Warning: Full spoilers ahead for One Piece Chapter 1175.
Let me just say this upfront: this chapter delivered. Like, genuinely, properly delivered. Between devil fruit reveals, mythological lore dumps, Imu being absolutely furious, and our three favorite guys Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji each getting their moment to shine, Chapter 1175 is the kind of chapter that reminds you exactly why this manga has been running for nearly three decades and still feels as electric as ever.
The chapter is titled "Nidhogg," and if you've been following along with theories in the community, you probably already know why that name alone is a hype bomb. But let's go through everything piece by piece.
Summers Gets What He Deserves (And Then Some)
Coming off last chapter's brutal emotional rollercoaster parents throwing themselves off cliffs to hug their kids, the girl with no family finally being embraced, Road holding his little brother Oda had set the stage for a catharsis moment. Summers, grinning ear to ear while watching families suffer, was long overdue for a reality check.
And oh boy, did he get one.
When the rescue is pulled off and Summers realizes his plan has been thwarted, he does exactly what you'd expect from a monster like him he starts shooting thorns at the injured parents and guardians. Then the children, in an act of breathtaking bravery (and a touch of naivety), line up in front of their families to shield them. It's not going to work, obviously, but the gesture matters. Ripley is screaming at Colin to run. Colin refuses. Classic Oda he's going to wring every last drop of tension out of this before giving us the release.
And the release? Zoro. Just Zoro, arriving at exactly the right moment, blocking every single thorn. It's a simple scene on paper but so satisfying in execution. Luffy's reaction makes it even better — "Good job, Zoro. I knew I could trust you." And Zoro, never one for sentimentality, just replies: "Figured that's what you had in mind. Now do it."
This is the dynamic we love. No long speeches, no dramatics. Just two crewmates who understand each other completely.
Then Luffy introduces Zoro to Summers "He's from my crew and his name is Zoro. Don't you forget that." and if that line doesn't make you feel something, I don't know what to tell you. Luffy talking up his nakama never gets old.
What follows is Luffy's big moment. He grabs a literal lightning bolt from a cloud with one hand, takes aim with the other, and fires a Gear 5 upgraded version of the classic Rifle attack the Goumu no Dawn Thor Rifle, or roughly, "White Thunder Rotating Bullet." The name matters less than the visual: a giant electrified fist slamming into Summers so hard that his body physically breaks apart, teeth flying, face splitting into pieces. Two full double-page spreads dedicated to this man getting absolutely wrecked, first by Luffy's punch and then by giant dragon Loki stomping on what's left of him.
After everything he did, it felt earned. More than earned.
Nidhogg Confirmed — The Loki Devil Fruit Reveal
Now here's where the chapter really kicks into another gear.
In a flashback to just after Loki leaves the castle, Yahu explains to Shanks and Scooper what Loki's devil fruit actually is: the Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Mythical Model: Nidhogg (also spelled Nithhogg). Whoever eats it transforms into the world's largest dragon but crucially, the ceiling on how massive the user can become scales with the eater's original body size. A human would become enormous. A giant becomes even larger. An ancient giant? We're talking a dragon whose wingspan can reportedly turn day into night.
That last detail is genuinely epic. There's something almost classical about it it calls to mind old descriptions of armies firing so many arrows they blotted out the sun. Except here it's one single creature doing it just by flying. Oda does not do anything small when it comes to scale.
What's fascinating on a mythological level is how well this fits Loki as a character. In Norse mythology, Nidhogg is the fearsome serpent-dragon that endlessly gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. It represents entropy, decay, and the relentless destructive forces that work against even the most permanent-seeming structures. Nothing is immune to time. Nothing is indestructible. Even the divine can be eroded.
Sound like a theme One Piece is interested in? Yeah. The World Government, the immortal Imu, the seemingly unbreakable world order Nidhogg as a symbolic force feels almost tailor-made for what's coming.
Ragnar and Ratatoskr — The Hammer's Secret
If the Nidhogg reveal wasn't enough, Oda immediately follows it up with the explanation for why that devil fruit was guarded by Ragnar's hammer all this time.
Yahu explains that in Elbaf's legend, there is a "waring deity" a god of war who wielded a weapon called Ragnar. This god once turned into a gigantic dragon and fought against the sun god, and at his side was his trusted companion: Ratatoskr, the ice squirrel. When the god of war fell, Ratatoskr's spirit did not simply disappear. Instead, it passed into the hammer itself and Ragnar has been guarding the Nidhogg fruit ever since, waiting for someone powerful enough to inherit it.
This is a significant piece of lore for a few reasons. First, it strongly suggests that some devil fruits are directly connected to real historical beings creatures or people whose will and power became crystallized into the fruit itself after death. We've seen this hinted at before with Zoan fruits carrying the "will" of their model animal, but this pushes it further. Second, the ice powers we've seen associated with the Loki fight were apparently Ragnar's (Ratatoskr's) doing, not Nidhogg's which clears up a point of confusion from earlier in the arc.
And third the sun god fighting the god of war. In the brief visual Oda gives us, the sun god looks identical to Luffy. Same face, same energy, different outfit (sword, shield, loin cloth). This raises an obvious and compelling question: why were they fighting? Was it a misunderstanding, like Luffy and Loki's rough start? Or was Nidhogg once on Imu's side, perhaps as a victim of Imu's mind control?
There's something almost poetic about the idea that Luffy's liberation power the Drums of Liberation — might eventually be what frees beings like Loki from any lingering influence. But that's speculation for another chapter.
Loki Unleashed and Imu's Fury
The back half of the chapter belongs to Loki. Freed from restraint and fully transformed, he fires a massive lightning attack called "Thunder World" at the swarm of dream monsters and the name fits. When you're a dragon that can blot out the sky, everything you do is on a world scale. The attack obliterates most of the dream monsters in a single move. This isn't even him at full power. This is warm-up Loki. And it's terrifying in the best possible way.
Meanwhile, Imu the real one, watching from a room full of flowers back in Mariah finally lays eyes on what's happening in Elbaf. Their reaction is fury, but also something more specific. Looking at Loki, they say: "I see, Nidhogg. That's where thou have been all this time."
That line is doing a lot of work. Imu didn't know exactly what fruit Elbaf had been guarding. And the fact that they recognize Nidhogg by name, with that particular flavor of fury, suggests a history. Whether Nidhogg was once an enemy of Imu's or something Imu considered theirs to command, we don't know yet. But it's clear the stakes just escalated considerably.
Final Thoughts
Chapter 1175 is the kind of chapter that rewards long-term readers while remaining completely exciting in the moment. The emotional payoff on Summers, the lore drops on two different devil fruits, the mythological layering, the monster trio each getting a spotlight moment it all clicks together in that way that only Oda can manage when he's truly cooking.
The title "Nidhogg" alone felt like a victory lap for everyone who called it. But more than the theories, what matters is that the reveal actually works. The symbolism fits. The power scales correctly. And the questions it raises about Joy Boy, the god of war, and Imu's ancient grudges are exactly the kind that make you desperate for the next chapter.
No break next week. Good. We need answers.
Rating: 9.5/10
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