I know it sounds crazy, but Monkey D. Garp might
not be Luffy’s only legendary grandpa. because what if I told you that his grandfather
on the other side of the family tree was none other than Rocks D. Xebec? And I promise
that if you make it to the end of this video, you will have you’re mind completley blown
away. Big thanks to reddit user Mr. Bushido for laying the groundwork for this theory on
our subreddit about the secret Goa Kingdom connection between Garp, Rocks, and
Roger and their brotherly friendship. But before we can get to the crazy parts, we have
to do some ground work first. Because really, we don’t know all that much about this most
infamous of all pirates trying to conquer the one piece world who was all but erased from
history. However his silhouette alone should tell us something. Lots of theorists have
drawn the obvious Blackbeard comparisons, Teach’s giant raft literally being
named the Saber of Xebec. However, Rocks’s silhouette looks a whole lot like
another character we know: Monkey D. Dragon. A lot of fans had long assumed that Monkey D.
Dragon was Garp’s son, given that he carries the Monkey family name. However, this might not
be the case. Garp never once refers to Dragon as his “son” - he only ever refers to him
as “Luffy’s father.” Dragon could very well be Garp’s son-in-law and Luffy’s mother could be
Garp’s daughter. Luffy even strongly resembles his grandfather, but those genes seem to have skipped
Dragon’s generation entirely if Dragon was in fact Garp’s biological son. Could it be that after
Rocks was erased from history, Dragon instead took his wife’s name - the daughter of Garp and
Luffy’s mother? It wouldn’t be the first time a character has taken their mother’s name. After
all, Luffy’s own brother, Ace, was named Portgas as a way of separating him from Roger’s lineage
for his own protection. Could Dragon and then Luffy after him have done the same in order to
separate themselves from the Rocks family name? And while Dragon clearly has different goals
than Garp, his vision does seem to align with part of Rocks. Dragon doesn’t appear to
want to claim the Empty Throne for himself to become the king of the world, but like Xebec,
he does specifically want to combat the World Government and the Celestial Dragons. Could he
have inherited this will from Rocks? After all, the D clan are the natural enemies of the
Celestial Dragons, just as we see in Luffy. This isn’t the only thing that Luffy would seem to
have inherited from the Rocks side of the family, though. We know that Rocks gathered into
his crew the most fearsome pirates on the Grand Line. Edward Newgate. Charlotte Linlin.
Shiki the Golden Lion. Even a young Kaidou. All of these pirates, many of whom would become
yonkou, the strongest forces on the planet, all served on Rocks’ ship. Someone
who could rally all of these forces under one flag would have to be supremely
charismatic - they would have to have a gift of making friends and allies out of anyone
they’d meet. Sound like anyone you know? According to Mihawk, Luffy’s propensity for
making allies is his greatest strength. And this strength may have come from his grandfather,
Rocks D. Xebec. In the same way that Rocks gathered the strongest pirates of the era
to his side, so Luffy does by amassing his grand fleet and teaming up with several
members of the Worst Generation. Law and Kid seem very much to be set up as similarly
significant members of Luffy’s own pirate era. The similarities between Rocks D. Xebec, Monkey
D. Dragon, and Luffy are multifaceted. Not only do they share physical resemblances, but they
share defining characteristics as well. However, that’s not where this theory ends. *Laughs* Not
even close. The ending is going to blow you away. So let’s talk about Luffy’s family tree. Because
the family history shared between the Monkey and Rocks clans might go way, way deeper so get
ready for some Soap Opera levels of speculation. It all starts with young Garp. Eiichiro Oda has a
really tight grasp on his story’s timeline. Even when there are potential loopholes, he’s pretty
good about closing them. After he decided to make Ace the son of Gol D. Roger (a move that was
most likely not intended from the beginning), he knew it wouldn’t work because Roger
had died before Ace’s birth. Ergo, Portgas D. Rouge was pregnant for two years to
avoid the One Piece equivalent of King Herod. This is a man who, when he introduced time
travel into the series, made sure that it only worked one way so he wouldn’t mess up his precious
timeline. He even uses masterful hints like having the samurai and Momo alluding to knowing Roger,
allowing eagle eyed readers to guess the huge time travel plot twist. So given that Oda has been
very meticulous, let’s look at Garp in the past. When Oda drew Garp as a child, he looked
a whole lot like young Luffy. He’s a rambunctious adventurer riding a tiger. He’s a
wild boy befriending forest animals just like his grandson. This doesn’t look like a future
hero of the marines - this looks like a future pirate. So how did he go from the spitting image
of Luffy to a Marine? And more importantly let’s poke at his timeline a little bit. He joined
the marines at the age of 22. We know that Koby joined the Marines at the young age of 16.
Zephyr from Film Z joined the Marines at age 14. And while it’s not unheard of for marines to
join later on in life, Sakazuki and Boraslino, for instance, were also in their 20s when
they joined, it is clear that joining the marines wasn’t exactly the starting point for
Garp. What might Garp have been doing up until age 22? This is going to be super imortant for
the crazy conclusion of this theroy at the end. Luffy clearly takes after his grandpa, so
it’s doubtful that Garp was just patiently waiting around the Goa Kingdom into his
20s. If he was anything like Luffy as a kid, which the illustration would suggest,
he probably couldn’t wait to get away from his home island and see the world.
But before we speculate on what exactly Garp was doing for all those years, let’s
talk about that home island a little more. The Goa Kingdom is a place of extreme
inequality. The nobles live in complete extravagance while the poorest members of the
country live among the literal trash of the Gray Terminal. We don’t know exactly what inspired
Garp to become a marine in the first place, but his foundation here could have instilled
a desire to create a better, more just world - while at the same time reinforcing
his conflicted distrust of the World Nobles. Dragon, who also hails from Goa Kingdom, sees it
as a microcosm for the entire One Piece world. But unlike Garp who wants to improve the system
from within, his “son” or probable son-in-law, Dragon wants to take down the whole of the corrupt
World Government and rebuild a better world. When naming the nationalities of the
Straw Hats if they were real-life people, Oda has said that Luffy would be Brazilian.
The Goa Kingdom actually takes its name from a region of India that was colonized
by Portugal, the same European country that colonized Brazil. But what if I told you
that Oda giving Luffy’s nationality might have actually been one of the biggest pieces
of foreshadowing in the entire series. It’s common knowledge that many One Piece pirates
are named after real life pirates. X-Drake is Sir Francis Drake. Jewelry Bonney is Anne
Bonney. Blackbeard is…Blackbeard. But one parallel I haven’t heard as much is Rocks. Rocks
seems like an extremely strange name, but there actually was a famous pirate named this: Roche
Brasiliano. In English, his name is literally Rock the Brazilian. The Brazilian…as in…from
Brazil. And Rocks even shares a few important qualities with his real-life counterpart. He
sailed with some very other famous and notorious pirates - such as Henry Morgan -Captain Morgan’s
namesake for the rum fans in the audience. His first mate Jelles de Lecat or “Captain Yellows”
became a mighty pirate captain in his own right, just like the yonkou who were spawned from the
former Rocks crew. Roche Brasiliano even bought his ship from Francois L’ollonais - Roronoa
Zoro’s namesake. That part’s just a fun fact, though…we highly doubt that Rocks bought
his ship from a yet-to-be-born Zoro. Roche was famously barbaric and violent, drunken
and debaucherous. But the crucial similarity is in Rock the Brazilian’s fate. No one knows.
There is no record of him after 1671 - whether he died at sea or retreated into a quiet life of
anonymity, his fate is unexplained. Just as Rocks and God Valley have been wiped from history books,
Roche Brasiliano’s end is shrouded in mystery. Could Rocks be from the Goa Kingdom, One
Piece’s Brazil equivalent? And if so, then who’s to say that Rocks D. Xebec and
Monkey D. Garp met each other on the high seas? As a pirate and a marine? It’s hard to
envision Garp as anything but the hardheaded, fist of love wielding marine we know and love,
but could Rocks and him have been friends? If they are from the same kingdom, it would be
believable that two super-powerful people with outsized personalities would at least know
each other, if not get along. And if Garp shared Luffy’s adventurous disposition, could
they even have voyaged together out to sea? What if during Garp’s missing years before
joining the Marines at the age of 22 he was actually a pirate? Not a violent buccaneer, of
course, but a peaceful and adventurous pirate like his grandson. Or if we use the terminology from
Romance Dawn, the one shot that Oda released as a precursor to One Piece, a Peacemain pirate,
as opposed to the violent Morganeers. And, of course, we already know of Garp’s connection
to Gol D. Roger. While being fierce rivals - the hero of the marines and the king of the pirates -
they were also close friends. Roger trusted Ace, his own son, into Garp’s care. Not
Rayleigh or Shanks or any other pirate: Garp. Roger is also from the East
Blue, hailing from Loguetown. Could the two upstarts from the Goa Kingdom,
Rocks and Garp, have met Roger as well? I know it sounds absolutely insane, but try to
entertain the idea that before the formation of the Rocks crew, before Roger found the One
Piece, and before Garp joined the Marines, the three all sailed together on one ship. The
three could have adventured and sought treasure and thrills sailing from island to island.
But eventually, something changed. A rift formed between the three friends. Likely, the
conflict was brought on by Rocks. This is pure speculation since we won’t know until we finally
learn the truth behind Rocks and what happened between the three at God Valley. Xebec likely
was no longer satisfied with simple fun-loving adventuring. He wanted Wealth. Fame. Power.
And perhaps he would stop at nothing to achieve them. He would treat others cruelly. He would
enact violence on his rivals and perhaps even innocent people. And you should really subscribe
if you don’t want Xebec coming for you next. And this great division that formed
between these three friends sent Roger and Garp in separate directions, too. Roger
insisted that piracy could still be fine, but done in the right way. He could still
adventure and be free without bringing harm to others. And gather together with Silvers Rayleigh,
Scopper Gaban, and the rest of the Roger pirates, he circumnavigated the entire globe,
eventually finding Laugh Tale. Garp, however, wanted to protect others from the harm of
violent pirates like Rocks and chose to join the Marines. Despite his inner conflict with working
under the Celestial Dragons, he sought to work within the system to change it for the better -
given that Koby and Helmeppo have joined SWORD, and were also trained under him, Garp’s a
good candidate for this organization’s leader. The three went their separate ways, but would
meet again. When Rocks set his eyes on becoming king of the world, the World Government had
to stand in opposition to him. Ever since we learned about God Valley, it’s been perplexing
to think that Roger and Garp would ever team up, yet alone do so to protect the Celestial Dragons.
Garp is clearly no fan of the Celestial Dragons, but it might just be that they weren’t fighting
Rocks to save the World Nobles at all. They were fighting to prevent a world where
Rocks held the power because such a world would be even worse than one
controlled by the World Government. This theory makes God Valley personal.
Garp and Roger weren’t just fighting a terrible and powerful enemy - they
were fighting against their closest friend and brother. It’s no stretch of the
imagination to think that these three would have exchanged sake cups just like Sabo, Ace,
and Luffy eventually would. This would raise the stakes of an eventual Rocks and
God Valley flashback so much higher. These three legends of the One Piece world -
an evil pirate, a marine hero, and the king of the pirates might even parallel similar trios
today. The new Rocks would be Blackbeard, the future Pirate King would of course be Luffy, and
the Marine Hero role could be fulfilled by Smoker, or more likely based on recent story events,
Koby. After all, Luffy and Koby have been friends and allies all throughout the series - even before
Luffy gathered a single member of his pirate crew. If this theory is true and Luffy is
the grandson of both Rocks and Garp, this would mean he inherited the D initial from
both sides of his family tree. The only other character who is confirmed to have a D from
both his paternal and maternal lines is Ace. Clearly they were both the optimal candidates to
become the next pirate king and the next Joyboy. But this of course leaves us with another and
maybe even bigger mystery. If Rocks and Garp are Luffy’s Grandfathers and Dragon his dad, who
in the world is Luffy’s mother? And who are his grandmothers? As his family tree seems to become
more and more significant - and with Oda-sensei having confirmed twice now that he *has* drawn
Luffy’s mother already in the series, shouldn’t it be possible to figure out who it is? And yeah, it
is. So, click this video if you wanna watch that.
