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And the winner is… Bartolomeo the Cannibal! The outcome didn’t come as a huge surprise – I was expecting either Bellamy or Bartolomeo to emerge as the victor all along – but the journey and some of the latest unveilings were certainly more amusing than they appear at first glance. Let’s start with the most obvious – Bartolomeo is indeed a Devil Fruit user and his Paramecia-type ability is one that is exceedingly powerful. The Bari Bari no Mi’s capability is two-fold, not only does it allow the user to create protective force shields, the Super Rookie can also project the barriers offensively from a certain distance to attack his opponents. Even Luffy, who is usually unperturbed by such strong foes, seemed impressed, and it was Bartolomeo’s overwhelming Devil Fruit power that brought forth his swift victory against the likes of Fishman Hack, Bellamy and the King of Prodence Kingdom – whose mighty punch was actually unexpectedly imposing! Speaking of Lucy, it was quite interesting to see the Straw Hat Captain voice his support for Bellamy, a person whom he clearly despised not too long ago. What this means for Bellamy’s future is hard to say – no, I don’t think he’s a potential candidate for the Straw Hat crew – but he is probably going to stick around for a bit in this story arc and perhaps offer some words of advice for Luffy before his upcoming match. If anything, the Hyena’s brief scuffle with Bartolomeo revealed a certain weakness of the Bari Bari no Mi and the fact that it doesn’t render its user completely invulnerable – Bellamy’s spring-like hand was able to have some physical contact with the Super Rookie before his unfortunate downfall. How his power works is a mystery that will stay unanswered for now – whether there’s a time limit or certain requirement for activation – but what we know for certain is that there’s more to Bartolomeo than his big words and trolling antics, and whoever confronts the Cannibal is definitely not going to have it easy!
Then there’s the mysterious Gladiator Ricky – the early favorite for B-Block’s champion – who remained an enigma in all of this and where his ultimate loyalty lies has yet to be determined. Clearly, he shares Rebecca’s vehement hate for Doflamingo and there’s a good chance he might still turn out to be the legendary gladiator Kyros – though the age of years has evidently taken a toll on his fighting capabilities, as Blue Gilly pointed out. Now that the curtains at B-Block have been rung down, it seems like the spotlight will be shifting back to the rest of the Straw Hat crew, starting with Franky’s adventure with the One-Legged Soldier. It appears a coup d’état is in the making over at Dressrosa and without doubt, the huge question mark next to the living-toys is something that has fascinated me for quite some time – what are they and where did they come from? Trafalgar Law has mentioned back in Chapter 705 that the country seemed too peaceable in the face of Doflamingo’s sudden resignation, and there’s obviously something suspicious brewing in the backdrop that has not been made clear. The connection between the SMILE factory and the living-toys could be more crucial than we think and it’s entirely possible that the omacha are in fact, the product of inanimate objects that have been infused with man-made Devil Fruits. Those are just some of the questions that I hope Oda sensei will address in the next few chapters but in any event, it does seem like the bundle of mysteries on Dressrosa is shaping up to be a very intriguing one and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the Straw Hats next week!
tl;dr: @SeishunRC – #OnePiece 709: And the winner of B-Block is…! A coup brewing in the backdrop and one that is spearheaded by toys.#Manga
Bartrollomeo
A troll and a badass. Bartolomeo’s growing on me :3
Considering how Bartolomea was able to protect the audience, I don’t suppose maybe he is a good person that is trying to get the Mera Mera no Mi for Luffy?
Well. anyway I wonder if the King would work together with Luffy, considering how the punch impressed Luffy then maybe the King can help destroy the Smile factory, and the complementary prize would be all the remaining smiles.
I don’t think Luffy needs any help with that – it’s just a mere factory, after all. His fighting capability is pretty destructive in its own right 😉
I’ve curious who Bartolomeo refers to when he says Ace’s fruit will belong to “him”.
It’s not the 7th Shichibukai for sure, because we already know the 7th one is a super powerful fruit user that can take out an entire warship with an admiral on it.
So could it be one of the yonkou? Big Mama or Kaido? If anything, I think if Kaido the Beast isn’t a fruit user, perhaps it’s for Kaido?
Are you referring to event referenced in One Piece Film Z? :3
Who knows! Maybe he’s going to sell the fruit at a pawn shop, that last statement could be one of his trolling antics XD
“Do you even know how to throw a punch?”
The king’s punch was more destructive than I thought, but clearly, it wasn’t enough to take down Bartolomeo. Poor Bellamy LOL
Nice reference to Luffy’s first encounter with the Bellamy Pirates in Jaya.
Looks like a flashback arc is brewing from the last panel.
I was under the assumption that Bartolomeo’s power lets him reflect damage back with his barrier at first, but since the King Punch wasnt instantly reflected back, that destroys that theory. Its weird how it can be used for offense though. He just shoots the barrier at you and you take damage from the impact? lol
If you’ve seen Tiger & Bunny, one of the villains, Jake Martinez has a similar ability – barriers that can be used both as defense and offense 😉
I have mixed feelings. Bellamy appeared to have gotten much stronger since we last saw him and his presence was nostalgic, but given how many new characters there were, and that the chapter focused mostly on them, I wonder if there was a need to bring him back at all, seeing as how he simply ended up as fodder for Bartolomeo? Maybe he will play a larger roll further on?
All I know for sure is that it seems Luffy has finally found a worthy opponent. Ever since the time skip things have been pretty one-sided for him, which I don’t mind, but I do sometimes miss the occasions where he had even fights…such as against Lucci and the CP9.
I can see where you’re coming from, but I have a feeling this is not going to be the last time we see Bellamy. There’s probably a good reason why Doflamingo has kept him around all this while and a potential match-up with one of the Straw Hats is still possible, if he is indeed on the Heavenly Yaksha’s side.
That punch would be more deadly combined with haki.
I wonder if Haki can negate the effect of Bartolomeo’s barriers :3
Definitely can,Busoshoku Haki allow the users to able hit the intangible Logia users
then whatnot for the barrier
His barriers are not elemental in nature? Who knows, I don’t think Bartolomeo’s gonna be too powerful a foe for Luffy to handle and clearly, he has more pressing problems at hand – Chinjao and Cavendish are still hot on his trails!
devil fruit breaking effect of haki is not limited to logias(elemental) users only, remember garp can hurt our rubberman with his fist of love
Elisabello’s punch never did seem like it would be up to much, ‘destroyed the entire castle’ had me thinking of this http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120328124540/onepiece/images/1/17/Gomu_Gomu_no_Gigant_Pistol.png
But the bari bari no mi could be interesting. I think, if haki doesn’t affect the barriers then Bartolomeo and luffy may end up in a stalemate as the barriers are just strong walls right? luffy would just bounce off…
Keh…all attack and no defense for the King. He’s the wrong opponent for someone who’s all defense, but attack is suppose to be the best defense? Anyways, this chapter answered my question from my last comment about Bartolomeo.
Umm do you need help Luffy?
I don’t think Bartolomeo’s ability is all defense – he was able to project the barriers in an offensive manner!
Luffy’s hanging tight, he’ll survive 😉
Hold on, I thought afterwards he reflected all that power back to the King’s face with his own destructive force added over his counterattack. Huh I’ll look at that again.
Anyone feels that the 7th Shichibukai might be Jewellery Bonney? Otherwise, I see no reason how she could have escaped from Admiral Akainu at that time when she was caught.
Making her the 7th warlord would really screw up the events of OP Film 3 Z…..
I always thought they were called the 7 warlords because there were 7 of them, and not that there were 7 of them because they were the 7 warlords. In other words that there’s no problem with there only being 6.
I really think the person bartolomeo refers to as him is Kaidou high chance that Oda might use this arc as a preamble into showing his reader just who this kind of the beasts is….that or by a cruel twist of fate he’s working with the still missing Gecko Moriah who returned to the new world.
I was expecting the King’s Punch to decimate the entire arena since they said he could destroy an entire fortress! But then again, such feats are almost always exaggerated.
Wow Bartolomeo was incredible. Sick power. First Jesus and now Bartolomeo. Luffy sure has his work cut out for him haha. But his block already looks tough enough with that old man. Not to mention that thing with Franky and the soldier. Can’t wait for the next chapter!
It should be noted that Bellamy did not lose to Bartolomeo. He managed to grab him and probably would have thrown him out of the ring but he was hit by the Kings Punch which ruined that plan.
It should be noted that Haki does not work on Barto’s barrier as a Vice Admiral was unable to beat it (and all VA’s know Haki)
You can’t really conclude that since we know little to nothing about that off screen battle between that vice admiral and Bartolomeo for all we know the marine got cocky and got thrashed by batrollomeo before he even used Haki. Add to the fact that Bart could have snuck up on the man and knocked him out before proceeding to beating the ever living hell out of his. So yeah to many unknowns can’t jsut conclude that Haki doesn’t work on this guy.
we can assume that bartolomeo just overpowered that cocky VA and i doubt that there is a fruit that is invurnerable to haki attacks. admirals can deflect/negate haki user’s attack just by overpowering in haki or avoid getting hit as seen in the marine ford war so we cant conclude that haki doesnt work on that guy’s DF