Is this how the Rocks Pirates/Roger Pirates rivalry starts?
Both legendary pirate crews fighting over Shakky like she’s an object to be won? Yeah. It’s Oda we’re talking about. No doubt it’s how it all starts.
If Gloriosa’s in love with Gol D. Roger, why is she apart of Rocks D. Xebec’s crew? Did she just join them because she can’t hang out on Amazon Lily and they’ll eventually run into Roger? Is Gloriosa the eventual mother of Marshall D. Teech? No, wait. Gloriosa’s last name isn’t Teech, it’s… Ooooh! We don’t know yet. Hmm…
Interesting how we see the Rocks Pirates robbing a corrupt charity organization. Did Oda do that to make Rocks a more complicated character? Or, did he do so to keep Edward Newgate (Whitebeard)’s deeds relatively clean?
Maybe both.
I find both the how and why Rocks’ trying to takeover the world interesting. How do you defeat such a powerful group as the World Government? And is Rocks doing all of it because he thinks the Celestial Dragons deserve to be dethroned or is he simply doing all of this because he’s a megalomanic?
Maybe both.
How does Rocks know about Monkey D. Garp’s hatred of the top brass? Is it widely known or is there more going on here? Could Rocks have his own double agent working for the Navy? Hmm…
There’s a possible traitor among the Rocks Pirates.
…Stussy Buckingham.
It’s gotta be her, right? Her future clone worked for the World Government. It wouldn’t be surprising the reason is because the original Stussy was also a great double agent.
The Five Elders will allow Elbaph to join their shitty club if Harald kills Rocks. Naturally, that won’t happen because Elbaph isn’t currently apart of the World Government. Where’s Oda going with this? Are we to believe Harald does kill Rocks but those old bastards still don’t allow Elbaph in? Maybe. Depends on if Rocks is actually dead. But Rocks could’ve fake his death so…
Exactly where are we going with this flashback? Are we getting the full history of the Rocks Pirates including the full reveal of the God Valley incident? Will we see Rocks mold Teech into carrying on his dream after his crew implodes? It would be weird not seeing Rocks’ full story with so much of the flashback devoted to him. So, yeah. I think we’re getting Rocks’ full documentary.
While interesting, it’s crazy how Oda dumped this much lore in the middle of an arc. We have tons of world building left to see, but with how One Piece is structured, instead of just dedicating a flashback arc to itself, Oda shoehorns all the needed lore he can into the middle of a current arc. Not the best way to do it, in my opinion. But, the flashback’s good so I can’t complain too much about it.
This was a good chapter! Sure the Shakky stuff was eyerolling, but everything else was great. It’s gonna be interesting how Oda loops this flashback back to Harald’s death, Loki’s devil fruit, and Elbaph’s Heaven World, the topmost part of the kingdom. Not to mention Kevin Bacon. That guy’s always, at most, six degrees removed from every One Piece character in existence.
Mammoth Base Opera Castle 