First, my apologies for being so late to reply to these. It's that time of year. Moving on.
@gotta<3OP:
Urouge, my main problem with the theory is that the world government has MUCH to lose.
I mean, those pills had to have some unknown side effect, and every great leader of any civilization knows that a side effect would be a possibility, especially the leader of a nation which seems really advanced.
In times of great need they could still use it as a weapon, but they would never give it to the noble, nor to the main fighting force. They would instead use it to increase the power of their low tier fighters.
Now, we've seen the power of those pills, and its no joke at all. Why would the world government potentially double the fighting force of the enemy, for a one in a million chance that that would turn them all into old man?
There is the possibility it would work well, but it would work better on THEIR side. You know, giving up the life of lowly peasents but take the life of 5 enemy soldiers with them its a pretty benefic tactic. Well Ares (a good Manhwa) gives a pretty good inside on the good use of steroids in times of war, btw.
I actually read this post a while ago. I didn't have time to respond but it gave me more time to digest it. The simplest answer is very simple, and that's namely the existence of a third party. Or call the WG the third party on the outside of a war looking in, if you'd prefer. In such a scenario, I would see it as an extremely strong plan.
Now there are to things this made me think of.
First his, Bonney + Energy Steroids…. enough said.
Oda hasn't been overly willing to have fruit powers persist beyond death, and Bonney doesn't have the mentality of a 900 year old.
Second his an actual theory, its actually kinda underwhelming, and still a lot of a stretch, but meh.
So I think Joy Boy and Poseidon were members of the ancient kingdom. Joy Boy was a general from the upper lands, who was ordered to help Poseidon old the paradise under the see.
Joy Boy however felt in love with that land, and with those people, he just loved the merfolks, and their different kinds. The times he spent there in piece were wonderfull.
But the best of those times was Poseidon, the Mermaid Princess. He and her felt madly in love. Poseidon and him sworn to eachother that they would protect the land at all costs, and make of that land, their own nest of love.
Then the land was attacked, but through pure love for those people, he refused to give them the weapon the ancient kingdom demanded too, the Energy Steroids. He didn't want to kill all those people, instead he took them himself, and with the help of the princess they sucessfully defended the land. However Poseidon was wounded. The paradise was no longer what it once was, full of chaos. And he had grown old.
With the last of his power he carved a poneglyph while crying for his lost lover, where he apologized for all the wrong he did.
In the middle of this there was some business with a boat, but that should not work against this theory, I just can't predict what that big boat is meant for.
Besides Noah, there's also the issue of Poseidon being a pretty pathetic ancient weapon if she couldn't even manage to easily win 10k meters underwater against humans. There's also the question of why the ES were created in the first place and what took place to lead them to being locked up.
@Pantheras:
I do agree that they were most likely using them only in battle, but the soldiers were most likely engaging in repeated battles. And the WG may not have been the only problem, whether it was fights against each other or other powerful enemies. When hundreds of thousands of individuals are using this drug, all it takes is for one soldier to succumb to these effects, and then the word will spread on the extreme effects of these drugs. Sure, some will most likely continue to use them regardless of such harmful effects, but I believe there would be some as well that would drop them all together, which would then nullify the possibility that all of the countries fell by this method.
By that logic, Tylenol should be outlawed. Such a small percentage won't change anything. Especially with devil fruits hanging around that could easily explain a few oddities here and there.
Once it's figured out and communicated to everyone, it might already be too late.
I fully agree with that, which is why I stated that I'm willing to believe that one country(maybe two or three) could have succumbed so deeply to these effects that there was no turning back from there. But asking for so many to fall for it just seems unreasonable to me. If I had to just generally compare it to something, it feels like asking for me to believe that a large group of characters(who are unassociated with each other but have similar positions in the world) to all have the same character flaw, which(along with several other factors) causes their ultimate downfall. To suggest that so many people would have fallen in the same way, despite their being so many ways that it could be discovered, and for it to possibly be the ultimate catalyst for their destruction, just seems a little much to accept.
Well of course they wouldn't all fall the same way. This is a war that also featured ancient weapons, and who knows what else. A few key countries here and there could make all the difference. I think it'd be a little too convenient if the Strawhats had already visited both of two countries, though, considering the relatively small number they've gone through.
This could be entirely true. Although, if that is true, it does somewhat bother me that the people of the time are somehow capable of making weapons that can destroy the world, but reliable and quick forms of communication are somehow beyond them.:P
However, even if the countries' information to one another is hampered by a time frame of weeks, it entirely depends upon when you believe the negative effects will show. Obviously, the countries are going to use them at different paces that are dependent upon their own needs. If one country abuses the drugs at a astounding rate, then word can easily spread to the other nations, whether through spies or through word of mouth. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers becoming old, useless, or on the verge of death on a moment's notice would spread eventually to the other nations. I suppose if the government was not aggressive and only engaged them in a few fights a year, then it might be possible against a few countries. But to juggle something like this against the whole world just seems like a titanic effort that could possibly backfire on them. The WG could have easily started a fire that they wouldn't be able to contain. That are just so many variables in a scenario of the government giving all of those countries these drugs that it seems it could be a massive mistake on both sides.
I don't think dinosaurs were prominent 900 years ago, so it's reasonable to assume the Grand Line worked pretty much the same way back then. It would only take one advanced country to build Pluton, and Poseidon was a person. And getting word to one other country is a lot easier than getting word to all the other countries.
During my typing this up, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe the WG could have given one or two nations these drugs, knowing that the rulers of these particular countries would use them in catastrophic and evil ways on their neighboring countries, which could create a domino effect, where people immediately start forming alliances and lining up against each other, creating a large world war among themselves. Then when the majority are weakened, the WG could destroy the ones left standing. I suppose I could believe a scenario like that a lot more than all of them succumbing to the same effect of the drugs.
That could work, or they might not even be one of the two sides of the war in the first place. Especially if the war is already in full bloom, there simply wouldn't be a lot of time they could burn testing the drug.
@Zkaiser:
Where was it shown that Hody and the gang took these pills a long time ago or at any time before the current story? I must have missed that.
I guess it wasn't shown specifically. I just looked at the approximate time they got their hands on the drugs and then used common sense.