When I tell you that Monkey D. Luffy stands on business, I mean that. So in this episode, Luffy and Koby (I’ve seen his name spelled “Coby” as well, but I’m sticking with Koby) arrive on the island where the Navy is stationed. Koby, although a coward, dreams of joining the Navy and is incredibly excited. Luffy’s just there to find the pirate hunter, Roronoa Zoro, to join his pirate crew.
Helmeppo is the son of Captain Morgan (I’ll get to that guy) and everything we all hate about nepo babies: annoying, entitled, and an all-around asshole. He loves terrorizing the residents of the island by name-dropping his Daddy at every opportunity. Helmeppo, on his own, is a bitch. Plain and simple. All talk, no substance or hands. As long as he invokes his father’s name, people will do whatever he wants. How many of us have dealt with a nepo baby like Helmeppo? A punk (usually a man) who abuses the position of power handed to them. A cretin who makes everyone’s lives miserable just because. Yeah, Helmeppo ain’t shit.
Back to Zoro. So he’s just sitting there eating his food (something so many people need to do instead of minding everyone else’s business) when Helmeppo walks his silly ass into the restaurant. He brings his dog and a few soldiers with him and they wreak havoc. A little girl named Rika tries to shoo the mutt away and Helmeppo of course threatens to arrest the little girl and her mother. Zoro beats that ass but now has to decide if he’ll take Rika and her mom’s place in prison to save their lives. The men agree that Zoro will stay strung up on what looks like a crucifix for 100 days.
Enter Luffy and Koby. They find Zoro, who’s been on that crucifix for three weeks. Luffy being Luffy, he wants to help Zoro escape so they can leave and continue on his quest to find the One Piece, while Koby wants to stay away from the prisoner at all costs. While these two are stalling, Rika comes to the prison with homemade rice balls. This fearless little girl climbs over the wall and offers the rice balls to Zoro. Unfortunately, Helmeppo and his goons interrupt this sweet scene. He snatches the rice balls, throws them on the ground and has the gall to step on them. Then he orders one of the soldiers to kill that sweet baby. Luckily, the soldier ain’t with the shits and just tosses her over the wall. Luffy and his stretchy self catches Rika and they head to the restaurant.
While there, Luffy and Koby learn why Zoro is locked up, leaving Koby gagged cuz he just knew Zoro was the devil. Koby is conflicted. Of course, here comes fucking Helmeppo. He starts demanding food and wine, after talking about his damn Daddy, and then he lets slip that he plans on executing Zoro before the 100-day deadline. He starts laughing about it, and that laugh sets Luffy off. He stretches out one of his arms and then punches that punk into his next life. When I tell you that I felt such satisfaction watching Helmeppo get his jaw rearranged! I watched that scene more than once cuz the setup and then delivery of that punch was pure poetry.
It’s gonna take a lot for me to love anyone more than I love Luffy, but I’m only two episodes in so we’ll see if that changes. Until then, I’m Team Luffy.
Stay tuned for the next episode.