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So, considering we have a long break on our hands, I figured now was a good time to put this theory forward. This is probably just an unpolished version of it, and I’ll update it once I get more solid arguments, but I found it so compelling that I decided to share my findings and conjectures, even if incomplete.
He got to Laugh Tale and learned about Ancient History, that’s a given, but he was too early and predicted that someone would come along and surpass him.
You can’t really surpass someone if you don’t go beyond what they did, so my assumption is that he found the “treasure chest”, but he couldn’t get the “key”, and the premise here is that the key, or the final piece of it, would only be accessible in 20 years. That’s the whole prophetic side of this story, and why we’ve been told several times that it all comes together in the current day and age. If this is the case, the next logical step is to find an event that really ties it all together, and look for arguments that validate this statement. We have two characters that not only match this criteria, but have narrative backing by the prophecy made by the Sea Kings: Shirahoshi and Luffy.
What made Shanks move after years of inactivity? Luffy and his awakening.
The fact that he saw his wanted poster is proof that he actually understands what’s happening, so we'll focus on Luffy.
This concept was introduced during the Baratie arc, so it’s something that Oda thought about from the beginning. Isn’t it strange that we’re now entering the final saga, and we know nothing about these weapons? We currently have three shown blades: Ace, Yoru and Murakumogiri, and those are associated with three very important characters.
The owners go beyond what I’m trying to convey here, because it’d be worthy of a theory of its own, so let’s just associate the importance of the weapons with the importance of the characters wielding them: they stand at the summit of the piracy world. The Shodai Kitetsu was also revealed, but we know nothing about it except that it’s cursed, and made by a Kozuki ancestor.
So, we have 8 weapons left, and one saga to show them all. This feels suspicious, and builds up their importance: we have one final saga to reveal the rest of them and explain what's so special about them, but we have enough on our hands to start connecting some dots. Let's take a look at the importance of certain numbers in the grand scheme of things, and how they're pretty much a story within a story: the sword hierarchy within the story is comparable to the political hierarchy of the One Piece world:
Let's look at these numbers: 12 kingdoms rebelled, 8 of them were sucessful, but 4 of them were not.
One of those 8 paid a heavier price, and got erased from existence.
Could it be a coincidence that a certain symbol that keeps appearing in countries associated with Poneglyphs has 8 smaller circles?
Could it be a coincidence that the World Government flag has 4 smaller circles? Or the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon has 4 marks?
Could it be a coincidence that we have one missing race?
Well, it actually could, and you might not agree with my interpretation, but I feel like these numbers add up.It's only fitting that chapter 1083 is titled: "The truth about that day."
It might be packing a whole lot of truthful depictions.
The panels that got me rolling with this theory are actually from Fishman Island, and I believe they tell us an important part of it, but let me provide some context first.
Wano added depth to blades and their temperaments, but it still left a lot of questions unanswered.
Let us take notice that a blade like Shosui, wielded by Ryuuma, a character equated to a Sword God, was a Black Blade, but not a Supreme Grade Blade, so there’s a whole different layer of power associated with a Supreme Grade Blade. Enma was a very hard weapon to master, and not only was it temperamental and drained the Haki of its wielder, it gave us a lot of information: blades can be somewhat sentient, and there’s proof of that not only with the remnants of Oden’s Haki, but also the way it reacted to the song Hyori played. I don’t think this is a huge logical leap, but Supreme Grade Blades and their temperaments are probably connected to the other Supreme nomenclature we have: Color of the Supreme King Haki. I believe those weapons were wielded by the primordial kings of this story.
Another important question is the reason why they’re not craftable anymore. Is it a lack of talented swordsmiths? Or was the craftsmanship technique lost in time? I think this brings us to another important piece of information related to Wano: the Kozuki clan were masons capable of creating indestructible Poneglyphs, and those remain a mystery to this day. They were also able to craft Kairoseki items, who seem to harness the power of the sea, and this leads me to the panels I mentioned before:
Oda just loves to hide important information in seemingly unimportant panels, and this one screams out to me. It’s a gag, but it’s meant for us viewers to read in between the lines: wouldn’t Zoro love to have a Supreme Grade Blade? Luffy could tie to this in more than one way, but the most logical one to me is how he probably played with Ace and his dagger, who just so happens to be unnamed, and placed right beside Murakumogiri or Gryphon (the ungraded blade wielded by Shanks). Alternative and more figurative interpretations could be the Straw Hat or something related to Garp, but the first two seem plausible enough to me.
I don’t know if salinity is actually a clue on the crafting process of these blades, or just a metaphor for Oda to give us these hints, but the Kairoseki craftsmanship comes to mind, given its association with the sea. It goes beyond what I'm trying to convey here, so I'll look into it eventually.
This is where it starts getting a bit convoluted, but I find it a plausible assumption: we might be taking the term “Blades” a bit too literally. If they’re heirloom weapons, they’ll be connected to the Kingdom/King that it relates to, and not everyone fights equally. I’m not trying to predict what the weapons will be, but we’ve seen Vivi fighting with discs/chakrams, Snipers using bows and rifles, Carrot using gloves (and Luffy has used them as well), Kaido wielding a mace, Fishman using tridents, and the list goes on and on.
The main idea that I'm trying to convey is that perhaps there's more to these weapons than simply being strong blades, and the sentience shown by Enma is good enough reason for me to think that it's not just a possible scenario, but rather a probable one. If the search for One Piece and these twelve weapons are some of the oldest mysteries in the story, and we've entered the final saga, I think it's fairly reasonable to think that they might be related!
If we think about them as keys, we actually have a metaphorical depiction of this, but on a smaller scale: Enies Lobby and rescuing Robin -> The Straw Hats had to retrieve keys guarded by Cypher Pol, find the right cuffs, and the ultimate goal was to find the key that would liberate Robin, the one "capable of resurrecting Ancient Weapons."
See where I'm going with this?
How does this relate to the One Piece mystery? I know a couple of people are more inclined to think that it's just a random item supposed to make us laugh, because One Piece is lighthearted and goofy, but keep in mind that over the past couple of years, the narrative has escalated tremendously, and we have new information to work with: Vegapunk mentions that Ancient Technology had an unknown power source, and leaves behind a conceptual clue: an Eternal Flame.
Keep in mind that a few chapters later, the Gorosei utilize a new weapon created by the man himself, and mention a "Mother Flame", that seems flawed in some way, because said weapon can't be freely put to use. This "Eternal Flame" seems like the end goal, just like the One Piece.
It also has some "Philosopher Stone" connotations to it, the Magnus Opum of alchemical work, and here's where it gets interesting: It's usually associated with transmutation of base metals into Gold, and both Jaya and Wano were once called cities made of gold. The more inclusive depiction is that it performs miracles, so that opens up a lot of possible outcomes.
The moment I started thinking about these Twelve Supreme Graded Blades as keys, I googled "Twelve Keys".
To my surprise, I found "The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine", an alchemical book based on the twelve steps to create the Philosopher Stone. Is it a coincidence that Basil Hawkins is a character that heavily borrows occultist/alchemical references? He's all about divination, voodoo and had a first mate named Faust.
This is not just headcannon, but a concept that Oda clearly thought about. I might be completely wrong on the interpretation of these references, but there's something going on here, and if nothing else, I hope this gets people interested and thinking about their own interpretations of it.
Thank you for reading this far! It's about time we tie this all together!
If we assume these heirloom weapons could be pieces of the puzzle, I'll go back to the beginning: What made Shanks finally move after years of inactivity? He realized that the conditions to acquire One Piece were finally here: The appearance of the final piece -> “The Drums of Liberation”, after 800 years. He clearly knows more than we do, and looking at Luffy's wanted poster, in his Nika form, was the moment he decided it was time to make his move.
I know this seems wildly different from a blade, or even a weapon, but the “Drums of War” are something you've probably heard of, and they're a weapon in itself. They might even be the scariest: it's a psychological weapon, and one that incites rebellion.
Sadly, this has some tragedic tones to it: people might try to rip out Luffy's heart, or his death might even a requirement to access the One Piece. If some sort of alchemical or occultist practice serves as inspiration for these keys, we might be in for something dark. It also makes way for some plot twists and philosophical questions, but I don't want to deviate too much from the original theory.
Before you call me crazy, I know this is a shonen, and the amount of gore is limited. I'll once again state the following: my interpretation could be completely wrong, but this is not headcannon! It's a concept that Oda played around with in Punk Hazard: removing hearts.
Obviously, this wouldn't be the end of it: it could make way for a much speculated sacrifice by Law, or immortalize Usopp as a brave warrior of the sea, by giving his heart to Luffy. These are just my romanticized solutions to this hypothetical tragedy, but I might've gone too far into it.
Let's leave it as this: Luffy's heart, the "drums of liberation", might be the missing piece that finally unlocks the One Piece.
Feedback is always appreciated!
Part one: Roger couldn’t get the One Piece.
He got to Laugh Tale and learned about Ancient History, that’s a given, but he was too early and predicted that someone would come along and surpass him.
You can’t really surpass someone if you don’t go beyond what they did, so my assumption is that he found the “treasure chest”, but he couldn’t get the “key”, and the premise here is that the key, or the final piece of it, would only be accessible in 20 years. That’s the whole prophetic side of this story, and why we’ve been told several times that it all comes together in the current day and age. If this is the case, the next logical step is to find an event that really ties it all together, and look for arguments that validate this statement. We have two characters that not only match this criteria, but have narrative backing by the prophecy made by the Sea Kings: Shirahoshi and Luffy.
What made Shanks move after years of inactivity? Luffy and his awakening.
The fact that he saw his wanted poster is proof that he actually understands what’s happening, so we'll focus on Luffy.
Part two: 12 Supreme Blades, 21 Great Blades, 50 Skillful Blades.
This concept was introduced during the Baratie arc, so it’s something that Oda thought about from the beginning. Isn’t it strange that we’re now entering the final saga, and we know nothing about these weapons? We currently have three shown blades: Ace, Yoru and Murakumogiri, and those are associated with three very important characters.
The owners go beyond what I’m trying to convey here, because it’d be worthy of a theory of its own, so let’s just associate the importance of the weapons with the importance of the characters wielding them: they stand at the summit of the piracy world. The Shodai Kitetsu was also revealed, but we know nothing about it except that it’s cursed, and made by a Kozuki ancestor.
So, we have 8 weapons left, and one saga to show them all. This feels suspicious, and builds up their importance: we have one final saga to reveal the rest of them and explain what's so special about them, but we have enough on our hands to start connecting some dots. Let's take a look at the importance of certain numbers in the grand scheme of things, and how they're pretty much a story within a story: the sword hierarchy within the story is comparable to the political hierarchy of the One Piece world:
- 50 Skillful Blades, just like the 50 Kings of the lower realms that attend the Reverie.
- 21 Great Blades, a number that seems weirdly similar to the 20 families that created the World Government, but one of them sticks out like a sore thumb. Perhaps one of the Kings did not survive the war? Or maybe he got promoted?
- 12 Supreme Blades, and these are the ones we need to speculate about.
Let's look at these numbers: 12 kingdoms rebelled, 8 of them were sucessful, but 4 of them were not.
One of those 8 paid a heavier price, and got erased from existence.
Could it be a coincidence that a certain symbol that keeps appearing in countries associated with Poneglyphs has 8 smaller circles?
Could it be a coincidence that the World Government flag has 4 smaller circles? Or the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon has 4 marks?
Could it be a coincidence that we have one missing race?
Well, it actually could, and you might not agree with my interpretation, but I feel like these numbers add up.It's only fitting that chapter 1083 is titled: "The truth about that day."
It might be packing a whole lot of truthful depictions.
Part 2.1: Craftsmanship and Salinity.
The panels that got me rolling with this theory are actually from Fishman Island, and I believe they tell us an important part of it, but let me provide some context first.
Wano added depth to blades and their temperaments, but it still left a lot of questions unanswered.
Let us take notice that a blade like Shosui, wielded by Ryuuma, a character equated to a Sword God, was a Black Blade, but not a Supreme Grade Blade, so there’s a whole different layer of power associated with a Supreme Grade Blade. Enma was a very hard weapon to master, and not only was it temperamental and drained the Haki of its wielder, it gave us a lot of information: blades can be somewhat sentient, and there’s proof of that not only with the remnants of Oden’s Haki, but also the way it reacted to the song Hyori played. I don’t think this is a huge logical leap, but Supreme Grade Blades and their temperaments are probably connected to the other Supreme nomenclature we have: Color of the Supreme King Haki. I believe those weapons were wielded by the primordial kings of this story.
Another important question is the reason why they’re not craftable anymore. Is it a lack of talented swordsmiths? Or was the craftsmanship technique lost in time? I think this brings us to another important piece of information related to Wano: the Kozuki clan were masons capable of creating indestructible Poneglyphs, and those remain a mystery to this day. They were also able to craft Kairoseki items, who seem to harness the power of the sea, and this leads me to the panels I mentioned before:
Oda just loves to hide important information in seemingly unimportant panels, and this one screams out to me. It’s a gag, but it’s meant for us viewers to read in between the lines: wouldn’t Zoro love to have a Supreme Grade Blade? Luffy could tie to this in more than one way, but the most logical one to me is how he probably played with Ace and his dagger, who just so happens to be unnamed, and placed right beside Murakumogiri or Gryphon (the ungraded blade wielded by Shanks). Alternative and more figurative interpretations could be the Straw Hat or something related to Garp, but the first two seem plausible enough to me.
I don’t know if salinity is actually a clue on the crafting process of these blades, or just a metaphor for Oda to give us these hints, but the Kairoseki craftsmanship comes to mind, given its association with the sea. It goes beyond what I'm trying to convey here, so I'll look into it eventually.
Part 3: Twelve Blades/Twelve Keys and the One Piece
This is where it starts getting a bit convoluted, but I find it a plausible assumption: we might be taking the term “Blades” a bit too literally. If they’re heirloom weapons, they’ll be connected to the Kingdom/King that it relates to, and not everyone fights equally. I’m not trying to predict what the weapons will be, but we’ve seen Vivi fighting with discs/chakrams, Snipers using bows and rifles, Carrot using gloves (and Luffy has used them as well), Kaido wielding a mace, Fishman using tridents, and the list goes on and on.
The main idea that I'm trying to convey is that perhaps there's more to these weapons than simply being strong blades, and the sentience shown by Enma is good enough reason for me to think that it's not just a possible scenario, but rather a probable one. If the search for One Piece and these twelve weapons are some of the oldest mysteries in the story, and we've entered the final saga, I think it's fairly reasonable to think that they might be related!
If we think about them as keys, we actually have a metaphorical depiction of this, but on a smaller scale: Enies Lobby and rescuing Robin -> The Straw Hats had to retrieve keys guarded by Cypher Pol, find the right cuffs, and the ultimate goal was to find the key that would liberate Robin, the one "capable of resurrecting Ancient Weapons."
See where I'm going with this?
How does this relate to the One Piece mystery? I know a couple of people are more inclined to think that it's just a random item supposed to make us laugh, because One Piece is lighthearted and goofy, but keep in mind that over the past couple of years, the narrative has escalated tremendously, and we have new information to work with: Vegapunk mentions that Ancient Technology had an unknown power source, and leaves behind a conceptual clue: an Eternal Flame.
Keep in mind that a few chapters later, the Gorosei utilize a new weapon created by the man himself, and mention a "Mother Flame", that seems flawed in some way, because said weapon can't be freely put to use. This "Eternal Flame" seems like the end goal, just like the One Piece.
It also has some "Philosopher Stone" connotations to it, the Magnus Opum of alchemical work, and here's where it gets interesting: It's usually associated with transmutation of base metals into Gold, and both Jaya and Wano were once called cities made of gold. The more inclusive depiction is that it performs miracles, so that opens up a lot of possible outcomes.
The moment I started thinking about these Twelve Supreme Graded Blades as keys, I googled "Twelve Keys".
To my surprise, I found "The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine", an alchemical book based on the twelve steps to create the Philosopher Stone. Is it a coincidence that Basil Hawkins is a character that heavily borrows occultist/alchemical references? He's all about divination, voodoo and had a first mate named Faust.
This is not just headcannon, but a concept that Oda clearly thought about. I might be completely wrong on the interpretation of these references, but there's something going on here, and if nothing else, I hope this gets people interested and thinking about their own interpretations of it.
Thank you for reading this far! It's about time we tie this all together!
Part 4: Luffy?
If we assume these heirloom weapons could be pieces of the puzzle, I'll go back to the beginning: What made Shanks finally move after years of inactivity? He realized that the conditions to acquire One Piece were finally here: The appearance of the final piece -> “The Drums of Liberation”, after 800 years. He clearly knows more than we do, and looking at Luffy's wanted poster, in his Nika form, was the moment he decided it was time to make his move.
I know this seems wildly different from a blade, or even a weapon, but the “Drums of War” are something you've probably heard of, and they're a weapon in itself. They might even be the scariest: it's a psychological weapon, and one that incites rebellion.
Sadly, this has some tragedic tones to it: people might try to rip out Luffy's heart, or his death might even a requirement to access the One Piece. If some sort of alchemical or occultist practice serves as inspiration for these keys, we might be in for something dark. It also makes way for some plot twists and philosophical questions, but I don't want to deviate too much from the original theory.
Before you call me crazy, I know this is a shonen, and the amount of gore is limited. I'll once again state the following: my interpretation could be completely wrong, but this is not headcannon! It's a concept that Oda played around with in Punk Hazard: removing hearts.
Obviously, this wouldn't be the end of it: it could make way for a much speculated sacrifice by Law, or immortalize Usopp as a brave warrior of the sea, by giving his heart to Luffy. These are just my romanticized solutions to this hypothetical tragedy, but I might've gone too far into it.
Let's leave it as this: Luffy's heart, the "drums of liberation", might be the missing piece that finally unlocks the One Piece.
Final Thoughts
Well, not much... Thank you for your patience, and I hope you found it interesting.
Feedback is always appreciated!
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