Skypiea Foreshadowing Pays Off
The sea cloud that Somers knocked away with Nika’s MMA completely vanished, putting the marching children — who can’t stop — at risk of falling. This scene calls to mind the Skypiea arc, when Enel wiped out Angel Island with his very first lightning strike. ↓
And there are other keywords that connect back to Skypiea:
- Don-Dottotto
- The Sun God
- Divine Punishment (Tenbatsu)
All of these are straight Skypiea associations. Now we know that “the Sun God” means Luffy who became Nika — but at the time of the Skypiea arc, no one could have guessed that. And yet, looking back now, the foreshadowing was everywhere. Even this scene: ↓
The Sun God appeared in sync with the Liberation Drum’s rhythm — and the serpent Uwabami, who was referred to as “the Sun God,” laughed with a sound effect that reads “Nika~.”
The Sun God
Luffy, furious at Enel for calling himself a god while saving no one. And yet Luffy — who has never once thought of himself as a god — has gone on to save countless people.
Thinking about it that way, Oda was probably dying to reveal that Luffy was the Sun God while he was still writing the Skypiea arc. And the fact that he kept drawing Luffy and Uwabami together — that may be because it was already decided that Loki, who longs to be like the Sun God, would eventually be depicted alongside Nika as a serpent-type (Nidhogg) ability user.
Loki’s transformed form — that’s Nidhogg, isn’t it?
Cover Page Theory
The cover page request is “Roger taming a Tyrannosaurus like a puppy and walking it” — but the first thing that felt off was Roger’s outfit. “Wait, does Roger usually wear a T-shirt under his jacket with camo pants?” When something doesn’t feel right, you look it up immediately and back it up with evidence — that’s the minimum standard for running a theory blog.
Sure enough, Roger’s usual look is a bare chest with a plain shirt and plain trousers. ↓
So the outfit on the cover page is a Skypiea homage, matching this week’s chapter content. The cloud-patterned camo pants and T-shirt-under-jacket look matched Captain Mackingley of the White Beret soldiers.
And Roger taming a huge dinosaur is probably a visual reference to Luffy taming the giant dragon (Loki).
That’s all for today. See you next week.