Did Oda Subtly Reveal Loki’s Devil Fruit in One Piece’s Game-Changing Arc?

One Piece is in its endgame, which means all the long-teased stuff is finally supposed to matter. Enter Loki. The Elbaph prince has been hovering over the story like a storm cloud for ages, wrapped in mysteries, and the big one everyone keeps circling is his Devil Fruit. A new fan theory does the thing I love most about One Piece fandom: it connects a blink-and-you-miss-it detail to a massive lore swing. And honestly, it kinda tracks.

The theory, without the headache

Here’s the setup fans have been chewing on: Loki allegedly killed his own father to claim the Legendary Devil Fruit of Elbaph, which would explain why he’s so ridiculously strong and why his arc could swing the plot in the final saga. The fresh spin comes from Reddit user u/lucasmiranda2711, who thinks Eiichiro Oda quietly signposted Loki’s power ages ago using the five medaka mermaids. Yes, the tiny mermaids. This is some very deep-cut clue-hunting, but stay with me.

According to the theory, those five mermaids were designed and colored to echo the four major gods that keep popping up in One Piece symbolism. Two of them in particular, named Yonka and Yonka 2, supposedly line up with Loki and his Devil Fruit. The idea is that Oda visually pairs them, almost like they’re meant to represent the same concept split across two pieces of foreshadowing. And if you look at Yonka 2’s hat in the manga, it resembles serpent skin. File that away.

'The Earth God used a serpent of hellfire to cover the world in darkness.'

That line comes from an old Elbaph mural. The theory connects the dots like this: that hellfire serpent was once worshipped, it worked in tandem with the Earth God, and together they triggered a major ancient disaster. Loki, as Elbaph’s prince, is likely the reincarnation of that Earth God and has eaten the same Devil Fruit. The serpent motif on Yonka 2’s hat is the visual breadcrumb.

Why fans think the Earth God equals Loki

Once Oda confirmed the Sun God is real (hi, Nika), fans started sketching out the full set: four gods that map onto major forces in the world. Here’s the running scoreboard people come back to:

• Sun God: Nika (confirmed)
• Sea God: widely theorized to be Imu
• Rain God: often linked to Monkey D. Dragon, based on his first big appearance and persistent weather cues
• Earth God: likely a giant, and more specifically someone from Elbaph

That last part makes sense. Giants are baked into the world’s ancient history, and Elbaph sits on top of the Treasure Tree Adam, the colossal, legendary tree that keeps cropping up in important places. If these gods manifest through Devil Fruits, and Elbaph has a Legendary Devil Fruit that Loki supposedly took after killing his father, then yeah — he’s your Earth God candidate. That also slots cleanly into the mural’s serpent-of-hellfire imagery and the idea that the Earth God ties directly into whatever went down in the Void Century.

Does it hold water?

It’s still a fan theory, so take it as speculation. But it fits Oda’s style: drop a weird detail years early, pay it off with ancient lore during the final act. Loki has been teased as someone who will accomplish something major, and you don’t get that kind of billing without a top-tier power. Making him the Earth God would give Elbaph’s arc real historical weight and answer some long-running questions about the giants’ role in past conflicts.

I’m not ready to stamp it as canon, but if Loki shows up wielding a serpent-flavored Earth God Fruit, I won’t be shocked.

One Piece is streaming on Crunchyroll. What do you think — is Loki the Earth God, or is Oda setting us up for a different twist?