One Piece anime may have teased Buggy and Shanks' parental origins via Garling Figarland's character design

Modified Sep 24, 2024 08:00 GMT

One Piece anime may have teased Buggy and Shanks' parental origins via Garling Figarland's character design (Image via Toei Animation)

One Piece episode 1120 was released on September 22, 2024, and the reveal of Garling Figarland's blond hair took the internet by storm as the fandom was expecting it to be red just like Shanks. However, the reveal of Garling's hair color could be the reveal of him being the father of a famous clown pirate, as revealed by Buggy's hair color during the Stampede movie.

While this does put Shanks' status with Garling as unknown, it brings the red hair closer to the mysterious Rocks D Xebec because of the similarity between the facial features of Shanks and Xebec as confirmed by the great Whitebeard.

So, where the fandom was mixing their lineages, the reality could be much different than the fandom's imagination.

Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed in this article solely belong to the author.

One Piece: Exploring the relationship between Buggy and Garling Figarland

Buggy as seen in the movie (Image via Toei Animation)

One Piece episode 1120 revealed Garling Figarland after he executed the Celestial Dragon Saint Donquixote Mjosgard for helping the trash (Fisherman tribe) by hurting a fellow Celestial Dragon.

To the fandom's surprise, Garling's hair color was golden, blowing away the theories of the manga fandom speculating he was the father of Red-Hair Shanks.

However, this reveal of Garling's true hair color could have given another pirate the status of Garling's son due to his 'true' hair color that was revealed in a movie of the series.

One Piece Stampede movie showcased the current Emperor of the Sea, Buggy, in blonde hair, even though his hair color has been showcased as blue from the start of the series.

This could mean that Buggy is hiding his true identity from the world by turning his hair blue. Moreover, the anime character design of Garling had a pointy nose which doesn't resemble Shanks but resembles Buggy's hidden nose that is hidden through a fake red nose. This could make Buggy the 'potential' son of Garling Figarland.

The relationship between Shanks and Rocks D Xebec

Rocks D Xebec as seen in the anime (Image via Toei Animation)

If Garling Figarland isn't the father of Shanks, who could be the father of Shanks? This was hinted at during the first meeting between Shanks and Whitebeard in the series when the latter berated the former by saying that his face burned the scar on his face which he received in the past.

As the series hasn't revealed who could have delivered this scar, the only mysterious personality that could have done this is Rocks D Xebec.

Whitebeard was part of Rocks Pirates in the past which was led by Rocks D Xebec who wanted to become the King of the World but couldn't keep a crew together due to his selfish nature and the Rocks Pirates' disbanded.

As Whitebeard is a very forgiving person, Rocks could have done something to Whitebeard's real family which resulted in their fight, due to which Whitebeard received his scar.

Shanks' face reminding Whitebeard of the person who gave him that scar could mean that Shanks is the son of Rocks D Xebec.

Final thoughts

As it goes without saying, this article is highly speculative in nature as it theorizes about elements from non-canon material (movie). However, the movies related to the series have confirmed canon information in the past (Aokiji's broken leg). Moreover, considering these speculations correct, Buggy's personality does meet that of the Celestial Dragons, which could mean that he is the son of Garling.

However, this one theory turning true could ruin so many others like the Shanks' twin theory and Buggy's relationship with the Nefartari clan.

So, take this theory just as entertainment and, as always, wait for confirmation from the source material.

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Edited by Prem Deshpande