The One Piece manga just added a SHOCKING TWIST to Kuma's backstory which has left me desperately
rereading every single panel of Kuma, Bonney, and Luffy’s interactions to see if maybe, just maybe,
there’s a chance that Luffy and Bonney are actually related. And all this comes because
at the end of this chapter Kuma mysteriously arrives at Foosha village, which is where Luffy
was born and raised. Now, what is he doing here? We aren’t shown quite yet, but since the backstory
is not yet over I imagine we will be finding out very soon. However, that isn’t going to stop us
from speculating what this all means and how it completely changes what we thought we knew about
Kuma and Luffy. And to start, let’s go through the possibilities for why Kuma might have come to
Foosha village. Now keep in mind that this is all after Kuma has been turned into a cyborg and has
had his memories somewhat altered. However we do know that he didn’t have his memories completely
erased until the time skip, so at this point, he likely still remembered most of who he was.
Now the most obvious reason that he would be coming here would be because of course Monkey
D. Dragon, who is the Revolutionary Army commander and Kuma’s friend,
was also most likely born and raised here. So it is entirely possible that Kuma was coming to
meet Dragon and talk to him about his plans now that he was a cyborg. And of course, you might be
saying there is no way that Kuma would do this since he is now partially a government slave,
but remember that Warlords are basically free to do whatever they want unless they are given
a direct order by the world government, which as we’ve seen doesn’t happen all that often.
On top of that, Kuma has shown us many times in the pre-time skip that he would follow his own
will instead of just blindly following the world government’s commands. In fact, during Sabaody,
he even tells Rayleigh that he is still an officer of the Revolutionary Army. So all that to say,
it is completely possible that Kuma is still acting as a revolutionary at this point,
which makes it possible that he would go meet with Dragon.
Now, why would he do that? Well, the most logical reason is that Dragon asked Kuma
to watch over Luffy. Which just makes a lot of sense because of Kuma’s actions later on
in Thriller Bark and Sabaody. For example, after the Straw Hats defeated the Warlord Gecko Moria,
Kuma was tasked with wiping out everyone on the entire island, including Luffy and the straw hats.
And I know I’m trying to convince you that Kuma is an ally here, but man for a few chapters it
certainly looked like Kuma was going to kill them all pretty easily. Now it is debatable how much
free will he had here and how much of that was his forced government programming, but eventually,
he let the straw hats escape after Zoro’s display of loyalty. But then in chapter 485 as Kuma was
leaving the island, he revealed that he already knew that Luffy was Dragon’s son. So clearly,
he must have learned about Luffy and Dragon’s relationship at some point in the recent past.
And while you might think that it would be simple to connect Luffy to his father because of their
shared family name, not many characters were able to do that. And even some of Dragon’s most trusted
allies in the Revolutionaries, such as this guy didn’t even know that Dragon had a son. So clearly
this wasn’t common knowledge, which means that Kuma must have learned in some unique situation.
Which makes Kuma’s surprise visit to the Goa kingdom at the end of this chapter the perfect
opportunity for Dragon to reveal that he has a son and ask Kuma to watch over him as best he can from
within the World Government. Which is just amazing if that was somehow planned from the very start...
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However, some parts of the story go against the idea that Dragon asked Kuma to watch over Luffy.
For example, Kuma’s visit to Foosha village must have happened sometime around three or so years
before the current story. This would have been just after Kuma had become a warlord. At this
point, Luffy was still at Foosha village, but Ace had already left to become a pirate and had
already defeated a Warlord himself. However, that just makes me wonder how would Dragon
keep tabs on Luffy but then not know that he was going to become a pirate, since it
seem that was new information to him in chapter 100. I mean this was Luffy’s dream all along,
and I’m pretty sure everyone in Foosha village knew he wanted to be a pirate the whole time
Luffy was growing up. So sure, you could say that Dragon is not the greatest father and even if he
was watching Luffy he might not have figured out what he wanted to be, but for now let’s assume
that this isn’t actually the case and that Dragon did not invite Kuma to Foosha village after all.
Then what other reason could Kuma have for coming to the kingdom? Well,
there are a few other reasons that I can think of and one of them is absolutely going
to blow your mind with its possibilities. But first, it is possible Kuma went there for some
unknown reason that we will find out in the next chapter or so. It could have just been random,
though it doesn't seem to have been ordered by the world government.
It is also possible that Kuma went to Foosha village because this was the island that he and
Ginny were supposed to meet up on before Ginny was captured. We learned about this in chapter 1097,
so maybe Kuma went there for nostalgia or just to remember something about his past love.
BUT ANOTHER POSSIBILITY... Ohh boy, we’re going to have fun with this one. This one
also involves Ginny, but gets WAY MORE INTERESTING. To start, let’s make sure
we all understand a few details. First, Ginny was the Revolutionary Army’s Eastern Forces Commander,
so it is entirely possible that Ginny already had visited Foosha village or the larger island,
Dawn Island, sometime during her time with the Revolutionaries. And in case you forgot,
Ginny was part of the Revolutionaries from about 22 years ago until she was captured about 14 years
ago. Which means she was probably in the East Blue for quite some time. Now the point I'm
trying to make takes us way back to some of the initial speculation surrounding Ginny when she
was first introduced in chapter 1095. And that of course is that Ginny might actually be Luffy's
mother after all. I mean, she was most likely in the East Blue around the time Luffy was born,
which was nineteen years ago. She has close ties with Dragon, as well as all the other
reasons she might be Luffy's mother that we had discussed in prior chapter reviews such as
the similarities with eating lots of food and the similar names. At the time we had thought
she might be Luffy OR Bonney’s mom, but what if she was both of their mothers all along?
Now you might be angrily typing away in the comments right now that there’s
no way she would betray her love for Kuma like that, but I’m just saying,
it’s possible. Even if that is not the case though, I wonder if she could have met Luffy
at one point and she was inspired by his personality, just like Shanks was. However,
Luffy wouldn’t have had his straw hat or devil fruit when Ginny was around because
he didn’t get either of those things until at least a year after she was captured. Still,
Luffy is pretty hard to forget as a kid, so even if she isn’t his mother, maybe Ginny figured out
that he was Dragon’s son and mentioned it to Kuma, which led Kuma here as we see in the flashback.
But now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if there is another possibility for why Kuma came to
Luffy’s home island. Because remember that Kuma is part of the Buccaneer race who are known for
believing in Nika. We also know that Nika is commonly referred to as the Sun God and Kuma’s
father believed that Nika would bring freedom to the world. Well, one thing that we know is
that all throughout One Piece is that the Dawn, or the rising sun, is often used to symbolize freedom
in the story. So what if part of the Nika lore that Kuma knows also relates to Luffy’s home,
which again is on Dawn Island, as being part of some special prophecy or something? This
could also be part of the reason he went against the government on Sabaody and made Vegapunk make
it his mission to protect the Sunny for two years because he had some idea that Luffy might be Nika.
Or another possibility is that Kuma came here with a completely different purpose. Because
one of the special things about Kuma's devil fruit is that it can do some pretty incredible things,
like push out memories for example. So what if he actually came to do something similar
to Luffy? I mean we all know Luffy didn’t even know who his father was until his grandpa told
him in chapter 432, and we all just assumed that Luffy was just being an idiot like usual.
But what if instead Kuma somehow pushed out Luffy’s memories of his parents for
some unknown reason? I know it sounds a bit sketchy for Kuma to do something like that,
plus that means Luffy might have known about his parents during most of his childhood,
but still, I think this idea of Kuma taking something from Luffy could come back around
in the future, especially if Kuma had a hint that Luffy might actually be Nika.
Which sounds crazy, I know, but I’m just throwing it out there. But if there's one thing that has
been most surprising about Kuma’s flashback is how he literally has connections to so many
characters and places all around the world. I mean last chapter we saw how he visited all
the places he sent the Straw Hats during the timeskip, so at this point I want to make one
more connection in regards to Bonney. Listen to this. One thing I just haven’t been able to
figure out this entire flashback is how this backstory ties into Bonney’s future. Because
one thing that flashbacks in one piece always do is clarify a character’s motivations and dreams.
We saw it with Chopper’s inspiration to become a doctor, Robin’s dedication to become a scholar,
and even Law’s desire for vengeance against Doflamingo. And if we take it even further,
extensive flashbacks like this are usually saved for future straw hats or characters
that will be important allies for the Straw Hats in the future. Take Vivi’s flashback for example
or the Wano flashback which showed Momo’s birth and upbringing. However, both of those characters
are leaders of important countries who will no doubt come to Luffy’s aid in the future.
But Bonney certainly isn’t the leader of a super strong country. Unless she is secretly
the new queen of Sorbet kingdom, I guess. But assuming Sorbet isn't some super military power,
that leaves the main reason for her being involved in a flashback like this is that she is
a potential straw hat candidate. And the more you look into the more she fits a lot of the criteria
that are required for characters to join the crew. First, she obviously has a tragic backstory. Next,
if she wants to fulfill Kuma’s dreams of helping Nika bring freedom to the world,
that is a clear dream that she can fulfill while traveling with Luffy. As for her role on the crew,
well if we take the fact that she is only twelve years old,
then she could certainly fill the role of cabin girl or apprentice,
much like Shanks and Buggy were on Roger’s crew. Although that might be a bit of a stretch
considering she’s already been a pretty famous captain on her own when she aged herself up.
However, this idea of Bonney making herself seem older than she is also relates to the
next part of why she could be such a perfect straw hat candidate. Because one other thing
that every potential straw hat must have is that they need Luffy to free them somehow. For Nami,
it was literally freeing her from Arlong. For Robin, it was giving her the confidence to
know that she deserved to live. For Sanji, it was helping him understand that it was okay for him to
follow his dreams. Well, for Bonney she also has something that she needs to learn. Which is that
she doesn’t have to pretend to be an adult when she is still just a kid. I mean for as long as
we’ve known her she has been pushing herself to be an adult with her devil fruit powers. She’s been
doing this all this time as she fights to find Kuma and free him from the world government. Yet,
all this time she has refused to believe that Kuma sacrificed himself for her. It’s honestly
super tragic that she refuses to believe that Kuma would choose to become a mindless slave,
as we see during this conversation with Akainu during the timeskip. So the way that Luffy can
help her is to gain closure from the fact that Kuma sacrificed himself so that she can have a
normal life. She doesn’t need to pretend to be an adult and that she can just be herself. It’s kinda
similar to Chopper, who believed himself to be a monster until the crew accepted him as who he was.
So again, there’s a lot of potential here for Bonney to join the crew after this arc.
Then again, it is possible she might not. In fact, Bonney already seems to have made some
peace with her father’s memories as we saw in chapter 1090. In this scene right here,
Luffy points out that Bonney is acting much happier than before and she says
that she feels much better than the day before when she first saw her
father’s memories. So maybe she is already starting to accept what Kuma did for her.
Now, we’ve spent this entire review so far talking about the plot twist at the end, so let’s touch
on the other parts of the chapter. So much like we expected, Saturn interfered with Vegapunk’s
planned operation and added the condition that Kuma must have his memories erased by the end of
the procedure. Which man, every arc Oda makes us hate a new character even more than the last one,
and Saturn is definitely living up to the new biggest scumbag in the story. Strangely enough
though, Kuma’s full cyborg transformation will take two full years to complete,
so I guess they are doing it in stages. But either way, Kuma happily accepts this arrangement if it
means that Bonney will be cured. Also, we learned that Bonney’s treatment to cure her
disease will take six months plus another year of staying out of the sun to 100% recover. Which
is how we get this awesome family bonding time during this chapter of Kuma, Bonney, Vegapunk,
Sentomaru, and even Kizaru enjoying themselves on Egghead island in between surgeries. Which
again just further reminds us that Kizaru really was friends with all of these people,
so he might still have a change of heart and decide to help his former friends.
Once this time is over though, Bonney is taken back to Sorbet kingdom where she lives inside
the church under the watch of a medical team, who are really Cipher Pol agents who are there
to keep track of her. All of this is so that Kuma is forced to follow through with the
procedures to have his memories erased, and Bonney will only be fully free once Kuma is
fully a government slave. Which might actually finally explain this conversation with Akainu
in chapter 595 where the former admiral was legit worried that Bonney had escaped. To me
this means that Bonney ran away from Cipher Pol before Kuma’s memories were erased, meaning that
Kuma could have left the world government without actually following through with the procedure. So
I wonder if Bonney's condition will show up again since she might not have completed the full year
of recovery. Her leaving early also brings up the question of why Kuma didn't leave the government
once she escaped. Did he just not know that Bonney had escaped? Or was he worried that the government
would just capture her again if he rebelled? Or did he have another reason for staying with the
government? Maybe he had some other mission he wanted to fulfill for the Revolutionaries or he
actually was looking out for Luffy all along. It is almost certain that Luffy and the crew would
have been wiped out at Sabaody if it weren’t for Kuma. Plus he defended their ship for two years,
so all that is just more evidence that he was doing all he could to make sure Luffy
had every chance to reach his potential. We’re not sure at this point, but one
thing is certain and that is this backstory just continues to get more and more tragic.
I mean Kuma writing a letter to the daughter he will never see again… Kuma with the heartbreaking
last words, “Thank you for being born”. Bonney laughing even because she thinks they can go
back to being a family. Just come on. I know some people are ready to end the backstory
and get back to the action on Egghead, but this is peak Oda backstory writing and I
really can’t get enough of it. And honestly, I might even rank this backstory right up in my
top three backstories in the entire story, but if you want to decide for yourself by
comparing it to every other backstory in one piece, you can watch this video right here.
Shanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.