 Around 200 years ago, the legendary Iron Giant of the Ancient Kingdom attacked Marijua. Around the same time, the Galleon Saint-Briss, containing explorers of the Briss Kingdom, was sentenced to cloud-drifting after reaching Skypia. Meanwhile, the world government became allied with the Ryugu Kingdom, finally recognizing fishermen and mermaids as humans after centuries of discrimination, and the ferocious fighting fish, settled in the seas between Dressrosa and Greenbit, cutting off movement between these two islands. How are all of these events connected? What do they have to say about the current mysteries and developments unfolding before us? Maybe everything, or maybe nothing. But one thing's for sure, anything is possible in One Piece, and if you keep watching, then maybe I'll just let you in on a little secret. Okay, not maybe. If you keep watching, I'll definitely share my thoughts with you. One Piece is not slowing down with their head-scratching mysteries and ground-breaking lore reveals. The recent events in the series have us all scrambling to make sense of insane bits and pieces of information, while others have us laughing out loud over our beloved mangaka's capacity to troll us. Such as the revelation that the failure of Vegapunk's artificial devil fruit experiment is not because any of the countless speculations, but to do with one simple fact. It turned Dragon Momonosuke pink, proving once again that when faced with a choice between a joke or something serious, Eturo Oda flips a coin and then chucks that coin away, choosing to go with the joke option. 60% of the time, it works every time. To be fair, this does deepen our understanding of Vegapunk's character, revealing him to be quite the perfectionist. And a little part of me does wonder whether there is something a little more about the fact that Vegapunk couldn't perfectly recreate Kaido's devil fruit. A more serious reveal, though, is that the cost of this experiment is very resource-extensive, costing both a lot of time and money, answering why the genius scientist isn't just making copies of all the seriously broken devil fruits out there in the world. He has, however, achieved a very impressive feat, having created a basically localized internet between himself and the clones. The solution to its problem of an ever-growing brain due to the nominominomi, and I wonder how long Oda has been just waiting to share that pun with us. Knowing Oda, Vegapunk's entire character may have been spawned just because of that tongue-twisting wordplay. This reveal, however, raises some very important questions and possibilities. And in turn, we can discuss said important and possible topics, so please do subscribe to this channel if you'd like more One Piece discussions. For one, what is the range of Vegapunk's antenna? Say, for example, would it still be functional even if the scientist leaves Egghead Island? Because that seems to be where the story is going and I am all for it. Vegapunk becoming an ally and travelling with the Straw Hats is such an exciting thought that poses so many fun potential scenarios. You may know that I've already discussed the power-ups that each of our crew members may get with Vegapunk's help, but if he ends up joining them on board, this means we could see new upgrades according to each of the threats that the crew meets. With every arc, the question of whether we have a new Straw Hat member arises. Most recently, we speculated and debated over Carrot and Yamato, or even Momonosuke and Kinamon. And now, potential candidates from the Egghead Island arc range from Bonnie to Vegapunk or any of Vegapunk's clones to even one of the Seraphims, although according to the community poll, it seems the majority of those of you who answered see it unlikely that we'll be getting another new member at all. If Vegapunk does join, however, this will be another case where a character who has been built up from so early on in the series and has spoken with so much acclaim and respect, will end up becoming one of our lovable crew members. Similar to the goosebumps-raising effect that you experience when rereading One Piece, and there is a mention of Jinbe, the Knight of the Sea, one of the Seven Warlords. And knowing that this legend will one day join the crew, it's a very exciting prospect. From his design to his quirks and personality, Vegapunk is such a fun character that I hope he sticks around for at least a couple of arcs. And it certainly seems that's likely given the various currently unfolding storylines which he's connected to. Even if the scientist doesn't become a Straw Hat member per se, I do hope we get some sort of permanent connection. It would be really cool if Vegapunk manages to establish a link between Frankie to punk records so that we can still see continued upgrades in technology for the crew, or maybe it could be Robin instead so that she could feel Vegapunk in on all the secrets she uncovers about the ancient kingdom and the void century. This is a serious question I do have though, as to what Vegapunk has achieved so far with his punk records. Although his dialogue suggests that it's only him and his clones all linked up for the moment, I wonder whether this is the full extent. Maybe Kuma, for example, is also hooked up, and perhaps this is the reason why the thought to be brain-dead, tyrant-turned-revolutionary-turned-cyborg is suddenly up and running. One could suppose that he was able to see that Bonnie was under threat at Egghead Island now that the CP-Zero agents have turned up. Or were those turn of events due to a special programming? For example, did Vegapunk program Kuma to help him at Egghead Island, and so then Kuma was activated when Shaka declared battle. And this arrival of the CP-Zero brings up some very fun potential battles. I'm very keen to see Vegapunk's clones in action, as well as bringing the seraphims back into play. The fact that they're all masked, including Hattori, is very exciting, given that we know only the most elite of agents have the honor of wearing masks. This surely confirms that Luchi and the other familiar faces have also developed their strength since we last saw them, and I am in keen anticipation of some round-to-matchups. And if you want some more analysis of how these battles could play out, then do feel free to check out this discussion because I did make a video on this very topic. And like I said in the video, it's now almost a certainty that the Luchi and Zoro battle is happening, especially given that it's Zoro and Brooke manning the sunny. And so it's these two crew members that the CP-Zero agents will likely come across first, apart from the fact that Zoro will now get the chance to properly show his strength against Luchi after that very one-sided experience the first time round. It's also likely that Brooke will be facing off against the CP-Zero as well. And this is a fight that I have been personally waiting to see ever since Wano, when we first saw that CP-Zero was involved there, because this would mean Brooke has joined the other straw hats who have all each gotten a showdown against the former CP-9 agents. And this level of callback is what I live for, such as Sanji's recent dialogue, promising to protect Robin, bringing up memories of the Water 7 saga when he endeavored to retreat Robin practically alone only with Usopp to help him, as well as returning the favor after the more recent arc when Robin saved Sanji from Black Maria. Seriously, these callbacks give me all the feels. Another very interesting callback is Oda continuing to show us Luffy's obsession with Beatles. And after the more recent developments, this cute quirk takes on a whole new meaning. In Japan, collecting Beatles and insects is a popular child's play, and so in the past, these fun and random moments were mainly just taken as a reference to Luffy's personality as a forever young, adventurous, and playful solo. But as of more recent events, namely Luffy's gear fifth and the awakening of his sun god Nikaform, you have to wonder whether Luffy's keen interest has had some sort of deeper meaning all along. Because in ancient Egypt, there existed a god called Keppri, an ancient god with the face of a Scarra Beetle and known as the Sun God, responsible for the rising and moving of the morning sun, as well as being known as the god of the renewal of life. It's always such a marvel to see these real life connections, and really makes you wonder how much Oda has considered when writing this beloved series. Because every time we go back to reread One Piece, all those panels of Luffy's fascination with Beatles will mean so much more now knowing what's to come. And now some may say that we're just reading into things way too deep, but the connections are unarguably there, especially given that Luffy's status as sun god is likely to have huge implications. As we now know, Lilith muses about the possibility of creating their own sun on Eckerd Island to give off eternal flames as a power source for the island. And this may even very well be what is needed to activate the ancient robot. And now this is where things get really interesting. How did a robot that was created before the void century take action only 200 years ago? And better yet, why? What happened 200 years ago? So naturally, this leads us down a search of all the events that we know about the One Piece world circa 200 years past, and this is what we can find. Saint Briss from the Briss Kingdom was embarking on some grand line travels, their exploration coming to a rather unfortunate end when they were sentenced to drift clouds after reaching Scypia. The Kingdom of Yugu joined the world government after centuries, perhaps millennia of discrimination. With the king even allowed to join the reverie, a monumental event that wouldn't occur again until the present timeline when King Neptune once again attended the world council. And the fighting fish settled in the waters around Greenbit, meaning people could no longer travel between the small island and Andrus Rosa. Now to be fair, there's no rule that just because events happen around the same time, that they all must be connected. But given that these are incidents that Oda has specifically chosen to occur around the same period, it's natural to speculate whether there is some sort of significance. And there does seem to be at least one common theme across these events, that each of these incidents have resulted in the respective race or kingdom safety. In the Yugu Kingdom's case for example, fishmen finally gained the recognition of human status rather than being just classified as fish. Even if this was only in name and racism still continued, the world government finally recognized Yugu Kingdom. The Skypeans were able to protect themselves from outsiders, potential threats to their kingdom and prized secrets. And in the case of the flying fish at Greenbit, which is home to the Tantata tribe, we know that dwarves have also had a history of being subject to slavery and often coming across bad humans from whom they need protection. So in effect, these flying fish protected the tribe from humans who could potentially attack them. But why? With Robin's dialogue, it's essentially confirmed that the circumstances concerning the fishmen is intrinsically tied to the robots attack and knowing that this event likely led to the world government ending the discriminatory laws towards the fishmen. This suggests that the fishmen helped the world government protect Marishwa against the iron giant. In return, when the King of the Ryugu Kingdom attended the reverie, maybe he became aware of all the horrors that the Tantata tribe suffered in the past as well as the risks posing the tribe in the future. Feeling a sense of kinship considering the similar treatment that the fishmen experienced, maybe it was the fishmen who sent the flying fish to protect the Tantata tribe. We know that fishmen can communicate with underwater creatures as well as change water currents. So either way, it could have been the fishmen that sent the ferocious fish on their way to guard green bit and thus the dwarves from potential threats. But this sort of speculation still doesn't solve the question of why the robot suddenly made its attack 200 years ago and how it was able to do so after remaining dormant or at least hidden after the great war centuries prior. There is definitely something to be said about the stark parallel between the iron giant climbing the red line to attack Marishwa, resulting in greater rights for fishmen, and Fisher Tiger climbing the red line to infiltrate and liberate slaves at Marishwa, including fishmen from the so-called Holy Land. Shaka also explains that he built Vega Force One based off his reverse engineering of the robot, and we know that Vega Force One operates underwater, meaning that Shaka figured out that the Iron Giant can too operate underwater. Does this mean that the Iron Giant was hiding underwater until that fateful day it made its assent to Marishwa? Given its relic of the ancient kingdom and knowing Fishmen Island's relationship with Joyboy in the ancient kingdom, was it the fishmen who were controlling the robot all along? And the rights that the world government gave to the Yugo kingdom were concessions to make sure that the Iron Giant wouldn't cause any further damage. Maybe the fishmen somehow learned of the fact that Skypea was visited by explorers from the Briss Kingdom, and when they realized the continued dangers that humans would continue to unleash on minority species and races, they decided to take action and activated the Iron Giant. But how? And with what? Seeing as the power source seems to be a recurring problem point. It could be assumed that Shaka is talking about the same thing as Lilith, an eternal flame, a source of energy that only Joyboy, Sun God Nika, can provide. Perhaps 200 years ago, the Fishmen, or whoever was controlling the robot, found a way to mimic this energy source of Nika's, but wasn't able to perfect it, hence the Iron Giant ultimately running out of power. But now, Luffy, with his awakened Nika devil fruit, it will be our rubber boy who will be the one able to awaken the robot for good, reviving the technology of the ancient kingdom, and bringing about the morning sun, living up to his inherited will of Sun God, and indeed, perhaps the real-life mythological deity that inspired his character. At the very least, I'm sure Luffy will be happy to know that he is a beetle god in another world. But those are just some of my wild and ad hoc thoughts after the recent developments. I would love to hear what you guys have to say, so please do let me know in a comment below. Do subscribe because a chapter break is coming, but we can fill out time by discussing more one-piece discussions together, and I really would appreciate your support. You can also join our Joyfleet Discord server, or even become a Patreon or channel member, and I do want to thank all our executive officers for help supporting the channel. This is Joygirl, and I'll see you again soon.