Sun Pirates

The Sun Pirates, sometimes known as the Fish-Man Pirates (魚人海賊団), are a pirate crew formed by the late Fisher Tiger. The crew is notable for having Jinbe and Arlong as part of its members, the former eventually becoming the second captain of the crew, and later, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. This crew split apart into three factions eleven years ago: the Sun Pirates under Jinbe, the Arlong Pirates under Arlong, and the Macro Pirates under Macro. The Sun Pirates were pardoned by the World Government when Jinbe became a Warlord of the Sea, but lost the pardon when he abdicated his title. They later went to serve under Emperor Big Mom until Jinbe rebelled and joined the Straw Hat Pirates.

Jolly Roger
Unlike most pirates, the Sun Pirates' Jolly Roger is simply a red sun. The sun represents the tattoo that all members have; for many of the founding members, it was created to hide the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon mark that they had when they were slaves.

Crew Members
A majority of the Sun Pirates were composed of Fish-Man slaves that were freed by Fisher Tiger from the World Nobles in Mary Geoise. Each of them has a red mark that resembles a sun. This mark was originally a hoof mark branded on them to signify that they were slaves of the Celestial Dragons, and this mark was covered but the mark of the sun. All members of the crew, even those who were not slaves, have had this mark burnt onto their skin. Thus, though not every member with the mark was once a slave, it does signify they were a part of the crew. Their members notably include Fisher Tiger, Jinbe, Arlong and some of his men, and Macro and his subordinates. However, after Fisher Tiger's death and Jinbe's decision to join Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Sun Pirates were effectively pardoned from their crimes and the slave status of former slave members were nullified, allowing many of them to return home. Arlong and his comrades left the crew to reform the Arlong Pirates while Macro and his subordinates left to form the Macro Pirates. The Sun Pirates became wanted criminals once again after Jinbe's resigned during the Summit War of Marineford and joined Big Mom's crew to protect Fish-Man Island, leading first mate Aladine to marry Big Mom's daughter Charlotte Praline, who joins the crew. Additionally, former Flying Pirates member Wadatsumi apparently ended up joining the crew after befriending Jinbe.

Crew Strength
The Sun Pirates are a legendary pirate crew. As they are all Fish-Men, their incredible strength makes them a formidable crew. At the height of their power, their first captain, Fisher Tiger, was a hero and a powerful figure in his days, known for his amazing feats, including breaking into the capital of the World Government, Mary Geoise, and freeing the slaves of the World Nobles. Among their members were powerful figures such as Arlong and Jinbe, who went on to become powerful pirates of their own rights, with the latter even becoming one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. They were seemingly able to overpower all of the Marines sent after them with little effort.

After the death of Fisher Tiger and the arrest of Arlong, the Sun Pirates lost strength under the second captain, Jinbe. Although Arlong was released after Jinbe's acceptance into the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Arlong and his comrades decided to split from the crew and reformed the Arlong Pirates. Macro, Gyaro, and Tansui also left the Sun Pirates to become the Macro Pirates, which caused the Sun Pirates to lose even more of their numbers. The remainder of the Sun Pirates accepted the pardon to retire from piracy, but when Jinbe abdicated his Warlord of the Sea position, they lost their pardon and the Sun Pirates are an active pirate crew again. The crew later lost even more manpower after Jinbe left the crew in order to join the Straw Hat Pirates.

They later allied with the Big Mom Pirates led by Emperor Charlotte Linlin. While under Linlin's service, the Sun Pirates were allowed to do as they pleased. Sometime later, the giant Fish-Man Wadatsumi joined the Sun Pirates' ranks. On the day of Sanji and Pudding's wedding, the Sun Pirates broke off their allegiance with Big Mom, with their captain joining the Straw Hat Pirates. The crew were able to hold off a fleet of the Big Mom Pirates for an extended period of time despite being outnumbered.

Snapper Head
The Snapper Head was the ship of the Sun Pirates. Built by Fisher Tiger, it was the ship they used while he captained them. The Snapper Head was sunk when the Marines ambushed it on Foolshout Island, resulting in the Sun Pirates replacing it with a stolen Marine vessel.

The Snapper Head was later rebuilt and was used by the Sun Pirates while they served under the Big Mom Pirates. The ship was then destroyed for good by cannonfire from the Queen Mama Chanter after Wadatsumi swapped it in the place of the Thousand Sunny.

Second Ship


With the destruction of their old ship and the death of Fisher Tiger, the Sun Pirates under Jinbe were seen in a new ship that originally belonged to the Marines (as shown in Chapter 623). The ship has three masts with four main sails with their jolly roger on at least two of them and a spinnaker sail at the bow below the figurehead with "TAIYO" (which is Japanese for "sun") written on it. This new ship was first seen in Chapter 624 of Jinbe's flashback. It is unknown what happened to this ship as of now.

Founding
At least fifteen years before the current storyline, Fisher Tiger was captured by the World Nobles and became a slave. After spending hellish years as a slave in Mary Geoise, he somehow managed to escape the World Nobles that treated him so cruelly. Besides barely escaping with his life, he decided he could not just abandon all the other slaves and proceeded to free them all, including Boa Hancock, her two sisters, and many Fish-Men.

As the citizens of Fish-Man Island heard about the news, many gave up on their current occupations to join the Sun Pirates, proud of the actions of Tiger. Among them, Jinbe gave up on being a royal guard and Arlong took his pirates and joined.



As the World Nobles' mark, the "Hoof of the Soaring Dragon", cannot be erased, Tiger branded over it with his own jolly roger, a sun, which transformed the marks into the Sun Pirates' symbol. Thus, wherever a Fish-Man had the mark of slavery on him, whether it be on his back, chest, or arm, it was turned into a sun to erase the fact that they had been slaves. As others joined the crew, likewise the mark was applied to disguise who was once a slave and who was not, thus causing the Marines to be unable to determine who were slaves and could not reclaim them due to lack of evidence. Even though Tiger wanted to fight the humans at all cost, he was against killing, saying that killing would just make them like the humans, although some crew members, Arlong in particular, were against this. Regardless, the crew respected Tiger enough to obey his wishes.



After about three years of piracy, Tiger and Jinbe both had bounties assigned to them, making them known all over the world. As they reached an island, they were asked to take an ex-slave child, Koala, to her home island. Notably, she smiled at all times because crying meant death to any slave, and she worked like a slave while on board, all the while accepting Arlong's abuse. This was all due to the fact that she could not differentiate between the Fish-Man and her ex-owners, which led Tiger to mark her with the symbol of the Sun Pirates, erasing the mark of slavery on her back and making the girl finally believe that she was free.

Tiger's Death and Jinbe Takes Over
Eventually, Tiger returned Koala to her home on Foolshout Island, much to the joy of the citizens there. However, they betrayed Tiger by contacting the Marines, trading the information in exchange for the government turning a blind eye to the fact that Koala was the property of the World Nobles. Tiger was shot many times, mortally wounding him, and the crew's ship was destroyed. The crew stole a Marine battleship and escaped, but Tiger suffered fatal blood loss. He refused a life-saving donation of human blood, believing it to be tainted with hatred for Fish-Men, and with his dying breath, he requested his crew to not reveal how he truly died, nor that he was a slave. After the death of Fisher Tiger, command of the Sun Pirates was handed to Jinbe. Jinbe eventually gained enough fame to be invited into the Warlords of the Sea, to which he accepted in order to allow the Sun Pirates to return to Fish-Man Island if they choose to.

Splitting of the Crew
Nine years before the start of the series, Jinbe joined the Seven Warlords of the Sea and ultimately disbanded the Sun Pirates, separating it into three factions. With it disbanded, the three factions went their separate ways. Arlong, who remained bitter of Tiger's death, reactivated his old crew, which consists of Hatchan, Chew, Kuroobi, Kaneshiro, Pisaro, Take, Shioyaki and others, and set out to East Blue where he began a reign of terror. Macro took his subordinates Tansui and Gyaro and returned to do as they please, as kidnappers and slave traders. The third faction, which is the remaining members of the Sun Pirates itself, chose to take the Government pardon to return to Fish-Man Island, having their pirates and slaves statuses nullified.

Shortly after, World Noble Mjosgard tried to retrieve the slaves that returned to the island, only to be attacked by some members of the Sun Pirates as part of their revenge, under the protection that nobody in Fish-Man Island would report this crime to an admiral. The members claimed that they could not forgive Mjosgard for his cruel treatment against them no matter how hard they tried, but Queen Otohime came and rescued the noble.

During the Timeskip
After Jinbe abdicated his position as Warlord of the Sea during the Summit War of Marineford, the former members of the Sun Pirates could no longer stay on Fish-Man Island, and consequently left along with Jinbe. Whether this means the crew has been reactivated or that they merely left as a group is unknown, but Hatchan alone seemed to be an exception since he was busy helping protect the Thousand Sunny at the Sabaody Archipelago after the war until he was too injured to continue and returned to Fish-Man Island, as the Sun Pirates had already left Fish-Man Island and the World Government was most likely unaware of Hatchan's status.

Fish-Man Island Arc
After the timeskip, the remnants of the Sun Pirates and Jinbe served Big Mom, with Aladine marrying her daughter Charlotte Praline. Jinbe states that the crew has been doing fine. He decides to break ties with Big Mom due to Luffy's invitation to join his crew and Luffy declaring war against Big Mom, but is unsure how to due to his fear of her attacking Fish-Man Island.

Whole Cake Island Arc


Jinbe met with his crew to discuss disaffiliation with Big Mom and joining Luffy's crew. The Sun Pirates agreed and supported his decision. When Jinbe asked Aladine's wife, Charlotte Praline, about the possibility of incurring Big Mom's wrath if he leaves her crew, she stated that Jinbe would not be the first person who tried to leave and warned him that not a single soul brave enough to utter such words has lived to see another day. Aladine later watched Luffy's group from under the sea, and contacted Jinbe for further orders.

Jinbe then came to Whole Cake Island, where he satiated Big Mom's violent craving for croquembouche. He then requested to leave her crew, and Big Mom seemingly agreed, but stated that he would have to lose something in return as she brought out a roulette wheel. Knowing the wheel would only bring down certain death on him and his crew, Jinbe backed out of the deal.



Two days later, Jinbe then decided to stage a rebellion against Big Mom by entering the Whole Cake Chateau and attacking Charlotte Opera in order to free the imprisoned Luffy and Nami. Jinbe and Nami then ran through the Whole Cake Chateau, taking out the enemies in their way, before Chopper and Carrot pulled them into the Mirro-World, an alternate dimension inside the mirrors. Jinbe then assisted the Straw Hats in retrieving Brook and Sanji from various spots on Whole Cake Island.

After rescuing Brook, Jinbe told the crew of what became of Pekoms, informing them he was nearly killed in a conspiracy had Jinbe's crew not saved him. The group soon contacted Luffy and Sanji, with Jinbe telling them of the plot against Big Mom concocted by Capone Bege, who was responsible for nearly killing Pekoms. Jinbe implored the two to not make an enemy out of Bege and instead ally with him to assassinate Big Mom, to which Luffy agreed.

Elsewhere, the Sun Pirates tended to an injured Pekoms but also lied to him about Jinbe's actions due to knowing of the plot to defeat Big Mom.

Recalling Jinbe's orders to leave during the wedding ceremony while security was busy, the crew soon tied Pekoms to a rock. The Sun Pirates departed the island during the chaos at the wedding.

Later, the Sun Pirates assisted Jinbe and his allies by playing musical instruments in accompaniment to Praline's singing to distract the territorial sea slugs, preventing the Big Mom Pirates from tracking down the Straw Hat Pirates. Hours later, the Sun Pirates arrived at Cacao Island to aid Jinbe and the Straw Hats in their escape.



The Sun Pirates cleared a path for the Thousand Sunny, but Oven attacked them by boiling the sea. However, Wadatsumi saved the Sunny by switching it with the Sun Pirates' ship and hid the Sunny in his mouth. Wadatsumi tried swimming far away from the Big Mom Pirates, but Oven attacked him with heat waves, forcing him to spit out the Sunny. The Sun Pirates continued holding the enemy back and Jinbe decided to stay with them. Jinbe and the Sun Pirates were able to ensure the Thousand Sunny's escape. However, before they could retreat, Big Mom arrived at Cacao Island.

Jinbe and the Sun Pirates managed to escape Totto Land. After Jinbe tended to the injured members, the crew gave Jinbe a send-off.

Trivia

 * Slavery was common during the real-world golden age of piracy. When some pirate crews raided slave ships, they offered the slaves a chance to join the crew, and since life as a slave was most often worse than life as a pirate, many took up the offer.
 * The split-up of the Sun Pirates was actually first mentioned back in Chapter 77, during the Arlong Park Arc, while Nojiko was talking about Nami's past, but was not explained until the Straw Hats reached Fish-Man Island, in Chapter 624 of the Fish-Man Island Arc.

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