One Piece's NEW Special Power Perfectly Represents The Series' Themes

Kuma’s arrival at Egghead raises questions about the Buccaneers’ true powers and history, hinting at a new secret power in One Piece.

One Piece has just hinted that there may be more to its mysterious Buccaneer race than meets the eye, teasing a new special ability that could represent all the series’ biggest themes. The latest chapter of One Piece finally sheds light on Kuma’s bizarre dash across the Red Line with his arrival at Egghead raising questions about the Buccaneers’ true powers and history, and how the Buccaneer race could be tied to Joyboy and Sun God Nika.

In Chapter #1104 of One Piece, Vegapunk hints the Buccaneers could possess another ability other than their physical strength, which allowed Kuma to travel to Egghead and punch Saint Saturn despite his programming. The chapter reveals that Saturn activated Kuma’s failsafe mechanism soon after the Revolutionaries escaped with him from Mariejois, which should have left Kuma unable to move or carry out orders, much less act out of his own free will.

While the chapter does not specify what the ability could be, Vegapunk uses the phrase, “at one point in time they…” hinting that the ability could be tied to the Buccaneers’ history. Based on the information One Piece has divulged about the Buccaneers thus far, the mysterious ability could be tied to the grave crime they once committed against the World Government and even Sun God Nika seeing how it allowed Kuma to defy all scientific logic.

One Piece‘s New Power Could Be Freedom Itself

Interestingly, Kuma uses Haki while punching Saint Saturn in chapter #1104, hinting that he did so consciously and out of his own will as Haki is derived from the will of its user, or rather their fighting spirit, as Rayleigh describes it while teaching Luffy. If so, the Buccaneer race’s other special ability that allowed Kuma to circumvent his orders could be freedom itself, or rather their inherent free-spirited nature and sense of justice which all trace back to the legend of Nika that has been religiously passed down among the Buccaneers for centuries on end.

In fact, Oda may have even drawn inspiration from the real-world group from whom the Buccaneers get their name. Historically, buccaneers were known for their strong sense of justice, their companies running on the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity supposedly long before the French Revolution introduced the concepts. Real-world buccaneers were known for their sense of liveliness, which is clearly seen in Kuma’s backstory with his father’s hopeful spirit even when enslaved by the Celestial Dragons.

The Buccaneer Race’s Secret Power Could Explain Several One Piece Mysteries

The Buccaneers’ peculiar inherited sense of freedom may be the key to unraveling their tumultuous history with the World Government and the grave crime they stand accused of. The Buccaneer race’s free-spiritedness makes them the natural enemies of the World Government right along with Nika and could serve as another explanation for why the Buccaneers were hunted down to near extinction.

While the notion of a personality trait being inherited among an entire race across millennia may be farfetched in reality, the concept of inherited will has proven its existence time and time again in One Piece, making even the Buccaneers and Kuma’s secret power of inherited sense of freedom and individuality a possibility.

One Piece is available from MANGA Plus and Viz Media.