X Never Marks the Spot

Poor lipsticked, curly purple-haired Iceberg. ;_;

I'm amazed that Oda can have a character with permanent bedhair be hurt and have it be dramatic. He's become a master of making us take things seriously.

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Ah, he's been doing that since Usopp, at least!

Tho' yah, Iceberg...loving him much. Don't want anything worse to happen to him - but I'm sure he'll want Pauley to go with them, to fulfill Pauley's dream (whatever that may be). The shipyard can be rebuilt, but opportunities like Luffy don't come along more than once in a lifetime...

and I had the same thought about Kaku lying about the Merry. Waah! Who DO we trust? Not Oda-sensei, that's for damn sure!! (love him, yes. trust him, no way!)

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Yeah, Usopp's been great practice for him. He can now do -anything- with character design and we'll still take it seriously. ^^

My concern isn't over what Iceberg wants. I think Paulie won't want to abandon Iceberg at this time. That's the point behind the manly tied up heart to heart he and Luffy are having. Of course, he may want to join Luffy out of gratitude for his help ... but I'm still not convinced he's the new shipwright, and won't be unless he joins.

How do you tell the -bottom- of a ship is broken just from walking around the top, anyway? I've been wondering that for a while. Maybe he went below without us seeing it.

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Iceberg in particular looks to hale from the long & distinguished line of 'parent figures who appear to be utter lunatics until you are given no choice but to love them'. I mean, Gen-san's pinwheel practically brings tears to one's eye by the end. To say nothing of Zeff, with the hat, and that mustache, and the peg leg which is no cheap pirate joke by the end of the arc...
Oda-sensei gets way too much of a charge out of deceiving appearances. >_>

I'm not 100% convinced of Pauley's nakamaship, but it is looking very likely to me...I think if they fix everything up properly Iceberg will be able to convince Pauley to go. If it is what he wants to do, in his heart of hearts. But, yah, can't predict. Tho' if Luffy declares him to be nakama I'd say it's a done deal, no matter what Pauley says (I hope he resists. those are always the funniest moments!) And Luffy was looking a touch sparkly about the rope no yatsu by the end there...

The only reason I'd question whether Kaku was lying about the Merry is that I can't see what it would gain them; CP9 hasn't shown any interest in the Strawhats except as scapegoats. Unless it was to provide a reasonable motive for Luffy to attack Iceberg...?
(...so were they CP9 all along, and just happened to be genius shipwrights to boot? or did CP9 recruit them especially because of their shipwrighting skillz? or were they faking the shipwrighting? inquiring minds want to know!)

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Yeah, it's such a Zeff and Sanji thing, which is why I think it'll Paulie, not Iceberg, who objects to him leaving. I still just can't see Paulie fitting in. But that's just me, some people say they can see him fitting in perfectly.

At the end, Kaku says they were never working for Iceberg, that they were working for the government all along. As to their skills, Paulie learned shipbuilding from Iceberg, so it's possible they all apprenticed under him. Which would be even more Ouch.

Possible reasons to fake a broken GM:
Gives the strawhats a motive to hurt Iceberg
Makes them think they can't escape on their ship
Distraction to keep them from going after Robin.

These all did happen, but weren't neccessarily planned. I wanna keep the GM, tho. If only because that means we keep Usopp. ^^

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To be honest I'm not sure how Pauley would fit in with the crew myself, but then I wasn't sure how a two-foot-tall blue-nosed reindeer could possibly be a nakama, and now I can't imagine them without Chopper, so...

Ouch indeed. Poor Iceberg. I wonder how long they've been working under him...? (and yes, I agree it would be hard for Pauley to go...I don't think Sanji would've left so easily if all the chefs had suddenly turned on Zeff. Tho' depending on how the arc's resolved...)

Hmm, but why would CP9 care if Luffy-tachi escaped?
For that matter...why'd they shoot Iceberg to begin with? They didn't kill him because they weren't sure where the plans were, I'm guessing, but why give him that kind of warning? then they wouldn't have had to battle their way through half the population of the town keen on protecting their mayor. Unless they were hoping to flush the plans by scaring him enough to go running for them (and we still don't know where they are, do we...hmm...) (Or am I missing something totally obvious? I need to reread all the arc thus far, I keep losing track of details. there's a lot to keep track of here! ^^;)

and I'd like to keep the GM, too, but I don't think Usopp's staying is dependent on it staying...I sure as hell hope not. Losing the GM I can take; losing Usopp...not so much!

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Didn't they just show up & injure Iceberg purposly to set up Robin as the attacker? And with her, the Strawhat pirates? That's what I thought... And now I'm all afraid of hoping the GM might come out of this okay, because I was just getting used to the thought of losing it. (Which hurt, but not as much as losing Usopp would!)

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Yup, they were trying to flush out the plans. But Iceberg, fortunately, wasn't stupid enough to fall for that.

Well, I dunno. They could've gotten the straw hats to show up just by using Robin, so I guess we'll have to wait and see so far as the GM. But it certainly gives credence to Usopp's "You're trusting strangers!" remarks.

I trust that we're keeping Usopp, but for that to happen the GM thing has to resolve somehow, so that's just one way. ^^

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That's yet another thing I never would have figured - Usopp wasn't just overreacting, he was right. At least about trusting the first shipwright they came across, even though he probably never imagined anything like this...

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Yeah, poor Luffy's gonna love hearing that... oh well, so long as it leads to make up sex.

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BWAH! With fangirls around, what doesn't? ^_~

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don't think Iceberg's gonna die, but I'm suspicious that anyone will - Oda-sensei hasn't killed anyone yet, and I personally have no interest in seeing him start. Besides, if Iceberg dies, Pauley will have to stay behind to rebuild the shipyard...

--but I totally agree, no predicting Oda, and NO predicting this arc. Except I do think, with absolute conviction, that it will get better still. Because so far he's gone no where but up...

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And on break. For a week. Don't forget that bit - so he can be absolutely sure our brains are well and truly broken by the time he unleashes the next bit of this story on us...

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*bursts into anguished tears*

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