Na, comparing him to Usopp is just unfair and it implies that he was one of the weaker Sun Pirates, while it was the exact opposite and he was top 3. The strongest member of the sun pirates was Jinbe, he was in an entire league of his own, stronger then Fisher-Tiger and everyone else in the crew. The second strongest was most likely Fisher-Tiger, and after him came Arlong. So if we were making a comparison towards the SH’s we’d have to look at the monster trio (Luffy, Zoro, Sanji) and Arlong would most likely equate to being Sanji in terms strength ranking.
I do agree that it seems like he hadn’t leveled up much, though.
I am pretty sure bombs are low tier in One Piece. I’m pretty sure if Chopper’s old mentor/guardian wasn’t already old and dying that bomb he strapped himself to wouldn’t have done him in. Other then that I can’t think of anyone that has ever died because of a bomb.
Edit:
Hold on there, Fisher Tiger was clearly the strongest considering he raided the capital city of the World Government (or the Imperials) by himself and climbed the Red Line feats no one has really done before or since. There is no doubt that while he was alive he was the strongest of his crew and only died because he refused to take human blood because of his hatred for them.
As for Arlong, he is the third most well known due to his early story appearance but considering his bounty $20 million and lack of any real accomplishments, other then being cruel, to Fisher-Tiger or Jinbe who were both well over $200 million around the time of the Sun Pirates dissolution, your Sanji comparison is off. Even taking into account he was trying to do things under wraps (which in the most peaceful of seas shows more weakness then anything since he controlled just one island) the fact is Arlong would be either dead or a slave if he tried anything in the ‘Paradise’ section of the Grand Line let alone the New World section. Maybe Usopp is too harsh considering he as strong physically as other Fishmen (but given the noses and their ideas of grandeur I found it fitting) but at best Arlong is a less useful version of Buggy the Clown for the Sun Pirates.
It’s hard to quantify how strong Fisher-Tiger actually was for raiding Marie Jois, since we don’t know the conditions of said raid. Did he even fight anyone, or did he just free the slaves? If he did fight someone, was it a weak/pathetic/useless Noble like the ones at Sabaody? Were their guards, or were the Nobles too conceited and didn’t believe that they didn’t need any due to the fact that they never surmised that anyone would ever dare attack them? Fisher-Tiger was a determined Fish-Man with a resentment towards the Noble’s, that’s all that I can make out of the Marie Jois raid. Perhaps in the earlier days Fisher-Tiger was the strongest, but later down the line Jinbe definitely surpassed him. Jinbe was a monster, plain and simple (and is currently the strongest known Fish-Man in the entire series). Soon after Tigers death he was offered the position of Shichibukai for demonstrating an enormous amount of strength when fighting and ultimately crushing Vice-Admiral Strawberry who had attacked Fisher-Tiger. Its been said time and time again, bounty is not necessarily a reflection of strength. Its more so a reflection of individual threat towards the WG, attacking innocents, etc. Nico Robin didnt receive a bounty of 79,000,000 at such a young age because of her strength, that`s for sure.
My comparison to Sanji is not “off”. Comparing Arlong’s strength to Sanji’s strength is not me making a direct comparison, I’m comparing their strength ranking/rating within each respective crew. Sanji is arguably number 3 in terms of strength in the SH’s, and Arlong is arguably number 3 in terms of strength in the Sun Pirates. That’s why I said that comparing him to Usopp was unfair, since it implies that he was one of the weaker members on the crew.
I’m not trying to pronounce Arlong as some type of extremely strong contender in OP, but he certainly wasn’t as free as people think. I’d go as far as to say that he could quite possibly defeat people like Bellamy, Wapol, Krieg, Buggy, etc. He clearly didn’t level up much over the years, and is quite clearly one of the weaker “boss” type figures of the series, but certainly not free. Not sure why everyone hates him so much (perhaps because of Nami), but oh well.
Mangastream version is up. As usual, their scanslation is the superior one.
You know, it never really crossed my mind that Luffy is willing to beat down Shanks, despite having no reason to other than standing in the way to the One Piece. Normally, the Strawhats would only fight when they’re forced to.
Mangastream’s translation puts a better spin on Luffy’s response to Law wanting them to leave. It has Law going “We should remain in constant motion”… Which Luffy interprets differently.
Also, though it’s no surprise considering the earlier talk, we now know which emperor they’re going after.
Spoiler
Kaidou of the 100 beasts.
So we’re finally going to see what he’s like… Though I’m guessing we’ll be getting a Wa No Kuni arc before that.
EDIT: And nothing says everything’ll go to plan. This IS One Piece, after all, and the only emperor without a bone to pick with the SH crew at this point is Shanks.
Speaking of, I’m pretty sure Luffy doesn’t actually intend to beat down Shanks. He’s out to best Shanks, certainly, but you can beat someone without beating them down.
It would be interesting to see if Shanks will go all out whenever he and Luffy face each other.
Right now Luffy is still light years behind Shanks in my opinion since we really haven’t seen red hair flex that much. The only indications of his ridiculous strength is his freaky haki that damages inanimate objects and splitting open the sky when he clashed with Whitebeard.
Oh yeah, and that “Oh shit” look on Akainu’s face when Shanks stopped him from killing Coby.
It is unexpected because we figured Doflamingo would come and kick ass by now or the mystery dude at the end of the previous chapter. Instead with this party, this arc is officially wrapped up with a Strawhats victory and anything that happens next will be part of the new arc whatever the fuck that is.
