Okay, so there's a bomb in the Mermaid's treasure chest.
But WHY?
I thought maybe the Mermaids were trying to kill Mom. But the flashback shows they never intended her to get the chest. But they never said WHY there was a bomb in the chest in the first place!
The flashback scene with the minister and the mer king actually did happen back in the fishman arc. If you recall, the chest is where those super-strength pills used to be, when Hodi and his gang stole them. The minister had rigged the chest with bombs shortly after that to punish anyone else who came looking for the pills. This was withheld from the king at the time, which is why he allowed Luffy to keep all the treasure after the swamp-dude stole them.
10/4/04 - 8/20/07