🔥 GOD VALLEY FLASHBACK BOMBSHELL: Garp – The Marine “Hero” – Is the UNINTENTIONAL FATHER of the REVOLUTIONARY ARMY?! Oda’s Masterstroke Just Rewrote One Piece’s Core Lore – And It’s IRONIC PERFECTION!

With the story of God Valley now fully told, One Piece fans have a better understanding of the series’ lore than ever. One of the biggest winners of this flashback has been Monkey D. Dragon, as readers now know who he was in his youth, and why he turned his back on his father to form the Revolutionary Army. And arguably the best part of Dragon’s motivations is the role Garp played in instilling them.

Despite being one of the most ruthlessly loyal Marines, Monkey D. Garp is directly responsible for the creation of their greatest enemy. Had he not forced his son to follow in his footsteps as a mindless drone serving a corrupt, fascist government, Dragon never would have been exposed to the horrors of the Celestial Dragons, and he never would have realized that the foundations of the entire world needed to be toppled for the good of humanity. This not only works on a narratively ironic level, but as a direct parallel to how Garp would similarly fail with his future pupils, and create elite pirates in the process.

Garp Forcing Dragon to Join the Marines Changed the Course of One Piece History

Image via Viz Media

The God Valley flashback has firmly established Monkey D. Garp to be one of the strongest One Piece characters, as well as one of the most heartless and incompetent. Despite learning about the tri-annual genocides performed by the Celestial Dragons he works under, he still manages to come out of the flashback loyal to the World Government, and determined to make his eventual grandkids into Marines. Fortunately for the world of One Piece, Monkey D. Dragon is nothing like his slavery-endorsing father.

While still just a teenager, Dragon was forced by Garp to join the Marines and, by pure coincidence, he wound up stationed on guard duty at God Valley. It was here that Dragon was traumatized, being directly exposed to the evil and cruelty of the Celestial Dragons, and even being nearly killed by one of God’s Knights.

As a result of his experience at God Valley, Dragon gained the awareness and bravery his coward of a dad always lacked. Unlike Garp, who believed that pirates were still the greatest evil in the world, and that the Marines could be changed from within, Dragon wasn’t an idiot, and realized that a revolution was necessary, leading to his founding of The Revolutionary Army.

Garp Enabled Dragon to Form the Revolutionary Army With Kuma & Ivankov

While Garp may be nothing more than a worthless attack dog for the World Government, his actions have still managed to have a spectacular effect on the world of One Piece at large. Had he simply allowed Dragon to choose his own path in life, and not forced him into being a Marine, Dragon never would have become radicalized, he never would have founded the Revolutionary Army, he never would have saved Sabo, and Luffy may never have been born. Even then, Garp could have just allowed Dragon to rot in his cell like the criminal he was after the events at God’s Valley, but Garp was enough of a hypocrite to still look out for his own blood, freeing him and giving him the opportunity to meet his partners, Bartholomew Kuma and Emporio Ivankov.

This series of reveals surrounding Garp and Dragon is absolutely brilliant. On one hand, there’s the natural irony of Garp, a man slavishly loyal to the government, being responsible three times over for creating the most dangerous criminal in the world, and the greatest threat to the status quo he works so hard to protect. Looking deeper, though, it further highlights a clear pattern in Garp’s life.

Just like he did with Luffy and Ace, Garp pushed his son into being a Marine, hopelessly unable to understand why anyone as passionate about the idea of freedom as the three of them would only be radicalized by the group’s discriminatory and authoritarian practices. And, just like with Kuzan, Garp thought he could force his ideals onto someone he saw himself in, only to inadvertently lead them down a chaotic and destructive path. Only with Koby have Garp’s decades of failures come to an end, and that’s only because the young Marine is as hopelessly naive as his mentor.

Garp being indirectly responsible for the creation of the Revolutionary Army is perfect storytelling. It’s dramatic and emotional, it does a great deal to help build up Dragon’s character, and it works on multiple narrative levels. The only way this reveal could be made better would be for Dragon and the Revolutionary Army to eventually take Garp down for good, alongside the rest of the World Government.