Mother Flame

Mother Flame
Statistics
Japanese Name:	マザーフレイム
Romanized Name:	Mazā Fureimu
Official English Name:	Mother Flame
First Appearance:	Chapter 1060; Episode 1089
Owner:	Vegapunk (inventor); Imu, Five Elders (users)

The Mother Flame is an alternative energy source created by Dr. Vegapunk. It is envisioned to be the "undying flame" (消えない炎, kienai honō^?) that would let Vegapunk and his satellites create their own sun, but it is still incomplete.

Produced in a power plant on Egghead, a small sample of it was stolen by York and sent to the Five Elders and Imu, who used it to power up an unknown ancient weapon. This is an important background fact behind the Egghead Incident.

Appearance

The Mother Flame's containment unit.

The Mother Flame, like its name suggests, takes the form of a relatively small, but extremely bright flame.

The flame itself is kept in suspension inside a gigantic, reactor-like tank of undisclosed liquid, branded with the production code "S-108". This room is located on the first floor of Building B at Egghead's Labophase.

Overview

An ancient weapon powered by even a sample of the Mother Flame can destroy whole islands in instants.

The Mother Flame was originally developed to be a source of unlimited energy, an undying flame meant to advance modern civilization and fulfill Vegapunk's primary goal of freely available energy. However, it is noted to be still incomplete.

In spite of the benevolent intentions behind its development, the Mother Flame also has inherent applications in warfare, with the energy produced from it being capable of powering up even the Ancient Weapons. Imu and the Five Elders have access to one of said weapons and, after receiving a sample of the Flame from York, initiated a "test run" that eventually led to the successful destruction of the Lulusia Kingdom.

The Mother Flame is produced by a Power Plant (融合炉（パワープラント）, pawā puranto^?, literally meaning "Fusion Reactor") on Egghead and only Vegapunk and his satellites know how to create it, meaning that the Five Elders and Imu must rely on York for further supply. The Elders will do anything they can to make sure the Power Plant is not destroyed, as it is the only source of the Mother Flame and nobody would be able to recreate it in case of destruction.

History

Past

The Mother Flame was developed by the scientist Vegapunk. A small fragment of the flame was secretly stolen and sent to the Five Elders by York. Despite cutting off her memory synchronisation with Punk Records to cover the act, Vegapunk became aware of the theft.

Final Saga

Egghead Arc

The aftereffects of the Mother Flame's immense power.

Two weeks after the fragment was stolen, and six days before the Egghead Incident, Imu ordered the Five Elders to test out the Mother Flame on the island where the Lulusia Kingdom resided due to its close proximity to Mary Geoise. The Five Elders agreed to this, and Topman Warcury said that its results may influence how they would handle their growing troubles with Vegapunk and Egghead. The Mother Flame-powered weapon was sent to the Lulusia Kingdom and proceeded to annihilate it in seconds, leaving no trace of the island behind; it was declared that the kingdom never existed.

Because of the success of the Mother Flame's test, the Five Elders, under Imu's request, made a deal with York to have her further replicate the technology, not knowing that she had already been caught by the Straw Hat Pirates, who listened in to their conversation.

Translation and Dub Issues

In VIZ Media's initial release of Chapter 1086, the Mother Flame was incorrectly translated as "Mother Frame". This was corrected to "Mother Flame" in later chapters, and the release of Volume 107 corrected the error in the original chapter.

Trivia

• The weapon utilizing the Mother Flame is depicted as firing sixteen beams downward. Per goroawase, the two syllables in Imu's name can also be read as "1" (i per on'yomi) and "6" (mu per kun'yomi), which makes 16.
• The reactor containing the Mother Flame bears the code A&Mu for identification. This is likely a pun on how "atom" is pronounced in Japanese, atomu (アトム^?), as the Japanese word for "and" or "&" is to (と^?).
• Mother Flame likely took inspiration from real-life nuclear power, which both can be used as energy fuel and mass destruction weapon. Its creator Vegapunk is also inspired by Albert Einstein, who warned president Roosevelt about the possibility of creating an atomic weapon.
• When Vegapunk mentions the Mother Flame in Chapter 1116, it is written 消えない炎（マザーフレイム）, with the kanji literally meaning "undying flame" while the furigana reads Mazā Fureimu or "Mother Flame".