 So there was once a very fascinating theory that the word rocks itself was in fact an anagram, with each letter representing the name of a member of the crew, such as C for Charlotte Lin, K for Kaido, or even S for subscribe to the Grand Line Review for regular One Piece content uploaded straight until YouTube feed. Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece and today we have a rather exciting topic as we will be endeavoring to examine everything we know about one of the most influential and insane pirate crews in the history of the world being the Rocks Pirates. And just in case you've missed it in the video title, there is a spoiler warning in place for this video because if you are an anime only watcher or just not up to act three of Wano and the Manga, you might just might want to think twice about watching this because there is some pretty groundbreaking stuff that we will be going into. So feel free to just casually hit that subscribe button and come back at a later date. But for everyone else, we have a fairly epic journey of insight to embark on. And of course, everything commences with our very first mention of the word rocks which occurred in chapter 907 as part of a banquet of revelations that was the Reverie Arc. Now a slight etymological note here, rocks was originally translated as rocks as in ROX by the official English translation as well as several scan groups. However, this was later amended when the rocks name was romanized in the Manga and its official spelling is now ROCKS. So I don't want to be seeing any of this ROX nonsense. But what even are rocks? Well, they came up in conversation as the Marines became aware that two of the four emperors being Big Mama Kaido signaled the potential of an alliance, a very worrying factor that prompted Rear Admiral Hina to ask, but GARP, speaking of Big Mama Kaido, isn't that the reason why you're considered a naval hero? At which point Monkey D. Garp interjects with, oh, you mean rocks. I figured you were too young to know about that Hina. Before Roger, it was their era, but that was over 40 years ago. And with this one line, the ROX pirates were born in our minds and pretty much changed everything we thought we knew about the one piece world. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it did give us a pretty brilliant insight into a time before Roger, which is something that I never even knew I needed before it was presented to us. One piece is a primarily generational story after all, with the core focus on Roger's generation, Shanks's generation, and of course, Luffy's generation. So to hear of a time before Roger's cohort fully took over was pretty endlessly exciting and still very much is. However, the big implication here was that both Big Mama and Kaido were part of the same pirate crew, which seemed nigh on unimaginable by our modern views of them. But little did we know that was just a taste of the sheer insanity to come. And we wouldn't have to wait too long to discover more pivotal information on this crew, which would come in the form of chapter 957, when Fleet Admiral Sengoku expanded on their background with the following. The ROX pirates were a collection of individuals who came together on the pirate island of Fulaled years ago to make one big score. They were a fiery bunch, constantly killing one another within the group. He then went on to say that they were captained by a man named ROX Deez-Abek, adding yet another character to the roster of those wielding the mighty D. But not only that, for the first time, he also had a parallel drawn to another famed de-holder being Marshall D. Teach. Prior to this moment, he was very much the black sheep or awkward uncle of the D clan, as he was the antithesis of every other member that we'd met. But the existence of Zabek went on to show that Blackbeard is not as much of an aberration as we may think. And this parallel only becomes stronger because a nice fun fact that was dropped prior to introducing Zabek into the series was the name of Blackbeard's current flagship, the Saber of Zabek. Very, very strongly hinting that Blackbeard has the inherited will of Zabek in much the same way that Luffy does with Roger. Furthermore, Blackbeard's home base is currently full of lead island, which is where the ROX pirates were formed. And just as a side note, this island is called Hachinosu in Japanese. And it's one of those things that just doesn't quite translate nicely into English. I mean, Hachinosu directly translated means beehive, but it's a colloquial term to refer to riddling someone with bullets. Hence why it's called full of lead as in full of lead in English. But with that side story over, to add to the idea of Zabek and Roger corresponding to Blackbeard and Luffy, Zabek was also labeled as Roger's first and perhaps greatest foe, which is a pretty big claim, considering the pirate king had the likes of Garp and Whitebeard to deal with during his time. So Zabek would appear to be something else entirely. And according to Singoku, Zabek's ambition was to become the king of the world, which is kind of like becoming the anti-pirate king. Where the pirate king is the individual with the most freedom, the king of the world would be the individual with the most control. So it seems only natural that figures such as Zabek and Roger would come to clash in that regard. Although with what we currently know, that would make Zabek's greatest enemy, the world government itself, as he and his crew would have acted sort of like a super evil revolutionary army. In fact, Singoku stated that the rocks pirates directed hostilities against the world government like some kind of terrorist organization. So they were pretty damn serious about this whole world domination angle. And while it might seem like an absurd idea for one pirate crew to be capable of such thing, when we do expand on its members, all of a sudden it seems pretty exceptionally possible. So under the command of Zabek, as mentioned before, we had Big Mom and Kaido. Very notably though, this was a much younger Big Mom and Kaido. I mean, we don't know exactly when the crew was formed, but it was at least 38 years ago, which would have put Charlotte Linlin in her late twenties or very early thirties, which is known by fans as the, oh my God, Big Mom is hot time period. Meanwhile, Kaido's age is currently unknown, so it's very difficult to place him. However, believe it or not, he was an apprentice pirate on this crew, meaning that he was very much the lowest ranking member. And this might also indicate that he was quite, quite young at the time. He was also nowhere near as powerful as his modern day form, but still, any crew sporting even a baby Kaido is not to be taken lightly. That fact only becomes more apparent as we examine its other members, which also included one, Edward Newgate, aka Whitebeard, the individual who would go on to become known as the strongest man in the world. And he would have been in his early to mid thirties, back in the times when he was sporting his luscious blonde locks. But with this presence, the Rocks Pirates have turned from a serious threat into an insane global catastrophe because three members of this crew would go on to become emperors of the sea. And other big names also featured include very surprisingly, Golden Lion Shiki. Surprising because he is of course the main antagonist of one piece film, Stronghold, and to this day remains the only primary film villain ever inserted into the canon of the series, mostly thanks to chapter zero and a bit of a name drop here and there. However, it should always be noted that the events of Stronghold itself are still not canon. But that is another massive heavy hitter because Shiki was yet another rival of Roger who almost got the better of him on at least one occasion. But as his fate, things ultimately did not go Shiki's way. Another intriguing member is the rather blandly named Captain John, although I suppose he wasn't a captain at the time. Regardless, he was a moderately famous pirate, so much so that Buggy the Clown has been on the hunt for Captain John's treasure in the series, which he may very well have actually found thanks to Luffy giving him the armband map during the impaled down arc, which might also explain how Buggy funded his pirate dispatch squad. In any case, what's cooler is that we have actually seen Captain John in the series or at least what remains of Captain John, as Gekko Mori was able to acquire his corpse and turn him into a zombie. Although after Mori's defeat, he became a lifeless corpse once more. And at this stage, there were only two other confirmed members of the Rocks Pirates, one being the very vaguely named Silver Axe, as well as another known as Wang Zi, also known as Ochoku, the latter of which is based on a real life Chinese pirate from the 1500s. However, we currently have no other information on either of these figures. But with all of these heavy hitters and future captains, you might be asking yourselves, how did they all get along? And the answer is simply that they didn't, which is a big part of why the name Rocks isn't terribly well known in the current day. Sengoku posited the explanation that while they got along so terribly, that none of them actually wanted to tell the tale. And this went on to more or less be confirmed by Whitebeard himself in chapter 964, when Kozuki Oden requested to join his crew in a flashback and Whitebeard basically told Oden, you're not the type of person who serves someone else. I know what happens when you get people like that together in a group. I had plenty of bad experiences with my last crew. And in fact, I even brought up before that Sengoku claimed the Rocks pirates were consistently killing one another within the crew itself. So it seemed like a very survival of the fittest sort of scenario. Although it is a testament to their leader, Zabeck, that this crew was able to function in any way, shape or form. But another big reason why the Rocks pirates aren't much more well known is because oddly enough, the world government itself covered up much of their deeds. Now there could be any number of reasons for this, one of which is that they simply did not want to glorify piracy, which we have seen in the modern day happen with Luffy actually. However, there is another much more impactful reason for their coverup. And this has to do with the ultimate fall of the Rocks pirates, which occurred on a mysterious island known as God Valley. 38 years ago, God Valley marked the final stand of the Rocks pirates, who were wiped out in one fell swoop by Monkey D. Garp, which is the act that earned him the title, the hero of the Marines. Or at least that's how it was reported because in reality, Garp was unable to defeat this group on his own. And instead he formed a temporary alliance with Goldie Roger himself. And together, the two of them managed to defeat the Rocks pirates. And while we aren't exactly sure of what part they played in all of this, weirdly enough, both Roger and Garp fought in some way to defend the world nobles, which seems quite out of character for both of them. What with Roger being a pirate and directly opposed to their rule, and Garp just possessing a strong distaste for them. So much so that he has refused the rank of Admiral, so as to not be under their direct control. But the presence of the world nobles most certainly has something to do with why the world government has kept the Rocks pirates name so secretive. As well as God Valley itself, actually. In fact, in the modern day, you won't find many people who have heard this name because according to Sengoku, that's because you won't find any map featuring an island called God Valley. As a matter of fact, God Valley itself vanished without a trace. Of course, implying that the world government had something to do with this erasure, whether that be via a bus to call, or through hiding knowledge of it from the world. Kind of like Laugh Tale, really. One of the many, many mysteries we still have yet to solve in this series. In any case, following this, the Rocks pirates disbanded. Although what became of Zabeck himself is currently unknown. However, he is said to have died, allegedly. Whether this was in battle or not, once again, we don't know. And as for everyone else, well, we're well and truly aware of the impact that they would go on to have in this world. Meaning that most of what we know about the modern piracy system did spawn directly from this singular crew, which is pretty wild to think about. And at this stage, I should also say that there are several other characters who are speculated to have been members of the Rocks Pirates. One of which would be Miss Buckin, the mother of Edward Weevil, and self-proclaimed former lover of Whitebeard. Buckin was said by Marco to have sailed on the same ship as Whitebeard close to 40 years ago, which would all but confirm that she was a member of the Rocks Pirates, although it still has yet to be explicitly stated. And in a similar vein, you could potentially maybe assume that Streisand was a member of the Rocks Pirates since he teamed up with Big Mom when she was five years old. Although there's nothing to say that Big Mom didn't temporarily leave their growing empire to go and do her own thing. Meanwhile, it's also very possible that Shaki was a member of the Rocks Pirates, but this is much more speculation-based than even Buckin and Streisand. Essentially, Shaki has stated that she was a pirate once chased by Garp and that she gave up piracy 40 years ago, which is that magic Rocks time period number. However, it needs to be noted that Shaki said this pre-time skip, meaning that she retired from piracy 42 years ago now, a much more awkward number because that leaves a four-year gap between Shaki leaving piracy and the disbandment of the Rocks. So it doesn't line up particularly nicely, and I guess it is still technically possible that she was a member, but Shaki could have just as easily been a prominent pirate elsewhere, somewhere not Rocks-related. But even without Shaki, the Rocks Pirates are undoubtedly the most stacked powerhouse crew we have ever heard of in this series and probably will ever hear of. Featuring an all-star lineup of truly terrifying figures whose influence still and always has been paramount in the story of One Piece. In fact, at the time of this recording, we have our hands full on one dealing with two of their former members, one of which being the apprentice Kaido, and we still have so much left to learn about this group, making me infinitely hyped for a hopeful eventual Rocks flashback. But for now, I'm afraid that's everything we know about the Rocks Pirates. But what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below or even join my Discord server. And if you'd like to see more videos like this, then please do go and check out some of my other content or even subscribe to the channel for more glorious One Piece business uploaded straight into your YouTube feed. But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.