One Piece settles the debate between the Holy Knights and Admirals in the Elbaf Arc

Marine Admirals have always been powerhouses in the world of One Pieceranked among the strongest characters in all of history. With the arrival of the Holy Knights in the Final Saga, they finally got some competition. Fans heavily debated which of the two groups was stronger, and One Piece's the last chapter has just answered that question forever. It can now officially be said that the three admirals in the fleet are far superior to the Holy Knights in terms of overall power levels, and there is no doubt about that anymore after seeing the performance of Saint Sommers and Saint Killingham in battle against the Straw Hat Pirates.

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Dissecting the defeat of Imus' warriors in the land of the giants

When the Elbaf arc began, two holy knights arrived in the land of giants, they were Shamrock Figarland and Gunko. However, Shamrock returned to the Holy Land, and in his place Saint Sommers and Saint Killingham came to the land of giants. It was made incredibly clear that the Holy Knights were very powerful. After all, they held their own against some of the strongest individuals in the story, but their greatest strength was always their renewal factor. No matter what damage they took, they instantly regenerated from it.

Other than their regeneration gimmick, there was nothing else exciting about the Holy Knights, and now they have been defeated. Saint Sommers was taken down in battle by the combined effort of Luffy and Loki, and it took them no more than a few seconds to deal with him. Since then he has not returned. Meanwhile, Sanji completely dismembered Saint Killingham in battle in an instant, and the Straw Hat Pirates bound his body parts in a way that he can't even recreate, meaning they are far inferior to the Admirals.

Why God's Knights Can't Compete With Navy Elites

It goes without saying that the Holy Knights have some unique abilities in One Piece. They have the power of regeneration, which hardly anyone can counter in a one-on-one battle. They are also immortal and possess superhuman strength. Aside from that, they are largely underwhelming in combat. In fact, anyone who is a competent high level pirate like Sanji and Zoro can easily take them down in battle as long as they can counter the regeneration.

This means that in terms of overall power levels, they are far inferior to the likes of the Navy Admirals. The only thing the admirals would lack is the equivalent of immortality, but if the Straw Hat Pirates can counter it, so can the Navy's strongest.

The world government's strongest has faltered in the land of war

Elbaf marks a catastrophic failure for the World Government as their plan to take over the country has backfired completely, and the immortals are utterly disgraced in this land, one by one. This reflects poorly on the Holy Knights as well, and in some ways it has been frustrating for the fans as well.

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The Holy Knights would be the elite threat that the World Government posed to the pirates. They would be rivals to the Dragon's Revolutionary Army, but as it stands, they're just monsters that keep regenerating and can easily be taken down by almost anyone. To be clear, there are some Holy Knights that are much stronger than others. For example, Saint Gunko was able to take down five of the Straw Hat Pirates at once, and it was very impressive indeed. Meanwhile, Shamrock Figarland is compared to Yonko Shanks in terms of verbal powers, but aside from those two, neither is particularly impressive.

Measuring the power of the immortals in Marijoa

Image by Manga Plus

Oda has not revealed the power of all the Holy Knights in the story so far. But of those who have made their appearance, only Gunko and Shamrock can be said to be in the same league as the Admirals. All the others are inferior in terms of power levels and can be taken down by strong Yonko commanders as long as their immortality can be countered. Those with Conqueror's Haki can easily dismantle them in battle within a couple of seconds.

Looking at their performance, it is quite clear that the admirals are far superior. In fact, even with the powers of Gear 5 and Conqueror's Haki, Luffy had to go all out against Kizaru in Egghead. The Admirals are still fierce enough to compete against the likes of Yonko, while the Holy Knights can do nothing but cower in their presence. They can no longer be called a top tier threat and Oda will need to make major improvements to their remaining members if they are to be taken seriously.

One Piece Chapter 1177 is available to read on Manga Plus starting March 22, 2026.

One Piece

Release date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Ma Shihi Endo, Toshihiro Ma Shihi Endo, Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Author

Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda

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  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

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  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)