This week we make our way through the remainder of Impel Down until we reach the exit. To get there safely, there are a few barriers we need to get through. For starters, Luffy and gang face off against Hannyabal, the under warden. He’s been sabotaging his boss for years to try and steal his position but at the end of the day he still wants to defend this prison to make sure the people outside are safe. Putting aside arguments of prison reform, torture and the lack of any rehabilitation, both the warden and Hannyabal are fighting pirates because they think that’s what is right. Luffy deals with him quite handily but is then confronted by a familiar face.
While all of the chaos at both Impel Down and Marineford was going on, Blackbeard commandeered a navy ship and used his privilege as a warlord to sail to Impel Down. There he infiltrated the prison, making his way down to the lower floors. Luffy only recognizes him as the guy who he met at Jaya, but Jinbe identifies him as Marshall D. Teach, former member of the Whitebeard pirates and currently the person responsible for getting Ace captured. There are a lot of people who think quite badly of Blackbeard and killing your own crewmate is definitely a horrible act of mutiny, but outside of that, most of Blackbeard’s actions make a lot of sense. He’s a pirate in the purest sense of the word and he’s not that much out of line if we compare him to the other captains we’ve seen that treat their men poorly. I quite like his character and he’ll continue to grow on us for a while after this. Either way, Luffy is rightfully mad at him because although catching Ace isn’t an evil thing to do from an objective point of view, it absolutely is bad from Luffy’s personal point of view. It’s his brother, after all. Luffy and Blackbeard clash shortly and both seem to be able to damage the other quite easily. Jinbe then interferes and reminds Luffy where his priorities are. Blackbeard has no issues with Luffy and Ace personally after all, so it’s all the same to him if Luffy goes back to save him. So they part ways begrudgingly with Blackbeard going further down while the gang moves up the prison.
While Ivankov and Inazuma stall Magellan, who has come to capture the escaped prisoners after taking care of Blackbeard, the rest keep climbing up, forcing their way through the other prison wardens with ease. Luffy meets back up with Buggy and Galdino, who’ve freed hundreds of fellow prisoners at this point. Their plan is to all get to the front of the prison and steal a navy warship to get out of here. Unfortunately Magellan takes swift care of Ivankov and Inazuma and then chases them up the stairs. We get a stand-off between Luffy, Galdino and Magellan. They use the wax powers to allow Luffy to touch Magellan, which seems to work for a little bit. Unfortunately, Magellan didn’t become the warden of the most dangerous prison in the world purely because he’s an okay fighter. He’s terrifying beyond belief and to this day I think he’s probably one of the strongest navy fighters we’ve come across. Luffy didn’t stand a chance against him at all here, even with several warlords backing him up. Speaking of warlords, Jinbe, Crocodile, Daz bones and Buggy have gone after the escaping warships, using Jinbe’s incredible swimming speed to catch up with ease. After getting a ship, Jinbe calls for everyone else to jump into the water to follow them. A revived Ivankov – at the cost of some of their lifespan – had made their way up with a heavily wounded Inazuma. Using a hell wink they all get blasted into the water, landing safely on the backs of whale sharks. Crocodile is racist against Jinbe for a bit who shrugs it off. Then the gates open for the ship and they’re let out. It turns out that Bon Clay, the hero of this part of the story, used his mimic powers to pretend to be Magellan and got the jailers to open the gates for them. He sacrificed himself to let his friends escape safely. What a legend. Having lost a brave ally, the gang makes it out of the prison and sails all the way up to Marineford.
Speaking of Marineford, let’s go through what we learn here, because quite a lot happens while Luffy and the gang are still in the middle of their prison break. Garp is mad at Sengoku because the latter wants to reveal Ace’s heritage to the world. It turns out he’s the son of Gol. D. Roger and Portgas D. Rouge. His mother kept him in her womb for much longer than is normal, so that the navy wouldn’t find out. I’m not quite sure how that works, but in a world with devil fruits and sky islands let’s not question the little things. Roger told Garp about his child’s existence so that Garp would take care of him, saying the child has committed no sin. Garp’s a good guy, which is rare for a navy soldier, so he takes Ace and brings him to a remote island to live in peace with some mountain bandits. This is the same place he leaves Luffy as well, which is how they end up becoming brothers. Unfortunately, Ace sets out to be a pirate and Luffy eventually does the same, which is not what Garp wanted for them. Poor Garp, he’s a good guy, but his entire family is working against the extremely corrupt organization he’s a part of. I hope he gets his peace before the story ends. While Ace is sitting at the execution platform, with all of the navy soldiers and warlords present to defend him, the gates open and a fleet of pirate ships enter. These are all members of the Whitebeard pirate fleet, and the man himself shows up shortly after, his coated ships coming up from below the bay. The pieces are all in place for the Paramount War arc to start in the next volume. I’m excited. Are you excited? I’m already hoping it’ll be next Sunday soon so I get to read the next volume. Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 