One Piece Chapter 1175: NIDDHOGGR

We pick up where we left off, Sanji has managed to burn through the thorns with his signature technique, allowing our heroes to finally be able to move again. Loki has reached the population centres of Elbaph, his demeanour really strikes me as similar to that of our Monster Trio, he’s the kind of guy who will do the right thing, but hates to be known for it, “heroes have to share their meat” and all. This is something that has been emphasised throughout One Piece, the true kings are the ones who refuse the call, no one who yearns for power, the power to dominate, truly deserves to be king. “The pirate king is the freest man on the seas”- one of the greatest quotes in the whole series, Loki definitely embodies those kingly qualities that have been laid out in the text. There is some nuance to it, and I think I’ll probably get to elaborate in a future chapter analysis.

One Piece has an interesting relationship with the concept of selfishness, how a childlike selfishness fuels both positive and negative actions within the series. Luffy’s selfishness, his unwillingness to let anything happen that he doesn’t like, unwillingness to compromise, is one of his greatest attributes, and worst flaws. This can be seen in the children of Elbaph too, as they take it upon themselves to make sure their parents don’t get hurt, they know everything their parents have gone through to save them, and despite all that, they now put themselves in the line of fire. It’s touching, and it shows how their mindset has changed, being filled with the warrior’s spirit.

One Piece is a series known for having some of the most satisfying beatdowns in all of fiction, the fantasy of seeing someone so cruel get what they deserve, while old-school, never gets old. St. Sommers finally gets an electrified punch straight to his face, courtesy of Luffy, losing a few teeth in the process and his powers have come undone indicating his unconscious state. Something particularly interesting is Sommers mentioning Nika being a bedtime story, revealing to us a bit of Celestial Dragon culture, perhaps indicating the Harley myth, or something similar exists too for the children on Mary Geoise.

Something readers may have noticed is that zoan users’ transformations are proportional in size to their natural body mass. So Loki, in his now-named Nidhoggr form, is colossal, directly stated to be the biggest dragon of all, and with electric breath to boot. His squirrel friend is named Ratatoskr, the squirrel that runs up the world tree, and the one that was guarding the devil fruit, waiting for the one that they deemed worthy. This is easily missed, but here we learn a little bit about how devil fruits inhabit objects, it seems that Ratatoskr’s will took to Ragnir as a means of guarding Niddhogr’s power. Does this mean Ratatoskr became a devil fruit? Was every Zoan once a living creature that needed a means of living on? Along with explaining this, Jarul also explains the relationship between Loki’s Zoan and Luffy’s– we know that Zoan Devil Fruits contain some form of will, the Sun God and the Warrior God, enemies of the past, or perhaps rivals, their users meeting again through the power contained within the fruits and the Pantheon of the One Piece world expanding.

As the chapter draws to a close, the Imu-posessed Gunko watches on. Imu is clearly familiar with Loki’s fruit. We know Imu is very old; immortal, and has an antagonistic relationship toward Joyboy and the Nefertari family, we can potentially add the Warrior God to this list, or at least their power as an object of desire for the tyrant king.