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One Piece, 500-503 · Spoil Me! One Piece

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This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me, covering one piece
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episodes five oh one, five oh two, and five oh three. The
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fire has been set, the great terminal in crisis, Where can freedom be
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found? A sad departure of a boy and take good care of him?
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A letter from the brother. In these episodes, we have got the fire,
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we have got Sawbo escaping allegedly being killed. I find that unlikely,
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and overall, I'm really surprised at how fascinating this arc has been, even
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though I'm starting to really miss our main crew. Welcome to spoil Me,
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Welcome to the show everyone. I am Natasha. Thank you very much to
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Florian for commissioning this episode. Florian, if you're out there, Bud,
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thank you so much. Appreciate you. Yeah, this arc, you guys,
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it's just oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I checked. It's
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Michael. Oh, I'm so glad. I looked. I had a feeling.
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So Florian did the booking, but the cash was Michael's. So Michael,
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thank you for your service. But yeah, this arc has been really
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compelling, and I can't help but like appreciate how much better the pacing seems
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here now I know that the pacing tends to really be a major issue you
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when we're looking at like a lot of a lot of times. What you
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guys have told me is that, oh, the manga was moving ahead but
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not fast enough so that the anime was beginning to catch up with it,
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and they had to add in some things so that we didn't overtake the manga.
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And totally understand that, but it is really difficult when that begins to
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happen, even if you know why it's happening. So I am just either
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that hasn't happened recently and or they have found a better way to cope with
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it than the ways they have before. Either way, I just really was
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pleasantly surprised seeing that we were like doing more of the flashback because, like
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low Ki, every time that I have been sort of signing in to watch
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them next episodes for spoil me, I have been sort of like waiting to
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see when are we going to be returning to the present, and I'm not
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looking ahead, but it keeps sort of beginning the next grouping of episodes,
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thinking to myself, Okay, so maybe I will have like one more episode
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in the arc because it's clear at the end of the grouping that the arc
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isn't over, but it's hard to know sometimes because I'll think there's a lot
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more storytell, and sometimes things will wrap up temporarily and we'll go to the
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present and we're not going to get the rest of the story later, or
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you know, there's all kinds of things. So I've been sort of like
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waiting for it, and I'm beginning to think that it's going to take a
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lot longer than I had thought. I don't know if there's a count on
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how many episodes are in this arc, but at this point, if we
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were doing like three episodes and about five days, it feels like so I
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feel like maybe fifteen, but it could be a little bit longer than that
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even But yeah, I just I was very pleasantly surprised that being in this
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arc still, I am very compelled, like I have so much that feels
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surprising in that, Like, for example, Ace's overall attitude is still a
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little bit of a shock for me. I appreciated that in this episode,
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eventually somebody like tells him to just knock it off because he's yelling at Loufy
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for crying and Lufy is crying because he is so glad that Ace is okay,
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so Ace just being like, oh God, shut the fuck up.
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I really was like, Ace, can you just turn off your attitude for
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a minute, please? He is so angry all the time, and I
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get that that's part of his thing, but I just wasn't expecting Loofy to
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have such a hard time growing on him. I thought that eventually who Lufy
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is would have broken through By now. I would have expected it to happen,
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and it seems like not. And I feel a bit bad about it
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because I know that they get to that point, but I had just hoped
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that Lufy would win him over more quickly, and the fact that he doesn't
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is probably realistic. But it's difficult to watch, do you know what I'm
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saying. I remember you guys. This was one of those like memories from
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when I was a kid that I had a moment of real Oh god,
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I was such a baby. But I remember they re released the first Star
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Wars movie in theaters when I was a kid, and my mom, who
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had been just like blown away by Star Wars when it first came came out,
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was so excited to take me and there was a lot about Star Wars
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that was sort of in the zeitgeist to a general degree, not the way
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that zeitgeist works now with the Internet. But I understood about C three PO
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and R two D two and the way that they were sort of a match
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set. And when I actually watched the movie and saw like that the two
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of them snipe at each other the whole time, I cannot tell you how
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like bummed I was because I had this thing in my head that they were
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like best friends, and they are, but I was so little that I
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didn't understand the nuance of like the fact that they snipe at each other is
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a way that they show affection and they're bonded. Despite all of that,
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I was very put off by the like teasing, sort of faux outrage thing
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that uh that C threepo has when he's like calling him like a rusted whatever.
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And so that's I feel like I'm having that here a little bit where
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it's a similar I had an expectation, you know, And it's not their
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fault that I had the expectator. Well, no, it's not. I
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had the expectation that things were gonna have been exactly the same when they were
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kids as they are now, and that's just unrealistic. But it is difficult
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seeing how much Loofy cared about him and how quickly that happened for him that
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it takes a lot longer for Ace to seem It's not like Lufy doesn't mean
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anything to Ace, but it has sort of felt to me a little bit
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like Issabo hadn't pushed Ace, he probably wouldn't have saved Loofy, you know
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what I'm saying. Like he was being pushed by somebody who had a bit
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more of a conscience at the time. And I think that he grows to
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develop that, but it just is hard to see him not driven by the
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same morality that I associate with him in a lot of ways. So all
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right, let's start our episode five oh one. We have officially passed the
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five hundred mark. Kids. I am so excited about this. Ah,
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I'm sorry if you're watching this on video. I had I almost like put
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it off, and then I didn't. I had an appointment at the dentist
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today and I got a crown and four fillings. So every now and then,
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a bit of like filling scrap is breaking loose in my mouth and I
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have this, like, you know, it's on my tongue. So apologies
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if you're listening and there's like a weird mouth sound, I'm so sorry,
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but I can't talk when it feels like I'm about to choke on tooth dust
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at any moment, I'm just like, can't help, but I'm so sorry.
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So this is this fucking cracked me up a little bit, you guys,
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because the thrust of this episode is that Blue Jam really thought if I
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do this thing for the nobles, they'll make me one of them. And
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it's so trite seeming, this sort of plot beat, but it's trite seeming
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because this is how it works. People really believe that if they throw in
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with the upper classes, that the fact that they are part of the lower
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classes is just gonna somehow go unremarked or unnoticed. And it is truly bananas
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to me that these people don't see the way they're being bamboozled, because to
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me, it just seems so utterly transparent that the Oakie Dope barely can even
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be called that in my opinion. But evidently it's effective because there are still
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people who are like buying this bullshit and I just genuinely, guys, the
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way that this manages to work on people, it's disheartening. It makes me
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so bummed to realize how much people want to feel superior to those around them,
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and so they are more than willing to buy into something that in truth
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does not make any sense, because they are grasping for anything that, in
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their opinion, will elevate them among above the average person. And just knowing
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that it's hard. It's hard to live in a world where you realize like
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that's what people often are looking for, is a way to feel like they
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are separate and apart from most folks because they need to feel more important for
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some empty hole inside them. I just and I'm not trying to pretend that
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I'm like different from that exactly, I'm not. In certain ways, I
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have as much of a tendency to feel superior to people as anybody. But
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from the ways that I feel superior often are very petty, silly things like
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they don't season their food. I'm a better cook than them, that kind
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of thing, like individual shit, not like as a group these people are,
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you know what I'm saying, And it's I know that that's more of
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a recent development for me that there have been times in the past where I
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have felt above certain people and like as groups and didn't see the problem with
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that. But that's part of what's so frustrating is that I know I used
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to be that way, and that I have grown and see more clearly now,
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and looking around at people who are even older than me who haven't gotten
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the message, who don't understand that it's like they're being played. I think
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that's the thing I have a really really hard time with is just how clear
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it seems to me at my young age of you know, thirty nine,
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and there are fucking elders who are are still playing this silly game that they
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are never going to win because the way it's designed is to keep you from
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winning, because if you could win, their status wouldn't mean anything anymore,
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you know. And that's what I think a lot of people just don't really
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understand, is like this is American dream thing where we act as if you
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can be anything you want as long as you work hard enough. There are
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so many other factors at play other than just hard work, but we really
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want it to simply be hard work because that makes us feel in control.
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We don't like admitting we're at the whims of destiny and circumstance. And also
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we don't like to admit that getting to like reach a certain place in society,
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that place in society couldn't exist if everybody could achieve it. But the
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way we rationalize it is, but not everybody works hard enough to achieve it,
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it's achieved. It's there if you're willing to. You know, we
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really find all of these ways to camouflage our actual intent, which is simply
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to feel like we have power over another group. And this thing with Blue
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Jam is so embarrassing because it's absolutely clear to us the viewer that he isn't
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going to get what he thinks he's going to get. It's immediately obvious,
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and he is so confident that he has bandaged to broker this killer deal that
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it's just going to be him sauntering up to this fucking gate and saying,
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let me in, and that that's all it's going to take. The fact
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that he really believes this, I don't know how he has survived this long
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like truly, That's what it comes down to at this point is just sir,
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how are you still alive? If you swallow this bait the way that
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you did what you're still doing here how though, So this and this answers
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my question the previous episodes of whether or not he knew what he was doing,
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because I was like, maybe he's just been paid to distribute these boxes
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and he hasn't checked inside them, and it seemed sort of unlikely that he
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wouldn't bust open some boxes from Nobles that are allegedly valuable and find out what
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was inside them. But I just couldn't figure out what would possess him to
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do this unless it was like he was getting a bunch of money and then
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was just going to sail off. And the way that it sort of shakes
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out and this was like a real surprise, and I found it pretty interesting
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actually, was that when it turns out that he has been used and played
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for a fool, he kind of snaps a little bit like and begins to
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behave as if he has sort of lost his mind. And there's a real
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unhinged quality about him that Ace can see. But it's unfortunate Ace winds up
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getting played pretty quickly afterward because he thinks, Okay, I'll just give him
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the treasure he's asking for and then he'll let us go. And I just
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really wanted to slap and shake him because I couldn't help but feel that's the
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There's nothing about the situation that should lead you to believe that this man is
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going to help you. He doesn't know how to get out of this himself.
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He's kind of lost his head because of a feeling of like hopelessness and
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imminent death. So if he's feeling that way, why do you believe that
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he can help you out of this situation? There's he would be doing that
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for himself in the first place, but we'll get there in a second.
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So, yeah, this is the episode begins five hundred or no, sorry
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I'm looking at the wrong one. Yeah, five hundred begins with him explaining
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to the boys about what it was that they were actually doing, setting their
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explosives all over the place, and he's like, well, now that you
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know about the grand plan, you're stuck here. We can't risk letting you
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go. But there is something that I've been meaning to ask you boys,
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So tell me. Is it true that you brats are hiding treasure around here
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somewhere? And I don't know how that like got out, but it bummed
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me out so much because they just look, I'm somebody who has lived in
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an impoverished state much of my life and like saving and working as hard as
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they did to put the money together that they have, and then having some
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fucking creep like this swooping didn't take it. And not even just that he's
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a creep, but he's also a fucking Dodo bird. I mean, that
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is unconscionable. I hated watching this happen. So when he asks them this,
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I was just like, God, damn it, who fucking told?
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And I don't know if it's just that somebody spotted them or they've just noticed
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the kids are busting in here and taking shit, But we don't see them
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out there spending the money, so they must be putting it somewhere, you
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know. I don't know how this information got out, but it doesn't really
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matter. At this point, we jump over briefly to Sabo getting tossed down
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into the basement by his father, who basically says, I put up with
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enough of your shit. All you do is make me look like a fool,
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and I have just I don't want to fucking deal with you anymore,
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So down you go and Sabo's whole the way that things like go for him
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for a little while, where he's just basically being seen by a tutor and
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stuff. I was really like, I liked the way that it sort of
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underscores the cruelty of these people that like, even though they all know that
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this fire is going to happen, it's not really a special event. You
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know, it's not like considered any sort of an emergency or I hesitate to
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use the word holiday. That is kind of what I'm leaning toward. But
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that's not really but the fact that they're just leading their lives the way that
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they always do. Their kids are just expected to do school and homework the
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way that they always have. It's really creepy. It really adds a sort
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of level to everything that's just it makes it feel all the more. It's
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like, how do you excuse any of this? Not that you could,
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but it makes it all feel a lot grosser. So the there's the fire
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begins to be lit, and the way it's lit, all the explosives that
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are like placed around are basically being shot at by blue Jams people, and
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this causes a weird I'm really I think that I was like forgetting that there's
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a couple of different sort of parts of town, because there we have first
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the bandits with the don all like being like, is that the town,
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and then realizing like, no, this blaze is closer. I think it's
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great, terminal, it's on fire. But then you to like some townsfolk
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and they're all like, well, wait, what's going on? Gray Terminal
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has never caught fire before. And for a moment I was sort of like,
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why are you guys surprised? You just got asked about this and you
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all knew. And then I remembered that the town is divided into different classes,
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and so yeah, no, they did not know. And I just
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felt like there was something sadder about how even if you are in town,
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if you're not in the right town, nobody cares. It's still like you're
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gonna be not necessarily part of the genocide that they're kind of it. That's
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not the right word, because genocide is like a particular I mean, they
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are a particular group because of where they live. Does that count? I
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don't know whether I can call it that or not. I don't, but
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anyway, they're not part of it because the folks that are inside the walls
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at least are defended from the fire. But I don't want to say that
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they're safe from this, because for sure, if you are like at a
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lower rung on the social ladder, you are disposable ultimately, you know.
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It's the sort of thing that's like we want to believe that you can reach
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a point where it's you won't be on the chopping block, but like that's
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only going to happen if you reach a really high place, and I think
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we dramatically under we underestimate what that place is where we would finally be safe,
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and we really think it's lower than it is. So this, you
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know, like the fire spreading and everything is all punctuated by Blue Jam like
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laughing to himself and really thinking he's got one over on everybody else. And
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meanwhile, the people who live in Great Terminal, who are not scumbag pirates,
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are just like fleeing for their lives, and it's really upsetting. Like
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there's a couple different points where they're in we see like little neighborhoods where there
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are sort of shacks built. So it just really did keep sort of driving
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home for me the connection of all of this with the homeless community. I
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had, guys, this was just really uncomfortable, and in a way that's
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like, I'm not criticizing it for that that's the point, but I was
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surprised how much this, despite being over the top, with the evil laughing
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villains and the extreme language that they're using to indicate their contempt for people.
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I know that all of that is a shade more extreme, but I have
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just really grown to understand how much less exaggerated that is than I think it
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is. Because the things that you wind up finding out people in power have
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said about those that they are mistreating, oppressing, exploiting. It's almost beyond
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belief what comes out of people's mouths sometimes. So as much as I want
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to be like this was very over the top, it like wasn't It wasn't
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that over the top to me, and that was it kept sort of catching
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me off guard. How upsetting I found that that my instinct was to sort
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of like roll my eyes at a few points and then stop and be like,
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God, but that's not that's not that far off, you know.
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So eventually all of the like blame for this fire gets circulated around town as
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being blue jam of course, and people are guessing like, oh my god,
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he was trying to keep the world government away so that he could keep
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on terrorizing us. And what a perfect because the thing is in reality setting
25:22
up somebody like blue Jam to take the fall. He technically did do what
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they're saying about setting the fire. It wasn't his idea, but he didn't
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do it. So even though it feels unfair to blame him in some ways,
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it's really not. He was willing to kill all of these people in
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order to achieve status himself, which makes him pretty much just like all of
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the nobles. But what I feel like in life would probably be more likely
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is that Blue Jam would have not been involved at all, that they would
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lay the blame at his feet, especially if he happened to be something like
26:03
a civil rights leader, then they would probably be even more inclined to frame
26:08
him for it, because that's just how we get down in this country.
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So the main thrust here, other than what's going on with Blue Jam and
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him getting played in all of this, is that Sabo is having a complete
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crisis about who he is, and Lufy and Ace are tied up in the
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midst of the fire, and guys, Dragon is here, and I was
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so excited. I didn't think that we were going to see him this quickly.
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And then later on it's not just Dragon, but also it turns out
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that Eva is here, and I did not see that shit coming. I
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know that Eva had straight up said I worked with your father, bitch.
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I'm oh sorry, but I totally forgot about it. I wasn't thinking about
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it, and even if he did, that would not lead me to necessarily
27:07
expect to see him in a flashback when Dragon turns up. So I just
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loved this. I was so delighted, you guys. It was really fun
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to have the two of them turn up in such a different context. And
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Dragon, I had thought that it was going to turn out to be him.
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That sort of saves his and Lufy's ass later on. But yeah,
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this is when blue Jam finds out that his ship is on fire and that
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there's no way for him to escape, and all of his own pirates are
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just like fuck. And then Dragon comes across Sabo in the street because he
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is like, I am so disgusted that I'm part of this. I hate
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being a noble and I can't stay. I can't live here because I will
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never know peace, like there's no way, and the moment where later on
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let's see Blue Jam is like, I'm let's see me. You might as
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well tell me where your treasure is. I'm just trying to stop another tragedy.
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I already saw my ship reduced to charcoal. It'd be a shame if
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that happened to your treasure too. And we see his eyes get like kind
28:33
of weird, and he says all your hard work and for nothing, and
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then Ace just says, all right, you win. Now. I'm going
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to really try and like hedge what I'm saying here, because I want to
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acknowledge that when it's the dub, it's not necessarily a completely accurate translation of
28:56
the original dialogue. But I just wanted to point out that all he's saying
29:02
is like, tell me where your treasure is, or else it might get
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destroyed and burned up, which one wouldn't happen to gold. It would just
29:11
melt together and become a big giant gold blob, which would be fine,
29:15
more than likely. But also there's no actual offer in that statement. All
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he's saying is like, I'll find it, and I'll hold on to it
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and keep it safe for you, which is laughable. But he never says
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tell me and I'll save your lives. Tell me and I'll get you out
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of here. Tell me and I'll you know, there's no all counter offer.
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Ace just says, okay, you win and tells him where it is.
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And I really had hoped that he had given him incorrect information. Now
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it seems like he didn't. But I'm not. I don't mean that what
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happens at the end, because Ace eventually tells Lufy, our treasure is gone.
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That's not what I'm referring to when I say it seems like he did
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give them correct information, because I'm actually sort of hoping that that treasure was
30:10
Sabo, that he took it, although I would be kind of I would
30:14
have to take exception to someone like Sabo stealing from these poor fucks here.
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But what I mean is that the outrage later on from Ace at the fact
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that they're being double crossed points to me to somebody who felt they held up
30:36
their end of the deal the way they said and they couldn't believe that they
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were going to be punked like this. So if he feels like he held
30:45
up his end of the deal, then he must have given them the correct
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info, and I just don't know what he thought he was getting in return
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or why he felt giving up this information was the right thing to do.
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It just feels like there is something lost in translation, very literally in that
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scene, and it doesn't work in the dub because he just it feels in
31:11
the moment like he's just telling this guy, which was part of why I
31:15
thought, sure, he's gonna give him like fake a fake map. That's
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why it seemed like he capitulated so easily, because he isn't really It's it's
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not that simple, but it appears it is that simple, and Lufy is
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just really like disgusted with him and saying like, what would Sabo think about
31:33
this whole thing? Finally, Blue Jam is like, all right, so
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I don't think I trust you kids. I'm not above stealing from children or
31:45
murdering them. These nobles will regret the day that they crossed Blue Jam.
31:52
And then he has this whole thing about how Sabo wasn't really your friend,
31:57
that he was like laughing at you behind your back and enjoying how foolish you
32:06
were, and all of it is just really like understandable actually in a way
32:10
that he would assume that, but we know Sabo and understand that that's not
32:15
what's happening. So this is when one of the guys lifts a sword above
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Loofy and he says, so long, kid, and he's about to drive
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the sword down, and Ace says, get the hell away from Loofy.
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And when he does it, it's like he has activated hockey here by accident,
32:40
and all these dudes go down except blue Jam. And I don't know
32:47
why he is because we haven't seen, as far as I recall, any
32:53
particular devil fruit power from blue Jam or anything to indicate that he would be
33:00
immune to this. Now what I'm gonna guess, and this is just complete
33:04
headcanon, but it feels like the sort of thing that gels with the way
33:07
things tend to work in this world. I think what could be going on
33:16
here is that Ace is so new to doing this, like it wasn't on,
33:21
It wasn't a conscious choice, that he can affect people who are like
33:28
a certain amount of weakness and below, and that Blue Jam just happens to
33:34
be a pirate with a higher tolerance somehow, and so this, like young
33:39
Kid saying this doesn't really make any effect on him, but it does to
33:45
his like inferiors. And that's just like I said, I'm making this up,
33:50
but it feels like it works. With the overall information that I have
33:54
about it is very little about how hockey works, because there's there definitely seems
34:02
to be a kind of hierarchy within it. So the fact that they all
34:10
go down like this, I'm gonna be honest with you guys. It wasn't
34:14
until a second viewing, well, not even because I really I began to
34:20
realize very obviously as this episode progressed. But the first time I watched this
34:27
scene, I thought, having just seen Dragon in another scene, that he
34:34
had turned up to save Ace and Loofy. Here that he talked to Sabo,
34:39
he hears what's going on with the people being burned alive, he takes
34:45
off four gray terminal, and he happens to like run across these two in
34:49
the midst of dire straits just by accident and saves them from blue jam.
34:55
And so I wasn't great asking the fact that what Ace says, which is
35:04
stay away from Loofy, that his expression and the way the light changes happens
35:10
purely to coincide with his statement, and that's clearly what he was doing,
35:17
So that's pretty amazing. Like, you know, Loofy is only just learning
35:22
how to use hockey now as a seventeen year old, I guess he's supposed
35:28
to be. And Ace here is like ten or eleven. He is very
35:34
young to have been harnessing this. And I feel like there's got to be
35:40
a lot of impressive shit that Ace got to got up to off screen that
35:50
I have yet to see, And I wonder how much of that we're going
35:55
to get to see. We can't just like sides track to flashbacks of all
36:01
that constantly. But what I'm imagining is that maybe for like several arcs,
36:10
we run into people who knew Ace and we get to hear some stories about
36:15
Ace through them and the experiences that they had with this guy. But yeah,
36:22
the fact that he was able to pull this off as such a little
36:27
child is really really remarkable. And for his part, Blue Jam does not
36:32
know what to do with Ace, Like he comes up to him and holds
36:37
his gun up and is just like, I'm gonna fuck you up, kid,
36:40
But it's clear that he is just shaken by the fact that this little
36:45
kid managed to take him down, or take all of his men down,
36:49
not him. So the episode ends with the shot of a gun like echoing
36:58
and sort of make you think that he shot Ace, which does not make
37:01
any sense because we know that Ace is alive. And then when we start
37:06
the next episode, it's Dedan here with all of her bandits and they are
37:13
taking up Loofy and Ace and trying to flee. And this is so great,
37:19
you guys. It's such a perfect combination. And I loved it so
37:22
much because when she appears with all of her people behind her, it's a
37:25
real fist pump moment you're really doing, like, oh shitda Don showed the
37:30
fuck up for these two finally, like I knew she cared about him,
37:34
and even though she was a pain in the ass and called them brats all
37:37
the time, she was fucking here when the chips were down. And then
37:42
of course she challenges she challenges Blue Jam to like a one on one fight,
37:50
and it's very intimidating when she says it all and then when he's like,
37:57
all right, bring it on, she says all right and then immediately
38:02
run and flease. I was cracking up. I did not see that coming.
38:10
I was so unprepared because she really seemed so serious about like facing down
38:17
with him, And honestly, there was a part of me that was a
38:20
little disappointed because I wanted to get to see her fight. I wanted to
38:23
see what it really looked like for Dedn to like pull the stops out after
38:28
her having been such a fucking goon for all of these episodes, maybe that
38:34
she got to show off a little bit. So I was a bit bummed
38:37
that it just turned into like, let's run away, run Away, But
38:43
at the same time, it was just such a good joke, and it
38:46
really does seem to fall in line with the characterization that we have seen of
38:52
her so far. You know, she's like she's rough and tumbled and doesn't
38:59
see to have much of a spine on her. And that's part of the
39:05
reason that they were able to get one over, not get one over,
39:07
but just just basically run rough shot over her as kids and do what they
39:10
wanted, is because she just doesn't really like want to put much effort in.
39:17
So I yeah, I just sort of went back and forth on this,
39:21
but I decided that I really liked it and thought it was genuinely funny
39:27
and finally there is you guys, there's this moment and this is definitely this
39:34
is Dragon because Ace refuses to leave when all of them flee, He's going
39:40
to stay in fight. We go over to some of the other like gray
39:44
terminal guys looking around trying to find a way out, sweating and crying and
39:49
just like maybe I should just lay down and die. And then all of
39:52
a sudden, there's this like vortex of wind and the fire part like not
40:00
just the fire but the material that's on fire. There's like a groove dug
40:05
into it, like parting of the Red Sea, and the fire itself dies
40:13
away in this one particular trench, and all these people are like, oh
40:17
my god, there's a path. Did somebody do that on purpose? And
40:22
one of them just yells, who cares? Now we can get out of
40:25
this hellhole? Right? Oh now. The animation here was really interesting because
40:31
you see the trench and you hear their voices and then they sort of like
40:37
run into view in the trench. Right. But they were so much smaller
40:45
than I was expecting when they came through. The size of this trench is
40:51
humongous, and I was just really I had in my mind's eye a sort
41:00
of like size of this, and when I realized just how huge this was,
41:07
I was even more impressed. So then here's Eva showing up. I've
41:13
seen some shit, but this takes the cake. Is absolutely reprehensible. AnyWho,
41:20
this locale is rather out of the way. How did you hear the
41:22
news? Were you keeping an eye on this country? Or perhaps is there
41:27
something here of interest to you? And Dragon says, what happened here will
41:31
happen in the rest of the world soon enough. Human beings can't be thrown
41:37
away. A world that allows that must change, no matter how long it
41:43
takes. I will stomp out this misery and injustice. And I really thought
41:52
it was interesting, like I think it's meant to be, not necessarily that
41:57
Iva knows that Dragon has a kid, or because it feels like I was
42:02
Eva, I keep doing that. Eva's questions are so pointed that he must
42:07
be aware, right, you know the way that he asks, like,
42:10
well, is there's some other reason that you noticed this place? And I
42:16
have to assume that Dragon, like his son being here was a factor.
42:23
But then I can sort of step back and be like, well, why
42:25
do I think that he would even know where Loofy is why do why?
42:32
He may just actually have been aware that there was something that was going to
42:39
go down here and that was why he was drawn here, and it was
42:43
circumstantial. I can't tell. I know that he stepped in and saved Loofy
42:49
at Lowtown when he was about to be executed, So I'm sort of like
42:54
assuming that was on purpose for Lufy because he knows Lufy is his son.
42:59
He knows he has a son, but I don't know if he's known the
43:05
whole time, if you know what I'm saying, Like, is he aware
43:09
at this point and this is just a sort of accidental they brush up against
43:14
one another in a love actually asks kind of way where it's just a funny
43:21
coincidence, but they don't really have anything that connects them yet. Or is
43:27
it actually because he's been tracking Lovie down or I already knew where he wasn't
43:31
heard about this and wanted to save his kid. I don't know. I
43:35
don't know, but yeah, as he's thinking about this, he's just like
43:43
remembering Sabo and saying, the future of this place, the children of this
43:49
place have to have a future that they can actually believe in. And then
43:53
he goes to the front of the ship and he yells down to the men
43:57
there, it's freedom. If it's free him you want, so long as
44:00
you have the will to fight for it, you are welcome aboard this ship.
44:07
And we get to see this really cool animation of like the island on
44:13
fire with the sort of dip in the center where the trench is and then
44:16
the silhouette of the ship against it, and I just really thought that looked
44:21
cool. So then we go to the fucking palace at high Town and we
44:30
kind of cycle through a few different households and people like sound asleep, not
44:37
worried about this whole horrible thing happening at all. And we go to Tsabo's
44:42
house and his mother is asking where he is. Have they found him yet?
44:47
And he does like to give us a hard time, and her husband
44:52
just says that he does not it's not I mean, it is about you,
44:59
guys, but like it's also so not about you guys. So the
45:07
people in the town are watching this fire and getting a little bit like worried
45:14
as it's getting bigger and bigger. Well, surely they'll let us into high
45:19
Town to get away from this if it keeps going like this, and one
45:22
of the guys is looking back and he's like, I wouldn't count on it,
45:25
because that fucking those gates are very very tight. There's no getting through
45:31
that if they don't want to let us through, and I don't think they
45:35
do. So let me go to the bandits who have taken Loofy out of
45:39
the equation, but Didon and Ace are still in the fire and they're starting
45:45
to worry that the two of them didn't even make it, And then we
45:51
have them actually showing up the next time or the next morning. I think
45:59
this shot of Ace carrying Todn is so great, you guys, what a
46:06
beautiful, weird silhouette that has. Let's see where it is. They were
46:12
sent in to clean up everything after the fire died down, and by clean
46:16
up I mean take care of any remaining evidence. I'm sure that extends to
46:22
killing off the survivors too, You'd be no exception. So yeah, this
46:28
dude is just telling Lufy like, even if they did survive the fight,
46:32
I don't know how they survive, like the soldiers that are going to be
46:36
circling through and taking everybody down, and Lufy is just yelling I can't leave
46:42
him out there. We have to let Sabo know that we didn't die,
46:45
and nobody knows what to do with this is like crying Lufy, and this
46:50
is something that gets brought up a couple times, like both in Sabo's letter,
46:54
and Ace says it a lot. He just gets frustrated with the fact
46:59
that Lufy cries at all, And personally, I am sort of a fan
47:05
of the crying, like movie cries so infrequently in the present that there's something
47:10
reassuring about knowing that these emotions are in him. He's not, you know
47:15
what I mean. Like Ace's death is the first time that I can think
47:20
of where we've seen that kind of raw sadness from him. We've seen anger
47:27
as he's like getting in a fight and stuff, but I don't feel like
47:30
i've ever I don't feel like I remember him just being devastated like that.
47:37
But yeah, so this is uh when people like we get the gossip in
47:45
the town about how Blue Jam didn't fare too well, and one of them
47:50
says, let's hope the bastard was on his ship when it burned. And
47:52
then we go to Sabo and he's waking up and he's like literally in an
47:57
alley somewhere with the bandages on his head and poor too. He's just trying.
48:07
He wants to like make his way so bad, but out here,
48:12
the way that this whole place is structured, it's not meant to let him
48:15
get away with it all. So all of these dudes are like scouring the
48:24
streets for him, and eventually a couple soldiers come upon him and are just
48:30
like, why don't we give up this hide and seek thing and you just
48:32
go home? And the actual soldiers, these helmets that they've got on are
48:39
so weird. It almost looks like the Zodiac Killer a little bit. And
48:45
I'm not really sure if it's supposed to be that they're like particularly outlandish or
48:51
if they're based on something. They look like the gas masks from World War
48:55
One sort of look, you know, But anyway, every time they turn
49:01
up, they just look so creepy. So Sabo gets brought back to his
49:07
father, and you know, we have the little interim here where he's basically
49:16
this. His father says, I don't want to be cruel, but I
49:22
am certainly capable of it, and anything else I so desire, you could
49:28
disappear, just like your friends, are we clear? And just the fact
49:36
that this man is like, do what I say or I will literally kill
49:43
you. It's like awful, But at the same time, it's hilarious to
49:47
me that he thinks that sort of threat is not going to make Sabo flee
49:53
immediately. Of course he's gonna, like that's more motivation than anything to get
49:58
the fuck up out of there. So yeah, because like the whole thing
50:04
had been that Sabo was trying to get down there to warn them, and
50:07
it's the next day. It's too late now, you know, Like it's
50:13
it's what point is there in struggling when if they were going to die in
50:20
the fire, it's already happened. And his father is just like, you'll
50:25
be able to live the life we've planned out, won't that be nice?
50:30
And I love when he says don't won't that be nice? And then he
50:32
follows it up with and I'm sure it will be nice for you as well.
50:37
When he said won't that be nice, he didn't even mean for Sabo.
50:42
He just adds that on like, oh yeah, like probably for you
50:45
too. I guess that feels really correct to me. This is when Stelly
50:52
comes in the fucking weirdo face, dependable as always, Stelly, we've got
50:58
that big ceremony coming up, you know, let's buy you some new clothes.
51:02
You'll look so handsome for the Celestial Dragon. And Steely looks at Sabo
51:08
and is like he And as much as of course Sabo wants love like it
51:15
feels like shit to be treated like this by your parents, there's also a
51:19
part of me that's like Stelly, you're over here smirking about the fact that
51:23
you are liked and he isn't when being liked by these people is actually a
51:30
real mark of shittiness on your part. That's not something that you should really
51:36
aspire to in a real way beyond just the simple fact of them being his
51:42
parents and the child wanting to be loved by his parents. But anyway,
51:46
Yeah, so eventually Sabo is able to fucking escape after all, And it's
51:54
very fun and satisfying. I love the way that it's animated, where why
52:00
Wilsabo is still in his father's clutches and studying the way he's meant to He
52:05
is the only thing that's in color, and like the room and the people
52:08
around him are all in this black and white and It just really gives the
52:15
impression of him being in a prison somehow, and he's thinking about Loofy and
52:22
Ace and he's just like, you know what, they're pretty like savvy dudes.
52:29
I would be willing to bet that they're okay. I wish so much
52:35
that I could see you guys again. But if you are still alive and
52:39
I leave here and they manage to follow me, I'll lead them right to
52:45
you, and I can't do that. I'm not going to put you guys
52:47
at risk, because the best thing you've got going for you right now is
52:52
that they believe that you are likely dead. So that's why he doesn't include
52:57
this, like include going to say goodbye to them or anything. So yeah,
53:06
we see the the kids like guards changing shifts, and one of the
53:16
men who's like been asleep when he's supposed to have been watching Sabo says that
53:22
he's never seen a celestial dragon, and the other guy says, I wouldn't
53:27
say that's necessarily a bad thing, and men says, I mean, just
53:31
think the harbor's going to be a mess. The whole town's gonna be here.
53:35
That's a lot of people to keep track of. And what I had
53:38
thought he was saying was like, that isn't really a bad thing, because
53:43
if you see a celestial dragon, that's just bad fucking news for you.
53:47
That's what I thought he was you know, basically, if you see one,
53:51
that means that you've really fucked up somehow. But apparently he's just talking
53:55
about like the logistics. So Saba winds up like knocking these dudes out.
54:05
We find out later that's like he fought them, which is just amazing.
54:10
But I'm gonna sort of jump ahead here because him showing up like jumping on
54:16
the deck of a ship, I was very much like, wait, how
54:21
did how did all of this happen? And there's a ship that's leaving port
54:24
when everybody's here to welcome the celestial Dragon, and the the people who are
54:32
like at the docks, I guess they're like, you're blocking their path in,
54:39
which is really funny because he's like, absolutely not. But it's more
54:45
that none of us are supposed to be like leaving when somebody of such importance
54:51
is arriving here. We delay our departures so as to be willing to like
54:59
give them our respect. You know, we are going to take the time
55:01
to acknowledge them and they're important asses before we continue on our own business,
55:07
because that's just what to do them. And then one of the dudes with
55:14
the little opera glasses spots all the way out that there's a little boy on
55:19
the boat. He's the only one steering, and Sabo's mom and dad are
55:22
immediately like, oh shit, wait a minute, but we see because he's
55:28
like, I gave the guards strict orders, and we see that one guard
55:31
just absolutely passed out on the ground, and Sabo is so happy standing on
55:38
this deck. Nice weather today, perfect for setting sail, and his flag
55:45
is just an S with a Jolly Roger like crossbones on it. I think
55:52
that if I were going to guess what his Jolly Roger was gonna look like,
55:54
I would have thought it would be that top hat with the goggles that
56:00
you know, that steampunk hat, but apparently not. And I don't know
56:08
if there's another Jolly Roger that has the the top hat, and his might
56:14
have been too similar. But the just plane s I mean, it's just
56:22
it feels too simple, do you know what I'm saying. But anyway,
56:27
so there's a bunch of like back and forth on the transponder snails about this
56:32
ship and how he's heading right for them. I can't help but laugh sometimes
56:38
at how different the perspective is at different shots on this show, because from
56:43
the audience looking out at Sabo ship, he looks like he's half a mile
56:47
away, but when you're on Sabo ship looking back at the people, it
56:53
looks like they're one hundred yards away, if that, you know, And
56:59
he's telling them I'm not going back. I have to follow my dream.
57:04
Nobody's gonna change me. And uh, the the whole lake vibe of this
57:12
was for me. I wasn't considering what was going to happen to him too
57:20
closely. I thought that he was gonna somehow manage to get out of this
57:23
and that he'd be okay. And I still ultimately do think that he's probably
57:29
fine. But what happens is that he winds up alongside a Navy ship and
57:38
him having the Jolly Roger is enough for this fucking celestial dragon who sucks balls.
57:47
Uh, She's just like, I don't care how old the kid is.
57:53
He is a pirate, he's filth. His age is irrelevant, So
58:00
we're gonna take him the fuck out. And they zero in on Sabo's ship
58:07
and just fire on him with what looks like basically a bazooka, and the
58:15
ship is listing really badly. And I'm gonna jump ahead into the next episode
58:23
here because the way that this like repeats the first Oh God, you guys
58:30
here it is take care of Him, A letter from the Brother. That's
58:37
the name of the third episode. I was like, I can't remember what
58:39
this is. One's called this is the one where Ace turns up at the
58:44
beginning again. But then we see the ship going down, Sabo's Jolly Roger
58:50
getting lit up, his hat goes like flying out into the air, and
58:55
everybody who is watching is definitely a doing that this kid is dead, that
59:01
the ship is sinking. I don't know how he would have escaped this.
59:08
I assume that he can swim, but I don't think that, you know,
59:15
they would welcome him on the Navy ship if he were to be like
59:17
trying to climb up out of the water onto there or I don't know what
59:23
kind of of equipment there is, you know what I'm saying, Like there,
59:30
it just it really looks like he got fired on so directly that I
59:37
just don't believe that he would die, but I don't know how else this
59:44
could possibly go. There's not a good alternative for me, So everybody else
59:51
pretty much comes to that same conclusion. And this leads to what happens in
59:55
the final episode when Ace and deda and have finally managed to take down blue
1:00:00
Beard between the two of them, and they get home in the morning,
1:00:07
they get a letter from Sabo after finding out what happened to his ship.
1:00:10
So the letter, they believe is like arriving posthumously, and Ace goes off
1:00:17
and reads it by himself and gets really emotional after yelling at Lufy over and
1:00:24
over again about how much of a cry baby he is and just the feeling
1:00:29
of like unfairness that my friend had to go through this and he was taken
1:00:32
away from me the way that he was. All of it just is really
1:00:37
emotional. And I am hoping that somewhere in the midst of what's coming,
1:00:45
Lufy will stumble across Sabo and even though Ace is gone, he will have
1:00:50
this other friend that means something to him. But I don't know if Sabo
1:00:57
were alive. I feel like Loufy might have been contacted by him already because
1:01:06
Lufy's become quite notorious, but maybe Sapo just wants to keep a low profile.
1:01:10
I don't know. But yeah, so the whole the I've got to
1:01:17
wrap this up. But Ace and the fact that he won't like go leave
1:01:23
Blue Jam until he fights him. There's a bit of a flashback to Dedaon
1:01:28
talking to Garp about the fact that like fatherlikes son essentially Goldie Roger never walked
1:01:36
away from a fight, and she's like, fleeing is a valid tactic and
1:01:42
he's like not for him. Which it's sort of funny because like that is
1:01:47
this is the kind of thing that sounds really badass but in practice actually is
1:01:52
extremely foolish. So I know what we're trying to do. But also this
1:01:58
show can like underscore being refusing to budge can not work out for you.
1:02:07
Uh, just that Ace like keeps coming out on top, except for this
1:02:12
last time, and it's supposed to I think be that it was worth it
1:02:16
because he saved Lufy's life. So maybe that's still where I don't know.
1:02:22
I don't know. The message feels a little bit all over the place sometimes,
1:02:27
but it's okay. So this letter from Sabo is really sweet too,
1:02:32
I liked the way that it's written. I hope this kid's okay. A
1:02:37
part of me is almost like it, like could it be Marco, Like
1:02:42
if Ace had been had found Sabo was working with him, though I feel
1:02:45
like he'd have told Lufy about it, So I don't know. I'm just
1:02:51
I just keep feeling like this name is vaguely familiar. Anyway. The episode
1:03:00
ends with that scene that we did see in the flashback already between Lufy and
1:03:05
Ace, where Ace says, stop being an idiot, I'm never going to
1:03:08
die, and the two of them making all of these plans together, and
1:03:15
that is where it wraps up. So all right, guys, I'm gonna
1:03:21
have to wrap this. I appreciate you all so much listening, and I
1:03:25
really hope you're enjoying all the coverage. Until next time to the Loo motherfuckers.
1:04:00
That was an Unspoiled Network podcast