User blog comment:Ghmorello/Chapter 915: Know When To Holdem/@comment-24850639-20180824193327

Don't feel this chapter offered us a great deal to talk about, which is pretty surprising.

Bellamy - Nice to get confirmation I guess that it's really him, but he doesn't appear to be doing anything of any kind of real importance. Orlumbus didn't either really, but we at least got his departure from the Standing Kingdom's servitude, and his new life as a pirate. Hopefully Bellamy at least runs into someone interesting. I don't think he'll actually run into Shanks, I think that flag is just there as a sign of both Shanks gratitude, as well as the old man's joy in his craft.

Bakura Town - Not quite sure how that sumo roof is floating, but it's a clear callout to real sumo matches being done under that kind of "floating" roof with the tassels hanging down. Some of the people appear to be obvious Gifters or Pleasures based on outfits and body features, but other than its a bit hard to tell who our heroes should be on the lookout for. I surely thought someone would have taken notice of Zoro given his previous actions, but perhaps those "sketches" haven't reached Bakura yet from the Flower capital. At the same time, Tama or Luffy says "everybody here is working with the ones who kidnapped Tama", so I'm not quite sure why they all didn't turn hostile after Luffy used his haki. Luffy even directly asks them all who the "boss" is. Aside from the potential enemies however, Oda has made it clear that class lines are very much a part of this story, and Urashima's outburst was all the proof you need. It sounds like Oden ruled without such a social hierarchy, so makes sense why Kiku reacted the way she did to Urashima's statements. Speaking of....

Urashima - I suppose this is the onset of Urashima's descent into villainy in order to get what he wants? He previously just seemed like a jerk with a crush, but ordering people to cook their own pet? Tossing aside a well-prepared meal as if it's garbage, using his status as a means to talk down to others....he's pushing into irredeemable territory. Oda can still potentially spin this with Urashima learning a humbling lesson from losing his top-knot, but I doubt it. At this point just curious to see who will beat the breaks off of him.

Holdem - I frickin love when Oda introduces characters like this, who are incredibly strong but have a hilarious quirk. Even that aside, this is a rather unique wrinkle that Oda has introduced with a SMILE fruit being able to produce a wholly sentient animal. The nut punch was pretty funny for gag purposes, but I'm curious to see how Holdem takes advantage of this in battle.

Other notes:

- That weird pentagon symbol. It adorns the sumo match roof and a structure next to it, as well as Holdem's hat. I would imagine it is some kind of symbol of Orochi, since we've seen the Beasts Pirates logo.

- Urashima said he retreated earlier because of an "aura" he noticed around Zoro. There's a lot to unpack there, from the amount of times we've heard it stated that Zoro has an "aura" about him, to the fact that Urashima seems intimidated by his strength. What I really want to focus on, is how it thus appears that Urashima may not be affiliated with the Beasts Pirates at all. He left because of Zoro, apparently not because he was aware of the Tama kidnapping plan. This makes me quite curious of how the Beasts Pirates and Orochi's subordinates work in conjunction with one another. Hawkins appears to be commanding both samurai and Beast Pirates in his unit, and so does Holdem.

- I found Idaten's weezing gag to be frickin hilarious. I take it he can't travel at those speeds for sustained lengths of time without it having those kinds of drawbacks.

- Hitetsu referred to the Beast Pirates/Orochi's people as the "enemy", so I'm quite positive now that the characters we've met now are part of Kin'emon's resistance. It already made sense to me because of Kiku's notebook, and the crest outside of Tsuru's shop, but it's undeniable now. More than anything I REALLY wanna know what the heck Kin'emon, Kanjuro, and Raizo are up to right now.