The following article contains spoilers for One Piece.
As One piece progresses to the Final Saga, fans are excited as always to find out if Luffy can fulfill his dream of becoming the Pirate King and his crew finds One piece treasure. With the latest developments, we learned more about the New World and its ruling class. But as the story reveals more about the World Nobles, it becomes increasingly clear that the government and many Marine Corps officials are not of the same mind.
The Marines were initially introduced as the main antagonists, although there are many officers who are good people trying to protect others. While fans have always thought that some members of the navy would eventually rebel, the final arc would have benefited greatly from high-ranking officials betraying the government or at least organizing some kind of rebellion against the nobles. Let's dive deeper into the relationship between the Navy and the government in the series.
World government in one piece
In the universe of the series, the world is mostly ruled by the World Government, a federation of over 170 nations. However, most people live on islands scattered throughout the Blue Sea. The World Government is an aristocratic oligarchy led by the World Nobles, also called the Sky Dragons. Among the World Nobles are the Five Elders, a council of five supreme authorities.
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The World Government aims to maintain peace and order throughout the world. Even though it is made up of affiliated nations, it exercises power as if it rules the entire world through many layers of governance. Aside from the Five Elders, many decisions are made during Levely council meetings. Like any other government, the world government relies on judicial, police, and military institutions to maintain order, the Marines being one of them.
There is said to be no single king to rule the kingdom, and that would represent the Empty Throne. But in reality, the throne is occupied by Ima, the secret ruler of the world.
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Pirates as symbols of discontent
Technically speaking, pirates are criminals who mainly raid ships and places across the Blue Sea. They usually act in groups (so-called crews) and there are usually high rewards for those who catch them. Although commonly seen as greedy and ruthless, in one piece we see many pirates who are actually good and adventurous treasure hunters like the Straw Crew.
As the story progressed and the manga began to delve deeper into the politics of this universe, it became clear that the “good pirates” often oppose the world government. There are even organizations that aim to overthrow the government, such as the Revolutionary Army, but not all pirates who oppose the status quo necessarily intend to join revolutionary movements.
The role of the Marine Corps in maintaining the status quo
The Marines or Navy is an institution that “controls the seas” through law enforcement and naval warfare. It acts as a mix of both police and military forces (as the military is not usually responsible for general law enforcement). It is one part of a larger structure that the government uses to maintain its control, but it is the primary military force. The government also controls the Seraphim, Cipher Pol, and in the shadows the Holy Knights. In addition, they also used to have relationships with the Seven Warlords, a group of powerful pirates who were granted immunity in exchange for providing services to the government when requested. Here is the structure that the government officially controls:
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Marines: primary military force;
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Cipher Pol: intelligence and police organization;
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Seraphim: Ultimate Government Cyborg Weapons (replaced Seven Warriors);
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Holy Knights (in the shadows).
After the Summit Wars, the Marines moved their headquarters to a base in New Marineford in the New World (it was previously Marineford in the Paradise area), but they have branches and bases scattered around the world, as expected of any military organization. They were introduced as the main antagonists, but the series slowly shifted its focus to detailing the entire structure that controls the Marines, even though they are still antagonists.
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While claiming to fight for justice and peace, the Navy often takes questionable actions and resorts to unnecessary violence. Many senior officers are corrupt and evil, and may even issue orders that their subordinates follow despite not agreeing with them (since the hierarchical structure does not allow disobedience, even if they are “wrong orders”). Because of this, many fans speculated that the “good officers” would eventually rebel against the establishment and the government. Some, like Monkey D. Dragon, have already done so.
Is an insurrection within the Navy even possible?
As already mentioned, a sailor mutiny is not only possible, but highly expected. The Revolutionary Army is proof that many are dissatisfied with an institution that many of them joined to help the people and not to protect corruption. Some fans even speculate that most admirals will at least refuse to fight Luffy, even if they don't explicitly join any rebel movement within the force – Fujitora in particular is mentioned by fans as someone with high potential to turn against the government.
In fact, given how much the series introduced new concepts and abilities to show that the Nobles of the New World are far more powerful than anything we've seen before, it might as well work as a setup for the Rebellion. At the beginning of the series, the main antagonists were the Marines. Now that there are stronger adversaries, a mutiny among the navy officials would make the plot even more interesting as the admirals would also fight against the authorities above them. Furthermore, SWORD, a group of officers who have officially left the Navy but still go by his name, is a clear sign that an uprising may be coming. However, it would be a little disappointing if every admiral switched sides – we still need some tension in the government front line. After the final war, Koby could even lead a new navy.
You can't just keep blaming your fate on other people and expect them to fix everything. That's a sign of weakness, don't you think?
However, let's keep in mind that even the Revolutionary Army does not seek the end of the government itself, but the end of the World Nobles who control it. So it's quite likely that at the end of the series the governance structure won't change much, but a new and better government will emerge (perhaps less centralized?). In any case, a navy mutiny or some internal division into factions (one against the government and one protecting it) would be a great addition to the Final Saga.
- Release date
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October 20, 1999
- Network
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Fuji TV
- directors
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imayomura, Yashiôhiro Mayuū Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
- Writers
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)
