Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNdRGh53Vzc

“The earthquakes on this day caused widespread damage across the world unlike anything previously seen in recorded history…
Unable to determine its epicenter… or explain it from a geological standpoint… none could make heads of this unusual event. However…
Six days after a kingdom named Lulusia was erased from the map without anyone knowing… something happened…
…As a result of these earthquakes, sea levels from across the world rose by about 1 meter…”

The world may not be able to explain this phenomena, but we can! When Imu unleashed the Motherflame upon the Lulusia Kingdom, the island was erased in one blast, a power that has only been attributed to the ancient weapons, something that Ivankov even reminded to us just recently as well.

The sheer impact of this blast was so massive that it caused earthquakes across the whole world. Its effects are noticed across Foosha Village and Loguetown in East Blue, islands in South Blue and North Blue, the Kano Country in West Blue with guest cameos by Sai’s former fiancée Uholisia and her father Chichilisia, as well as many familiar places across the Grand Line such as the Twin Capes, Water 7, Marine Headquarters, the Wano Country, Impel Down, and Mary Geoise.

And a certain familiar face too!

All of these resulting earthquakes from this point of impact resulted in sea levels rising in several locations across the world. And this is no joke, as it is cited to be a rise of about 1 meter in some locations. To put it into perspective, that’s what some estimate would be the damage of global warming over the next century, the thing that we’re working really hard to prevent, happening in the span of a few days.

Now at first glance the science behind this might seem confusing, as you’d imagine a massive hole in the sea would drain the water, not raise it, but there is some actual science behind this, at least with a pinch of One Piece science on top of it. It has been proven that earthquakes can result in continuously rising sea levels in certain regions, mostly due to the movement of the tectonic plates caused by the earthquakes resulting in the waters being raised or the islands beginning to sink.

If the impact was enough to cause earthquakes worldwide, then that means that the tectonic plates must have shaken to a very high degree, which would explain the shifting or sinking of some islands. But we don’t really need to look at real world science as we actually already have an example of this phenomena within the One Piece world, at the island where this event previously first happened 800 years ago. The island of… Water 7.

If you recall, it was mentioned that Water 7 is continuously sinking over the years. Many centuries ago, seemingly ever since the Void Century as the island was confirmed to already exist back then, Water 7 was located above the water, on actual solid land like a normal island. But after the tides kept rising for several centuries, the island slowly moved more up and up, building atop older houses and become the water capital. More specifically it was described as the island slowly sinking over time.

But then, why was the sea level rising around Water 7? It must mean that centuries ago, maybe even during the Void Century itself, a similar event may have happened near Water 7, leaving behind a massive hole in the middle of the sea…

This is of course, none other, than Enies Lobby itself.

The very existence of Enies Lobby has never been fully explained. It’s a massive hole in the ocean where water constantly pours within upon which the sun never sets. And the similarity to the hole in this chapter isn’t just uncanny, it’s even described with practically the same terminology in Japanese. These two were very clearly caused by the one and same thing… the Motherflame.

Evidently, during the Void Century, something must have stood in the place of Enies Lobby, which Imu must have then wiped out using the original Motherflame of the Void Century before Vegapunk recreated it in the present, then replacing it with as World Government property. This caused such a shift that it likely resulted in similar earthquakes and rising sea levels around the world. While these were likely temporary, the nearby island of Water 7 instead suffered a worse fate, with the shifting of its tectonic plate causing it to slowly sink across the centuries, little by little.

However, this just brings the question of… just what was exactly located where Enies Lobby now lies? What was so dangerous that Imu had it eradicated from the world? Well, whatever it is, it likely has to do with the fact that Enies Lobby is known as “Fuyajima”, the “island where it never becomes night”. For some strange phenomena that has not yet been explained, the island always has sunlight shining upon it, even when the rays of the sun aren’t even physically hitting that side of the planet. Could it be that just like Vegapunk wants to achieve, the people of the ancient kingdom were able to build their own sun, which illuminates only that specific area?

This might be also the reason why we’ve never seen Mary Geoise during the night in canon. Even when Luffy awakened in the middle of a night with a full moon, it was still bright day in Mary Geoise, the sun never goes down in the realm of the gods. And what was it that was located at the top of the Red Line before Mary Geoise? The God Country, the country from where all the ancient technology of the ancient kingdom first originated from, so it makes sense that they also created their own artificial sun there that alimented all of their technology through solar power.

After all, we even see in this chapter how Vegapunk studied Kizaru’s light fruit, a time in which Sentomaru and Kizaru first became acquainted, which is what led him to develop the Pacifista lasers, something that was actually foreshadowed as early as Sabaody where it was already hinted at that the Pacifista lasers were replicas of Kizaru’s light powers. So it makes sense that the ancient kingdom had a similar scientific understanding of light as well, having been able to develop their own sun as a source of endless energy that could power things infinitely just like Vegapunk stated dreaming about, wishing to replicate his own sun himself.

But I feel like a big key to all of these mysteries likely lies in the name of the island itself, because being honest what does… “Enies Lobby” even mean, in any language? There’s been theories that perhaps it means “Denies Lobby”, with some speculating it could be the entrance to Laugh Tale, but given the context of this hole being caused by the Motherflame, it seems more like the impact of damage rather than an actual entrance to any location. Now this is a bit of a stretch so bear a bit with me, but in ancient Greek, which is used for a bunch of other elements of the Void Century such as the ancient weapons, the word “E nies” can be read as “the ships”, so Enies Lobby could be the lobby of the ships, or essentially a shipyard. And it being so close to Water 7, it would make sense if perhaps this originally served as a great shipyard by the people of Water 7 and the people of the ancient kingdom to build together the massive ships that constituted the ancient weapons, with the artificial sun there serving to power all the technology needed to create these ships. However, that may be why Imu destroyed it during the Void Century, to ensure that the people of the ancient kingdom could not produce any further weapons to oppose them. It’s a bit of a stretch and maybe there may be more to this story, but it’s an interesting hypothesis to think about at least.

Another question that arises however is when this hole was first created, but it seemingly had to have been a long time ago, likely during the Void Century itself. I know there have been islands like God Valley that seemingly vanished from the map after a certain Rocks D. Xebec wanted to become King of the World, taking Imu’s very position; however, not only did Shanks allude to God Valley being in the West Blue, not only did Oimo and Kashi confirm Enies Lobby has existed for at least over 50 years, but we also know the sinking of Water 7 has been going on for many centuries, meaning that the hole was most likely created during the previous time the ancient weapons were active in the world. And as the chapter mentions this was the biggest earthquake in the history of earthquakes being recorded, then it means that the previous time this weapon must have been used must have been so long ago it was before any records were available, or more likely, when all records of that century were wiped out all-together.

THE MOTHERFLAME BOMB

Because we know what it is that caused this hole now, as just like Ivankov speculated, this could only have been the power of one of the ancient weapons. And since we know that the Pluton ship was located under Wano and Shirahoshi and the Noah are located at Fishman Island, the veritable starship that unleashed this attack could have been none other than the ancient weapon Uranus. I’ve explained before that I am of the idea that each weapon is composed by both a ship and the person that can unleash it upon the world, so in this case Imu would be the champion of Uranus, as Ivankov basically told us as well.

However, the actual power of Uranus itself, referred to as the Motherflame was stated to have been built by Vegapunk; this confused some people but York gives us some better context on it at the moment to understand it better. She specifies that she already sent a Motherflame to the Gorosei, which they then handed to Imu to unleash upon Lulusia. However now they are requesting for more Motherflame.

Now maybe they are asking if York can make a new one in case it becomes broken, but it sounds more like the Motherflame is intended more as a single use item. I think what this means more than anything is that just like a plane needs a bomb to drop, Uranus itself could be a spaceship that Imu commands while the Motherflame itself is not the ship, but rather the bomb that the ship drops to eradicate entire islands. This would even line up, as the largest non-atomic bomb ever created, at least at the time of its creation, was known as the “Mother of All Bombs”. This would also explain why Imu could be the ancient weapon Uranus as Ivankov speculated, but could not really attack without any surviving bombs remaining from the Void Century, or only used them very sparingly in very rare occasions due to their limited number, impossible to replicate without the technology of the ancient kingdom.

What motivates all this further is that York mentions that to build Motherflames, you need the “Power Plant” found on Egghead. While the phonetic reading reads as “Power Plant” in English, the Kanji reading is “yuugouro”, which means “fusion furnace”, or more specifically “fusion reactor”. Essentially meaning that the Motherflames are created through nuclear fusion.

And this is particularly relevant because the power of nuclear fusion is essentially the power of the sun itself. So could this perhaps have been the ancient kingdom’s way of “creating their own sun”, having attained an endless flame, through an endless renewable nuclear energy? After all, that is exactly what we are trying to achieve in our world as well.

And after all, while the Motherflame could refer to the bomb itself, a colossal structure was seen floating above Lulusia, so a ship would’ve been needed to unleash this attack upon the island. Since we saw 16 rays descending upon the island, it’s even possible that perhaps a total of 16 motherflame bombs were dropped at once, resulting in such a massive chain reaction. Essentially, what the Gorosei are implying is that the Motherflames are limited in quantity, and that they need York’s help to produce more of them. The way York makes it sound, it seems that these Motherflames were developed by the other Punks, with Stella likely having directly reverse-engineered it from what he learned of the Void Century, wishing to fulfill the purpose of “destroying the world” the ancient weapons are meant to serve when the Dawn of the World arrives that he likely learned from Ohara. But York smuggled some of them to the Gorosei to earn their favor instead.

If Imu unleashed this power upon the world, then it could spell an end to any opposition to Imu’s reign in the best case, or the very destruction of the world in the worst case. However, the key to the creation of Motherflames lies within Egghead, which the Straw Hats are holding the ground on in this siege. Now aware through York of the importance of the fusion reactor, Vegapunk and the Straw Hats may yet again gain a leg on stopping Imu’s horrible plans into becoming reality. The very future of the world may be dictated in the siege that would come to be known as the Egghead Incident!