The strength of the Admirals and the Yonko has often been compared in the One Piece world, and it is clear to see that they are both powerhouses. The latest arc of One Piece, called Elbaf, sheds more light on this dynamic and confirms once and for all that the Admirals are inferior to the Yonko. Despite being the military powerhouse of the World Government, the Admirals still cannot defeat the Yonko for a plethora of reasons, and thanks to the character of Rocks D. Xebec, this has been confirmed in the story once and for all.
3 Yonko Level Female Characters In One Piece
One Piece has a lot of powerful female characters, but only a handful of them are Yonko level.
How The New Arc Shows Emperors Are The Greatest Force On The Seas
One Piece’s Elbaf arc took fans 109 years into the past as it focused on the life of King Harald, Elbaf’s greatest King. In doing so, it also shed some light on Rocks D. Xebec, one of the most important characters in the history of the story. Thanks to this arc, fans were able to see the complete rise and fall of Rocks D. Xebec, the man who led the famed Rocks Pirates. Rocks fell on God Valley 38 years ago, but before the fall of the Rocks Pirates, he was already an incredibly infamous person.
56 years ago, he single-handedly attacked a Reverie, and duringthis massive gathering, he essentially went on to kill a Navy Admiral with ease. This was shocking to the fans because Rocks appeared largely fine after killing the Admiral, and he did so incredibly quickly, suggesting that his overall level of power was far greater than that of the Admiral. He even went on to clash equally against King Harald after, and it was truly shocking to see how effortlessly he managed his escape despite the strongest military powerhouses of the Navy being stationed nearby. Given that Yonko didn’t exist back then and the current era of pirates are on a similar level, it’s clear that the Yonko are superior.
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Oda Set Up The Marine HQ’s Strongest To Fail
The Admirals are incredibly powerful, and there is no denying that fact. They are wielders of two strong Haki types, and they have incredibly overpowered Devil Fruits. But Oda already set them up to fail when they were on the side of the World Government. The Admirals are all slaves of the Celestial Dragons and do their bidding without question. They are strong, but at the end of the day, they are not free, and freedom is where true strength lies in the world of One Piece.
This explains why the likes of Rocks can simply attack Marijoa and destroy Admirals. It also explains why the mere presence of red-haired Shanks sent shivers down Aramaki’s spine and forced him to retreat, and why the presence of Kaido would have prevented Aramaki from ever looking at Wano. The Admirals are strong, but the Yonko are complete monsters, and Oda has gone on to prove that in the Elbaf arc.
Why The Admirals Will Never Get Supreme King Haki
Another big reason why the Admirals will never be among the true elites of the One Piece world is that they don’t have Conqueror’s Haki, and they will most likely never go on to have this power. The Admirals are puppets of the World Government, and usually, those who quietly follow orders without even thinking for themselves are not fit to be Kings. Given that Supreme King Haki is one of the biggest weapons in the world of One Piece, it takes away a lot from the Admirals because they do not possess this power. As such, they are never going to be true equals to the Yonko, with a few exceptions.
Are you so afraid of the new era? — Shanks to Aramaki
One Piece: Luffy’s Strongest Power Ups Ranked (Gear 5 Isn’t #1)
Luffy has received many amazing power-ups in One Piece over the years, but Gear 5 isn’t the strongest of them all.
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The only ones in the Marines who have shown Conqueror’s Haki are Garp and Sengoku, and both of them are leaders in different ways. For instance, Garp has his own code of justice and even rejected the promotion to Admiral because he wanted to preserve his freedom, which explains why he has Conqueror’s Haki. Similarly, Sengoku rose to the top and led the Navy as the fleet Admiral, which gives him more leeway as to how he operates, following the same train of thought.
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Akainu is most certainly going to have Conqueror’s Haki and, as such, will be on the same level as the Emperors, but all the other Admirals under him are surely not going to be as strong as him.
Assessing The Overall Power Level Of Issho, Aramaki, And Borsalino
The overall power levels of the Admirals are very high, but not on the level of the Yonko. Aramaki, for instance, has already clearly stated that he is afraid of the likes of Kaido and was beaten into submission by Shanks without him being anywhere near him in Wano. Kizaru fought against a weak version of Luffy who wasn’t even going all out and was still paralyzed by him effortlessly.
Meanwhile, Fujitora is incredibly admirable and likely the strongest of the three, but he too lacks what it takes to be a Yonko-level threat. They are surely going to go far in the story, but they cannot rival the threat posed by the likes of the menacing pirates who rule the New World.
One Piece chapter 1177 will be available to read on Manga Plus on March 22, 2026.
One Piece
- Release Date
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October 20, 1999
- Network
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Fuji TV
- Directors
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
- Writers
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)