A Tangible Censorship Of The World

        A lot of the clues to the infrastructure of the One Piece world lie in the details we see in reality that aren’t transferred to the story. Though it is a fictional story, it draws a lot of inspiration from modern day reality and the truth of our society that mainstream media screens. Ever since Oda presented the impossible notion of a human and giant conceiving a child, I began considering something that, as a father, I would never question. Probably especially so for mothers; that children are a product of sexual intercourse. It’s exactly why we, the audience, imagined Gaban having sex with Ripley. Why do I bring this up? Because what other elements serve as preceptors to understanding that a child being born is inevitable? Pregnancy is a body morphing process that expands the belly, making it an obvious sign of an incoming newborn. Having mentioned that, have we ever seen a pregnant character in One Piece? Today, I'm going to argue that these reproductive elements are only suggested throughout the story. Most likely to hide one of the greatest mysteries of One Piece; IMU rules the world by having a Monopoly on child-birth. To be more specific, IMU has censored the world.

        In Shonen anime/manga, us fans are so very used to antagonists trying to rule the world or have already succeeded. Usually, these antagonists are strong enough to face the world single-handedly. But as we mature, we notice that there are other methods utilized to be at the top of the world. Like money for instance; which is referred to as “Belli” in One Piece coincidentally.

The hoarding of currency and/or resources gives countries an advantage over others. I lead with the concept of ulterior methods for ruling the world to support my hypothesis. Ask yourselves and answer this question; is a “monopoly on child-birth” a viable method in “ruling the world”. If the method isn’t practical, then by all means, disregard my theory altogether, because it wouldn’t hold any grounds. Just to clarify, a Monopoly in a market is being the one and only source of a resource. Imagine if someone was the one and only source of a primordial element like fire. They would essentially be “god-like”. We use fire everyday, even utilizing combustion in our car engines whether it’s for convenience or necessity. Just remember that a country is nothing without its people and it seems like IMU controls the tap on new life. 

        I’m thinking Oda used “Belli” to describe currency in his story to explain the concepts behind inflation. Belli is a golden currency that looks like treasure, loot, and/or booty. Gold grants value to the dollar and other currencies in reality. The symbolism of hoarding currency describes greed and gluttony. Like my article “Gunko Parts Z” suggests about Gunko, or should I say IMU’s characteristics. Visually, we can picture a despot with a fat belly. Though York is the perfect example of a glutton that can maintain slender form.

Even a slender woman’s form will morph due to the natural process of pregnancy. So you could say womanhood has a monopoly on child-birth. Though it takes two, a male’s part in it begins and ends at conceiving, biologically speaking. Keep in mind, Gunko and Shamrock arrived in a “pair” as well as wearing “hoods”. This frame is Oda intentionally lodging taboo topics into the forefront of modern conversation. Like manhood speaking on their place in child rearing. In this day and age, it’s a non-starter, and even our brethren participate in the smothering of this minority's voice. More focused on being the chivalrous white knight to see the long term detriment of such actions. 

        How does it look like to rule the world by monopolizing childbirth? Allow me to elaborate. Let’s start with the one clear fact that even if you can afford an item, a merchant isn’t obligated to sell it to you. So what happens to a country that can’t attain a newborn for 100 years? They die out considering their lifespan is that of an average human in reality. And even if they don’t, their youth will be long gone. Now if you can afford it, what’s stopping this merchant from raising the price? How much of your country's workforce & resources must be diverted to this necessary resource? It forces you to work your people overtime to make ends meet. You as the ruler become the face of the people’s anguish. IMU is too high for anyone to notice its part in that anguish. Let’s say the country turns to war to sever IMU’s hold on new life. A war against such a powerful merchant would leave your country depleted of warriors, with no opportunity to replenish the ranks. A pointless, senseless endeavor. This is the reality of leverage. 

        While the hold on child-birth is an egregious dilemma, I’m not sure if that’s the only element of reality IMU controls. My hypothesis is that IMU controls life through sex censorship, and death through fatal censorship. Ever since it was revealed that Jaguar D. Saul survived his encounter with Aokiji, the community were distraught with the fact that there’s no finality in death scenes. I believe Oda expected for us to react this way. It encouraged us to question other deaths in the story. The prior most death was that of Orochi and his decapitation.

It was the most fatal scene the story has produced, and yet, we can all imagine how someone with a mythical Zoan fruit could survive such a scene. Especially Naruto fans and their experience with Orochimaru and his tenacity. This is just to prove that “death is elusive” in One Piece. 

        The Paramount War Arc featured the worldwide public execution of Portgas D. Ace as well as the “death cries” of marines and pirates alike. You can even add Ace’s final monologue to the evidence locker; His tone and dialogue acknowledged his dying moment. The key to solidifying this theory of death’s censorship will be understanding the stipulations for Real Death (Borrowing a term from the show Altered Carbon). We understood Ace’s execution to be propaganda for the World Government, but there’s a lot of mystery shrouding that. These Marines most likely received orders from the “boys upstairs” and executed them without question, being as though Ace was already an infamous pirate. 

        Despite Ace’s execution, the fighting continued. Coby wandered the battlefield wincing at the pain surrounding him. It seems his observation haki focuses on empathy, because he eventually broke and called an end to the fighting shouting, “We’re throwing lives away!” As he uttered those words, his face warped to look like a kumadori expression of pain.

Kabuki is a historical Japanese style of stage play, and kumadori refers to the makeup actors wear to perform their roles. Coby responded to what we in the community may describe as “off-screen death” which is normally heavily implied. While the death of Ace was witnessed by the world, making it more of a finale to his story arc on the world’s newsfeed. Narrowing down the speculation to the act of witnessing as well as government facilitation; Such as the executioner’s scaffold. 

        How do you defeat a system that has life and death in a vice grip? For life, you can go to war to sever their hold on the resource. This would be the first instinctual choice one can make. It’s the choice history has demonstrated many times over. What if there’s a way to settle this matter amicably? Much like going from a democracy to a monarchy with a smooth, non-violent transition or vice-versa. There’s no one true answer for this. The amicable option is normally wishful thinking, because when faced with a new problem, typically, there aren’t any solutions readily available. And time is usually of the essence. Except for the blunt answers that history has proved to have an acceptable loss. There’s another method to solving the child-birth crisis, but I believe IMU is actively deterring it. Simply add a new method to attain new life in the market, and compete with IMU’s industrial system. If IMU was open to such commerce, it would lose its hold on the market and its customers; the citizens of the One Piece world. Directly contradicting IMU’s original intention of hoarding life. Without death, we cannot have renewed life; Otherwise, Earth’s population would be made up of the original souls of humanity when we reached max capacity. Oda has the opportunity to show us what he believes to be a well thought out solution, but along the way, the audience will witness the stories that fall through the cracks. Ultimately, I believe he’s suggesting that “Death IS change” and without it, we’d lose our humanity. Feel free to challenge me anytime on these hypotheses. 

Until next time, stay tuned DonQuix fleet.

P.S. Suds for Subs.