#also i dont think oda would pull the whole “this beloved figure on elbaph was actually super evil” again

[crinj-central]

King Harald was either naive, a traitor or both

I can't stop thinking about the connections that the world government is desperate to make with Elbaph in order to obtain their military power. They've actually been at it long before Loki was even born.

Mother Carmel was deeply beloved by the giants, so much so that she even had authority over what to do with Linlin (essentially saving her). However, they never realised her true colours, and they never will. What if her influence extended even further than the village Hajrudin grew up in? What if she was the gateway to introducing King Harald to WG ideals?

Dorry and Brogy were away for 100 years and Elbaph has already changed so much. Carmel was 80 years old when she died, so even if she started her "business" in Elbaph as a young woman, it must've happened during the absence of the OG Giant Warrior Captains. I don't think that Carmel singlehandedly brainwashed Harald, but I *do* think she was the stepping stone for WG propaganda.

Ever since this chapter released, I couldn't stop thinking about this panel in particular. Why else would a Holy Knight/Celestial Dragon think about a random king's grave, if they didn't have a connection in the past?

What if the Holy Knight's mission isn't just protecting Mariejoia and kidnapping slaves, but also extending political power via diplomacy and essentially recruiting unaffiliated countries? What if they do the exact same thing as the Revolutionary Army, but in the opposite direction?

Obviously the WG knows they couldn't take on Elbaph by force. They couldn't successfully replicate giants either. So why not overtake Elbaph with soft power instead, not unlike modern imperialism that we know from our own world?

100 years might seem like a long time to us, but it's literally just ONE generation for Elbaph. All the young looking teachers are considered the last gen to have grown up with traditional warrior values that Elbaph is known and feared for. This implies that the real shift must've happened sometime after Carmels death and while Loki was growing up.

My speculation is that Carmel was the primer for what was to come: a political intervention from a Holy Knight. There's no way the WG would've left Elbaph alone after her death, why should they? But instead of child trafficking, they decided to play the long game by weakening the future generation aka the future warriors.

All the ideals that Harald preached sound pretty good on paper, right? It all sounds reasonable and full of justice. Isn't that a bit too good to be true? The WG only appears as "good" on the very surface level if you don't actually know anything about their corruption. The more I think about it, the more I grow convinced that Harald fell victim to WG propaganda to the point of tearing off his own horns.

His belief about Ancient Giants just seems a bit too out of nowhere. Why was he the only one to think that way? There's also little kids with horns that we saw at the school, so it's not like ancient giant blood is that rare. Yet he's the only one to have done something so drastic. I don't think it's that far-fetched to claim that somebody else, probably a Holy Knight like Sommers, instilled this belief in him. But still, why tear off his horns?

I think it's because he wanted to impress the WG and show them that unlike "those other brutes", *he* is willing and ready to stand behind WG ideals. Or maybe he wanted something from the WG. Maybe there was a deal....

Until Oda proves me otherwise, I wholeheartedly believe that Loki (allegedly) murdered his father for a very good reason. It sounds like Loki was the only person around who could've witnessed King Harald's descent at all. His mother was long dead and Hajrudin wasn't allowed to live in the castle. He saw what the WG did to his father in real-time. The same WG that oppresses people and eradicates anyone who researches the void century/is aware of Nika.... both things that are DEEPLY intertwined in Elbaph's culture and historical heritage.

This also leads to this question: why exactly does Loki even know what Holy Knights *are*? They're not exactly public knowledge, hell us readers didn't even know about their existence for the longest time either. We only know because 1) the RA have intel on them and 2) we saw them in action in Mariejoia. I don't think the average citizen or noble even knows what they are, much less someone from an unaffiliated country like Elbaph. Loki might be the only person in the whole country to be aware of them, if my whole theory about the Holy Knights influencing King Harald is true.

What if Loki hates them not just for the "obvious" reasons, but because of what their propaganda did to his father?

I believe that Harald either betrayed Elbaph or was about to, it doesn't matter if he was "aware" of that. Even if Loki was framed for his murder, he still ate the devil fruit. I believe it was a last-ditch effort of his to save Elbaph and protect the legendary fruit from the WG. He must've witnessed something that ticked him off to the WG's true intentions.

That fruit must be insanely powerful with the potential to destroy the world....just like Nika.