 the Emerald City, a mystical metropolis full of riches and wonder, or a dark and tragic village full of disease and illness. Have we received the biggest clue that will completely flip what we thought we knew about this glorious, legendary city? Hello Manaka Matachi, this is Joygirl, and I have a feeling that we're not in Kansas anymore. The Emerald City, a fanciful, mysterious location that has only been mentioned just once in the over 25 years of One Piece, and yet remains a city brought up from time to time by the most devoted fans or theorists, who believe that this city is a haven that will be explored or delved into at some point in the future. Mentioned by Bellamy Bakanjaya, sandwiched amongst the City of Gold and the One Piece itself, Bellamy listed the Emerald City along with these other legendary mysteries, back then claiming that all of these were fanciful dreams of old, and not locations or treasures that existed in reality. But as we know, the City of Gold is the real ancient city, Shandora, and the One Piece is also a real treasure that many have witnessed, suggesting that the Emerald City, though never to be spoken of again since that chapter 224, must also be a place that exists in the One Piece world. And this has resulted in many speculations as to where the city would be located, what it entails, and when we would discover it. And as far as I know, most of these speculations have centered around the idea of this city being a glorious city, one full of riches and gemstones, Emerald Gemstones, understandably so because Shandora was a city literally of gold and treasures, and Emerald City, which is also the name of the fantastical city in popular children's story Wizard of Oz, is also a fictional paradise in the kids' book about an alternate universe, its capital city filled and built with lots of Emerald jewels and stones. But after some recent developments, I have a sneaking suspicion that the truth of this fantastical city will be completely flicked on its head, revealing a much darker and much more sinister story. One Piece has recently expanded on the backstory of Bartholomew Kuma, revealing his tragic love story with Ginny, a fellow former slave with whom he lived for many years, the two eventually joining the revolutionary army together. Ginny, however, would later be captured, forced to be the wife of one of the Celestial Dragons, giving birth to a baby girl whom we now know to be one of the supernovas Jewelry Bonnie. And just when you thought things couldn't get sadder, we also found out that the mother and daughter would be afflicted with a supposedly incurable disease, the Sapphire Scales, an extremely rare illness that causes the victim's skin to grow sapphire-like stones, something that's exacerbated when exposed to the sun. Now, why is this relevant? Well, the Sapphire Scales is the second disease in One Piece that is named after a gemstone, the first being amber-lead poisoning. Which got me thinking, Oda may subvert our expectations once again, introducing the legendary Emerald City, not a metropolis of jewels and wonder, but a city of sickness and death. And this is an idea that I mentioned in our discussion about Chapter 1098, which people seem to enjoy. So let's delve into it further. But before we do, if this has sparked your interest, please subscribe to the channel. I've got a goal to grow our fleet to 100,000 subscribers, and I would love your help getting there. We are by now very used to Oda subverting our expectations. A true storyteller, he has delivered twists and turns that none of us expected. And even recently, we've witnessed this on a number of occasions, perhaps the most relevant one being the sinister truth of the God Valley incident. God Valley being first mentioned by Sengoku as the location when the infamous battle went down between Rocks de Zabeck and the unlikely alliance between Roger and Garb, a legendary event that also involved the celestial dragons and their slaves. And this information sparked a lot of theories about what God Valley was, many believing this location to be, again, perhaps a rich and bountiful place that's a home for the celestial dragons, explaining why they were also involved in the infamous incident. But the truth was much darker, so much more sinister. In reality, God Valley was revealed to be an island in the west blue unaffiliated with the world government. The celestial dragons chose this land as the location for its barbaric native hunting tournament, planning on taking over the island for the world government because of its ample natural resources supposedly on the island, as well as in punishment for the kingdom calling itself the God Valley. And this could be similar to what we witnessed with Emerald City, subverting our expectations of a dual field city instead being home to a class of sick people plagued with an Emerald disease. Because so far, we have the amber led poisoning, which is associated with the color white sapphire scales marked with the color blue. And so maybe we will see some Emerald disease linked to the color and similar to how Fleven's got its name, the white city, because of the white ore that was unique to the city. The Emerald City might have gotten its name in association with the green disease that is prolific in that town. With the nature of Ginny's death and Bonnie's birth, things have gotten a whole lot darker in one piece. And something that is quite twisted is that Oda continues to use jewels or gemstones that are usually widely associated with wealth and glamour to be actually associated with fatal illnesses and death in the story. Well, to be geologically accurate, amber isn't technically a gemstone and it's actually a resin of fossilized trees, but it is widely considered to be a jewel because of the way that it glistens and glows. But putting that technicality aside, I'm sure you'd have to agree that there is something really perverse about the way that these jewels are being used as symbols of death and sickness in the story. Amber Lead created so much beauty on the surface, creating a fairytale kingdom of snow because of the white shine emitted from the mineral. Even sapphire scales create beautiful gemstones to appear, but there's a dark truth behind each of them, which is also something that can be said about so much of one piece. The celestial dragons, despite being called heavenly and noble, is far from those descriptions in reality, being cruel, despicable creatures. Big Mom's Toto Land, seemingly a haven for all sorts of races and creatures, covering a very dark truth of how Big Mom actually acquires or creates all of its inhabitants. And so the Emerald City, a land that sounds beautiful, actually being a land full of sick people would really be in line with how Oda writes his story and how he's been really leaning into the darker elements as of late. And something else worth mentioning is that all of these diseases also have some sort of real-world connections or influences. The Amber Lead syndrome seems to take inspiration from a number of real-world occurrences. White Lead, for example, is a naturally occurring mineral that has been banned for causing lead poisoning. The impact of the Amber Lead poisoning in one piece seems to resemble real-world cadmium poisoning, which is called the Itai Itai disease in Japanese, which literally means that it hurts, it hurts disease. A poisoning that causes pain all over the body while making the skin turn pale. The situation in Fleevens also mirrors what happened in Japan during the early 20th century, when the Industrial Revolution meant greater pollution from mining operation, which resulted in rivers being contaminated with cadmium, which were used to grow rice crops. And this eventually led to the gradual accumulation of cadmium in people's bodies, which is what ultimately caused the poisoning. Also, the Amber Lead issue in Fleevens bears similarities to the dangers of asbestos in our real-world, as governments ignored the scientific and medical reports about the mineral's toxicity, despite its negative effects being discovered as early as the 1800s, the highly profitable mineral being used until the 1980s. Sapphire scales also seem to be inspired by a number of diseases. These on screen that I'm not going to bother pronouncing, but each being relevant either for causing sensitivity to sun exposure that causes swelling and pain on the body, or a condition that causes dry, thick and scaly skin. Or, if you're also a Game of Thrones fan like me, then the first thing that came to my mind after reading about the sapphire scales was grayscale, which is a similar fatal disease that causes stone-like skin to cover the entire body if not treated. And this meant naturally. I went hunting for emerald-themed diseases in our real world, which I was able to find, something called the Hypochromic Anemia, also known as Chlorosis or Green Sickness, because it causes the skin of patients to turn green. And there is also a disease distinctly associated with the emerald, though it's associated with plants and flora as opposed to humans. This is the Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle that is responsible for the destruction of ash trees predominantly across North America and Europe. This invasive species feed on ash trees by eating the tissues under the bark, eventually killing the ash trees. But we also have a tree disease in one piece, the Tree Fever. Another lethal disease that was a major problem in the Grand Line 400 years ago. We were introduced to the sickness during Mont Blanc-Norland's flashback during the skypeer arc, where we found out that infected trees would spread the disease to humans. And the symptoms of the disease included green spots like moss growing on people's skin, meaning that it's even possible that the Emerald City was full of people who died of Tree Fever before the one-piece world found the conine medicine. And this could be why it's a legendary city of historic times, now hardly ever mentioned lost in translation, because the disease itself isn't so much of a problem in the one-piece world anymore. I mean, is it a coincidence that both the Emerald City and Tree Fever were both introduced in the skypeer saga? And what are the chances that the two are actually connected? Interestingly, we've also seen a similar disease or symptoms on Yorkie, the former captain of the Rumba pirates and some of the other crew members who contracted a disease after leaving the forest, a disease that we didn't get to find out the name of. So it's possible that Tree Fever hasn't been completely eradicated yet. And similar to Outreel World, where some developing nations still struggle with diseases that the rest of the world don't really have a problem with. In certain parts of the one-piece world, with, say, less advanced technology or less knowledge or more isolated from the rest of the world, may still be battling with Tree Fever, much like how the Shandorans hadn't found out about the disease until Nolan told them. Which could mean that the Emerald City may still be a relevant location. Something else I discovered during research was the existence of something called the Emerald Tablet, which doesn't have a direct relationship to illnesses on the surface, but when you dig deeper, the Emerald Tablet is an ancient stone, which honestly looks very much like a green polyglyph. But it's a very important artifact for many cultures, including Egyptian, Greek and Arabic. And the philosophy of alchemy can be linked back to this Emerald Tablet. Alchemy bring the practice or the attempt to transform materials into silver and gold, and is also the method to discover cures for diseases and ways to extend life. Which spawns a different thought entirely, such as maybe the Emerald City has to do with an ancient practice of alchemy, and this is how Imu and the Gorosei achieved eternal life. Others could have attempted to do this as well, resulting in some side effects, some sort of illness or disease that would later go on to that entire city being dubbed the Emerald City. And at least alchemy does have a more direct relationship with jewels or stones or metals, and it would still continue that theme of something glittery and beautiful, actually having a much darker story behind it. What I would love is if it was the celestial dragons who tried to achieve eternal life, because that's exactly the type of stuff that I can imagine them doing, as well as turning other basic materials into silver and gold just so that they could have more of it. But this practice of alchemy wasn't successful, causing many of them illnesses or death. But to hide this failure from the rest of the world, because they saw it as a sign of weakness or humiliation, they gave this incident a beautiful name like Emerald City, this horrific event going on to become a legendary location shrouding their actual truth. And speaking of celestial dragons, I have to point out a comment that really caught my eye. Now apologies because we are going back to sapphire scales for this one, but could you imagine if the sapphire disease that Ginny contracted had to do with not the genealogy of the celestial dragons exactly, but more to do with their lifestyle? Specifically, the fact that they were living at Marijoua up above on the red line. We know that the world nobles aren't native to the red line, and this used to be the land of the Lunarians, an extremely rare species as we know, and one almost extinct, but with a very enviable set of genetics that make them more resilient, their skin more tougher. So what if there was something about the air or about the land or whatever on the red line that made it inhospitable for people to live there? It was only a land suitable for specific species like the Lunarians. It could even be the close proximity to the sun, because the red line is obviously elevated, and the sun now being a mystical deity figure in one piece, regular humans or species that are unaffiliated with Joy Boy or Sun God Nicar shouldn't be that close to the sun. But the celestial dragons ignored this, wanting the so-called Kingdom of the Gods for themselves. And the result of this was a disease. The sapphire scales growing on their skin, once it was exposed to the land or to the air, whatever that they weren't used to, which is why the celestial dragons wear those spacesuits and their helmets to protect themselves from the environment, which could explain why or how Genie and Bonnie contracted to disease, if the celestial dragons didn't bother giving them protective clothing because they weren't technically one of them, or maybe Genie chose not to wear them. Genie wanting to live like a normal human with her daughter, not understanding the consequences. Either way, it resulted in both of their infection. But in this case, you would have to question how some of the celestial dragons walk around without protective gear up at Marijua or how everyone else who aren't world nobles did so during the reveries. So maybe it depends on how much time you spend up there. Hence why it took a long time before the symptoms showed on Bonnie. Because when she left as a baby, she had actually contracted the disease, but because she left earlier in her life, it took a while before the disease symptoms started to show. Maybe it also took Genie similarly two years before the symptoms really showed. Or maybe some celestial dragons or some humans are somehow immune. Maybe again, it goes back to their lineage. Anyways, I thought it was a cool idea. It would certainly serve the celestial dragons right for colonizing the Lunarians' land. Particularly with the ironic twist with it being called the God's Kingdom or once called the God's Kingdom. Because this would mean that the sun god showed his wrath on the celestial dragons who are in effect wannabe gods. Like I said, I thought this was a very interesting idea, so thank you for sharing. And please, if you have more thoughts with anything discussed in this video or about one piece more generally or anything else entertaining for that matter, let me know by leaving a comment below. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel. Please like and share this video. And thank you for listening to one of my ramblings. Thank you also to my channel and Patreon members. This is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.