Chapters · Dressrosa › Punk Hazard
Chapter 674: The Observers
This chapter's foreshadowing ledger — what it plants, what it pays off, and what debuts here. Locked seeds pay off beyond your ⚓ progress; tap one to reveal it anyway.
- Plants
- 5 seeds🌱 chekhov-explicit🌱 chekhov-explicit🌱 chekhov-explicit🌱 chekhov-explicit🌱 chekhov-explicit
- Firsts
- Caesar's Gas-Gas Fruit fully demonstrated — he controls all air within a diameter around him, can remove oxygen to suffocate or to extinguish fire
- Caesar's gas techniques named on-page: Black Ball (Storm Cloud) and Gastanets
- Brownbeard survived the Yeti Cool Brothers' beating (charred), snaps free of Caesar's hold and attacks him
- Caesar reveals Brownbeard's entire crew were permanently reduced to mindless guinea-pig servants who worship him while being kept alive only as experiment subjects
- Caesar runs a worldwide live broadcast to illicit brokers, offering his improved poison-gas weapon for sale (war/domination/'nation-hijacking')
- The new gas weapon has 'additional effects beyond what was employed four years ago' — the four-years-ago disaster was Caesar's prior gas weapon
- Monet is preparing 'Smiley's meal'; something 'is waiting for Smiley to arrive' — Smiley named, not shown
Arc: Punk Hazard · Saga: Dressrosa · Released: 2012-07-23
Summary
At the ruins of Labs One and Two on the icy side, Team Nami/Usopp/Sanji confront Caesar Clown over the kidnapped giant children, who scream for their “Master” and beg for candy. Caesar mocks the rescue and, when the drug-addicted children break their chains with monstrous strength and Usopp’s Fire-Bird Star fails, demonstrates the full reach of his Gas-Gas Fruit: he extinguishes the fire and suffocates Usopp and Sanji by stripping the oxygen from the air, then drops them with a “Black Ball.” As Caesar orders the children to bludgeon their rescuers, the charred-but-alive Brownbeard — who survived the Cool Brothers’ beating — turns on his “Master.” Caesar reveals that Brownbeard’s whole crew were permanently broken into worshipful guinea pigs and blasts him with “Gastanets.” Caesar then loads the children onto a flying gas balloon, has Monet confirm “Smiley’s meal” is ready, and opens a worldwide broadcast to illicit brokers, offering a live test of his improved poison-gas weapon — deadlier than “what was employed four years ago” — for war, domination, and “nation-hijacking.” A broker takes the deal. The chapter cuts to Brook beside a screaming, terrified man.
New reveals
- Caesar’s oxygen control. The Gas-Gas Fruit lets him manipulate all the air within a set diameter around him — fire “cannot burn without oxygen,” and a person “cannot survive without oxygen to breathe” (pp. 7–8). He extinguishes Usopp’s fire and suffocates both Usopp and Sanji at will.
- Named Gas-Gas techniques: “Storm Cloud / Black Ball” (p. 8) and “Gastanets” (an explosive gas blast, p. 14).
- Brownbeard survived. He was beaten (“charred all over”) by the Yeti Cool Brothers, not killed — and now snaps free of Caesar’s drug-control to attack him (pp. 10–12).
- The depth of Caesar’s betrayal: Brownbeard’s entire force were permanently turned into Caesar’s “servants” and “guinea pigs,” kept alive only to be experimented on while revering him as a “merciful savior”; “you don’t have any men anymore” (pp. 12–13).
- Caesar is an arms dealer. He broadcasts a live weapon test to “all illicit brokers around the world,” pitching a poison-gas WMD with “additional effects beyond what was employed four years ago” for war/domination/“nation-hijacking”; a broker agrees to deal (pp. 16–17).
- Smiley is named (not shown): Monet is preparing “Smiley’s meal,” and the demonstration “is waiting for Smiley to arrive” (p. 15).
Foreshadowing seeds planted
Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)
Mentions / appearances
- Caesar Clown · Brownbeard · Monet (voice via Den Den Mushi) · Smiley (named, not shown) · Sanji · Nami · Usopp · Brook (p. 18)
- Referenced: Trafalgar Law (p. 2 — “Law told us he’s a Logia worth 300 million”) · Yeti Cool Brothers (“the Cool Brothers gave you a licking”, p. 12)
- Punk Hazard (ruins of Labs One and Two, icy side) · Gasu Gasu no Mi · Straw Hat Pirates · the captive giant children (Punk Hazard’s Captive Children) · the worldwide illicit brokers (unnamed)
Notable panels
- Page 1 — Title page “The Observers” + Limited Cover Series, No. 20: “A Scream Echoes Through the Mermaid Inlet” .
- Page 7 — Caesar’s oxygen-control speech: “Fire cannot burn without oxygen… I can control all of the air within a certain diameter around me!!”
- Page 8 — “Storm cloud… Black Ball!!” — Usopp and Sanji suffocate and collapse.
- Page 11 — “It’s Brownbeard!! We’re saved!!” — the charred centaur attacks Caesar.
- Page 14 — “You swine!! Gastanets!!!” — Caesar blasts Brownbeard.
- Page 15 — The flying gas balloon (CC logo) retrieves the children; “Monet, is Smiley’s meal ready?!”
- Pages 16–17 — Caesar broadcasts to the world’s illicit brokers; rows of unseen “Observers” watch; “…then let’s make a deal!!!”
- Page 18 — Cut to Brook and a screaming, terrified man: “What’s wrong?!!” / “Aaaah!!”
Open questions raised
- What is Smiley, and what is the “meal” Monet is preparing for it?
- Who are the worldwide illicit brokers, and how large is the underworld arms market Caesar is selling into?
- Did Brownbeard survive the Gastanets blast?
- Who is the terrified man with Brook on the final page, and what did they find?