Water 7 (including Ennies Lobby) will always be one of our favorite manga story arcs. For the fight between Usopp and Luffy, for the I want to live! Robin’s and by the tearful farewell of the Merry. It was the arc in which the Straw Hats got their first beating and turned it into power ups. Luffy’s Gear Second and Third, Chopper’s Monster Point or Nami’s Clima Tact were born there. She also served to discover Franky, Sogeking, and the girl’s past from Ohara. And of course, she was the arc of the Cipher Pol and the challenge to the World Government. It was the arc of Rob Lucci, one of the great villains of One Piece.
Despite this, let us not deceive ourselves, it’s been 16 years from chapter 427 of the manga. Published on September 16, 2006 and called “Not that this was hell”, that was the episode in which Luffy finally defeated Lucci. Since then, a lot and very good. Six hundred more chapters and villains like Blackbeard, Akainu, Doflamingo, Katakuri, Big Mom, Kaido. The mugiwara have faced far greater threats, and their captain has gone from being just another member of the worst generation to be one of the four sea emperors. His bounty has risen from 300 to 3,000 million. After such progress and evolution, you can imagine the downturn that has given many to see the return of Lucci at this point.
A few weeks ago, when the cheetah arrived on Egg Island, the island of the future, many rolled their eyes and began to tremble. Was Oda going to try to sneak in that Lucci had improved enough to take on the Straw Hats? She wouldn’t be able to, would she? After all, Luffy comes from defeating Kaido, the strongest pirate in the worldthe yonko who I had never lost a one on one fight. And Lucci… well, it’s Lucci.
As much as you have trained and promoted within the Cipher Polis still below the rank of Navy Admiral, and those who are, admirals like Ryoukugyu, they left by legs of Wano and they couldn’t even with Momo. In the eyes of the fans, the organization was touched and It’s been hard to get respect around it. If his own bosses have lagged behind the mugis, with what arguments does Lucci believe able to stand up to them?
As One Piece Chapter 1069 spoilers leaked, early leakers hinted that Luffy defeated Lucci with one blow. within its pages. According to these, both awakened their fruit and the battle became like taken from Tom and Jerry. One humiliation after another from Luffy who, tired of dodging, gave him a punch from his Gear 5 to try and knocked him out. People applauded that information enthusiastically. It was done justice to the scales of power!
To the surprise of the entire community, spoilers were fake. It’s true that Luffy didn’t look in any trouble during the fight and that he even seemed to mock, or that Lucci received a good blow, but… knock him out? Not much less. They both ran off face his king’s haki, as tied, and Lucci even ended the chapter stabbing Sentomaru in an oversight of the rubber man. We would say “killing” and not “slashing”, but this is One Piece. In any case, for such a theoretically inferior rival, Lucci has come out quite well standing of this encounter.
Have we underestimated Lucci? Didn’t we talk about him before as one of the best villains in the series? Maybe yes. We may have lost some perspective. How many people have we seen awaken your devil fruit? And more if we talk about a zoan. Did we see Kaido? And how strong do you have to be for the Navy to give you a mission of the difficulty of killing Vegapunk, that mix of Pain and Voldemort? On the other hand, didn’t Luffy defeat the King of Beasts after tens of rounds and after having the support of Zoro, Yamato and the Nine Red Scabbards? Maybe not so much, not so little.
Throughout Ennies Lobby he kept repeating to us that Lucci was a prodigy, one of the best fighters under the orders of the World Government. If he hasn’t stopped practicing and improving, hasn’t he been able to equip his rival? And looking at it from another point of view, that a character like that returns to the scene it only does good to the consistency of a world like One Piece. It means that the others aren’t just standing around waiting to see what the Straw Hats do, but also training, going on their own adventures, and developing their respective powers. That Lucci returns with such a level makes us have faith in other returns, such as Crocodile’s with Cross Guild. Gives a second life to fan favorites. Encourage debates in networks and allow Oda not pull unbeatable monsters out of your sleeve.
We will see how Luffy reacts to the attack against Sentomaru in One Piece chapter 170. He will surely get angry and start fight for real against Rob Lucci. Possibly until, then yes, he defeats him with one blow and vindicates his new status as Emperor. But Lucci may be more expensive than anyone expected and, if it does, let’s not pull our hair out either. It may make sense and even suit the world of One Piece. Be that as it may, heThe ways of the Lord are past finding out. We entrust ourselves to (G)Oda.
