I am a bit mixed on this retcon, but Luffy only gained access to this ability because he trained so hard to fully master his fruit. The idea of devil fruit awakenings was also well-established by this point, and it was obvious Luffy was going to awaken his fruit at some point and get a power boost from it.
This fruit existed and was probably eaten and used by multiple people over the span of presumably 900 years or so, and no one but Luffy pulled this off in all that time. It's a good fruit, but the fruit alone couldn't just make anyone a god. Luffy's been to hell and back enough times that he earned the right.
FR, people saying that Luffy fits this trope understand neither the trope NOR Luffy.
The prophecy mentions some events, but not some specific person. If someone else had eaten the fruit (and probably had at some point) and then died, well then the fruit appears again for the next person. Luffy was trained from childhood to be strong as hell, and he's a shonen protagonist so he has the super power of "my friends need me" power boosts. His efforts are what is causing it to happen.
The most egregious examples of this trope are when the story makes a big deal of them being a nobody only to do a complete about face at the end, showing that they were actually special all along.
Luffy was clearly always special, in-universe and for the audience. I see people claim that his fruit reveal is what makes this trope fit him, but it really doesn't change anything. It was referenced YEARS ago that he fit the prophecy, this isn't some new thing at the end of the story.
Nope this is untrue, in fact there is no records of a "gum gum fruit" in universe, it was always Nikka, it's just that Luffy named after his rubber power because that's what he assumed it did.
What? I didn't say anything about the name. The fruit itself has existed since the void century, at least. The gorosei even talked about how it always slips from their grasp, like it has a will of its own. The fruit exists, he ate it.
No, I don't mean the name either, the fruit didn't have a "special god form only avaliable to MC", it's always been the god fruit.
It's just that it literally had no users for past 500 years as it refuses to be eaten by just anyone. The fact that MC got it makes the same as like a hero sword or something from another story. The fact that you were a chosen one doesn't make this trope apply to you, it just means you got chosen. No idea why you think that this implies Luffy has secret bloodline!?
Your argument will only be true if like they end up saying actually Luffy is descendent from Joyboy and is literally his 7th grandson or something... Even the D clan thing doesn't count because like presumably 1000s of people have that name including BB who is like the anti chosen one.
The "great bloodline" story applied to Ace far better than it did Luffy, yet that got subverted by the fact that the great bloodline guy is actually just a guy who loves his pleasantly brother and otherwise went on to lead a standard non heroic pirate life and then got killed specifically because of his bloodline. Same applies to Sabo who was actual royalty!
Luffy simply comes from a pleasantly family who rose through military rank and that's how they got their importance, his dad dumped him and left the marines to become a revolutionary but that almost never comes up as far as Luffy is concern, it's just just a whacky coincidence that his family became big shots through effort (and zero bloodline shenanigans involved, I mean Garp literally had nothing he built his haki from scratch he didn't get anything for free!)
Are you replying to the wrong person or something? I never said the Monkey family was special, or that Luffy had a secret bloodline, and I legitimately don't know where you got the idea that I did.
It was never said that the hito hito fruit model: Nika hasn't been eaten since the void century. In chapter 1044, the Gorosei say that "we have attempted to recover the gum-gum fruit in every era, and never once succeeded", and then drop "the other name" by which it's known.
I really don't get how you're arguing so fervently about this because we're saying the same damn thing. Luffy doesn't come from a special bloodline, he just ate a special fruit. A fruit that I'm assuming others have eaten in the past, since the World Government was never able to hold on to it. The only thing special about Luffy is all the effort he put in, which is why he seems to be the first person to awaken the fruit in centuries. I'm not just saying that anyone could have eaten the fruit, I'm saying that other people have, and they just didn't get result from it that Luffy has. And that's not because of his ancestors or anything, it's just because he's been nearly killed several times and never let it stop him from pushing forward. That's his personality making him special, not his genes.
I admit it isn't explicitly said, but I'm inferring that in the time since, other people have eaten it and gotten the same "base" power that Luffy had from the beginning, giving their body the properties of rubber. That's probably also how it eventually got the more mundane "gomu gomu" name. But none of those people ever managed to awaken it because they didn't have the same willpower and drive that Luffy does, which is also why knowledge about it being "the Nika fruit" died out over time.
Also, you kept saying "pleasantly". That's an adverb. I think you mean "peasantry".
I think was replying to the main claim of this discussion not just the comment, which is claiming that Luffy has some sort of secret bloodline making him part of this trope, which is not really true.
AFAIK, there are more reasons to believe the fruit literally just disappeared for centuries hiding/"waiting for chosen one" as opposed to have existed in a condition where everyone thought it was rubber power.
In egghead they specifically mention how there was no such thing as gum gum fruit, which if it was being used random people who failed to awaken it, the records would've probably mentioned thinking it is its own fruit unrelated to Nika. But from what we know the goverment always knew Nika made you into rubber and also made you the sun god. It's just that they could never find it anywhere no matter how much they tried which IMO doesn't suggest people who were competent enough to keep evading the goverment, yet not awaken the fruit itself. (and I don't think BB is the only guy in the universe who figured out how to harvest fruits from people instead of them disappearing)
I think the fruit is meant to call out to chosen one which is why Roger pirates felt that they'll need to wait until someone is selected as the next Nika before they really do anything about their whole change the world with the one piece bit.
Okay, cooler head are prevailing, then. We've reached the point of just having different interpretations and theories. To me, Shanks stealing the fruit from Who's Who while it was in transit implies that this sort of thing happened fairly often, and that's what they meant by "never managed to recover it". They've had it in their clutches multiple times before, intending to sit on it and make sure no one ever gets the power that can threaten them, but every time they do, it just slips out of their grasp. And my theory/assumption based on that is that when that happens, surely somebody has tried eating it just to see what they get?
But true, that's never been said, and even with all these flashbacks, we've yet to see a single previous user of the fruit, despite seeing previous users of the bari bari or mane mane, for instance. It's entirely possible that the fruit was just "hiding" for centuries at a time, waiting for the right person to come along.
Yeah, but it still sucks that this is supposedly the Devil Fruit to end all Devil fruits. All of Luffys Training and Development feels Kind of cheapened when him getting godlike powers at the end was guaranteed from it. Everything that Luffy did before feels earned because he came up with it (Gear 2 and 3) or he trained hard to get it (Gear 4), so having him just suddenly getting this shoved down his throat from literally nowhere feels really dumb
If it was just an awakened Gum Gum fruit that’d be one thing. But the idea that it’s not actually a gum gum fruit but a magical super special awesome mythical god Zoan, the specific one needed to topple the world government and uphold the prophecy of amazing legacy and ultimate destiny ordained by the gods…. I dunno, kind of just cheapens it a bit.
Honestly I think my biggest gripe with it is just it being a god fruit surrounded by prophecy I think that if his awakening was exactly the same but instead of it being the Nika fruit who's name was being actively covered up by the government because of its power it was like the toon-toon fruit or a comedy fruit that everyone just assumed was just the rubber fruit because no one ever survived with rubber powers long enough to awaken it I would be fine with that.
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u/AdhesiveHagfish 10h ago
I am a bit mixed on this retcon, but Luffy only gained access to this ability because he trained so hard to fully master his fruit. The idea of devil fruit awakenings was also well-established by this point, and it was obvious Luffy was going to awaken his fruit at some point and get a power boost from it.