Summary
The world ofOne Pieceis incredibly fascinating, not only for all the adventures that await the Straw Hats but also because of the sheer intricacy and mystery of the locations and the world itself. The planet is divided into four distinct seas; the North, South, East, and West Blues, each containing various islands and unique cultures. These seas are initially divided by a strip of water known as the Grand Line and the other division comes from a ring-like continent formation that circles the planet called the Red Line.
The latter is the focus of this article. This mysterious area of land is massive and circles theOne Pieceworld, with the continent being far higher up than any other patch of land aside from the sky islands themselves. With Vegapunk’s broadcast fromEgghead confirming that the Earth is sinking, many theories have sought to explain what the purpose of the Red Line even is and why its destruction is needed.
Explaining The Mysterious Strip of Land
First Appearance
One Piece, Episode 63, “A Man’s Promise! Luffy and the Whale Promise to Meet Again!”
Story Arc
Reverse Mountain Arc
The Red Line was first mentioned very early on in the story, where it was mentioned 1to be a massive ring-like continent that wraps around the entire world, separating the East Blue and South Blue from the North and West Blues. It also separates both halves of the Grand Line, the latter ofwhich is called the ‘New World’and is said to be incredibly dangerous, as the Emperors of the Sea, as well as all the other strongest pirates, mark their residence and territories there.
Though the continent is vast, it remains mostly uninhabited due to the decree of the Celestial Dragons, who call it their home and generally don’t deem average people as worthy of being up there with them. Right above the Sabaody Archipelago atop the Red Line lies Marijoa, the capital city of the Celestial Dragons where the self-proclaimed ‘rulers of the world’ reside.
The entire continent owes its name to the resilient red rock that makes up the whole thing, which even goes down about10,000 meters below sea levelwhere it touches the ocean floor. Interestingly, the Red Line doesn’t have a fixed weather pattern, as it is like the various islands on the sea with its differing weather patterns of colder and hotter parts in different areas.
Though, typically, it’s impossible to get to the New World without directly passing through the Red Line’s Navy outposts, there exist other ways, the most notable of which is the detour to Fishman Island from underneath the continent, which will eventually brings the people out to the New World on the other side. Moreover, Reverse Island is typically used by those in any of the 4 Blues to get to the Grand Line via the Red Line.
Why The Red Line Needs To Go
A Theory That States The Need To Destroy The Red Line
At the very first instance regarding the Red Line, fans of the series got the idea that, at the very least, there is something about this continent that isn’t quite right. This doubt was slowly but meticulously reinforced over the years, asOda kept giving small cluesas to the nature of the Red Line and why it’s something that perhaps shouldn’t even be there.
The theory here states that the Red Line is a foreign object that has divided the world into 4 different parts when it was originally supposed to be one massive ocean, giving credence to Sanji’s theory of the All-Blue. At the end of the Void Century, whether right before or after Joyboy’s defeat, Imu and their allies may have artificially made this piece of land to seal away all the oceans from each other, maybe even fusing various islands into a singular, massive continent to do so.
Our world is going to sink into the ocean!
Though it has yet to be confirmed, there are some strong hints of this happening. It was stated early on that the Red Line has very erratic weather patterns that differ greatly in different parts. For example, a certain swathe of land can be a hot, summer landscape and right next to it,there could be a freezing winter tundra. This is very similar to how the many islands on the Grand Line are structured, since they all have their own weather patterns, regardless of how hot or cold the surrounding area is.
It is unclear how Imu would manage to do something like this, though it is suspected that the mysterious Ancient Weapon, Uranus, may have had a part to play. Any information about this specific Ancient Weapon is purposefully kept in the dark far more than that of even Pluton and Poseidon and it is the only one of them that is theorized as being in the possession of the World Government.
Furthermore, the Reverse Mountain Arc also introduced everyone to Laboon, the gigantic Island Whale who was later confirmed to have been anintegral part of Brook’s old crew. Laboon had a nasty habit of ramming his head into the Red Line, which most fans never really thought much about until the Straw Hats exited Fishman Island and swam with other Island Whales to see that many had the same scars. This showed that the act of ramming their heads into the Red Line was something that many of them did.
This sparked a theory that the Red Line is unnatural and the Island Whales instinctually know this, so they ram their heads into the formation in the vain hope of breaking it to return the world to how it was ages ago. Moreover, Vegapunk revealed that while the world is slowly sinking, the biggest increase in water level came at the end of the Void Century, which implies that much of the world sank because of the mere presence of this continent blocking it off into 4 parts and increasing water levels thusly.
Therefore, the destruction of the Red Line may just be the final thing that the heroes have to do at the end of their journey. After findingthe legendary treasure of Joyboy and Rogerand defeating all their enemies, Luffy and friends will likely be in control of the Ancient Weapons, which they are theorized to eventually use to destroy the Red Line and make everything whole again by finally making the entire world One Piece.
One Piececan be streamed onCrunchyroll.
One Piece
One Piece is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The series follows protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate crew as they explore the Grand Line to find the King of the Pirates’ ultimate treasure, the One Piece, in order to become the next king. The manga’s popularity helped it spin off into a larger media franchise, including an anime with more than 1,000 episodes.
