I have noticed that based on the last two chapters, most people have already made up their minds and decided that both the Gomu Gomu No Mi and the Sun God Nika reveals ruins the story and go against the ideas of the One Piece narrative. So with this post, I would like to remind people to relax and attempt to explain why both of these reveal tell us nothing about Luffy’s destiny or the nature of destiny and fate in general.
First, I would like to address the nature of prophecies in One Piece. I think most people are used to the conventional ideas of destiny and fate and they apply this thinking to the story. I also think that some people are very scared of these ideas because we have seen them ruin other stories (Naruto PTSD) so they are very skeptical when they are mentioned in One Piece. However, we need to consider this: where did these prophecies originate from? In my opinion, the prophecy concerning the Dawn of the World was created roughly as follows.
The first Joy Boy was someone who was loved by many people and he fought hard to oppose a tyrannical force (the World Government). His actions inspired other people to inherit his will and his desire to free this world from darkness. He was not successful in this, but he declared that similarly to Dr. Hiriluk, he was not going to die because other people have believed in his dream and one day someone will be in the position to finally make this dream a reality. People have carried his will since the fall of the Ancient Kingdom but because of the World Government’s efforts to erase this history, the origin of the dream has been forgotten.
What remains, is a deep desire from the people to see the world free once again. Their desire is so strong that they are absolutely sure that it is going to happen so Joy Boy’s words, after centuries of forgotten history have turned into prophecy. Over the centuries, this “prophecy” has taken many interpretations across different cultures, such as the legend of Nika, the Sun God.
The whole idea of someone’s declaration of will turning into prophecy should not be very surprising, since we are already witnessing something similar right now. Specifically, the Straw Hat Crew has prophecized again and again that Luffy is going to become the Pirate King. Their sole basis for that prophecy is the sheer will of Luffy to make that dream happen, just like people believed that Joy Boy’s dream will come true. No higher power, no magic. Just pure will.
This brings me to my second point. People believe that if Luffy is destined to be the one to bring the Dawn, then his actions don’t really matter and his will does not really exist. I believe that my previous paragraph shows that a fixed destiny does not necessarily exist in One Piece. Rather, it is the actions and the beliefs of people that put dreams and ideas on the path to become reality. This is also important because Luffy is not bringing the Dawn by himself. A lot of people had to put their lives on the line and tested their wills in order to bring Luffy to the position to be able to bring the Dawn. The most obvious example is Shanks, sacrificing his arm to inspire him.
