My prediction about Rocks is this: he is not a man driven by love or care of the oppressed, but hatred of the oppressors. It's often said that He Who Fights Monsters must take care not to become a monster himself, and I think that's what happened to Rocks. Garp and Roger teamed up against Rocks not to defend the Celestial Dragons, but to defend the innocent victims who were caught in the crossfire of Rock's attack.
I agree with this take. You can't ever tell the oppressed how to fight against the oppressors, but I do believe that Roger and Garp had a good reason to deny Rocks the opportunity to take down the Celestial Dragons/WG, and it's probably because they didn't believe there was the proper set up for a succesful post-revolutionary war. Also, I think Oda will represent this by presenting us with The Treasure of Hachinosu as the thing which is being fought over by Rocks vs. Garp + Roger as a way of demonstrating "worthiness" to elad the new world order. By the war, I think the Treasure of Hachinosu is the Giant straw hat.
I think Rocks was like Kid in the sense that he believed that the world government is more evil than him but he still did heinous crimes. And I think Roger stopped him either for a selfish goal or that he believed that the world would be worse off with Rocks in control. (My own headcannon)
I tend to subscribe to that he was like Luffy, A good person that the WG paints as evil. Whitebeard's a good person and I don't think he'd follow someone he didnt respect. Also Big Moms dream in it's most basic form is to end racism in the One Piece World. Also Roger didn't start looking for the One Piece til after God Valley. I just think he was more like Luffy than Kid
@@K4inan No, Roger didn't even start looking for the One Piece til after God Valley so it had nothing to do with that, Roger didn't learn about the too early thing til he reached Laughtale like 16 whole years later, Imo Rocks is the person who got Roger to start looking
@@amdesign7720 SAVE PALESTINE FROM THE APARTHEID GOVERNMENT ISRAEL. Open your eyes don't close your eyes to wickedness, Israel is shamelessly not even trying to hide it.
At God Valley, we will have: - Pirates that are good (Roger and crew) - Pirates that are evil (Xebec and crew) - World government leaders that are good (Garp and his underlings) - World government leaders that are evil (the Celestial Dragons) I think the moral of God Valley will be that the struggle between good and evil transcends the struggle between pirate and marine.
I think the reason why Roger stopped Rocks was because he somehow knew that it would cause another cleansing and that they were not strong enough to stop the world government. Now that we know the gorosei are actually strong and the existence of Imu it would make sense that even Rocks and Roger couldn't stop all of them.
Remember what Blackbeard said that Pirates only need a common interest to work together and he feels like pirates should work however they want. It seems like the common interest from the whole Rocks crew is that they despised the celesteal dragons and the world/Weak in some way (Kaido Saw wano as weak, Big Mom Enslaved or took lives of individuals that opposed her, Shiki hated rookie pirates). The only outlier was Whitebeard who wanted a family, probably because he knew just how cruel the world could be.
@@FatManJackson Movies aren't canon , period. (Unless they're adapting actual manga parts. Usually short, 12-chapter arcs.) Spoiler>/spoiler> Everything else in the prologue Chapter 0 was canon: Shiki being one of Roger's many enemies, their naval battle, Shiki vs Garp and Sengoku, Shiki's imprisonment, and escape from Impel Down, etc. Maybe Shiki will get to appear, and play a part in the canon story. Maybe he's the famous "man marked by flames" Kidd (1056) , and later Blackbeard (1081) were talking about. Spoiler>/spoiler>
You're on point with the kinds of pirates on his crew. That was the exact sentiment that changed how I viewed rocks. Even Big Mom has/had dreams of a pretty great world. He might be a character somewhere in the spectrum between Blackbeard and Luffy
I think I see some parallels with Dragon. Like him, Rocks might've started out as a revolutionary. Except he was more of an extremist. A terrorist willing to die or kill for his cause; hated by the establishment, but respected by his allies (his crew). Like Makima, considering himself "a necessary evil" to oppose the greater evil (World Government and Celestial Dragons.)
I like how you called Garb's hero status into question based on what he might've done at God Valley. I always assumed (and it was likely portrayed that way as a red herring) that Garb didn't want the hero title and the admiration for his deeds at God Valley because he had to team up with Roger, which would be a scandal to most marines, but now it seems it just might be because he truly regrets protecting the Tenryobito and their crimes back then.
Garp rejects the hero title exactly because he was as hero in saving the tenryuubito, the ones he despises. Funny how the most valuable man in the marines is also the one that hates the tenryuubito the most exactly for saving them (and that was what earned him his position).
Nah Your assumption is too out of the box... Blackbeard is carrying will of Rocks. Rocks indeed wanted to free the world from God's but to rule it. Roger/Luffy also want too free it from God's but too give freedom to everyone..
I think this might be the second reason, but the primary reason is that Admirals stand under the command of Celestial Dragons, Vice Admirals dont. He does not want to be ordered around by them specifically. He is only loyal to the marines.
Rocks and Roger will likely be a Luffy and Blackbeard scenario. They are foils to each other, sharing the same dreams and ideals of absolute freedom and pursuit of dreams, but it’s the methods by which they achieve those goals that separates them and shows how it’s not what our goals are in life that define us, but the decisions we make and how we go about attaining those goals.
Yeah this is always been my thought on Rocks; a flawed revolutionary akin to Blackbeard. I mean just as Blackbeard brought in great legends into the fold into his crew; Rocks did the same. Theres just no way hes actually completely good. I do think he will be closer to good than Blackbeard tho, yet his flawed ways coming to light will probably be some of the things that separate the crew as well. Seeing Roger and Garp come together is gonna be such an incredible sequence, and im excited to see these legends go ham in an avenue where we know most of top tier abilities. Its clear Oda has tried to keep us from seeing too much from the Yonko but now with the end of Kaido + Big Mom, Garp's ability reveal, and Shanks showcase, they can fully illustrate the insane powers of those who stand at the top. One of my greatest wishes is that if they ever do a canon movie, that they do it on Marineford and we get the added nuance of haki. I always felt that in Marineford there was things that took place that we as the reader and Luffy just didnt get to really see yet because he wasnt there yet. Theres no way Conquerors wasnt used in some capacity or general haki etc. Would love to see the animators now be able to show all that greatness.
I would even say this applies to all conflicts between colonizers and the colonized (of course I don't want to belittle the struggle of the Palestinians)
I think Oda is prepping us for the switcheroo, where he is going to remind us how awful the celestial dragons are, just to then bring in Rocks and make him so devious we root against him. Sort of like how Game of Thrones would make you hate a character in one season and then root for them the next season when a more pressing threat is introduced
Not likely at all, but imagine the Rocks Pirates are a Cross Guild parallell and Rocks was just a fraud who had charisma and was capable of bringing together loads of strong people for a common cause.
You make a great point Morj and I think it is one that will be represented in Luffy and Blackbeard’s character dynamics. I get the vibe that Roger and Rocks probably wanted the same thing, however they both went about it in completely different ways. I feel the same will be for Luffy and BB. Kind of like the Assassins and Templars from the Assassins Creed games. It has been expressed many times that they both want peace and a unified world, however one wants it through subjugation while the other wants it with human beings free will still being in tact.
Figarland: Infertile soil will not breed ripe fruit. If you wanted to be worthy you would have been borned in the sky like a celestial dragon. Rocks: So if the common man is born on infertile soil, what about slaves like us? Born from crevice of rocks? I am Rocks D. Xebec from the concrete, I'd beat you and become the king of the world.
I feel like the reason why Xebec targeted the slaves as well was that he most likely viewed the slaves as inferior and weak because they became slaves. I feel like Rocks admired strong willed individuals who do not bend down to others, and this lines up with Whitebeard and Kaido. Whitebeard shows this character sic, given how he had to fight for his village because of his refusal and inability to pay heavenly tributes, and Kaido, who has been captured and imprionsed numerous times, refuses to be a government dog or serve anyone. Rocks most likely admired these qualities about Kaido and Whitebeard, and logicially, we can assume that he disregarded the slaves because of their inherent weakness and refusal to go against a suppressive system.
It really is mind blowing how relevant the stuff being said in this video, and by extension Oda's message, is for the dark times that we are currently going through in the real world. And if you REALLY think about it, Oda more than likely already had most of what actually went down at God Valley planned out in his head ever since Sengoku's lore dump (which was like what, about 2-3 years ago?)...which begs the question, with how these events are lining up both in the One Piece world as well as ours, whether this was just an insane coincidence or an actual demonstration of Future Sight by Goda himself. So does this man have the answer to this insanely complicated and nuanced problem that tests the limits of our ethics, our morals and our humanity? Can't wait to find out. Great video Morj, one of your best ones yet.
One Piece handles politics in a pretty naive manner. The two sides are almost always black and white and after a successful/failed revolution the island enters a state of paradise.
I think we will still get the flashback later, but after egghead conflict is resolved. We did get a lot of info though so I am happy for now. I just want to see dragon come save strawhats on egghead.
@@YungRamo all fax. I love the theory by 333VIL that “dragon was introduced at loguetown in chapter 100, and he’ll finally meet luffy 1000 chapters later in chapter 1100”
I think Roger and Garp had similar agendas and thts y they teamed up against Rocks, meaning Garps’ job was to save the celestials and their slaves and Roger probably just wanted to help the slaves and probably knew of Rocks’ plan and Rocks probably wanted everyone in God Valley dead celestials and their slaves
Even if he had to kill slaves it doesn’t mean he’s not a hero. Sometimes you gotta be a devil to defeat a worse devil. If he had a choice not to kill slaves and did it anyway then that’s not heroic. But he likely saw it a necessary sacrifice for the greater good. If killing those slaves would have toppled the IMU regime then would that really be evil. That could have saved an exponential amount of lives and suffering. If Roger teamed up with the slavers to protect the slaves only to prolong imus regime then that’s evil
My personal theory is that the God Valley Incident was that the Rocks pirates were attempting to kidnap the celestial dragons as hostages for ransom, very similarly to BlackBeard with Koby, whereas Rocks’ plan would give him a way bigger bargaining chip than Koby or Garp ever would.
If Rocks and Blackbeard are similar I don’t see whitebeard joining with him. Maybe Rocks was like a mix between luffy and Blackbeard, not as good but also not as evil
Rock potential could try to kill baby Shanks after finding out he’s a celestial’s child or other celestial children but Roger stop him because he believes, “a child should not bare the sin of the father.” We know Garp believes this too, giving Ace a chance. Maybe that’s why they team up?
i just had the craziest idea - what if rocks is supposed to be kidd’s equivalent, the same way luffy’s is roger ? after all, when we’re introduced to kidd, we’re told he has a high bounty because he doesn’t care about civilian deaths. i feel like there’s some kind of parallel there
Many people don't consider that the description we know of Rocks comes from a class for marines, highly unlikely Sengoku was telling the truth and the other source is Big Mom who has proven to be a poor judge of character
If you actually think Garp and Roger would team up to take down a guy who is actually not that bad, you're on something my friend. For them to team up there is pretty much only one explanation. Rocks did or was going to do something horrific.
@@MarkHogan994 Again it hasn't been confirmed that they even did team up you're just repeating Sengoku taught young marines, Garp himself has never even confirmed it
@@jomets10 Yeah but why would Sengoku lie there? Why say Roger and Garp joined if it isn't true? Wouldn't be better just to say that Garp alone stopped Rocks? If it's a lie, that lie goes better with the marines than an alliance with *the* pirate.
I think Rocks could have had a pluton-copy (blueprints existed) or something similar and was going to wipe the island Possibly had the uranus and the celestial dragons got their hands on it after Rocks got defeated, then they tested it on the island anyway for their amusement
I think Rocks was likely good for the most part. As far as Roger, i think he likely stumbled onto a fight by chance, and decided to fight without all the context, and realized at the end he was on the wrong side. Idk, Rogers part in this could go many different ways. As far as blackbeard, my current headcanon is this. Blackbeard was 2 when Rocks died. Dragon was 17. I think Dragon saw the real Rocks at Godvalley and decided to follow in his footsteps, where as Blackbeard only knew the stories and propganda. He thinks he following Rocks ideals, but in reality knows nothing about them. If im right, i think Blackbeard would mirror Hordy in this way.
One Piece is very clearly at its core about Oda's interpretation of anarchist philosophy, every aspect of the story reinforces this notion, the difference between Rocks/Blackbeard and Luffy/Roger is a concept called "Unity of Ends and Means": Basically, in seeking to bring about a better world you can either take the Machiavellian path and do whatever it takes to make that happen even if it means doing horrible things (ends justify the means), or you can try living now the way you want to live in that better world and to use exclusively the means that demonstrate the desirable qualities of that world you're trying to create as contrasted with the cruel qualities of the world that already exists (unity of ends and means). Likewise Luffy clearly demonstrates the concept of "Direct Action" in the way he approaches every problem: Direct action is when in order to change an unfree world, you simply start living like you are already free.
Bro, Rocks literally wanted to be King of the World, he is not an anarchist. His case is not one of "ends justifying the means" because both his means and his ends were shitty He opposed the celestial dragons not to free the seas but to rule it himself
@@XDEnd00 We can't know what Rocks actually wanted because everything we know about his desires and motivations was written by the marines. That's also a repeating theme in One Piece; people get a perception of history and who various people were and what they wanted that were stories simply written by the victor. Also, as we've discovered, the meaning of "King" is not the same for every person in the same way the meaning of "treasure" is not the same. For Luffy, for instance, "King of the Pirates" actually means "to be the most free person on the seas".
I think is possible that Rocks D. Xebec was born on God Valley and wants to save his home or God Valley speical resources or the treasures of the Celestial Dragons (CDs) such as Divine Tribute and Devil Fruits along with his plan of becoming King of the One Piece World by killed the CDs and Gorosei. I personally believe that Rock D. Xebec was the Blackbeard of his era but was a Haki-man on level of Roger and Garp. Xebec is probably very evil like Blackbeard along with being very selfish and egoistical considering even Big Mom told Kaido not to trust him. Perhaps, Whitebeard even betrayed Xebec in the end and sided with Roger and Garp?
No; He was Basically as Evil as Blackbeard. . . He wanted to become King of the world; just like Marshall D. Teach; He wanted to not only overthrow the entire world government of Imu; BUT HE WANTS TO BE THE ONE IN CHARGE OF THE ENTIRE WORLD!!
Here's the problem. Nothing in the story ever said roger is a heroic person. It's implied he is a good person. He took care of his crew. Raised couple of kids. Have been respectful. But never heroic like white beard. Who's heroic story we hear even after his death. But we never heard some random fishman saying roger protected them when he was at his prime or he sent money to sustain an entire island. Sengoku never said roger wanted to protect celestial dragons and slaves. He said garp joined with roger in order to save celestial dragons and slaves. That does not mean roger was there to protect anyone. It means roger was already fighting rocks. And garp joined the fight so that he can save the slave and the dragons cause it's his job. What if roger was fighting rocks because he was the strongest pirate. That's so much more in character than him doing it for a heroic reason. So there's no reason to believe roger is the hero and just because he fought rocks, rocks can't be the hero. Also 9:56 why would you believe that. Based on what you said you can believe he won't do the wrong thing but we don’t know if he would ever do "the right thing". I think we are mixing up a really good person with a heroic person.
Everyone commenting how similar One Piece is to events in the world. One Piece has always been the story of the world, of humans, of life here. There is a reason it resonates with so many people all over the world. If you read Oda’s short stories from when he was younger you can see that he has always thought about such things. The idea of Mind, Body, and Spirit is also here (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit if you’re a Christian or w/e) which is an idea throughout every culture. The three types of haki, the three types of devil fruits align with mind, body, and spirit (body - armament, mind - observation, spirit - conqueror’s). There is a lot of other esoteric symbolism in One Piece. I am Ute/Kiowa Native American and JoyBoy is very similar to our ideas of tricksters. They’re usually seen as being a lil mischievous or bad, but there are some that were good as well. The Kiowa tribe I’m from says that we were taken care of one named Saynday, who took care of us and taught us how to carry ourselves. The deeper you dig, the more you find. Atlantis, Lemuria, Spirituality, etc. One Piece is the story of life.
The Blackbeard/Shanks flashback is gonna be the biggest one. Remember Shanks knows the Gorosei and he still finds BB the biggest threat. And there’s a reason why
Only hero at God Valley was Garp - pulled up with scrubs, against all those superstars, everybody else was there for some "treasure", Garp always tried to protect the weak, even the guys he hated and was the last man standing, when Rocks got destroyed and Roger fled
This is my theory on rocks, he roger and garp probably know each other since kids, and consider each other rival just like sabo ace and luffy, oda might follow the concept of japan 3 liberators in sengoku era, nobunaga hideyoshi and ieyasu, rocks probably a good guy until what happen in the god valley because i still remember garp flashback during kid luffy wherein he tells he doenst care what path luffy take as long as he still follow the righteous path
What i want rocks' story to be like is he was a former slave owned by the Figarlands and was beaten to death for being a D, he was forced to kill loved ones because the celestial dragons were forcing him to do so. Rocks wanted revenge and when he saw the opportunity at god valley he didnt hesitate, he was willing to kill and commit genocide to celestial dragons adult and children. This is why Roger and Garp and Whitebeard oppsed because they think children has got nothing to do with the actions of their parents, kinda mirroring it to Ace's story.
Loved that am I asshole bit, also I know anime isn’t technically canon but in the rocks pirates flashback it confirms that it was rocks in the doorway not big mom, and he appeared to be wearing a straw hat , I just feel like this hasn’t been talked about and it adds into the fact that rocks was quite the opposite of a villian
Anime is mainly canon, of course. We don't know if it was Rocks that called young Kaido at all. It could have been Captain John -- so far we saw no depiction of Rocks wearing any kind of hats, even as a silhouette
I think Roger knew how big of a threat Rocks was and what the world would look like under his control. If he stood back and allowed him to crush the world government he wouldn't be able to defeat him on his own.
Great video. Now that I think about it, I would like to see the SH & even people like Hancock to learn about the GVI. Which may help Hancock fully understand that even though Rayleigh & Garp may have partially caused her suffering, Rocks himself wasn't truly in the right no matter how noble & justified his motives may have looked.
it makes so much sense now why whitebeard was a part of rocks crew. i just didnt see whitebeard as a villain when he was introduce to be one of rocks crew. so i think rocks wasn't a bad person but a hero who was trying to destroy the celestial dragons but failed.
Maybe he's the one who exposed the true colors of the Celestial Dragons and he wanted to rally people against them. He might be the one who discovered the existence of Laughtale island and that it holds the key in taking down the WG. Maybe before his fall he encouraged everyone to go there and if they did they will be hailed as the Pirate King. I believe he had this great cause, otherwise WB wouldn't let himself be under him.
What if rocks actually killed one of the gorosei that’s why there is the younger looking one and also the government is so ashamed of the fact that on of their rulers was killed in their territory’s
Hey, you're unpacking an idea I have had for a long time. Very neat! The morally complex and incredibly human man that wasn't anything said bout him. And one must know his real history to know him. This is similar to real life quite a bit. Rocks is the revolutionary that says "all of them are part of the problem, kill everyone". Luffy will be the one that says "remove their source of power and they are just regular folks. Then we can have a party and everyone can be friends." Simple, sure. But Oda has a way of taking complex things such a fairly complex political theory and makes it understandable. I have long held that one thing One Piece is Oda's thesis on a successful revolution. There is way too much nuance on this specific topic to not be. Obviously there are other points and meanings to take but this is one of them.
Everyone can be friends, but no the Tenryuubito. Doflamingo lost all of his powers and he became a monster even more that he would be in Mary Geoise. The elite class that lost their powers would just try to take it back again, so a complete reeducation of them is needed at least.
@@sonofcronos7831 Right, but now you're starting to add nuance and we can do that all day. I was trying to distill the core of their thought process. Personally, no, I don't expect those with power to react well to losing it. But that is their choice, not the goal. And even if the goal is unobtainable, the journey towards it accomplishes good in and of itself.
No one he know off used Luffy fruit. That type of power would surely make someone questioned it, but no, no one, not Teach, not Whitebeard, not Garp, not Sengoku, and i could go on and on, no one never cared about Luffy fruit. If Rocks was the one that used it, everyone would know, it would be a great plot hole if that was the case. Also no one awakened the fruit in 800 years, so Rocks would just have the regular gomu gomu powers and no one besides the Gorosei would know that him was Nika. Kuma knew about Nika because of his father, that is literaly in the chapter.
Video is so deep and many of these things correlate to our world, but obviously we shouldn't get into that. Roger and Garp were fighting Rocks because he was going to take all the food for himsepf and not leave any for slaves. Good enough reason to fight for those two, I think
I can see a situation where roger and rocks teamed up to fek up the god nights and whatnot. Roger switched sides after seeing how brutal rocks was with the slaves and natives.
My prediction about Rocks is this: he is not a man driven by love or care of the oppressed, but hatred of the oppressors. It's often said that He Who Fights Monsters must take care not to become a monster himself, and I think that's what happened to Rocks. Garp and Roger teamed up against Rocks not to defend the Celestial Dragons, but to defend the innocent victims who were caught in the crossfire of Rock's attack.
So...an Anti Villain
I agree with this take. You can't ever tell the oppressed how to fight against the oppressors, but I do believe that Roger and Garp had a good reason to deny Rocks the opportunity to take down the Celestial Dragons/WG, and it's probably because they didn't believe there was the proper set up for a succesful post-revolutionary war. Also, I think Oda will represent this by presenting us with The Treasure of Hachinosu as the thing which is being fought over by Rocks vs. Garp + Roger as a way of demonstrating "worthiness" to elad the new world order. By the war, I think the Treasure of Hachinosu is the Giant straw hat.
@@g.riffic7707I agree, I think Rocks was just killing everyone that was a Celestial Dragon including children.
Crazy how one piece reflects the real world and what’s goin on today
Still some people think One piece isn't political
Yup, Gorsei=Politicians. Imu=CEOs, WHO and Banking
Couldn't stop thinking about hanmas and Israel once i got to the end of the video.
@@pietroiso2 same. In manga both Rocks and WG are bad just like in our world moth
Hamas and Israel are unjustified for their action.
@@ragingpirate5727world gov = Israel
I think Rocks was like Kid in the sense that he believed that the world government is more evil than him but he still did heinous crimes. And I think Roger stopped him either for a selfish goal or that he believed that the world would be worse off with Rocks in control. (My own headcannon)
Ye that would be my guess as well
I'd say Roger stopped Rocks because he wasn't joyboy, and the time wasn't right.
I tend to subscribe to that he was like Luffy, A good person that the WG paints as evil. Whitebeard's a good person and I don't think he'd follow someone he didnt respect. Also Big Moms dream in it's most basic form is to end racism in the One Piece World. Also Roger didn't start looking for the One Piece til after God Valley. I just think he was more like Luffy than Kid
@@K4inan No, Roger didn't even start looking for the One Piece til after God Valley so it had nothing to do with that, Roger didn't learn about the too early thing til he reached Laughtale like 16 whole years later, Imo Rocks is the person who got Roger to start looking
Oh you just suddenly forgot about Blackbeard huh, suddenly Rocks is good and blackbeard following in his footsteps isnt... hypothetically speaking
Most anticipated flashback of the entire series. We're in the Golden Age of One Piece my friends😊
The void century flashback be like 🗿🗿
@@Gamedx01 they're 1a and 1b lol, let's go with that
@@Gamedx01The void century is 800 years of fucked up shit that could be another series in itself
We will not see much of Rocks in this flashback. It will be mostly Kuma. Probably more of it will be shown later.
Second most* Void century will always be the biggest and most anticipated one.
This is such an interesting video, especially during events currently happening in the real world.
FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸
FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸
#FreePalestinefromhamas
🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱
@@amdesign7720 SAVE PALESTINE FROM THE APARTHEID GOVERNMENT ISRAEL. Open your eyes don't close your eyes to wickedness, Israel is shamelessly not even trying to hide it.
@@amdesign7720 #FreeIsfakeFromExistence
Ballsy to make this video right now. You go.
Very
How?
Came here to see if anyone else saw the correlation
Yeah the hamas arlong/rocks comparison is so intensely accurate haha
how is it ballsy it’s true
Rocks D xebec is my most anticipated reveal in this story.
You gotta be a god tier monster to run this bunch
At God Valley, we will have:
- Pirates that are good (Roger and crew)
- Pirates that are evil (Xebec and crew)
- World government leaders that are good (Garp and his underlings)
- World government leaders that are evil (the Celestial Dragons)
I think the moral of God Valley will be that the struggle between good and evil transcends the struggle between pirate and marine.
I’m so proud most of your comments get the real world analogy you are making. It’s so interesting to see who Oda has brought together
I think the reason why Roger stopped Rocks was because he somehow knew that it would cause another cleansing and that they were not strong enough to stop the world government.
Now that we know the gorosei are actually strong and the existence of Imu it would make sense that even Rocks and Roger couldn't stop all of them.
Bro, that's actually a decent theory ngl.
I wonder if you're gonna end up being right or not.
Remember what Blackbeard said that Pirates only need a common interest to work together and he feels like pirates should work however they want. It seems like the common interest from the whole Rocks crew is that they despised the celesteal dragons and the world/Weak in some way (Kaido Saw wano as weak, Big Mom Enslaved or took lives of individuals that opposed her, Shiki hated rookie pirates). The only outlier was Whitebeard who wanted a family, probably because he knew just how cruel the world could be.
The Shiki movie is not canon, just a side note.
@@FatManJackson
Movies aren't canon , period.
(Unless they're adapting actual manga parts. Usually short, 12-chapter arcs.)
Spoiler>/spoiler>
Everything else in the prologue Chapter 0 was canon: Shiki being one of Roger's many enemies, their naval battle, Shiki vs Garp and Sengoku, Shiki's imprisonment, and escape from Impel Down, etc.
Maybe Shiki will get to appear, and play a part in the canon story. Maybe he's the famous "man marked by flames" Kidd (1056) , and later Blackbeard (1081) were talking about.
Spoiler>/spoiler>
@@MrJamaigar I did not say they were lol he was talking about things that happened in the Shiki movie specifically so I said that movie is not canon.
You're on point with the kinds of pirates on his crew. That was the exact sentiment that changed how I viewed rocks.
Even Big Mom has/had dreams of a pretty great world.
He might be a character somewhere in the spectrum between Blackbeard and Luffy
I think I see some parallels with Dragon. Like him, Rocks might've started out as a revolutionary. Except he was more of an extremist. A terrorist willing to die or kill for his cause; hated by the establishment, but respected by his allies (his crew). Like Makima, considering himself "a necessary evil" to oppose the greater evil (World Government and Celestial Dragons.)
I like how you called Garb's hero status into question based on what he might've done at God Valley. I always assumed (and it was likely portrayed that way as a red herring) that Garb didn't want the hero title and the admiration for his deeds at God Valley because he had to team up with Roger, which would be a scandal to most marines, but now it seems it just might be because he truly regrets protecting the Tenryobito and their crimes back then.
Garp rejects the hero title exactly because he was as hero in saving the tenryuubito, the ones he despises. Funny how the most valuable man in the marines is also the one that hates the tenryuubito the most exactly for saving them (and that was what earned him his position).
Nah Your assumption is too out of the box...
Blackbeard is carrying will of Rocks.
Rocks indeed wanted to free the world from God's but to rule it.
Roger/Luffy also want too free it from God's but too give freedom to everyone..
I think this might be the second reason, but the primary reason is that Admirals stand under the command of Celestial Dragons, Vice Admirals dont. He does not want to be ordered around by them specifically. He is only loyal to the marines.
@@fullmasti1944Roger never wanted to free anyone. He only cared out his crew and his goal to become the Pirate King.
Rocks and Roger will likely be a Luffy and Blackbeard scenario.
They are foils to each other, sharing the same dreams and ideals of absolute freedom and pursuit of dreams, but it’s the methods by which they achieve those goals that separates them and shows how it’s not what our goals are in life that define us, but the decisions we make and how we go about attaining those goals.
Respect to ya for this video Morj. This is what art is for. I’m glad we’ve all been reading the same story. 🙏🏽❤️ peace & love guys may the world heal
Yeah this is always been my thought on Rocks; a flawed revolutionary akin to Blackbeard. I mean just as Blackbeard brought in great legends into the fold into his crew; Rocks did the same. Theres just no way hes actually completely good. I do think he will be closer to good than Blackbeard tho, yet his flawed ways coming to light will probably be some of the things that separate the crew as well. Seeing Roger and Garp come together is gonna be such an incredible sequence, and im excited to see these legends go ham in an avenue where we know most of top tier abilities. Its clear Oda has tried to keep us from seeing too much from the Yonko but now with the end of Kaido + Big Mom, Garp's ability reveal, and Shanks showcase, they can fully illustrate the insane powers of those who stand at the top.
One of my greatest wishes is that if they ever do a canon movie, that they do it on Marineford and we get the added nuance of haki. I always felt that in Marineford there was things that took place that we as the reader and Luffy just didnt get to really see yet because he wasnt there yet. Theres no way Conquerors wasnt used in some capacity or general haki etc. Would love to see the animators now be able to show all that greatness.
Wait what was garp's ability reveal
Morj low key speaking about middle Est conflicts. >
I would even say this applies to all conflicts between colonizers and the colonized (of course I don't want to belittle the struggle of the Palestinians)
This video is basically morjs take on hammas and Israel
Excellent commentary Morj, appreciate how you made it relevant to current events 👏🏼
Imagine if Rocks was actually a super swell guy lmao
The man that Roger was waiting for is Luffy.
Never Teach at all
I think Oda is prepping us for the switcheroo, where he is going to remind us how awful the celestial dragons are, just to then bring in Rocks and make him so devious we root against him. Sort of like how Game of Thrones would make you hate a character in one season and then root for them the next season when a more pressing threat is introduced
it would be cool if roger was fooled to believe rocks had evil intention
Not likely at all, but imagine the Rocks Pirates are a Cross Guild parallell and Rocks was just a fraud who had charisma and was capable of bringing together loads of strong people for a common cause.
Kinda like Shinichiro Sano from Tokyo revengers.
This is unlikely but the shit you just spat out makes sense? Lol how did you even come up with this conclusion?
Why everyone keeps bringing this up?
That sucks so much 😭
@@planetmac8586they keep bringing it up cuz they know his true identity.... "BUGGY D. Pirate King" 👑
You make a great point Morj and I think it is one that will be represented in Luffy and Blackbeard’s character dynamics. I get the vibe that Roger and Rocks probably wanted the same thing, however they both went about it in completely different ways. I feel the same will be for Luffy and BB. Kind of like the Assassins and Templars from the Assassins Creed games. It has been expressed many times that they both want peace and a unified world, however one wants it through subjugation while the other wants it with human beings free will still being in tact.
Luffy and Blackbeard wants to free the world from WG
But Blackbeard want to rule it himself
And Luffy want to give Freedom to everyone
Morj just explained the whole Israel Palestine conflict through One Piece. Legend
Figarland: Infertile soil will not breed ripe fruit. If you wanted to be worthy you would have been borned in the sky like a celestial dragon.
Rocks: So if the common man is born on infertile soil, what about slaves like us? Born from crevice of rocks?
I am Rocks D. Xebec from the concrete, I'd beat you and become the king of the world.
😮
Cringe
I feel like the reason why Xebec targeted the slaves as well was that he most likely viewed the slaves as inferior and weak because they became slaves. I feel like Rocks admired strong willed individuals who do not bend down to others, and this lines up with Whitebeard and Kaido. Whitebeard shows this character sic, given how he had to fight for his village because of his refusal and inability to pay heavenly tributes, and Kaido, who has been captured and imprionsed numerous times, refuses to be a government dog or serve anyone. Rocks most likely admired these qualities about Kaido and Whitebeard, and logicially, we can assume that he disregarded the slaves because of their inherent weakness and refusal to go against a suppressive system.
I genuinely think you're on to something
I think that's the reason why whitebeard betrays him there
That's a interesting way to talk about what's happening without getting people crazy haha
It really is mind blowing how relevant the stuff being said in this video, and by extension Oda's message, is for the dark times that we are currently going through in the real world.
And if you REALLY think about it, Oda more than likely already had most of what actually went down at God Valley planned out in his head ever since Sengoku's lore dump (which was like what, about 2-3 years ago?)...which begs the question, with how these events are lining up both in the One Piece world as well as ours, whether this was just an insane coincidence or an actual demonstration of Future Sight by Goda himself.
So does this man have the answer to this insanely complicated and nuanced problem that tests the limits of our ethics, our morals and our humanity? Can't wait to find out.
Great video Morj, one of your best ones yet.
But one piece is always dealing with stuff like opression and wars and slaves. For the most time it will align to current events of similar nature.
One Piece handles politics in a pretty naive manner. The two sides are almost always black and white and after a successful/failed revolution the island enters a state of paradise.
@@sonofcronos7831really? I'd love an example if you can remember any, out of genuine curiosity
@@CDolph296sure, but this time seems somehow different no? What if Rocks was a lesser of 2 evils or something like that perhaps
None of these videos or comments aged well at all😭😭😭 we’re not getting the full flashback rn😞😞😞
I think we will still get the flashback later, but after egghead conflict is resolved. We did get a lot of info though so I am happy for now. I just want to see dragon come save strawhats on egghead.
@@YungRamo all fax. I love the theory by 333VIL that “dragon was introduced at loguetown in chapter 100, and he’ll finally meet luffy 1000 chapters later in chapter 1100”
This is very relevant today with what’s going on with Israel and Palestine
Rocks can't be THAT bad if Whitebeard was on the crew.
I think he had a similar mentality to like kid not the best guy but not as bad as the government portrays them
7:19 I'm thinking of one piece z, Z was trying to kill all pirates without regard for innocent lives
I cannot help but draw parallels of this analysis with what's going on between the IDF and Hamas.
Great work Morj.
Thankyou for this insight.
I think Roger and Garp had similar agendas and thts y they teamed up against Rocks, meaning Garps’ job was to save the celestials and their slaves and Roger probably just wanted to help the slaves and probably knew of Rocks’ plan and Rocks probably wanted everyone in God Valley dead celestials and their slaves
As evil as Rocks may be, it would be pretty satisfying to see him just mow down a crowd of celestial dragons.
"Just because a govt says something doesn't make it true."
Damn, I wish people could learn a very similar lesson in the space of gender ideology.
What that men are men and women are women?
Even if he had to kill slaves it doesn’t mean he’s not a hero. Sometimes you gotta be a devil to defeat a worse devil. If he had a choice not to kill slaves and did it anyway then that’s not heroic. But he likely saw it a necessary sacrifice for the greater good.
If killing those slaves would have toppled the IMU regime then would that really be evil. That could have saved an exponential amount of lives and suffering.
If Roger teamed up with the slavers to protect the slaves only to prolong imus regime then that’s evil
I mean this is going with the assumption he was a good guy.
My personal theory is that the God Valley Incident was that the Rocks pirates were attempting to kidnap the celestial dragons as hostages for ransom, very similarly to BlackBeard with Koby, whereas Rocks’ plan would give him a way bigger bargaining chip than Koby or Garp ever would.
Oda does love to repeat doesn’t he…
That video hits so hard in context of what is happening right now in Middle East...
Not at all
Propaganda is a governments best friend after all
Roger was probably just looking for a good fight against Xebec and didn't realize all the stuff going on around them
Excelent video Morj, I love that you used the word terrorists I think it was ro described also the real world
If Rocks and Blackbeard are similar I don’t see whitebeard joining with him. Maybe Rocks was like a mix between luffy and Blackbeard, not as good but also not as evil
Rock potential could try to kill baby Shanks after finding out he’s a celestial’s child or other celestial children but Roger stop him because he believes, “a child should not bare the sin of the father.” We know Garp believes this too, giving Ace a chance. Maybe that’s why they team up?
Hmm possible
i just had the craziest idea - what if rocks is supposed to be kidd’s equivalent, the same way luffy’s is roger ? after all, when we’re introduced to kidd, we’re told he has a high bounty because he doesn’t care about civilian deaths. i feel like there’s some kind of parallel there
Lol Love how this parallels what's happening in our world currently
Many people don't consider that the description we know of Rocks comes from a class for marines, highly unlikely Sengoku was telling the truth and the other source is Big Mom who has proven to be a poor judge of character
If you actually think Garp and Roger would team up to take down a guy who is actually not that bad, you're on something my friend.
For them to team up there is pretty much only one explanation. Rocks did or was going to do something horrific.
@@MarkHogan994 Again it hasn't been confirmed that they even did team up you're just repeating Sengoku taught young marines, Garp himself has never even confirmed it
@@jomets10 Yeah but why would Sengoku lie there? Why say Roger and Garp joined if it isn't true? Wouldn't be better just to say that Garp alone stopped Rocks? If it's a lie, that lie goes better with the marines than an alliance with *the* pirate.
@@MarkHogan994Absolutely not! Both Roger and Garp are proven to be Selfish, and Garp isn't the greatest judge of Character.
I think Garp doesnt talk about what happened there, not only cause he isnt happy about it, but he has a hush order from above
im impressed with you morj your theories are fun to watch
I think Rocks could have had a pluton-copy (blueprints existed) or something similar and was going to wipe the island
Possibly had the uranus and the celestial dragons got their hands on it after Rocks got defeated, then they tested it on the island anyway for their amusement
Luffy is unintentionally following rocks path.
From the river to the sea
Great reflection
is it just me or is mr morj speaking on israel- palestine issue using one piece
Israel keeps popping into mind during this video
onggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fire video!
Rocks’s son Buggy and Garling’s son Shanks were both brought onboard Roger’s ship lol
I think Rocks was likely good for the most part. As far as Roger, i think he likely stumbled onto a fight by chance, and decided to fight without all the context, and realized at the end he was on the wrong side. Idk, Rogers part in this could go many different ways.
As far as blackbeard, my current headcanon is this. Blackbeard was 2 when Rocks died. Dragon was 17. I think Dragon saw the real Rocks at Godvalley and decided to follow in his footsteps, where as Blackbeard only knew the stories and propganda. He thinks he following Rocks ideals, but in reality knows nothing about them. If im right, i think Blackbeard would mirror Hordy in this way.
Bro the editing is so fuckin good
One Piece is very clearly at its core about Oda's interpretation of anarchist philosophy, every aspect of the story reinforces this notion, the difference between Rocks/Blackbeard and Luffy/Roger is a concept called "Unity of Ends and Means": Basically, in seeking to bring about a better world you can either take the Machiavellian path and do whatever it takes to make that happen even if it means doing horrible things (ends justify the means), or you can try living now the way you want to live in that better world and to use exclusively the means that demonstrate the desirable qualities of that world you're trying to create as contrasted with the cruel qualities of the world that already exists (unity of ends and means). Likewise Luffy clearly demonstrates the concept of "Direct Action" in the way he approaches every problem: Direct action is when in order to change an unfree world, you simply start living like you are already free.
Bro, Rocks literally wanted to be King of the World, he is not an anarchist. His case is not one of "ends justifying the means" because both his means and his ends were shitty
He opposed the celestial dragons not to free the seas but to rule it himself
@@XDEnd00 We can't know what Rocks actually wanted because everything we know about his desires and motivations was written by the marines. That's also a repeating theme in One Piece; people get a perception of history and who various people were and what they wanted that were stories simply written by the victor.
Also, as we've discovered, the meaning of "King" is not the same for every person in the same way the meaning of "treasure" is not the same. For Luffy, for instance, "King of the Pirates" actually means "to be the most free person on the seas".
this is the best year of one piece and next year would be even better
I think is possible that Rocks D. Xebec was born on God Valley and wants to save his home or God Valley speical resources or the treasures of the Celestial Dragons (CDs) such as Divine Tribute and Devil Fruits along with his plan of becoming King of the One Piece World by killed the CDs and Gorosei. I personally believe that Rock D. Xebec was the Blackbeard of his era but was a Haki-man on level of Roger and Garp. Xebec is probably very evil like Blackbeard along with being very selfish and egoistical considering even Big Mom told Kaido not to trust him. Perhaps, Whitebeard even betrayed Xebec in the end and sided with Roger and Garp?
Very true. Its possible slaves death was last straw
Maybe Roger laughed when finding the One Piece because of irony. He discovered that Rocks was Joyboy and helped defeat him all those years ago
What you said could be applied to whats happening in real life if you know what i mean
I often thought Rocks might not be what we think. As Doffy said, the winner is justice and the winner decides what the truth is.
No; He was Basically as Evil as Blackbeard. . .
He wanted to become King of the world; just like Marshall D. Teach; He wanted to not only overthrow the entire world government of Imu; BUT HE WANTS TO BE THE ONE IN CHARGE OF THE ENTIRE WORLD!!
Here's the problem. Nothing in the story ever said roger is a heroic person. It's implied he is a good person. He took care of his crew. Raised couple of kids. Have been respectful.
But never heroic like white beard. Who's heroic story we hear even after his death.
But we never heard some random fishman saying roger protected them when he was at his prime or he sent money to sustain an entire island. Sengoku never said roger wanted to protect celestial dragons and slaves. He said garp joined with roger in order to save celestial dragons and slaves. That does not mean roger was there to protect anyone. It means roger was already fighting rocks. And garp joined the fight so that he can save the slave and the dragons cause it's his job.
What if roger was fighting rocks because he was the strongest pirate. That's so much more in character than him doing it for a heroic reason. So there's no reason to believe roger is the hero and just because he fought rocks, rocks can't be the hero.
Also 9:56 why would you believe that. Based on what you said you can believe he won't do the wrong thing but we don’t know if he would ever do "the right thing". I think we are mixing up a really good person with a heroic person.
Anyone who claps celestial dragons is a hero, idc what else he did 😂😂😂😂
2:12 Star War nailed this message too with Palpatine
Everyone commenting how similar One Piece is to events in the world. One Piece has always been the story of the world, of humans, of life here. There is a reason it resonates with so many people all over the world. If you read Oda’s short stories from when he was younger you can see that he has always thought about such things. The idea of Mind, Body, and Spirit is also here (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit if you’re a Christian or w/e) which is an idea throughout every culture. The three types of haki, the three types of devil fruits align with mind, body, and spirit (body - armament, mind - observation, spirit - conqueror’s). There is a lot of other esoteric symbolism in One Piece. I am Ute/Kiowa Native American and JoyBoy is very similar to our ideas of tricksters. They’re usually seen as being a lil mischievous or bad, but there are some that were good as well. The Kiowa tribe I’m from says that we were taken care of one named Saynday, who took care of us and taught us how to carry ourselves. The deeper you dig, the more you find. Atlantis, Lemuria, Spirituality, etc. One Piece is the story of life.
Its crazy how well this video explains current USA
The Blackbeard/Shanks flashback is gonna be the biggest one. Remember Shanks knows the Gorosei and he still finds BB the biggest threat. And there’s a reason why
This will age well
Only hero at God Valley was Garp - pulled up with scrubs, against all those superstars, everybody else was there for some "treasure", Garp always tried to protect the weak, even the guys he hated and was the last man standing, when Rocks got destroyed and Roger fled
Celestial dragons sound a lot like the people of a certain country in the real world ...
This is my theory on rocks, he roger and garp probably know each other since kids, and consider each other rival just like sabo ace and luffy, oda might follow the concept of japan 3 liberators in sengoku era, nobunaga hideyoshi and ieyasu, rocks probably a good guy until what happen in the god valley because i still remember garp flashback during kid luffy wherein he tells he doenst care what path luffy take as long as he still follow the righteous path
The Government calling people evil is hilarious.
7:14 spot on that feels like a great insight to me. Rocks was probably like Blackbeard, I agree
starting to avoid morj's videos bc i dont wanna potentially spoiled
underrated comment lmao
What i want rocks' story to be like is he was a former slave owned by the Figarlands and was beaten to death for being a D, he was forced to kill loved ones because the celestial dragons were forcing him to do so. Rocks wanted revenge and when he saw the opportunity at god valley he didnt hesitate, he was willing to kill and commit genocide to celestial dragons adult and children. This is why Roger and Garp and Whitebeard oppsed because they think children has got nothing to do with the actions of their parents, kinda mirroring it to Ace's story.
Slaves at God Valley: "You have freed us!"
Rocks D Xebec: "Oh, I would not say "freed", more like "under new management"."
Loved that am I asshole bit, also I know anime isn’t technically canon but in the rocks pirates flashback it confirms that it was rocks in the doorway not big mom, and he appeared to be wearing a straw hat , I just feel like this hasn’t been talked about and it adds into the fact that rocks was quite the opposite of a villian
Anime is mainly canon, of course. We don't know if it was Rocks that called young Kaido at all. It could have been Captain John -- so far we saw no depiction of Rocks wearing any kind of hats, even as a silhouette
Morj is cooking
I think Roger knew how big of a threat Rocks was and what the world would look like under his control. If he stood back and allowed him to crush the world government he wouldn't be able to defeat him on his own.
Rocks is Luffy's Grandma. Nuff said.
Rocks maybe recruit dragon as his last breath hope.
Great video. Now that I think about it, I would like to see the SH & even people like Hancock to learn about the GVI. Which may help Hancock fully understand that even though Rayleigh & Garp may have partially caused her suffering, Rocks himself wasn't truly in the right no matter how noble & justified his motives may have looked.
it makes so much sense now why whitebeard was a part of rocks crew. i just didnt see whitebeard as a villain when he was introduce to be one of rocks crew. so i think rocks wasn't a bad person but a hero who was trying to destroy the celestial dragons but failed.
Could be a villain who reformed post God Valley
@@sobversion3 he didnt seem like a bad person when he approaches kaido.
@@onimusic29 He could've been more ok with allies doing bad stuff but not himself, and I'd consider that bad.
Perhaps Xebecs was out looking for the yami yami no mi, but unlike BB he was nnot able to obtain it.
Maybe he's the one who exposed the true colors of the Celestial Dragons and he wanted to rally people against them. He might be the one who discovered the existence of Laughtale island and that it holds the key in taking down the WG. Maybe before his fall he encouraged everyone to go there and if they did they will be hailed as the Pirate King. I believe he had this great cause, otherwise WB wouldn't let himself be under him.
So fascinated to find out Rocks's story
What if rocks actually killed one of the gorosei that’s why there is the younger looking one and also the government is so ashamed of the fact that on of their rulers was killed in their territory’s
Hey, you're unpacking an idea I have had for a long time. Very neat! The morally complex and incredibly human man that wasn't anything said bout him. And one must know his real history to know him.
This is similar to real life quite a bit.
Rocks is the revolutionary that says "all of them are part of the problem, kill everyone". Luffy will be the one that says "remove their source of power and they are just regular folks. Then we can have a party and everyone can be friends."
Simple, sure. But Oda has a way of taking complex things such a fairly complex political theory and makes it understandable.
I have long held that one thing One Piece is Oda's thesis on a successful revolution. There is way too much nuance on this specific topic to not be. Obviously there are other points and meanings to take but this is one of them.
Everyone can be friends, but no the Tenryuubito. Doflamingo lost all of his powers and he became a monster even more that he would be in Mary Geoise. The elite class that lost their powers would just try to take it back again, so a complete reeducation of them is needed at least.
@@sonofcronos7831 Right, but now you're starting to add nuance and we can do that all day. I was trying to distill the core of their thought process.
Personally, no, I don't expect those with power to react well to losing it. But that is their choice, not the goal. And even if the goal is unobtainable, the journey towards it accomplishes good in and of itself.
Rocks was the previous user of the Nika fruit before Luffy, that's how Kuma met "Joyboy" in the memory when he explained Sun God Nika to Bonny.
No one he know off used Luffy fruit. That type of power would surely make someone questioned it, but no, no one, not Teach, not Whitebeard, not Garp, not Sengoku, and i could go on and on, no one never cared about Luffy fruit. If Rocks was the one that used it, everyone would know, it would be a great plot hole if that was the case.
Also no one awakened the fruit in 800 years, so Rocks would just have the regular gomu gomu powers and no one besides the Gorosei would know that him was Nika. Kuma knew about Nika because of his father, that is literaly in the chapter.
@@sonofcronos7831except the power is based on imagination perhaps rocks used it in an vastly different way
Finally a Moej video. It’s been a while
A week?
Subliminal messages 😳
onggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In short, Rocks is hamas
Video is so deep and many of these things correlate to our world, but obviously we shouldn't get into that. Roger and Garp were fighting Rocks because he was going to take all the food for himsepf and not leave any for slaves. Good enough reason to fight for those two, I think
Nothing to do with this chapter but I feel like Luffy nika fruit isn’t actually a human fruit but rather a lunarian fruit
I can see a situation where roger and rocks teamed up to fek up the god nights and whatnot. Roger switched sides after seeing how brutal rocks was with the slaves and natives.