My initial thought was that Oda only "recently" plan Luffy to have this Nika fruit to which many of us were pretty disappointed including me ngl
But......
After rereading some earlier chapters again N again and try to see if there's connection way before. I could see quite many reference and some hint/ foreshadowing.
Sun God Nika:
Yeah we all know Skypie so i don't need to talk about that (especially so many Sun symbol). In
Alabasta too, so two of the most major early arc has already shown it. After timeskip there's just too many.
About Nika .......
Oda said one of his favourite panel is the campfire silhouette of Luffy looking like Nika which is in Skypie arc.....So could it really be that Oda always plan for Nika in very early stage??
One of greatest features of Nika/Joyboy: "LAUGH"
"Laugh" also shown the importance since the very beginning of the series and it is one of the core of one piece.
About the Devil fruit and it's connection to fire finally make sense??:
I believe we don't have any clear explanation about how Luffy could produce heat (G2) just by being a rubber, and especially a fire ( Red hawk)
Now Oda made clear the DF is a mythical "Sun" God Nika, maybe because it has Sun in the name and Luffy hair is also like a fire ( i don't it's just for a show or decoration lol), this "Sun" is the reason he could produce heat and fire??
:zorothink:
Now let's talk about which seemingly be the most plot holes and nonsense to the reader
This thing is still a question, i really couldn't find how it could really make sense, it's like that plot hole when WB pirates were simply clueless about Oden and Wano situation. It's just for plot
First, lets pretend WG doesn't know the DF is real, not a myth
But then again even if WG aren't sure about it, we have Imu who will know at least more about it, and still doesn't take action all this time.
My only idea how it will make sense is that the WG don't want ppl to know about it, only very few ppl including the top Cp0 agent only knew about it, The guard who told Who's Who about Nika also just disappeared ( most probably killed) and Who's Who himself was prisoned due to his failure guarding
What about Rob lucci?? Maybe Rob lucci doesn't know about the DF during pre-time skip?? So they didn't punish him because there is no consequences.
WsW might be punish since he got the information about the importance of fruit since he was supposed to be the incharge of guarding it.
This could be the reason the entire Marines might not know about this, even the likes Sengoku.
And hence no Admirals, are sent pre-skip
But again this is a very weak reasoning.
Since WG should have no restriction and could just order Admirals to do the job without the need of giving the reason or information about the importance of fruit. Marines will just follow without question, as they already did that in Ohara incident.
...........So my final conclusion is that, i can see that Oda already plan about Nika/Joyboy/Sun at a very early stage. But i don't think he plan the revelation well, especially it all comes under the Devil fruit.
The Devil fruit is the weakest link to me, I'm fine with Luffy being destined to be Joyboy, but with a Devil fruit being the core of this doesn't sit well with me. He's just simply too blessed lol.