 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. Today we have a manga review of chapter 906, The Holy Land, Marijouar. And this week we have a fairly delightful chapter with a hell of a lot of characters who we've grown to love and despise over the course of the series coming together. But really, before we touch any of that, I'm going to address the huge ending. Now I don't often do this, but if you haven't read the chapter just stop listening to this and go and read it. Not so much because I'm about to spoil it, but more because you just won't believe a single word of what I have to say without seeing it for your own eyes. I mean, I've read it and I still don't quite believe it, so here we go. Apparently for some reason, a giant straw hat identical to Luffy's is kept in Marijouar. And not only that, but this mammoth Mugiwara may actually be the fabled national treasure that we've been speculating about for so long. Just to be clear, it was not confirmed whether this was the national treasure, but the reveal of the straw hat is placed strategically after Dolphemingo's cameo, where he just so happens to be speaking about the treasure. So this juxtaposition is pretty blatant visual storytelling. However, there is at least one possible counter-argument, and that is the fact that Dolphemingo did not appear to care whatsoever for the fact that Luffy was wearing a straw hat during Just Rosa. Now if this second hat were to be the national treasure, then I imagine that Dolphemingo would have had a much more serious or at least intrigued reaction to Luffy. As it is, Dolphemingo just dismissed Luffy like everyone else in his life, so that would look a bit odd in retrospect. But getting back to the objecting question, it really intrigues me that the slender pointy figure who we see in front of it is holding Luffy's bounty poster, as if to compare the two items. This suggests to me that this hat is quite old and largely forgotten by history, which makes sense because the celestial dragons are only ever concerned with their own pleasures, so they're unlikely to maintain an accurate knowledge of the true history, or actually it's always a possibility that not even they are privy to the secrets of the world. Not the most of them would care, I guess. In any case, there is only one vague historical figure that comes to mind when we think about who could have owned this relic, and that is obviously Joyboy. And you know what, it could belong to someone completely different, but that's just the initial connection that pops up. It would be really cool if Joyboy were a giant, though. It would do a lot towards getting the whole giant race a bit more involved in the depth of this world, and maybe even go towards explaining why their society is so isolated. Joyboy being a giant also makes going to Elbuff incredibly more worth it, because even if they don't have a road poneglyph on the island, they surely have a poneglyph of some kind, which might tell the true history behind Joyboy, should he be a giant. But all in all, I have very mixed feelings about this new straw hat. This is an incredibly left field decision to go for, even for Oda. So all I can really do is trust that it will pay off in a big way at some point, which Oda's gambles usually do. The thing I am most worried about is it turning out that the straw hat or straw hats have some form of mystical properties attached to them. So I made a video a very long time ago, which no longer exists, because it was made horribly, about the will of the straw hat. And it basically examined the idea that the straw hat functions in a way that is very similar to that of the one ring. Basically being an entity in and of itself with its own desires and goals. And it also went into details about how the straw hat moves from person to person, seemingly seeking out who needs it most. And not just for major owners like Roger, Shanks and Luffy, but also for people like Nami and Vivi, who have briefly inherited the straw hats in their own times of personal struggle. Essentially what I'm trying to say is that this chapter makes me go back and actually believe in some of those crazy ideas. But it's happened in a very unexpected way. The presence of another straw hat is kind of off-putting, especially if it does indeed act in a similar way to what I've explained. I guess my biggest fear is that this is some sort of mother hat, which is responsible for creating Luffy's straw hat and potentially others, which is just absurd in my head. I'd much rather that both of these hats were crafted by the same individual, like some sort of important hatsmith from the past. And to have them turn out to be equally as important. Like maybe every member of the original D clan had their own straw hat. There are even others elsewhere in the world, but I don't know. I can see it now. The internet is going to regret that this chapter ever came out, because the sheer quantity of theory videos and forum posts that are going to come out of it are going to be simply overwhelming. But let's put that aside for now and talk about the rest of the chapter, because this was an incredibly fun week prior to the last pages. We've got characters meeting up from all over the place and seeing them interact as every bit as satisfying as I thought it would be. Most notably, we have a meet-up of the three princesses that Luffy has helped in the past, Vivi, Rebecca and Shirahoshi. Standing side by side with Shirahoshi and Vivi, it becomes really clear that Rebecca is the namiest of nami clones. And seriously, if you show this chapter to a newcomer into the series, I bet they would think Rebecca is nami. But before we go too far more, I want to point out that you should keep an eye on Karu during this chapter. Karu is incredibly concerned and curious with the existence of the Tontatas, and it is absolutely adorable. It reminds me a lot of when my dog encounters any creature smaller than himself, and this intense curiosity just covers his face. Which is very much a mix of potential fear and yet very much wanting to play. And of course, with this particular gathering of monarchs, comes a lot of discussion about Luffy. And I feel like this should really be raising more red flags to the organizers of the reverie than it is. Luffy's exploits are well detailed, and in every case here, he has actually saved kingdoms from entire destruction. So when you have an entire cohort of royals meeting up, all of whom are known associates of the man you've just placed a 1.5 billion bb on, I'd be a bit worried. Not only that, but we have two members of the straw hat grand fleet present at the reverie. Which was a surprise, because at the end of Dressroser, it was kind of implied by the really evil looking dude in the Kano Kingdom, that Sai wouldn't be able to return in time to make it to the event. But here he is, and I'm glad to see him, but where is baby five? She should absolutely be escorting him at all times. That aside, Sai has quite an interesting statement to make, in that he plans on leaving the Kano Kingdom immediately after the reverie. So I'm hoping that this means during Wano, the grand fleet are going to kick into action in some way or another. The next person I really want to talk about is Dalton. I think he is very underrated and a very underutilized character, so I'm always excited to see him again. For a rather stoic and serious king, he has a very cool personality. And during this chapter, he even had one pretty funny moment, where he admitted to being a loofy sympathizer. It was also great to see a bit of his Zoa nobilities as well, because that bison devil fruit in the right hands would be an incredible powerhouse. And I hope we find ourselves in a situation where he gets to use it to its full potential. I also really enjoy the little trivia sections we've been given to all of these returning characters, because it reminds me that the events of the Dralman alabaster arcs happened, you know, possibly more than 15 years ago now. There are one piece fans reading today who weren't even born when Luffy defeated Crocodile. So these little sections are probably quite necessary. They also evoke a lot of really nice nostalgia, and I bet that Oda actually had a lot of fun drawing his characters in their old outfits. However, this chapter balances out the return of allied characters with a fair few antagonistic ones as well. The main culprit here is Wapol, who I can't help but love. I know he's a prick in every way, but going on that cover story journey with him made him one of my favorite comedic villains. Plus, who doesn't love kinderella? She's pretty much just an attractive female Wapol, so they make a great team. And you know when you think about it, Wapol is one of the most successful characters in this entire series. The dude lost his entire kingdom and then built an entirely new one out of nothing. That must have been an incredibly difficult thing to do, especially to become such a large enough power over a two-year span to become a member of the world government. Black Drum must be an economic juggernaut. But that also gets me thinking about a particular region of the world that is unrepresented thus far, and that is Water Seven. Now Water Seven doesn't have a monarchy, it has a mayor, but that really shouldn't stop a country that huge from participating in world events. Of course that's assuming that they're even part of the world government to begin with, which I'm thinking they are. Otherwise, I don't see why the world government would have had any authority whatsoever when they came into arrest, Tom. But you know, I just feel like what we really need to complete this gathering right now is just a bit of iceberg and maybe a hint of poorly. We also get a lot of unnamed miscellaneous royalty in this chapter, all of whom are very well designed. But I've come to the realization that as a result of the Reverie Arc, we are very unlikely to ever go into another arc involving royalty affiliated with the world government. Because this event is kind of the be all and end all of these nations. After the Reverie, it's very difficult to go back and create a new royal family with some sort of contrived reason why they didn't attend the most important event in the world. So that is a really positive sign because it means that we shouldn't have any more alabaster dressed Rosa or Fishman Island style arcs. That we are embarking into the territory of pure piracy by taking on the Yonko and after that possibly even the other members of the worst generation. That or we will be visiting exclusively nations that are unaffiliated with the world government, such as Wano or Elbeth, which is also pretty exciting. One other thing I want to mention this week is that I really enjoyed the introduction of Mare Joie as a place. It's a very suitably stunning location for the home of the Celestial Dragons and it gives me very French policy sort of feels like Versailles. I was there at the end of last year and you can clearly see the sheer amount of resources that went into building that place. Extravagant is an understatement and they feel very much the same way with Mare Joie. And the final point of note is that everybody's favorite character Saint Charles makes a return during this chapter, oh my god, and he is rather creepily spying on Shirahoshi. At this stage I think it's pretty much confirmed that Charles has a secret mermaid fetish, which is probably the equivalent of bestiality to a Celestial Dragon. The most disappointing thing about Charles's reintroduction though is that he doesn't appear to have any permanent damage from Luffy's punch. I was really hoping that his face would be incredibly deformed, well I mean more deformed than usual. But it looks like he's healed right up and learned nothing, which can only mean that he is ready to be punched again. I can imagine a situation where he tries to capture Shirahoshi and then gets socked in the face by Sabo or even Dragon. Actually Dragon would be nicer to keep things in the monkey family, maybe even Garp actually. That would be a supreme fisting to the face but I don't know how Garp would get away with it, but I can dream. And that pretty much does it for chapter 906. If you enjoyed this video then feel free to like, favorite or subscribe and please do comment with your thoughts on the chapter. This has been The Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.