Hey guys! Today, I want to talk about the Land of the Dead in One Piece. Now to begin with, let me reaffirm something that has been demonstrated (even if not confirmed) about the Land of the Death in One Piece. I believe it to be real.
Why? Simple answer: Brook. As we know Brook uses ice powers when slashing his opponents, he can also interact with souls without the need of any particular haki. This leads to two main points : souls are real (also confirmed by Big Mom), and where does the ice come from? The most plausible answer is that the ice used is the cold of the underworld.
Now the land of the dead has been multiple times associated to the underworld and here are multiple references we have to the underworld: The devil fruits, the natural enemies of the gods, Enma, Pluto (rumored to be god of the underworld and happens to be an ancient weapon in One Piece), the epithet of “King of Hell”, Enma being called the ruler of the underworld also the fire festival in Wano that is said to honour the dead but is also said to be the event during which the dead connect with those that are alive.
This implies that there’s a special opportunity, an unique event during which the souls travel back to the land of the living and connect with them. This gives us new hints :
– Souls don’t disappear.
– They have a will on their own since they can move and travel.
– There’s a potential way to travel from the land of the dead to the land of the living.
To add real life references that could’ve inspired One Piece: We also have references to the land of the dead in the popular franchise Pirates of the Caribbean in which Jack is brought from the land of the dead back to earth. The land of the dead is also part of the pirate culture in Sea of Thieves game.
How will Oda exploit the land of the dead? This is my favorite part of this whole theory that has been discussed in various forums: What if part of the One Piece will allow the humans to connect to the land of the dead, each of the Strawhats would meet again with their loved ones.
They would be able to show them what they’ve become and it could also lead to the greatest party done in any manga as the dead cast and the alive cast of One Piece, from different centuries, would group up and celebrate together (we could literally have a canon illustration of that WSJ cover with Luffy Roger and Oden drinking sake together).
I feel like it would fit the “fairy tail” structure that One Piece utilizes in its narrative and would be a beautiful love letter to conclude the series.
What do you guys think?
Theory by Underkodt (https://www.reddit.com/user/Underkodt)
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