Hey everyone, Happy Fat Tuesday! If you’re Swedish you’ll know that Fat Tuesday is the official day in which you consume Big Mom’s favourite pastry, Semlas.
By tradition, this was the last day it was accepted to eat any semlas since it is the last day before the lenten fast. Sounds familiar? It should, because it was exactly this fast that inspired Oda to make the “winter solstice festival” which the giants celebrate in Elbaf.
But today, I’m actually not going to talk about the thirteenth of february. I want to share story with you, one that could greatly influence the current arc.
This story is called “The king who ate himself to death”. An event that actually occurred 247 years ago.
On the twelfth february 1771, the king of Sweden; Adolf Fredrik ate himself to death. And the food that caused his death, was semlas.
The actual story goes like this:
“The day before the dire last dinner, the queen and the king was attending a ball at Ulriksdal palace. The king went home early so he could rest for the coming day, because the French chef had promised to serve him ’hetvägg’ ”
Hetvägg is, by my standard, the wrong way of eating semlas. It basically means you put your semla in a bowl of hot milk and cinnamon so the bread sucks up all the milk and becomes all soggy. Bleh.
“The day after, the queen was so hungover, so the king had to eat dinner alone. He began with oysters, and after that sauerkraut, meat with turnips, lobster, caviar, buckling and champagne. When the King was completely full, he threw himself over his favourite dessert, the semlas. It is said that he ate semlas like never before and ate 14 whole servings of the pastry. Directly after the sturdy meal, the king gave out a loud scream, the guards carried him to his bed where he took his last breath.”
There are a lot of details that come to my attention from this story. The fact that the King screamed out loud after the dinner, just like Big Mom did at the Wedding, makes me wonder just how much Oda took from this story.
Adolf Fredrik was also regarded as a very weak ruler during his short reign, but that he was allegedly also a very good husband, a caring father and a gentle master to his servants. If you ask me, Adolf Fredrik sounds like the pole opposite of Big Mom, except for their love of Semlas.
Another detail I think is important is that the chef that served the king was french, much like Sanji who would be of french nationality if he was from our world. And Big Mom is soon about to eat the cake that Sanji has made.
So….. Is this a coincidence?
Was Adolf Fredrik just an inspiration for when Big Mom cannibalised Mother Caramel? Or did Oda plan to release the chapter of Big Mom’s defeat close to the date of Adolf Fredrik’s death? Is this the reason that the chase between Big Mom and the Straw hats has dragged on for so long, just so Oda could time her death to this historical moment?
Honestly, I don’t think Big Mom will die this arc, but many people put a lot of focus that Big Mom is currently heading to Liqueur Island on Prometheus, and that it will cause a large explosion. So maybe there is more credibility to her death than we first thought…
*Theory by Charlotte Q Charlie
