King Of The What Now?

Look, the actual anime had a plot with an old man and some goats. The goats were cute and Zenny is fine- neither great nor awful. So once again, we get distracted by other topics! We discuss the series "best girl" so far, we get distracted by Kingdom Hearts for a fair bit, and then focus on who Coby's rival could be, as well as reflecting on Luffy's personality and whether it's a good fit for the role of Pirate King. Oh, and Kathryn finds us the shadiest of sponsors. We're just going to ignore that

We could dwell on 5 less-than-stellar filler episodes to end the Alabasta saga, or we could discuss the bigger narrative picture. We discuss the importance of children in One Piece, we speculate about future crew members and the state of the Warlords of the Sea, and Vivi's role in the series going forward.

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It is, sadly, time to depart from Alabasta, but not before Mr. 2 Bon Clay makes a surprising return! Curtis speculates about future Warlords of the Sea the crew may encounter, and the marines get a lot of focus. Tashigi gets some character growth and Smoker's best friend Hina shows up, along with 2 familiar faces! Get ready folks, Season 2 is quickly coming to an end!

Yes, that's right, the vile Bastard Man (TM) has been bested! Not only that, but we get some major developments. We talk about Tashigi and Smoker's sense of justice, and how their viewpoints might be changing. We discuss Robin's past briefly and then focus on the tantalizing mystery of the poneglyphs. And it's pretty much unanimous that the final Luffy/Crocodile showdown was the best one yet!

The battle for Alabasta continues, and we get a major level-up moment for Zoro, and our favorite rubber man is back on the front line! We discuss Crocodile's showboating nature, the tragedy of Kohza's rebellion, what it means to be a swordsman, and the lengths to which Nami will go to protect Princess Vivi.

The battles for Alabasta are underway, and we have a good time discussing a new intro that reveals... SPOILERS?? What kind of a world is this! Sanji, Chopper, and Usopp get their moments to shine, and we find out that the Alabasta Palace is 4000 years old (incredible!). Curtis thinks he knows what Pluton is, and it might lead to skeleton rave parties. Glowsticks not included in this episode

The stage is set and the battle begins between Luffy and Crocodile! And.... ends with the protagonist... defeated!? Not only is there a dramatic battle, but we also have ducks being the best gosh darn animal companions they can be. This leads into discussions of One Piece animals at large, talk of the deeper lore surrounding devil fruits, and Curtis plays a clever trick when asked to theorize.

For this week's episode, we return to the main canon of One Piece, and most of the straw hats have been captured! We talk a lot about Miss All Sunday, including the strange name of her devil fruit, and the mysterious origin of her bounty. Things in Alabasta are really heating up and we're about to start the climax of the arc!

Chopper becomes king of the animals in the third One Piece movie, and Curtis laments the fact that our furry anime friend didn't get to do much despite it being his movie! Then we move on to talking about soccer and curling, and which villain would be most likely to play tennis? All that and more in this week's episode of King of the What Now!

A lot of philosophy in this episode. Luffy tries to teach Vivi a lesson with his fists, Zoro talks about what teamwork is, Vivi talks about the "shape of a country," And we mostly focus on Crocodile's first real appearance and Toto, the old man with a dream of a prosperous Yuba.