u/GoreyDollface

We treat the Void Century like a mystery to be solved, but I think we've been looking at it wrong.

The World Government didn't erase that era because they were ashamed of how they won. They erased it because the people of that era knew something was going to happen again and the Poneglyphs weren't a record of the past. They were instructions for the future.

Joy Boy failed. Whatever he was trying to do with Poseidon, Pluton, and Uranus, it didn't work But he didn't die believing it was over. He laughed. He left a promise. That alone tells us he knew someone would come back to finish it.

The World Government has been in a 800-year holding pattern. Not ruling... stalling. Every war, every execution, every suppression of knowledge has one goal: make sure no one finds all the Poneglyphs before they can stop what's coming.

Imu isn't a ruler. Imu is a guardian of a secret so dangerous that even the Gorosei are just middle management.

And Luffy is the one person the world insists can't be allowed to reach Laughtale... isn't just the next Joy Boy

He might be the reason Joy Boy failed the first time too

What do you think the Void Century was actually trying to prevent or unleash?