One Piece is a manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It's about an adventure which was led by a boy Monkey D. Luffy. A 7-year-old boy, ate a devil fruit when he was young, and because of this, his body gained rubber-like properties.
His crew of pirates, named The Straw Hat Pirates, were going to explore the Grand line. All the pirates including him were in search of a treasure named “One Piece”. It is an adventure set a long time after the death of the king of all the pirates, Gol D. Roger.
Silvers Rayleigh was the oldest and strongest pirate on One Piece. Also the first pirate mate of Roger, known as Dark King. He was one of the most feared pirates on the sea. He led both the crew and also was always at the front lines in the fights.
He was said to be one of the strongest pirates after Roger. However, was Silver Rayleigh really strong? And why was he called Dark King?
Who is Silver Rayleigh?
Infamous as the Dark King, Silver Rayleigh is an extremely powerful and very famous retired pirate. He served as the first mate of Roger pirates. Also known as the Right hand of the pirates, he's one of the major figures, along with Whitebeard, Luffy, and other prominent pirates.
After the disbanding of the Roger Pirates and the execution of Roger, he became a coating mechanic at the Sabaody Archipelago also at the very same time he married Shakuyaku and befriended Hatchan.
He was an ally of the Straw hat pirates during the Sabaody Arc and served as Luffy’s mentor in the use of Haki during the two-year time skip.
Was Rayleigh a strong pirate?
Let's talk about Rayleigh’s physical strength, which allowed him to kill all the Sea kings with his bare hands! In the manga series, we saw that he has also been shown throwing bullets and destroying cannonballs with his bare hands.
Also, he was able to stop Kizaru’s attack and keep up with him. Last but not least he has shown to have the stamina to swim to Amazon Lily. He even in his old age can keep up with the admirals in the manga series.
There are lots of questions about if Rayleigh was stronger than Roger. The answer is an absolute no. He may be the strongest pirate after Roger but he wasn't strong enough to go up against Roger. It would be like comparing Zoro with Luffy.
It is also said that he was '100 times stronger than all the eleven supernovas and lastly he was one of the most trained and extremely skilled swordsmen.
Why was he called Dark king?
If we look at this through Haki’s point of view we can say that he was called Dark King because either he was possessed with extremely powerful Busoshoku Haki or perhaps he was the one who introduced it?
Also if you all remember that the Marines don't change the aliases of the people they chase easily. Zoro is still called Pirate Hunter.
So we can say that this means that probably some low-level marines in the manga series would have seen the hardened body of Rayleigh with its Haki and called him Dark King because of the color.
Many people do believe that there would be many other different reasons why he was called Dark King. According to me, it was because of the Haki and also that he created a black sphere around him. What do you think would be the reason for people calling him 'Dark King'?
Thanks for reading!
