One Piece: What will happen to Garp after chapter 1126? Explored

The eccentric but caring grandfather of One Piece’s main protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, Monkey D. Garp can be considered as the strongest Marine officer of all time. In his prime days, he was powerful enough to fight on par with the Pirate King Gol D. Roger, even cornering him more than once. Garp was offered the rank of Marine Admiral several times, but he always declined the promotion.

Exuberant and free-spirited, Garp didn’t want to be in direct dependence on the Celestial Dragons, whom he deeply despised. Thus, he remained a Vice Admiral even though his overall strength surpassed even that of the Admirals. Now a 78-year-old man, Garp stormed the island of Hachinosu to rescue his beloved disciple Koby.

Despite his old age, he single-handedly engaged former Admiral Kuzan “Aokiji”, the highly dangerous Shiryu, and several other powerful members of the Blackbeard Pirates. Eventually, Garp sacrifices himself to help Koby and the others escape. This left fans guessing about Garp’s fate until One Piece chapter 1126 revealed that he is still alive but has been taken captive by Blackbeard, which opens up various interesting narrative scenarios.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the One Piece manga up to chapter 1126.

One Piece chapter 1126 confirms that Garp is alive, but what will Blackbeard do with him?

The 78-year-old Garp’s heroic last stand

Garp arrives on Hachinosu (Image via Toei Animation)

Upon hearing that the Blackbeard Pirates had kidnapped Koby, Garp recruited some young Marine officers of the SWORD group and immediately headed to Hachinosu. His arrival on the island was memorable, as he jumped down from his ship, destroying the surrounding area with a tremendous punch imbued in Armament Haki and even Conqueror’s Haki.

Confronted by his former disciple and colleague Kuzan, Garp demanded that he return to the Navy. As Kuzan refused, the two began fighting, and Garp quickly outmanoeuvred Kuzan. This is incredibly impressive, considering both Garp’s old age, which diminished his power compared to his prime, and the fact that Kuzan was able to hold his own against Sakazuki “Akainu” for ten days before losing.

Garp then easily outclassed Sanjuan Wolf and Vasco Shot. Shortly after, however, Shiryu used Koby as bait to stab Garp with his Armament Haki-enhanced sword, inflicting a nasty wound on him. Garp deliberately took the attack to shield Koby, who would otherwise have been helpless against Shiryu.

Garp displays his immense strength (Image via Toei Animation)

The injury weakened Garp, but he still managed to clash on par with Kuzan. Garp then decided to put the safety of Koby and the other young officers ahead of his own. After sending Kuzan flying with a punch, he jumped towards Hachinosu’s enormous skull-shaped rock, which Pizarro was controlling with his Devil Fruit power to attack the ship that Koby’s comrades were using to escape.

Garp gathered his Haki and struck the skull-shaped stone into halves. The backlash of the blow left Pizarro badly injured. Shortly after, Koby completed the work as he unleashed his hidden strength to destroy Pizarro’s stone arm. While Koby and the other Marines reached safety together on the ship, Garp stayed behind to cover their retreat.

Eventually, Garp succumbed to his opponents. Smiling and laughing as he used a Radio Snail to tell Koby and the others to never forget that they were the future of the Navy, Garp was shown lying on the ground, surrounded by the Blackbeard Pirates, his chest pierced by Kuzan’s ice.

Garp put his life on the line without a second thought, happily sacrificing himself to protect the young Marines of SWORD. With his deed, he also urged Koby to evolve and unleash his true potential.

Garp’s fate is revealed in One Piece chapter 1126

Garp as seen in One Piece chapter 1088 (Image via Toei Animation)

At the time of his last appearance in the One Piece manga, in chapter 1088, Garp’s situation seemed desperate. Shiryu and Kuzan had given him two grievous stab wounds. Also, Kuzan was about to use the Ice-Ice Fruit to freeze him completely.

In One Piece, D. carriers are typically shown not to fear death, embracing it with a smile when they know it’s the right time, or when they are aware that there’s no other possible outcome for them but certain doom. Garp is one of the few to carry the initial D in their names and was last seen smiling and accepting his fate, whatever it might be.

While this boded for the worst, One Piece chapter 1126 confirmed that Garp wasn’t killed. Granted, Luffy’s grandfather has seen better days, but he is alive, and that’s all that matters. Finally returned to Hachinosu after fighting and defeating Trafalgar Law, Marshall D. Teach “Blackbeard” congratulates his subordinates for capturing Garp.

As Blackbeard mentions that there aren’t many people who can take down Garp, Kuzan admits that their victory over the old Marine was a team effort, as he and the others all ganged up on him. Meanwhile, Garp is shown inside a dark cell, covered in bandages and shackled in multiple big chains. Ironically, the panel which shows Garp chained reminds of his foster nephew Portgas D. Ace’s situation before the Paramount War.

Garp is the most valuable hostage Blackbeard could ask for

Garp "The Fist" as seen in One Piece (Image via Toei Animation)

Even at his ripe old age, Garp remains one of the strongest One Piece characters, as evidenced by his display of power on Hachinosu. He either overpowered or at least matched Kuzan every time he clashed with him. Even after being weakened by Shiryu’s attack, Garp was able to get the better of Kuzan.

This is all the more impressive as Garp wasn’t even really trying to beat him, but just to clear a path for Koby and the others. Most of the times that Garp and Kuzan clashed, the former Admiral was the aggressor, while the old Marine limited himself to counterattack.

Despite ignoring Garp’s reprimands during their recent fight, it’s possible that Kuzan never actually denied his ideals. Perhaps, the former Admiral never had a change of heart but joined Teach to keep tabs on him. If so, he fought Garp to prove his loyalty to the Blackbeard Pirates, gaining their trust to betray them when the right time came.

Whatever Kuzan’s real intentions are, Garp may become a pawn in Marshall D. Teach’s game, reluctantly. Given Koby’s fame as the hero of the Rocky Port Incident, Teach wanted to use his life as a bargaining chip to blackmail the World Government into officially recognizing Hachinosu as a sovereign country.

Now, Teach “Blackbeard” no longer has Koby. Still, with Garp, he gained a hostage even more valuable than the young Marine. Garp is a living legend, which would force the World Government and the Navy to accept Blackbeard’s demands.

Blackbeard can use Pudding to read Garp's memories

Marshall D. Teach "Blackbeard" (Image via Toei Animation)

Also, Teach has recently captured Charlotte Pudding, the user of the Memo-Memo Fruit. Considering both his relationships with multiple individuals of global importance as well as his decades of experience as a high-ranked member of the Navy, Garp’s memories represent an exceptional source of information.

By forcing Pudding to extract Garp’s memories, Teach could learn every secret of the God Valley Incident. During this major event, which took place 38 years before One Piece's current narration, Garp teamed up with Roger to fight against Rocks D. Xebec. After a tremendous battle, the Rocks Pirates were ultimately defeated.

One Piece author Eiichiro Oda could use this expedient as a narrative device to finally show what happened in God Valley. As for Blackbeard, it’s a well-known fact that he is particularly interested in everything related to Rocks. A testament to this, he even named his main ship “Saber of Xebec”.

In God Valley, Xebec and his men stole several powerful Devil Fruits. By reading Garp’s memories, Blackbeard could learn what sort of Devil Fruits they were, and who exactly took them. Through unknown means, Blackbeard can eat multiple Devil Fruits and handle their powers.

The Blackbeard Pirates captured Pudding (Image via Toei Animation)

He already has the Dark-Dark Fruit and the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, the strongest Logia and the strongest Paramecia, respectively. So, he could be after a certain Mythical Zoan which he knows was stolen by someone in God Valley.

Another hypothesis is that Blackbeard will use Pudding to read Garp’s memories and discover where Xebec’s body is. Perhaps, he plans to use Gecko Moria’s Shadow-Shadow Fruit to raise Xebec from the dead, reanimating his corpse as a zombie by putting Garp’s shadow into it. This would also explain why Blackbeard was so upset when he heard that Moria managed to escape from Hachinosu.

On that note, it’s worth remembering that, shortly before the current events, Blackbeard came across “Dark King” Silvers Rayleigh. Everyone is aware that, as the former right-hand man of Roger, Rayleigh went on Laughtale, where he witnessed the One Piece treasure and learned all the world’s greatest secrets. This makes Rayleigh’s memories a priceless source of information.

Even then, Blackbeard didn’t even think about trying to subdue Rayleigh to read them. If anything, as soon as Rayleigh arrived on the scene, Blackbeard gave up his previous intent and left the place, tail tucked between his legs. In retrospect, this episode only raises the hype around Rayleigh’s strength to the highest levels.

Garp is such a valuable hostage for Blackbeard (Image via Toei Animation)

Notably, Pudding’s Memo-Memo Fruit also allows her to remove specific memories from a target and replace them with new memories of her choice. By doing so, she can manipulate people into doing what she wants. Teach may have Pudding remove Garp’s memories, turning him into a mindless brute who would fight on behalf of the Blackbeard Pirates.

It would be heartbreaking to see Garp, a man who takes pride in his Navy membership and has always acted according to his moral code, being controlled by Blackbeard and forced to fight against Luffy. Still, it’s certainly a possibility.

Under normal circumstances, Garp would use his overwhelming Haki to easily stop the effects of Pudding’s Devil Fruit, but, in his current condition, he may not have enough energy to resist. Needless to say, whatever Teach does with Garp will only give Luffy an additional reason and further motivation to fight the former, who can be considered his nemesis at this point.