I’ve seen a lot of talk about how Luffy is close to if not already at Admiral level of power. I’m going to state my thoughts, provide evidence, and also refute common counterarguments I see many people say.
In my opinion, the Admirals are the most powerful people in the One Piece World behind the Yonko. I don’t think anyone could defeat an Admiral besides a Yonko (and probably Monkey D. Dragon). That makes 5 people in the OP World that are stronger than an Admiral. Yonko Commanders, in my opinion, are not Admiral level, rather there is still a significant gap between the two. I say this because I believe the Admirals are very close to the Yonko in power, and everyone agrees there is a large gap between the Yonko and their Commanders. I’ll give my reasoning for this, and hopefully convince you as well.
I think the biggest reason people disregard the Admirals and don’t see how strong they really are is because Whitebeard defeated Akainu in a pretty epic fashion at Marineford. I love that fight, and while Whitebeard did beat Akainu in the end, people seem to forget that Whitebeard suffered HEAVY damage before finishing the fight. By heavy damage, I mean having a gigantic hole in your chest with magma burning your internal organs (Ace took the same damage and look what happened to him), and having half your face burned off (in the anime it was censored to be just his mustache.)
Akainu literally made Whitebeard, still regarded in his old age as the “Strongest Man in the World”, fall to his knees. Who else do you know that can do that? Can Marco, Jozu, Katakuri or Jack do that? Only another Yonko would have a feasible chance of accomplishing such a feat. Moreover, a few minutes after being defeated, Akainu got up and chased after Luffy and Jinbe to stop them from escaping. That literal island shattering punch from Whitebeard only made Akainu go down for a couple minutes. Akainu, after taking all that damage from WB, was attacked by Marco and Vista at the same time, and they were not able to even damage him. He remarked that they were irritating to him.
Marco is the first mate of Whitebeard, and is at least equal to, if not stronger than Katakuri. If he couldn’t damage Akainu WITH Vista’s help, then even if Luffy beats Katakuri, he most likely wouldn’t be able to touch Akainu.
After seeing this, I really don’t see how anyone can make an argument for Yonko commanders to be as strong as an Admiral. If Luffy is struggling heavily against Katakuri, there’s simply no way that he can match up to someone like Akainu at this point. We can also see from this fight that Admirals are very close to Yonko in power. Akainu and Whitebeard traded heavy blows, and even though Whitebeard came out on top (he is a Yonko after all), Akainu was back up a few minutes later and still posed a massive threat to everyone there, even taking on the entire Whitebeard pirate crew, commanders included.
Again, who else can possibly do that, besides another Yonko? If Yonko Commanders were close in power to an Admiral, than surely this many of them should be able to take down a wounded Akainu? However, Akainu defeated a WB commander , and only stopped fighting when Shanks got there.
This proves that Admirals are very close to Yonko in power, and are much stronger that even First Commanders of a Yonko Crew.
One remark I got when I brought these points up in another thread was “Hey, I said Yonko Commanders are as strong as Admirals, and you’re using Akainu as your evidence. Akainu is clearly the Fleet Admiral, and is stronger than the other Admirals, so Yonko Commanders can still be as strong as Aokiji or Fujitora” 1.Fleet Admiral is just a title, and does not equate to strength. Sengoku was clearly weaker than Akainu and the rest of the Admirals at Marineford, and he was the Fleet Admiral then. 2. Akainu and Aokiji fought for 10 days straight on Punk Hazard before Aokiji lost. Marco + Vista couldn’t damage a weakened Akainu, but Akainu has clear scars from his battle with Aokiji.
From this we can see that Akainu and Aokiji are very close in strength, and there is no reason to suspect that Kizaru or Fujitora/Green Bull are much weaker.
Another common argument I see is “ If Luffy can’t start to beat Admirals now, the story will never end! Luffy has to start being able to beat Admirals soon to advance the plot.”
This argument I think ties into the fact that people don’t think Admirals are as strong as they really are. Luffy right now is very very strong, compared to the rest of the One Piece World. If (when) he beats Katakuri, he will be at or near Yonko First Commander level, which means that only other Commanders, the Admirals, and the Yonko themselves are stronger than Luffy. He’s not weak by any means. The Admirals, however, are out of his reach at this point, and that’s OK. Fortunately for us, there’s still a lot of One Piece left to go. Luffy still has many arcs left to get stronger. Just off the top of my head, we still have (in no particular order): Wano arc, Reverie, Elbaf, an arc with Shanks, an arc with Blackbeard, Finding One Piece arc and Final War arc.
Looking at that list, there’s at least 3 major arcs there (Wano, Shanks, Blackbeard) where Luffy can get stronger before the Final War Arc, and this is not counting any other arc Oda decides to put in. Oda is known for adding things into the story at the last minute (for example, the Supernovas), so there’s no telling what will happen. Luffy still has time, and he’ll get there.
In conclusion, I hope people realize that Admirals are not people to take lightly or to trifle with. Admirals are very close to Yonko in power, and I think people will agree that there is a large gap between Yonko and their Commanders, so logically Yonko Commanders are not Admiral level either. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
*Theory by kingofthenexus