Ever since his first mention during the Wano arc, there has perhaps never been aOne Piececharacter as hyped as the legendary Rocks D. Xebec. Not only was this man considered to be the greatest foe that the former Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, ever had, but he is remembered by many as the fiercest pirate to ever sail the seas, to the point where he and his crew were considered to be akin to a terrorist organization.
Although everything about him in Chapters 1154 and 1155 ofOne Piecehas just been absolute peak to witness, the greatest of these was the revelation of him being Blackbeard’s real father. While this was something that many had already seen coming, the reveal still ended up creating many more fan theories, particularly about others who may owe their lineage tothe infamous ‘Rocks D.’ line. So, let’s take a look at the two most likely candidates.
Story Arc
Orange Town
In one of the most bizarre twists that anyone could think of, Xebec’s official reveal seems to have many connections to the most unlikely pirate in the entire series;none other than Buggy the Genius Jester. Buggy slowly built up a reputation as one of the most beloved side characters who has ever been introduced in theOne Piecestory, mainly due to how lucky and pathetic he is.
What fans have always dismissed as a fun personality trait about him may just have been indicating his real identity all along. Some had guessed this to be the case, but they never really knew why for certain, only pointing at speculative hints to substantiate the claim. However, Chapters 1154 and 1155 finally gave a look at Rocks, which has gone on to spark the debate yet again due to the similarities he shares with Buggy. Many astute fans made the observation that while the left side of Rocks' face looks like Blackbeard, the right side looks suspiciously like Buggy.
I wanna be King of the Pirates!
Moreover, there is another connection to be made with each of their bounty posters, since Buggy and Rocks both share a unique pose in their respective pictures that hasn’t been done by anyone else, where they’re both smiling with their tongues out of their mouths and making a grasping hand towards the viewer. It just seems that this is a verydeliberate and subtle hint by Odaabout Buggy’s true origins, which would honestly be perfectly in line with the rest of his storytelling.
Finally, an earlier hint, while vague, could also explain this connection. Back when Oden joined the Roger Pirates for a year, he referred to all the members of the crew in a unique way, as was the custom of the people of Wano, with their Japanese influences. Here, he would call Buggy ‘Buggy-jiro’, a prefix which means ‘second son’ in Japanese, perhaps hinting towards Buggy being the second-born child of Rocks after Blackbeard.
Loguetown
Another popular fan theory regarding the children of Rocks has to do with none other than theworld’s worst criminal; Monkey D. Dragon. Admittedly, this theory held a lot more weight before the official reveal of Xebec, since the silhouette of the villain that was shown earlier had quite striking similarities to Dragon, particularly the lengthy jagged hair and the sharp, long face.
Many fans have often pointed out the lack of facial similarities that Dragon has with Luffy and Garp. As stated earlier, his face is longer and sharper, and he doesn’t have the same iconic scar that his father and son have close to their left eyes, instead having a strange tattoo that he got much later on in his journey. The theory here is that Rocks had Dragon many years before he even had Blackbeard, but the God Valley Incident, which led to his death, eventually left the then 17-year-old Dragon orphaned.
Seeing as how he has always been someone with a ton of resolve and ambition to fight for justice, Dragon likely didn’t even claim his real father, prompting Garp to take him in and raise him as his own. While this may seem speculative,Garp has already done this before with Ace, whom he took in after Roger was captured and executed. Here, Dragon could have potentially met Garp’s daughter, with whom he had Luffy, which would tie the whole thing together quite nicely.
This is quite speculative and is likely not the case judging by Rocks' actual design. However, it’s still worth thinking about, especially because Oda is known to establish connections like this that just end up working. Dragon being Rocks' son would explain his mysterious strength, and Garp taking him in so that the world wouldn’t persecute him for the crimes of his real father would be perfectly in line with the character he is as well, especially since he even began to consider Ace his own family despite them not being related by blood.
