Re: Is it just me, or were the Whitebear pirates rather weak?
Size means absolutely nothing in battle and if it did then Oars Jr. would have absolutely rampaged through all of Marineford and owned almost everyone in his path. So yeah i'll take that size bet against you any day of the week.
What was that supposed to mean? Is that just because I said John Giant is stronger than the others?
I don't care about size (do I said anything about Ronse?). John Giant is clearly an authority over the others vice-admirals, since he commanded the Buster Call in Ennies Lobby.
Also not being distracted in battle is a very good indication of someones overall power as well. WB, once he entered the battlefield, never really got distracted and dropped his guard. Yet his "sons" were literally being injured and killed all around him. So it's all on Marco and Joz and any other Division Commander for allowing themselves to be distracted and putting themselves in certain situations in the first place.
Certain.
And what do you mean by "I won't take Haki in count"? Are you serious? Haki is presumably the most powerful weapon that has been shown in the entire manga. And we know how the basics work, because they were explained to us and we saw them used countless times now. So yes i'm going to take a good Haki user over any level of a none Haki user. Just like anyone else probably would.
We never really saw the Admirals using Haki, except for the shield in the execution platform. Yet they are one of the strongest beings in the series.
The Strawhats already defeated the Priests in Skypeia Arc. Not to say that Sandersonia and Marigold were easily defeated by Luffy.
So I don't think Haki is the strongest thing out there or that it gives such an immense increase of power.
And at most you did not get what I am saying. I am saying that Haki is not a secret society, it's well spread. If even Hatchan heard of it, I can't see how the kinds of Crocodile or Rob Lucci would not knew Haki.
And second, it seems a lot of people end up using it unconscious. Luffy used CoO tons of times (vs Mr. 3, vs CP9, vs Mihawk, etc) without having any idea of what he was doing.
Either way, I don't really think of Haki as an argument in much favor of the Vice-Admirals.
Also i do see a reason as to why Crocodile and Lucci could not have used Haki. They both faced life and death situations and never showed any signs of Haki use. So if that didn't force them to use Haki then they obviously didn't have the ability to use it. Could they obtain Haki? Sure. But they haven't had it yet.
Except that almost nobody so far "used" it? Including the Vice-Admirals? We won't knew of the Vice-Admirals Haki hadn't the marine doctor said so.
Why didn't John Giant and Ronse used it in an almost certain death situation? That mean they don't know it?
Crocodile automatic Logia defense as CoO, anyone?
Tbh, the whole thing with the Admirals not being harmed is the same reason Doflamingo or Mihawk were not get largely injured during that war. They are going to become the Strawhats major opponents in the future and so it would be weird if they were shown getting wtf pwned by someone else. Their bad ass image would have totally been crushed if we saw them not being so effective against other people. This war in fact was a good way of making them look even more formidable for surviving such a war unscathed. Even if Marco and Jozu were able to fight an admiral equally, which I think they are, Oda would not show us one of the Strawhat's main future opponents being injured by them, cause then our anticipation for the fight would probably decrease. WB injuring Akainu did not have had any effect on Akainu's image though cause firstly its WB, and secondly, the damage he did in return enhanced that image Oda is trying to maintain for all of the Strawhats future major opponents.
Sorry, but do you notice that you basically saying something like "they are not strong as they looks, the author showed they doing strong people things just because he wanted us to think they are strong"?
If we go deep on that argument, we will never find any answer, right?
I Also think it's extremely silly to say that none of the underlings of a yonkous crew can match an admiral. That would mean, in the New World, WB would be the only one taking out pirates above Vice Admiral? I'm pretty sure that the Admirals wont be the strongest guys in the new world, therefore it would be silly to think that WB was the one handling every opponent that came their way that was over VA level.
In my opinion, if an Admirals was a pirate, he certain would be able to become Yonkou.
It's not like they are invencible. Marco is strong, he, along with Jozu, have chances of defeating an Admiral. Not to say that in One Piece the "environment" can define the result of a battle.
It's just that there aren't many beings in the World that can defeat them in a 1x1.