One Piece creator has been planning legendary character since before the franchise even started Eiichiro Oda\/Toei AnimationEiichiro Oda\u2019s early work proves the most legendary character in One Piece was planned years before the beloved manga\u2019s debut. Recently, the One Piece author\u2019s first editor revealed the concept art of one of his unfinished works. Titled \u2018Forward\u2019, the manga was pitched by a 19-year-old Oda. However, the idea was apparently shelved since it never made it to serialization. Forward\u2019s protagonist is a young man named Monkey D. Pao, who looks quite similar to our very own Monkey D. Luffy. The concept for this character was someone who likes to \u201cstretch and sleep\u201d. Sounds familiar? Besides his illustration, Oda noted, \u201cPeople who can laugh off their weaknesses are the strongest.\u201d This seems like a reference to the character\u2019s power. Monkey D. Pao might be someone who becomes stronger the more he laughs. This is reminiscent of a legendary One Piece character who\u2019s also incredibly strong and notorious for their laugh. The Sun God Nika made an explosive introduction in the story when Luffy transformed into the deity in Gear 5. It\u2019s thanks to Gear 5 that we learned how laughter plays an important role in Nika\u2019s powers. But it\u2019s not just Nika or Luffy who has this incredible ability. The mysterious Joyboy also possessed the same powers during the Void Century. Like Luffy and Nika, Joyboy\u2019s powers also included stretching, coupled with the signature manic laugh and the freedom of doing practically anything he wanted. However, unlike Nika, he wasn\u2019t a deity but a real person. Given how we don\u2019t know most things about Joyboy, including his real name, the historical figure may actually be Monkey D. Pao. It\u2019s plausible since we know he also belonged to the D clan. And his being blood-related to Luffy is an exciting prospect. While this is all conjecture at this point, it\u2019s not impossible. Oda has previously incorporated a character from his earlier work into One Piece canon. With a 30-year gap in between, Monsters\u2019 protagonist Shimotsuki Ryuma was confirmed to be One Piece\u2019s legendary samurai and Thriller Bark\u2019s antagonist. Interestingly, Forward was conceived in the same year, 1994. So, it\u2019s entirely possible that like Ryuma, Pao will also find his way into One Piece\u2019s canon. For more, find out if Bonney will join the Straw Hat Pirates or if Sanji will get Conqueror\u2019s Haki. You can also check out our explainer on Bonney\u2019s Devil Fruit and Bonney\u2019s new transformation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One Piece creator has been planning legendary character since before the franchise even started Eiichiro Oda\/Toei AnimationEiichiro Oda\u2019s early work proves the most legendary character in One Piece was planned years before the beloved manga\u2019s debut. Recently, the One Piece author\u2019s first editor revealed the concept art of one of his unfinished works. Titled \u2018Forward\u2019, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}