The legendary pirate captain, Rocks D Xebec. The man who was once on equal footing with Roger and who was the leader of a band of fighters which included three of the modern day emperors as well as Shiki the golden lion who we’ve mostly seen in the One Piece movie Strong World, but was a legendary power in the lore of One Piece and could still be lurking somewhere in the world. We learned about Rocks pretty late into the story, but his influence on the world of One Piece has been felt since early on. Garp’s elevation to hero of the marines was due to stopping the rampaging Rocks – although details of that incident were only revealed to the reader very recently – and Roger, Shanks, Blackbeard, Shamrock, Imu and the aforementioned former emperors all have a history with the man. But who was this legendary villain? And what was his modus operandi that got him to captain such a powerful group of pirates? Let’s dive into the life and legend of Davy Jones’s descendant. As the title and this introduction should have made abundantly clear, this post will be full of spoilers, so read at your own discretion.
We have known about Davy Jones for a while, as the Davy Back fight we were introduced to in Long Ring Long island could only have been named after the famous pirate Davy Jones. What we didn’t know until now is the influence this family had on the world, and this influence ran deep, considering one of the major antagonistic forces in the world that has been with us since early grand line is actually Davy D. Teach. And Rocks – the name Davy D. Xebec used – was the legendary pirate captain who perished at the God Valley incident. This incident was finally revealed to us during the flashbacks on Elbaf and it was one hell of an incident. To summarize everything neatly; Figarland Garling found out about the existence of Davy family members on the island and targeted it for the next round of native hunting where a bunch of the World Nobles would hunt down the natives as well as several slaves they let loose on the island and the winner would win the grand prize, the beautiful former pirate captain Shakuyaku. With this prize – as well as the knowledge that his wife and child were on the island – it was no surprise Rocks made landfall as quick as he found out. And his presence caused both Garp and Roger to make their way here too. Fights erupted and after Imu took control of Rocks, he was mercy killed by Roger and Garp, who teamed up to deal with the legendary captain. But this does paint a very different picture of Rocks than the one we knew.
And it got me thinking about his son, Blackbeard. He’s done a lot of antagonistic things throughout the series. He’s fought with Law, he’s the reason Ace was captured in the first place, he tried to attack Luffy twice, he freed a bunch of dangerous criminals from Impel Down, he kidnapped Pudding and he even killed Whitebeard, although the old emperor would have likely died at the Summit War regardless of Teach’s appearance. Yet despite all of this, I still think there is a chance for redemption in Teach’s story arc. For one, Rocks’ story was one of persecution. He was a terrifying pirate captain, sure, but the main reason he was persecuted was his family name. He lost his wife, his freedom and almost lost his son purely because of who he was born as. I don’t think it is Oda’s normal style to have his son follow in his footsteps and meet a similar end. Now I don’t think Teach will be turned into a friend that will be happy and jolly with Luffy in the end as they all sing songs around the campfire, but I do believe that there will be more to Teach’s story than just a fight where Luffy beats him into submission.
What this will look like, I don’t know, but he is the last remaining member of the Davy family, and having the family disappear completely after we’ve learned that Rocks was on somewhat friendly terms with Roger and his crew and also cared greatly about his wife and was a threat to Imu, it feels undeserved that his child – which he gave up everything for – will die a villain just like he did. What I predict is that Teach will end up clashing with Imu somehow and be overtaken by Domi Reversi or a similar ability. Luffy will then defeat him but grant mercy after Imu is inevitably defeated, granting the Davy family a way out of the loop of violence. Perhaps it will end with Teach in prison in some form or something similar, but I would be a bit disappointed if his story ended sadly.
And what we also learned is how Rocks got his powerful crew in the first place. He employed the Davy back fights to gather crew members. Some visionaries in the One Piece fandom have been saying that Long Ring Long island would become a crucial arc for the story, and I think they were right. We’ll definitely see more of the Davy back fights towards the end of the story. Perhaps it’ll be between Luffy and Teach, or Luffy and Shanks, but I think we’ll get one more hilarious round of these games. We have to remember that the original Davy back fights weren’t nearly as long as the anime made them, and they weren’t all that bad. I reckon we can get some fun out of that towards the end, after Imu has been defeated. I reckon it could be a great way to sunset the story too, having Shanks and Luffy and their crews engage in a friendly set of games as the story fades to black. Perhaps Blackbeard joins in on the fun. They will all sing songs around the campfire and… yeah, who am I kidding. I have made so many predictions about One Piece throughout the years and most of them completely missed the mark, so please don’t expect any of what I’ve said here to be even remotely right. But it’s fun to fantasize sometimes, right? Thanks for reading. I’m excited for the rest of this arc and even more excited for what comes after. It’s a great time to be a One Piece fan, and it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon.
Because I am running out of ideas – not in the long run, but a lot of the ideas I have for anime posts require a bit more time (like this season ending, next season starting and me finding the time to rewatch old shows) – there will be a one week break next week. After that I will be back and if everything goes according to schedule I will be talking about my experience rewatching Rokka no Yuusha. I’ll hopefully see you there!
Opal Kaharis 