So...Interesting implications here.
Zunisha refers to Luffy awakening the Nika Fruit as "Joy Boy" himself. Gorosei says that Zoan fruits have will of their own.
So....the idea that the Ancient Kingdom could be the birthplace of the DF's gets a lot of ground. What if Joy Boy was the legit entity known as Nika? And his will was somehow preserved on a Devil Fruit.
How does that implicate the other fruits?
We know that Vegapunk and Judge discovered basically the DNA and how to manipulate it. He managed to copy Kaido's dragon fruit using his blood, he can replicate even intangible powers like Kizaru's lasers, etc.
How does it all connect?
@Ghostly Reflections I'm gonna be honest and say that I don't like changing Luffy's fruit. An underdog fruit now is actually a broken mythical one. But I'm actually quite interested in seeing where it leads.
But, to be fair, I was heavily invested in seeing Vegapunk and his impact in the story for far too long, so it just adds to that.
Hopefully it can lead to some interesting things about Sanji as well. But I'm not gonna hold on to this too much.