One Piece’s Joy Boy flashback has an Alabasta arc callback no one noticed, and it’s perfect

Modified Aug 31, 2024 18:12 GMT

One Piece’s Joy Boy flashback has an Alabasta arc callback no one noticed, and it’s perfect (Image via Toei Animation)

As author and illustrator Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece approaches its end, the best-selling manga series of all time continues to elaborate on major plot points and callback to earlier moments. The recent Joy Boy flashback serves as a great example of both, finally giving fans their first look at the legendary figure and alluding to some of his exceptional abilities and strengths.

On the latter point, however, the inclusion of Emeth in the flashback centered on Joy Boy provided a callback to the Alabasta arc, one of One Piece’s most beloved story arcs yet. It’s a subtle callback that not many fans initially picked up on with the issue’s release, but is made evident by Emeth having a cross mark on his arm in the shape of an X.

One Piece’s Alabasta arc saw Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirates, as well as their dear friend and comrade at the time Nefertari D. Vivi, put a similar mark on their own arms to identify each other. Although nothing is confirmed, there are some major implications from this callback that could pop up in the series’ final saga and also provide a nice parallel between Vivi and Emeth.

X mark on Emeth’s arm in One Piece's Joy Boy flashback teases info about Joy Boy, Emeth’s friendship with Luffy

Expand Tweet

To first elaborate on the parallel being made between Emeth and Vivi, One Piece’s Alabasta arc saw the crew and Vivi first put this X on themselves in order to identify each other. This was a means of countering Bon Clay’s Devil Fruit, which could let him impersonate others to a flawless degree.

However, the mark also symbolized the friendship between them and served as a means of the Straw Hats telling Princess Vivi they’ll always be friends without putting her at risk given their status as pirates. With this in mind, the reveal of Emeth having this mark on his arm in the flashback (which comes right after he sacrifices himself for Luffy and co) teases that Luffy also came to view him as a friend.

It can also suggest that, long before One Piece’s story, Emeth and Joy Boy also had a similar relationship. While they may not have been true crewmates with each other, they clearly were close friends, which is already confirmed by the flashback’s dialogue and further supported by the Alabasta arc callback.

Expand Tweet

Jumping off from that, this in and of itself has some major implications surrounding Emeth’s character and role in the Void Century. The biggest implications would play into Joy Boy’s war with the alliance that would eventually become the World Government. By nature of Emeth having an X on his arm as Vivi once did, it could tease that he was the leader of some major group or nation who opposed the eventual World Government to side with Joy Boy.

This could in turn reveal that there are other Iron Giants like Emeth, or that the Iron Giants were somehow the predecessors of Elbaf and the modern-day Giants as fans know them. It’s also believed, but not confirmed, that Elbaf is not a World Government affiliated nation. Combined with their confirmed belief in Sun God Nika, this could explain why Elbaf and the Giants that populate it choose not to ally themselves with the World Government.

However, these implications to the series’ lore and Void Century’s truth are still speculative as of this article’s writing, with nothing confirmed yet. That being said, there’s little to no doubt that the inclusion of an X on Emeth’s arm is more than a coincidence given Oda’s modus operandi in writing his world-famous manga series. Likewise, it’s certain that fans will get the answers they want surrounding this aspect of Emeth’s character design before the series ends.