‘One Piece’: Old Pegasus Joke Returns in New Episodes

Well, an old joke has returned to the recent chapters of “One Piece” and it’s still funny. We saw that chapter 1,063 ended with the revelation about Blackbeard’s crew and, surprisingly, we saw Doc Q’s horse, Stronger, confess to having eaten the Horse Fruit, Pegasusin order to finally become the incredible winged horse present in mythology.

However, the most surprising revelation of the chapter is when it ends up becoming a joke related to Stronger’s introductory saga, “Skypiea”. When the Straw Hat Pirates enter the White Sea, they soon encounter Gan Fall and his bird, named Pierre, who had eaten the Horse Fruit. However, when he failed to grow into a great Pegasus and was outwitted, the Straw Hat Pirates’ expectations were dashed.

So the joke is precisely in the fact that they had the opportunity to meet someone who almost managed to become a real Pegasus.

Humor is due to mythology

Another point that contributes to Stronger’s joke about eating the Horsefruit, “Mythical Type, Model”, is the reference to Pegasus from mythology itself. This is because, according to mythological stories, wherever Pegasus steps, springs come out of the ground, and one of these springs was Hippocrene, on Mount Helicon. This ended up making Pegasus a symbol of nature and health, a very different scenario from the one experienced by the sickly horse like Stronger.

Has this joke always been there?

While this may seem like a great joke, there is a question to be asked about it: has it always been there, since the “Skypiea” saga? Well, if we take into account how often “One Piece” sets up story elements long in advance, aiming at every detail, such as Doflamingo announcing the existence of SMILEs in the Sabaody Archipelago arc, in addition to Sanji telling his family history countless times throughout the narrative, it is evident that this joke was developed and planned to happen.

However, there is no way to be sure that this was always a plan, since there is no additional content or even an approach in the narrative, if necessary. However, the scene in question is very funny, also because it contains irony.

In short, Stronger not only goes against the Pegasus mythology, it also makes the Straw Hat Pirates’ disappointment with Pierre’s Pegasus form in “Skypiea” even funnier, since they had already encountered a Pegasus without knowing it. But while it may be a small joke, it’s still a good representation of the anime.