Just a fun experiment I tried

Crackpot theory here, I don't know if anyone already came up with it.

So the sea levels rose significantly after using the ancient weapons. What if the former iterations of devil fruits did not have the "no swimming" negative side effect and what if, in a final act of defiance/sabotage, someone altered how they work in order to heavily weaken the "ruling class" in the hopes of making super powers in the new world unuseable due to the devil fruit users constantly being surrounded by water.

It's an act of trying to enforce balance and the possibility of revolt from people not having super powers.

Hyped.

I'm wanting unbiased knowledge of the show before I actually start getting into it. I've heard that there's so many horrible issues like pacing, filler, and that a lot of people I know irl don't even like the show until hundreds of episodes in and even then it's never been elaborated on how it's actually good, they just call it peak and nothing else. I want to know how bad those issues truly are before I try and get into it. Also, how's the manga? Because I feel like I may be better off reading it than watching it. I ask this with no offense to the fans or the show or anything, just want to know before I commit hours of my life to it. Anything you can tell me would be appreciated.

With the absolutely incredible lore dump we had yesterday, it got me thinking why Luffy named his power ups during combat as “gears.”

Seeing the panels of the first world, where people, potentially slaves, were depositing a substance into the mechanical whale islands… It had me imagining if they were depositing energy from their very beings. That white energy that surrounds Luffy in Gear 5, but that we have also seen leak out of him during moments of exhaustion from Gear 4.

With the mechanical nature of the technology, it has me wondering if that is why the Nika fruit has Luffy using Gears as his fighting style.

The human-human fruit. What an interesting mystery!

We've all seen a lot of speculation over 1138. There's a lot of wonderful thoughts, and some that just seem insane. Hopefully, my theory is more the former... TL;DR at the bottom.

Personally, I'm thinking people are combining the mural and the book a little too literally. I think we got some hints as to understanding both together from Saul - these are interpretations, they change based on the author.

Maybe it's my latest read of Wheel of Time messing with how I think of prophecies. I'm looking at it as there is a prophecy about Nika, beyond just the mythos of a Sun God that 'inspired' a devil fruit. To be clear, that means there is a Sun God Nika in a mythological sense, and a Nika fruit user. Similar to how Sengoku was Buddha model fruit? That doesn't mean he IS Buddha, or that he has to follow that mythology; the fruit is inspired by Buddha's mythos.

So, we have a prophecy of Nika saving slaves and the world. The mural shows this - it's the ORIGINAL prophecy if you will. The three worlds are the various attempts - when the book was written, the 1st world was the past, the 2nd world just ended (so it was written DURING the Void Century), and the 3rd is the future. Not specifically meaning now, but showing what NEEDS to happen for "them to meet".

Going off this, I can imagine JoyBoy - who was apparently a giant - seeing this mural and being inspired to be Nika or once he became Nika he remembered this drawing and based his "crew" on that. It helps explain the "promise" about Noah - he wasn't the one meant to fill that role - and why Emet looks so like the picture - he was built to look like the drawing. (Alternatively, JoyBoy [or some kid during / just after JoyBoy's time] drew the mural, and then the robot looks like Emet because they used Emet as the example... Anyways, that's getting off topic here.)

Back to the main point of my theory. The mural and poem are both different versions of prophecies, and not necessarily and one-to-one relationship. Different authors, different interpretations. Instead of the mural showing three worlds/eras, it's showing the WHOLE story of ONE Nika arc. There will be pieces matching all three worlds ultimately. So instead of focusing on "that robot IS Emet!" I'd like to say "yes, but..."

Is it also... Franky?!

Clearly, Luffy is Nika in the drawing. We can also almost certainly say the black 'evil' figure is Imu. People have pointed out Noah and the Sky Ark (and even Zunesha) on the right side. But let's just focus on the third world interpretation - the now.

Who do we know can 'fly' and is 'on fire'. No, not King - that was from someone TRYING to be JoyBoy. I'm talking about Sanji. Yes, it's NOT literal. The artist of the mural knew one of Nika's allies could fly and had fire-based attacks... Sounds like a Lunarian! But... that's Sanji too, isn't it? (Be a fun twist if Judge somehow introduced lunarian legacy factor into his kids, so Sanji is PARt lunarian...)

Next, let's look at the lower mink figure... It reminds me of a small teddy bear. That's also how I see a lot of kids draw tanukis - racoon... dogs... Wait, could that be Chopper?! (Sorry, this is how my brain started connecting the dots, so you get this too lol).

So, if we stretch ourselves some... the fish could be Jimbei. The whale is clearly Laboon. Zoro is one of the figures with a sword - I can see him either being the wolf one (since it mirrors Sanji's position and Sanji and Zoro are the left and right arms of Luffy, respectively) or the warrior at front of the group (that's a bandana, not a helmet then). I argue the Giant is Usopp; giants are usually 'Brave Warriors of the Sea' and so is Usopp.

The mermaid could be Shirhoshi, and the little guy behind her could be Leo the tonatta. But - looking at it through a lens where the mural isn't going to match reality exactly, but be inspired by someone interpreting a story/prophecy... Nami is 'beautiful' like a mermaid, almost always wears a bikini top, wields a polearm weapon that summons lighting (something tridents usually do in myths). Oh and the little figure then? He's really black compared to the other figures... who else is small, black, and follows Nami? Zeus.

The boats behind Nika's 'team' are the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, with a couple call-outs. There is clearly a samurai and a ninja. There's a figure one a boat that looks to have the white deity-level clouds - maybe Yamato? The boat above our samurai and ninja looks a lot like Boa Hancock's ship to me...

Looking at the right, that city could be Wano, as well as Mary Geoise. The serpent could be the red line or the grandline (the stripe is the grand line, the x's the calm belt). It could also be the Elder who turns into a snake - just like the bird is represented; are they a bigger foe than we reckon so far, or are those forms they take a bigger piece of the Nika mythos than we know so far?

There ARE issues with this though. Where are Brook and Robin? If Zoro is the shield warrior, who's the wolf (and vice versa). Could the rain above Laboon symbolize Nami's weather? Does that mean Nami is actually one of Laboon's riders? What if that's not Laboon, but the Moby Dick (so those are Whitebeard's crew members)? Is the boat on Imu's side the five (+1 fallen) elders, or is that Blackbeard's team, or CP-0? In other words, it can go so many ways, and we'll probably never know the 'true' meaning. We can find meanings Oda didn't mean (but still fit, and therefore are - on some level - true).

TL;DR The mural and poem are prophecies, but different interpretations of it. It's less a mural of all three eras and more the 'correct' 'story' of Nika. The figures on the left charging the demon are the Straw Hats - Luffy is Nika, robot is Franky, the little mink is Chopper, the lunarian is actually Sanji, etc. But not everyone is 'easily' identified, and some stretching is needed - but that makes some sense as a 'child' drew it.

So... what are your thoughts? Even if you think the theory is wrong, let us know if you see something I missed or if you have a different interpretation than I did about who the images represent in the present day (or if something fits for a different era).

Did Luffy and crew learn the truth about Luffy's devil fruit or they still know it as gomu gomu no mi?

Who else knows gomu gomu no mi is actually hito hito no mi model nika except Gorosei and maybe Shanks?

I’ve been working on some One Piece themed linocuts 🫶🏻

with the start of elbaph me and my friends found ourselves struggling to remember who alot of these giant characters were seeing as their appereances are so fue and far between so i made a video compiling everything we know about these guys! hope this helps!

https://youtu.be/wosfpMFVKEY

One Piece has taken a long time but we are finally nearing the end of the series, yet some characters still seem to lack development.

Mihawk is supposed to be one of the most powerful characters in the series, described as Shanks' rival, has the most powerful blade in the series, managed to transform it into a black blade (I'm 80% sure it's linked to the armament haki or conqueror haki), holds the title of marine hunter and World strongest swordman, title that is becoming more and more controversial with the apparition of new powerfull swordman...

But the most important of all, He is the last obstacle of Roronoa Zoro dream, making his fight with him, one of the most or perhaps the most anticipated fight in the series.

However, to this point, he hasn't brought anything major to the story so far, no backstory, no confrontation with another character, no arc in which he plays a major role, we haven't even didn't get the chance to see his training with Zoro.

Mihawk is one of my favorite character in One Piece, and I know the whole point of his character is that he has already achieved his goal and he's waiting for someone to take Shanks' place, but Mihawk has so little role that it becomes almost ridiculous.

Mihawk is probably in the same category as Dragon, the type of character that Oda keeps until the very end but we're getting close to this end and yet, still nothing.

I'm looking the mural on the last panel again and again, while -of course- reading what Robin's reading out loud.

Please have in mind that i didn't have any free time to read about the other theories or participate in the discussion. I'll just post my perspective on it.

I think it's crystal clear that it's about "the first world" and the "second world" (duh).

In the right part of it, I believe that it shows the only (or the strongest) King/Queen of that time, Imu (man or woman, whatever), who was in control of Zunesa and Noah. Prolly the OP world was mostly covered by sea, or Imu made it be that way because he/she somehow had all the powerful weapons. In any case, he/she had to use both of them for highground (or as a precaution for what was about to follow, considering) and to keep some of his/her people safe (mostly DF users), while slaves gave him/her the fuel (i'm referring to the factory) to conquer the moon as well, after the earth. Maybe that's why Zunesha is feeling so guilty to Joyboy - 'cause it helped Imu get stronger even it wouldn't want to - but still played a major role in that part of history.

As for the creatures above. I mean, on the right we can clearly see the "Serpent of Fire" but on the left side i have come to mixed conclusions. Mostly i believe it's Imu transformed in one of his/her forms even if we see his/her body figure (they kinda look similar with the figure that's holding the sun). Or his/her pet dragon that Ryuma (?) later killed. But since Robin's only referring to the "Serpent of Fire" I tend to believe that the other creature is Imu, before he/she gathered the Gorosei and got his/her hands to their broken DF before handling them to them. I mean, it can't be Kaido's DF previous user (even if we consider the two monsters being enemies, but i think that it's not the case here, because it's seems more like a combined attack) as well as it can't be the Itsumade. Keep in mind that we don't know about Loki's DF yet. Maybe it's "that" (Oda would be proud) creature.

For some reason we can clearly see Maxim -or something very similar to it- but not a single (clear) sign of Nika or the holder of the fruit at that time. I can't be sure, but I think that it's indeed a combined attack, trying to stop someone before they reach to the Moon and mess with Imu's plan. Or, in another scenario, Maxim (or whatever) was the mean for Imu to get to the moon ("reach the forbidden star") and it's drawn that way -by a thunder as a path to the sky- to show exactly that. So it's a... fully combined attack to the Moon. It's possible for me that he/she was in collaboration with Eneru's previous DF holder to accomplish his/her plan.

I also want to say that since Jarul mentioned that the world got "destroyed" twice and Joyboy's name appears on both occasions, I think that Imu saw hito-hito no mi model Nika coming and put the blame on him by the beginning, so people will stop praying to him for liberation in the near future and be negative about his whereabouts like some giants still are in the present of our story. After all, people wish was about a God and that was what created the hito-hito no mi. I strongly believe Joyboy was the first "Nika" to this world and Luffy's the second. I mean, there was no real Nika in the First World, just the hito-hito no mi that spawned somewhere.

As for the Second World i believe it's more simple. I tend to believe that Aramaki's DF previous holder (god of forest) collaborated with Joyboy (the sun) and his allies (we can clearly see them) so they can stop Imu but they failed. That war caused earth to be split in four seas (as we know it now) and since the devil fruits were now a more common thing the sea (the sea god) was in rage, especially since the Earth's morphology changed dramatically. I also believe that Imu's holding the Sun it's like a metaphor for his/her win against Joyboy and nothing more.

I know that some of my thoughts maybe are invalid or confusing/tangled, but man, i'm thrilled for the final saga.

https://preview.redd.it/e4uleat1jxge1.png?width=1628&format=png&auto=webp&s=cc7b11de4d804f497801afb6940b65bd3bb52224

Crackpot theory but: Where is the straw hat? Is the straw hat the shield but squished down?

https://preview.redd.it/ibtwj85iixge1.png?width=2000&format=png&auto=webp&s=432f45db00939d1880d60d24b75ff45b5ba35d42

Just the title joke. With the world mythology and how it was presented last chapter, my immediate comparison was to the Poetic/Prose Edda where we get most of our understanding of Norse mythology from and the fitting and appropriate pun of calling the One Piece giant mythology as the "Poetic/Prose Oda."

Looking forward to the spoilers this week cuz I'm sure we are in for a wild one. Have a great week, yall!