One Piece - Episode 168 [RAW]

Most people miss the biggest foreshadowing of this arc. It was before the Straw Hats arrived at Jaya. Buggy was on an island with a giant skull looking for a treasure in the left eye

Dr. Foppo

Oh.....thanks I never understood that part

TheJoestarWithTheStrawHat

They were to busy gawking over Hina to pay attention to that key plot point.

Holly Mai9

Gan Fall says “I love pumpkin juice”- he already explained that cloud ground can sustain plant life, but it can’t naturally bring it forth. Gan Fall couldn’t just give Upper Yard back to the Shandians, because the sky people had already become dependent on it. Even he had become fond of pumpkins and the juice, that come forth from that said “vearth”. To the sky people, that piece of earth, is life.

Ash Morgane

How y'all speculating that the ghost was Nolan when a few episodes back we're told he was killed in public for supposedly lying about Jaya??

Jawad

Seems like a lot of people are taking Crocodile's ability to dry people and things out and just doing the guesswork that he was doing it to the entire island, but there's no need to guess about this. Oda clearly shows Smoker capturing the "Artificial Rain-Making ship" and they explain Crocodile was having it burn dance powder at sea to cause the drought. Smoker left things to Tashigi and went out alone and captured the ship, giving time for the natural weather patterns to return and the rain happened at a powerful, symbolic moment, but it also has an in-universe explanation.

How would you feel if the main object of your faith or religion that you and your people worshipped for 400 years was suddenly taken from you and you were told that you arent allowed to worship it anymore? I feel like that's what Gan Fall meant with the sky people. Saying that though the shandians are literally native Americans

Silver

It was said in Drum Kingdom episodes that when Ace showed up there, it stopped snowing until he'd left island. Ace being a fire logia affected snow. Crocodile being a sand logia affected rain. For me it's a simple fact that powerful logia users can affect weather or climate.

Artur A.

Go back and rewatch the end of that episode with the scene with Smoker

The navy made it rain with their ship

There was facts by the way, it is said many times that crocodile was stopping the rain. With him defeated there was nobody stopping the rain from falling, it’s actually pretty simple and doesn’t need to be made complicated or looked into imo.

daragh faro

it started to rain because crocodile was stopping all the rain and he was defeated. The reason it had such an impact was because obviously the people could feel real natural rain compared to what they felt before, along with crocodile being defeated and the war stopping it was a perfect moment in the arc.

daragh faro

Oda's foreshadowing is one of the best I've ever seen in a mangaka

Trafalgar Law (An Average Makima Enjoyer)

Link to pic of Jaya map https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/onepiece/images/3/36/Jaya_Infobox.png

Nick K

Also a fun little reminder about Jaya and the skull island shape. When you guys first saw the Jaya map, on the map the middle open part (which would be the mouth of the skull) is labeled as "Mouth Bay" so it's a another little hint that holds a lot more meaning afterwords.

Nick K

Not mad at you guys or anything, just wanted to make it clear though that Oda did give an explanation in the show by bothering to show all of this stuff with Smoker on the captured ship.

Nick K

I know you guys were maybe thinking it was a ship to combat Crocodile but it was Crocodile's ship in the first place. It had a giant Baroque Works symbol on it and a giant crocodile head at the front of the ship. You can see it right at 12:54 in episode 127. Also it's implied that Smoker captured it a little while before you see him talking with Hina on the ship, because she asks if the rain that's happening now that he's anchored off the coast of Alabasta (instead of out at sea), is due to him using the dance powder, to which he replies that he did not because one it would be a crime and two King Cobra refused to use it even when they found it in the palace. If she was with him when he captured the boat then her asking that question would be pointless because it would have made very obvious smoke from the boat from burning any dance powder.

Nick K

Alabasta was always a land of deserts, but at least at the oasis towns there was plenty of water and they had also built canals. Crocodile used his ship to burn dance powder out at sea to prevent it from raining in the country, destroyed the canals, and sent constant sand storms to change it into a much harsher climate where it didn't rain for 3 years.

Nick K

You guys were confused about the end of Alabasta and the ship that Smoker was on at the end. The ship Smoker captured out at sea near Alabasta was owned by Crocodile and was burning dance powder to force it to rain over the ocean and block the rain from getting to Alabasta to cause the drought. When Smoker captured the ship, it allowed clouds to grow normally again and eventually make it to Alabasta which is why it rained. The timing was very symbolic, but the reason that it actually rained was because the rain wasn't forced to happen over the ocean anymore.

Nick K

I think it started raining because crocodile was using his devil fruit to keep the land dry like a desert. Keep in mind before Crocodile was at Alabasta it was known as a very fruitful kingdom of green and Crocodile's power along with the dance powder turned it into a desert

Ben

Let's gooo 3 episodes!!!