Hello, everyone!
As you may recall, some time ago I posted an exceedingly long theory on Monet's past, present and future. Within that theory were several other theories that served to provide context for my ideas surrounding Monet, as I do not believe that any further plot details involving her could possibly exist in isolation. Consequently, though, each of those subsections were basically theories in and of themselves, even if they were being used more like evidence or simply explaining my reasoning, and thus were lost to anyone who doesn't feel like reading a literal novel. Just so it wouldn't be completely buried for anyone interested, I decided to take what I felt was the most interesting subtheory and post it separately for any and all to discuss on its own merit independently of the Monet Theory: the Reptilian Theory.
This is basically a retelling of the relevant section within the Monet Theory with some details trimmed, expanded on, or otherwise slightly altered, so it may be worth reading even if you've already read its previous incarnation, but there isn't so much new information that you should be worried about missing out if you just want to talk about what you already read.
Background
As you may recall, when Big Mom was captured by Queen and brought to Onigashima, she propositioned King to come to Totto Land, as his currently unnamed race is one of only three that she does not currently have represented.
Obviously the first that she is missing is the Giants because of the bad blood between her and the people of Elbaf. We don't know anything about the third race for sure, but with the available information, we can draw at least four conclusions about King's race:
1. They are most likely the one that Big Mom refers to as "lost to the sands of time," given her wording, implying that the other missing race isn't necessarily thought to be extinct
2. They have at least somewhat functional wings, as evidenced by King flapping his wings to express irritation with Who's Who
3. King is most likely not the last of his race, as Tenguyama Hitetsu, another winged man, was introduced earlier in the same arc and has remarkably similar wings to King
It may also be worth noting that both of them wear masks, though whether there's something hidden beneath those masks or they hold some kind of cultural significance to the winged folk remains to be seen. Given that we can see Hitetsu's hands and feet and every bit of clothing on King is skintight leather, I think it's safe to say that the wings are the only bird-like features that their people exhibit, though we have seen Fishmen and Mermaids do a bit of minor shapeshifting in the past.
4. King's race is most likely not related to the Sky People
We actually can draw this conclusion thanks to the first and second points. Not only does King's wing shape not match any of the subsections of Sky People, but we also have evidence to suggest that their wings are removable accessories rather than being natural appendages. Former God of Skypiea, Gan Fall, and former resident of Birka, Haredas, are both missing their wings, while Enel has replaced his with drums and Urouge replaced his small Skypiean style wings with the much larger Birkan style.
Furthermore, it's extremely unlikely that Big Mom thinks that the Sky People were lost to time. With the reputation of Big Mom's information network, I would be extremely surprised to learn that she'd never heard of Skypiea given how much interaction its people have had with the Blue Sea. Haredas and his fellow researchers come down to the Blue Sea for research purposes on a regular basis, Urouge has made a rather significant name for himself and personally crossed paths with Big Mom, and there were even a number of Skypieans that fled to the Blue Sea to escape Enel's rule, as seen in Disco's Human Auction House when he presented a group of men with the signature hairstyle of Gan Fall's Divine Squad.
This group is also missing their wings, suggesting that they removed them to better blend in to Blue Sea society. We have no idea how many Sky People have made their way to the Blue Sea, but I think we can say pretty confidently that Big Mom's information network has managed to sniff out that they exist and at least one method for reaching Skypiea. Even if she only knows how to get to unrelated Sky Islands like Ballon Terminal the same way that Kaido did, it's not hard to imagine that she'd be able to find her way to neighboring Sky Islands and then learn of the existence of the Skypieans.
If Big Mom knows about the Sky People, though, one may expect that they are the third race that she is referring to as missing, as we have never seen anyone in Totto Land wearing a pair of wings or sporting the antenna hairstyle. However, there are two flaws with this logic: first, since the wings seem to be removable and the hair can obviously be changed (as Urouge cut his antenna off), there could easily be Sky People living there already that have just assimilated; second, if they're just wearing wings as accessories, then how are they different from humans? Big Mom isn't collecting people from every culture, she's collecting people from every race, and as far as anyone can tell, the Sky People are just normal humans who live in the sky and wear wings for some cultural reason. Sure, we as the audience know that there's something more to them since they come from the moon, but Big Mom doesn't know that, as even her information network probably doesn't extend off world. I suppose if it did, though, the third race could be the alien race that the Space Pirates belong to, but I imagine that she'd want more than three in that scenario.
So if the Sky People aren't on Big Mom's radar as the third race, then who is? As far as I can tell, there aren't any other races that we've been formally introduced to that we haven't seen in Totto Land. I've seen some people suggest that she's referring to the Three-Eyes, as the only representative that Big Mom seems to have is Pudding, a half-breed, but that doesn't seem likely to me, as her invitation to King implies that she only needs one for it to count. Around the time that said chapter first came out, I recall seeing a number of people theorize that the third race was a reptilian equivalent to the other animal races on the basis that we had yet to meet Kawamatsu, who was referred to as a kappa. Some people figured he'd be a Fishman, but others thought perhaps he would turn out to be more turtle-like. While he did in fact turn out to be a Fishman, I think that the reptile idea is still a distinct possibility.
Of course, going by the animal theme, there are obviously other options. Based on the fact that we've never seen Heracles' face under his hercules beetle helmet, it's possible that he's from an insectoid race. We've also seen a fungal Mushroom Person in Big Mom's collection, so it's possible that there is also a race of plant-like people to subvert the animal theme.
There could even be a mineral race of stone people, though I haven't found anything to suggest such a possibility as of yet.
Heracles and the Mushroom Person aren't really compelling evidence for any unknown races, unfortunately, as nothing Heracles has done or his design really suggests that he isn't a human in an outfit (ex: his carapace is over his cape, he only has four limbs, etc.), and we don't know whether the Mushroom Person is a human-shaped mushroom or a mushroom-shaped human. Even if the Mushroom Person is human, that is a completely separate issue from the existence of plant people. Even if there are plant people or insect people, there could easily end up being thematic overlap with the Dwarves, who are known to tame insects (just like Heracles) and have an affinity for plant life (again, like Heracles and a potential plant race). Not that there can't be overlap, it just seems to me that Oda wouldn't make two races overlap unless they were explicitly related (Fishmen and Merfolk are both aquatic, but seem to just be different forms of the same species).
While a race of rock people would definitely not overlap with anything we've currently seen, a race of reptilians would seem like a more natural fit with the mammalian Minks, aquatic Merfolk/Fishmen and avian Birdfolk (name pending). I also just think they'd be more versatile for character design purposes, but perhaps that's just my own lack of imagination. Either way, between the two, I think that there is reason to believe that there are already reptilians within the One Piece world.
In much the same way that the people of Wano believe Fishmen to be kappa and likely believe the Birdfolk to be tengu (likely where the Tenguyama family got their name), it is possible that the reptilian race has been mistaken for another mythological creature elsewhere in the world. Specifically, I believe that the reptilians were mistaken for gorgons.
Back in Amazon Lily, we were introduced to the concept of gorgons by the tale of the Gorgon Sisters, Boa Hancock, Marigold and Sandersonia, defeating a gorgon and receiving its curse in the form of a pair of eyes on each of their backs that turn all who see them to stone and allow them to take the form of snakes.
As it turned out, the ability to become snakes and turn people to stone were the results of various Devil Fruit (two models of Snake-Snake Fruit and the Love-Love Fruit respectively), which coincidentally fit the existing myth of the gorgon. While it's entirely possible that the myth came about from someone's imagination in earlier One Piece history, it's quite common both for mythological creatures to exist within the world of One Piece as actual fauna (ex: sphinx, manticore, kraken, etc.) and for myths to turn out to be misunderstandings of true events or individuals. Therefore, we can assume that while the Gorgon Sisters never actually fought a gorgon, the gorgon of myth is likely one of three things: an animal that looks like a person with snakes for hair, a race of people with reptilian traits, or an individual with a Mythical Zoan Snake-Snake Fruit, Model: Gorgon, though this would imply that the animal option is still a possibility.
Normally, I would be inclined to believe that the Devil Fruit option is the most likely. However, because we now know for a fact that there is a race we have yet to encounter, the possibility of the gorgon belonging to a reptilian race suddenly feels like a much more viable option. What's more, this isn't the only reason that I believe in the reptilian race.
For a single panel in one flashback on Punk Hazard, we see a tattoo on Monet's arm prior to receiving her harpy surgery from Law subtly hidden behind a speech bubble.
Because it's obscured and fairly blurry, it's quite difficult to make out what exactly the tattoo is depicting. I've seen some people suggest that it's some kind of beetle, while others have suggested it's a jester, what with the wavy appendages looking like a jester's hat ending in bells. The latter interpretation was based on Monet's subservience to Doflamingo, aka Joker, and the belief that this was a symbol used for Joker's dealings to separate them from Doflamingo. However, throughout the entirety of the Dressrosa arc, such a symbol never appeared. Furthermore, the tattoo itself only appeared in one panel, and was absent during all other appearances of Monet's human limbs, despite that patch of skin being perfectly visible, implying that Monet went out of her way to hide it. If it were a symbol of Doflamingo, her savior and master, I cannot see any situation where she would deliberately hide it. Instead, I find it more likely that it is a symbol that brings her shame or pain, and that some extenuating circumstance prevented her from covering it in that one panel.
As for what it's meant to be, I think that the jester idea is closer to the mark than the beetle idea, as the round, mostly blank center, the dark lump on the bottom left, and the oval just above said lump seem to me to evoke a Jolly Roger in profile, not unlike that of the Alvida Pirates' or Usopp's personal Jolly Roger.
As for the appendages, once it clicked to me that the core of the symbol could be a Jolly Roger, it seemed obvious that the waves were the skull's hair. With the little lumps on the end and how they seemed to curve, they seemed to me to take on a more snakelike appearance. The oval seemed to be an eye, but much more prominent than most eyes in Jolly Rogers tend to be. Then it all fell into place: snake hair, an emphasized eye, presented on a character themed after a Greek mythological creature? After all of these years, it all seemed so obvious: this must be a gorgon. To help visualize it, my wife kindly provided her interpretation of this hypothetical Gorgon Jolly Roger.
I imagine that there will be some differences in the real deal, like perhaps there will be more snakes or they will have more pronounced curves or the eye will take up more of the image, but this is more or less what I expect the symbol to look like at full size. I know that the Kuja Pirates already have a gorgon-like Jolly Roger, but I think that's probably the reason Oda decided to go with a profile-view here, to differentiate it as much as possible.
If this symbol really is associated with a crew of reptilians, I think that would actually go even further to explain why Big Mom doesn't have any in her country: Doflamingo sent them into hiding. Remember, Monet's vaguely established backstory is that Doflamingo saved her from a "misfortunate environment," presumably in North Blue. I went over the exact details in my Monet Theory, but the gist is that I believe a group of reptilians from the New World hopped the Calm Belt into North Blue (possibly using Sea King deterring snakes like the Yuda of Amazon Lily) and took over Monet's home island and forcefully recruited Monet, not unlike the Arlong Pirates did to Nami in Cocoyasi Village. On his way to the Grand Line, Doflamingo found Monet's island and so thoroughly trounced the Gorgon Pirates (name pending) that they not only went back to the New World, they told everyone else back home to stay put as well, possibly even hightailing it to an island that doesn't show up on the Log Pose so as not to be found by anyone, even someone as well-informed as Big Mom. I'm sure that there's more to it than that, but I'm confident that's at least a piece of the puzzle.
Of course, it's also possible that the reptilians are by their very nature secretive, as in our world, many conspiracy theories revolve around reptilians hiding among us in perfect human disguises. This wouldn't disqualify them from being involved in Monet's backstory, but it would mean that they could still be in hiding regardless of Doflamingo's actions. I have some reservations about Oda going this route due to certain connotations that accompany such theories, but I imagine he wouldn't intentionally make any potentially derogatory associations between his characters and real life ethnic groups and would instead focus on making cool reptile-themed characters.
Appearance
Building on the idea that the reptilians can disguise themselves as humans, I think it's worth noting that each of the animal-like races express their animal traits to different degrees and for different purposes. The Merfolk, with few exceptions, are pretty much normal humans from the waist up and fish from the waist down. Aside from Hyouzou, a blue-ringed octopus with the ability to secrete venom, there doesn't seem to be much if any functional difference between Merfolk based on their respective animals. In fact, they generally don't seem to really resemble their animals in the first place: Kokoro is an icefish, which don't typically have scales, and yet she does; Camie is a kissing gourami, but her lips aren't a prominent part of her design, nor does her tail look much like the fins of a gourami. Some look more appropriate, like Shyarly the mako shark, but the important part is that their tails and fins help them move through the water faster than anything else. The focus is on their locomotion, so all that needs to be fish is their lower half, thus their design tends to lean towards human.
Similarly, the Birdfolk only seem to have the wings of birds, rather than having the beaks or claws. They could easily have different types of beaks like a woodpecker's for piercing or a hooked bird of prey beak for ripping, or different types of talons like raptor claws for grasping and scratching prey or cassowary claws for strong kicks, but the two we've seen both only have wings. Sure, they might be able to grow their talons and beaks at will like half-Fishman Dellinger was able to do with his fangs and fins, but there isn't any evidence for that yet. As far as we know, the Birdfolk are exclusively human save for their wings, again a method of locomotion, which may or may not be built for different purposes like the silent feathers of an owl, the high-endurance wings of an albatross, or the highly maneuverable elliptical wings of a raven. Though we haven't seen their faces yet, it seems like the Birdfolk are the most human looking of the animal races so far.
Fishmen don't look quite human, but they don't look quite like fish either. They look like they're pretty much down the middle, tending to have exaggerated but mostly human body types with explicitly non-human features like fins, extra arms, suckers, webbed fingers and non-human skin tones. While they do tend to be strong swimmers on the basis that they are physically strong, Fishmen are not as good of swimmers as the hydro-dynamically built Merfolk. Instead, their traits focus on the explicit strengths of their animals, like Wadatsumi's ability to bloat himself up as a blowfish, Zeo's ability to turn invisible as a wobbegong, or Big Pan's ability to produce a slick mucus as a loach.
Minks look the least human, looking more like anthropomorphized animals. They haven't really shown that they take all that much from the skills of their animal bases, but Carrot's jumping ability does seem to be exceptional as she is a rabbit and cat Minks like Pedro and Pekoms have natural claws rather than needing to use a claw-glove like Carrot, so it doesn't take too much stretching of the imagination to see other Minks having unique skills, like perhaps horse Minks having particularly strong kicks. They do have the universal trait of their static producing fur which they use to generate Electro, again showing a leaning towards the weaponization of their traits like the Fishmen. Sure, mobility is a part of it, but they're mostly combat oriented.
With two races on each end of the spectrum, mostly human and focused on mobility (Merfolk and Birdfolk) vs. mostly animal and focused on combat (Fishmen and Minks), one wonders which end the reptilians would lean towards. I said earlier that I imagine the reptilians will be skilled at blending into human society, so I think it's fair to say they'll tend towards looking human, but there isn't really a uniform method of locomotion among reptiles. Sure, they tend to stay low to the ground given their body types, but there's a world of difference between the slithering of a snake and the crawling of a crocodile. Therefore, I think that the reptilians would tend to look mostly human with relatively easy to hide reptile traits that generally lend themselves to combat abilities, though they may grant unique movement options. For example, a gecko reptilian's feet may be easily hidden with gloves and shoes, but once revealed will yield claws for combat and surface adhering abilities for enhanced movement options. A snake reptilian may or may not have venomous fangs, but their bodies would all likely have the flexibility of a snake even if they don't have snake tails instead of legs; with said flexibility, they would not only be able to dodge enemy attacks and themselves attack more swiftly, but they may also be able to constrict their targets.
Of course, we may already have a hint for another possible visual design for the reptilians. If the Gorgon Jolly Roger is in fact related to the reptilian race, then snake reptilians may specifically have snakes for hair. Maybe instead of having claws, fangs or tails, maybe all reptilians have living reptiles for hair. Maybe we could see a crocodile jaw pompadour, a turtle-shell bowl cut, an anaconda ponytail. Of course, it could just be that reptilians like to style their hair after their animals as a cultural practice and our hypothetical Medusa didn't literally have snakes for hair. Or maybe she was wearing a wig made out of snakes. It wouldn't be the first time we'd seen a live reptile wig, what with Coribou's chameleon mullet.
It's also possible that the reptilians, or at least Medusa, use techniques for controlling their hair as if it had flesh and bone, in much the same way that Marigold and Sandersonia shaped and controlled their hair to act as snakes during their battle with Luffy using Snake Hair Possession.
Of course, there are other explanations for why they're missing aside from from blending in with humans. They could easily go the other extreme, being so inhuman looking that anyone would be forgiven for mistaking them for monsters, similar to how Fishmen were once classified as a species of fish rather than a species of human. In this scenario, the reptilians would likely lack human postures, tending to stay low to the ground while their limbs, still human-like in length, are splayed and contorted to account for that type of movement. Instead of being covered in fur like the Minks or having inhuman skin tones like the Fishmen, the reptilians would naturally be completely covered in scales, though they may have human hair atop their heads like Page One in his hybrid Zoan form. In fact, for this scenario, just imagine him but walking on the ground with his limbs positioned in ways unnatural for a human.
By naturally being positioned like their animal inspirations, the reptilians would automatically be primed for utilizing their unique movement options while their extreme expression of animal features would gear them towards fighting like said creatures. Furthermore, this would provide a perfectly valid reason why Big Mom hasn't brought them to Totto Land, even if she knows where they are: they're just plain scary. They'd have an extremely difficult time acclimating to human society since none of the other races would be likely to recognize them as human, and being so distant from human society in the first place may have made them more misanthropic and dangerous towards other human species.
As a third alternative, and one that plays more into the gorgon idea that spawned this thought process, the reptilians could grow animals from various parts of themselves rather than uniformly growing them from their hair. For example, while our Medusa has snakes for hair, another reptilian may have snakes for arms or legs, or a crocodile for an arm. I think this option provides the fewest unique possibilities and overlaps a bit too much with the Gifters of the Beasts Pirates, but it's a possibility nonetheless.
Of the three, I'm fond of the hiding in plain sight route since I think it has the most creative possibilities and could even open the possibility of revealing existing characters as reptilians, like Johnny having slit pupils behind his sunglasses, though that would run the risk of feeling like a wildly unnecessary retcon, especially if it's done with too many characters. It'll probably be done with a character introduced within the same arc, but it could be pretty funny to bring back a couple of really old characters and show that they've always had scales or other traits that they were just cleverly hiding. It's could also turn out that reptilians have been living in Totto Land from the start, they were just pretending to be human for one reason or another and Big Mom either never suspected it or could never prove it.
From a narrative perspective, though, I think the monstrous route is a little more believable for why we haven't seen them and would make them stand out that much more from the rest of the cast in terms of design. I've definitely seen a fair number of people express disappointment with the Mink designs going almost full animal for the males but stopping at animal-like human for the females, so while I could see Oda doing exactly that again for the reptilians, it would be interesting if he went the extra mile and made them all nightmare creatures.
Oda could also combine both the hiding and monster options by making the reptilians have a base reptile form as well as the ability to retract all of their reptilian features to become completely or near completely human in appearance. This would be a good compromise between the more creative visual design, the ability to hide among humans, and falling on all sections of the human-animal and mobility-combat spectrum.
As a final note on the topic of appearance, it's also possible that the reptilian race also includes the visually and thematically similar amphibians, which would otherwise sadly go ignored if this is in fact the last race that we are going to meet in One Piece canon. Though reptiles and amphibians aren't particularly close genetically, I can't imagine they're much further apart than the various types of fish (which themselves are not a unified taxon) and the mollusks (octopus and squids) that we've seen represented in both Fishmen and Merfolk. Since two out of three major amphibian types look almost identical to reptiles (salamanders look like lizards, caecilians look like snakes) it wouldn't be too strange for Oda to have the reptilian race incorporate them along with frogs, even if it would be scientifically inaccurate.
As you may recall, some time ago I posted an exceedingly long theory on Monet's past, present and future. Within that theory were several other theories that served to provide context for my ideas surrounding Monet, as I do not believe that any further plot details involving her could possibly exist in isolation. Consequently, though, each of those subsections were basically theories in and of themselves, even if they were being used more like evidence or simply explaining my reasoning, and thus were lost to anyone who doesn't feel like reading a literal novel. Just so it wouldn't be completely buried for anyone interested, I decided to take what I felt was the most interesting subtheory and post it separately for any and all to discuss on its own merit independently of the Monet Theory: the Reptilian Theory.
This is basically a retelling of the relevant section within the Monet Theory with some details trimmed, expanded on, or otherwise slightly altered, so it may be worth reading even if you've already read its previous incarnation, but there isn't so much new information that you should be worried about missing out if you just want to talk about what you already read.
Background
As you may recall, when Big Mom was captured by Queen and brought to Onigashima, she propositioned King to come to Totto Land, as his currently unnamed race is one of only three that she does not currently have represented.
Obviously the first that she is missing is the Giants because of the bad blood between her and the people of Elbaf. We don't know anything about the third race for sure, but with the available information, we can draw at least four conclusions about King's race:
1. They are most likely the one that Big Mom refers to as "lost to the sands of time," given her wording, implying that the other missing race isn't necessarily thought to be extinct
2. They have at least somewhat functional wings, as evidenced by King flapping his wings to express irritation with Who's Who
3. King is most likely not the last of his race, as Tenguyama Hitetsu, another winged man, was introduced earlier in the same arc and has remarkably similar wings to King
It may also be worth noting that both of them wear masks, though whether there's something hidden beneath those masks or they hold some kind of cultural significance to the winged folk remains to be seen. Given that we can see Hitetsu's hands and feet and every bit of clothing on King is skintight leather, I think it's safe to say that the wings are the only bird-like features that their people exhibit, though we have seen Fishmen and Mermaids do a bit of minor shapeshifting in the past.
4. King's race is most likely not related to the Sky People
We actually can draw this conclusion thanks to the first and second points. Not only does King's wing shape not match any of the subsections of Sky People, but we also have evidence to suggest that their wings are removable accessories rather than being natural appendages. Former God of Skypiea, Gan Fall, and former resident of Birka, Haredas, are both missing their wings, while Enel has replaced his with drums and Urouge replaced his small Skypiean style wings with the much larger Birkan style.
Furthermore, it's extremely unlikely that Big Mom thinks that the Sky People were lost to time. With the reputation of Big Mom's information network, I would be extremely surprised to learn that she'd never heard of Skypiea given how much interaction its people have had with the Blue Sea. Haredas and his fellow researchers come down to the Blue Sea for research purposes on a regular basis, Urouge has made a rather significant name for himself and personally crossed paths with Big Mom, and there were even a number of Skypieans that fled to the Blue Sea to escape Enel's rule, as seen in Disco's Human Auction House when he presented a group of men with the signature hairstyle of Gan Fall's Divine Squad.
This group is also missing their wings, suggesting that they removed them to better blend in to Blue Sea society. We have no idea how many Sky People have made their way to the Blue Sea, but I think we can say pretty confidently that Big Mom's information network has managed to sniff out that they exist and at least one method for reaching Skypiea. Even if she only knows how to get to unrelated Sky Islands like Ballon Terminal the same way that Kaido did, it's not hard to imagine that she'd be able to find her way to neighboring Sky Islands and then learn of the existence of the Skypieans.
If Big Mom knows about the Sky People, though, one may expect that they are the third race that she is referring to as missing, as we have never seen anyone in Totto Land wearing a pair of wings or sporting the antenna hairstyle. However, there are two flaws with this logic: first, since the wings seem to be removable and the hair can obviously be changed (as Urouge cut his antenna off), there could easily be Sky People living there already that have just assimilated; second, if they're just wearing wings as accessories, then how are they different from humans? Big Mom isn't collecting people from every culture, she's collecting people from every race, and as far as anyone can tell, the Sky People are just normal humans who live in the sky and wear wings for some cultural reason. Sure, we as the audience know that there's something more to them since they come from the moon, but Big Mom doesn't know that, as even her information network probably doesn't extend off world. I suppose if it did, though, the third race could be the alien race that the Space Pirates belong to, but I imagine that she'd want more than three in that scenario.
So if the Sky People aren't on Big Mom's radar as the third race, then who is? As far as I can tell, there aren't any other races that we've been formally introduced to that we haven't seen in Totto Land. I've seen some people suggest that she's referring to the Three-Eyes, as the only representative that Big Mom seems to have is Pudding, a half-breed, but that doesn't seem likely to me, as her invitation to King implies that she only needs one for it to count. Around the time that said chapter first came out, I recall seeing a number of people theorize that the third race was a reptilian equivalent to the other animal races on the basis that we had yet to meet Kawamatsu, who was referred to as a kappa. Some people figured he'd be a Fishman, but others thought perhaps he would turn out to be more turtle-like. While he did in fact turn out to be a Fishman, I think that the reptile idea is still a distinct possibility.
Of course, going by the animal theme, there are obviously other options. Based on the fact that we've never seen Heracles' face under his hercules beetle helmet, it's possible that he's from an insectoid race. We've also seen a fungal Mushroom Person in Big Mom's collection, so it's possible that there is also a race of plant-like people to subvert the animal theme.
There could even be a mineral race of stone people, though I haven't found anything to suggest such a possibility as of yet.
Heracles and the Mushroom Person aren't really compelling evidence for any unknown races, unfortunately, as nothing Heracles has done or his design really suggests that he isn't a human in an outfit (ex: his carapace is over his cape, he only has four limbs, etc.), and we don't know whether the Mushroom Person is a human-shaped mushroom or a mushroom-shaped human. Even if the Mushroom Person is human, that is a completely separate issue from the existence of plant people. Even if there are plant people or insect people, there could easily end up being thematic overlap with the Dwarves, who are known to tame insects (just like Heracles) and have an affinity for plant life (again, like Heracles and a potential plant race). Not that there can't be overlap, it just seems to me that Oda wouldn't make two races overlap unless they were explicitly related (Fishmen and Merfolk are both aquatic, but seem to just be different forms of the same species).
While a race of rock people would definitely not overlap with anything we've currently seen, a race of reptilians would seem like a more natural fit with the mammalian Minks, aquatic Merfolk/Fishmen and avian Birdfolk (name pending). I also just think they'd be more versatile for character design purposes, but perhaps that's just my own lack of imagination. Either way, between the two, I think that there is reason to believe that there are already reptilians within the One Piece world.
In much the same way that the people of Wano believe Fishmen to be kappa and likely believe the Birdfolk to be tengu (likely where the Tenguyama family got their name), it is possible that the reptilian race has been mistaken for another mythological creature elsewhere in the world. Specifically, I believe that the reptilians were mistaken for gorgons.
Back in Amazon Lily, we were introduced to the concept of gorgons by the tale of the Gorgon Sisters, Boa Hancock, Marigold and Sandersonia, defeating a gorgon and receiving its curse in the form of a pair of eyes on each of their backs that turn all who see them to stone and allow them to take the form of snakes.
As it turned out, the ability to become snakes and turn people to stone were the results of various Devil Fruit (two models of Snake-Snake Fruit and the Love-Love Fruit respectively), which coincidentally fit the existing myth of the gorgon. While it's entirely possible that the myth came about from someone's imagination in earlier One Piece history, it's quite common both for mythological creatures to exist within the world of One Piece as actual fauna (ex: sphinx, manticore, kraken, etc.) and for myths to turn out to be misunderstandings of true events or individuals. Therefore, we can assume that while the Gorgon Sisters never actually fought a gorgon, the gorgon of myth is likely one of three things: an animal that looks like a person with snakes for hair, a race of people with reptilian traits, or an individual with a Mythical Zoan Snake-Snake Fruit, Model: Gorgon, though this would imply that the animal option is still a possibility.
Normally, I would be inclined to believe that the Devil Fruit option is the most likely. However, because we now know for a fact that there is a race we have yet to encounter, the possibility of the gorgon belonging to a reptilian race suddenly feels like a much more viable option. What's more, this isn't the only reason that I believe in the reptilian race.
For a single panel in one flashback on Punk Hazard, we see a tattoo on Monet's arm prior to receiving her harpy surgery from Law subtly hidden behind a speech bubble.
Because it's obscured and fairly blurry, it's quite difficult to make out what exactly the tattoo is depicting. I've seen some people suggest that it's some kind of beetle, while others have suggested it's a jester, what with the wavy appendages looking like a jester's hat ending in bells. The latter interpretation was based on Monet's subservience to Doflamingo, aka Joker, and the belief that this was a symbol used for Joker's dealings to separate them from Doflamingo. However, throughout the entirety of the Dressrosa arc, such a symbol never appeared. Furthermore, the tattoo itself only appeared in one panel, and was absent during all other appearances of Monet's human limbs, despite that patch of skin being perfectly visible, implying that Monet went out of her way to hide it. If it were a symbol of Doflamingo, her savior and master, I cannot see any situation where she would deliberately hide it. Instead, I find it more likely that it is a symbol that brings her shame or pain, and that some extenuating circumstance prevented her from covering it in that one panel.
As for what it's meant to be, I think that the jester idea is closer to the mark than the beetle idea, as the round, mostly blank center, the dark lump on the bottom left, and the oval just above said lump seem to me to evoke a Jolly Roger in profile, not unlike that of the Alvida Pirates' or Usopp's personal Jolly Roger.
As for the appendages, once it clicked to me that the core of the symbol could be a Jolly Roger, it seemed obvious that the waves were the skull's hair. With the little lumps on the end and how they seemed to curve, they seemed to me to take on a more snakelike appearance. The oval seemed to be an eye, but much more prominent than most eyes in Jolly Rogers tend to be. Then it all fell into place: snake hair, an emphasized eye, presented on a character themed after a Greek mythological creature? After all of these years, it all seemed so obvious: this must be a gorgon. To help visualize it, my wife kindly provided her interpretation of this hypothetical Gorgon Jolly Roger.
I imagine that there will be some differences in the real deal, like perhaps there will be more snakes or they will have more pronounced curves or the eye will take up more of the image, but this is more or less what I expect the symbol to look like at full size. I know that the Kuja Pirates already have a gorgon-like Jolly Roger, but I think that's probably the reason Oda decided to go with a profile-view here, to differentiate it as much as possible.
If this symbol really is associated with a crew of reptilians, I think that would actually go even further to explain why Big Mom doesn't have any in her country: Doflamingo sent them into hiding. Remember, Monet's vaguely established backstory is that Doflamingo saved her from a "misfortunate environment," presumably in North Blue. I went over the exact details in my Monet Theory, but the gist is that I believe a group of reptilians from the New World hopped the Calm Belt into North Blue (possibly using Sea King deterring snakes like the Yuda of Amazon Lily) and took over Monet's home island and forcefully recruited Monet, not unlike the Arlong Pirates did to Nami in Cocoyasi Village. On his way to the Grand Line, Doflamingo found Monet's island and so thoroughly trounced the Gorgon Pirates (name pending) that they not only went back to the New World, they told everyone else back home to stay put as well, possibly even hightailing it to an island that doesn't show up on the Log Pose so as not to be found by anyone, even someone as well-informed as Big Mom. I'm sure that there's more to it than that, but I'm confident that's at least a piece of the puzzle.
Of course, it's also possible that the reptilians are by their very nature secretive, as in our world, many conspiracy theories revolve around reptilians hiding among us in perfect human disguises. This wouldn't disqualify them from being involved in Monet's backstory, but it would mean that they could still be in hiding regardless of Doflamingo's actions. I have some reservations about Oda going this route due to certain connotations that accompany such theories, but I imagine he wouldn't intentionally make any potentially derogatory associations between his characters and real life ethnic groups and would instead focus on making cool reptile-themed characters.
Appearance
Building on the idea that the reptilians can disguise themselves as humans, I think it's worth noting that each of the animal-like races express their animal traits to different degrees and for different purposes. The Merfolk, with few exceptions, are pretty much normal humans from the waist up and fish from the waist down. Aside from Hyouzou, a blue-ringed octopus with the ability to secrete venom, there doesn't seem to be much if any functional difference between Merfolk based on their respective animals. In fact, they generally don't seem to really resemble their animals in the first place: Kokoro is an icefish, which don't typically have scales, and yet she does; Camie is a kissing gourami, but her lips aren't a prominent part of her design, nor does her tail look much like the fins of a gourami. Some look more appropriate, like Shyarly the mako shark, but the important part is that their tails and fins help them move through the water faster than anything else. The focus is on their locomotion, so all that needs to be fish is their lower half, thus their design tends to lean towards human.
Similarly, the Birdfolk only seem to have the wings of birds, rather than having the beaks or claws. They could easily have different types of beaks like a woodpecker's for piercing or a hooked bird of prey beak for ripping, or different types of talons like raptor claws for grasping and scratching prey or cassowary claws for strong kicks, but the two we've seen both only have wings. Sure, they might be able to grow their talons and beaks at will like half-Fishman Dellinger was able to do with his fangs and fins, but there isn't any evidence for that yet. As far as we know, the Birdfolk are exclusively human save for their wings, again a method of locomotion, which may or may not be built for different purposes like the silent feathers of an owl, the high-endurance wings of an albatross, or the highly maneuverable elliptical wings of a raven. Though we haven't seen their faces yet, it seems like the Birdfolk are the most human looking of the animal races so far.
Fishmen don't look quite human, but they don't look quite like fish either. They look like they're pretty much down the middle, tending to have exaggerated but mostly human body types with explicitly non-human features like fins, extra arms, suckers, webbed fingers and non-human skin tones. While they do tend to be strong swimmers on the basis that they are physically strong, Fishmen are not as good of swimmers as the hydro-dynamically built Merfolk. Instead, their traits focus on the explicit strengths of their animals, like Wadatsumi's ability to bloat himself up as a blowfish, Zeo's ability to turn invisible as a wobbegong, or Big Pan's ability to produce a slick mucus as a loach.
Minks look the least human, looking more like anthropomorphized animals. They haven't really shown that they take all that much from the skills of their animal bases, but Carrot's jumping ability does seem to be exceptional as she is a rabbit and cat Minks like Pedro and Pekoms have natural claws rather than needing to use a claw-glove like Carrot, so it doesn't take too much stretching of the imagination to see other Minks having unique skills, like perhaps horse Minks having particularly strong kicks. They do have the universal trait of their static producing fur which they use to generate Electro, again showing a leaning towards the weaponization of their traits like the Fishmen. Sure, mobility is a part of it, but they're mostly combat oriented.
With two races on each end of the spectrum, mostly human and focused on mobility (Merfolk and Birdfolk) vs. mostly animal and focused on combat (Fishmen and Minks), one wonders which end the reptilians would lean towards. I said earlier that I imagine the reptilians will be skilled at blending into human society, so I think it's fair to say they'll tend towards looking human, but there isn't really a uniform method of locomotion among reptiles. Sure, they tend to stay low to the ground given their body types, but there's a world of difference between the slithering of a snake and the crawling of a crocodile. Therefore, I think that the reptilians would tend to look mostly human with relatively easy to hide reptile traits that generally lend themselves to combat abilities, though they may grant unique movement options. For example, a gecko reptilian's feet may be easily hidden with gloves and shoes, but once revealed will yield claws for combat and surface adhering abilities for enhanced movement options. A snake reptilian may or may not have venomous fangs, but their bodies would all likely have the flexibility of a snake even if they don't have snake tails instead of legs; with said flexibility, they would not only be able to dodge enemy attacks and themselves attack more swiftly, but they may also be able to constrict their targets.
Of course, we may already have a hint for another possible visual design for the reptilians. If the Gorgon Jolly Roger is in fact related to the reptilian race, then snake reptilians may specifically have snakes for hair. Maybe instead of having claws, fangs or tails, maybe all reptilians have living reptiles for hair. Maybe we could see a crocodile jaw pompadour, a turtle-shell bowl cut, an anaconda ponytail. Of course, it could just be that reptilians like to style their hair after their animals as a cultural practice and our hypothetical Medusa didn't literally have snakes for hair. Or maybe she was wearing a wig made out of snakes. It wouldn't be the first time we'd seen a live reptile wig, what with Coribou's chameleon mullet.
It's also possible that the reptilians, or at least Medusa, use techniques for controlling their hair as if it had flesh and bone, in much the same way that Marigold and Sandersonia shaped and controlled their hair to act as snakes during their battle with Luffy using Snake Hair Possession.
Of course, there are other explanations for why they're missing aside from from blending in with humans. They could easily go the other extreme, being so inhuman looking that anyone would be forgiven for mistaking them for monsters, similar to how Fishmen were once classified as a species of fish rather than a species of human. In this scenario, the reptilians would likely lack human postures, tending to stay low to the ground while their limbs, still human-like in length, are splayed and contorted to account for that type of movement. Instead of being covered in fur like the Minks or having inhuman skin tones like the Fishmen, the reptilians would naturally be completely covered in scales, though they may have human hair atop their heads like Page One in his hybrid Zoan form. In fact, for this scenario, just imagine him but walking on the ground with his limbs positioned in ways unnatural for a human.
By naturally being positioned like their animal inspirations, the reptilians would automatically be primed for utilizing their unique movement options while their extreme expression of animal features would gear them towards fighting like said creatures. Furthermore, this would provide a perfectly valid reason why Big Mom hasn't brought them to Totto Land, even if she knows where they are: they're just plain scary. They'd have an extremely difficult time acclimating to human society since none of the other races would be likely to recognize them as human, and being so distant from human society in the first place may have made them more misanthropic and dangerous towards other human species.
As a third alternative, and one that plays more into the gorgon idea that spawned this thought process, the reptilians could grow animals from various parts of themselves rather than uniformly growing them from their hair. For example, while our Medusa has snakes for hair, another reptilian may have snakes for arms or legs, or a crocodile for an arm. I think this option provides the fewest unique possibilities and overlaps a bit too much with the Gifters of the Beasts Pirates, but it's a possibility nonetheless.
Of the three, I'm fond of the hiding in plain sight route since I think it has the most creative possibilities and could even open the possibility of revealing existing characters as reptilians, like Johnny having slit pupils behind his sunglasses, though that would run the risk of feeling like a wildly unnecessary retcon, especially if it's done with too many characters. It'll probably be done with a character introduced within the same arc, but it could be pretty funny to bring back a couple of really old characters and show that they've always had scales or other traits that they were just cleverly hiding. It's could also turn out that reptilians have been living in Totto Land from the start, they were just pretending to be human for one reason or another and Big Mom either never suspected it or could never prove it.
From a narrative perspective, though, I think the monstrous route is a little more believable for why we haven't seen them and would make them stand out that much more from the rest of the cast in terms of design. I've definitely seen a fair number of people express disappointment with the Mink designs going almost full animal for the males but stopping at animal-like human for the females, so while I could see Oda doing exactly that again for the reptilians, it would be interesting if he went the extra mile and made them all nightmare creatures.
Oda could also combine both the hiding and monster options by making the reptilians have a base reptile form as well as the ability to retract all of their reptilian features to become completely or near completely human in appearance. This would be a good compromise between the more creative visual design, the ability to hide among humans, and falling on all sections of the human-animal and mobility-combat spectrum.
As a final note on the topic of appearance, it's also possible that the reptilian race also includes the visually and thematically similar amphibians, which would otherwise sadly go ignored if this is in fact the last race that we are going to meet in One Piece canon. Though reptiles and amphibians aren't particularly close genetically, I can't imagine they're much further apart than the various types of fish (which themselves are not a unified taxon) and the mollusks (octopus and squids) that we've seen represented in both Fishmen and Merfolk. Since two out of three major amphibian types look almost identical to reptiles (salamanders look like lizards, caecilians look like snakes) it wouldn't be too strange for Oda to have the reptilian race incorporate them along with frogs, even if it would be scientifically inaccurate.
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