Chapter 717: Dressrosa's Forgotten

Arc: Dressrosa · Saga: Dressrosa · Released: 2013-07-29

Summary

At the Corrida Colosseum, the Block C battle royale collapses to two as the clash of wills between “Lucy” (Luffy) and the aged Conqueror’s-Haki wielder knocks every other fighter unconscious. The old man asks what kind of King Luffy means to be; when Luffy answers “King of the Pirates,” the man lectures that the title belongs only to whoever stands atop all the souls of “Supreme King” quality on the seas ahead. Recognizing the Haki, he asks who taught it — and at the name Rayleigh (“so he’s still alive…”) he breaks down, bawling over a lost treasure and demanding to know “what did Garp do to me?!!” He names himself Chin Jao the Drill and charges Luffy, his grandsons Sai and Boo cheering. Outside, Sanji and Kin’emon weigh how to warn Luffy and rescue Kanjuro while the Navy rings the arena; Vice Admiral “Shark-Slicer” Bastille notes the sinister fact that hundreds of Block A/B losers never left, and that Vice Admiral Maynard entered incognito as a contestant and went silent. Elsewhere a one-legged toy soldier walks Franky through the city and delivers the arc’s central revelation: every living toy in Dressrosa was once a human, transformed ten years ago by “someone wielding dreadful powers” Doflamingo brought with him, and erased from their loved ones’ memory — “this kingdom is divided into the Forgotten and the Forgetters.” On Greenbit, Zoro trades blows with a taunting opponent while failing to reach Nami by snail; and beneath the forest the Tontatta Kingdom of dwarves — with Robin (“Robiland”) and Leo — mobilizes for a “final battle,” revealing ~500 dwarves are enslaved in a secret SMILE factory beneath the coliseum and that their Princess Mansherry is held captive there.

New reveals

• The cloaked Block C finalist names himself “Chin Jao the Drill” (p. 6); his and Luffy’s wills colliding leaves only the two standing of the whole block (p. 3).
• Chin Jao knows Rayleigh and is shocked he’s still alive (p. 4) — a Garp/Roger-era contemporary; he asks “Who taught you the ways of that Haki?!” and Luffy names Rayleigh.
• Chin Jao’s grudge is a stolen treasure: he weeps that “the despicable slime… lies my treasure,” that no “living hell” is more pernicious, and screams “What did Garp do to me?!!” (pp. 5–6) before charging Luffy.
• Vice Admiral “Shark-Slicer” Bastille (Navy HQ) is introduced outside the coliseum (p. 8). He flags that hundreds of losers from Blocks A and B never left the arena — and that Vice Admiral Maynard went in undercover as a contestant and hasn’t reported in.
• Dressrosa’s two laws (since Doflamingo’s reign began a decade ago): midnight curfew sending toys to the House of Toys and humans home; and a strict ban on toys entering human houses / humans entering the House of Toys — billed as “a solemn boundary between artificial creations and biological humans” (pp. 9–10).
• The living toys were people. Every toy in Dressrosa was once human; ten years ago Doflamingo brought “someone wielding dreadful powers” who “turned all of us into toys,” and the transformed are forgotten by everyone who knew them — “the Forgotten and the Forgetters” (pp. 13–14).
• The Tontatta Kingdom lies beneath Greenbit; ~500 dwarves are enslaved in a secret SMILE factory “beneath da coliseum” — the same factory the alliance set out to destroy — and Princess Mansherry is held captive there (pp. 18–19). The dwarves mobilize a “final battle” alongside the captain’s “Riku Army.”

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Mentions / appearances

• Characters: Luffy (“Lucy”), Chin Jao (“Chin Jao the Drill”), Sai, Boo, Garp (referenced), Rayleigh (referenced), Sanji, Kin’emon, Kanjuro (referenced — held captive), Bastille (debut), Maynard (referenced — incognito contestant), Franky, Doflamingo (referenced), Zoro, Nami (referenced — won’t answer the snail), Nico Robin (“Robiland”), Usopp (“Usoland,” whose Haki the dwarves sense), Leo, Mansherry (named — captive). Unnamed: the one-legged toy soldier (with “SOL” on his cap) who guides Franky; toy characters and “forgetters” (Esta; the woman Milo and her son “One”).
• Groups: Donquixote Pirates (the “Don Quixote Family,” leaving the palace), Marines, Chin Jao Family, Dwarves (the Tontatta), dwarf squads “Cub’s Yellow Cubs” and “Bian’s Pink Bees.”
• Locations: Corrida Colosseum, Dressrosa (House of Toys; Flower Hill / the flower field), Greenbit, Tontatta Kingdom.
• Concepts: SMILE, Living Toys of Dressrosa, Conqueror’s (“Supreme King”) Haki.

Notable panels

Note: page-021.jpg in this folder is misfiled — it is the title page of Chapter 718: “Riku Army at the Flower Field,” which also carries the cover story “Caribou’s New World, Kee Hee Hee, Vol. 35: ‘A Battleship at the Shore!!’” *Chapter 717 itself runs pp. 1–20 and has no separate cover-story comic (its color title spread fills the opening).

Open questions raised

• Who is the unnamed wielder of the “dreadful powers” who turns people into toys, and how does the memory-erasure work / can it be undone?
• What exactly did Garp do to Chin Jao — what was the “treasure” and “memories of my youth” he lost?
• Where do the vanished Block A/B losers go, and is Vice Admiral Maynard among the disappeared?
• Who is the one-legged toy soldier guiding Franky, and what is his stake in the rebellion (he was about to finish the sentence “you’re actually a—?!”)?
• Who is Zoro fighting on Greenbit, and why won’t Nami answer the snail?