One Piece: The Iron Giant's Connection To Gear 5, Explained

One Piece’s Egghead Island arc is continuing with full intensity and fans are extremely excited by the ongoing events in the climax of the arc, which has recently seen the awakening of the Iron Giant once again. The Iron Giant has proven itself to be a constant talking point for the fans over the course of the Egghead Island arc.

Now that the arc is in its very climax, fans can rest assured that this giant will play a massive role. In One Piece chapter 1111, it finally awakened properly and started moving, which all but confirms that it has a major role to play once the series returns from its break.

The Iron Giant On Egghead

The Iron Giant was introduced to the fans as soon as the Egghead Island arc began. When the Straw Hats Pirates began exploring Egghead, it was none other than Luffy who came across this Giant first, and that is precisely where he met Dr. Vegapunk. According to Vegapunk, the Iron Giant is actually a creation of old times. It was created during the Void Century, and 200 years ago, it attacked Marijoa by climbing the Red Line. It terrorized the Celestial Dragons, however, before it could finish the job, it somehow ran out of fuel. It is unknown exactly how this Iron Giant was created and what exactly itS orders were, however, what fans do know is that it was an ally of the Ancient Kingdom.

This ties in very well to the statement of the Ancient Kingdom being a very advanced society. Given that it was incredibly advanced and possessed technology that even the current One Piece world doesn't, it's easy to connect the dots and figure out that the people of the Ancient Kingdom created this Iron Giant, and give it a specific mission. Given that the Ancient Kingdom was also at war with the 20 Kingdoms, who banded together to defeat it, the Iron Giant most likely fought on the side of the Ancient Kingdom and that is precisely why it knows Joy Boy as well as it does.

How The Iron Giant Is Connected To Nika

Of course, in One Piece chapter 1111, fans found out a massive revelation pertaining to the Iron Giant. As soon as it awoke, it called out to Joy Boy and apologized to him. This was rather unexpected, however, at the same time, fans do know that the Iron Giant is connected to Nika, and, in that regard, these two having a connection is not a surprise to the fans. A massive question that every fan has right now is how these two are connected. It appears that the Iron Giant and Joy Boy have some kind of personal connection.

Before one even tackles that question, they need to tackle the question of how the Iron Giant was created in the first place. Given that the Iron Giant is not human, it could not have fostered a human-like relationship with Joy Boy. However, what fans know is that the Ancient Kingdom was incredibly advanced, and, as such, for it to have enough power to create a Giant that has emotions such as feelings, among other complicated things, should be possible. For instance, Vegapunk has recently created the Seraphims, and if he was able to create that from scratch, then, the Iron Giant being created by the Ancient Kingdom people should not come as a surprise to the fans.

That said, the Iron Giant appears to be intrinsically linked to Joy Boy. This is clearly evident to the fans as the Giant only awakened once Luffy tapped into the power of Gear 5, and Joy Boy forced his return. Through the Drums of Liberation, the Iron Giant was powered up, and eventually, it got up once again, and started moving. Had Luffy not accessed the power of Gear 5, which is what makes him Joy Boy, then, the Iron Giant would certainly not have moved either. Beyond that, it appears that these two were very close, likely friends at the time. Joyboy most likely fought together with Iron Giant, and it is likely Joy Boy who gave it the mission to scale the Red Line and destroy those top Marijoa.

The Iron Giant And Buccaneers

While fans do not know much about the Iron Giant as of now, there are bits of information that can be connected together, which would then explain to the fans a lot of things about the Iron Giant. For instance, what fans know is that the Iron Giant is connected to the Drums of Liberation and it most likely channels this throughout its body and uses it as its power source. Another interesting thing that the fans know is that despite not actually having a soul, the Iron Giant can still move, and that is truly remarkable. To some extent, this is very similar to Kuma.

Kuma had his free will taken from him and was essentially an empty shell. On many occasions, Kuma has been called an empty shell that is devoid of any feelings now. However, despite that, Kuma came to Egghead to save Bonney. This was something that Vegapunk linked to the special power of the Buccaneers. Fans do not know what exactly the power is, however, it is surely linked to how Kuma defied every order. If the hidden power of the Buccaneers is to pass on the willpower to inanimate objects and live on, then it would make sense as to why the Iron Giant awoke after hearing the Drums of Liberation as well. This would mean that there existed a Buccaneer long ago, and it passed on its will to the Iron Giant before dying and, as a result, it lives on even though the actual body of the Buccaneer died.

Similarly, in the case of Kuma, fans know that his free will was taken from him, and, as a result, his body is just a shell. However, thanks to his Buccaneer power, Kuma could have passed on his will to the inanimate object of the Pacifista, which would then allow him to disobey even the Elders and get back to Bonney.

It is quite a prevalent idea that Nika himself was a Buccaneer, given the giant Straw Hat that fans saw in Marijoa. As such, the person who is currently the Iron Giant could very well end up being a close associate of the true Nika, or, potentially even a family member. This would then explain why hearing in the Drums of Liberation awakened this particular Iron Giant that was sleeping for many years and why it started apologizing to Joy Boy almost immediately. Of course, much of this is just conjecture, however, theorizing is the beauty of One Piece, and fans are free to come up with their ideas, especially during the excruciatingly long 3-week break.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus app. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1112, is set to be April 21, 2024.