Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 8 - Onigashima)

[Deicide]

The masked who now?

Masked Deuce, Ace's first crewmate. From the novel.
People have been waiting him to show up in the manga, but Oda hasn't given him any panel so far.

Heh, a few days ago I came up with a theory that Masked Deuce is Who's Who. Because it would explain how and when Who's Who met Jinbe. But they don't look alike at all.

[wolfwood]

Guess he calls himself the masked two because he's their second in command?

[FolhaS]

Guess he calls himself the masked two because he's their second in command?

Pretty much, yeah. He appears in that chapter drawn by Boichi, but I understand the art made some people walk away from it.


But I don't think the Masked Deuce is ever going to appear in the main story, we don't even know if it was Oda who created him, do we?
Cause he seemed like the type of character a novelist would create. And we've seen random members of Ace's crew and none of them even resembled Masked.

My bet is that the character was created for the novels, and while of course he was OK'd by Oda, Oda has not actual plans or intention to use the character.

[black-leg jex]

Oda definitely made him. I do think it's weird he hasn't shown up yet though seeing as the other 3 important crew members of the spade pirates - Mihal, Kotatsu and Skull - have all shown up in flashbacks. That makes me think maybe Oda is saving him for something but I guess we will see.

Also I do think Vivi will be joining back up with the crew and be with them when they reach Raftel. But I don't think she will ever be a proper crew member because I think anyone who is a part of the SH Crew will be a part of it even after the series is over, whereas Vivi will definitely return to Alabasta once again.

[Deicide]

Also I do think Vivi will be joining back up with the crew and be with them when they reach Raftel. But I don't think she will ever be a proper crew member because I think anyone who is a part of the SH Crew will be a part of it even after the series is over, whereas Vivi will definitely return to Alabasta once again.

I have have similar thoughts. Vivi will be there, as nakama, but not part of the ship crew. She won't get the same treatment as the crew, like, for instance, getting a Blackbeard counterpart.

[LordButler]

I have have similar thoughts. Vivi will be there, as nakama, but not part of the ship crew. She won't get the same treatment as the crew, like, for instance, getting a Blackbeard counterpart.

Even if that's most likely the case, I'm still looking forward to Vivi's interaction with the crew, especially Robin. She is a testament to interesting characters trumping good fighters with 0 personality any day of the week.

[electricmastro]

Also I do think Vivi will be joining back up with the crew and be with them when they reach Raftel. But I don't think she will ever be a proper crew member because I think anyone who is a part of the SH Crew will be a part of it even after the series is over, whereas Vivi will definitely return to Alabasta once again.

Oh I’m sure Luffy and the others will meet up back with Vivi soon enough depending on what troubling incidents had happened during the Levely. Along with Sabo, he’ll probably end up with a multitude of reasons to go up against Mary Geoise if he hasn’t already.

[Shiebs]

I’m still curious as to what is gonna happen next arc, it sounds like the revolutionaries got there asses handed to them and are in need of saving (Luffy saving Sabo now when he couldn’t save ace before would be nice) Something also happened with Vivi and it was probably because of Im, so she might need help, and god knows what else is happening during Wano, seriously I thought next island might be Elba or Vegapunk’s place, but now who knows, there’s so much stuff up in the air

[Solid]

Oda definitely made him. I do think it's weird he hasn't shown up yet though seeing as the other 3 important crew members of the spade pirates - Mihal, Kotatsu and Skull - have all shown up in flashbacks. That makes me think maybe Oda is saving him for something but I guess we will see.

Also I do think Vivi will be joining back up with the crew and be with them when they reach Raftel. But I don't think she will ever be a proper crew member because I think anyone who is a part of the SH Crew will be a part of it even after the series is over, whereas Vivi will definitely return to Alabasta once again.

I think the difference is, Masked Deuce was created for the Ace Novel, most if not all other spade pirates already existed before then and was seen in the backgrounds of the marineford arc, simply put Masked Deuce is not canon, and I don’t think he will be either.

[black-leg jex]

I think the difference is, Masked Deuce was created for the Ace Novel, most if not all other spade pirates already existed before then and was seen in the backgrounds of the marineford arc, simply put Masked Deuce is not canon, and I don’t think he will be either.

Is that true though? I don't think any of the Spade pirates were shown to be at Marineford and the only important one I remember seeing before the Ace novels was Mihal. Skull made his debut in the recent Ace flashback and Kotatsu in an earlier Wano flashback I think.

[Solid]

Yes, it is true, theres been plenty of panels that shows them, skull and kotatsu included.

[FolhaS]

I think the difference is, Masked Deuce was created for the Ace Novel, most if not all other spade pirates already existed before then and was seen in the backgrounds of the marineford arc, simply put Masked Deuce is not canon, and I don’t think he will be either.

My understanding is that these novels are cannon but uninportant.
They got Oda's approval, but they got that approval because it's something that doesn't affect Oda's main story. Oda had some nice designs for the Spade Pirates, so that the world would feel alive, but he never bothered to say "this was the Spade Pirates first mate", he only focused on Ace's second crew, the Whitebeard Pirates.

Is that true though? I don't think any of the Spade pirates were shown to be at Marineford and the only important one I remember seeing before the Ace novels was Mihal. Skull made his debut in the recent Ace flashback and Kotatsu in an earlier Wano flashback I think.

Oda once revealed that any Whitebeard Pirate wearing a cowboy hat was from the Spade Pirates, and we see a couple of those even in Shanks meting with the old man.
If Oda was saving the surprise first mate of the Spade pirates it would probably happen now in Wano, where we see the connection betwen Ace and the country, instead we got Ace's older brother from his new family, Marco.

From his comments about OP films and fillers, Oda doesn't really let other people play with his toys before he does. If a character is gonna be important Oda saves them for the manga, where he can control every aspect of the revelation. You won't be seeing Green Bull appear in a novel or film before he fully appears in the manga.

[Monquito]

Maybe Mask Deuce is prolly dead.

Anyway, if anyones deserves to jump into cannon content, that'll be Gasparde.

[black-leg jex]

Oda once revealed that any Whitebeard Pirate wearing a cowboy hat was from the Spade Pirates, and we see a couple of those even in Shanks meting with the old man.
If Oda was saving the surprise first mate of the Spade pirates it would probably happen now in Wano, where we see the connection betwen Ace and the country, instead we got Ace's older brother from his new family, Marco.

From his comments about OP films and fillers, Oda doesn't really let other people play with his toys before he does. If a character is gonna be important Oda saves them for the manga, where he can control every aspect of the revelation. You won't be seeing Green Bull appear in a novel or film before he fully appears in the manga.

Can you share the source of where he said that? I have never heard this claim before.

The only member of the spade pirates I can find at Marineford is Skull, who appears in a few panels. And he isn't wearing a cowboy hat.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/onepiece/images/a/a1/Kingdew_and_Skull_Shocked_With_Whitebeard%27s_Deci sion.png/revision/latest?cb=20200915162616

I guess the best way to figure out if Masked Deuce is in the manga or not is to look at that one panel where the Spade pirates see the Moby Dick for the first time as a lot of them line-up with Oda's sketches.

EDIT: Ok so I decided to go do it and I checked both the manga, anime and the official digitally coloured manga for this and there are 19 members of the Spade Pirates shown. And in the novels there are 19 confirmed members (Ace not included). So they have all appeared in the manga and a number of them do line up to Oda's sketches (some are a little harder to place admittedly). However its worth noting that the guy in the middle in both the anime and coloured version has a long green coat on and light coloured hair which matches up to Masked Deuce perfectly.

So from all this I do think he was always planned to be a crewmember and not a novel original character.

[Solid]

I never heard of the cowboy hat statement either lol, and either way it is incorrect.

The one you mention with a green coat is actually saber, and while it could look like there is 19 of them, I think its just 18, and you mistook one of the shadow/rock on the right side for person, from that moby dick panel we can actually identift every member of the crew, and Deuce is not there.

Edit: looking at the anime pic, the shadow on the right side in front of some other people looks like a burned down tree.

[FolhaS]

Can you share the source of where he said that? I have never heard this claim before.

The only member of the spade pirates I can find at Marineford is Skull, who appears in a few panels. And he isn't wearing a cowboy hat.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/onepiece/images/a/a1/Kingdew_and_Skull_Shocked_With_Whitebeard%27s_Deci sion.png/revision/latest?cb=20200915162616

I guess the best way to figure out if Masked Deuce is in the manga or not is to look at that one panel where the Spade pirates see the Moby Dick for the first time as a lot of them line-up with Oda's sketches.

EDIT: Ok so I decided to go do it and I checked both the manga, anime and the official digitally coloured manga for this and there are 19 members of the Spade Pirates shown. And in the novels there are 19 confirmed members (Ace not included). So they have all appeared in the manga and a number of them do line up to Oda's sketches (some are a little harder to place admittedly). However its worth noting that the guy in the middle in both the anime and coloured version has a long green coat on and light coloured hair which matches up to Masked Deuce perfectly.

So from all this I do think he was always planned to be a crewmember and not a novel original character.

I thought it was an SBS but I haven't found it yet, but found this pic, from chapter 434

Spoiler:

It may be an old fandom theory on this page that I mistook for an old SBS.

But the wikia reminded me something, Ace's novel skips over his voyage to Wano because that hadn't been shown in the manga yet.
That tends to be Oda's MO, imo. If MD was going to be important in the manga he would have already appeared.

[black-leg jex]

I never heard of the cowboy hat statement either lol, and either way it is incorrect.

The one you mention with a green coat is actually saber, and while it could look like there is 19 of them, I think its just 18, and you mistook one of the shadow/rock on the right side for person, from that moby dick panel we can actually identift every member of the crew, and Deuce is not there.

Edit: looking at the anime pic, the shadow on the right side in front of some other people looks like a burned down tree.

I see what you mean about the rock / burning tree but I still think it could be a person due to its shape and the fact it would be a really random detail. No other trees are in that location and there are no other rocks in that scene. I think its too hard to tell for sure but I'm leaning towards it being a 19th persons still.

But as for the one in the green coat I don't think that's Saber. He's seen in the previous page with a different outfit and while I know it has been 5 days inbetween those times Saber has never been portrayed with a coat like that. He usually wears a jacket. At the same time I'm not 100% sure as if I squint the hair could look like a cowboy hat. So again it could go either way.

In the end I don't think it matters as I'm not convinced we'll see any of the Spade pirates again outside of flashback and cameo. But I still think Deuce was always a part of Ace's crew, maybe just elevated slightly like Mihal and Skull were for the sake of the novel.

[Solid]

Youre right, its not Saber, I think its Cornelia

https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Cornelia

And I stand by that Masked Deuce is not canon, and won’t appear in the manga.

[black-leg jex]

It could be here lol.

Let's agree to disagree then. I don't think he will appear in the manga either but I still think he's canon.

[Deicide]

I don't think Oda is above using a canon immigrant character. Masked Deuce could appear eventually, but I don't expect more than a background cameo.