Archivio per il tag: one piece

We are past the halfway point in One Piece, and it seems like we are finally coming to understand how the story is going to play out when Oda introduces another novel idea to ensure that us fans still have theories to delve into.

The national treasure of Mariejois:

As Doflamingo said, this national treasure’s existence, if revealed, is enough to “shake the world”. So, here is the question: Are there any clues that could possibly reveal what this treasure is?

Doflamingo’s knowledge of the National Treasure:

The context with which Doflamingo reveals the National Treasure is very intriguing. He says he still has the political power to mobilize CP0, despite no longer being a Celestial Dragon, because of his knowledge of this treasure.

This isn’t the only time that we have heard about Doflamingo blackmailing the World Government to achieve power. King Riku seems to think that Doflamingo attacked ships transporting Celestial Dragon’s “heavenly gold” and that Doflamingo used that to blackmail the World Government into giving him the title of Shichibukai.

Doflamingo doesn’t refuse the statement.

Let’s consider what we know:
1. Doflamingo said that his knowledge of National Treasure allowed him to regain the power of a Celestial Dragon.
2. Riku heard Doflamingo was able to blackmail the World Government because he’s been attacking ships transporting “heavenly gold” tributes from nations within the World Government.

Riku could be misinformed regarding how specifically Doflamingo blackmailed the World Government, however, I wonder whether the National Treasure could have been found, at least in part, on these ships he was attacking.

The National Treasure can be “used”:

Doflamingo reveals a little more about the National Treasure which could help us understand what it is. He tells us that if he had Law’s devil fruit, the Ope Ope no Mi, he could have “used the National treasure of Mariejois to control the world”.

He further explains what specific abilities the Ope Ope no Mi has that makes it so useful.

He specifically mentions two abilities:
1. “Personality transplant”
2. Ageless surgery, a.k.a the ability to grant immortality

Given the context with which Doflamingo talks about the abilities of the Ope Ope no Mi, it’s heavily implied that one, or both, of the abilities would allow the user to “use” the National Treasure. Doflamingo seems to place greater emphasis on the ageless surgery ability, though, so let’s focus on that ability.

Let’s first explain immortality and how it differs from invincibility:

If you are invincible, then nothing from outside your body can harm you, you can still grow old and die. If you are immortal, then nothing will ever harm you from within your body and you can live forever, but if you get trapped in a burning building you’re toast. In simplest terms, someone who is immortal can survive poison, illness, age etc. They are still susceptible, however, to physical destruction and injury.

The key idea we must address is, what could the National Treasure be if you would need to be immortal to “use” it? This suggests that the National Treasure would have killed Doflamingo “from the inside” if he attempted to use it without being immortal. There is only one thing I can thing of that makes sense based on what we already know.

If a person consumes two Devil Fruits, it is supposed to mean death. However, the type of death this causes is unique. Even though Blueno thinks they may “explode“, this should not be akin to a bomb going off. Lucci clarifies what is going on when he describes this death as the result of the “curse” of the Devil Fruits.

I believe death by “curse” would constitute a death from inside your body. Despite Blueno’s claim that the user would “explode“, this seems more similar to poisoning to me. This is not a physical damage or injury, and thus, immortality should protect you from this kind of death.

The World Government and Devil Fruits:

So, the National Treasure is related to Devil Fruits? Devil Fruits are a pretty mysterious aspect of Oone Piece. Although we see many abilities, and ability users we don’t know much else for sure. However, we do know that Devil Fruits are hardly ever found outside of the Grand Line. Once you travel to the Grand Line, it seems as though every major player has a fruit of some kind. It’s also pretty interesting that the World Government seems to have a monopoly on the strongest ones. Every Marine Admiral possesses a frightening powerful Devil Fruit and the 3 original Admirals each consumed one of the rarest kinds of fruits, Logia type.

The World Government seems to prioritize the acquisition of these fruit as well.

Spandam, a high ranking member of the World Government, also speaks rather cryptically about “connections” in obtaining Devil Fruit.

I think it’s very possible based on this information that the World Government may have collected the majority of all the Devil Fruits that currently exist. If we  imagine all these Devil Fruits located in a room in Mariejois, this could very well be the National Treasure that Doflamingo speaks of.

How the Ope Ope No Mi could “use” the national treasure to “control the world”:

Doflamingo spells out something that really favors the idea that the National Treasure may be the accumulation of Devil Fruits the World Government probably possesses. He says that only someone with “true brilliance” would know how to use the Ope Ope no Mi to grant immortality. Doflamingo is probably saying that he’s figured out being immortal would allow someone to eat many Devil Fruits. The power of having so many Devil Fruits at once could very reasonably be used to make Doflamingo the strongest person in the world. A mortalperson could only eat one fruit. Doflamingo needed immortality to “use” the Devil Fruits the World Government possesses to be capable of “ruling the world”.

The second ability of the Ope Ope no Mi, personality transplant, allows the fruit users to switch the “souls” of people so that they are no longer in their own bodies. This is a very powerful ability and would allow you to put your own followers in the bodies of Celestial Dragons and other World Government officials. Doing this, Doflamingo could secretly take over the entire World Government without drawing much attention to himself. Keep in mind that this would have been Corozon’s role, as Doflamingo planned for him to eat the fruit.

After this it would be simple to access the National Treasure, have Corozon grant him immortality at the cost of his own life and eat as many Devil Fruits as he wished to forever rule over the world.

So with these two abilities of the Ope Ope no Mi, Doflamingo secures his eternal rule over the world:
1. World Government takeover
2. Immortality
3. Practical invincibility

The Celestial Dragon Tribute ships:

It’s very interesting that the World Government seems to be hoarding all the Devil Fruits, while at the same time, Doflamingo and other brokers of the underworld deal artificial Devil Fruits.

If the National Treasure is a huge number of Devil Fruits, I think Doflamingo was targeting these “tribute” ships for the Devil Fruits that are likely to have been given to the World Government as tribute. Devil Fruits are extremely valuable, and there’s little doubt in my mind the World Government would have accepted these fruit as substitutes for actual money.

This would explain the rumor that it was his attacks on tribute ships that allowed him to blackmail the World Government. And it’s maybe why Monet had the powerful Yuki Yuki no Mi. I think Doflamingo was openly showing off that he knew of the National Treasure by raiding supply ships to specifically steal the Devil Fruits given to the World Government.

Why would this knowledge “shake the world to its core”:

The World Government does whatever it can to ensure that Pirates stay away from Mariejois. Currently, there is really no reason to even try to attack it because there’s little that can be gained for such a risky move. Gold can be obtained elsewhere. One thing that can’t are Devil Fruits.

If it was revealed that the World Government had hundreds, I think you would see many Pirates, including a Yonko like Kaido, who wishes to have an army of ability users, attempt to steal these fruit from the World Government. This would explain the World Government’s fear of this knowledge being revealed. In order to protect Mariejois, the World Government had to either kill Doflamingo or let him do as he liked.

Why is Blackbeard the first man in history to eat two Devil Fruits?

This is speculation, but there are several solutions:
1. Doflamingo is the first to realize that the Ope Ope no Mi can be used to eat multiple Devil Fruits
2. Even if Blackbeard is the first “man” to eat multiple fruits, maybe a “god” already has achieved this feat. The Celestial Dragons are thought of as gods, perhaps the Gorosei are just surprised a lowly “human” would be able to do this as well.

It seems unlikely that the Ope Ope no Mi has been used to grant immortality more than just a few times. With so few instances of someone becomming immortal using it, it’s very possible those who did become immortal wouldn’t have considered eating multiple fruits. The idea of doing so is not obvious.

Why doesn’t the World Government already have all the Devil Fruits:

As we saw with the death of Smiley, Devil Fruits re-spawn after the original user of the fruit dies. Over an 800 year period, the World Government most likely lost many of these fruits when the person who they had given the fruit to died and they could not retrieve the fruit. This would explain why the World Government does not have every overpowered Devil Fruit including the Mera Mera no Mi (Ace/Sabo), Goro Goro no Mi (Enel) and Gura Gura no Mi( Whitebeard).

This would also explain why Devil Fruits are a “myth” outside of the Grand Line but so prevalent within it. The World Government would only have given fruits to those within the World Government, and the majority of their high ranking members seem to mostly stay within the Grand Line. This would mean they are likely to have died in the Grand Line as well.

Why would the World Government give people “weak” fruits:

We see a lot of fruits that don’t compare to the higher powered ones. If we assume the World Government has controlled the flow of Devil Fruits for years, why have they even touched these weak fruits? This is because the World Government doesn’t know what abilities all of the fruits give. Spandam tells CP9 he doesn’t even know what the fruits he’s giving them are supposed to do.

I think the World Government may be slowly testing out the fruits that they have, but don’t know anything about, by giving them to “lesser” members of the government. This is a good guess to why some of these weaker fruits remain in circulation around the world.

Why can Blackbeard eat more than one fruit:

Firstly, we don’t know two things that are important for this idea:
1. Obviously, we don’t know how Blackbeard does it. We only know the outcome.
2. We don’t know the specificities of immortality granted by the Ope Ope no Mi. For instance, why does the user die when they use the ageless surgery.

However, I wonder if the user dies because they transfer their life-force, or soul, into the person who’s receiving immortality. This could potentially mean that those who become immortal through the Ope Ope no Mi have multiple souls within one body. Maybe Blackbeard became immortal by having ageless surgery performed on him.

While I question the idea that someone would have sacrificed their life for him, I wouldn’t completely discredit the idea without more of Blackbeard’s history. This would certainly explain a lot of the “weirdness” people remark upon when they talk about Blackbeard. However, his Jolly Roger has 3 skulls. Shouldn’t that suggest that he has 3 souls within him?

Here’s a possible explanation of how Blackbeard could have 3 souls:
1. The Ope Ope no Mi also stores the souls of the users who sacrificed themselves to perform the ageless surgery. Given Doflamingo and Law know the Ope Ope no Mi can grant immortality, clearly this ability has been used in the past. Maybe the ability was used twice, so far. Meaning that Blackbeard, when he received the surgery, received both of the souls of the previous users who performed the surgery.

Regardless, I think it’s possible for there to be two ways of consuming multiple Devil Fruits.

*All rights go to the maker of this theory

Myth: Oda stated a crew member will die!

Fact: Possibly one of the most famous forum rumors. Back in 2003, Oda was claimed to have given verbal word that a member of the Straw Hats will die. At the time, the series was still in Skypiea.

The story goes (as often told by long-term fans) that later on when this did not happen, Oda said sorry as things had not gone as planned. The member of the crew that was suppose to die in 2003 is said to have been the Going Merry, which was originally planned to go down then. When Skypiea played out for too long, the death of the Going Merry was delayed for 3 years while Oda finished the other arcs before it and (eventually) led the storyline up to the end of the Going Merry at the end of the Enies Lobby arc.

Hello once again everyone and welcome back to yet another theory for your entertainment.This time I shall be discussing the yakuza connections of the admirals but this mostly focuses around Akainu.

First of all, why does the WG seem more like a mafia or yakuza? The way they dress, the way their meetings are held etc.. Does the fact that the 4 admirals are based off actors from the yakuza film era seem strange?
(Everyone knows this trivia)

AKAINU SAKAZUKI

Akainu is based off actor Bunta Sugawara or more specifically, his role in the popular yakuza film series Battles Without Honor and Humanity. In this movie series, Bunta was apart of a yakuza that was trying to shed their yakuza image and make Bunta retire. I’ll get more into Akainu later.

AOKIJI KUZAN

Aokiji is based off Yusaku Matsuda character in Detective Story (1983). In Detective Story, Matsuda was a detective who was hired to watch over a rich goal named Noami much to his annoyance. Things get complicated when Naomi’s mother is suspected of murdering a love hotel manager so Matsuda and Naomi investigates the crime and it leads them to the yakuza. Matsuda also starred as the main yakuza villian of the 1989 filmBlack Rain by Ridley Scott. In the movie, the lead character went deeper and deeper into the criminal undergound until he was lead the Matsuda’s character who was the main villain.

Kuzan’s actions are pretty similar to the movies. He is pretty much an undercover detective playing the villain in order to dig deeper into the underworld.

KIZARU BORSALINO

Kizaru is based off Kunie Tanaka’s character from Battles Without Honor and Humanity and Truck Yaro. In Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Kuine Tanaka was in the same yakuza as Bunta Sugiwara and was one of the people voting for Bunta to retire. Bunta and Tanaka also starred together in the comedy Truck Yaro.

FUJITORA ISSHO

Fujitora is based off Shintaro Katsu’s character from the Zatoichi series. During his training, Zatoichi was a member of the yakuza and killed many people. Regretting his actions, Zatoichi left the yakuza and became a compassionate man, helping as many people as he could during his travels. His endeavors led to Zatoichi being loved by many. However, since Zatoichi abandoned the yakuza, yakuza placed it bounty on his head and are hunting him.

Judging from this, it seems Fujitora blinded himself as punishment and also because he couldn’t stand seeing the suffering he caused(kind of cowardly). Fujitora was probably a criminal and seeks atonement for his actions and believes the WG isn’t what it should be since it failed to catch monsters like him.
Zatoichi- was hunted by the yakuza because he left them. Fujitora came to the “yakuza” to change them.

Funta’s Shozo Hirono- didn’t want his yakuza group to change by shedding their yakuza image. Akainu only cares about the image of himself and the marines.

Coincidence that Fujitora and Akainu lashed out at one another over the image of the marines?

********************

Now to Akainu’s past. As I said earlier, Akainu is inspired by the character Shozo Hirono in Battles Without Honor and Humanity. Hirono was an ex-soldier and street thug who was involved in violent yakuza wars. Hirono was sent to prison many times but soon enough, his yakuza group wanted to shed its image and wanted Hirono to retire, as he was one of the main reasons the group was still viewed as a yakuza. At the end of the film series, after many of his friends were killed, Hirono retired.

Kuzan said that “the grass was greener on the other side” so you can probably guess what I’m trying to say; before the marines, Akainu was involved in criminal affairs. Heck…’Sakazuki’ means “sake cups” and they are for yakuza initiation ceremonies.

As a kid, Akainu is carrying a knife and has a cap that says “justice”. It seems even at a young age, Akainu was killing criminals. Maybe the reason Akainu is so extreme about killing criminals is because he experienced it first hand.

Probably the only thing Akainu hates more than criminals are traitors.

Here, Akainu deems a random marine a traitor for running away from the Marineford War and kills him.

Check Akainu’s dialogue when speaking to Jinbe.

Akainu tried killing Coby cause he deemed Coby a traitor.

After all, Akainu is a member of the rebel faction.

The rebel faction focuses on the findig and demise of those who has turned their backs on the world government. Who are some traitors?

I believed Dragon was a former CP0 agent and that would make the greatest traitor in WG’s history and an obvious target of Akainu. Akainu even knew that Luffy was Dragon’s son even before Sengoku told all of the marines.

As for Bonney, though it is unknown that BB knew of her worht or not, the person who was sent/volunteered to retrieve Bonney was Akainu and he said that she FLED aka RAN AWAY from the World Government. Not the marines.

According to this chart that Oda made, Aakinu is STILL hunting for Bonney and lets not ignore how Bonney’s Post-TS attire is a hoodie to conceal her face.

Why is Akainu hunting for Bonney? Business with Big Mam but that is a theory for another time.

You do NOT leave the yakuza nor do you leave the WG. There will be people coming after your head.

*Theory by Vandenreich

Myth: Nami can hurt Luffy, she must have Busōshoku Haki.

Fact: Despite being one of the weakest members of the Straw Hats in overall physical strength (the other being Usopp), she still manages to hurt Luffy, who is made of rubber and should be unharmed by physical attacks. Oda explains this is because she “beats up Luffy’s spirit”, which is basically the purpose of Haki. However, while it is possible for Nami to learn how to use Kenbunshoku Haki or Busōshoku Haki, or even possess Haōshoku Haki, her ability to injure Luffy is entirely comical. Therefore it should not be taken as a serious display of any abilities she may or may not possess. It must also be noticed that every time a Straw Hat pirate (with the possible exception of Robin as she had no reason to do so or was never seen doing so) hits Luffy in this manner he displays a bruise briefly afterward, including Usopp, who could not harm Luffy with blunt attacks during their more serious duel in Water Seven.

I shall be going into further detail as to why devil fruit users sink in water and the secret of seastone.

As you obviously know, devil fruit users sink in water but what you may not know is that water doesn’t neutralize devil fruit powers.

Luffy’s stretched arm was underwater but shouldn’t it have neutralize his powers and cause his arm to retract? There is also this:

Aokiji fell into the water but inside of his power being neutralized, he used his ice to make it to the surface.

Here, Luffy is completely submerged in water but he cold still stretch.

Water simply weakens devil fruits but still why? There is also the fact that seastone COMPLETELY neutralizes devil fruits powers but it has the “essence of the sea.” Also, unlike water, when DF users wear seastone, they can still move.

What is the “essence of the sea”?

Gravitation or more simply, Gravity.

Kaku said he felt a “gravitational force” coming from the devil fruits.

At first you would he meant it as an expression, but Kaku’s senses are quite good which made me think that he meant it literally. He was able to feel Zoro’s demon spirit.

Law felt a similar force coming from seastone.

The main reason I believe gravity is why devil fruit users sink and has their powers neutralized by seastone is none other than Marshall D. Teach, better known as Blackbeard.

“Darkness” is gravitation and everyone knows what the special ability of the Darkness fruit is……

Neutralizing devil fruits powers via physical contact.

Now then, the tricky part was finding the actual relationship between water and gravity as a lot of factors fall into play such as mass, pressure and density. There is also the fact that there is less gravity underwater so get ready for a science trip.

Blackbeard’s darkness is a black hole.

A black hole pulls an object in and once inside, the object is crushed under the immense gravity or pressure.

Seawater is more dense than fresh water(because of salt) so its easier for a human to float, but seawater has more pressure than fresh water as you go deeper. This is referred to as specific gravity, which is the ratio of the density of a substance to the density (mass of the same unit volume) of a reference substance.

The devil fruits contain the souls of people who lived in space. Space has less pressure and gravity(compared to Earth or Vearth). On Earth, gravity gives weight to physical objects and causes the tides so naturally, the souls of the space people should feel extra pressure. Gravity has an infinite range, and it cannot be absorbed, transformed, or shielded against. When submerged underwater, the souls would feel even more pressure.

It is also worth noting that the Darkness fruit was the first devil fruit to exist and it has power over gravitation and every devil fruit afterwards gave off a gravitational force. Seastone has a gravitational force similar to a black hole so like the Darkness fruit, it “sucks in ” devil fruit power and neutralizes it(cause of the immense pressure it puts on devil fruit souls).

Lets sum up everything. The devil fruit soul is like a parasite and the devil fruit user is a host. In a way, the parasite and the host share the same body.

Water- When in water, the host and the parasite feel pressure(the parasite even more so) but since they share the same body, the host feels the same effects of the parasite but can still use his/her abilities
(because its only a little pressure).

Pretty much, Blackbeard is walking seastone as they have the same effects on DF users. On the surface, they focus entirely on the parasite and uses the effects of a black hole and apply immense pressure on it. The parasite is suppressed while the host is just fine which is why they are able to move with seastone cuffs. Remember when Blackbeard black vortex against Ace? Ace felt pressure and was sucked in but when BB grabbed Acehe was fine, but the “parasite” was not. Why? Because BB’s body is still a black hole(when he uses his ability, he simply brings the black hole to the surface to affect people).

*Theory by Vandenreich

Myth: X character in One Piece is in love with X other character in One Piece.

Fact: It is not uncommon to see pairings mentioned like Luffy x Nami, Luffy x Boa Hancock, Sanji x Nami, Zoro x Nico Robin,  however some fans try to force the speculation into fact when it is not.

Fans love to fantasize about possible character couples.

When asked if there would be romance in One Piece in a SBS letter, Eiichiro Oda replied “they are in love with adventure”. There are no hints released in the manga itself. There exist minor love stories such as Kyros and Scarlett’s love story and certain relationships have been addressed (such as Piiman, Tamanegi and Ninjin mentioning how Usopp is a “lucky man” to have somebody as Kaya) but they are rather minor and no major relationship has been officially confirmed. As such, most love referencing comes in the form of perverted comments from one character to the other. Oda said that since this is a shonen manga, there is practically no romance (with a few exceptions, such as married couples, etc.) Not counting Sanji’s feelings towards almost every female being in existence, Oda took eleven years to introduce any form at all – Boa Hancock’s love for Luffy. However this is considered to be a one-sided romance solely intended for humor as Luffy does not have those same feelings for Hancock, having turned down her marriage proposal several times in the past. Oda also mentioned in one of the SBS that One piece is manga targeted at young boys, therefore there will be no romance between the straw hat crew.

Myth: It is obvious by the way he said “Wind Blast” back in Loguetown that Dragon has a wind Devil Fruit. Or maybe, Dragon ate a Devil Fruit that allows him to manipulate the weather. Why do you think a lightning bolt saved Luffy from being killed by Buggy? And what about the rain, when Dragon arrives at Loguetown?

Fact: Dragon did not say “Wind blast” in the manga, it was added in the anime. The original manga does not give any indication that Dragon had any effect on the weather other than being around when the storm hit. We do not know his power, although it is always a possibility. The speculation was re-invigorated when a rather powerful and convenient wind blast created a path to the ocean and the Revolutionaries during the fire of Gray Terminal, with some fans speculating the two instances were foreshadowing, but again there is no proof that this is correct.

Myth: Ivankov knows a secret from Crocodile’s past, that nobody else knows, and Ivankov can change people’s gender, leading to speculation that Crocodile used to be a woman and had Ivankov change her to a him. In Episode 0 we only see the back of Crocodile’s head, suggesting that he was different back then and that Oda wants to keep it a secret for now.

Fact: So far, nothing has been confirmed. In the SBS for Volume 63 Oda drew the Shichibukai as children, and Crocodile appears to be depicted as a boy, although some have speculated that Crocodile could be a girl who dresses like a tomboy, but Oda has not yet stated anything one way or the other.

The Marineford Arc was the biggest gathering of Devil Fruit users so far in the series with Akainu, Aokiji, Bartholomew Kuma, Blamenco, Boa Hancock, Buggy, Crocodile, Dalmatian, Daz Bones, Donquixote Doflamingo, Edward Newgate, Emporio Ivankov, Epoida, Galdino, Gekko Moriah, Hina, Inazuma, Jozu, Kizaru, Laffitte, Marco, Marshall D. Teach, Monkey D. Luffy, Onigumo, Portgas D. Ace, Sengoku, Smoker, Trafalgar Law, and Tsuru, as well as several unidentified Devil Fruit users, taking part, a total of at least twenty-seven people. Except for Enel, every canon Logia user created by Oda was present during the battle.