One Piece

Saw a post on Reddit that there's actually been hints at this for a long time. The giant ark literally named "Noah." Water 7's rising sea levels and Iceberg's attempts to convert the whole city into a ship. Wano's colossal sea wall. And, yes, the fact that the elite of the elite live at the highest landmass, where it's "not their problem."

x3 Since the leaks, it's been pointed out quite a bit at how several islands and locations in the One Piece world are built on higher ground (aside from Marijois there's Alubarna, Drum Island, Dressrosa, and Wano) and of course there's Water 7 dealing with stronger aqua lagunas every year. In hindsight, it was all pointing towards One Piece's world dealing with rising sea levels all along

Edited by jdeo1997 on Apr 28th 2024 at 11:34:56 AM

Yeah, it all makes sense now! I wonder if it also has something to do with Devil Fruits? like the WG/Ym want the sea levels to rise to lessen the potential danger posed by those Fruits? Hell, them being called "Devil" might just be propaganda.

Way back in Alabasta, Vivi notes that the sea has started getting more and more into the main river that feeds the kingdom.

This chapter prompted two theories from me.

The more serious of the two is Joy Boy may have been the reason for the rising sea levels, and this is the sin he and those associated with him (such as Zunesha) bear.

The much less serious theory is there's a giant stopper plug at Laugh Tale that was placed there by the previous Joy Boy that is the cause of the rising sea levels, and only an Awakened user of the Nika fruit can remove it.

Also, it would be the supreme irony if, for everything the Five Elders did to try and stop this message for fear of what it would say, they didn't know about any if it either.

Edited by sgamer82 on Apr 28th 2024 at 8:54:27 AM

Hah. Even in the One Piece world, Global Warming is a bitch.

Of course, I'm fully aware that no one said anything about Global Warming. I just wanted to make that joke.

Shout out to the reader who requested this chapter's cover page. A very cool Robin feature!

I actually don't have much to say about the chapter itself, though. More ratcheting up the tension on Egghead, and Vegapunk's actual message is starting. From the sounds of it, I think what Vegapunk's message is warning the world of the Mother Flame. It would be another fit for this arc's pattern of "One of the cutaway scenes coming back around to be connected to the arc's main story."

Speaking of cutaways, one as we were jumping around I'd have liked to see that we didn't get? Totland. Just, something wtih Big Mom's kids.

In that case, I can see things coming a bit together. Whatever happened during the Void Century led to the world flooding, likely having something to do with the Ancient Weapons and likely being caused by the future World Government. The One Piece is now the only thing that can counteract the flooding and return the world to it's original state.

Even if Vegapunk reveals a good amount of the truth, I believe it will be up to Robin to find the truth within the truth. Even if Vegapunk reveals the "what", he likely won't know the "why". And that's likely what the final Poneglyph will contain.

And yeah, this chapter gave a lot of credit to the very old theory that the One Piece planet's bizarre geography is somehow artificial. That one's been around for well over a decade; actually don't know where it originated.

Yeah, I would very much prefer whatever Vegapunk's about to say to have as little as possible to do with the actual history. Don't take away Robin's thunder, Oda... In fact, I think you should give Robin MORE thunder, and have her fight Saturn despite her injuries. You let characters do that all the time, why stop now?

In other awesome news, the Vivre Card databook is finally returning in July!

The new revelation reminds me of the still-mysterious superweapon that somehow made the sea level rise by several feet, despite blowing a giant hole in the world.

Yeah, IMO this basically confirms the super weapon's been used before, likely more than once.

Crocodile and then later Spandam kind of set forth this idea that the Ancient Weapons are basically an "I win!" button for who ever gets their hands on one. But if we assume the World Government does have one, and Vegapunk's "Mother Flame" is the "fuel" needed to make it work... It very well might be that its not that simple. Heck, going back to the scenes of Sabo, Iva, and Dragon talking about Lulusia's destruction that Pushover posted on a recent previous page, Dragon questioning why the Government has never used such a weapon could point to this very idea.

Then again, maybe this shouldn't be much of a surprise. Poseidon has the power to control Sea Kings... But Shirahoshi can't control it. She's not even fully conscious of it yet.

And even if someone managed to bust down Wano's walls to get Pluton... Would they have the means to make it work? We still don't know much about it, other then the first time he saw the blueprints, Frankyw as excited-as-hell about it.

The hole beneath Enies Lobby was already a very strong indication of that.

I assume what changed is that with the energy of the Mother Flame can the weapon now be used freely, when previouly it took maybe up to centuries to recharge it.

Edited by uncertanSearcher on Apr 28th 2024 at 7:39:10 PM

I feel like Mother Flame was probably made by the Ancient Kingdom's technology. Imu took it for himself, but can't make more since he doesn't know how, leaving him with only the same dwindling supply for 800 years. Then Vegapunk came along and rediscovered a lot of the ancient tech, including the ability to make Mother Flame. That's why the Elders made sure to spare one of the Vegapunks in exchange for their cooperation - they can't risk that knowledge being lost again.

A year-old theory that may tie into this chapter's events. The theory cites that the One Piece world both has and is in the process of experiencing a Pole Shift event, in which the magnetic axis of the world changes. In the case of the OP world, the axis will rotate a full 90 degrees, turning the Red Line into the equator and the Grand Line into the Prime Meridian.

Some of the evidence in the theory is that the Japanese name for the real-life Equator translates to "Red Road", as well as the fact that a land mass the size of the Red Line being moved the way the theory suggests would redistribute and displace a lot of water, submerging and revealing various locations. This in mind, a lot of One Piece locations to make more sense than they might otherwise. Impel Down, for instance, could have been a normally build tower prison that became submerged in the previous pole shift. The Tree of Knowledge in Ohara has a spot in its trunk where it suddenly becomes wider, suggesting a different water line once upon a time, Long Ring Long Land would indeed be a single land mass with no tides separating it the majority of the time.

On the Doyalist side of things, it's well known that Oda is influence by works he watched as a child, with Hayao Miyazaki in particular being cited as an inspiration, and the setting of Future Boy Conan features this exact phenomena.

The original video:

A fully English video that summarizes the content

Edited by sgamer82 on Apr 28th 2024 at 1:08:06 AM

14 You know what? That makes me think. I'm going to play devil's advocate for the "Elders are actual devils" theory for a minute.

If it happened, I think the idea that humans abusing authority are the real evil would still work. For a long time in One Piece, we've had the people on top calling themselves celestial or heavenly or whatever, while things to be afraid of were devils, like Devil Fruits or Nico Robin being the Devil Child.

If the Elders were actual Devils, it's not just propaganda, but outright hypocrisy. Not just on their part, but everyone who follows them. Sure, most people in the government wouldn't know this, but I think that could actually be the whole point, and how this ends up being about the people and not the Elders, demons or not.

All it took was for a devil to tell everyone it wasn't a devil, and that was it. People will do whatever they say without questioning it. Even someone like Kizaru, who seemed like he was a nice guy once, will kill his own friend in the name of Just Following Orders. Once people declare their loyalty, they stick around even when they see the evil before them.

It's sort of like an indie game I saw recently, where it turns out a demon was behind everything, but when you confront the demon, it laughs and explains that it just told a guy it was a god, and the guy came up with all the cruel ways to worship him all on his own. In the end, the message is still about what the humans do when loyalty to an authority is treated as more moral than their actual morality.

In both cases, having an actual demon in charge could highlight the contrast between what the human has convinced themselves they're doing (being faithful to a benevolent authority) and what they're actually doing (doing someone's dirty work).

Edited by Jokubas on Apr 28th 2024 at 3:07:59 AM

Tot Musica from Film Red was foreshadowing Demons all along.

Well looks like Sanji is finally going to reach the All Blue like he always wanted!

Interesting tidbit from thelibraryofohara.com's commentary on this chapter: Remember when the Elders were talking about a "great cleaning?" Apparently the kanji used in the Japanese version of the chapter mean something like "washing away with water," creating the rather worrying implication that the great flood isn't just a side effect of the superweapon; Imu is trying to intentionally drown the planet!

Dammit, I missed the main thread conversation!

…People are still willing to chat about this chapter, right?

Of course! It has a lot to unpack!

In That Case: As I alluded to earlier, Oda cooked with this chapter. The world is on the brink of flooding everywhere over, and The World Government can no longer simply censor this, nor, even if they wanted to, solve it. And we know that truthfully, they're a bunch of genocidal douchebags who want to purge this world a new one… which'll be difficult when said world's nations bring a fuckload of uncomfortable questions their way.

And ya wanna know the kicker? Vegapunk just got started.

One thing I've been thinking about is the fact that, every time Vegapunk was mentioned prior to his actual debut, it's emphasized that virtually everyone sees him as a hero and an inspiration. The only people that don't like him, such as a certain gaseous bioweapon dealer, are ones with personal vendettas - and even they grudgingly admit his actual work is top-notch.

I feel like all that was done to build up the significance of him being the whistleblower here - he's the only person literally everyone would believe.

Edited by HamburgerTime on Apr 28th 2024 at 6:19:27 AM

And that kind of screws the World Government over, no matter how you slice it. They lie, they'll be accused of lying, but if they admit he's telling the truth… riots happen. They can't win there.