With the reveal in Chaptert 1043, we’ve all been seeing a lot of discussions regarding how Luffy being Joy Boy will work. Is he a descendent? is it reincarnation? Did Joy Boy have the same fruit and his spirit resides within the fruit and is sharing Luffy’s body? Etc. etc.
But one discussion I haven’t seen much of is how this affects different groups and different characters. It’s not terribly relevant here, but I’m on the side of “Joy Boy” essentially being a title, as we see implied in Chapter 649:
I think there is enough information to support that we may be getting more than one new Straw Hat at the end of Wano. Given the information above, information from Oden..
…and given the general consensus of the community, it would appear that the one who inherits Joy Boy’s will, is indeed the one that will bring the Dawn to the World. There are also theories that Joy Boy and Nika are the same person, or perhaps Joy Boy inherited the role or will of Nika himself, and now that’s being passed on to Luffy. Nika was a figure who freed slaves, who freed people from their suffering, an attribute we’ve seen from Luffy since the East Blue.
So far we can assume that only two people know that Luffy is Joy Boy, Zunesha and Momonosuke. Yamato is sure to learn of this directly from Momonosuke, perhaps in the next one or two chapters. We already know Yamato wants to leave Wano with Luffy (she’s said it like 9 times). She already has some knowledge of the Dawn, and while her immediate goal is to free the people of Wano and open its borders..
..she also wants to ensure that Momonosuke will be free to lead the world to the Dawn.
So we can comfortably assume that everything is strongly supporting Yamato joining, more now than we’ve had so far to be certain.
Next of course we have Carrot. As we know, the Minks have a centuries long history with the Kozuki family.
So the Minks don’t just have a connection to Wano because of Oden, they have a history coming from long before he was even born. Later we learn from Pedro’s conversation with Carrot that he believes it is extremely important that Luffy is able to achieve his goal.
We also learn from Pedro that he suspects Luffy is the one that the Minks and Kozuki have been waiting for.
So what’s going to happen when the Minks not only see Zunesha arrive at Wano, but also get confirmation from her through Momonosuke that Luffy is Joy Boy? I think most people assumed the Minks would maintain some level of importance in the remainder of the story, but will this revelation cause them to be more directly involved than initially expected?
There are some theories that the Minks were a part of the Ancient Kingdom, so maybe the Dawn is some form of freedom of suppression for them? We don’t yet know, but coincidentally, Nekomamushi, Wanda, and Carrot are all heading back inside the skull dome after a bit of an absence from the story (well, just a few minutes in universe of course). If Luffy being Joy Boy gets revealed to a larger group of people, I think we can expect a tiny bit of an info dump from Nekomamushi, about what the Dawn means. Will this information further push Carrot towards joining Luffy to do her part in making sure he brings the Dawn, fulfilling not just the Inherited Will from Pedro, but from the Minks as a whole? And let’s be honest, if any Mink is joining the Straw Hats, it’s Carrot.
Most discussions tend to weigh the pros and cons of one over the other, and there’s certainly discussions to be had, but as of right now, I believe the newest revelation increases the likelihood of both characters joining the Straw Hats. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I can’t help but see this chapter being a major stepping stone for both characters.
*by Strawhat_Carrot
