Yeah, guys, I know: this Rocks D. Xebec guy is the new toy every kid is talking about and Roger is in fraud watch; but let’s be reasonable for once.
Let’s take a look at the way Roger has been portrayed both individually and in relation to Rocks’ own portrayal so far:
1) Shiki laughed at being confused as Rocks' follower by Harald and stated Rocks was a fool whose death wouldn't affect him in the least.
Meanwhile, let's see how Shiki treated Roger and what his reaction was to his capture and death:
I mean, do you imagine Shiki feeling this emotionally crushed by Rocks' death, which he allegedly wouldn't care about in the slightest...?
...Yeah, me neither.
2) Kaidou used Roger as prime example of the power that transcends any other and which you could conquer the world with.
Wait a minute... Conquering the world... wanting devil fruits to do so... What does this all sound like...?
...Oh, right! Rocks wanted to conquer the world and needed devil fruits to do so, yet here we are: his former cabin boy is praising Roger's haki while stating you can't conquer the world with devil fruits "because only haki transcend all".
No surprise Roger was clearly depicted in a more prominent way than Rocks in Kaidou's own imagination of his top...
No surprise Roger and Whitebeard were, coincidentally, the two pirates with the highest bounties in the history of piracy:
3) Remember Whitebeard, the World's Strongest Man? His hype consistently came from being comparable to Roger, never the other way around.
4) Speaking of Roger's legacy, let's talk about the legacy left by Rocks... had he left any.
5) Roger, the Pirate King: conqueror atop conquerors.
So hopefully, after these five points, you regain your senses and don't fall for recency hype.
But, if you still want to defend Rocks, let me just borrow his own "crewmate"'s words:
Let’s take a look at the way Roger has been portrayed both individually and in relation to Rocks’ own portrayal so far:
1) Shiki laughed at being confused as Rocks' follower by Harald and stated Rocks was a fool whose death wouldn't affect him in the least.
Meanwhile, let's see how Shiki treated Roger and what his reaction was to his capture and death:
I mean, do you imagine Shiki feeling this emotionally crushed by Rocks' death, which he allegedly wouldn't care about in the slightest...?
...Yeah, me neither.
2) Kaidou used Roger as prime example of the power that transcends any other and which you could conquer the world with.
Wait a minute... Conquering the world... wanting devil fruits to do so... What does this all sound like...?
...Oh, right! Rocks wanted to conquer the world and needed devil fruits to do so, yet here we are: his former cabin boy is praising Roger's haki while stating you can't conquer the world with devil fruits "because only haki transcend all".
No surprise Roger was clearly depicted in a more prominent way than Rocks in Kaidou's own imagination of his top...
No surprise Roger and Whitebeard were, coincidentally, the two pirates with the highest bounties in the history of piracy:
3) Remember Whitebeard, the World's Strongest Man? His hype consistently came from being comparable to Roger, never the other way around.
Imagine how strong you must be to serve as reference to hype the World's Strongest Man's own strength both when Whitebeard was hyped for the first time...
...and for the last time as a literal farewell after his death:
Whether at life or death, a whole generation of readers were capable of picturing Whitebeard's absolute strength solely because he could, at most, match Roger's own power. Never surpass it, never was Roger hyped for evenly matching Whitebeard but always the other way around. No surprise another Rocks' pirate treated Whitebeard as the king of their era only after Roger wasn't around anymore:
I mean, just imagine how much Whitebeard respected Roger that he even dedicated his final breath to prolong Roger's legacy, not his own, by assuring Teach he wasn't the man Roger was waiting for and by confirming to the world that the One Piece is real.
But, let's be honest here, maybe Whitebeard respected Rocks just as much...
...Well, I guess he didn't.
...and for the last time as a literal farewell after his death:
Whether at life or death, a whole generation of readers were capable of picturing Whitebeard's absolute strength solely because he could, at most, match Roger's own power. Never surpass it, never was Roger hyped for evenly matching Whitebeard but always the other way around. No surprise another Rocks' pirate treated Whitebeard as the king of their era only after Roger wasn't around anymore:
I mean, just imagine how much Whitebeard respected Roger that he even dedicated his final breath to prolong Roger's legacy, not his own, by assuring Teach he wasn't the man Roger was waiting for and by confirming to the world that the One Piece is real.
But, let's be honest here, maybe Whitebeard respected Rocks just as much...
...Well, I guess he didn't.
4) Speaking of Roger's legacy, let's talk about the legacy left by Rocks... had he left any.
One of the most consistent portrayals of the Pirates of Rocks that we've gotten so far is that they were dysfunctional and would fight and kill each other in such a hateful daily basis that it probably affected at how little legacy they left:
At the end of the day, nobody truly respected Rocks, a captain without a real crew and a leader with no followers. Rocks was so bad at managing such wild, powerful beasts that Whitebeard carried a trauma:
Whitebeard didn't want Oden aboard because Oden was a free man, a powerful man, a conqueror, and such breed wouldn't serve someone else according to his own experience as a Rocks pirate...
...but guess who mesmerized this same Oden; yes, you got it right:
Know who else was mesmerized by Roger and would follow him to death? These guys:
Two absolute powerhouses and conquerors on their own. Because, unlike Rocks, Roger could handle as loyal followers not one, not two, but minimum three top tier conquerors in the form of Rayleigh, Gaban and Oden.
Which leads us to the next and final point...
At the end of the day, nobody truly respected Rocks, a captain without a real crew and a leader with no followers. Rocks was so bad at managing such wild, powerful beasts that Whitebeard carried a trauma:
Whitebeard didn't want Oden aboard because Oden was a free man, a powerful man, a conqueror, and such breed wouldn't serve someone else according to his own experience as a Rocks pirate...
...but guess who mesmerized this same Oden; yes, you got it right:
Know who else was mesmerized by Roger and would follow him to death? These guys:
Two absolute powerhouses and conquerors on their own. Because, unlike Rocks, Roger could handle as loyal followers not one, not two, but minimum three top tier conquerors in the form of Rayleigh, Gaban and Oden.
Which leads us to the next and final point...
5) Roger, the Pirate King: conqueror atop conquerors.
"But 'Pirate King' is just a title!", many readers believe. And, to some extent, they're right: "Pirate King", as the title given by media, bears no meaning —but the way the piracy world conceives this notion is way, way more significant. But let's read Chinjao's words first:
This veteran explains it perfectly: the Pirate King is the supreme king who stands above the rest of the supreme kings, in other words: the conqueror atop conquerors. Not only does this reminds of Kaidou's portrayal of Roger of a supreme conqueror as prime example of the power that transcends all, but allows us to make some further connections regarding Roger's strength...
First, if Roger, per his status as king of all pirates, was the conqueror atop conquerors, then he had the strongest conqueror's haki; remember the whole conversation between Luffy and Chinjao revolved around having conqueror's haki and asking Luffy what kind of king he wanted to become. And guess what? The strength of your conqueror's can't be trained: it grows the stronger you become according to Rayleigh.
Which, if we follow some basic logic, leads us to an also basic conclusion: if Roger's conqueror's was above anyone else's, and if conqueror's can't be trained but grows stronger the stronger its user grows, then Roger grew stronger than anyone else...
...which isn't surprising because Luffy, the main character, the man who carries Roger's will, the man who wants to become the Pirate King just like Roger did, will also become stronger than anyone else:
But why does Luffy want to become the strongest person in the whole world? Well, as he well stated against Blueno, he wants to be the strongest so he can protect his friends. This comes from his childhood trauma of losing Sabo, as he felt he wasn't strong enough to prevent such loss:
But why is this so important? Because not only was Sabo's loss related to Ace and Luffy's weakness, but to the strength of the oppressors who killed him. The narrative here, as expressed through Ace, was that Sabo "died" because someone who was the opposite of freedom stole from him the chance to grasp freedom himself:
In other words, Luffy wanted to become the strongest in the world because he wanted to protect his loved ones from those who oppose freedom, so everybody, not only himself, would be capable of living free. This direct, explicit link between strength and freedom is foundational for Luffy's dream to become the Pirate King.
Because, remember, why does Luffy want to be come the Pirate King...?
And since Luffy wants to become the Pirate King because that's the freest person in the whole world, and considering Luffy links freedom to strength as he wants to become the strongest person so nobody who opposes freedom can do to his friends what they did to Sabo, what does all of this says about Roger's own strength?
Yeah, you know as well as I do.
This veteran explains it perfectly: the Pirate King is the supreme king who stands above the rest of the supreme kings, in other words: the conqueror atop conquerors. Not only does this reminds of Kaidou's portrayal of Roger of a supreme conqueror as prime example of the power that transcends all, but allows us to make some further connections regarding Roger's strength...
First, if Roger, per his status as king of all pirates, was the conqueror atop conquerors, then he had the strongest conqueror's haki; remember the whole conversation between Luffy and Chinjao revolved around having conqueror's haki and asking Luffy what kind of king he wanted to become. And guess what? The strength of your conqueror's can't be trained: it grows the stronger you become according to Rayleigh.
Which, if we follow some basic logic, leads us to an also basic conclusion: if Roger's conqueror's was above anyone else's, and if conqueror's can't be trained but grows stronger the stronger its user grows, then Roger grew stronger than anyone else...
...which isn't surprising because Luffy, the main character, the man who carries Roger's will, the man who wants to become the Pirate King just like Roger did, will also become stronger than anyone else:
But why does Luffy want to become the strongest person in the whole world? Well, as he well stated against Blueno, he wants to be the strongest so he can protect his friends. This comes from his childhood trauma of losing Sabo, as he felt he wasn't strong enough to prevent such loss:
But why is this so important? Because not only was Sabo's loss related to Ace and Luffy's weakness, but to the strength of the oppressors who killed him. The narrative here, as expressed through Ace, was that Sabo "died" because someone who was the opposite of freedom stole from him the chance to grasp freedom himself:
In other words, Luffy wanted to become the strongest in the world because he wanted to protect his loved ones from those who oppose freedom, so everybody, not only himself, would be capable of living free. This direct, explicit link between strength and freedom is foundational for Luffy's dream to become the Pirate King.
Because, remember, why does Luffy want to be come the Pirate King...?
And since Luffy wants to become the Pirate King because that's the freest person in the whole world, and considering Luffy links freedom to strength as he wants to become the strongest person so nobody who opposes freedom can do to his friends what they did to Sabo, what does all of this says about Roger's own strength?
Yeah, you know as well as I do.
So hopefully, after these five points, you regain your senses and don't fall for recency hype.
But, if you still want to defend Rocks, let me just borrow his own "crewmate"'s words:
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