Who is the shaded character in the final spread? And can any parallels/connections that can be drawn between mirrored characters be treated as intentional?
THE FIGURE
As others have pointed out, the figure’s sword is very similar to Shanks’ Gryphon. Further than that though, it is one of a very short list of swords that appears to be Oda’s depiction of a Sabre – straight-bladed with a disc-shaped guard that extends a line down to the base of the hilt – alongside Shanks’, Figarland’s, X-Drake’s, Vice Admiral Onigumo’s, and Vista’s. Notably, Vista is the only character on this list to not have any known positive relationship with the World Government (past or present, such as X-Drake and seemingly Shanks).
It seems incredibly unlikely that this figure is any of these characters for a variety of reasons, so in my mind this is either a new character or an old one that hasn’t been recently relevant and (likely) has never used a sword/weapon on-screen. Based on the seeming correlation between Sabres and the World Government, and the narrative weight of the rest of the characters in this spread, it feels pretty safe to assume this is either a new God’s Knight or “The Man marked by Flames”.
I will admit that I’m biased towards the existing “Shanks’ twin/lookalike” theory, but even if that isn’t the case, I’d still bet on this being a God’s Knight. As some people have pointed out, this makes even more sense if this figure is intentionally mirrored with Figarland.
INTENTIONAL MIRRORS
Buggy-Shanks, Blackbeard-Luffy, Sabo-Akainu, Kuzan-Dragon, Koby-Imu, Figarland-Unknown.
I’d say for 3 of these pairs, a strong argument can be made as to the mirrors being intentional:
-Buggy and Shanks are a known rivalry, both members of Roger’s Crew with different worldviews and life paths.
-Blackbeard and Luffy have various sources of conflict, both members of the D. clan but with very opposite views on the same goals, Darkness and Light.
-Kuzan and Dragon are both understudies of Garp that ended up defecting from the Navy, but chose different paths to act against the Navy.
Connecting Sabo and Akainu is a bit more stretched, but the context of Ace’s death and the inheritance of his Devil Fruit certainly places them at odds. As far as similarities go, their “burning-hot passion” could count, or how they’re both leaders that answer to mysterious superiors? Or, looking at the SBS depicting a young Akainu, maybe they had similar childhoods but gained opposite views on “injustice”.
It seems that for all four of these, you could say the nature of their parallels is not just “key similarities and differences”, but “similar origins, different paths”.
If this holds true, that suggests some interesting things. It would make sense (as discussed above) for the Figure to be a God’s Knight, but the implication is that they have some fundamental difference that separates them from Figarland – perhaps their approval of Celestial Dragons? Or their interest in the larger world?
Even more interesting, though, is the pairing of Koby and Imu. What similarities do they have? What key differences? Maybe they were both oppressed by pirates? Or maybe they both had a close friend (Luffy and Nefertari Lili) that the world pit them against? Maybe they represent dualities of power/leadership, like Ideal VS Real, Selfless VS Selfish? Or maybe there’s something we can’t begin to guess at yet.
*Theory by InfiniteBacon42
