 Silver's Rayleigh, a man feared and revered as not only the Pirate King's right-hand man, but also known as the Dark King for his own great strength. Whilst his name certainly continues the metallic theme of Goldie Rogers' pirate crew, what is its further significance and meaning? Hello my Nakamitachi, this is Joygirl and today we are continuing our series of videos where we examine the gallery of One Piece characters and discuss the various influences which may have inspired Oda in his creation and development process. If this is a series you're interested in, then I do urge you to subscribe and click that notification bell for discussions of other characters as well as a very diverse range of topics regarding One Piece. Our character of topic for this video is none other than Silver's Rayleigh. Having discussed Goldie Roger in the first video for this series and after watching the latest anime episodes, the Roger Pirates have been on my mind. Rayleigh is one of the very few members of the Pirate King's crew who has appeared in the present timeline of the series and yet there is still much that we don't know about him. Being the source of much intrigue, what we have seen from Rayleigh and what has been said about Roger's first mate has given us some idea as to his strength and nature which spurs quite a bit of excitement surrounding his character. Whilst on the surface, his name has an obvious meaning in that the metal Silver follows Gold in value, explaining his position as first mate to Goldie Roger. It seems that there are deeper influences which Oda has used in constructing the character, which is what we will be discussing in this video and perhaps this will also give us some hints as to further characteristics and even abilities of the Dark King which we are not yet privy to. Starting with a figure who we actually briefly mentioned in the last video. So Walter Rayleigh. Walter Rayleigh was an explorer, writer and nobleman from England during the Elizabethan era. Born into a landed, well connected family, by his teenage years, Rayleigh became a soldier and even spent some time studying at Oxford University's constituent college. For his bravery and outspokenness while serving in Ireland, Rayleigh caught the attention of Queen Elizabeth I and soon became a favourite of the Monarch. In addition to being knighted, his close relationship with the Queen granted him land, trading privileges as well as rights for exploration and colonisation of the New World. Known today as America and the Caribbean Islands. However, after marrying one of the Queen's ladies and waiting without the Queen's permission, Rayleigh encountered some trouble and fell out of the Queen's favour. This secret marriage resulted in the imprisonment of both Rayleigh and his wife, Elizabeth Throckmorton, at the Tower of London in 1592, though they were released the same year. Having heard of Eldorado in his previous expeditions, upon his release, Rayleigh ventured out to find this legendary city of gold in hopes of regaining favour with the Queen. However, he returned unsuccessful. Despite his failed exploration, Rayleigh was able to restore his relationship with the Queen. However, his bad luck continued as after the Queen's death in 1603, Rayleigh was charged with treason in the plot to dethrone the late Queen's successor, James I. Rayleigh's involvement was considered questionable with even one of the judges at his trial claiming injustice. Nevertheless, a crime warranting the death penalty, the English explorer was instead sentenced to imprisonment and was again sent to the Tower of London, this time for a much longer period. Although incarcerated, Rayleigh was provided with a relatively comfortable cell, equipped with a table where he could pursue his passion for writing as well as access to a library. By the time of his pardon, 13 years later, Rayleigh had completed writing and illustrating his book titled History of the World. Following his release, the explorer set off for another voyage once again in search for El Dorado. In his crew, amongst others, was Captain Roger North. This second expedition also proved to be very unsuccessful. More so than failing to find the Golden City, Rayleigh's men disobeyed his orders not to engage in hostilities with Spanish colonies by attacking and burning a Spanish settlement. This not only resulted in the death of Rayleigh's son, but was also a breach of the conditions on which his pardon was premised. The outraged Spanish ambassador demanded for Rayleigh's death sentence to be reinstated, and the king, who had a fragile peace with Spain, had little to no choice but to comply. So Walter Rayleigh was executed by way of beheading in 1618, apparently passing up many opportunities to escape. His last words revealed his steely heart, declaring to his hesitant executioner, what does thou fear? Strike, man, strike. Interestingly, despite Silver's Rayleigh being one of Goldie Roger's crewmates in the series, the real-life figure who seems to have influenced his character was Roger North's leader, or for one expedition at least. It seems Oda switched the real-life explorer's superiority for one piece and retained elements like the voyage to find Eldorado, which seems to be the inspiration behind Shandora. And though Silver's Rayleigh isn't known to be a prolific writer like Sir Walter Rayleigh, he is one of the very few characters who knows the secrets of the world. In fact, he is the only character who has been seen willing to share the truth behind the various mysteries, including the Wheel of D and the Void Century. As such, this makes Rayleigh one of the only characters in One Piece who could write a book such as History of the World if he wanted to. Similar to how Sir Walter Rayleigh did in real life, though it is pretty unlikely that Rayleigh would ever complete such a task. Moving on to another real-life figure who shares the name Rayleigh, Lord Rayleigh. Born John William Strut and referred to as Lord Rayleigh due to his position as the third Baron Rayleigh of Turling Place. Strut was an English physicist from the late 19th to early 20th century, well known for his great contributions across various fields, including acoustics, mineralogy, and mechanical engineering. Despite suffering from poor health at a young age, which often disrupted his education, Strut studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge, where his exceptional studies surpassed that of his contemporaries. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in 1865, Strut completed a Masters by 1868 and had also won two major university-level mathematics competitions by this point. Following this, Strut would devote himself to mathematics and scientific research and analysis. Some of his most well-known contributions to the field are his findings on light scatterings in the atmosphere which accounts for our blue sky, known as Rayleigh scattering. The discovery of an element called argon, his extensive study of sound, culminating in his book, The Theory of Sound, wherein Strut was one of the first physicists to treat properties of airflow at supersonic speeds, as well as his research on lubrication being considered one of the early contributors to the field tribology, the science of how interacting surfaces behave in relative motion, including the principles of friction and wear and tear. Strut died in 1919, but during his lifetime, the physicist received many awards for his achievements and works, including a Nobel Prize and the Order of Merit, an honor awarded by the British Commonwealth. While Strut was not a pirate nor a seafaring adventurer by any means, he seems to have still had some role in shaping Silver Rayleigh's character. When we are first introduced to Rayleigh, we know him as the skilled coating mechanic, not the former first mate of the late pirate king. This skill, which allows ships to travel to Fishman Island, seems to be a nod to Lord Rayleigh's work in tribology and lubrication. Furthermore, Rayleigh is known to understand the mechanics of deep sea currents which could again be related to Strut's studies of acoustics and electromagnetic waves. In Rayleigh's fight against Kizaru, through his use of armament haki, the Dark King was shown to scatter Kizaru's light-based attacks, likely being another homage to the phenomenon which has been named after the physicist Rayleigh Scattering. And whilst we haven't yet seen any special attacks of Rayleigh's, perhaps we can expect to see him to have a more scientific and elemental fighting style and attack names in the future. In addition to the real-life influences which share the name Rayleigh, it seems this legendary character also has important roots which contribute to his first name, Silver's, which brings us to a fictional figure, but one which seems to have nonetheless impacted the development of Silver's Rayleigh, Long John Silver. Long John Silver is the complex antagonist from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, Treasure Island. This character has greatly contributed to the depiction of pirates in popular culture, such as his missing leg and his parrot companion perched upon his shoulder. In the classic adventure story to find the hidden treasure of a notorious pirate known as Captain Flint, Silver is one of the crewmates who is later revealed to have actually been a quartermaster for Flint and was orchestrating a mutiny along with some other crewmates on their current ship. Despite being an antagonist, Silver is a colorful and likable character. Whilst disloyal, ruthless and greedy, he's also portrayed as charismatic, wise and courageous. Describing himself a gentleman of fortune emphasizes his gentlemanly qualities, despite this term being used as a euphemism for pirate. Indeed, he's a friendly and polite character, quick to inspire trust and friendship. Despite his role as the antagonist in the story, the main protagonist, Jim, a cabin boy who was actually held by Silver's ragtag group of mutineers, has a genuine fondness for the pirate, wishing for Silver's happiness at the end of the novel. And despite Silver being the antagonist in Stevenson's story, we can see some connections to Rayleigh. The first notable connection between the two, aside from their names, is their respective roles in their former crews. In real life, most pirate crews didn't have a first mate. Instead, this second in command role was that of the quartermaster, the position held by Long John Silver, making him the equivalent of first mate. Both are capable leaders in their own right, despite not being captains themselves. With Rayleigh often being shown to have broken up arguments within the Roger Pirates, and both are also shown as formidable fighters with extreme courage, despite their respective limits. The missing leg in Silver's case, an old age for Rayleigh. Furthermore, if we consider Silver's self-prescribed description, gentlemen of fortune, ignoring his deceit, his actual gentlemanly and noble nature in trusting other gentlemen, is an apt description for Rayleigh. Displaying a similar duality present in Long John Silver's character, Rayleigh was a pirate of a notorious crew brutally fought with other pirates. However, the Dark King is also portrayed to be a gentleman, as shown when he saved Cami, as well as his history with the Gorgon sisters. It seems like Oda picked out all of Long John Silver's redeeming qualities for his own Silver's Rayleigh. And now, moving on to Rayleigh's other name, the Dark King. Whilst the Dark King has implications in terms of Rayleigh's position as an equally formidable individual in Roger's shadows, it can also reveal some other traits based on a Greco-Roman mythological deity. Rayleigh's epithet in Japanese, Mayo, is the Japanese word for Hades in Greek mythology, the god of the underworld. In fact, there is a figurine of Rayleigh by a portrait of pirates called King of Hades, Silver's Rayleigh. Hades is generally considered a pitiless and stern being, characteristics which don't necessarily come to mind when we think of Rayleigh. However, the fact that he shares the Japanese name for God of the underworld seems to be possibly linked to how Rayleigh was able to master the underworld, in that he exploited the underground slave trade for his own benefit, letting himself be sold as a slave before robbing his new master and escaping. Furthermore, Hades is also known by some other epithets which seem to be more in line with Rayleigh's characteristics, such as Clemonus the renowned or Eubuleus, good counselor. His Roman name, Pluton, furthermore means wealth and could have lots of implications in the world of One Piece, such as a connection to one of the ancient weapons which Rayleigh would certainly hold lots of information about or maybe it is a foreshadowing detail to hint about Rayleigh's future prosperity, as he was shown gambling the last time we saw him. And that brings us to the end of this discussion. Please let me know of any other figures whom Oda may have drawn inspiration from by leaving a comment below and please subscribe so that you don't miss out on the next video discussing real-life inspirations behind One Piece characters. This is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.