Key Moments That Foreshadowed Gecko Moria’s Lineage

Eiichiro Oda, rhe author of the immensely popular One Piece series, sure knows how to surprise fans when they least expect it, but the latest reveal in chapter 1158 of the manga might just be one of the most surprising lore drops in the last few years. Fans who have been following the manga recently will know that there has been an ongoing cover story focusing on Yamato and a few residents in Wano going about their daily lives. In chapter 1157 of One Piece, Yamato can be seen praying next to a grave which was dedicated to a legendary hero of Wano, though it was initially unclear at the time who this individual actually was, and why they were so highly regarded by the people of Wano.

Much to the surprise of pretty much everyone, it turns out this figure is seemingly other than Gecko Moria, the former Warlord who Luffy and the Straw Hats encountered back on Thriller Bark. The reveal that Moria is actually a member of the Prestigious Kozuki Clan starts to explain how and why he ended up going against Kaido in the first place, but when looking back at the story as a whole, Oda had actually inserted several dead giveaways that Moria was connected to the land of samurai, and it’s these key moments that this will be taking a closer look at today.

He Fought Kaido In Ringo

It Now Makes Sense Why Kaido Was His Main Target

It’s been known for a while in the story that Moria once had an intense clash with the ferocious Yonko known as Kaido, and while this is definitely an interesting aspect of his character, it was still a little baffling why he would take on Kaido at all. After all, this monstrous behemoth was recognized for being completely unkillable, and while Moria has always been pretty strong himself, it was clear that he would have no chance of taking down a former member of the legendary Rocks pirate crew, even if he had an entire crew to back him up.

Now that the connection has been made between Moria and Wano though, it starts to make a lot more sense why he would take aim at such a powerful opponent, considering Kaido had been an enemy of Wano for so many years due to becoming a tyrant over the country for his own selfish gain. This is also why Moria is considered a hero by Yamato and the others, since he was one of the only people brave enough to face off against Kaido in Ringo.

He Stole Ryuma’s Corpse

Another Iconic Figure Who Hails From Wano

At roughly the midpoint of the Thriller Bark story arc, Zoro finds himself going up against an undead samurai by the name of Ryuma, someone the Straw Hat was already very familiar with. Despite now being a zombie, Ryuma was once a well-known warrior who was considered one of the most dangerous swordsmen in all of Wano, so while it was definitely a privilege for Zoro to clash blades with such a formidable opponent, it did leave fans wondering how on earth Moria managed to get a hold of Ryuma’s corpse in the first place, since breaking into Wano is no easy task.

A few hundred chapters later, it is revealed that Moria had actually ransacked Ryuma’s grave and stole his corpse after he was brutally defeated by Kaido. While Ryuma’s connection to Wano was obvious at the time, no fans thought to make the link between Moria and that country, considering there wasn’t really any reason to, as many assumed he had simply traveled there to get his hands on anything he could steal away, and nothing more. In truth, though, Ryuma’s appearance in Thriller Bark provided a subtle hint to Moria’s lineage, and how he was once a member of the Kozuki clan before he established his own pirate crew.

Moria Wields A Sword

Not Just Anyone Can Wield A Blade With Such Precision

While anyone in the world of One Piece can pick up and swing a sword at their own leisure, if they actually intend to use one in battle, they will first need to learn how to be accurate and precise enough to land their attacks, while also being aware of when to defend themselves. Moria may not have been all that keen on using a blade when he was fat and lazy in Thriller Bark, but as seen in his flashback, he was happy to use a sword when he approached Kaido, and from the glimpses that were shown of that epic battle, he was more than confident in using it against the ferocious captain of the Beast Pirates.

This isn’t to say that Moria is one of the strongest swordsmen in One Piece, but it definitely should have raised some eyebrows that he decided to use a blade at all as his weapon of choice, considering the country that these weapons are most associated with. He probably decided to ditch the swords once he got a little bigger and started using his zombies to deal damage on his behalf instead, but back when he was a young and plucky pirate, Moria seemed to have a firm mastery of how to use his blade to take down his opponents.

The Connection Between Perona And Toko

Even Moria’s Crew Have Strange Connections To The Land Of Samurai

Though this doesn’t always need to be the case, most of the time, when two characters are related in One Piece, they will have glaring similarities in their appearance, which will make it clear they are part of the same family. While Perona first shows up in the Thriller Bark story arc, she has a very striking design which made her extremely memorable to fans, but much later down the line, when the Straw Hats arrived in Wano, they stumbled across a young girl who looks almost identical to Gecko Moria’s loyal subordinate.

With bright pink hair, three pointy thick eyelashes, and giant black pupils, Toko comes across as a younger version of Perona who looks almost identical to her counterpart. This seems like yet another clever indication from Oda that Perona’s captain, Moria, had been affiliated with Wano for quite some time, since there’s every reason to believe that he first recruited the gothic pirate when he was still residing in Wano before founding Thriller Bark.

Moria Faced Blackbeard On His Own

While It Didn’t End Well, It Indicates Moria Was Stronger Than Fans Anticipated

No One Piece fan will ever be able to forget the moment the Gecko Moria stormed onto Pirate Island and demanded that Blackbeard release his beloved crew member Absalom. The reason this was such a shocking moment is because, while Blackbeard, along with the rest of his crew, are all absurdly powerful thanks to their Devil Fruits, Gecko Moria was simply one man with only a handful of zombies to back him up.

However, while the plan to rescue Absalom may have gone horribly wrong for Moria, the fact he rocked up to Pirate Island with such confidence in the first place did suggest that he was a lot stronger than he was letting on. With the knowledge that he is actually a descendant of the legendary Kozuki Clan, it becomes a lot easier to understand why Moria thought he had what it took to take down one of the most wanted pirates in the world.

Doflamingo’s Orders “From Above”

Moria Knew A Lot More Than Anyone Could Have Realized

While there are many unanswered questions that are still lingering within One Piece story, one that’s been spoken about countless times among fans is what exactly Doflamingo meant when he spoke to Gecko Moria during the Marineford War. Just as the conflict was winding down, Doflamingo, a fellow Warlord, indicated that he had been ordered to kill Moria, not by Sengoku, but by someone even higher above. While Moria somehow managed to get out of this situation unscathed, it was evident that Oda was hinting at something pretty important when he wrote this bit of dialogue, but only now do Doflamingo’s words begin to make sense.

If Moria grew up in Wano as a member of the Kozuki clan, it means he would presumably be able to read the opponent Poneglyph, lage blocks of information that contained forbidden knowledge that the World Government restricts people from reading. As a result, after his miserable failure at Marineford, it seems as though Imu and the Gorosei decided it wasn’t worth the risk to keep Moria around, considering how much of a threat he would be now that he wasn’t under direct control by the higher ups.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

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 Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Writers

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

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)