One Piece Reveals Terrifying Shirahoshi Struggle

One Piece's Reverie arc has not only seen many returning fan-favorite characters to the series, but there has also been a greater focus on expanding the lore of the series' world. Fans are getting the best look at previously mentioned regions like the Holy Land of Mariejois, and more importantly, have gotten a better look at the dark underbelly of the "gods" of this world. This all certainly comes to a head in the latest episode of the series.

Showing an even darker side of the Celestial Dragons than ever before, Princess Shirahoshi is put in a terrifying situation in which she is nearly taken prisoner by one while the other royals are forced to watch.

As series creator Eiichiro Oda had established previously, the Celestial Dragons are the untouchable "gods" of the One Piece world because they have apparently descended from those who first "created" the world. But they have each proven to be entirely selfish and destructive as they see the people of the world as nothing more than ants or objects. This comes to pass in Episode 886 of the series, in which the Celestial Dragon Saint Charlos tries to take Shirahoshi as his pet.

It's revealed that Charlos is the one who was viewing Shirahoshi with binoculars when she initially entered the Holy Land, and he shows up with a large helper and they force her to the ground. As Charlos gleefully exclaims that he "found" a giant mermaid, the rest of the royals are forced to not get involved. Also established prior, attacking a Celestial Dragon is essentially like attacking God so it could mark the instant destruction of their entire home.

This meant that even Shirahoshi's father was forced to hold himself back, and as Shirahoshi cried Neptune's anger grew even further. Before Neptune attacks Charlos, however, another Celestial Dragon comes in to stop Charlos and save Shirahoshi. He saved her because Shirahoshi's mother once saved him long ago, and is forever grateful to the people of the Ryugu Kingdom.

But there's a good chance that no matter how much Shirahoshi and Neptune want to bring the people of the kingdom to the surface world, they won't be going up now. Not unless there's a major change in the Holy Land.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.