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IS MORIA ALIVE?

I think everyone knows the answer to this one. Yes, obviously. He disappeared from Doflamingo’s sight when he was about to kill him. Obvious Absalom intervention is obvious. Just for the sake of completeness, I will put the particular manga panel that describes the event here.

Moria vanished

Oda also basically confirmed this in the SBS, so it’s just a matter of when Moria returns.

Just to make a point, about the not-so-subtle foreshadowing by Doflamingo of Moria resurrecting himself somehow AS a Zombie. It could happen, but I’m not that worried about it because I don’t think it influences his impact on the story much, just a new powerup. Now unto why I made this thread.

WHERE IS MORIA AND WHAT IS HE DOING?

Theoretically, he could be anywhere, but this is where I think Moria is.

Hiding in and out of Plain sight

Yes, I believe Moria managed to hide himself by turning a portion of an island invisible. And yes, the implication I’m making is that Absalom, somehow awakened after his defeat by Sanji and is now capable of turning much larger areas invisible with his fruit and maybe even leaving them invisible whether he is there or not. He is sheltering Moria and working alongside him.

ATTACKING ON ALL FRONTS:

BRINGING DOWN EVERY YOUNKOU AND THE GOVERNMENT​

Before, Moria was making a zombie army with the intention to use their power to take over the New World. But really, Moria’s army was pretty weak. Dead bodies, just don’t hack it. What if Moria, found a way to use shadows to push into a living person AND take over their consciousness at the same time. Almost like rewriting who they are as people. Then Moria could take strong people, make augmentations on them and control them. The first victim of this has been revealed. He is…

Moria’s first calamity.

Now notably about Edward Weevil, he does share a lot of prominent similarities to a zombie, namely the visible stitch marks. A full ring around his neck and left arm, make me believe that he has been in some kind of body augmentation surgery recently. However, Moria isn’t making his new army out of dead bodies. Rotting muscles and flesh are limited in what they can do and I believe Moria realizes this now.

I believe Edward Weevil is just as he seems. A retard, with a really strong body who through a Shadow possession and Hogback surgery, Moria has made strong enough to earn 480 million bounty. In other words, Edward Weevil is one of Moria’s new weapons and the world doesn’t know it. And I don’t think Weevil knows it either. It’s probably easier to control the person if their willpower or general cognitive function is highly impaired. It can’t be perfect though because their soul is still inside which is why we have Miss Bakkin.

Her job is to reinforce the brain washing and keep the living zombie on mission and not let the old personality resurface. In other words, these beings will move in pairs. One for power, one for guidance.

I also believe with Absalom’s awakening, he might have an army of people armed with invisible cloaks or something he created that allows them to shadow the movements of the big pirates. It’s how he managed to get info on the PH alliance so easily. As for the Kidd Alliance, I believe Kidd’s alliance has a mole, who is already working with Moria.

His name is Scratchmen Apoo. I believe Apoo will play a big role in the Return of Moria arc. For two reason. It was he after all who was seen coming across that invisible island. But also, Brooke is heavily tied to Moria. He was introduced there so if we have a return of Moria arc, it would make sense for Brooke to have his time to shine during that arc, and what better way than to put music based antagonists in Brooke’s way.

Kidd wanted to know how the information leaked. Recall this panel.

Moria’s moves

Now we see the dialogue boxes pointing to the island and not the ship, so what random ship is that? It’s a Thriller Bark ship, leaving Kidd’s hideout. With Absa and his followers behind, after gathering information. It was Apoo who led them to Kidd’s base. He’s working with Moria, I assume to eventually double cross them if they do succeed in taking down Shanks. That’s the idea anyways.

What’s more important is Absalom is probably using his articles to get a little closer to the government. And get more information on them as well. I’m sure Moria isn’t pleased they tried to kill him. He’d be after them too.

CONCLUSION: 

Moria, in a stroke of genius, has erased himself from the world, while simultaneously pulling strings and making moves. And he’s only just beginning. When we see Moria again, he will have a formidable fighting unit and tonnes of information on both the New World and the Government to help him.

You ask the question, who is most poised to take over the Black Market after Doflamingo’s defeat? Buggy? Or has Moria already made the moves and no one has realized yet. Wouldn’t that be something for Moria to rise to such power?

First of all, here is a new character design for One Piece Film Gold. His name is Gildo Tesoro (ギルド・テゾーロ).

Tesoro says, “It’s show time!”
He is responsible for the largest entertainment city in the world. The city is also a “ship” where Straw hats are heading for.

“What is waiting there? Eternal dream or unfathomed darkness…?”
The length of the golden ship/city is 10 kilometers.　It is acknowledged by World Government as an independent nation.

True to his epithet, “Hawk Eyes”, Dracule Mihawk has exceptional eyesight, able to easily track Luffy’s high-speed Gear Second movements, and strike with extreme precision, releasing a long-range slash at him while there was a chaotic battlefront of New World pirates and Marine officers between them.

In addition, he is also a talented teacher: after training Zoro for two years, he accomplished more than the dojo had achieved in the many years Zoro had trained there (though it helped that Zoro’s skills were already greatly developed by the time he became Mihawk’s disciple). Zoro himself even admitted that even after training with Mihawk during the entirety of the (time-skip), while talking down to Pica, an elite officer of the former Donquixote Pirates, that he (Zoro) is still not anywhere near Mihawk’s level of skill with swordsmanship, further attesting to Mihawk’s combat and fighting prowess.

Mihawk’s strength is so great that Don Krieg accuses him of having the power of a Devil Fruit. While it has not yet been confirmed that he does not, the Databooks indicate that his abilities are from pure skill and power. This makes Mihawk the only known Shichibukai whose strength is based solely on human abilities (Jinbe being a Fishman).

His first demonstration of power was defeating all but one of Don Krieg’s fleet of 50 ships and 5,000 men by himself just before a storm struck. Perhaps the most accurate and evident demonstration of his incredible power is the fact that he has remained unharmed during the whole series thus far.

He is shown to have a strong will as he was able to resist Luffy’s Haki and be one of the few to still be able fight despite others around him falling unconscious. He also has great mental strength, shown when he is not one of the men to fall for the charms of Boa Hancock while most men easily fall for the pirate empress’ beauty and turned to stone.

Mihawk travels around in a coffin-shaped raft with two green-flamed candles, a single black sail, and a single seat. The fact that he can traverse the unforgiving oceans, as well as the Grand Line itself, in such a meager craft is yet another testament to his abilities.

The fact that Mihawk used to be a rival of one of the Yonko implies that Mihawk might be one of the strongest characters in the series.

Although he has never been seen resorting to physical combat outside of swordplay, his fortitude suggests that he naturally possesses superhuman strength and resilience, as he applied tremendous strength behind all of his swings, enough to split battleships and a mountain of ice with ease. Additionally, during his duel with Zoro, he was capable of effortlessly fending off his own superhuman strength with only one arm.

It is especially worth noting that, during the Battle of Marineford, while the Whitebeard Pirates (one of the strongest pirate crews in the world, with top members Whitebeard and Ace being killed, Marco being heavily-wounded and Jozu losing his right arm), the Marine Admirals (with Akainu taking a severe beating from Whitebeard’s attacks and Aokiji being harmed for the first time in the whole series) and the Shichibukai (with Moriah, Kuma, Teach and former members Crocodile and Jinbe being heavily-wounded) had very difficult battles, Mihawk had remained truly unscathed through the whole conflict.

Because of his status, defeating him is Roronoa Zoro’s ultimate goal. Mihawk also seems to have great strength, as he was able to stop Zoro, a formidable swordsman with great mastery and enormous strength even to launch entire buildings and destroy them with powerful slashes, with only a single dagger, and handling it with just one hand.

In terms of combat, Mihawk is the single greatest swordsman alive in the One Piece world, naturally commenting on his immense mastery of swordsmanship: back in the East Blue Saga (where Zoro, while at his weakest in the storyline, was still notorious across that entire stretch of ocean as the “Pirate Hunter” and had effectively mastered both “Santoryu” and “Nitoryu” fighting styles), he was capable of effortlessly defeating a three sword-wielding Zoro with the single “crucifix” knife, his Kogatana, hung around his neck disguised as a pendant, generally used as a dinner knife.

He has been known to have frequently fought with Shanks when they were younger. He is also skilled at teaching, as he was shown to have taught Zoro quite extensively during their two years together.

Mihawk demonstrates an immense skill in swordsmanship especially in reference to his Yoru. Having the abilities to slice and destroy entire fleets of ships or giant icebergs and yet graceful enough to deflect the course of bullets with only a slight touch. He is also able to cut through steel with ease and rapidity, as demonstrated with the steel-bodied Mr. 1, whom even Zoro struggled to beat.

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