# Script ## Overview --- **Hook #1:** Ace, Sabo, and Luffy became brothers
when they shared Sake cups as kids. And in that moment they dreamed about one
day being incredible pirates. So what if instead of going their separate
ways, they all managed to set out to sea together. How would their journey go? And would Luffy still follow his dream to
become pirate king? In other words, what would happen if Ace,
Sabo, and Luffy formed a pirate crew? **Hook #2:** Sabo was nearly killed at ten
years old. Ace left when he was seventeen. And Luffy started his own pirate adventure
three years later, which left these three adopted brothers separated until much later
in the story. But what if these three ridiculously strong
kids had somehow stuck together and formed one of the most exciting pirate crews ever. In other words, what would have happened if
Ace, Sabo, and Luffy formed a pirate crew together? **Hook #3:** Have you ever wondered how Ace,
Sabo, and Luffy would do as a pirate crew? Would they sweep through the grand line and
find the One Piece easily? Or would they be crushed as the cocky kids
that they are? Let’s find out what would happen if Ace,
Sabo, and Luffy formed a pirate crew. **Script - 4200 Words without intro** **Hook goes here.** Sabo was nearly killed at ten years old. Ace left when he was seventeen. And Luffy started his own pirate adventure
three years later, which left these three adopted brothers separated until much later
in the story. But what if these three ridiculously strong
kids had somehow stuck together and formed one of the most exciting pirate crews ever. In other words, what would have happened if
Ace, Sabo, and Luffy formed a pirate crew? Well, of course everything would begin back
in the Goa Kingdom, where Ace, Sabo, and Luffy all grew up together. And our version of the story kicks of the
moment when the royals of the island are about to burn this massive heap of trash to get
rid of all of the poor people to not leave a bad impression on the celestial dragons
who were coming to visit. You might remember that this is where Ace
and Luffy were nearly killed by these thugs [Show Bluejam pirates ch 587], and after this
event, Sabo was so disgusted by his wealthy family that he just wanted to get out of there
[ch 587]. Now originally he set out in a little boat
and got absolutely destroyed by this celestial dragon ship [ch 585], but for our scenario,
let’s imagine that Luffy and Ace somehow manage to stop Sabo from leaving the island. Maybe they kidnap him from his parents and
fake his death or even intercept him before he is about to set sail. And now they continue their lives as they
had since Luffy joined. They live up in the mountains, training and
growing stronger until the day they are ready to begin their pirate journey. And that day comes seven years later. Ace and Sabo are now seventeen, while Luffy
is still only fourteen. So yes, Luffy is going to set out WAY SOONER
than he did in the original story. And while you might say he MUST ABSOLUTELY
wait until he is seventeen, I just don’t see Ace and Sabo waiting around until they
are twenty to head out to sea. So in order for these three to stay together,
they have to leave now. This leads them to buy a ship with all the
treasure they’ve stolen, and finally set out into the ocean. Which seeing how Luffy almost drowned when
he first started [ch 2], this could quickly end in disaster. But thankfully Sabo always had an interest
in navigation [ch 585], which helps them to at least survive one day at sea. But hold on tight because there are major
problems coming up very soon. But the first big question is… where do
they go from here? Luffy wants to go somewhere to get some food. Sabo wants to head to a nearby island. And Ace wants to track down this mysterious
bounty hunter he has heard so much about [hint at zoro]. But with all three pulling the sails in different
directions [show each of them pulling on a rope in a different direction, they snap the
mast, and their ship is hopelessly broken. Well, that lasted only a short time. Now the three drift helplessly until they
crash land on this mysterious island [Show Sixis island from Ace novel]. But before we see the game-changing events
on this island, let’s shift back to when these three were kids, because back in ch
585 there is a super important moment here that we MUST understand to see how this crew
will turn out in the future. [All of this up next is in ch 585] Here they
basically explain what each of their dreams are. Sabo just wants to be free from the oppression
of his parents. On the other hand, Ace simply wants people
to know his name and recognize him for who he is. Remember he is still dealing with the shame
and guilt of being the son of the former pirate king. And Luffy shares his own secret dream – no,
not becoming the king of the pirates, but the one we are still waiting to learn in the
current story. Probably to throw a giant party or something. However, Ace and Sabo think it is hilarious,
but then we get to their first real point of conflict and one of the reasons they never
made a crew in the first place. They all basically assumed that they would
be the captain of their own ship and the others would join their crew. But none of the others obviously wanted that,
so they originally decided to meet up again once they were all strong pirates. So fast forward again to their current situation,
and the three are shipwrecked on this island – which by the way is from the Ace novel
– and they meet this crusty fellow Masked Deuce. Now, Deuce was also shipwrecked here, and
they are basically stuck and starving until Ace finds this random mysterious fruit [show
Mero Mero no mi]. A hungry Deuce nearly kills Ace to get the
fruit, but after Ace takes the first bite, he shares the rest with everyone else. This of course gives Ace his fire powers,
so that part is unchanged from the story. And with his new abilities, they are able
to make a decent raft to help them get off the island and Deuce of course comes along
as the first new member of the crew. And he’s not just some random guy, he actually
comes from a medical family, so he can serve as the crew’s doctor. But wait, aren’t we forgetting something? A new crew needs a name, so at this point
they decide to call themselves the Sake Cup pirates, based on the sake cups that represent
their bond. Now, their four member crew is going to need
a new ship. So whatever island they find next, they manage
to steal a boat and continue on their journey. But instead of heading straight for the grand
line, they decide to actually be smart for once and spend some time gaining experience
in the East Blue. They still don’t have an official captain
yet, but they decide on a system of voting on where to go next. And this leads them to travel around, defeating
other pirate crews and making a name for themselves. And while Luffy himself is younger and weaker
than when he first set out, this is more than made up for by having the powerful Ace and
Sabo along. Plus, they spent all those years continuing
to train together, so I think this version of Luffy might even be stronger than he normally
was at 14. So during these roughly six months. They meet and recruit Usopp. Now, Usopp is also younger, but he is still
an orphan. The whole conflict on his island isn’t even
happening yet, so there is no one to defeat here, but Usopp and Luffy get along so well
that Luffy invites him to join and Usopp accepts. However, they don’t get the Merry since
they never actually saved the village. There’s a similar circumstance with Sanji. After the Sake Cup pirates come to this floating
restaurant [Baratie] to recruit a cook, let’s just say they somehow convince Sanji to join
them as well. Maybe Zeff kicks him out or he decides to
follow his dream to find the All Blue. However, Nami joining is a bit more of an
issue. Because remember that Nami only originally
joined Luffy to steal his money. Then after he rescued her village she actually
became part of the crew. But in this version of the story, the Sake
Cup pirates probably wouldn’t encounter this clown pirate [Buggy] yet because he would
not have invaded Orange Town until years later. So that means no initial encounter with Nami. However, I definitely think the Sake Cup pirates
would eventually come to Nami’s island. And while Ace would probably not want to get
involved with the fishmen, Sabo and Luffy would never stand for the people of the island
being enslaved to Arlong. So together, the three beat down the notorious
fishman, and save the people of the village. This leads Nami to officially join the crew. And while Sabo is also a navigator, Nami is
literally going to be the greatest navigator in the world, so he can take a back seat to
our orange haired navigating-goddess. So Usopp, Sanji, Nami, and, wait… aren’t
we missing someone? Now remember that we are now about two and
half years before the start of the original story, Zoro would not have been captured at
Shell Town and would still be out bounty hunting. Which means it is highly likely that the green-haired
swordsman would cross paths with the Sake Cup pirates. And I think that they would actually develop
a respectful rivalry over these months, where Zoro keeps coming after them, but is beaten
down each time by one of the brothers. And then at the last moment before the Sake
Cup pirates head to the grand line, he tries to beat them one last time. Of course he would fail, but the crew would
then invite him to join them on their adventure, and he would of course agree. So bam! The gang’s all here, with a few extras,
and let’s continue forward, to all of the unbelievable changes that are coming in the
Grand Line and the mind-blowing future that awaits this incredible young crew. Now again, Luffy and the other original straw
hats are all still about two and a half years younger than they were before, but that also
means events cannot play out just like they did in the original story. This won’t be the speedrun version of the
Grand Line like in the original story, as the crew will take more time going from island
to island. However, things are going to be much different. For example, Alabasta would not be having
its civil war, so we will basically skip that whole arc. Which means no Robin, for now. And since Masked Deuce is the crew’s doctor,
the crew don’t go looking for another one, so we miss Chopper as well. Before we go any further, there is one super
important thing we haven’t yet discussed in the power dynamics of the crew. After six months in the East Blue, Sabo, Ace,
and Luffy have all gotten much stronger. And especially Ace with his logia powers can
easily take on nearly anyone they meet in this part of the world. And for now, Luffy is still the weakest of
the three brothers, but that gap is rapidly closing. And at this point, the crew would still want
to go to Skypiea, so that whole arc continues pretty normally. The lightning fruit user Enel is already oppressing
the Skpieans. And while the others aren’t too sure about
getting involved, Luffy absolutely refuses to leave without freeing the people from the
false god. The rest of the crew supports his decision,
and so they start the battle. Luffy and Ace can certainly fight him with
their Rubber and Logia powers, and I think Sabo is smart enough to find some seastone
to be able to contribute to the fight and eventually take down the lightning man, which
would also basically ruin his plans to get to the moon, since his ark Maxim [ch 278]
was not yet completed. Although they wouldn’t be able to read the
poneglyph next to the golden bell since Robin is not with them at this time. Now with this country freed, and after they
have a massive party, the crew can continue back down to the ocean, with one major change
in the crew’s structure. By now, I think the crew would be ready to
accept Luffy as the captain. He is the most headstrong and determined to
help others. Plus both Ace and Sabo eventually joined other
crews – those being the Emperor Whitebeard for Ace and the Revolutionary Army for Sabo
– so I don’t think it is that much of a stretch to think they would eventually be
okay with Luffy being the captain. Plus Luffy’s dream to become pirate king
is the goal that unites everyone elses’. Ace already has made a name for himself and
has people who love him. Sabo is free and helps free oppressed countries,
so really Luffy is the one driving everyone forward. And this doesn’t mean that Luffy will make
every single choice, because he doesn’t even do that with the straw hats. This is a super important decision that will
be tested right away because after the rigorous journey to reach the sky islands, the Sake
Cup crew’s ship is in very bad shape. Now remember that this is not the Merry, since
they did not get her from Usopp’s hometown, but the crew would no doubt have some attachment
to the ship. This could be a case where the crew might
be split on buying a new ship or repairing their current one, but just like in the original
story, Luffy would probably see the need to buy a new ship. But we wouldn’t get the whole Usopp leaving
drama since he isn’t as attached to this ship. So with a new ship, and probably a new shipwright
crewmate [show Paulie from Galley La], the crew depart for Sabaody. Wait, what? What about Franky? What about Enies Lobby? Well, at this point the crew doesn’t have
Robin, so there would be no way for these government secret agents [end of ch 345] to
blackmail them. And that whole saga was the reason the crew
befriended Franky, so if none of that happened then they wouldn’t be able to have Franky
build the Thousand Sunny OR recruit him to the crew. But they would need a shipwright, so maybe
they recruit this guy [Paulie], who is constantly running from gambling debt. So wow this is shaping up to be a pretty incredible
crew. But you want to know the saddest thing about
this group. No Franky means we will never have the straw
hats strongest combo attack, the pirates docking six [ch 472]. But you can still use your most overpowered
combo attack to mash that subscribe button. Even without Franky though, there’s much
more insane things to come for this headstrong crew. They continue to sail around, before eventually
getting sucked into the zombie-infested Thriller Bark, where they still meet and recruit Brook
because Luffy has always wanted a musician. So no major changes here, and after curb-stomping
the shadow man the group sail to Sabaody. And here is where we are going to dive into
the truly game-changing alterations to the story. Because in Sabaody everything is going to
go… *pause for dramatic tension* smoothly. That’s right. The craziest part is that nothing crazy happens. They could still somehow meet this mermaid
[Camie ch 490] and this fishman [Hatchan ch 496] who takes them to meet the former right
hand of the pirate king, Silvers Rayleigh. And Rayleigh is super excited to meet them
all after learning about them from Shanks, and he immediately agrees to coat their ship
so they can travel under the Grand Line. And with his two older brothers watching over
him, Luffy stays out of trouble. In fact, Rayleigh even gives the crew a hardcore
crash course training camp, which we’ll talk more about in just a moment. Then after a few days they dive underwater
towards fishman island. So, if you’re following along, that means
NO. TWO. YEAR. TIMESKIP. Which is a HUGE CHANGE that is going to have
massive consequences for the next part of the story. Of course this means that we are skipping
all of the Summit War Saga. So no Amazon Lily, Impel Down, or even Marineford. Because this time the donut man [Ace donut]
is safe and sound. Which makes this the perfect time to talk
about the world government. Because at this time, the Sake Cup pirates
are pretty famous. Luffy, Ace, Sabo, and even Zoro might all
be part of the worst generation of upcoming pirates, but the world government would not
care about them nearly as much as they hated the straw hats. Because there was no fiasco in Alabasta. No shooting down the flag in Enies Lobby. No stealing Robin from CP9, so to the world
government, this is just another group of annoying pirates, although they would probably
still be keeping an eye on Luffy and Ace because of their lineage. And since there’s no Marineford that means
Luffy didn’t spend all that time training during the timeskip. However, as I just mentioned, they did get
a crash course training with Rayleigh before they left fishman island, where the dark king
at least showed them the basic idea of haki. And characters like Sabo and Zoro, who don’t
have devil fruits, will be especially excited to learn haki so that they can continue to
be able to fight strong devil fruit users. Now at this point, the Sake Cup pirates are
a pretty fearsome group. They sail through fishman island and the early
parts of the new world without much trouble. But everything changes when they encounter
the Whitebeard pirates on some random island. Which is a mind-blowing event for this crew,
because up until now, they have never faced off against any of the top tier fighters in
the world. Of course the Sake Cup pirates get beaten
down by the Emperor’s crew. Now I can imagine that just like in the original
story, Whitebeard might invite the Sake Cup pirates to join his crew. And while Ace originally accepted his offer,
I don’t think Luffy would ever agree to work under anyone else, so Whitebeard could
either kill them here, or the more likely case is I think he would let them go because
he sees something special in Luffy and the crew. Which is a super lucky break, because not
everyone survives an encounter with an Emperor’s crew. So time passes as they sail around the New
World. They are exploring new islands, fighting strong
opponents, and growing stronger. Luffy would probably have mastered at least
Gear 2 and 3. Maybe even 4 if he practiced his haki enough. And at this point over a year has passed in
the new world, and we are roughly a year behind the original story. Eventually, we come to one of the most dangerous
islands in the New World: Wano. Where the Sake Cup pirates are in for their
next rude awakening. As they travel up the waterfall, the crew
gets separated just like in the original story [ch 910]. Now remember we are too early in the timeline
for this to play out like the normal Wano. The samurai who were sent forward in time
have not yet arrived, but the country is still being dominated by Kaido. And Luffy being Luffy, he would of course
want to save the oppressed people. And Luffy on his own eventually leads to a
major smackdown by Kaido [ch 923] and Luffy is thrown in jail [ch 924]. At this same time, Sabo, Ace, and the rest
of the crew have come to Onigashima looking for Luffy. They encounter Kaido’s child, Yamato [ch
984], and after quickly becoming friends, they find the key to her handcuffs and break
her free. Yamato would of course want to join the crew,
and together the crew heads off to save Luffy from the prison. And we can argue about the battle here and
the crew defeating this funky dinosaur [Queen], but eventually the crew save Luffy, as well
as this samurai fishman, Kawamatsu [ch 948]. Luffy is all fired up to make another attempt
at the boss [Kaido] ,but Kawamatsu, who was one of the legendary samurai Oden’s retainers,
tells them that the time to free Wano has not yet arrived. He asks them to come back in one year to help
liberate Wano from Kaido’s tyrannical rule. Despite Luffy wanting to help now, the crew
departs, and now things become super interesting, because with Yamato on board, we have a top
tier fighter on the crew who can even teach them about conquerors and advanced forms of
haki. Which brings us to a super important stretch
of the story. Because we skipped over much of the normal
new world islands, but I think one arc that was incredibly important is the home of the
minks Zou. Kawamatsu should know about Zou since the
Kozuki and Minks are allies, so before separating, Kawamatsu gives them a vivre card that will
help them find the massive elephant Zunesha. This leads the Sake Cup pirates to climb up
the elephant, where they make friends with the animal Minks. But the major question is do the minks show
Luffy and the crew the poneglyphs. You could argue that they would not, since
there is no one from the Kozuki clan with the crew. Plus they wouldn’t have just saved the entire
tribe. But maybe they have a letter from Kawamatsu
who tells the mink leaders to show them the poneglyphs. But even if they do get to see the Road poneglyph
and learn all about the secret stones, they definitely can’t read it yet. Still, it is one step closer to Luffy’s
dream of becoming pirate king. They could even take on a new crewmate, like
Pedro, who wanted to serve the pirate king, or Carrot might sneak aboard even if she wasn’t
invited. After Zou, they continue sailing through the
New World and practicing the advanced forms of haki. At this point I would say Luffy, Sabo, and
Ace and probably even Zoro are definitely above Warlord power level, so they can pretty
easily defeat people like the sand fruit user Crocodile and the string fruit user Doflamingo,
which will be important in just a few moments. However, they are still undermatched against
the Yonko, and when they next encounter Whitebeard, they are once again defeated by the world’s
strongest man and his crew. Though at this point, Whitebeard is getting
older and sick, and the battle is much closer than it was the first time around. With Whitebeard impressed by how much the
Sake Cup crew has grown, I think they would probably become allies and could even exchange
vivre cards. Around this time they could also find Elbaf
where Shanks could be waiting, but I still don’t think Shanks would be ready to acknowledge
Luffy yet, so they might just skip this island for now. But one island they would definitely go to
is Roadstar Island. In case you forgot, Roadstar is the last island
of the Grand Line, and it is originally where pirates are supposed to learn about the poneglyphs. And even though the Sake Cup pirates might
have already learned about them from Zou, this would be a good place to stop because
it would help them learn more about the mysterious stones. Although Luffy does have the voice of all
things, it is not quite the same as someone who can literally read them. And this actually sets them on a path to sail
the grand line again to find the poneglyphs, just like Roger did. Although Ace might not like that they are
following in his father’s footsteps. Regardless, this now overpowered crew goes
all the way back to Reverse mountain and starts the journey again. And this time they liberate the islands they
skipped in the past. For example, Crocodile would have already
taken control of Alabasta and the civil war might already be over, but Luffy, Ace, and
Sabo could come in and take down the Warlord. This would also be the perfect time for Robin
to join the crew, which means that CP9 could also try to blackmail her again. But this might be a good thing, because the
crew would have no trouble smacking down these secret agents [show lucci, kaku, kalifa, etc…]. Ahh, it feels good to see the crew dealing
some punishment after they took such a beating in the original story. But with Robin back on board, and fully trusting
the crew, they return to the New World, saving islands and finding poneglyphs. This would be how the journey continues for
a while. The crew might even establish a home base
island somewhere. But then something happens that shakes the
entire pirate world. Blackbeard betrays Whitebeard and steals his
darkness Logia fruit. And this single event is going to set off
a crazy chain reaction that massively affect the story. Blackbeard could still become a warlord. He could still break into Impel Down and gather
a stupidly powerful crew and go around collecting devil fruits. Then he could eventually return to challenge
Whitebeard in a straight up fight. Which is actually not Blackbeard’s style,
but with Whitebeard sick and already dying, I think Blackbeard would certainly kill Whitebeard
and take his legendary devil fruit. However, remember that at this point, the
Sake Cup Crew and Whitebeard’s crew were basically allies. And when the crew notices Whitebeard’s vivre
card disintegrating, they would do everything in their power to save him. However, they would likely be too late, but
this would definitely set up the fated showdown between Blackbeard and Luffy. Now there are many ways this battle could
go. Blackbeard is so sneaky that he could trick
Luffy somehow and defeat the crew. But the Sake Cup pirates are so insanely powerful
at this point that it might not matter. Sabo and Ace would be nearly as strong as
Luffy. Plus with Yamato, Zoro, and Sanji, there’s
just no way they could all lose to the darkness Logia user who barely got his second fruit. However, I do think it would be fitting that
during this battle Luffy finally awakens his mythical Sun God Nika fruit. This would undoubtedly help him defeat Blackbeard,
and together with his brothers, they would avenge Whitebeard’s death. Which means that after this battle, the Sake
Cup crew would be on a whole other level. Luffy would surely become an Emperor. And the only thing stopping them from finding
the One piece would be the last few Road Poneglyphs. However, one opponent we haven’t really
mentioned that much is the World Government. At this point Luffy’s bounty would have
to be absurdly high. In fact, they might see Luffy as so much of
a threat after awakening his devil fruit that they slap him with a bounty way way higher
than anything the world has ever seen. Their goal would probably be to make Luffy
the number one target of every marine, bounty hunter, and pirate in the New World, which
is an absolutely insane target to have on your back. In fact, turning it up to 11, I figured out
exactly how having an insane one hundred billion berry bounty would change Luffy's journey,
and you can watch that right here. Shanks for watching, and I’ll see you in
the next one.
