Hello, everyone!
Taking a quick break from recruitment theories to talk about something I've been wondering about for years: why have we never seen an insect Devil Fruit user?
By which I mean, why haven't we ever seen an insect eat and use Devil Fruit powers, not why haven't we seen anyone use an insect Devil Fruit. We know those exist because of the Bug-Bug Fruit, Models: Rhinoceros Beetle and Hornet used by Kabu and Bian of the Tontatta Tribe of dwarves.
I actually tried to make a post about this back on Oro Jackson, but the day I started brainstorming, my fellow theorist Portgas D. Xatch messaged me with an idea for a theory they wanted my thoughts on: aside from inanimate objects, why have we only ever seen mammals eating Devil Fruit? I was shocked that we had such similar thoughts at the same time. We discussed it and found that our explanations were pretty different, so we decided to each make our own theory, post them at the same time, and then determine which people agreed with more through Oro Jackson's ratings system. Sadly, we never ended up posting it for one reason or another, which I've always regretted. Thus, I have decided that today is the day!
I will say first and foremost that Xatch did make one small miscalculation: we have seen one non-mammal eat a Devil Fruit: Gan Fall's bird, Pierre!
I don't blame Xatch, though. Pierre is a pretty minor character all things considered, and it's easy to forget that he's a bird that at the Horse-Horse Fruit and not the other way around. Anyone could make that mistake, and the rest of their question is still valid. We've never seen a fish, reptile, insect, etc. eat a Devil Fruit. The presence of a bird does create precedent for everything else, particularly reptiles considering their close genetic relation, but that doesn't change the fact that we haven't seen it.
It's also worth noting that Pierre is Gan Fall's pet, so there's a good chance that Gan Fall fed the Horse-Horse Fruit to Pierre or encouraged him to eat it against his better judgement for whatever reason. The exact circumstances are unknowable at this point, but the presence of the human factor is potentially confounding.
Aside from Pierre, we have only seen one animal eat a Devil Fruit: Tony Tony Chopper. Unlike Pierre, Chopper was definitely a wild animal that ate a Devil Fruit completely on his own, but he is still quite literally the only one. Why haven't we seen any more animals do so? Insects were of particular interest to both of us because of their habit of eating pretty much anything and tendency to swarm. I will acknowledge that not all insects eat fruit in the first place, so it isn't too surprising not to see a bee or a mosquito, but there are plenty of insects that do eat fruit, like flies, ants and locusts, so the question still stands.
Xatch's feeling on the matter was that non-mammals literally couldn't use Devil Fruit abilities. Obviously birds can, as we've seen, but looking past that, Xatch's point was that other animals probably attempt to eat Devil Fruit all the time and just don't get any benefit from it, presumably due to some kind of genetic factor within the non-mammals. I personally don't agree with this assertion because frankly there just isn't any precedent for it, especially since birds have been shown to gain Devil Fruit powers, so it seems unreasonable that other animals wouldn't.
I, on the other hand, came up with several possible explanations (because of course I did, if my previous theories have been any indication).
My first was that there was some form of repellent in the Devil Fruit themselves. Animals generally avoid Devil Fruit because the chemical in their makeup that makes them taste bad also likely makes them smell bad. Chopper was a unique case because he was likely faced with starvation due to being persecuted by the rest of his herd, and he ate the Human-Human Fruit despite the repellent out of desperation. I don't think this one was the case, though, because it was never stated why Chopper ate the fruit, just that he did, and as I said before, insects are known for swarming things that smell like decay. That said, the Devil Fruit are specifically said to taste bad, not necessarily like they're rotting, so maybe that has nothing to do with it. People also don't ever seem to gag up Devil Fruit when they're eating them, so perhaps the bad taste is a coincidence and the Devil Fruit actively make sure that they are eaten. Whatever the case, I don't put too much stock in this one.
My second idea was that insects don't have big enough mouths to eat Devil Fruit. A Devil Fruit's power is gained from a single bite, but what constitutes a bite? A mouthful? A nibble? A single speck scraped from the rind? A reindeer's mouth probably isn't smaller than a human's, so they could definitely get whatever the minimum is, but an insect probably would only take in an imperceptibly small bite, possibly not enough to gain the power. I like this one a lot, but I'm particularly shaky on it because the One Piece world definitely has insects that are big enough to swallow a Devil Fruit whole, though maybe those particular insects are carnivorous and don't even recognize Devil Fruit as food.
My third, and possibly my favorite, was that insects DO eat Devil Fruit, possibly quite frequently. They just don't live very long afterward. Barring the huge, possibly carnivorous insects, how long does any given insect actually live? A few weeks to a few months at most? Even if they're longer lived, the chances of a bug getting squished or eaten by a predator is pretty high, and given their generally lower level of intelligence, I don't imagine suddenly having a super power would help them too much since they probably wouldn't be able to figure it out very well in most cases. Imagine a fruit fly or an ant suddenly being able to stretch its limbs like rubber? That's probably going to make flying or walking a lot more difficult since their parts will just inexplicably start elongating from the momentum. A caterpillar, the most likely insect to eat a Devil Fruit I think, would definitely die within a few weeks of emerging from its pupa as an imago, since they literally exist only to mate and many of them don't even eat past that point. This has always been my favorite because it doesn't exclude the possibility and would help with Devil Fruit distribution. I imagine that most of the distribution of Devil Fruit comes from pirates dying at random places in the world, but before the advent of sailing, Devil Fruit were probably distributed through a combination of insects, birds, and other members of the food chain moving the fruit further and further from their origin. Like real fruit, but with more superpowers and the necessity of the user to die.
I did consider another explanation today, however, that doesn't really have too much basis, but I thought would be a pretty interesting possibility. Consider this: not only do most animals not eat Devil Fruit in the first place, the few that do have only ever been shown to eat Zoan types. Why? This may seem like a bit of a stretch, but I think the Devil Fruit may, to some extent, choose their users. I once theorized on Oro Jackson that Devil Fruit have wills (which you can read here) based on the fact that inanimate Zoan-users had personalities, likely received from the fruit, and they may make some kind of effort to communicate that will to the animals around them. The Human-Human Fruit may have done something to draw Chopper towards it unconsciously, or potentially may have chosen to reincarnate in that particular spot. Conversely, they may somehow repel insects of their own will rather than by coincidence or chemical, or even refuse to transfer their abilities to an unworthy host. I think this is the most far-fetched explanation, but the idea that Devil Fruit can make decisions or communicate on some level is really fascinating. It may even explain how people learn certain aspects of their Devil Fruit that aren't immediately obvious, with the fruit communicating to them subtle hints on how to use it. This might even explain the universal tendency to refer to them as "X-X," even in isolated places like Wano or Green Bit, where Kinemon calls his power "Garb-Garb Jutsu" and Leo calls his "Stitch-Stich Power". Maybe that's just a common linguistic quirk in the One Piece world, but it may also be the will of the Devil Fruit coming to the surface.
Let's review: we've never seen any insects eat Devil Fruit, possibly because they are somehow immune to Devil Fruit, refuse to eat them or because their mouths are too small to eat enough to gain a power, but most likely they just die shortly afterward. Devil Fruit may also have the will to decide not to transfer their power if they don't want or to decide where they appear, but there isn't any real basis for this yet.
This isn't a super in-depth one, nor is it one that will likely have much bearing on the story, but it's one I've wanted to get off my chest for a long time. Honestly, I'd just really love to see someone take a bite out of a Devil Fruit only for nothing to happen, and then suddenly a lion just appears next to them only to have pincers and antennae sprout from its face, demonstrating that it was an ant that took a little nibble. A literal antlion, if you will.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this one, especially you Xatch if you ever come across this.
Until next time.
-Tokiro Oumaga
Taking a quick break from recruitment theories to talk about something I've been wondering about for years: why have we never seen an insect Devil Fruit user?
By which I mean, why haven't we ever seen an insect eat and use Devil Fruit powers, not why haven't we seen anyone use an insect Devil Fruit. We know those exist because of the Bug-Bug Fruit, Models: Rhinoceros Beetle and Hornet used by Kabu and Bian of the Tontatta Tribe of dwarves.
I actually tried to make a post about this back on Oro Jackson, but the day I started brainstorming, my fellow theorist Portgas D. Xatch messaged me with an idea for a theory they wanted my thoughts on: aside from inanimate objects, why have we only ever seen mammals eating Devil Fruit? I was shocked that we had such similar thoughts at the same time. We discussed it and found that our explanations were pretty different, so we decided to each make our own theory, post them at the same time, and then determine which people agreed with more through Oro Jackson's ratings system. Sadly, we never ended up posting it for one reason or another, which I've always regretted. Thus, I have decided that today is the day!
I will say first and foremost that Xatch did make one small miscalculation: we have seen one non-mammal eat a Devil Fruit: Gan Fall's bird, Pierre!
I don't blame Xatch, though. Pierre is a pretty minor character all things considered, and it's easy to forget that he's a bird that at the Horse-Horse Fruit and not the other way around. Anyone could make that mistake, and the rest of their question is still valid. We've never seen a fish, reptile, insect, etc. eat a Devil Fruit. The presence of a bird does create precedent for everything else, particularly reptiles considering their close genetic relation, but that doesn't change the fact that we haven't seen it.
It's also worth noting that Pierre is Gan Fall's pet, so there's a good chance that Gan Fall fed the Horse-Horse Fruit to Pierre or encouraged him to eat it against his better judgement for whatever reason. The exact circumstances are unknowable at this point, but the presence of the human factor is potentially confounding.
Aside from Pierre, we have only seen one animal eat a Devil Fruit: Tony Tony Chopper. Unlike Pierre, Chopper was definitely a wild animal that ate a Devil Fruit completely on his own, but he is still quite literally the only one. Why haven't we seen any more animals do so? Insects were of particular interest to both of us because of their habit of eating pretty much anything and tendency to swarm. I will acknowledge that not all insects eat fruit in the first place, so it isn't too surprising not to see a bee or a mosquito, but there are plenty of insects that do eat fruit, like flies, ants and locusts, so the question still stands.
Xatch's feeling on the matter was that non-mammals literally couldn't use Devil Fruit abilities. Obviously birds can, as we've seen, but looking past that, Xatch's point was that other animals probably attempt to eat Devil Fruit all the time and just don't get any benefit from it, presumably due to some kind of genetic factor within the non-mammals. I personally don't agree with this assertion because frankly there just isn't any precedent for it, especially since birds have been shown to gain Devil Fruit powers, so it seems unreasonable that other animals wouldn't.
I, on the other hand, came up with several possible explanations (because of course I did, if my previous theories have been any indication).
My first was that there was some form of repellent in the Devil Fruit themselves. Animals generally avoid Devil Fruit because the chemical in their makeup that makes them taste bad also likely makes them smell bad. Chopper was a unique case because he was likely faced with starvation due to being persecuted by the rest of his herd, and he ate the Human-Human Fruit despite the repellent out of desperation. I don't think this one was the case, though, because it was never stated why Chopper ate the fruit, just that he did, and as I said before, insects are known for swarming things that smell like decay. That said, the Devil Fruit are specifically said to taste bad, not necessarily like they're rotting, so maybe that has nothing to do with it. People also don't ever seem to gag up Devil Fruit when they're eating them, so perhaps the bad taste is a coincidence and the Devil Fruit actively make sure that they are eaten. Whatever the case, I don't put too much stock in this one.
My second idea was that insects don't have big enough mouths to eat Devil Fruit. A Devil Fruit's power is gained from a single bite, but what constitutes a bite? A mouthful? A nibble? A single speck scraped from the rind? A reindeer's mouth probably isn't smaller than a human's, so they could definitely get whatever the minimum is, but an insect probably would only take in an imperceptibly small bite, possibly not enough to gain the power. I like this one a lot, but I'm particularly shaky on it because the One Piece world definitely has insects that are big enough to swallow a Devil Fruit whole, though maybe those particular insects are carnivorous and don't even recognize Devil Fruit as food.
My third, and possibly my favorite, was that insects DO eat Devil Fruit, possibly quite frequently. They just don't live very long afterward. Barring the huge, possibly carnivorous insects, how long does any given insect actually live? A few weeks to a few months at most? Even if they're longer lived, the chances of a bug getting squished or eaten by a predator is pretty high, and given their generally lower level of intelligence, I don't imagine suddenly having a super power would help them too much since they probably wouldn't be able to figure it out very well in most cases. Imagine a fruit fly or an ant suddenly being able to stretch its limbs like rubber? That's probably going to make flying or walking a lot more difficult since their parts will just inexplicably start elongating from the momentum. A caterpillar, the most likely insect to eat a Devil Fruit I think, would definitely die within a few weeks of emerging from its pupa as an imago, since they literally exist only to mate and many of them don't even eat past that point. This has always been my favorite because it doesn't exclude the possibility and would help with Devil Fruit distribution. I imagine that most of the distribution of Devil Fruit comes from pirates dying at random places in the world, but before the advent of sailing, Devil Fruit were probably distributed through a combination of insects, birds, and other members of the food chain moving the fruit further and further from their origin. Like real fruit, but with more superpowers and the necessity of the user to die.
I did consider another explanation today, however, that doesn't really have too much basis, but I thought would be a pretty interesting possibility. Consider this: not only do most animals not eat Devil Fruit in the first place, the few that do have only ever been shown to eat Zoan types. Why? This may seem like a bit of a stretch, but I think the Devil Fruit may, to some extent, choose their users. I once theorized on Oro Jackson that Devil Fruit have wills (which you can read here) based on the fact that inanimate Zoan-users had personalities, likely received from the fruit, and they may make some kind of effort to communicate that will to the animals around them. The Human-Human Fruit may have done something to draw Chopper towards it unconsciously, or potentially may have chosen to reincarnate in that particular spot. Conversely, they may somehow repel insects of their own will rather than by coincidence or chemical, or even refuse to transfer their abilities to an unworthy host. I think this is the most far-fetched explanation, but the idea that Devil Fruit can make decisions or communicate on some level is really fascinating. It may even explain how people learn certain aspects of their Devil Fruit that aren't immediately obvious, with the fruit communicating to them subtle hints on how to use it. This might even explain the universal tendency to refer to them as "X-X," even in isolated places like Wano or Green Bit, where Kinemon calls his power "Garb-Garb Jutsu" and Leo calls his "Stitch-Stich Power". Maybe that's just a common linguistic quirk in the One Piece world, but it may also be the will of the Devil Fruit coming to the surface.
Let's review: we've never seen any insects eat Devil Fruit, possibly because they are somehow immune to Devil Fruit, refuse to eat them or because their mouths are too small to eat enough to gain a power, but most likely they just die shortly afterward. Devil Fruit may also have the will to decide not to transfer their power if they don't want or to decide where they appear, but there isn't any real basis for this yet.
This isn't a super in-depth one, nor is it one that will likely have much bearing on the story, but it's one I've wanted to get off my chest for a long time. Honestly, I'd just really love to see someone take a bite out of a Devil Fruit only for nothing to happen, and then suddenly a lion just appears next to them only to have pincers and antennae sprout from its face, demonstrating that it was an ant that took a little nibble. A literal antlion, if you will.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this one, especially you Xatch if you ever come across this.
Until next time.
-Tokiro Oumaga
