One question that definitely needs to be answered eventually is why Laugh Tale is so hard to find. It can’t just be something stupid like dangerous seas or an underwater city, because then Fishmen could easily find it, or someone coating their ship could easily find it.
Since the official romanization of Raftel was revealed to be “Laugh Tale”, we immediately notice that the last line of Binks’ Sake 果てなし あてなし 笑い話 roughly translates to ‘Endless Address Laughing Story’. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that “Laughing Story” (Laugh Tale) is the last word in Binks’ Sake.
I believe Binks’ Sake was written by Joy Boy, the first pirate, giving clues to find Laugh Tale and bring about the Dawn. If true, then the official English translation suggests that Laugh Tale is a wandering island like Zou: “Never-Ending, Ever-wandering, Our funny Traveling tale!”.
The song describes leaving Laugh Tale for the final time: 金波銀波も しぶきにかえて “Gold wave and silver wave are also changed to splash”. Sunrise and sunset cause gold waves, and this may be required to enter/leave Laugh Tale. Binks’ Sake also contains the following: 明日も月夜 which translates to “tomorrow is moonlit night”. I believe that these are clues telling us that Laugh Tale is only accessible during sunrise or sunset (golden seas) while there is a full moon (silver seas).
Therefore Laugh Tale may be otherwise inaccessible (wandering? invisible? ephemeral? hidden entrance to Reverse Mountain?), except at the Road Poneglyph ‘X marks the spot’ once each month during a sunset and full moon, when the waves are Gold and Silver. That’s only 24 minutes each month (length of Nautical Dusk). That would truly make Laugh Tale difficult to reach by random chance, especially if the seas around it are already dangerous with poor visibility.
*Theory by Alpha_ii_Omega
