Strength is perhaps the most basic and necessary component for anyone to survive on the treacherous seas. For all the strange, hilarious, or over-the-top character designs that exist within One Piece, the most influential characters in the entire series are always the strongest ones, regardless of how they look, whether they’re the Emperors of the Sea or the highest-ranking Marines of the World Government.

However, despite this common trend of the strongest characters typically having an equally important status, one character stands out. Buggy the Clown was introduced very early in One Piece and has since proven himself to be a hilarious but incredibly weak character. Despite this, he has somehow managed to become one of the 4 Emperors of the Sea and while most fans consider this to merely be a stroke of circumstance or a funny gag, there’s a theory that may hold the secret to how this may have happened!

Buggy’s Rise To Power

How Buggy went from a low-class pirate to a Yonko

First Appearance: One Piece, Episode 4, “Luffy’s Past! The Red-Haired Shanks Appears!”

Debut Date: December 8, 1999

Story Arc: East Blue Saga

Buggy was the first pirate Luffy and his bare-bones crew ever fought on the sea. At the very start of the story, Buggy is a small-time pirate who held Orange Town captive when Luffy, Zoro, and Nami eventually defeated him, leaving him to a hilarious fate where he would walk around as nothing more than a head, hands, and feet. This gag continued for quite a while in the story.

Eventually, after his alliance with Alvida was crushed at Loguetown, Buggy was taken to Impel Down where he spent a substantial amount of time. However, during Luffy’s break-in, he eventually found his way out of the prison along with the heroes and a whole host of pirates who were incredibly loyal to him after seeing him get incredibly lucky during the escape. These pirates would then devote themselves to Buggy completely.

From here, Buggy’s whereabouts were kept quiet until far later on when he was revealed to be one of the new 7 Warlords of the Sea during the timeskip to fill in one of the vacant positions. This took every fan of the series by surprise, as he was somehow able to use his newfound influence and crew to garner a substantial amount of power, enough to become a Shichibukai!

It only gets better from here, since Buggy’s antics once more went quiet until the end of the Wano arc. After Crocodile had escaped Impel Down, he eventually partnered up with Dracule Mihawk and formed the Cross Guild; a super organization that sought to counter the World Government by placing bounties on the various Marines in its ranks.

I know that miracles don’t come too often!

Since the Cross Guild became a massive organization and a huge threat to the World Government, Crocodile and Mihawk had the brilliant idea of making Buggy the figurehead to keep the heat off of themselves and fully directed at him. Spurred on by this and the unquenching loyalty of his ever-growing fleet, Buggy was eventually appointed one of the 4 New Emperors of the Sea along with Luffy, Shanks, and Blackbeard, despite not even wanting to!

There Might Be More To Buggy’s Luck

A theory about how Buggy has grown in power

Buggy’s unprecedented luck has been one of the most beloved gags and memes in the entire One Piece community, but there’s a theory that states that he may have eaten an incredibly overpowered Devil Fruit! His fruit is the Bara Bara no Mi, which lets him split his body into many parts. While it may initially seem to be an extremely situational fruit, it has quite a few perks, such as the ability to let Buggy fly as well as making him impervious to slashing attacks and all swords.

However, the theory states that this fruit is actually a ‘Luck-Luck’ fruit that essentially manipulates all reality around Buggy, allowing him to always succeed at everything he does! While this does seem like a stretch at first, one should remember that this is something that Oda has done before with Luffy, as people only knew the Gomu Gomu no Mi to be a Devil Fruit that allowed Luffy to stretch parts of his body for over 1000 chapters.

Why would the World Government bother to give that one specific Devil Fruit another name?!

However, it was eventually revealed that this was just a cover-up for its true identity; the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika. Keeping this in mind, it isn’t too hard to imagine that this is also what may have happened with the Bara Bara no Mi, as it was essentially covered up as a random fruit that allowed Buggy to slice his body while, in all actuality, it was such a broken Devil Fruit that it shaped the entire world to make Buggy succeed.

Thematically, this does make sense as the only other fruit that had been hidden was also one that affected the body in silly ways. Some proponents of this theory believe that it is either a Paramecia Fruit that gives Buggy incredible luck, while others believe it may be yet another Mythical Zoan Fruit with hidden properties that will be fully realized once Buggy awakens its powers.

You’re going to be Pirate king? Then, I am God!

During the Noland flashback in Skypiea, Kalgara offers up his daughter as a sacrifice to the gods of the Shandorans. During this scene, there are mentions of four different gods; the God of the Sun, the God of the Rain, the God of the Forest, and the God of the Earth. Since the Sun God is confirmed to exist through a Paramecia Devil Fruit, many believe that Buggy’s Bara Bara no Mi holds the realization of another one of these godlike figures!