One Piece's Biggest Mysteries: Seven Questions 1,196 Chapters Still Haven't Answered

A dying man stood up one last time at Marineford — impaled, exhausted, missing half his face — and spent his final breath on a spoiler. "The One Piece exists," Whitebeard roared, and then he died on his feet, because even his corpse refused to fall down. That was years ago. Since then, Oda has answered questions the fandom argued about for decades: we know what happened at God Valley, we know who the hooded "Shanks" in Mary Geoise really was, we've seen Imu's face. And yet the biggest doors are still locked. These are the seven mysteries that survived the Final Saga's answer spree — what canon actually says, what the fandom believes, and how much I'd bet on each theory at 1 a.m.

Spoilers: everything up to the current Elbaph arc — manga chapter 1196 (October 2026) — including the Egghead broadcast and the Elbaph flashbacks. Anime-only readers who aren't caught up: turn back now.

The treasure itself: what's actually sitting on Laugh Tale?

What canon says: Around 800 years ago, Joy Boy left a treasure "of unimaginable value" on the final island. The Roger Pirates reached it, looked at it — and laughed so hard that Roger named the island Laugh Tale. The only living people who know what it is are Rayleigh, Crocus and Scopper Gaban. Whitebeard swore that finding it triggers a battle that engulfs the whole world, and Vegapunk's broadcast raised the stakes: whoever claims the One Piece decides the fate of the world — and might not be the person Joy Boy was waiting for. And before anyone says "the real treasure was the journey": Oda himself shut that down in a 2014 interview, confirming there is an actual reward waiting. One more breadcrumb almost everyone skips: the treasure's full Japanese title, *hito-tsunagi*, can be read as "the rope linking all people" — or "one sea at peace."

The theory: The leading fan reading is that the treasure isn't gold at all — it's the true history of the world plus the means to act on it: knowledge (and possibly a mechanism) that can reunite a planet carved up by the Red Line into one connected sea. Big Mom, dying in Wano, even muttered that "some of it" might be in Wano itself — a line canon has never explained.

My verdict: Strong — call it a B+. It's physical, it's Joy Boy's, and it made the toughest crew alive laugh until they cried. Whatever it is, it's joyful, not a bomb in a box.

Imu: the king the world isn't allowed to know exists

What canon says: The Empty Throne isn't empty. Saint Nerona Imu — one of the First Twenty who founded the World Government — has sat on it in secret for over 800 years, and the Five Elders kneel. Anyone who learns he exists dies: King Cobra was murdered mid-audience for it. Imu keeps a giant straw hat in a frozen chamber and a portrait of Queen Lili on his wall. Elbaph ripped the silhouette away entirely: we have his face now, his Covenant marks that let him possess people (Saturn at God Valley, Gunko on Elbaph), and a Devil Fruit the wiki flatly lists as "the Devil's Fruit." Eight centuries after Joy Boy's death, the release of Joy Boy's stored Haki on Egghead made Imu *scream*. He doesn't fight people; he fights bloodlines — he calls Luffy "Joy Boy" and called Rocks D. Xebec "Davy Jones."

The theory: The face is answered; the 800 years aren't. The standing fan explanation for his lifespan is the Ope Ope no Mi's Perennial Youth Surgery — canon's one named immortality procedure, the very thing Doflamingo hunted Law's fruit for — performed on Imu back in the Void Century. The darker variant: Imu hops hosts through the Covenant, and "Nerona Imu" is a title wearing bodies.

My verdict: B for the surgery theory — it's the only immortality mechanism canon has bothered to name. But honestly, the question that replaced "who is Imu?" is better: what did Joy Boy and Lili do to this man that eight centuries haven't healed?

Luffy's real dream: the one even we don't get to hear

What canon says: Chapter 1060 dropped the bomb: becoming Pirate King is just the *means*. Luffy's real dream is something else — something he calls impossible, achievable only once he's Pirate King. Before telling his crew (off-panel — Oda muted it again), he'd only ever told Shanks, Ace and Sabo. The reactions are our only evidence: the brothers laughed. Shanks cried laughing. Years later, Ace retold it to Yamato (chapter 1000), expecting laughter — and Yamato burst into tears instead. And it's not just Luffy's dream: Roger said the exact same words to Whitebeard and Oden (chapter 966), and both of them howled.

The theory: The runaway fan favourite: Luffy wants to throw the biggest party in history — one feast where every race, friend and former enemy sits at the same table and eats. It sounds stupid. That's the point. It's a child's dream, it explains the laughter *and* Yamato's tears, and it only works in a world the Pirate King has set free.

My verdict: A−. Every reaction shot Oda has drawn fits it. The dream is the thesis of the whole series wearing a party hat.

Blackbeard's body: the man is plural

What canon says: Marshall D. Teach is the only human alive holding two Devil Fruits — a second fruit should destroy the user. Marco said the quiet part out loud at Marineford: Teach has an "atypical body structure." Buggy confirmed the other weirdness back in chapter 966: as a kid on Whitebeard's ship, Teach *never slept* — not once. In Jaya, Luffy and Zoro spoke about him not as "he" but as "they." His flag flies three skulls. And Elbaph-era canon stacked the deck: Teach is Rocks D. Xebec's son, heir of the Davy family, and he's still hunting more fruits — he tried for Hancock's and Law's.

The theory: The fandom's dominant reading: there are multiple souls or personalities inside Teach — one fruit per soul, and a third slot still open. The older Cerberus theory (a mythical three-headed fruit eaten before the story) has mostly faded.

My verdict: B+. Marco, Buggy, "they," three skulls — that's four separate fingerprints across 900 chapters. Whatever the mechanism, a third fruit is coming, and the final war is where it lands.

The Will of D.: one letter, an 800-year grudge

What canon says: We finally heard it from the villain's mouth. Imu told Cobra that "D" was the name of the First Twenty's ancient enemy — people aligned with the Great Kingdom. Rosinante told Law the clan is called "the natural enemy of God." Most carriers today (Luffy included) have no idea what their own name means; Roger learned the truth at Laugh Tale and remains the only modern carrier confirmed to have known. The tease of the decade: Vegapunk's broadcast turned to the Clan of D., said "among them, there is a—" and the Elders cut the feed mid-sentence. The Davy family carried the grudge openly: Xebec warned Imu that Davy D. Jones' will would culminate in a promise — and it would end badly for the throne.

The theory: D stands for Dawn. The carriers are the scattered descendants of the Great Kingdom's people, and their inherited will is to bring the world's dawn — which is why Luffy's Gear 5 techniques keep arriving with "Dawn" in their names, and why the story can't stop drawing sunrises.

My verdict: B. The wordplay fits Oda too well to be coincidence. But the Davy promise tells me the reveal won't be an etymology lesson — it'll be a story beat with a body count.

The Void Century: we can see the shape of the hole now — not what's in it

What canon says: Credit where it's due — this mystery has genuinely *shrunk*. Vegapunk's broadcast and Elbaph's Harley mural gave us the outline: a Great Kingdom of technology centuries beyond today's world; Joy Boy, its first pirate, wielding the Nika fruit; twenty kingdoms allying against him; the Ancient Weapons fired; the sea rising 200 metres and drowning the old continents. Vegapunk's conclusion still chills me: the Great War never actually ended. What's still dark: the Great Kingdom's name — Professor Clover said the name itself is the key, and was shot mid-sentence at Ohara before he could say it. Why the war truly began. The promise Joy Boy broke to Fish-Man Island, and where the Noah was meant to sail. And Lili — the founder who scattered the Poneglyphs and vanished — who, as of chapter 1195, apparently left something sealed in a chest on Elbaph 800 years ago.

The theory: The name is the map: the leading reading is that the Great Kingdom was the united world itself — one land, one sea, before the winners chopped the planet into islands and renamed the pieces. The Lili chest is the fandom's newest obsession: a message, evidence, or a weapon she hid from Imu at the one place he couldn't reach.

My verdict: The broad strokes are settled — A-grade canon now. But the name and the chest are the two locks left on the door, and Oda put a chest in chapter 1195 for a reason.

Shanks: the theory Oda already killed — and the question he didn't

What canon says: Let's bury a classic honestly. For years, the darkest Shanks theory held that he secretly reported to the Government — because in chapter 907, a hooded "Shanks" met the Five Elders to discuss "a certain pirate." Dead. Chapter 1137 introduced Figarland Shamrock, Shanks' older twin brother and commander of the Knights of God, and Oda confirmed in the SBS of Volume 114 that the hooded visitor was Shamrock all along. (The anime even voiced him with Shanks' actor — Oda admitted he simply forgot to tell the staff.) The real Shanks: found as a baby in a chest at God Valley, raised by Roger, a man who once sailed back to Mary Geoise and renounced his birthright.

The theory: What's left is the agenda. Shanks spent two decades pointedly *not* racing for Laugh Tale — then entered the race the moment Kaido and Big Mom fell. The gatekeeper theory says that's no coincidence: he spent those years holding the world's balance (stopping Kaido en route to Marineford, ending the Summit War by showing up) until the person Roger was waiting for was ready. Now he means to test whether Luffy — and this era — deserve the door he's been guarding.

My verdict: B+ for the gatekeeper. And good riddance to secret-villain Shanks: the twin twist made him *more* interesting, not less. Two brothers, one throne, opposite sides of the final war — Oda didn't waste that setup.

The one that keeps me up at night

Ranking the seven by how hard the answer breaks the fandom: Shanks' endgame lands first (7). Blackbeard's third slot (6) will be a war crime in panel form. Imu's 800 years (5) and the meaning of D (4) are lore earthquakes. The kingdom's name and Lili's chest (3) unlock everything behind them, and the treasure itself (2) is the answer the whole world — ours and theirs — is sailing toward.

But number one is Luffy's dream, and it isn't close. Every other mystery on this list ends with fans cheering over lore. This one Oda has pre-loaded with a reaction shot: a hardened warrior princess heard it secondhand and *cried*. When Luffy finally says it out loud — to us, at last — it won't just answer a question. It'll tell us what the last 29 years were actually about. That's the page that breaks the fandom. I'll be reading it at 1 a.m., same as you.

Canon

Everything under "What canon says" in this article comes from the manga itself — the chapters, the Egghead broadcast, the Elbaph flashbacks — checked against the sources listed below. If it's in that box, the page said it. If the page didn't say it, it isn't in that box.

Interpretation

"The theory" under each mystery is interpretation: the fandom's best reading of those facts, and sometimes mine. Interpretation is where honest fans can disagree — the same panel that makes one reader certain makes another reader suspicious, and both are reading the same ink.

Speculation

My verdicts and grades are speculation — one fan's bet on where Oda takes this, clearly labelled and never dressed up as reporting. The day any of these stop being speculation, this article gets updated and the mystery moves to the answered pile.

Sources & further reading

• One Piece Wiki — "One Piece" (the treasure): https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/One_Piece
• One Piece Wiki — "Nerona Imu": https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Imu
• One Piece Wiki — "Empty Throne": https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Empty_Throne
• One Piece Wiki — "Will of D.": https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Will_of_D.
• One Piece Wiki — "Void Century": https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Void_Century
• One Piece Wiki — "Marshall D. Teach": https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Marshall_D._Teach
• One Piece Wiki — "Chapter 1060" (Luffy's dream; the Empty Throne report): https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Chapter_1060
• One Piece Wiki — "Figarland Shamrock": https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Figarland_Shamrock
• CBR — "Does Luffy Really Care About Being King of the Pirates?" (dream timeline, ch. 585/966/1000/1060): https://www.cbr.com/luffys-dream-one-piece-anime-best-part/
• VVIP Times — "Oda Finally Confirms the Person Who Met the Gorosei Was Not Shanks" (SBS Vol. 114): https://vviptimes.com/one-piece-oda-finally-confirms-the-person-who-met-the-gorosei-was-not-shanks/
• Soap Central — "Every Time One Piece Presented Shamrock as Shanks, Explained" (ch. 1137): https://www.soapcentral.com/anime/every-time-one-piece-presented-shamrock-as-shanks-explained
• SuperHeroHype — Chapter 1196 release guide (current Elbaph status; Lili's chest, ch. 1195): https://www.superherohype.com/guides/699484-one-piece-chapter-1196-release-date-time-where-to-read