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The saying 'History is written by the winners' serves as a key motif that One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda has long woven into the story. Legends frequently fail to convey the complete reality, even for the most powerful characters in this world's complex past. Oden wasn't a silly showman prancing through the streets of Wano; he behaved out of duty and conviction. Kuma was not a merciless villain who separated the Straw Hats, either; he was doing them a favor. Likewise, the Davy Jones legend meant beyond just a pirate's game in pursuit of emblems and followers.

In installment #1164 of One Piece, we see the peak of this theme. The whole God Valley story serves as a cautionary tale, instructing audiences not to judge the characters too hastily.

Myths often do not capture the full reality, including the most influential figures.

One Piece's most recent look back, chronicling the Divine Isle incident, represents one of the series' finest arcs to date. Apart from the thrill of seeing legends in their peak, it's gripping to see them before they turned into icons — when their reputation had still not surpass their humanity. The past, as written by the World Government and retold through secondhand stories, painted our perception of figures like Roger, Xebec, and even Garp. But each of the regime's accounts and the narratives of those who were acquainted with them prove unreliable, revealing only pieces of who these individuals truly were.

The Individual Before the Legend

The future Pirate King may have been guided by purpose and the daring spirit that sparked a new age of piracy, but prior to he was known as the King of the Pirates, he was a young man governed by passion and wanderlust. When individuals speak of his myth, they usually mean his second voyage, the grand quest in pursuit of the guide stones that lead to Laugh Tale. However not much is understood about his initial travels, the one that shaped him before fame found him.

At that time, Roger was largely unaware of the globe's secret past. His affection for Shakky led him to God Valley, where he discovered the Global Authority's most sinister realities: the extermination "contests," the monstrous appearances of the Five Elders, and even the existence of the planet'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 Holy Knight on his vessel will lead him to understand his place in the globe and pursue the truth he glimpsed from Rocks D. Xebec's predicament.

The Truth About The Infamous Captain

Before this flashback, what we were aware of of Rocks D. Xebec was derived mostly from Sengoku's version, each to the audience and to young Navy recruits. He painted Rocks D. Xebec as a despicable, power-hungry man bent on global control, someone so threatening that Gol D. Roger and Garp had to join forces to overcome him. But as it transpires, Sengoku was not present at God Valley; he was only echoing the World Government's sanctioned version of occurrences, the exact story the sovereign authorized to bury the reality about Xebec and the incident itself.

In truth, The captain, whose real name was Davy D. Xebec, was a principled man who aimed to topple Imu and dismantle the decadent Global Authority. We don't know if he was motivated by ambition, revenge for his family, or a desire for justice, but when he discovered the regime's plan to eliminate the island where his family lived, he abandoned his ambitions of conquest to rescue them.

This love for his relatives proved to be his undoing. Upon confronting Imu, he forfeited his determination and freedom, becoming a puppet enslaved to their power. Currently, with what little awareness remains, he pleads with Roger and Monkey D. Garp to end his life — thinking that dying would be a kindness compared to the living hell he endures. The reality of Rocks D. Xebec is thus very different from the tale narrated by the former Fleet Admiral, and the manga shows him in a favorable light during the God Valley incidents.

Could He Be Still Alive Today?

But was Rocks really meet his end? An intriguing theory is that he is still a servant to the ruler in the current timeline, serving as The Man Marked By Flames, keeping the World Government's last Poneglyph in constant movement to keep the One Piece from being found.

Garp's Secret Rebellion

Another protagonist of the Divine Isle event is Garp, who has faced criticism from fans for years for doing nothing as Admiral Akainu killed Portgas D. Ace. That sentiment became even more intense after the time jump, when he risked all to save Koby at Pirate Island, leading many to wonder why he couldn't do the same for his biological grandson. Comparable doubts have now reemerged with the Divine Isle flashback: how could Garp work for the Navy, knowing the Global Authority considers mass murder and slavery as sport for the elite?

The truth uncovers something different. The moment Garp saw the Elders' monstrous shapes, he attacked immediately. His partnership with Roger was not meant to defeat some evil Rocks D. Xebec, but a courageous act of rebellion, an attempt to halt the sovereign, who was manipulating Rocks D. Xebec as a tool to wipe out all in the Divine Isle, even apparently, even the Celestial Dragons themselves. This incident is likely the reason Monkey D. Garp despises the World Nobles in the current era and why he not once wanted to be promoted to Fleet Admiral, reporting directly to them.

The Past's Unreliable Storytellers

Although the readers are seeing the Divine Isle incident through a recollection narrated by the giant, including viewpoints and occurrences he clearly wasn't present for, I think we can consider this version as completely truthful. The manga may provide an explanation later, perhaps connected to the giant's still mysterious Devil Fruit. Nevertheless, the Divine Isle incident perfectly embodies the idea that history is written by the victors. This attitude is {