I know those bounties look low when we perceive it as a strength gauge, but any bounty above 100m is a pretty big deal.
Squardo only has a 210m bounty, but mind you, he's been a Pirate that engaged Roger meaning he's been a Pirate for at least, 2 decades. 2 decades and acquired 210m.
Burgess pre-skip only had a 20m bounty which was 4m less than Nami's.
Bounties only go up with known crimes or incidents, so anytime a crime or incident is done and known, x-character will receive a bounty based on their involvement and the scale of the crime or incident. Strength is not as huge a factor, it does factor, but just getting stronger won't garner a bounty increase, a crime or incident will which is why bounties only go up after an arc for the SHs or known crime or incident.
If there's no known crime or incident, there's no bounty increase. Robin's bounty didn't go up for 20 years and Brook's didn't for 50 years.
When we look at a bounty, we should be asking how many incidents and crimes has this person been involved in and over what period of time? Bounties don't increase without a crime/incident which is why Robin's bounty didn't budge for 20 years nor did Brook's for 50 years.
While crimes and incidents are what move bounties, there are different forms of crime. Could be theft, fighting, murder, collateral damage... Robin's went up for reading Poneglyph, Caesar's went up for blowing up a laboratory base and in Dressrosa, Nami and many others got a 50m+ bounty increase simply for being involved in Dressrosa, and not even for fighting or defeating anyone.
The reason bounties look small is because of the Supernova, and mostly Luffy. Luffy within a year acquired a 400m bounty whereas it took Squardo 20+ years to acquire a 210m bounty. Reason being the vast majority of pirates aren't:
- Defeating Shichibukai which is taunting the WG's infrastructure.
- Breaking into ID.
- Punching Celestial Dragons.
The crimes and incidents most pirates partake in are pretty much petty compared to what Luffy does. Higher your bounty, more attention from the WG... as ballsy as Pirates are, Luffy and the Supernova are the craziest, so this is why the Supernova and Super Rookies are feared and pretty big deals even if they just have a 108m bounty like Urouge.
Also, most bounties are accumulated over decades and years.
- Katakuri's bounty is 1 billion roughly. He's 48, so let's say he's been a Pirate for 30 years. It means on a yearly basis, his bounty only goes up by 33m.
- Squardo, let's say 20 years, 210m, that's roughly 10m a year.
Most pirates are not like Luffy or the Supernova whose crimes literally change the world dynamics and have global effects. And the big issue is the frequency of their activity, more activity (crimes/incidents) means bounty will go up faster, and the Supernova are constantly headlining crimes and incidents left right and centre.
If you think of Luffy's average bounty increase yearly and we assume he's been a Pirate for 3 years... he averages 500m bounty yearly which is madness. He's only been a Pirate for 2 years, so we're talking a 750m average which is ridiculous.
Kid was actually a Pirate 3 years before Luffy, so his 315m bounty means he averages 100m a year which is pretty significant when you factor in most pirates are averaging 10-30m on the high end.
Hancock acquired an 80m bounty in 1 incident... while it seems low, an 80m bounty right off the bat for 1 crime is incredible, and then she became a Shichibukai because of this incident. Had she not become a Shichibukai, who knows how high are bounty would have gone on to be? She became a Shichibukai at the age of 18 just from 1 incident.
I wouldn't say they have low bounties. What will determine their bounty is:
- If their crimes are known.
- The scale of the crimes they commit.
- The number of crimes.
We don't know these details, so they're not necessarily low.
Bounties all tell different stories regardless of value; 1 person's 400m bounty could be over a 30 year period for 1000s of petty crimes whereas you could have someone with just 3 incidents over a 1 year period with a 400m bounty. The person who acquires a 400m bounty in 1 year.. is far more terrifying than the person who acquires an 400m (or even 800m) bounty over a period of 30 years because it means the person with the 400m bounty in a year is frequently involved in a crime or incident which makes them a threat.
You could have the strongest character in the world with a 0 bounty who just killed a few people and got a 20m bounty and you could get some weakling who destroyed a warship with cannons and earn a 50m bounty.
