User blog:DancePowderer/Hot Time In the Old Town

Well, I have just three words for chapter 655: Funderful, awesome, and tungsten. Five minutes in and already the ship is getting passed around like a joint while a volcano explodes. And then, a One Piece first, a distress call, basically deciding their destination then and there. Luffy was all like "Screw those three, take me to the one where guys like to smoke and clean up oil spills simultaneously." I love Nami's new power. When I first heard the name of the island I thought "I like where this is going" (you're so cold, melt your, hand in mine). You're welcome for the (at this point) almost obligatory music reference. By the way, am I the only one who thinks this whole thing screams Monsters throwback? Samurai, from the same country, and a dragon. Gee, I wonder who's gonna kill it (hint, he looks exactly like the last guy, only with green hair this time). Though it's nice to know that there are things out there that the Marines won't f#%k with, makes them look less overpowered and more human. Robin the telecommunications expert. What do Marines do when they're bored? Set pirates on fire. You were expecting a punchline? Too bad. Oh my god! Hinting at the island's backstory! What happened four years ago? All I know is that it involved fire. I'm glad Usopp is back to being a pansy, it helped lighten the mood. Isn't it great that Nami takes pride in her cloud road work?

Brook: Does the road go all the way to the island?

Nami: Does what go what now?

I have faith in her engineering skills. What's next... Melting Chopper, FANSERVICE, and fish-based desserts...Let me rephrase that. Funny, AWESOME, and huh? Everyone on the Mini Merry II is eating, no one's steering. Yay safety precautions. And Usopp has another disease. Seriously, give this guy a medal for finding so many diseases.

And we've arrived in sunny and beautiful Punk Hazard. Ok, I see the hazard (stripes), now where's the punk? Before this it was called Vega Safety, but they decided to change it to sound cooler, and have truth in advertising. Oh, how cute, a warning sign. What's that thing in the middle of it? What's in here? Screw the doorbell. More fanservice! This time for both the fanboys and the fangirls. How oddly considerate. And we've arrived at the...melting government base/convention center? There had better be a witch about to bake some little kids, otherwise the source of this heat may be an issue. Meanwhile, back at the ship, Nami and Franky are talking about clouds. How riveting. Meanwhile, back at the plot, Huge friggin' skull! Oh, it's not Hansel and Gretel, it's Jack and the Bean Stalk and the Heatwave. Look out, it's right behind the reader's viewing angle! It's...Lola the zombie warthog (I seriously thought that's what it was before scrolling over)? Oh, wait it's a dragon. No, it's a dragon than can FRIGGIN' TALK!

On with the island. It's current geographic situation is fairly obvious. It was a winter island, until the dragon came out of the snow fields and toasted all the villagers, and the houses, and then it toasted them again. Only this time, no hero came to help because they were too busy being dead. Reality: 1, Fairy Tales: 0. And now the dragon entertains itself by making its own fps called "Cityscapes on Fire". They got levels for Chicago, Dresden, Hiroshima, you can unlock Nagasaki, enter Emperor Nero Mode, and play online with your friends. As for why it didn't show up on the Log Pose, that's the fun part. I can think of a few reasons. It's not an actual island, and the pirates just boarded the world's largest barge...with its own weather and climatic system (Barge storm?). It's new name is Thriller Barge. Or, the excessive heat from the fire formed an incendiary cyclonic macrosystem causing the creation of a hemispheric megastorm going in the opposite direction of that island's Coreolic pull, causing the conflicting gravitational forces to collide, canceling out the field. It makes vague sense if you don't look at everything at once. I'm going with some variation of the first one. Lastly, let's be honest, on the last page, who didn't look up Robin's sweater tied around her waist doubling as a skirt?