Elbaph Arc's course in One Piece may be influenced by real-life Crusades

Modified Feb 04, 2025 11:49 GMT

One of the most well-known aspects of mangaka Eiichiro Oda’s process in crafting his One Piece story is pulling from real-world historical events, concepts, and more. This is most apparent in the series’ themes, which reflect many issues of our own world, but also via certain story arcs that take historical inspiration.

The Elbaph Arc seems to be the latest example of that, with some fans drawing a connection to the history of Lithuania and Europe’s Christian unification during the Middle Ages. More specifically, these One Piece fans are convinced that this connection may indicate where the current story arc is headed, with its exact direction hinging on one character.

Hajrudin’s coming choice in One Piece will link him to one of two figures of Middle Ages Lithuania

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Essentially, the argument boils down to the claim that what’s happening to Elbaph and its people in One Piece currently is drawing a direct connection to Lithuanian history. In the 1200s, the state was the last in Europe to be Christianized, with the nation being Pagan and polytheistic prior to the invasion of the Teutonic Knights and Order of Livonia. The first, and last, king of Lithuania Mindaugas ruled at the time of the invasion.

Initially, he fought against these Crusaders to avoid a forced conversion to Christianity. However, he eventually gave into their demands for the sake of the Lithuanian people, being baptized as Catholic while his people continued their Pagan ways.

An obvious connection can be drawn here to King Harald, who voluntarily ripped out his own horns to promote new peaceful ways despite the presumed protestors to this change in lifestyle.

Unlike Harald, Mindaugas had oppressors to answer to, with the Crusaders eventually taking issue with the arrangement. Thus, the fighting began again, with Mindaugas’ nephew Treniota convincing him that Christianization wasn’t worth it.

This led to the entire nation, king included, wholly abandoning Christianity and returning to their roots. Unfortunately, this led to even more bloodshed, with Mindaugas eventually agreeing to become Christian and unify once again.

Loki's alleged crimes in One Piece create a key historical reference (Image via Shueisha)

Treniota disagreed, and eventually fought and killed Mindaugas, the king’s sons, and his men in battle. This, obviously, relates to Loki’s alleged murder of King Harald in One Piece, which saw him slay 100 of Harald’s men before finally reaching his father.

Treniota was also later killed by those loyal to Mindaugas, similar to Loki’s current imprisonment, and Mindaugas’ last surviving son left the throne unclaimed, like how Elbaph’s throne is currently empty.

The connection between Mindaugas and Harald is apparent: both rulers wished to unite their kingdoms with the rest of the world for the sake of peace. They were even willing to cast aside core concepts of their identity like religion and culture in order to assimilate and benefit from the unification process.

Loki likewise appears to be Treniota, having seemingly disagreed with Harald’s philosophies and fighting and killing both Harald and his soldiers.

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Further supporting this idea is the fact that new One Piece character Gunko specifically asks if Loki’s defiance to the point of choosing death is a matter of religion.

In turn, Gunko and the other Holy Knights are seemingly going on a Crusade similar to the one the Teutonic Knights and Order of Livonia waged on Lithuania. This would likewise parallel the World Government to the Catholic Church, which is something Oda has done many times before.

Hajrudin, in turn, is seemingly being set up for a role similar to Mindaugas’ surviving son. However, Hajrudin’s choice will likely boil down to supporting Loki or the Holy Knights rather than reclaiming the throne or not.

Should he join them, he can do so as a way to lead Elbaph and unify Giant-kind with the World Government’s help. However, if he joins Loki in defying it, he’ll be making a choice similar to what Mindaugas’ son did by rejecting Elbaph’s unification.

Final thoughts

Hajrudin may end up playing a key role in the Elbaph Arc (Image via Toei Animation)

While all of this is speculative, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the main focus of the Elbaph Arc thus far was inspired by this real-world history. Connections between key characters of comparable title and standing serve as the foundation, while additional nuances in the story thus far build upon these strong evidential factors. However, all fans can do is wait and see how the story plays out, hopefully confirming the above theory.