This article contains spoilers for the One Piece manga
With the One Piece story slowly creeping towards its finale, fans are wondering which key characters will still be left standing at the end of the grand adventure. While it's expected for individuals such as Luffy, Blackbeard and Shanks to play prominent roles in the Final Saga, there is another duo who, despite only appearing a handful of times in recent memory, are highly likely to be key players in the battle for the One Piece treasure.
Since the end of the Wano arc, Oda has been making it clear which characters will be worth focusing on in these final few sections of the story. While some of these are fresh faces who only showed up recently, this dangerous duo, in particular, have actually been around for quite some time, first being introduced before the two-year time-skip even kicked off. With that being said, it's time to take a look at what makes these two pirates so important, and why they have a solid chance of reappearing throughout the Final Saga of the One Piece story.
Moria And Perona Are On The Loose
After Leaving Pirate Island, They've Been Lurking In The Shadows
- Perona helped break Moria out of captivity
- They haven't been seen since their escape
- It wouldn't make sense for them to disappear from the story entirely
The lazy but dangerous former Warlord known as Gecko Moria was defeated by Luffy and the crew back in Thriller Bark, but that doesn't mean that he was removed from the story entirely. After his loyal subordinate Absalom was kidnapped and eventually killed by Blackbeard, Moria took it upon himself to infiltrate Pirate Island in an attempt to get him back. Unfortunately for the creepy pirate captain, this mission ended up going horribly wrong when he was severely wounded by an invisible Shiryu, resulting in him becoming a captive on Blackbeard's infamous Island.
At the time, many fans were surprised that Moria would even dare to face Blackbeard, considering Moria wasn't believed to be all that strong, but when taking into account the recent reveals in the manga, it starts to make a lot more sense why he plucked up the courage to do so. Thankfully, Moria wouldn't stay locked up for too long, as he would soon after be rescued by his very own crewmate, Perona, who was able to leverage a little help from Coby during the raid on Pirate Island.
"Moria-sama is alive! He is, I just know it" - Perona
The truth is though, after Perona got her hands on the keys and reunited with her captain, the two managed to escape the island, but haven't been seen since. Though it was specifically mentioned by Pizarro that Perona and Moria did in fact make it out alive, there is a major reason why the duo could play such an important role going forward.
The Duo Could Join The Cross Guild
Mihawk And Crocodile Would Find A Lot Of Use For Them
- Moria can act as the Poneglyph reader of the group
- Perona's deadly Devil Fruit would be extremely useful in fights
- It's unlikely any other faction would ally with the duo at this point
There aren't that many individuals in the world of One Piece who are lucky enough to have the ability to read the ancient Poneglyphs. However, in chapter 1158 of the One Piece manga, it is surprisingly revealed that Gecko Moria is actually a member of the Kozuki Clan, a group of samurai who are all able to read the Poneglyphs. Just like how Oden would be recruited by Roger because of his ability to translate these mysterious stones, there's every chance that this could also happen to Moria and Perona, and there's one group in particular that would probably have their eyes on the two.
As of right now, the Cross Guild is made up of Crocodile, Mihawk and Buggy, and though they are certainly not to be messed with considering the amount of experience they each have with fighting, having someone on board who could read the Poneglyphs would definitely be a big help. In that same vein, Perona has proven to be an extremely strong fighter due to her Hollow Hollow fruit ability, which can instantly shut an enemy down by filling them full of negative emotions through her ghosts.
Clearly, Oda has been setting the Cross Guild up to be a pretty significant threat in the Final Saga, but on the other hand, it would feel a little abrupt if Moria and Perona were removed from the story off-screen. Therefore, it's been heavily theorized that the deadly duo will actually team up with the Cross Guild, especially when also considering that Moria will now have a giant target on his back after daring to escape the clutches of Blackbeard.
Blackbeard Wanted Moria On His Crew
Their Bizarre Exchange All Makes Sense After Learning Moria's Secret Lineage
Anyone who has read or watched One Piece will know that Blackbeard is only concerned with hiring the strongest of pirates into his crew. After all, he is a captain who seeks world domination, so it wouldn't make sense to have weaklings among his ranks who would just end up holding him down. Back in chapter 925 of the manga, rather than belittling Moria, Blackbeard actually reaches out a hand and asks if he wants to join his crew. This may have seemed a little puzzling at the time, but thanks to the recent reveal of Moria's lineage, his offer actually starts to make a lot more sense.
Blackbeard's crew may contain a stacked roster of immensely powerful individuals, but he's long been lacking someone who can read the Poneglyphs. Recently, he managed to capture Pudding from the Big Mom Pirates, but having someone who would be able to both fight and read the Poneglyphs at the same time would probably be much more appealing to the ferocious captain, and it explains why he had Gecko Moria in his crosshairs upon meeting him for the first time after the time-skip.
"What do ye suppose happens now? It's already begun! The mighty battle for supremacy over the throne...ZE HA HA HA!" - Blackbeard to Moria
When considering that Moria was immediately locked up after refusing Teach's offer, it's highly unlikely that he will be joining Blackbeard's crew anytime soon. However, he and Perona may decide to risk it all and buddy up with some of the former Warlords in the Cross Guild, or they could even recreate their own crew by resurrecting a massive army of zombies. Either way, it's evident Oda has been planning something special for these two for quite a while, but time will only tell how they influence the story going forward.
- 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
Cast
-
Mayumi TanakaMonkey D. Luffy (voice) -
Kazuya NakaiRoronoa Zoro (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
- 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
- Franchise(s)
- One Piece
- Creator(s)
- Eiichiro Oda
