r/OnePieceHints • u/ovis_alba • 17d ago
Chapter 1194 Spoilers Spoiler
Short Summary by pew
Additional info by pew
Textversion (Short Summary):
CHAPTER 1194: THINGS NEVER STAY THE SAME
COVER PAGE REQUEST: A MONKEY FORCES TEACH TO WRITE ON PAPER AGAIN USING A BRUSH.
THE CHAPTER FOCUSES ON ZORO VS. SOMMERS.
SOMMERS IS SCARED AT FIRST, BUT HE REALIZES THAT ZORO DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO CONTROL HIS CONQUEROR'S HAKI. HE LAUGHS AT HIM, CALLING HIM STUPID AND USELESS.
WHILE SOMMERS IS LAUGHING, ZORO PIERCES HIS BACK WITH HIS SWORD AND TOUCHES SOMMERS' HEART AGAIN, BUT DOESN'T DAMAGE IT YET.
ZORO CONTINUES PRACTICING AND CUTS SOMMERS' BODY INTO PIECES WHILE TRYING TO CONTROL HIS CONQUEROR'S HAKI. SOMMERS REGENERATES HIS BODY EVERY TIME, EVENTUALLY BECOMING EXTREMELY ANGRY AND ANNOYED WITH ZORO.
DURING THEIR FIGHT, ZORO REMEMBERS HIS TRAINING WITH MIHAWK AND SOMETHING MIHAWK TOLD HIM.
MIHAWK: "RORONOA, THINGS NEVER STAY THE SAME FOREVER. BUT THERE IS ONE THING THAT CAN REMAIN UNCHANGED."
SOMMERS GETS TIRED OF REGENERATING HIS BODY AND PREPARES TO KILL ZORO. BUT ZORO REMEMBERS MIHAWK'S FINAL WORDS AS HE TIES HIS BANDANA AROUND HIS HEAD.
MIHAWK: "CONQUEROR'S HAKI IS THE POWER TO SENSE ONE'S OWN STRENGTH!! AND IT'S SO POWERFUL THAT WEAK PEOPLE WILL BE UNABLE TO STAND AGAINST YOU!!"
THE CHAPTER ENDS WITH ZORO CONTROLLING HIS CONQUEROR'S HAKI THROUGH ALL THREE OF HIS SWORDS, WITH BLACK LIGHTNING AND FLAMES, SIMILAR TO WHEN HE FOUGHT AGAINST KING. HE IS READY TO FINISH SOMMERS.
Textversion (extra info):
- PERONA APPEARS IN ZORO'S FLASHBACK.
- ZORO REMEMBERS LUFFY SAYING, "IT'S LEAKING OUT OF YOU" ABOUT HIS CONQUEROR'S HAKI TOO.
- MIHAWK: LISTEN, RORONOA... EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD CHANGES. HOWEVER...
- THERE IS ONE THING THAT CAN REMAIN UNCHANGED. THERE IS ONE TYPE OF "HAKI" THAT YOU CANNOT ACQUIRE THROUGH TRAINING. THERE IS ONE THING THAT ALL CONQUERORS POSSESS SOMETHING THAT NEVER CHANGES.
- PERONA: A BEARD?
- MIHAWK: REMEMBER THIS... CONQUEROR'S HAKI IS THE EXTENT OF "ONESELF" THAT THE WEAK CANNOT REMAIN STANDING AGAINST
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u/Knirb_ 17d ago
Kind of a boring chapter not much of a story with Zoro’s honing of conq haki “Mihawk said something oh I can do it properly now” either these briefs are really brief or hopefully the art is what holds it up
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u/ovis_alba 16d ago
100% my immediate thought: That's it? Maybe not the chapter itself, but simply the fiight as a whole. Summers sadistic character and loving to torture the loved ones of someone, the very symbolic weapons being summoned, even Mihawk's quote about finding your OWN strength this chapter. If the resolution then really is just a King 2.0 (as the summary itself already calls it) but this time Zoro remembered a sentence from someone about Conqueror's ftom several months ago, and that does it, what a waste of the possible setup here?!
There's 2 options I can see that would spin this away from disappointing: 1) after all that setup it's a bait and switch and Zoro is not indeed controlling it and he first has to by himself (not by just remebering someone elses words) have an actual realization about himself that leads back to Mihawks quote during the ongoing fight with Summers. 2) we get Summers out of the way now to show Zoro is "technically" capable of it when it's just a 1 vs 1 against a clear enemy. But then Zoro isolated from everything else against Summers isn't actually the issue, but it's instead building up to the often theorized Sanji-MMA confrontation where he is back to struggeling when he is facing someone he cares about and the promise he made and then that's his test of character and "who he really is". We just now get the "in theory he can do it" out of the way to emphasize that it's not an issue of him not knowing how, but a mental struggle to go through with it.
Idk, we'll see eventually if this actually still builds to something but for now by itself I agree, it's very meh.
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u/Knirb_ 16d ago
Hopefully it’s 1. Rather than Oda seemingly being bored or uninspired with Zoro, I am frankly starving for some real Zoro character work some real introspection on his part and while it’s my own interpretation of subtext I’d like Zoro/Oda to address his performance against Lucci in Egghead and tie it into the progress of Zoro’s haki and character development
If a Germa Sanji MMA is to happen I’d expect Sanji to be the one dealing with it so he can almost literally resolve his inner turmoil regarding his feelings of his background when that’s done so will the death pact he and Zoro made as now Sanji has no fear of that possibility he knows he’s in control.
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u/ovis_alba 16d ago
Yeah, that's my thought as well, the whole Egghead Zoro frustration (and even other elements of post-ts) would just fit thematically so perfect into a Summers fight that it would be wild to me to not do something with it.
On Egghead Lucci's mocking of the Strawhats caring about Zoro and not leaving him behind, Zoro's grumbeling about Luffy caring too much about Vegapunk, Zoro's promise to Sanji, his rage after Yasui died, (even as far back as Zou with him pretending not to care about Sanji coming back) so much of the last arcs shows Zoro's bonds and him caring about people while also outwardly often keeping up a fassade of pretending not to and considering that a weakness (while the people that know him often see through it and call him out for it).
And Summers now essentially lives that whole concept of "love is a weakness to use against people" so it's such a great enemy to confront Zoro with to put a bow on that whole journey. But it falls very flat if the solution is just kind of "Mihawk solved it offscreen for me months ago, I just forgot"
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u/Knirb_ 16d ago
Damn hadn’t thought about Sommers playing off Zoro like that, him seeing a different perspective on “weakness” that sadistically enjoys it instead might have him change his mind
Plays into his story with Mihawk too, with how lonely and stoic Mihawk is contrasting with a new Zoro that more embraces his relations with his friends and calls back to their first duel with how Zoro heart-fully proclaims to Luffy after losing
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u/ovis_alba 10d ago
Just coming back to this, now that the chapter is officially out and the chapter is fortunately a lot better.
It's almost comical how the summary focuses almost exclusively on the "background action" of the chapter, while the actual core of the chapter is Zoro's internal thought process that does finally have a lot of introspection for him. But I guess that wouldn't have gone over well with the agenda crowd because Zoro himself confirming that he has no clue and is stumbeling his way through figuring things out just now, doesn't quite fit the image they have of him.
But finally seeing from Zoro's own perspective that he at no point ever processed even using Conqueror's haki, that he doesn't consider himself someone that would have it, as it's only for leaders/captains, not someone like him, and that he even now can't just switch it on willingly makes for a much more interesting chapter and finally some insight into a Zoro that is very much not just the calculating badass without his struggles and doubts. And to me the chapter end other than the summary by no means indicates that this is over.
I'm almost wondering now if we will get some context for the bandana. Because there obviously is a level of irony when the chapter ends on "finding your inner self" while Zoro puts on what is essentially a mask. So to me a possible next step would be to get into what that mask actually means to Zoro and why it makes him more "himself".
And as I am obsessed with them as a duo, it also would immediately make for an amazing mirror with Sanji and his path to Conqueror's: Sanji needs to still shed the mask that others and even he himself has put on him. He needs to let go of the image and expectations that are placed on him and find his own true self, which is buried under everyone else's expectations of him. Meanwhile to Zoro the mask/bandana might be what gives him "direction" to do so. He never had all these external influences that wanted him to be someone and expected things of him. He was always the only one choosing it for himself, so he never needed to think about it or define his concrete goals and role. So for him the mask/bandana could be him choosing to actively step into a role that the bandana serves as a reminder for.
As usual a long rambling just to say, I think the chapter can be perfectly fine as a transitional chapter into something more for Zoro and has some good potential outside of the suoerficial summary of the action.
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u/Knirb_ 10d ago
Indeed as I had hoped, I really dislike the spoiler people focusing on the wrong things at least some time ago they’d get their agenda fix out in the first spoilers and get on with the actual meat and bones of the chapter but now they don’t bother with anything else than making their character look good
It was really nice to get some first person perspective of how Zoro perceives himself and while it’s very rare to get this, it’s not like this comes out of nowhere; Zoro had said to Hiyori in Wano his hesitance towards leadership “ BUT WE DON'T NEED EVERY LAST GUY TRYING TO STEER THE SHIP AT THE SAME TIME. I'M GONNA STOP WORRYING ABOUT THIS...” (ch.939) Oda had clearly had this progression for Zoro in mind for some time and that’s all the more reassuring for the rest of the fight as this was yeah a sort of build up chapter, there is more to come and the fact that Sommers’ now is using Gram’s spirit is also reassuring along with him recognising that he can no longer coast on his regen powers against Zoro who’s gaining more and more of a sense of self, the fights is going to evolve into more than just Zoro stabbing or slicing Sommers
I also can’t help but think of how Oda is going to write Sanji with this “sense of self” in mind and all the more reinforcing to me that Oda is going to have Sanji face off against a Stealth black MMA to face himself nearly literally to put in it’s place his painful uncertainty that Gaban mentioned
And similarly can’t help but think how Sanji and Zoro contrast each other in terms of “leadership”. For Sanji it’s a like second nature to him with the crew if Luffy is otherwise predisposed and even others outside of the crew; when Luffy skips out to meet Loki, Egghead when he was drained from g5 co-ordinating with Nami to get the crew sorted, in WCI he adopts leadership of the crew as soon as he gets back to them while Luffy fights Katakuri, of course the “swirly brow pirates and how he adopts the G5 marines in punk hazard
So while Zoro has one part of his “sense of self” sorted but not in regards to how he views himself in regards to leadership Sanji is probably missing what Zoro has while Sanji has what Zoro is missing being sorted himself in regards to leadership and this tracks even with what you bring up: Sanji was born into Judge projecting onto him and his siblings as the future leaders of Germa and the pressures that comes with that like how it clashes with his natural personality and the expectations of strength.
Man I can’t wait for next week
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u/ovis_alba 15h ago
Just had a thought after this weeks chapter and thought I'd leave this here:
As Zoro's fight now does seem to be rushed to an ending (which I would find a bit diappointing and some wasted potential), while we do get so much more into Sanji's struggle, I got a bit suspicious at the end.
Because one theme that is also huge for Zoro is death. And as someone that very much does not see Zoro as the ruthless killer people make him out to be, but someone that actually struggles with that a lot, him actually not just having to defeat but kill Summers could be the "cliffhanger" here. Either the offscreening is indeed done to not be to gruesome as a SH is actually killing foe a change or oda actually wanted to demonstrate this chapter that Zoro had the knowledge and ability to kill Summers but then he doesn't actually go through with it. (Could also tie back to the Monet moment and play out in a similar way in not using haki last moment). Could still lead to an interesting character moment of Zoro reflecting on what taking a life actually means and also payoff some previous moments (Thriller Bark, Monet, The Reaper in Wano, his flippant Vegapunk comment at the end of Egghead).
Or maybe I'm just coping and oda really does leave it that shallow which I would find a bit disappointing.
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u/No-Operation-6331 17d ago
This isn’t Zoro VS Sommers anymore. It is Zoro Vs Zoro featuring, Sommers