One Piece: Loki IS NOT The Villain

Throughout the early stages of the Elbaph arc, there have been arguments over whether or not Loki is evil.

He calls himself a “Sun God”, a wannabe like Road, the antagonist from earlier, but this time he killed his father and has a “legendary Devil Fruit” to back up his claim.

Yet he is in chains and Luffy embodies the concept of freedom and even has the power of the Sun God.

Here, we will see the parallels that make Loki a potential ally or even the “Luffy”, the protagonist of Elbaph.

Loki’s Sun God Claim MIGHT Have Basis

[#ONEPIECE] [#ONEPIECE1130]

🚨ATTENTION🚨 1-3

I wonder could this be a connection🤔

—Loki helmet/horns shape of a beetle.
—Luffy favorite is the Hercules beetle.

In ancient Egypt the stag beetle was represented by beetle god (Khepri) said to represent the rising & morning… pic.twitter.com/hd9HSODOnz

— 𒉭Xavi𒉭 (@BlacktyonteXavi) October 24, 2024

Loki possessing a “legendary devil fruit” might not be the only link he has to the “Sun God” of Elbaph.

According to Twitter user Xavi, the horns on Loki’s head connect to that of the scarab beetle-headed Egyptian god Khepri is the god of the morning sun and an aspect or reflection of the primary sun god Ra.

Luffy’s favorite beetle is the Hercules beetle.

Luffy’s powers of the sun are also surprisingly connected to his surname “Monkey”.

Although Luffy is more based on Sun Wukong, his connection to the sun is tied to another monkey deity, Hanuman, from Hindu mythology.

Hanuman is a monkey god who is also a trickster but has superhuman strength and once tried to eat the sun.

Perhaps Loki, a trickster, is seeking to consume the sun or maybe even has done so through the legendary Devil Fruit with an actual sun power or something of a similar nature.

Luffy and Loki’s Connection

If you read Luffy’s name out loud and recall your Norse mythology, you could see Luffy’s name sounding a bit like Laufey, the mother of Loki, who is a tree goddess.

We are introduced to Loki being tied to the World Tree Yggdrasil that holds Elbaph together.

Now Oda originally named Luffy this way because it sounded good but it does connect to One Piece because Luffy connects to the word “luffing”, a boat orientation technique.

However, the way people notice the similar sound with Laufey could indicate that the two characters are fated to be allies or potentially related in some way, rather than as enemies.

The Accursed Prince

One key trend in One Piece is that wherever there is a Kingdom, there is a Princess to be saved.

In a way, the East Blue Saga had Nami be the metaphorical princess, a forerunner of the trope whose empowerment not only allowed her to join the Straw Hats fully but

Alabasta had Nefertari Vivi, the model Princess for all arcs to follow.

However, this trend would not follow thoroughly for most of the pre-timeskip story.

The Water 7 Saga was Nico Robin, the one to inherit the secrets of the world.

Amazon Lily of course had Boa Hancock, who needed to be free from her isolation.

The “Princess” trend is more straightforward with Fishman Island being Shirahoshi, the Ancient Weapon Poseidon herself, Dressrosa having two: Rebecca and her maternal aunt Viola, Whole Cake Island having Pudding and arguably Sanji (Mr. Prince), Wano Country had Kozuki Hiyori, the shamisen player in the stage play of Wano, and Egghead Island had Jewelry Bonney, daughter of former Sorbet King Bartholomew Kuma.

If we look at the trend, Loki, who is chained and persecuted, is received by Luffy as the “Accursed Prince”, someone that will be the moral center of the arc and the person Luffy will “save”, whatever that could mean in this context.

However, we are introduced to Loki as someone with dark desires for destruction yet he bears a royal title and is seen for the first time in chains, a position of unfreedom.

This is not unusual for Princesses. In fact it is quite the norm.

Nami was secretly working for Arlong yet was revealed

Vivi was a Baroque Works agent for the purpose of exposing Crocodile, similar to Viola in Dressrosa.

Norse Loki is a Scapegoat

As the trickster god, Loki is given this purpose as the Aesir gods’ main prankster, the one to initiate trouble with the other races.

However, this means that when Loki crafts a plan that the Aesir gods agree with, it absolves them of responsibility.

Odin himself is a trickster god due to his own ability to change shape.

To mythology scholars, Loki is the means by which Odin and the Aesir excuse their own evil actions.

Odin can trick people but tricking people becomes a bad thing because we have Loki and his consequences.

It also happens that Odin has more power, resources, and means to hold power while Loki has only his tricks, which makes him appear cowardly and “unmanly” in the eyes of Norse culture so Loki is used to discourage children from avoiding their duty to fight and be strong or else they could be perceived as a wicked being like Loki.

Zoro and Loki Parallel

If you notice, Loki’s introduction is literally 1:1 with Zoro, who was tied up by the Marine captain “Axe Hand” Morgan in Chapter 3: “Pirate Hunter Zoro”.

Zoro is called the “Pirate Hunter”, a title that would normally discourage any pirate from recruiting him.

Even the chapter title to their full introduction contains their negative nickname.

However, just as how Blackbeard managed to recruit Kuzan, an ex-Marine who refuses to do “pirate-type” evil,  Luffy was able to draw in Zoro by freeing him and allowing him to decide how to use that freedom.

Blackbeard offered Kuzan the freedom to make his own choices, a blank slate while Luffy drew Zoro in with his personality and unexpected aura.

This could play into how Loki might be convinced to side with Luffy.

Also note that the start of every arc involves Luffy or the Straw Hats helping someone in need and in the Elbaph Arc, the very first person who is in trouble are not Road’s human slaves, which could seem tonally off at first, but instead the “evil prince” Loki, who is in chains and hated by his kingdom.

Luffy might even encourage Loki to fulfill his Sun God dream, not knowing of his own powers being connected to Loki’s dream. Well, eventually the two of them will see the light.

Most of all, Loki has a smile while chained, implying a potential link to the D Clan.

We do not really know the full story behind his crime.

Being compared to Loki in Chapter 1130, Road is set up as his weaker, lesser counterpart, the precursor to foreshadow Loki’s arrival but what if Road’s role as a red herring was also to make Loki a red herring too.

One Redditor suggested that Loki appeared too early in the story to be an antagonist.

It is also not helped by how we only know about Loki through rumors and narration.

Loki’s own words and meetup with Luffy are timed by the storytelling and so we are influenced to view Loki as the bad guy.

However, this is One Piece nearing the end and we have seen the patterns.

This new approach to the “royal in trouble” can provide readers with a challenge on whether or not to trust Loki, since his name screams “deception” and “troublemaking”, which funnily enough Luffy shares as the center of troubles.

Loki’s claim to destroy the world could just be to overturn a wrong system but he takes joy in it because of his “messianic” anticipation towards a world where giants can pursue their glory in combat, instead of being held back to isolation and a much more dangerous outside world.

If anything, the current ruler, who might be Odin, could be the arc antagonist given his links to Norse mythology.

Loki is the easy villain to make out

Source: Reddit

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