I have recently reread the Long Ring Long Island Arc and I found some interesting things. Knowing what we know now about Luffy’s devil fruit I think there might be some clues here.
The theory is that Joy Boy has visited this island at one point in time and he was the cause of its flora and fauna. I believe there are a few clues that support that theory.
So, when the Straw Hat Pirates crew first arrives at Long Ring Long Land we get a big establishing shot of the island to see how vast and big it is.
The reactions are straightforward and in character. Sanji is unimpressed, Robin is curious about the people and their culture, and Luffy is excited. So far, so normal. The interesting thing here is that he is especially excited because it is a prairie, kinda weird. But with regards to the theme of freedom it makes sense why Luffy would like such a view/ such an island. This will become important soon.
First, after setting foot on the island we are introduced to the strange flora and fauna. Animals and trees are strechted, they are not big and scaled like the animals in Little Garden. They are literally stretched as if someone pulled on them.
Again, the reactions are totally in line with the characters. Usopp is the straight man here and Luffy is enjoying himself.
After Luffy and the group walk around some more, they find strange bamboo trees that turn out be to be stilts. Luffy breaks them and an old man falls down. He is introduced to us as Tonjit, a nomad who spent 10 years on those stilts. Looking at his clothes, it looks like it has symbols of the sun on it, further hinting to a connection with Nika.
Interestingly, after falling down from the stilts he is looking straight at Luffy and asking him how he has been.
Obviously this is played up as a joke later because Tonjit is well aware of the fact that he has spent 10 years on those stilts. Why would he know them. But, against the background of the theory this might be more than a joke and Tonjit might have felt something familiar when seeing Luffy’s face as he has inherited the devil fruit that has caused the island to be the way it is (Fruits inheriting the will of the prior user).
After it was cleared up as a joke we move on and Luffy asks about the island.
Luffy is a curious fella so him asking is not that special. However, the answer from Tonjit is very interesting. The reason for the stretched out animals and plants is Freedom!
So based on this statement, the animals have so much freedom that they can literally stretch. This is extremely interesting because of 2 things.
(1) Luffy is representing the theme of freedom in the series as his dream is to be the most free man on the sea. In the newest chapter he states that he feels like he can do anything, making him truly free. Similarly, the animals on the island are also free to stretch as much as they want on this plaine field where not even mountains can limit the freedom.
(2) Obviously, the term stretching reminds us of Luffys Gum-Gum abilities. He can stretch and so can the animals on the island. After his awakening, we assume that he can also stretch his environment arround him, making the environment rubbery and stretchy.
Since Luffy was able to stretch the ground in the fight vs Kaido the prior user of his fruit might have affected the island by stretching all living things on it. This would be similar to how Akainu and Kuzan have permanently changed the environment on Punk Hazard.
That is the next point, as we can see from Ussop’s reaction the explanation is just silly. However, this is the only explanation we get. It could be just disregarded as another whacky place in the One Piece world, so nothing too crazy. But with the theory in mind even Punk Hazard or Little Garden are more “believeable” in the sense that we can understand why they are as they are (even if they are ridiculous). Here, we get a silly explanation and move on quickly.
Next we move into Tonjit’s house and he explains another phenomenon of the island. There is a tide that sinks part of the island, creating 10 smaller individual islands.
Looking at the island it looks like someone could have stretched the island into a ring, making it “infinite” so to speak. Imagine it as a piece of dough, that you form into a doughnut by making it first into a long sausage and then connecting the ends. Also, these bumps that form the individual islands look like they have been pulled out of the ground.
From above (like shown here) it also looks like the sun. Similarly, it also rises and sinks like the sun because of the tide.
If Joy Boy was huge or a giant, he could have easily made those bumps by simply pulling on pars of the island like here.
The most interesting thing comes now, when we see Usopp and Luffy reacting to this explanation.
Tonjit is explaining the mechanics behind the tide and what it means. Usopp notices that this caused him to be left behind because the nomads moved to the next island. Luffy however, is just LAUGHING hysterically. There is no joke here, no witty comment by Chopper or Usopp, no visual gag or strange delivery by Tonjit. Luffy is just laughing at it, basically taking it as a big joke. He loved the prairie of the island and he thinks the tide is funny and adventurous. This could be another wink to Nika as laughter and smiles are heavily connected to Nika and the fruit. In the recent chapter we also see Luffy laughing. So is Luffy here laughing at a joke (the island itself) that was made by Nika?
Tonjit goes on and Luffy asks why he cannot just move on as well. Once he hears Tonjit’s answer we get another interesting reaction from Luffy.
Luffy who was laughing before seems to realize that it is not funny to Tonjit. He seems to realize that the tide is not an adventure for him and rather an obstacle than freedom. Luffy goes on to say that 20 years of wating would be lonely.
Here another theory can be applied. If the One Piece turns out to be something that connects the world so that people of all races and cultures can party in peace, then Long Ring Long Land could be a microcosm for that idea. It has many small islands that are naturally separated, similar to the islands of the One Piece world. Most people won´t ever leave the island they were born on. Only a few have the ressources and the guts to venture out into the dangerous sea but not everyone can do that, so it is lonely. Therefore the connection of islands might the goal. Since here, a ring is connecting the islands of Long Ring Long Land, the Red Line could be stretched and formed by Luffy so that it connects all islands of the world. Not only could people freely travel by ship, they could also walk to the next island or build train tracks. It could be like a highway in the form of a ring, with connecting paths to all the islands. So a party is just a few hours of walk away!
So in conclusion: Nika/JoyBoy was the reason for the condition of Long Ring Long Land. It embodies the theme of freedom and it is resonating with Luffy to a great degree, since he inherited traits from Nika. Furthermore, it functions as a parallel for the One Piece world, where freedom and connection between people are overarching themes.
Src: opfanpage.com
