@Cockycent:
Welcome, nakama, to another theory. In this theory I want to speak on the possibility of there being a feathered race.
We know of the Fishmen, Minks, Merfolk, Giants, Dwarves, Snakeneck, etc. There are many that I think Oda will possibly reveal in the future. The race that I want to speak on is the feathered race.
I agree, and would like to add a type of Demon race to that. Freakers like Magellan, Moria and Bartolomeo come to mind. Possibly also Saldeath and Hannyabal and a few others. It's those horns, man. It's not normal. And those sharp teeth. Although, I kind of expected them all to have a skin tone closer to that of Moria and most don't.
1 Proposed characters
2 Abilities of the race
Proposed Characters
We’ve been introduced to Morgans. He is 1 of the recently revealed leaders of the Underworld. From the first look, he looks like a bird to me. I don’t think that he has this appearance because of a devil fruit. Those with Zoan type fruits, move around with either their normal form or their hybrid form. Chopper is the only known character that has a zoan type fruit, that utilizes his hybrid form mostly. So, for a character to use their transformed state casually, I highly doubt it.
Laffitte is a character that we know little to nothing about, but I think that he is too a member of the feathered race.
Only problem I have with that is, Morgans is a full-on bird anthro, with a beak and a wing rather than normal arms and the classic bird legs (with, I would imagine, talons hidden under those shoes). Lafitte only sprouts wings from the wrong part of the body for that type of similarity. Not saying you're wrong about there being more than one kind of Morgans type bird person but I don't believe Lafitte is anything like one of them. If the wings were out and visible the whole time (and bigger), I'd maybe concede a point there. Also I'd expect pointier noses at the very least, or feathery hair. Being virtually identical to a human isn't really conducive to setting them apart. Even the human-looking mermaids have an entirely inhuman lower half so you'd expect if the bird race's human-ish counterparts have normal upper bodies, then some other feature that's impossible to ignore would be more prominent and that doesn't appear to be the case so that would be a bizarre and unhelpful choice on Oda's part if that was how he went about it.
Abilities
Now, when it comes to these characters, there is much that I purposely left out. I did that because those explanations belong in this section. Now many races have been shown to have more than human abilities. Giants have strength, Merfolk and Fishmen can communicate with fish, Minks can possibly transform when there's a full moon and use electro, and I think that there are a few abilities of those of the feathered race.
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/70/23/65/7023653627b029ac12e8d7011d54126a–infants-electro.jpghttp://opwiki.org/images/thumb/Walhai.png/180px-Walhai.pnghttps://www.quizz.biz/uploads/quizz/705147/6_k5647.jpg
Well Morgans can't fly, according to the wiki, so that being what would be expected as a major component of being one of the feather race seems to not be the reality of it, at least in his case. We'd have to see at least one who could (and for the reasons stated above I'm not able to count Lafitte in their number, not at the current moment). It's not like Morgans is modeled after a flightless bird like a penguin or ostrich or emu.
First, I want to mention that I think that like Fishmen and Merfolk, there might be those that resemble humans and those that resemble a more bird like appearance. I would put Laffitte under the more human like appearance. I bring this up because I think those like Laffitte have the ability to bring out and put away their wings. I haven’t seen any of the 3 races from the Moon do this, so I put Laffitte here. Maybe this explains why there are moments when he has his wings out and moments when he doesn’t. Another ability that I think those of the feathered race possess is the ability to communicate with other feathered creatures. Morgans possibly uses the news coo as workers.
Given there are sky people who wear (fake) wings there are a lot of alternate explanations for Lafitte having non-standard wings (i.e. his arms not becoming them the way Morgans' are), and them being more angel-style shoulder-mounted ones, my current favorite theory about Lafitte is that he's some kind of mythical Zoan user. Also it makes sense for there to be a division between fishfolk and merfolk (each of them being close to human in a major way but each distinct from the other) but not for there to be humanoid birdpeople and more avian anthro birdpeople when one is almost 100% indistinguishable from humans most of the time. Or if there were, you'd expect to see them in full angel wing mode at all times, at the very least. If we see a genuine Harpy somewhere, and not a fake one like Monet, then we're onto something but we haven't got precedent for them yet. But here's hoping because that would be awesome. Let's just not count our chicken-people til they hatch.
Cocky’s Advocate
I want to introduce a new section that I felt was healthy for my theories. This section basically gives an argument against my idea. I feel that sometimes, many of us get ahead of ourselves and can’t see the bigger picture. With that being said, I think that it is dope to have a second perspective or play Devil’s Advocate.
Laffitte might just have a Devil Fruit Ability that grants him those wings. Laffitte could also be a mix or one of the 3 Moon races. Morgans might not have anything to do with the News Coo. There is also the fact that they weren’t listed on the slave list.
Ah, so you'd already taken that DF possibility into account too. Not sure where that Moon races thing came from but there certainly are other places we've seen wings of one sort or another. Hell, even Robin once made wings with her DF power. And I'm not convinced Morgans communicates or controls the birds pulling his flying ship in the way that Jimbei controlled those whale sharks, I think they're just captured and are of a sufficient level of intelligence like most animals in One Piece to understand that if they don't keep flapping they'll either fall and die or be punished for slacking off.
Conclusion
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Morgans and Laffitte are members of a feathered race
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They can communicate with feathered creatures and some can make their wings appear or disappear
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There are two types of the feathered race, the ones that resemble birds more and the ones that look more human like and can bring out their wings.
That all requires way too many assumptions at the current moment when you summarize it that way. It's not unheard of for people to have a certain animal-esque appearanze like that Nezumi guy from the Arlong Park arc where he looked like a mouse.But I'll grant that Morgans' entire body is so bird-like it's hard to deny he's the genuine thing, short of being constantly in a hybrid Zoan form. I'd certainly like there to be both avian and reptilian offshoots of the Minks but I want to see more than one example before I subscribe to there actually being a whole species of one or the other. The only alternative we haven't considered is some kind of really messed up cross-breeding between people and those giant birds from the Torino Kingdom and turning into that scene from the season 1 finale of Superjail!
