Odin is in Elbaf! And he’s going to play a MASSIVE ROLE in the future of this arc. At least that’s what I think Oda is trying to tell us all, because I was really trying to figure out what the point of these last few chapters has been and I think I found the answer!
And it’s all because this giant raven right here is CONFIRMED to be the one who brought Luffy to the false sun god. And while that hint doesn’t seem like much at first, let’s break down all the evidence leading me to believe we will be seeing Odin very soon. First of course we have to start with Muginn right here because what you may not know is that Muginn is actually a combination of two mythical ravens, Huginn and Muninn.
These two are said to serve the Norse god Odin by flying around the world and bringing him information. So in classic Oda fashion, he has taken this bit of Norse lore and twisted it by combining the two ravens into one. And while at first it may seem like Muginn is serving the false sun god, in reality I think it’s much more likely that both the false sun god, Road, and Muginn are followers of a much greater character, who of course I think is Odin.
Now, the reason for this is pretty simple because in this chapter we learned that Road here was not happy that his former leader Hajrudin decided to join the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. And while we don’t know for sure if he officially left the New Giant Warrior Pirates, he clearly didn’t want any part of being a subordinate to Luffy and thinks that giants should not follow humans. Which is actually a super important detail because it sets up that there are at least two different groups of giants in Elbaf.
Ones that are cool with being friends with humans and another group that think they are superior. But more on that in a few minutes. Because just based on Road’s personality, it seems highly unlikely that he would just go off on his own.
Instead, I think he probably left the New Giant Warrior Pirates and is acting under a new leader, who of course I think is Odin. Because just listen to this. Road clearly likes to be in control, but so far all of his control has been through tricks, like the mirror box.
So I highly doubt he can actually control the raven Muginn, which means that someone else is most likely commanding Muginn in order to bring people and information from the outside world. So Road is serving kinda like the gatekeeper of Elbaf or wherever this place is, just like Heimdal from Norse mythology. But Muginn’s role isn’t the only hint of Odin’s existence because haven’t you ever wondered about Loki always being referred to as a prince?
I mean it makes sense logically that if Loki is a prince then there has to be a King, right? And who better to be King than Odin? There’s also been a connection with the most famous giant attack technique.
Because in chapter one hundred and twenty four, the giant Pirate captains Dorry and Brogy unleash their so called Spear of Elbaf, Hakoku. And then we have another character with connections to Elbaf in Big Mom, who uses basically the very same attack when chasing down the Straw Hats in Whole Cake Island. And the reason that connects to Odin is that in Norse mythology, Odin is famous for wielding a spear so it would make a TON of sense for the giants’ greatest attack to be named after their king, Odin.
So yeah, basically I believe Odin will be a real character and play a major role in the future of this arc. And before we get to what exactly that role will be, let’s break down all the other connections to Odin that already exist in the story. Starting with his children.
Because as you may know, mythological gods tend to get around and have a lot of kids. And while Loki is only an adopted child of Odin, he does have other kids such as Tyr, the Norse god of war, who has many INCREDIBLE similarities to Shanks, such as missing part of his arm. In fact, Tyr sacrificed his arm to the wolf Fenrir in order to save his friends kinda similar to how Shanks sacrificed his arm for Luffy.
Funnily enough, Shanks’s famous scar also resembles an attack from a claw, so there’s that similarity as well. Tyr was also a legendary swordsman and said to embody a sense of justice in the world. Plus Shanks has other obvious parallels to Norse mythology, such as his ship being modeled after viking ships.
That’s not the only one of Odin’s sons though and I personally would love to see Odin’s most famous son, Thor, make an appearance during the Elbaf arc as well. Because as we’ve pointed out many times, there are many callbacks to Skypiea that we expect in the Elbaf arc, and there would be no bigger callback than to introduce Thor, the god of lightning and thunder, which would be an obvious parallel to Enel. Then we have other sons such as Baldr and then Vali and Vidar, who both play a role in the end of the world Ragnarok.
So could these two also play a significant role here in Elbaf? We’ll have to wait and see, but man, I know I’m getting way too deep here again, but I just love Norse mythology! Let’s get back to Odin though because he has some truly incredible powers that could actually explain a lot of the weirdness we’ve already seen in this arc.
For example, Odin is famous for being a master of manipulation and illusions which fits PERFECTLY with the whole theme of these last few chapters where we’ve been constantly questioning what is actually real or not. I mean we are still questioning the *make air quotes* “drawing mistakes” from a few chapters ago and whether those were intentional or not. Plus we had the cat-lion transformation and the fact that all these captured people here are acting like nothing is out of the ordinary, so it would fit perfectly if some of this was illusions or mind manipulation from a character like Odin.
That’s hardly Odin’s only power though because in the mythology he also has god like mental abilities such as the ability to see the future and even multiple timelines, so that fits perfectly with him having Advanced Observation haki. He was also a shape shifter and could manipulate the weather. So basically an all powerful god.
And while I don’t think the one piece version of his character will have ALL of those powers, a few of them would certainly fit the story quite well. And I actually talked about these powers and more about in my first initial thoughts on the chapter, which you can get early access to every week by supporting me on patreon. Link in the description below.
However, no matter what Odin’s powers turn out to be, if he is a real part of the Elbaf arc then he will surely play a huge role in the Straw Hat’s journey. And honestly, there are two ways that I can see this playing out. Either Odin is a good guy who will help the straw hats or he will be a villain to be overthrown.
Pretty uhh, real deep analysis there, isn’t it? Seriously though, let’s start with the idea that Odin is a good guy who will help the straw hats in some way. And there are two possible scenarios for how I could see this happening.
First, Odin could be the king of Elbaf and is going to train the Straw Hats to help them grow stronger. This fits nicely with the idea that Shanks is friendly with the giants and it might even be possible that the Red Hair Emperor could have asked Odin to help the Straw Hats progress on their journey. This could play out sort of like the legend of Hercules, who had to face a number of trials given to him by his king.
But the much more interesting option in my opinion is that Odin is actually NOT king of Elbaf, but instead is a FALLEN KING. Let me explain. Again, we know Oda loves to make twists on the lore he takes inspiration from, and what better way to twist Norse mythology than to have Loki take down Odin and take over his throne?
This would set up the PERFECT storyline for the Straw Hats to become allies with Odin and help the fallen king reclaim his throne. It also perfectly aligns with the main theme of other one piece arcs where the straw hats take down the false king and help the rightful ruler reclaim their rightful place. And to continue with the skypiea similarities here, Odin could be like old man Gan Fall who was the god of Skypiea before Enel forced him out.
On top of that, this story line would make sense considering the conflict that was introduced in this very chapter. Because we have to keep in mind that Oda wouldn’t just make up Road’s problem with the Straw Hats for no reason. If Road doesn’t believe that giants should be following Luffy or any human, then there are probably other giants who believe that as well.
Which leads to the most likely narrative arc here which is that Luffy and the others will prove that they are worthy of following and eventually Road will change his mind by the end of the arc. So what better way to do that than to have the Straw Hats help Odin reclaim his throne? This works especially well if Road is indeed working for Odin like we speculated earlier.
So it all fits nicely, right? That’s why I am really convinced at this point that we could be meeting Odin very soon or even as soon as the next chapter considering what happened at the end of this chapter. Because as the Straw Hats are smashing through the wall in the diorama the straw hats seem to think they are breaking free to the outside.
However, Luffy then has this “Oh! ! !
” remark and a smile which could mean many different things. It could be that he’s just amazed by what he sees on the other side of the wall or it could be that he is surprised by what he sees. Surprised like he sees this awesome new giant waiting for him and the rest of the group.
And if that is the case, then it could very well be Odin as we’ve been suggesting. Or this could all be very wrong. It is of course possible that even if Odin does exist in the story that he will just be a straight up bad guy who the straw hats will need to defeat before the end of the arc.
Even that isn’t quite so simple though because the one event from Norse lore that I am almost POSITIVE will actually occur is Ragnarok. Now we know that Ragnarok is supposed to be a terrible destruction of the current world which will then cause the new birth of the next world. And from the myths we know that Odin’s goal is to untie the nine realms in order to prepare to stop Ragnarok.
Which is a good goal. Who wouldn’t want to try to stop the end of the world? Except that we know Odin will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal, even using some pretty awful methods to get what he wants.
So I could see a story line where Odin is trying to prepare to stop the end of the world - whether that be the downfall of Elbaf or the destruction of the larger One Piece world - but he is going about it in the completely wrong way. Which is where the Straw Hats could come in and show him just how the world will be saved. And again this works for the idea of Ragnarok in Elbaf or Ragnarok for the entire world, which we basically just had to us described during Vegapunk’s message with the flooding of the world.
And if Luffy is able to prevent a disaster in Elbaf, it could be the final straw in convincing everyone that he is worthy of believing in. This in turn could actually unite the nine realms - or in other words all the races of the one piece world - and get them to fight together to overthrow Imu and the world government. And earning this trust could lead to some pretty awesome lore reveals because one thing I bet you didn’t know about Odin is that he is sometimes depicted wearing a large brimmed hat.
Which could tie into the concept of the Straw Hat being an important symbol for the giants. And just to speculate a bit more on this and thinking about the fact that Nika could have been a giant or Buccaneer from the past, then what if Odin is actually in the ancient lineage of Nika. This could lead to some super interesting reveals about Nika, Joy Boy, and so much more from the distant past.
We’re not done talking about Odin though because one of his hobbies was said to be gathering information from all over the world. Again that was part of the idea behind his two ravens, but we can also apply this to One Piece because we know that the giant Saul rescued the knowledge from the Library of Ohara and brought it to Elbaf. So what better way for Odin to satisfy his desire for knowledge than by housing that legendary library of information?
Speaking of Saul though, I do want to shift focus and mention that we’ve gone three chapters now without seeing the rest of the crew or Dorry and Broggy. And previously I thought that that group might land on Elbaf and reunite with Saul since Robin has such close ties to the friendly giant, but if we run with the idea of Saul being with Odin, then it might actually be Luffy’s group that encounters Saul first. And of course I doubt Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, Nami, or Usopp would know what to do with all the information, but it could lead them on a journey to reunite with all the other straw hats so Robin can connect with Saul.
Which is definitely high on my list of things I'm looking forward to in Elbaf! However, there was one other surprising twist from this chapter that you might have easily missed. Because when we get the flashback with Muginn bringing the Sunny to Road it is revealed that he uses a special sleeping gas out in the ocean to put all the Straw Hats and giants to sleep.
So that explains that mystery, though it makes me wonder why Oda included the whole plot line about the alcohol. But anyway, I’m just really fascinated by this whole sleeping gas technology. I mean, how does Road have this sort of thing?
Is it something he created himself? Or is it something he got from Elbaf? Either way, having technology like this is pretty much the opposite of everything we have seen about Elbaf so far, which very much has an old school viking low tech kinda vibe.
So by Road having this sleeping gas, does that hint that there is more technology on Elbaf than we previously thought? I wouldn’t doubt it, especially if you consider the fact that Elbaf was most likely never conquered by the World Government so it could very well have remnants of technology from all the way back in the Void Century which we already know was much more technologically advanced. Maybe Road needs some better tech though because he was ABSOLUTELY CRUSHED by Nami in this chapter.
And with everything we learned about Road’s otaku personality, his passion for his make believe world, and his creepy obsession with Nami, I for one was cheering when Nami brought down the thunderbolt on his giant head. Seriously, she’s the real MVP of this chapter. Which unfortunately means that Usopp once again didn’t really do anything.
Maybe we are expecting too much from our favorite sniper but surely Usopp will do SOMETHING soon, right? Otherwise, he may go through another internal crisis like he did back in Water 7. And while I don’t think we’ll go as far as him leaving the crew like he did back then this could turn out to be another interesting plot point going forward with all the other straw hats showing off but Usopp not really able to keep up.
So I'm certainly going to be looking out for at least some real Usopp feats by the end of this arc. What’s even crazier though is that I am now wondering if we might actually get something that no one expected in this arc. I’m talking about a full on Imu reveal.
No more shadows or silhouette, but a full on character reveal for the world’s most mysterious character. And I’m only thinking that at this point because the closer we get to the secrets of Elbaf and the true history of the Sun God Nika, the closer we should be getting to learning about Nika’s opposite, which at this point we assume is Imu. And wouldn’t it just make so much sense for Imu to try to stop Luffy - aka Joy Boy - from learning more about the truth and any secrets he could use to actually take down Imu?
And surely Imu would know that the giants believe in the Sun God, so all of this is leading me to think Imu might make a surprise appearance here in Elbaf, or if not then maybe send their super weapon to destroy the land of the giants. That would certainly fit the bill for a Ragnarok type event and show us even more about the devastating power of the ancient weapons. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for what we can expect from Imu going forward, and if you want to learn all of the forbidden lore about the world’s secret ruler, you can watch this video right here.
As always, Shanks so much for watching. And an extra special thank you to all of my patrons that you can see right here. They really help us make better videos on this channel and allow us to do never before seen projects, so thank you all again so much.
You can also join the Patreon squad using the link in the description below. Shanks again, and I’ll see you in the next one.
