The battle rages as Dr. Vegapunk finally begins his message, starting with a brief but shocking warning about the sea and the world.
The following contains spoilers for One Piece Chapter 1113, “Stalemate,” by Eiichiro Oda, available in English from Viz Media .
The last few chapters of the One Piece manga have teased Dr. Vegapunk’s pending message, which is set to broadcast all over the world with video transponder snails. The tension rose to its maximum and was held there a bit too long before Chapter 1113, “Stalemate,” finally arrived to begin the scientist’s world-shaking message. Even if Chapter 1113 is only the first few seconds of Dr. Vegapunk’s message to the world, this plot twist is proving to be worth the wait.
For hundreds of chapters, the One Piece narrative has kept some dire secrets, including the mystery of the Void Century, the foundation of the World Government, and even the ark ship Noah, first found near Fish-Man Island. Dr. Vegapunk’s revelations may shed some light on all that as the Final Saga marches onward, all while the fighting for Egghead Island continues without any winners being declared. In some ways, Chapter 1113 is yet another mere snippet as the narrative seemingly stalls for time, but at least it has more plot progression than Chapter 1112 had last week.
Chapter 1113 Makes Things Personal For Nico Robin
As Dr. Vegapunk finally begins airing his video message for all to see, he mentions the fact that he is continuing the research that Ohara island had once started, Nico Robin’s home. Vegapunk only briefly mentions this in the chapter, but it’s a worthwhile inclusion for two reasons. For one, getting Ohara’s forbiddden research helps emphasize how important Vegapunk’s research is, and helps keep One Piece‘s many threads tied together across the span of multiple chapters. Ohara’s research had been worth a Buster Call that Jaguar D. Saul barely survived, so it must be absolutely crucial, and now Vegapunk is here to finish what Clover and the others started in Nico Robin’s younger days.
For another, the mention of Ohara and its forbidden research makes the fight more personal for Nico Robin, one of the precious few survivors of Ohara’s devastating Buster Call and one of the last living people who can read the Poneglyphs’ text. In fact, Jaygarcia Saturn comments on just that as he approaches Nico Robin on the chaotic battlefield, evidently as a taunt or token psychological warfare. Chillingly, Saturn describes Robin as the woman whom Admiral Akainu had failed to kill, and for that, Saturn mocks Akainu as soft.
One Piece fans know and detest Admiral Akainu as a brutal, merciless enforcer of his own brand of justice, and no one would call him soft or sloppy. But Saturn does, showing that there is no sentimentality or friendship among the World Government’s top brass. It also suggests that the Five Elders, the government’s mightiest living weapons, are even crueler than Akainu, difficult as that may be to believe. It’s clearer than ever that Saturn and his four peers will stop at nothing to destroy the Straw Hats and end Vegapunk’s/Clover’s work. Somehow, even the mighty Admirals now feel tame compared to the authority and nightmarish power of the Five Elders.
Chapter 1113 Drops an Environmental Bombshell on Everyone
Chapter 1113 takes its time actually starting Dr. Vegapunk’s long-awaited video message, and in its last two pages, “Stalemate” finally starts delivering. As the Straw Hats, Jewelry Bonney, and the Five Elders keep up their messy battle, Dr. Vegapunk admits that his main point may sound ridiculous, but is evidently the hard truth: that the entire world is about to sink into the sea. Chapter 1113 ends on that note, so fans will have to wait for Chapter 1114, at the soonest, for Dr. Vegapunk to elaborte. For now, though, One Piece fans have enough details on their hands to form some interesting and frankly terrifying theories about where this revelation may take the plot. It also helps make some loose plot threads suddenly much more relevant, which is a great touch.
Assuming Dr. Vegapunk is correct and the world will indeed vanish into the sea, everyone has an environmental apocalypse on their hands. It’s not yet clear how or why this is happening, or even whether or not this is happening according to someone’s intentions. To begin with, the idea of the world sinking into the sea makes the mysterious Noah ship more relevant. During the Fish-Man Island arc after One Piece‘s time skip, the massive, uncrewed ship Noah was simply a local feature that no one could explain in great detail – though Hody Jones did try to destroy Fish-Man Island with it only for Luffy to stop him. Given the clear Biblical references of a wooden ark ship called Noah, it’s likely that the Noah ship is meant to save certain chosen people from this environmental catastrophe and leave everyone else to their fate.
Another theory is that the impending sinking is actually part of an ongoing process, not something entirely new. It’s been theorized that the world once had continents, only for ever-rising sea levels to flood all the low-laying land, leaving only today’s small islands above the waves. If so, this mysterious “world sinking into the sea” phenomenon is about to complete its work, with the world going from proper continents to scattered islands to nothing but ocean. There’s even a small chance this gradual loss of landmass ties into the enigma of the Ancient Kingdom, which may have vanished due to losing land to the ocean.
This revelation about the world sinking opens the doors to many other fan theories as well, a wonderful example of One Piece‘s narrative giving fans plenty of fun stuff to think about even with just a few simple lines of dialogue. That’s how rich the worldbuilding is. Fans should also note that this is terrible news for Devil Fruit users, who are always weak in seawater and rely on dry land or ships to keep their powers. If everything is about to be flooded and sink beneath the waves, the era of Devil Fruits just might end forever, robbing One Piece of its best combat system.
Chapter 1113 Doesn’t Need Monkey D. Luffy
For the last few chapters, Monkey D. Luffy largely failed to stand out, even with his incredible transformation Gear 5 on hand, and that was a problem in the action-oriented chapters. Aside from improvising a baseball to knock away Saturn’s poison balls, it was disappointing to see Luffy get lost in the noise, but that’s not as much of a problem in Chapter 1113. It’s indeed a letdown to have Luffy do next to nothing in “Stalemate,” but the difference is that “Stalemate” focuses on Dr. Vegapunk’s message now that the video message has actually started.
One Piece fans are fixated on Vegapunk’s message and its implications, not to mention the joy of seeing so many islands and characters of previous arcs all making cameos. Such cameo montages tend to happen when truly huge plot twists are underway, which adds to the excitement of Chapter 1113. For now, One Piece fans can set Luffy aside to watch the plot unfold, with 1113 being the most plot-oriented chapter in several weeks. Luffy shouldn’t be out of the picture for too long, since he needs to show off Gear 5’s power and keep hope alive with his Nika-inspired antics, but Chapter 1113 doesn’t suffer for it.
Chapter 1113 Doesn’t Deliver on the Action
It’s true that a plot-oriented chapter like “Stalemate” doesn’t have the room or need for an epic duel in the same vein as Zoro vs King or Luffy vs Charlotte Katakuri. Even so, Chapter 1113 is yet another snippet of battle and little more. The battlefield is simply too crowded with the Navy, Elders, and Luffy’s side, meaning no one stands out. For a brief time, Jaygarcia Saturn stood out as the first Elder to use their mythical Zoan-type Fruit and prove that he’s not just a paper general sitting in his ivory tower on the Red Line. But now, the battlefield is a chaotic and unmemorable place. As the plot twists keep coming, fans probably won’t remember much of this battles. These fights are just drawn to prove how hard the World Government will fight to protect its secrets from Dr. Vegapunk’s message.
Chapter 1113 helps show that the Egghead Island arc does not yet have a memorable, defining fight along the same lines as Luffy vs Arlong or Luffy vs Rob Lucci, but there is still time. Right now, Luffy is part of the crowd, and the same is true for his friends, who aren’t yet engaged in memorable duels with their adversaries. It’s a shame for this leg of the journey, yet there’s still hope that by the time Luffy’s crew flees Egghead Island, at least one memorable battle will unfold, giving someone a chance to shine. Until then, fans must make do with this messy battlefield while the real plot takes place in Dr. Vegapunk’s climactic video message to the world.
