r/OnePiece • u/Kirosh2 Lookout • Dec 21 '23

Current Chapter One Piece: Chapter 1102 Spoiler

Chapter 1102: "The Life of Kuma"

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There is a break next week technically

Ch. 1102 Official Release (Mangaplus): 24/12/2023

Ch. 1103 Scan Release: ~30/12/2023

Please discuss the manga here and in the theory/discussion post. Any other post will be removed until 24h after the release.

Please also remember to put the chapter number in the title for any future post talking about this chapter.

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668

u/ozymandias___ Dec 21 '23

God that panel of vegapunk crying while pulling the lever...........

273

u/imeanshrimp Dec 21 '23

That's where I lost it, tbh before that it was just really really sad, but this panel instantly brought me to tears

84

u/Zenith_Tempest Dec 21 '23

i remember when people thought vegapunk was this ominous being, heartless scientist who did anything he could to advance tech forward

come to find out he's an eccentric old man with a heart of gold who desperately fought to keep Kuma's personality intact in some way. while i think narratively it makes more sense for Kuma to be fully gone, some part of me does hope that he managed to make a contingency plan under saturn's nose.

15

u/ddizbadatd24 Dec 22 '23

I love the bond between him, satomaru, kuma, bonney and kizaru.

It’s like people from different spectrums of life meet at one point and became best friends. It was awesome.

3

u/lonehawk2k4 Dec 25 '23

wouldnt be surprised if the copy of his memories leads to a way to revive his individuality somehow

4

u/reason_pls Dec 27 '23

The copy is gone because Bonney touched it

2

u/tokyogodfather2 Jan 01 '24

Wow…as a dad who lost his own dad last Xmas and I’m in my dad’s hometown, planning to move here with my own son…the idea of passing memories on hits hard

16

u/Personal-Cabinet-391 Dec 21 '23

Yep same for me, just started tearing up the srcond I saw Vegapunk's face.

44

u/th5virtuos0 Dec 21 '23

Despite how much flak the guy got for his piss poor Wisdom stat you gotta commend him for fighting for Kuma till the bitter end in his own way

22

u/Worthyness Dec 21 '23

I still hope he found a way to install an override key or something. You can't tell me the smartest man in the world can be outsmarted/outscienced by a bureaucrat.

16

u/TheMyst9701 Dec 21 '23

I doubt he was outsmarted/outscienced by Saturn. However as Saturn is the Elder that specializes in Science, it should be no surprise that he’s well-versed enough to pick up on most tricks they could pull.

5

u/StickiStickman Dec 21 '23

How did they not notice Kuma guarding the Sunny for 2 years?

10

u/TheMyst9701 Dec 21 '23

That’s a fault on Oda I guess, but I don’t know how much Saturn was monitoring a seemingly-mindless Kuma at that point anyway.

From Marineford to now (before bolting to Mariejois) he was obedient to them and didn’t directly help the Strawhats. They could just get a new ship really

3

u/StickiStickman Dec 22 '23

How could he have been obedient if he stayed there the entire 2 years?

2

u/TheMyst9701 Dec 22 '23 edited Dec 22 '23

For all they (the WG besides Sentomaru & Saturn) cared he was just a mindless soldier fighting pirates & thieves

Plus the lack of humanity highlighted that he only understands “friend or foe” so it’s not like they knew why he was protecting the ship, just that it brought attention that he dealt with

0

u/StickiStickman Dec 22 '23

I'm not buying that for a second. Him protecting the Strawhat ship, with the elders hate boner against Nika and them never once ordering him to do anything for two years.

It's just a massive plot hole.

5

u/TheMyst9701 Dec 22 '23

The Nika stuff (by that title, not Joyboy) was barely referenced before Onigashima so that’s on Oda.

Without us knowing about Luffy’s ties to the Sun God, I could see Vegapunk tricking Saturn by having Pacifista switch in and out to carry out Kuma’s tasks (except for meetings) as he was being transitioned from war machine to slave at that point anyway.

1

u/pseudo_nemesis Dec 24 '23

I mean he can basically teleport, and is pretty OP. He could have received a mission, completed it in a few minutes and been right back at the Sunny. It would mean he wasn’t constantly guarding Sunny 100% of the time, but still like 95% of the time.

1

u/StickiStickman Dec 25 '23

Not even close. He travels very slowly, we literally know it takes several days to go from one blue to another.

2

u/Serbaayuu Dec 24 '23

I'm pretty sure they just don't give a shit. They have the PX series at that point and are more worried about upgrading those.

Kuma was used as a rental slave by the Celestials for months. If they actually wanted him in service, they wouldn't allow him to be rented out.

Augmenting and then killing him was, ultimately, nothing but petty cruelty. They could have simply held his daughter or his kingdom hostage - a Buster Call if he ever left to do Revolutionary activity - but that wasn't good enough for Saturn. He didn't care to actually use Kuma as a Warlord. He just wanted to torture the last Buccaneer.

When that was done, he threw him away like an old toy.

And it will be what ends Saturn, too. If he had just... not done any of that. Kuma would've stayed on Sorbet the rest of his life, held up his end of a kinder deal, and bothered nobody. But Saturn seems to be the kind of person who is incapable of seeing good in people, so he never expected Kuma to behave that way. He expected him to be a nemesis he had to defeat. So, he turned Kuma into one.

11

u/ITagEveryone Dec 21 '23

Correct me if I'm wrong but we haven't seen Vegapunk cry before this chapter

14

u/TheIncredibleNurse Dec 21 '23

He has been portrayed as the typical science above everything kind of guy. Very cold, logical and calculated, while cowardly and outgoing with fear. Todays portrayal is of a mana that loves and broke down being order to kill a person he loves

8

u/apointoflight Dec 21 '23

Roll on two...

3

u/DJ_DREIDEL Dec 21 '23

Yeah i had the same thought

8

u/Vawd_Gandi Dec 21 '23

idk why or how but the way oda drew vegapunk's body in that panel, i could really visualize the action of him pulling the lever and that act killing himself on the inside as he did it, that's some next-level mangaka ability to convey emotion and action

7

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '23

And the following panels of everyone mourning......

6

u/saber2t Dec 21 '23

Yeah it wasn't like a tearful farewell between the two at the beginning. And then Oda just sucker punch me in the emotions with the panel...

2

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '23

i usually never tear up for manga but that panel especially after kuma's life recap got me good

2

u/Doomroar Dec 22 '23

That's what got me too