...that he is sorry but a very special lady is waiting for him already.
And then next we see him get back to his room above the restaurant and it turns out his little daughter is waiting for him excitedly and he hands her some ridiculously elaborately decorated unicorn cupcake.

And I think that's at the very core of the message here: it is a system that is inherently inhumane and thus even oppresses and harms many of the people that are inside of it.
When being a marine makes it harder for people to actually be good and do good, then the whole system is the problem.

...is that this is what we mostly see for marines in the story. Many of them actually want to help people and because the Strawhats do that while their orders prevent it, they disobey/overlook orders at least for the moment.
Kizaru didn't and because of that he killed a friend and it hurts him...

Given that it happens after Loki jumped down to underworld and had his "I can't even die" moment, I actually always took it as a Rocks "covering up" his injuries from that. Now when Harald asks about Loki's injuries, he got them from the rowdy strong pirate in a fight and not from trying to die.

...It feels like it is more and more common to see silence, neutrality and lack of opposition as being ultimately complicit in what you are failing to openly oppose and Garp seems very symbolic for that sentiment in One Piece and now might almost be a timely symbol for people's overall frustration.

... has more to do with the larger current "Zeitgeist" throughout the world?

I feel people at large might be more criticial of silent opposition or "lackluster neutrality" (in lack of a better term) and are starting to demand more open opposition from anyone that is in a position to do so. ...

...stands against the system, but looking the other way when Dragon/Luffy/Roger are doing it and letting them get away with it, is as far as he will go.

...when he is talking to Garp after turning himself in that he is gonna do something about Ace, because hiding a kid from the WG by entrusting it to the other, is what the two of them already did on God Valley once.

It's just the type of thing that would feels very Garp to me. He never openly ...

...and then Garp is aware that pirates looting a treasure chest is gonna be the one way to get something off the island without the WG getting involved, so he is letting Roger get away with that specific chest. And I think Roger understands that after opening the chest. Which is why he is so sure...

I actually have a bit of a suspicion that Garp is gonna be the reason Shanks ends up with Roger as he seems like the perfect connection between Dragon and Roger.
I can very much see a scenario where Dragon is pleading with Garp to save the kids as he himself doesn't have the standing ...

... a price to be claimed in a bullshit tournament and then she goes and finds Rayleigh because he has always been her choice and none of what happens on God Valley is actually relevant to her chosing him.

As another option I'll also take Gloriosa saving her and getting some Kuja duo moment.

With how obsessed he is with 3s I figure everytime he goes for squares it becomes a triangle because "3 pointy things" is what he instinctively gravitates to.

And that's the alternate Zou letter if he'd addressed it to Zoro:

It's such a weird way to look at both men and women not just in One Piece, but in general. Just gives me icky Andrew Tate vibes. And while I think people outright celebrating someone like him are still a more niche and extreme group, this general way of thinking seems to be way too prevalant.

When I started reading One Piece that was my asumption for the longest time. The way Luffy refuses his logbook I was convinced eventually it would come out that it probably included pretty much the whole journey already and Luffy not even knowingly skipped it. 😅

... I could e.g. absolutely see Zoro after becoming the world's strongest going around telling people about the girl he was never able to defeat, so that people know about her not him. Because it's not about glory or dominance for Zoro, it's about keeping a very personal promise.

And Zoro? He doesn't want to be the strongest swordsman to claim dominance over others. He wants it so that Kuina can know that she defeated the worlds strongest swordsman 2000 times out of 2000 when she fought him. He's doing it because she can't herself anymore, so now he is the only way ...