u/BarNo2627

I don't think Devil fruits simply "respawn" in the closest available appropriate fruit.

My reasoning stems (pun intended) from two fruits in particular: Barto's Bari Bari no mi and Bon Clay's Mane Mane no Mi.

Both of these fruits were used by people living in Wano at the time of their death: Kurozumi Semimaru and Kurozumi Higurashi respectively. Since Wano was closed off and based off of the assumption that Kaido would keep them for his own crew, it's interesting that they ended up in the hands of and Bartolomeo and Bon Clay, both of whom are from the East Blue on the opposite side of the planet.

We don't know the Bari Bari no mi's appearance, but we do know that the Mane Mane no Mi is based off of two calabash fruits with connected stems. The calabash, also known as the bottle gourd, is a fruit that has been cultivated in Japan (the basis of Wano) for over 10,000 years. On top of that, we see bottle gourds frequently in Wano during that arc confirming that they also have a root (pun intended again) in Wano.

We've seen bottle gourds elsewhere in the One Piece world as well, so it isn't strictly limited to Wano. So, it is totally possible an appropriate fruit was available in the East Blue for Bon Clay to more easily find.

I think that the fact the Mane Mane no Mi in particular is such a staple within Wano and is one of the only fruits we know multiple users of is Oda strongly hinting there is much more to Devil fruit respawning that we generally assume, and outright confirming that it is not just the closest fruit available.

I think that there must be a more complex system surrounding devil fruit respawning than simply the "closest" fruit of appropriate species.

My actual theory as to how this happens is one of these three:

• it is under the purview of a "higher power"
• The fruits themselves choose where to re-enter the world

or my favorite:

• There is actually a devil fruit user that controls this process. A person in the world that has the ability to make them appear where they see fit. They're not omniscient but do try to effect change by putting fruits somewhere specific.

Let me know what you think. I don't have a concrete theory by any means, but I do find what I've noted about the Mane Mane no Mi in particular very interesting.

The older genearation of Pirates (including the original Yonko and a few others like Doflamingo, Gecko Moria, and Hody Jones) all had extremely large crews. There seems to be a pretty clear trend towards smaller crews. I'm curious if there's any good explanations for this. Might just be the newer crews haven't had enough time to grow, but I don't think that's a very good explanation.

However, newer pirate crews, especially the supernovas, have quite small crews. This isn't a particularly new phenomenon, it seems like crews have been getting smaller and smaller over time.

The Rocks Pirates were larger than the crews that grew out of it (Big Mom, White Beard, Kaido), and all of them were still larger than the next generation. That continued since Blackbeard has a smaller total than Whitebeard, although he's still got a larger crew than the rest of the Worst Generation.

The smallest crew of that generation would have to be Roger's, and it seems like all the crews that have followed are modeled after the philosophy of "less is more".

There's always been plenty of discourse about who the 11th Straw hat will be (>!Even though it's obviously been Zeus since Whole Cake Island but anyway!<). But really, the Straw hats would have had dozens of crewmates if they followed the older crew-size standards.

The Straw hats of course have a small crew because, in a meta way, it would be impossible to flesh out a larger cast. I'm not counting the Straw Hat grand fleet for this, since they're not really part of the proper crew, but they do push Luffy ahead of the likes of Law, Kidd or the other Supernovas.

Any thoughts on why this is? It's an interesting and noticeable trend, and I wonder if there's an in-universe reason opposed to a meta one.

Edit: I see that the Rocks Pirates have 17 members, but this is the named, confirmed members. I think that must not be the extent of the crew based off of how powerful Sengoku describes them as. During the God Valley incident, I don't think the full force (in terms of number) were present. I think it was just the heavy hitters. That said, I wouldn't say I'm confident saying they are larger than the White Beard pirates or Big Mom pirates at their peak. I am pretty sure, but not totally confident.

Also, I think the reason for smaller crews is because the number of crews has increased drastically over the years, which keeps their numbers smaller. I think that keeps numbers lower moreso than how long crews have been around.

Specifically for the Straw Hats, what are some of the most impressive feats that aren't strictly combat-related?

The ones that come to mind are:

• Chopper curing Queen's plagues twice, including the Ice Oni plague that he was infected with. That's a scientific accomplishment that makes Chopper one of the best in the whole world. Not only did he get enough antidote for everyone based on a small sample, but he designed a whole new virus from scratch to do so.
• Franky building & modifying the Sunny. Even before he studied in Vegapunk's lab, the Sunny was one of the most advanced ships we've seen. Technologically I think it's only rivaled by Bege's ship and Enel's. After the time skip, Franky has made some incredibly impressive tech.
• Usopp & Nami's Clima-tact. A really powerful piece of gear that Usopp was able to make using minimal knowledge of dial tech. The Sorcery Clima-tact is legitimately bonkers as well. Both Nami and Usopp have shown a level of technical mastery and creativity usually reserved for straight-up tech/science characters like Franky or Ceasar.
• Honorable mention: Nami's world map. We haven't gotten much of an update but Oda has confirmed she is working on it, so I look forward to that.

I'm of the opinion that a lot of incredible achievements get overlooked in favor of pure combat prowess. What are some other examples, just to appreciate the "support" characters of the Straw Hats?

He just has the Magnet Magnet fruit (Kidd actually had the metal metal fruit or something the whole time the world government just changed the name so nobody knew)

I've been thinking about his one for a long time and the more I think the more it makes sense. The fact that the planet has two circumferential rings perpendicular to each other stands out so much to me. I can't image they're unrelated. Making them connected in this way seems to resonate with me more than them having separate origins.

Essentially, I'm proposing that the One Piece Planet's crust in a ring around the equator was taken, rotated by 90 degrees, and then placed back down on top of the crust there.

There are obviously a lot of issues with this, but then again, a whole lot seems to get explained, at least in part. Just because I think they're so neat, here are the 3 Bonus pieces of evidence from the bottom of the image. I've also expanded them.

1. There would be a gap between the bottom of the Red Line and the new seafloor of the Red Line. The gap where Fish-Man Island exists under Red Line where it intersects Grand Line would be expected.

• BONUS An identical gap under the Red Line should exist under Reverse Mountain. Might something important be located there as well?

2. The World Government's symbol can be explained as a simplified, stylized depiction of this proposed process.
   • BONUS The top of the giant Red Line you made seems like a good place for your capital to me.
3. The massive chunk of the Planet taken out at the Equator would have a lot of consequences, namely:
   • Dramatically increased volcanic activity
     • High temperatures, even Boiling seas over hot spots
     • Extreme temperature gradients can cause intense currents
     • Exposed hot spots etc. could cause dramatic changes in climate that totally alter regional climates from what they should be.
   • Being closer to the planet's core and the liquid part of the mantle would cause erratic magnetic fields, making traditional compasses useless.
   • BONUS Gravity could be changed. Gravity isn't simply "down," it is a resultant vector of the integral of mass of the planet. For example, mountains pull you towards them and giant chunks taken out of the crust could skew it, exacerbating navigational issues.
     • Since water always settles perpendicular to the gravity vector, the seas might not even be even. "Up" and "down" could vary by several degrees without the observer noticing. This one is complicated, mind you. Don't get hung up on it.

The biggest issues I can't reconcile myself:

1. Calm belts. By my reasoning they should have more extreme currents, as water floods into the Grand Line to fill it.
2. This procedure should strictly lower sea levels.
3. How do Log poses work if all magnetic fields are disrupted?
4. Why is the Red Line so uniform in color?
5. Why would anyone do this? Are they stupid?

I put way too much effort into this, so I hope you enjoy! Also, this is my throwaway account. I'm actually a content creator, just for Geography and not One Piece. I kind of know what I'm talking about, at least when it comes to geography (Given the fact it's a fictional world that doesn't follow the laws of physics as we know them, in particular conservation of mass).

-GateNerd