 The post-Wano drops just keep on coming and this one is a banger. Just as we're settling down from all the hype and drama that Oda's been throwing at us recently, he adds even more fuel to the fire with this latest development of Kobe's kidnapping by Blackbeard. Hello Manaka Matachi, this is Joygirl, and I am really excited about the potential implications of Blackbeard kidnapping Kobe. Mostly because I hope this means we're getting something that I've been saying I want to see for ages, which is an all-out war between all the major players of the One Piece universe, with the way that Oda has been focusing quite a bit on Sabo and the revolutionaries lately. For him to pull this on us now involving the Marines, I can't help but think maybe these storylines are going to converge. We are now at the final saga after all, and if we're getting a war bigger than Marineford as has been suggested, it would make sense if all the factions came out to play in this messy, massive war. And I think this could be really interesting because it could pave the way for new alliances and also potentially give us a greater look at the morals and values of the different characters and whether they will each stay true to their allegiance or choose their personal relationships. Because I am leaning towards the suspicion that this may lead to a loofy and Blackbeard showdown as he tries to save his friend. Or actually, are we going to get another saving Kobe Shanks appearance? And will it lead to a Shanks vs Blackbeard battle instead? Because that's also something we are sure to see in the final saga. I'm also very interested to see how much Akainu and the other Marines value Kobe's life. And of course, will this unearth more about Sword? We don't yet know what happened to Drake following the end of the Onigashima raid and we also don't know who else is involved in this secret organization within the Marines. And this could be the way that more information about Sword and its members are revealed, especially if certain Navy officers become very much invested in Kobe's rescue. Speculations aside, I'm very intrigued as to how Kobe ended up being taken by Blackbeard. I mean, how was Kobe captured if Rayleigh drove the Blackbeard Pirates away? Did Rayleigh really just let Blackbeard take Kobe hostage? Or maybe did Kobe go willingly? Also, what does Blackbeard want with Kobe anyways? I mean, sure, Kobe's a Marine captain, so kidnapping him might give Blackbeard a bit more street cred or inflate the influence and threat that he poses, but kidnapping suggests a very specific purpose. And Blackbeard wasn't even at Amazon Lily for Kobe in the first place. He was after Boa Hancock. But then again, it does seem like these two do have a deeper relationship and that Kobe played a role somehow in helping Blackbeard during the Rocky Port incident, which is an event that Oda continues to tease, of course, this time dropping some very juicy information about Wang Zi, the yet-to-be-introduced former Rocks Pirates member, whom we now know to have been still alive, still residing at the Pirates Haven, most likely as its former boss, which is actually another unexpected turn of events, with the wide speculations about Blackbeard either having some sort of connection to Rocks or at least seeming to honor and be largely influenced by him. I wouldn't have expected Blackbeard to be getting into a fight with a former Rocks Pirates member, but then again, he betrayed Whitebeard and also the Rocks Pirates were never a homogenous group. Actually, this chapter would have been a great time for a Rocks Flashback if Rayleigh and Shaki are aware of Blackbeard's possible connection to Rocks. But anyways, back to the Rocky Port incident. Now that Kobe and Blackbeard are together, will this mean we finally find out what transpired on that day? I guess these are all questions we'll have eventually answered in due course, but if you have any thoughts, please do share them in a comment below. Also, while you're doing that, please subscribe to the channel. Going back to Blackbeard's goal, this was actually a very big surprise. It makes a lot of sense in retrospect when you consider his words about the Navy going after the prize, because we did know the Marines were going after the warlords, hence including Hancock, but it was still very unexpected that out of all the different Devil fruits, this one is the one that Blackbeard's after, and it obviously breeds further speculations. Is it because Bowers' Devil Fruit is similar to Luffy's in that its real identity is something that we're not yet aware of? I mean, does it have something to do with the awakening of the Meromeronomy? And did Blackbeard want it for himself or did he want it for us aboard in it? Because unless there is something deeper about the fruit that we just don't know yet, I wouldn't have thought that this is the third Devil Fruit that Blackbeard is after to complete his set. I mean that is if the widely speculated idea of Blackbeard acquiring three Devil Fruits is correct. But maybe it has something to do with what Boa divulged about her powers that the stone turning can't be undone even by the next user of the fruit? The extent to which Boa has become re-involved in the story was again just very surprising. I wasn't really expecting her to play such a big part in the next storyline. And I guess it is still a question of whether she will be playing such a huge role going forward. I mean, on one hand, if her Devil Fruit is truly something that Blackbeard has sought after for a while, I doubt that he'd give up that easily, unless he really is that scared of Rayleigh. Or on the other hand, I wonder whether Oda was just using this to progress the story for the Kobe plotline which is actually going to be the more important focus of the series going forward. In which case, then I'm glad that we got a great showing of Boa's power in Chapter 1059. It was a great way for Oda to showcase her abilities and strength but also in a logical way because it was Vasco and Katarina Devonda that got frozen. The fact that they were frozen by Boa's powers doesn't damage their reputations or how we view their strength and their potential as the future matchups against the Straw Hats because a big part of how Boa's ability works is that it attracts individuals like Vasco and Katarina. Whereas if it was used against someone like Shiryu, that could have resulted in some very different interpretations about just how strong Boa really is rather than being a case of just how distractible Vasco and Katarina are. But at the same time, Boa gets a whole lot of respect to her name, taking out essentially the entire Navy forces. And as we know in One Piece, a character's reputation is really important as it was in the case of the Dark King and the King of Epic Entrances, Rayleigh, whose notoriety alone was enough to scare Blackbeard. I have to say I'm sort of worried for Rayleigh though. His comment about his age sets off all sorts of alarm bells about a possible death flag. I mean, he is a part of the old generation and a pretty central theme as of late has been about this new generation and the new era. Also, that short flashback to Marco, who being a part of the previous generation himself, is now choosing to stay out of the way of the youngins. Not gonna dwell on it too much because I now want to celebrate what a skux Rayleigh is. It's very fitting that the slick and suave and yet undercover pervert Rayleigh managed to win over the former Empress of Amazon Lily. Shaki's history is something that should have been obvious in retrospect. Her name in Japanese means Peony, a flower after all, and her belt buckle is a love heart. And the fact that Rayleigh can freely travel to Amazon Lily by simply swimming should have been a dead giveaway. But still, what a reveal. I love how Oda just seamlessly ties in bits of information that was dropped years ago. I don't know if I ever expected the Empress who was afflicted with love sickness to be ever revealed or for that to just remain part of the lore and the rich history of the Krucha tribe. So for us to get a callback now is very exciting. But of course, if we're talking about reveals, the biggest reveal of all of Chapter 1059 has to be Vegapunk's new invention. The seraphims which seem to be a hybrid made up of Lunarian DNA and that of the former warlords. That's such a crazy turn that makes so much sense looking back. But again, a surprise that I just did not see coming. I mean, who would have thought that comment about the SSG replacing the warlords would have been quite so literal. I did think that it was going to be robot-esque super soldiers, which isn't quite what we have, but it is somewhat similar in the way that Vegapunk has used the durability of Lunarians to make them pretty much unscratchable, whilst also having crazy offensive power and skills. So far, we've only seen the ones based on Mihawk and Boa, but this just opens up so many possibilities and questions. Can we assume the seraphims are only modelled after the warlords? Or does it include every powerful combatant the world government has captured at some point and have samples of their DNA? Given that they used King's DNA, is it possible that they even fused Kaido's genes? Or was Kaido's lineage factor something that was strictly saved for Vegapunk's devil fruit experiment? But what about the experimentation and the science of German? Knowing Vegapunk's history with Mads, is it even possible he's somehow acquired judges' experimentations too? I mean, even if we just stuck to the warlords, can we expect to see a seraphim modelled after all the previous warlords we have ever had in the series, including those who were only warlords for a very short period of time, like Lore and Buggy and Weevil or even Blackbeard? Or is it only from the original group of Shichibukai that we were introduced to, because Vegapunk didn't have time to extract the lineage factor from all the new warlords? Or maybe it's a condition that the world government sets on all warlords, that they have to hand over some DNA in exchange for their title? I'm just really excited for the types of matches and situations this could result in, especially against the Straw Huts. Zoro having to fight the Mihawk Seraphim, for example, could be very interesting and provide some sort of gauge on where he's at, and how he would fare against the real Mihawk. If the Navy also have a Jinbei Seraphim, it would also be fun to see our newest recruit fight against his clone. And if they made an Ace Seraphim using DNA that they extracted whilst he was captured, well that would make for a very emotional battle. Another question is just how strong are these new weapons? Because they seem to be at the stage of adolescence, so is this their final form or are they still growing? Are their skills limited to the level that the warlords were at when their lineage factor was extracted? Or do they have the potential to reach the full extent of their abilities? And craziest deal, this isn't the only weapon that the Navy have up their sleeve. It seems like Vegapunk has been very busy creating new inventions to bolster the strength of the Marines. And this should all make for a very exciting high stakes battle. And also really suggest that it is now high time for us to finally meet Vegapunk. But aside from all of these new developments and reveals, there was also an interesting flashback to Wano in Chapter 1059. And this is something that I'd love to hear your thoughts on as well. Was the Yamato flashback a retcon? I mean, I can't help but think that it could have been because of all the backlash that Oda received. Not only about Yamato not joining the crew, but also about the lack of explanation why or that conversation being off-screen. Even the disgruntlement that people had about Marko never interacting with Luffy got addressed in this chapter. But then again, obviously chapters are written weeks in advance. So unless Oda just made some last-minute additions to this chapter, these moments may have very well been always intended and planned to be included here. Also, I don't know what the reaction to Yamato's choice was in Japan and whether it even reached Oda. So I don't know, maybe we are just too deep into this fandom. Personally though, I don't want to gloat. But you guys may remember, this is exactly how I interpreted Yamato's decision. So I didn't necessarily need Oda to outright explain this decision, but I hope this assuaged everyone who was previously outraged. You know what, you tell me. Were you someone who was upset with the whole Yamato joining the straw hats? And if you were, did the explanation in Chapter 1059 make things better for you? Overall though, I think with that, those final flashbacks, those final moments, although I'm sure some other remaining questions about Wano may pop up from time to time, I think we can now safely say that we are truly in the final saga. And with all the drama unfolding, fasten your seatbelts because we are in for one hell of a ride. But those were just my thoughts on the latest developments. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. Please do subscribe for more One Piece discussions. You can also join our Joyfleet Discord server or even become a patron member. And I want to thank all our patrons for help supporting the channel. This is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.