 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line review, your source for everything One Piece. Today we have a manga review of chapter 908, The Reverie Begins. And One Piece continues to be on fire, bombarding us with series changing information and events. Last week I made a big thing about saying that Oda wouldn't introduce such an important chair without having somebody sit on it, although little did I expect it to happen the very next chapter. We have just been somewhat introduced to an entity that is possibly the most powerful character in the entire series. Not necessarily in terms of strength, but in terms of resources and influence. And he has a pretty underwhelming name coming from an English speaking background. His name is Imu, which to me sounds like some arse clown trying very poorly to pronounce the word Imu. However, a bunch of people have pointed out a potential theory as to why his name is Imu. Imu is written in katakana, which if you're unfamiliar with Japanese is the alphabet used primarily for foreign loan words that make their way into the language and of course foreign names. So with that in mind, the idea has been posed that the name Imu may be a fusion of the katakana spellings of Adam and Eve, or in this case Eve and Adam. Eve being spelled E-Vu and Adam being spelled A-Da-Mu. Let's take the first part of Eve, E, and the last part of Adam, Mu, and you get Imu. This might seem a bit out of nowhere, but it stems from the idea that devil fruits in this world may mimic the concept of forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and there's also even some suggestion that Raftel could represent Eden. Personally, I think this is an incredibly long shot, but I thought it was worth mentioning because otherwise his name is incredibly underwhelming for the secret king of the entire world. But I think it's pretty clear that this is the figure that we saw examining the giant straw hat a couple of chapters ago whilst holding Luffy's Wanted Poster. From this chapter I think we can also assume that the second Wanted Poster, Imu, had in his possession was Blackbeards, which I think is actually the very first time his Wanted Poster has been seen in the series. But of course his no doubt immensely high bounty is strategically cut off, so this implies that Imu wants them dead. More than likely to preserve the status quo of the world. And this has made me really want something that I never thought I'd even consider, and that is the potential of an alliance between Luffy and Blackbeard. Yeah look, Blackbeard captured Ace and is a dick in general, so it's incredibly unlikely, but seeing their Wanted Posters together like that just made me go, hey wait, maybe these two Ds should just team up and topple the world government. Alas, that was but a brief thought because I still think that Blackbeard is set up to be Luffy's final opponent and I think the more likely outcome is that the Revolutionary Army will overthrow Imu and the Gorosei before they have a chance to enact the assassination of Luffy and Blackbeard, which is very in keeping with the theme of fate that they both have going on. It's just like the two of them to be inadvertently saved by a threat that they didn't even know existed. But what is a bit more alarming is that there are two other individuals highlighted by Imu being Shirahoshi and Vivi. Now Shirahoshi's picture has a knife through it, so I think the meaning there is pretty clear and it makes perfect sense to want her dead given that she is literally the ancient weapon Poseidon and could contribute greatly to the complete destruction of the world government. And you know what, I still don't understand why Neptune decided it was a good idea to bring her here in the first place. I mean, he knows that she is Poseidon and surely as a result of knowing what the ancient weapons are, he also knows that the world government is not exactly in favour of them. There were only two ways that delivering Shirahoshi to Marijwa could have turned out. One, they kill her to prevent her being used against them, or two, they capture her and attempt to use her power for their own purposes. But let's quickly cover the picture of Vivi because this photo has not been ripped or stabbed, but Imu is looking at it as if he is pondering whether or not to add her to the kill pile. I think this pretty much confirms that Vivi is going to do something pretty major in the future. If Imu was concerned about alabaster in general, then he'd more than likely be holding up a picture of cobra. But no, Imu is concerned about Vivi in particular. Actually, sinister theory time now. What if the wanted posters of Luffy, Blackbeard, and the photo of Shirahoshi are red herrings? And Vivi is going to be the real target because Imu seems to have taken the photo up to the throne with him. So when the Gorossae ask which light needs to be erased from history or whatever the hell they said, Imu would then hold up the picture of Vivi and, yeah, oh, all of a sudden I'm not feeling terribly good for Vivi. Or cobra, actually. On the way to the throne room, the Gorossae were having a discussion about him. And after seeing the Gandhi-like member of the Gorossae calling for a cleansing, I am even more on the bandwagon that cobra certainly isn't going to make it out of the referee alive. And just while we're on cobra, apparently he and King Riku had an off-screen meeting with one admiral Fujitora, which is a tiny, tiny detail, but I imagine that Fujitora has identified them as potential allies in his quest to abolish the Shichibukai, which makes perfect sense given that both of their kingdoms were so adversely affected by former warlords of the sea. And you know, it's pretty crazy how this whole reverie event is becoming a series of tiny, intriguing threads. When the reverie was first mentioned during the drum arc, it made it sound like one of the most boring events possible when a group of leaders coming together to discuss policy and such. But here we are, and in my opinion it is one of the most fascinating set of chapters that we have read in the entire series. But back to Imu. I find it interesting that he was named in the series before the Gorossae actually. I suppose it's always possible that to become one of the Gorossae, you may need to give up your name and identity in service of the world, but then again, who even cares about the Gorossae anymore? They may as well be nameless slaves right now, because the existence of this king of the world has rendered them almost entirely uninteresting. Prior to this chapter, I was really keen to learn how about they might have been secretly plotting and pulling the strings of the world, but now they just feel a bit like hollow husks, who exist only to follow the orders of another. Which is a shame because these guys have been built up in the series for almost 600 chapters now, and for them to turn out to be a bit nothing, well it's disappointing to say the least. But the final thing I will say about Imu is that he very much fits the bill for the character that Oda was describing at Jump Festa last year. He said something about introducing a lurking legend in the One Piece world, the greatest enemy for the straw hats who will hinder their way. So Imu certainly qualifies as a lurking legend, and it would seem that he has every intention of hindering the straw hats. The part that doesn't quite fit yet is that Oda also hinted that this person may be related to Whitebeard in some way. So who knows if it's him, but either way, massive stuff going down here with Imu. That is only a portion of the big news this week, because not only do we see the return of Jewelry Bonnie and Bartholomew Kuma, but the two of them appear to be connected in some way. The obvious conclusion here is that Bonnie may even be Kuma's daughter, which you know, of all of the crazy Bonnie theories out there, I don't think anyone predicted that. I'm probably wrong though, because Bonnie has been quoted to be just about everything, including the One Piece itself. But there's also a nice reveal here that Kuma was the king of a nation known as the Sorbet Kingdom, which sounds an awful lot like a nation that we would have found in Totland, but there you go. This was simultaneously completely unexpected and yet makes total sense, because remember that Kuma's epithet is tyrant. This has always been incredibly mysterious, because during his time in the series, Kuma has never shown the kind of tendencies that will lead us to calling him a tyrant. And furthermore, from a semantic point of view, he was never really in a position to become a tyrant because it requires power over a group of people. And in our eyes, Kuma always acted alone. But given that he was a monarch, the whole tyrant thing makes a whole new world of sense. Although the mystery still remains of how this man, cyborg thing, got that epithet in the first place, given his nature. And you know, I think it's actually going to be an incredibly tragic tale, similar to that of King Riku from Dressrosa. I feel like Kuma may be entirely misrepresented or may have been forced into becoming tyrannical over his subjects, in much the same way that Dolph Lamingo literally forced King Riku to slaughter his own people. In the case of Kuma, this is just an example pulled straight out of my ass. But perhaps he was a king who was strongly opposed to the world government and was powerful enough to be considered a threat to their very existence. So they captured his daughter, Bonnie, and blackmailed Kuma into working for them, slowly but surely converting him into a pacifista in order to ensure that he would never be able to stand against them again, even if the world government lost Bonnie, which they did. This idea sort of fits in my mind with what Sakazuki said when he captured Jewelry Bonnie in the post-war arc just prior to the time skip. He said something long lines of being truly frightened when he'd heard that she'd escaped from the world government, possibly because he feared that the truth could come out to the people of Sorbet. I don't know, this is all wild speculation on the fly, but it makes sense to me, at least for the moment. Of course, I'm very on board with that kind of idea because it would put a stop to all of the stupid Bonnie theories out there who think she's some kind of ancient being connected to everyone and everything. I'd be pretty happy if it turned out that she was just some girl trying to save her father, although if that were the case it would turn her into yet another princess, wouldn't it? Hmm, maybe I'm not so keen on that after all. Although Bonnie, being Bonnie, she shows off her devil fruit abilities in a fun way this week by turning into an elderly lady, however she immediately reverts to her regular form which, while dramatically appropriate, is quite possibly one of the most foolish things she could have possibly done given exactly where she is in the world. However, this does make me wonder if Bonnie has a time limit to her aging ability. Like depending on her stamina, she can only maintain the form for so long, and perhaps even the more extremely she changes her age, the harder it is to maintain, which would also extend to the power that she has over others as well. In any case, as thrilled as I am for Bonnie to appear here, it is kind of disappointing because it means she is unlikely to be present for the Wano arc. I was kind of hoping that she'd be there along with the other members of the Worst Generation, most of whom are already directly involved without the big normal Kaido, and that Wano would be some sort of huge show of the Worst Generation overthrowing the previous pirate establishment and ushering in a new age for themselves. But you know, I suppose rescuing your potential father comes first. And just briefly, there's been some speculation about whether this is Kuma or whether it is one of the Pasifista, but I think it is clearly the real Kuma. I don't think Oda would have provided one of his big name introductions if it were a Pasifista, and I feel like we can trust Bonnie and Sabo for that matter to know who the real Kuma is, in addition to the fact that he does have a PX-0 label on him. However, the image of Rosward riding Kuma is greatly disturbing to me. I don't know why, because we've seen the Celestial Dragons riding their slaves before, but to see this man, who has only ever really done good things in the story, reduced to becoming a tortured vehicle for this prick is just sickening. Although there is one even more disturbing image during this chapter, where Sabo is reminiscing about Kuma and we see something never before gazed upon, which is a panel of Kuma smiling. Ugh. And that is truly disturbing. Moving along, we got a bit more of Most Guard this week, not a whole lot, just enough to really reinforce his character from the last chapter. And I'd like to just briefly go over the idea floating around that Most Guard is still in fact a bad guy and is looking to cultivate trust with the Fishmen and Merman races in order to lure them to the surface and make them easier to enslave en masse. Look, this might come back to bite me because he is a Celestial Dragon and technically they're not to be trusted under any circumstances, but I am going to believe in our newfound ally here. And not so much because of him, but because of Otto Hime. Her death in the series always felt incredibly tragic because when she passed away, her hopes and dreams seemed to die with her. Yes, I know they were somewhat kept alive by her surviving family who are now finally taking active steps forward, but if Otto Hime were to have truly influenced a Celestial Dragon, then she would have left a profound legacy and an actual change in the world. And I believe that Otto is very much more a person to prefer to have a persistent Goldfish influence the future of the world as we know it, rather than be double-crossed and having her brave actions whilst alive rendered futile. But that's just what I take from the perspective of the meta narrative. And finally this week I should touch on the fact that the reverie has officially commenced. Although there isn't a hell of a lot to say except that I love the two-page spread of all the kings assembled around the conference table. From an artistic and storytelling perspective, I'm very interested in exactly how Otto is going to make a seven-day round table conference interesting, although it probably won't last very long because revolutionaries are incoming. That pretty much does it for chapter 908. If you enjoyed this video then feel free to like, favorite or subscribe and please do comment with your thoughts on the chapter. And hey, if you're feeling particularly inclined then please do come in and join the discussion on the Grand Line Review Discord server, a handy link to which is in the description below. This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.