 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece, and today we are going to dive into a topic that I've wanted to discuss for I would say roughly a year or so, but it has finally happened. The anime has reached the legendary Chapter 957, which is what I would describe as a bounty dump. In the best way possible, of course, not that there's a worst way, but we now have information which I don't know about you, but I'd been craving ever since this whole bounty system was first introduced in the story. So we are now going to talk about this monumental information, how it changes everything we knew about One Piece, as well as the implications we have going forward in the series. Because make no mistake, these may just be numbers, but they're not just numbers. I mean, they kind of are, but they're really not. Before doing the thing though, make sure to raise your own bounty by subscribing to the Grand Line Review. The world government deems this channel to be a dangerous propaganda outlet, so everyone who subscribes will be immediately awarded a 50 million bounty. Very nice. And please do say hi in the comments below if you are a new and wanted member of the Grand Fleet. Welcome. But now let's crunch some delicious numbers and to do that, let me take you all the way back to the year September of month 2019. I probably should have said those the other way around, but I didn't. In any case, back then I was fumbling around casually on the internet when I was assaulted with spoilers for the next One Piece chapter. These spoilers however, were absolutely absurd and because I can usually tell when people are trying to fake spoil me, I kind of disregard them. I mean, you're telling me that Oda just casually dropped the bounties of Shanks, Big Mom, Kaido, Whitebeard, and even Roger in a single chapter? Yeah, right. So I thought they were faking in a way that reaction kind of counter spoiled me. So it was actually a legitimate surprise when the chapter came out and bam, bounty city, baby. There is no doubt in my minds that this was one of the biggest chapters of 2019 and it really set the fan base alight in a way that I had not seen in quite some time. Why though? As Grand Line Review commentator, Nate R.S. or Nate Urz says, Palaz helped me understand why are bounties so important to people? And actually it's a very good question. On paper, this is just a set of numbers quite literally on paper. In theory, a chapter or episode focused around revealing five numbers should be considered less entertainment and more like when you see the answers to a maths exam without knowing the questions. I mean sure, yes, they're impressive but completely meaningless. But bounties in One Piece are very important. One might say meaningful, especially the longer you've been invested in the series. And I would weigh a moderate quantity of cash money. That Nate R.S. is a newer fan and there's nothing wrong with that. We're very welcoming here. You've definitely made the right decision, Nate. But once you've been on this journey for a certain amount of time, these numbers start to carry great meaning and not in a sort of power scale crappy kind of way. Again, get rid of that. But in addition to being an indicator of threat to the world government, they're also a solid indicator of progress to us as readers and watchers. For example, when I first got into the series, Luffy's bounty was still 100 million berries. It was during the Anisobi arc and following that not only he but the other straw hats each received upgraded bounties or initial bounties and it was quite a moment. Having gone through such a lengthy and emotionally heavy saga and that 300 million berry number arbitrary as it may seem was sort of like a badge of honor for having survived it. And the same sort of thing happened more recently where after having gone through zoe and whole cake island, a very long mech rock, we came out of that with Luffy's infamous 1.5 billion berry bounty. And really, yes, it is just a bigger number but after having read whole cake island weekly and I suppose in my case read the series weekly ever since 100 million, this was one of the most exciting moments in the series for me. And that's great and all but Luffy is our main character. He's worth getting excited over. So why is everyone getting hyped over the other people's paper numbers? Well, that's because the revelation of the world's highest bounties does quite a bit for the series as a whole. Most obviously it answers key questions that we've all had surely at one point or another such as exactly how does the bounty scale go? I mean, for example, I remember back in the day when people were proposing that someone like Whitebeard at most would have had a bounty of one billion berries. And so we kind of smashed those expectations. And in revealing that mystery where we now know that the top pirate in the world got to around the 5.5 billion mark, what Oder has done after more than two decades of storytelling is finally set a ceiling for the world of One Piece. There is very little mystery remaining down the particular feature thread that is bounties. And so we now have a very tangible goal to gun for with a direct comparison of Luffy not only to the emperors but more importantly to Roger and becoming the pirate king. One of many, by the way, there's a ton of other tangible cues we can use to measure progress such as the amount of red ponyglyphs we've seen or the increasingly close proximity of people that wants new Roger, which is coming to a huge climax in one with the detailed story of Kozuki Oden and pals being presented. And bounties do play a part in all of that as well. In many ways, seeing Roger's bounty is kind of like viewing a map directly the Laugh Tale because we now know exactly how long the path is for Luffy to reach his goal. And furthermore, we have a much more solid understanding of the obstacles in the way which are presented in the bounties of the others. We now know for a fact that it is not good enough for Luffy to somehow overcome an emperor of the sea or even become the world's strongest man. Reaching the point of becoming the pirate king lies beyond all of that but also not so far beyond that it's completely out of reach. In fact, the very idea that we can now see the summit of this mountain indicates that we are perfectly capable of scaling it. And that's very much what bounties have been to me in this series. Another step up that mountain is if we're measuring the journey in altitude and if that altitude was monetary. So it's always great to just check in and see how far up the mountain we are. But this event was on a whole different level. We're not just checking in, we're measuring the mountain itself. And I suppose I should say at this point that we're not necessarily at the peak of Mount Bounty because in both the anime and the manga brand new, the other bounty marine, I'm pretty sure that is like legit his only job in the series but he very specifically states that no bounties in pirating history have ever surpassed Roger and Whitebeard. And that does leave some room open because there is at least one character not considered a filthy pirate who could go even higher and that is obviously dragon. He is often referred to as the world's worst criminal which yes, ironically does mean the world's best criminal because if he was the worst criminal then I probably would have been caught by now. But you could very potentially infer from that that dragon has the world's highest bounty or at least currently. There is a problem with that train of thought and that is the dragon became active and wanted long after Roger's era was over. So maybe dragon's bounty does not actually surpass that of Roger's. On the other hand, Whitebeard was alive and well during the dragon uprising. So that does mean that dragon could potentially be confirmed to be worth at least over five billion berries. I mean, we don't know so I probably shouldn't have used the word confirmed in any way, shape or form there. But this is another example of the sort of intriguing conversations that mere numbers on paper can spark. And I really can't think of any other series that could make mere numbers this thoroughly exciting and so consistently as well. Because I think back to stuff like the Dragon Ball days and there was this distinct era where power levels were kind of everything and that information was treasured. However, then they got completely out of hand. Whereas with bounties, I mean firstly, they don't directly correlate to power but Oda has also managed to keep them surprisingly grounded. I don't think I've ever encountered a number and gone, well Oda that's just ridiculous you silly mangaka. I mean considering the worth of characters like Luffy, Jack and Kartakuri, Oda could have gone full Toriyama and just went, yeah, so Kaido's worth 10 billion berries, Whitebeard's 20 billion and Roger is 30 billion. So something else I do like about them is that bounties do scale quite well internally. And what I also enjoy about this particular revelation is that these bounties describe more than just threats. They also act as a clear generational divide for piracy as a whole. So for example, you clearly have Roger and Whitebeard's era sitting in its own legendary space at that five billion plus mark. And then you take one step down to the generation below whose crowning figures are Big Mom and Kaido. You then have the generation below them represented by Shanks and Blackbeard, both of whom kind of act as aberrations. Shanks obviously veering into the four billion mark but still distinctly separate from Kaido and Big Mom Senpais. Whereas Blackbeard was a bit of a bloomer and occupies the awkward growing space of that two to three billion area. But that's their generation which I find pretty cool. Blackbeard and Shanks are almost exactly the same age actually. I mean Shanks is one year younger but it's fascinating to see that because these two were both apprentice pirates of the legendary figures that rocks the world two generations before their time. And now those two figures inhabit their own generation. And then of course, sitting at the lower but newer end of the scale, we have our up and coming protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy sitting at a respectful yet youthful 1.5 billion berries. This point in one piece history is a perfect numerical representation of a very core theme of the series being generational power. Here's what's better though. After Wano, when the world discovers that Luffy has led a four so it's taken down one perhaps even dose emperors, this established generational model will collapse because the world government will then be forced to catapult Luffy into a whole new sphere of threat berries. And whatever that number is, it's going to signal the beginning of an entirely new era. So we won't be doing things by seniority anymore. But that of course will bring about the climax of one piece. So enjoy this clear established hierarchy whilst you can because things are about to get quite chaotic. But man even that long rambling thought there spawns entirely just from seeing stupid numbers and stupid paper. And they spawn many thoughts for you guys as well because I did ask for comment on this matter and I got a really intriguing one from Onigiri who said, now I get why Luffy's being called an emperor. He's a captain who's entered the billion mark. Which kind of blew my mind when I thought about it but yeah it's pretty accurate. Every pirate captain with a bounty beyond billion berries is either an emperor of the sea or the former pirate king himself. And Luffy is very much within that sphere of exclusivity as a captain. And I really love that little pat that Onigiri picked up on that. And that's the sort of thing that might not be a coincidence. There may very well be reasons why certain bounties have been left rather mysterious to us like Mihawk or Dragon for example. And it may simply be to set up this pattern and have Luffy more directly compared to his actual rivals rather than those who have completely separate interests. And then of course, speaking of Mihawk he's a bit of a fun one now because as Bran you said all of the warlords will now need revised bounty things. So where do you think he sits and why? A lot of people would probably be tempted to smack him in the four billion range close and comfy to old pal shanks. And remember Mihawk is but one man not an empire although he probably could dismantle an entire empire on his own. And the other warlords as well you know it could be a really fun idea to speculate on where say Boa Hancock would land right now because we do have this direct comparison to make as a result of this information. So how much of a threat is the pirate empress a powerful individual who helms her own nation? Luffy could compare that to say Big Mom a powerful individual who helms her own nation. This information is not only valuable but it's also just plain fun. So as long as it doesn't get too toxic I love bounty discussions but I can also admittedly see the other side. I can see a much newer fan who's recently caught up and hasn't lived through the slow burn progression of the bounty system and then they hit an episode like 958 and just say ugh, ugh what a waste of time. One whole episode just to convey a bunch of numbers and that is a dynamic that I will continue to find pretty endlessly fascinating because there are of course a lot of fans on the other side of that as well who cite this event as one of their all time favorite moments or chapters of One Piece simply because of that information dump. But then again in the middle you also have fans like Joseph Jun who says my thoughts were wow those are some giant necks and yes, yes they were Joseph. One Piece is a pretty neck heavy series although none of these scrub emperors can stand up to the sheer neck edge of rolling Logan. If bounties were judged by necks alone he'd be an easy seven billion berries if not more. But if you want to explore bounties a bit more then I would highly recommend you check out my top 10 highest and lowest bounty videos. They're lots of good fun but also please do comment with your thoughts in the comments thing below or even join my discord server. But for now this has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.