 My treasure why it's right where I left it. I left everything I own in one Button the subscribe button for the Grand Line review the pressing of which will grant you regular one piece content uploaded straight Into your YouTube feed hello and welcome to the Grand Line review source for everything one piece And today I have one deceptively simple question to ask of you all which is how does one become the pirate King? And maybe that sounds like a stupid question at first because we have been repeatedly told in the series that to become the Pirate King you need to find the island of Laftail and acquire the one piece and then just you know bam pirate King done deal But then what I mean since nobody else knows where Laftail is or even what the one piece is then accomplishing that seemingly impossible task is Kind of meaningless when you think about it now that does of course depend on exactly what the one piece is But even so I think we can agree at the outset that the physical act of locating Laftail And even stumbling upon the one piece is not the be all and end all of becoming the pirate King So that is why we are here today to explore what is probably one of the more important questions in the series far more important and say Where things are because at least we kind of have an answer to that you know find the four-road Ponyglyphs Although people will continue to insist that you only theoretically need three but regardless tada location found so exactly Where Laftail is isn't so much of a big deal anymore the Pirate King though That is a different story and tell the story we are going to start with chapter one What even is a pirate King and I think it's a pretty great place to start because I honestly don't think we discussed this anywhere near enough What is a pirate King this term gets tossed around so so often But there are probably very few people in the one-piece world or even the one-piece fan base who will agree on any kind of solid definition With that said it is quite tempting to go back to the very opening of the series as well as the famous words that began the bulk of the Anime episodes wealth fame power the man who had acquired everything in this world the pirate King gold Roger and if you want to accept this as a definition or even qualities of becoming a pirate King then it's sort of so all Encompassing that it's actually kind of egg It tells the story of a very classical definition of the word King as we know it a being who has Unparalleled influence and resources to the point where you can say certain things like there is no one richer than the King No one more famous than the King and certainly no one more powerful than said King and I find that quite fascinating because the whole wealth Fame power angle doesn't necessarily support the small amounts that we've been shown of Roger in the series I mean this could easily be very wrong But to label him as a King due to wealth when the world nobles exist would be fairly absurd and as for power It's quite clear that individually he was a top tier competitor But Roger's soul power alone doesn't reflect the power of traditional kingship as we know it which is more about controlling a Kingdom a country or even a world the one thing I will absolutely give Roger is fame though to our knowledge He is quite possibly the most famous individual to have ever lived in the one-piece world But at the same time that level of fame is widely reported to have occurred after he became the pirate King Which still leaves us with the ever annoying question of how exactly that happened But before we get to that I will say that there are many characters in the series who have been driven to become the pirate King Through the allure of the wealth fame power angle Gekko Moria would be a fairly good example of this but really the large majority of those who dreamt of becoming the Pirate King also did so with this in mind However, another lesser use definition does exist and this would be the pirate King as described by Luffy Which is one of my favorite lines in the series that occurred during chapter 507 when Rayleigh asked Luffy if he will be able to conquer the seas of the new world and all of the powerful beings who inhabit it Which is a pretty good question, right? I mean in theory to be the king you will need to acquire a form of recognition and even submission from your subjects But in response to this Luffy calmly and confidently replies I'm not going to conquer anything the one who is the most free is the pirate King to which Rayleigh gives a bit of a Slying grin and simply says hmm. I see which read into it whatever you want But to me it very strongly implies that Luffy is on the money with his definition of becoming the pirate King quite simply being the Individual in this world with the most amount of freedom which does make a lot more sense when you put what we know of Roger's reign into context I mean, what did Roger really conquer even after becoming globally recognized as the pirate King? All this did was incite his fellow pirates to target him in order to take his treasure and the mantle of pirate King for themselves It also kicked the Marines into overdrive. So what they enough becoming the pirate King turned both factions of the world even more against Roger And thus thrust everything into a chaotic state which is certainly not the indication of a classical King There was no stability no control and no submission But there was an awful lot of freedom and with this I really think we should erase the basic idea of the classical King from our minds Well fame and power can make a king Yes, however, it cannot make a pirate King a pirate King may attain wealth fame and power as a result of their position But that is not how they get there which brings us back to the ultimate question How does one become the pirate King or with the idea of paramount freedom in mind? I think it would be reasonable to say that finding Laftail and the One Piece is more symbolic than substantive It's more the idea that this person has been somewhere that nobody else can go and therefore that means that this person has more freedom than any Other because there is nowhere in this world that they cannot traverse and I like that idea quite a bit However, there is still the issue of quote-unquote Legitimacy landing on Laftail is one thing but since nobody else can get there What we're essentially asking the world to do with the information that we have on hand is believe someone at face value When they say that they have found Laftail and when you think of some of the strong-minded as well as some of the very strong-bodied Figures in this world. I just don't see them up and accepting that Roger's Contemporaries who were vying for dominance of the sea have no reason whatsoever just to casually accept this sort of news Which really can't be verified in any way at least not any way that we are currently aware of and I always find it incredibly Interesting that when the story of Roger is told in One Piece we always go straight from the fact of finding Laftail to Instantly becoming globally recognized as the pirate king and it just seems like there is at least one huge step missing here Some sort of actionable mechanism that Roger and his crew or even outside forces need to implement in order to solidify the Very concept of a pirate king and to dive into that I'm going to bring up an idea that I already know a fair few of you Don't like which correlates to my primary argument about why Luffy is the fifth Emperor which is all about public perception So yeah, people will take issue with that as per usual But one of the most fascinating aspects about the whole Roger situation is that he did not actually come up with the title of Pirate King Neither did any of his contemporaries. This was a label that appears to have been entirely Manufactured by the media which would assumedly be the world economic times And there's a very interesting flashback panel in the manga with Roger reacting to the news of what he had become Which even he was unaware of in the newspaper article It said the man who achieved wealth fame and power the king of the pirates gold Roger to which Roger applies Hey, that's Goldie Roger But I got to say King of the Pirates and has a nice ring to it and to me that just kind of says everything the pirate king Title as granted to Roger was effectively completely fabricated that isn't to say that Roger didn't deserve it But there is not a single person in this world who labeled him as such before this article was published This is a very classic big news Morgan scenario except it assumedly would have been his predecessor Although, I don't know. Maybe it could be Morgan's he is old enough But basically someone very high up in the media caught wind of Roger's alleged achievements of landing at Laftail as well as successfully circumnavigating the globe and decided to publish a Sensationalist story sure to sell many a paper and as part of that they made up the title of Pirate King Which was then spread throughout the world and it just became planetary canon That is very much manufacturing consent in its purest form and to be perfectly frank I don't think it's possible for someone to become the Pirate King without this grand media force behind them because in the end Who is the organization that holds the most power in this regard? I mean I suppose with enough people on their side a figure could be raised to the status of Pirate King by word of mouth from their Contemporaries but that is just so highly unlikely to happen because I guarantee you that the first time Roger's rivals heard the news of him Becoming the Pirate King well, they wouldn't have just reacted with a simple. Well, I guess that's true No way they would have been completely up in arms with how absurd the idea was just like Big Mom Kaido and Blackbeard's reaction to Luffy becoming an Emperor and while the world government could theoretically issue a statement declaring someone as a pirate king That is not at all in their best interest because it only makes their job harder by inspiring and potentially unifying pirates all over the world And besides ultimately they don't have that kind of power The world government do influence the media as shown through Big News Morgans But the world economic times is an independent entity that does really whatever it wants and yeah That's kind of insane But this organization is the entity that conjured the pirate king title to begin with so it only makes sense that they are the primary Deciding factor to officially declare another of course a person must be worthy of the title They can't just give it to any old schmuck But for the person with the right degree of current infamy as is building to an ever critical mass with Luffy Well, it's a bit of a done deal really and I know a lot of people don't like this answer because it doesn't suit the basic Shown and ideas of becoming stronger than everyone else and more or less beating them into submission But then again at this point we very much established that that is not what the pirate king is all about anyway If all it took was raw power to become the pirate king then either Kaido or Big Mom would have done it by now At this point they are the undisputed demonstrable most powerful beings in this world And even they failed to attain the title because they don't have what it takes to be the most free on this planet In fact, most of the emperors are in a really awkward situation when it comes to freedom Because I would certainly not call Big Mom or Kaido anything close to free They have entire territories and are martyrs to command meaning that they need to position themselves strategically to ensure the prosperity of their Empires they can't just go wherever they want or do whatever they like at any given time They're very much locked into this sort of eternal chess match with one another as well as the world government Meanwhile, someone like Luffy with a very small core crew has the sheer freedom to wander around in this world as he so Pleases because he can more or less do so via pure stealth thanks to not needing to command large armies and territories Which isn't to say that he doesn't have them the Straw Hat Grand Fleet does exist And he has a whole ton of allied nations like Fishman Island, Alabasta, Dressrosa, Zoho, etc But all of them act independently allowing Luffy to quite probably be the most free person on this sea as we currently know it I mean with the exception of former Roger alumni like Ray Lee for example But I guess while Luffy obviously isn't the pirate king just yet He is very much on the right path The pirate king is a being unrestricted by the standard shackles of the world that regular individuals are subject to Or even extraordinary individuals like emperors, kings, warlords, or world nobles Each and every one of those beings has wealth, fame and power But none of them have attained the freedom required to even be considered of the pirate king title And even if you do insist that the word king brings with it connotations of rulership and superiority Then look at it this way Maybe Roger was given the title of king to recognize his superiority over the world itself Which includes its environmental factors, political restraints, and military forces Because what did any of those things matter when Roger was a man who had the freedom to set foot absolutely anywhere he desired Nothing in this world was off limits to him Which isn't to say that he conquered anything It's just that nothing could conquer him No amount of apocalyptic weather, no sky-splittingly powerful enemy Nothing, there was a grand total of zero units of things that could put a halt to Roger Doing exactly what he wanted at any given time Which is exactly like the power of a king Except without all of the responsibility of needing to actually rule over anything And you know that sounds like a pretty good deal to me And this is the sort of thing that we have been seeing with Luffy since the very beginning of the series Wherever this man wants to go, he does it It even dates all the way back to Romance Dawn When Luffy recruited Zorro by deciding to just up an infiltrate a marine base He was but one rubber pirate back then, but he did what he wanted anyway And then hundreds of chapters later, this escalated into invading any slobby and even impaled down And in the world of piracy, I think that the idea of freedom is best displayed In how easily Luffy made his way into both Holcake Island and Wano The home territories of two of the most feared beings on the planet But Luffy comes and goes as he pleases And each time he does this, he takes one more step towards becoming the Pirate King Not by gaining a new upgrade, finding a road-pawning glare For another clue regarding the One Piece itself But by demonstrating his unparalleled freedom And the complete inability of anyone or anything to conquer him And eventually that is going to get to the point where it becomes undeniable That he will achieve the title of Pirate King Which I am certain will be solidified by a figure like Big News Morganz Who will spread it throughout the world And that I suppose is how one becomes a pirate king 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 until YouTube feeds But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review And I'll see you next time