I sure love the character but yeah, I really hope Oda answers this question one day...
Even taking SWORD into account (and we're not even sure he is part of it, are we ?) and imagining it turns into this amazing plot against the CD, fuck yeah !
You would have 1) SWORD, 2) positive influence on some other marines (maybe even some pirates ?) and 3) saving civilians from evil pirates aka his job...
Versus closing his eyes on slaves in hamster wheels and triannual genocide (lol) and whatever the fuck else he clearly witnessed, for decades.
So yeah, I hope there's a good explanation, or I hope Dadan puts a bullet in his head next time.
Honestly? What would change if Garp and Sengoku founded Sword? All the group at the end of the day is a way for "rogue" Marines to act unrestricted by red tape. I am sorry, but they are not exactly out here putting celestial dragons in jail or killing them, are they?
My main issue with the Marines is that they follow Celestial Dragon and World Government orders and ignore the crimes of the people they work for. Even somebody like Koby, whether he knows it or not, is acting on behalf of the people who enslaved Boa Hancock and her people. Even via the fucked-up laws of One Piece setting nothing about attacking a foreign head of state for the crime of not jumping when their former slave masters tell them too seems like justice to me.
Sword, as an organization, resigned themselves from the actual command structure of the Marines but still operated on their behalf.
Even if I give Koby the benefit of the doubt that he would act differently in Garps shoes at God Valley and he saw the shit Celestial Dragons do firsthand? Sword as a group is pretty much just Marines who are tired of bureaucracy, not some sort of group of morally righteous people that are tired of the Celestial Dragon system and the injustice it carries out.
They aren't out here ending slavery operations or some shit like that. They arent liberating countries like the Revos either.
Let's say Garp actually founded the group with the goal of helping people more. Why the secrecy? Why not shout from the rooftops that he wants to help more but the world government doesn't let him? Garp, at least as far as I am concerned, more than earned that bullet from Dadan regardless of whatever else Oda has planned for the guy.
Because no matter what the fuck he reveals Garp to have done "behind the scenes" after the fact to explain his inactivity thus far, there should be no need to do it behind the scenes in the first place! Dragon gets clowned by like half the fandom for "not doing enough," but at least the motherfucker actually left the Marines and said "enough is enough" at some point.
Garp? He spent over three decades plus after God Valley happened, still being a Marine, without changing SHIT about the organization of which he was the biggest hero, and which was led for at least a good couple of years by his best friend Sengoku.
He doesn't even quit the Marines or make some fucking stament at least when Ace is about the be excuted. Ace, the boy he considers his grandson, he hid from his fellow Marines, who (as far as we are told in the story) has done NOTHING worth executing him over. Hell, Garp even directly shows up to Marineford in full uniform and basically tells Ace, "I told you to be a Marine like me; why didn't you listen?" in Impel Down which, to be real, gets more and more funny the longer I think about it.
Yeah, Garp, I have no idea why Ace didn't join the group that wanted to kill him and his mom for the crime of existing when that seems like such a tempting offer. If he were like you, he might have been able to keep Saint Charlors from getting his ass kicked during the next God Valley-style human hunt. Wouldn't that have been nice?
