How will Straw Hats defeat Big Mom or how they will escape her territory?
So after reading chapters 890/891 I noticed that Luffy was thinking about what Rayleigh has said to him in the past during his training regarding Strength and Spirit and how he said the best way to get stronger is to never doubt yourself and that strength lies in the act of having no doubt.
I think this is an important point to reflect on the story of Whole Cake Island, I think Big Mom will likely be weakened further. The reason for this is that currently she has become weakened due to lack of food, much like how Luffy’s G4 Tank Man would be less effective if he was not full, basically Tank Man is how I see “fat” Big Mom constantly having up very high defense. This was shown in the anime recently when Brook fought Big Mom and he stabbed her only to realize he didn’t even touch her and mentioned just how strong is her skin. I think that much like other characters from anime she uses her “fat” as a way to protect herself or to “absorb” damage. So the skinnier she is the less damage she can absorb, this has been noted by Jinbei throwing her off the Sunny with the Vagabond Drill secret technique.
Now we know Big Mom has been weakened, but also in this weakened state she is still way stronger than anyone else in the Straw Hat crew or any other pirate crew in the area, meaning Bege’s crew as well. I want to expand on what can end up happening to her, as mentioned above regarding Luffy remembering the words Rayleigh mentioned to him about “never doubting yourself” being the key to haki and strength. I think what will end up happening is after Big Mom consumes the cake she will either pass out, or be so happy she will think back to her 6th birthday and think fondly of how much fun it was only to realize what actually happened, or Pudding could use her memo-memo fruit. I just want to show the idea I am trying to portray, I am not sure how exactly it would happen since Oda is so hard to predict with anything.
Basically Big Mom will remember her past and realize that she killed all of those dear to her, and she will then realize this dream she has of wanting everyone to live together in harmony was a false idea and she wanted to relive that day, but then realizes that day was actually her downfall. I think she will then begin to doubt her idea of why she wants to be a pirate since her whole life has been built on this facade.
This is where the words Rayleigh said come into play, as Big Mom begins to doubt her dreams, goals, and reason for even becoming Pirate King and will realize that she has a flawed idea of what it means. She will then begin to express this doubt which will in turn weaken her further by reducing the effectiveness of her Haki. Now I want to state this, I DO NOT want to infer that Luffy will now be able to beat Big Mom. I think this will begin the “downfall” of the Big Mom pirates, or lead to a change in how the pirate crew acts and conducts themselves. I think the people the Straw Hats really are trying to save this arc isn’t Bege or Germa, but the Big Mom Pirates. Don’t forget in every arc we always have someone or some group that the Straw Hats are trying to save/change for the better.
I think this will begin the process of the Big Mom Pirates realizing that there is truly someone out on the seas who harbors no doubt in themselves and has the will to become the Pirate King and that is Luffy. Now I am very unsure of what will happen, if they will simply begin to dissolve, or if the CP0 will arrive with a buster call, or if the Big Mom pirates will somehow (very doubtful) join the Grand Fleet.
Basically what I am speculating is that Big Mom will be so overcome by the taste of Sanji’s cake combined with potentially Pudding using the “flashback” ability displayed previously and that will cause Big Mom to remember the past and this will lead to her realizing that she has been living a false dream that was built on a lie and begin the cycle of doubt leading to a rapidly decreased level of haki, this would be combined with her “weakened” state, granted I think she will regain a portion of her power from the cake, regarding her iron balloon.
Let me know what you all think of this speculation and where you see the story going and how Oda might capitalize on the “having no doubt” aspect of how haki works.
I appreciate you taking the time to read all of this!!
*Theory by Shalebale
