Before Joy Boy: The forgotten legend of Davy Jones in One Piece

When I first heard the name “Davy Jones” in One Piece, I didn’t take it seriously. Oda introduced it during the Foxy arc, which is basically the Looney Tunes detour of the series. A goofy pirate game, slapstick humor, and the infamous Davy Back Fight. At the time, it felt like nothing more than a gag borrowed from seafaring folklore.

But the longer I’ve followed this story, and especially after reading chapter 1155, the more I can’t shake the feeling that Oda planted Davy Jones in the lore for a reason. And not just any reason, but one that could rewrite what we think we know about the Will of D, Joy Boy, the Void Century, and maybe even the One Piece itself.

Back in chapter 306, Nico Robin casually drops this little info nugget: Davy Jones was a legendary pirate, cursed by a demon, who hoarded treasures and souls until he was condemned to live at the bottom of the sea in “Davy Jones’s Locker.” Everything that sank? His property.

Then Oda goes a step further and ties Davy Jones to pirate tradition through the Davy Back Fight. But its origin in the story is darker, centuries-old contests where pirates risked their own crewmates.

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The possibility that Joy Boy is Davy Jones in One Piece

We know Joy Boy in One Piece was a major figure from the Void Century. He was a rebel against the World Government who left messages for the future and made an unfulfilled promise to Fishman Island. But what if the reason he couldn’t fulfill that promise was because he was cursed?

Imagine Joy Boy losing to Imu and the Twenty Kings. Instead of killing him, they condemn him to the depths, eternal life at the bottom of the sea. His laughter silenced, his freedom stripped, his story buried under myth until he becomes “Davy Jones.”

That would explain why his name is unknown to most of the world. It would also explain why even someone as dangerous as Rocks would invoke Jones’s name in front of Imu, not as a joke, but as if mentioning an ancient enemy the Celestial Dragons still fear.

If this is true, the Davy Back Fight might’ve started as a Joy Boy invention, a peaceful pirate challenge to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, that became corrupted into a cutthroat game over centuries.

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The darker alternative: The Will of D is the Will of Davey

What if Joy Boy and Davy Jones were never the same man? What if they were opposites?

In this version of history, Davy Jones would be the first D, maybe even the origin of the name. Not “Dawn,” not “Destiny,” but “Davey.” He’d be the prototype: a pirate who believed in domination, vengeance, and hoarding power. Joy Boy’s “Will of D” would be a different branch entirely, about freedom, unity, and laughter.

The split explains so much. Luffy, Roger, Saul, and Law carry Joy Boy’s D, which is compassionate and liberating. Blackbeard, Rocks, and maybe even Dragon (depending on his true motives) might carry Jones’s D, chaotic, self-serving, or at least ruthless.

It’s like the Will of D in One Piece was never one unified will at all, but two competing legacies passed down in fragments. And if that’s true, Blackbeard suddenly makes perfect sense. His Yami Yami no Mi is a living metaphor for the abyss, a power that drags everything into darkness like the locker itself.

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Why does this matter for the endgame of One Piece?

If my gut is right, we’re heading toward a reveal that the Will of D has two faces: Joy Boy’s light and Davy Jones’s shadow. Luffy will inherit the light. Blackbeard will inherit the shadow. And the final battle will decide who will rule the new world.

But to even reach that point, someone’s going to have to open the locker. Whether that’s freeing Joy Boy’s cursed soul or confronting a very much alive Davy Jones, it means diving to the very bottom of the One Piece world. And if you think about it, that’s exactly the kind of finale Oda loves: the “deepest” truth hiding in plain sight, teased since the early arcs.