 Warning! This video contains spoilers up to chapter 1025. You've been warned! Hello Manakama Tachi, this is Joygirl and today I want to discuss the possible candidates who could fulfill the pheasant role to complete the Momotaro tale. Now it's widely known that the current arc of Wano, more specifically the Raid on Onigashima, takes inspiration from the Momotaro legend. The Momotaro legend is about a peach boy who went to the island of Onigashima to defeat the Oni and befriended three companions along the way by feeding them kibidango. The three companions being the monkey, the dog and the pheasant. Now obviously in the one-piece version, the figure of Momotaro is split into two characters being Momonosuke and Tama. Tama with the kibidangos and her beast companions, but now Momo has taken the spotlight and he's currently facing Kaito along with Luffy and Yamato who represent the monkey and the dog respectively. For Luffy this is written in his name and for Yamato because of the Inu Inu No Mi devil fruit that Yamato has. Now the only thing missing for the tale to be complete is the role of the pheasant and I want to discuss the most popular choices to fulfill this role and another candidate who no one's thought of and I'll provide reasons for each candidate as to why they could each fulfill this pheasant role. Starting with the most obvious choice being Marko. So when I first brought up the idea of Marko fitting the pheasant role in my chapter 1020 review, my reason was largely due to observing Marko's level of strength. I'm not much of a power scaler but I think it's fair to assume that Marko whilst being strong isn't strong enough to take on a Yonko one-on-one. But being one of, if not the most prominent commanders out of the late whitebeard pirates and based off his portrayal during the Marineford arc it was safe to assume at that point that Marko could be the strongest commander of the arc even above Kaido's current highest ranking officer King the Wildfire. This strength was highlighted during the raid on Onigashima when Marko took on Big Mom briefly before holding his own against the combined effort of both King and Queen. The beast pirates two top officers. So based on these observations I've ranked Marko somewhere between King and Kaido. I'd give Marko a great chance to defeat King but zero chance against Kaido in a one-on-one battle. Adding to the fact that in Chapter 1015 we saw Sanji take on Queen it became obvious that somehow Zoro will find a way back into the battlefield to take on King because that's just the formula Oda likes to work with and with these things in mind I thought that if Marko is indeed moving on from King as his opponent then what purpose would Marko have left to serve in the war? So I thought that considering his level of strength and the nature of his devil fruit abilities he would fit in nicely to fulfill the role of the pheasant and join Luffy, Momonosuke and Yamato to take on Kaido at the rooftop however in Chapter 1022 Marko was visibly fatigued due to the massive task of taking on both calamities whilst also saying himself that he gives up and is satisfied. Now this could obviously mean that he's just giving up on that specific fight so that he can get some rest and gain his energy back. A decision that would clear the way for the new era to arrive and was symbolically shown by Marko extinguish his fiery wings to give birth to new ones. Insert straw hat buyers, if it were up to me I'd love to see Zoro and Sanji metaphorically fulfill this role which could give new meaning to the volume 100 cover but I'm not Oda. So back to Marko in Chapter 1023 he was seen being carried away by Izo, seemingly unable to get himself out of harm's way and now mentally on top of physically it seemed like he was not in the condition for war, which was continued to be shown to us in the latest chapter where he really just seemed to be content in spectating everything unfold simply smiling as Luffy was riding Momonosuke up to the rooftop without any seeming intention to join them. So it's looking more and more unlikely that Marko will find his way back into a huge battle but look I haven't forgotten, I know Marko could heal himself and perhaps there is a way for him to return and I wouldn't mind seeing that if it wasn't for this next candidate. Now this is something I completely missed originally but if I now have to put my money on who the pheasant is then it's Hiyori. I first got the idea after seeing a tweet from Udoron pointing out the kimono worn by Hiyori as Komonosaki with a peacock on it and it instantly clicked out story wise this is the best option to go here so I did some research to find further connections that would strengthen the case of Hiyori being the pheasant and if I wasn't initially convinced by seeing only the peacock design I now have little doubt in my mind after the information I've gathered. Firstly as I've mentioned story wise this makes the most sense unlike Marko who doesn't have much of any personal reason to join this next rooftop battle there is a clear personal stake for Hiyori. Hiyori being a part of the family who suffered from Kaido and Orochi has as much stake in this battle as Momonosuke who's currently about to engage Kaido in combat. The emotional weight of having Hiyori as the pheasant is much deeper than in Marko's case. Now the most common reason I see people are against Hiyori representing the pheasant is the idea that Hiyori can't fight but I think the correct way to express this is that we have not seen Hiyori fight which then allows for the logic that just because we haven't seen it doesn't mean she can't and we've seen Hiyori portrayed to be the more dominant child between her and Momonosuke during Odin's flashback so it's not a stretch to think that if Momonosuke is expected to be now stronger due to the effects of the jukujukunomi then it's also highly likely that Hiyori who actually survived and lived the 20 years can also be stronger right. Another reason is that Hiyori was taken care of by Denjiro during her development stage and I bet that Hiyori didn't just waste those 20 years and sat around idly whilst waiting for the fateful day to arrive when they can take one or another back again. At this point it is all speculation since we didn't witness her showcase any combat ability in her adult stage but speculations can go both ways and seeing as Hiyori clearly has the personality to stand up for herself and challenge a tyrant I wouldn't be surprised if this confidence was built up hand in hand with her fighting ability. Oh and what did I find in my research? Hiyori's Vivre card states that the animal which resembles her is the p-fail and interestingly enough both the pheasant and the p-fail belong to the same ground-dwelling bird family of the Fazyanide. I'm not sure if I pronounced that right but anyways it's a detail which I think is way too important to be considered simply coincidental but this isn't the only supporting clue provided by the Vivre card because another potentially illuminating detail was the comment that Hiyori not only inherited Odin's famed sword but also the blood and soul of a samurai. The same samurai spirit who challenged Orochi at his castle and we know that Odin loves his parallels and Wano isn't the first time that the Momotaro tale has influenced the story because the original three admirals that we met also represent the companions in the Momotaro legend Akainu as the dog, Aokiji as the pheasant and Kizaru as the monkey. And now looking at these three admirals another parallel can be drawn from this. Akainu the dog uses the ability of fire, Aokiji the pheasant has an ice ability and Kizaru as the monkey with the ability of light. So making a parallel to our current Onigashima companions we have Luffy who has been seen able to admit fire with his attacks and Yamato whose attacks are ice related so this just leaves us with one ability missing similar to that of the original admirals which is light. And this connection could also apply to Mako because of how his devil fruit ability makes him light up but I think it's a more fitting idea with Hiyori when you find out the meaning behind her name. So Hiyori's name means weather but if you break down the kanji characters that make up her name the second character can mean harmony or peace whilst the first kanji character can mean amongst other things the sun. And if we're talking about a bright light I cannot imagine anything brighter. And then let's consider that there's a cloaked mystery figure who's currently unaccounted for it Onigashima and based on what we've seen so far in the manga there are obviously only two really logical candidates for this figure. The first being Hiyori in which case it makes perfect sense that she's already here at Onigashima and then can fulfill her role as the pheasant on the rooftop and the second being our next candidate for this discussion. Now I know some of you will laugh but just bear with me because I don't think we can completely rule out Toki. Aside from the fact that some of you will scoff and just say that she's already dead in which case I'm just gonna have to ask you to watch these videos because aside from that Toki nicely fits as the potential pheasant. For one there's a clear personal interest and if we get into the symbolic side of things Toki also has a bird theme not only through the Kazuki crest but also due to her own name which can refer to the crane bird. She's also connected to another symbol the moon through both the family names Kazuki and Amatsuki and similar to the sun the moon is an obvious representation of light which would then also complete the elemental parallels of fire ice and light. I'm sure another counter apart from the fact that you may still refuse to believe that she's alive will be that similar to Hiyori Toki can't fight and I would say that Toki's combat ability or lack thereof is a little easier to assess than Hiyori's for example when we were introduced to her she was shown only holding up the sword as a threat and means to keep the smugglers at bay rather than any real intention to actually sword fight and in other occasions requiring physical strength she's always played more of a sacrificial protector role rather than actually engaging in combat herself but that being said in terms of spirit Toki also clearly has the heart and courage in fact in Maori the word Toki refers to a symbol which is used to represent strength and power so even if Toki isn't able to play a great physical role she could still be the force to encourage and motivate Momonosuke or even use her devil fruit ability when the times get rough to send Kaito or the rest of the alliance to the future so that everyone can have a bit of a training or rehabilitation time which I'm not saying is likely it's just an avenue which Oda could take if he so chooses to extend the arc further but the main reason why I opposed Toki as the possible pheasant is because it really seems like Toki was the mysterious figure of chapter 1004 if the cloaked figure who healed the samurai's is either between Toki or Hiyori and given Kawamatsu's comment that whoever he thought he saw couldn't possibly be true sounds more like something he would say about Toki whom he believes to be dead rather than Hiyori and following that I can't see Oda bringing both Toki and Hiyori to Onigashima so that Toki was the mystery figure and Hiyori was the pheasant unless it works itself out to be some plan that was crafted by the mother and daughter all along so which of these candidates do you believe is the most likely to fulfill the role of the pheasant and are there any other candidates that we didn't consider in our discussion but you believe has a strong case let me know in a comment below and don't forget to like and share the video also please subscribe for more one piece content to help tide you by whilst we have these chapter breaks and also join our discord server for more one piece fun and becoming a patreon member can bring you even greater discord fun and on that note thank you to our patreon members who help support this channel this is joy girl and I'll see you again soon