Theory: Sakazuki’s past

The most common theory on Sakazuki’s past has always been that pirates did something cruel to him or someone close to him to explain his hatred against pirates and his extreme view on justice.

Until lately, I also believed this but I think I was able to come up with something better. Sakazuki will be one of Luffy’s final and most critical opponents and as such there should be a meaningful backstory to their fight to give it more depth and emotional involvement, which is something Oda pretty much always and incredibly well on top of that.
Some random pirates doing something cruel doesn’t have any correlation to Luffy and doesn’t really add anything to their confrontation.

Hence, I think it has to be something else, so I tried to look for or come up with other potential clues.
And by simply taking a look at Sakazuki and his character design, I noticed something. One of Sakazuki’s most distinc features is the rose on his chest and additionally he has a flower tattoo. Both of those stand out because they stand in such a strong contrast to Sakazuki’s character, so I think it’s safe to say they have some important and deeper meaning to him as a character.

Then I tried to think of other characters with or related and flowers and a certain character came to my mind: Portgas D. Rouge, Roger’s lover and Ace’s mother. She also had a flower in a hair and even though it was not a rose, that flower looks awfully similar to the ones tattooed on Sakazuki's chest/shoulder.

A connection between those two just seems to fit so perfectly, Sakazuki was the one who killed her son with Roger, they were introduced in the exact same chapter (550) and the meaning of Rouge’s name also fits, rouge means red in french, which leads us back to probably the first thing associated with the color red, a red rose, the one Sakazuki has on his chest and also the color of his color theme as admiral. At this point that’s too much for me to still believe this is a coincidence, there has to be some kind of connection between them.

As for what kind of connection they could have had, with a red rose the obvious guess would be Sakazuki was in love with her but she didn’t return it and on top of that chose Roger, the pirate king instead, which would not only be a heartbreak but a kick in the already broken heart afterwards, twice if we count Rouge dying upon giving birth to Roger’s son as well.

I personally prefer a broken heart and a unreturned love as a basis for Sakazuki’s hatred over simply revenge, it feels more unique and fitting and it’s also something we didn’t really have for a major OP villain yet. Plus, it would give Luffy vs Sakazuki that depth and feeling of everything coming full circle. The previous pirate king stole the love of Sakazuki’s life and (basically) killed her with the child he gave her. This very child ended up being killed by Sakazuki’s own hands AND as the brother of the next pirate king, Luffy, who will eventually aim to take down/away the everything Sakazuki has left in his life: Absolute Justice.