Jolly Roger

The Jolly Roger (alternatively Skull, Mark, or simply Pirate Flag) is the primary symbol of a pirate crew. It exists in countless variations across the world, distinguishing hundreds—if not thousands—of different crews as well as their respective property, ships, and territories.

Overview
The basic Jolly Roger consists of a human skull above "crossbones"—femurs intersecting at diagonal angles. This design may be expanded and/or modified in any number of ways, usually to reflect the appearance or interests of an individual captain (e.g. the Whitebeard Pirates' bearing Edward Newgate's distinctive mustache, or the Straw Hat Pirates' bearing Luffy's Straw Hat); some variations may even exclude both skull and crossbones, though these typically substitute other violent imagery.

In some cases, a Jolly Roger is designed to send a message, such as the Krieg Pirates Jolly Roger displaying a pair of hourglasses so as to let people know that their time has run out.

While Jolly Rogers are most often placed on the flags and sails of pirate ships, they are also commonly worn by individual pirates, as both clothing decorations and body tattoos.

Ideals and Implications
This flag rejects impossibilities! It's the symbol of faith!



As pirates themselves can vary widely in beliefs, actions, and reputations, the Jolly Roger has been associated with many different—sometimes contradictory—ideas.

Most commonly, the Jolly Roger is treated as a symbol of power, showing off a pirate crew's strength to intimidate enemies and victims. Particularly well-established pirates have been known to mark entire towns and even islands with their Jolly Roger, deeming such locations their "territories" and promising protection and retribution against outside attack.

All those that sail under a Jolly Roger are supposed to show respect for their chosen flag and honor it always as it represents the crew itself. Once the flag is gone, the crew can no longer sail under it and therefore everything linked with the flag is gone. Luffy uses this in making his choice in the Davy Back Fight and takes the Jolly Roger belonging to Foxy instead of a member of the crew, thus preventing anyone from ever sailing under it again. He then gives them a new one that he drew (badly) himself.

Different crews react differently to these ideals. For example, Wapol did not see what was so important about the pirate flag in comparison to Luffy. Donquixote Doflamingo does not like the idea of anyone tarnishing his flag's name and punished Bellamy for losing under it.

Aside from the ideals of respect for the flag, some pirates also add details to their Jolly Roger to signify a certain meaning, such as the Krieg Pirates having hourglasses next to the skull to signal to their enemies that their time is up, or the Sun Pirates having a sun symbol to cover up the Hoof of the Flying Dragon that many members once bore.

Certain individuals, groups, and even nations who understand the ideals of the Jolly Roger, or have turned against ideas of the World Government, also raise the skull and crossbones; an example of this is the former Drum Kingdom, later renamed the Sakura Kingdom, who flew Dr. Hiriluk’s Jolly Roger as their national flag after the fall of Wapol.

Of course, any kind of Jolly Roger tends to be strongly opposed by the Marines and other World Government figures. Though apparently not illegal per se (as the Sakura Kingdom, which uses one as the national flag, is recognized at Levely), its presence on any ship has been known to spark immediate attacks.

Smileys


Following the introduction of Donquixote Doflamingo, a different type of Jolly Roger has appeared. Rather than the traditional skull and crossbones, the flag is a smiley of a grinning person. The significance of this type of Jolly Roger has yet to be revealed. In some cases, such as Doflamingo's flag and the Human Auctioning House, the smiley has a line painted over it.

While some of the smiling Jolly Rogers are connected to Doflamingo, another smiley has been seen on Whitebeard's life support equipment. Ace also wore two smileys on his hat, one sad and the other happy. The Kid Pirates' secondary Jolly Roger is a smiley style with a stitched-up mouth. The Heart Pirates also have a smiley style Jolly Roger, only this one has 6 branches extending outwards in all directions, as a tribute to Donquixote Rosinante.

Personal Jolly Rogers
A few characters sport their own personal Jolly Roger. The reasons for that differ, as do the sources of the flags. While some are exclusively shown in the SBS (members of the Straw Hat Pirates), others appear in the series without further information (like Perona's) or are part of a "what if" scenario (Igaram's nightmare picturing Nefertari Vivi as a pirate).

Early One Piece
In the first draft of Romance Dawn, Luffy's Jolly Roger was depicted with a somewhat flatter skull, accompanied by two horizontally parallel arms instead of crossbones. This prototypical version of Luffy also made a habit of collecting flags from rival pirates he defeated.

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