Big Mom recently arrived at Wano Country with her crew and some of her children to pursue the Straw Hats and retrieve Zeus.
But when they attempted to climb the waterfall around Wano Country on the Queen Mama Chanter, Kaido’s Disaster King flew in and attacked, causing the ship to flip over and sending Big Mom into the ocean.
Afterwards, Big Mom washed ashore on Kuri Beach, where she was found by Chopper, Tama, Kiku, and Momonosuke. When she woke up, she wondered who she was, having lost her memories.
But why amnesia? I think the most obvious (and arguably least compelling) theory would be that she’s simply been without oxygen long enough to give her minor brain damage. She is a hammer of course, so no swimming, she may have been under for quite a while. I think that’s too obvious, and frankly, a bit convenient to the story.
If you think back to Gekko Moriah, we learned that dousing someone in sea water will dispel any lingering Devil Fruit effects on a person/object. What if this is the first time Big Mom’s taken a dunk in a really long time, and she’s been under someone’s control until now or has been in some way manipulated.
She seems to have reverted to an almost childlike form, so my initial thinking was that in the moment Mother Caramel disappeared she wasn’t actually eaten by Big Mom, Mother Carmel somehow took control of Big Mom with her fruit.
I’m not sure that really matches up with our knowledge of both Mother Carmel’s fruit and Big Mom’s fruit, but in theory Mother Carmel (owner of the soul-soul fruit) could’ve been possessing Big Mom the entire time. If any fruit could, you’d think the soul-soul would be the one. Her personality change from child to adult is pretty extreme, young Big Mom seems very simple, just like post-amnesia Big Mom.
So the sea water has expelled Mother Caramel’s soul and Big Mom remained in the same state she began the possession. Big Mom’s memories would be fairly fuzzy as most of her life would have been lived by Mother Carmel and not herself. It would be an interesting twist if Mother Carmel suddenly appears in Wano and we find out what actually happened that day (although I’m not sure how she could still have a mortal body after all these years, unless you stop aging if you possess someone like that?).
If Big Mom uses the Soru Soru no Mi devil fruit’s powers in the current prison fight it would debunk the theory as I’m suggesting the fruit still belongs to Mother Carmel and not Big Mom herself.
Hopefully we find out soon as I know a lot of people don’t really like the amnesia plot and I feel like this would be an interesting way to spin it. It would also preserve Oda’s previous comments that you can’t gain a person’s devil fruit through cannibalism.
*Theory by FearLeadsToAnger
