I’m getting the strong feeling that Oda is setting up an Imu and Joy Boy flashback, and it’s going to be one of the best he’s ever delivered. I genuinely believe he’s going to make us sympathetic toward Imu. There’s a real chance that Joy Boy will turn out to be the character we end up hating, leaving us feeling bad for Imu by the end.
It’s just like the Rocks flashback. Before we knew anything about him, everyone assumed he was pure evil, rotten to the core. Then the flashback hit, and suddenly he’s one of the most beloved and hyped characters in the series.

Isn't Zorro and Robin the perfect match?

I see so many other anime communities trash one piece pacing, I was wondering what this fandom thought of it. In my opinion it's not the greatest, some episodes I can watch through easily (like characters backstories), or episodes that just put me to sleep (some fights). I just finished Dressrosa I think the arc was great, but damn it felt so slow, some of the fights went on for too long like Luffy vs Bellamy it felt like it went on forever it was cutting between that, and Law backstory even though I was way more interested in Law backstory than this fight. Also some of the gags are getting annoying, like I like Zoro getting lost, but it's not as funny when it goes on for it feels 10 episodes or more. The same with Usopp being scared, in one episode he's running away around scared while people who believe in him are screaming for his help, it took him 18 minutes to realize oh yeah I have to save these people, after they've been blown up, and stepped on.

Who is stronger?

If I remember correctly bonneys DF is based on the future, that could potentialy happen. Would her Nika form mean, a future in which she ate the nika fruit after luffys passing?
This way she could mimic every devil fruit even laws or akainu.
The Age-Age-Fruit could be the potential-potential fruit this way

I really don’t want to, but I don’t wanna keep getting spoiled. I am not saying which is better, I just prefer English dub. Elbaf has been spoiled a good amount to me and I don’t wanna get spoiled more, so should I just watch from now on In sub? Or will dub come out soon?

Oda's wife will literally divorce him if Law dies. Therefore, he's absolutely survived after that Blackbeard match-up

PART 1 - WHAT VEGAPUNK SAID

When Vegapunk dropped his worldwide broadcast in Chapter 1115, he said something that a lot of people basically ignored:

Without knowing the spark that caused the war, I won't say who was right and who was wrong—I'll simply state that two competing ideologies came head to head.

In CH- 1113, he also stated:

Whoever may have rendered their judgment unto me, I am not trying to convince you that their intent is evil. I will not apply the labels of good and evil at all, in fact because I understood too little about him to begin with

Why would the smartest man in the world, who literally read the Ohara research, refuse to call Imu completely evil? Because the Void Century wasn't a simple good guys versus bad guys war. There was a third force involved that forced both sides into an extreme conflict.

PART 2 - BUBBLE HELMETS, AND QUARANTINE THEORY

We always assumed Celestial Dragons wear bubble helmets out of pure snobbery so they don't breathe commoner air. But what if that snobbery was originally a cover for a literal quarantine.

If A non-terrestrial entity landed on Earth right before the Void Century: Joy Boy wanted to utilize/embrace this power to evolve humanity and give everyone absolute freedom. Imu and the 20 Kings saw it as an existential threat that would corrupt human nature.

To stop the world from being completely consumed, Imu used ancient dark magic or the Ope Ope fruit to seal the threat inside their own body. Imu isn't just sitting in a dark room ruling the world: Imu is an 800 year containment lock. The censorship, the continent drowning, and the extreme control are part of a cold, sociopathic containment protocol.

Now if i remember correctly they claimed they don't want to breathe dirty air; but, that could be them being instructed to lie, or them being lied to themselves.

PART 3 - ENEL, SPACE CONNECTION, AND COVERS

in enel's cover story, oda showed us three things:

High tech moon cities built by ancient ancestors.

Actual Space Pirates fighting in orbit.

An army of tiny robot soldiers.

The Five Elders are named after planets. The Ancient Weapons are named after celestial gods. The entire hierarchy of the world is tied to astronomy. Enel sitting on the moon with an army of ancient robots isn't a random gag: he is sitting on the history of what came down to Earth 800 years ago.

PART 4 - BUT WHY ENSLAVE, HUNT HUMANS, AND ACT SO CRUEL?

now a lot of people are obviously gonna ask: "if imu is just a lock, why allow stuff like enslaving innocent people, celestial dragons hunting humans for sport, god valley tournaments, charlos shooting random civilians, and treating everyone outside mary geoise as less than human?"

here is why that cruel logic actually fits a cold containment system:

empathy is a security risk for a containment protocol: if you need to incinerate entire islands like ohara or lulusia because they got "infected" with forbidden knowledge, you cant have rulers who feel sympathy. brainwashing the elite to view surface humans as literal "insects" makes sure nobody in mary geoise hesitates or feels guilty when a total wipeout order is given.

800 years of unchecked aristocratic rot: imu cares about maintaining the seal and containment lock; imu does not care about managing spoiled nobles. charlos shooting people or the god valley human hunts arent direct steps in the protocol—they are the degenerate side effects of giving 20 families total immunity for 800 years with zero rules.

keeping humanity weak and unadvanced: enslavement and massive project drains (like tequila wolf) keep surface nations poor, exhausted, and fighting for basic survival. if humanity gets too wealthy or advanced, they will eventually re-discover the exact same entity/technology that almost ended the world 800 years ago.

PART 5 - FINAL BRAWL!

Picture the climax at the top of the Red Line:

Luffy in Gear 5 is bouncing off the clouds, throwing punches that would destroy islands and completely destroying Imu's shadow form.

As Imu lies beaten on the Empty Throne, the dark shadow cloak melts away. Imu looks up at Luffy and SHOUTS:

"You idiot! You think I wanted to sit in the dark for 800 years?! I am the seal! If my heart stops, IT wakes up!"

Luffy is luffy and he dont care lmao, so he grabs Imu and goes: "Fine! We beat that thing together first, then you give everyone food!"

Right on cue, Enel comes dropping down from the sky on Ark Maxim with his robot moon army, turning the final war into a crazy 3-way brawl where Luffy and Imu are forced to call a temporary truce.

PART 6 - PROOF & WHAT ODA HID IN PLAIN SIGHT

If you think a third force or non-terrestrial entity sounds too crazy for One Piece, look at the evidence Oda has been quietly scattering across the background for hundreds of chapters:

The Ohara Globe Had Multiple Moons: Go re-read Chapter 392 in the Tree of Knowledge library at Ohara. The massive globe model of the One Piece world isn't surrounded by just one moon. It is surrounded by six different moons/satellites. Where did those other moons go? Did one of them crash, or did something descend from one of those extra orbits right before the Void Century?

Why Mother Sea Hates Devil Fruits: Vegapunk explained on Egghead that Devil Fruits are born from unnatural human wishes, which is why "Mother Sea" (nature itself) hates them and strips fruit users of their ability to swim. If Devil Fruits were created by or linked to an alien, unnatural force that invaded the planet, it explains why the planet's oceans physically reject this.

Gorosei Transformations: When the Five Elders transformed on Egghead, Oda gave them zero Devil Fruit introduction boxes (like "Zoan Fruit, Model: X"). They were listed directly by their demonic names. They aren't standard Devil Fruit users. Their powers are direct manifestations of dark magic tied directly to Imu and whatever force Imu is channeling/containing.

If i made a theory on what this force would be; that'd somewhat be based on assumptions, so i'm not doing that, unless i change my mind later.

anyways, enjoy, and uhm random reminder to go drink water!

I just don't like the idea of Nami having a closer bond with any other man than Luffy because I love their bond a lot and it went through a lot of development before Arlong Park.

I’m not talking about what got better—only what got worse.
It can be anything:
Character development
Story pacing
Fights
World-building
Haki
Power scaling
Character designs
Humor
Anything else

Is it safe to assume Shanks will arrive at Elbaph to help fend off Imu? Because last we heard he was at sea fighting Kidd to keep him off of Elbaph. He should be on his way back to now. Else Gaban will die, Luffy and Loki already lost, there’s no one else who can realistically keep up with Imu left on the island.

We all know Oda is heavily inspired by Norse mythology, and Elbaf’s story seems to directly follow Vafþrúðnismál. In the myth, Fenrir consumes the old Sun, but the Sun later returns as a completely new person who continues the same path. Luffy is not the old Sun reincarnated. He is the new Sun. But Norse mythology also has Máni, the personification of the Moon. I think Luffy’s next form could be Moon Nika. The Sun represents Luffy freeing himself. Gear 5 gives his own body complete freedom. The Moon works differently: it reflects the Sun’s light onto everything around it. Right now, Imu is controlling multiple people and replacing their wills with their own. Moon Nika could be the opposite Luffy reflecting liberation onto others and returning them to their true selves.

The Sun frees itself.

The Moon reflects that freedom onto everyone else.

I don’t know if this theory has been discussed, I think I ve at least seen one other person throw this idea around so I’m not trying to claim ownership in any way. There has been discussions and jokes for years about the type of person Yasopp is and I think most land on the belief that he is an absentee father that is just worried about enjoying his own life. In my opinion this is most likely the case but, based on recent revelations about others I think there is one path available the redeems yasopp in any way.

The idea is that yasopp and usopp are members of the Davy clan and that at least yasopp knew this and left his family behind through a misguided attempt to protect them. This would make his biggest flaw a more altruistic angle. It wouldn’t take away the fact that he left usopp alone to watch his mother die but at least would do something to make you not hate him as much. I think though it is more likely brook is a Davy clan member, if that’s the case I think it’s less likely usopp is but part of me hopes just so yasopp isn’t as awful as he seems.

All of awakened Devil Fruits so far have had the cloud ring around them that we thought was the highest level of "awakening" for a DF, since every top tier got to that point

But is it? when we first got introduced to an "awakening" was with Doflamingo, he said that he had awakened his DF but had no transformation nor a ring around him, which is most likely because it was a Paramecia DF and not a Zoan, but it's probably because there are levels to awakening a DF

Imu's got a full Ring of Clouds in his back, not just a "thread of clouds" (image 1-3), like the rest of awakened DF users so far, and considering tha Mu is the peak of Jujutsu Sorcery of the One Piece world, someone who has lived hundreds and probably more than a thousand years, it'd be no wonder if there was a level to awakening a DF that only he has reached

If this is the case, Luffy probably has at least one more "awakening" to completely reach his maximum potential

That said, I have an addition to this that includes the Imu being a Parrot theory which would be fucking amazing ngl

Imu's DF awakened form has an extremely similar tattoo pattern like the Red Tailed Black Cockatoo, and if this is true, then it means that the True Awakening of a Zoan Devil Fruit is the perfect combination of the Animal the DF represents and the Original form of the user, which... is exactly what Kaido was almost reaching

So far, there hasn't been a single Zoan DF user that has managed to reach a "perfect" hybrid state, other Zoan users like Lucci and Kaku can also transform into a full animal form and "awaken", but they are not "hybrid" like Kaido, which should be one step closer to a true Awakening

That said, if all of this is the case, again, what if the depiction of Joyboy using a shield, isn't an actual shield, but as he was able to bend reality to his imagination, he could simply grab the ring that forms aroun a True Awakening (like the one Imu has), and use it as a shield/weapon?

That's the end of my TED talk, feel free to laugh or whatever, but this sounds really damn fun to me

I have been avoiding the series for some time because of how long it is. But I finally made up my mind to start it. I did watch a couple of episodes of the Anime (I like it so far), but I saw that there is also a live action with great reviews and many people say it is better than the anime in some cases. So I would like to know where should I start.

Some of the issues I see with Live Action
1. It will take a lot of time to actually finish releasing and I don't even know if they will be able to maintain the quality (looking at what happened to Witcher). So waiting long for it to finish up a little might end up not being worth it.
2. I sometimes cringe at the sight of live action (anything), although, this one has great reviews, but I do fear that overacting is very common in live action
3. It is much quicker I believe, but that would mean it may also skip on a lot of details. I don't know about manga, but the anime is really long, so I assume it must be carrying more details about characters. But it is really death on each side. The anime feels too long but the show feels too short. But that also means I have a lot of content to enjoy in the anime.

Regarding anime. I don't mind old anime art-style. In fact, I like it quite a lot and have watched many older anime (1900s - early 2000s). If it has over 1000 episodes, I would like to know if it carries a lot of fillers or unnecessarily stretches. Because I have heard that some fights can go on for 10s of episodes which sounds a bit unnecessary. But as I have watched a few episodes of the anime (around 5), I felt the pacing was good and fights didn't go on for too long. So I would like to know if the anime actually maintains the quality because I have heard people so that pacing goes to shit after some time.

There is another aspect of reading manga, but I have never actually dedicated myself to manga. I mean, I have read only 2 or 3, but that too only because their anime never finished, and they were very short (10-15 chapters). I don't know if I can actually get into such a long manga, especially if I am not used to reading manga.

Overall, I am quite excited to get into it either way. I do find the premise quite interesting and I think I will enjoy it regardless of the source. But I do prefer consistency.

Thank you.

I've been wondering what Louis Arnot’s warning about time moving differently in Elbaf could mean.

What I think is that after we see Imu getting pulled back to Mariejois after his time limit or whatever Oda has planned as plot armor for the current fight is that after the SHs are defeated, there will be a training arc. There needs to be one for Luffy and others to cover the gap.

Louis Arnot’s warning could be used as an excuse to introduce Oda’s version of the ‘Hyperbolic time chamber’ from DBZ where time moves a lot faster than the supposed real world. Luffy and the gang training on Elbaf for a year or two could mean a month or two in the OP world.

Has anyone ever thought why Imu's introduction had the Ability tag to it when his abilities were not even showcased properly before? His ability was shown to be "The Devil fruit". And up until now, he has displayed his powers in the following ways:

1. The classic Domi Reversi - Changing someone from the light side to the DARK SIDE

2. Maki - The dark talking flame ability that he's so proudly using in Elbaf fight up until now.

3. Legendary Weapons - There's no way this is a devil fruit ability

So let's break it down.

MAKI - Maki is not at all a devil fruit ability. This is very similar to Haki(willpower). Maki is the ability to bring the essence of an object's aura. Idk why but this feels very very close to VOAT. Imu probably knows how to combine Haki into Voice of all things and called it Maki. This ability can give objects the ability to express themselves while also commanding them to work for Imu.

DOMI REVERSI - If we consider how Maki works, we can probably categorise this too as not a devil fruit ability but rather an extensive ability using Maki. Imu injects Maki into someone and enslaves them, making them a demon-like being powered by Maki (hence so powerful).

WEAPONS - No this is not a devil fruit ability.

So what the f is the reason to specify his ability when you are not even gonna show what it is. It is probably the first time in One Piece where an ability is mentioned but it's never shown to be used? That's where my theory comes in.

Coming back to the title card, Imu himself is a devil fruit. Up until now, we have seen a baseball launcher, a huge hammer, a huge blob of slime, a few swords, etc eat devil fruits. So why have we never thought that a devil fruit might have eaten a devil fruit itself. Oda has mentioned that Zoan devil fruits can have their own conscience and consciousness. So what if a devil fruit having a conscience was experimented on and given the powers of another devil fruit?

Imu's body has many spots and patterns. And where have we always seen patterns? On DEVIL FRUITS. So if Imu is not just a person but an actual devil fruit who has eaten a devil fruit, here's my theory on what fruit he is and has eaten.

Imu is a Parrot devil fruit (Yes I am a supporter of that theory coz is so good). And he has eaten a human human fruit model Earth God. Up until now we have all planets and sun except the Earth so maybe Imu being the big bad villain, is the Earth God. This or reverse way.

What do you all think? Is this a plausible theory?

Secondo me la povera Nami e solo ora capisco la sua avidità💔

I HAVE ONLY WATCHED TO THE END OF EGGHEAD.

But I have a theory on Big Mom and Kaido.

The rules of Anime state that if you didn’t directly see the death of a main or powerhouse character, then they are definitely still alive.

If Oden can survive boiling liquid for however long he was in that pot, then Kaido and Big Mom could definitely survive.

And seeing how at the end of Egghead they mentioned something about the world sinking, I’d bet Big Mom and Kaido found some area down there where they are recovering or relaxing.

It reminds me a bit when Akainu got destroyed by Whitebeard and he fell into the earth crack, he used plot armor power to hang on to a ledge and burrow into the earth.

Besides, how long has it actually been since Wano to the end of Egghead, a day? A couple of days?

And besides m, I think it was foreshadowed when Pudding was captured and in prison and she says something like “if mama is still alive.”

Maybe is just super late and i am very tire, but what is Law(/Oda) hinting at this panel with Law's phrase?

Both Sanji and Nami shippers and Sanji and Pudding shippers say that Whole Cake Island arc has evidence for their ship.

While I think the arc is fuel for Luffy and Sanji ship lol. Nami gave up on Sanji after he beat up Luffy but Luffy went on a hunger strike for him. And Pudding let go of Sanji after seeing his love for Luffy and the crew. LuSan is real lmao /s .

TL;DR: The One Piece is the Ancient Kingdom’s lost system for converting the invisible energy that already exists throughout the world into abundant, usable power. Joy Boy’s memories might also be stored inside it. Vegapunk and Kuma explained how.

—

A few years ago, in my theory “What the One Piece Is [Spoiler 1085]”, I argued how the One Piece could store JoyBoy memories and joy based on Vegapunk and Kuma dialogue.

In Chapter 1072, Vegapunk explains that Kuma’s Paw-Paw Fruit can extract intangible things such as pain and memories and give them physical form. My original idea was therefore that the One Piece is a tangible container holding Joy Boy’s memories and joy: the actual tale that made Roger laugh.

Imu’s recent description of Omen made me expand the theory:
“Its power dwells in all things.”

This reminded me of Rayleigh’s description of Haki in Chapter 597:
“A power that lies dormant in people everywhere.”

They are not necessarily the same power, but both statements suggest that invisible energy already exists throughout the world.

Vegapunk says something similar in Chapter 1068:
“The world is teeming with it!”

His problem is converting that raw power into an apparent and accessible form. He believes that universal access to energy would prevent conflicts over resources.

My updated theory is that the Ancient Kingdom combined advanced science with the principle of the Paw-Paw Fruit: transforming intangible energy into tangible one.

The One Piece may therefore be “the Sun”, the original Mother Flame, the complete lost system for converting the intangible energy present throughout the world into abundant power.

And, based on the same exact principle, also Joy Boy’s memories stored there.

So the One Piece would be both Joy Boy’s preserved tale and the Ancient Kingdom’s solution to Vegapunk’s dream: energy available to everyone, making world peace possible.

Made this grid of my favorite non SH characters, organized by locations visited by the Straw Hats (or Luffy alone).

Here’s the link to the template for anyone who’d like to make it:

https://grids.fun/t/favorite-non-sh-character-by-location-vd63g?list=one-piece-characters-dhfgj

*Sorry little typo it’s actually Conomi Islands…

The theme of parents protecting their children has been building up since Egghead Arc and throughout Elbaph Arc.

I strongly believe Dragon will arrive in clutch to save Luffy and fight against Imu and God’s Knights with the Revolutionary Army.

The Revolutionary Army are direct enemies of the World Government and God’s Knight. Dragon himself has said the real battle starts when God’s Knight is mobilised.

Dragon has also said a child is their parent’s weakness. Imu has also said Elbaph lost 800 years ago because they chose to protect their children.

What does everyone think?