From the end of chapter 963, we had quite a few things revealed through simple imagery, but the reveals are pretty upsetting to me.
The 1st Division Commander Marco, the 3rd Division Commander Jozu, the 5th Division Commander Vista, the 7th Division Commander Rakuyo, the 11th Division Commander Kingdew, the 13th Division Commander Atmos, and the 15th Division Commander Fossa are all there.
The problem I have is the ages that we know some of the more important members are at this point. Marco is 15. Jozu is 12. Vista is 17, which is at least the age Luffy was when he entered the Grand Line. At the moment we have no ages for the rest, but they do look old enough to be potential Commanders.
The issue lies in the second to last page of the chapter. We see this.
And immediately I think the woman is recognizable to anyone who plays One Piece Treasure Cruise. This seems to be Whitey Bay, one of the allied captains that came to Whitebeard’s assistance during the war. Andre and Epoida are also allied captains, presumably.
Now this is cool right, Marco gets talked down to, he’s a kid, the rest of them are young, but it brings up an interesting power scaling problem. If Marco and Jozu are fodder at the moment, who is matching Rayleigh? Who is matching Scopper Gaban or the other members of Roger’s crew? Seagull? Bullet?
This is set 30 years in the past, but here’s a timeline rundown for anyone out of the loop.
- 39 years ago – God Valley Incident
- 33 years ago – Rocks Pirate Survivors start recruiting
- 30 years ago (during this flashback) – Whitebeard washes up on Wano
- 27 years ago – The Battle of Edd War, Shiki is wiped out by Roger
- 25 years ago – Roger becomes the Pirate King, a year later, turns himself in, is executed in Logue Town.
The issue we find is in what we know about Roger’s crew at this time, and what we know about Whitebeard’s crew at this time, by virtue of this chapter. Roger had at the very least Rayleigh on his crew. With the weirdly similar design of Denjiro and Scopper Gaban, I’m skeptical as to whether Scopper was with Roger at the time of this current flashback (30 years ago).
Back to the main point, Rayleigh presumably participated in the God Valley incident, but even if he hadn’t it would still be odd for him to be very far off Roger’s strength afterwards. If we forgo theories, then Scopper Gaban was also on the crew at the time. We have no official age for Gaban at the time, but Douglas Bullet was 15 at the time of this flashback. So at the very least, I say this again, we had Rayleigh and Gaban, Roger’s presumed number 1 and 2, just going by naming scheme (Gold, Silver, Copper).
Whitebeard, conversely, has Whitey Bay, Andre, and Epoida as senior members at this time. All 3 of them given almost no page time, or screen time for that matter, and only one of them was even announced with any note during their entrance to Marineford. This poses an issue for Whitebeard, as either he was soloing Roger’s entire top 3 for years before Marco, Jozu, and Vista came of age, or he had some other monsters. If these other monsters are dead, then so be it. I hope we learn of them soon. But, if this chapter is implying that Whitey Bay and the two goons over there are somehow Whitebeard’s answer to Roger’s crew at the time, we have a power scaling issue.
Whitebeard was a formidable force, a rival to Roger. Roger, Rayleigh, and presumably the rest of the crew we can put faces to, were all at God Valley.
Maybe Oden joining Whitebeard allowed for him to face Roger’s crew. Oden could take on Silvers Rayleigh but then when he leaves for Roger’s crew, what next? I don’t know what the time frame is for this all, but I really doubt that Marco and the other previously mentioned characters catch up to the Pirate King’s crew like that. Whitebeard was no doubt powerful enough to fight with Roger evenly, but the issue lies with the rest of the crew and who can fight them properly.
*by Pixelizedmario
