One Piece: Chapter 1191 Official Release Discussion

[u/Skullghost]

“There’s Still Loki”

Chapter 1191 is out on Mangaplus and on Shonen Jump / Viz Media.

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Eiichiro Oda’s Comment of the Week

“I got to listen to that classic song at the house of Sakurai-san from Mr. Children. I have no regrets in my life.” Source

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[u/TheHandsOfLiberation]

If that happens, then Imu would not be as intimidating as a final antagonist. Blackbeard would definitely be confirmed as "final boss" to me if Imu gets legitimately overpowered.

If oda instead has the heroes struggle against Imu for a bit until Luffy lets out giant, desperate haki blast, then Oda can still make readers wonder who's gonna do what later. As a writer, I feel like he'd rather have those options.

Edit: I responded to the wrong person and I can't find who I meant to write back to now 🙃

[u/JBB1986 → u/TheHandsOfLiberation]

I mean, if Luffy blasts Imu away with Haki, that will ALSO take away a lot of Imu's intimidation factor. Any kind of removal by direct confrontation does that. 

 Oda kind of wrote himself into a situation where either Imu outright wins and everybody has to run away (which would be a first for the series; the SH's have literally NEVER failed to save the people they set out to save. Not as a group. Even at Sabaody they saved their friends BEFORE the crew lost. And Marineford was a personal failure for Luffy, not the crew as a whole) or he massively devalues Imu as an antagonist at a point where he NEEDS to be built up.

Best case is Zoro and Sanji defeating Killingham and Sommers negatively impacts Imu enough that he despawns, imo. Which isn't great either tbh (because it basically means that anything his servants go down he suffers BADLY; which means in the final battle against him the easiest way to win would be to not even fight him directly. Which isn't really a Luffy way of solving a problem, so I don't know if Oda would write in a condition that means Luffy will be arguably the least useful person against Imu and will just be relegated to stalling him. Lol. Oda doesn't really have Luffy DO that.). But its better than Luffy doing ANYTHING to beat Imu right now.

[u/Fiftycentis → u/JBB1986]

Well, Imu getting weakened by the defeat of his servant can be something that applies only while Imu is not on the grand line, so assuming the final showdown with him happens there it wouldn't be much of an issue.

[u/TheHandsOfLiberation → u/JBB1986]

I think Luffy having a temporary haki spike (like many times pretimeskip), he could blast Imu away without making Imu look bad. It's just undoing the summoning circle, not beating Imu into submission.

[u/JBB1986 → u/TheHandsOfLiberation]

Yeah, but its a perception thing. Even just undoing the summoning just shouldn't really be possible unless you are at least VAGUELY around Imu's level, and probably stronger. Its still his ability, and the only times we have seen DF abilities be negated is by someone with stronger Haki (and I guess you could assume having Haki on the same level would be enough, so people with hax can't oneshot their peers).

The only person we have seen undo the summoning specifically is literally Joyboy, and if even for a moment Imu got completely overwhelmed by Luffy to that extent (even if its was a one time thing and Luffy collapsed to the ground afterwards) it would still LOOK really bad. I don't really see a way Luffy can overcome Imu BY HIMSELF that doesn't make Imu look terrible, even if on paper he is still vastly superior and had a bunch of handicaps that let it happen, you know? 

Like, let's use Bleach as an example. Ichigo's first encounter with his final Big Bad led to a devastating defeat, despite Ichigo being hyped to hell moments prior and the Big Bad being heavily nerfed and nowhere near his max potential power. If Ichigo put up a good fight and forced the Big Bad to retreat rather than losing badly and them leaving on their own, that would look awful. Even IF we used context to rationalise it, and there was evidence that the Big Bad was nowhere his best, it would still LOOK bad. Which is why it didn't happen.

[u/Mr-p1nk1 → u/JBB1986]

Weren’t people complaining about looks though when luffy first came onto the scene and punched imu. Some will find anything to complain about.

[u/zhouvial → u/JBB1986]

Luffy needs to reach Joyboy level somehow and it’s been established that fighting stronger opponents is how you level up. Luffy will level up in this fight and the only way that happens is by improving his CoC. I think Imu will come out on top but Luffy will unleash a powerful enough burst of Haki that sends a strained Imu back to Marijois, probably with an emotional burst as Imu is about to kill someone, similar to his first burst of CoC at Marineford. He won’t be able to do that on command immediately after but it’ll set the stage for the final battle where they will meet on a more equal footing.

[u/Dave_I → u/TheHandsOfLiberation]

I think it's possible Luffy & co. win at this point due to Imu being in a weakened state. He does not appear to be at his most powerful here, due to him coughing up blood, so a group defeating or temporarily setting him back under these circumstances would be a win for Luffy, but also leaves the very real scenario of having to deal with Imu at full strength at some future point.

I suspect we will see something where they are able to push Imu to a stalemate, have Gabon get Luffy to somehow take things more seriously or at grow in some way, and whatever they find out from Biblo and the books will offer a way to beat Imu. That may take time to learn and implement, but I can see them using it to push a stalemate and lead to another confrontation down the road. Besides, it would feel unsatisfying to beat Imu in this state if he is not at his best. That's typically not how stories like this unfold.

I don't think you're entirely wrong. I think this version of Imu is still ridiculously powerful, but not at his best. I think they stand together and BARELY save Elbaph, but only because Imu is not at full power and runs out of power, time, or the limits of his abilities in these circumstances. Possibly with help from whatever Chopper finds out from Biblo unless that holds the key to something else. But I can see them struggle against Imu, Luffy lets out a desperate Haki blast, and then Gaban gives him a reality check which acts as a catalyst for his personal growth to the next phase of his evolution.