In the manga, we have not been yet shown what Luffy’s dream is. The only thing that we were shown are reactions of the Straw Hat pirates. Those are:

– Zoro, Jimbe and Nami: Surprisied and worried.

– Brook, Franky and Sanji: Laughing and amazed.

– Chopper: Just amazed.

– Robin: Mysteriously thinking about something, probably drawing some historical parallels in her head.

On the next page Jimbe and Nami aren’t as worried anymore and we see Franky saying: “Since you gotta be Pirate King to even make that possible.”

A possible theory is going to the Moon but while I think Moon is going to be important, the Egghead arc mostly disproves this idea. I think so because if going to the Moon was that important to Luffy he would have asked the world greatest scientist about it.

So what is it actually? The idea needs to be something a child ideolising Roger and Shanks could come up with and also something you NEED to be a pirate king to accomplish.

Luffy wants everyone to be a pirate.

Let me explain why it makes perfect sense.

Real Significance Of The Pirate King

To get into it, we need to first understand what Luffy thinks the pirate king is, and what we saw pirate king to mean in the story so far.

At the very first page we see the following:

I think this is the ultimate proclamation of what The Pirate king is in the story. And this is what it also likely means to Luffy. Notice that we never actually see Roger rule anything, or enjoy his wealth, or to control anything mush, really. But we see him inspire others to be pirates by declaring that he left everything in that place.

Since we know that Luffy doesn’t actually care about Wealth, Fame and Power. He does not want to rule anyone. He wants to be the freest man in the world. But we also see time and again, that while Luffy is seeking freedom for himself, what he also does time and again, is inspire others to fight for their own liberation.

Luffy is “a warrior of liberation”, but he doesn’t actually free people all on his own. He actually helps each and every one of them discover their own self worth and to fight for themselves together with Luffy. He inspires other to also seek freedom. To be pirates (so far mostly metaphorically).

Pirate King is the one who inspires others to also be pirates, to also be free.

Thematic Sense And Doflamingo

This idea also makes sense thematically. Bear with me here for a moment, but I think there is a good reason why Doflamingo wasn’t killed and why we still constantly see him in the manga even though he can’t actually do anything physically. The reason here is that Luffy never actually defeated Doflamingo. Sure, he beat Doffy up, but Doffy never changed his ways and he still holds his ideology. Which is: “Justice always wins, because victors decide what justice is”.

Essentially, Doffy believes that whoever wins the great war will become a new ruler on the Empty Throne and declaring all his previous opponents vile pirates.

The only way to actually defeat Doflamingo once and for all, is to prove to him that nobody is going to ever sit on that throne again, and nobody is ever going to rule over others in a tyrannical manner. How could this be achieved? If nobody rules anyone at all. If its not possible, if every single person is a pirate forging their own path.

The Great Flood

In the latest chapters, we found out that the world is going to sink. Its important to mention that Vegapunk tends to speak like a scientist. He usually speaks in theories and probabilities. There is no doubt in him when he says that the world is going to drown. Many people already said that this is unavoidable, and that this will happen for one reason or another.

Obviously, people are not going to just die and drown because of it, they will need to be saved and they will need to live somehow even without their old homes. It might happen that other islands will appear instead, but I think it makes better sense thematically, for everyone to just move to live on ships or mobile floatins islands like Baratie or Water 7 or even Thriller Bark.

And who lives on ships? Why, pirates of course.

The Conclusion

I am not the best theorist out there, and I also never even reread One Piece, so I am not going to break down every single important panel and page here, since I don’t really remember where to find them and such. But I hope that I made a compelling point here.