Video version: https://youtu.be/6BXmDrmRzpw

Cover

On the cover, Perona chases after a rabbit because it reminds her of Mihawk. The scene is likely an homage to Alice in Wonderland, with the rabbit checking the clock intended as a reference to the iconic scene at the start of the book where Alice chases after a rabbit who is late. In this case though, the rabbit is someone we’ve already seen before, and it’s a member of the Big Mom Pirates called Randolph. Known as the “Crane Rider”, Randolph is a rabbit homie serving under the crew, being a rabbit that began acting as a human due to posessing a soul within him thanks to the powers of the Soru Soru no Mi (Soul Soul Fruit). He was originally seen gathering ingredients for the tea party during Big Mom’s introduction and later clashed with Carrot in the Seducing Woods before ultimately being defeated by Chopper and Carrot inside Brûlée’s house in the Mirro-World.

King of the World

The chapter unusually oppens with a shattering revelation, being that Davy D. Jones… was once upon a time the King of the World!!

There’s a lot we can gleam from this little reveal, but let’s begin by trying to ubicate ourselves: in Chapter 1159, it was mentioned that the Davy clan had gone missing for 800 years, living in the shadows of the world. That would imply that Davy D. Jones was someone from the Void Century, and his correlation with Joyboy as well as Imu seemingly having known him directly once again reinforces the idea that he was from that period of time from 900 to 800 years ago, or during the 7th century Kaienreki from the year 600 to the year 700. And on a larger scale, this was towards the end of the Second World, before the foundation of the Government, Imu’s rise, and the sinking of the world. While Xebec here only uses the term “katsute” (かつて), which basically means “long ago”, the context leads to feel like Jones may have been the previous King of the World prior to Imu, or at least someone comparable to holding that position.

And if we associate the idea of king with a kingdom, then it would make sense that Davy D. Jones was the king of the most important kingdom of the Void Century: the immense kingdom that is associated with the D. clan. After all, we’ve been told time and time again that the conflict of the Void Century was fundamentally between this kingdom, which Clover described as “immense” and the “Allied Powers” formed by 20 human kingdoms as a force to rival it. And Imu fundamentally said to Cobra in 1085 that the people of the D. clan are those they once fought in that war, so it would make sense that a D. like Jones was the king of this kingdom. This also makes me thus wonder if the figure seen on the Harley in the depiction of the Second World with a crown, imposed over the waves rising as a result of the shots fired by what seems Uranus, was not Nerona Imu as we had assumed, but instead perhaps Davy D. Jones, and being next to the waves isn’t due to causing them but rather due to sinking beneath them as we were told that the Devil cursed Davy Jones to live on the seafloor. This at least could clarify why Imu would appear here when they already appear much more clearly on the left side of the mural.

What is interesting regarding this whole immense kingdom, however, is the fact that it has been so closely tied with the Godland of the lunaria. As a quick refresher, the lunaria once had a settlement at the top of the Red Line, what was called a “Godland”. This terminology of “Godland” (神の国, kami no kuni), or “God Country”, is the same type of definition that was used to describe Skypiea, which is formally known as “Godland Skypiea”, basically like a monarchy but where the ruler is treated more like a God, which seemingly was the traditional form of governance for the angel race. The lunaria seemingly had a Godland atop the Red Line, but this was eventually wiped out and in its place Mary Geoise was built 800 years ago, with almost all lunaria being persecuted and hunted down. However this Godland seemed to have a really strong connection with the ancient kingdom, as seen in several ways. In the Harley, the biggest players of the Void Century are described as the people of the half-Moon and the people of the Moon. The people of the half-Moon many believe to be the D. clan, whereas those of the Moon would be the Lunaria, making them seem like fairly key players. Furthermore, the iron giant Emet returned to Mary Geoise 200 years ago upon reactivating, but we don’t know why yet he came back to that place. It could be that he percieved the Government as the enemy, but could it perhaps be that he also had a connection.

So a lot of people have long since speculated if the Godland of the lunaria served almost as a central location for this immense kingdom, maybe even acting as the capital of sorts. And given the parallelisms of Imu and Jones, it makes me wonder if that’s where the latter ruled from as well. Alternatively, it’s also possible that the “capital” of this kingdom may be what became Laugh Tale. After all, when Clover described the immense kingdom, he depicted this ancient civilization in the image of these old ruins, but said ruins look almost identical to the depiction that Crocus and Inuarashi have given of Laugh Tale in Chapters 105 and 818 respectively. Which has led many to think that Laugh Tale and the seat of the immense kingdom were one and the same, but of course that depends entirely on where Laugh Tale is. A lot of people have speculated that Laugh Tale could be beneath Mary Geoise, which would connect it more with the relevance of the Godland of the lunaria, whereas others think it could be closer by Lode Star or somewhere else entirely. So it’s hard to really know more about Jones’s past without knowing more about the kingdom, but at the very least, I would be fairly confident in assuming that the position Davy Jones held was as the king of this immense kingdom, and it held such global influence that he came to be considered by many as the “King of the World”, as Clover too did tell us about how powerful the influence of this kingdom was. Though its name, he wasn’t able to tell us, but at this point I’m still fairly convinced it has something to do with the D., if it isn’t the Kingdom of Dawn/Don all together.

This assumption though would be consistent with what Imu is saying, as Mu states “Nonsense!! He was no king, not even for a single moment!!! The fate that binds Mu and Davy has nothing to do with thou!!”. So essentially, Imu does not acknowledge Davy as a king on the same standing as Mu had achieved, but Xebec clearly viewed him as such, and even calls out Imu for feeling threatened over it. This would make sense with our previous assumption, that Davy Jones was simply the king of the immense kingdom, but that his influence was so widely recognized that many started to revere him as the King of the World. But who knows if Imu’s statement has more nuance to it than just that.

That said, I’m sure that you’re probably asking about another important figure of the Void Century and how they fit in all this. We know that the man who they called Joyboy was born within this immense kingdom and fought on its side during the war; as such, in the past many people assumed that he could’ve even been their leader or king, but keep in mind, that’s just all fan speculation due to his leading position in the war, as nowhere in the manga has it ever been stated or even inferred that Joyboy was a king. The closest connection would be the sea kings talking about their two kings meeting again, which given the prophecy Otohime mentioned of a new Joyboy meeting with the new Poseidon would suggest that’s the two “kings” the sea kings were talking about, but again that’s still all speculation. What this chapter seems to steer us more towards is that Davy Jones may have been the actual ruler of this immense kingdom while Joyboy was a leading figure within it who simply was more of a gudiing force, like a hero to its people. After all, if Joyboy was anything like Roger or Luffy, he wouldn’t really be someone interested in leading, as Roger rejected Shiki in trying to rule the world together and Luffy himself also isn’t interested in that kind of ambition.

The question is, however, how close exactly were Jones and Joyboy: were they full-blown allies, working side by side to take down the Allied Powers as proper “nakama”? Or was their dynamic more similar to that of Luffy and Teach, people with opposed ideals but that still have a common enemy? Even within this chapter, Xebec brings up the parallel, asking Imu they’re more afraid of: Davy D. Jones, or Joyboy? He also very explicitly states that “The will of Davy… remains inherited. The day will arrive that someone will come to fulfill the promise!!!”, shown over a panel of Eris and Teach, an implication of how Teach will inherit the will of Davy. Despite its wording, I don’t think that this means that the D. stands for Davy, as Davy Davy Jones does sound kinda dumb, but more that much like other members of the D. clan, Jones’s will gets passed on. But how much is the Will of Davy consistent with the Will of D.? Is Davy’s will that of the people who seek the Dawn, wishing to put an end to the cruel rule of corrupt humans to make the world more free and equal, or is the will of Davy simply that to attain power again and have it in their hands again, regardless of the consequences for others?

After all, Teach is… not exactly that good of a person. Neither was Xebec by all means, but Oda has gone out of his way in this flashback to depict Xebec as a more charismatic and noble individual. We’ve shown how much he cared for his family, even being heartbroken later this chapter upon thinking he may have killed them, he still cared a lot for his crew and friends like Harald, and overall has been depicted as a likeable character. He still did lowly things, like hurt a kid Loki and raid and pillage as a pirate, but he’s definitely fallen more on the morally ambiguous side of moreality than we were first being led to believe.

But by contrast, Teach couldn’t be more different. Yes, he still has charisma, and he has a respect for dreams and his opponents, like we saw him encouraging Luffy to go find the sky island. But he’s also been repeatedly shown to be a heartless monster, someone who has killed people he was close to for the sake of his own ambition, including a close friend like Thatch (whom the Ace novel implied was killed because he had eaten the Yami Yami no Mi and Teach had to kill him to obtain it), or his very own adoptive father, once again for his fruit. We’ve also seen that Teach has captured a lot of innocent slaves at Hachinosu which Koby had to free, including members of many unique races which sell for higher prices, and has been involved in the underworld society as well as pillaging and having his subordinates raid impoverished nations like the Lulusia kingdom (though I wonder if there’s any connection with his mother wanting to flee there with him). We’ve seen that he and his crewmates even seem willing to assault women and commit many other henious crimes, so Teach is definitely far from a morally ambiguous figure.

But he too shares the same ambition that Xebec had. Rocks wanted to become the King of the World, to usurp Imu’s position but seemingly take it for his own too. We don’t know what a Xebec-led rule would’ve been like and if it would’ve been any better or worse, but we can assume a Teach-led rule would be quite catastrophic, as Teach’s men did say that his ambition too was that of “the World”. So with how much Oda has built up how much of an opposite Luffy and Teach are, then what was the difference between Joyboy and Davy D. Jones? Were they part of different factions just involved in fighting against the same commoy enemy or were they more closely allied, with Jones being more similar to the morally grey Xebec? If that’s the case though… what happened with Teach? How did Teach become the monster that he is today?

Reversi

Well, that’s a lot of questions to process, so for now let’s unwind a bit by focusing on the other aspects of the chapter. Something worth bringing up during this conversation between Xebec and Imu is once again Imu’s speech pattern. For as solemn and terrifying as Imu may sound, when they lose their patience, Mu begins to sound a lot more childish, as we’ve pointed out before. For example, Imu uses the second person pronoun “nushia” as we’ve mentioned, which is derived from the archaic “nushi” and is comparable to the English “thou”. But here to refer to third person, Mu refers to Jones as “aitsu” (あいつ), which is basically a very informal “that guy”, and also referring to Jones and Joyboy as a collective as “aitsura”, or “those guys”. It’s also interesting that Mu claims that their relationship with Jones has nothing to do with Xebec despite calling him Davy Jones in just the previous chapter.

Despite the opposition that Xebec has put up though, Imu ultimately fully converts him with Domi Reversi. The process is intense, as the sound effect “bari bari” (バリバリ) can be read around them, which is the cracking of thunder caused by powerful haki, seemingly involved in this move to more forcibly convert Xebec. Beyond the teeth, Xebec now gains also flaming eyes, large wings forming from his cape, and his size also considerably increases, just as we had seen with the giants, towering even over the likes of the 8.8 meter tall Linlin. He swiftly swats away both Kaidou and Linlin, and has an intense clash against Newgate, whose cracking is so powerful that it collapses one of the two halves of the mountain composing the eponymous God Valley. It’s implied that Xebec emerged victorious from this clash, though I wouldn’t really count Newgate out, nor would I count Kaidou or Linlin out after just a hit. I wouldn’t be surprised if they came back later on to help join in on the fight in helping put their captain to rest.

Many around the island react to the chaos, such as the Celestial Dragons scrambling to get out. We see one of them uses the first person pronoun “wachikira” (わちきら), which is a very archaic pronoun that was mostly used by females such as geisha, but in the case of a celestial dragon it just comes off as pompous and even borderline childish. The Roger Pirates meanwhile are also escaping from the island with treasure in hand, and you may notice that from one of the chests the writing “zzz” can be seen, showing that’s the chest inside of which Shanks is sleeping.

On the other, Dragon is frustrated with himself, about the fact that he couldn’t even save one child. This scene is not only incredibly similar to when Luffy broke down in Sabaody after being unable to save the members of his crew, but even the dialogue is fairily similar in Japanese, showing a clear parallel between father and son and their helplesness at being unable to protect others. But with that said, I wonder if Dragon ever found out that the kid he saved was Shanks or if he still to this day isn’t aware that he helped save a future Yonko. And if he doesn’t know, will he ever come to know?

The other Rocks Pirates have been scattered about, with Captain John injured and trying to get away, probably surviving to one day gather more treasure and be betrayed by his crew as we were told. Ganzui meanwhile has been injured, as he tried to jump Shiki but ultimately lost the battle, since Shiki was likely considerably stronger than him. Shiki himself seemingly got off this whole thing pretty well, as his Fuwa Fuwa no Mi (Float Float Fruit) allows him to simply fly away from the island as freely as he wants to, so he likely escaped the ensuing chaos with chest in hand. If that chest really was worth a billion berry all on its own, then that would’ve been enough for Shiki to be able to fund his pirating efforts and pave the way towards founding his pirate fleet in the future.

Kuma and Teach

Ultimately though, Xebec catches up to Eris and Teach, but she seems to understand quite quickly what happened. She shockingly even seems to have an idea of whot Imu is, as she refers to Imu as “aitsu”, which is a third person gender neutral pronoun in Japanese, and claims that Xebec ended up meeting with Imu earlier than he should’ve. Eris and Teach are pincered in an impossible situation, with Xebec about to kill them and Marine battleships trying to fire on them to stop slaves from escaping… but at the last second, Kuma comes in and helps them escape. And since Kuma is about to get caught in the crossfire too, he sends himself flying too, escaping from the island that way. This is poetic, in more ways than one, as it is beautiful to see how selflessly Kuma is willing to put himself in danger’s way to save others, but at the same time it’s also a bit gutting because Teach’s survival will lead him to become a pretty horrible person. Even more ironically, we know that in the future, Teach tried to force Kuma’s very own daughter, a 10 year old Bonney, into becoming his personal woman in exchange for her freedom. Though he may not have known about her true age, it still doesn’t take away from how disgusting of an action that is, and how tragically ironic it is that Kuma saving his life would come to bite him back that way. Though thankfully, Teach was chased away by Sakazuki and Bonney later broke out (though Kuma’s other friends like Gyogyo weren’t as fortunate, and ended in jail as a result of Teach surviving).

We now understand that not just Teach but also Eris escaped from the island. Interestingly, Kuma’s fruit only allows him to send people somewhere he’s previously been to, which at this age would only be like the Sorbet Kingdom and Mary Geoise, so I’d imagine they must have been sent to the former. But that brings the question again of what happened to Eris considering that by age 12 Teach was already an orphan begging Whitebeard to let him on his ship.

Roger and Garp

Still, at present, both Imu and Xebec seem to believe that the two are now dead. So Imu, once again calling Xebec as “Davy”, tells him to go kill all others on the island. But of course, history once again comes to be fulfilled as Garp and Roger call out to Xebec, with a scream so powerful that we see a haki burst from it, as once again indicated by the “bari bari” sound effects. However, Xebec, in tears over the grief of believing to have killed his wife and kid, begs Garp and Roger to stop him. But since he cannot talk anymore, instead he seemingly does this through the voice of all things. We knew Roger spoke the voice of all things, but now we get confirmation Xebec and Garp did too. This adds them to the list of Luffy, Oden, Momonosuke, and Shirahoshi, as well as creatures like the Sea Kings, Zunesha, and Emet. Since Joyboy was shown speaking with Emet, it seems to indicate he too could hear the voice of all things. Interestingly, in the vivre cards, Momonosuke and Shirahoshi were listed as observation haki users, despite never showing in any capacity haki, which strongly implied that the voice of all things works in some form through observation haki. But I still wonder, more than anything, how someone develops the voice of all things, as it doesn’t seem to be tied with just having good haki since the likes of Shirahoshi and Momo developed it, while the three-eyed race was also said to be able to hear it (although Pudding hadn’t quite awakened yet due to being a half-blood), so I wonder what the requirements are.

Regardless, as we had thought, Xebec begs the two of them to kill him, thus setting in motion the duel between Roger and Garp vs Xebec. I do wonder if the other members of the Rocks will come in to assist, or if something else will hold them up, such as Whitebeard potentially fighting someone like Garling or if the whole group will be fighting a raid battle against Xebec.

At last, the duel begins with Rocks leaping toward Garp and Roger, and if you notice, their poses are faintly reminiscing of the picture that Sengoku showed us in his explanation of God Valley, with Roger holding his sword over him and Garp readying to charge his fist, though in that original picture Oda had accidentally depicted Roger with the wrong hat and his mustache (as he also did in the storyboards he provided for Film RED), before changing him to look younger and have the straw hat instead. But still, it’s unbelievable to think that this sight which we had been told about 6 years ago is finally coming to play in front of our eyes. The God Valley Incident begins right now!!