Summary
One Piece Season 2 delivers a brilliant finale full of heart, action, and mystery. It isn’t quite an ending, since there’s still so much to come, but it’ll very much do until the next season rolls around.
Well, goodness. That’s how you do a finale. The climax of One Piece Season 2 had just about everything you’d want in an ending, from some of the best visual effects and monster designs in the series to exciting action, lingering mystery, and huge heart. The only caveat is that it’s not really an ending, at least not of the show overall, since Season 3 has already been confirmed, and I doubt even that will be enough to cover the remainder of the story. For once, though, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. As far as I’m concerned, Netflix could keep pumping this show out forever.
Pardon me, though, since there’s a ton of stuff to unpack here, so let’s get on with breaking down everything we learned in Episode 8, “Deer and Loathing in Drum Kingdom” (which is a really great title, by the way).
King Wapol’s Defeat
As set up in the penultimate episode, King Wapol has returned to claim Drum Island for himself. He’s now bolstered by the power of the Munch-Munch Fruit, which allows him to consume anything and reshape it into anything he wishes. This includes his army, which he has eaten and regurgitated into hideous, unstoppable monstrosities. Everything involving Wapol and his army in this episode, at least visually, is extremely impressive.
Wapol’s siege takes place on two fronts. His army attempts to storm the village, being met with resistance by Zoro, Usopp, a surviving Dalton, who turns out to also be a Devil Fruit user, and eventually Kureha, whose magical witch powers seem to consist largely of a big shotgun. Whatever works. Meanwhile, Wapol and his dorky underlings, Chess and Kuromarimo, attempt to take the castle, where Luffy, Chopper, Sanji, and Vivi, who has scaled the mountain, are waiting for them.
It takes some doing, and there’s some great action, but eventually Luffy punches Wapol through the castle window to his death, which disassembles his army and finally frees the Drum Kingdom from his tyranny. Even the skull and crossbones flag is saved.
A New Straw Hat
In the aftermath of the battle, everyone prepares to move on. This includes Chopper, who is invited aboard the Going Merry to officially become the ship’s doctor. He’s reluctant to leave at first, still worried that he won’t fit in, but the Straw Hats welcome him with open arms. And even though Kureha initially rejects the idea, when he eventually boards the ship after carrying the others down from the mountain in a sleigh, he realizes she has packed his supplies for him, a tacit admission of her support.
Dalton finally decides to step up and lead the people of Drum Kingdom, hoping that the place can begin to heal in Wapol’s absence. Kureha has an idea for that, too. After Dalton fetches a cannon from the armoury, she launches Hiriluk’s pink elixir into the atmosphere. It tinges the snow pink, like cherry blossoms, so that the people can experience the same curative surge of emotion that he did.
The Straw Hats Are Going to Alabasta (And So Are the Marines)
Even though finding the One Piece remains Luffy’s ultimate objective, he’s nonetheless adamant that the first item on the agenda is accompanying Vivi to Alabasta and helping her father, King Cobra, defeat the Baroque Works, who are sowing seeds of discord in his kingdom. Vivi, like Chopper, is officially part of the crew, and a Straw Hat never leaves a shipmate behind.
Also heading to Alabasta are Smoker and Tashigi. After finding the snail recording in the communications outpost, they overhear the conversation that Sanji had with Mr. 0 in Episode 5. Given that it mentions the Straw Hats and Alabasta, Smoker predictably assumes that the pirates are in league with the Baroque Works and have kidnapped Princess Vivi. It’s a bit of confirmation bias that could prove highly problematic down the line.
Mr. 0’s and Miss All Sunday’s True Identities Revealed
Earlier, it was teased that Vivi and Igaram uncovered the smoking gun that would save Alabasta from the Baroque Works’ machinations, and that was the true identity of the enigmatic Mr. 0. The ending of One Piece Season 2 finally reveals that Mr. 0 is none other than Sir Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. (Mihawk is another one, so we’ll definitely be seeing him again).
Crocodile also calls Miss All Sunday by her real name, which is Nico Robin. She has her own wanted poster and everything, but she bristles at the name. Miss All Sunday had already told Vivi earlier that she and Mr. 0 had differing agendas that only sometimes overlap, and it’s safe to assume that her agenda pertains to her real identity.
Crocodile and Miss All Sunday are working on a plan called Operation Utopia, which involves seizing control of Alabasta and ultimately finding the One Piece. Details are scarce, but it’s easy to imagine that Alabasta is somehow key to deducing the location of the fabled treasure.
The Will Of D.
One Piece Season 2 leaves us with a final clue about Luffy’s perhaps direct connection with Gold Roger, or, to be more precise, Gol D. Roger. When Kureha is talking to Dalton on the castle ramparts, she’s very specific about the middle initial.
That shared initial is putting forward the idea of the “Will of D” as a kind of shared destiny, connecting Gold Roger and Luffy through indirect means. That scene, way back in Episode 1, with Luffy atop the same execution platform Gold Roger died on, was not a coincidence. The mirroring is very deliberate.
