The One Piece manga just revealed 3 things that no one expected.
The ancient Robot from the Void Century attacked the celestial dragons just 200 years ago,
Vegapunk has possibly the new most OP Devil Fruits in the Story and it looks like the
genius scientist will join the straw hats on their ship once they leave Egghead island.
But how likely is that actually?
Really, not that unlikely at all.
Why does Vegapunk want to leave this place?
Egghead island seems incredibly small compared to most of the islands we have been to recently.
Dressrosa had an entire city on it, Tottland was a whole archipelago and Wano multiple
islands mushed together.
Egghead island looks tiny in comparison.
It’s really only Vegapunks giant lab and a bit of greenery around it.
But despite its size, it’s an island that seems to hold way more importance than almost
any other place the straw hats have gone to.
It is filled to the brim with the most advanced technology in existence right now, holding
all the knowledge remaining from the ancient kingdom.
It’s the place where pretty much all major technological advancements for the government
have been created, including the Pacifista and Seraphim.
The island holds pretty much all of Vegapunk's research and knowledge, so why would he want
to go?
Because it turns out that this island isn’t only Vegapunk’s base of operation, but in
a way a part of himself.
The Manga has now revealed that the scientist is actually a devil fruit user, which does
explain his ridiculously large head in a reassuring way.
Vegapunk has eaten the brains brains fruit, which in Japanese is called the Nomi Nomi
no mi.
Which is hilarious, but Oda really had to make this one work.
Brain in Japanese is No, and brains, as in having brains, being smart is called nomizu,
so Oda decided to cut the zu to get to his nomi nomi no mi, which is incredibly funny
and one of those puns that only work in Japanese.
It seems like this fruit’s ability isn’t high intelligence however.
Apparently Vegapunk was born a real genius.
Instead, the fruit allows its user to store and remember any type of knowledge down to
the very last detail.
That means anything you want to learn, you know by heart in an instant.
You always have access to all your knowledge at any time and you never forget anything.
A side-effect of the fruit, is that one’s brain needs to keep growing the more knowledge
one acquires, in order to keep up with everything.
Thus Vegapunk’s bizarre appearance.
Now before we can discuss, what that has to do with Vegapunk wanting to sail with Luffy,
I think we have to discuss this fruit in more detail, because:
This ability is just absolutely overpowered.
If you have the ability to learn anything you like without ever forgetting any of it,
this would make you the most powerful person in the world in no time.
You could say: Oh, knowing stuff doesn’t mean you can actually do anything against
someone like Blackbeard with his Gura Gura no mi or his darkness fruit.
But that’s just not true.
Just look at Vegapunk.
Using his powers, he has deciphered all the knowledge available from the ancient kingdom.
He has created giant Robots.
Lazer weapons.
He has discovered how to use sea stone to nullify devil fruit powers.
And he can literally clone devil fruits.
If Vegapunk wanted, he could just build an army of Seraphim for himself and take over
the world.
When you have read every strategy and psychology book in existence, when you know everything
that is to know about anyone: In my eyes, this makes you pretty close to invincible.
Knowledge is power, as they like to say.
Vegapunk is already intelligent and has exclusive access to advanced knowledge, which makes
his fruit even more potent than it would already be if someone like luffy ate it.
This man has literally managed to create alter egos connected to a central brain.
In fact, when you really think about just HOW strong this fruit makes him, I am really
wondering how Oda will nerf it, because let’s be real he will have to.
Why work with the government at this point, if you could just overthrow them with your
technology?
I mean we already know that Vegapunk seems to share the same cause as Dragon.
My only real explanation, is that the government has something up its sleeve, that Vegapunk
can’t go up against openly.
Either they have a way to hold him hostage, which would be incredibly effective.
Or, another explanation might be, that the Gorosei and Imu have access to an ancient
technology even MORE advanced than Vegapunk's.
The type of technology that allowed them to overthrow the technologically advanced ancient
kingdom in the first place.
If you have any ideas, I’d LOVE to hear them.
Because presented with its powers the nomi nomi no mi does sound like the most powerful
devil fruit in existence.
Now I’m only curious if Vegapunk could clone his Nomi Nomi no mi to make more nomi nomi
no mis and give them to each of his clones to multiply the effect.
But maybe this immense power is exactly the reason why the government is now coming for
his head.
Because they fear that he could surpass them.
Anyways, as a side effect of consuming the entire library of ohara and all the knowledge
stored inside it, Vegapunk’s brain has grown too large to carry around with him any longer.
You know what, maybe that was the original weak point of that fruit.
That at some point it would just break your neck or crush its user under its own weight.
But Vegapunk found a way to separate his brain and connect himself and all of his alter egos
remotely to it.
The at this point unfathomably large brain is incorporated in the upper levels of his
lab, labeled the Punk Records.
He actually dreams of connecting every person in the world to this pool of knowledge, which
sounds like a nice idea, kind of like the internet of the one piece world.
However Jinbei raises some really important privacy concerns here.
Because giving everyone access to Vegapunks brain, like the other Vegapunks, wouldn’t
that turn everyone into vegapunk?
It would also mean everyone would know everything about everyone all the time, which does sound
like something out of a black mirror episode if you ask me.
Vegapunk sweeps this comment aside, saying that science needs to keep acvancing.
And I think that might hint at Vegapunk’s biggest character flaw: He puts scientific
advance over his morals.
Clearly Vegapunk agrees with Dragon’s plans and dislikes the government.
But getting funding for his research was more important to him.
Similarly he, Cesar, Judge and Queen were conducting ethically highly questionable research
on humans and prisoners.
Killing many and disfiguring others.
Look at the emotionless vinsmoke family or the giants on punk hazard.
I think Vegapunk is not a bad guy at heart, but his priority make him a quite morally
ambiguous character.
Same as the people who have watched this video so far, but haven’t subscribed to the channel
yet.
now all this also fits in very nicely with the reveal, that Vegapunk is also a perfectionist.
He deemed Momo’s fruit a failure because the color didn’t match.
Or the lightsaber, that actually works like the ones in star wars, because they also attract
bugs.
He would put ethics aside to bring a research project of his to perfection.
I also think, that only a slightly messed up person could bear not forgetting anything.
Another drawback of this fruit.
Our brains are hardwired to process and forget about traumatic and hurtful events in our
life.
Imagine you could never forget any accident or terrible thing that happened in your life.
Instead you can always recall it in perfect detail.
That sounds kind of unhealthy and in reality would probably make life pretty much un-livable
i think.
What this means however, is that egg head island IS a living part of Vegapunk.
So why does he ask Luffy to take him away?
Well there are a few possibilities.
Maybe Vegapunk wants to go back to Elbaf, where all of Ohara’s knowledge is stored.
Maybe he wants to find Dragon, who is just starting his big campaign with the revolutionaries,
to help him in his fight.
Or it could be that he is fearing for his life.
genius that he is, Vegapunk might already have figured out, that the government is coming
for his head.
And Shaka has already talked to Dragon about their soon to be expected death.
So is it realistic, that we will leave Egghead island with Vegapunk?
Maybe even as the next, super unexpected straw hat?
I think there are arguments for both sides.
I think you can’t really argue that Vegapunk wouldn’t make a wonderful addition to the
crew, travelling to Elbaf and finally laugh Tale.
It might be his knowledge and technology that’s the key to reaching laugh tale and defeating
the world government.
Helping the straw hats reach their full potential along the way.
It would also be a great way to have Luffy and Dragon reunite very soon.
however, on the other hand, you could also argue, that Vegapunk knows too much and is
way too powerful to be an asset to Luffy.
His knowledge about the world would make Robin and especially Franky almost completley redundant
in a way.
It might also make the straw hats too powerful going into the end game.
Instead, giving Luffy and co SOME information and a few upgrades, might be the safer route
to go for Oda, having Vegapunk actually die.
And Dragon might be coming for Egghead island anyways.
The chapter suggests that Kuma is trying to safe his daughter Bonney, after Lucci announced
that they would kill her this time and that she has no use anymore.
Actually, now that i think about it, maybe Bonney WAS the thing that the Gorosei used
to blackmail Kuma and Vegapunk with.
So maybe Kuma is actually also connected to Vegapunks brain, the secret 7th clone.
I think this chapter definitely gives us hope, that we will see Kuma regain his real personalty
though, especially since Vegapunk seems to be very good with disconnecting brains and
keeping them functioning.
Kuma as a cyborg is already pretty damn impressive as a feature of engineering, but not as impressive
as the giant Robot soldier located on the island.
The manga has now finally confirmed, that this is actually technology from the void
century.
However, it has been active a lot more recently than we all expected.
Instead of just rusting away there for the past 800 years, apparently it climbed the
red line in an attempt to attack Maris Jois.
After it was stopped, government scientists brought it to Egghead island to study it.
And as expected its the inspiration for the giant robot Vegapunk has built.
Now this is fascinating for a few reasons.
First: Someone actually remembered how to use this technology 200 years ago and was
able to use it against the government.
Second: The government was able to stop this thing somehow before they had any of Vegapunk’s
inventions.
And, as robin reminds us, it also fits in perfectly with the time where the fishman
were first acknowledged as people and not fish and were invited to the Reverie.
This is something that Hachi tells us about.
now there are two other things that happened 200 years ago: that random ship that fell
from the sky, had made it to Skypea during that time.
And the giant fighting fish appeared on green bit.
Could these events be connected?
Really, no way of telling right now.
But what Oda seems to suggest or at least wants us to believe, is that the fishmen were
the ones that send this giant robot to attack the world government to get more rights.
If so, Fisher Tiger, another fishman, might have been foreshadowing for this.
Maybe he was even inspired by his ancestors.
Im very curious about what really happened here.
But let’s talk about the Robot’s mysterious power source.
It’s the second time now, that a Vegapunk mentions a limitless energy source, an eternal
flame, that was apparently used to power these giant machines.
I think some people suggested Franky’s Cola technology, however, as we’ve seen more
than once, it’s neither limitless nor very convenient to use.
Instead, it looks like the Robot has a giant furnace as its belly.
And the idea of an eternal flame does sound a bit like something we are currently researching
ourselves.
You might be aware of nuclear power as splitting atoms and using the energy stored inside their
bonds, which creates a lot of dangerous radioactive waste.
However, you can also make energy by combining lighter atoms into heavier ones under a lot
of heat.
This is called nuclear fusion, and it’s basically how stars work.
Our sun is one giant fusion reactor.
And that technology exists, even if its not yet ready for actual use quite yet.
But since nuclear fusion is also referred to as a sun in a bottle, that really made
my alarm bells ring with all the sun god nika talk lately.
Luffy’s fire powers and the nika fruit’s connection to the ancient kingdom and joy
boy.
So maybe one of the technologies that the ancient kingdom used was nucelar fusion or
the power of a sun slash sun god devil fruit.
it’s one of the many lost technologies from the void century, that have completely changed
how we look at the one piece world and story.
And i broke it all down in this video right here, if you want to watch a little longer.