Scopper Gaban

Scopper Gaban, also known as the “Mountain-Eater”, is a legendary retired pirate and former navigator of the Roger Pirates. His fame is said to rival that of his crewmates Gol D. Roger and Silvers Rayleigh, being known as the “Left Hand of the Pirate King”. After the disbandment of the Roger Pirates and the execution of Roger, Gaban has come to live out his retirement on Elbaph, alongside his partner Ripley and their son Colon, being known to the giant locals as Ya-san. First introduced in Buggy’s flashback sequence in the Orange Town Arc and later seen in Kouzuki Oden’s flashbacks during his time with the Roger Pirates, Gaban made his present-day debut in the series through the “From the Decks of the World” cover story, before eventually playing an active role in the main storyline during the Elbaph Arc.Scopper Gaban, also known as the “Mountain-Eater”, is a legendary retired pirate and former navigator of the Roger Pirates. His fame is said to rival that of his crewmates Gol D. Roger and Silvers Rayleigh, being known as the “Left Hand of the Pirate King”. After the disbandment of the Roger Pirates and the execution of Roger, Gaban has come to live out his retirement on Elbaph, alongside his partner Ripley and their son Colon, being known to the giant locals as Ya-san. First introduced in Buggy’s flashback sequence in the Orange Town Arc and later seen in Kouzuki Oden’s flashbacks during his time with the Roger Pirates, Gaban made his present-day debut in the series through the “From the Decks of the World” cover story, before eventually playing an active role in the main storyline during the Elbaph Arc.

Gaban is a man with wild grey hair tied in a bushy ponytail and a wrinkled face, as a result of his advanced age. He sports a long beard that is braided at the chin, a flame-shaped scar over his right eye and a pair of round, black sunglasses. His outfit consists of a flower-patterned Hawaiian shirt, shorts and dark boots, which are complemented by a kasa and a striped coat whenever he is on the move. In the past, Gaban was a tall, well-built man with long black hair, with two thin strands of hair falling over his face (which he no longer has in the present). 27 years ago, he wore a long-sleeved blue shirt with white stripes on each sleeve, which was only held closed at the middle with one button. In the anime, he was initially depicted in this outfit with lighter colored hair, silver sunglasses and a purple shirt with a yellow stripe on the collar and down each arm. 26 years ago, he initially wore a yellow t-shirt with two orange blotch-like patterns on the right side, blue pants, and a purple sash. He then wore a purple shirt, orange pants, and a pale-yellow sash. Gaban’s flame-shaped scar has been depicted inconsistently in flashbacks: He was first shown with the scar 20 years ago, but later without the scar 14 years ago. It is currently unclear which depiction is accurate.

Gaban can be very quick to get to the point, as he proposed stopping the rampaging Kouzuki Oden early on before the samurai could cause more damage to the crew. He was also the first to voice the crew’s dissatisfaction towards Oden after the latter joined the Roger Pirates. Gaban does not seem to care for small talk, cutting Neptune off when he started talking about Shyarly’s popularity across Fish-Man Island. He is proud of his strength as he considered himself the second strongest of the Roger Pirates after his captain; even when critically wounded and in the midst of a chaotic siege, when the New Giant Warrior Pirates considered him the third strongest under Rayleigh, he struggled to correct them as the second strongest. In his older years, Gaban has shown an amorous side, declaring that “love is free” and introducing himself as the “Preacher of Love” (愛の伝導師, Ai no Dendōshi?) to the Straw Hat Pirates. He is also highly mischievous, showing great excitement at other people causing trouble and insisting that secrets should be spread instead of being kept. Despite his playful nature, he can adopt an intimidating expression and attack. Gaban acknowledges Haki as a power that requires to be understood and tamed, and criticized Roronoa Zoro for not taking notice of possessing Supreme King Haki, believing that someone who serves one of the Four Emperors should be more meticulous.

As a long-time member of the Roger Pirates, Gaban understands Roger better than most and knows it is pointless to convince him to run from an enemy. He would often act as the voice of reason for the more impulsive and headstrong Roger, who would argue back by provoking Gaban. Gaban seems to hold his captain to a high standard, even trying to stop him from bowing his head to Whitebeard so he would not look weak in front of his rival. In fact, Gaban earned his epithet after protecting his captain during a massive pirate attack, as a testament to his loyalty.

Shanks

Even decades after the disbandment of the Roger Pirates, Gaban and Shanks are still close, as Shanks visited Gaban on Elbaph fourteen years ago to reminisce on old times. In the present he even tried to persuade Gaban into putting his faith into Luffy, though Gaban was initially reserved about meeting Luffy.

Crocus

Even decades after the disbandment of the Roger Pirates, Gaban and Crocus seem to be on friendly terms, as Gaban went all the way to the Twin Cape just to visit Crocus.

Silvers Rayleigh

While its currently unknown how close the two actually are in the present, Gaban and Rayleigh are shown in the past to be on well enough terms. Despite being the First Mate, Rayleigh had no qualms whatsoever about Gaban’s ability to defend their captain from a massive pirate attack by himself when he was taken to be treated on top of a mountain.

Family

Ripley

Ripley is Gaban’s common-law wife. Although the two have been together for at least 20 years, Gaban refuses to formally marry her because he ages so much faster than her and their son.

Colon

Colon is Gaban’s son with Ripley. Gaban has remarked that even as a baby, Colon was too big for him to hold in his arms, yet he was thankful for his birth, which he considered one of the greatest moments in his life. Colon seems proud of his father as he eagerly told others about Gaban’s strength and past as a pirate. Gaban, in turn, loves his son; he expressed pride when he learned that Colon tried to save his kidnapped friends, and immediately ran to his son’s rescue when he learned Colon was captured as well. Gaban cares deeply for Colon’s safety and will hesitate in battle if his son’s life is held in immediate danger.

Other

Monkey D Luffy

Like Rayleigh, Gaban too reminisced about Roger when meeting Monkey D. Luffy, whose carefree attitude towards going into danger was a character trait of his late captain. Gaban did recognize his late captain’s signature Straw Hat and teased Luffy about safeguarding it only for Shanks, knowing badmouthing the latter would upset Luffy. Gaban later suggested Luffy to pay him a visit as soon as he would leave Elbaph, though Luffy dismissed the idea. Gaban was also seemingly aware of Luffy’s awakening as “Nika” and was thrilled to see him enter his Gear 5 form.

Considered the “Left Hand of the Pirate King”, Gaban is an living legend and a powerful fighter, comparable to his late captain Roger and the former first mate Rayleigh. According to Hajrudin, he was known as one of Roger’s “wings” alongside Rayleigh, as well as the third strongest member overall (a detail he vehemently disagrees with, considering himself the second strongest instead). In terms of authority, he was shown leading the charge alongside Rayleigh during the crew’s last battle with the Whitebeard Pirates. In his younger days, Gaban fought alongside his crew in battles against poweful adversaries like the Marines, Whitebeard Pirates and the Rocks Pirates, making him a true veteran and one of the most experienced pirates in the world. While it is unknown how much Gaban’s power has declined from age, he still remains a immensely powerful warrior capable of forcing a Emperor of the Sea like Luffy to use his Gear 5. Another display of Gaban’s power is he was able to swiftly defeat God’s Knights member Shepherd Sommers without injury. In the anime, Gaban was shown to be strong enough to clash on even terms with soon-to-be crewmate Kouzuki Oden, one of the strongest-ever samurai from Wano. Having arrived at Laugh Tale along with the rest of the Roger Pirates, Gaban also knows the truth about the Void Century. However, as stated by Rayleigh, it is likely that he and the rest of the crew could have interpreted that information differently by lacking the archaeological knowledge of scholars of Ohara’s caliber.

Navigational Skills

As the navigator of the former Roger Pirates, Gaban is an expert sailor with great knowledge of the sea and how to best traverse it. His crew were the first group known to have fully circumnavigated the Blue Planet, making Gaban one of the biggest contributors to that feat thanks to his cartography, having been in charge of drawing the crew’s final route to Laugh Tale. In the present day, Gaban still knows how to navigate through the treacherous waters of the Grand Line, being able to cross the ocean all the way to Reverse Mountain in order to reunite himself with Crocus.

Physical Abilities

In his youth, Gaban was one of the strongest members of the Roger Pirates, being on par with Rayleigh. Gaban’s strength is still monstrous in old age, being immensely fast and agile (enough to keep up with the much younger Luffy) while also extremely strong, having enough power to destroy a whole castle tower (built to accommodate Giants) in a single move. By his own admission he considers himself to be rusty in combat despite being touted by others as one of the strongest fighters on Elbaph.

Haki

Gaban is one of the very few people in the world who can use all three types of Haki.

Supreme King Haki

Gaban is one of the few people able to use Supreme King Haki and possesses great mastery over it. He is capable of its advanced application of infusing it into his axes, dramatically increasing the power of his attacks, as indicated by the streaks of black lightning emitted from his axes. By infusing Supreme King Haki into his attacks, Gaban is capable of inhibiting the God’s Knights immortality and temporarily inflicting serious injuries on them, as evidenced when Sommers’ arm took an extended amount of time to regenerate after Gaban severed it.

Armament Haki

Gaban is able to use Armament Haki. He can imbue Haki into pre-existing weapons like his axes, or ordinary objects, allowing him to use them as an improvised weapon.

Observation Haki

Gaban is a master of Observation Haki. He was able to sense, from a great distance, the abnormal Haki that accompanied the arrival of the God’s Knights on Elbaph, with many other giants and pirates on the island still being unaware of it. He could later tell there are three of them on Elbaph, despite their effort to hide their presence. He is also one of the very few individuals capable of using its advanced form of “Future Vision”, which showed his son Colon getting killed by Gunko and him not making it in time to save him.

Axemanship

During his career as a pirate, Gaban favored a pair of single-edged axes as his weapons of choice, which he was extremely skilled at using. One of his legendary feats was defeating hundreds of enemy pirates by himself with his two axes, to protect Roger as he was recovering from his injuries. By the end of that fight, a whole mountain range had been wiped clean of vegetation, earning Gaban the nickname “Mountain Eater”. Even as an old man in the present, Gaban still shows great axemanship and can effortlessly throw a gigantic one around simply as a manner of alerting others of his presence. He still wields his dual axes to this day, taking them out when getting serious. From the sheer damage he caused to the Aurust Castle, it is safe to assume that age has not significantly weakened Gaban’s axemanship. He can unleash flying slash attacks faster than his enemies can react to.

Techniques

Over 27 years ago, Gaban and the Roger Pirates took part in a battle against an unnamed enemy ship, happily fighting off the enemies. Gaban was present with the rest of the Roger Pirates in the sea known as Edd War, where they were confronted by Shiki, the captain of the Golden Lion Pirates. Shiki demanded to form an alliance with the Roger Pirates in hopes of taking over the world and if they did not agree, Shiki would destroy them with his armada. While this event occurred, Gaban tried his best to calm down Buggy, who was hoping to surrender to Shiki, but in the end, Roger refused the alliance thus resulting in an epic battle where the entire crew, including Gaban fought it out. Luckily, fate was on the Roger Pirates’ side as during the battle, a massive storm formed and sunk half of Shiki’s armada, resulting in the Roger Pirates’ victory.

This event was forever known as the Battle of Edd War. At some point Gaban and the rest of the crew travelled to Little Garden and met Dorry and Brogy. Around 26 years ago, the Roger Pirates were causing a ruckus on an island. After defeating a group of Marines, they learned that the Whitebeard Pirates had docked on the other side of the island. The Roger Pirates were then confronted by Kouzuki Oden.

Gaban and Silvers Rayleigh prepared to fight him, but Gol D. Roger charged in and blew Oden away with a single slash. The Roger Pirates clashed with the Whitebeard Pirates for three days and three nights before the skirmish turned into a gift exchange. The Roger Pirates were later joined by Oden and his family as well as Inuarashi and Nekomamushi. At some point, the Roger Pirates visited Skypiea.

After leaving Skypiea, the crew’s voyage took them to Water 7, Tequila Wolf, Sabaody Archipelago, and Fish-Man Island. Sometime later, they left Toki, Momonosuke, Hiyori, Inuarashi, and Nekomamushi in Wano Country. Sometime after the visit to Zou, the Roger Pirates finally reached Laugh Tale. When the crew discovered Joy Boy’s treasure, they responded with a burst of laughter. Sometime after Roger became Pirate King, Roger decided to disband the crew.

Roger was the first to leave and the crew tearfully parted ways with him. They later returned Oden to Wano Country, and they tearfully bid farewell to him as well. Over twenty years ago, Gaban started living in Elbaph, where he met Ripley and eventually had a child with her, although the two never married. Fourteen years ago, Gaban was visited at his home by Shanks. The pair relaxed in the nearby hot spring, reminiscing about the past and how much had changed since Roger’s death ten years prior. The two were interrupted by Ripley, who had made a fresh tart. Ripley asked Shanks for some gossip about Gaban’s past, but Gaban would have none of it, and threatened Shanks from speaking further. The pair then sat down and discussed Elbaph’s current King, Harald. Gaban was surprised to learn that Shanks had already met him in the past, back at Mary Geoise. However, he was confused by Shanks’ wording, specifically his mention that Harald had to be warned before “it” was too late. At that same moment, an incident occurred inside Aurust Castle, involving Loki apparently killing his father in cold blood. Gaban and Shanks went to investigate, leading to Gaban sensing a strange Haki within.

Fishman Island Saga

From The Decks Of The World

Gaban visited his former crewmate Crocus at Twin Cape.

Final Saga

Egghead Arc

Gaban sat on the shore of Elbaph, drinking and waiting for someone’s arrival. Sometime before Shanks left Elbaph, he and Gaban met to discuss Luffy.

Elbaph Arc

Sometime after the Straw Hat Pirates arrival, Gaban proceeded across Elbaph, to Aurust Castle, with the intent of investigating a “strange” Haki he had sensed there. Upon entering the castle, Gaban spotted the Straw Hats, who had been brought there by Road with the objective of finding the keys to Loki’s restraints. Due to their spotting of a Magic Circle (which Nami had stated to have been used to summon demons), the Straw Hats’ guide was naturally terrified when Gaban’s voice sounded out through the abandoned castle. Road attempted to flee in fear, however Gaban flung an axe at the door, causing the giant to fall back and remain. When Gaban was spotted and gave a proper introduction, Road recognized him as “Ya-san”, and all previous fears were dispelled.

Road introduced Gaban as Ripley’s lover and the father of Colon, to their surprise. Gaban naturally followed along, proclaiming himself to be the “preacher of love”. Upon being told about the Straw Hats objective to free Loki, Gaban was surprised, concerned, but most importantly, excited at the prospect of troublemaking. However, before he could even finish issuing his warning about freeing Loki, Luffy and Zoro got bored and attempted to leave. In order to keep them interested, Gaban had Road reveal the hidden chamber with Loki’s key in it.

Before the Straw Hats could take the key, Gaban grabbed it and challenged Luffy to a fight, with the key being the prize. Although Luffy begged for Gaban to simply hand the key over, Gaban responded by taunting Luffy into trying to take it by force. Luffy tried multiple times to grab it, but Gaban was too quick, easily avoiding each one. When Luffy finally went for an attack, Gaban coated the key in haki and used it as a weapon, forcing Luffy to dodge. He then proceeded to taunt Luffy further by accusing Shanks of being a cheapskates for “loaning” Luffy his Straw Hat, rather than giving it to him.

This led to Luffy becoming outraged, although Gaban easily put him down once more. Gaban then proceeded to equip a pair of axes, before unleashing a devastating attacked he termed Yasotakeru, forcing Zoro to intervene on Luffy’s behalf. As Luffy entered Gear 5 and Zoro readied his swords, Gaban peacefully surrendered, causing the pair to lose their tempers at Gaban’s apparent joke of a fight. After placing the key in Luffy’s possession, Gaban took his leave, and requested that the Straw Hats find him before they left Elbaph, should they survive freeing Loki. Sometime later, during an attack on the Western Village by various MMA, Gaban made his appearance on the Giant Warrior Pirates ship, the Great Eirik, where he was greeted warmly.

Gaban fought the numerous MMA alongside the Giant Warrior Pirates, easily taking down a cartoonish version of Loki on his own. After getting back onto the ship, Gaban searched the surrounding area, attempting to visually locate the God’s Knights he had felt prior, as well as the new ones. Gaban grimly mentioned that if even Elbaph was no longer safe, then the end of the current world was not far. Unfortunately, the Giant Warrior Pirates eventually found themselves overwhelmed with MMA, especially after MMA versions of their wives and mothers appeared. As a result, the svarr crashed into the forest below.

By happenstance, Gaban’s wife Ripley and a few of her allies were running by, allowing for a short reunion. Simultaneously, an island-wide announcement was being given by Shepherd Sommers, who gave the giants an ultimatum of joining the World Government, or having their children (including Colon) killed. Gaban refused to let harm befall his son, and at the request of his wife, broke off from the group to save him. Due to his great speed, Gaban was able to arrive at the branch just in time to witness Sommers about to unleash a finishing blow on Nico Robin. Using an air slash, Gaban sliced one of Sommers’ hands clean off, confusing the God’s Knight at his inability to regenerate it.

Gaban then confronted Sommers personally, causing him to panic as Gaban unleashed a direct slash across his chest. Unfortunately, Sommers was able to continue fighting on, and blocked another one of Gaban’s strikes using a thorn barrier. After a short scuffle, Sommers attempted to unleash a finishing attack, however, Gaban was able to dodge and decapitate the God’s Knight in a swift slash. Having no time to save the Straw Hats, Gaban quickly proceeded over to Gunko’s location, where he found Colon alongside the rest of the giant children. To his horror, Colon called out to him as his dad, giving Gunko a critical familial connection to take advantage of, which she did.

Gaban was forced to watch as Gunko held a lance to Colon’s neck, giving him little choice on how to proceed. Using Haki, Gaban only foresaw Colon’s death if he were to try to stop Gunko. With no other options, Gaban held up his hands in surrender, giving Gunko the chance to impale him with arrows, and knock him over the branch. As he fell, he quietly apologized to Colon for his failure. Fortunately, Chopper had been hot on Gaban’s trail, and quickly jumped off the branch after him.

As the pair continued to plummet, Chopper managed to get a bit lower, before using Guard Point to soften their landing. Conveniently, the pair happened to land right near the rest of Chopper’s crewmates, as well as the New Giant Warrior Pirates, who had been keeping watch over an injured Loki. The Straw Hats were shocked to learn of Gaban’s true identity, although Gaban was displeased to hear that he was thought of as the third strongest in Roger’s crew. Unable to let such a comment slide, Gaban used the last of his strength to set the record straight, weakly indicating that he was in fact the second strongest, above Raleigh. Moments later, as Chopper revealed the grim situation above, Imu’s Haki appeared, shocking everyone at its absurd power.

With little time to spare, the New Giant Warrior Pirates prepped a nearby lift in order for a quick ascension to the Sun World. Before Luffy could leave, Gaban waved him down, before informing him that his Conqueror’s Haki could be used to defeat the supposedly-immortal God’s Knights. Gaban then revealed that he sensed another Conqueror’s Haki user in Luffy’s crew, that being Zoro, who was surprised to learn of his own power. Gaban was apalled that Zoro was unaware of his own strength, and reminded him that as Luffy’s second, he should always be ready to have his captain’s back. Meanwhile, Hajrudin and Loki argued over whether or not to take the latter, resulting in Hajrudin eventually deciding not to take Loki to the upcoming battle. Gaban called out to him, before ordering him to release the former Prince. Hajrudin was in disbelief at first, but became more skeptical as Gaban revealed that he had sensed a strange Haki fourteen years prior, and believed the official story to be lacking details. With little other option, Loki begrudgingly began to give his side of the story.