One Piece has finally brought Luffy and the Straw Hats to Elbaf over two decades since it was first teased in Eiichiro Oda’s original manga series, and the series might be getting ready for a huge shift in its status quo with a new and unexpected time skip. One Piece is now working its way through the starting stages of the second arc for the Final Saga of the manga overall, and it’s time for some of the series’ biggest reveals as Luffy and the Straw Hats steadily make their way to the One Piece treasure itself. But it might take them a lot longer than they thought it would.
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One Piece has been teasing Elbaf as one of the key islands for the history of the series for years, and now that the manga has begun revealing more of the island at last there are starting to be some peculiar elements that stick out the most. Not only is it touted to have the kind of perfect climate that allows for ships and other things to travel on top of them, but there was also an ominous warning that would lead to “lost time” while there. It seems that One Piece is going to be skipping forward several years when Luffy and the others finally leave.
One Piece Teases “Lost Time” That They’ll Regret
One Piece Chapter 1132 sees Luffy and the Straw Hats finally all reunite with one another on Elbaf, and a passage from Louis Arnote (who was the original adventurer that gave Little Garden its name) begins to reveal itself. Teasing that while the giant versions of plants, animals, and more seen on Elbaf is breathtaking, there’s a greater danger that those who visit the island should be wary of. As Arnote warns, “Adventurers, do not regret your lost time here…Do not overstay your welcome here.” This is such an ominous warning, but what could it mean.
The “lost time” is what makes it so interesting. It’s being worded in such a unique way that it clearly is setting up for something much more dubious than it would describe. Rather than warning adventurers about having too much fun on the island or reflecting on seeing its majesty, it seems that it’s teasing that Elbaf moves at a different time than the rest of the seas around it. In fact, it could be tying into how the rest of the island’s climate and other conditions make it so unique.
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One Piece Has a Different Kind of Timeskip on the Way
One Piece‘s time skip remains one of the biggest shifts in the series’ history. It was such a significant move for the series that those initial first new designs for the Straw Hats are still the most prevalent amongst One Piece‘s promotional materials, games and more over the years. Now it seems like we’re going to get another one heading into the grand finale of the story overall. But unlike the first time skip where Luffy and the Straw Hats saw some major changes from their time away, it’s likely going to be the rest of the world that changes while Luffy and the others are on Elbaf.
Much like how it was when Luffy and the others were on Wano as the rest of the seas went through some big changes in the time since the Reverie, Elbaf is offering its own kind of isolation. Not only is it confirmed that they don’t pay much attention from news from the outside world (outside of hearing about Luffy’s defeat over Big Mom on Wano), but something else stands out about the “Do not regret your lost time” warning in Arnote’s message. It could be that time passes much quicker on Elbaf than the rest of the world.
Its strange climate already teases a different environment from the rest of the seas, and the Straw Hats’ current location on top of the giant tree isolates them even further from the docking points we’ve seen with Elbaf in the past. It seems that rather that Luffy and the Straw Hats changing this time, we’re going to see the rest of the seas moving forward in years instead. It’s yet to be teased what kind of time dilation that might be in the island itself, but this ominous warning is setting up that the seas will be much different than we saw them last time.
With Dr. Vegapunk’s final message to the world claiming that the seas are rising more each year, the world is going to be a dramatically different place when Luffy gets back out of Elbaf. If time moves differently on the island, and Luffy finds that many years have passed while they were there, it’s possible that the other Emperors will make great strides towards the One Piece in that time. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how big of a time dilation this is going to be.
