Warning: Contains spoilers for One Piece chapter 1050
Though One Piece’s chapter 1050 appears to be bringing the Wano arc to a close, several key factors that remain unresolved mean that the next few chapters will be anything but a conclusion. Ranging from things like Kaido and Big Mom’s unseen Devil Fruit Awakenings to Usopp’s yet-to-be-seen act of bravery, far too many story threads have been left hanging in the air. The Wano arc’s third act has yet to be fully resolved.
One Piece chapter 1050 looks to be one of the series’ biggest fake outs yet. Both Kaido and Big Mom appear to be defeated and lie either dying or dormant beneath the surface of Wano. The Tobi Roppo are nowhere to be seen. The people within Wano’s Flower Capital continue to celebrate with no real idea of what has happened in the skies above them. All of these are merely a facade for the coming storm about to hit Wano. Chapter 1050 may look like a victory lap on a surface level but several key elements such as the mysterious tremors and the cracks in Wano’s crust point to one final battle on the horizon.
The Wano arc has been one of the longest running arcs in One Piece thus far and has also dealt with an absolutely massive ensemble of characters, each with their own significant plot threads. Some of these stories, however, remain completely unresolved as Wano appears to be entering its final phase. One such example is Usopp’s fear of being captured and tortured for information, which has been mentioned so many times throughout Wano that it’s almost a Chekov’s gun at this point. Another example is the unknown position of the Big Mom Pirates who have been attempting to access Wano for some time now and whose whereabouts are completely unknown. Finally, perhaps the greatest unresolved thread of all is that neither the Tobi Roppo, Big Mom nor Kaido have even begun to use their Awakenings yet.
While it’s altogether unconfirmed that those characters even have Awakenings, it seems implausible for them not to have unlocked them by now. One Piece’s first Awakenings were introduced through the guards at Impel Down, who could not be kept down for long since Awakened Zoan users just keep getting back up. Characters like the Impel Down jailers possessing a Devil Fruit Awakening while Big Mom and Kaido do not would make very little sense in the context of One Piece. Additionally, it would be extremely out of place for one of Usopp’s main character flaws to not be addressed within the arc. On top of this, the Big Mom Pirates have been closing in on Wano for some time now and despite being stopped by both King and Marco, have had no known opposition since then. The ominous rumbling present in chapter 1050 throughout the land of Wano seems to be a purposefully foreboding event indicative of an oncoming disaster.
Wano simply has too many things left to be explained for the arc to be finished at this point. Kaido, Big Mom, and the Tobi Roppo presumably still have Awakenings to be used and shown for the first time. Usopp’s trademark moment of bravery also needs to arrive at some point or his character will seem incredibly tarnished. The arrival of the Big Mom Pirates while Luffy and Zoro are both unconscious would also make for an incredibly tense situation. Due to all of these moving pieces still on the board, One Piece’s Wano arc is nowhere near finished yet.
