Sun Pirates

**Sun Pirates** (タイヨウの海賊団, *Taiyō no Kaizokudan*), sometimes known as the **Mermen Pirates** (魚人海賊団, *Gyojin Kaizokudan*; literally meaning ""Fishman Pirates"), is a group that appears in the *One Piece* series. It is a Mermen pirate crew formed by the late Fisher Tiger. The crew is notable for having Jimbei and Arlong as part of its members, the former eventually becoming the second captain of the crew, and later, a Warlord. This crew split apart into three factions eleven years ago: the Sun Pirates under Jimbei, the Arlong Pirates under Arlong, and the Macro Pirates under Macro. Jimbei's faction had took the World Government pardon when Jimbei became a Warlord but lost the pardon when he abdicated his title; they went to serve under Big Mam afterwards.

"*.*"

—About the Sun 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 merman slaves that were freed by Fisher Tiger from the World Nobles in Marie Jois. Each and every one of them has a red mark branded on them that resembles a sun. This mark was originally a hoof mark branded on them to signify that they were once slaves of the Celestial Dragons but the mark of the sun hides this previous mark. All members of the crew, even those who were not slaves would have had this mark burnt onto their skins. Thus, though this mark does not necessarily mean that every single member with it was once a slave, it does signify they were a part of the crew. Amongst their members notably include Fisher Tiger, Jimbei, Arlong and some of his men, Macro and his subordinates.

## Gallery

Fisher Tiger
(Captain; Deceased)Jimbei
(Second Captain)Arlong
(Former)
### Allies

Big Mam Pirates
(Former)
## Crew Strength

The Sun Pirates are a legendary pirate crew, which originated most of the ones composed by mermen in the current storyline. As they are all mermen, 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, and among their members were powerful figures such as Arlong and Jimbei, 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 with little effort all of the Navy sent after them.

After the death of Fisher Tiger and the arrest of Arlong, the Sun Pirates lost strength under the second captain, Jimbei. Upon his acceptance into the Seven Warlords of the Sea, although Arlong was released, he decided to split with his former Arlong Pirates to restart his crew as did Macro, Gyaro, and Tansui, who became the Macro Pirates. This caused the Sun Pirates to lose even more strength. Although the remainder of the Sun Pirates accepted the pardon to retire from piracy, when Jimbei abdicated his position, they lost their pardon and the Sun Pirates, although a fraction of what they once were, are an active pirate crew again.

## Ships

### Original Ship

The Sun Pirates' first ship have first appeared in Boa Hancock's flashback in the *Chapter 521* and *Episode 415*, and later in Jimbei's flashback. When the Navy ambushed the crew on Foolshout Island, the ship was sunk by cannon blasts, forcing them to steal a Navy battleship as a replacement.

The ship has a figurehead of a fish, with flames around the neck part, while the rudder resembles a fish tail. The cabin on the middle and the back of the ship also resembles fishes. There are cannon ports on the sides of the vessel. Its overall appearance is a giant fish. The ship has five sails. The front two are dark blue, and they bear the Jolly Roger of the Sun Pirates. The middle one is dark blue, but is blank. The second one from the back is light blue. The last sail on the back is striped between blue green and green. The flag of the crew is on top of the foremost sail.

### Second Ship

With the destruction of their old ship and the death of Fisher Tiger, the Sun Pirates with Jimbei as their captain were seen in a new ship, which was originally a Marine ship (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 Jimbei's flashback. It is unknown what happened to this ship as of now.

### Third Ship

Sometime after Jimbei took over, and before the current story, the Sun Pirates had a third ship whose design is identical to their first one, except for the colors of front sail.

## History

### Past

#### 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 Marie Jois 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 mermen.

As the citizens of Merman Island heard about the news, many gave up on their current occupations to join the Sun Pirates, proud of the act of Tiger. Among them, Jimbei 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 merman 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 Navy 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 Jimbei 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 merman 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, Kuzan, Borsalino, and Sakazuki and their Navy Platoon, ambushed Tiger and declaring that turning a blind eye to the fact that Koala was the property of the World Nobles is no threat or problem to them. Tiger then fought them, but mortally wounding in the process, and the crew's ship was destroyed. The crew stole a Navy 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 mermen, 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 Jimbei. Jimbei eventually gained enough fame to be invited into the Seven Warlords of the Sea ranks, to which he accepted in order to allow the Sun Pirates to return to Merman Island if they choose to.

#### Splitting of the Crew

Nine years before the start of the series, Jimbei 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 Merman Island, having their pirates and slaves statuses nullified.

Shortly after, World Nobles 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 Merman 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.

## Synopsis

### During the Timeskip

After Jimbei abdicated his position as a Warlord during the Battle of Navyford, the former members of the Sun Pirates could no longer stay on Merman Island, and consequently left along with Jimbei. 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 Merman Island after the Sun Pirates had already left Merman Island and the World Government was most likely unaware of Hatchan's status.

### Fishman Island Arc

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

### Whole Cake Island Arc

Jimbei met with his crew to discuss disaffiliation with Big Mom and joining Luffy's crew. The Sun Pirates agreed and supported his decision. When Jimbei asked Aladine's wife, Charlotte Praline, about the possibility of incurring Big Mom's wrath if he leaves her crew, she stated that Jimbei 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 Jimbei for further orders.

Jimbei then came to Whole Cake Island, where he satiated Big Mam's violent craving for croquembouche. He then requested to leave her crew, and Big Mam 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, Jimbei backed out of the deal.

Two days later, Jimbei 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. Jimbei and Nami then ran through the Whole Cake Chateau, taking out the enemies in their way, before Chopper and Carrot pulled them into an alternate dimension inside the mirrors. Jimbei then assisted the Straw Hats in retrieving Brook and Sanji from various spots on Whole Cake Island.

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

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

Recalling Jimbei'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.

## 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 Fishman Island, in *Chapter 624* of the *Fishman Island Arc*.