One Piece chapter 1154 reveals a shocking connection between Elbaph and Aokiji's Devil Fruit

The spoilers for One Piece chapter 1154 mentioned the Galley-La, a group of shipbuilders with the same name as Water Seven’s Galley-La Company. This guild included both standard Giants and even more fearsome Ancient Giants, yet vanished under mysterious circumstances many years before the present narration. According to a cryptic letter, the whole group was captured, leaving their fate an enigma.

Jarul, one of Elbaph’s revered elders, noted that no known force could possibly defeat and captivate a hundred Giants at once, especially with the formidable Ancient Giants among them. However, a startling rumor spread that the entire guild, which was also known as “The Great Hammer Warband,” had been literally frozen in ice.

This shocking revelation connects to an earlier One Piece mystery, i.e., the countless Giant corpses found frozen on Punk Hazard. The latest chapter apparently confirmed that those corpses belong to the missing shipbuilders from Galley-La. Given the circumstances, it’s also reasonable to speculate that the powers of the Ice-Ice Fruit were responsible for their defeat.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the One Piece manga up to chapter 1154.

The Ice-Ice Fruit's previous user may be behind the disappearance of the Giant shipbuilders in One Piece

A mysterious group of shipwrights

There must be a connection between these shipbuilders and the Galley-La (Image via Toei Animation)

The Galley-La Company plays a significant role in the One Piece story, as a company of shipwrights based in Water Seven. Currently led by Iceburg - an apprentice of the legendary shipwright Tom, as well as an old acquaintance of the Straw Hat crew’s Franky – this company builds ships for citizens and pirates alike.

Considering their shared employment and mirroring names, it’s not too farfetched to think that the Galley-La shipbuilders inherited their knowledge from the mysteriously disappeared Giants from the historical Galley-La. Perhaps, the members of this group passed their shipbuilding expertise on to Tom, who then perpetuated it to Iceburg and the others.

Vander Decken's statement in the One Piece manga (Image via Shueisha)

Recent One Piece chapters have possibly hinted at this by revealing that Elbaph’s advanced navigation techniques were attractive to other countries. This would also tie in with Tom’s possession of the blueprints for Pluton, one of the Three Ancient Weapons of mass destruction. Assuming that Tom learned his shipbuilding techniques from the Giants of Galley-La, then it makes sense that they shared the Pluton plans with him as well.

The persecution of the Galley-La shipwrights, likely by the World Government, suggests that they were targeted for crafting a specific ship. Their crime was probably related to the construction of Pluton or, alternatively, Noah, an enormous ship created during the Void Century to enable the mass migration of Fish-Man Island’s residents to the surface.

The sea creatures were talking about the Giant shipbuilders (Image via Shueisha)

In the One Piece manga, Vander Decken stated that the Noah was created by the citizens of Fish-Man Island. Still, this could easily be interpreted as misinformation or incomplete knowledge on Decken’s part. After all, Decken is not the most reliable source. Perhaps, the Noah was built by the citizens of Fish-Man Island, but with the decisive contribution of the Galley-La shipwrights.

After Monkey D. Luffy was forced to smash the Noah with his Elephant Gatling attack to prevent it from falling on Fish-Man Island, the sea creatures that Shirahoshi summoned on the scene claimed that certain individuals could fix the ship. However, they noted that these individuals would no longer be able to do so due to not being around anymore. In light of One Piece chapter 1154’s revelation, it’s possible that the individuals mentioned by the creatures were the Giant shipbuilders.

The culprit may be the Ice-Ice Fruit user before Kuzan "Aokiji"

The frozen Giants in Punk Hazard (Image via Shueisha)

The fate of the Galley-La Giant shipbuilders remains a mystery, but when the Straw Hat Pirates arrived on Punk Hazard, they found several corpses frozen in thick ice. Interestingly, all of these bodies were enormous, and some had massive horns. These characteristics fit the description of a group of Ancient Giants and standard Giants, such as the ones in Galley-La.

Even before Caesar Clown’s arrival, Punk Hazard was already used as an experimental facility. The World Government used the island to conduct research and experiments. For instance, they experimented on a young Alber – the individual who would later become King, the right-hand man of Kaido - to test his extraordinary resilience as a Lunarian and extract his Lunarian genes.

As artisans capable of crafting unparalleled ships, the shipbuilders from Galley-La posed a remarkable potential threat to the World Government. Most likely, this is why they were subdued and “made to disappear."

It’s well known that the World Government scientists conducted experiments to try to artificially create Ancient Giants. While this resulted in the “Numbers”, who were considered failures, it also hints at the fate of the Galley-La shipwrights.

The effects of the Ice-Ice Fruit (Image via Toei Animation)

Freezing served a double purpose: defeating those Giants, and keeping them preserved in Punk Hazard so that they could be used as subjects for later experimentation. When talking about a World Government member with freezing abilities and enough power to defeat a hundred Giants at once, the first person that comes to mind is obviously Kuzan, the man formerly known as Admiral Aokiji.

Although with a certain degree of reluctance due to his “Lazy Justice”, during his days as a Marine officer, Kuzan used the Ice-Ice Fruit in his possession to transform himself into ice and freeze any target on the World Government’s behalf. However, Kuzan is a 49-year-old man now, and the Galley-La shipbuilders vanished more than fifty years before the present narration. This means that Kuzan couldn’t possibly be responsible for their disappearance.

The victims of the Ice-Ice Fruit are helplessly frozen (Image via Toei Animation)

It’s possible that the one who froze the Giants was Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro. Among other things, this mighty Gorosei member has some formidable freezing powers at his disposal. However, he has never displayed any freezing technique on a scale large enough to freeze a hundred Giants. With this in mind, the person responsible was probably the previous user of the Ice-Ice Fruit before Kuzan.

For Kuzan to possess the Ice-Ice Fruit now, the former user must have perished some decades ago. A tantalizing connection emerges in One Piece chapter 1154, as the installment revealed that Rocks D. Xebec became a wanted man after accomplishing the extraordinary feat of killing a Marine Admiral.

Perhaps, the Admiral that died at Xebec’s hands was the previous wielder of the Ice-Ice Fruit, which would create a fascinating link between the history of this Devil Fruit, the mystery of Punk Hazard’s frozen Giants, and the fate of the Galley-La Giant shipbuilders.