Oda Reveals Who The Traitor To Elbaf Is

The Elbaf arc of One Piece is officially underway and fans know that with time, a lot of exciting lore will finally be revealed to them. Fans have already met quite a lot of exciting characters, and at the same time, heard of some interesting legends as well. King Harald, known to be the best King in the history of Elbaf, and the strongest as well, is one of them.

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Unfortunately, King Harald is already dead, which means that not much has been seen of him over the course of the last few chapters of Elbaf. Fans only know bits and pieces of Harald from the Elbaf arc, mostly from the mouths of other characters. Interestingly enough, Harald is loved in Elbaf and everyone in the country assumes him to be a legend. However, the truth might not be so pretty and there could be more to Harald than just being a good King who cared for the people.

How Long Harald Was Set Up To Be A Traitor

• Harald Was Suspicious From The Get-go
• Oda Had Him Do Too Many Good Deeds

When King Harald was first introduced in One Piece, it was clear that he was Loki’s father, but more than that, he was a good King who was, unfortunately, murdered at the hands of Loki. This would’ve been believable, most certainly, however, the fact that Luffy immediately shared a few moments with Loki and didn’t show any hostility towards him was a big sign for the fans that King Harald was, undoubtedly, painting in a different light to what he truly was.

With time, more information started being revealed about King Harald, and it became known that he was a benevolent King who wanted to open trade with the world and pacify Elbaf. He was said to be a pacifist, and he even ripped his own horns out as a sign of protest against the evil heritage of the Ancient Giants. Eventually, he met his end at the hands of Loki in One Piece, and this was 14 years ago in the story. Inside Aurust Castle, King Harald was slain by Loki and Jarul was also present there, witnessing everything. It was here that Jarul got a sword through his head, and it is said that 100 giants lost their lives on this day.

However, once again, Oda sang too many good tales of Harald while portraying Loki as an evil man, which only meant one thing—that the truth would actually be the opposite. This was further highlighted by the fact that Mosa-ko, who seems to know Loki very well, clearly said that deep down, Loki has a kind heart. As such, it is quite clear at this point in the story that Loki is the innocent one and that something was wrong with Harald.

Was King Harald On Good Terms With The World Government?

King Harald Could’ve Had A Relationship With The Government

Now that it is clear that King Harald was not the great leader that he was believed to be, it is time to look at why that was the case. Harald seemingly had connections to the World Government, or at least he wanted to forge them. This is clear from the fact that there was an Abyss circle right next to the Throne Room in Aurust Castle. As such, the Holy Knights had most certainly come to Aurust Castle before they appeared there in One Piece chapter 1130. This means that 14 years ago, the Holy Knights already had come to Aurust Castle once, at the very least. As to why they would’ve come to Elbaf, the answer is simple. They simply wanted to gain control of the country back then as well.

What exactly happened back then isn’t known. But, One Piece chapter 1140 gives fans a lot of interesting context about the whole situation. It appears that the good King of Elbaf was on somewhat friendly terms with the Holy Knights. When, in One Piece chapter 1140, the Holy Knights arrived in Elbaf, they clearly asked Shamrock why he was there, and if it was to go to Harald’s grave.

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They clearly knew about Harald and the Holy Knights’ visit grave essentially meant that they were on good terms with him. In other words, Harald was an ally of the World Government, and he might even have been planning to give up the Kingdom or be their proxy leader of Elbaf. Thankfully, this never came to pass as Harald ended up dying, but not before he caused a ton of trouble in Elbaf, particularly surrounding the character of Loki and Jarul.

In the Elbaf arc of One Piece, it was revealed that the one who had killed Harald was none other than Loki. However, this may or may not be true, which makes perfect sense as things stand.

Who Killed King Harald?

It Might Have Been Loki Or Harald

One thing that’s been clearly established in the story right now is that King Harald was most certainly not a good guy. Whereas the Giants of Elbaf wanted to save their heritage and even had a legendary Devil Fruit saved for the right warrior to come and claim, Harald wanted the country to be sold to the World Government. He may not have been corrupt and could’ve truly believed that what he was doing was the right thing. However, that matters little. What he wanted would’ve brought ruin to Elbaf, meaning that his death for treason was fully justified.

As for who killed him, it could go two ways. It is possible that the one who killed Harald was none other than Loki, as was mentioned. This would make sense, especially knowing how much Loki despises the Celestial Dragons. Not wanting Elbaf to fall into the Government’s hands was likely his reason.

But, there could’ve been a bigger twist here as well. It is possible that the one who ended up killing King Harald was none other than Jarul, one of the heroes of the Giants. Jarul was against the trade idea of Mother Carmel long ago, and it would make sense that he wasn’t on board with King Harald’s idea of wanting to make a deal with the Government either. Furthermore, Jarul seems to have a sword plunged through his head and this blade looks remarkably similar to the sword that Harald wields. Perhaps, the one who killed Harald was Jarul, while Loki ended up taking the blame because he felt he was strong enough to shoulder the blame. Regardless, one thing is clear and that is the fact that Harald was a traitor to Elbaf and died a deserved death.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus apps. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1140, is set to be February 23, 2025.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)