A little reflection about Katakuri in the latest chapter. When Flampe taunted Katakuri as a pelican eel when he first confronted her, we saw a flashback about people running away from him with the same reaction.
My first thoughts were that Katakuri was reminded how he was ostracized for his mouth and how he longed for acceptance that he never got, not even from his family members. After the latest chapter however, I realised that he was not reminiscing him being ostracized – he never really cared about that, and he was already accepted by Brulee and the older siblings – he was reminiscing how he wore the scarf to protect his loved ones from harm, but ironically was now scorned by the exact same people that he meant to protect, who, like us audience, did not know the real reason behind the scarf.
Infact Chapter 902 reveals that during their childhood, some bullies that Katakuri beat up took revenge by cutting Brulee’s face.
Furious, Katakuri retailated and attacked the bullies. Katakuri decided to cover his mouth since this incident.
Brulee influenced Katakuri’s decision to put that scarf on and now we‘ve come full circle to the opposite reflection – she is going to inspire him to take it off now, inadvertently through enabling the meeting with Luffy during the events she was part of but also by her interactions with him afterwards. She is letting Katakuri see his own reflection symbolically using her mirror abilities.
It’s an absolutely brilliant conclusion to the Whole Cake Island arc and for me personally one of the most breathtakingly artistically and metaphorically powerful examples of Oda’s writing yet.
*Theory by tryingmydarnest
