First and foremost, I don't believe in this non-sense of "bounty inflation" over the series, which is the idea that characters who had lower bounties before would have higher bounties if they were in the series right now. That's simply a lunatic idea that I personally won't ever entertain as a proper discussion or an argument (if you do, more power to you and have fun with it). So, excluding the 4 emperors, Dragon, and Mihawk... Boa Hancock to me has the most impressive bounty in the series. Now this might seem like a controversial take, but I really don't think it is. So let me get into this and explain why I believe in this.
General Bounty Info:
What is a Bounty?
Bounty is the prize put on a criminal's capture or death by the World Government based on how the threatful the World Government perceives that criminal to be.
What determines the threat level of a criminal?
- Combat Prowess - How strong of a combatant you are or the general prowess you possess through abilities and such.
- Actual actions taken - Fighting other strong pirates, fighting marines, attacking bases, killing civilians, etc.
- Leadership - Strength of your underlings and big your general forces are.
- Playing a crucial in a powerful organization - If you're an officer or join a powerful organization your bounty is likely to increase due to now being a bigger threat.
When is a bounty given?
When something major action happens that causes the Marines to change your bounty. If you haven't done any major action or event the marines won't just change your bounty on their own as they have no way to assess your threat level, even if you've gotten stronger.
High known bounties so far:
Now that we've established a general idea of what bounties are and their usage. Let's now get into why Boa's bounty is god damn impressive. And in order to properly explain her bounty, I'm first going to list off all the major bounties that we know of without the big top tier pirates and criminals. I am also then going to break down their bounties to establish context to things more before getting to Boa.
1st. Trafalgar Law - 3 Billion
Law attained his 3 billion bounty in the assumption that World Government made where they believe Luff/Kid/Law equally played a part in taking down the 2 emperors Big Mom & Kaido. Thus, little more than the sum of the combined bounties of the emperors was given to them. So the bounty is essentially based on false information and context. Where we know a lot more played a role in taking down the two emperors outside of just these 3, from the time delaying of the samurais to Zoro/Killer to Yamato's delaying, to Momo's crucial role, the bombs for Big Mom, and such. And of course it can be heavily argued who played a bigger role out of Law & Kid. Proven to be fraudulent bounty when easily done in by Teach.
2nd. Eustass Kid - 3 Billion
Kid similarly attained his 3 billion bounty in the assumption that World Government made where they believe Luff/Kid/Law equally played a part in taking down the 2 emperors Big Mom & Kaido. Thus, little more than the sum of the combined bounties of the emperors was given to them. So the bounty is essentially based on false information and context. Where we know a lot more played a role in taking down the two emperors outside of just these 3, from the time delaying of the samurais to Zoro/Killer to Yamato's delaying, to Momo's crucial role, the bombs for Big Mom, and such. And of course it can be heavily argued who played a bigger role out of Law & Kid. Proven to be fraudulent bounty when easily done in by Shanks.
3rd. Crocodile - 1.965 Billion
This is the weird bounty for me in terms of how the fanbase discusses it. Due to the popularity of Crocodile as a villain in the series, a lot of biased narratives are created to propel Crocodile to higher heights for power level discussions. His bounty based on his actions pre-TS would've been roughly 250 mil or at max based on Oda's comments. His bounty similar to Buggy is essentially based on him and Mihawk being of equivalent authority due to the Cross Guild poster. Where's he's now considered the left-hand/right hand man of a Yonko who for the marines rivals Shanks and is above Mihawk. And that organization itself being backed by major criminal organizations + them hunting down marines. In the eyes of the marines being an entity that is borderline Yonko tier threat.
4th. King - 1.390 Billion
He's been Kaido's right hand man for decades, and his crew is renowned for doing brutal shit to nations.
5th. Marco - 1.374 Billion
Was eventually considered the right hand man for Edward Newgate, but his crew was fairly peaceful as Whitebeard after Roger's passing didn't have much ambition to do anything other than chill.
6th. Queen - 1.320 Billion
Was part of SAD and eventually becoming Kaido's left hand man. On a crew that constantly does fucked up shit.
7th. Zoro - 1.111 billion
Took down King and is part of a Yonko's crew.
8th. Jinbei - 1.100 Billion
Took down Who's Who (worth 500 mil) and was a former warlord and joined a Yonko crew recently. He gained a huge bounty boost for simply becoming a Yonko's commander.
9th. Katakuri - 1.057 Billion
The top commander of Big Mom for years now. A crew that is renowned wide for doing insanely fucked up shit.
10th. Sanji - 1.032 Billion
A top commander of a Yonko's crew, who also defeated Queen.
8 of the 10 people mentioned here are part of Yonko crews, which as stated by Oda increases your bounty particularly for the officers. 2 of the 10 people are considered to have played an equal part with Luffy in taking down two emperors with no help from others, so fake bounty.
To contextualize all of this: You are recognized as an emperor of the sea with bounty as low as 2.2 billion, after showcasing insane power with the Gura Gura & Yami Yami + fucking up marineford & fighting the Fleet Admiral + Then taking over vast amounts of territory from Whitebeard + recruiting the most heinous criminals from Impel Down + curb stomping the WB pirate remnants + Taking over and making an island base + having a giant fleet
^^^ All of that above is equivalent to a 2.2 billion bounty which makes you a Yonko.
What makes Boa Hancock's bounty so impressive:
Before getting into the present of Boa Hancock let's do a quick flash-run of her past leading up to this moment in the present story.
- At the age of 18 Boa Hancock goes on her first expedition to the sea as a pirate captain and her first bounty is 80 million. This is the highest 1st bounty we know outside of Big Mom's which was at even younger age (and i'm not sure if Ace had a bounty or not before the 550 mil one so can't comment).
- Just after the World Government witnessed her power a bit, they actually feared her power... at the age of 18.
- She then at the age of 29 is recognized by the Fleet Admiral of the Marines to be a powerful individual. And she had 0 worries of losing the Warlord title due to the confidence in her strength.
- She at the age of 31 did not care about the Marines coming after her due to sheer confidence in her strength, going back to the fear the World Government had of her power.
So now we come to her bounty. She boasts a bounty of 1.659 Billion, this is above the bounty Luffy recieved for having 7 "powerful captains" under him + having the backing of Sabo + having the Sun pirates/Capone pirates/Germa 66 under his influence + defeating two commanders worth 1.8 billion bounty in total.. all of these led to Luffy having a bounty of 1.5 billion, and being considered a 5th Emperor that was emerging.
- Is she part of any major crew? No. Her strongest underlings were her sisters who really weren't much stronger than a pre-TS luffy.
- She leads an island full of Kuja who specialize in Haki, but in general terms are equivalent to the fodder Marines Fujitora had with him who were even displaying hardening.
- Has she been part of any major conflicts right now before getting her bounty? Nope.
- Has she beaten anybody of great significance before getting her bounty? Nope.
- Is she renowned to have allied with a party of great power or amass a giant fleet before getting her bounty? Nope.
- Is she part of an organization that has powerful individuals left and right? Nope.
- Is there any sort of gimmick involved with her where she's leaching off of a top tier's bounty and reputation? Nope.
Basically what you have is a strong ass woman who without a strong crew (and let's be honest here Kuja are not even stronger than Kid's crew), without being allied with anybody, without being under anybody... has a bounty higher than the bounty the bounty that is considered for an "emerging emperor". Which only lends into why Oda chose her specifically as the one who highlighted the strength of a warlord.
-> A Yonko was legit willing to sacrifice his commanders who were the sole reason he became a warlord... where he didn't want to let go of her after he caught her with a sneak attack when she was about to turn ole pink hair into stone. This man legit told y'all, yo if you a man she is going to fuck you up straight up. And there ain't jack shit you gone do about it even if you got two of the most powerful fruits. (For those who think Koby resisted her, he didn't, he simply didn't get hit by a slave arrow.)
-> She was the 5th Conqueror's user introduced in the series all the way back in pre-TS, in particular where Luffy first gained his hype. Yet to this day Oda has yet to showcase her Conqueror's. When Oda is usually reserving a power somebody after telling us they have it. Then you have her sisters using advanced coa, so she's likely to have that as well. Yet only haki feats from her so far have been very very basic ones from pre-TS.
-> People forget this part more than likely Boa got training from the Dark King himself after her and sisters escaped Marijois, since Boa was going to end up being the next captain and likely would've wanted to be strong (though this is headcanon for now, it's a logical assumption)
-> A lot of people like to use Blackbeard's face expressions with Rayleigh as portrayal. Yet we had Hancock here again, just berating the Dark King.. despite knowing how powerful he is first hand.
So yea maann.. idk what to say other than the fact..she got the most impressive bounty in the series outside of the top dog criminals mentioned above and it ain't even close. Her and Dracule (well I think Dracule def. got a bit a bounty increase off the Cross Guild shit no doubt) are legit the two bounties that are based on raw strength of the person rather than anything else taken into account. And that's a testiment to how insane Boa will be.
Inb4 people bring up those absurd panels of Kuzan comparing Boa & Doffy as monarchs and type of pirates + the panel order as "powerscaling portrayal".
ANYWHO THOUGH, what is the most impressive bounty to you? Kings? Crocodile? Kid and Laws? Zoro?Etc. Do share and much love.
