Table of Contents
Introduction: The Lulusia Paradox—A Theorist’s Dead End
For any long-time analyst of One Piece, the annihilation of the Lulusia Kingdom represents a singular narrative earthquake.
In Chapter 1060 of the manga and Episode 1089 of the anime, the world’s secret king, Imu, with a casual stroke of a pen, erased an entire island from the map.1
It was an act of chilling, absolute power that instantly redefined the stakes of the final saga.
Yet, the
reason for this cataclysm remained a frustrating paradox, a puzzle whose pieces seemed to actively repel one another.
The analytical community fractured around several competing, yet individually plausible, theories.
Each was built on a solid foundation of canonical evidence, but none could account for all the facts.
- Theory A: The Sabo Variable. This was the most immediate and obvious motive. Sabo, the Revolutionary Army’s Chief of Staff, had infiltrated the Reverie, witnessed Imu sitting upon the forbidden Empty Throne, and was attempting to report this ultimate secret to Monkey D. Dragon.2 His call, routed through Lulusia, was intercepted. Silencing him was a matter of existential importance for the World Government, making him the clear target of the attack.4
- Theory B: The Rebellion Factor. Lulusia was not an arbitrary victim. It was one of eight kingdoms in open revolt against the World Government, its people having been inspired by the actions of the Revolutionary Army commanders.6 Its destruction could be interpreted as a brutal, albeit clandestine, message to quell the rising tide of dissent.
- Theory C: The Weapon Test. The World Government had just come into possession of a new power source: the Mother Flame, created by Dr. Vegapunk. This flame was capable of powering one of the long-dormant Ancient Weapons, heavily implied to be Uranus.8 Lulusia, therefore, may have simply been a convenient proving ground for this apocalyptic new capability, a live-fire exercise to confirm its devastating potential.10
The analytical wall, however, was a single, maddening line of dialogue.
As Imu gave the order, the Five Elders—the highest public authority in the world—learned of Sabo’s presence on the island.
Their reaction was not one of grim satisfaction at catching their prey.
Instead, they lamented that Sabo was an “unlucky man”.2
This remark, deliberately placed by author Eiichiro Oda, seemed to invalidate the most straightforward theory.
If Sabo was the target, he wasn’t unlucky; he was hunted.
This contradiction suggested the decision to destroy Lulusia was made
independent of Sabo’s presence, turning the key of simple explanation into one that refused to turn.
The paradox was complete.
A breakthrough in understanding this event requires stepping outside the confines of the One Piece narrative itself.
The solution lies in a new paradigm, one constructed from two powerful real-world concepts: the ancient Roman political tool of damnatio memoriae (the condemnation of memory) 12 and the modern ecological strategy of a
controlled burn.14
When viewed through this lens, the contradictory clues cease to repel each other.
They snap into place, revealing a terrifyingly coherent doctrine of power that not only explains Lulusia’s fate but illuminates the very nature of the final war.
Part I: The Will of the Void—Deconstructing the Mind of Imu
To comprehend the destruction of Lulusia, one must first comprehend its architect.
Imu is not a conventional tyrant driven by ambition or conquest.
As the secret, supreme sovereign of the World Government, to whom even the god-like Five Elders kneel in deference, Imu is the living embodiment of an 800-year-old ideology.16
Their ultimate goal is not to expand their power, but to maintain a perfect, eternal
stasis.
Likely immortal since the Void Century, Imu appears to view the world not as a collection of peoples and nations, but as a vast, intricate garden they have personally cultivated for centuries.16
Their actions are not born of passion or rage, but of a cold, detached logic aimed at preserving the “balance” of their creation.11
They are the immortal gardener, pruning any branch that grows in a direction counter to the grand design.
This perspective grants Imu a power that transcends mere physical or political might: the power to define reality itself.
The ability to “erase” a person, an island, or an event from history is their most profound weapon.16
When Lulusia was destroyed, the official declaration was not that it had fallen or been punished, but that the kingdom had simply “never existed”.20
This is not political spin; it is a chilling assertion of Imu’s belief in their own authority over history and memory.
Imu’s entire reign and philosophy can be understood as a direct, eight-century-long reaction against the very concepts that threaten this static order: inherited will, the chaos of dreams, and the quest for freedom, all encapsulated in the “Will of d+.”.22
The lineage of “d+.” represents a fundamental threat, passing a rebellious flame from one generation to the next.
Roger’s dream passed to Luffy; Ohara’s will lives on in Robin; Ace’s spirit burns in Sabo.
Imu, in contrast, seeks to sever these threads of history.
Their rule is a perpetual war against the resurgence of Joy Boy’s ideals from the Void Century.
Every act of rebellion, no matter how small, is seen as a potential echo of that ancient enemy.
The destruction of Lulusia, a kingdom whose people were inspired to fight for their own freedom by the Revolutionary Army, was therefore not just a contemporary act of suppression.
It was the latest battle in an ancient war against an idea Imu has been trying to extinguish for 800 years.
Part II: A Tale of Two Destructions—From Public Example to Total Erasure
The World Government’s history is stained by atrocities, but none is more infamous than the Buster Call on Ohara.
Yet, comparing Ohara to Lulusia reveals a fundamental shift in the regime’s methodology, a change that speaks volumes about Imu’s fears and objectives.
The Ohara incident was, by design, a public spectacle.
The world was meant to see the fleet of warships, witness the island burn, and learn the price of researching the Void Century.23
The ruins were left as a monument to the World Government’s power and a terrifying lesson in obedience.
Its purpose was deterrence through fear.
Lulusia’s destruction was the antithesis of this doctrine.
It was executed in absolute secrecy.
Communications were severed moments before the strike.23
The goal was not to create a public lesson but to achieve a perfect, silent, and total erasure.
This marks a critical evolution from public punishment to private annihilation.
This is where the Roman concept of damnatio memoriae provides the perfect analytical framework.
This “condemnation of memory” was a form of punishment more profound than death.
Its goal was to obliterate a person from history by destroying their statues, chiseling their names from inscriptions, and making it as if they had never been born.12
When the Roman emperor Caracalla murdered his brother and co-emperor Geta, he ordered a
damnatio memoriae so thorough that even mentioning Geta’s name was punishable by death.24
Similarly, Egyptian pharaohs like Akhenaten and Hatshepsut had their legacies systematically erased by successors who sought to invalidate their reigns.13
Imu’s order was not merely to destroy Lulusia, but to cross it off the map and deny its very existence, a modern-day
damnatio memoriae on a national scale.1
This tactical shift from the public terror of Ohara to the secret erasure of Lulusia reveals a crucial vulnerability in Imu’s thinking: a fear of martyrdom.
The Ohara incident, for all its horror, was a strategic failure.
It was intended to extinguish the study of the Void Century, but instead, it created a powerful narrative of defiance.
It produced a survivor, Nico Robin, who became the living embodiment of Ohara’s will and a key figure in the quest to uncover the truth.27
The story of the scholars who died to protect knowledge became a legend, a seed of rebellion that would later inspire others.
Imu learned from this failure.
A public execution creates a story and a symbol.
A secret annihilation prevents a story from ever being told.
This implies that Imu’s greatest fear is not rebellion itself, but the narratives and inherited wills that fuel it.
Damnatio memoriae is the ultimate tool of a sovereign who fears the unkillable nature of ideas.
Table 1: Comparative Analysis of World Government Sanctions: Ohara vs. Lulusia
| Feature | Ohara Incident | Lulusia Annihilation |
| Motive | Punish forbidden research; create a global deterrent. | Eradicate ideological contagion; test a new weapon system. |
| Method | Buster Call (concentrated naval bombardment). | Ancient Weapon Uranus powered by Mother Flame (total annihilation from the sky). |
| Publicity | High. Intentionally public and widely reported to instill fear. | Zero. Intentionally secret, with communications severed to prevent witnesses. |
| Intended Outcome | Global fear and compliance with the taboo on Void Century research. | The kingdom and its rebellion cease to exist in both reality and memory. |
| Unintended Consequence | Created a martyr (Clover), a survivor carrying its will (Robin), and a legendary tale of defiance. | Created survivors (Sabo and Lulusian citizens) who now know the truth of the World Government’s ultimate power and cruelty.3 |
Part III: The Tyrant’s Forestry—Imu’s “Controlled Burn” Doctrine
If damnatio memoriae explains the what of Lulusia’s fate—total erasure—then the concept of a “controlled burn” explains the why and why now.
In modern forestry, a controlled or prescribed burn is a meticulously planned fire.
It is a destructive act with a creative and preservative purpose: to clear out hazardous underbrush (fuel), eliminate invasive species, and promote the long-term health of the desired forest ecosystem.14
From Imu’s perspective as the world’s immortal gardener, the rebellion in Lulusia was precisely this kind of threat.
Sparked by the “invasive species” of Revolutionary ideology, the idea of self-liberation was a dangerous fuel buildup.6
It was a contagion that, if left unchecked, could spread like wildfire through the World Government’s carefully managed forest, leading to a catastrophic, uncontrollable blaze.
Lulusia had to be burned away to protect the whole.
A successful controlled burn requires a perfect confluence of conditions, and the Lulusia incident was a textbook case of strategic calculation, not a capricious whim.
- The Fuel: The rebellion in Lulusia was ideologically potent but geographically contained. It was one of eight such uprisings, making it a prime example of the “disease” Imu wished to eradicate.7
- The Tool: The World Government had, for the first time in centuries, a power source for its ultimate fire-starting tool. The Mother Flame, delivered by the treacherous Vegapunk satellite York, was the key that reignited the Ancient Weapon Uranus.8
- The Location: The Five Elders noted Lulusia was “close”.11 This made it an ideal, low-risk test site. It was not a territory of a Yonko, an act which would risk an uncontrollable escalation of war and the potential loss of a priceless Road Poneglyph.11 It was a perfectly isolated patch of forest on which to test a new, terrifyingly efficient method of ideological fire suppression.
Part IV: A Unified Theory of Annihilation—Solving the Lulusia Paradox
The “Controlled Burn of Memory” paradigm resolves the central paradox of Lulusia by demonstrating that the competing theories are not mutually exclusive.
They are interconnected facets of a single, coherent, and terrifyingly logical strategy.
The Rebellion was the reason for the burn—it was the dangerous fuel that needed to be cleared.
The Weapon Test was the method and the opportunity—the new tool was available, and the conditions were perfect for its first use.
The island’s Proximity was the logistical justification for the choice of target—it was a safe and convenient location for the test.
This framework perfectly resolves the “unlucky Sabo” conundrum.
The Five Elders’ dialogue reveals that the plan to “burn” Lulusia was already in motion before Sabo’s presence was known.2
His arrival was not the
cause of the annihilation; it was a serendipitous coincidence for the World Government.
They were already deploying their ultimate weapon to eradicate a rebellious kingdom as a test.
The fact that they might also eliminate their most wanted fugitive—the man who had seen the face of God and lived—was an unexpected, high-value bonus.
He was “unlucky” because he happened to flee to the very spot that was already marked for erasure.
Furthermore, the very nature of the weapon system reinforces the motive.
The weapon is named Uranus, after the primordial Greek god of the sky.8
It is powered by the Mother Flame, an artificial, sun-like energy source created by science.30
In a world where Luffy’s true power has been revealed as that of the “Sun God” Nika—a warrior of liberation and laughter—this is no coincidence.1
By wielding an artificial sky-god weapon powered by a man-made sun to obliterate a kingdom fighting for freedom, Imu is making a profound ideological and theological statement.
It is a declaration that their artificial, controlled, and tyrannical “godhood” is superior to the natural, chaotic freedom embodied by the true Sun God.
The destruction of Lulusia was a direct challenge to the burgeoning legend of Nika.
Part V: The World Sinks—The Geopolitical and Apocalyptic Aftermath
The obliteration of Lulusia was not a self-contained event.
Its impact rippled across the globe, causing worldwide earthquakes and raising the global sea level by one meter.34
This was not merely an explosion; it was an act of planetary engineering, a demonstration of power capable of altering the world’s very geology.
The most telling clue to the weapon’s history and future purpose is the aftermath: a permanent, gaping, circular hole in the sea where the island once stood.
This geographic scar is visually identical to the abyss over which the judicial island of Enies Lobby is built.9
This serves as the strongest possible evidence that this weapon, Uranus, was used before—likely during the Void Century—to literally reshape the world map.
This horrifying potential is confirmed by Dr. Vegapunk’s final message to the world.
He warns that the planet is sinking into the sea.9
He explicitly connects the recent one-meter rise in sea levels to the Lulusia incident and states his belief that the great flood of the Void Century, which sank entire continents and created the world of scattered islands we know today, was also a man-made calamity caused by the Ancient Weapons.36
The re-emergence of this world-altering power dramatically raises the stakes for the final saga of One Piece.
The fight is no longer just against a tyrannical regime; it is against a force that can, and demonstrably will, flood the entire world to achieve its objectives.
Imu’s ultimate goal may not be to simply rule the world as it is, but to “reset” it through a great, cleansing flood, erasing all dissent and leaving behind only a world that perfectly conforms to their static ideal.9
The battle for the One Piece has become a desperate struggle to prevent a man-made apocalypse.
Conclusion: The Battle for What Was
The destruction of the Lulusia Kingdom was not a simple act of revenge, a random show of force, or a targeted assassination.
It was a meticulously calculated, strategic act of damnatio memoriae executed as a “controlled burn.” It was the perfect expression of Imu’s 800-year-old doctrine of absolute historical, ideological, and geological control.
This singular event reframes the entire central conflict of One Piece.
The final war is not merely a clash between pirates and marines, freedom and order.
It is a war over the nature of reality itself.
On one side stands Monkey d+. Luffy, the embodiment of inherited will, the freedom to dream, and the laughter of the Sun God.
On the other stands Imu, the embodiment of absolute control, the power to erase memory, and the cold, artificial light of a false deity.
Lulusia was not the beginning of the end.
It was the first shot in the ultimate war—a war for the future, for the present, and, most importantly, for the right to remember the past.
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