Theory Big Mom is a witch

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

Hello dear OP fans. I hope you're enjoying this new arc.

So while reading the last few chapters, and with BM's official reveal, everyone is speculating about the kind of power she has. Without getting too technical about the name of the DF and whether it's a paramecia or a mythical Zoan, I want to share with you this theory that I've been having about BM for a while, about what she's supposed to represent and the possible inspiration for her character.

BM is described as an obese woman, who is suggested to practice cannibalism. Her appearance reminds me of Yubaba/Zeniba from Spirited away.

BM's first appearance

Yubaba from Spirited away.
​

Both are gigantic, and in that particular shot it seems that BM's head is larger than her body, most likely due to perspective.

Yubaba is a every bit a witch. She turns Chihiro's parents into pigs and forces her to serve her.

More evidence of this "witch" theme can be found later on, when Sanji is riding BM's ship.

The soldiers ressemble those of the Queen of hearts from Alice's adventures in Wonderland
There's a strong Alice theme when it comes to BM, and when we think of Wonderland we think of a magical world where everything is possible.

But there is a ressemblance with Yubaba herself. The Queen of hearts (not to be confused with the Red queen) has often short temper, and she has everyone who offends her decapitated. Her famous line "off with their heads" calls out to Yubaba who is literally served by three heads(Kashira in Japanese which means head)

BM herself has a short temper, and she threatened to destroy FI if they didn't give her her sweets. She also sents those who don't do her biding the severed heads of their loved ones.

So the Queen of hearts, Yubaba, and BM herself all have this weird fetish in common.


However it is her ressemblence to the witch from Hansel and Gretel's tale that is more striking. And this is where BM's apparent cannibalism comes into play, since the witch plans on eating Hansel after fattening him up.
And wholecake island and Totland in general is a place filled with sweets, and houses that are made of chocolate, which is reminiscent of the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel.

It's a very alluring world, which is sure to attract little kids and gluttons in general. Luffy himself might be on BM's menu based on this

She is salivating at the thought of Luffy being there, and a talking rainbow mentions a "devilish sacrifice". Is Luffy going to be the sacrifice in question?

Of course the mere fact that the objects surrounding BM are moving and singing suggests that she can animate objects, which in turn reinforces the whole witch/magic theme.

Conclusion: With Oda seemingly taking inspiration from Spirited away, Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel, it looks like BM's theme is highly inspired of that of a witch, and this might also be reflected on her power. Maybe she has a "Maho maho no mi" Maho meaning magic, or it can be a life giving fruit, but either way her theme seems to be that of a witch, in comparison with Kaido whose theme is inspired by the Oni.

Thanks for reading.

 

[kkck]

I am not on board with the idea of a magic fruit. It would be too arbitrarily powerful and have no real boundaries. A fruit that allows for "magic" would even be contradictory with whatever fruits actually are considering fruits within the context of OP are not magical in the least but rather things which work within the world's regular physics and can be or are understood within scientific thought. I would agree with big mom taking inspiration from witches but not only that. Odds are she is inspired by a number of fairy tale evil woman which would include witches and non witches. We have seen her salivate what seems to be acid which IMO would suggest her ability is directly related to eating. Though perhaps what seems to be acid is merely appearances and not factually correct. Big mom's territory has a number of beings which seem to be distinctly different from regular people in OP. Living boats, singing plants and so on. IMO what is going on here is that people eaten by big mom are basically being eaten by her and being made into new creatures. Perhaps what seems to be acid rather than acid is merely a substance which basically dissolves people or things without killing them and then it allows big mom to turn them into whatever she wants. Which would be very much like what a witch does but not quite within the realm of magic.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

I am not on board with the idea of a magic fruit. It would be too arbitrarily powerful and have no real boundaries. A fruit that allows for "magic" would even be contradictory with whatever fruits actually are considering fruits within the context of OP are not magical in the least but rather things which work within the world's regular physics and can be or are understood within scientific thought. I would agree with big mom taking inspiration from witches but not only that. Odds are she is inspired by a number of fairy tale evil woman which would include witches and non witches. We have seen her salivate what seems to be acid which IMO would suggest her ability is directly related to eating. Though perhaps what seems to be acid is merely appearances and not factually correct. Big mom's territory has a number of beings which seem to be distinctly different from regular people in OP. Living boats, singing plants and so on. IMO what is going on here is that people eaten by big mom are basically being eaten by her and being made into new creatures. Perhaps what seems to be acid rather than acid is merely a substance which basically dissolves people or things without killing them and then it allows big mom to turn them into whatever she wants. Which would be very much like what a witch does but not quite within the realm of magic.

Nope that's not what Oda said. Basically he is making the fruits be the explanation about all the weird phenomenons in the manga, and by weird he meant magical. This was stated when he was asked if he'd have a magic user in the manga, as in a sorcerer. So when it comes to what magic is in this manga, it can only be possible if it gets tied to a DF, a life life fruit which allows to animate objects would appear as magic to the untrained eye.And magic in general could make her OP, but this manga has plenty of OP DFs so I don't see why this would be a problem. We even have one which gives immortality, sure at a price, but immortality nonetheless.
An acid fruit will be a let down, a fruit that allows her to animate objects makes a lot more sense considering that she was surrounded by singing rainbows and plants. Did she eat all of them before spewing them out like magical objects? I doubt it, and it feels like BM is rather picky when it comes to her food, she loves sweets mostly, and maybe human flesh too, so I doubt she'd eat a whole ship just so she can shit it out as an animated object, without chewing it up too.Plus you're giving her two abilities, an acid DF which is completely different from animating objects, I don't see how both can be related. Their effects are completely different, and I can't see how a single DF would allow her to cover both.

 

[kkck]

Nope that's not what Oda said. Basically he is making the fruits be the explanation about all the weird phenomenons in the manga, and by weird he meant magical. This was stated when he was asked if he'd have a magic user in the manga, as in a sorcerer. So when it comes to what magic is in this manga, it can only be possible if it gets tied to a DF, a life life fruit which allows to animate objects would appear as magic to the untrained eye.And magic in general could make her OP, but this manga has plenty of OP DFs so I don't see why this would be a problem. We even have one which gives immortality, sure at a price, but immortality nonetheless.
An acid fruit will be a let down, a fruit that allows her to animate objects makes a lot more sense considering that she was surrounded by singing rainbows and plants. Did she eat all of them before spewing them out like magical objects? I doubt it, and it feels like BM is rather picky when it comes to her food, she loves sweets mostly, and maybe human flesh too, so I doubt she'd eat a whole ship just so she can shit it out as an animated object, without chewing it up too.Plus you're giving her two abilities, an acid DF which is completely different from animating objects, I don't see how both can be related. Their effects are completely different, and I can't see how a single DF would allow her to cover both.

My point is that within the context of OP fruits are not actually magical objects at all, they are things understood by science. That is why ceasar is able to make, admittedly still inferior, devil fruits. Or why they are able to give abilities to objects. Even during the ennies lobby arc CO9 explained that actual devils do not exist in fruits and the whole thing is just legends and myths. Devil fruits are ultimately not magical and whatever ability they grant will ultimately also not be magical in nature. Even if it's turning into lava or having things arbitrarily follow targets...

More than acid, the idea I suggested was more about a way to reconstruct things as she sees fit by devouring them. Considering big mom just shoved a guy down her throat I kinda doubt she is particularly picky regarding what she puts in her mouth. I don't think any of the things at the island are formerly inanimate objects that were given life. Rather they are all people she ate and... returned as those things. I doubt big mom can give actual life to inanimate things.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

More than acid, the idea I suggested was more about a way to reconstruct things as she sees fit by devouring them. Considering big mom just shoved a guy down her throat I kinda doubt she is particularly picky regarding what she puts in her mouth. I don't think any of the things at the island are formerly inanimate objects that were given life. Rather they are all people she ate and... returned as those things. I doubt big mom can give actual life to inanimate things.

You think cannibals eat humans because they're not picky? On the contrary, it's because they like human flesh in particular, and are being picky that they eat humans, when there's plenty of other meat around...And it's still doesn't explain how she can make acid, those are two different abilities, which require two different DFs.

 

[kkck]

You think cannibals eat humans because they're not picky? On the contrary, it's because they like human flesh in particular, and are being picky that they eat humans, when there's plenty of other meat around...And it's still doesn't explain how she can make acid, those are two different abilities, which require two different DFs.

Why would it have to be two abilities? It all depends on how its phrased. In my post for instance I make the point that she is able to reconstruct what her acid dissolves as she sees fit. It's not two abilities, its one. And nitpicking on her being picky doesn't really make much of a difference to this issue in the end. What matters is that she eats people and a number of others things and apparently makes them into seemingly animated objects.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

Why would it have to be two abilities? It all depends on how its phrased. In my post for instance I make the point that she is able to reconstruct what her acid dissolves as she sees fit. It's not two abilities, its one. And nitpicking on her being picky doesn't really make much of a difference to this issue in the end. What matters is that she eats people and a number of others things and apparently makes them into seemingly animated objects.

I'm sorry but I can't see how the acid comes into play in making animate objects.And it's not nitpicking, it's logic, people who eat humans do it because they have a taste for flesh, not because they eat anything and everything. You don't see cannibals eating chairs for example.

 

[kkck]

I'm sorry but I can't see how the acid comes into play in making animate objects.And it's not nitpicking, it's logic, people who eat humans do it because they have a taste for flesh, not because they eat anything and everything. You don't see cannibals eating chairs for example.

Well, take wappol. The guy can eat people and things and assimilate them into himself. But he can also produce the wapometal. It's not two abilities, it's just one. And as far as big mom, it is extremely likely that her acid is devil fruit related at least. Otherwise it would have to be some sort of innate trait however that does not seem particularly likely. She is clearly not a mink that could have such a trait... and a fish salivating like that does not make sense after all.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

Well, take wappol. The guy can eat people and things and assimilate them into himself. But he can also produce the wapometal. It's not two abilities, it's just one. And as far as big mom, it is extremely likely that her acid is devil fruit related at least. Otherwise it would have to be some sort of innate trait however that does not seem particularly likely. She is clearly not a mink that could have such a trait... and a fish salivating like that does not make sense after all.

Wapometal and living/animated beings are very different.It should be way more difficult to produce animated beings or objects.And considering how Wapol was defeated it's a pretty lame DF I must say.
I think her metabolism just changed, due to her eating so many sweets and maybe humans too, that is why her saliva became acidic, to the point that it melted the surface of the floor.She's salivating because she's hungry, that's all, and she produces a great amount of saliva due to her metabolism changing. Maybe she has some pretty strong bacteria that allows her to melt things.
Of course that is assuming she's even human at all, we haven't seen all the species in OP,namely there seems to be a triclops species of some sort, unless Pudding's third eye is the result of her eating a DF.

 

[kkck]

Wapometal and living/animated beings are very different.It should be way more difficult to produce animated beings or objects.And considering how Wapol was defeated it's a pretty lame DF I must say.
I think her metabolism just changed, due to her eating so many sweets and maybe humans too, that is why her saliva became acidic, to the point that it melted the surface of the floor.She's salivating because she's hungry, that's all, and she produces a great amount of saliva due to her metabolism changing. Maybe she has some pretty strong bacteria that allows her to melt things.
Of course that is assuming she's even human at all, we haven't seen all the species in OP,namely there seems to be a triclops species of some sort, unless Pudding's third eye is the result of her eating a DF.

Well, wapometal being lame is not really relevant to the topic. The issue here is how it could potentially be similar to what I am suggesting big mom does. In the sense that the user ingests something and what comes out is something different. If we go by your logic wapol would even have 3 abilities considering he consumes stuff with his big mouth (1), then he can assimilate them into his body (2) or produce wapometal (3). Now, that is not to say that what you are suggesting is impossible (if anything those are pretty good ideas), but I do think it is less likely than big mom's salivation being related to a devil fruit and the whole of what her abilities could be.

 

[Brunch]

I guess that if BM is able to pull away the Life Force of creatures with her DF, she can transfer it to inanimate objects and grant them life.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

After careful consideration, here's what I think. BM's power allows her to steal the lifespan of her victims, which in turn is used to create various animated objects. It might not be that BM herself is making those animated objects.
In the latest chapter we saw some blob things gathering the lifespan of Moscato, BM's son that she effectively killed. So that lifespan must enter in play when making animated objects.
It can either be the work of another DF, or simply that the lifespan is an ingredient, that once added to regular ingredients is baked into those animated objects. I think everything in Totland is edible, even the rainbows and such.
Maybe there's even a baking DF, that allows the user to bake everything, and more importantly animated pastries. But the lifespan must be an important ingredient either way, that would allow the creation of animated objects.
I also wonder if it's not related to Ceasar's research and he made some process that allows the use of the lifespan substance later on, just a crackpot theory.

 

[kkck]

After careful consideration, here's what I think. BM's power allows her to steal the lifespan of her victims, which in turn is used to create various animated objects. It might not be that BM herself is making those animated objects.
In the latest chapter we saw some blob things gathering the lifespan of Moscato, BM's son that she effectively killed. So that lifespan must enter in play when making animated objects.
It can either be the work of another DF, or simply that the lifespan is an ingredient, that once added to regular ingredients is baked into those animated objects. I think everything in Totland is edible, even the rainbows and such.
Maybe there's even a baking DF, that allows the user to bake everything, and more importantly animated pastries. But the lifespan must be an important ingredient either way, that would allow the creation of animated objects.
I also wonder if it's not related to Ceasar's research and he made some process that allows the use of the lifespan substance later on, just a crackpot theory.

I could see this as a thing. It is consistent with the idea of big mom being a witch for the most part. Although there is still something weird here.... If her ability is simply to take life spans from people then it wouldn't have that many battle applications... Which would be rather odd for a devil fruit. I think you might be on to something with the zoan witch devil fruit but of course with limitations in regards to what "magic" does. There is a budda fruit and we don't see people trying to escape sengoku's infinite hands.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

I could see this as a thing. It is consistent with the idea of big mom being a witch for the most part. Although there is still something weird here.... If her ability is simply to take life spans from people then it wouldn't have that many battle applications... Which would be rather odd for a devil fruit. I think you might be on to something with the zoan witch devil fruit but of course with limitations in regards to what "magic" does. There is a budda fruit and we don't see people trying to escape sengoku's infinite hands.

Of course it would be more useful if she can animate the objects herself, but there's no clear indication of that atm. Of course if her power can only be used to steal lifespan, it may seem as restrictive, especially if we consider the conditions under which we saw it happen.
We could be operating under the assumption that BM's DF activates when someone is overwhelmed with fear. As such Luffy who is pretty much fearless could be immune to that. But what if it was just that, an assumption, and BM can activate her DF regardless if a person is afraid? I think if that were the case then her DF would work at all times, and wouldn't have a weakness like only activating if someone is cowering in fear.
And because of that, it could be very well be effective in battle. Basically BM could use it at all times.And that's a pretty dreadful ability for sure, and it was so easy to steal Moscato's lifespan too...Of course like every DF it would have a weakness, maybe the area of effect can't be too large and is rather limited.

Well we still need to see more of her DF, and if it can also animate objects. But already we know that it's related to the lifespan, that allows BM to steal it, and said lifespan is gathered which means that it can be used again, either to give that person her lifespan back(doubtful) or more likely to animate objects.

 

[obamamania]

Her magic can probably do whatever Oda wants it to, despite whatever it ends up being (assuming it is magic). Ever since Viola's clairvoyance type devil fruit allowing her to shoot whales from her eyes, or Doflamingo being able to use a simple sounding string fruit to unleash unspeakably vast destruction and chaos, I figure we just have to consider anything is possible.

However with magic, we can think of it more along the lines of someone like Irene from Fairy Tail. Big Mom could just be an enchantress-type devil fruit user or could have a category of magic that does not seem too specific. This limits, in a way, the scope of what her magic can do but still gives Oda the freedom to make her capable of some crazy things and makes the witch theme still viable.

And hmm, that fear thing is interesting because they did tell him to not run away or she'll steal his lifespan. Funny how you'd tell someone to NOT run away in the face of someone who is literally moments from killing them.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

Her magic can probably do whatever Oda wants it to, despite whatever it ends up being (assuming it is magic). Ever since Viola's clairvoyance type devil fruit allowing her to shoot whales from her eyes, or Doflamingo being able to use a simple sounding string fruit to unleash unspeakably vast destruction and chaos, I figure we just have to consider anything is possible.

However with magic, we can think of it more along the lines of someone like Irene from Fairy Tail. Big Mom could just be an enchantress-type devil fruit user or could have a category of magic that does not seem too specific. This limits, in a way, the scope of what her magic can do but still gives Oda the freedom to make her capable of some crazy things and makes the witch theme still viable.

And hmm, that fear thing is interesting because they did tell him to not run away or she'll steal his lifespan. Funny how you'd tell someone to NOT run away in the face of someone who is literally moments from killing them.

I already explained the fear part in the chapter discussion. It could very well be BM's own personal preference, that she hates cowards and that on the contrary she likes people who are ballsy like Luffy. But what I do find strange is that when Muscat (or Moscato same thing) started showing some fear, the lifespan already began leaking, and just as the others told him not to run it was already too late.So it's also possible I guess that it's one of the conditions under which her DF works.

It's interesting that you bring Viola, to me BM's DF could have a very large effect area, kilometers even, which means that she could steal the lifespan of people who aren't in close vicinity to her. As far as the applications of her DF, which can deal with magic and all things life related, it could have some pretty wide applications, and it's very possible that she used it to change the nature of the islands themselves.

Because I really doubt that there is naturally a chocolate island, and a cake one. So it could be that it's the result of BM's DF, and it might even be that she has awakened it, although again this more of a crackpot theory at this point.

 

[obamamania]

If someone like Doflamingo awakened his, I'd say it's almost without a doubt that Kaido and Big Mom awakened theirs. Once a new type of power is introduced, such as haki, they tend to become rather common in future villains. Big mom having the large range of her power working could definitely be the result of an awakening, affecting the landscape itself is already a proven effect. I know you say this is a crackpot theory but you do a great job of gathering evidence so I disagree with that characterization lol.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

If someone like Doflamingo awakened his, I'd say it's almost without a doubt that Kaido and Big Mom awakened theirs. Once a new type of power is introduced, such as haki, they tend to become rather common in future villains. Big mom having the large range of her power working could definitely be the result of an awakening, affecting the landscape itself is already a proven effect. I know you say this is a crackpot theory but you do a great job of gathering evidence so I disagree with that characterization lol.

Well I don't want to get ahead of myself, and assume things that could be wrong especially if there isn't a concrete evidence of that... but yeah like you pointed out with the reveal about Haki, we saw more and more characters use it and it has become the norm pretty much in the NW. With the exception of CoC which is a bit more rare. So the same could be applied to the awakening.
And for Yonkos it would make a LOT of sense for them to be awakened users. If BM's DF is awakened then it can influence her surroundings, which means all those objects are animated because of it.

 

[Fox666]

Given the similarities with the Thriller Bark arc, I expect Big Mom abilities to give life to things to be the same as Moriah zombies, i.e. she steals someone's lifespan and put it on an inanimate object.