Oda Dismantles One Piece’s Most Hated Devil Fruit Theory — Fans Still Won’t Accept It

Buggy skipping the Roger Pirates' big trip to Laugh Tale has confused fans for years. The popular fan fix? He was a Devil Fruit user, got sick, and that kept him from the final island. Sounds neat on paper. In practice, it falls apart pretty fast.

How the rumor started (and where it trips up)

Here is the setup: right when the Roger Pirates finally figured out where Laugh Tale is and were gearing up to sail there, Buggy came down with something nasty. He was nowhere near the island yet. That timing is key, because the theory hinges on Laugh Tale somehow making Devil Fruit users ill just by proximity. Which... yeah, that does not track.

Why the 'Laugh Tale sickness' theory does not hold up

• Timing kills it: Buggy got sick before the crew even left for Laugh Tale. They had only just learned the location.
• Devil Fruits are baked into the series. They were the first big power system One Piece introduced. Even as Haki took a bigger role later, Devil Fruits stayed central to characters, conflicts, and world-building. Making them essentially useless or barred at the finish line would undercut a huge chunk of the story.
• Luffy exists. The protagonist literally has the most important Devil Fruit in the series. Suggesting he could not reach Laugh Tale because of it would contradict his entire journey.

So why did Oda keep Shanks and Buggy off the ship?

This part actually makes sense once you look at what Shanks says when he decides to stay behind with sick Buggy. He does not go because he wants to chase the One Piece on his own terms someday.

'If I ever go after the One Piece, I want to do it with my own crew and my own ship.'

That line is basically Oda waving a flag. Keeping Shanks and Buggy off the Roger Pirates' final voyage sets them up to carve out their own paths. It lets both characters grow outside Roger's shadow, build their crews, and potentially find the treasure through their own adventures. As a storytelling move, it pays off: the choice positions both guys as major players who will shape the endgame and push the story into its next phase.

Will Oda ever address the old 'Laugh Tale sickness' chatter directly in the plot? Maybe. But right now, the simpler read is the right one: Buggy was genuinely sick, Shanks stayed by his side, and Oda used that fork in the road to set up two future heavyweights.

If you want to revisit the chaos yourself, One Piece is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.