Well guys, let’s take a look at the badass of this picture. He sends chills 
down my spine, and i think we all know who he is. Monkey D Dragon, the legendary and so hyped revolutionary army leader and father of Monkey D Luffy, our beloved captain. Today we are gonna take a look at his past and speculate about what made him become a revolutionary, with an interesting Monkey D Dragon theory.
Could it all start with Monkey D Garp?
Monkey D Dragon doesn’t only have a child, but he has a father too(no really? :P), him being as we all know Monkey D Garp, the legendary also hero of the Marines. Isn’t it quite logical that he trained his son to become a Marine also? That is where our theory starts.
Was Monkey D Dragon a former Marine?
It seems quite possible that the now fearsome leader of the revolutionary army, started his path at the exact opossite direction, at the ranks of the Marines. He could even have been an Admiral, and we ‘ll see an interesting idea behind that.
Many manga are full of references to chinese mythology, so is One Piece
Let’s start with some background. In the chinese mythology, there are four seas, the North, South, East and West. The 4 seas are represented with 4 colours and 4 animals, them being yellow, blue, white and red, and also monkey, bird, dragon, dog. Hence, we have a north sea with a yellow monkey represented by Admiral Kizaru. A south sea with a blue bird which points to Admiral(former) Aokiji. And a west sea with a red dog pointing to Admiral Akainu. So, we are left with the East Sea which belongs to Admiral White Dragon (Shiroryu in japanese). Of course the japanese names give us the above meanings.
Another fable exists too..
The myth talks about a king (fleet admiral) with 4 loyal followers. One had the shape of a bird, another the shape of a dog, yet another the shape of a pheasant and lastly, one with the shape of a monkey. The bird(dragon in our case) realises how evil the king is and decides to leave. It also informs the other followers, but they stay. The dog was too loyal(Sakazuki), the pheasant was too lazy to leave(Aokiji)(although this may have changed ;)), and the monkey too dumb to understand(Kisaru in our case).
So how did he change?
As we all know, Dragon must have left the Marines to dedicate himself fully(even leaving his son behind maybe for that purpose), to changing the world and the whole system of the World Government. He probably was disgusted by what he saw, and realised he cannot change the world through a crappy and evil World Government. Another possible idea, is that Dragon somehow contacted Gol D Roger while he was a Marine(maybe in Impel Down?) and he learned the truth, or at least a portion of it, regarding the Void Century and the evil ways of the World Government. In any case, at some time he must have felt it was enough for him, and he had to change the world in his own independent way, thus forming the revolutionary army.
And what exactly are his powers?
We talked about his past, so it’s only fair to speculate a bit about who this person is now. Dragons in ancient japanese mythology represent creatures who can manipulate the wind. It ‘s really possible that this can be his ability. Maybe through a devil fruit, or through the ancient weapon Uranus that the revolutionaries may have, he could manipulate the wind/weather. He have also seen him do something similar, when he rescued Luffy from the hands of Smoker, at the Loguetown arc.
So, Monkey D Dragon.. A quite mysterious character, and i believe we have only scratched the surface of the fascinating possibilities that lie ahead, regarding him and the revolutionary army. What is gonna be their final role in the whole story? Wait and we will find out together 😉
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Thanks, everyone and I’ll see you next time!
Very interesting read! Great job explaining this character.
I have never even heard of One Piece Theories until now. What is One Piece Theories exactly?
Keep up the good work.
Hello Derek, thnx for stopping by. One Piece Theories is just an attempt to speculate on interesting ideas about our favorite anime, One Piece, considering its world is so vast. Thanks again 🙂
This is such an interesting theory. I love One Piece by the way. Dragon is such an interesting character that I always wanted to know more about since we’ve only seen so little of him. The connection with the Chinese myth has made me consider a different perspective now. I never thought about that. I also believe that his ability has something to do with wind and thought so ever since the Loguetown arc. Haha, if Dragon was actually a former marine admiral…that would blow my mind =)
Hey ellis, it is quite interesting indeed, he is so hyped that we can only expect a killer background story about him, wish you the best 🙂
Dude this break down was dope. This is one of my favorite animes at the moment and what you said makes sense. You mind me asking you a question about a theory I had about One Piece? Let me know what you think. In one of the episodes where they were explaining the meaning of D in the names of law,luffy and etc…. They said those were the people capable of taking down the celestial dragons. The celestial dragons represent the most holy of things in the one piece world (angels). I think the D in there names represents demons. I dont think demons are in anyway good but could the whole point of this idea be, that they are trying to get rid of the idea of god and people with the letter d in the middle are the only way to enlightenment? Sorry about that but it bugged me when they talked about it. Also I just bookmarked your page bro. Keep it up
hey bro, thanks for your comment and glad you liked the theory. your idea about the d’s being demons is quite interesting. i must say though that it is a matter of perspective, the celestial dragons present themselves as “holy” and from their perspective the d’s are the demons because they are the threat to them. but probably it’s the other way around ;), don’t you think?
Fascinating! At first I thought you are referring to the Monkey King, the chinese ancient mythological character, but now that I have read it fully, maybe I was wrong. Does he also appear in manga under the name ‘Monkey D Dragon’ too?
Yes Dennis, he is Luffy’s father and the leader of the revolutionary army;)
Nice website. While this is not my topic of interest I will share it with the young people in my life. I like the layout, content, and pics, nicely done. The thoroughness of thought is good.
Hello Karen, thanks for helping spread the word about my website. Anyone interested in anime and especially One Piece i believe will find it helpful. Best of luck!
The theory is interesting and does have some merit. During a scene after Roger is executed, we see Dragon leaving (walking away?) and behind him is a building. Perhaps it was then that he realized the truth of the World Government. The next time he is discussed is during the Reverie where the World Government now realizes that Dragon will become or has become a problem for them.
Glad you liked then theory Ruby! I like your idea. I believe that back then he also didn’t have his body tattoo. Thanks for the input. Really interesting!
I had heard of the legend of the emperor before, but the version I heard it was a dog, a pheasant, a monkey and….a dragon.
So this completely makes sense. I bet this is spot on. Great theory. Really good.
Glad you liked the theory, Andy! I really loved it when I read it while researching for this post and thought to share! 🙂
*dragon is a former marine admiral. He’s person of strong justice, real moral justice. He turning happened during the time of ohara incident. And it was exactly his fleet that destroyed ohana during that time. But the destruction of ohara wasn’t their actual mission at that time. His mission was to escort, to safeguard a celestial dragon going to place somewhere close to ohara. On that island, a horrible kind of King hunts game where instead of normal animals to hunt, they hunt civilians, villagers, and other people who are not a part of the the island’s Noble society. This hunting game gave great pleasure to the celestial dragon to which he even ask his escorts to join the fun, including dragon himself. There dragon witness the horribleness and of what of a cancer celestial dragon’s existence was. more than half of his fleet left for ohara before the time dragon went Berserk with his powers destroying the whole island, killing the celestial dragon, what’s left of his marine crew and the nobles of that place. Later dragon attack mariejois and a lotta damage but still ended up retreating after learning of a certain secret from a slave there. This attack of dragon gave birth celestial dragon’s idea of wanting dragon’s power requesting for an experiment to recreate such power.
My friend your contributions to the theories are really beautiful. Like the possibility of the connection Dragon has to Ohara and the idea that he, in fact, changed then and there. I will hire you as a theorist here really! 😛
Do you think Dragon will come to Reverie and disturb the meeting.
Yea, we have actually written about this theory here. Be sure to check it out!
If you’re theory is correct it’s possible Dragon is a logia too and if we go of colors I’d assume his logia/DF has to do with air/wind or clouds.