Marineford was One Piece at full cinematic throttle. Whitebeard arrived with his fleet to rescue Ace, the Marines assembled their strongest forces, the Warlords entered the battlefield, Luffy crashed into the chaos, Blackbeard appeared at the worst possible moment, and Shanks eventually brought the entire nightmare to a halt. Ace and Whitebeard died, the old balance of power cracked, and the world entered a new age.
And yet, Eiichiro Oda once described Marineford as something surprisingly small from his perspective. The quote was unearthed by One Piece insider @sandman_AP on X and reads as follows:
One thing that motivates me to keep drawing One Piece is that I want to draw the final saga. The final saga will be so amazing that it makes the Marineford arc look like nothing. Marineford arc was just a side trip to me. I didn’t expect it to be so popular.
Oda’s quote comes from a 2012 catalog, Memories – Eternal Log, from a One Piece Exhibition event that celebrated the series’ 15th anniversary, where Oda said he imagined a final chapter that would make the Marineford arc “look like nothing.” That wasn’t a newly issued announcement about the Final Saga. It was Oda’s retrospective glimpse at the ending he had already been imagining. More than a decade later, however, that comment has become considerably more intriguing.
Oda’s Marineford Comparison Hints at a Much Bigger Final War
Marineford was enormous because practically every major power of the old era collided in one place. Whitebeard and his allies went to war with the Marines and their Admirals over Ace’s execution. Luffy fought his way through the battlefield alongside pirates and unexpected allies, while figures such as Mihawk, Doflamingo, Hancock, and the other Warlords demonstrated just how stacked the conflict was.
Then came the devastating turn. Ace died protecting Monkey D. Luffy, Whitebeard followed, and Blackbeard used the chaos to steal Whitebeard’s power and announce himself as one of the era’s defining threats. Shanks‘ arrival finally ended the battle. But the biggest explosion was arguably Whitebeard’s final message. Rather than allowing the Marines to declare the era finished, his last words confirmed that the One Piece was real, ensuring that the race Roger began would continue.
That’s why Oda’s “side trip” remark is so fascinating. Marineford was not insignificant. It was a gigantic turning point. But Oda apparently viewed it as one event inside a much larger story he had been constructing. And the manga has spent the years since proving just how much larger that story is.
One Piece’s Final Saga Is Building Toward an Unprecedented Conflict
The difference between Marineford and the current endgame isn’t simply the number of powerful characters involved. It is what is actually at stake. Marineford revolved around Ace and Whitebeard’s confrontation with the Marines. The Final Saga, meanwhile, has begun tearing open mysteries that One Piece spent decades carefully hiding, with every pirate looking for the One Piece.
The World Government’s secret ruler, Imu, is now an established presence, while the Five Elders have directly entered the battlefield as terrifying combatants. Official material confirms that Imu ordered the destruction of Lulusia using an Ancient Weapon powered by the Mother Flame. Then Egghead dropped another enormous bombshell. Vegapunk revealed information about the Void Century, Joy Boy, and the world’s rising seas, tying the ancient past directly to the fate of the present world. His broadcast also established that whoever claims the One Piece will have a decisive role in determining the world’s future.
Meanwhile, Luffy is no longer simply a rookie pirate trying to reach the top. He is a Yonko whose connection to Joy Boy and Nika has become central to the world’s deepest conflict. The Revolutionary Army is preparing for the changing world, the remaining Yonko are pursuing their own paths toward the One Piece, and the Ancient Weapons remain potential world-shaping forces.
Even the story’s current Elbaf developments continue expanding the battlefield’s historical and political dimensions, with the latest collected volume reaching Chapter 1193. None of this means Oda has confirmed exactly who will fight whom, how the eventual war will unfold, or that every major character will participate. Those remain open questions. But that’s precisely why his old Marineford comparison matters.
Marineford was the climax of one era. The endgame is increasingly positioned as the collision of the entire history of the world: Joy Boy and the Void Century, Imu and the World Government, the Revolutionary Army, the Yonko, the Ancient Weapons, Luffy’s inherited will and, finally, the One Piece itself. After nearly three decades of setup, Marineford may not look small because it wasn’t important. It may look small because Oda was never finished building the stage.
Do you think Marineford will really look small by the time One Piece reaches its ending?
One Piece anime is available on Crunchyroll and Netflix. The manga is available via VIZ Media and the Manga PLUS app.
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