A Throwaway One Piece Scene From 2012 Just Became The Key To The Series’ Final Battle

One Piece‘s Elbaph Arc has completely changed Eiichiro Oda’s landscape long-running shonen manga, due in large part to the arrival of the World Government’s shadow leader, Imu. Imu’s combat debut introduced his Domi Reversi ability to the story, which seemingly gives him the ability to control the will of any character he targets, thereby making the mysterious character the biggest threat to Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates since they began their journey.

While it’s true that Imu’s arrival in Elbaph partially stems from Luffy’s presence on the island, even more importantly, it seems as though the villain is attempting to turn the Land of Giants into his own private army. However, as frightening as this proposition is, One Piece may have set up Imu’s master plan long before the Straw Hat Pirates ever set foot on Elbaph’s Adam Tree.

The Giant Army Imu Is Looking For Was Revealed in the Punk Hazard Arc

Image via VIZ

The idea of a Giant army was teased as early as One Piece‘s Little Garden Arc when Dorry and Brogy first mentioned their crew, the Giant Warrior Pirates. However, after the events of the Elbaph Arc’s opening salvo, it’s obvious that a Giant army won’t just appear in One Piece‘s final saga — it will majorly affect the outcome of the war against Imu and the World Government. With this in mind, the stakes of the clash unfolding on Elbaph are clear, as Luffy and his crew absolutely must repel Imu’s advances lest an unstoppable, Domi Reversi-enhanced Giant army spread throughout the Grand Line.

However, even if Luffy and his crew successfully defend the Land of Giants, One Piece‘s Punk Hazard Arc introduced a secret ace up Imu’s sleeve that could drastically change the tide of the series’ final saga. One Piece Chapter 660 — released all the way back in March 2012 — sees the Straw Hat Pirates attempting to free the giant children being experimented on by Caesar Clown, during which Nami and Tony Tony Chopper take the oversized kids through an underground passage in the Punk Hazard’s Third Research Institute. In this passage, the group makes a shocking discovery: the walls of the frozen tunnel are filled with what appear to be Giant prisoners.

This hallway of frozen, oversized characters is easy to miss, as they only appear a single time during the Punk Hazard Arc. That said, as One Piece has emphasized repeatedly, the Giants are one of the most formidable forces in the history of the Grand Line, so if these oversized figures are indeed Giants and Imu already has possession of a Giant army, then the future could look very dark for the series’ protagonists. Though it’s hard to believe that One Piece has been hiding an army of Giants under fans’ noses for nearly 15 years, there’s plenty of evidence to support the idea that the story of the Giants runs through Punk Hazard.

Punk Hazard’s Frozen Giants Have Major Implications for One Piece’s Endgame

Although the arc hasn’t always been well-received by fans, One Piece‘s Punk Hazard Arc explores the story’s giants more than any other arc to that point in the series. The entire point of the experiments being performed by Caesar Clown on the island’s children was to see if transforming regular humans into Giants was possible, and during the Wano Arc, it’s revealed that the Beast Pirates’ monstrous Numbers are the result of failed experiments on Punk Hazard to recreate Ancient Giants.

Considering these connections and the sheer size of the figures encased in ice underneath Punk Hazard, it feels safe to say that the characters that Nami and Tony Tony Chopper saw were indeed Giants — either legitimate Giants or ones created by Punk Hazard’s various experiments. However, these might not just be a random assortment of Giants, as indicated by Chief Jarul during the recent events of One Piece‘s Elbaph Arc.

In One Piece Chapter 1154, Chief Jarul mentions an ancient crew of Giant shipwrights named Galleila, who left the Land of Giants with the goal of exploring the world and meeting other groups of people. This crew has been missing for centuries, but according to Rocks D. Xebec’s belief, they’re still alive somewhere in the Grand Line, potentially hinting that the giant figures seen in the Punk Hazard Arc may be much more important than fans initially thought.

As One Piece‘s oceans prepare to rise to catastrophic heights throughout the world, a group of Giant shipwrights could be exactly what the series’ heroes need to get the Grand Line’s residents to safety. The narrative principle of Chekhov’s Gun suggests that this group will unfreeze sooner rather than later, so regardless of what their role ends up being, they’re sure to factor into the final saga within the next few arcs. Until then, the Straw Hat Pirates will need to do their best to defend the Giants currently waging war against the World Government in the land of Elbaph.