The next submit incorporates spoilers for the “One Piece” manga as much as chapter 1165.
Writer Eiichiro Oda is likely one of the greatest fiction writers and artists working at present. Everytime you need to really feel extra pissed off concerning the seemingly lack of progress on the subsequent “A Tune of Ice and Hearth,” take into account that Oda has been publishing new chapters of “One Piece” each single week just about uninterrupted since 1997, with few exceptions and by no means longer than a month at a time. That is a part of what makes “One Piece” such a legendary manga, one of many best-selling books of all time, and an equally legendary anime. Certain, the excessive chapter/episode rely may be daunting, but it surely simply makes this story a real epic that is value embarking on as a result of it simply retains getting higher with the years.
In that point, Oda has mastered the artwork of the callback and the repay, planting small seeds that take years and at instances a long time to repay — like, say, a dumb Marco Polo joke. Certainly, now that “One Piece” is approaching its finish after almost 30 years, we’re beginning to see some fairly spectacular payoffs, from lastly introducing Elbaph 26 years after it was first talked about, to revealing Shanks’ origin story and way more. Arguably, the most important feat of the present Elbaph story arc flashback is the way it launched arguably the best character after 28 years and made him unforgettable in only a handful of chapters.
We’re speaking, after all, about Rocks D. Xebec, the captain of the strongest and most notorious pirate crew in historical past, a person so feared his title was all however erased from historical past, and can also be the best pirate in all of “One Piece.”
A legendary pirate named Rocks
“One Piece” readers first heard the title Rocks again in chapter 907 (revealed in 2018) when Marine Rear Admiral Hina mentions the Rocks Pirates in dialog with Monkey D. Luffy’s grandpa, Garp, as an outdated group that was lively a long time earlier than the beginning of the story. A bit later in chapter 957, former Fleet Admiral Sengoku instructs some recruits within the historical past of legendary pirates and explains who the Rocks Pirates had been, describing them as an extremely sturdy group of legendary people, a few of whom went on to develop into Emperors of the Sea — Large Mother, Whitebeard, and Kaido. Sengoku described their captain, Rocks, as somebody fearful sufficient to maintain these mighty pirates beneath management, saying that the group was so violent they usually fought each other to the loss of life on their very own ship.
On the time, we knew solely that Rocks was so feared, so sturdy, that solely the mixed forces of Garp and the longer term king of the pirates, Gol D. Roger, had been sufficient to defeat him. Rocks was thought of so sturdy, so legendary, that we might in all probability not correctly meet him, and we solely did seven full years after his title was first launched.
After we first met Rocks, he was nonetheless an antagonistic determine, one who was idolized by the large prince Loki as a bit of child (who then Rocks beat up in a struggle when the child big requested to hitch Rocks’ crew). However Oda rapidly switched gears and turned Rocks into a sophisticated determine, one with much more in frequent with the likes of Luffy than readers anticipated, beginning with the information that Rocks as soon as killed a Marine Admiral, a feat we have not heard anybody accomplish in “One Piece” earlier than.
Rocks is a tragic determine
Certain, Rocks was nonetheless a violent and ruthless pirate who conquered and destroyed whole kingdoms and islands, however he was additionally a person with the precise purpose of toppling the last word villain of “One Piece” — the world authorities. Not solely that, however Rocks was additionally revealed to be the one particular person we all know of to confront the mysterious and overpowered chief of the federal government and continue to exist.
If Blackbeard was as soon as thought of to be the truest pirate in “One Piece,” not solely as a result of he is the closest to the archetypical look of a pirate (minus the eyepatch that continues to elude the story), however due to the chaos he unleashed, Rocks (who occurs to be his father) is much more so the last word pirate — or at the least the thought of 1. Rocks not solely fought in opposition to authority, trying to shake the world, but additionally somebody enjoyable sufficient to fairly actually collect a crew by enjoying the silliest recreation in “One Piece,” the Davy Again Combat, through which pirate crews play dumb video games, the winner of which positive aspects a crewmember of the dropping crew. He pillaged and he plundered, however he additionally had enjoyable crusing the seas, befriending giants, and even making a literal pirate republic like Nassau.
That is what makes Rocks’ downfall so tragic, that we knew it was coming, however not the context for it. We knew Rocks would want the 2 different strongest males alive to take him down, however when the time got here to point out Rocks actually begging his rivals to kill him after being possessed by a demonic entity, Rocks went from the last word villain to some of the tragic figures in “One Piece,” which is saying so much.
