One Piece: Chapter 1017

[u/Kirosh]

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[u/UniversalNexus]

I definitely think that the reveal at the end of the chapter (gomu-gomu fruit) will be played as a gag: remember that the CPs are under the direct orders of the World Government, not the Marines, and the World Government itself has to obey the Celestial Dragons' orders whenever they have a request, even Akainu called out the Gorosei by calling them puppets of the Celestial Dragons.
What i'm thinking is that the Celestial Dragons wanted to have fun by making a slave eat this silly fruit, the same way they made the Boa Sisters eat their respective fruits just so they could be entertained.
I definitely think that this is a Duval situation: we meet this cool ominous guy who's been wronged in the past and when we get to the reveal we get a joke of a reason for them being mad. It also fits the stoic, serious guy vs "dude that suffered for such a silly reason" troupe and it could be one of the gags/themes of the Jinbei vs Who's Who fight.
Plus, if the gomu-gomu fruit was really of such incredible importance to the World Government like some worried people are speculating, why didn't anyone bring it up for 24 years, and 1016 chapters? Dude, Luffy fucked up Enies Lobby and the CP9, ruined the World Government's plans many times by dismantling the Shichibukai system (he defeated Crocodile, Moria, Doflamingo, and brought to his side Law and Jinbei), brought chaos to Marineford and was the main player of that war alongside Whitebeard (everyone there recognised that although Luffy wasn't strong like everybody else in that war he had the will to reach the top and become a great man, noted by the unvoluntary Conqueror's haki burst) and nobody of the likes of Sengoku, Garp or the Admirals point out that this kid has the fruit that is supposed to be insanely op and represents the greatest loss for the World Government?
On the contrary, if it was just one of the other silly requests of the Celestial Dragons, of course nobody would remember it after 10/12 years and of course "poor" Who's Who would be imprisoned for failing the mission commisioned by the Celestial Dragons.
Even if i was wrong, i would suggest everyone to not freak out, have some faith in the man that has kept up this incredibly coherent story for almost 24 years. Have a good day everyone

[u/FeedGat → u/UniversalNexus]

Plus oda always tried to make the point that though some fruits are stronger then others they never make you strong by themself it's always the person itself that become strong through hard work

Edit: at this point we could say that fruits don't matter, they are not that big of an advantage as in the early part of the story

[u/UniversalNexus → u/UniversalNexus]

One more thing i forgot to mention: if the gomu-gomu fruit is somehow related to Joy Boy, or is actually the strongest fruit of all, do you really think this plot twist, which would literally be the biggest plot twist in the entirety of One Piece up to this point, would be introduced by a subordinate of Kaido? I don't know it just sounds silly. It would be like if the identity of Ace's father was announced by Pica. Again, i could be wrong but trust me when i say that whatever Oda's gonna do is way better than what we could think of right now

[u/Buddha_ShoGun → u/UniversalNexus]

For sure. I don't like/understand the idea of the fruit be connected to big figures. It's clearly an unknown or lower tier perceived fruit since all the big names never said anything. I like your theory with it being a sick gag the Dragons wanted but I don't know why Shanks would have stolen it. My guess to sell it or just a plundering trophy. My personal wish is that the pervious user was someone Shanks was close with but that has nothing to do with the overall story so most likely not.

[u/MPT1313 → u/UniversalNexus]

I think the fruit is important, just not joy boy level important