Important takeaways
- Pekom's fate remains uncertain after his betrayal and disappearance.
- Eustass Kid and his crew may have met their end at the hands of Shanks, leaving fans in suspense.
- Big Mom and Kaido's supposed deaths in a volcano are controversial, with fans speculating about their potential return and next move.
As far as Shonen goes, One Piece tend not to enjoy leaving loose ends. Often, many characters and their stories continue in cover stories, giving the reader some sort of idea of their status should they return. Even previously presumed dead characters, such as Mr. 9 and Miss Monday, are confirmed alive and well through this medium. But even with its existence, many characters, especially in the later arcs, have been thrown into scenarios that question their continued existence.
This seems strange at first. Oda rarely kills characters unless he deems it necessary, making confirmed deaths rare. When considering the possibility that their correct returns could be teased or built up after more significant information is revealed, there is a method to this madness. Here are some characters whose exact fate is currently unknown after a potential tragedy. Some may have died or continue to exist off-screen, but others may possibly return.
5 Pecoms
Combatant of Big Mom Pirates
Pekoms is a member of the Mink Tribe, who used to sail with the Nox Pirates. But after the crew ran afoul of Big Mom, some of their members were absorbed into the diverse crew of the Big Mom Pirates. Pekoms was one such member, first seen trying to collect a payment from Fish-Man Island as part of their protection racket. Since then, Pekoms has often been put in compromising situations, where he was used by the Straw Hats and their allies to aid them in their hunt for Big Mom, but retained some form of loyalty to the crew, likely out of fear.
Nevertheless, when Pedro, a former crewmate on the Pekoms, was killed protecting the Straw Hats, he put aside all his fear and attacked the other Big Mom Pirates, who attempted to gouge out their eyes in retaliation, to disable his fabled sultan form. But his exact fate after this fight is unknown. He has not been seen since the betrayal, not even in chapters where the Big Mom Pirates and Mink Tribe have some degree of relevance. All that can be said for sure is that his betrayal was probably not well received by the Big Mom Pirates. It is unclear what will happen to Pekoms if he returns, mostly because he was discharged so abruptly. It's possible he'll either try to rejoin the mink tribe in some capacity, or otherwise cast his lot with a crew he thinks can take on Big Mom.
4 Eustace Kid
And The Kid Pirates
Eustass Kid was a former gangster, who decided to travel the world with other ex-gangsters from Kutsukku Island and formed the Kid Pirates. He was notably much less concerned with civilian life and harming surrounding areas, giving Kid a rather higher reward than other Supernovas. It's likely that this reason is also why his main known crewmate, Killer, had a high enough bounty to qualify for the Worst Generation. Nonetheless, he has teamed up with the likes of the Straw Hat Pirates and the Heart Pirates several times. It was a joint attack between him and Law that defeated Big Mom.
However, after this great success on Onigashima, the Kid Pirates were quickly defeated by Shanks, Dorry and Broggy in Elbaf. This was a result of Shanks seeing the destruction that would result from letting them attack, and wanting to prevent it as quickly as possible. Although the crew is “completely destroyed”, some fans see it as a parallel to Kuma's destruction of the Straw Hats at the Sabaody Archipelago.
For all we know now, the Kid Pirates could have ended that day. Even so, their importance (namely the Kid and Killer's) and the lack of clear explanations about their deaths has some fans anticipating a potential return. If Kid and his crew return, they will have a grudge against Shanks and Elbaf's giants. If they don't, they still serve as a lesson not to cross the Red Hair Pirates.
3 Big Mom and Kaido
The two former emperors
Big Mom and Kaido have a history together as members of the ill-fated Rocks Pirates team. Some time after Charlotte Linlin reached Wano, the two decide to form an alliance again. However, they both ended up being defeated by the Supernovas, as Luffy was strong enough to defeat Kaido, and a combination of Kid and Law was enough to defeat Big Mom. The result was that these two pirates fell into a volcano and were stripped of their “Emperor” titles after they were presumed dead.
However, the current status of the two is being questioned by fans. The informed and shown power levels the two shared made fans believe that even lava wasn't enough to eat up their resilience. That said, speculation about their further goals if they reappear is unclear. They are unlikely to be humbled by their defeat, and may attempt to reconnect with their crews to re-establish some form of dominance. In particular, fans are speculating that Big Mom might return to Elbaf, due to her own history with the island, but nothing concrete currently determines whether or not the two will even return.
2 The other heart pirates
Defeated by Blackbeard
Trafalgar D. Water Law was considered part of the Donquixote Pirates from a young age. But he instead ended up hooking up with Donquixote Rosinante, a double agent who genuinely cared about his battle with Amber Lead Syndrome. After Rosinante died, Law swore revenge on Donquixote Doflamingo. From there, Law formed his own crew, the Heart Pirates. Law worked with fellow Worst Generation crew, the Straw Hat Pirates to defeat Doflamingo, resulting in his eventual imprisonment.
Law reunited with his own crew, where they formed an alliance with the Straw Hats to take on Kaido, whom Doflamingo worked with before his imprisonment. However, it wasn't long after Kaido's defeat that the Heart Pirares encountered a conflict of their own. After a confrontation with another emperor, Blackbeard, and some of his captains, the Polar Tang, the Heart Pirates' submarine, is destroyed. The only confirmed survivors of this attack were Law and his efficient second-in-command, Bepo.
Unlike the other pirates thus far, it is relatively undisputed that the Heart Pirates went down, at least in part due to the relative insignificance of their members. If this is in fact what happened, it may influence Law to be more overtly cruel in his piracy, similar to his namesake, Edward Low. That said, Law's actions in this infamous Rocky Port Incident may further hint at his penchant for cruelty. Although his manpower is lacking at the moment, the Blackbeard Pirates have found a very formidable foe in Law.
1 Bartholomew
And the Bartoklubben
Bartolomeo is another ex-gangster turned pirate and led the Bartoklubben. He was particularly influenced by Monkey D. Luffy in this regard. Despite being a ruthless pirate, he gains a sense of childlike wonder when it comes to Straw Hat pirates. After teaming up with the crew to defeat Donquixote Doflamingo, Bartolomeo and several others decide to be subordinate to the Straw Hats. Although Luffy refuses to have subordinate crews, they still pledge themselves to him and have various adventures as separate crews. Bartolomeo is notably depicted in a cover story burning a flag in Shank's territory. This was done without Luffy's permission, as he is mostly quite reverent of Shanks. This fact likely escaped Bartolomeo, as their friendship dates back to before Luffy was an actual pirate, and he has had limited contact with him since then.
This came to a head when the Red Hair Pirates traveled over to the area and made quick work of the off-screen club. A subordinate of Shanks demands that Bartolomeo find a way to get Luffy to drink a vial labeled with poison. But Bartolomeo instead drank it himself, noting that Luffy didn't sign subordinates and refused to let his idol suffer for the mistakes he made. After drinking the vial and discovering that it was not actually poison, Bartolomeo was relieved and quickly began to escape with his team.
Shanks was pleased with the results and seemingly wanted to test the crew's loyalty to Luffy. However, Yasopp, one of Shank's main crewmates, seemed offended by how soft they found his captain and began shooting down their ship, the Going Luffy-Senpai. In a manner similar to Bartolomeo's own vandalism, this was also done without his captain's permission, as Shanks was surprised when Yasopp began the attack. The ship was destroyed and the status of the crew was left “unknown” until further notice. It is unclear whether Bartolomeo or the Bartolo Club will return, but either way, this action may have cemented the foundation for a feud between the Straw Hat Pirates and the Red Hair Pirates.
