Manga: Chapter 622 (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

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Summary
(Flashback)

Queen Otohime continues to preach about harmony with humans to the people of Fishmen Island. At the same time, Fisher Tiger and crew sail the seas taking out any pirates or Marines that get in their way.

The Sun Pirates eventually pick up a former slave boy name Koala to return him to his mother.

Rear Admiral Borsalino (Later to become Admiral Kizaru) receive news about Fisher Tiger taking out a Marine ship.

Thoughts

The chapter picks up with Tiger and Neptune talking about what has happen concerning Tiger's recent actions in Mariejois. Neptune is worry about the status of the kingdom within the World Government since his wife has been working hard to allow mermen and humans to live together.

It is interesting to see what has formed Tiger's opinion of humans. Clearly he has seen the 'bad humans', the ones that are willing to enslave both mermen and humans. This could have lead him to his action on raiding Mariejois. Still where are the 'good humans' that are goodhearted and can be kind towards merman? The ones that Otohime keeps on preaching about? Apparently they exist since the people of Water 7 never feared or disrespected Tom from what we saw. If anything Tom was one of the first kindhearted fishman we ever seen since he took two human appreciates and looks as if he adopted them as well.

On a lighter note, did anybody notice how big Shira and her dad was in comparison to Otohime? If you ignore the fact that Neptune and Shira are giant sized merfolks then they would look normal. Just a dad holding his daughter. Then we see Otohime right next to Shira and queen's head is almost as big as the cheek that she kissed.

Either merfolk are born from eggs or Shira was normal sized then began to grow to be super big. There is now way Otohime was able to carry that.

Speaking of kids! We have Hodi and his bunch as kids. Aren't they awkward looking? Hodi looks like a fat little teenage kid going though puberty. All he needs if pimples and you could mistake him as any teenager in high school. Same for the rest of Hodi's future crew.

I am beginning to see how Hodi's mindset about humans was developed. He seem to be heavily influenced by Arlong and his men by treating humans as trash but at the same time respects Tiger. Still he only admires Tiger because he was able to 'piss off' the Celestial Dragons. He only sees what Tiger has done but doesn't understand the meaning behind it.Just like the majority of Fishmen Island, Hodi forgot that Tiger also release humans (such as future Warlord, Hancock) for the sake of freedom. Most likely Tiger liberated the humans just because they were there but the idea was that he wanted to free them. Hodi and many others don't get that and the message seems to have gotten deluded among the younger fishmen such as Arlong and Hodi.

Speaking of douches...

Now on to the Marines as young Kizaru (known at the time as Borsalino) hears about Tiger taking out a Marine ship. This page alone showed so much since it feels like Kizaru is going to have a big role later on in this flashback. Maybe he will confront Fisher and his men in some form or way. Based on what I noticed in the past about admirals and flashbacks, each one of them played some sort of role that showed why or how they eventually took the position of admiral within the Marines. Kizaru has been the only one that hasn't been in a flashback (outside Chapter/Episode 0). It be interesting to see if Kizaru has always been a jerk or was this something that came when he got more power.

Now here is something that you may never hear on this blog, praise for Kizaru! (OH!)

Got to give the guy props for looking good. It is mostly the same stuff that Kizaru wears but the hat gives him a cool detective vibe. Looks like something you see in old black and white detective movies. Still it looks like Kizaru is on the case.

The view on humans that Arlong and Tiger have will certainly put a strain on the crew. Arlong wants to kill the humans while Tiger wants to just leave them alone. Does Tiger have this ideal based off respect for Otohime and her hard work or is this because he has travel the world and seen so many different types of humans? A question that I hope we get answer by the end of this flashback. I don't think Arlong is at this point as worldly as Tiger and if he is then I bet his view point is to 'Kill humans and don't ask questions later'.

Jinbei seems to be a good medium between the two. He knows that the humans want to kill Tiger but also likes to believe that there are good humans out there. The problem is that he hasn't seen any considering that most of them so far only want to kill Fisher.

Also you can gain a bit of a foundation of Hodi's plan of 'scaring the humans'. It explains why he wanted the humans to make it to the New World to spread tales of how horrible the fishmen were. Just like Arlong, Hodi wants to spread terror among the humans and rule by fear and power.

Looks like things are going to hit a higher gear next week as Koala joins the Sun Pirates as they take him back to her(?) mother. Will the beliefs of Tiger and Arlong by pushed to their limits during this and what more information can be gained? Koala seems like such a poor kid too since she was with the Celestial Dragons so long that it has affected the way she thinks and acts. Always being afraid of her life. If anything Koala actions of cleaning seem to have put a thought in Arlong. Maybe the idea of having somebody in servitude under him? It would explain his treatment of Nami later on.  Fisher seem to have taken the first steps to help right the kid but will his crew follow is the question.

A former slave freed by Fisher many years ago is allowed to sail with Fisher. Now the Sun Pirates are going to reunite her(?) with his mother. Kizaru and the Marines can't be far behind. Slowly but surely we are going to see the results of this interesting set up.

Til next time true believers!