Pirates have long been a part of the way of life in the One Piece world. The oldest known group of pirates mentioned were the ones under Dorry and Brogy from more than 100 years ago. However, despite pirates existing back then, none of them were known to be noteworthy enough to shake the world.
More than 40 years ago, the Rocks Pirates led by Rocks D. Xebec were extremely prominent and defined an era that lasted until Gol D. Roger’s rise to prominence as the Pirate King.
All that changed with the arrival of the great pirate Gol D. Roger (and others like Edward Newgate and Shiki). Roger set about to do what no one had done before – conquer the Grand Line. He succeeded and in doing so made his way to Laugh Tale and left behind something somewhere in the world, his most prized possession, One Piece. Roger brought about an air of romance about being a pirate and upon his death his final words sent others to sea to become a pirate. Things would never be the same again.
The death of Roger sent many pirates to the Grand Line, hoping to find his treasure and become the Pirate King.
Let’s take a look at the 5 Strongest Pirate Captains from the Old Generation:
1. SHIKI THE LION
Shiki the Golden Lion is the admiral of the Golden Lion Pirates and the first known prisoner ever to escape from Impel Down. During Roger’s era, Shiki was one of the most powerful pirate figures of the time, being on par with Sengoku, Garp, Whitebeard, and Roger as a living legend. Before that era, he was a member of the Rocks Pirates. Shiki has tremendous physical strength supplemented with his supreme sword skills, allowing him to slay an army of Marines at Marineford, and it took the combined efforts of both Garp and Sengoku to subdue him with the conclusion of their fight leaving half of Marineford destroyed.
Shiki ate the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, a Paramecia type Devil Fruit which allows him to make surrounding non-living matter levitate once he has come in contact with it. When attacking, Shiki uses the surrounding environment against his enemies, shaping earth or snow into giant lion heads and launching them towards his foes, or even making water float to drown his opponents in it. As stated, his powers are unable to be used on any living matter other than himself, meaning he cannot touch another person, animal, or plant and make them levitate.
2. CHARLOTTE LINLIN “BIG MOM”
Big Mom, is the captain of the Big Mom Pirates and the only female member of the Yonko. She’s 68 years old and is a former member of the Rocks Pirates. As one of the Yonko, Big Mom is one of the four most powerful pirates in the world. As the only female member, this effectively makes Big Mom the single most powerful female pirate in the world.
Big Mom has immense superhuman physical strength and tremendous superhuman durability since her birth. She also has a very high level of stamina and endurance.
After the death of its previous owner, Carmel, Linlin somehow acquired the powers of the Soru Soru no Mi, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows her to manifest peoples’ souls as an ethereal substance that she can grab hold of, so long as the intended victim feels fear. She can then steal the soul from the victim, taking away their lifespan by an amount of her choosing. She can take a person’s entire remaining lifespan, thus killing them instantly, or she can just take part of that person’s remaining lifespan, leaving their lifespan that much shorter.
Once she has them, Big Mom can infuse the stolen souls into objects to give them life, turning them into beings called homies, which act as her servants. Nearly anything can be made into a homie, including animals, plants, minerals, liquids, furniture, food, buildings and even intangible things such as fire, air, and light. Anything made into a homie gains human-like attributes, such as the ability to walk and talk. The only things that cannot be made into homies are people and corpses.
She can also consume her own soul in order to make herself bigger and stronger, as well as infuse souls into her own skeleton, allowing her to heal her own broken bones by commanding them to return to their proper structure.In addition to creating homies from the souls she has taken from others, Big Mom can use fragments of her own soul to create “special homies”, which are far more powerful than regular homies due to being made from her incredibly powerful soul. Her special homies consist of Zeus, later replaced by Hera, a thundercloud summoned with her left hand; Prometheus, a sun summoned with her right hand; and Napoleon, a bicorne she wears on her head. These three special homies are Big Mom’s most powerful weapons.
Big Mom is one of the few individuals able to imbue their Haoshoku Haki into their body or objects. She is also capable of using the advanced application of projecting her Busoshoku Haki out from her body, allowing her to strike opponents without directly making contact with them. She also possesses the ability to use Kenbunshoku Haki.
3. EDWARD NEWGATE “WHITEBEARD”
Whitebeard was the captain of the Whitebeard Pirates and was known as “The Strongest Man in the World” and “The Man closest to One Piece” after Gol D. Roger’s death. He was a member of the Yonko that ruled over the New World until his death during the Battle of Marineford. Before forming his own crew, he was a member of the legendary Rocks Pirates.Whitebeard was one of the few people to have mastered all three kinds of Haki. He possessed a high level of Haoshoku Haki. Most notably, he was one of a select few people powerful enough to “infuse” his weapon in Haoshoku Haki, which exponentially increased his attack power further.
Whitebeard possessed a tremendous mastery of Busoshoku Haki, which he could imbue his weapon Murakumogiri with. Whitebeard could also utilize the advanced technique of projecting Haki out from his blade; this was shown during his fight with Roger where the duo’s weapons met in a powerful clash without even making contact.Whitebeard was also masterful in using Kenbunshoku Haki. He was even able to sense and counter Ace (when he was still new on the ship and was attempting to kill Newgate) while sleeping.
However, due to both his age and worsening health, his Haki was not as powerful compared to his prime.
Whitebeard ate the Gura Gura no Mi, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that made him a “Quake Man” and which was considered the strongest Devil Fruit within the Paramecia class. According to Sengoku, Whitebeard had the power to destroy the world.With the power of this Devil Fruit, Whitebeard could create powerful shockwaves by shattering the air like glass. These shock waves then would be redirected into the ground, resulting in earthquakes and, if under the seafloor, tsunamis. He could create these shockwaves in the air, rendering airborne attacks ineffective. Whitebeard’s powers also allowed him to create a quake bubble around his hand or bisento to increase the power of his physical attacks, as well as manipulate the air with his hands to tilt the environment around him.
4. GOL D. ROGER
Gol D. Roger was a legendary pirate who was known as the Pirate King, captain of the Roger Pirates, and owner of the legendary treasure known as “One Piece”.As Pirate King, Roger retains the highest status among all the world’s pirates, even post-mortem. Something elucidated by the incredibly massive bounty he had prior to his death. At 5,564,800,000 Berries he holds the record for the highest bounty of any pirate in recorded history.
Very few people are known to have ever matched Roger in battle: most prominently the legendary “Hero of the Marines” Monkey D. Garp, said to have cornered Roger multiple times before his surrender, as well as Roger’s second foremost pirate rival Whitebeard, who held the power of the strongest Paramecia Devil Fruit and was called the “Strongest Man in the World”, even before Roger’s death. Another person known to rival Roger was Rocks D. Xebec who was considered to be his first and most formidable rival.
Examples of Roger’s strength include fighting on equal ground with Shiki, who commanded the largest pirate fleet of the time, and single-handedly defeating the armies of several countries. Oden even commented that Roger presented the aura of a wild beast.Roger possessed immense mastery of Haoshoku Haki, which was seen when he clashed with fellow Haoshoku Haki user Edward Newgate. He was one of the few people able to “infuse” his attacks with Haoshoku Haki to exponentially increase his attack power, with his sword being shown emitting streams of lightning-like energy to signify this infusion.
Roger possessed immense mastery over Busoshoku Haki. He could imbue his saber with the Haki, allowing it to evenly clash against the Haki infused Murakumogiri, one of the 12 Supreme Grade Meito. As a testament to his mastery, he overpowered Kozuki Oden, who was an exceptional master of Busoshoku Haki in his own right, with only a single brief attack.Furthermore, Roger with his Busoshoku Haki utilize the advanced technique of projecting Haki out from his blade; and battled against Whitebeard, who was already known as the “Strongest Man in the World” at that time for three days and nights.Roger possessed the ability to use Kenbunshoku Haki.
5. ROCKS D. XEBEC
Rocks D. Xebec was the captain of the Rocks Pirates who were considered to be the most dangerous and strongest pirate crew of their time. Rocks was prominent 40 years ago, before the Pirate King Gol D. Roger came into power.
He was considered to be Roger’s first and most formidable rival, even more so than his former subordinate Whitebeard would come to be.Rocks was well-reputed for presiding over a crew of extremely powerful pirates with clashing personalities and a lack of camaraderie, indicating that he was an extremely powerful and charismatic individual; possibly the strongest person of his time. Many of these people would go on to make a big name for themselves, three of whom even became Yonko(Big Mom, Whitebeard and Kaido).Rocks D. Xebec was so fearsome, it took both Roger and Monkey D. Garp working together to finally defeat him!
Xebec’s defeat was also what caused Garp to become a legend and to be known as the Hero of the Marines, showing how much of a threat that the World Government considered him to be.
Src: opfanpage.com
