Gol D. Roger

It is.

It's the birthplace and the execution site of the former Pirate King, Gol D. Roger.

So thematically, this location exists solely to force our protagonist, Luffy, to physically walk in the footsteps of the giant whose title he wishes to claim.

It is entirely about inherited will.

Next question.

Is Luffy becoming more than just the Pirate King? Could he ultimately become the most important figure in the entire history of the One Piece world? So other than the Pirate King, did you think he'd be the most important character in the One Piece franchise? And

that's

the

so it's always...

Like even Buggy, like Buggy, yeah, he wanted to be under somebody else, but that's one of the characteristics that you follow other conquerors when you're, when you're on their ship, when you're a conqueror, and that's like a checkbox right there for me, right? But what I would say is when he decided to become Pirate King, that was him getting a stronger sense of self, of who he is and what he can do.

He's always falling upwards, right? So-

Mm-hmm

What's the makeup of his story, right? Like, where is he gonna be stationed at? Is it gonna be Wano? Is it gonna...

Is he gonna be traveling the world in the way that Ryuma was seemingly not realizing he was the world's strongest, you know? Um, I think you're getting into, like, the epilogue territory.

Odds are he'll always be most famous for being the right hand to the Pirate King.

Rayleigh still has that status as the, the right hand.

Very, very short, not scratching the surface premise.

Years ago, there was a pirate king called Gold Roger.

You gotta do it with

the four kids.

Hmm

... you know, and the hair and everything and how kind of sh- he kind of resembles Dr. Kureha, and I was like, "Interesting." And then everything I thought, I was thinking about how she spoke very little about the Roger Pirates, you know? Like, um-

Mm-hmm.

She could be mad that her son became a pirate.

Yeah, exactly, like how she was mad at Chopper.

And she, and she knows about the D clan, Roger's real name.

Yeah.

You know? Hmm.

So that was...

I'm gonna be honest, this, this was, like, whe- when, when the, the voice, the quote-unquote "voice of all things" before, before Oden was in the picture, 'cause Oden obviously is the solution to the, to the bid, uh, at least for the Roger Pirates.

But before he was in, in the equation, honestly a large part of the community, and myself included, just assumed that if you have this, quote-unquote, "voice of all things" that's been, like, hinted at, the Poneglyphs become audiobooks [laughs] was how I interpreted this bit, to be perfectly honest with you, for the longest time.

And then Oda I think went in and was like, "Nah, I ain't gonna do that.

Ace's story makes the distinction between biological inheritance and emotional belonging especially important.

Ace is haunted by his connection to what we find out is his father, Gol D. Roger.

The biological fact of his parentage becomes a source of existential anxiety because Ace has internalized the idea that Roger's sins and reputation somehow are contaminating his own existence.

The world government reinforces that anxiety by turning his bloodline into a political justification for his execution.

Ace is therefore trapped between two definitions of identity, the identity imposed upon him by history and the identity that he has constructed through his relationships.

Whitebeard offers an alternative.

His declaration that his crew members are his sons transforms family from something that's inherited into something that is actively chosen.

Whitebeard doesn't care that Ace is Roger's son.

You

get to speak with the future Pirate King.

Come

on.

He's like, yeah, I'm definitely going to get that flame fruit.

He's like, bro, who are you talking to? He's like, yeah, I'm not going to have to have that flame fruit.

They're like, bro, who the fuck are you? Do you think you could just talk to my boy Luffy like that? You think you could talk to the future Pirate King like that? He's like, bro, he's the younger brother of Firefist Ace.

And you want to come at that like that? He's like, yeah, bro, I don't give a fuck.