Many are surprised by the newest revelations about devil fruits and how human emotions can be influenced by artificial ones.
Others have already picked up on many “weird” things about devil fruits and wondered what this could mean. Me on the other hand, I was like a hermit in the mountains, growing my beard until it can reach my hair(don’t ask how) and was awaiting /begging for a revelation by our lord and savior Goda to make me understand where a certain plot line is leading towards. Chapter 924 was the epiphany I have been waiting on.
I gave you a small snippet into where I am going with this and I hope you picked up on the hints.Ace is the key in understanding what is currently happening. We have to go into a little bit of history to understand what Oda tried to do with this character.
First of all, Oda knew from the beginning what the role of Ace is and that is his death.
Hence why created the character in the first place and why he takes on certain roles. One being the personal growth of Luffy to overcome such a loss, the other is him being the son of the pirate king who died to spark a new generation, which hints towards a sorta “sacrifice” that will be inherited. Ace’s design reflects hints into his purpose for the story. His hat resembles a certain SMILE & SAD which became relevant in the New World but how is his tale related to devil fruits? We will see but another thing is that his “smile” resembles Doflamingo’s sign.
We note that Ace is somehow connected to Doflamingo and there is another thing that is glaring about his design, his tattoo.
Right before the time skip we get to know what is up with that and don’t have to speculate any longer.
The crossed S refers to Sabo’s pirate symbol and he used it in his farewell letter. Sabo, smiles, sad, him being the son of the pirate king, death, Doflamingo is all setup for what is to come. Though there is another more subtle clue about a plot line that is related to him. In the same arc where Ace was introduced this happened.
In Alabasta the plot line of infusing devil fruits in the objects has been introduced. One can say this is the real beginning of the devil fruit plot line because we got to find something out about them that goes beyond the “hammer in exchange for an ability” template. It is the first sign that our understanding of devil fruits is lacking and Usopp notes this as well.
So we see that early on Oda already claimed that devil fruits have a will on their own and it sounds ridiculous at the time but something happened within Ace story that directly connects these two plots. He died but “his story” continued.
His devil fruit was reborn and mind you, it is the same arc where Doflamingo, the guy with the similar sign to Ace’s hat was finally taken on. The devil fruit, Ace and Doflamingo story line run into each other and follow the same path. Furthermore it is to note that Oda didn’t continue the devil fruit plot line for quite some time(Sabaody and Vegapunk was the last hint and before/after nothing much happened with it, which makes sense because Ace didn’t die yet, which is necessary for it to continue) and reintroduced it back in Punk Hazard, so it can be tackled in Dressrosa. “Coincidentally”, in the same arc another truth about devil fruits has been revealed and we got to know about the “cycle of devil fruits”.
Oda connects the Ace and devil fruit(cycle of devil fruits) story line himself. I would bring your attention to the cycle that shows what happens after you consume a devil fruit. The “electricity” shown will be relevant later but let’s continue. We find out that Doflamingo somehow obtained Ace’s devil fruit and this has baited Luffy into entering the colosseum. We all know what happened next, the thing that has been setup in Alabasta came to fruition and one of the missing puzzle pieces finally came into play.
Sabo returned from the dead and meets Luffy. He is there to inherit Ace’s devil fruit and ultimately is eating it(I am ignoring the obvious symbolism of Sabo inheriting the power of the sun by a person of the “dawn” here). All of this lead to a certain statement that many people have picked up on.
Ace’s will is somehow communicating with Sabo and he knows his wishes. This ties into Lasso and how a devil fruit has a will on its own. It confirms what has already been said without confidence and gives us the perspective of someone who actually obtained the will of the previous user. Oda couldn’t resist and had to tell us what his plan for Ace and Sabo was in case we missed it.
The point of Ace’s story line was his death and Sabo inheriting his powers. The passed on will of the lost brother is a “real heartwarming story” indeed.
“So, what does all of this mean?”
If you have read “the world of One Piece” this phenomenon should not be out of the realms of possibilities. Your own wavelength(haki) mixes after a certain amount of time/training with the wavelength of your devil fruit. Once the user dies the imprinted wavelength of the devil fruit leaves ones body and goes to the next fruit of the same type. And et voila this is how ones will is imprinted onto devil fruits. Though how is Ace connected to SMILES & SAD?
The latest chapter 943 with the title “SMILE” shows that the plot line is far from over but something else happened earlier in the arc.
Oh yes, Ace is still relevant and is “present” in Wano. His purpose isn’t finished yet and we see the iconic SMILE & SAD hat again. Up until now we have only talked about “perfect” devil fruits, those who aren’t artificially created and those within the “cycle of devil fruits”. It is time to talk about the artificial ones.
SMILE
Real devil fruits have a will of their own and an user can imprint their will onto the wavelength of the current devil fruit but is the same true for artificial ones?
SMILE in general have a sorta “will” of their own but they aren’t perfectly sentient. They can’t articulate themselves properly and seem to reject the host with even another catch.
If you eat one of the duds you lose the ability to swim and it steals away emotions of sadness and rage. Though there is a side effect to those with a “working” artificial devil fruit as well.
You turn into a clown…I mean whatever these guys are. They have uncontrollable mutations like having wings, an elephant for a chest and a lion for their belly button and worst of all, their abilities can show a semi-individual will. Additionally the gifters can’t transform and are in this state permanently. This is an imperfect symbiosis by any stretch but there is even one more drawback.
Look at the arm of Sheepshead, an imprint of signs sorta similar to what is on devil fruits occurs on the body. Is this related to Dragon, did he inherit an artificial ability in exchange for the marking? Maybe, but that isn’t for today. The more important question is:
“How do you create artificial devil fruits?”
Artificial light is being used to grow apple trees.
SAD is being poured in the water supply and otherwise the process is the same as growing apple trees. We see that SAD is the reason how a normal fruit changes into a SMILE.
“Why are all SMILE’s Zoan-type devil fruits?”
This is actually quite simple as well and the reason is the type of fruit. Apples contain the wavelength of Zoans and that is why Doflamingo commissioned those to be used for Kaido’s army.
Vegapunk’s artificial dragon was an apple. All of the SMILES are apples and of course we see the reincarnation of a natural zoan.
A salamanda devil fruit has been infused into gas(object) which we have already seen with Lassoo and Funkfried. Though this time we get to know a deep truth about Zoans, the type of fruit that it can inhibit.
Caeser gives Smiley something deadly to eat, which in turn reincarnates the devil fruit.
It turns out that Zoans can be stored in apples. Ok, things are clearing up but where does this all lead to?
“What is SAD and why does it cause this mutation?”
The same way the real ones are being cycled, electromagnetism.
SAD
From this point onward you will not completely understand my take without reading the “world of One Piece”. So I am sorry for those who don’t find it interesting and hopefully you enjoyed it up until now. For those who have read it and understands its premises(the 5 of you lol) this will not be a surprise at all. We see a radiation symbol on the SAD tank which is a form of electromagnetism. To create an artificial devil fruit you need the same energy which is required for the real ones, the “perfect devil fruits”.
“Why do people lose the ability to be sad when consuming SAD?”
Emotions/Will can manifest itself in the One Piece world through the medium of electromagnetism and this is what we know as haki and devil fruits. We know that the Vinsmoke children lost their own emotions in exchange for their respective abilities.
This in turn gave them the eyebrows that symbolizes a “current”(electromagnetism) which is also seen on devil fruits. One can exchange emotions in turn for abilities but why do normal devil fruits don’t steal your emotions? Well, the reason is how they were created in the first place. A will and therefore complete spectrum of emotions has already been sacrificed to create them and that is why you don’t lose your emotions when you consume one.
This is why people who have ate a devil fruit believe they have a “devil” in them. Another will resides in them that uses their stamina in exchange for the respective power of the fruit. What exactly happened to create the devil fruits I will not speculate on today but I can say with confidence that this will be the end point where the devil fruit story line is heading. We will find out how devil fruits came to be but let’s return to SMILE.
No matter which type of SMILE one consumes you lose the ability to swim. This is because you obtain a wavelength that can be attracted which results in this disability. It isn’t a byproduct of the ability itself but by the very nature of devil fruits(electromagnetic wave). This has been elaborated on in “the world of One Piece” already so I don’t repeat myself here. Though we find more clues into what kind of “ability” ones acquires through the consumption of artificial devil fruits.
By consuming an imperfect will that isn’t based on a human sacrifice you obtain an uncontrollable will, which results in mutations and imperfect sentient beings like Holdem’s lion. It can’t think or speak properly and this is because it didn’t have a real will to begin with and only the energy which would create such an “ability”.
The reason why you lose your sadness with a dud is because you “obtain” the ability to not swim in exchange for your “sad emotions”. This is in a weird way a positive exchange but of course in a country like Wano where change is required it becomes tragic. This could be actually a very positive “ability” to have in another context. Becoming happy for all eternity doesn’t seem like a bad exchange. One can say this is the default mode of consuming electromagnetism forcefully. An unnatural will that isn’t based on human sacrifice leads to the impairment of emotions because the exchange hasn’t been made yet. The spectrum of emotion is here simplified and you technically can put all human emotions into those two categories. So if one of them has to be “exchanged” in return for a positive ability it must be the ability to feel sadness, otherwise it would be an exchange for something extremely negative(always being sad). It has to be a “trade-off” in a sense but there is one more reason that I could come up with. What if 9 people have to lose their emotions so the 10th obtains an ability? After all, a sacrifice of will/emotions is required to create an ability in the world of One Piece.
Not a bad guess, red-hair. Indeed, perfect devil fruits exchange the ability to swim with a special ability because its a complete and real will(sea-devil’s incarnation). In the same sense the Vinsmokes obtained special abilities in exchange for their emotions the same has been done to create the perfect devil fruits. Artificial devil fruits don’t have a will on their own and only radiate the same energy which results in mutations and the inability to transform. They get a hybrid version with the animal parts that they have no control over them because they never possessed a will to begin with. Ace story is directly connected to the story of devil fruits and serves as a guide in understanding them. For instance what will happen when someone eats a devil fruit of a known previous user? The will of the previous user gets imprinted on the wavelength of the devil fruit and how Ace’s story is connected to the artificial kind(Crossed S, SAD&SMILE hat), which in turn gives us better insight into how perfect devil fruits came to be. Seeing that Ace has the “fire” devil fruit and it is the fokal point of the exposure of devil fruit since Dressrosa I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that its the first devil fruit ever to be created. That gives an interesting spin to the “discovery of fire” in the world of One Piece and especially why the mera mera no mi is called “the forbidden fruit”.
*Theory by Donal D. Trump
