 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. Today we have a manga review of chapter 945, Olin. And this week we have a very action-packed installment delivering a fair few moments of great conflict that would seem to really be pushing this act to a potential climax. And starting with the end, I could not be more thrilled with the panel of Big Mom brutally smashing Queen's head into the hard, hard ground. Although touching on that, I should also say that the revelation of Queen's Devil Fruit this week was a pretty big surprise to me, because I was fairly convinced that due to his epithet being plague, that he really wouldn't follow the big dinosaur theme happening here on Wano. So Brachiosaurus is pretty wild, but I really love how Queen looks in his full beast form. In fact, I enjoy it so much more than his regular design. There's just something about an angry Brachiosaurus smoking a cigar that really hits all the right beats for me. And not only that, but the way it's drawn makes him look quite powerful as well, through the great little bits of shading and the addition of the veiny areas that make the neck look like it's ready to unleash a world of pain on whoever his victim just so happens to be. Which makes it all the better when we go from that to a panel of him getting absolutely smacked down, which is such a great way to end the chapter. And I hope that it's starting to put some of the amnesia haters on notice, because yes, the process in which Big Mom came to this state was a bit clunky, but this chapter makes all of it so completely worth it. And it's not just that final moment either. In fact, quite possibly my favourite panel this week was the initial semi-two page spread where Big Mom burst through the gates and is revealed to the denizens of the Prisoner Mine. The slight perspective of the panel looking up at her with the ominous dark shading is a perfect oh shit moment, and it only gets better when we see Queen and Luffy doing the old NL shock faces. Although I do wish that we'd gotten a bit more time with Luffy to explore that shock, because as it is, we go straight from him being surprised at Big Mom's presence to all of a sudden having a major concern for Kid and Killer. But I suppose the anime will give me what I'm looking for here, oddly enough. But yeah, even though it was entirely predictable that Big Mom would be used as the primary cause of chaos in the Prisoner Mine, it is no less satisfying. And I cannot wait to get into the clash of Queens a bit more. That is if it's not already over. I know a lot of people might be potentially disappointed by the idea of Queen being taken down in but a single hit, but I could see it happening. I mean, I'm not really sure I know of anybody who has been left in action after a proper strike from Big Mom, although regardless of how long the fight last Queen is going down. And that point is where the real trouble is going to begin. Because it's not like they're just going to defeat Queen and just happily escape, the worst is definitely yet to come, because once Big Mom discovers that there is no Oshiruko, then nah, well, everyone in the vicinity is royally screwed. The only potential solution I see is Tama being able to convince Big Mom to eat one of her kibidango, and furthermore, for it to have a similar effect that it does on animals, and make her able to somewhat tame Big Mom. Which would be crazy, and make Tama one of the most important characters on Wano, and possibly the series in general. But I don't really know what other solution there could be besides Big Mom going on another hunger rampage across the country, which I'm hoping won't be the case because we already spent a whole ton of time on Whole Cake Island exploring that idea. In any case, a hell of a lot more happened this week in terms of action, and amongst my favorite skirmishes to see during the chapter was Sanji and Drake. So ever since his Devil Fruit was first revealed, I was pretty skeptical about how exactly a dinosaur of his ilk would be able to effectively stand against any competent opponent. Just because it can be difficult to see how such a body is capable of any sort of versatile movement, but it seems like this chapter has gone a long way to answering that inquiry, with some glorious panels of Drake using both his jaw and tail to attack. As for Sanji in particular, I greatly enjoyed the page where he heard Komarasaki quite literally honed in on her as if he was some sort of pacifista, as well as the panel of Heartbreak after discovering that she is friends with Zoro of all people. Despite the fact that Sanji's bounty is now higher than he is. As a Zoro fan, it's always nice to see a bit of comedy like this, but it's also very classic Sanji and always fun to read. The answer to my question of last week about where Hawkins got off to was also nicely covered here as well, as he had more or less been laying a bit of a trap for lore. He also went on to drop probably the biggest bomb of the chapter to me, anyway, where he revealed that he was using Penguin, Shachi and Beppo with his abilities and all of a sudden Hawkins powers had become just a little bit ridiculous. Because I'd always assumed that to form that kind of bond with his abilities, you'd need at least the consent of whoever you're using as a voodoo doll, but if he can just do this with anyone he pleases, then in theory Hawkins is kind of unbeatable. I mean I'm sure there is some condition that he has to achieve to link people up, but depending on how difficult that is, what's to stop him from using his direct opponent as a doll. Like even if Lore's crew weren't in danger, what if Hawkins was just a used lore himself, and so every wound inflicted by Lore would just damage himself. Or better yet, why not just link directly up to Kaido and become completely indestructible at all times. So I am very keen to hear more about exactly how his abilities work. As for the current situation though, Lore seems fairly screwed, because even if he managed to break out Penguin and Shachi and run away, they're still effectively hostages because Hawkins could just seppuku and kill them. So really the only way I see out of this is if Hawkins finally decides to switch sides, and I know I'm very much holding on to that hope. I mean ever since the dude appeared on one I've been harping on about how he'll eventually join the protagonistic forces, whilst every passing chapter makes that seem less and less likely. At least not without some sort of huge push in the right direction. And you know that push might be Queen's Defeat, which would open up an unprecedented power gap within Kaido's forces, but for now it seems like Lore may be taken and imprisoned or something along those lines. So this week we also had a couple of pages dedicated to Kinamon and Ashura Doji, although to be perfectly honest I don't care in the slightest about their interactions. A couple of chapters ago there was some briefly mentioned strategy to become Pyromaniacs and frame the bandits, hence somehow winning over Ashura Doji to their cause because of the logic. I don't know, I just find it to be by far the least compelling story thread happening on Wano right now, but it looks like it is going to pick up with Ashura wanting to choke in on something, and something's a they're always good right? So yeah it's very much looking forward to wrapping this up so we can move on, but at the same time I'm not keen to move all that quickly because I'm loving the action elsewhere on Wano right now. Although sadly there was very little more in the way of Zoro versus Kyoushiro this week, in fact their entire interaction might be over. Because Zoro did just so happen to appear to save Komorosaki, which you know at first I was all I counted Zoro just casually escape, but then you remember that Kyoushiro almost certainly has some sort of deeper connection with Komorosaki, and all of a sudden it makes a bit of sense as to why he may have allowed such a thing to happen. Or it could be a story convenience, whatever. Although sadly the worst part about the chapter this week is the unfortunate news that we are once again on break next week, which is always annoying in these action-packed chapters because I am more keen than ever to continue, but it is what it is. And that pretty much does it for chapter 945. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produces in general, then please do consider donating to the Grand Line Review Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if Patreon isn't quite your style then please do leave this video a like, share or subscribe because it also helps support this channel an incredible amount. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time then please do head over to my Discord server where a wide array of shenanigans takes place on a daily basis. And finally please do comment with your thoughts on the chapter. This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.