One Piece Chapter 1182: ZAZA

I do think it’s funny how Oda chooses to highlight Ragnir and Imu’s preexisting relationship, when of course, we can’t understand a squirrel. Ragnir is such a long-lived character, Vegapunk highlights the 800 years the World Government has existed for within this chapter. We need Chopper to translate for Ragnir… Imagine what he could tell us about the history of the world! Omen has made the Holy Knights stronger than ever, and healed them completely. Sanji dashes in to begin a counterattack but I truly have no clue how it’s going to turn out, or what (if anything, other than brute force) he has up his sleeve. Saul and Robin have found Biblo the owl, and he has indeed managed to preserve the books! The emphasis placed on him and this plot point almost makes me wonder what the true nature of Biblo is. I wish I had more to speculate about, we do know that he is definitely, naturally, an owl. So he’s not some returning character in a Zoan devil fruit guise.

Sommers’ plan resumes as he gains control of the ship again. He truly is a frustrating piece of work. I can only assume he’ll be Zoro’s opponent and Sanji has beef with Killingham after their last encounter. While Chopper takes care of the injured giants, Zoro and Goldberg charge forward into battle. Zoro understands how important finishing this battle is, but doesn’t seem overly confident. Accidentally, Killingham’s fears have manifested and the thing he fears most has appeared on Elbaph; something that terrifies all Celestial Dragons, the Rain God Zaza. Before we see exactly what she looks like, or at least what Killingham imagines she looks like, we are filled in on a few other bits of information 1. That they don’t believe Gunko survived, and 2. That Imu really does have a limited time on the surface world. This is a very natural and useful storytelling device for Oda to employ, and I thought something like that would be the case since Imu was coughing up blood. It means that Imu’s storyline won’t end here in Elbaph, but we will get to see a showcase of his power.

So the Celestial Dragons are scared of, and have never experienced rain. Such an interesting development. Rain of course, was a key throughline of the Alabasta Saga, the control of rain through Dance Powder was something Crocodile did in order to manipulate the people of Alabasta. Now, all these years later, the name Dance Powder finally makes sense, as the Rain God Zaza dances to the rhythm of rainfall. I can’t help but notice her design similarities to Gunko, the ringed eyes and the mouth covering. Though I have also drawn parallels between Gunko and Vivi in the past, and now I will draw parallels between Zaza and Vivi too, the rain falling at the end of the Alabasta saga being crucial to Vivi’s storyline, the relationship between Lily and Imu, and Imu’s obsession with Vivi. You could also take the blue hair into account here I suppose!

I’m going to make a bold claim here, I think Vivi is the current incarnation of the Rain God. I think it makes a lot of sense, the way she is mentioned in the same breath as Shirahoshi by Imu a lot of the time, the themes of her storyline, and she was dressed as a dancer for part of that arc! If Luffy provides the Drums of Liberation, it only makes sense to have one who dances to the beat, bringing the world the life-giving properties of rainfall. I also want to add onto that, how I believe that Imu has been grooming Gunko to look like Lily, and therefore Lily was the previous Rain God figure in the world of One Piece! On the flipside, there is the fear of the rising sea level and the impending flooding of the Blue Planet. What Zaza could mean for that is a mystery to me for now, I am working under the assumption that an enemy of the World Nobles is a heroic figure to everyone else.