Jolly Roger

The Jolly Roger is the traditional flag of European and American pirates, envisioned today as a skull over crossed thigh bones on a black field. Various versions of the Jolly Roger existed over the course of the centuries, for example Calico Jack's Jolly Roger replaced the thigh bones with swords (Cutlasses).

Oda himself provided some info on the Jolly Roger, including three possible theorized origins that have come to be accepted by experts:


 * Some say it comes from the French term "Jolie Rogue" or "red Lovely" possibly referring to blood.
 * "Roger" may have come from the word "Rogue" meaning thief or villain.
 * It may have come from the term "Old Roger" an old fashioned name for the Devil.

The Jolly Roger is hugely recognized to mean "danger" worldwide. The skull and crossbones themselves are commonly used on to warn people about dangerous substances or places on signs and bottles.

One Piece
In One Piece, there are many Jolly Roger flags. Jolly Rogers generally help pirates determine who belongs to whose crew, or even who is a pirate in the first place. Many choose to bare their crews flag somewhere on their personal being (such as Portgas D. Ace).

However, raising the Jolly Roger is considered a huge crime by the Marines, and anyone seen doing so (may it be fun or for real) will be considered criminals. The designs of the Jolly Roger usually reflect the interest or Captain of the crew. Other times it may be a personnel item they wear or the symbols behind them.


 * For a swordsman usually there are two swords crossed such as the flags for Shanks although Baroque Works Jolly Roger has two swords on it and Crocodile (as far as it is known) is not or ever has been a swordsman.
 * For cooks there is usually forks (such as those for Zeff and Sanji)
 * For baseball players there are two bats either side.
 * Buggy's flag features his red nose.
 * Shanks has 3 scars across his left eye on his Jolly Roger.
 * Luffy has his Straw Hat on his Jolly Roger.
 * Don Krieg had two hourglasses on his to give the signal "your time is up".
 * Arlong had his own symbol pressed in front of two crossbones.
 * Kuro had a black cat head exchanged with the actual skull, omitting the crossbones.
 * Whitebeard used to have a skull with his characteristic moustache imprinted over a manji, but this was later edited into a vertical and a horizontal bone behind the skull.
 * Blackbeard has three skulls binded together, with three bones crossed behind them.
 * Doflamingo has a smiling face with a black line over it, whilst Bellamy has a lip sticking it's tongue out in front of crossbones.
 * Wapol had a skull with his own characteristic jaw sticking it's tongue to the right, whilst wearing a crown.
 * While not a pirate crew, Baroque Works still had a Jolly Roger, with crossed rapiers and wings.

Ideals of the Flag
All those that sail under a Jolly Roger are suppose to show it respect for their chosen flag and honour 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 instead, thus preventing ever flying under it again. He then gives them a new one 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 flags name and punished Bellamy for losing under it.