One Piece Mysteries: Joy Boy

It’s a new year, and I think this would be a great time to start exploring more the One Piece world. In particular, I would like to dive into the unresolved mysteries in One Piece. This will be a series of articles and the first I want to talk about Joy Boy.

I thought of this due to the events of the upcoming chapter that was leaked recently. For those who have not read the raw scans of One Piece chapter 967, you may not proceed to read if you don’t want to be spoiled. For those who did, tell me what you think after reading.

Who is Joy Boy?

Before we start speculating about the man, let us first review what little information we have about him. He was first mentioned in chapter 628 in Fishman Island Arc. Robin was reading about him in a poneglyph located at the deeper part of the sea forest. Joy Boy was a surface person who lived during the void century with some form of connection to Fishman Island.

According to Robin, that poneglyph was different from the other poneglyphs she read so far. In chapter 649, King Neptune clarified to Robin that the poneglyph was an apology letter from Joy Boy to the mermaid princess during his time. It was an apology to an unfulfilled promise. This tells us that Joy Boy was intimately affiliated with the Fishman island.

According to Neptune, the contents of the promise were unclear, but ultimately the promise was to bring the citizens of Fishman island to the surface. To accomplish this Noah was built, an ark which was supposed to take the fish-men and merfolks to the surface with the help of Poseidon’s ability to command the sea kings.

Joy Boy’s Laugh Tale

Joy Boy is so mysterious that he was only mentioned three times in the whole series so far. The most recent mention is in chapter 967. This will be the chapter where Roger finally finds the last island in the grand line. The revelation of the true nature and form of One Piece is the most awaited event by the readers. However, the upcoming chapter only gives us a vague hint about it.

Upon seeing the treasure which was apparently left there by Joy Boy, Roger laughed and wished he had been born in Joy Boy’s era. Because of it, Roger decided to name the island Laugh Tale. This is somehow exciting and worrying at the same time.

We can only wonder why Roger and his crew laughed, but this chapter tells us that Joy Boy is a more important figure than we thought. He may even be the most important figure from ancient times. I have a great feeling that Joy Boy was one of the main enemies of what we now know as the world government. Here’s why.

The creator of ancient weapons?

In chapter 967, Roger and his crew go to the Ryugu kingdom in Fishman Island. They met up with Neptune who was crowned king a few months prior to their arrival. During this time, a three-year-old Shyarly prophesied the birth of a mermaid princess who will become the next Poseidon, an ancient weapon.

Neptune then expressed his concern about Roger’s interest in the prophecy. However, Rayleigh appeased him by saying that they are not interested in the ancient weapons themselves, but by the treasure left by the one who created them. In the last part of the chapter, we learned that the treasure they were talking about belonged to Joy Boy.

I don’t think Rayleigh was talking with the whole picture already in mind. I mean it is impossible for Joy Boy to have created Poseidon, an animate being, to be a weapon. Maybe he created or ordered the creation of or helped create the other weapons Pluton and Uranus. But still, we don’t have enough details to make the conclusion.

Conclusion

To sum it up, I think Joy Boy can be considered the pirate king of his era. Of course, that doesn’t mean they had such epithets at that time. But Joy Boy does not seem to be the royalty type of person. First, why does he have a vast amount of treasure, to begin with?

I think he was also some sort of pirate, but with other agendas, like maybe opposing the twenty kingdoms who founded the world government. For me, his character is like the combination of Roger and Dragon. Who knows, maybe he is also a D, or maybe he founded and passed down the will of D.

Keep following piunikaweb for more of One Piece mysteries. You can also add in the comment section which mystery you would want to know more about.

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Image credits:Viz Media/ Funimation/ Onepiece.fandom

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