An unknown character or a group named Rocks/Rox is mentioned by Garp in chapter 907. More than 40 years ago, Rocks/Rox was extremely prominent and defined an era that lasted until Gol D. Roger’s rise to prominence as the Pirate King.
So here is a speculation I came up while searching the word ROX in Google. Apparently, Rox could mean dawn in Greek. It came from a female name “Roxanne” which is believed to be derived from Persian “Roschana” which means dawn of the day. This made me think, what if the captain of ROX Pirates is a woman? Remember, there’s a possibility that both Big Mom and Kaido or even Whitebeard were members of ROX.
If this is true, this could mean that ROX Pirates is a huge pirate fleet which reminds me of the real life pirate crew which were lead by, Ching Shih. A woman who is considered to be the most successful pirate who commanded the largest pirate fleet in piracy history with 1,800 pirate ships and an estimated of 80,000 men.
I think like Ching Shih, it would be very fitting for Rox or the captain of ROX Pirates to had lead the largest fleet in piracy history, well at least before Luffy.
So if the captain of ROX is indeed a woman, I thought of her possible background.
1-She could be Luffy’s grandmother – I know this sounds crazy but it would be a very interesting plot twist in the story and would give a depth to Garp’s background. The only problem is that Garp were mentioned to have defeated the captain of ROX. Well.. maybe they met before Garp became a marine or before Rox became a pirate. Or maybe Garp didn’t know before that she is a pirate when they had a relationship.
Another interesting thing is that the very first chapter of One Piece is titled “Romance Dawn” and the island where Luffy was born, the place where the story started is called Dawn. Remember I mentioned above that Rox means dawn. Also remember the word NOX, the name of Pedro’s crew which sounds like ROX, Pedro described it as the night before dawn.
So I think Oda planned Rox’s era to symbolize the dawn or the beginning of the “Great Pirate Age”. Gold Roger’s era era is the “Golden Pirate Age” and Luffy’s era will symbolize the new dawn or new beginning of a “Great Pirate Age”.
2-She could be Shanks’ mother – I remember there is a theory that the captain of ROX Pirates is Shanks’ father and that’s the pirate Shanks wants to talk about with the Celestial Dragon. Well what if she is actually his mother?
As I mentioned above I think Rox is inspired by Ching Shih. Did you know that Ching Shih’s crew is called the Red Flag pirate fleet? So maybe Rox also have a connection with color red like Red-Haired Shanks.
*Theory by jinz
