Just something to note about the relationship between Blackbeard and Rayleigh. Blackbeard has seen Peak Rayleigh fight during his time on Whitebeard's ship as a child. Rayleigh is his childhood trauma. Even if Blackbeard might be stronger now, he will evaluate himself as a child vs Rayleigh at his peak. To fight Rayleigh, he has to be mentally prepared to die. The juice isnt worth the squeeze.

The thought of blackbeard turning people to stone and saying "because im beautiful" terrifies me

I love the part where merph said "its merphin time" then merphed all over the place

Blackbeard with the Love Love Fruit will never not be funny to me. Just imagine someone unironically turning into stone at the sight of BB (that guy's me by the way).

Best part was Boa looking at Blackbeard and being the absolute lioness in front of an Emperor of The Sea Mr. Zehaha himself! Of course she had hax and is definitely not straight up stronger, but I really gotta give her props for her fearlessness!

I always thought that Blackbeard immediately identified Lunarian characteristics because it was said (I think on SBS or Vivre Card) that he's a wide reader and has huge interest in history.

There is a reason for Tashigi being in the chapter. In Punk Hazard, she told the crew that she was leaving to see Vegapunk with the children in order to help them recover

At some point Oda said that if Blackbeard wasn't a pirate he would be an archaeologist which opens up a lot of theories about what he may know and what he may be planning

In SBS, Oda said one of Teach's hobby is conducting historical research and If he was not a pirate, then he would be an archaeologist. So, I won't be surprised if he somehow has a bit of knowledge about lunarian.

Why do we love blackbeard? BECAUSE HE IS BEAUTIFUL 🙌🏽😩 i love the memes that emerged because of this 💀

It's implied that Sabo wasn't directly on the obliterated island because while everyone on the island looked straight up to the lights of desctruction, Sabo was looking at it from an roughly 50 degree angle. So he was probably on a boat nearby. And he's a logia, so I don't think that Oda even atempted to make us think he died. A great review as always, thanks!

Marco mentioned the Lunarians first and said that Pops told them about them so Blackbeard heard of it since he was on the same crew. BB is also very knowledgeable when it comes to history and lore.

This post-Wano/Egghead arc chapters have been incredible so far. I feel like this is probably 2nd only to the reverie as the most exciting couple of chapters to catch up to One Piece at. Thanks for the 1059-1061 chapter reviews Merph!

You forgot the most important part of these chapters... that our boy Caribou is on the ship sailing with the straw hats! On a serious note though, I find it interesting that Oda chose for Luffy to reveal it now because Jinbei finally joined so now all the straw hats know. The list of people that know Luffy's dream is so small and personal, yet someone like Caribou was there to overhear what he said....

As an extra little note about Luffy's dream. In addition to his crew, Ace, Sabo, and Shanks knowing about it, we also know that Yamato knows his dream as well. In the flashback with her and Ace, she was told his dream on accident by drunk and rambling Ace and she also cried when she heard what it was.

Just had a thought, what if we’ve already seen Whitebeard’s seraphim? That Weevil isnt merely Whitebeard’s faux son, but is in fact a failed clone

The part with Rayleigh isn't just infamy. Blackbeard saw prime Rayleigh while he was a child on Whitbeard's crew. When they fought the Roger pirates Teach saw how strong and terrifying the Dark King actually was back in the day. And since he was just a kid it probably seemed like he was impossibly strong. So his fear is based on his experience as a child not just Rayleigh's reputation.

a buggy seraphim is certainly one hell to unleash into one piece. Let's imagine buggy, but competent. Or even better, let's assume SBuggy has his devil fruit awakenend! but my head canon for now is that Buggy and Sbuggy will scarmble all their parts, don't know which one's belong to whom and will fuse into a new entity, single-handedly getting the one piece and flying to the moon to dunk on eneru. Let's cross fingers and hope it'll happen!

Gol D. Robert was my favorite character. So glad Merphy is giving him the recognition he deserves. Also love the reviews. Keep it up!

What you just said about Lulusia kingdom still existing and it being in the "in-between", made a light bulb to go off in my head. What if this is what happened to Laugh Tale in the past, and this is why getting there is so complicated and why Laugh Tale simply does not exist on a map. The One Piece being a tool to bring the missing pieces of the world back. This is absolute madness I know lol.

The Hancock chapter had me screaming... She's the PIRATE EMPRESS for a reason. She exudes royalty and power even under the hands of enemies

The best thing that happens when One Piece takes a break is that Merphy uploads a One Piece video.

I think one of my favorite things in these last few chapters is the shishibukai finally getting the respect they deserve. Crocodile being shown as a main player in the world, Mihawk getting a bounty beffiting of his status and finally Hancock singlehandlly putting a stop to the invasion, defeating even a few commanders and a vice-admiral while treatning a Younko.

So many great lore chapters!

Blackbeard may have his Lunarian knowledge just off of being on the Whitebeard crew. Just like Marco, he may have heard stories from Whitebeard of the race and how they used to live on the Red Line. Regardless, it’s one of the plot points I’m really excited about with the Final Saga!!

I’m so happy that, as a fan who has watched and followed these mysteries unraveling for almost two decades, Merphy as a new fan is just as excited and engaged in them as I am!

well, about Hanckock's Akuma no mi, she got hers from a Tenryubitto when she was an slave

Rapid firing my thoughts on the chapters: -Since Coby has a reputation now I assume Blackbeard is going to take him to Buggy to cash his bounty in. -Caribou undulated his way onto the ship again, just for Merphy. -That one panel of the strong Hancock defeated and leaning on Rayleigh makes me feel feelings. 😢 But her looking down on Blackbeard while being choked by him was pretty awesome. -Blackbeard and Coby not being turned to stone by Boa. I guess that makes three characters now immune to her charms. -The simplest explanation as to how/where Vivi disappeared: Pell flew her away from Reverie when he realised she was in danger. -Im erasing that island… chills. -I love how offended Luffy is over Buggy’s rise to emperor. - Sword doesn’t know where Drake is. He was last seen with Hawkins as he died. I don’t want another fake out death but Drake could potentially have gone off grid to save him. Wishful thinking as Hawkins is my favourite Supanova and I wanted more from him. 😂 -The 02 on Vegapunk’s outfit implies she isn’t the original. So either daughter, clone or experiment of the original. -Luffy’s dream is also something he came up with as a child, so it makes sense that it’s ridiculous and vastly imaginative. But also something that Roger wanted. It’s a real riddle. -I love Jimbei’s reaction to hearing Luffy’s dream. He’s just fully embraced Luffy as his captain, ridiculousness and all. -Thanks Oda for giving us one whole chapter of the crew all travelling together on the Sunny again (for the first time since Dressrosa) before immediately splitting them up again. 😂

I can 100% see where you're coming from but I am personally super happy that there are fantastic stories, like One Piece, out there that are not realistic when it comes to deaths. I consume media because I wanna escape the real world for the time being. I don't wanna deal with the constant pressure and anxiety to lose someone I love, even if it's "just" a fictional character. I deal with anxiety enough IRL. I can't thank Oda enough for providing a story so full of exciting, interesting and lovable stuff without this new trend where every character could die at every moment.

Small things are important, too: I loved the moment with Chopper and the hat Tama gave him because (besides being a nice Chopper and Robin moment) it also mirrored the flashback with Oars Jr. when Ace gave him the hat. It's just such a neat bundle of connections and emotions.

Mehgan from Volume One podcast put forth the idea that Luffy's dream is to make everyone a pirate, his idea of freedom. And something that he could do after becoming pirate king. I can see Luffy at his execution broadcast around the world like Roger's asking the world watching if they want to join his pirate crew.

Surprised you didn’t talk more about the little chopper moment with the hat he was wearing. Kinda reminded me of the baby Oars flashback during Marineford while he wore the straw hat Ace wove for him. Chopper even got the hat from the same little girl Ace befriended all those years ago.

32:25 Robin's reaction is the one that tells me it's not a party. If it was a party she would've laughed as many times before, she is already used to Luffy. Instead she was out of words, and shocked. This was something she way bigger than a party

These Post-Wano chapters fills my One Piece world building cravings. I love how Oda develops and joggles all of these different characters and factions.

It was stated by CP0 during the onigashima raid that vegapunk made a "defective" clone of kaidos fruit.

Blackbeard knows about Lunarians for the same reason Marco did. Whitebeard used to tell his crew stories about the Lunarians.

I feel that "we just need some DNA" would be fairly weak storytelling. Oda would probably have made some more invovled process to creating seraphims. So while I do expect us to see more seraphims, I doubt it would be up to the scale of "anyone and everyone the navy has interacted with at some point. Love the Blackbeard theory though! Totally missed that on my first readthrough.

I personally love exploring space theory for Luffy's dream, because it seems like something a child could come up with. It also could embody the theme of freedom as he would be able to go wherever he wants. A lot of reactions to this definitely make sense as well (laughing, disbelief, etc.)

The vegapunk body transfer df could make sense tbh. It would explain how he made inanimate objects eat devil fruits. He could probably inhabit inanimatr objects and just derive a method of replicating that phenomenon. Just like he recreated kizarus lasers. That would be interesting and make quite a lot of sense :)

31:44 Introduction to the real pirate king. GOL D. ROBERT 😂😂😂 i burst out laughing

I like the theory that Vegapunk is just creating clones of himself because other people are too stupid to work with him so he can have people to chat shop with. Also Merphy how do you feel that caribou most likely knows Luffys dream since he was there lol.

Momo and Yamato also know about Luffy's dream. I kind of wish that Kin and Vivi knew about it as well.

I mean, the whole reason why blackbeard recognized the lunarians to me seems to be the same reason why Marco knew about them: Whitebeard told them about Lunarians. Don't forget that blackbeard grew up on whitebeard's ship

3 things I want to say (hopefully I didn’t just miss Merphy say it)- 1) Along with Vegapunk and Franky and them on egghead island, it seems like Oda is bringing other scientists in with the cover story. I’m guessing Germa and Caesar will be included in some way. 2) Shanks, Rayleigh (and thus maybe Shakky), Yamato, Sabo, and Caribou all knows Luffy’s dream (that are outside of the SH Pirates) 3) Blackbeard knowing about the Lunarians could be as simple as him being an Archeologist - he has knowledge like Robin does. So he could have just heard about them at some point and drew a conclusion. Aside from that, King was captured (Kaido’s flashback) so Vegapunk could have dna straight from him.

I got this theory from twitter, and he said "if Vegapunk is presented in 2022. Oda will be the smartest person in the world or the luckiest. The story of the pre-ellipse takes place in 1522. Kuma said that Vegapunk is 500 years ahead = 2022" 🤯🤯

I think that the reason Blackbeard recognized the lunarian traits is because he knows more of the erased history about them. Oda has repeadely hinted at blackbeards archeology and history interests and that he knows secrets of this world. I doubt he has any personal connection to the lunarians i think it is just the case that he knows much more about them them most others.

Im glad you are current with the rest of us now. Your videos are a great addition to the "week to week" for me now.

To add onto Merphy's theory, blackbeard came from a winter island, which all three of vegapunk islands are. So whitebeard rescued "failed" experiment. He may be a first try at seraphim experiments as a clone of rocks d xebec for his power. But as "Vegapunk" says in 1061, "damn, we still can't control the primal instincts." That's why blackbeard was a "failed" experiment, he still had the will to rule the world

1) The way I understood the scene with Imu's demonstration of power was that the Navy and WG had intercepted Sabo's call and upon learning that he knew too much cut the footage to the Navy, Imu declared the Island a target because Sabo's signal was coming out of that region and then deatroyed it (potentially Uranus). I also believe GLR/Liam's theory of Sabo not actually having been on the island but a ship near it due to the way the lighting was drawn is more likely then some dimensional transfer. 2) The way Boa handled Blackbeard and his crew was just amazing also again emphasizing that it is she herself that makes the ability powerful not the other way around. 3) Luffy's dream is probably something that is simple and wholesome but gets ridiculous due to the scale at which he applys it. Complex motives or elusive goals don't particularly suite Luffy.

“Wealth, fame, power. Gold Robert, the King of the Pirates, attained everything this world has to offer. And so, many men head for the Grand Line to find the great treasure he left behind, the One Piece. The world has truly entered a Great Pirate Era!” lol thanks for the content Merph! :)

It's the DNA from king when he was captured in punk hazard. Bustercall is a message an example this is removing something from the world to prevent further problems

"I choose to shoot down all theories while providing none of my own" -Merphy. Made me actually lol. Sounded like "I reject your reality and substitute my own" -Adam Savage, Mythbusters.

I think it was fate that Sabo landed on an island that was rebelling and was probably going to join the revolutionary army, so it was fated for him to get away to a safe island that could help him.

Me and my coworker were literally arguing the week before about whether or not Vegapunk would ever be revealed then this chapter ends with "Hi 'I'm Dr. Vegapunk 😁" I love One Piece!!!

On Reyleigh and Hancock relationship, I love that painel with her just relaxing in his lap (it may be my favorite Hancock painel). Despite her hate for men she trust him as a father. Plus on the Boa Hancock is awelsome train, the fact that even when being hold by her throat she has still looking down on BB shows that she deserves that bounty

your theories, from the seraphim and kuma, to I'm power/ weapon blew my mind! You're the first reviewer I hear making those and I actually gasped multiple time listening to your video! For Luffy's dream, idk what it could be but it has to be something stupid and simple, I mean, it's something Luffy Sabo an Ace came up with (as kids).. It can't be complicated

THE THUMBNAIL AHAHAHAHAHAHA

The difference between Ohara and Lulucia is that the World Government intended to have survivors at Ohara. They were evacuating civilians before Akainu went rogue and destroyed the evacuation ships. They were sending a message that looking into the Void Century will get you killed, and wanted people to tell the story. The World Government didn't want survivors for Lulucia, they wanted it completely erased. They also probably want to hide the fact that they have the power to nuke islands. Assuming it's an ancient weapon, it makes sense to want to hide that, given it's connection to the Void Century.

On the mystery of Blackbeard's knowledge of Lunarians - Don't forget Oda has stated in SBS's that: "If Teach was not a pirate, then he would be an archaeologist." "Teach's hobbies are playing gambling and conducting historical research." Blackbeard might know how to read the Poneglyphs and has likely studied about the different Ancient Peoples.

Can I Just say Merphy, that makes me extremely happy seeing Vinland Saga in the background in your videos. I just cannot wait on your video about Farmland Saga... Also fantastic One Piece video, your doing a great job.

I think what the island had that Imu wanted gone was Sabo. Sabo saw Imu on the throne, therefore he knew the one, absolute secret in the world and needed to be erased. Lulusia was just collateral damage, erased in case Sabo told anyone there.

I hope they do make Luffy fight an Ace seraphim, and everyone who knows him is like *gasp* "oh no! Poor Luffy!", meanwhile Luffy one-shots without any hesitation because he gets that it's just a bad taste trick, and he's like "How rude!!!". Not unlike what happened with Robin vs Black Maria

With so many satisfying reveals and potential wrapping up of lingering plot threads it's enough to make a person shiver/quiver with delight or even undulate. I'll put myself in time out now.

King(The Lunarian) was also captured at one point along with Kaido you may recall

I am fully on the camp that Luffy’s dream will be to throw the biggest party in the world, but I phrase it a little differently. To me, Luffy’s dream is to, “Exchange sake with everyone in the world.” That just sounds much more beautiful to me.

Thank you for leaving all the name mistakes you make. Robert made me laugh out loud. 😁 I was thinking, could Luffy's dream be to take a ship to the moon? It kind of makes sense, considering the crew's reaction. Usopp is usually terrified at first when they mention a scary destination. Chopper was thrilled for some reason - I think he associates it with Dr. Hiluluk's dream with the cherry blossom. We got a reaction from the Sunny as well.

You are soo... epic 😁 15:55 Edit - I think Vega Punk must ask help from Judge Vinsmoke to control these creatures.

I love the idea of the russian doll robot thing xD Imagine out of Vegapunk#2 (the girl) a little old Tontata (the little guys on dress-rosa) comes out :D

Can't wait too see a Buggy Seraphim ❤️❤️❤️

Remember that Ace told Yamato Luffys dream so Yamato also knows his dream

31:25 And Rayleigh. When Shanks last saw him, after getting back in the Jew World from the old blue, and Rayleigh asked him about his missing arm and hat, Shanks told him that Luffy said the same words Roger did

Liam from Grandlinereview pointed out the angle of the light beam on Sabo's face to show that he wasn't there but off the coast and I have to agree

After Trafalgar law suffering from stress coz of strawhats pirates Bonney is the next ahahah

The "other familiar names" Robin was referring to were Crocodile and Mihawk. Also, the Marines sent the Mihawk Seraphim with the Boa one to arrest Hancock.

I saw a post showing the angle that Sabo was looking up at the light and it makes it apparent that Sabo wasn't in the blast zone.

1-The reason Blackbeard knows about Lunarians is that his hobby is studying history. 2-Blackbeard knew that the Marines would lay seige to Amazon Lily(along with other islands the Warlords used to reside) because he learnt that the Warlord system was abolished from the news. 3- The people Robin refers to as "important to Luffy" could very well be Hancock, Rayleigh and Koby. The Amazon Lily incident was huge and no doubt Morgans wasted no time publishing that news.

I love Liam's GLR idea that all the Seraphim have some kind of wacky fatal flaw (for example, Boa is really nasty towards men AND will be simping for Luffy, Jimbei will feel the urge to swim even though this will damage any potential machinery on his body, Don Flamingo will only act when it's beneficial to him - maybe, seeing that he's a child, he essentially wants sweets or toys as a payment of sorts). And that's why Vegapunk thinks sentient beings are hard to control. Edit: Also, when it comes to "This island never existed", it feels like Imu can essentially wipe it off everyone's minds (except maybe those with strong haki, and that's why we know about God Valley from people like Sengoku and Garp, who obviously have that sort of thing).

Ahahahaha kerfufel? That's the cutest damn thing I've heard u say to date! U go on n keep makin it harder for me to wake up every day.

Now that I'm officially caught up with the manga, I started talking to friends about OP youtubers and it made me so happy that your channel was the very first one they suggested. You're well loved in the OP fan community!

@25:53 I think the reason Oda handled it this way is that he wanted to make a larger point that Yamato was giving a reason that seemed like it was for herself so that Momonosuke could save face. Idk. I just feel like it's more impactful that we get the fake reason first and then the real reason rather than getting the real reason first and then a fake reason. It could definitely still have been done that way (and maybe could've potentially been done better by say having the real reason given immediately after the fake reason or something like that), but I don't really mind how it was done at all.

Merphy, FYI, Yamato (and possibly Momo) also know about Luffy's dream (through Ace and/or Oden's logbook/journal thingie

We can confirm that the person we saw in the last chapter is not Vegapunk daughter, Vegapunk himself was speaking Japanese people and who understand Japanese language said that they used an old timer way to speak so there is no way it's his daughter, so it's a clone a new body or an android

You have no idea how much I love the fact that she fills the void that oda leaves in my heart every 3 weeks

One of BB's hobbies are historical research according to SBS's so there might be a chance he knows about lunarians purely by studying about them and he probably thinks lunarians are extinct so when he saw the seraphim, he was shocked that they still exist.

BB knowing about lunarian can also tie back to Marco knowing about how they used to live above redline, in Marco's little flashback we saw Whitebeard telling him about it, and BB being a former crewmate could also have learned about it from him, while him being a captive of vegapunk in past is pretty interesting

I feel like the Imu kaboom vs a buster call is that the marines are a constant all over the world so having them actually "do" the buster call sets a precident so everyone stays in line? Like knowing the buster call comes from these people that are walking around and "protecting the peace" is a good strategy to keep people obeying the marines

I love that you shot down all theories and provided none...that made me excited for the actual reveal

I love that whenever I watch your videos I am guaranteed a Nestlé Crunch commercial. I never get them otherwise lol

I remember reading once that the reason why Blackbeard wants Boa’s fruit is because of how it’s power works. Apparently it works on strong emotions people have on the DF user. For Boa it’s love and admiration that turns people to stone for her, but in BB’s hands it would be repulsion, or if it was in the hands of someone like Kaido (if he didn’t have his own DF) would be fear and terror. Her fruit is very unique on its properties. Also for the theories part of this video, have you checked out Mehgan’s theory from Volume One? She came up with an interesting theory of what Luffy’s dream is, and it’s absurd but really believable on it being what Luffy might have said.

on luffys dream being freedom. during the sabody arc when camie was kidnapped, luffy went to a bunch of slave shops and whether he was just focused on finding camie or not i think its important to note he didnt react at all to the slaves there.

What I like about these recent chapters is the fact that it's more or less building up on previous dynamics and characters after years or not knowing. Hancock legit hasn't been pivotal since marineford, Cross Guild is a group of established pre time skip characters Buggy was the first DF user antagonist show , Mihawk was the first warlord established and Crocodile was both building on that whole crew dynamic, Bonnie was the only supernova that was interesting to B.B and Akainu but we didn't get an indepth look with her until a decade later, Zoro falling back to his vice captain role by explaining to Luffy the situation and them legit not going into another big arc after spending years building up to take down the Yonko, Im whole island erasing thing and the fact that we don't know what's the next move for the story, since punk Hazard we knew where were going to dressrosa to stop Doffy, to Zou to meet up with the rest of the crew to Wholecake to rescue Sanji and then to wano to end it was really nice not knowing where we were going next

If Imu-sama is pulling a Brainiac from DC and is just Bottling up islands like the Bottle city of Kandor, that would be so sick!

Nails the pronunciation of "Aokiji." Still says "VAGA-Punk" Never change Merphy.

The general agreement is that Sabo was somewhere near the island, so he wasn't caught in the blast. And I'm pretty sure the Marines were after Boa for the same reason they were after the other Shichibukai, although it is interesting that she was the only one to have Seraphims sent after her.

31:20 awww.....Merphy also thinks of Caribou as a Strawhat.

in the Vivre Cards, mini bios for Characters Balckbeard is noted to have a unique passtime, Learning History also, Marco pointed out that he learned from the Lunarians from Whitebeard, who Blackbeard was a part of his crew for a looooooong time

I have watched so many one piece over the last couple weeks and your the only one who has brought up Blackbieard recognized the Lunaeians imisuatly

Love how Boa still looked down on Blackbeard as he was holding her up.

6:14 That theory sounds SWEEEETTT!!! That would be awesome!

33:30 someone should make a meme out of that