To call One Piece merely a "Pirate Manga" would do it a huge disservice; whenever Oda writes an arc, there is always a mixing and mashing of an assortment of genres. Whole Cake Island is a mix of Alice in Wonderland and Super Sentai, Impel Down is a mix of Dante's Inferno and Prison Break genre, and so far Elbaf has been no different. Elbaf has an obvious Norse mythology inspiration (you can read all about it here), with things like Muginn (Huginn and Muninn), Hyllmungandr (Jörmungandr), and now Loki. However, what makes this arc so interesting lies in the name of Chapter 1128.
RPG - Role Playing Game
This arc, so far, seems to be based on RPGs (Role Playing Games), specifically Tabletop RPGs like Warhammer, Pathfinder, and most notably, Dungeons & Dragons. Tabletop RPGs (TTRPGs) are games where players assume the roles of characters in a fictional world, guided by rules, and controlled by a Game/Dungeon Master (GM/DM). In this case, it's quite literally a tabletop RPG, with the Straw Hats being on the top of someone's table; that someone being the Sun God, a.k.a. Road.
Road assumes the role of the Game Master, while the Straw Hats are the player characters, hence why they are all dressed up – role-playing – as Giants (Vikings).
Each player controls their own unique character with unique traits, skills, abilities, and backstories (basically, just our Straw Hats), while the Game Master controls the game world, narrates the story, describes situations, and controls the NPCs (non-player characters). This is why Road is so over-the-top, dramatic, and theatrical about what is going on (bro is yapping).
Roleplaying:
This is also where the roleplaying aspect comes into play. The players are meant to role-play their characters, speaking and acting in a way that is consistent with their personality and background. Road assumes this persona of the Sun God, his room becomes a temple, his pets become servants, etc., before he drops the façade and reveals his true identity; that of an Otaku obsessed with Manga.
There is a sense of randomness to the Straw Hats' actions, and overall to the whole situation, that is evocative of a D&D session with the dice roll. Players use multi-sided dice to determine the outcome of actions, like attacking or using skills, and the outcome of the dice is what decides how successful the action is. This is important for the roleplaying aspect of these games, but I don't know if that's what Oda is going for here.
Storytelling and character development are often an important part of the whole experience, which is probably why Oda is going so "meta" (showing or suggesting an explicit awareness of itself or oneself as a member of its category: cleverly self-referential) with Road.
Campaign:
Now, what interests me the most is just how far Oda will go with this concept. A TTRPG session can be a single adventure, or one which unfolds over multiple ones, as part of a larger narrative called a "campaign". So far, the entire premise has lasted just 3 chapters (since Luffy broke the wall), and while it's not impossible for this to be a "one-off" (look at the Murder Mystery on Egghead), I do wonder if there will be more to it. Video games are massive, and we've never had an arc that is "Straw Hats, but in a video game," so why not structure the arc, which lends itself nicely to the premise, entirely as an RPG?
Oda has shown his love for video games, plenty of times before.
Settings:
RPGs are set in various worlds, from science fiction, to horror, historical settings, or high fantasy and Elbaf's setting is perfect for an RPG. According to the ancient Norse view of the cosmos, Yggdrasil is an ash tree in which the 9 worlds, including the world of humans and the world of the gods, nestle among the branches and roots, as it floats through Ginnungagap, the great void. These realms are located alongside the tree, starting from the bottom, where the tree's roots are, going up along the tree's body, reaching all the way to the top, where the tree's branches are. Essentially, Yggdrasil is structured as a video game with 9 levels.
In theory, Luffy and the crew would have to make their way up the Yggdrasil, starting from the bottom, where the "lower realms" are (Level 1), and slowly making their way up to the top, where Asgard, the Realm of Gods, is, and where he will battle the final boss (Level 9). And, it just so happens that, by the look of those mountains, Luffy appears to be at the bottom of the tree (seeing how cold it looks to be, my guess is that this is supposed to be Niflheim).
It's essentially what happened at Onigashima.
Loki's Legendary Devil Fruit
Another staple of RPGs is "Loot": the weapons and items. As you make your way through a video game, you face increasingly stronger enemies, and as their strength rises, so does the quality of the loot. You need strong weapons to defeat strong enemies, so the stronger the enemy is, the better the loot they drop is. This is how the talk of Loki's "legendary devil fruit" comes off as.
According to the Giants, Loki killed his own father, the King (Harold) of Elbaf, so he could get his hands on this legendary fruit - this legendary loot. As for which fruit this is, I personally believe there are only 2 choices. The first is the obvious one: Hito Hito no mi, Model: Surtr (or a variation on this name).
What makes this the obvious choices are Loki's words regarding him bringing destruction to the World. According to the legend of Ragnarök, Surtr, the Fire Giant (hence why Loki thinks of himself as the "Sun God"), is said to plunge his giant sword into the ground, and destroy the World (if you saw Thor: Ragnarök, it's basically that). In fact, we can even see the giant sword, going through Yggdrasil.
The second, less obvious, is a creature I actually talked about before, in relation to Imu's Devil Fruit: Hebi Hebi no mi, Model: Níðhöggr.
In Norse mythology, Níðhöggr is a dragon/serpent who gnaws at a root of the world tree (Yggdrasil), in which it's trapped. In a historical Viking society, "níð" was a term for social stigma, implying the loss of honor and the status of a villain. Seeing how Loki, is not only chained at what seems the base of Yggdrasil, just like Níðhöggr, but is also villainized and sentenced to death by crucifixion for the murder of his father, this seems like a strong contender for his fruit.
While Níðhöggr is not prophesized to bring the destruction of the World, it is said that it will be one of the few beings to survive the Ragnarök, and soar through the sky of the new world.
Conclusion
The rest of the RPG's characteristics are pretty much the same things you would expect from any story. The characters face an enemy in battle, they talk to other, non-main characters (NPCs), they solve puzzles, overcome obstacles, etc. It seems like Loki is being built as this insanely powerful warrior, so I have a hard time imagining him not being the main villain of the arc. However, we are in the endgame now, so I'd imagine someone more integral to the overarching story would be our main baddie.
If you enjoyed reading this, and want to see more of my stuff, follow me for more weekly/bi-weekly One Piece posts!
RPG - Role Playing Game
This arc, so far, seems to be based on RPGs (Role Playing Games), specifically Tabletop RPGs like Warhammer, Pathfinder, and most notably, Dungeons & Dragons. Tabletop RPGs (TTRPGs) are games where players assume the roles of characters in a fictional world, guided by rules, and controlled by a Game/Dungeon Master (GM/DM). In this case, it's quite literally a tabletop RPG, with the Straw Hats being on the top of someone's table; that someone being the Sun God, a.k.a. Road.
Road assumes the role of the Game Master, while the Straw Hats are the player characters, hence why they are all dressed up – role-playing – as Giants (Vikings).
Each player controls their own unique character with unique traits, skills, abilities, and backstories (basically, just our Straw Hats), while the Game Master controls the game world, narrates the story, describes situations, and controls the NPCs (non-player characters). This is why Road is so over-the-top, dramatic, and theatrical about what is going on (bro is yapping).
Roleplaying:
This is also where the roleplaying aspect comes into play. The players are meant to role-play their characters, speaking and acting in a way that is consistent with their personality and background. Road assumes this persona of the Sun God, his room becomes a temple, his pets become servants, etc., before he drops the façade and reveals his true identity; that of an Otaku obsessed with Manga.
There is a sense of randomness to the Straw Hats' actions, and overall to the whole situation, that is evocative of a D&D session with the dice roll. Players use multi-sided dice to determine the outcome of actions, like attacking or using skills, and the outcome of the dice is what decides how successful the action is. This is important for the roleplaying aspect of these games, but I don't know if that's what Oda is going for here.
Storytelling and character development are often an important part of the whole experience, which is probably why Oda is going so "meta" (showing or suggesting an explicit awareness of itself or oneself as a member of its category: cleverly self-referential) with Road.
Campaign:
Now, what interests me the most is just how far Oda will go with this concept. A TTRPG session can be a single adventure, or one which unfolds over multiple ones, as part of a larger narrative called a "campaign". So far, the entire premise has lasted just 3 chapters (since Luffy broke the wall), and while it's not impossible for this to be a "one-off" (look at the Murder Mystery on Egghead), I do wonder if there will be more to it. Video games are massive, and we've never had an arc that is "Straw Hats, but in a video game," so why not structure the arc, which lends itself nicely to the premise, entirely as an RPG?
Oda has shown his love for video games, plenty of times before.
Settings:
RPGs are set in various worlds, from science fiction, to horror, historical settings, or high fantasy and Elbaf's setting is perfect for an RPG. According to the ancient Norse view of the cosmos, Yggdrasil is an ash tree in which the 9 worlds, including the world of humans and the world of the gods, nestle among the branches and roots, as it floats through Ginnungagap, the great void. These realms are located alongside the tree, starting from the bottom, where the tree's roots are, going up along the tree's body, reaching all the way to the top, where the tree's branches are. Essentially, Yggdrasil is structured as a video game with 9 levels.
In theory, Luffy and the crew would have to make their way up the Yggdrasil, starting from the bottom, where the "lower realms" are (Level 1), and slowly making their way up to the top, where Asgard, the Realm of Gods, is, and where he will battle the final boss (Level 9). And, it just so happens that, by the look of those mountains, Luffy appears to be at the bottom of the tree (seeing how cold it looks to be, my guess is that this is supposed to be Niflheim).
It's essentially what happened at Onigashima.
Loki's Legendary Devil Fruit
Another staple of RPGs is "Loot": the weapons and items. As you make your way through a video game, you face increasingly stronger enemies, and as their strength rises, so does the quality of the loot. You need strong weapons to defeat strong enemies, so the stronger the enemy is, the better the loot they drop is. This is how the talk of Loki's "legendary devil fruit" comes off as.
According to the Giants, Loki killed his own father, the King (Harold) of Elbaf, so he could get his hands on this legendary fruit - this legendary loot. As for which fruit this is, I personally believe there are only 2 choices. The first is the obvious one: Hito Hito no mi, Model: Surtr (or a variation on this name).
What makes this the obvious choices are Loki's words regarding him bringing destruction to the World. According to the legend of Ragnarök, Surtr, the Fire Giant (hence why Loki thinks of himself as the "Sun God"), is said to plunge his giant sword into the ground, and destroy the World (if you saw Thor: Ragnarök, it's basically that). In fact, we can even see the giant sword, going through Yggdrasil.
The second, less obvious, is a creature I actually talked about before, in relation to Imu's Devil Fruit: Hebi Hebi no mi, Model: Níðhöggr.
In Norse mythology, Níðhöggr is a dragon/serpent who gnaws at a root of the world tree (Yggdrasil), in which it's trapped. In a historical Viking society, "níð" was a term for social stigma, implying the loss of honor and the status of a villain. Seeing how Loki, is not only chained at what seems the base of Yggdrasil, just like Níðhöggr, but is also villainized and sentenced to death by crucifixion for the murder of his father, this seems like a strong contender for his fruit.
While Níðhöggr is not prophesized to bring the destruction of the World, it is said that it will be one of the few beings to survive the Ragnarök, and soar through the sky of the new world.
Conclusion
The rest of the RPG's characteristics are pretty much the same things you would expect from any story. The characters face an enemy in battle, they talk to other, non-main characters (NPCs), they solve puzzles, overcome obstacles, etc. It seems like Loki is being built as this insanely powerful warrior, so I have a hard time imagining him not being the main villain of the arc. However, we are in the endgame now, so I'd imagine someone more integral to the overarching story would be our main baddie.
If you enjoyed reading this, and want to see more of my stuff, follow me for more weekly/bi-weekly One Piece posts!
