Eiichiro Oda may have just revealed Whitebeard's original first mate

The One Piece saw the author, Eiichiro Oda, complete one of his most exciting flashbacks to date, that of God Valley. Ever since its first mention 6 years ago, the God Valley flashback has been a talking point among fans and it has finally been fully revealed now. On the fateful island of God Valley, Oda shed light on many One Piece mysteries, such as Rock's death, Blackbeard's early life, how Shanks ended up with Roger Pirates, and the existence of Davy Jones, along with a few other important things. While all of this was absolutely huge, Oda didn't just stop there.

He also went on to reveal major characters about God Valley, and One Piece In chapter 1165, the author introduced the character who would likely go on to become Whitebeard's original right-hand man before Marco, named Polo Gram. Not much is known about Polo Gram, and fans don't know what happened to him. But the fans have definitely appreciated little lore drops about the Whitebeard pirates.

Polo Gram was likely Whitebeard's original mate

As fans have learned, Whitebeard did not begin his pirate career with the Whitebeard Pirates. Long before that he was actually a member of the Rocks Pirates, sailing under the flag of Captain Rocks D. Xebec. Unfortunately, the Rocks Pirates broke off after the events of God Valley and the death of their captain.

After that, many of the former Rocks Pirates went on to become respected and fearsome captains and led their own pirate crews, which even included Whitebeard himself. Not much is known about the early days of the Whitebeard Pirates, but Oda may have just revealed the very first person to join Newgate on his adventures, and that is a man known as Polo grams.

Polo Gram, in the days of God Valley was the captain of the Polo Piratesa crew that made it to, among other places, God Valley. It was there that Polo and Whitebeard met. Polo was a big fan of Whitebeardand invited him to sail with him on his ship – a proposal Whitebeard rejected.

Sometime after that, Polo Gram must have ended up in Whitebeard himselfand this is shown by the fact that he looks just like Marco. He, along with his son, probably stayed with Whitebeard for a long time. In that case, Polo Gram would have been the first member of the Whitebeard Pirates.

Polo Gram was the father of Marco, Whitebeard's first division commander

Polo Gram is definitely an interesting addition to the story of Oda. He is believed to be Whitebeard's first mate by its obvious connection to Whitebeard's first division commander, Marco the Phoenix. They have the same look, and it's pretty obvious that he is Marco's father. Some have brought up the possibility of Polo dying and reincarnating as Marco, but that wouldn't make sense since Marco was already 7 during the time of God Valley.

As such, the idea of ​​Polo reincarnating after dying and rising as a phoenix is ​​nothing more than an idea that doesn't make much sense. Polo is undoubtedly Marco's father. Not only that, but Polo and Marco's name is an obvious pun relating to a famous explorer known as Marco Polo. Fans are definitely curious about what happened to Polo and what led to Marco taking his place as a member of the Whitebeard Pirates later on.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece will be on hiatus next week. One Piece Chapter 1166 is out in two weeks. The official release date of One Piece Chapter 1166 is November 23, 2025. Fans can read the chapter for free on Manga Plus.

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 Ma Shihi Endo, Toshihiro Ma Shihi Endo, Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Author

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)