Next we move into Tonjit’s house and he explains another phenomenon of the island. There is a tide that sinks part of the island, creating 10 smaller individual islands.
Looking at the island it looks like someone could have stretched the island into a ring, making it “infinite” so to speak. Imagine it as a piece of dough, that you form into a doughnut by making it first into a long sausage and then connecting the ends. Also, these bumps that form the individual islands look like they have been pulled out of the ground.
From above (like shown here) it also looks like the sun. Similarly, it also rises and sinks like the sun because of the tide.
If Joy Boy was huge or a giant, he could have easily made those bumps by simply pulling on pars of the island like here.
The most interesting thing comes now, when we see Usopp and Luffy reacting to this explanation.
Tonjit is explaining the mechanics behind the tide and what it means. Usopp notices that this caused him to be left behind because the nomads moved to the next island. Luffy however, is just LAUGHING hysterically. There is no joke here, no witty comment by Chopper or Usopp, no visual gag or strange delivery by Tonjit. Luffy is just laughing at it, basically taking it as a big joke. He loved the prairie of the island and he thinks the tide is funny and adventurous. This could be another wink to Nika as laughter and smiles are heavily connected to Nika and the fruit. In the recent chapter we also see Luffy laughing. So is Luffy here laughing at a joke (the island itself) that was made by Nika?
Tonjit goes on and Luffy asks why he cannot just move on as well. Once he hears Tonjit’s answer we get another interesting reaction from Luffy.
Luffy who was laughing before seems to realize that it is not funny to Tonjit. He seems to realize that the tide is not an adventure for him and rather an obstacle than freedom. Luffy goes on to say that 20 years of wating would be lonely.
Here another theory can be applied. If the One Piece turns out to be something that connects the world so that people of all races and cultures can party in peace, then Long Ring Long Land could be a microcosm for that idea. It has many small islands that are naturally separated, similar to the islands of the One Piece world. Most people won´t ever leave the island they were born on. Only a few have the ressources and the guts to venture out into the dangerous sea but not everyone can do that, so it is lonely. Therefore the connection of islands might the goal. Since here, a ring is connecting the islands of Long Ring Long Land, the Red Line could be stretched and formed by Luffy so that it connects all islands of the world. Not only could people freely travel by ship, they could also walk to the next island or build train tracks. It could be like a highway in the form of a ring, with connecting paths to all the islands. So a party is just a few hours of walk away!
So in conclusion: Nika/JoyBoy was the reason for the condition of Long Ring Long Land. It embodies the theme of freedom and it is resonating with Luffy to a great degree, since he inherited traits from Nika. Furthermore, it functions as a parallel for the One Piece world, where freedom and connection between people are overarching themes.
*Theory by Strawberry_Milk_God
