In the grand ocean of One Piece, where pirates sail toward dreams, governments cling to power, and revolutions brew in shadows, there exists a quieter but equally formidable force: the press. The World Economy News Paper (WENP) may look like a simple backdrop for distributing wanted posters and plot updates, but in truth it is one of the most powerful institutions in the world Oda has built. Its flamboyant president, “Big News” Morgans, is as influential as any admiral or pirate emperor. Through headlines, rumors, and the careful crafting of narrative, Morgans wields the pen as a weapon—sometimes as a scalpel to reveal truths, sometimes as a hammer to sensationalize, and often as a mirror of the chaotic times.
As One Piece sails toward its final saga, the presence of WENP feels increasingly vital. Every major revelation now ripples outward not only through characters’ direct actions, but also through how those events are framed in the news. What people believe, what they fear, and whom they idolize all stem from the way Morgans chooses to tell the story. That makes WENP not just a plot device, but a powerful metaphor for the role of media in shaping perception and history.
Morgans: A Showman in the Sky
To understand WENP, we must first understand its eccentric leader. “Big News” Morgans is a larger-than-life character in every sense. His Albatross Zoan Devil Fruit gives him birdlike traits, but it is his personality that truly soars. Morgans embodies the stereotype of the bombastic editor-in-chief, obsessed not with neutrality but with spectacle. He lives for chaos and drama, proclaiming that what matters most is not accuracy but entertainment. For him, the news is theater, and he is both playwright and director.
At the same time, Morgans is no mere buffoon. He is clever, politically shrewd, and surprisingly principled when it comes to resisting outright censorship. Though he delights in exaggeration and clickbait-style headlines, he bristles at attempts by the World Government to silence his paper. This contradiction makes him fascinating: he is both a cynical profiteer and a reluctant defender of press freedom. Morgans does not see himself as a servant of truth, yet he recoils at being reduced to a puppet of authority.
This duality sets the stage for WENP’s role in the narrative. It is not simply propaganda, nor is it the voice of objective truth. Instead, it is an unpredictable third force, a media empire run by a man who believes that perception often matters more than fact. And in a world as unstable as Oda’s, perception can shape the course of history.
The Whole Cake Island Wedding: Chaos as Entertainment
One of the most striking demonstrations of Morgans’s ethos occurs during the Whole Cake Island arc. Invited to Big Mom’s extravagant tea party, Morgans sits among world leaders and underworld brokers, eagerly awaiting a story worth printing. When the wedding erupts into chaos—Jinbe publicly leaving Big Mom’s crew, the Vinsmokes betrayed, and Luffy’s clones crashing the ceremony—Morgans is beside himself with glee. He does not lament the danger or moral implications; instead, he marvels at the spectacle, already envisioning the headlines.
Here we see Oda’s critique of media’s obsession with drama. For Morgans, the news is not primarily about informing citizens of critical events, but about feeding their appetite for scandal. The collapse of political alliances and the exposure of pirate treachery become entertainment. This is not unlike how, in our world, media sometimes thrives on sensational coverage of disasters and scandals, often blurring the line between reporting and spectacle.
The Whole Cake Island sequence establishes Morgans as a kind of ringmaster for public perception. He thrives when reality resembles a circus, and his audience—the people of the world—lap it up.
The Levely Arc: The Birth of the Fifth Emperor
If Whole Cake Island revealed Morgans’s taste for drama, the Levely arc showcased his power to shape history. After Luffy’s exploits against Big Mom, Morgans publishes a story that goes beyond fact: he declares Monkey D. Luffy the “Fifth Emperor of the Sea.” This is not a title anyone in authority recognizes at the time. It is an invention, a piece of rhetorical framing that elevates Luffy from notorious pirate to global figure.
The ripple effects are immediate. Across the world, readers gasp at the audacity of a rookie pirate being placed alongside legends like Kaido, Big Mom, Blackbeard, and Shanks. Governments and rivals alike take notice. Even though the title has no official standing, it sticks. Luffy’s reputation grows because the story says it should. Morgans has conjured myth out of exaggeration.
This moment crystallizes the theme that runs through WENP’s role: reality in One Piece is not simply what happens, but what people believe happened. By calling Luffy an Emperor, Morgans essentially wills it into being. In doing so, Oda highlights how media not only reports history but actively writes it.
Wano and the Battle Against Censorship
Morgans is not always a willing accomplice to distortion. During the Wano Country arc, the World Government attempts to bribe and coerce WENP into suppressing certain stories. A Cipher Pol agent infiltrates the paper, hoping to twist coverage in the government’s favor. Morgans, however, resists. He punches the agent, denounces the idea of being silenced, and insists that the press must not bow to censorship.
Of course, his motives are not purely noble. He is not standing for truth out of moral obligation, but because government control would undermine his autonomy and his flair for the dramatic. Still, the effect is the same: Morgans positions himself as an independent actor, unwilling to become a mouthpiece for the authorities. In a world where the World Government controls most narratives, this independence is revolutionary. It shows that even a sensationalist can serve as a counterbalance to authoritarian power.
Egghead and the Fiction That Became Real
Perhaps the most fascinating WENP moment comes in the Egghead arc. When Dr. Vegapunk’s situation escalates, Morgans publishes a headline claiming that Luffy has taken Vegapunk hostage. At the time, this is a complete fabrication, invented to curry favor with the government and to spice up the news. Yet in a twist of fate, the situation evolves in such a way that Morgans’s false headline starts to resemble reality.
This is one of Oda’s most meta storytelling devices. A fake story bends the world until it becomes true, blurring the line between fiction and reality. It demonstrates how narratives themselves can shape events, not merely reflect them. If people believe a story strongly enough, they act in ways that make it real. Morgans, whether he realizes it or not, becomes both chronicler and participant in history, molding reality through imagination.
Themes: What WENP Represents
Taken together, these episodes paint a vivid picture of WENP as more than a plot accessory. It is a thematic pillar in One Piece, carrying several key ideas:
Media as Spectacle
The paper thrives on chaos, betrayal, and shock. Morgans treats the world as a stage, and his readers as eager theatergoers.
Truth Versus Profit
Accuracy often takes a back seat to what sells. Morgans prioritizes entertainment, readership, and influence over objective fact, raising questions about whether truth matters if perception becomes reality.
Prophecy and Foreshadowing
Headlines often exaggerate or mislead, yet they have an uncanny way of foreshadowing actual events. Oda uses WENP as a narrative tool, planting seeds for future developments under the guise of sensational reporting.
Power and Censorship
The World Government seeks to control the press, but WENP resists. This dynamic mirrors real-world struggles between free media and authoritarian regimes.
The Role of Public Perception
Perhaps most importantly, WENP underscores how stories shape reputation and influence. Luffy’s rise to “Emperor” status is not solely because of his actions, but because the world believes Morgans’s framing of those actions.
Morgans as Ethical Paradox
What makes Morgans compelling is not just his role, but his contradictions. He is unscrupulous enough to print lies, yet principled enough to fight censorship. He thrives on drama, yet in doing so occasionally uncovers truths that the government wishes buried. He is greedy, ambitious, and flamboyant, yet his very flaws create space for freedom of speech in a world desperate for it.
This makes Morgans an ambiguous figure: neither villain nor hero, but a mirror of journalism itself. He represents the dual potential of media to liberate and to mislead, to reveal and to distort. In many ways, Morgans is Oda’s playful yet biting commentary on our own world’s news cycles.
Academic Interest and Critical Perspective
Unsurprisingly, scholars and critics have begun analyzing Morgans and WENP as more than fictional curiosities. They see them as allegories for how media operates in reality. Journalism, whether in fiction or real life, is never just about facts. It is about framing, about which details are emphasized, and about how stories are spun for audiences who crave spectacle as much as information.
In this sense, Morgans embodies the tension between truth and entertainment, integrity and manipulation. He is the embodiment of the idea that media is both watchdog and showman, both necessary and dangerous. His character sparks questions about what people really want from the news: objectivity, or a good story.
Why WENP Matters More Than Ever
As One Piece hurtles toward its climax, the WENP’s role feels more crucial than ever. The final battles will not only be fought on the seas but in the minds of the world’s citizens. Who will be remembered as heroes, and who will be vilified as villains? That answer may depend less on what actually happens than on how Morgans frames the story.
When Luffy defies the World Government, how will that defiance be reported? When ancient truths about the Void Century and the Will of D are revealed, who will be allowed to hear them, and in what form? WENP will be central to these questions. It is the conduit between events and perception, between history and myth.
The Egghead arc already demonstrates how misinformation can shape events. As the stakes rise, the consequences of Morgans’s choices will ripple further. A single headline could sway nations, spark revolutions, or crown new legends. In a story so deeply concerned with inherited will and the telling of history, the press is not just a backdrop—it is the very loom on which the tapestry of the world is woven.
Conclusion: The Pen and the Pirate
The World Economy News Paper may flutter innocently in the background, but under Morgans’s direction it is as sharp as any sword and as mighty as any fleet. In a series where battles decide fates, the press decides legacies. Morgans is a trickster, a profiteer, and a visionary all at once, using his paper to blur truth and fiction until the two are indistinguishable.
For fans, this makes every WENP headline a clue worth examining. They are Oda’s way of commenting on the role of media, foreshadowing future twists, and reminding us that history is not only written by victors, but also by those who print the news. Morgans may not set sail, but his influence travels farther than any pirate ship.
As the final saga unfolds, one truth is clear: to follow One Piece is not only to watch Luffy chase the horizon, but also to read along with the stories Morgans tells about him. In the end, the question may not be only who reaches the One Piece, but who controls the narrative of what it means.