Given that we're closing in on the importance of Kuma to the overall story, and since I saw no other thread dedicated to him, I created this one so we can share our opinions on his motives and background.
Is he really an ally? a martyr? Or does he have a hidden agenda?
Yes, some sort of manipulation, and overall themes that have been speculated to relate to Imu/government: knowledge and flowers, ghosts and sorrow (the opposite of joyboy), immortality, memory altering.
But what I wanted to point out is that they all have a bear as their most frequent companion (considering Chopper is visually a cute teddy bear). That's the constant, and then we can start looking at the things above to notice a pattern.
Kuma is another important bear, we can follow this trend to speculate about his goals/lineage.
Yes, some sort of manipulation, and overall themes that have been speculated to relate to Imu/government: knowledge and flowers, ghosts and sorrow (the opposite of joyboy), immortality, memory altering.
Good observation on the bear thing. Though I see your point, I can't relate Robin to them. The Kuma part is good, but I don't see how we can use it as an analogy with the others. But if you see something we overlook, that would be cool
Good observation on the bear thing. Though I see your point, I can't relate Robin to them. The Kuma part is good, but I don't see how we can use it as an analogy with the others. But if you see something we overlook, that would be cool
Robin's probably the most subtle, but she's part of the crew, so we have a tendency to look at her in different light.
I think it's important to remember that we have a huge cast, so things can't be obvious, but she's most frequently accompanied by Chopper. The other characters are not part of the main cast, so we have a more straightforward connection with the bear motif, because they have less panels to work with.
Robin has one of the most broken abilities in the series, but she's been put on a supportive role, so it's under less scrutiny. She has the flower motif, and she can make her body bloom anywhere, create a doppelganger, she's associated with knowledge and intelligence (she was an assassin). Wano even gave us some really weird panels that I believe never got discussed enough: she had a demon form, and Brook even hid it with ice walls so it wouldn't be revealed. We still don't know who her father was, but we do know that he wanted to find answers about the void century. We're at a point in the story where lineage is important, and even if some people frown on every Straw Hat having an important background, it's been happening quite a lot, so we should try to come up with some ideas. If you think back on the first time we saw Imu, it was in a flower garden. My point is that there's a connection here, but I'm also not sure what to think of it.
When it comes to Kuma, I'm still conflicted and see a couple of different routes, but if he's the bear, I believe he has an important family connection. I'm still trying to make sense of it, but I expect him to have a brother and/or an important mother/father, but It's still messy in my head.
He's based on a real life pirate that should be the equivalent of Xebec or Roger in the story, and he pretty much got the Straw Hats to this point, so he's part of a bigger plan, but it's hard to figure it out. That's why I wanted people to theorize about it, because I'm sure we could all find interesting stuff.
I've actually found a lot of interesting stuff that would make for a gigantic theory, and connect a couple of different characters, but it's a bit convoluted.
If the next few points I'll mention get people interested, I'll try to put out something a bit more structured in the near future. It'll be a pain in the ass to structure and format, so it'd be a bit disheartening to go through all that trouble and barely get any feedback. I can pm you some of it if you'd like.
I mentioned Kuma and bears, but that was a simplistic way of looking at it. Kuma is not just any bear, he's a black and white bear: a Panda.
Pandas are royalty symbols, and that's somewhat true inside the One Piece world: Pappag owns a luxury brand, Criminal, and it even seems to rival the other luxury brand that exists and has made appearances for years: the Doskoi Panda brand. Royalty vs Criminals, ugh?
They have a few important concepts around them: they symbolize yin/yang, two opposite forces that share a connection, and keeping those forces in balance is what's believed to justify their peaceful nature.
Remember how I said that I expect Kuma to have an important family member? Pandas are actually interesting because twins are tremendously common among them, but that's tied to something really sad: they're gluttonous creatures (gluttony/famine is a hot topic), that require a tremendous amount of food, because their digestive system is typical of a carnivore, but their diet is mostly vegetarian, which mostly includes bamboo roots, stems, shoots and leaves. The mother usually abandons one of the cubs at some point, because she can't possibly feed both. Sad, isn't it?
Historically, they've also been used as political gifts. I know this might seem like a stretch, but Kuma was shown to be a slave, wasn't he? We seem to have a few discrepancies in his portrayal: He's a slave that made it all the way to King? He's a cruel tyrant, but all we've seen of him seems to point otherwise? Here's a hypothesis: he's the sibling that got the short end of the stick, and sent into slavery as a political gift by his parents/older sibling, because their race is special. I think we've already seen something similar: a failure sibling that got sacrificed into a political marriage by his tyrant father who ruled over a militaristic nation? Sanji
He could've also been both the tyrant and the pacifist at some point, but how would that possible? Here's where it gets a bit convoluted: I made all these associations with pandas, but that's an animal species, not a race. I'd have to make this insanely long in order to properly explain how we got here, but I'll summarize: if pandas are the animal that give us some of the inspiration and backstory, with the yin/yang and two (or more) parts of a sum motif, now we need to look for a race: I think Kuma might be from the Kinokobito race, or at the very least he'll have a connection to it.
We know nothing about the race, and I have a lot of things I'd like to speculate when it comes to it, but that'd go beyond a "short" summary, so let's just look at the visuals: it's two bodies put together, and the four legs seem to go in line with that notion. The head even seems like an independant piece, but that doesn't really matter right now. Two bodies merged into one, or two (or more) parts of a sum, depending on your preference. Now here comes the cherry on top: take a lot at the markings on that humanoid mushroom: they're the same as Kuma and his paw-paw fruit, but they're easy to go unnoticed.
The next page is the Doskoi Panda. Coincidence?
I feel like this is enough to spark some interest, even if some of the connections end up being wrong.
Their connection is not as obvious because they're part of the main cast, so they interact with more characters, and their proximity is diluted over several chapters/arcs. I'll admit that even I undervalued how much they relate to this, but after theorizing about that mushroom race, it's actually amazing:
Robin has the flower-flower fruit, and her power is making her body parts bloom anywhere, kinda like... spores? Mushrooms are Fungi. I actually have some awesome stuff on spores that relates to Kuma and is already a core development in the manga, but it'd make this post huge.
Chopper is easier, and I've been advocating for his fruit to be important for quite a while, but now I'm even more convinced: he has transformations that focus certain body parts (points): Brain, Arms, Legs, Horns, etc, but what's the sum of its parts? a Monster. What sort of human fruit has a monster point?! Here's the thing: the fruit is shaped like a freaking mushroom.
Last but not least, just to end it on a hype note: Blackbeard?
Hope you found it interesting. I actually have a shitload of other stuff I'd like to mention, but it'd get unbearably long
