Gol D. Roger is the only known pirate to have completely explored the New World in One Piece and reach Raftel, the island where the One Piece presumably is. Wealth, fame, power, known to have conquered it all, Gol D. Roger is undoubtedly one of the greatest pirates to ever exist, if not the greatest.
Much of Roger's journey remains to be shared with the fans by Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, however, there have been lots of interesting bits of information about him revealed by the author already. Here are 10 things you probably didn't know about the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger.
10 His Age
Gol D. Roger is considered to be in the same bracket as the likes of Silvers Rayleigh, Sengoku the Buddha, Monkey D. Garp, Shiki, and Edward Newgate when it comes to era. Evidently, Roger was ruling the seas during their time. By the time of his death, Gol D. Roger was 53 years old.
Prior to the time-skip, if alive, Roger would've been 75 years old, and right now, he would've been 77 years old. In fact, among the pirates mentioned above, Roger is the second youngest, the only one younger than him being Whitebeard.
9 His Birthday
In the year 1447, Gol D. Roger was born right at its end, on December 31st. He went on to play a huge role in future events, shaking the world to its very core by his mere existence. Interestingly, Gol D. Roger's son, Portgas D. Ace's birthday is not that far apart from his own.
Ace was born on January 1, 1502, after his mother, Portgas D. Rouge held him in her womb for 20 long months to avoid the World Government finding out about him being Roger's son. In the aftermath of his birth, Rouge would eventually pass away.
8 Gol D. Roger's Bounty
If you're an anime-only and don't want to be spoiled, here's a gentle reminder for you to skip what's next. Gol D. Roger's bounty was recently revealed in Chapter 957 of the One Piece manga, titled 'Ultimate'. As expected of the Pirate King, he holds the highest bounty that any pirate has ever had, with a staggering figure of 5,564,800,000 berries.
This amount remains unsurpassed to date, and the only pirate to have come close to this is his rival and equal, Edward Newgate, also known as Whitebeard. Whitebeard had a bounty of 5,046,000,000 berries.
7 The Straw Hat
We've all seen Monkey D. Luffy don the famous Straw Hat in the One Piece series. As seen in the Romance Dawn arc, Luffy was given the Straw Hat by none other than his idol, Red Hair Shanks. Interestingly enough, Shanks himself received this Straw Hat from someone else. As some of you might've guessed by now, that person is the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger.
It is Roger's Straw Hat that Luffy is currently wearing. However, where Roger got this Straw Hat from isn't known. It is possible that Roger himself inherited the Straw Hat from someone else, depicting the process of inherited will in the process.
6 Similarity With Luffy
The Straw Hat is certainly not the only thing that Luffy and Gol D. Roger have in common. According to Rayleigh, Luffy's nature is similar to that of Roger's. This is further backed up by Shanks, who, upon meeting Rayleigh at Sabaody Archipelago, said to him that Luffy's words were similar to that of his former Captain, Gol D. Roger.
What's more, both Luffy and Roger have been noted to smile in the face of death without any fears. Roger did this prior to his execution. Meanwhile, Luffy smiled when Buggy was about to 'flashily' execute him at Logue Town.
5 His Similarity With Ace
Being Ace's father, it's not a surprise that Roger left a bit of him in his son. According to Whitebeard, Ace's personality hardly reminded him of his rival, Roger. However, the one thing that the two shared for certain was their refusal to back down in the face of incoming threats.
As explained by Monkey D. Garp, Roger would never back down, even if he was up against a massive army that he couldn't possibly defeat. Like him, Ace never ran away when confronted by danger, as seen during the Marineford arc where Akainu disrespected Whitebeard in Ace's face. Both had a habit of doing this because they wanted to protect those close to them from the danger and turning their backs to the threat felt like exposing their loved ones to the danger.
4 Roger's Anger
According to Garp, who knew Roger very well, the Pirate King got riled up very often, and when that used to happen, he was nothing short of a monster. However, his actions were described to have been pure, resembling that of a child's.
Despite his reckless nature, Roger somehow went on to become the Pirate King, and according to Garp, he was extremely lucky to have achieved this feat. This is something that he shares with Monkey D. Luffy as well.
3 His Connection To Garp
Garp and Roger are said to have been at each other's throats all the time before the Great Age of Pirates. However, the two had nothing but respect for each other. Garp has previously stated that despite everything that Roger did, he could never bring himself to hate the guy.
At the same time, Roger felt somewhat similar towards Garp as well. Prior to his death, Roger entrusted his son to none other than Garp, telling him that he trusts the man just as if he were one of his own crew members.
2 His Most Formidable Enemy
Roger has had several enemies in One Piece, such as the 'Golden Lion' Shiki, 'The Hero of the Marines' Garp, and Whitebeard, to name a few. However, Sengoku recently stated in One Piece Chapter 957 that Roger's most formidable enemy was the Captain of the Rocks Pirates, Rocks D. Xebec.
Rocks aimed to be King of the World. At God Valley, however, he was completely crushed by the joint force of the Roger Pirates and a Navy unit that included Monkey D. Garp.
1 Roger's Name
Almost every One Piece fan knows Roger's full name to be Gol D. Roger. Interestingly, to hide his lineage, the World Government tried to popularize him by the name of Gold Roger. Very few people knew his real name to be Gol D. Roger, as mentioned by Roger himself when he spoke to Whitebeard for the final time close to his death.
The history of the D was explained by Roger to Whitebeard in its entirety, presumably. However, Oda made sure not to let the fans know what it meant at the time. In the future, this scene is likely to be brought up once again.