With the reveal that the Nefertari are in fact D clan members, it made me question are there other mysteries or hidden family relations or ties with other One Piece characters that are in plain sight?
I know I’m going to get flamed for this and I know how crazy it sounds, but I think theres a chance (not a big one but possible lol) that Akainu is brothers with Dragon, just like how Luffy was brothers with Ace. Not blood related but through the same ceremony that Ace, Luffy, and Sabo did with Sake.
The biggest piece of evidence to me is Akainu’s name. Akainu isn’t his real name its his Marine nickname and his real name is Sakazuki which translates to “Sake cup” and a “Sakazuki ceremony” is exactly what Luffy, Ace, and Sabo did to solidify their comradery as true brothers.
Where I’m going with this is Oda doesn’t just pick random names for important main characters in the story and the fact that he made Akainu’s real name “Sakazuki” which means Sake cup makes me think it has to have some importance or foreshadowing , especially because Sake in the One Piece story has been very significant since its been shown multiple times that its a catalyst used for comradery, pledging loyalties and creating families.
When its revealed that Luffy is Dragon’s son during the Marineford War, there seems to be some kind of personal vendetta that Akainu shows towards Luffy and his connection to Dragon, you can chalk this up to him just being a marine who wants absolute justice and pirates/revolutionaries are bad especially Dragon their leader, but to me it feels way more personal than just his Marine’s duty, throughout the whole war Akainu only refers to Luffy as “Son of Dragon” and “Dragon’s son” multiple times.
What if Dragon, Akainu and someone else also did the Sakazuki ceremony and became brothers? And what if their goal at the time was justice for the world and they all decided to achieve that goal by becoming marines?
Dragon later on abandons the ideals of what the Marines stands for and creates the polar opposite, the Freedom Fighters, and eventually the Revolutionary Army. Somewhat breaking his brotherly bond with Akainu which ultimately is the reason why Akainu absolutely hates Dragon now.
The feud or disconnect between Dragon and Akainu could of happened many different ways. Akainu didn’t join the Marines till he was 23, so what was he doing before that? And since Dragon’s father is Garp he must of had a huge Marine influence on him just like Garp was trying to do with Ace and Luffy. So were Akainu and Dragon friends for a long time then became brothers, then became Marines together and something happened that made Dragon abandon the Marines and become a Freedom fighter, resulting in Akainu’s hatred for him?
If this is paralleling Luffy’s sake ceremony with Ace and Sabo, I’m not quite sure who the 3rd brother would be if there even would be a 3rd brother, maybe they died just like how it was believed Sabo did and eventually becoming true for Ace and that death maybe was the turning point for both Akainu and Dragon, both going their separate ways one becoming a Marine believing they are the true justice in the world and one joining the Freedom Fighters/ creating the Revolutionary Army.
We even get a connection between Dragon and Akainu from Ohara, Akainu was a Vice Admiral at the time and led the Buster Call on the island and even decided to destroy an evacuation ship of survivors, months later we get Dragon visiting the Island and seeing the aftermath since he was a friend of Ohara/Clover and believed in what they stood for.
Maybe this was also foreshadowing Akainu’s and Dragons polar opposite ideals or even Akainu knowing Ohara’s connection to Dragon and his hatred resulted in leaving no one alive. Another small detail was that Dragon was the captain of the freedom fighters during this time and Akainu only a Vice admiral kind of paralleling their eventual rise in the ranks.
Akainu and Dragon are also the same exact age of 55 just like Sabo and Ace were the same exact age. Akainu and Dragon are both the leaders of their respective groups.
This would also be a secret, only Dragon, Akainu and maybe a handful of other people would know, very similar to how no one knew Luffy was Dragon’s son, No one knew Luffy was Garp’s grandson, no one knew Garp even had a grandson.
Its not to far fetched to think Garp did the same thing with Dragon that he did with Ace and Luffy and let someone else take care of them or let them basically fend for themselves, so maybe Dragon grew up on his own and very similar to how Luffy did, possibly finding and befriending a young Sakazuki.
Oda drew Akainu when he was young and it looks like he lived a very rough life, maybe he was an orphan that didn’t even have a name, what if Akainu believed in loyalty and the brother Sake bond so intensely that he named himself after the very ceremony?
TLDR
Akainu is a nickname his real name is just Sakazuki which means ‘Sake Cup” and Sakazuki cups are specifically used for pledging loyalty, we’ve seen in the story that if you exchange/drink from sake cups with others it makes you brothers forever. Is Akainu’s name foreshadowing that he did similar happened in the past?
Akainu seems to have a strong personal vendetta towards Dragon shown to us when he meets Luffy in Marineford and constantly just calls him “Dragon’s son” and goes out of his way to try and kill him.
Did Akainu exchange cups with Dragon back in the day making them brothers and something happened that severed their brotherly bond?
Theory by LightingGodEnel (https://www.reddit.com/user/LightingGodEnel)
