We Need to Talk About That Death Flag in One Piece 1168... Worth the Wait? Why Chapter 1168 Was Essential Setup. Chapter 1168 just dropped, and we finally know why Elbaf And World Government Connections. Let's break down the 3 hidden details you missed on page 15. Just when we thought the Elbaph arc was going to be a straightforward adventure about Vikings and honor, Oda drops a chapter that feels incredibly heavy. "Elbaph’s Snow" isn't just a weather report; it sets a mood of suffocating grief that permeates every page. This chapter does exactly what One Piece does best: it takes a localized tragedy and ties it directly to the overarching global conspiracy involving Imu.
If the spoilers hold true, this is one of those pivotal flashback chapters that recontextualizes the entire present-day conflict.
Rating: 9.5/10
Vibe: Tragic, Lore-Heavy, Atmospheric
The death of Ida is the emotional anchor here. Oda has a history of using snow to frame tragedy (think Chopper and Dr. Hiluluk or Monet), and it seems he’s doing it again to devastating effect.
What stands out is the reaction of the survivors. We see Harald and Hajrudin openly devastated, which fits the expressive nature of the Giants. But the real focus is Loki. His "silence in imprisonment" is haunting. It paints Loki not as a maniacal villain, but perhaps as a broken prince someone who internalized the grief while Harald sought power to cope. It adds layers to Loki’s character that we desperately needed. Is his current behavior in the present timeline a result of this trauma unresolved?
The Shanks Twist: The "Deep Sea Pact"
This is the bombshell of the chapter. For years, fans have speculated about Shanks' connection to the World Government or the "Gods," and this chapter throws fuel on that fire.
The revelation that Shanks was the intended recipient of the "Deep Sea Pact" 14 years ago is massive.
Why did he no-show? It fits Shanks perfectly. He has always been the character who rejects forced destiny (like Luffy). By not showing up, he likely rejected a path that would have bound him to Imu or the World Government.
The Consequence: Because Shanks chose freedom, Harald chose power. It creates a fascinating foil dynamic. Harald is the "Knight of God" that Shanks refused to be.
The Rise of Harald & The Shadow of Imu
We finally have a concrete connection between Elbaph and the Empty Throne. Harald receiving "immortality" and becoming a "Knight of God" is terrifying. It implies that the World Government has had a super-soldier sleeper agent in Elbaph for over a decade.
The "Abyss Circle" mentioned in the spoilers sounds ominous. Knowing Imu, this isn't just a magic circle; it’s likely a weapon of mass destruction or a way to sink islands (similar to Lulusia). If Imu ordered Harald to build an army, it explains why the Giants have been so militarized or divided. Harald isn't just a king or a warrior; he is Imu’s puppet.
Critical Insights & Theories
1. The Nature of the Deep Sea Pact
What is this pact? Given the name "Deep Sea," it might be related to the actual Devil Fruits (hated by the sea) or the ancient weapons (Poseidon). If Shanks was meant to have it, was he being groomed to be a Gorosei member or a Holy Knight commander? His refusal might be the reason the World Government is so wary of him he knows what they offered him.
2. Loki vs. Harald
This flashback frames the inevitable conflict. Loki likely knows about Harald’s deal with the devil (Imu). Loki's imprisonment might not be because he was "evil," but because he opposed Harald’s corruption of Elbaph. The ending, with Loki and Jarul arriving at the castle, suggests the silent prisoner is finally making his move.
3. The Immortality Trap
Immortality in One Piece usually comes at a high cost (like the Ope Ope no Mi). If Harald is immortal, how do the Straw Hats fight him? This sets up a raid boss scenario that might require Nika's power to break the "God's" blessing.
Conclusion
One Piece Chapter 1168 feels like the calm before the storm or rather, the freezing cold before the blizzard. It answers why Elbaph feels "off" and connects the land of warriors to the final villain of the series. The image of Loki suffering in silence while snow falls is going to stick with us for a long time.
Verdict: An essential chapter that turns the "Shanks is evil" theory on its head while introducing a terrifying new antagonist in Harald.
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About
One Piece Manga Online
One Piece (Japanese: ワンピース Hepburn:
Wan Pisu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro
Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine
since July 22, 1997, and has been collected into 94 tankobon volumes.
Enter Monkey D. Luffy, a 17-year-old boy that defies your standard definition of a pirate. Rather than the popular persona of a wicked, hardened, toothless pirate who ransacks villages for fun, Luffy’s reason for being a pirate is one of pure wonder; the thought of an exciting adventure and meeting new and intriguing people, along with finding One Piece, are his reasons of becoming a pirate. Following in the footsteps of his childhood hero, Luffy and his crew travel across the Grand Line, experiencing crazy adventures, unveiling dark mysteries and battling strong enemies, all in order to reach One Piece.
7 comments:
The chapter spoiler kind of confirms that the Abyss gate can only be created by people from God’s Knight affiliation level to Imu and that God’s Blade can’t do it. We still need to know whether God’s Blade can be ported in the Abyss gate with their weak mark, for instance if they are travelling alone and along with a God’s Knight.
Maybe only people with regeneration powers (God’s Knights and God’s Warriors) can be ported through the gates without dying. Or it’s totally unrelated to regeneration but more related to Imu’s powers that can’t be bypassed to God’s Blades due to weak affiliation with Imu.
Ok, so it's looking like harald basically orders his underlings to kill him. And jarul with the sword in his head doesn't even properly remember the events that lead up to this. And with the school and a decades long period of giants going from uncivilized animals to educated peace lovers there wasn't even a proper need for a king after he was gone. Without a central figure to rule over elbaf the World government didn't have who to turn to one harald was gone. Hence the general annoyance with harald by sommers and the attempts to recruit loki that had the strength and bloodline to claim elbaf. Which also explains imu's hail mary with making dorry and broggy into the kings of elbaf.
Harald didn’t “end up looking dumb” because Rocks forgot to give him some Imu tutorial.
It’s not Imu’s status as a secret ruler that would’ve stopped Harald from serving the WG. It’s Imu’s order: turn the giants into a literal army. That command is in direct conflict with Harald’s own goal of turning Elbaf into peace-loving citizens. If that’s his core ideal, then that is the point where service to Imu/WG becomes incompatible, regardless of whether Imu is public, secret, on a throne, or in a basement.
And on top of that, Harald does meet Imu and still appears to accept the Deep Sea Pact. If Imu’s mere existence as a shadow sovereign was such a deal-breaker, he shouldn’t have taken the seal in the first place after that encounter. But he does. That’s on Harald, not on Rocks “forgetting” to brief him.
As for “Rocks knew about Imu’s body-possessing marks,” the manga has never shown Rocks being aware of Imu’s possession marks or the specific seal mechanics. That’s your headcanon, not something backed by the text.
Harald later personally walks into Pangea, sees someone sitting on the “Empty Throne,” hears Imu say “That… is something Mu will decide,” gets branded with the Depths Covenant, is promised “Knighthood of Immortality,” sails back to Elbaf, and then, of his own will, carves the Abyss pentagram as the mark of his bond with Mu.
At that point, he isn’t acting on Rocks’ second-hand intel; he has first-hand confirmation that there’s a hidden sovereign above the WG and still chooses to bind himself and his country to that figure. And in the present, Elbaf is suffering under the God’s Knights because of that exact pentagram he obediently created.
So sure, criticize Rocks for not warning him if you want; I’m not defending that. I’m saying that, in terms of actual causality and responsibility, Harald still ends up in the same place because of Harald’s own decisions, not because Rocks forgot to give him a briefing.
Why didn't the Roger pirates tell the whole world about the truth of what they found? Why didn't Rocks tell the whole world about Imu? Or Garp since he also saw him at God Valley? Why didn't Sengoku tell Law more about his relationship with Corazon? Etc. It's useless to waste time on these hypotheticals as you can find one for almost every character with various degrees of impact. Don't focus so much on what other characters didn't do and focus on what they've done. The reality is that the point of OP is that the characters need to find out the truth by themselves vs having it told by someone else. It's literally about the journey.
Imu upgrades Harald’s mark to the Depths Covenant, calls him a “Knight of Immortality,” and then says: “Craft an Abyss (Pentagram) in Elbaf for me, as a mark for the bond between us…!”
We cut to Harald sailing back to Elbaf.
Then: “Harald created the ‘Abyss’ in the throne room of the Aurust Castle.”
After that, Imu’s next order is to turn Elbaf into a military nation, and that’s when the spoilers explicitly say his body starts moving on its own and spell out the condition that he can’t defy Imu’s orders.
So the text ties the loss of freedom to the “make Elbaf a military nation” order, not to the earlier command to carve the pentagram. On the page, the Abyss creation still reads as Harald obeying an order he accepts because he wants Elbaf in the WG, not as a scene where his body is visibly hijacked.
If, once the full chapter drops, Oda shows that Imu was already puppeteering Harald’s body while the Abyss was being made, then sure, you can say Harald wasn’t responsible for that specific act and argue that Rocks accidentally set events in motion by keeping that information concealed from him. But even then, Rocks didn’t do it with knowledge of Imu’s possession ability. He knew Imu existed; he didn’t know Imu would personally brand Harald and weaponize him. The story even shows Rocks getting furious when he hears Imu is manipulating Harald and Elbaf; you can argue that this very conversation is what pushes Rocks over the edge into his full demon state. That’s not the reaction of someone who calmly handed a friend over for magical enslavement.
On the other hand, if Harald carved the Abyss while still in control, then that part is on him. He met Imu, saw the Empty Throne lie, accepted the Depths Covenant and immortality, sailed home with time to think, and still crafted the pentagram that later lets the God’s Knights invade Elbaf. In that scenario, blaming Rocks for Harald’s own decision is pointless; it would be just trying to shift responsibility away from the guy who actually sealed the deal.
Blundering aside, at this point, I think we're left to assume that Oda is writing Harald as a supporting character instead of a central one, and that Loki is meant to be the central character. Harald is only there not as a fan-favorite like Oden, but simply as someone meant to elevate other characters, Loki being the one in this case.
Oda is writing Loki as sympathetic at every turn, something he's not giving Harald nearly as much attention with.
Clearly, Loi and Hajrudin are the ones meant to continue their dad's legacy in achieving peaceful relations between giants and humans, but will accomplish that with Luffy's help.
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