 Warning. This video will contain spoilers up to chapter 1035. You've been warned! Hello my Nakamotachi, this is Joygirl, and today I want to talk about trees. What? That's right. Trees. Sounds underwhelming? Maybe, but I promise you it isn't. In fact, I think that the various trees and the mysteries and the special properties that make each of them important is actually one of the most underrated and forgotten elements and will actually very likely play a huge role in uncovering the mysteries of the series. Now I can't say that all the ideas in this video are fully fleshed out theories, but it's been a while since I've thrown some truly wild speculations at you. So this is a video from your resident tree hugger, or at least your resident tree climber, that trees are very very important. Also fun fact, I once shaved my hair as part of a fundraiser for cancer research and then had lots of fun times as it grew back. Anyways, trees. Very important. There are a lot of unresolved mysteries in One Piece. So many that it's probably only natural that something as seemingly simple as trees would go to the bottom of the list when we think about all the juicy lore to uncover about the world. But here's the thing, the number of important trees in One Piece have stacked up, and there are potentially very important connections that could be made that makes it imperative for us to take trees more seriously as a fandom. And I have to admit that although pondering about the various mysterious trees has always occupied a tiny space in the back of my mind, I only really thought more seriously about this topic after the reveal of King's name in Chapter 1035. Albert. No, not Albert. Albert. Although Albert would have been a fitting name for the last known surviving Lunarian, because Albert historically means noble or famous. Which is perhaps commincidental, but knowing Oda, probably not. In fact, it's possible that King's name was very intentionally selected. You see, King's name, Albert or Abba, is written in Katakana in Chapter 1035. And for those of you who don't know, Katakana is one of three writing systems used in Japan, which is usually primarily used to transcribe words from a foreign language into Japanese phonetically. And whilst in English we have both letters R and L, Japan only has one sort of in the middle, which is actually the same in Korean where I'm from, where we have real or more of a da sound. Anyways, because of this, it's not too clear whether King's name is actually Albert or Abba. And the reason why this is important is because these two almost identically sounding and spelt words can mean different things. Now, the official Viz translation uses Albert with an L, in which case King's name could mean white or pale. Which on one hand doesn't fit King's appearance, now having been confirmed to join the list of Zoro's dark skinned opponents, but then he does have gorgeous bright white hair and maybe that's what his name is referring to. Or, more symbolically, Oda could have been making a reference to the Arabic roots of the name, meaning person that can answer evil with goodness. And this could be very suggestive as to King's Lunarian heritage and their possible decimation at the hands of the evil world government, which by the way is a topic I've discussed before, and I'm also in the middle of preparing a more expansive, comprehensive video, also making links to Kaido's backstory, so if you haven't watched that video, make sure to do so, and make sure to stay tuned for my upcoming discussion. Anyways, if we were then to take King's name as meaning Abba, with an R, then we could also make connections to Old High German, meaning inheritance and army, or in Latin and Middle High German, Abba meaning tree. Now inheritance and army sounds quite plausible. It's easy to think of the Lunarians as inheritors of great wealth and or power by nature of their superiority who protected themselves with a formidable army. But the alternative meaning of trees really sparks some ideas. First of all, King himself could be connected to a lot of trees in one piece. King is a Lunarian, a race that is quite obviously connected to the moon, and if you need more convincing on that front, then make sure to watch that video. But anyways, the antonym of the moon is Sun, and it just so happens to be in one piece, a tree called the Sunlight Tree Eve, a mysterious colossal tree which is rooted in Fishman Island and transfers sunlight and air to the ocean floor. Interestingly, there's a very heavily biblical theme in this name, as Eve is the name of the first woman in the Bible who is often considered in relation to Adam, the first man. And what do we have? The treasure tree, Adam. But the biblical references don't just stop there, because we also have the Tree of Knowledge, and as the Bible story goes, Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden which was considered to be the first sin and resulted in the pair of humans being casted out of the Garden, also known as Paradise. And I have to say, this all sounds very familiar, because we saw the existence of the Tree of Knowledge in Ahara, and similar to how Adam and Eve were condemned to leave Paradise, the Aharan scholars who stored their library of research in the gigantic 5,000 year old tree were decimated along with the tree. What's interesting though is that Oda has emitted one specific element from this biblical tale, that being the Tree of Life. In the Bible story, when Adam and Eve are thrown out of Paradise for eating from the Tree of Knowledge, it's said that they were no longer able to eat from the Tree of Life, which would grant them immortality. And I've always found it intriguing that Oda chose to leave out this one specific tree, given that he's incorporated all the other elements into his story. And then I got to thinking, what if he didn't? What if One Piece is inextricably linked to the Tree of Life? And what if this can have different meanings? In the Bible story, the Tree of Life represented eternal life, living in Paradise forever. But throughout history, different cultures and religions have used this symbol of the Tree of Life for various meanings. One other example would be the Tree of Life symbolizing the interconnectedness of all living things. And this, I think, is an idea which fits really well into One Piece. For one, we have the voice of all things, Luffy's infectious personality and how he befriends or at least significantly impacts everyone he meets, or even how the idea of everything being connected certainly seems to be the way that Oda seeds details and finds ways to relate everything back together. And in fact, I think that the various meanings of the Tree of Life could explain what Rayleigh meant when he advised the Straw Hats about the One Piece. When he confirmed that he and the rest of the Roger Pirates indeed found Laugh Tale and the Sword After Treasure, Rayleigh told the crew that they might come to a different conclusion. What if the Tree of Life means different things for different people? I've said for a while that Rockstezer Beck probably did find Laugh Tale or at least came very close to. What if he found the Tree of Life? But for him, it meant immortality and the greater power that comes with eternal life. Whereas for Luffy, it would mean being able to be connected or being friends with everyone in the world. Most likely to have a grand feast. But even if the Tree of Life isn't related to the Treasure, the One Piece specifically, it does at least seem to be of some importance in the sense that all significant trees in the series seem to be connected. The Sunlight Tree, for example, apart from its biblical connections, can also be linked to the Yarukiman mangrove making up the Saobodi Archipelago. It's hinted that the Sunlight Tree Eve is the main specimen of the species that the mangrove trees are related to, which explains their strange properties as well as their shared long roots. And when you think about extremely long roots, we're also reminded of extremely long stems or stalks that shoot up in the opposite direction. And by this, I mean the Giant Jack. And the Giant Jack wasn't the only significant megaflora we were introduced to in the Skypier arc because we also had the Kona trees and Tree Fever during Mont Blanc Nolan's flashback. And here's another wacky proposition for you. What if the way in which the Lunarians were wiped out was because of Tree Fever? Given King's wings, his face tattoo, and now his dark skin tone, speculations about King being connected to the Shandians is at an all-time high. And during the Skypier arc, we found out that roughly 460 years ago, the Tree Fever had still been a plague in various parts of the world, including Shandora. So what if this is the reason that Lunarians became extinct? Throughout Zoro's fight with King in the past couple of chapters, we've found out that Lunarians have almost an impregnable defense system when it comes to assaults. So it makes sense that the only way to have eradicated the race is through a virus. And this could have happened naturally, or could have been inflicted intentionally upon Lunarians. Either way, I think it's timely to recognize a biomedical crisis is quite deadly and can completely change how countries or even the globe operates. And then this could also be related to Queen, who has the epithet, Queen the Plague. Maybe that's how the funky commander came to specialize in virology, because he has researched Tree Fever and the virus that took out King's race. I mean, it could make sense. Queen calls King a torture-loving pervert. And although this could still mean that Queen was commenting on King inflicting torture on others, we still have yet to see this trait from King. But what we have seen is King being the subject of torture. And now King doesn't strike me as someone to be having DNMs to share his past woe with others. But he may have just had to explain his past if he was explaining the physiology of the Lunarian race to help Queen's research. And maybe that's how Queen found out about the experiments conducted on King. Now, I understand if that was all too wild for your liking, but I don't think that they should detract from my overall point the importance of trees and how they're going to play a big role in explaining the world of the series. Because whether trees are even related to King or not, I think that there is no doubt that Odo is planning on using trees as a significant element within his story. Seriously, think of how many significant trees there are in the series. Almost every piece of important information we get about one piece lore can be either connected to a significant tree or at least introduced around the same time. Even thinking about other trees that we haven't mentioned so far. For example, the Drum Island Ark was the first time we learned about the Declan. And in that same Ark, the Sakura Blossoms were a fundamental theme and some still believe that this will come back later in the story to become a literal miracle drug. There's the Whale Tree contained in the Whale Forest which is considered sacred by the minks. And the reason being is because it houses the Road Ponyglyph. And it just so happens that that was the first time we encountered the Road Ponyglyphs in the series finding out that this special type of red colored ponyglyphs is the key to discovering the location of Laugh Tale. Also fun fact, the Whale Tree is another example of a case of biblical imagery in the series especially connected to trees, especially when we consider it alongside what we know of Zunisha. In the Bible story of Jonah, Jonah was swallowed up by a whale after defying God's will and after Jonah repented, the whale took Jonah to where God wanted him to go in the first place. Sounds familiar? Zunisha is said to have been commanded to walk most likely until it reaches its special destination, a sentence that has been placed on Zunisha to atone for a past crime, perhaps a similar betrayal of a God-like figure. Even at Wano, where we've increasingly been getting more and more lore reveals such as Lunarian Ray, Sun God Nika and the Rocks Pirates amongst others, there just so happens to be a sacred tree on Onigashima which admittedly hasn't come into much use yet, apart from disabling Sasaki temporarily, but many have been speculating for a while about this sacred tree having more significance. And of course there's also a zombie tree and a homie tree, although their significance comes more as the result of someone else's devil fruit powers. Something that really convinces me that trees are going to play a big part in uncovering the mysteries of One Piece is that it seems like Oda has always intended for trees to be significant. One of the greatest signs of this is that in his original One Shot of the Series, Romance Dawn, devil fruits were known to have literally fruited every 50 years from a magical tree, and another potential clue could be Oda's original plan for Robin's character. Whilst we now know Robin as an archaeologist, the only known individual able to read the ancient script of the Ponyglyphs, originally Oda wrote Robin to be a botanist, which is now a role that's sort of been relegated to both Chopper and Usa. And sure, whilst you could say that the magical devil fruit tree and Robin's role as a botanist have both been abandoned, it's clear that trees still play a large part of the story, but in such a subtle manner, and that for Oda, it has clearly always been an important part of his story, right from the beginning. But now that you've heard my thoughts, let me know yours by leaving a comment below, don't forget to like and share the video, and please do subscribe for more One Piece discussions. You can also join our Joyfleet Discord server or even become a Patreon member if you'd like special roles and powers within that server. Thank you to our patrons who help support the channel. This is Joygirl, and I'll see you again soon.