10:00 So Yu can turn into a Bear, but his wife turns to stone and he has to raise their child alone? Does that sound familiar to anyone else?

Luffy going infinite gear five because the people he saved are constantly giving him food would be crazy.

In other words, Luffy has the mandate of Heaven

25:15 theres a bit of dialogue from luffys flashback after marineford where bluejam says, “humans beings are strange creatures, when we’re thrown into the deepest pits of misfortune we start to laugh” so it’s possible they laughed realising that they served no purpose in saving a doomed world and that after all their work to reach the end they dont really play a role in fixing it. They made it there too early, they werent the main characters of this world.

In costa maya, there was a kingdom that was lost for 800 years and i would not have thought to much about it until i found out a major export of the area was their abundant supply of rubber trees.

I think the Roger pirates laughed partly because they did everything they could to get to this last island and despite all that they couldn't do anything when they got there. But also probably because what they discovered there : the truth of the world, the void century, the way to "finish" what the ancient kingdom started and their goal was so absurd yet plausible they couldn't help but laugh

Look at Merphy theory crafting and researching ancient chinese mythology. So inspirational!!🙌🏾

in my culture(india) we have similar noah arc story" The Hindu flood narrative centers around the figure of Manu, found in texts like the Matsya Purana and the Satapatha Brahmana. Manu is warned by the deity Matsya (Vishnu's fish avatar) about the impending deluge and is instructed to build an ark to save himself, sages, and seeds of life". notice here manu is warned by deity matsya which is in avatar of fish - odas notes are always with a fish head in water and luffys final attack to kaido is "bajrang gun'' here bajrang means hanuman(monkey god of hindus).

That Gomu Gomu no Mi pronunciation was immaculate

The version of the tale in which Yu turns into a bear and his wife turns to stone is parallel to what happened to Kuma (bear in Japanese) and Jinny/Bonney (Sapphire scale disease) I think you’re onto something!

When you said you'll talk about a Chinese flood myth, the only thing comes into my mind is "大禹治水". I'm so confused because I have never thought this story could connect to one piece. After watching this video, some parallels you mentioned actually make a lot of sense to me. Great job!

I love this theory so much. I do believe that by the end, Oda is gonna take inspiration from a lot of mythologies and history and this is most probably one of them.

I find it hard to believe that, of all countries, the land of the tsunami has no flood mythology to speak of.

Just a bit of mythological connection, but one of the most powerful weapons in Chinese mythology was the staff or rod of Yu. This rod was later said to be found and used by the Monkey King in his journeys.

Joyboy being the one to make the red line would be a hella good twist and there was an idea (not quite a theory) that imu might not be evil but was misguided by the gorosei I think it could also make sense that this myth is only for wano. Like you said, maybe different island will reflect different myth from the real world and wano already had a wall for presumably 900 years

As far as Roger and his Crew laughing at the One Piece, I can only assume from Rogers words that "Joyboy" told the story in an absolutely ridiculous way. Imagine Luffy trying to explain the whole situation and you'd probably laugh too, "This dumb ruler guy is flooding the world and the only way to fix it is to break this big ole mountain but when I punched it, it didnt break!" and honestly that doesnt even remotely give justice to how goofy Luffy would sum things up.

There’s also the Norse flood myth that connects to it’s creation myth. When the first giant, Ymir, is killed by Odin, his blood is a brine that floods the universal void and kills all the giants except for Berlgemir and his family. Odin and his brothers then grow the World Tree, Yggdrasil, and other cosmological features out of Ymir’s corpse. I’ll be looking for such references in Elbaf for sure. The general process of a god becoming the universe is called Pandeism, and I think there’s another flood myth that connects to the Chinese primordial god as well, Pangu.

How hilarious would it be if Imu and Lily were siblings or childhood friends and Lily decided to help JoyBoy and Imu is still upset about it. It would be a "We could have ruled the world together side by side" kind of situation

learning about chinese mythology from Merphy through the lens of One Piece is not something that i think i will get to experience and certainly will not think of in a million years😂😂

Imagine my disappointment when I realized it was a "Chinese Flood" Legend, not a "Chinese Food" Legend 😔

I think Joyboy made a mistake in focusing too much in his objective and postponing his friends needs. Because of that they couldn't help him when he needed and he was unable to achieve what he wanted. Now he is doing things in a different way, helping his friends along the way. Also, the One Piece world has 5 moons maybe, when the 5 align at one side of the world, all the waters will come to that side, flooding one side and uncovering the other side. Maybe even uncovering an ancient realm under water. The Red Line might be able to hold the waters.

A coworker of mine told me a theory that gol d. Roger created the pirate era to save the people that the government or celestial dragons would leave behind.

The introduction of the "Noah" in the story made me realize this world is about to go through a cataclysmic event.

I think the main reason Roger was too early was because Posiden wasn't reborn yet. I think Roger laughed because Joyboy probably told stories about the crazy inventions in his time and if Joyboy is like Luffy he probably did the most ridiculous things with these inventions. An example would be there was a void century version of the Automatic Cooking Machine and Joyboy made some ridiculous meal with it; stories with his opinion on flying cars etc If I had to assume there are probably multiple ponelgths on Laughtale and Roger probably read the ponelgth with Joyboy's goofy stories first

The Noah was such a huge in your face hint and everybody went, yeah the world is covered in water so the Noah was made when this wasn't the case yet. However the Noah might have been made because people knew the flooding would happen again or become worse

Imu causing a great flood and then telling Joy Boy to fix it seems like something Imu would do.

The un-natural "ground" used to build the red line was one of the moons. Which would make anyone laugh, no?

This is so interesting Merphy, you did an amazing job in researching all of this, makes me want to go through all these flood myths and legends myself.

It checks out that China would have its own flood myths. The Yellow River is rather notorious for flooding. In fact, the modern city of Kaifeng sits atop eight previous iterations of itself that were destroyed in floods, one of which was manmade, caused by army leaders exploding a dam during a war.

Godddam you are stacked!😍😍😍

This is the wife I thought I'd have when I was young. Young dreams... 😅

Could it be that emu is joyboy?? And he has his own hat as a reminder of his failed past?

merphy i‘m so happy to see theories videos of yours.❤ keep them coming, so proud how much of a one piece fan you‘ve become i didn‘t expect when you were first reading east blue.

There’s another flood myth where two gods was fighting and broke a pillar of heaven which caused the heavenly river (reference to Milky Way) to flood the lower world. Another god Nuwa who created humans from mud went on a quest to find a special stone, melted it down, and patched the heaven.

Roger laughed because the answer to the flood and the world was hilarious and crazy and he didn't know or have a way to achieve it. So all he could do was sit back and laugh.🤣 I have had a crazy theory brewing in the back of my head ever since G5 was revealed that maybe the answer is to do something so insane everyone else looks and laughs, but for someone that can dream and do anything in this world that they can think of, it makes sense. Imagine if Luffy were to rubberize every nation in this world and tie them together like one big raft so that they could weather the storm. I'm not saying that's going to happen but that's insane enough to laugh at from a distance and impossible for anyone else to achieve. But for Luffy, it might be possible.

Merphy looks like if she was drawn by GOda

I was waiting for this! Since you mentioned this Chinese folklore in that last video, I searched for it. But then I fell into the rabbit hole of Theory theory no mi via the change of dynasties (with the Zi clan from Shang dynasty, cautionary stories on what happens to corrupt kingdoms, Shun and Gun and the great flood, and the 5 grains etc etc Goda's unbelievable

Thank you for this! Amazing research as always... It's crazy how much we can learn with One Piece. It's really one of my favourite aspect of the show

Great video, the Yu legend indeed has a lot of parallels- due to this video my head is buzzing with theories and information

honestly i really like your take on it. you understand oda and how he gets his own inspiration for one piece. keep up the good work with these types of videos.

Was just checking out your channel and went to click on the next vid and this came out 2 min ago omgggg

Oda is just pulling from the stories of my life i tell him about.

Floods and giants are common themes in myths

I love thinking about luffy being on the Noah just picking up all his old friends because to him it would just be a big party

Roger laughing could just sort of be a laugh of futility, like when you’re in such a bad situation all you can do is laugh, but that could easily be wrong considering the significance of laughter in one piece

I laughed for 5 straight minutes cuz I thought the title said Chinese food legend hahah Great video Merph

These videos are the best, thank you for your research!!

You have a beautiful voice. You could definitely get paid to do readings on audio book.

I always thought that in the Roger laughed scene. They weren't laughing joyfully but hysterically like they reached their goal at the end and found out they were too early whatever that means

Lil theory i cooked up, ik in one video you attributed water rising to the destruction of islands, but that might just be one aspect of it, i think most of the water flooding the world is from reverse mountain spewing loads of water out of an unknown source (maybe water at the core of the world in one piece?)

Really fun theory and really possible that Oda was inspired by this myth :)) It's really cool to witness the start of your journey with One Piece, experiencing the joy of catching up and theorizing along with the rest of us while we wait like goons for the next chapter . :3

I can never guess why people wanna guess what’s gonna happen. I’m not watching any end theories because I’m going to sit back and enjoy. So many times I see youtubes guess what’s gonna happen and be let down, or be right and be not as hype cuz they knew. Love your chapter reviews though!

This is one of my favourite things you do!

I enjoyed hearing the legend, and love whenever you bring in outside sources like this! I cannot help thinking Imu and his ilk stole the sand from the gods or at least supplanted the people who originally did, and then turned that ancient weapon said to create the flood upon the world (Imu being the one capable of hitting the button since only an immortal can do it without dying like Doflamingo wanted done on him by Law). As for the ancient weapons, I think Luffy is going to reject the need to use them like he dismissed Pluton which is going to set him apart. I doubt the flood is the only thing Roger read in Laughtale, for the number one reason that it would spoil the surprise about what has been waiting there all this time, and Luffy would no longer be down for the adventure.

I like this theory a lot, nice job!

I believe the closest Japan has to a great flood is the creation myth where the world is flooded at the start and the islands of Japan are drawn out of the water

Sending gratitude from a Daoist monastery! We study some of these old stories to understand the metaphors embedded within our practice. 💙

Merphy is a treasure to the one piece community. I can’t express enough how much I love these deep dives

Laugh Tale - the story of the origin of crafting and using a smile and unique laugh to inspire yourself and others. The laugh is intentionally enunciated so it can be used even if the user doesn't feel it. The time will not be right until the world can laugh together.

The One Piece is a nest of giant birds that was not ready to hatch when Roger arrived at laughtale.

My guess as to why Roger laughed is that maybe Joyboy had some crazy, almost childish idea to stop the flood and wrote his plan down. Maybe it's so comically absurd, it has something to do with, idk, moving the moon farther away, idk (because moon and flood... idk). That would at least tie into why there is an actualy civilization there and goes back to Enel being canonically on there.

Roger's laugh could be a Will of D. laugh. Something like "We arrived too soon. Oh well, we are death hahaha"

"Haha, y'all gonna drown!" - Gol D. Roger, probably

Now I want to replay The Wind Waker. You never know, it might spark some inspiration for future theory crafting.

I'm personally subscribing to KoL's recent crazy theory. But this Chinese legend has lots of similarities to One Piece so I'm glad you made this video. Infinite gear five through mother flame? Or maybe even a gear 6? Awesome theories.

I feel like the Chinese flood myth Merphy tells in the beginning of the video sounds like the inspiration for the farming arc in vagabond

3:15 That also correlates with the Chinese Four Symbols: The White Tiger of the West (Metal), the Black Tortoise of the North (Water), the Azure Dragon of the East (Wood), and the Vermillion Bird of the South (Fire), all four represented by the Four Mountains (and 4 of their 5 elements), and in the middle of all four, the Emperor, representing the Yellow Dragon (Earth), the Fifth of the Four Symbols (and of the five elements). And as some extra trivia, Yu the Great's creation of the Dragon Gate falls by parting the mountains for the Yellow River (again named after the Yellow Dragon) to flow, that's deeply connected to this myth, is where the myth that inspired Kaido comes from. EDIT: 14:20 Needless to say, Yu parting the mountain for the water to fall can also be a reference to Luffy destroying the Red Line.

My guess is that Joyboy was the Gun of this story. He was selected, not by Imu but whoever the ruling king of the ancient kingdom was. Roger may have been a false Yu, thinking he was the answer to a problem potentially caused by Imu. Similar to how kaido thought he was Joyboy's successor before Luffy came along. Roger's laughter may have been the realization that he was SO under qualified to carry out the will that all he could do was laugh at his own folly.

The will of D(rowning everyone)

The one piece is a giant golden tub plug that reads "Joy Boy only"

One thing i really love about these types of theories is that when religion/myth starts being discussed and what stories oda may be taking inspiration from, you see that alot of cultures share similar stories. Its one of the reasons myths are so interesting, bc stories were passed from region to region with each place adopting its own rendition.

After this I want a Sawyer7mage collaboration Merphy

Damn I could watch shawty talk OP all day😍

years later, couldn't been more spot on merphy

great video^^

Amazing video.....I do have a random intrusive thought. Does she own a rapier 🤨? I've been doing a fanfic about One Piece KZfaqrs being in the OP world. Merphy would definitely be a swordsman with a black rapier 😂. Also if they were in the OP world with their knowledge and theories her, Tekking, KOL. JoyBoyTheories and especially Artur would be on the WG hit list 😂

Took me way to long to realise that this Yu is the same that is a System Lord in Stargate

Perhaps the good v evil aspect is muddied because Imu wants to save the world by creating more land, and enabling the people to forget the atrocities of the past, whereas Joyboy wanted to keep the one big ocean together (hes a pirate after all) because to him its the epitome of freedom.

i know you always say like “oh i’m still so new to the community i don’t think i can really theorize like a lot of the big dogs out there” but i think you don’t give yourself enough credit, stuff like this is great and awesome!

How does Oda even collect so many folk stories? This guy is a freakin genius. Also, day 81 of asking Merphy to read Bleach

In the Gilgamesh epic he talks with someone that survived the great flood and was immortal and later when he finds the imortality fruit he goes for a swim and a snake eats it.

Merphy is the David Lightbringer of one piece, just with actually watchable videos

About roger laughing, thinking about the prophecy I couldn't help but think about the ending of a 100 years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, trying not to spoil it since its my favorite books, but the final scene with the mysterious manuscripts on that story would fit the reason roger is laughing so well. Also merphy mob psycho 100 i cannot recommend this enough :)

What I love about One Piece is that it made a LOT of people all around the internet really study deeply into old histories and legends from long long times ago. Oda's just sharing his love for history with us one chapter at a time.

Maybe they laughed because Joyboy tried some bonkers ways to stop the flood. My guess would be that he build the red line and tried to put all the water on one side. Reverse Mountain provides the dry side with water without flooding it. Fish-Man Island could be the drainage pipe to the wet side or the place the water flooded back. Even more crazy would be if Fish-Men Island is the plug for the hole. The weight of all the water on one side could have also flipped the planet.

Merphy you should audition for Robyn!!

is there a hiking bear story somewhere in that Chinese legend?

I think oder split the mythos and devided it onto different charakters, so part of the story will fit Luffy, part of it fits Kuma and so on. One Piece is a story about nakama, about following dreams and reaching destiny together, after all.

As always a great video, Merphy. The only thing i would disagree on is Imus involvement. The gorosei when we first saw them outside the room of authority when they went to the throne room nusjuro said that it seems there is a need for a great cleansing. World sinking = great cleansing. I think I'm will initiate the sinking of the world

I misread the title as food and somehow thought that made sense

Ironically enough I always thought the one piece would have something to do with taking down the Red Line and creating the All Blue, but I thought they wouldn't do it because it would cause massive floods.

Once the Red Line gets destroyed, the seas merge to create the All Blue to make Sanji's dream come true! Oda's inspirations all converging, years ahead with all the different cultures and histories making the world feel alive. Thanks for the video!

If you want another thing to look at, you should research Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, in it Hyrule flooded their world to flush out Ganondorf's army and kept the ancient kingdom of hyrule suspended in statis under the ocean while the world above is an ocean world

Merphy the poster alignment in the background is setting off my ocd

The Chinese sorcerer sukuna feared did this too ?

Nice work.

I need to throw an image out there that I heard fr somewhere else…..buggy on the empty thrown. Sitting it it the same way he was introduce

Ooooooh Merphy cooking 🔥🔥🔥

Wow great video Merphy! This story really got me thinking about the legacy a father leaves behind for his son! What if we got it all wrong! What if Imu is not some other worldly supernatural villain… What if Imu is Joyboy’s son?! Imu is resentful of his father maybe because his father’s planned ultimately failed or maybe because he just didn’t agree with his father’s ideals. In other words, Imu did not inherit his father’s (Joyboy) will! Joyboy was crowned King for his temporary success, but ultimately fails. He then dies or gets murdered, and that is how Imu is crowned king. A Son that hates his father is an ongoing idea throughout One Piece. Which reminds me that there are several characters that did not inherit their father’s will. 1. Ace being resentful of living under Roger’s legacy. 2. Doflamingo resents his father for his ideals and he believes himself to be superior. 3. Sanji hates his father and his ideals. 4. That one octopus pirate that stabs White beard because he believes White Beard doesn’t care about him. 5. Luffy becoming a pirate and not a marine. It’s never the son who inherits the will of the father! If this theory is correct I want to be to be the first to state: JOYBOY HAD A SON AND HIS NAME WAS IMU!!!

One piece is basically a fever dream, crossover and references to real world, myths and weirdly addicting. Reading it you never actually feel that its 1100+ chapters rather it feels compressed.😂