With admiral Kizaru possibly set to either win or lose against the Strawhats and potentially get an all out fight, reckon it's time to make a thread on Borsaliiiiiiiino. So here's a short thread exploring some parts of his character.
The Ultimate Soldier:
What makes the ultimate soldier? Somebody who is strong and willing to obey orders to the T without having any grand ambitions and motivations of their own to disrupt them. You see where as the likes of Akainu/Fujitora/Sengoku/Kuzan/Garp/Aramaki all have their own goals and ambitions that make them a risk, where they're more likely to either go overboard in trying to exert their justice or just be wild cards that can't be fully controlled. There is no such risk factor like that with Borsalino. So with this in mind, let's take a look at how Echiiro Oda created the Ultimate Soldier of the Marines.
Willingness to deal with arising conflicts:
His entry in the series happens on Sabody where a marine soldier reports to Sengoku about the situation regarding the supernovas and celestial dragons. Sitting in the meeting room, to the side, is Borsalino himself.
Upon hearing the situation and seeing Sengoku's frustration or rather annoyance about it, Borsalino takes it upon himself to be the admiral to go out. Instead of waiting on Sengoku's order to decide which admiral he wants to send out to deal with the situation. Recall, it's an admiral's duty to head out whenever a CD is harmed.
In a very similar fashion post-TS, the call between Kaido-BM is reported to Fleet Admiral, and Borsalino happened to be sitting to the side again. And what does he do? Offers to head out to prevent the meeting between BM-Kaido. Oda also adds in a very good detail here to seperate the two situations. Where as in the 1st one where it's the automatic duty of an admiral to head out when a CD is attacked, going against a Yonko requires clearance... so this time he's asking his higher officer whether he should headout to deal with the situation.
Relationship with authority:
No other admiral has constantly been put in a situation where they're constantly shown with higher authority figure ready for action.
- Borsalino in his past under command of VP as his bodyguard
- Boralino's entry is with Sengoku pre-TS
- Borsalino post-TS with Sakazuki pre-reverie
- Borsalino post-TS with Sakazuki post-reverie
- Borsalino post-TS with an even higher authority than FA, Gorosei
There is a very much big emphasis on Borsalino contrast to other admirals or marine top tiers where he's constantly having scenes alongside some of the highest authoritative figures following their command or ready to follow their command or protect them. NO OTHER admiral has had this much display of good obedient soldier.
And while many believe he has a "Zoro"-esque relationship to Sakazuki, he doesn't. His relationship to Sakazuki is the same as it was to Sengoku, just as he was shown alongside Sengoku in his entry he's constantly shown alongside the new fleet admiral. IMO, it's because he's simply the most trustworthy mf there is out of the new trio and the old trio, so he's always kept close to the most important authority figures when on missions (VP/Gorosei) or when not on one (w/ the FA).
Difference in youth:
Now we don't have an idea about Fuji and GB's childhood, but based on the other previous admirals that we do know of... there's a stark difference in how Kizaru grew up vs Akainu and Aokiji. See Kuzan & Saka having gone through rough childhood were fighters. Borsalino on the other hand is completely different yea, despite growing up poor as well, he's doing his own thing, studying diligently with a fucked up table and a fucked up light lamp (indicating studying at night).
This is a mf that was putting in work on the education front and whooping ass front. What's a better soldier than one who's not only properly educated but also strong as the ones who just focused on ass whooping? Nothing. It ain't a damn coincidence that this mf who was studying like crazy in his childhood was also the one who was the initial bodyguard for the smartest man to ever fucking live in OP, Vegapunk. This man is the complete package.
Demeanor:
Some folks have this man so misunderstood that they think he's some lazy ass bum who doesn't try or as some have put it always high on the weeeeeed. But nope that ain't Borsalino. Homie is the farthest thing from "lazy", this man is all about hardwork since he was a child. What makes people misunderstand him is his demeanor. He's very calm, even when he's angry he will not display it on his face. Primary example of this is when he fought against Rayleigh, Ray coming in and preventing him from doing his job was pissing of Kizaru... but what did you see on his face? nothing other than his normal relaxed face. Instead he expressed that anger emotion by overcompensating his duty and capturing hundreds of pirates.
Even now when he's facing somebody who he taught, and essentially played a part in raising. Somebody who views Borsalino as an uncle... when he's faced with this, there is no damn doubt that this man feels sadness for that. But what is on his face? Samething that was on his face when he went against Ray, his normal smile.
Like bro no matter if he's sad or mad or w.e, this man has the best damn poker face in the series. It's always gone be that chill voice + a smile/smirky face. Which is exactly what the best soldiers are taught to master, being able to hide their emotions.
Beliefs (Justice):
The vivre card pointed out that he has "unclear justice". Which explains him not having interest in leadership and instead actually having a preference for following orders. It's as he himself puts it the best, he's just another cog in the machine that is the World Government.. aka... "Bruh I'm just a soldier doing my job".
And this is perfect for the World Government to have in their ultimate soldier. Somebody who has no willingness to lead, but rather prefers to follow orders and accepts his role as a cog in the machine. He's not gonna go do outlandish shit like Fujitora, he's not gonna go try 1-man shit without orders like GB, he's not gonna go bitch at the Gorosei... he's gonna do what he's told. That's it.
Now, with explanation of what traits and non-combat things make him the ultimate soldier of the world government... let's move on to the combat prowess.
The Strongest Marine:
I've stated this on numerous occasions that there is no definitive clarity on who the strongest marine top tier right now is. The only clarity we have is between Kuzan being weaker than Akainu. Outside of that, nope not a single comparison or statement to put one or the other above or below. That's why I have said multiple times that even though I view Fujitora as the strongest marine due to my assumption of him being the next FA, I wouldn't be surprised if Aramaki is the strongest admiral, I wouldn't be surprised if Borsalino is. So allow me to explain, why I'm stating there is no definitive answer here, outside of what we folks want to accept and not accept as portrayal. I'm going to be using typical points that folks make to claim Sakazuki is the strongest marine to go against with Borsalino.
Capability:
Destructiveness:
Not a single marine has shown the amount of destructive capability that this man possesses. Possessing the prowess to fuck up an entire town + each laser being bigger than law's submarine, this man is casually capable of clearing ship fleets. The closest thing to this in the Marines would be Akainu's ability to send down those giant magma punches from long range, but they don't possess the same destructive force as Borsalino's lasers. Man is the ultimate AoE destruction threat.
Has the best on-panel combat feat out of the admirals:
His back and forth with Rayleigh is the best on-panel combat feat by an admiral so far. Akainu started off his fight against a WB who had already declined noticeably in the hours he had been off of life-support, then was stabbed by squardo which triggered his sickness even more, that WB managed to stalemate Akainu until the heartattack. The Rayleigh that Kizaru is stalemating and even pushing back, is much stronger than the Newgate that Sakazuki went against. (And I don't know why for some reason this is always overlooked). And mind you Borsalino-Rayleigh was an exchange of continuous attack exchanges that was happening even off-panel for multiple chapters not some 2-3 punches, which is what Saka vs Newgate was.
People can mention "Akainu vs Aokiji", but that sadly has 0 relation to Kizaru. All it tells me is Akainu beats Aokiji in 10 days, it doesn't tell us shit about how they compare to Borsalino.
Speed:
I don't think this is a question, we all recognize that Borsalino is the fastest of the admirals.
Physical prowess:
It's hard to gauge, but I'm going to say same as Akainu's, just based on Oda drawing the similar panels of them using feet on Whitebeard's bisento. Though Akainu's is more of a clash where as Kizaru is holding it down, so bit different in terms of the attacks... but I think they're pretty much the same when it comes to physical prowess. Now compared to the others, Fujitora outright admit that his body wasn't strong or w.e. That leaves Aramaki, who doesn't exactly have any physical prowess feats or w.e to compare.
Haki:
Same as Saka, FS + Advanced Armament. Hasn't shown CoO like Fujitora (nobody really has) or Armament like Kuzan/Aramaki/Fujitora or ACoC like Kuzan.
HOWEVER, he does have the "greatest defense in the world" going for him as well, being the one who taught Sentomaru. We haven't gotten any other admiral teaching anybody Haki or anything. So I mean...
But this is sort of an ehhh, nobody really has the advantage or disadvantage imo until we see them go all out with their Hakis.
Portrayal:
Before Akainu traumatized Luffy with the scar, it was Borsalino who showed Luffy what true despair is.
- Some folks automatically put Kizaru as the "right hand" for Akainu, but it's simply based on him taking on Marco at MF. But the issue with that logic is that Saka vs WB, was for Saka's big showcasing. Where as Borsalino had already had his showcasing against a stronger person than Newgate at Sabody. So really it's a point of not much relevance.
- He also has the alias of "monkey", which is the animal which could be related to Sun Wu Kong or Hanuman which serve as inspo for Luffy, and of course Goku from DBZ which has a great influence on Oda as well. (Not to mention in the Momotaro story Monkey-Dog were essentially rivals.)
- "But Sakazuki is the fleet admiral", yes because Kizaru has no interest in leadership. If we're going to put people above and below each other based on interest in leadership, then certainly Big Mom > Mihawk would also be your stance... but we know that's not the case. It's an illogical argument that doesn't hold value. As we also already had a person in Garp who had no interest in leadership as well. So him not being the fleet admiral can't be an argument you can use against him.
- "Sakazuki is one of the last antagonists, he's gonna be Luffy's big marine fight"... and when it happens this will be a fine point to make, it's a fine point to use for your own prediction, but not one you can use to factually put Saka above Borsalino. For all we know the upcoming fight is Luffy's biggest Marine fight in the entire series and he never fights a marine top tier in an all-out fight after. Not to mention far in the series, if you read it without wearing strawhat colored glasses, Sakazuki has multiple storylines going for him for his final fight with multiple potential candidates suited to fight him.
- "Fujitora has a bigger ambition"... so what? bigger ambitions don't always equate to strength. Whitebeard's ambition paled in comparison to Shiki's.
- Not exactly "portrayal"... but, there's been plenty of stories where the guy who's the calmest/most reserved is the biggest monster of them all, and there's nobody more reserved and calm than Kizaru.
- Is the only admiral to have a "student".
- Is the only admiral who's DF served as a basis and in fact a core weapon for a whole robot army.
------
Y'all get the point any and all portrayal is just purely subjective and nothing conclusive. For every point I can make for Fujitora being the strongest (and I can make a fuck ton), you could also make arguments for Kizaru. Now, whether some arguments have more backing and weight than others? Yes. Sakazuki being the strongest or Fujitora being the strongest has more weight. BUT it's still nothing conclusive. If by end of the series Kizaru is the strongest thing we've seen... all the above summarized points will be plenty to justify it in the story.
(I didn't bother doing any pirate comparison for a reason...I have 0 energy to get into admiral vs yonko non-sense... so keeping this internally with the marines)
CONCLUSION
So what you have in Kizaru is an entity who can clash against any your other strong soldiers and either beat them all or lose by giving them serious injuries still. While also capable of handling any outside threat like the Yonko. He serves a foundation to one of your strongest armies (the pacifistas & seraphim). He's a well rounded man with high education as well. He's emotionally in check, and most important of all doesn't have his own sense of justice and actually prefers to follow orders.
This is the perfect soldier any government or army could ever ask for.
Thanks for reading and be share to your opinions! If clarifications needed on some parts feel free to ask!
The Ultimate Soldier:
What makes the ultimate soldier? Somebody who is strong and willing to obey orders to the T without having any grand ambitions and motivations of their own to disrupt them. You see where as the likes of Akainu/Fujitora/Sengoku/Kuzan/Garp/Aramaki all have their own goals and ambitions that make them a risk, where they're more likely to either go overboard in trying to exert their justice or just be wild cards that can't be fully controlled. There is no such risk factor like that with Borsalino. So with this in mind, let's take a look at how Echiiro Oda created the Ultimate Soldier of the Marines.
Willingness to deal with arising conflicts:
His entry in the series happens on Sabody where a marine soldier reports to Sengoku about the situation regarding the supernovas and celestial dragons. Sitting in the meeting room, to the side, is Borsalino himself.
Upon hearing the situation and seeing Sengoku's frustration or rather annoyance about it, Borsalino takes it upon himself to be the admiral to go out. Instead of waiting on Sengoku's order to decide which admiral he wants to send out to deal with the situation. Recall, it's an admiral's duty to head out whenever a CD is harmed.
In a very similar fashion post-TS, the call between Kaido-BM is reported to Fleet Admiral, and Borsalino happened to be sitting to the side again. And what does he do? Offers to head out to prevent the meeting between BM-Kaido. Oda also adds in a very good detail here to seperate the two situations. Where as in the 1st one where it's the automatic duty of an admiral to head out when a CD is attacked, going against a Yonko requires clearance... so this time he's asking his higher officer whether he should headout to deal with the situation.
Relationship with authority:
No other admiral has constantly been put in a situation where they're constantly shown with higher authority figure ready for action.
- Borsalino in his past under command of VP as his bodyguard
- Boralino's entry is with Sengoku pre-TS
- Borsalino post-TS with Sakazuki pre-reverie
- Borsalino post-TS with Sakazuki post-reverie
- Borsalino post-TS with an even higher authority than FA, Gorosei
There is a very much big emphasis on Borsalino contrast to other admirals or marine top tiers where he's constantly having scenes alongside some of the highest authoritative figures following their command or ready to follow their command or protect them. NO OTHER admiral has had this much display of good obedient soldier.
And while many believe he has a "Zoro"-esque relationship to Sakazuki, he doesn't. His relationship to Sakazuki is the same as it was to Sengoku, just as he was shown alongside Sengoku in his entry he's constantly shown alongside the new fleet admiral. IMO, it's because he's simply the most trustworthy mf there is out of the new trio and the old trio, so he's always kept close to the most important authority figures when on missions (VP/Gorosei) or when not on one (w/ the FA).
Difference in youth:
Now we don't have an idea about Fuji and GB's childhood, but based on the other previous admirals that we do know of... there's a stark difference in how Kizaru grew up vs Akainu and Aokiji. See Kuzan & Saka having gone through rough childhood were fighters. Borsalino on the other hand is completely different yea, despite growing up poor as well, he's doing his own thing, studying diligently with a fucked up table and a fucked up light lamp (indicating studying at night).
This is a mf that was putting in work on the education front and whooping ass front. What's a better soldier than one who's not only properly educated but also strong as the ones who just focused on ass whooping? Nothing. It ain't a damn coincidence that this mf who was studying like crazy in his childhood was also the one who was the initial bodyguard for the smartest man to ever fucking live in OP, Vegapunk. This man is the complete package.
Demeanor:
Some folks have this man so misunderstood that they think he's some lazy ass bum who doesn't try or as some have put it always high on the weeeeeed. But nope that ain't Borsalino. Homie is the farthest thing from "lazy", this man is all about hardwork since he was a child. What makes people misunderstand him is his demeanor. He's very calm, even when he's angry he will not display it on his face. Primary example of this is when he fought against Rayleigh, Ray coming in and preventing him from doing his job was pissing of Kizaru... but what did you see on his face? nothing other than his normal relaxed face. Instead he expressed that anger emotion by overcompensating his duty and capturing hundreds of pirates.
Like bro no matter if he's sad or mad or w.e, this man has the best damn poker face in the series. It's always gone be that chill voice + a smile/smirky face. Which is exactly what the best soldiers are taught to master, being able to hide their emotions.
Beliefs (Justice):
The vivre card pointed out that he has "unclear justice". Which explains him not having interest in leadership and instead actually having a preference for following orders. It's as he himself puts it the best, he's just another cog in the machine that is the World Government.. aka... "Bruh I'm just a soldier doing my job".
And this is perfect for the World Government to have in their ultimate soldier. Somebody who has no willingness to lead, but rather prefers to follow orders and accepts his role as a cog in the machine. He's not gonna go do outlandish shit like Fujitora, he's not gonna go try 1-man shit without orders like GB, he's not gonna go bitch at the Gorosei... he's gonna do what he's told. That's it.
Now, with explanation of what traits and non-combat things make him the ultimate soldier of the world government... let's move on to the combat prowess.
The Strongest Marine:
I've stated this on numerous occasions that there is no definitive clarity on who the strongest marine top tier right now is. The only clarity we have is between Kuzan being weaker than Akainu. Outside of that, nope not a single comparison or statement to put one or the other above or below. That's why I have said multiple times that even though I view Fujitora as the strongest marine due to my assumption of him being the next FA, I wouldn't be surprised if Aramaki is the strongest admiral, I wouldn't be surprised if Borsalino is. So allow me to explain, why I'm stating there is no definitive answer here, outside of what we folks want to accept and not accept as portrayal. I'm going to be using typical points that folks make to claim Sakazuki is the strongest marine to go against with Borsalino.
Capability:
Destructiveness:
Not a single marine has shown the amount of destructive capability that this man possesses. Possessing the prowess to fuck up an entire town + each laser being bigger than law's submarine, this man is casually capable of clearing ship fleets. The closest thing to this in the Marines would be Akainu's ability to send down those giant magma punches from long range, but they don't possess the same destructive force as Borsalino's lasers. Man is the ultimate AoE destruction threat.
Has the best on-panel combat feat out of the admirals:
His back and forth with Rayleigh is the best on-panel combat feat by an admiral so far. Akainu started off his fight against a WB who had already declined noticeably in the hours he had been off of life-support, then was stabbed by squardo which triggered his sickness even more, that WB managed to stalemate Akainu until the heartattack. The Rayleigh that Kizaru is stalemating and even pushing back, is much stronger than the Newgate that Sakazuki went against. (And I don't know why for some reason this is always overlooked). And mind you Borsalino-Rayleigh was an exchange of continuous attack exchanges that was happening even off-panel for multiple chapters not some 2-3 punches, which is what Saka vs Newgate was.
People can mention "Akainu vs Aokiji", but that sadly has 0 relation to Kizaru. All it tells me is Akainu beats Aokiji in 10 days, it doesn't tell us shit about how they compare to Borsalino.
Speed:
I don't think this is a question, we all recognize that Borsalino is the fastest of the admirals.
Physical prowess:
It's hard to gauge, but I'm going to say same as Akainu's, just based on Oda drawing the similar panels of them using feet on Whitebeard's bisento. Though Akainu's is more of a clash where as Kizaru is holding it down, so bit different in terms of the attacks... but I think they're pretty much the same when it comes to physical prowess. Now compared to the others, Fujitora outright admit that his body wasn't strong or w.e. That leaves Aramaki, who doesn't exactly have any physical prowess feats or w.e to compare.
Haki:
Same as Saka, FS + Advanced Armament. Hasn't shown CoO like Fujitora (nobody really has) or Armament like Kuzan/Aramaki/Fujitora or ACoC like Kuzan.
HOWEVER, he does have the "greatest defense in the world" going for him as well, being the one who taught Sentomaru. We haven't gotten any other admiral teaching anybody Haki or anything. So I mean...
But this is sort of an ehhh, nobody really has the advantage or disadvantage imo until we see them go all out with their Hakis.
Portrayal:
Before Akainu traumatized Luffy with the scar, it was Borsalino who showed Luffy what true despair is.
- Some folks automatically put Kizaru as the "right hand" for Akainu, but it's simply based on him taking on Marco at MF. But the issue with that logic is that Saka vs WB, was for Saka's big showcasing. Where as Borsalino had already had his showcasing against a stronger person than Newgate at Sabody. So really it's a point of not much relevance.
- He also has the alias of "monkey", which is the animal which could be related to Sun Wu Kong or Hanuman which serve as inspo for Luffy, and of course Goku from DBZ which has a great influence on Oda as well. (Not to mention in the Momotaro story Monkey-Dog were essentially rivals.)
- "But Sakazuki is the fleet admiral", yes because Kizaru has no interest in leadership. If we're going to put people above and below each other based on interest in leadership, then certainly Big Mom > Mihawk would also be your stance... but we know that's not the case. It's an illogical argument that doesn't hold value. As we also already had a person in Garp who had no interest in leadership as well. So him not being the fleet admiral can't be an argument you can use against him.
- "Sakazuki is one of the last antagonists, he's gonna be Luffy's big marine fight"... and when it happens this will be a fine point to make, it's a fine point to use for your own prediction, but not one you can use to factually put Saka above Borsalino. For all we know the upcoming fight is Luffy's biggest Marine fight in the entire series and he never fights a marine top tier in an all-out fight after. Not to mention far in the series, if you read it without wearing strawhat colored glasses, Sakazuki has multiple storylines going for him for his final fight with multiple potential candidates suited to fight him.
- "Fujitora has a bigger ambition"... so what? bigger ambitions don't always equate to strength. Whitebeard's ambition paled in comparison to Shiki's.
- Not exactly "portrayal"... but, there's been plenty of stories where the guy who's the calmest/most reserved is the biggest monster of them all, and there's nobody more reserved and calm than Kizaru.
- Is the only admiral to have a "student".
- Is the only admiral who's DF served as a basis and in fact a core weapon for a whole robot army.
------
Y'all get the point any and all portrayal is just purely subjective and nothing conclusive. For every point I can make for Fujitora being the strongest (and I can make a fuck ton), you could also make arguments for Kizaru. Now, whether some arguments have more backing and weight than others? Yes. Sakazuki being the strongest or Fujitora being the strongest has more weight. BUT it's still nothing conclusive. If by end of the series Kizaru is the strongest thing we've seen... all the above summarized points will be plenty to justify it in the story.
(I didn't bother doing any pirate comparison for a reason...I have 0 energy to get into admiral vs yonko non-sense... so keeping this internally with the marines)
CONCLUSION
So what you have in Kizaru is an entity who can clash against any your other strong soldiers and either beat them all or lose by giving them serious injuries still. While also capable of handling any outside threat like the Yonko. He serves a foundation to one of your strongest armies (the pacifistas & seraphim). He's a well rounded man with high education as well. He's emotionally in check, and most important of all doesn't have his own sense of justice and actually prefers to follow orders.
This is the perfect soldier any government or army could ever ask for.
Thanks for reading and be share to your opinions! If clarifications needed on some parts feel free to ask!
