🔗 Share this article

The adage 'The past is written by the victors' is a key theme that Eiichiro Oda's epic creator Eiichiro Oda has for some time woven into the story. Popular tales often fail to capture the complete truth, including the most influential characters in this story's intricate past. Oden wasn't a foolish showman prancing through the streets of Wano; he acted out of honor and principle. Bartholomew Kuma wasn't a merciless antagonist who separated the Straw Hat Pirates, either; he was doing them a favor. Likewise, Davy Jones meant more than a buccaneer's contest in search of flags and crews.

In chapter #1164 of One Piece, we see the peak of this idea. The whole Divine Isle narrative serves as a warning story, advising audiences not to judge the individuals too hastily.

Legends often fail to convey the full reality, even for the most influential figures.

One Piece's latest look back, detailing the God Valley event, stands as one of the series' finest arcs to now. Apart from the thrill of seeing legends in their prime, it's gripping to see them before they turned into icons — when their reputation had yet to outgrow their human nature. History, as written by the Global Authority and recounted through secondhand tales, painted our perception of individuals like Gol D. Roger, Xebec, and even Monkey D. Garp. But both the government's accounts and the stories of those who were acquainted with them prove untrustworthy, showing only pieces of who these individuals truly were.

The Man Prior to the Legend

The future Pirate King may have been guided by purpose and the daring attitude that ignited a new age of piracy, but before he was known as the King of the Pirates, he was a youth governed by emotion and the desire to explore. When individuals discuss his legend, they typically mean his later journey, the epic expedition in pursuit of the guide stones that point toward Laugh Tale. However not much is known about his first journey, the one that molded him before fame found him.

Back then, Roger knew little of the world's secret history. His affection for the barkeep led him to God Valley, where he discovered the Global Authority's darkest realities: the genocidal "contests," the monstrous forms of the Gorosei, and including the existence of the world's unseen ruler, Imu. We haven't seen Gol D. Roger's thoughts about all that's happening in the Divine Isle, but maybe finding the child of a God's Knight on his vessel will lead him to understand his role in the globe and seek the reality he caught a glimpse of from Xebec's predicament.

The Reality About Rocks D. Xebec

Prior to this recollection, what we knew of Xebec was derived almost entirely from the former Fleet Admiral's version, each to the audience and to young Navy recruits. He depicted Xebec as a despicable, ambitious man bent on world domination, someone so dangerous that Roger and Monkey D. Garp had to team up to overcome him. But as it turns out, Sengoku wasn't even there at God Valley; he was only repeating the Global Authority's approved narrative of events, the exact story the sovereign authorized to conceal the reality about Xebec and the incident itself.

In truth, The captain, whose true name was Davy D. Xebec, was a ethical man who aimed to topple Imu and dismantle the corrupt World Government. We are unsure if he was guided by lust for power, revenge for his family, or a wish for fairness, but when he found out the regime's plan to eliminate the island where his kin lived, he abandoned his dreams of conquest to rescue them.

This love for his family proved to be his undoing. After confronting the sovereign, he forfeited his will and liberty, becoming a puppet enslaved to their power. Currently, with what limited consciousness is left, he begs with Gol D. Roger and Garp to kill him — believing that dying would be a kindness in contrast to the torment he endures. The reality of Rocks is thus very different from the tale narrated by Sengoku, and the comic shows him in a positive manner during the God Valley incidents.

Is He Living Today?

But was Rocks D. Xebec really meet his end? An interesting idea is that he is even now a servant to the ruler in the current timeline, acting as The Man Marked By Flames, maintaining the World Government's only remaining Poneglyph in constant movement to prevent the One Piece from being found.

The Hero's Hidden Rebellion

Another key figure of the God Valley incident is Garp, who has endured criticism from followers for a long time for standing by as Admiral Akainu killed Portgas D. Ace. That sentiment only grew more intense after the timeskip, when he risked everything to rescue Koby at Pirate Island, leading many to wonder why he couldn't do the identical for his biological grandson. Similar doubts have recently resurfaced with the Divine Isle flashback: how can Monkey D. Garp work for the Marines, knowing the Global Authority considers genocide and slavery as sport for the elite?

The truth uncovers something distinct. The moment Garp saw the Elders' grotesque forms, he struck without hesitation. His partnership with Gol D. Roger wasn't to defeat some villainous Xebec, but a courageous act of rebellion, an effort to stop the sovereign, who was using Xebec as a tool to eliminate everyone in the Divine Isle, even apparently, even the World Nobles themselves. This event is probably the reason Garp despises the World Nobles in the current era and why he never desired to be elevated to Fleet Admiral, reporting straight to them.

History's Unreliable Narrators

Although the readers are viewing the Divine Isle event through a flashback recounted by the giant, including perspectives and events he clearly was absent for, I think we can consider this version as entirely truthful. The manga may provide an reason later, perhaps linked to the giant's still mysterious Devil Fruit. Nevertheless, the Divine Isle event perfectly exemplifies the notion that history is recorded by the winners. This mindset is {