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The adage 'The past is recorded by the winners' serves as a key theme that One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda has for some time integrated into the story. Popular tales frequently fail to capture the complete reality, even for the most powerful figures in this story's intricate history. Kozuki Oden was no foolish showman prancing through the roads of Wano Country; he acted out of duty and conviction. Bartholomew Kuma wasn't a ruthless antagonist who separated the Straw Hats, either; he was helping them. Similarly, Davy Jones signified more than a pirate's contest in search of flags and crews.

In chapter #1164 of the manga, we see the culmination of this theme. The entire Divine Isle narrative serves as a warning story, advising audiences not to evaluate the individuals too quickly.

Legends frequently fail to convey the full truth, including the most powerful characters.

The series's latest flashback, detailing the God Valley event, stands as one of the story's finest arcs to now. Apart from the thrill of seeing legends in their prime, it's compelling to observe them before they turned into icons — when their reputation had yet to outgrow their human nature. The past, as written by the Global Authority and retold through hearsay tales, shaped our perception of individuals like Roger, Xebec, and even Monkey D. Garp. But both the government's accounts and the narratives of those who knew them turn out to be untrustworthy, showing only pieces of who these men truly were.

The Individual Before the Myth

The future Pirate King may have been guided by purpose and the daring spirit that sparked a new age of buccaneering, but prior to he was known as the Pirate King, he was a youth ruled by passion and the desire to explore. When people speak of his legend, they typically mean his second voyage, the grand expedition in search of the Road Poneglyphs that lead to Laugh Tale. However little is known about his first journey, the one that molded him prior to fame found him.

Back then, Roger was largely unaware of the world's hidden past. His love for Shakky guided him to the Divine Isle, where he discovered the Global Authority's darkest truths: the genocidal "contests," the grotesque appearances of the Five Elders, and including the presence of the world's unseen sovereign, the mysterious leader. We haven't seen Gol D. Roger's thoughts about everything happening in the Divine Isle, but perhaps discovering the child of a God's Knight on his ship will lead him to understand his role in the world and pursue the truth he caught a glimpse of from Rocks D. Xebec's situation.

The Reality About The Infamous Captain

Prior to this recollection, what we knew of Rocks D. Xebec came almost entirely from Sengoku's version, each to the viewers and to new Navy recruits. He depicted Xebec as a vile, ambitious man determined to achieve world domination, someone so threatening that Roger and Garp had to team up to overcome him. But as it transpires, the strategist wasn't even present at God Valley; he was only echoing the Global Authority's sanctioned version of events, the exact story the sovereign authorized to bury the reality about Xebec and the event itself.

In truth, Rocks D. Xebec, whose real name was Davy D. Xebec, was a ethical man who aimed to topple Imu and dismantle the decadent World Government. We are unsure if he was guided by ambition, revenge for his clan, or a wish for justice, but when he found out the government's scheme to annihilate the island where his family resided, he gave up his dreams of conquest to rescue them.

This devotion for his relatives became his undoing. After facing the sovereign, he forfeited his will and freedom, becoming a marionette enslaved to their power. Now, with what limited awareness is left, he pleads with Gol D. Roger and Monkey D. Garp to kill him — believing that dying would be a kindness in contrast to the torment he suffers. The truth of Rocks is thus very different from the story told by the former Fleet Admiral, and the manga presents him in a positive light during the Divine Isle events.

Could He Be Living Today?

But was Rocks actually die? An interesting theory is that he is still a slave to Imu in the present day, acting as The Man Marked By Flames, keeping the World Government's only remaining Poneglyph in continuous movement to keep the One Piece from being found.

The Hero's Hidden Defiance

A further protagonist of the Divine Isle event is Garp, who has faced criticism from followers for years for standing by as Akainu killed Ace. That feeling only grew stronger after the time jump, when he endangered everything to save the young Marine at Pirate Island, causing many to wonder why he was unable to do the identical for his own grandchild. Similar questions have recently reemerged with the Divine Isle flashback: how can Garp work for the Navy, knowing the World Government treats mass murder and slavery as sport for the elite?

The reality reveals something different. The moment Monkey D. Garp saw the Gorosei's monstrous forms, he attacked without hesitation. His alliance with Gol D. Roger was not meant to defeat some villainous Rocks D. Xebec, but a courageous act of rebellion, an effort to halt Imu, who was using Xebec as a tool to eliminate all in the Divine Isle, even apparently, including the World Nobles themselves. This incident is probably the reason Monkey D. Garp despises the World Nobles in the current era and why he not once wanted to be elevated to Fleet Admiral, answering directly to them.

The Past's Untrustworthy Narrators

Although the readers are viewing the God Valley event through a recollection recounted by Loki, including viewpoints and events he clearly wasn't present for, I believe we can consider this version as completely accurate. The series may offer an explanation later, perhaps linked to Loki's still mysterious paramecia ability. Still, the Divine Isle incident excellently embodies the idea that history is written by the winners. This attitude is {