How Skypiea Foreshadows The Birth Of The Devil Fruit, Explained 

One Piece is currently in the Elbaf arc, and quite clearly, the story has come a long way. The manga is officially in the Final Saga, and although there is still quite some time to go until the series reaches its end, fans know that the final segment has well and truly begun. Despite everything, there are still countless questions that are yet to be answered in the story, and that makes this last stretch of the story even more exciting.

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Fans know for a fact that One Piece hasn’t yet explained how Devil Fruits truly came into existence, along with much else that will most definitely be brought up here. That said, fans are always free to theorize, and, knowing the kind of author Oda is, there are plenty of hidden clues left behind in the story for them to identify this. The origins of Devil Fruits were briefly touched upon in the Egghead Island Arc, but the truth behind it still remains a mystery. That said, it might be connected to Skypiea, just as many other things are.

How Skypiea Reflects The Many Themes Of One Piece

• Skypiea Is One Piece’s Most Important Arc
• It Hides The Deepest Secrets

One Piece fans know very well the importance that Skypiea holds. Although this arc was featured in the story over two decades ago, it is still up there with the very best arcs that Oda has written in the story. Not only was One Piece at the peak of its art in Skypiea, but at the same time, the storytelling was as good as it’s ever been. Oda also used this arc to dump a lot of lore on the fans, and possibly for the very first time ever in such a manner.

The Skypiea arc touched upon some very core aspects of the story, such as the rivalry between the Gods of the World and the people of the D. At the same time, the different Ancient Gods, such as the Sun God, the Earth God, and the Rain God, among others, were also touched upon. Most importantly, the existence of Sun God Nika was first hinted at in the Skypiea arc of One Piece and it was later brought to life in the Wano Country arc, around 2 decades later. There are way too many important revelations in this arc of the story, and fans know that very well.

Aside from major reveals being made, Skypiea also foreshadows many things from the future of One Piece, and Imu themself is one of them. Through Enel and his usage of Ark Maxim, Imu and the usage of Uranus is very clearly foreshadowed. Similarly, through Luffy down Enel, Nika taking down Imu is foreshadowed. Even Nika’s arrival in the Wano arc is actually foreshadowed in the Skypiea arc when Luffy parties with the animals of Upper Yard and dances around the Bonfire to the Drums of Liberation. That, when taken into consideration with a billion other things from this arc, is enough to see that this part of the story is doubly special.

The Origin Of Devil Fruits Hinted In Skypiea

Skypiea’s Forest For The Deceased Hints At Devil Fruit Origin

It is quite clear that the Skypiea arc of One Piece has introduced fans to a ton of lore surrounding key concepts, such as the emergence of Nika for the helpless and the needy, but it has also done more than that. Skypiea has also already shown fans what Devil Fruit’s origins are, and how they came into existence in the first place. This doesn’t really make sense on its own, but when paired with everything that fans have heard about Devil Fruit over the Egghead Arc, things make a lot of sense.

In the Egghead Arc of One Piece, Vegapunk revealed very important details about Devil Fruits. Upon witnessing Luffy’s fight against Rob Lucci, Vegapunk clearly stated that Nika was brought into the world as a result of the wishes of the needy and the enslaved. He then went on to say that not just Nika, but all Devil Fruits are born into the world because of hope.

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In other words, Devil Fruits are an alternate look at him an evolution based on the hopes and desires of humanity. All Devil Fruits are simply a look at the future that someone envisioned a long time ago. In other words, those who possess the power of Devil Fruits exist in different dimensions, with abilities that were dreamed up by someone before them. Clearly, this is very important for the story, as it tells the fans that Devil Fruits were essentially created long ago by humans, and given that 900 years ago, society was far more advanced, this makes sense.

Vegapunk mentions in the Egghead Arc that when a human dies, 21 grams of mass is seen removed from the weight for unknown reasons. Vegapunk believes that 21 grams is the weight of the soul, and in other words, souls do exist.

Now, looking at the Enies Lobby Arc, Jabra mentioned that he didn’t want to get too close to a Devil Fruit since he already had one, and if he got too close, the Devil inside of him would fight the devil inside the fruit and he’d explode. Clearly, Devil Fruits inhabit souls. Taking this a step further, Dressrosa essentially confirmed that when Devil Fruit users die, the soul of the devil essentially leaves their body and goes back to the fruit, making it come back into circulation.

Now, when one thinks of fruits, trees often come into mind, and most certainly, the first Devil Fruits were likely synthesized from trees somewhere. This is proven by the Harley, which states that the Forest God sent forth demons, meaning the Forest bore these devils.

Curiously enough, in Skypiea, fans saw special trees in Jaya that were shown to hold on to the souls of the deceased. The Shandians believed that immediately after someone died, their souls were guided to Holy White Trees and found peace there. The same concept could be applied to Devil Fruits as well.

Long ago, the scientists of the One Piece world likely used unique Holy Trees to give birth to the ideas, dreams, desires, and hopes of humanity. Desires and hopes were somehow turned into Devil Fruits using trees, and with enough love and care, it is likely that a fruit was made, similar to how with enough love and care, spirits like Klabautermann can emerge and do the impossible, such as repairing ships. The first fruit was likely the Nika fruit, since slavery was rampant in the world, but many others followed over time, giving rise to a plethora of abilities, all of which were eventually used in the battle against the 20 Kings, at least at first.

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 1143, is set to be March 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)

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  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)