One Piece Chapter 1062: Chocolat Town's freezing over has fans debating the intentions of this Blackbeard pirate

One Piece Chapter 1062’s official release on Monday morning has fans excitedly debating the issue’s events online, as well as discussing what may occur in the next chapter. While the topic of the Vegapunks and who may or may not be the main “Stella” body is indeed a fan-favorite currently, other aspects of the issue should be addressed as well.

One Piece Chapter 1062’s cover page, for example, sees a certain town in a certain Yonko’s region frozen over en masse. While fans don’t know for sure who’s responsible for the event, many suspect it to be a character who has been heavily discussed since Koby’s capture a few issues prior.

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One Piece Chapter 1062 has fans confused on Aokiji’s true allegiances as a Blackbeard pirate

One Piece Chapter 1062’s cover story saw the Chocolat Town of Cacao Island in Big Mom’s territory of Totto Land completely frozen over. What’s particularly interesting about the scene is that fans can also see civilians of the town frozen over as well, suggesting this to be the work of some amoral pirate crew.

One of the first options that came to fans' mind was the Blackbeard pirates, who have an ice user in the form of Kuzan, the former Admiral Aokiji. Kuzan’s Ice-Ice Fruit would certainly allow him to freeze on such a large scale, which fans have seen during the Marineford War arc as well as during the Water 7 and Enies Lobby arcs.

However, many fans had theorized up to this point that Kuzan was a member of SWORD, working under a secret identity as a member of the Blackbeard pirates. Assuming this to be true, it causes great confusion as to exactly why he would attack civilians via his freezing over of Chcoolat Town, even if they are affiliated with the Big Mom Pirates in some way.

One plausible explanation is that he’s simply maintaining his cover by obeying Blackbeard’s orders. The Marines and the World Government have both previously shown a mindset of sacrifice for the greater good being acceptable, meaning Kuzan may feel similarly about his mission.

This may also explain why Koby remains in the hands of Blackbeard as opposed to Kuzan instantly breaking him out. Kuzan could be trying to get as trusted by and close to Blackbeard as possible before absolutely needing to break his cover to rescue Koby. This would then explain why such drastic measures as freezing an entire town and its denizens were taken.

Another explanation could be that Kuzan actually isn’t a member of SWORD, but is instead furthering his own ends by allying himself with Blackbeard. This would simultaneously explain why Koby remains in Blackbeard’s capture, as well as why Kuzan (shown to have a more moral justice than other Marine leaders) would injure civilians in any way.

Additionally, this would explain why Oda hasn’t felt a need to do anything with Kuzan’s character post-time-skip since his brief reappearance during the Punk Hazard arc. If he truly is aligned with the Blackbeard pirates rather than SWORD or any other group, it makes sense to fully reintroduce him when the time to fight Blackbeard’s crew comes.

However, this is all speculation as of One Piece Chapter 1062, with nothing in the issue’s cover story suggesting that Kuzan is responsible beyond the fact of Chocolat Town’s freezing. While this aspect alone from One Piece Chapter 1062’s cover story strongly suggests this, fans will have to wait patiently to see if this theory ends up proving true.

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