Eiichiro Oda's One Piece is no stranger to massive mysteries that raise questions even when the story is quite close to completion. Every time the fans feel they're close to getting the answers to questions that have lingered for years, Oda introduces even more mysteries and in the Wano Country arc, fans saw that once again when the mention of the "Sun God" was made for the very first time.
In Jinbe's fight against Who's Who, Eiichiro Oda made a massive revelation about a God existing in the world of One Piece centuries ago. Although this godly figure might not seem too relevant to the current plot, fans have grown to know that that's never the case with One Piece. Without a doubt, the Sun God, called Nika, is going to be incredibly important moving forward, and here's everything fans need to know about him.
Who Is The Sun God Nika?
Mentioned in Chapter 1018 for the very first time, Nika was a legendary warrior held in almost godly regard. He lived centuries ago in the One Piece world as, according to Who's Who, he was worshipped as a god in ancient times. Nika is known to have held great importance to the slaves of the ancient world as they are the ones who he was a friend to. According to the legend, Nika would bring a smile to every slave's face and spread laughter in the tough and testing times. Nika's legend runs deeper than just bringing joy and laughter to people, however.
A very popular belief in the ancient One Piece world was that, eventually, Nika would free all the slaves of the world and protect them from those who would bring them harm, liberating them in the process. The legend became so popular that, eventually, slaves prayed to Nika even generations after his era. Even today, the legend of Nika holds tremendous importance to the slaves, as proven when Who's Who eventually started praying to Nika when he was locked up in a Government facility after failing to defend the Gomu Gomu no Mi. Who's Who heard of the legend from a prison guard in the Government facility and, surprisingly enough, the guard disappeared shortly afterwards, implying that the Government did something to him and that the legend wasn't meant to be shared.
Fearing for his own life, Who's Who attempted to break out of the prison and was successful. Eventually, he ended up joining Kaido's Beasts Pirates and became a member of the Tobiroppo. During the raid, he fought Jinbe and raised questions about the legend of Nika.
Nika's Connection To Luffy
Knowing how Oda writes his stories, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Nika is going to play a very important role in the story moving forward. During Who's Who's fight, fans got to see a silhouette of the figure, and, by the looks of it, Nika shares quite a lot of similarities with the protagonist of the story, Monkey D. Luffy. From the silhouette, it is clear to see that Nika has noodle-like limbs which, while weird, could've been attributed to the properties of the Gomu Gomu no Mi at the time. What's even more striking is Nika's hair, which looks exactly like Luffy's.
Furthermore, Nika is known to be a legendary warrior who, in times of need, is always there to free the slaves from their oppression and put a smile on their faces. Unsurprisingly, this, too, ties down to Luffy quite well. Everywhere that Luffy has been, people have been liberated from their oppressors and Luffy has done his utmost best to restore the smiles on their faces. Specifically, during the Skypiea arc, Luffy was paralleled to the Sun God directly, and when Enel struck the island with his full power and clouded the sun, the people started praying to God for a miracle. Moments later, Luffy broke through the clouds and defeated Enel, bringing back the sunlight and restoring the smiles on everyone's faces. Another reason why this parallel is especially important is that the Shandians, and maybe even the Skypieans, worship the Sun God.
This was evident from the fact that when Mousse, Kalgara's daughter was about to be sacrificed, she claimed that she was going to meet "the God of Sun." There are quite a lot of mysteries surrounding Nika in the story, however, with the latest reveals surrounding Luffy's Devil Fruit, fans now have a clearer idea of who Nika is. By the looks of it, the former Joy Boy was the first Nika as he was the former user of the Gomu Gomu no Mi, also known as the Mythical Zoan Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika. When awakened this Devil Fruit grants the user the exact same appearance as the Nika seen in Who's Who's silhouette. After Joy Boy's death, this fruit reincarnated and, being a Zoan, had been evading the World Government ever since until Luffy finally ate it. The fruit deemed Luffy as a worthy successor to Joy Boy and wanted to test him. In the Wano Country arc, Luffy lived up to the expectations as he managed to awaken his Devil Fruit. In doing so, he has now become the next Nika and the successor to Joy Boy himself. Nika, the Sun God, holds tremendous importance in the story and will end up being extremely important moving forward as well, with Luffy being the one who has inherited his will.