Video version: https://youtu.be/y3s5edfzFSA

Before today’s analysis, I want to tell you that the Library of Ohara Globe Plushie is back! If you didn’t know, a couple years ago, I released the Library of Ohara Globe Plushie, providing a canonically accurate recreation of the world in adorable squishy plushie form, filled with plenty of hidden details, easter eggs, and islands to discover! A lot of people bought it and really loved it, but since some of you missed on it, this time it’s back but in a different old map color, perfect for either pairing it with the original or finally getting it if you missed out on the original release!

However, like the previous one, this plushie will only enter production through crowdfunding, meaning that we need at least 200 orders for it to enter production and actually be made. The crowdfunding only lasts for 10 days until the 15th, so if you’re interested, please consider ordering your plushie right now so that you can get it within this short window! And don’t worry, even if the crowdfunding does not succeed, you’ll get your money back, so you literally have nothing to lose!!

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Cover

On the cover, we see the Straw Hat Pirates overlaid with the Roger Pirates, driving further the parallel between Rayleigh and Zoro and Sanji and Gabin. Zoro and Rayleigh are both swordsmen with scars on their eyes, and Rayleigh was known as the “King of the Underworld” (sometimes mistranslated as “Dark King”) while Zoro is called the “King of Hell”. On the other, Sanji and Gabin seemed to be quite passionate about women (though Gabin became loyal to Ripley after marrying, which I can only hope Sanji will too), and fittingly while Sanji is inspired to be French, Gabin carries a French name, which Oda revealed in the most recent SBS was lifted from French actor Jean Gabin. Behind Luffy instead is Nami, which isn’t on either Rayleigh or Gabin’s side, instead being behind both right behind Luffy, so you could argue Oda is still emphasizing how important she is to Luffy, but rather than being one of his wings, she’s more like his brains, or something like that, but one might as very well argue that Oda just likes drawing big Namis in color spreads. On her hat she has the writing “Belle”, a reference to Belle-mere. Riding on Luffy is the rest of the crew, including Brook who interestingly has red-dyed hair here.

Idols

Starting the chapter, we see a certain kingdom, likely in the Grand Line, but we don’t quite get its name, unfortunately. It’s characterized by its tower spires, and if you look closely you can also see a large bridge on the right extending from it. All the men in this kingdom have fallen powerless against their oppressors, though funnily this also includes a man who just appears to be sleeping with a night cap on. The responsible for these aggressions appear to be the Kuja Pirates, who this chapter refers to in its title as “aidoru” (アイドル), or “idols”, who are adored by their beauty. We see them here sailing in the same ship that we would later see Hancock riding, which is called the Perfume Yuda, being carried by two large Yuda Snakes who are so poisonous that even sea kings stay away from them, allowing them to carry the ship, alongside the help of its paddles, along the Calm Belt where their homeland is.

The chapter refers to them as coming from a “nyoninkoku” (女人国), or “female country”, a term that has been used before to describe it, of course referring to the empire of Amazon Lily. As a reminder, while Amazon Lily is the name of the country, the island itself is called “Women Island” (or “Island of Women” if that rolls off better for you”), but occasionally “Amazon Lily” is used to refer to the territory as a whole, like we see with some other islands. As we know, kuja are almost identical to humans but have the peculiar trait of only being able to give birth to women, for which they leave the island when reaching adulthood in journey of a suitor, and then return to the island with a newborn girl to raise as their daughter alone. The country is governed by an Empress whose position is seemingly attained via power and meritocracy (though this hasn’t ever been fully clarified), also serving as the Captain of their military, the Kuja Pirates, who launch expeditions overseas.

This chapter introduces us to a young Gloriosa, the current Empress and Captain of the Kuja Pirates, who would later appear go by the name of “Elder Nyon” and assist Luffy during the Amazon Lily arc (the name “nyon” likely referring to just her constantly saying “nyon” sounding like an old grandma, but also being a pun on “nyo”, woman, the name of their island). Her outfit is quite similar to Hancock’s, an outfit intended for an empress, which even carries the symbol of “kuja”, as that word simply means “nine snakes” in Japanese, so the logo carries nine snakes in it, in a shape reminiscent of a sun, perhaps a hint to the culture’s old ties in the past.

Here as we see, much like Hancock, Gloriosa’s beauty was admired by all, even causing many ladies to swing the other side because of how beautiful she is, with one of them even stating her “heart is filing for bankrupcy”. Even the snakes around them get hearts in their eyes, with a beauty that surpasses even mankind. Interestingly, one of the kuja looks like Cosmos, a current member of the Kuja Pirates in the present, but I doubt she’s that old without having changed much, so I wonder if this happens to be her mother. There’s also another kuja next to Gloriosa in the next page who wears an open jacket over her body, a fashion trend later used by Rindo in the present. This entire scene however helps debunk an idea some people had that it was Hancock’s fruit that made others fawn over her beauty, but as we see here it clearly wasn’t the case. Her fruit has the ability to act upon her charm to petrify others, but the constant admiration she received from everyone was due to her beauty alone, and the same goes for Gloriosa here.

She isn’t the only one to be so admired however, because while she receives a bunch of fan letters, many of which seem to be actual love letters given the heart seals on them, Shakky gets even more letters in a far larger basket. The one managing the letters here is a young Tritoma, who would serve as future empress of Amazon Lily before Hancock. As a reminder, at present the current empress is, of course, Hancock. The one who came before her is Tritoma, who was previously only mentioned in an SBS but we finally get to see here. Then before that was Shakky, and before that Gloriosa, and we see here the period in which Gloriosa was captain and Shakky vice-captain before she eventually took over. Each of their names, like all from Amazon Lily, are derived from flowers: the Gloriosa flower, also known as the fire lily, the shakuyaku flower, or the peony, the tritoma flower, or red hot poker, and the hancock flower, or the asiatic lily. In fact, Shakuyaku being named after a flower was a big hint to her identity as a kuja long before it had been confirmed. We also see this referenced in this chapter as despite the use of the word “idol” phonetically, the kanji reading for that word reads as “高嶺の花” (takane no hana), which means “flowers beyond reach”.

The interesting characteristic is that it was mentioned that all of these women ended up falling in love and as a result suffering from “love sickness”, suffering from it as a result. Love sickness is actually a real thing and while not considered a disease or infection, it is a state in which the body’s defenses and strength can be lowered due to the psychological strain of feeling enamored especially if that love is unrequited. In Hancock’s case, of course, it’s her love for Luffy. As for Tritoma though, we don’t know who she fell for, but we do know that eventually the love sickness tragically took her and she lost her life, which is why Hancock eventually took over. Going further back though, we could assume Shakky’s crush was in fact Rayleigh, as the two eventually married and settled together in Sabaody, though clearly with a fairly casual relationship given how many times Rayleigh would vanish for months at a time. But for Gloriosa, she claimed to have fallen in love in her youth, but we never knew with who, until now… her object of admiration being none other than Gol D. Roger!!

Here we see him in full force aboard the Oro Jackson, already in his possession decades before Tom even began work on the Sea Train, and in fact the ship already possessing his mysterious egg. Here Roger still had his straw hat on him (and seemingly his sword Ace too), while also looking a lot more like his son, Ace. He calls to the Kuja from a megaphone with a small den den mushi on it, essentially being powered by it. However, we see Shakuyaku coming out to his call, easily entrancing several members of Roger’s crew, including Ganryu, Colonel Mugren, Spencer, Rowing, Rangram, Donquino, MAX Marx, and even Gabin and Roger. The only one that doesn’t fully fall for her beauty is Rayleigh, who seems to be the only one she actually takes a liking to, winking at him and calling him “Ray-san”. This is because of course these two would eventually end up married, and she would continue calling him “Ray-san” in the future too as we see in Sabaody.

In her vivre card long ago, it was said that Shakky was once a really powerful pirate, and I’ll be damned if we don’t see that here, managing to overpower someone like Roger, though clearly thanks to her beauty rather than a fully fair match. We see that her appearance is quite similar all things considered, with the wing like flaps on her neck matching those of her current oufit, still smoking all the time, but with loger hair similar to Hancock’s in the present.

Roger vs Garp

However, another party joins the fray, being Monkey D. Garp, who pursued Roger many times in the past as we were told, but if you remember, Shakky claimed that in her days as a pirate she also had been chased by Garp quite a lot, which we finally see here in action. She would eventually however quit piracy altogether 42 years ago, not that long after this point, when she decided to give up on her pirating life to open Shakky’s Rip-Off Bar in Sabaody, where Rayleigh would later join her sometime after Roger’s death. Interestingly, in an SBS, when a fan asked if Shakky was part of the Rocks, Oda very much dodged this question and joked around there being some correlation between the two, which makes me wonder if Shakky did join the Rocks if only very briefly. But perhaps it was just Gloriosa who joined the Rocks, perhaps leading to Shakky taking over Amazon Lily during that time, and that is the connection Oda was alluding to. As the two run away, we see in fact that Gloriosa is suffering from love sickness, with her chest hurting from being rejected by Roger. Shakky calls her “nee-san”, which means “big sister”, seemingly indicating that the two are related, and Shakky is Gloriosa’s little sister.

Meanwhile, as we see, Garp looks a lot like Dragon and Luffy, carrying his iconic white suit, and was already a Marine Headquarters Vice-Admiral at this time. He unleashes his iconic Genkotsu Meteor (拳骨隕石), which literally means as seen in its kanji reading knuckle meteorites, where he throws cannonballs with his bare hands for massive damage, which we had seen used against the Thousand Sunny when Luffy was trying to leave Water Seven. Roger however retaliates with a brand new move, called Aramitama (荒御魂)!! This word is a religious term from Japanese shinto belief, being one of the aspects which forms the spirit of a soul or deity. These aspects are found in the form of the “aramitama” (荒御魂), which means the “rampaging spirit” and the “nigimitama” (和御魂), which means the “gentle spirit”, with one being more violent and the other being more peaceful, so it makes sense that a powerful attack would be named after the violent one. What is interesting is that this is similar to his other named attack Kamusari (神避, often translated as Divine Departure), which is a term from the old Japanese kojiki texts that serves as a religious term that combines the kanji for “god” and “to evade”, or “to repel”, and was originally used to poetically refer to the death or departure of a god. So we see a deep connection between Roger’s attacks and shintoism, but particularly with the more violent side and the concept of slaying gods.

We see Roger and Garp clashing with each other, both using advanced conqueror’s haki to the point that they don’t even touch each other. Interestingly though, Roger appears to be hitting Garp backwards with the blunt side of his sword, maybe because he doesn’t want to kill him but rather just wants to whack him really hard.

Loki Interlude

We take a brief detour from our Roger and Rocks days to check in on Elbaph, where Loki tried to set out to sea but almost drowned. Ida got mad that his rescuers even hesitated, and even offered Loki the chance to live with her, but unfortunately Loki was too deep in his distrust that he could’t trust in her. We do see during this period however also a young Mato, who as we know would eventually become the bartender of Ida’s Bar, once again making us wonder just what actually happened to Ida.

Kyou

Cutting back to the Rocks side, we cut to Pirate Island Hachinosu, where at this time the mountain still wasn’t shaped like a skull, instead being referred to as looking more like a fish. Several months have passed since the “Pirate Island Occupation Incident”, as Xebec has now taken control of Hachinosu.

A man shows up to Hachinosu, wearing a cape and donning a silver axe. He appears to be quite lanky and tiny, however after a pirate tries to kick him, he suddenly grows in size to be twice as tall as him, and suddenly appears to be far more muscular than he first appeared with his small hand suddenly becoming a fist large enough to fully grab the man’s entire head. This doesn’t just seem like whacky perspective but rather the power of a devil fruit, which is actually quite similar to one we’ve currently seen: Urouge’s devil fruit. This yet unnamed devil fruit (one of the few yet to be named) seems to act like karma, turning damage received into strength, allowing Urouge to increase in size and muscle power, though I wonder if in this case this was accumulated beforehand or is showing a greater mastery of this fruit.

The individual bearing this power turns in fact to be a killer by the name of “Kyou”, who carries the same epithet as Shiki of “Gokudou” (極道), which if you remember from the previous video is a term that is often used to refer to yakuza, which makes sense as he’s referred to as Shiki’s rival by one of the other pirates. Fittingly, he too wears a kimono, one with an axe pattern on it, and also has a large tattoo with an X on his chest, very similar to a yakuza tattoo. The x motif is also seen on his sunglasses, as well as on his chin, in a scar quite similar to X Drake’s current scar, but I wonder if that’s just coincidental or we have yet another case of Nepo Piece. The axe motif should however be an important hint, as just like we’re told, this is the man who would later be known as “Ginbu” (銀斧), translating to “Silver Axe”, which Sengoku cited 6 years ago as one of the famous members of the Rocks Pirates alongside Ouchoku, finally making his debut. His iconic silver axe can be seen here, though it seems to have grown in size with him too, much like his clothes I suppose. Some people wonder if the silver axe-wielding general zombie seen in Thriller Bark could be him as well. His name, Kyou, is written with the kanji 凶, which means “evil”, “wicked”, or embodies the concept of “bad luck”.

Rocks’s Two Fruits

Suddenly though, two massive holes erupt from the mountain, being Xebec who wanted to make space for a view, forming the mountain’s current iconic shape as a skull. Xebec declares that he wishes to get his hands on two devil fruits. He claims that one of them should be in Elbaph, which is almost certainly the legendary devil fruit that Loki supposedly ate, but he claims that it would only really show its worth when Harald would eat it, which would suggest that either it would work best in the hands of a giant, or more simply just in the hands of someone really strong, so Xebec wanted it to be eaten by someone as strong as Harald. But after that, Captain John, the other legendary pirate that Buggy so admired and wanted to find his treasure, claims that they need to find the Galleila, the army of hammer-wielding giants which we talked about a couple chapters ago. Given how Xebec already has access to Elbaph, the way he words it by saying “and then we must find Galleila” seems to imply that Galleila holds the clue to the other fruit, but in which way that works, we don’t know. Big Mom (who at this time was yet known as just Charlotte Linlin the pirate) says she had her intelligence network look into it, referring to the vast network we saw her using during Whole Cake Island, but couldn’t find much about them, likely due to the fact Galleila is now seemingly in Punk Hazard. Streusen (her head chef and partner with which she started the crew if you remember) wonders if they are dead, as they couldn’t be revived, but Linlin tells him to stop talking of daydreams, which is a quote fairly similar to her iconic quote of “stop dreaming” she uses many times.

Given the importance of this duology of fruits, what first comes to mind is no doubt the Gomu Gomu no Mi and the Yami Yami no Mi, and considering that many of us have been speculating that the former may actually be the fruit that was meant to be in Elbaph, with Loki potentially never having eaten it and it ending in Shanks’s and later Luffy’s hands, the other being the Yami Yami no Mi would be quite fitting given Blackbeard’s ambition to attain that fruit as well. At the very least, one of these two fruits is almost certainly the national treasure of Hachinosu, which if you remember it was strongly implied during the God Valley Incident in Kuma’s flashback that the Celestial Dragons had taken the “national treasure of Hachinosu” as a prize for the tourney and this was strongly implied by what the Rocks Pirates said that it was one of the devil fruits found there, either the Uo Uo no Mi Model Seiryuu which Big Mom gave to Kaidou, the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi which Kuma ate, or potentially another fruit that isn’t either of the two.

We also see Kaidou, who just joined the crew this very year (assuming we’re still 44 years ago, as last chapter claimed that’s when Xebec took over Hachinosu), and should be 15 years old by now, despite appearing older due to his massive size (whereas Big Mom is 24, while Whitebeard is 30). He suggests just killing off Harald, but Xebec is angry, calling him a friend, though he uses the term “ダチ” (dachi), an abbreviation of “tomodachi” that is a more casual way to call a friend (like “pal”), which interestingly is the same term Luffy also uses at present to refer to some of his non-nakama friends. Something that definitely adds more moral ambiguity to Xebec as a character who isn’t as completely ruthless to all as he seems.

The Rocks Pirates

Chipping into the conversation as well though is a large man by the name of Barbell (バーベル), who is a pirate and a namazu (or catfish) fish-man, which explains his skin-like mustache, just like that of a catfish. He appears to be quite large and wears a necklace similar to Ace’s. While not mentioned by name previously, we did seemingly spot him during the God Valley Incident, appearing among all the Rocks Pirates, though in that case while he had the iconic mustache, he was lacking his hair, seemingly having shaved (unless this was a mistake by Oda). His name, “barbell”, refers to the bar used for weight lifting, but interestingly this name is quite similar to that of Sunbell, the other fish-man of the Roger Pirates, who has an appearance quite similar to that of Barbell, suggesting the two could be siblings or connected in some way.

And so, this massive gathering of pirates formed what is arguably the most powerful crew to have ever existed! Edward Newgate, Shiki, Buckingham Stussy, Ochoku, Don Marlon, Ganzui, Charlotte Linlin, Streusen, Kaidou, Captain John, Barbell, and later Kyou, Gloriosa, Gill Bastar, and many more!! Xebec has a vision and he declares that he will show them the pinnacle of the world!! The same exact words that Rayleigh gave to Luffy to one day reach, but words that to each hold very different meanings… about what lies at the top of the world!