Who will be next Admiral?

[kkck]

There aren't enough admiral positions for that the themes you mention lol. He could with each admiral having one kind of fruit but there is never going to be room for someone without a fruit unless he changes themes altogether. It is still relevant that the new admiral has a nickname suited to the previous admiral theme though. Seeing the strong world chapter the admirals didn't always have the theme they have now but at least purple tiger fits perfectly into what we know. More so, fujitora was sent to deal with the strawhats and law, that is not a task I would think possible for a mere VA at this stage. I can imagine a VA as strong as luffy easily however not a VA capable of taking them all. Whoever is going should be strong enough to actually handle the situation which at this point I would argue is not someone who does not have admiral caliber. Heck, against the strawhats and law I wouldn't even be surprised if an admiral gets defeated.

 

[MiyamotoMusashi]

There aren't enough admiral positions for that the themes you mention lol. He could with each admiral having one kind of fruit but there is never going to be room for someone without a fruit unless he changes themes altogether. It is still relevant that the new admiral has a nickname suited to the previous admiral theme though. Seeing the strong world chapter the admirals didn't always have the theme they have now but at least purple tiger fits perfectly into what we know. More so, fujitora was sent to deal with the strawhats and law, that is not a task I would think possible for a mere VA at this stage. I can imagine a VA as strong as luffy easily however not a VA capable of taking them all. Whoever is going should be strong enough to actually handle the situation which at this point I would argue is not someone who does not have admiral caliber. Heck, against the strawhats and law I wouldn't even be surprised if an admiral gets defeated.

Ehm, the theme is already "erased" with Akainu being promoted and Kuzan leaving the marines. The theme of the 3 admirals, besides the resemblance to Japanese actors, is based on the legend of "Momotaro". Momotaro, a boy that has landed on earth in a giant peach, one day goes on a journey to beat the ominous Oni. On his way, he meets a pheasant (Aokiji), a dog (Akainu) and a monkey (Kizaru) who assist him in beating the Oni. oincidentally, each personality fits the aliases (Aokiji, the pheasant, is somewhat lazy; Kizaru, the monkey, is quite absent-minded and irresponsible; and Akainu, the dog, is very loyal).
This theme does not work anymore, thus the amount of admirals is also not absolute.

 

[Kaiten]

The original Shichibukai all had animal themes. The replacement's (Blackbeard, Law, Buggy) did not follow that theme.

---------- Post added at 05:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:19 PM ----------

Oda did maintain the color and folklore themes for Fujitora. There is no guarantee that will extend to his fruit ability. Considering how many VA do not have abilities, there is no guarantee the new Admiral will even have an ability.

 

[kkck]

Ehm, the theme is already "erased" with Akainu being promoted and Kuzan leaving the marines. The theme of the 3 admirals, besides the resemblance to Japanese actors, is based on the legend of "Momotaro". Momotaro, a boy that has landed on earth in a giant peach, one day goes on a journey to beat the ominous Oni. On his way, he meets a pheasant (Aokiji), a dog (Akainu) and a monkey (Kizaru) who assist him in beating the Oni. oincidentally, each personality fits the aliases (Aokiji, the pheasant, is somewhat lazy; Kizaru, the monkey, is quite absent-minded and irresponsible; and Akainu, the dog, is very loyal).
This theme does not work anymore, thus the amount of admirals is also not absolute.

Well, while that is true I do have my doubts about 2 things changing. First is the number of admirals and second them being ability users. The admirals filled positions within a very structured and powerful organization. Adding another admiral would imply a change to the entire structure which is not something which can be done easily or overnight. More so, they would need to fill positions with people worthy of the admiral title which is not necessarily easy. I can buy the WG getting 2 people to fill those gaps. It is not possible for the WG to have actually gathered every single military asset in existence for the war, they can't just leave entire nations without protection. In turn them having more admirals becomes increasingly difficult. Picking someone who does not command at least the respect kizaru did would harm the name of admiral and perhaps even those in rank beneath admiral. And it is still worth noting that that oda did keep the colored animal theme the admirals had even if it does not conform to the original momotaro story.

As far as abilities I would argue admirals are far too important to not be ability users. Overall abilities play a huge role in the story to the point where the closest thing to a big bad spent decades getting an ability to counter all abilities. The admirals are that much more fearsome with abilities than without. People who fight without any sort of ability are a bit on the rare side and IMO that makes some sense to the story. Abilities can be enormously if not infinitely varied. In turn pure physical combat is not as much even if it might be aesthetically different. Making actual pure martial artist rare makes the few out there who are pure martial artist (such as mihawk) more special.

I have tried looking for any story involving a purple or wysteria tiger and I have yet to find anything worth mentioning. Anyone knows what this purple tiger stuff might be about? Perhaps it is just a regular name though...

 

[MiyamotoMusashi]

Well, while that is true I do have my doubts about 2 things changing. First is the number of admirals and second them being ability users. The admirals filled positions within a very structured and powerful organization. Adding another admiral would imply a change to the entire structure which is not something which can be done easily or overnight. More so, they would need to fill positions with people worthy of the admiral title which is not necessarily easy. I can buy the WG getting 2 people to fill those gaps. It is not possible for the WG to have actually gathered every single military asset in existence for the war, they can't just leave entire nations without protection. In turn them having more admirals becomes increasingly difficult. Picking someone who does not command at least the respect kizaru did would harm the name of admiral and perhaps even those in rank beneath admiral. And it is still worth noting that that oda did keep the colored animal theme the admirals had even if it does not conform to the original momotaro story.

As far as abilities I would argue admirals are far too important to not be ability users. Overall abilities play a huge role in the story to the point where the closest thing to a big bad spent decades getting an ability to counter all abilities. The admirals are that much more fearsome with abilities than without. People who fight without any sort of ability are a bit on the rare side and IMO that makes some sense to the story. Abilities can be enormously if not infinitely varied. In turn pure physical combat is not as much even if it might be aesthetically different. Making actual pure martial artist rare makes the few out there who are pure martial artist (such as mihawk) more special.

I have tried looking for any story involving a purple or wysteria tiger and I have yet to find anything worth mentioning. Anyone knows what this purple tiger stuff might be about? Perhaps it is just a regular name though...

While you are not completely wrong, the amount of admirals is still not a fixed number like 7 Shichibukai or 4 Yonkou (the number is actually in the respective term Shichi and Yon). We have seen that in teh past, Garp has been offered an admiral position several times without replacing someone but Garp also declined every single time which makes me believe that the Marines/WG are more flexible with the amount of admirals than the theme of the admirals pre-TS might suggest. Of course you are right that the most important part for Oda is to explain where 2 or 3 incredibly powerful people have appeared to become admirals.

I disagree with this part. The most famous marine and probably the strongest in the history of marines is Garp, a non-ability user. People were pissing themselves upon hearing his name, the ability does not have anything to do with it. If a powerful swordsman without a DF became admiral, nobody would complain.

 

[Ninomiya]

Seeing that, if oda intends on keeping the colored animal thing then no of the VAs we know would be candidates to admirals unless the nickname is assigned after becoming an admiral.

I think it works specifically this way in that you get your nickname after becoming Admiral.
I think the animal theme could stay as there are various popular fairy/folk tales in Japan involving animals more common in the wild Japan than the West e.g Pheasant, Dog, Monkey etc.
I personally think they should have more Admirals than 3 to suit the situation in the storyline.
Right now, as it stands, there are various pirates with crazy strength, more so than Two Years Prior.

So it would be nice if they could do it like that. Unless they do something like have people from Cipher Pol 2 or 1 or something be revealed to be VA strength.

 

[kkck]

While you are not completely wrong, the amount of admirals is still not a fixed number like 7 Shichibukai or 4 Yonkou (the number is actually in the respective term Shichi and Yon). We have seen that in teh past, Garp has been offered an admiral position several times without replacing someone but Garp also declined every single time which makes me believe that the Marines/WG are more flexible with the amount of admirals than the theme of the admirals pre-TS might suggest. Of course you are right that the most important part for Oda is to explain where 2 or 3 incredibly powerful people have appeared to become admirals.

I disagree with this part. The most famous marine and probably the strongest in the history of marines is Garp, a non-ability user. People were pissing themselves upon hearing his name, the ability does not have anything to do with it. If a powerful swordsman without a DF became admiral, nobody would complain.

We don't know if garp was filling a gap or an admiral position was actually made for him, the manga never actually went out of its way to specify that. All we know is that he rejected an admiral promotion.

Another thing, I would argue than yonko would be the number there most prone to variation. Yonko is not a formal thing, they are simply the pirates who control the largest crime syndicates in the new world. If a new pirate snatches enough territory or one of the existing yonko grows enough it could easily be the case that the number of emperor changes. The shichibukai as an actual formal thing has the number seven actually written there and the marines are a large and structured organization, they should be the ones who are less prone to changes in how they are organized.

Nothing actually suggests garp is the most famous marine or the strongest in history, none of that has actually been said. As far as the manga has bothered to hint at (and mostly in strong world at that) garp and sengoku had a similar standing and even power. Garp joining the fray was important (or would have been important) in the sense that he was someone seen as being every bit as dangerous as an admiral, nothing more.


I am not saying anyone would complain but in the manga so far strong DF users are still far more common than strong non fruit users. Half the strawhats are fruit users for instance. Half the VA seem to have fruits of their own. All the admirals had particularly strong fruits. Sengoku had a fruit. The 3 strongest in WBs crew were marco, jozu and vista, 2 out of them had fruits. BB's grand plan to becoming pirate king is basically collecting as many powerful fruits as he can get. At least 5 of the shichibukai are ability users for that matter. I am not saying it is impossible for people without fruits to get to the admiral position, I am just pointing out the sheer rarity of strong people without fruits and that fruits at large would have ideal symbolic importance to a high position. An admiral needs to convey fear to those around him and an ability is a symbol of power if anything else.

 

[Ninomiya]

Just a thought that's been bothering me the moment it hit me.
Vice-Admiral Stainless and Vice-Admiral Mozambia were pretty much toyed with by Doflamingo during the Shichibukai meeting that took place after Luffy got his 30million bounty with Mihawk, Kuma and Lafitte's interruption.

If Doflamingo can shit on two Vice-Admirals.
Doesn't this mean the level of VA is ridiculously varied?

And I think its needless to say that Admiral level is very much about strength. I believe it is no coincidence that Aokiji, Akainu and Kizaru the only Admirals we've seen in the manga are ridiculously beast in comparison to Vice-Admiral Smoker. In addition, the other guy offered Admiral position all the time is Garp.
Oh wait, he's freaking beast in comparison to Vice-Admiral level too.

 

[Schabrak]

Of course there is a lot of variety within the VAs, since there is only a limited number of admirals, but not VAs and everything beneath.

 

[MiyamotoMusashi]

Either that or there is just that much of a gap between your average VA and the admirals. The fighting style the VAs have shown so far consist of this:
Rokushiki techniques + Haki + either a weapon or a DF, in Onigumo´s case both. Disregarding their level in the respective field, this makes them into sturdy and strong fighters but nothing less and nothing more. They neither have the huge destructive power of WB and his crazy endurance, they don´t have the deadliness of the admirals, Hancock, DD or even Crocodile and they probably are not Haki specialists, except Vergo. I am pretty confident in saying that both Zoro and Sanji probably could beat your average VA at this point.

 

[kkck]

Well, saying doflamingo shit on two VAs is perhaps a tad much. He actually just controlled one of them and the other was on the unexpected end of an uncalled for attack from a friend and colleague.

I would argue this guys are the particularly dangerous VAs:
http://www.mangastream.to/one-piece-chapter-553-page-6.html

All of them seem to be old, experienced and proficient haki users and martial artists some even with DF.

As for the notion of a "haki specialist" I don't think such a concept works here. Haki is not an unique power, haki is an absolute necessity to be worth a damn in the new world, its not about maining on it so to speak. Its not a concept which should be treated in the same way as a particular martial art or a DF ability in the least. Its something which absolutely everyone who matters has. Mastery of the thing is a generic trait of strong people. The admirals are the main fighting force in the world goverment but a decent number of VAs have to an answer to the equivalent of WBs commanders otherwise the WG is doomed.

 

[Ninomiya]

Well, saying doflamingo shit on two VAs is perhaps a tad much. He actually just controlled one of them and the other was on the unexpected end of an uncalled for attack from a friend and colleague.

He was powerless lol. I mean... He could have caused the death of a VA instantly no?

I am pretty confident in saying that both Zoro and Sanji probably could beat your average VA at this point.

Zoro yeah... Sanji?... Not sure... Remember Vergo...

 

[M3J]

Just a thought that's been bothering me the moment it hit me.
Vice-Admiral Stainless and Vice-Admiral Mozambia were pretty much toyed with by Doflamingo during the Shichibukai meeting that took place after Luffy got his 30million bounty with Mihawk, Kuma and Lafitte's interruption.

If Doflamingo can shit on two Vice-Admirals.
Doesn't this mean the level of VA is ridiculously varied?

And I think its needless to say that Admiral level is very much about strength. I believe it is no coincidence that Aokiji, Akainu and Kizaru the only Admirals we've seen in the manga are ridiculously beast in comparison to Vice-Admiral Smoker. In addition, the other guy offered Admiral position all the time is Garp.
Oh wait, he's freaking beast in comparison to Vice-Admiral level too.

I think you're being too harsh on the VA though. Doflamingo as far as I recall wasn't fighting them, he was just using his DF ability on one of them. It wouldn't necessarily make them weaker than Doflamingo, just susceptible to his ability. Wouldn't Doflamingo have the ability to control anyone with his ability, regardless of how much stronger they are in comparison? Though I guess the amount of control could vary.


Are we guessing who Fujitora could be?

 

[MiyamotoMusashi]

He was powerless lol. I mean... He could have caused the death of a VA instantly no?


Zoro yeah... Sanji?... Not sure... Remember Vergo...

DD was toying with VAs in Mariejoa. At the same time, he had a deep trust in Vergo´s abilities, ergo Vergo =/= average VA.

I think you're being too harsh on the VA though. Doflamingo as far as I recall wasn't fighting them, he was just using his DF ability on one of them. It wouldn't necessarily make them weaker than Doflamingo, just susceptible to his ability. Wouldn't Doflamingo have the ability to control anyone with his ability, regardless of how much stronger they are in comparison? Though I guess the amount of control could vary.


Are we guessing who Fujitora could be?

In One Piece, that´s the same thing though. It does not matter what the strength is (unless there are match up issues) or how the strength was acquired (again, unless you have a high class Haki user as opponent). That was undeniably a display of DD´s strength since the VAs practically had nothing they could do to defend themselves with. The same applies to Hancock pretty much humiliating Momonga or WB oneshotting a VA. All were displays of superior strength.

 

[M3J]

True, but I disagree with how that's the only basis, as the VA could be stronger but chose not to fight back other than trying to get free because Doflamingo was an ally. Though, it is hard to believe in the VA's strength since one was easily controlled by Doflamingo out of nowhere.

 

[vagabond87]

He was powerless lol. I mean... He could have caused the death of a VA instantly no?


Zoro yeah... Sanji?... Not sure... Remember Vergo...

Many people still wait for rematch between Vergo and Sanji. I would not cross Sanji so easily, there are many things that make unclear who would won rematch. Sanji was not healthy- he took A LOT of damage before when Nami was bombed by Cesar in Sanjis body, he didnt knew how strong Vergo is- Smoker and Law knew and they went almost all out at Vergo- they most probably knew about his haki skills and maybe(just maybe!) about his devil fruit that he might have, even after getting his leg cracked he was running around even saved marines from gas kicking one after another using leg with a crack in shin bone, not his other leg. Do not underestimate Sanji and Vergo is monster- not in league of admirals but not that far from them, especially when it comes to CoA haki.

 

[kkck]

Well, it being out of nowhere shouldn't really be a factor against his power. He was in meeting room in majiroa, not in the middle of a war zone. Even then, doflamingo giving smoker the fodder treatment should be more than indication enough that the issue here is that doflamingo is THAT strong rather than the VA being weak. Even as strong as the strawhats and the rookies as a whole could have become over the timeskip it does seem like there is a lot of room to grow for them.

I wouldn't say hancock humiliated momongo. Momonga was not there to fight to begin with and he hardly had backup. Safe for luffy he is the only person to have actually resisted her ability to turn people into stone for that matter.

 

[Ninomiya]

True, but I disagree with how that's the only basis, as the VA could be stronger but chose not to fight back other than trying to get free because Doflamingo was an ally. Though, it is hard to believe in the VA's strength since one was easily controlled by Doflamingo out of nowhere.

I guess you're all right in one aspect, of the fact that I'm making Vice-Admiral Stainless and Vice-Admiral Mozambia weaker than they have been made to be slightly.
But it still stands that Doflamingo toyed with them effortlessly.
I forget the VA's wouldn't really attack an ally, but those VA's looked in great distress whilst DD was laughing.
DD is probably the wrong person to use to measure the VA ranges of strength.

Looking at what we have now, lets get Kizaru at the top of our tier, and throwdown Smoker, Vergo, Mozambia, Stainless, Doberman, Momonga, Dalmatian and Onigumo if we can.
And any other VA's you think are relevant and compare them as to how much weaker than Kizaru they are.
(Take out whichever VA's in the list you feel are irrelevant for the comparison)

Since I think the next Admiral will be weaker than Kizaru, who seems to have been Admiral for many years, (meaning he achieved Admiral strength a while ago), but above the average level of VA's.
I believe after Commodore rank, Strength plays a major part instead of just achievement.

 

[MiyamotoMusashi]

I guess you're all right in one aspect, of the fact that I'm making Vice-Admiral Stainless and Vice-Admiral Mozambia weaker than they have been made to be slightly.
But it still stands that Doflamingo toyed with them effortlessly.
I forget the VA's wouldn't really attack an ally, but those VA's looked in great distress whilst DD was laughing.
DD is probably the wrong person to use to measure the VA ranges of strength.

Looking at what we have now, lets get Kizaru at the top of our tier, and throwdown Smoker, Vergo, Mozambia, Stainless, Doberman, Momonga, Dalmatian and Onigumo if we can.
And any other VA's you think are relevant and compare them as to how much weaker than Kizaru they are.
(Take out whichever VA's in the list you feel are irrelevant for the comparison)

Since I think the next Admiral will be weaker than Kizaru, who seems to have been Admiral for many years, (meaning he achieved Admiral strength a while ago), but above the average level of VA's.
I believe after Commodore rank, Strength plays a major part instead of just achievement.

I do think that there is variety in strength among the VAs but i do not think that it will be addressed properly in the future. Unfortunately, the VAs were pretty much overlooked as main antagonists for the SHs. They were mostly used to hype other characters (DD, Hancock, WB) or to create suspense (Enies Lobby, against Luffy at the war) and have been shown to have pretty basic fighting styles and powers which does not really advertise them to be main antagonists either. Now, after the TS, the chance of introducing one or two as a main villain is pretty much gone considering that Luffy has easily surpassed them and that his 2 strongest guys, Zoro and Sanji, are also able to beat them.
Btw, Kizaru joined the Marines with 26, he is now 58 and he was still a VA approx 10 years ago.

 

[M3J]

I guess you're all right in one aspect, of the fact that I'm making Vice-Admiral Stainless and Vice-Admiral Mozambia weaker than they have been made to be slightly.
But it still stands that Doflamingo toyed with them effortlessly.
I forget the VA's wouldn't really attack an ally, but those VA's looked in great distress whilst DD was laughing.
DD is probably the wrong person to use to measure the VA ranges of strength.

Looking at what we have now, lets get Kizaru at the top of our tier, and throwdown Smoker, Vergo, Mozambia, Stainless, Doberman, Momonga, Dalmatian and Onigumo if we can.
And any other VA's you think are relevant and compare them as to how much weaker than Kizaru they are.
(Take out whichever VA's in the list you feel are irrelevant for the comparison)

Since I think the next Admiral will be weaker than Kizaru, who seems to have been Admiral for many years, (meaning he achieved Admiral strength a while ago), but above the average level of VA's.
I believe after Commodore rank, Strength plays a major part instead of just achievement.

Would be interesting to see Doflamingo use his power on an admiral, another shichibukai, or a Yonkou, or an established powerful character, and see what happens. I think from there we can see or decide whether VA are strong or not.