I think it’s the main Vegapunk/Stella. The “traitor” ripping cameras out the ceiling of the Labosphere in Egghead:
The close-together beady eyes. The flatted-out head. Maybe the apple-antenna? Hair doesn’t look as spiky. But maybe Oda did that to make the silhouette look somewhat ambiguous?
If it is Vegapunk #1 running this sabotage mission, the question is why?
Dude just asked for the Straw Hats to help save him from getting assassinated. Why would he make things more difficult for them?
I have a bit of a convoluted theory in mind. But before I get into what that is, I think I should touch on the diamonds that were shown in Chapter 1075.
The Value of Diamonds
YouTuber, Sawyer7Mage, made an interesting point regarding these diamonds being made by Vegapunk. That, if Vegapunk is so worried about funding for his research, why doesn’t he sell off these diamonds to get the money he needs?
At first, I thought**, ‘PLOT HOLE’**. Haha…
But then, I thought, ‘Maybe synthetic diamonds aren’t as valuable diamonds found in nature?’
However, in the One Piece world, which is generally way less advanced than the real-world, who would be able to tell the difference? The average person may not even know diamonds can be mass-produced.
THEN, that got me thinking again, that in the real-world, the diamond-industry is one of the shadiest industries…ever. Where man-made diamonds are easy to mass produce. They don’t need to be mined out of caves by exploiting the poorest people in Africa. BUT the monopoly in charge, the De Beers Group, has such a rigid control over how diamonds are produced and distributed, they can slap whatever price they want on every single diamond.
Have you ever been shopping around for an engagement ring, and have someone shame you into spending “X” amount of money to prove to your fiancée that you really love them?
De Beers’ marketing campaign on diamonds was so massively successful that it has transcended into popular culture. Where there is even a James Bond film named after their most iconic tagline of:
SO THEN, that got me thinking YET again, to One Piece’s Bond Villain:
That’s right, my main guy, Sir Crocodile.
For those who are my familiar with my work on this subreddit, call me an agenda-pusher all you want. But Shanks and Blackbeard each have their dedicated legion of hype-men. Often, I feel like I’m the only one riding the Cross Guild hype-train. Hell, I’m probably the only one willing to conduct the train.
But hey…I’ll take the job with pleasure. So, hop right in and enjoy! 😊
Besides, the environment surrounding the Laboshere is strangely reminiscent of Alabasta:
Those palm trees and pyramids…I sense a foreshadowing going on.
I’m thinking Vegapunk might’ve struck a backroom deal with Crocodile while the guy was a Warlord. Possibly, to sell a few of the diamonds that he made in his lab on the Black Market. To make a little extra cash on the side.
However, Vegapunk is not a black-market broker. He’s a scientist. A scientist who is so busy conducting his research that he had to split himself into 7 parts. And I doubt he or his 6 Satellites know the first thing about brokering anything on the Black Market.
But Crocodile might.
I am almost positive there is a connection between Vegapunk and Crocodile. Oda gave us the clue with Lassoo, the dog-gun:
I’d say there is a 99.6% chance that Lassoo was something whipped up by Vegapunk/the SSG. But the question that has been looming since the Alabasta Arc is ‘How did Baroque Works (i.e., Crocodile) come to acquire him?’.
We may finally get an answer before the Egghead Island Arc wraps up.
Another subtle clue Oda may’ve dropped was in the last chapter of the Alabasta Arc. In Chapter 218, Robin wins Nami’s favor by gifting her a bag of gems she had gotten from Crocodile:
Could these gems have been created on Egghead? I’m now seriously considering that they were. And Nami damn near took off with a backpack full of Egghead gems:
Edison says these diamonds are only for industrial purposes. Which could very well be their intended purpose.
But maybe Vegapunk was hoping to earn some extra cash on the side? So that way, the World Government wouldn’t be his sole source of funding. What are a few missing diamonds out of thousands?
Besides, in order to fetch the highest price per gem, he wouldn’t want to overflood the market with them anyways. Only a few.
Why Crocodile Makes Sense
I’ve heard/read a couple of theories suspecting that Blackbeard is looking capture Vegapunk. With his crew essentially being devil-fruit hunters, Vegapunk’s research into devil fruits would be most valuable to them. However, I think Blackbeard is a bit too old school of a pirate to really capitalize on Vegapunk’s genius.
As for Crocodile, he really is one hell of a Bond Villain. When he felt that he couldn’t conquer the world on sheer might alone, he went for the ancient weapon, Pluton. In the Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, Blofeld, the main bad guy of the film and a possible inspiration for Crocodile, had a plan to create a satellite laser.
Or a ‘Death Ray’, if you will.
In Chapter 1060, it seems the World Government may already be in possession of something like a Death Ray. Could be Uranus? We’re not sure yet.
Either way, Crocodile’s end-goal is likely to amass power that would surpass that of the World Government’s. This was pretty much the goal he had described in Alabasta in Chapter 193:
But since he failed in his plot to acquire Pluton, the next best thing he could do is kidnap the guy whose been developing the latest weaponry for the Marines. Futuristic tech that no one else has access to.
If Crocodile already has a prior connection to Vegapunk, possibly through illicit diamond sales, he may’ve already devised a plot on how to kidnap him. And it may finally be playing out now.
But just how exactly?
Well…
Caribou?
YouTuber, Randy Troy, has an interesting theory speculating that Caribou was formerly a member of Baroque Works as Mr. 10.
Caribou has been MIA for several chapters now. And I can totally see him being the one sabotaging the Labosphere. Pissed with how the Straw Hats kicked him off to the curb. However, Caribou never expected for the Straw Hats to dock on a government island. Much less Egghead Island.
Maybe he found a den den mushi somewhere, hoping to catch a ride? But instead, he was given an order to sabotage the island as much as possible. Huge stretch. But I think it could’ve happened.
He then snatched up Stella-Vegapunk while he was in his baby-form, forced him to point out the location of every camera, and then threw him in a holding cell while the rest of the Labo-Sabotage/Vegapunk-Kidnap plan unfolds.
However, if Caribou is now working under orders from the Cross Guild, I doubt he’s working alone. Because his landing on Egghead was an unexpected surprise.
So, who could he be working with?
