#cause ya get stuff like Tanis otherwise. LEST WE FUCKIN FORGET :'|

[doctortonytchopper]

But see the thing is -

If that was the mushroom the 20 MDs were looking for -- maybe Blackbeard went to Drum because they were researching devil fruits.

Because there is a clear distinction of science in the setup of the story - the robotic style, and the medical style. Arguably Chopper is just as advanced of a scientist as Franky is, but their knowledge has barely any overlap. And it seems like generally - medical knowledge seems maybe a bit more frequently disseminated.

I mean at least - where Queen was a top scientist in both those areas. He was competing with Judge and working with Vegapunk, but he was also fucking around with diseases. If the assumption is that he was about as good at both - Franky maybe could compete with him in the field of robotics, maybe even best him, but that's not something I would feel confident asserting one way or another without a more deep dive.

But chopper utterly FUCKED him, I mean absolutely destroyed his "super advanced" disease AND THEN SOME, in like 20 mins with his Chopperphage. I mean lbr inventing a disease isn't even half as hard as inventing a cure, and Chopper did that in a way that our world's medicine is barely starting to figure out how to do.

So say the 20 MDs were like, just about as good at medicine as Kureha and Chopper, and Chopper's a fucking BEAST at medical science probs at least on par with if not surpassing Franky in his own field (im biased bc uhh check the url. Im sorry...i own up to it at least lol) and Franky's keeping up with Vegapunk enough to be using his ideas and inventions. So the 20 MDs are probably doing some crazy stuff.

"So who cares? I thought Vegapunk was doing all the most advanced devil fruit stuff?"

Yes...in the realm of robotics. What about the medical science realm?

Why was Blackbeard on Drum Island? Why was he there immediately after getting the dark dark fruit, with Ace on his tail? It was just a couple of months before the strawhats land. Then they grab chopper and carry on, and meet up with Ace in Alabasta a few days later.

A few days after that, Ace catches up to Blackbeard - who is already planning to capture Luffy and turn him in so he can become a warlord.

And I'm starting to understand what the fuck Wapol is doing back in the story, why his Wapometal has been interwoven so much throughout the story.

Wapol specialized in consuming two things, and then combining them without destroying either, making the resultant thing a stronger, more durable, more versatile combination of both things. Using his devil fruit.

And say his team of 20 highly expert scientists were furiously dedicated to a single focus: devil fruits; specifically one that could "cure all diseases", which Kureha helps us understand is only possible by being a doctor good enough to be able to know *many* different skills and be able to apply them as needed; and say these doctors got a chance to study how Wapol's fruit worked. And say they used that chance to see if there was a way to combine devil fruits - to give someone versatile skills to use when needed.

And say someone stole that research, as of yet untested, and tried it out on themself. What was it Shiryu said at Marineford while Blackbeard was under that cloth with Whitebeard's body? "What happens if this doesn't work? Do we disband?"

And I mean. Why is Wapol where he is right now? He's literally in the PERFECT narrative location to be able to give us exposition on all of this, I mean he's literally in big news Morgan's blimp with fuckin vivi. Cmon. His presence is BEGGING to be asked about it. An accidental overhearing some news about BB and a like "oh oough that guy that stole my devil fruit combo research >:(" from Wapol and then a "HE FUCKING WHAT?? YOUR FUCKING WHAT??????" from literally anyone in proximity and we're off to the fucking races, just SAYING

And what was it Luffy to Sanji said while carrying Nami up the mountain? "I heard at a bar in my hometown that people from snowy places don't sleep". Obviously Teach was rumored not to sleep since at least that time when Oden joined the Roger pirates. But Hiriluk saw his cherry tree around the time of the God Valley incident, so I don't think it's impossible that there was some sort of connection there.

Idk man I was just tossing jokes out abt this arc but I'm buggin out about drum arc more and more every time I think about it or watch it lmfao

#i mean ik oda wasnt planning to have the series be more than like 5 years so i do think theres probs some heavy #like foreshadowing kinda frontloaded into some of these early arcs in ways ppl dont expect #idk sometimes i feel like people expect authors not to plan literally anything #ppl get SOOOOO shocked if something from like ep. 1 comes up as having been foreshadowing for ep 500 #like yeah i mean. people do plan out how their stories are gonna end before they even start em sometimes #lotsa authors think NOT doing that is bad writing #cause ya get stuff like Tanis otherwise. LEST WE FUCKIN FORGET :'| #meta tag