One Piece: Everything Fans Need to Know About Dr. Vegapunk’s Latest Revelations

By this point in One Piece‘s Egghead Island story arc, Dr. Vegapunk has explained some shocking truths about the past and present alike, including the dire warning about the sinking world. However, this won’t be the first time the entire world has been submerged and consumed by the sea. As Dr. Vegapunk explained in his lengthy video message, the fledgling World Government used the Ancient Weapons to sink the world to win its war against the first Joy Boy, which led to some fascinating worldbuilding — or rather, world deconstruction.

The One Piece world itself is rife with mystery and compelling secrets, which have only gradually been revealed. Fans don’t yet know what awaits Luffy’s crew at Laugh Tale, for example, but they do now know that the world used to have continents. Secrets like that all tie into the Void Century, a time of war, the Great Kingdom, and the fall of freedom in the world. Thus, Dr. Vegapunk’s message helps fill in some missing pieces about One Piece‘s lore and creates new stakes for Monkey D. Luffy as the incarnation of Joy Boy.

The Fledgling World Government Drowned a Lost Civilization

In a Time Long Before The Straw Hats’ Adventures, The World Government Was Already A Destructive Force

For many years, One Piece fans wondered whether the world was always made up purely of islands, or whether there used to be proper continents that have since vanished. That led to a fan theory that continents indeed existed, but perhaps due to natural geological shifts, they vanished. Now, One Piece fans know for certain that not only did there used to be proper continents, those continents were destroyed on purpose.

A Deconstructed World

The world is a series of scattered islands by design, all because of the World Government’s actions centuries ago. As Dr. Vegapunk confirmed in recent One Piece manga chapters, there was an old world order with continents and a glorious Great Kingdom, the precursor to today’s World Government. Even now, very little is known of everyday life in the Great Kingdom, but it can be inferred that the people lived in a time of peace, prosperity, and happiness.

Then, during the events of the Void Century, the First Twenty got together and formed the brand-new World Government, a coalition of monarchs that rose to prominence and challenged the Great Kingdom. Only one of those entities could rule the world at the expense of the other, so a war broke out. One Piece has only revealed scant details about how that war went, but the basics are clear, at least. As Dr. Vegapunk explained, not only did the Great Kingdom fall, its actual world fell as well.

The fledgling World Government used the Ancient Weapons to raise the ocean’s levels by an incredible 200 meters, a watery apocalypse that quickly flooded the world’s continents out of existence. That finished off the Great Kingdom and erased any sign that it ever existed, leaving only the highest points of land as today’s islands. The remains of the Great Kingdom are now underwater, only seen by marine life.

The exact nature of the deadly Ancient Weapons is still a mystery for now, but at least Dr. Vegapunk’s message has confirmed what they are capable of and why they would be used in such a way. Through whatever means, those Ancient Weapons can flood the world to simply drown out any nation that would resist it. Destroying the land under a nation’s own feet is a sure way to win a war, and the Ancient Weapons are already being used in such a way in the present day.

That’s why the ocean’s levels have risen by one meter, as some One Piece characters noted, and the ocean may rise even more before the World Government has finished its brutal work. The mysteries of the Void Century are already being experienced firsthand, and no one ever wanted to learn the truth quite like this. The Void Century was a time of apocalyptic upheaval, and worst yet, the World Government is willing to do it more than once.

Changes In Civilization Are Becoming One Piece’s Strong Suit

This means the story of One Piece is using the “lost civilization” trope more than once, and this time, the lost civilization has huge plot implications not just for a single saga, but for the entire manga. Already, fans enjoyed the “lost civilization” trope with the Sky Island saga, a pseudo-isekai adventure that sent the Straw Hat crew to the clouds, where a whole civilization lived apart from the established world order, including the remains of Shandora. Modeled after real-life concepts like El Dorado, Shandora is all that remains of a millennium-old civilization that has all but fallen and has been forgotten in the annals of history.

Shandora not only provided the backdrop for Luffy’s battle against Enel, it also gave Nico Robin another poneglyph to work with, allowing her to fill in another piece of the puzzle relating to the poneglyphs and the ultimate mystery of what Gol D. Roger’s One Piece treasure is and where it might be found. However, Shandora is separate from the Great Kingdom that once existed, or at least, it seems that way. Shandora served its purpose in the story at one point — now the truth of the Great Kingdom’s fall in the Void Century is what matters most, and fans are sure to learn even more as the final saga continues.

Dr. Vegapunk Explained How Joy Boy Became a Symbol of Freedom

While It Was Known That Joy Boy Represented Expression, The Reasoning Wasn’t Explained Until Now

When Luffy transformed into Gear 5, he didn’t just power up to defeat Kaido. He also became a symbolic being known as Joy Boy, as well as the incarnation of Nika, the sun god of freedom. Not only does this embody Luffy’s own ideals of personal freedom, it also means Luffy is a symbol of freedom and hope for all opressed peoples. Luffy isn’t just Joy Boy — he is the new Joy Boy, meaning he has inherited someone else’s mantle and must continue the fight that the first Joy Boy fought.

Pirates Possess an Innate Sense of Freedom

One Piece fans don’t yet know who exactly the original Joy Boy was, but they do know that Joy Boy was the first-ever pirate, as Dr. Vegapunk recently explained in his video message. Thus, the entire concept of pirates was born from a desire for freedom, something that’s reflected in all of the strongest pirate crews. That’s what sets them apart from the Navy fleet.

Unfortunately, the original Joy Boy failed in his mission, even with an entire army on his side fighting for the people’s liberation, and thus Joy Boy was forgotten by the world, the Great Kingdom was flooded, and the World Government declared all research into the Void Century illegal to cover all this up. However, scraps of this incredible true story still linger in the world, such as Zunesha the living island knowing about Joy Boy and awaiting his return, not to mention Bartholomew Kuma knowing about Nika and the concept of Joy Boy.

For centuries, the world has existed under the World Government’s tyrannical thumb, and the people have never known anything else. No one is waiting for Joy Boy to arrive and restore their freedom and overthrow the current world order, but that may soon change. Joy Boy already fought for the world’s freedom as the first-ever pirate, and he’s about to do it again.

Luffy Doesn’t Have to Change to Fulfill His Destiny

Thus, Luffy is fighting not just for his own desire for personal freedom, but also to continue a legacy that, until recently, he didn’t realize he had inherited. This is a big responsibility, and it’s well known that Luffy doesn’t like being told what to do, nor is he a serious believer in fate or destiny. He’s not the type to be in awe of a centuries-old legacy and a prophecy of a great hero’s return, but that’s still the situation he faces today.

By eating the Gum-Gum Fruit (which is really the Human-Human Fruit’s Nika model), Luffy inherited Joy Boy’s Void Century battle with the power of Nika the sun god, and the Drums of Liberation are already sounding. Now, it’s up to Luffy to reconcile his personal independence with his destiny to finish the fight that the original Joy Boy started. That creates entirely new stakes separate from Luffy’s original desires to savor his freedom, find the One Piece, and protect his crew.

Fortunately, it may not be too difficult for Luffy to embrace his inherited destiny and reconcile it with his own desires and adventures. Conveniently for Luffy, the truth of Joy Boy’s Void Century battle is already similar to what Luffy is already doing: freeing oppressed people by force and defying the World Government all the while. Luffy may not be a fan of prophecies and destiny, but if he was already Joy Boy at heart, then he can finish the original Joy Boy’s battle on his own terms, find the One Piece treasure, and become the pirate king in a free world of his own making. So long as no one tries to order him around as the child of destiny, that is.