The Gray area of Void Century: Ambition vs Freedom vs Order! A coalition of nations united to stop a SuperWarlord and a revolutionary whose solution might destroy civilization itself!
This is a basic synthesis of what I theorize the void was about based on numerous context clues, inadvertent admissions, story statements, etc. (& headcanon). imo these are the general story beats when the void century is revealed.
Remember, 1 of the most important hints about it all comes from Vegapunk:
The void century itself, the cause of it all and those involved, the result, etc. was morally ambiguous.
Since the world’s smartest man is unsure, it stands to reason that each side had favorable and negative attributes and someone present day could argue for either side.There was no obvious good guys vs bad guys.
Then we have the stated reason of why the empty throne exists:
>”AN OATH THAT THE KINGS OF THE VARIOUS COUNTRIES ARE EQUIAL, AND THAT NONE MUST HARBOR THE GREED TO RULE THEM ALL, THE GREED OF DICTATORSHIP.”
From this we can use basic process of elimination and statements. Emeth told us he failed to make Joyboy King,so the reason for the pact is not JB. Imu took the throne in total secret and his style is covert and sneaky, so a greedy bold n brash dictator ain’t Imu style.
So who was this ”King”?
We’re told by Rocks Davy was “King of the World”, but Imu immediately snapped back and said Rocks was no king. Yet Imu, a royal himself, had no reason to lie to the man he was about to kill. I’m thinking Davy Jones started amassing power the same way Rocks and Blackbeard got their crew. Survival of the fittest type stuff.
Remember the Davy back fights
and impel down free for all death match?
I think the mix of the two is how Davy became “king of the world”, by doing Davy Back Fights on a mass scale with kingdoms and territories instead of crewmates and got so powerful that he did become defacto king of the world but not in the regal royal sense like Nerona Imu of the Nerona kingdom.
This conclusion reconciles these 2 POVs of Rocks and Imu.
I really think Davy is literally why the 20 kingdoms got together and made the empty throne pact, to make sure there would never be another Davy Jones situation.
But Imu broke that pact and instead made one with the sea devil or something. Imu vs Joyboy deserves its own post but in general, it goes like this.
main players are
Davy D. Jones:
Charismatic, hotblooded conqueror (more like Kid than Blackbeard). Ambitious fighter who rose through raw power and survival of the fittest tactics.
Loved by Lili before his mad power grab, hated by Imu for being the one Lili loved. First King of the World AND…the first ever Domi Reversi victim, damned to perpetually drown and revive in the sea thanks to the immortality of the curse.
Nefertari D. Lili:
Rain Goddess incarnation, one of the 20 kings/queens.
Principled and independent. Fell in love with Davy (Rocks has blue and white hair, this is hint of their DavyLili Union even after 800 years This is also highkey continues the General manga/anime trope of Dual-hair coloring to indicate mixed special linage / fusion.
Friend to both Joy Boy and young Imu. Ultimately chose her own path and defied the final order. Later went on to found Amazon Lily (Vivi is a descendent of Lili’s brother because we know in canon she never returned to alabasta since her brother ruled in her stead.)
Joy Boy: Carefree liberator and Sun God successor. First ever Pirate. Idealistic visionary with immense power but poor at politics/governance just like Luffy. Close to Lili. Radical plans to break the Red Line for true unity caused massive pushback among the ancient kingdoms. No need for Imu to use dark magic here to sway everyone against him, and Joyboy himself knew he was politically cooked before any real battles began (hence why he made all this preparations and trusted his friends to make preparations for the future.)
Nerona Imu:
Skilled politician and royal from one of the 20 families. Self righteous loner but calculating and bound by duty (Think of a personality fusion of Mihawk and Koby.) His strong gradual envy of Joyboy’s freedom and Davy Jones power laid the foundations for his later access to Maki, with the deal with the sea devil sealing the deal. (Imu inadvertently told us his own backstory when he explained how Maki/Omen works.) Unrequited love for Lili. Mastermind who used politics first, then later SeaDevil power to match Joyboy and Davy Jones. Knew his former friend’s dream of destroying the redline to unite the world might cost millions of lives due to the collateral fallout of destroying such a thing, so he chose to stop Joyboy by necessary! (Same difference of how Koby swore to stop his friend Luffy due to unintended side effects of Luffy striving for his dream.) Imu became the immortal hidden King of the World by breaking the Empty Throne pact (aka no Davy Jones 2.0 Pact) and is now Trapped in an 800 year sunk-cost fallacy Void [Mu] of Joy [Boy]. The duty bound royal became the same thing he wanted to stop, power hungry and trying to make his own world by any means necessary!
The 20 Kingdoms:
Alliance of monarchs. Swayed by Imu’s rhetoric. Lili was the major dissenter. Some survive to this day on different spectrums of their ancestors decisions. No clean cut good or bad guys faction, just a collection of people doing what they thought was best.
There are other characters too but this is general stuff imo. Feel free to ask any questions or add corrections because it’s a lotta stuff synthesized from my pov of one piece storytelling!