Some fans claim bounty is a legitimate measure of somebody's strength. Other fans say it's just a measure of threat to the World Government, that's it. Both sides of the fandom in this case are right, but they're right in specific scenarios. You see Oda's usage of bounty is heavily relative on the context of which he uses the bounty in. Meaning in one case he can use bounty to compare the strength of characters, in another case it's there for a whole different reason, and then in some cases it simply doesn't matter. Let's take a look at some of these contexts to better explain how Oda tends to use bounty:
Luffy's initial bounties of 100 mil vs Zoro's intial bounty:
Luffy's initial bounties leading up to 100 mil, were used as the measure of his strength. When he got the 100 mil, it cemented him being stronger than one of the warlords of the seas, Crocodile. This was greatly emphasized in the Bellamy situation where bounty is used to measure Bellamy's strength with Luffy's. In this context, Oda was using Luffy's bounty to emphasize on his strength standing against Bellamy.
Compare that to Zoro's first bounty. Where it's not used for any comparison against anybody. It's not used to compare Luffy being above Zoro in strength, but simply as a measure of Zoro's threat to the World Government being high now. Reason being of course is that there was no difference in strength between Luffy & Zoro at that point (as they progressed pretty much in parallel to each other since their equal clash in Ennis Lobby).
So there are two different contexts being applied here by Oda.
Supernova Bounties:
Their bounties ranged from 108 mil to 315 mil. Yet none were used to highlight the person's strength being drastically higher than the others. They were never used to compare strengths. Instead they were used for infamy as a pirate. Or to see who the bigger "pirate" is. As when you see Shakki mentioning Kidd only having a higher bounty because of killing civilians. The strength measurement that is used here is simply surpassing the 100 mil barrier which all of the supernova did. Hence Oda never makes any strength comparison based on bounty between between them.
So in the context of the supernova's individual bounties, bounty isn't used for strength comparisons, but simply for accomplishments as pirates that they've done so far. A person at 108 mil could've been as strong or stronger than somebody at 200+ mil.
Yonko Commander Bounties:
Unlike the Supernova, the bounties for the commanders however are used for strength measurements. Each and everytime their bounty is mentioned it's used to emphasize their strength.
Jack- Introduction of 1 billion bounty was used to highlight his power standing in the one piece world.
Cracker - 800+ mil bounty was used to emphasize his power compared to Luffy's at 500 mil
Katakuri's - 1 billion+ bounty constantly emphasized at the start and during the fight to emphasize his individual prowess in the One Piece world.
Queen - Bounty is used to emphasize his individual strength in the one piece world to then emphasize how big of a feat it is for Big Mom to man handle somebody like him.
Where as let's say somebody like Smoothie, doesn't get her bounty used to emphasize her strength (this is not to say her bounty doesn't indicate her strength ranking within the BM pirates, it more than likely does, as is the case with rest of the crews).
So in the case of these 4 specifically, the context of bounty is strength measurement by Oda to let us know where these commanders stand in the power rankings of the One Piece world. To then use these characters to highlight the strength of the opponents that either beat them or were fighting on par with them.
(I've already done mega posts regarding YC bounties, so won't go into much detail here)
On a side note, I think bounties will probably be the main measurement of powerlevel by Oda when it comes to the Yonko Commanders as there are simply too many of them for Oda to individually hype up or give feats to. It's more than likely going to be very accurate since all of them have been on the seas for decade+ now and should be at their peak, thus giving guys like Sakazuki/Kong an appropriate understanding of where they stand in prowess. (Excluding the BB pirates)
Yonko Bounties:
The context of bounties here is about accomplishments as a pirate. The one who has the highest bounty has the highest accomplishments. Kaido being the most active has the higher accomplishments than Big Mom who due to her longer reign as higher accomplishments than Shanks who has significantly higher accomplishments than Blackbeard. It's akin to the usage of bounty with the supernovas, where the bounties compared to each other are simply about their accomplishments.
The second context is the perception of threat for the Marines. Marines view Kaido as the most dangerous, and Blackbeard as the least dangerous. With Shanks being of lesser danger than Big Mom & Kaido.
Conclusion:
When we talk about bounty, let's make sure we keep the context of the bounty. When Oda uses bounty to highlight Jack's power standing one piece world. Don't use Nico Robin's 79 million to dismiss it. The mangaka's purpose for them is completely different. You also then can't say "Well guess that means Hawkins >>>> Urouge pre-TS", because Oda doesn't make a comparison of strength between the supernovas using their bounties.
Oda isn't just throwing out bounties for the sake of it, each time he uses bounty it is within a certain context. It's up to the fan to make sure they stick within the context in which Oda is using the bounty. And the context is usually fairly easy to understand, because Oda tends to always point out the usage of bounty. Like with Nico Robin her getting it due to the danger of being able to read the ancient language. Or with the YCs mentioning their bounties to emphasize their strength each time. Where as for the other characters he doesn't do that. And when he doesn't do that, you then have an argument that the character's bounty doesn't represent their strength.
So bounties aren't bullshit, they have a crucial role for Oda to express different things regarding different characters, whether it's a measure of strength or whether it's simply showcasing the person's accomplishments as a pirate. More often than not it simply is about accomplishments rather than strength.
My posting skills have degraded but hopefully that was fairly coherent and easy to understand. Share your opinions and such.
Luffy's initial bounties of 100 mil vs Zoro's intial bounty:
Luffy's initial bounties leading up to 100 mil, were used as the measure of his strength. When he got the 100 mil, it cemented him being stronger than one of the warlords of the seas, Crocodile. This was greatly emphasized in the Bellamy situation where bounty is used to measure Bellamy's strength with Luffy's. In this context, Oda was using Luffy's bounty to emphasize on his strength standing against Bellamy.
Compare that to Zoro's first bounty. Where it's not used for any comparison against anybody. It's not used to compare Luffy being above Zoro in strength, but simply as a measure of Zoro's threat to the World Government being high now. Reason being of course is that there was no difference in strength between Luffy & Zoro at that point (as they progressed pretty much in parallel to each other since their equal clash in Ennis Lobby).
So there are two different contexts being applied here by Oda.
Supernova Bounties:
Their bounties ranged from 108 mil to 315 mil. Yet none were used to highlight the person's strength being drastically higher than the others. They were never used to compare strengths. Instead they were used for infamy as a pirate. Or to see who the bigger "pirate" is. As when you see Shakki mentioning Kidd only having a higher bounty because of killing civilians. The strength measurement that is used here is simply surpassing the 100 mil barrier which all of the supernova did. Hence Oda never makes any strength comparison based on bounty between between them.
So in the context of the supernova's individual bounties, bounty isn't used for strength comparisons, but simply for accomplishments as pirates that they've done so far. A person at 108 mil could've been as strong or stronger than somebody at 200+ mil.
Yonko Commander Bounties:
Unlike the Supernova, the bounties for the commanders however are used for strength measurements. Each and everytime their bounty is mentioned it's used to emphasize their strength.
Jack- Introduction of 1 billion bounty was used to highlight his power standing in the one piece world.
Cracker - 800+ mil bounty was used to emphasize his power compared to Luffy's at 500 mil
Katakuri's - 1 billion+ bounty constantly emphasized at the start and during the fight to emphasize his individual prowess in the One Piece world.
Queen - Bounty is used to emphasize his individual strength in the one piece world to then emphasize how big of a feat it is for Big Mom to man handle somebody like him.
Where as let's say somebody like Smoothie, doesn't get her bounty used to emphasize her strength (this is not to say her bounty doesn't indicate her strength ranking within the BM pirates, it more than likely does, as is the case with rest of the crews).
So in the case of these 4 specifically, the context of bounty is strength measurement by Oda to let us know where these commanders stand in the power rankings of the One Piece world. To then use these characters to highlight the strength of the opponents that either beat them or were fighting on par with them.
(I've already done mega posts regarding YC bounties, so won't go into much detail here)
On a side note, I think bounties will probably be the main measurement of powerlevel by Oda when it comes to the Yonko Commanders as there are simply too many of them for Oda to individually hype up or give feats to. It's more than likely going to be very accurate since all of them have been on the seas for decade+ now and should be at their peak, thus giving guys like Sakazuki/Kong an appropriate understanding of where they stand in prowess. (Excluding the BB pirates)
Yonko Bounties:
The context of bounties here is about accomplishments as a pirate. The one who has the highest bounty has the highest accomplishments. Kaido being the most active has the higher accomplishments than Big Mom who due to her longer reign as higher accomplishments than Shanks who has significantly higher accomplishments than Blackbeard. It's akin to the usage of bounty with the supernovas, where the bounties compared to each other are simply about their accomplishments.
The second context is the perception of threat for the Marines. Marines view Kaido as the most dangerous, and Blackbeard as the least dangerous. With Shanks being of lesser danger than Big Mom & Kaido.
Conclusion:
When we talk about bounty, let's make sure we keep the context of the bounty. When Oda uses bounty to highlight Jack's power standing one piece world. Don't use Nico Robin's 79 million to dismiss it. The mangaka's purpose for them is completely different. You also then can't say "Well guess that means Hawkins >>>> Urouge pre-TS", because Oda doesn't make a comparison of strength between the supernovas using their bounties.
Oda isn't just throwing out bounties for the sake of it, each time he uses bounty it is within a certain context. It's up to the fan to make sure they stick within the context in which Oda is using the bounty. And the context is usually fairly easy to understand, because Oda tends to always point out the usage of bounty. Like with Nico Robin her getting it due to the danger of being able to read the ancient language. Or with the YCs mentioning their bounties to emphasize their strength each time. Where as for the other characters he doesn't do that. And when he doesn't do that, you then have an argument that the character's bounty doesn't represent their strength.
So bounties aren't bullshit, they have a crucial role for Oda to express different things regarding different characters, whether it's a measure of strength or whether it's simply showcasing the person's accomplishments as a pirate. More often than not it simply is about accomplishments rather than strength.
My posting skills have degraded but hopefully that was fairly coherent and easy to understand. Share your opinions and such.
now bounties mean nothing huh
