With the revelation that Luffy secretly ate Sun God Nika Devil Fruit, the secret behind his fire powers might finally have been revealed

After over 20 years, One Piece is finally beginning to reach the finish line. As bittersweet as this is, fans all over the world are as excited as ever to see how the series wraps up its many remaining plot threads and unresolved mysteries.

Among those many mysteries, the ones most recently solved were Gear 5 and the true nature of Luffy’s Devil Fruit (revealed to actually be the Mythical Zoan Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika). Described as giving the user the power of making their imagination become reality, the potential Luffy has is now seemingly infinite. Interestingly enough, even before achieving Gear 5 and awakening his Devil Fruit, Luffy might have been accessing his godly potential without ever realizing it.RELATED:One Piece Theory: Kuzan Wants To Bring Down The World Government

Luffy’s “Red” Attacks Were Part of His Sun God Powers

Right before the time skip, Luffy watched his brother, Portgas D. Ace, die in his very arms. To say Luffy was traumatized by this moment would be an understatement, as there was no one else in the world that Luffy respected and idolized more than his older brother. This adoration was fully realized during the two years Luffy spent training with Rayleigh, when he developed his “Red Hawk” technique.

The Red Hawk technique is performed by Luffy activating Gear 2, then using his Armament Haki to coat his arm as he prepares for a standard Jet Pistol attack. By doing this, his arm ignites into flames, tremendously improving the strength and power of the attack. He’s even managed to do the same thing in Gear 3, naming the attack Red Roc. While it doesn’t seem as fast as Red Hawk, this technique more than makes up for it in destructive potential as now Luffy is attacking with a giant flaming fist.

Interestingly, despite these techniques being some of the most popular in the series, not once has there been a clear reason given as to how Luffy is able to use fire based attacks. Many fans have speculated that it’s due to a combination of his Armament Haki and rubber, with the former creating so much resistance as Luffy’s arm stretches that it literally causes his fist and arm to ignite. However, the only possible explanation the series has given is that Luffy believes he was channeling Ace’s flames when he accidentally created the move. As illogical as that sounds, that might be the key to understanding how this all works.

As mentioned above, Luffy loved Ace more than maybe anyone else, and was absolutely distraught after he died. In his eyes, no one was stronger than his brother, who promised him to always be there to look out for him. While he may not have realized it, these attacks were part of his Sun God powers all along. If the true potential of his Devil Fruit was to make Luffy’s imagination a reality, he might have subconsciously imagined channeling Ace’s flames into his own attack, one that was very reminiscent of Ace’s signature move, Fire Fist. In this way, Luffy found a way of both honoring his brother and helping Ace keep the promise he made to him.RELATED:One Piece: All The Marine Admirals In The Story, Ranked By Strength

What Does This Mean For Luffy?

This could show just how powerful Luffy is, as well as put a lot of other feats of his into perspective. So far, Gear 5’s main ability has shown to be letting Luffy apply cartoon physics to himself and everything and everyone around him. He’s able to stretch himself and others however he wants, and is even able to inflate his fists until they are the size of entire islands, which he can then bring crashing down on his enemies. That being said, given a recent fight during the Egghead arc, it seems as though there may be way more to these powers.

During his most recent fight with Rob Lucci, Luffy seemingly creates a pair of goggles out thin air from his hair. It’s a silly little moment that no character ever acknowledges, yet it might be one of the most overpowered things any character has ever done. Luffy literally created and manipulated matter, turning a tuft of his hair into a completely different object made out of multiple different materials with literally zero effort as nothing more than a gag. This might seem like nothing, but it is incredibly important. The only times anything like this happened is when awakened Devil Fruit users change their environment into whatever their powers are based on. Luffy, on the other hand, seems to be able to change matter into anything he wants.

Not only does this make way more plausible that his fire-based techniques are an aspect of his awakening rather than his original rubber-based abilities, but it implies that his potential is way beyond what was originally believed. In his fight against Kaido, Luffy grabs a stray lightning bolt from the sky and uses it to attack. Before, it was believed that the lightning was nothing more than a convenient coincidence, but now it seems just as possible that Luffy unconsciously summoned it to the exact position he wanted it to be, just so that he could grab it.

Some fans theorize that understanding his awakened powers will be the next big step of Luffy’s development. For the whole series, Luffy has believed his powers to be completely rubber-based, and even after awakening his Devil Fruit, he doesn’t seem to understand the full significance of this. Luffy sees Gear 5 as the state in which he is “the most free,” which while not false, is still a gross oversimplification. He feels this way because he has the power to weaponize his imagination in any way he wants, but as long as he continues to see himself as a “rubber man” and not mortal with the power of a god, he might not ever manage to use his powers to their fullest.

In Luffy’s defense, he isn’t the smartest person out there but has still managed to instinctively pick up on at least some of what Gear 5 is capable of. His idea of it isn’t false, it’s just lacking a complete understanding of the full implications of his new abilities. Also, Luffy has only just awakened his Devil Fruit, meaning that he still needs time to master it. Luckily, Luffy’s the kind of person who learns best through personal experience, and with the Egghead arc progressing the way it is, he’ll have ample opportunities to test the limits of his new powers.