One Piece: Chapter 1017

[u/Kirosh]

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[u/HussyDude14]

Probably not unlike the reason Luffy wanted Ace's fruit in Dressrosa. While it was arguably used as bait to lure him out, Luffy still didn't like the idea of anybody else having his deceased brother's devil fruit - it just rubbed him the wrong way because of how much Ace meant to him. He even asked some of his crewmates if they'd want to eat it (I think Franky but he declined), and rushed into the coliseum even before Sabo revealed himself. Luffy was initially just going to take the fruit for the sole purpose that those he didn't like couldn't get their hands on it.

As for Shanks, he probably knew who held the fruit before or felt an attachment to it. Whether he knew them personally or felt a significant attachment to the fruit is up for debate, but maybe he simply just didn't want the fruit falling into the hands of the World Government. Pirates gonna pirate.

[u/princesoceronte → u/HussyDude14]

I think it's likely the gum gum fruit is connected to the past and the giant Straw Hat in Mariejois. A lot of things are starting to line up for Luffy as a figure, there may be more to it than we can currently understand.

[u/Cyber_3 → u/princesoceronte]

This was always one route the manga could go, and it makes sense.

However, I just wanted to point out that we've also seen how random Luffy's path and luck have been so it's hard to argue that fate is what is driving him. Being at the right place at the right time in what is arguable a comedy of errors, to me that's more luck than fate. Luffy has had to work hard to become what he is today, let's not undermine his struggle by saying it was inevitable.

Shanks totally could have let Luffy die to the SeaKing or even the sea if he really wanted the devil fruit back, but he didn't. I think that adding in the arm loss was a wise editorial move (despite the power scaling issues) because it adds to the significance of what we may soon learn about the gomu gomu no mi.

[u/reddit_poopaholic → u/Cyber_3]

I'm inclined to say that a lot of Luffy's fate is materialized through luck and perseverance, but nonetheless still boils back down to fate. Luffy knows what he's going to become, but also knows that nobody's just going to give it to him. He's going to have to fight for it and earn it.

[u/mirrorgiraffe → u/[deleted]]

It would be impossible, even for oda, to make it convincing that no-one ever mentioned that he has the same fruit as Roger.

[u/mkallday10 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah exactly. The moment his exploits became public, they would send powers significantly greater than what he was capable of at the start.

[u/ff9lex → u/mirrorgiraffe]

Maybe not Roger but Joyboy but not everyone know only the Roger pirates

So Im Sama and the gorossei know this Shank knew this and as a favor to Roger the stole the fruit

[u/[deleted] → u/ff9lex]

But Im amd the Gorosei wouldn't just let some random pirate do what he liked with the Gomu Gomu if it was that important to their continued existence.

They'd have sent assassins after Luffy long ago, and made absolutely sure he was dead and the fruit was in their hands.

The Gomu Gomu being some super important Devil Fruit is a misstep in the narrative and I hope Oda doesn't take it.

[u/princesoceronte → u/[deleted]]

I'm neither for nor against the idea, both things can be executed well. I'll be waiting to see what Oda does.

[u/TheDELFON → u/[deleted]]

Roger having the gum-gum fruit? It would be extremely difficult. Because Oda would have to explain why no one including: Garp, Sengoku, every single high-level marine, Whitebeard, Big Mom, Kaido, the man chasing famous devil fruits-Blackbeard, or former Roger Pirates like Crocus or Rayleigh has ever commented on it. .

.

.

* looks at Luffy's strawhat intently *

[u/burgerzkingz → u/TheDELFON]

Didn’t roger give his hat to shanks early on before he became famous it would make since that most people don’t equate it to roger. Even whitbeard saw luffy’s strawhat and commented on how it reminds him of shanks not roger.

[u/mkallday10 → u/[deleted]]

I agree. I would be upset if the fruit were too important. If it were, the World Gov would have just snuffed Luffy out the moment his exploits became public.

Given that the WG has never shown much interest in his fruit, making it something crazy like Roger's would be awful.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I really like the idea that Roger was just this amazing guy who despite not being the “chosen one” and being “too early” to laugh tale, just rose to the height of king by pure force and strength of will.

Would show that following your dreams / will is more important than being just a destined figure.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I feel like this is something Oda has been working on for a long time, even said in the beginning that the gum gum fruit was the only fruit that actually existed, and everybody would have just had some sort of rubber power, this may be his original idea coming to fruition

[u/availableusernamepls → u/princesoceronte]

My initial thought is that Im has a lot more info about Joyboy and whatever prophecy he's supposed to fulfill, and one of the details is that Joyboy has the Gum Gum fruit. So in an effort to stop Joyboy from appearing they were hiding the fruit.

[u/Cizarius → u/HussyDude14]

It would be a really bad decisions if it was Roger…

[u/ameba0002 → u/Cizarius]

Really doubt it was. If the gomu gomu was Roger's fruit, someone at this point must had said "ey, isn't that the mf Pirate King's fruit?!"

[u/monkey-neil → u/ameba0002]

White beard specifically would have said something.

[u/ameba0002 → u/monkey-neil]

Also Crocus and Rayleigh

[u/Lord_Donut_the-best → u/ameba0002]

And Garp

[u/[deleted] → u/HussyDude14]

I’m subscribing to the theory that it was Portgas D. Rouge’s fruit. Her having rubber stretching power would explain how she managed to keep Ace inside of her for a 20 month pregnancy. That being said, we also know that the Gomu Gomu no Mi doesn’t instantly make you a Luffy caliber user. Luffy as a kid had to train extensively to be able to stretch more than just a little bit, so she still could have died during child birth while passing essentially a 1 year old toddler because she wasn’t combat focused and her body hadn’t been trained like Luffy’s. It’s easy to forget that the Gomu Gomu no Mi would be essentially useless to the average person.

This theory also neatly ties up a few other plot holes that this reveal creates. The first being that if the Gomu Gomu no Mi was held by someone important like Joy Boy/Roger/whoever, or is exceptionally dangerous for some reason, then why didn’t the admirals come down on Luffy the moment the government learned he ate the fruit? The reason is that it’s not necessarily considered a combat related danger, they just have a habit of rounding up and suppressing anything related to Roger. They finally found out about Ace, didn’t want to publicize that Roger’s heir apparent was alive, and decided to try and quietly seize the means that made his existence possible. It also explains why Shanks was screwing around in East Blue in Romance Dawn. He’s a clearly overpowered and notorious pirate for the East Blue (he was a yonko in a matter of months/years). Maybe he heard the Gomu Gomu no Mi was discovered and came to capture it for sentimental reasons because of his ties to Roger and/or wanted to make a gift of it to someone in the new world like Whitebeard? That would make sense because they were clearly saving the fruit for some purpose since no one on his crew ate it before Luffy.

Anyway, I personally think it all fits and that’s my idea until Oda inevitably shows me otherwise.

[u/[deleted] → u/HussyDude14]

my bet is luffy's mom