Laugh Tale and the one piece have been swallowed by a gigantic island whale, one of Laboon's
brothers, who took a big chunk out of Jaya, where there is now this big whole.
That Whale has been trapped by the world government at the bottom of the giant whirlpool between
the three gates of justice and the three most guarded government facilities in the world.
What gets you to that conclusion is that Whales in One Piece always, ALWAYS appear whenever
Laugh Tale and the one piece are mentioned.
Or to be more precise, I realized that whales guide Luffy and the straw hats towards the
right direction.
This starts as early as chapter 8, where we see a whale fountain in Orange Town, just
as Nami acquires the map of the grand line from Buggy.
Then, we have arguably the most important scene in the entire story, as we meet Laboon
at the entrance of said grand line.
[] I just love that whale.
So cute.
Now, I personally am CONVINCED, that Laboon is the key to figuring out the true nature
of laugh tale.
First of all, the whale is once again connected to finding the right direction to laugh tale,
because it is here where the straw hats get the log pose from Crocus, who later turns
out has been a member of the Roger pirates himself who has actually been to laugh tale.
Something I still consider to be one of the most underrated reveals in the entire story.
Crocus not only explains to the crew how to navigate the grand line properly, but more
importantly is the first one to reveal the name of the final island, laugh tale.
What's up my name is Manu and I cant even begin to tell you how excited I am about this
theory today.
The more I looked into it, the more it blew my mind.
Now I highly doubt Crocus revels this info to anyone who tries to enter the grand line.
In fact he did so, only after Luffy managed to befriend Laboon and keep him from hitting
his head against the red line.
However, If you have watched any of my other videos, you will know that I don't believe
this to be a simply act of kindness.
I strongly believe that Crocus was placed at the entrance to the grand line by his former
captain Roger to wait for the right person to find Laugh Tale and the One PIece.
Not only does Luffy say the same things as Roger and is incredibly kind and caring towards
Laboon, but he also wears the straw hat, that used to belong to Roger, which immediately
tells crocus that this is the man they have been waiting for.
That is why he tells Luffy about laugh tale.
But we're not done with Laboon.
Because the first thing that happens to the straw hats when entering the grand line is
getting swallowed by this enormous whale.
It'a a reference to the classic story trope of Jonah and the whale, that can for example
also be found in Pinocchio, who also gets swallowed by a whale and who leaves the whale
a changed person.
Similarly, I think it's more than fair to say that the straw hats leave Laboon changed,
now worthy of sailing towards the final island.
Laboon himself is so gigantic, that, as you hopefully remember, he actually has an island
INSIDE of him, from where crocus tries to take care of him, the first island of the
grand line.
This is where the idea comes from that the last island might be inside a whale as well.
As far as I know, people have made the connection between whales and Laugh Tale quite early,
but this theory in particular stems from my favorite Japanese one piece YouTuber Yuderon,
who's ideas I have already talked about in two other massive videos.
According to Yuderon, and I personally 100% believe that he's spot on with this, Eiichiro
Oda, the author of One Piece, writes his story according to three core principles.
Symbolism, Two sides of the same coin and word plays.
The symbol here is of course the whale that represents the journey to Laugh tale, but
what I want you to focus on is the second concept.
Oda takes elements and concepts of before the time skip, and reintroduces them after
the time skip in an inverted or mirrored way.
Which I find an ingeniously smart way to structure a long-format story like one piece.
If you want to learn more about this, I suggest you check out my other videos with Yuderon
on this topic, but here's A quick example to illustrate this:
Alabasta and dressrosa are both arcs about a warlord that rules from the shadow over
a country.
Both are manipulative, run an underground organisation and have to be exposed and defeated
by Luffy.
Both times we have a princess that tries to help her country.
The kings of the countries are unable to help their people.
The marines are there to interfere, but finally relaize that Luffy is trying to help.
And much much more.
Well the argument here, is that the first and last island of the grand line will also
mirror each other.
An island inside a giant whale.
Not only do we know right from the start, that this is actually possible, but the person
who created the island actually has been to laugh tale itself.
So to me at least, it would make a ton of sense, if Crocus got inspiration for this
from the final island itself.
Don't you think?
Then, there's the name of Laboon's species.
He is a literal island whale.
That felt very much like in your face writing by Oda-sensei once I started to look at that
scene again from this perspective.
And we know that laboon is still relatively young in island whale years, so there most
likely are even larger relatives of his out there.
Now in general, if you love mythology and fantasy as much as I do, you will probably
know that the concept of giant whales with islands is a very famous trope.
Tales of gigantuous whales with islands on their back are very common and part of folk
lore all over the world.
So it's not exactly mysterious where Oda-sensei might have gotten this idea from.
I have even more to say about Laboon, but let's look at the other whale symbolism throughout
one piece first.
If you look closely, we have small whales engraved in the gates of the palace in alabasta,
that is tied close to the void century, one of the ancient weapons and is right above
the hidden poneglyph.
Similarly, there are whales engraved on the giant golden bell in the lost city of shandora.
Not only is this city connected to the ancient kingdom, but according to the big theory of
Yuderon, actually was part of the ancient kingdom on Jaya.
Oh and doesn't this on top here look a lot like a monkey with a straw hat to you?
Just saying.
Then, we have whitebeards ship, the Moby dick appearing at Marineford, as the emperor declares
that the one piece is real []. We see whales in chapter 604, just before
crossing the red line and reaching fishman island, that is connected to joy boy and is
home to one of the ancient weapons.
And by the way, there are also whales, when robin deciphers the poneglyph there.
[]
Then, after leaving fishman island and entering the new world, the straw hats are welcomed
by a pod of island whales, mirroring their encounter with laboon and marking their progress
towards finding the last island.
After that it takes a while for a whale to appear again, but it finally happens on Zou,
where there is a giant whale shaped tree, that contains the first road poneglyph pointing
the direction to laugh tale.
[] I think its also worth mentioning, that Zunesha herself is connected to the whale
theory very closely.
I think Oda took the classic idea of a whale with an island on its back and turned it into
an elephant, that is also closely connected to the void century.
It proves to me, that having a giant creature that harbours an entire island is very much
possible.
Zuneshia has been tasked with walking to a certain location as punishment for her sin,
so could she be looking for a giant whale?
Also I just realized, that the road poneglyph is literally inside the giant whale again.
Almost too obvious Oda-sensei.
So as you can see, the whale symbol is closely connected to anything to do with the ancient
kingdom and the void century.
Alabasta, shandora, Fishman island, Zou - the only place left is Wano.
But, there haven't been any whales on Wano have there?
You might like this one.
Take a look at the Kozuki crest.
Of course the main theme here is the crane in the middle.
But what do you think about the crossbones around it?
To me, they look a lot like whale fins diving into the sea.
Very hard to unsee, am I right?
Now this might just be a way for Oda, to connect all these places, but I think it's quite possible
that the whale itself was the symbol of the ancient kingdom.
I mean the chapter itself is titled 'Inside the whale'.
But let's get back to the giant whale that holds laugh tale.
Because there is a lot more evidence that there is a twin whale to laboon, another whale
just like him, that has also eaten an entire island.
First of all, the place where Laboon was introduced is called Twin Capes.
Then have the giant kraken surume who lives at the bottom of the ocean and who has a brother,
that was held hostage by Holy and thus forced him to comply.
Could this hint at Laboon's relative being held hostage by the world government?
We also get this interesting line by the sea kings.
[]
But the most important chapter, after the encounter with Laboon, is 654, where the straw
hats arrive in the new world.
The chapter starts with Luffy catching a fish that is swallowed another fish, swallowed
by an even larger fish.
The chapter is titled a pod of whales and on the cover features the twins moz and kiwi
from water seven, the risky brothers as well as Lola, who we now know also has a twin sister
with chiffon.
Oh and the chapter also features an enormous whirlpool, that transports the straw hats
right to a huge pod of island whales.
And this is where things get really interesting, as you can see, I cant stop grinning when
thinking about it.
In this same chapter, we get reminded that Laboon is closely tied to one of the straw
hats in particular.
Brook, the musician of the crew, who had this tear-jerking flashback with
the whale.
[] In this chapter, Brook of course mistakes the whales for lagoon and starts singing the
song that always made laboon happy when he heard it.
Bink's sake.
And to my absolute astonishment, now that I'm reading this again, the other island whales
recognise this song and actually start singing as well, which is why they start carrying
the sunny safely to the surface.
Now in case you don't know why this is so important, Binks sake is heavily connected
to Laugh Tale as well.
The song literally ends with the phrase 'Never-Ending, Ever-wandering, Our funny Traveling tale!',
using the Japanese kanji for laugh and tale.
I actually made an entire video analysing this song, that contains hints about the Kozuki,
the dawn of the world and much much more.
Now I personally came to conclusion that Laugh Tale might be the underworld, where the crew
would have to descend to.
But now I actually believe that the underworld is actually the bottom of the ocean, Davy
Jone's locker, the inside of a giant island whale, to which the crew will have to descend.
The ever-wandering laugh tale.
That sounds a lot like a moving living thing, similar to zuneshia.
As you know from Luffy, Ace and Sabo, Sake is a sign of brotherhood.
So delivering binks sake to one of lagoons brothers might be the promise that joy boy
made to the mermaid princess and that he could never keep.
The theme of siblings is closely connected to the whales after all.
There are also other lines in the song that would fit well to laugh tale being under water.
'If you lose your nerve this breath could be your last.
But if you just hold on, The morning sun will rise.'
Holding your breath to go under water.
There is also Tsumugi no sato yo.
Tsumugi no sato is the village of spinning.
I originally thought that this refers to the Kozuki spinning the history into the poneglyph.
This is supported by 'The birds sing as they draw circles in the sky!'
TO me that was probably the Kozuki crest, but if Yuderon's idea is true and the whale
is trapped in the giant whirlpool between the gates of justice, the spinning village
could literally be laugh tale caught in a giant whirlpool, ever-moving.
Before I tell you another crazy detail, if you enjoy this type of content, the secret
to getting more of this every single week is subscribing to the channel.
Another crazy detail I found, is that there is actually a Yokai in Japanese mythology
called Bake-Kujira, a giant living whale skeleton.
Now, Binks sake ends with, 'Doesn't matter who you are, Someday you'll just be bones.
Never-Ending, Ever-wandering, Our funny Traveling tale!'
And we literally have brook, a living skeleton that is connected to the island whales.
Not sure if that's the direction Oda would take this, but it might be relevant as well.
But basically, the idea is, that a giant whale, bit of laugh tale from Jaya 800 years ago
to protect whatever was there, but was trapped by Imu and the government between 3 gates
of justice at the bottom of the sea, where it can not escape.
Which might be the reason why shanks and his men all haven't eaten devil fruits, so they
can go and visit.
After all shanks would well know how to get to laugh tale, even if he stayed behind with
Buggy.
Now as fascinating as this theory is, if you really want to blow your own mind and take
it to the next level, this isn’t enough on its own.
There is actually an absolutley crazy theory about the true nature of laugh tale and the
ancient kingdom, that has changed how people see one piece forever.
And that’s why you really shouldnt ignore this video, because it’s twice as exciting
as the whale theory and in combination with it will make you feel like you’ve figured
out One Piece.