 I personally can't imagine Oda getting quite so explicit to make Bonnie the offspring of rape. To make Bonnie the offspring of rape. To make Bonnie the offspring of rape. Hey guys this is Sophie and the last time I cried this much was when my grandma died. I know we've had our fair share of tear-joking flashbacks throughout the course of this series but Kuma's backstory is continuing to prove that it is the mother of all backstories. This may be the darkest, the most upsetting, the most tragic backstory of One Piece. And look I know that One Piece gets plenty dark. Oda deals with pretty heavy themes at times and it's not hard to pick up the subtle hints of tragic and even disturbing elements that make you reconsider just how goofy One Piece really is. The infanticide at Wano for example showing us the extent of poverty and suffering that the citizens felt, Law's backstory involving him having to hide under the corpses of his fellow citizens or the almost casual way in which genocide is thrown around in the series on more than one occasion. And what I'm trying to get at is that the latest development in Kuma's flashback and what this confirmed shouldn't be the great shock that it is. But it is and I know that One Piece has even dealt with the grittier truth of sexual violence in the series because we've seen the so-called complex relationship between Viola and Doflamingo at Dressrosa, Yuri being courtesan or even the implications of Boa and the Hancock sisters being slaves. So it certainly wouldn't be the first time that Oda has included some very adult themes in One Piece but I expected that very much like Oda's response to the whole Viola and Doflamingo situation that when things got too dark and adult that he wouldn't deal with it explicitly in the story which is exactly how he explains Big Mom's baby daddies by way of an SPS. Revealing that the dark truth behind her many husbands is that quote, her husbands are people that she stole away. They had kids and then she threw them away. All of these dark and brutal elements are pretty easy for us to fill in the horrifying gaps when you actually sit and think about the details. But on the surface the series is still kept borderline PG, just enough not to go explicitly into the very dark details. At the end of the day One Piece is still a shonen manga that as per the mangaka's words shouldn't be too dark and heavy because Oda still writes with the 15-year-old audience still in mind. Which is why I thought, surely, surely Oda wouldn't do that with Bonnie and Ginny. Bonnie would not be the child of rape because whether or not those specific words were said explicitly in the chapter it's pretty freaking hard to dismiss the fact that Ginny was captured, forced to marry without her consent and as a result of that relationship bore a child. So seeing that brutal truth confirmed in this chapter, my heart sank. The fact that Ginny survived the god valley incident against all odds was built up throughout chapter 1097 as a very likable character, one who even rose up the ranks within the revolutionary army and someone we all hoped would allow Kuma to enjoy a bit of happiness in his life. Only for her to go out like this? Oda what are you doing to us man? This whole section with Ginny had me in a wreck but I think the part that hurt me the most was seeing Ginny say I love you and Kuma having left before he could hear it or even reciprocate. I'm sure that they both knew how each other felt but the fact that Kuma didn't allow himself to express his feelings towards Ginny precisely out of his love for her and wanting to protect her and then only for Ginny to suffer anyways for Kuma to have been unable to save her and then not even able to share this final moment, those final words with her. It's just so so tragic. It's beyond tragic. I don't think a word exists to capture the pain that I felt. This chapter should honestly be called pain and suffering. It's as if Oda is trying really hard to award Kuma the saddest backstory in the history of modern media because the gut-wrenching moments in this chapter about a man we've developed so much sympathy for over these last few chapters speak for themselves. And something almost eerie about this chapter is the fact that Oda didn't have time to finish his drawings, which meant that many panels were still in their rough manuscript forms. But I actually think that this worked really well for the chapter. The fact that these drawings were so rough really emphasised the chapter's dark and heavy tone. The series of panels where Kuma, Dragon and Ivankov are reacting to Jinni's goodbye, has this really ominous aura that's accentuated because of the manuscript drawings to the fact that this almost feels stylistic and intentional. Kuma's desperation and the smidge of hope that he may be able to see her one more time is just so painfully apparent on his face. And now I don't want this video to just be an emotion fest, but something I will say is that I fully expected to embark on a Jinni rescue mission after the ending of chapter 1097. And I thought this is where we would see Kuma strike a deal with the world government to get Jinni back. I mean I still expected some sort of tragic ending for Jinni, but not like this. And I'm sure there must be logical reasons why the Revolutionary Army couldn't go save her, whether it be a lack of resources, a lack of intel, maybe they knew it would be futile, or maybe they did attempt to rescue but it failed. But the fact that they didn't explicitly mention that they did try to get her back leaves a big question mark. The opening of chapter 1098 showing recent successes suggests that the Revolutionary Army are having victories in recent times and that they're still rising in notoriety, which shows us that really they are still in their nascent stage. And I can understand that they probably didn't have the capacity to go look for Jinni and maybe that it also comes with the territory. I mean they each knew what it meant to join the Revolutionary Army and to go oppose the world government. Jinni herself is the one that reminded Kuma of that very fact in the last chapter, but it just feels a bit underwhelming because supposedly the Revolutionary Army is an organization that has all this intel about the world government and celestial dragons and so to not see dragon and Ivankov and the rest of them attempt to retrieve one of their commanders and a rescue mission is something that they even embarked on recently for Kuma, who at that point wasn't even a member of the revolutionaries anymore. And I guess that can be explained by the fact that they knew where Kuma was and the Revolutionary Army is now a much bigger, much stronger organization by this point, especially compared to almost 15 years ago. And so look, the rational brain part of me understands all of this, but the fact that they don't even mention launching some sort of operation save Jinni. Honestly, it pisses me off a little bit. And look, you're just gonna have to excuse me here because I am just reacting emotionally. But surely I can't be the only one feeling this way, right? And what I think this response really speaks to is actually how emotionally invested Oda was able to get us about a character who has only been introduced a handful of chapters ago and has only been a part of the series for about a month. I genuinely felt more invested in Jinni's character than I do about some other characters who have been with us for a lot longer. And I do think that is a testament to his writing because I know that's exactly how Oda wanted us to feel for Kuma's flashback to land this sort of impact. The man seriously knows how to write good fiction, but also that man seriously has a vendetta against mothers. In all seriousness though, losing Jinni, also beautifully, but of course devastatingly, bleeds into further development of Kuma's characterization. I mentioned recently how Chapter 1097 first shows us the shift in Kuma's character from a sweet and pure soul who only wants to help and protect people to someone who is actually capable of harm if it means protecting those he loves or when he's doing something that he thinks to be right. But this chapter takes it a step further because we see that Kuma is more reckless, more ruthless in his actions since Jinni was captured. You can tell that this has really affected him and that he's become slightly desensitized and that he's lost some of that sweet and pureness. And I guess one way to interpret this lack of rescue mission and instead seeing Kuma recklessly taking on mission after mission may be that it's in hopes that this will one day somehow lead to finding Jinni eventually or that at least in Kuma's frustration of not being able to save Jinni that he at least saved a whole lot of other people freeing nations from tyranny. Because we see him go overboard to the point that he has to contact dragon so that he can return via ship instead of by his usual route of teleporting, suggesting that Kuma has exhausted his ability to that extent. He's a cold and brutal machine so it's incredibly bittersweet to see that the only times we still get to see that pure and warm side of Kuma is when he's with Bonnie. This is tragic juxtaposition that we get in this chapter between Kuma the Heartless Revolutionary and Kuma the Doting Father. It's just such a stark contrast that's almost disturbing. And then just when we thought that the pain and suffering was over in this chapter, we get hit with the fact that Bonnie is afflicted with the same disease that killed Jinni. And I have to say that aside from the whole tragedy of this whole development, which I don't really want to go into further because I think we have established by now that this is a very sad, very depressing chapter. But I do have to say that Oda is such a genius in how he's woven this into the story. For starters, yes, the circumstances of Jinni's capture and her death becomes even more horrifying when you think about it because it highly suggests, or at least one could reasonably speculate, that the Sapphire disease is one that Jinni most likely contracted from the celestial dragon that she was forced to marry. But the disease also provides so much more lore and background into the series. For example, it sparks a whole lot of questions whether this is a celestial dragon disease. And if so, maybe that's the real reason why the celestial dragons wear spacesuits and the glass bubble helmet. Not because they want to be separated from the oxygen shed with commoners, but because they actually have a vulnerability that they don't want the rest of the world to know about because they don't want to seem weak. But then again, Homing and his family weren't shown to suffer any sort of physical repercussions after they left marriage or disease related anyways. But then again, the celestial dragons may just be more susceptible to the disease rather than all the celestial dragons having it. And look, I don't want to go down speculation lane for too long, but I do think that the disease is of a very peculiar nature and name. So this chapter makes a point of differentiating sapphire scale from the amber lead poisoning. But I do think that there is a connection behind the fact that both of these rare diseases share the theme of being named after precious gemstones. Okay, to be fair, based on a quick Google search, amber isn't technically a gemstone, but it is widely thought to be one. And so this has me thinking about what Roger's Terminal Illness will be called and whether we'll see Oda continue this gem based theme or even hero looks illness for that matter. And whether there's something horribly dark about Emerald City and instead of this legendary island being some fantastic, glorious city that we all imagined it to be, maybe it's actually a city full of afflicted people who suffered from some sort of Emerald based disease. Also, the fact that the sapphire scales get worse when exposed to the sun and moon is something that will surely be of importance in the series later on. I haven't wrapped my head around the full theory on this yet, but specifically naming the sun and moon really has me thinking that this is somehow going to be linked to the Nika sun god and the moon that's so often associated with the ancient kingdom. And so if you have any ideas about this disease, please do drop a comment below. And also while you're there, make sure to subscribe. The jewellery theme with this disease also explains for Bonnie's name which I did point out recently that I thought was because of Bonnie's devil fruit which emits gemstones when she takes away people's years. And now that it's confirmed that that's not the reason why she has this epithet, the fact that the nature of Bonnie's devil fruit just happens to coincide with her name does seem a little bit suspect. But it is very cute that this is a name that Kuma has given her as a way to console her about her disease, especially because now, now that it seems like she's been healed, she wears a piece of jewellery where the stone was, which I assume is to cover up her scar, but also serves as a really nice reminder of her father's love. Something else that this chapter does confirm is Bonnie's age, finally, because Bonnie is revealed to be 12 years old, which by now shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. There have been many hints throughout the series that Bonnie is still a child, more recently in the Egghead Island arc because of the dialogue of various characters like Vega Punk, Saturn and Kizaru, or how she was in her child form at the beginning of the arc, where she was drowning in water unable to use her devil fruit. But when we actually look back on it, even back at Saobaldi, when Bonnie saved Zorro, a moment where she had to act fast, on impulse without much thinking, we see that Bonnie is in child form, and back then we thought it was so that she could trick Charles into thinking she was a little girl sad about losing her so-called brother. But now that scene has so many more layers, especially when we realize that in that scene, Charles, in that exact moment, was stealing a bride for himself. And this also raises another interesting question about the whole Ginny and Bonnie situation. Who is Bonnie's biological father? Is it a celestial dragon that we've been introduced to before? Is it Rosewald, for example, because like father like son? Is it one of the figurelands or Garling himself, or at least one of the holy knights? And that's why they've also been introduced to us in this arc, or will it be a nameless, faceless character? I've also seen theories that it might be Saturn or Imu for many a speculative reason, such as Imu also being afflicted with the Sapphire disease, and that's why they're always covered up with a cloak, or Saturn having some real-world mythological ties to a disease. Personally, I find it less likely that Bonnie's real biological father will be of someone of such high status, although the idea that either of these figures, aside from contemplating world control and global domination, is also preoccupied with trying to find a new wife for themselves is pretty horrifically funny, and admittedly not too far from the real world where we have greedy powerful people. But I also wouldn't mind if we never get this detail confirmed, because in my mind Bonnie's father will always be Kumar, but I do recognize that a revelation of Bonnie having a very important, or at least a named biological father could serve as some sort of plot device. Also on that note about Forced Brides, after the time skip when we next see Bonnie, Blackbeet is trying to make her his bride too, and I swear the way that Oda has just seamlessly woven in these details for us to be able to look back on later is just mind-blowing. The fact that Bonnie is just 12 years old also raises some further questions. We now have the new mystery of how she has managed to survive the doctor's warning that she's not going to make it past 10, because I'm going to rule out that it's by stroke of luck or miracle. This seems to be obviously setting us up for the deal that Kumar makes with the world government, but exactly what or how is the question? One idea that I'm entertaining is that Kumar was able to use his own abilities to expel the disease from Bonnie's body, but because it had to go somewhere or otherwise it would just return back to Bonnie, Kumar took it upon himself, and that's why he agreed to be a cyborg, and that way the disease wouldn't advance and take over his body. But because he didn't have the scientific or medical knowledge on how to expel just the disease and save Bonnie, he had to rely on Vega Punk, and that's why he struck the deal. Another idea is that the clone theory is real, but this time Bonnie is actually a clone of herself, a clone version free from disease, and this could still explain some of the dialogues such as Sakazuki seeing Bonnie as world government property. This is also likely to have some sort of relationship to the whole King Bikori fiasco that's now unfolding, like some sort of double deal where Kumar becomes a warlord, cyborg, and tyrant in one in exchange for Bonnie. This whole tyrant epithet continues to invade me because Bonnie was adamant that her father isn't a tyrant, suggesting that this is some sort of misunderstanding or another lie that's being told to the public. But now knowing Bonnie's real young age makes her seem sort of unreliable, maybe that it was actually Bonnie who misunderstood the situation at Sorbet Kingdom. For me, her age also raises the question of how Bonnie managed to gain a bounty of over 100 million berry, and became a supernova. The bounty could be explained by the fact that the world government wanted her, maybe because she's a celestial dragon, or because she's related to Kumar, and especially more so if she really is a clone. But what did she achieve in the pirate world at that age to gain such a reputation? It also makes me wonder what's gonna happen to her at the end of the arc, because if she's only 12 years old, I feel like someone needs to be taking care of her. And we now know that her crewmates were actually her babysitters slash uncles, the ones that have been with Kumar and Ginny for so long now, which is totally sweet and actually brought a smile to my face in this chapter. But if I remember correctly, she was the only one able to escape from Marijua out of her crew, and so now I can't help but quietly hope that maybe Bonnie will join the Straw Hats after all, and that she's going to be able to follow Sun God Nika in the flesh, fulfilling her father's dreams. Other options could be that Vega Punk looks after her, or maybe even the Revolutionary Army, which would bring a nice sense of closure to the whole Ginny storyline, the fact that they're able to save and protect Bonnie in a way that they couldn't for her mother, and especially because the Revolutionary Army will continue to have a bigger role in the story to come. Something else that I want to mention about Oda's beautiful storytelling is the way that he managed to show this incredibly sweet relationship between Kumar and Bonnie, and all the while dropping in so many easter eggs or callbacks, and we have mentioned some of these already, but two that really stood out for me was one, Kumar asking Bonnie where she'd like to travel to, which is another one of those classic cases that makes us look back at earlier moments with a whole new eyes, as well as the fact that the bible that Kumar carried around is the same book that Bonnie was reading, and apart from the fact that religion in the One Piece world contains stories about Sky Island and Fishman, I was actually somewhat surprised with Kumar not being as adept in One Piece Geography as I expected, and being shocked at Bonnie's knowledge about Sky Islands, especially since he's the one that sent the Straw Hats to islands that would be appropriate to improve their abilities, and in fact, one of those islands, Nami's, is a Sky Island, and so what we're actually seeing here is Bonnie actually being indirectly responsible for the Straw Hats' development and survival by encouraging Kumar to gain the knowledge about the different islands, which I'm sure is something that Kumar and Bonnie did together, bonding over reading books and such. Overall, in what was such a dark and heavy chapter, the fact that we did get these pockets of heartwarming scenes, again, it's just such a classic odor thing to do, even moments that made me chuckle a little bit, like when we actually see Kumar putting Bonnie in an iron cage, because he doesn't want to crush her, was just so adorable, and I feel like there is still so much to say and speculate over or cry about, but we do have a chapter break coming, so I encourage you to leave all of your thoughts about chapter 1098 and whatever else you want to talk about by leaving a comment below. In the meantime, make sure to like the video, please also subscribe to help me get to 100k subscribers. Thank you to all of our channel and Patreon members for your support, and thank you for listening to another one of my ramblings. I know this one might have been even more chaotic than most because my head is just in scrambles because of the emotions, but this is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.