- [Narrator] Hello, and welcome
to the Grand Line Review,
your source for everything, One Piece,
and today it's time to
talk about the dragons.
Not that one, not that one, not
that one, but yes, this one.
The one who looks the least like a dragon,
and he even has monkey in his
name, which is suspicious.
But monkey the dragon
is one of the more
permanent question marks
in this series today.
And I would like to explore the question
of whether or not Mr. Dragon
is a devil fruit user.
It goes almost 900 chapters
after his official
introduction to One Piece,
we still don't know,
making Dragon a more mysterious character
in this regard than even Shanks,
who was confirmed to not
be a devil fruit user,
although not in the
actual series, mind you,
but in an official article
which is still far better than anything
that we've had in regards to Dragon.
Then again, Shanks is a very popular boy.
Having ranked in 11th place
at the most recent
character popularity pole,
whilst Dragon came in at a
very, very sad 85th place,
which I find mind
boggling because it means
that Ricca, Camashi, and Penguin
all got more votes than Dragon.
No wonder he always has
this very sad, concerned
look on his face.
But if you want to turn the
sad dragon into a happy dragon,
then please do show him some love
by subscribing to the Grand Line Review,
which will also result in you receiving
regular One Piece content
uploaded straight into your YouTube feed.
Don't you dare leave Dragon hanging,
but downwards with the actual video,
now this 900 chapter
question mark of a man
is something that is commonly speculated
amongst the fan base.
Because despite the distinct
lack of Dragon-related content
in the series, what we do have of him
drops in some pretty powerful hints
of the capabilities of this man.
So I'm going to go through these events
and then we're going to attempt
to determine what kind of
devil fruit user Dragon is
or even, if he is a
devil fruit user at all.
So, stepping into Dragon's
very first appearance
in good old chapter 100,
he and Dragon famously stops
Moka from capturing the boy
who we now know is Dragon's son,
but there's a wide variety
of strange-weather phenomena
that seems to conveniently
accompany Dragon's presence here.
But this event is very strange
because it actually differs quite greatly
between the anime and monkey versions.
And not only that, but
there's even a mistake
in the official English translation
that can make things even more confusing
than they need to be.
So, starting with the Manga,
Dragon stops Moka and says,
"The world is waiting for our answer."
And then we cut to this panel
of like this huge gust of wind,
with Dragon seemingly saying
wind-blast to accompany it.
Which taken at face value,
seems like a fairly generic attack name.
However, this was later
recognized as a mistake,
with the original Japanese line being
(speaking in foreign language),
which more accurately translates
into shouting something like,
a squall, question mark?
And in retrospect, it
was almost certainly said
by a random marine or perhaps even smoker
rather than Dragon.
So this is kind of a tricky thing
because this mistake
does, for better or worse,
heavily imply that
Dragon is the individual
controlling this wind.
Which, could still very much be the case
and we'll add some evidence to that later,
but this particular instance is an error.
Meanwhile, the anime actually
cut this line entirely.
Dragon says, "The world is
waiting for our answer."
And then the wind just kicks in
without someone yelling about it,
which you would think might
make the situation more ambiguous,
but the anime also did
something very, very interesting
to say the least,
which is how it would
depict this force of wind.
Essentially, this guy turned
a very interesting shade
of emerald green and we proceeded
to see this super stylized gust of wind,
which looks to be very non-natural wind.
And the whole scene retains
this greenish tint to it,
which can be taken as a tangible queue
connecting it to Dragon
because green is heavily
associated with this man,
being his primary color scheme and all.
But fascinatingly enough,
this wind also proceeds
to ravage the entirety of Loguetown,
which, I will emphasize, it
did not happen in the Manga.
In the Manga, it was just one sharp gust
around Loofy's general area
and it's hard to know
how to reconcile that.
On the one hand, this could
have been the anime staff
having special knowledge,
which they have certainly
shown in the past,
or it could have been the staff
taking some creative license
and greatly expanding the
scene for some filler material.
At this stage, the only
thing that's undeniable
is that the sudden shift of
weather occurred coinciding
with Dragon's physical presence.
And down in town,
that would be far too
speculative for my liking,
however, in chapter 587,
we would see another such phenomenon.
And this was during the post-war art
specifically in the time
of Loofy's flashback.
Basically, the nobility
of the Goa kingdom,
being the pricks they are,
set the gray terminal on fire
in an attempt to murder all
of its lower-class riffraff,
when suddenly a gust of wind
opens up a path straight to Dragon
and his cohort of revolutionary forces.
And I think this removes any
sense of ambiguity I once had
because just as the original case
of chapter 100 in the manga,
this is a very, very
controlled blast of wind
and the anime doesn't add
any strange stylization
this time around.
And so, while one
instance is a coincidence,
two instances becomes a pattern,
and we can very comfortably tie the idea
to wind and our weather control
to either the presence of Dragon
or the revolutionaries in general.
And just to really hammer
home this point about wind,
in other appearances,
wind is also a very emphasized
element surrounding Dragon,
such as during the return to (indistinct)
where we see him staring
out into the wind of Artigo
or even call shots flashback
claiming that Dragon
has a habit of staring
out through the wind
in the direction of East Blue,
which is obviously where Loofy
would have been at the time.
So Dragon is pretty
intrinsically linked to wind,
in particular, being a primary feature
in most of his appearances
throughout One Piece,
which would obviously lead
into our first general area
of devil fruit speculation,
which would be the Logia realm.
Now this idea has existed
ever since I became a fan of One Piece,
although centuries and centuries ago,
and it almost certainly
existed before that.
But a common thought is
that Dragon is the wheedler
of a wind based Logia fruit.
This is a natural assumption
because wind fits quite nicely
into the element of theming of logia.
And while we do have some basic stuff
like fire and ice sentimental fruits,
Logia of course, also dives pretty deeply
into more abstract features of nature
such as light and darkness.
So I personally see no reason
why wind could be excluded
as a possibility within the Logia class.
The only thing it doesn't do,
which I should stress, it
doesn't necessarily need to,
is explain some of the
other weather phenomenon
during the Loguetown arch.
Controlling wind is one thing,
but we also had a ton of other stuff
involving storms and lighting,
especially the lightning
strike that saved Loofy
from being executed by one buggy.
However, this could all very
much be simple fate at work.
Throughout the entirety of One Piece,
storms have been used for
very fateful encounters,
like the edge wall where
the roger pirates were saved
from (indistinct) by a fateful storm
that destroyed his forces.
So I don't necessarily think
that we have to connect
Dragon to the greater storm,
although it would be cleaner,
and I suppose there's
always going to be an idea
like, say, his control
over wind is so great
that he blew over some storm
clouds from the Grand Line
all the way to Loguetown or
something along those lines.
But the Logia is not the
only soul possibility
and there are some great
arguments to be made
for the Zoan class as well.
I'd say specifically
within the mythical Zoan sub-class it is,
because that happens to be a
whole ton of options available
especially when it comes to
the world of god-like figures.
Because, remember, if Sangoku can become
a literal big brother,
then this sort of stuff
is well and truly in play for One Piece,
meaning that Dragon could
quite easily be, say,
a mythical Zoan and model Zeus,
or a similar god that was fabled
to be able to control weather
and all of that good stuff.
Actually you know what,
even better than Zeus,
much better, actually.
Let's go for Fujin, who is a
literal Japanese wind demon
treated similarly to a god
and his counterpart Rajin would
be another potential choice,
whose palace comprises
thunder, lightening, and storms
which would wrap everything up
in a neat that would package.
Although, given how strongly Dragon seems
to be linked to wind, if I had to bet,
I would say the former.
And furthermore, the fact
that both Fujin and Regin
are demons would link in pretty
well with Dragon's position
as a member of the D clan.
Being the natural enemy
of the world nobles,
in the same way that demons
would be the natural enemy of the gods.
And one other name to throw
into the mythical Zoan mix
might also be Susanoo, the
Japanese god of storms and sea,
sea being particularly
relevant in a lot of One Piece.
And I could probably go on
forever listing mythical figures
who have been linked to having
the power of wind or storms.
So let's just end that
particular exploration
by saying that the realm of
Zoan is wide open for Dragon
to fit relatively comfortably into.
But another thought that's
often brought up though,
is that Dragon would be a
literal Dragon Zoan fruit
which is an idea that I'm
personally not wildly keen on.
And it's just a bit too on the nose
given that his name is literally Dragon.
And right now, we're exploring
that whole idea of dragons
with the one oax.
Kaido could very much be
a dragon Zoan fruit user
or be an Eastern dragon,
although that still has very
much yet to be confirmed.
But we also have Monimoski
who's artificial devil fruit
was clearly based on an Eastern dragon,
heavily resembling Kaido.
So, I guess there's room for
Dragon to be another type
of dragon but really after one,
I'm hoping that we're
kind of done with dragons.
Not that my hopes have any
bearing on the series whatsoever,
though, which is why I do mention it here
out of shear obligation.
But let's also briefly touch
on the Paramecia class now though,
and I feel like we can
dismiss this pretty easily.
Logia and Zoan both make
a decent degree of sense,
but you would really have
to stretch your thinking
to make a decent case for Paramecia.
These fruits tend to have
very isolated effects,
when not awakened that is
and are mainly focused
on bodily orientation.
And even when they're not
like Foxy's known enemy,
they still have a comparatively
small area of effect.
But it's just so unlikely that
with everything we've seen,
Dragon could be lumped
into the Paramecia realm,
and I can't even think of a decent way
in which I could argue it.
Even if I was to take for granted
that he was an awakened user.
So, if you can, please do
say so in the comments below
because I would be quite interested
to hear your Paramecia related ideas.
But we also need to ask the
very necessary question of,
is Dragon even a fruit user to begin with?
A lot of this video has
taken many assumptions
as something of a fact in that,
well, that can be a very dangerous thing
because here's the deal,
yes, Dragon has been associated
with grand wind phenomenon
on two separate occasions,
but both of those cases
could have been a different character
such as another member of
the revolutionary army.
We've never seen Dragon
invoke this strange wind power
and in fact, in this very first
demonstration in the manga,
Dragon actually looks like
he's defending himself
or bracing against the wind.
And it's difficult to imagine
him engaging in this act
if he would say, a wind Logia
because why would you bother?
You are literally wind, so
it's not going to affect you.
And I'd also say something
similar for a mythical Zoan,
but it is very important to note
that the anime not only admitted the line
that accompanied this panel,
but also the winds affect on Dragon.
We do not see his reaction to the wind,
which could be an instance
of either perhaps regretting
depicting Dragon that way
and fully forming the idea of
his powers at a later date.
Because here is something
that not a lot of people want to admit,
but One Piece is much less
planned than you would think.
It's really solidly done in general,
but either does retroactively
change earlier ideas
after discovering better ones.
So it's hard to know how much stock
to place in a piece of art
that was drawn 21 years ago at this stage.
And if Dragon is a devil fruit user,
then maybe he wasn't
intended to be at this point,
and maybe he still isn't
intended to be one.
And of course, there is always going
to exist some more left-field explanations
like the idea that the dragon
and the revolutionary army
might have control of the
ancient weapon Uranus.
The most mysterious of the
three to us at this point,
but one that is heavily hinted
to have a sky based effect
to match how Pluto devastates land
and Poseidon controls the sea.
And as such, Uranus could have
a powerful wind based effect
that Dragon is able to harness
because who knows what form it takes?
Not me, that's who,
but my personal conclusion on the matter
has less to do with these
potential demonstrations of power
and more about how Dragon is depicted
on a piece on Baltigo.
The situations with
Loguetown and the Goa kingdom
are what people tend to fixate on,
but there is just something so revealing
about how Dragon is
depicted in his downtime.
Because even in the most subtle
and arguably boring points of his life,
wind is still a paramount feature.
It surrounds Dragon in a very unique way,
especially when you
consider that wind is held
as one of the most unpredictable
and destructive forces
within the Grand Line and the new world.
Meanwhile, in regards to Dragon,
wind is startlingly
predictable, controllable,
and even calm.
So if I had to place a bet right now
on if Dragon was a devil fruit user,
then I would probably say yes,
just because with the
old Okam's racer theory,
it's the simplest explanation
regardless of whether it is a
wind Logia or a mythical Zoan.
Every other explanation very much requires
a further leap of logic
which is certainly not
impossible to make by any means,
but I do find it difficult
to invest too much talk
into those thoughts
when there is a much easier
alternative to latch onto.
But even with that in mind,
that is the beauty of One Piece
because those stranger left-field ideas
can more often than not
become a reality and in fact,
ideas that absolutely no one predicted
can take the stage and as such,
all I can really do is look
forward to the inevitable day
that Dragon's powers are revealed.
But what do you guys think?
Please do leave your thoughts
in the comments below,
or even join my disco whatsoever,
and if you'd like to see
more videos like this,
then please go and check out
some of my other content,
or even subscribe to the channel
for more glorious One Piece business
uploaded straight into your YouTube feed.
But for now, this has been
the Grand Line Review,
and I'll see you next time.
