 Maybe there's no such thing as coincidence in this world. Maybe everything that happens is simply inevitable. Destiny just goes on its own plodding way. And yet, their era is only just beginning. So it might not be such a bad thing to live just a little longer. Hello and welcome to One Piece 101, the series that breaks down everyone and everything in the One Piece world. Today, we are going to be examining one of the most legendary names in the One Piece universe, the former first mate of the pirate king, Silver's Rayleigh. Silver's Rayleigh is an elderly, yet absurdly stacked man who first appeared in the series all the way back in chapter 19 during a flashback of Buggy the Clown. And despite appearing very shouty here in his older age, Rayleigh is actually incredibly laid back and fun loving in general, although he is certainly not without his serious side when it comes to business. And when engaging in this side, Rayleigh becomes a presence of profound authority, the likes of which could only be equated to white beard garb or any other living legend from the days of the former pirate king. However, Rayleigh certainly wasn't always the worldly man he is today. And as long as he began when he was a criminal who had stolen a ship to live on due to his house burning down, when one day he was approached by a young man by the name of Roger who insisted that their meeting was fate and invited Rayleigh to join his crew. Of course, Rayleigh just as most raw hats did with Luffy refused at first, but this would be the beginning of one of the most powerful bonds of Rayleigh's entire life as the two would proceed to, in Roger's own words, turn the world upside down. And while most of the details of their journey are still shrouded in mystery at the time of this recording, Rayleigh became Roger's closest friend and traveled with him throughout the grand line and the new world. As their pirate crew grew and grew, recruiting many other names that were going to become incredibly infamous such as Coppa Gabon, Kozuki Oden and even a young red-haired shanks. Eventually, Roger would be struck with an incurable illness prompting Rayleigh and the Roger Pirates to make one final journey throughout the grand line, which culminated in the discovery of Raftel and Roger being crowned the pirate king. After this, the Roger Pirates were secretly disbanded and Roger turned himself over to the Marines to be executed. And rather than watch the end of his friend, Rayleigh instead decided to honor Roger with a drink as he passed on, laughing, crying and drinking an equal measure in mourning as well as celebration of Roger's life. Following this, Rayleigh more or less retired from piracy, although he still maintained a presence in the world, becoming acquaintances with the young hot-chan who actually saved Rayleigh from a shipwreck as well as helping to protect the Gorgon sisters, including future warlord of the sea, Bola Hancock, after their escape from slavery. And speaking of slavery, Rayleigh developed a rather curious habit over the years of selling himself into slavery in order to repay his gambling debts, by getting caught, sold, and then proceeding to rob his new and wealthy master. Of course, Rayleigh never had anything to worry about in these situations because over his career, he had developed a very particular set of skills that assisted with his various journeys across the grand line and made him the world-renowned dark king Rayleigh. For example, his sheer strength was said by Shacky to be roughly 100 times that of pre-timeskip Luffy or any of the supernotes. And look, we probably should not take that as a wildly scientific measurement, but at the same time, his power is respected by the hero of the Marine's monkey-de-garp who warned his men not to confront Rayleigh under any circumstances. Furthermore, Rayleigh is a master of all three types of Harky, including the ever-rare Conqueror's Harky. And not only that, but he has demonstrated highly advanced usage in subtyping of all three of them. For example, he is able to hone in on individual targets with Conqueror's Harky, as well as emit his armament Harky without a medium and extend his observation Harky to be able to sense living things over an entire island. And to top everything off, Rayleigh is also an exceedingly powerful swordsman capable of wielding a wide variety of blades and also capable of infusing Armament Harky within them to fight at truly terrifying levels of potential, although Rayleigh himself claims that his skills within the world of swordplay have degraded over the years. The combat is not the only trade Rayleigh would pick up over the years, as he would also become an in-depth mechanic and even an expert in the art of coating vessels, which is a requirement for underwater travel to locations such as Fishman Island. And oddly enough, of all of the things we've heard about Rayleigh so far, it is his coating abilities that would lead to his encounter with the straw hats, as they sought out a coating mechanic on Sabadia Capelligo. And in Luffy, Rayleigh saw a striking resemblance to Roger, agreeing not only to coat their ship, the Thousand Sunny, but also fighting on their behalf when Marine Admiral Kizaru was sent to capture them, which is yet another testament to Rayleigh's sheer strength, just so you know, because he was able to casually hold his own against an admiral and everything. Not only that, but following the Paramount War, Rayleigh offered to train Luffy in the ways of Harky, spending a year and a half introducing Luffy to the basic concepts and helping him evolve his abilities as much as possible. But imparting the valuable knowledge that true development in the realm of Harky will only occur in fierce battle. And after Luffy and the straw hats returned to Sabadia following the two-year time skip, Rayleigh saw his student off, as Luffy renewed his promise to become the pirate king, bringing a tear to Rayleigh's eyes. Some more fun facts about Silver's Rayleigh. Rayleigh's name and position within the Roger Pirates is in keeping with the general theme of metals, with the captain being Goldy Roger representing gold, Silver's Rayleigh obviously being silver, and Scopper Gabon bringing up the rear with a reference to copper. Due to his supreme knowledge regarding coating, Rayleigh was actually the individual responsible for teaching Nami how to navigate underwater sea currents as well as the mechanics of sailing a coated vessel. Interestingly enough, during his conflict with Kizaru, it was revealed that Rayleigh still has an active bounty despite his apparent retirement from piracy. However, sadly, that exact number has yet to be revealed. At some point in his life, Rayleigh became acquainted with his future business partner and general life partner, Shaki. I say general life partner because whether or not they're married is a bit of an uncertainty at this stage and it's confusing because Shaki has specifically used the phrase, Uchi no hito, implying that Rayleigh is her husband. However, apparently the statement can also be very ambiguous in Japanese and so the Vismanga translation essentially decided to omit it entirely. However, as of the one piece Fivia card data book, they are officially referred to as romantic partners. To add yet another incredible feat to the legend that is Rayleigh, he demonstrated a fearsome ability to swim through large stretches of the calm belt, an area heavily populated by sea kings and deemed to be too dangerous for any ship not mined with sea stone to cross. And finally, a truly useless fact, despite the fact that Rayleigh sports round glasses in his first appearance in the manga, the anime for reasons decided to make them oblong. But that pretty much does it for Silver's Rayleigh. 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