Key foods
- The fate of Pekums after his betrayal and disappearance remains unclear.
- Eustace Kidd and his crew may have met their end at the hands of Shanks, leaving fans in suspense.
- The possible death of Big Mom and Kaido in a volcano is disputed, and fans are speculating about their possible return and next moves.
As far as Shonen goes, each piece Tends not to enjoy letting go. Often times, many of the characters and their stories are continued in cover stories, giving the reader some idea of where they are when they return. Even characters previously presumed dead, such as Mr. 9 and Miss Monday, are confirmed alive and well through this medium. However, even with that, many characters, especially in the later arcs, find themselves in scenarios that question their continued existence.
This seems strange at first. Oda rarely kills characters unless he feels it necessary, which makes confirmed deaths uncommon. There is a method to this madness when one considers the possibility that their proper return may be harassed after the disclosure of more important information. Here are a few characters whose exact fate is currently unknown after a possible tragedy. Some may be dead or continue to live off-screen, but others are likely to return.
5 Pecoms
Grandmother Pirate Fighter
Pecums is a member of the Mink tribe that sailed with the Nox pirates. However, after the crew's encounter with Big Mom, some of their members were recruited into the motley crew of the Big Mom Pirates. Pekoms was one such member who was first seen trying to get money from Fishman Island as part of his protection racket. Since then, Peckoms often found himself in compromising situations where the Straw Hats and their allies used him to help them in their pursuit against Big Mom, but he maintained some kind of loyalty to the crew, possibly out of fear.
However, when Pecums former colleague Pedro is killed protecting the Straw Hats, he puts aside all fear and attacks his fellow pirates, who attempt to gouge out his eyes in retaliation to regain his legendary form. disable However, his exact fate after this fight is unknown. She hasn't been seen since Betrayal, even in the chapters where the Grandmother Pirates and the Mink Clan have some level of connection. The only thing that can be said for sure is that her betrayal probably didn't go down well with Big Momma's pirates. It's unclear what will happen to Peckoms if he returns, mostly because he was written out so abruptly. It's possible that she'll either try to rejoin the Mink Clan at some point, or else choose her role with a crew she believes can take on Big Mom.
4 Eustace Kidd
And baby pirates
Eustace Kidd was a former petty gangster who decided to travel the world with other ex-gangsters from Kotsuko Island and form the Kid Pirates. He was significantly less concerned with civilian life and damage to nearby areas, giving Kid a relatively higher bounty than other supernovas. That's probably why his original known co-star, The Assassin, had a high enough bounty to qualify for worst of the generation. However, he has collaborated several times with the likes of the Straw Hat Pirates and the Heart Pirates. It was a joint attack between him and Love that defeated Big Mom.
However, after this great success at Onigashima, the Kid Pirates were quickly defeated by Shanks, Dorry, and Broggy at Elbaf. This was the result of Shanks seeing the destruction that was wreaking upon them as a result of allowing them to attack, and wished to prevent it as quickly as possible. Although the crew is “totally destroyed”, some fans see it as a parallel to the destruction of the Straw Hats by Koma in the Savoy Archipelago.
For all we know now, the baby pirates could have met their end that day. However, their importance (ie the Kid and Killer's) and the lack of an explicit explanation for their deaths has some fans anticipating a possible return. If Kidd and his crew return, they will hold a grudge against Shanks and the Elbauf giants. If they don't, it still serves as a lesson not to cross the red-haired pirates.
3 Grandmother and Kaido
Two former emperors
Big Mom and Kaido have a history together as members of the ill-fated Rocks Pirates. Sometime after Charlotte Linlin arrives in Vanoo, the two decide to team up once again. However, both were eventually defeated by the Supernovas, as Luffy was strong enough to defeat Kaido, and the combination of Kid and Law was enough to defeat Big Mom. As a result, the two pirates fell into a volcano and were given the title of “Emperor” after they were presumed dead.
However, the current status of the two is disputed by fans. The conscious and displayed levels of power the two shared led fans to believe that even lava wasn't enough to eat through their flexibility. However, speculation about their next goals if they reappear is unclear. They will likely not be humbled by their failures and may try to communicate with their crew to once again establish some form of dominance. Fans in particular are speculating that Grandma might be returning to Al Buff, due to her history with the island, but nothing concrete at the moment indicates if the two will even return.
2 Pirates of another heart
He was defeated by Blackbeard
Trafalgar D. Water Law was groomed from a young age to become a member of the Donquixote Pirates. However, he ended up teaming up with Donquixote Rosinante, a double agent who truly cared about his battle with Amber Lead Syndrome. After Rosinante's death, Love swears by Donquixote Doflamingo. From there, Love formed his own crew, the Heart Pirates. Law worked with a crew of the Worst Generation, the Straw Hat Pirates, to defeat Doflamingo and eventually put him in prison.
Law reunited with his crew and they teamed up with the Straw Hats to take on Kaido, who Doflamingo had been working with before his imprisonment. However, it wasn't long after Kaido's defeat that the Heart Pirares faced a conflict of their own. After confronting another emperor, Blackbeard, and several of his captains, the pirate submarine Heart of Polar Tong is destroyed. The only confirmed survivors of the attack were Law and his effective second-in-command, Bepo.
Unlike other pirates thus far, it's fairly undeniable that the Heart Pirates have lost their lives, at least in part due to the relative insignificance of their members. If this actually happened, it could have influenced Lowe to be much more ruthless in his piracy and resemble his namesake, Edward Lowe. That said, Love's actions in the infamous Rocky Harbor incident may be more indicative of his penchant for cruelty. Although his manpower is currently low, Blackbeard's pirates have found a very formidable foe in the law.
1 Bartholomew
and Barto Club
Bartolomeo is another ex-gangster turned pirate who leads the Barto Club. In this context, he was clearly influenced by Monkey D. Luffy was placed. Despite being a ruthless pirate, he acquires a sense of childlike wonder when it comes to the Straw Hat Pirates. After working with the crew to defeat Donquixote Doflamingo, Bartholomew and a few others decide to subjugate the Straw Hats. Although Luffy refuses to have a subordinate crew, they commit themselves to him anyway and go on various adventures as a separate crew. Bartholomew is prominently depicted in one cover story burning the flag in Shanks' territory. This was done without Luffy's permission, as he clearly respects Shanks. This fact probably eluded Bartholomew, 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-Haired Pirates traveled to the area and made quick work of the club off the plate. One of Shanks' subordinates asks Bartholomew to find a way to make Luffy drink, which is marked with poison. However, Bartholomew drank it himself instead, noting that Luffy didn't sign the underlings and let his idol suffer for the mistakes he made. After drinking the bottle and discovering that it is not actually poison, Bartholomew is relieved and quickly begins to escape with his team.
Shanks was pleased with the result and apparently wanted to test the crew's loyalty to Luffy. However, Yasup, one of Shanks' original crew, seemed insulted that the captain had gone soft on him and began to shoot down their ship, Going Luffy-Senpai. In a parallel fashion to Bartholomew's own act of sabotage, this was also done without his captain's permission, as Shanks was surprised when Yassup launched the attack. The ship was destroyed and the status of the crew remained “unknown” for now. It's unclear if Bartolomeo or the Barto Club will return, but either way, the move may solidify the basis of the rivalry between the Straw Hat Pirates and the Red Haired Pirates.
