One Piece Chapter 1173: WARRIOR GENERATION

Zoro’s plan to flank and attack the giant captains is entirely derailed almost immediately, as the two turn on one another, though it seems to have been effective, even if unintentional. It’ll be interesting to see if this reignites their ancient feud in the chapters to come. I find it hard to believe they’ll be out of commission for long, though it’s hard to gauge just how powerful they are with Imu’s influence powering them.

One of the most interesting parts of this chapter has to be the interaction between Gunko and Brook. We have known for a long time that Brook was the leader of a battle convoy in a far-off kingdom in his early years, though we’ve never had any development on that tidbit of backstory. We now learn that Gunko murdered the king that Brook once served; her own father. Brook always receives incredibly compelling and exciting moments when we least expect it, I don’t like to invoke fandom opinion too often, but I think it always pays to remain patient with any characters one feels deserve more spotlight, for example Robin has received so much attention in Egghead and Elbaph, Oda is not a sloppy writer and always picks up the threads he leaves dangling. I can’t imagine we’ll get another lengthy flashback after having just finished one, but we may get a page or two in the coming weeks. However if this background with Brook’s home kingdom is important to the story at large, then it may unfold later down the line.

It’s always important to take a step back with One Piece and admire the macro-level storytelling. While we experience it week-to-week, and it’s satisfying in its own way, it’s crafted in such a way as to be a complete and satisfying story as a whole, with reveals that have taken years for us, being natural extensions of the story for any first-time readers. Brook was introduced 19 years ago, and now we get to explore more of his backstory in a way that is compelling and relevant to the current plotline, building upon the themes established in previous chapters.

Last time I talked about ‘good kings’ in the One Piece story, and we’re presented with another parallel that ties in with that nicely; Loki and Gunko are now being established as mirror images of one another. We have the prince who took on the role of father-killer in order to simplify the narrative for his people, end his father’s control by Imu and his nation by the World Government, and we have Gunko, the princess who killed her father and is now controlled by Imu. It remains to be seen what happened to her and Brook’s homeland. While we don’t have all the information yet, it adds another delightful wrinkle to the ongoing story that I can’t wait to see develop. It also seems that Brook is taking on an archetype also seen multiple times throughout the series, the ‘defender of the deposed good king’ (needs workshopping), or the defender of a forgotten, better way of governing. Kyros in Dressrosa took on this role, Dalton in Drum Kingdom took on this role. Brook is seemingly out to avenge the dead king, which definitely implies a deep bond between our favourite skeleton and this unknown character.

Building upon the themes of parenthood I mentioned previously, the parents of Elbaph have arrived to save their children and in doing so, destroy St Sommers’ escape route. This of course means they will have to face the Holy Knight head-on, but it also means the kidnapping plan has been stopped, at least for now.