Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5sztftSOjI

Cover

On the cover, Yamato decides to head back to the Flower Capital, the business around the country concluded. Ulti and Page One follow along, all of them eating apples, or “ringo”, the namesake of the Ringo region, named after their real life counterpart in Aomori, Tohoku, where apples are a local delicacy (I’ve tried a bunch of them, and believe me, I never knew there were so many different kinds of apple flavors!). These apples also serve however as a strong symbolism for the change of Wano, as we saw Tama eating an apple as Luffy fed her and with how the people of Ebisu were forced to eat the bad apples that are SMILE fruits. Next to them is Onimaru, who appears to be doing well at a strong 69 years, while behind them we can see that the castle of Ringo has seemingly been restored after its destruction.

The kidnapping

On a rainy night in Hachinosu, a turbulent incident took place. As we had anticipated, Shakky, the treasure of Hachinosu, was stolen by the Government. Don Marlon, “Gang of West Blue”, who had been guarding her, is killed in the dead of the night… a crime scene you’d usually expect from a mobster like him. This explains why we hadn’t heard much of him at present, because he died before the God Valley Incident could’ve even taken place. Eventually, the epithet of “Gang” would be taken up by a young muscleman by the name of Capone Bege, who was only 3 years old at the time, though whether he and Marlon are actually connected or he simply took up the name is yet to be seen.

We had already known that there was a traitor among the Rocks, and this panel makes it clear that the traitor was Ochoku, who received a large payment in exchange. This isn’t really surprising as he was one of our top candidates, mostly for two reasons we’ve mentioned: for one, he will end up becoming the Commodore of Hachinosu, taking the position after Xebec died and maintaining it for decades until Teach would steal it back during the Rocky Port Incident during the timeskip. So he had the most to benefit from the Rocks falling out in the end, and it seems he didn’t even go to God Valley himself, as he later mentions finding the source of this information to be quite shady and unreliable (ironically enough), obviously trying to avoid getting involved, and as Xebec said those who didn’t want to follow stayed on the island. Considering most of the crew went to and fell apart at God Valley, Ochoku got to reap all the benefits by taking control of Pirate Island. Beyond that though, if he really is the father of Caribou, then frankly we can assume that he’s just as trustable of an individual, so it’s not a shocker that he would betray Xebec. But at the same time, Caribou also is now wishing to work under Blackbeard at Hachinosu, so I wonder if a similar betrayal might happen again or if he is different from his father.

We also see Gloriosa crying, which makes sense because in her case Shakky was her own younger sister. Pirates all around the world also became dejected, to the point of causing an economic damage to the world as a result of the distress. Among them we see of course Roger and Rayleigh but you might not realize that he is so angry that he is literally emanating conqueror’s haki, as we see indicated by the black lightning bolts and the “bari biri bari” sound effect of cracking thunder.

Invasion

We hop a year forward to the incident, 38 years ago, on God Valley. We see that Garling had in fact tricked and deceived his lover rather than taken her by force as I had first assumed. But as others have pointed out, it’s not that Garling had ever seriously fallen in love with her, but rather he liked toying and messing around with her like a hunter toying with his prey. Making her believe that he legitimately loved her only to discard her life without the slightest regard. But you can tell how manipulative their relationship already was when the woman had to tell Garling “I’m begging you, live with me on this island” showing that she was already used to being the one having to ask and beg for something as simple as living together rather than being a more natural discussion between them. Indeed, as we imagined, Garling disposed of the very woman he impregnated with his own hands, taking her children for himself and deciding to get a higher class “wife”, who we can connect the dots to be Shakky, likely why she was kidnapped, with Garling deeming no other than who was arguably the most popular woman alive to be his wife. And of course, by “wife” in Celestial Dragon terms that means his personal “slave”.

The disgusting horror of the Genocide Tournament is just starting, as the Marines barricade and surround the island, just like we had seen in Kuma’s flashback, creating a blockade that makes it impossible to escape from the island. Citizens panic, unaware of what is going to happen to them, even fearing for the safety of their kids. The Marines are given orders to capture all citizens and if anyone resists, they are shot with tranquilizer rounds, as the killing should be left up to the Celestial Dragons. Among the Marines, we see a Lieutenant Commander (少佐), someone clearly not very high ranking as that is basically Helmeppo’s position, and we don’t even know if this is a Marine HQ soldier, but even under him is a very humble new soldier by the name of… Monkey D. Dragon.

At this point, Dragon is only 17 years old, about the same age Luffy was when he became a pirate. He resembles a bit a younger Luffy, though especially when in Gear 4th. As we were told, Dragon had briefly joined the Marines, as he was likely convinced by his father to become one just like how he tried to make Luffy a Marine too. Dragon however quit soon after joining because he felt disillusioned by the cruelty of the Government. Many of us assumed given the timeline that he likely was at God Valley as a result, and indeed, this is the very moment his worldview was changed, and one of the biggest threats to the Government began to rise, leading him to form the Freedom Fighters and later the Revolutionary Army. However, this also explains how Garp knew about God Valley when Kong mentioned it was so confidential, as he may have heard from his own son, but it’s also possible he might’ve heard it from someone else too. If you look at Dragon’s arm, you can also spot what looks like a tattoo, rather than a bandana given the color, on his arm, which looks exactly like the mark he would later get on his face.

The Leak

Next we get to see a Marine prison ship, which unlike normal Marine ships, is reinforced in a dark hull, as its purpose is to escort prisoners, or in this case slaves to add to the Genocide Tournament. Among them, we see Ginny, who as we were told in the Vivre Cards is a native of the Porco Kingdom, a country in the Grand Line, though likely not one affiliated by the Government since they tend to take slaves from those kinds of countries, but she also could’ve been a victim in some other circumstance, having been taken as a slave at age 4. As we see here, she calls Ivankov “aniki”, or “brother”, but we still don’t know for sure if the two are related by blood or simply became siblings as slaves by relying on each other. As we were told in God Valley, Ginny is very talented at communications, a skill I wonder where she picked it up considering she’s been a slave since age 4, but she used it to sneak into the communications room and send what seems like a morse code signal to her “informant”, informing of what will be found at God Valley once the tournament starts in some days’ time. Back at the slave room, which as we see is in very poor living conditions, thet two reunite, and of course Ivankov is as lively as ever, snapping as he claims “don’t underestimate miracles”, tying into his narrative of miracles as we see later. As a result of this, we can hear the Marines retaliating, as the sound effect “gashan!!” (ガシャン) plays on screen, which sounds like the cracking of a whip, being whipped for making noise, though thankfully they were not caught. Kuma looks from a distance, not yet being acquainted with Iva-chan.

On another side of the seas, we see the informant visiting the Cipher Pol Intelligence Bureau (サイファーポール諜報部), what seems to be a location for managing and recieving information by the Cipher Pol. We were told during Enies Lobby that each of the eight Cipher Police departments have special bases at specific places in the world, with CP9 having their special headquarters at Enies Lobby. This is likely one of those bases, though the lack of number seems to suggests this is a more general base meant to manage information. Its appearance is like that of a castle, not too different from Enies Lobby in some regards, and with a world government symbol on it. Funnily, the two clocks show different hours, but I wonder if that’s intentional.

The informant in question in this case turns out to be Morgans, who demands a ransom from the Cipher Pol for keeping secret about the events of the Genocide Tournament he heard from Ginny. As the intelligence officers mention, Morgans is just a kid in charge of a small regional newspaper, which lines up with what we knew from the vivre cards, where we were told that Morgans founded the World Economic Newspaper, but at the same time that he’s also only 53 years old. Meaning that during the incident he was only 15 years old, which felt wierd, but we are told here that no, he was definitely quite the young entrepeneur. It’s possible that the newspapers we saw previously before in the flashback were by different companies before Morgans really became the lead player in the market, primarily as he introduced the News Coo system, allowing for faster delivery of news than before, where they likely may have been shipped through traditional means like ships rather than by bird. His domestication of birds may have been helped by his Tori Tori no Mi (Bird Bird Fruit), Model: Albatross, a fruit he already had at this point as he evidently appears to be, since he prefers keeping his true identity secret due to having too many enemies. Though I have to wonder if he could be someone we know or if we’ll even see his real face.

Morgans accepts the bribe to keep it a secret so he doesn’t publish about it in the newspapers, but instead does send information about it to Hachinosu alone. The reason is that he just wants to see newsworthy material happen, because he’s going to benefit from great articles if an incident of God Valley’s proportions would take place. The people of Pirate Island are relieved to hear this, with even the skull itself getting hearts in its eyes, with each of them reacting in different ways. Gloriosa is estatic to hear her sister is alive, while Stussy thinks about the movements of the Marines, as she’s one of the few here that doesn’t have as much interest in taking Shakky back. Meanwhile, Captain John, Ganzui, and Shiki are freaking out, with Shiki even screaming out “Shakky-channnnnnnn” like Sanji would. As we saw from Strong World, he’s definitely got a thing for strong women, that’s for sure. Whitebeard, more fittingly, focuses on the Genocide Tournament, which he had thought to be nothing more than a hoax, disgusted by the inhuman practice of human hunting. Linlin instead thinks of the devil fruits, since she has not much interest in Shakky, wishing to give one of them to one of her children, but comments it to Kaidou, who she eventually gave the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryuu due to seeing him like a little brother. Napoleon on her head also looks at the paper with interest. Streusen is skeptic that this could be a trap, but Xebec says that they are going anyway, and anyone who is too scared (Ochoku, with a good excuse) can stay behind. Though of course, we know that Xebec had different ideas…

This better recontextualizes the scene at God Valley with the Rocks Pirates: most of them were indeed going after Shakky, with Whitebeard claiming that Xebec is losing sight of the goal, though this is because Xebec had a different goal all along. Big Mom instead was indeed talking about seizing the fruits, but either Kaidou misunderstood her wanting Shakky when she has no reason to or he did realize she wanted the fruits but wondered why she had any use for them when she already had a fruit, but in reality she wanted them for her children. Katakuri already had his fruit by now but we could’ve been looking at an alternate timeline where someone like Oven got the dragon fruit. At the same time though, all the rest were definitely focused on Shakky, as were others like the Roger Pirates, who we see heard of the information as well. This was likely thanks to Spencer, the informant of the Roger Pirates, who would’ve been able to hear the details from some contact at Pirate Island, especially as Roger heard of Rocks moving as well. Roger asks Gabin to get to God Valley, as he is after all the navigator, and Rayleigh, Seagull, Mr. Momora, and Donquino cheer him on. As a result, like we were told, Garp is told about it as well and he too heads to God Valley.

The Davy Clan

We need a reminder that we are still in the Elbaph flashback though, and so Harald and Xebec cross paths at sea. We were told they wouldn’t meet again until the time of the incident, but it seems this is what the narrator meant rather than Harald being on God Valley himself. However, before squaring off, Harald is willing to listen Xebec out, separate from his crew, which includes Shiki, Kyou, and even what appears to be Gill Bastar next to them, the protagonist of Oda’s one-shot which he mentioned was a member of the Rocks Pirates.

Xebec drops a massive reveal though: his real name is not rocks: rather, it’s Davy D. Xebec. This means that his son isn’t just Rocks D. Teach who likely took his mother’s name as Marshall D. Teach, but in fact his real name would be Davy D. Teach. And the original legendary pirate was in fact Davy D. Jones, a member of the D. clan who was so dangerous to the Government that they tried to erase his entire bloodline even beyond his association with being a D. clan member.

As a quick refresher, Davy Jones, inspired by the real life fictional figure, was described by Robin as such:

“There’s an island out there in the sea considered to be a paradise for pirates: they call it Pirate Island. On that island, long ago, a game was born… It is said that, to get their hands on the best seafarers, pirates would use this game to steal other pirates.”

“[Davy Jones] was a pirate from long ago who had been cursed by the Devil to live in the depths of the Sea Floor, where it is said he yet lives to this day.”

“Or so the legend goes… All ships or treasures that sink to the Sea Floor would become his possessions as boatswain, as they would sink into his locker.”

“Davy’s name is associated with possessing all that sinks, so pirates call stealing others from your enemy as “Davy Back”.

We don’t know much more than that, that the Davy Back Fight was named after his famous reputation, but Davy Jones himself was said to have been killed by the Devil, who we can assume most likely was Imu. And since Xebec did tell Imu that he was an adorer of Davy Jones, he clearly was teasing him in some form that he was going to come back and fulfill what the original Davy could not. A figure that at this point, I’m starting to assume may have very well been the Xebec or Teach of Joyboy’s time. However Jones’s family would survive, hiding in the dark side of the world.

Xebec would end up having his own kid, Davy D. Teach, but to protect him, he would send him and his mother to his own hometown, where other members of the Davy clan in hiding would help take care of them. That homeland however… happens to be God Valley. That certainly explains a lot of things, but it shows that Xebec is simply using Shakky as an excuse, instead wishing to save his own wife and kid, but feels that a great fate has been set in motion, thus giving the title of the chapter, “Island of Fate”. A fitting mention given how Teach too would often speak of fate. Xebec asks Harald for help one last time, already foreseeing that he might lose here, but Harald cannot bring himself to help him… something that, if he had joined him, would’ve changed the events of history forever. However, it seems that Harald can’t bring himself to bring Xebec down either, so instead he simulates an attack on his ship, so that Xebec can get away but he can save face against the Government. However, the Government would still blame Harald, as we saw Sommers and Imu blaming Harald for his “mistake”, as not only did it result in the God Valley Incident reaching such levels of destruction, but also in Elbaph not joining the Government as their conditions were not fulfilled.

The God Valley Incident

And so, the day of the God Valley Incident finally starts for good, as we see the horrors of the Genocide Tournament being put on display. The prizes include several coffers, including the one where Shanks would be hidden inside of, but also a set of unique slaves serving as either hunts or prizes. Inside of the chests there should be devil fruits, at least the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi that would be eaten by Kuma and the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryuu that would be eaten by Kaidou (though I wonder if the other chests also heard other valuables that aren’t fruits given how there’s 9 of them here, unlike the 6 we saw during Kuma’s flashback, but I wonder if there’s a reason for it). But the crown jewel has to be Shakky herself, the treasure of Hachinosu Garp mentioned being stolen all the way back in 1096, being offered to the winner of the tournament.

We already know that the champion of God Valley would end up being Garling, as we were told as so during his introduction (originally mistranslated as “king of God Valley”, but this term was rather “champion”) and indeed we see that Garling had her ordered up so he could attain her as his wife during this tournament, though Sommers also appears here wanting her as a slave. Interestingly, Sommers looks a lot younger here, just like Garling, showing that he did age in spite of his immortality, suggesting that the immortality was only granted to him later despite both he and Garling being God Knights. Alongside them though we also see Gunko and the blue-haired member of the Manmayer family that we saw in Kuma’s flashback, which makes sense as Gunko’s full name is Saintess Manmayer Gunko. Unlike her other fellows, she doesn’t seem to have aged a day, aside from the long hair, also sporting a more knightly outfit. Hopefully this time she wears pants too. It seems that families do compete against each other as a form of prestige beyond an individual champion in what can be translated as the “clan battle” (氏族戦).

We see a couple more glimpses of a couple other locations: first, we see Dragon stumbling upon a woman bleeding out. It’s hard to say who this is given how small the panel is, but she does say “help my children escape from the island… I don’t want “that person” to have them”. Context here would infer that this might be Shanks and Shamrock’s mother, which would make sense if perhaps Dragon played a hand in helping Shanks escape by locking him in a chest, although Shamrock would eventually end in Garling’s hands… this mother’s wish forever changing the landscape of the future of the world.

On the other, we see a young Teach, only two years old, being conforted by his mother, who we don’t see as well, but I wonder how much resemblance she will bear to Oda’s previous sketches of Blackbeard’s mother. And I wonder if the idea of Teach having a younger sister will be scrapped entirely as a forgotten idea in Oda’s notes as we saw it, or if she will make an appearance here too. The fact that Xebec only mentioned a kid, seemingly in the singular, would suggest she’s been scrapped, but maybe we can still see her among the Davy family.

As indeed, we do have confirmation, in case we couldn’t have already assumed, that the Davy family was the secret “thing” Garling found at God Valley, which is why the “boss” would be satisfied by this find, as Imu had been trying to erase this lineage for so long. Beyond the buccaneer that is Kuma being one of the SR Rabbits (SR meaning “super rare” and “rabbit” being the name being given to all the slaves running away), the other are the members of the Davy Bloodline… a bloodline that has survived for the past 800 years, confirming that Davy Jones was in fact… a major player in the Void Century.

So, as we head into the God Valley Incident, let’s recap all the relevant information by starting with the full cast of the event:

First there’s the native inhabitants of the island, which include the citizens of God Valley, including the king who is swiftly killed by Garling, and among them there are some members of the Davy D. clan, though from what we were told in Kuma’s flashback, these seem to only amount to 12 people. Among them there’s Xebec’s wife and his son, Teach, who is only 2 years old. Among the citizens, there’s Shanks’s mom, alongside of course her babies Shanks and Shamrock, who was stabbed by Garling but seemingly survived long enough to tell Dragon to save her children, although I’d imagine she died shortly after. There’s also a possibility she too could be a member of the Davy D. clan, but it’s also possible she was just an ordinary citizen of the island.

Among the imported slaves we of course have the SR Rabbit Bartholomew Kuma, who would on this island join forces with Emporio Ivakov and Ginny, who was the responsible for letting the information leak through Morgans. Among native citizens and slaves, a total of about 100,000 rabbits are found on the island. Among them there are 150 R Rabbits (rare rabbits) and 13 SR Rabbits (super rare rabbits), which means that putting the one Kuma aside, there must be 12 members of the Davy D. clan on the island. Shakuyaku has also been brought as a slave though it seems that she’s not a rabbit but rather left as a prize for the winner of the tournament.

The occupying party involves 200 celestial dragons as well as their Marine escorts protecting the island, though aside from a young cadet Dragon we don’t really know any other specific named Marines here so far. Among the Celestial Dragons, we know that at least Saturn was on the island, and among the God Knights we see Garling, now Sommers and Gunko, as well as the unnamed blue-haired Manmayer (though it isn’t clear if she specifically is a God Knight or just a Celestial Dragon), and the two other knights seen alongside Garling, including the blonde with long hair and the one with the skull mask. Other unnamed include the one with the mask or the one with the purple hair.

With the invading party of the Rocks Pirates we have Rocks D. Xebec, Edward Newgate, Shiki, Stussy, Ganzui, Linlin (accompanied by Streusen, Napoleon, Zeus, and Prometheus), Kaidou, “Captain” John, “Silver Axe” Kyou, Gloriosa, Barbel, and Gill Bastar. From what we see, it seems Ouchoku sat this one out to reap the benefits. Xebec intends to rescue his wife and kid, Big Mom (and partially Kaidou) are interested in the devil fruits, while the rest are mostly focused on saving Shakky. Beyond the Rocks Pirates, many other pirate crews from Hachinosu and other islands were also said to have come to save Shakky.

Joining those crews however is also the Roger Pirates, which includes Roger, Rayleigh, Gabin, and of course the whole rest of the named crew as we know it, going to rescue Shakky though at this point Roger, who seems to have given up on Shakky, is most likely doing it both due to the long friendship he’s built with her and for the sake of Rayleigh as well, but most of the crew seems unaware of that. Because Roger went to the island though, Garp followed suit, and arrived shortly after, with Bogard in tow as well.

What the news tell us of this event, through the words of Morgans, who seemingly got a big breakthrough hit through this incident, is that Garp defeated the Rocks Pirates at God Valley, and so came to be known as the “Hero of the Marines”. But as Sengoku told us, the truth is that Garp joined hands with Roger to take down the Rocks Pirates, with Xebec himself supposedly dying and the crew mostly scattering apart. However in doing so, Garp unwillingly protected Celestial Dragons, which Sengoku mentioned is a point that shamed him for a long time to come, though we don’t know the full details.

Among the survivors of the Rocks Pirates, Newgate, Shiki, Stussy, Linlin, Streusen, Kaidou and Gloriosa survived and escaped, though Linlin gave Kaidou the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryuu so she may have assisted in his escape that way. Among them though, Xebec, Captain John, Ganzui, and Gill Bastar would all die on this island, with the latter three being later stolen and turned into zombies by Gecko Moria. We don’t know what the fates of Barbel and Kyou were, but many speculate they were zombies on Thriller Bark as well.

Kuma ate the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi and was able to save himelf, Ivankov, Ginny, and another 500 slaves, after a short encounter with Saturn. But it’s likely the remaining 99,500 slaves on God Valley may have likely ultimately perished as well, unless they were saved somehow. Teach must also have survived among them, though we don’t yet know how he did so or with who, considering he was only 2. There likely were some Celestial Dragon casualties, but all the named ones we know of did survive, and Garling took Shamrock with him, though Shanks instead ended up inside a treasure chest that Roger would steal instead, likely after Dragon’s interference. And while we don’t know, I’d personally assume that it would be the Roger Pirates ultimately who would rescue Shakky and help her escape, with Rayleigh in particular probably ending up saving her.

Ultimately, the island of God Valley would allegedly “vanish without a trace”, leaving others to wonder if it was destroyed, evaporated, turned into Thriller Bark, or whatever other thing that may have happened to it. The Rocks Pirates would eventually go on to form their crews, with Whitebeard and Shiki leading the next era under Roger and later Whitebeard, Kaidou, and Big Mom the following era during the Great Pirate Era, and even later the figures of Shanks, Teach, and Buggy if he somehow still has any connection with this incident or the Davy clan. The secrets of God Valley however, were lost to the currents of history, but hopefully we can now shed some more light on them as we get to experience the moment when destiny was set in motion!