Warning: Contains spoilers for One Piece chapter #1053
The best-selling manga One Piece is full of mysteries that fans cannot wait to be revealed, and perhaps none is more enticing than the true nature of the Ancient Weapons, three instruments of mass destruction hidden somewhere in the world and coveted by many. The latest chapter of One Piece did not just reveal who is One Piece’s new most wanted pirate in the world, but also finally mentioned again one of the three Ancient Weapons, Pluton, whose mystery is about to be solved.
The Ancient Weapons called Pluton, Poseidon, and Uranos, are three weapons of mass destruction that take different forms, including objects and living beings. They were used for the last time during the Void Century – the obscure period of time 800 years before current events in the series that is the origin of every One Piece major mystery. After being used in the war between the Ancient Kingdom and the Celestial Dragons, the three weapons laid dormant for centuries, and their existence is the argument used by the World Government to forbid research on the Void Century and the Poneglyphs, for fear that knowledge of the Ancient Weapons could result in a new global war. Until now, the series has shown one of the three, Poseidon (the mermaid princess Shiraoshi), and explained what Pluton is, while Uranos remains a complete mystery.
Pluton was first mentioned back in the Alabasta Arc as the strongest battleship in history, capable of destroying entire islands in one shot. Supposedly hidden in Alabasta, Pluton was not actually there, but its blueprints were preserved on Water 7, passed down in a line of shipwrights as a way to bring it back into existence should the world ever need it to fight the Ancient Weapons, including the original Pluton itself. Franky, the Straw Hats’ shipwright, inherited the blueprints and destroyed them, but the whereabouts of the original Pluton remained a mystery, until now. In chapter #1053, Nico Robin finds the Poneglyph hidden inside Onigashima and, being the only person in the world who can translate the language on the stone, finds out that Pluton is actually on Wano, hidden there for all this time.
This plot twist was twenty-one years in the making, as Robin learned the truth about Pluton’s location in Alabasta in chapter 203. What this means exactly for the future of the series is still left to speculation. There were major hints that Wano was hiding a secret all along, especially considering the commitment of its rulers to keep the land closed to the outside world. Another clue is in the island’s morphology, which seems to have a big, empty space underground, that could perhaps be Pluton’s hiding place. There is a chance that the reason Kaido took over Wano was to look for Pluton, but because he had no one who could read Poneglyphs he could not discover the weapon’s location. Considering that One Piece‘s biggest war is about to begin soon, Pluton could play a key role in the upcoming events.
Eiichiro Oda has finally started to unravel many of the series’ mysteries that have kept fans wondering for more than twenty years. One Piece is entering a one-month hiatus, so this revelation about Pluton and the Ancient Weapons will keep readers on the edge of their seats even more, if the arrival on Wano of a Marina Admiral hunting for Luffy was not enough. Whatever the truth of the Ancient Weapon may be, the fact that Eiichiro Oda is able to craft storylines that last for more than twenty years is a testament to One Piece‘s status as one of the greatest manga of all time.
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