 Yonko vs. Admirals. An age-old question triggering fiery debates in the fan base, leaving only chaos and hurt feelings in its wake. A source of controversy that is only further muddled by recent developments. Inflaming long-held arguments about the respective and comparable power levels of these two groups. Is there a way that we can make sense of this dilemma? Do these statuses actually indicate a certain power level that is comparable with the other? And has the answer already been provided to us in the series? And although fans on both sides of this debate may argue that the answer is simple and clear, I actually disagree. There is a lot of nuance to this seemingly power level topic that requires a great deal more consideration of what it actually means to be given the status of either a Yonko or an Admiral. And a discussion that has become even more confuddled as a result of recent events where we have seen some new players enter the ranks of these two groups. So keep watching for the most non-power-leveling power-leveling video covered on this channel to date. Hello Manakamatachi, this is Joygirl. And it seems the recent chapters have reinvigorated a much heated discussion topic in the fan base. The Yonko and the Admirals. Which of these groups is stronger? With both these titles given to only those considered the most elite, most powerful combatants of the One Piece world, it's a dangerous question to ponder out loud unless you're someone who just likes seeing the world burn. But speaking of legendary fighters, if epic combat is your thing, then you're gonna love bloodline heroes of Lithers. This card-based fantasy RPG not only has fantastic 3D realistic graphics but takes place in a very expansive world where you can collect champions, build kingdoms and create legendary heirs by combining forces between diverse bloodlines like orcs, lichens, demons and dragonborn. That's right, through your efforts, new legends will be born. And that's what I find most intriguing about bloodline heroes of Lithers. The extensive customization that can be made to your champions means the possibilities are endless. Create your own legendary bloodline, a lineage of epically strong fighters by raising even stronger offspring when you marry different champions. For example, take a look at this hybrid baby, half dragonborn, half demigod. Talk about an OP baby and you can get this epic air for free. So make sure to download the game and try it out now. You can use my link in the description below or scan the QR code on screen. And remember to use my gift code to obtain a random bloodline, one champion token, 100,000 gold and 100 diamonds. I can't wait to see what sort of legends you create. But in all seriousness, even though power scaling isn't something that I'm personally very interested in, I do see this as a meaningful question to discuss. Not necessarily because I believe it will determine the comparative strength between these two groups, but because I think it helps further our understanding of what these two statuses mean, as well as the great changes being presented to us as we face the next final saga. And ultimately, I do think one thing is very clear. Regardless of who is stronger, the Yonko or the Admiral, the strongest of them all is the subscribe button. And my apologies if I misled you there, but I really would appreciate it if you did subscribe. So please press that red button and in return, not only will I provide you with more One Piece discussions, but it can also mean that we can get on with this video. So the first thing I think we need to clarify is what do these titles mean in the first place for this argument to even become valid? Because at a simple glance, it's quite easy to say that Admirals and Yonko represent the strongest, most powerful individuals of their respective enemy affiliations, the Marines and the Pirates. And we would be mostly correct in saying so. And then so, as the leading representatives of their respective professions, it's natural to assume their powers are comparable with each other. After all, the Marine Admirals have been given extreme hype like being called the ultimate military force of the Navy, and the Yonko are well known to be the pirates who rule the New World with an iron grip through their overwhelming power and influence. But still, in saying all of that, it's hard to declare that this means Admirals and Yonko are directly comparable in strength to one another. In fact, you may face a lot of angry fans if you dare to utter such a statement. Because in the way that Oda has portrayed the relationship between Yonko and Admirals, particularly in combat situations, it's suggested otherwise. And it's difficult to say definitively either way which group is stronger. We've never really gotten the chance to see this play out in the series. The closest thing to a one-on-one regard between a representative from each of these groups was the fight between Whitebeard and Akayinu at Marineford. And here, although Akayinu was able to put a hole through Whitebeard's face, this was against an old and sick Whitebeard. A Whitebeard who had already undergone quite the ordeal throughout the Summit War, even being stabbed by one of his sons at the very beginning of the conflict. And yet, even still, Akayinu wasn't able to bring Whitebeard down. If we consider other examples that could be indicative of the comparative strength between the Yonko and Admirals, we saw Shanks being able to bring an end to the Summit War merely through his presence, causing the Fleet Admiral himself to declare the end of the war, Doflamingo's fear of Kaido versus his lack of qualms about fighting Fujitora, or even the fact that Mako, as merely a Yonko commander, was still able to hold his own against the Admirals, and most recently, Shanks' insane display of his conquest haki, which resulted in Greenville's retreat before the two even crossed swords, or crossed sword to branch. And even considering these examples so far, it would seemingly suggest that the argument is quite clearly geared in favor of the Yonko as being the stronger of the two groups. But this still doesn't necessarily completely bring this discussion to a close, because for one, I don't think that all of these examples are all easy open and shut cases, which all point to the strength of the Yonko. Instead, many of these are actually the result of more complex factors at play. For example, in the case of Shanks' appearance at Marineford, it would be misleading to only construe Sengoku agreeing to stop the war as a result of him being scared to losing to Shanks and the red-haired pirates. In fact, if it came down to it, given the relatively high XP of the Admirals Kizaru and Aokiji, not to mention Garp and Sengoku themselves, they potentially could have defeated Shanks and his crew if the war continued. But it wouldn't have been an easy fight. And that's the point. Sengoku stopping the war seems more to have been a case where he recognized the casualties that would ensue if another battle erupted. And given the state that the Navy and Marineford were in already, Sengoku agreed with Shanks and Kobe that enough was enough. The Marines had already technically won. Ace was killed, as was intended, and so was Whitebeard. The events at Marineford was never supposed to be the ultimate showdown between pirates versus the Navy, and so further bloodshed and losses to the Marines was unnecessary. When you consider Doflamingo's fear of Kaito as opposed to Fujitora, you could maybe argue that he was less afraid because at this stage he still held the Shichibukai title. Or at least when it comes to Mako, I think we can safely agree that Mako is an obvious standout amongst other Yonko commanders. And not just because of his prickly pineapple head. Clearly, not all Yonko commanders are as strong as each other. I think that's become very clear, especially as of late, given what we witnessed of Kaito's commanders. Take Greenbull versus King and Queen, for example. That was a development that really confused matters in my opinion. On one hand, while you could just argue that the seemingly wipeout defeat of King and Queen is because of their pre-existing injuries, you could also make a counter-argument that there was a seven-day time skip between the end of the raid and this attack, and as ancient Zoans, they really should have recovered by then. In all honesty, I actually think this scene wasn't necessarily indicative of the Admiral versus Yonko debate at all. I think it was something that was used to showcase Greenbull's strength as a force to be reckoned with. As a new Admiral, he has to be taken seriously, and Oda needs to give him enough hype, and so this was the perfect way to showcase that. Which he did do successfully, which then ended up becoming the ultimate hype for Shanks instead. And on that note, with the most recent example, although in the chapter, Greenbull literally raised his arms in surrender, not wishing to fight the crazy Yonko, Greenbull's dialogue, however, suggests that this wasn't necessarily out of fear of Shanks. His decisions seemed to be more laced in politics and understanding that this just wasn't the right time for him to fight Shanks and the red-haired pirates. Not yet, anyways. He clearly had orders from Akainu not to draw much attention to the circumstances, and even him being there at Wano in and of itself seemed to be causing enough trouble. And so if he entered a battle with the red-haired pirates, I think he knew that he would be toast. But even with these examples and their counter-arguments, or at least deeper explanations as to why the Yonko seem to have come out on top on these occasions set aside, a big reason why I think it's difficult to settle the debate of Admiral versus Yonko is because I don't think the Yonko are a homogenous group of individuals who are all comparable in strength. There is a disparity in the strength and the abilities between these individuals, so it's inherently flawed to pose a comparison such as Admiral versus Yonko. Of course, at a basic level, each of the Yonko do definitely represent a certain standard or baseline of individual strength. In a world filled to the brim with no shortage of fearsome pirates, you must be strong to survive. And even more so if you want others to follow you and recognize you as their leader. But even still, we would have to acknowledge that being a Yonko is a status that is more layered than simply being individually strong and powerful in a combative sense. In my opinion, the best way to explain and understand this title is that the Yonko are individuals who hold so much power that they pose a threat to the balance of world order. Not just power in terms of brute physical strength of the individual emperor themselves, but through a myriad of factors including the strength of their respective crews as a whole, their spears of influence as indicated through the territories under their control, and the great deal of influence that they command, whether that be because of brute physical power, but also potentially the level of knowledge one holds, or a mix of both. And this is exactly what a lot of people point to when discussing mehawk strength. For many consider to be at a comparable power scale to the emperors, but can't be considered one of the Yonko because of his traditionally lone man status. But mehawk's an extremely interesting character to power scale and I think requires his own analysis, so we'll save that discussion for another time. And although at different points we have seen these emperors face off against one another in one-on-one settings, it would still be difficult to claim that each of the four feasts and pirates are just as strong as the other. Because in that case, it would render the epithet strongest man or strongest creature in the world effectively meaningless. So the power levels between the individual emperors themselves hose an issue because although we've seen Whitebeard essentially defeat Aka Inu, this doesn't automatically mean that Shanks would also definitely be able to beat him. And while you could argue that the same goes for the Atmos, that there is no guarantee that they are each just as strong as the other, their strength levels as individuals seem to be at least more evenly distributed. For example, the fight between Aka Inu and Aokiji lasted 10 days, suggesting that they were so evenly matched that it was extremely difficult for either side to decisively bring the other to defeat in a swift manner. Both Aokiji and Kizaru are called the greatest power in the Navy or one of the strongest forces in the Navy. The similarity in these words suggesting some level of comparable equality when it comes to their individual strength that I just don't think is quite as applicable to the Yonkou. Even when Doflamingo is recognizing the strength and capabilities of Fujitora, he's also seen making a reference to Green Wall, calling them both monsters. Again, suggesting they're relatively comparable power levels. So while I believe that this is a big reason why there's an inherent flaw in debating the Admiral versus Yonkou dilemma, I also think that Oda has further thrown a spanner in the works, almost completely recontextualizing the entire argument. With the new developments of different characters entering the ranks of admals and Yonkou respectively, the previous dynamics of these relationships have arguably changed forever. Even if we could justify and understand Luffy's elevation to Yonkou status, Buggy also entering these ranks only further draws out the disparity in strength levels between the individual emperors. You could even perhaps argue that previously, the strength between the original four emperors were more evenly matched. For example, Kaido recognized both Whitebeard and Shanks as his worthy opponents, Kaido and Big Mom dueled without either of them being able to defeat the other, and even Shanks and Whitebeard clashed swords, resulting in the first epic skysplit we witnessed, which for me represents what happens when two opposing forces, equally matched, cannot overwhelm the other, and so instead, the energy expels upwards. And all you scientists can correct me in the comments below if my logic is mistaken. Now obviously these examples weren't taking into account the peak conditions of each character, but that's not the point. Like I said, this is a non-power scaling power scaling discussion. The point is that during the time that these characters were presented in the series as the Yonkou, it was easily understandable why each of them held this title. So then, if we suppose that the strongest men, strongest creature, and strongest woman in the world are all, no more, and with only Shanks remaining from the original group of Yonkou, could we say that means this new group of emperors have comparative equal strength to match each other? Because to the exclusion of Buggy, who is a clear oddball outlier, it's really difficult to say. We really haven't seen enough in terms of both Shanks and Blackbeard's combat skills, and I suppose now with Luffy's extremely unique devil fruit that gives him an unparalleled ingenious combat style, there is much to be clarified, especially with the amount of hype that Oda has given Shanks, both in terms of his brief appearance at Wano, as well as what seems to be canon material dropped in Film Red. Shanks is really being presented to be perhaps the currently strongest man in the world, but without giving us a clear combat situation where we can test that perception. Although I should clarify that I haven't been reading any of the Film Red spoilers, and I don't know anything apart from the fact that there is some canon material contained in there, so please do mark any spoiler comments accordingly. And really, it does seem like Oda is taking the focus away from the strength of the Yonkou as a status, with the four emperor saga now essentially wrapped up. This explains why someone like Buggy has entered these sacred ranks, an indication that the status is now something to be used as more of a plot device to raise hype and advance the story, rather than containing any real or meaningful representation of someone's true strength or power levels. In fact, if you even look into the latest bombshell of Mihawk and Crocodile joining Buggy and forming a part of the Cross Guild, Mihawk, who could be potentially argued to be as strong as any of the current Yonkou coming under Buggy who is the official Yonkou, I think this highlights that these titles are becoming less rigid or at least less meaningful in terms of being an indication for power scaling. And if we go back to my point earlier, that the point of the Yonkou status was that they formed part of the delicate balance that maintained world order. Now that the Shichibukai are gone, who also used to form part of that world balance, what does being a Yonkou really even mean apart from adding some hype to your name? Moving into the final saga, it's clear that the attention is now on new dilemmas and dynamics that bring in new players and forces like the revolutionaries, what happened to the rest of the Shichibukai, and resolving the mysteries that we've been waiting to see unveiled for decades. Oda is focusing on individual characters and hyping up new dynamics rather than upholding the sanctity of these long-established entities. And now I don't mean that the Yonkou title should be completely dismissed. Like I said, there is a base level of strength that must be achieved whether that be real or perceived, but a level that an individual must attain to gain the recognition that he or she has. But Oda has made this a lot more nuanced and is rather building on the reputation of these titles and what they represent to hype up other characters and or drive the story forward, potentially bringing an end to the debate once and for all, or perhaps just drawing it out so that we'll have to revisit it at a later time. Anyways, those are just my thoughts. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. Please do subscribe for more One Piece discussions. You can also join our Joyfleet Discord server or even become a Patreon member. And I do want to thank all our patrons for help supporting the channel. This is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.