Manga: Chapter 717 (SPOILERS!)

SPOILERS!

Summer may almost be over but One Piece is still around each week in Weekly Shonen Jump!

At the Corrida Colosseum, the Block C Battle Royale has finally come down to 2 contenders: Luffy and Don Chinjao.

As the 2 continue to fight Luffy informs Chinjao of his dreams to become King of the Pirates and how Rayleigh taught him to use Haki, all of which gets Chinjao even angrier since its bringing up bad memories. Not only does he get angry, he lets his emotions get out of control and starts to cry...wow.

Meanwhile outside of the Colosseum, Sanji and Kin'emon are in a pinch since a squad of Marines has surrounded the outside perimeter of the Colosseum, presumably to arrest pirates and criminals who try to exit.

Well...there goes my small bit of respect for Chinjao

We see Vice Admiral Bastille amongst the soldiers who is confused that no-one from Blocks A or B have appeared yet and that theres no sign of Vice Admiral Maynard (who if you recall, was defeated by Bartolomeo).

Somewhere else, the One-legged toy soldier tells Franky about the strict laws that Doflamingo enforced 10 years ago. The first one being a strict curfew of midnight where all humans and toys must be in their homes, the second being that under no circumstance are toys allowed to enter a human's home or vice versa. Hmmm...

Anyway Franky asks the soldier something I think a lot of us were asking since the crew first entered Dressrosa; what the hell is up with the toys? The soldier doesn't say anything but nearby a woman screams since a toy has the "human disease". The toy tries to reason with the woman saying that it is her boyfriend and as he gets dragged away by the local authorities, he claims to be human.

To add insult to injury, the toy is taken to a building marked "scrap" and is tossed down a pit. Thats just distrubing.

Heres your nightmare fuel for the week

A toy dog runs by Franky and the soldier being chased by a little boy, with the soldier signalling him to come over and not to worry about Franky since he's a toy too...well half of him anyway. The soldier asks who he is and the dog whispers that he is actually the father of the boy chasing him.

Strangely enough when the toy soldier asks the boy where is father is the boy claims he doesn't have one and when the mother is asked as well she claims that she never married. What? When Franky asks again just what the deal is, the soldier says that in Dressrosa, many are simply forgotten and many who simply forget.

All of the toys in Dressrosa were once human and were turned into toys by a Devil Fruit user who was with Doflamingo when he took the throne 10 years ago. Looks like certain people's theories were right. The soldier tells Franky to head for the Flower Hills ahead of them where everything will be explained.

Awww

At Green Bit the 3 way fight between Law, Doflamingo and Fujitora rages on and in the Tonbatta Kingdom rumbles which Leo the dwarf thinks is Usoland's haki. He helpfully stitches everything in his home for support (including his grandma) and isn't worried about the upcoming battle since Usoland is there to help.

Our hero Usoland continues to get praise from the dwarves (while Robin just looks on) and asks Leo why they're standing against Doflamingo in the first place. They need to rescue 500 of their friends who are being held at the Factory (the same one Luffy's group were going to destroy) including their Princess Macherie who is apparently cruel, bitter and selfish but shes still one of them despite her negativities.

The chapter ends with Leo being informed that the Donquixiote family in the palace are presumably moving towards the Colosseum so Leo proclaims that since the basement of the Corrida Colosseum contains the Factory, that is where things will be settled once and for all.

*Insert famous motivational speech here*

As predicted from last time, we get a taste from most of the Straw Hats as well as Law (albeit very briefly). It looks like it could take a bit before the battle between Luffy and Chinjao wraps up but things are really starting to come together.

This has happened before in previous arcs where all (or most) of the crew will eventually meet up in one place for the big fight which seems to most likely be the Corrida Colosseum. But for now, we've been given explanations for the toys as well as the motivation for the dwarves' big battle and the location of the Factory.

There are still plenty of questions to ask such as who exactly is the person who turned the people into toys and just exactly what happened with the dwarves and Doflamingo so long ago. Hopefully we'll get answers sooner rather than later.

Overall, this was another well drawn chapter with plenty of serious, subtle and funny moments sprinkled in. Not really much else to say really except I look forward to more of what this arc has to reveal to us. Until then, have a good week everybody!

Seriously, these two are practically begging for a spinoff