit me. Like the panel where Zoro is firing the pound cannon, I don't know, it's difficult to explain what it is about it. But I think the big issue we have is framing because Zoro just looks kind of awkwardly squashed into the corner in order to showcase the blast headed towards Orochi. And also his general pose didn't really land for me. It's not anywhere near as dynamic or as cool as previous pound cannons. Kyoshiro blocking the strike looked pretty cool though, especially the secondary panel right under it where we get to see his devious iron part of his smile. But then he and Zoro go into clash in another kind of undercooked panel for me. Neither one of them have a particularly striking pose nor does it accurately convey the power behind either one of them. I mean look, it's a small complaint because I still love seeing the both of them in action together. I guess I just wanted more than the cramped space of one third of a page so that we could have a truly striking image. Although one question I do have in mind with all of this is where's Hawkins? He was very clearly shown to be standing right next to Drake behind both Zoro and Sanji at the end of the last chapter and he's currently nowhere to be seen. So the lack of focus on him here makes me wonder if he's being saved for a rather big moment coming up. Like maybe just calmly pulling out one of his cards to give him godlike powers and just decimating this entire battlefield. As it is, I kind of see Hawkins as the trump card of the Straw Hat Pirates in this situation because as much as I love seeing them in action here, I don't see them coming out on top of Kyoshiro, Drake, Orichi's gun-wielding samurai and Hawkins if he also jumps into the fray. And at the same time, we've done this a couple of times now where Hawkins encounters the Straw Hats sort of faces off against them and they escape. So it would be great to finally break that. Perhaps with some kind of realization from Hawkins that this is the moment where he needs to switch allegiances, maybe through the prompting of some cards because otherwise I feel like we're just going to get the same thing again with everyone escaping him once more and I'm not keen for the continuous repetition of that trend. And the other reason why I'd be looking for him to act now is a bit more meta because it feels like the climax of act two is most certainly here. With Big Mom about to completely wreck face at the prisoner mine and this giant conflict happening here as well, this is the time for action one way or the other. Something fairly big would need to occur to send this act off with a bang. Oh, and speaking of something big, I'd like to use this chapter as an example of why you should never, ever take fan theory seriously. If you're unaware, there has been a theory going around for quite some time now that was sparked by a color spread featuring Zora sitting on a tombstone that had the number 944 written on it. As a result, a small section of the fan base went mad with theories, many of whom were predicting Zora's death in chapter 944. But even those who weren't were expecting something pretty huge because you know that number was specifically put in there by Oda as foreshadowing and not randomly at all chosen as the year of death for whatever zombie once inhabited that grave. In any case, I can't tell you how thrilled I am for that theory to be finally put in its own grave so that we can move on with some real discussion. But that pretty much does it for chapter 944. 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