 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece, and today we have a review of chapter 997 for Lames. And ladies and gentlemen, it is official. After 23 years, Etchera Oda has decided to retire Monkey D. Luffy as the protagonist of One Piece, and from here on out, Zora will take up that role and finish the quest to become the Pirate King because damn, this chapter did more for Zora than I think all of Wano so far has done combined for any other straw hat. When it comes to Zora, this chapter is so insane that if someone had told me every single event that had happened before I read it, I simply would not have believed them. It's insane. So basically in this chapter, Zoro instantly defeats a member of the worst generation, lashes out at a commander, and proudly declares that he is going to utterly destroy an Emperor of the Sea. None of that would have seemed plausible this time last week, but here we are. And in fact, there's something else that adds to the Zoro glorification, which comes in the form of Sanji's latest, well, I don't want to say failure, but that's how it's going to be taken. I mean, I love Sanji, he's one of my favorite characters, but the juxtaposition against Zoro does not look very good for him in chapter 997. Oh, and while we're here, we do have some housekeeping to engage in before we move on, because last week there was a very vocal segment of Grand Line Review viewers who repeatedly insisted in the comment section that Ivankov was the mysterious voice being heard by Sanji at the end of the chapter. And this continued to happen even after I made a 10 minute video detailing why it was simply impossible, and the huge amount of misinformation that just spread online like a virus. That's all fine though, so I issued a challenge to my viewers. If there was anyone who still believed that it was Ivankov at the end of 996, all they needed to do was drop a comment in this here community post, and if they were proven wrong then they would each need to subscribe to the Grand Line Review, which to be fair is more of a reward, because it does grant you regular One Piece content uploaded straight into your YouTube feed. However, on the flip side, if they were proven right, then I would give an in-video shout-out to everyone who commented. And as a result of that, well over 1,000 people chose to take up the Ivankov challenge, which means that we should be expecting a pretty damn big boost in subscribers today. Because I assume that all of you are going to honour that agreement, and if you're one of those people who very, very sneakily commented as an existing subscriber, well you're not of the hook either. As punishment, you now need to get a friend to subscribe because you tried to play the system, you naughty, naughty Grand Fleet member. So I would like to welcome, assumedly, all 1,000 of you new Grand Fleet recruits. It's a pleasure to have you aboard. But back to 997, this was a powerhouse chapter, and not just because of Zoro either. These are pretty seriously heating up now, and I want to start right at the end with this jaw-dropping two-page spread of Onigashima floating high in the sky because just holy crap, this is amazing. So Kaido's plan has all of a sudden become much clearer, and it would appear that he quite literally just intends to plonk Onigashima right on top of the flower capital. Which yes, is a bit of a dick move. But with this, we have entered a whole new phase of Wano because we have now finally introduced the Ark Calamity. This is a very standard dramatic device employed by Oda to raise the stakes of almost every large or mega-arc to an apocalyptic level, something to really push desperation to maximum like the bomb on our Basta, the Ark Maximum, Skypea, the Bustacle on any Sobi, the Noah on Fishman Island, the chemical weapon on Pankazad, the birdcage on Dressrosa, and Big Mom's Raging, Tantrum, and General Persona on Hawkeye Island. And these calamities are great for a few different reasons, one of which, as stated, is that it effectively raises the stakes to truly melodramatic levels. Another is that it provides an impetus to defeat the big bad guy right here and now. Otherwise, everyone and everything is doomed. And the third reason is a very underrated one, but the calamities also give all of the secondary characters something to actually do, usually while Luffy is fighting the Ark antagonist. Think Dressrosa for example, when everyone was trying to stop the birdcage. Without that calamity, they'd all just be sort of standing around with nothing to do. So I imagine that we will follow suit on Wano. After the majority of the Beast Pirate's forces are done for, every character who is not facing Kaido will then turn their attention to stopping Onigashima being dropped on the Flower Capital. And I guess another great thing about this is that it satisfies another Ark criteria because it will allow all of the Wano citizens, or at least most of them, to witness Kaido's defeat. Calamities are very important. They really do tie all of the action of an Ark together. And I sincerely hope that with the introduction of this, we see a lot less of the Onigashima Raid will fail idea floating about, which I think was a Mr. Morge idea. But really, at this point, we are pretty damn locked in. Either the Raid succeeds and we stop everyone from dying, or it fails, and one piece is over. So we are definitely heading into the end game of Wano, although I will warn that even with that said, this end game might still take quite a while to complete. And for some comparison on that, the whole calamity section of Hokei Kailin took like 30 chapters to complete, and it had a lot less to deal with than Wano does. But moving back to the now Sky Island of Onigashima, this chapter may as well have been named Zoro. He received a tremendous amount of focus here and is the subject of my favorite panel being this godly shot of him cutting down Scratchmanapu, whilst he and Drake were engaged in combat, of course. And I just, what can you say? Even Drake was completely caught off guard by this. It's a beautifully drawn panel signifying that Zoro is done with all of this crap. No more games. In fact, he did quite literally put a stop to Queen's Game. But what really gets me though is the half shaded face. I love this effect and it's almost never used in one piece because it's a much lighter series aesthetically. So every time this more depth filled shading is employed, it stands apart as completely unique. And I actually do think that most of my favorite panels in the series use this device. So I'll probably be remembering this Zoro one for quite a long time to come. And something else I also really enjoyed is that this whole scene was very similar to when we first met the Super Novoselon Saabati. And back then, Drake was forced to break up a fight between Killer and Rouge. And now in this situation, Zoro was the cool-headed strike captain, decisively putting an end to the battle between Drake and Apu. Actually, cool-headed is probably the wrong way to describe him because I haven't seen Zoro this heated in quite some time and perhaps ever, to be honest. And this jarring shift in personality did occur because Zoro saw Kikuzan fall from the roof, which was a very nice touch. From this one arm, Oda has now managed to produce two pieces of grand action drama. A very fine use of a single limb indeed. But now I'm gonna say the thing that I've been saying a lot lately, but Zoro was just completely different in these last few chapters. My introduction to this video was only half-joking because if you gave this chapter to anyone who knows nothing about one piece, he looks like the main protagonist. And his laser-like focus on taking down Kaito gave me chills. In the exact same way that it would if Luffy had made that declaration, which he has. And so I can confirm. And look, I'm not saying that Zoro has or will have conqueror's Haki. However, this is exactly the kind of attitude that all conqueror's Haki wielders display. This tendency to just rise to the top. And if classic second-in-commands like Kartakuri and Silver's really can use it, then why not? Really, the only thing that would be stopping that thought is the fact that Zoro is subservient to Luffy, but there is plenty of precedent around that. And just as a quick side note, being played directly against Zoro's extreme seriousness is the extreme ridiculousness of Queen. I love Queen. Best member of the Beast Pirates hand down without a doubt and seeing his face react to Zoro talking about Kaito absolutely made my day, even more so than seeing Zoro take down a poo. And it's a very subtle effect that Queen has, but his goofiness is what makes this scene as good as it is. If this was just Zoro being a badass, everything would be kind of one note. But having these tiny bits of comedy break things up is just enough for some nice flavor. And I think a lot of authors are afraid to do stuff like this, like they don't want to risk ruining the moment with a gag, which can happen, but Oda is an absolute master of this device. Now with Scratchmenapoo being cut down, I haven't checked on fan reactions as of yet, but this is a pretty serious victory for Zoro being the second member of the worst generation. He's just sliced to pieces and a captain this time as well. If his epithet doesn't change to worst generation Hunter Zoro by the end of the arc, I will be incredibly disappointed. But in context, of course, a poo was distracted facing off against Drake. So as much as I love Zoro, I'm not going to jump to any conclusions about a poo. And they also have no doubt that we'll be seeing more of him. To me, this situation is just basically Zoro repaying our poo for that hit he got in earlier. Oh, and Marco, he has now also joined things. Very conveniently timed as well, given that Zoro was just pondering, well, how awesome would it be if I could just float up to the roof and then bam, magic Phoenix Birdman appears, which could very well be setting up a long proposed Marco versus King matchup. Although there's a really fun interaction here because Marco directly approaches both Zoro and Robin. And it's one of those situations where you just go, oh, actually, yeah, they've never met each other, have they? Because we've known Marco technically since Jaya, but only properly since Marineford, but even that was over 10 years ago now. So Marco is like an old friend to us readers, but he's only just now meeting our other longstanding friends. So I found it weird, but in a very fun way. That might just be a me thing though. Also worth noting is that Chopper has discovered a cure for Queens, icy Oni syndrome, and in an extraordinary amount of time. Or at the very least, he has a working hypothesis and I really appreciated this part of the chapter actually. Chopper is one of our lesser focused on straw hat. So I will always enjoy a scenario where he gets to put his specialty skills to use. But now though, let's, let's talk a bit more about Sanji, shall we? I suspect that a lot of people are going to be greatly disappointed by this chapter because, you know, we do have a member of the monster trio falling for a stupid trap due to his greatest character flaw. And my only response is, I don't know what you expected. We're now 997 chapters into the series and Sanji has consistently been used for gags like this. And sure, the timing is kind of odd. You know, we have this super serious battle against two of the four emperors happening all around us. But it's not as if Sanji just abandoned Luffy to see a naked woman or something like that. He genuinely did it because he thought someone was in trouble and his heightened perverted senses just informed that scenario in his mind. So at the very least, he got caught for chivalry and not being a lecherous fiend. I don't mind that, to be honest. I don't mind that at all. The only reason I'm kind of sad is because I like the Luffy Jinbei Sanji trio that briefly formed, although the Luffy Jinbei duo is pretty great as well. And just regardless of what side you land on in the Zoro versus Sanji debate, Oda does not hate Sanji. I have a whole video detailing why this is and why he is by far the most well-explored straw hat post timeskip. So do check that out. And as a result, yeah, I think he can certainly afford to become embroiled in a bit of shenaniganry here. Don't worry, Sanji. Zoro is going to take care of everything. I would also like to point out the cover page for this week, which features Sanji, although the situation is kind of like an allegory for the events of the chapter itself. The Zoro-like raccoon thing is focused on nothing but the task at hand while Sanji is being perpetually distracted, which is essentially exactly what happened in 997. So regained focus, Sanji lost focus. And this week we also had the experience of two new smile users being introduced. And I have to say, I'm not really feeling these guys. I mean, poker does look kind of cool, but compared to the sheer glory that is four tricks, these guys are nothing. So moving to the brief Yamato section now, this mainly served to show us that there is no escape from Onigashima. However, I also like to look at it in the reverse as well. Now there is also no entry to Onigashima. So this ensures that there is unlikely to be any interference from the Big Mom Pirates or reinforcements from the Straw Hat Grand Fleet or the Revolutionary Army or whatever other fantasy force people like to place on Wano. To me, this signals that this is it. Like when the bird cage formed on Dressrosa, we knew everyone within the cage were now the established players of the established game. So everyone present on Onigashima right now is probably it. If new characters are introduced, I suspect they'll just be random smile users like the two that we saw in this chapter. But otherwise, it looks like all of our pieces are finally set up. It took close to 100 chapters to do it, but the Wano stage is now ready for action and that is incredibly exciting. But that pretty much shows it for chapter 997. And what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below. I'll even join my Discord server. And if you'd like to see more videos like this, then please do go and check out some of my other content or even subscribe to the channel for more glorious one-piece business uploaded straight into your YouTube feeds. But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.