r/OnePiece • u/Kirosh2 Lookout • Jun 20 '24

Current Chapter One Piece: Chapter 1118 Spoiler

Chapter 1118: "Being Free"

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Ch. 1118 Official Release (Mangaplus): 23/06/2024

Ch. 1119 Scan Release: ~27/06/2024

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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u/SpicyMango333 Jun 20 '24

One reason imo is that the truth to who holds the strongest minds/creativity/imagination are children. Because Bonney is still a child, despite all the trauma she's gone through, the will hasn't been completely beaten out of her. Even when it happens, children bounce back again and again and again until they just can't anymore.... by the time they reach teen years and adulthood years, if all they experienced was disappointments, it's much harder to bounce back from that.

Robin is a good example of this because it took like 28 years of existence before she met the Straw Hats, and building and recovering that trust and inner-world was much harder then. Same can be applied for Nami who was I think 18? As well as Sanji who went through so much as a child, survived it, and then went through yet again another traumatic experience with Zeff, and then ignored all that until he had to face his past in WCI. It heavily affected his mental state and his ability to make healthier decisions because trauma by adulthood is not functionable.

It isn't functionable for children either of course, but I've seen this with children and when I was a kid, how much I'd bounce back and restore my faith in humanity/myself by myself, for no good reason at all, other than to hold onto hope. Anyway, to me this is why Bonney is able to back bounce so quick and suddenly gain that confidence and ability to transform into Nika (because children have limitless potential and imagination). Even when she told Luffy she couldn't keep up with him in that form, there were no sweat marks that usually indicate a nervousness/insecurity/etc (this emoji 😅 lol). Usually someone would have some level of insecurity and express that emoji when acknowledging there's no way they could keep up with Nika form let alone against literally demons lol. Children can feel that sense of comparing oneself to others of course, but again I hope you get my point. Children rule. It's both amazing and incredibly tragic that Bonney is currently TWELVE 💀

I also think Oda is aware that we the individuals living here on hell-like earth, need genuine hope right about now and the messaging with Bonney and the iron giant is pure gold for that. The concept that "there's Luffy who can save us and that's it" is instantly rewritten with "you can be Nika too" which is the whole point of Nika- to inspire confidence and freedom to everyone, to empower others. Bonney, a 12-year-old character who deserves to show the world what is possible when you tap into a potential future that WASN'T fked up by dystopia, further unrecoverable trauma and abuse, and corruption, is the perfect way to represent that. I often wish I had a different upbringing. I can see exactly how, when, and where my childhood stripped any bit of potential I had and did everything in their power to kill it. The gorosei successfully did this to Bonney's entire life and her family. It's incredible she gets to finally get a brighter future and I'd like to believe she's going to either stay with Luffy, or find somewhere safe to live with Kuma (if that's even possible with his current state) much like Rebecca+Kyros. I'd love to see her stick with Luffy between those two ideas though.

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u/darktrigon Jun 20 '24

This is one of the best comments I've ever read in this subreddit. Thank you for writing this! It reminds me of this quote about hope:

"People speak of hope as if it is this delicate, ephemeral thing made of whispers and spider's webs. It's not. Hope has dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles, the grit of the cobblestones in her hair, and just spat out a tooth as she rises for another go."

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u/Doomroar Jun 21 '24

I also think Oda is aware that we the individuals living here on hell-like earth, need genuine hope right about now and the messaging with Bonney and the iron giant is pure gold for that. The concept that "there's Luffy who can save us and that's it" is instantly rewritten with "you can be Nika too" which is the whole point of Nika- to inspire confidence and freedom to everyone, to empower others.

This is the genius behind this concept

I was super salty with how poorly Nika was introduced in Wano, suddenly Who's who starts talking about the Gomu Gomu as if it was an special fruit, and then 5 chapters later Luffy has godlike powers, but we have come such a long way from that mess and now it just feels right

They pay off has been great

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u/SpicyMango333 Jun 22 '24

What you said about the reveal in Wano is valid! I personally loved it tho lol I thought the reveal was really good. I think if there was some more introduction to Who’s Who way before Wano or something like that it would have been perfect, but I can see what you’re saying with how sudden several of the reveals felt. I feel like knowing Who’s Who was a “fired CP9 member for failing a mission” much earlier would have been all I needed for that to not feel so random/out of place.

Other than that I think the reasons it works so well is because they’ve been alluding to many things for a long time such as awakening, the mystery of Joy Boy, the Sulong form w/ the moon, and Luffy’s ability to hear “the voice of all things” which seems to be beyond just having good haki because we know many other haki users don’t hear anything like the sea kings or Zunesha. These don’t all necessarily point up to the Gear 5/model Nika fruit reveal, but they all add enough significance that when Luffy has his awakening it makes enough sense

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u/Doomroar Jun 23 '24

The problem is not Joyboy, or Who's who, Joyboy was introduced on Fishman island as an ally to the fish-men who failed to fulfill a promise that maybe Luffy could accomplish, seeding the idea that he would become the next Joyboy

Then we had Kaido constantly questioning Luffy about whether he could become the next Joyboy or not

All that was done pretty well, where things start to fall apart is with the true nature of the Gomu Gomu fruit as a mythical zoan god fruit, that was introduced out of left field, Nika was never before mentioned before Wano, and there are even less ties to Nika being tied to a DF before Who's who started talking about it

When Shanks talks about the Gomu gomu he never makes mention of the fruit being particularly special, or that it was stolen from a government ship, and the government never makes attempts at addressing the mistake or the fact that Luffy grew up to become an infamous pirate while wielding said stolen fruit

When we visit Skypeia we learn about an how the old people of Jaya worshiped a sun god, but that was never elaborated upon, there were no ties to the god being rubbery, or to being Joyboy, nor a mention of the name Nika

Before the reveal of Nika, the idea that Luffy was going to become the next Joyboy was resting on the idea of it being a figurative title, a mantle to be taken, rather than him physically transforming into a legendary God of ancient times, whose fruit comes with its own sentience because it is a Zoan fruit, it was seen similar to becoming Pirate King

If Oda had dropped some sprinkles of hints about Nika and his fruit here and there on FI and Zou, this would have felt much better planed out, but it really comes out as something he decided on the spot just to close Wano and move on

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u/SpicyMango333 Jun 23 '24

I mean yeah that’s what I was trying to say lol. I didn’t say there’s a problem with Joyboy and I felt they did that part really well.

The REASON I brought up Who’s Who as an ‘issue’ isn’t for his character specifically, but for the sake of planting those DF/Nika seeds earlier for it to feel more planned out like you wanted 

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u/Kiosade Pirate Jun 20 '24

Thanks for writing this. You hit the nail on the head! I just wish the dum-dums with no media literacy could understand all of this :(

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u/blueontheradio Jun 20 '24

My man, that's a great write-up honestly, can I dm you maybe for hearing out some similar thoughts about One Piece?

1

u/Hot-Lie-4560 Jun 20 '24

Aw I love this write-up. Thank you for writing this for us.