Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_WlnLXIW9Q

Chapter Title

Last week’s chapter was called “Hard Aspects”, which is a term in astrology that refers to when the alignment of the planets is believed to cause misfortune in one’s life. In this case, the wordplay is that the way the Five Elder Planets are aligning is causing misfortune for our heroes, particularly as Mars is able to locate the streaming den den mushi. However, this is turned around in the following chapter, where the title becomes “Stalemate”, referring to the chess position where either parties are unable to gain vantage over the other; our heroes are struggling to escape, but at the same time the Gorosei are unable to do anything to stop Vegapunk’s broadcast.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, Vegapunk is using a transmission den den mushi, which is a special prototype he invented capable of streaming footage to den den mushi all across the world, essentially working as a livestream. These were actually first introduced in Film RED, where Uta found a ship pertaining to Vegapunk’s research having shipwrecked on Elegia, and this ship contained the prototypes for these den den mushi. Uta then used these prototypes to stream her singing to the world, leading to her rise in popularity and the events of Film RED. These models are the exact same here within this chapter, though as we see the one Vegapunk hid in Punk Records turned out to be nothing more than a regular den den mushi rebroadcasting the call with a fake shell on top of it, as an extended security measure.

Easter Eggs Around the World

All around the world, plenty of folks are getting ready to tune in to the transmission, including Syrup Village in Kaya’s mansion, Marine Headquarters wiretapping, the Twin Capes with Crocus and Laboon, the country of Bulgemore where Vegapunk was born and Franky spent his timeskip, the Torino Kingdom where Chopper spent the timeskip, Hachinosu, the Thena Ghena Kingdom, home of the Longarms and where Brook spent part of his timeskip. You can tell this not just by their longer arm joints, but also the ponytails they wear in their culture, similar to the one that Apoo also sports.

We also get to see the Sabaody Archipelago where we get to see not only Duval, but actually a brief cameo by Disco, the slave trader who tried to sell Camie during the Sabaody Arc, and who has since gone homeless after Doflamingo abandoned him following the incident as seen on the cover story. We then also see the Germa Kingdom where Caesar and Judge react after joining forces in their cover story, with Caesar surprisingly showing a tear for the loss of his former colleague, and of course Morgans himself losing it over not having control of the narrative.

Furthermore we see some unnamed islands such as one afflicted by heavy rains potentially reminiscent of St. Poplar from the CP9 cover story, a deserted town with big cacti, a village where people live in tents, and a location with spherical spires. This location actually bears a strong resemblance to a place called “Yari”, or “Spear”, from Chapter 965 in Oden’s flashback, where Oden explored this location on the Grand Line shortly after leaving Wano with Whitebeard. This shot even appears to show someone with a crown, potentially the royalty of this kingdom. In this location, the screen is being held up to balloons, which also have wings around the screen. The one in Thena Ghena is being projected on a cloth, while the one in Sabaody is projected over a root.

There’s a lot of other details around these locations as well. For starters, the den den mushi all have unique decorations: Kaya’s has a little Merry head on it, and Crocus’s has the iconic flowers. The one in Torino has their iconic topknot, and Duval’s has the motif from the iron mask he wore during his first appearance. At Bulgemore, the mechanical beasts Franky helped create can be spotted, while at Hachinosu, the damage Garp left on the skull can still be seen, though it is currently not being possessed by Pizarro.

Giants and Norse Culture

Also while we’re at it, while attempting to flee in the last chapter, Luffy and the giants use several moves relating to Norse culture. Dorry and Brogy use their shields in a move called “Svalinn”, referring to the shield in Norse mythology that protects the world from the Sun, with the kanji reading “Sun Shield”, and later a move called “Skilja”, which translates to “Split” in several Scandinavian languages. To help keep Luffy powered up they feed him Hákarl, which is an old Viking dish made of fermented shark, said to be overpowering in its smell and requiring time to get used to it.

Luffy powers back up through it, which he uses to try and hurt Warcury with a Red Roc. However, the attack doesn’t cause much damage, and in fact burns Luffy back. This has less to do with Warcury’s innate strength and likely more with his devil power, as the Houki, or Feng Xi, is a creature said to have incredibly tough skin and be clad in searing fire, causing even Luffy’s blazing Red Roc to be engulfed in flames. This is particularly tricky because while other Gorosei like Saturn can be easily cut or penetrated, though they bypass that through their regeneration, Warcury is simply difficult to even injure to begin with due to the natural toughness his mythical power provides.

Vegapunk’s Message

Moving onto Vegapunk’s actual message though, cutting away all the preambling, let’s break down piece by piece what he says:

“I’ve committed two sins. Thus, it is likely I am going to be caught or killed. This video was programmed to go live should I go into cardiac arrest.”

In this case, the two sins Vegapunk is talking about likely refer to his modification to Kuma’s self-destruct switch, being a shutdown switch instead of an explosive, and him giving Bonney the command authority. As he mentioned when impaled by Saturn, he realized that these two actions were likely to have consequences that would lead to the loss of his life, but it is precisely because of this that he prepared this video to go live. He then continues:

“I would like you all to listen closely. There are those who will have likely imparted their judgement upon me, but I do not wish to brand them as “evil”. I’m not one to preach about right or wrong, especially as I do not yet know enough about the type of man that “he” truly is.”

Now in this case, Vegapunk says that he prefers to remain scientific and not cast direct judgement, especially with how he himself has often been a morally ambiguous figure, and due to not fully knowing the nature of his enemy. However, he refers to his enemy as not only in plural, “those who will have likely imparted their judgement upon me”, but later specifically refers to this enemy as “he”. This is a very explicit use of a male third person pronoun, which isn’t even all that common in Japanese, meaning that Oda is particularly drawing attention to a specific person that Vegapunk can only refer to as “he”, a certain man.

And as we’ll talk later on, the man Vegapunk is most likely referring about is likely to be… the true enemy, King Imu. This would explain why he refers to Imu as both “he” but also “those”, as he could potentially be aware of the fact that the Gorosei might be extensions of Imu. If the theory were true that the Gorosei are Imu’s satellites, it would particularly make sense that Vegapunk figured this out and then replicated that technology to use for his own clones, so he may be aware of this fact. We still don’t know how much about Imu Vegapunk seems to know, something even he himself remarks but he does seem to have some idea that he exists, as he specifically calls him out as a “he”.

This may trip some readers, but this is something that was already previously confirmed last year in Chapter 1086, where the Revolutionaries spoke about the historical figure of Nerona Imu as a “St.”, like the other Celestial Dragons. The difference here is that female Celestial Dragons appear to bear a different title, one which translates to something like “Saintess” unique to females, which suggested that Imu was a man. And the fact that Vegapunk explicitly seems to refer to this figure that is the true enemy who plans to sink the world as “he” would suggest once again that indeed, it would seem Imu is a male character.

“However, I believe everyone has a right to know. Let’s cut straight to the end. This world… will sink under the sea!!!”

Uranus

This is quite the dramatic revelation, but at the same time, it’s also not something new, because we’ve seen these effects already beginning to take place just recently. Particularly in the Lulusia incident, where, to recap, Imu fired an ancient power to wipe the Kingdom from the map. According to the Revolutionaries, this power could only have been caused by one of the three ancient weapons, one that is said to be powered by a power source called the “Motherflames”, energy cells that power this massive weapon. Some fans have mistaken the “Motherflames” as being the name of the actual weapon, and it being a weapon that York built, but the Japanese version already clarified that the Motherflames are simply the power source, energy cells that fuel this ancient weapon, and that Vegapunk only made the energy source, not the weapon, something Dragon also said couldn’t be possible.

So in other words, the Motherflames are a type of energy cell generated in the power plant of Egghead that York gave to the Elders, which they used to power one of the three ancient weapons, destroying Lulusia. However the Motherflame they got was good for only one charge, so to power the ancient weapon again they need more Motherflames, which is why Mars is trying to keep the Labophase intact for now. This is also seemingly the reason why this ancient weapon hasn’t been used much before now, with the Gorosei even mentioning that if they were able to use this ancient weapon freely, then they could finally end their worries from the Void Century once and for all.

And the thing is, we already know that Pluton is hidden beneath Wano and that it can only be accessed by Zunesha and Momonosuke, and that Poseidon is Shirahoshi’s authority to command the Sea Kings. Meaning that if this is one of the three ancient weapons as Ivankov mentioned, then it can only be… the ancient weapon Uranus. Which checks out, as fitting the trinity of planes, Pluton slumbers in the underworld of Wano, Poseidon is hidden away in the sea, while Uranus lurks in the skies, seemingly being some sort of flying ship or weapon, perhaps even some sort of saucer, powered by the Motherflame energy to fire devastating energy blasts. And there’s plenty of other thematic connections that seem to suggest this, such as the Celestial Dragons literally bearing the kanji for “Uranus” within their Japanese names, as Uranus is known as the “Celestial King” or “Sky King” Planet, much like how Poseidon/Neptune is known as the “Sea King” Planet, hence Poseidon’s control over the Sea Kings.

However, the effect of these blasts Uranus generate is that they cause earthquakes and tremors to such a deep level on the ocean floor that they cause entire tectonic plates to shift, leading to the rising of sea levels. This already caused sea levels around the world to rise by one meter, and that’s simply after one attack. But we’ve seen this effect not just during the attack on Lulusia, but actually the one on Enies Lobby. We know that the Government settlement of Enies Lobby is 800 years old, meaning that the hole made beneath it was made prior to that point, seemingly during the Void Century. And the effects of it were seen on nearby islands: the island of Zousenjima, where Water 7 is located, suffered from the Aqua Laguna for centuries, a high tide which caused the island to continuously sink under the rising sea level. Long Ring Long Land also was largely submerged, making the islands only crossable when the low tide arrives as the waves are gathering to hit the Aqua Laguna. We already saw during that arc how devastating its effects were, so imagine that impact but on a global scale.

It seems like Vegapunk is aware of the power Imu may be able to wield. Even if he may not fully understand or know who the figure of Imu is, he knows enough about him that he fears his ability to sink the world under the sea, and wants to warn humanity of his destructive power. Imu’s plan may seem reckless, but keep in mind… Imu, the Gorosei, and the Celestial Dragons, all live atop the Red Line. A settlement that exists thousands of meters in the air, far away from any flooding that could happen to the planet below. If the entire world sank under the waves, then why would Imu even care? It means he can get rid of the filth trying to rebel and reset the world in, if you recall… a great “cleansing”.

Keep in mind that this terminology of “cleansing”, both in English and Japanese, literally means of washing something, like with water. So Nasujuro could very well have meant that they were already planning to clean the world by causing all within it to drown, especially as by this point in the timeline they were already in cahoots with York. In other words Imu’s plan may be to eradicate all of his enemies with the ancient weapon Uranus, and with it bring a great flood that washes away and drowns all those who will not submit to his will aside from a chosen few, resetting the world from a new start.

And see, here’s where the Japanese wording of this sentence comes into play, because “sinking under the sea” can be understood as quite literally drowning in water, but can also be interpreted as “sinking under the power of the sea itself”. And in this case the sea, or in Japanese “umi”, is a specific figure in the One Piece folklore, referring to the Mother of Nature, the Sea “Umi”, who was said to have punished devil fruit users. This figure has also been referred to by some as the Sea Devil, said to be the point of origin of all Devil Fruits. And not only has there been a lot of evidence pointing towards Imu being the Sea Devil, but with now knowing the Gorosei are actual devils working under Imu, it would make sense that the figures of Imu and Umi are essentially one and the same, the Devil “Umi” simply being the myth that remained of Imu’s existence after the Void Century. So in other words, Vegapunk’s words here could be interpreted as a double meaning, that the world will literally sink under the sea, but also that it will sink under the power of the Sea personified himself, the King of the World Imu, the Devil Umi.

The Truth About the World

But then, there’s a question that this seems to bring up. If there’s the potential for this to happen again… who is to say this hasn’t happened before? What if, as Vegapunk says, this is the truth behind this world… as in, it’s literally how this current world came to be.

The world of One Piece is one that has already in large part been mostly flooded. Aside from the Red Line and a few small continents, most of the area of the One Piece world is made entirely of sea, with islands dotted all across. So what if, in fact, the One Piece world already underwent a great cleansing in the past, perhaps being one of the most pivotal tragedies of the Void Century.

This could explain a lot of things: for example, the Red Line may have been created at some point specifically to avoid this flood, in the same way that Imu plans to use it now. The Wano Country’s walls may have been erected not just as a defense mechanism, but perhaps as a countermeasure to a potential fear of the flood that Imu was going to cause. This would explain why they are watertight without any canals, causing rainwater to gather within them, because they may have been built with the idea to protect against a potential great flood. This would explain why the Minks decided to live high atop Zunesha, or why the people of Fishman Island guarded the “Noah” ark. Suddenly, a lot of things start to make sense if the world of One Piece came to be from a great flood that happened in the past, leading to a Wind Waker scenario where in the end, only the tallest peaks of mountains remained as individual islands.

But why stop there? Why didn’t Imu commit all the way to this great cleansing? Well, we already know. Imu was unable to use Uranus any further because he lacked the power source to use the weapon. This power source was likely lost with the ancient kingdom and Imu was unable to recreate it until a genius like Vegapunk came along, so he was unable to use the weapon any further. To add to that, the doctrine of the Government used to be that they preferred to not use any of the ancient weapons and keep them hidden, because they feared the power could be turned against them. But after the Great Pirate Era and increasing worries, the Gorosei started to seek control of the weapons again, which is the reason why they sought out the Pluton blueprints at Water 7, and why they changed their minds of York after they were able to use the Motherflame she provided.

So essentially, it’s possible that 800 years ago, Imu may have already began a great cleansing, flooding most of the world, but ultimately this was halted due to not being able to power his ancient weapon, Uranus, any further. But now, 800 years later, Imu’s plan has been set in motion again, willing to sink the entire world under the sea and fully cleansing it of its people so that none may oppose him anymore.