User blog:Kaido King of the Beasts/Chapter 902: I Don't Wano More Cake

This is not at all how I expected the Whole Cake Island Arc to end.

Even though it felt clear for a year that the Straw Hats would have to get out of here by escaping rather than fighting, there always was the expectation that they might find a way to get everything out intact. There might be a sacrifice along the way, like Pedro, but for basically everything who's not a Straw Hat to be in jeopardy is...wow. I get that there might be some discontentment due to the Straw Hats having a penchant for willing their way to success...but honestly, what better way is there to demonstrate just how fearsome Big Mom is? Her arrival at the very end of this chapter (and likely arc as a whole) was absolutely chilling, and should set a very good tone for the beginning of Wano. Now it's not so much the Straw Hats being confident in taking the next step against the Yonko after having a fair degree of success against one; there should be plenty of consideration as to what taking on Kaido will likely result in and what is the best game plan for that.

And it's not only characters, but pretty big plot threads that are unresolved. What did Big Mom do to Carmel? What will become of Totto Land as a whole after the whole conflict dies down? I've thought for a while now that a lot of those threads won't be resolved until (probably) Elbaf, but even still, this was jarring. And I will admit it's not hard to feel dissatisfied. But it also makes me think a little about the nature of arcs in OP. We seem to be moving away from the days where the Straw Hats are going on self-contained adventures which will impact the overall story in a few ways, but will go mainly on the backburner once the next arc starts. But ever since Punk Hazard, the Straw Hats have been on this continuous mission to take down the Yonko and now things are ramping up to the point where the plot points are stretching across wide swathes of locations and story. Such storytelling could definitely make for quite a grand epic; I just hope Oda doesn't get overwhelmed by something like that.

But the standout part of the chapter for me was really Brulee's scene with Katakuri. While it's nice to get a little closure on Kata, I was super happy for Brulee to get a final moment after how much of the arc she's been in and what's happened to her in that timespan. And, dare I say it, it made me cry, which I expected even less than the final events of the chapter. I look forward to seeing what's next in store for Katakuri; his path could go in many different ways, but I think that in the end, Luffy's actions will decide his course of action.

The reveal that Pudding kissed Sanji after all wasn't surprising, and I honestly didn't get too much emotion out of it, but I will admit that it was pretty cute the way it was drawn.

I do have detractions with the handling of some things. The Sunny destruction fakeout sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the content in these past few chapters. It's a shame we don't see Snack at all in this chap even though he was shown confronting Judge (Does Oda have a plan for him or something?)

Overall, the tone of this chapter was just about right to end an arc of this nature. The Whole Cake Island Arc Totland Arc  Totto Land Arc Whole Cake Island Arc has been a very fun ride, rooted in a lot of familiar OP tropes but executed in a way that no previous OP arc really has been. Sometimes it worked really well, sometimes it didn't. But it has almost always been consistently engaging. When I was a junior in high school reading Big Mom's introduction song, I never would have expected to be a part of this ride until near the end of my freshman year in college. If I knew where I'd be once the arc ended, I'd have expected it to drag like Dressrosa. I'd surely get tired of it like if I had eaten an entire box of chocolates in one sitting.

But Big Mom and this arc is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.

Check, please.

How was the chapter? Deserves a standing ovation Sometimes it was rough, but the memories will last I'd rather have pie The series is doomed alongside Jinbe and Germa Staw