Okay, this is going to be INCREDIBLY unlikely. And I'm sure you'll all point and laugh at me for even bringing this up. But, the idea won't leave me alone, as sometimes theories do. So, I'm inflicting you all with it.
Could Colon's dad actually be....Crocodile?
Crocodile is currently 46 years old. So, that would make him much younger than Ripley. Who, if she's around Hajrudin's age from coming from the same era, is probably around her 80s.
And he kinda-sorta fits being called a "former pirate"....if you squint and take a VERY liberal definition of "former". He did basically quit piracy to become an "adviser" in Alabasta for a number of years. And even afterwards, he joined up with Cross Guild, which was technically more of a offshoot of Buggy's Delivery Service business rather than strictly being a pirate organization. And even Cross Guild's return to piracy is a relatively recent development that they might not have heard about on Elbaph. Or maybe Crocodile is just straight-up lying to his family, since he does have a history of keeping secrets like with Baroque Works.
We know he did make it to the New World back in his youth. We don't know how far he got, but we do know he made it at least partially into the New World. So, it's POSSIBLE that he made it all the way to Elbaph back when he was younger. So, he could have met and fell in love with Ripley back then.
And the biggest thing is, we know sometime around 20 years ago, Ivankov learned a secret "weakness" about Crocodile that he used as leverage against him on Impel Down (Chapter 540). And as Dragon pointed out..."a child is a parent's weak spot" (Chapter 1101).
We know Giants age about 3 times slower than humans. But, a half-Giant may age slightly faster than that, maybe only 2 times as slow. So, if the "weakness" that Ivankov learned about was Ripley and a baby Colon, it would work out if Colon was born around 20 years ago, making him about 10 years old now in Giant years. The timeline does feel like it mostly matches up.
The biggest problem with this idea is that...well, chances are Crocodile probably isn't on Elbaph right now. From the sound of the barmaid in chapter 1132, Colon's dad is probably currently on the island.
But, we also don't know for sure where exactly Cross Guild is at the moment, either. The last we saw of them in chapter 1122 listening to Vegapunk's message. It isn't likely, but it's possible that they could be on Elbaph. But, if so, they only JUST got there right before the Strawhats did. Maybe Crocodile secretly stopped on Elbaph to have a picnic with his family? We don't even know for sure where exactly Cross Guild was headed. But, Elbaph IS on the way to Laugh Tale, which is Buggy's end goal, so...maybe?
But, I'll just mention that it's possible that the father isn't actually Crocodile...but Crocodile's twin brother! Yeah, yeah, I know that I'm just making things up at this point. But, this entire Elbaph arc may end up having some sort of theme of "twins" or "mistaken identity" around it. What with "Pranks" showing up, and all the different Sun God-wannabes we've gotten in only a handful of chapters. We don't know what Crocodile's original crew was pre-Baroque Works. Maybe he had a brother on his crew that stayed on Elbaph before Crocodile's crew lost their fight against Whitebeard? Maybe Oda wants another set of twins to contrast the relationship between Shanks and "Pranks"? I'm just throwing the idea out there.
But, I don't know, I kind of like the idea that Crocodile has this secret family he's been trying to hide so they don't get targeted due to his criminal activities. Leading a double life that his family isn't really aware of. And it would be nice to know what secret Ivankov was talking about, after all these years. I think it's a interesting idea.
I doubt I'm right. But, hey, crazier things have happened in this manga.
