It Started MUCH Earlier Than We Think!

Emergency meeting, everyone. I think that I've found evidence that one of One Piece's biggest end game factions were never actually planned to exist. And right now, we are in the middle of an episode of Whose Knight Is It Anyway? The show where everything's made up and the foreshadowing doesn't matter. And before anyone goes and reports me to the four-skinning police, I just need to say that this is a good thing. Because after digging through prototype manga, obscure guidebooks, and nearly 30 years of One Piece history, I genuinely think that the Holy Knights may have been one of Oda's most brilliant retroactive additions. And I'm going to start my argument by presenting the overwhelming amount of evidence against it. One of the greatest artifacts that a One Piece historian could ever possess is a book called Kaizoku Daishinroku, which roughly translates as Deconstruction New Record. And it earns that name by revealing 19 different manga series that Eiichiro Oda had planned and submitted to his editor before finally landing on One Piece. This book was released as part of the Monsters DVD box set, which is another one of Oda's pre-One Piece works. And I wanted to buy one to show all of you on video, but I currently can't find any for less than a thousand Australian dollarydoos. Although, weirdly enough, it is not the rare treasure trove of a guidebook that drives this price. It's also the fact that it comes with a rare Ryuma promo card for the One Piece TCG that destroys most people's chances of ever owning this material. Luckily, the entire book it has been scanned and is available online. But mates, the One Piece TCG it has a lot to answer for. Like how recently the issue of Weekly Shonen Jump for One Piece's 29th anniversary contained a promo for the TCG and scalpers filled their cars and houses with as many copies of Jump as they could buy. I love TCGs, but everything that this game touches turns into absolute Anyway, back to whatever it is I was talking about. One of the 19 prototype series in the guidebook is called Land the Dragon and the Ten Thieves. And this is the first known appearance of a character called Shanks in one of Oda's works. And this scholar Shanks is a knight commander inhabiting the same rank that Figarland Garling would go on to carry in One Piece. And I should say that Oda, he really loved knights in these early prototypes. Many series contain them. A series called Woody Woodman was described as the story of a bandit and a knight commander, with the knight commander in question being named Dorc, and also featuring a character named Bantini who possessed the earliest known drawing of what became Shanks' iconic scar. But it's not just about knights though. Woody Woodman also featured what appears to be a heavy focus on twins and or doppelgangers as the main character the bandit Akka was noted to look exactly like the knight commander Dorc when he had his hair down, meaning that Oda likely had plans to pull either a twin or doppelganger twist in the same way that he eventually did with Shanks and Shamrock. Particularly the moment of Shamrock meeting the five elders with readers for many, many years assuming that this was Shanks. And the knight trend would continue with another series called The Great Swordsman Samurai versus Knight which featured an earlier incarnation of Ryuma and also the earliest known prototype of Sanji and knight named Romeo. So Ryuma was the swordsman, Romeo was the knight. They also both kind of had the same face. But in this case, I don't know if that was the intention or if it's just that Oda had a much more limited range as an artist back then. I'm inclined to think it's the second one. Bearing in mind that he's still about 18 to 19 years old when drawing these. And while Sanji did not end up being a knight, the aspect of chivalry did end up becoming a major part of his personality in One Piece. And look, I'm not going to go through all of them. There's a lot. But within each of these prototypes you can elements that Oda ended up recycling in One Piece. In fact, One Piece can be considered to be the combination of these 20 plus previous works that Oda created, including the actual published one-shots like Monsters and Wanted which have now been incorporated into the One Piece canon. Questions, so many questions that I need answered. And instead of waiting, I'm going to use Polybods, a free, private, and immersive AI chat platform with over 20 million characters, including stumbling into the alternate universe of female Kizaru. Yes, I've discovered a a very odd corner of Polybius, but mate, we must take full advantage of this unprecedented opportunity. Who would win in a beauty contest, you or Admiralina Sakazuki? Beauty contest? With that grumpy lava man? He'd melt the judges first, and me, then the judges. The judges again? They're getting melted twice in this scenario. This is brutal. But Alkizarina continues to gossip behind Sakazuki's back. Eyebrows always on fire. Bad taste in uniform, burns them too. And that constant scowl like he swallowed a lemon. So, in stark contrast to regular Kizaru, who never speaks, this one, she will not stop speaking. So, you know what? We are going to try someone else. And what I found is York in a scenario that is described as you are the eighth Vegapunk satellite embodying intimacy. And look, I I don't know what else I expected, but I can't show any of this. So, let's just say that York's genius mind is being put to to very good use. So, if you want to check out what York has locked away in Punk Records, then you can and should click my link in the description and download Polybius today and gain access to over 20 million characters from all across media and also real life. And you can even create your own characters. Plus, you can use my promo code GLR8 to unlock premium features. And just on a personal note, sponsors like Polybius are what makes our videos possible. So, please do check them out and show your support. But for now, it's back to you. Me? Thanks. Me? Although not everything has been incorporated, at least not yet, one of my favorite stories is about a god of poverty who keeps trying to help people, but always accidentally ends up making them poor. Hilarious. But knights, knight commanders, and knights named Shanks were indeed in Oda's mind before One Piece ever existed. However, that doesn't mean that this was the plan all along. It's more so that these elements were tapped and incorporated as a solution to One Piece's very unexpected length. One Piece was famously never supposed to become the 1,000 chapter plus monstrosity it is today. When Eiichiro Oda first began serializing One Piece in the last century, he believed that the entire adventure would wrap up in, I don't know, maybe around 5 years with the Four Emperors serving as Luffy's opponents. It's funny because we didn't even know that the Four Emperors existed until more than 400 chapters into the series. And when you get to that point, the Emperors, they feel like a very late game development. Where have they been all along? But in reality, it's more so that it took 400 plus chapters to finally get to the point of the series that Oda was trying to make. With the final saga of the pre-time skip era designed to explore and chronicle the demise of one of Four Emperors, Mr. Whitebeard, and with every post-time skip arc up until the end of Wano being geared squarely, or any other shapely you so desire, towards taking down two more with Big Mom and Kaido. Regardless of how off track we got, originally the name of the game was piracy. All the crazy crap that we know about today, a revolu- tionary Army, Warlords of the Sea, Ninja Samurai Minks Alliances, all of that stuff has been added in as time goes on, which includes the World Government. And you may say, "But man on the internet, we've been fighting against the World Government ever since chapter three. We even saw Luffy punch his first beta test World Noble when he thwacked Helmeppo in the same way that he'd go on to not just hit Saint Charlos, but one day go all the way to the top and smack Saint Imu Nerona." And it is really cool to see that chapter consistency carried over from chapter three all the way to chapter 1,186 and beyond. But a rather startling realization I came to is that the World Government didn't actually exist in the beginning of One Piece. That layer was incorporated later, like everything else. The Marines, they existed. They are who we were fighting in chapter three. But it takes a very, very long time for Oda to acknowledge a greater power than them. As if the Marines were intended to be the be-all and end-all of whatever this faction was, which I am inclined to believe because the prototype series for One Piece, Romance Dawn version one and two, were rather simplistic in their world construction as well. In the Romance Dawn universe, to the best of our knowledge, Marines don't even exist. The world purely consists of pirates divided into two factions, peacemains and morganeers. Basically, the good guys and the bad guys. It was that simple. And whilst the peacemains weren't strictly speaking heroes, they were pretty unambiguously good. And they actually hunted down morganeers and had a similar mission to the Marines in One Piece against piracy. So, it is my theory that Oda got rid of the competing branches of piracy and substituted the Marines in for the peacemains, which I like because without a clear definition of piracy, every pirate is now able to pursue their own individual view of the concept, which has led to some incredibly interesting protagonists and antagonists. But, my point is that when this world began life, oh, it was very simple, ever so simple. First, when the story god created the world, there were only pirates. But then story god went, "Hang on, maybe Marines also." And I have a very hard time believing at this stage that Oda had any grand plans for some sort of colossal organizational force that is the world government. I do think that this increasingly complex entity spawned out of necessity to both escalate the story and neatly tie up some problems that were developing as a result of length. And you can see this exact thing happening with the very first appearance of the world government, which is in chapter 142. This was during Drum Island, and it was a flashback to the Reverie, where King Cobra had an argument with King Wapol, and then Wapol, well, he slapped a child. You know, prior to meeting Princess Vivi, there was no such thing as kings or kingdoms in the One Piece world. East Blue had none, and every other island we'd heard of, like Vera, was defined as a country, not a kingdom. It was only after we got into the Grand Line that Oda decided, "Hey, I think kingdoms exist." So, we visited Drum, we visited Alabasta, and the kingdoms, they have kept on coming ever since. However, this came with the need for an explanation for how these kingdoms coexist with one another and the solution at the time was the Reverie, a regular event where kings who were part of this world government alliance would come to discuss pressing issues and to take action. It is a very very logical conclusion. And while Stota also does draw a very early version of the Holy Land of Mary Geoise in chapter 142, there is no sign of world nobles, the five elders, Cipher Pol, or any element at all of the world government apart from its name and that of course includes Holy Knights who are very not there either. So, one hypothesis is that the world government was originally supposed to be what the empty throne is supposed to represent today. A number of kingdoms that all came together to make an alliance without a ruling body. And you can perhaps see the remnants of this today because the most recent Reverie, it is a bit of an odd event. You have all of these kings and queens gathering at the Holy Land of Mary Geoise to discuss world issues but with no actual involvement from the world government. The world nobles and the five elders seem to have no jurisdiction over what happens at the Reverie, which is a very big deal when powerful decisions such as abolishing the seven warlords of the sea come out of it. So, what you have the world nobles giving complete control of global affairs to a bunch of people that they quite literally consider to be lower than insects. It is a weird system and I think that it comes from the fact that the Reverie existed before the world government as we know them today existed. And the ongoing creation process of the world government, it's always been a bit messy. may not look like it after going through Whole Cake Island and Alabasta where the world government is the core antagonist, but the world government was never really Oda's focus. The vast vast majority of One Piece is geared towards piracy with two notable saga-rific exceptions, Water 7 and the Paramount War. And Water 7 introduced us to some of my personal favorite antagonists in the series, Cipher Pol 9 or CP9. And as much as I love these guys, they've always been a source of logistical issues. The existence of Cipher Pol itself is well known throughout the world. Your general citizens know that there are eight cells, CP1 through CP8. However, on Water 7, we learn that there is a top secret ninth cell, CP9, which no one knows about. It's a secret. That is until them being a secret becomes irrelevant to the plot. After CP9 are revealed to us, we've had our shocks and our gasps. Then all of a sudden, everyone in the world knows about CP9. To the point where Luffy's victory over Rob Lucci was announced via a loudspeaker on Enies Lobby, which shocked everyone when they should in fact be more confused because no one outside of the very top of the World Government should even know who Rob Lucci is. But it turns out that Rob Lucci, he's something of a celebrity. Not just amongst the World Government, but also the Marines and even some of the general public. Which makes you wonder how he was so successful as an undercover agent within Galley-La, given that he didn't even change his name. He was Rob Lucci the entire time. What an alias. And furthermore, CP9 at the time were said to be the very top. They were the most secret. They were the most powerful. Until too much time in the story had gone on and Oda had to create CP0. A cell that is even less secret than CP9, given that every random citizen seems to recognize them no matter where they go. Now, CP0, they do have the distinction of being under the direct command of the World Nobles. And there are instances of, say, Saint Charlos giving them orders. But for the most part, they directly serve the five elders, which is exactly what CP9 did. There's a bit of a misconception that Spandam was in charge of CP9, but he was a member of CP9, the leader of the cell who reported directly to the five elders. So, the two cells, your CP9s and your CP0s, they're more or less the same in terms of functionality. And in fact, they're quite literally the same in the respect that most of CP0's membership are the former CP9 members, including Spandam. And given that they largely serve the same purpose that CP9 was employed with, what Oda has done here is more of a CP9 reskin. They have white outfits now, and that means that they are stronger. And they are, but not strong enough. Because when we did get to go up against CP0 on Egghead Island, and Lucci was defeated by not only Luffy again, but he was also defeated by a bandanaless Zoro, which is quite the insult. But the issue there is that after Egghead Island, well, the story wasn't over yet. And we don't have a lot of options here to escalate. At this point, Oda has almost exhausted his roster of pirates. Luffy has already beaten an emperor of the sea. He is an emperor of the sea. And there's really only Blackbeard remaining as an antagonist in the world of piracy, but we're not ready to go there yet. So, we have to put that on hold for now and focus on the other antagonistic force in the series, the World Government. However, that's tricky because we don't have a lot of people to fight. In terms of the World Government, we already dealt with the super top secret strong CP9s, and we've also dealt with the other, much less secret, but super strong CP0. So, what are our options here? Do we reskin CP0 and make them CP-1, or do we make them redundant by introducing yet another secret World Government organization? I will take the second one, s'il vous plaît. The Holy Knights are the new Cipher Pol. They do everything that a CP cell would be charged with, just with the privilege of being World Nobles and having access to a teeny bit of Imu powers. Like Figarland Garling's mission to infiltrate God Valley, or Saturn's who used to be assigned with the task of capturing baby Shanks from those nasty nasty Roger Pirates, or even recently with Saint Garling orchestrating the downfall of Elbaf to acquire One Piece or Gungnir. The Holy Knights are very espionage centric characters that now make CP0 redundant in the same way that CP0 made CP9 redundant. I will give Oda more credit than that, though, because I believe we can pinpoint the existence of the Holy Knights in One Piece back to chapter 907, which is the aforementioned first appearance of Figarland Shamrock, even if we didn't know it. And Garling was introduced in chapter 1086, which was before the Holy Knights were decided to be the antagonist of the Elbaf arc. So, Oda has laid them in much earlier. However, for the first 906 chapters of One Piece, I am convinced that there were no Holy Knights and even no Knights planned, only days. And I think that the incident that displays this best may be the Paramount War. In hindsight, it does raise the amusing image of Marineford descending into absolute chaos with the fate of the World Government in question, whilst the Holy Knights were just sitting at home in Shangara, polishing their swords and feeding their dogs, which are also their swords, and saying to themselves, "Yeah, that sounds like a Marine problem." And I guess in defense of this, I don't believe that there were any World Government agents at Marineford, no Cipher Pol agents that I'm aware of anyway. Marineford was exactly that, a Marine operation. The Admiral Sengoku, Garp, the Warlords, who are not Marines, but it doesn't matter, and an army of about 100,000 were expected to handle the Whitebeard Pirates. And that's not quite the purpose that the Holy Knights exist to serve. They're not there to win wars. They exist to ensure that the World Nobles are always excessively comfortable all of the yummy lobster they want. And I can definitely see a solid argument for keeping them at the Holy Land because Marie Geoise would have been more or less defenseless with the majority of the Marine forces being dedicated to the Paramount War. But all of that is me making excuses because the real answer is that the Holy Knights, they almost certainly didn't exist. In fact, back in these days, I doubt that Imu existed. And the Five Elders, they did exist, but they were portrayed more as politicians than fighters. Thinkers, not doers. Suits, not swords. Pens, not meetings, not melee. More bingo than battlefield and more likely to ask you to speak up than square up because they're old and they can't hear you properly, etc. We could go on like this. And the funny thing is that even though we've seen the Five Elders fight now, it's still kind of true because mate, do they suck. So, were the Holy Knights planned from the beginning of One Piece? Personally, I don't think so. Oda, in his mind, he had the broad strokes of them from his other prototype series, but the specific organization only came together in One Piece much, much later. And again, that is not a criticism. It is arguably Oda's greatest strength as a writer. He has this incredible talent for rummaging through 30-year-old notebooks, finding a sketch labeled "Tonight Guy, maybe?" and then somehow turning it into one of the most important characters in One Piece. And at this point, I'm convinced that Oda could rediscover an old grocery list and decide that the villains of the next arc going to be canned tuna, frozen peas, and hemorrhoid cream, and I will still somehow end up making a 20-minute theory video explaining why that was obvious all along. So, look forward to that video, but for now, you let me know what you think about all of this in the comments below.