The fact that the importance of the Road Poneglyphs is not common knowledge and that they are guarded by the world’s most powerful pirates makes reaching One Piece an immensely difficult task. To complicate things further, there is only one person in the One Piece world known presently to possess the ability to decipher the Poneglyphs.
The Straw Hats already possess transcriptions of two of the four with a third in their sights on Wano. Robin is the only person in the world with the ability to read them. Recently Big Mom and Kaido’s declared intent to pursue One Piece in a sense rang hollow because, as far as we’re aware, they lack the means to decipher the Poneglyphs. By giving the Straw Hats such an overwhelming advantage, any tension in the race to find the last Road Poneglyph and reach Laugh Tale would be lacking.
I imagine Oda has already devised a solution for this issue. We know Big Mom at least has some sort of plan revolving around Pudding. But what about the other members of the Worst Generation?
Law and Kid have been framed as rivals to the Straw Hats, but so far, Oda hasn’t established them as any real threat to their ability to reach Laugh Tale. While I do believe Law will ultimately be an ally to Luffy through the final conflict of the series, I’m personally hoping he’ll be a serious rival in the last leg of the voyage leading to Laugh Tale and this chapter seems like a step in that direction. Law promised he would not betray Luffy before the alliance fulfills its intended purpose to take down Kaido – and I believe he will keep his word.
But I’m happy to see Law still has ambition of his own – that he has his own motive for discovering One Piece.
We see a flashback to a conversation between Robin and Law which likely took place on Wano shortly after their arrival as both are still in their ordinary clothes. This would have taken place around the same time Luffy, Namji, Chopper, Brook, Pedro, and Carrot were on route to Whole Cake Island.
Law told Robin that he carries the name D. in hope she could explain its meaning. Robin says that Luffy doesn’t care, but she too is very interested in learning about the will of D. We saw Law ask this same question of Sengoku at the end of Dressrosa.
