Manga: Chapter 727 (SPOILERS!)

SPOILERS!

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Continuing from last time, Rebecca does her best to avoid the attacks of Rolling Logan which angers the crowds because they think this is cowardly and shameful.

Meanwhile, Usopp and the others are still in shock at the Lightning Soldier being Rebecca's father, but the soldier ignores him and even mentions the fact that the troubles may have started when Monet (yes THAT Monet) started working at the palace. Hmmm...

I guess she's a professional Double Agent

Anyway, the soldier goes on to talk about Dressrosa's past and how it was a humble country because despite the fact that they were poor, they could depend on King Riku and his army. In fact, Dressrosa had never had a war for 800 years since the Riku family took over.

So of course ten years ago, Doflamingo showed up in the Palace one night to ruin everything. King Riku recognised him due to his reputation of stealing money from the Celestial Dragons and even blackmailing the World Government into becoming a Warlord of the Sea. Doflamingo cuts to the chase; he demands ten billion Berries if Riku wants him to leave. Also, Riku has until the next night to pay up and cannot even accept help from other countries or tell about Doflamingo. This is just cruel.

 All I can say is...what a sadistic jerk

It will be very difficult because there is no way the people of Dressrosa has that kind of money, but Riku does his best by ordering the troops to assemble the money from the citizens. They'll lose the people's trust for a bit, but its better than bloodshed.

King Riku addresses the people via Transponder Snail and shocks the people by begging for the money by getting on his hands and knees. To the surprise of Tank (who was still commander of Riku's army at the time) the citizens give as much as they can. 

This is probably THAT moment in the flashback, "The heartstrings moment"

Suddenly, Riku appears on horseback and slashing away and random people with tears in his eyes. Oh I can see where this is going. Yep, Doflamingo is using his powers to manipulate Riku's body into attacking his own people. On top of that, he starts controlling the soldiers and causes even more panic and chaos.

The chapter ends with Dressrosa up in flames, while Doflamingo and his crew wait for the right moment to step in as a "hero" to the panicking people.

 Ooooh you're going down

Wow...just wow. Doflamingo was shown as a mysterious yet malicious villain at first, but as we've seen more of him over this entire arc the sadism in the character has turned up to eleven. This whole thing explains why the people hate the Riku family nowadays and praise Doflamingo as their king. Now more than ever before, I want to see this guy go down.

The big fight of this arc has yet to happen and I doubt that it will for a while now. We are starting to get explanations and answers but I'm a bit impatient in wanting to see everyone come together and I doubt that'll be remedied until the time comes.

What exactly will come of this revelation and what more there are to come is a bit unpredictable. So the best I can say is, stay tuned until next time. Thanks everyone!

 Happiness in a OP flashback? Can't have that!