 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece, and today we have a review of chapter 971, Sentenced to Boil. And we are sadly officially here. The tragedy of the Odin flashback is in full swing, however in classic Otis style, meaning that this character is not going down without being solidly ingrained into our minds for the rest of our lives via his actions, as is the case with most flashback figures. And it's really interesting actually because this chapter once again slows down the overall pace of the Odin flashback, in order to focus in great detail upon this event, which isn't even concluded this week actually, but that is the case for very good reason. In my mind, the way this chapter is put together very much mirrors Odin's bargain with Kaido to survive in the pot for an hour, which would surely be the most excruciating hour of his life, and in fact there's a point in the chapter where it becomes apparent that only four minutes have actually passed, and I had this jolting thought of, are you serious? It feels like so much more time has gone by, but in reality it's been practically nothing. So I do quite like it because by extending this scene, not only is it granting Odin the emotional resonance that an execution needs, but it's also making us, or at the very least me, actively feeling Odin's torture. And I feel like the choice not to conclude the execution this week was very cold for, because now we as readers have to live with this idea for another whole week, rather than blasting through a chapter that simply tells us that this execution is going to take an hour and having us, you know, not really feel that. But instead, to us, we'll be living with this event for like two weeks as a result. And this is probably one of the rare instances in the series that I would say is at peak effect when reading the weekly manga, rather than going through it comparatively quickly in volume format. And slowing things down just allows Odin to explore so much more in terms of art, because there are actually a lot of small panels here and there that usually would not make their way into a standard one piece chapter, because you know they have to be so chock full of story and progression. However chapter 971 takes a lot of space to show random shots of the flames or the boiling oil or various close-ups of the impact that this is having on Odin's body. And I also quite liked that because we as readers needed to truly understand just how gigantic of a feat Odin's actions are. And for that we also needed an example of how this oil would affect a normal human. So one very, very poor unfortunate individual, you know just so happened to whoops slip in and pretty much instantly die. And look I don't feel bad for him because chances are he was a bit of a prick anyway. I mean he does look like the Orachi loving slime ball type, but as a result when Odin hops in the pot and lets out that guttural scream, well to be honest this is probably one of the most painful things I have ever read in this series. Seeing that panel gave my skin a phantom burning sensation, where I was subconsciously picturing myself being hit all over by hot oil, like what would happen from time to time when cooking. So yeah man all I have left to say about that particular panel is ouch. And with those feelings in mind, my favourite panel I guess it's more of a spread, is Odin lifting all of his vassals because this is just classic one piece, a brilliant left field heroic manoeuvre from a character who was larger than life. But this panel is fantastic because of all of the expressions being made by the vassals, which range from the sort of shock you can see painted all over Kaomatsu, to the deep concern on Nekomomushi, all the way to the incredibly pained Kinamon, who seems to be one step ahead of everyone else in terms of understanding exactly what Odin plans on doing here. And it's heartbreaking it really is. And in this moment I empathise with Kinamon more than I ever have in the history of this series, which is pretty impressive, because this guy goes quite a way back now, all the way to the days of punk hazard, but for the most part he's always been such a joke, and now he is almost the emotional core of Wano in general. But the other key feature of the chapter was the revelation of the interaction between Odin and Orochi that resulted in him acting like a naked fool for five years. Now I was pretty heavily critical about that particular chapter because the decision not to show that interaction there left everything feeling very jarring and annoying. However I did tell myself that this was because Oda was planning to use that information at a much more dramatically potent point to really hammer something home. And it would appear that that point of choice is here. And honestly I'm not sure how to feel about it. So basically Shinobu reveals that Orochi and Kaido had a sort of storage of people that they were threatening not just to kill but also torture and cell, which is much worse than simple killing in my opinion. And yes, it does give Odin's actions a much more reasonable motivation because when faced with the lives of 100 men, women and children, I highly doubt that any of us would make an aggressive choice so lightly. Now with that said, I'm still not entirely sold on how this went down at all. I don't think that Oda has effectively portrayed this as a Sophie's choice, whereby Odin had to go one way or the other. Because I still think that he could have just struck down Kaido right then and there, and from there taking down Orochi and the Bari Bari No Mi user, look it would have been tricky but achievable, very achievable. Well if he was super serious about wanting to save the lives of each of these 100 people, then gather his forces and infiltrate the castle at night, assassinate Orochi, take down Kaido, and or discreetly free everyone. And I mean I get what Oda was trying to do, and it's to highlight how much of an incredible figure Odin is, willing to sacrifice every shred of his honor for a handful of people. And in fact honestly, I think he would have done the same for just one person. That's just the kind of guy that Odin is. It just doesn't make a great amount of sense because he has so many more options available to him. And the real kicker is that in this chapter, Orochi's goal is effectively revealed, which is nothing more than to drive Wano into pure ruin. And we'll get back to this in a second because I actually do find Orochi much more interesting as a result of this chapter. However I do once again ask myself, what was Odin's endgame here? Over time, Orochi was only going to destroy more and more of Wano as we've seen, plunging the country into the state that we now have in the modern day. Like, there are no two ways about it. Orochi needs to be removed from power ASAP, and Kaido needs to be completely expelled from these lands, if not life itself. No amount of naked dancing is going to save the rest of the Wano country folk from a social, economic, and political erosion being conducted here. And Odin despite having an undeniable Luffy-like quality about him, is certainly intelligent enough to identify that. Although to be fair, maybe that's his issue. Odin is too smart and overthinking things. Meanwhile, if Luffy was put into a situation like this, his only thought would be, so to fix everything I just need to beat you up, right? And then he would proceed to do so. So yeah, in the end I'm not quite satisfied with how this part of the flashback ended up playing out. I was just hoping for a much more solid revelation with this, but whatever, let's move on. Going back to Orochi briefly, he actually, oddly enough, becomes somewhat identifiable. Maybe identifiable is not the right word, but I'm not changing it. But because the story of how the Kurozumi clan were persecuted is actually one that is quite horrifying and very much speaks to the darkness that was present on Wano prior to all of this Orochi-Kaito business, because you know, assumedly the names that we would consider the quote unquote good guys like the Kozuki clan or the Shimotsuki clan would have had a hand in this. And Odin realizes this as well because he has this look of proper empathetic shock, whilst Orochi is explaining what happened to the Kurozumi clan. But in general, I do quite like this explanation. As well as the idea that Wano has fallen into this state, not because of any outside faction like the Beast Pirates coming in and just ruining everything, but because the country effectively did this to itself. But with that said, I can't help it feel like there's more to this story than we've seen, just because this massacre of human life seems so inconsistent with everything that we know of prominent Wano figures such as Tsukiyaki or Yasu. So there may very well be a much more nuanced explanation for what happened to the Kurozumi clan. However, I kind of hope that's not the case because taking Orochi's words in here makes Wano an infinitely more complicated location within the One Piece world and I love that. I really enjoy the idea that saving this island is all of a sudden going to be far more difficult than just beating one of the four emperors, because Wano needs to heal and rebuild itself in every aspect of its society and its leadership may even need to own up to what they did to the Kurozumi clan and recognize its own past sins before moving forward. So there's a lot to play with here and while it certainly does not make Orochi a character one can empathize or sympathize with in the slightest, I do at the very least understand his goal and I'm glad that he isn't a completely flat antagonist. Speaking of flat though, take a look at Dem Kaido legs. It's kind of like a set of chopsticks. In fact, he actually reminds me quite a lot of Duval in this panel. You know that completely stacked up a body physique with legs that look like they would snap in response to a light breeze? In all seriousness though, I do find it interesting that Kaido continues to have a comparatively minor role in this flashback. He is very much a side character and once again I think that's for the best. Bringing too much of him into this may risk losing the focus on Buono and its people, although I do really like seeing the prior incarnation of his design though. It reminds me that Kaido was not always the invincible powerhouse that he is today. This man, dragon, creature thing probably had to work and work and work to get to the level he is and yes, he may have some sort of gifted invincibility that stops people from killing him but when you think about it, Kaido is probably known as one of the most notorious losers in all of One Piece. I mean, he's been captured and defeated roughly a billion times so this guy was certainly not the epitome of power throughout his whole life and certainly not at this stage in particular. And one more thing I will say about Chapter 971 is that I think any traitor theories within Odin's vassals become a lot more difficult to swallow after this week. Like each and every one of these guys was on the verge of being boiled to death so unless this is an incredible play from one of them, I just don't see it happening anymore. For one of the vassals to continue to betray Odin after this action would be incredibly heartbreaking and he would instantly become one of the most hated characters within the entirety of One Piece. Although to be fair, Odin could very much go to that territory. At the moment though, I would prefer to think that the traitor comes from outside of the vassals although sadly that doesn't leave us with a lot of options either. You know, we're looking at Toki, Hiyori, Momonosuke, or one of their servants like people and really there's no way it could be Momonosuke and I highly doubt it would be Toki either. Hiyori is, you know, she's a kind of a blank slate but she's so young that it just makes no sense so who knows maybe it's the guy munching rice but that would be such a boring answer. Whatever the case, it would seem that within this chapter the hour of legends has begun because at this point I think it's pretty clear that this event is what that was referring to because the one hour time frame is very specific and rather sadly I think that Odin will probably be dead by the end of next chapter because 971 did a lot of work to really draw out this experience and allow us to feel Odin's struggle so with that freshly in mind the next chapter should be free to cap off the life of this incredibly profound figure to close out this flashback and that pretty much does it for chapter 971. 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