Manga: Chapter 692 (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS

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Summary
Luffy knocks out Caesar.

Team Nami, Team Law, Team Luffy and the G5 men reunite in Structure R.

Baby 5 and Buffalo arrive on Punk Hazard with orders to retrieve Caesar.

Thoughts

This one is for Neku

The arc is coming to a close soon based on how hard Luffy hit Caesar. The mad scientist must rarely fights his own battles seeing that he made the number one mistake that Logia uses make when fighting against people with Armament Haki: Do not expand your body.

And Caesar does just that which makes him an even bigger target to hit for Luffy. I bet it hurt even more when Luffy fires a giant sized attack covered in Armament Haki. It is nice to see that something mentioned a few chapters before is brought up again. It was a small detail but it applies here in the biggest way. One of Caesar's best defenses against Armament users was the ability to slip away but he made that almost impossible to do by taking in Land of the Dead.

Interesting note: Luffy's hands were covered in Land of the Dead but it had crumble off. Maybe that is a key to how to remove the poisonous gas.

The most interesting thing about this chapter is that Luffy's presence in the New World has been announced to the key players in the Black Market. This feels similar to how Luffy made himself a public image upon his raid at Enies Lobby and Alabasta. Nobody looked as if they expected Luffy to appear but he did and showed them his power on live television.  It will be interesting to see how the world will response.

One of the people watching mention "Jack" which could hint to a possible "Royal Flush" type set up in the Black Market. Could there be a Queen? A King? Another person watching looks to have connections to the media. If that is the case then the world will surely know about Luffy's revival. 

I just didn't like that once again, Oda passed up another chance to show off how strong the Straw Hats have gotten. Usopp introduce a new weapon and had dealt with the crones off screen. We could have seen what this new weapon could do and how it was different from normal Black Kabuto. We see that it has a plant on it but that is it. The weapon does look like an unnecessary addition to Usopp's arsenal but maybe it wouldn't if Oda had gave it some screen time.

Lastly, we are getting something that looks similar to the end of Thriller Bark with Baby 5 and Buffalo. They may not be Kuma but they do look powerful enough to cause some trouble and especially if they want to retrieve Caesar. If he is brought back to Doflamingo then the status quo will remain the same. General Franky is going to get a serious test soon enough and it maybe the only thing in keep Caesar out of Doflamingo's hands.

At least we know what Franky has been up to.

It looks as if we have reached the climax for the arc as Luffy has dealt the finishing blow to Caesar. Still, that doesn't mean the arc is about to be over as it looks like we will have extended action like we did at the end of Thriller Bark. It will be interesting to see what Baby 5 and Buffalo will do and Franky as General Franky thrown into the mix.

Until next time true believers!

Another one for Neku