“ | If you wish to flee, then do so NOW! We are the bastion of peace in this world and weakness will not be tolerated! The feeble public counts on us. We all are the righteous ones! If there is evil on the seas, then we, the Marines must drive it away with the utmost prejudice! In the name of ABSOLUTE PEACE! | „ |
~ John Giant's speech about Absolute Justice. |
“ | Under the command of Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, Marine Headquarters has become an even more powerful "army of justice". | „ |
~ Jinbe about Sakazuki's leadership. |
The Marines are the secondary antagonists of the One Piece franchise. They are the vast seaborne law enforcement agency under the World Government tasked in enforcing justice throughout the world's oceans.
While the Marines are mostly tasked in protecting nations and civilians against the threat of piracy, some Marines are far more totalitarian and tyrannical in nature, abusing their powers in broad daylight to either enforce justice through extreme measures or oppress others, especially slaves. Under Fleet Admiral Sakazuki's leadership in the post-timeskip, the Marines became more ruthless and power than before, now taking a more active presence in the New World.
Overview[]
The Marines are the World Government's maritime military force who imposes law and order throughout the world's oceans. They are tasked in bringing criminals, particularly pirates to justice, upholding peace throughout everywhere they go. They constitute as one of the Three Great Powers alongside the Four Emperors and Special Science Group.
The Marines are simple-minded pawns to the World Government. The Government cares nothing about the Marines' well-beings. They only cares about Marines' strength and dignity alone. But if a Marine fail their duties, they will suffer a severe punishment by their superiors which includes a death sentence.
How a person is able to be enlisted to the Marines is uncertain, although it appears that the enlistment should undergo in an approval before they can officially be part of the forces. There are no restrictions and gender or nationality either. Although some members of the Marines are enlisted against their will such as the children trafficked by Mother Carmel.
Those from a higher rank such as Admirals have been tasked with more serious duties such as leading the lesser troops into battle or answering directly under a World Noble who has been offended by a commoner. Example of this is when Monkey D. Luffy assaulted Saint Charlos at Sabaody Archipelago, resulting in Kizaru to be summoned to deal with the Straw Hat Pirates. Vice Admirals are shown to have various duties including initiating a Buster Call after it has been approved.
The Marines are originally allied with the Seven Warlords of the Sea, powerful pirates given special privilege under the service of the World Government in exchange of their bounties cancelled. However, after both Crocodile and Donquixote Doflamingo were exposed for abusing their privilege, the system was abolished and replaced by the Special Science Group as one of the Three Great Powers. Being pirates in nature, many members of the Marines such as Issho, Smoker, Kizaru, Sengoku, Aokiji, and Akainu distrust the Seven Warlords, seeing them as nothing more than pirates. The Marines were sent out with large fleets in attempt to capture the 5 remaining former Warlords. They only managed to captured Edward Weevil, (only with the assistance of the honorless Admiral, Ryokugyu) while the other Warlords escaped and went on a run.
Like CP0, the Marines are unable to engage against one of the Four Emperors without a prior approval. As such they may require to contact the Marine Headquarters. Upon approval, a Vice Admiral must be accompanied by an Admiral, should they decided to face an emperor. This is because due to the fact that the Four Emperors are tremendously powerful pirates who hold dominion over the New World, as engaging against them could lead in an all-out war which the World Government is unprepared for. Commodore or lower ranks are unable to learn the existence of the Five Elders's Devil Fruit abilities either, as direct eye contact will result in death.
The Marines' special forces are known as SWORD. According to Kuzan, SWORD are Marines but not in the picture. They already submitted resignation but remained operatives within the Marines. Like G5, they don't obey orders from the World Government or the Marine HQ. They also attempting to go into forbidden mission such as engaging one of the Four Emperors without approval or need an Admiral. The Marines has no responsibilities on their actions as well they can disavow SWORD at any time, should the need arises.
Justice and immorality[]
“ | This thing called "justice" changes its shape… Depending on where you stand... | „ |
~ Aokiji |
Many of the Marines are firm believers of the "Absolute Justice" doctrine, the eradication of evil at any costs even if the actions are thought to be wicked. It is described as wiping out evil to ensure the World Government holds absolute dominion throughout the world, according to Onigumo. This is demonstrated numerous times throughout the series, such as the destruction of Ohara. Some members of the Marines instead deals justice with their own personal methods. While it may be interpreted as Absolute Justice, some are more of an independent set of philosophy which borrow ideas from Absolute Justice itself. This is known as "Upheld Justice".
Due to how Marines approach their sense of justice, questionable or immoral actions can be the consequences of their doing based on what they considered to be right or wrong. This can be considered problematic as sometimes, the Marines have almost zero regards from the suffering they have caused on innocent people as long as the end justify the means, ensuring that evil is eradicated at all costs.
This form of immorality in the name of justice has been shown numerous times throughout the series:
- When it was rumored that Gol D. Roger's unborn child was in South Blue, numerous women and children were slaughtered by the Marines just to end the Roger bloodline. This resulted in Ace's mother, Portgas D. Rouge delaying his birth.
- Onigumo (pictured above) executing a Marine soldier's insubordination for simply bickering over his concerns about the Marines and World Government agents that are still present in Enies Lobby during its Buster Call, stating that the escape of a criminal at the hands of justice results in damage that cannot be undone.
- Near the end of Summit War at Marineford, the Marines eventually became bloodthirsty in nature in response to the Absolute Justice ideology, needlessly murdering the fleeing pirates despite the deaths of both Whitebeard and Ace. Some of them have simply neglected in treating the injured.
- Ryokugyu began wreaking havoc on Wano after the defeat of both Charlotte Linlin and Kaido, easily defeating the remaining Beast Pirates as well as Kozuki Momonosuke and his followers, in an attempt to capture Monkey D. Luffy.
The Marines' hypocrisy towards justice and peace is best shown with their treatment toward slaves despite claiming that the practice has been abolished a long time ago. Marines tend to look the other way when supporting the Celestial Dragons. The then-Rear Admiral Strawberry demanded Fisher Tiger to release the slaves as they are deemed the property of the Celestial Dragons even if said slave is a child. A notorious example of this is during the Native Hunting Competition, where World Nobles hunt down population for sports while the Marines are tasked in preventing any escapees. The Marines are bound to capture any slaves that escaped to be returned back to the World Nobles. Another part of their contradictory is how Marines treat an island that are not under the World Government's jurisdiction. As such, they are not allowed by the law to protect said islands from any threats. However, this can also backfire to them as an unaffiliated island means that they lack any jurisdiction, although they may still be able to arrest any criminals there.
Moreover, the Seven Warlords of the Sea is a testament to the hypocrisy of the Marines or World Government in general due to how the Marines and pirates are natural enemies to one another and having a pirate aid them defies their very purpose. The system was proven to be flawed when Crocodile abused his Warlord privilege to usurp the kingdom of Arabasta, Blackbeard using his Warlord status to get into Impel Down, and Doflamingo ruling Dressrosa tyrannically despite the citizen's outcry for help which the World Government neglected.
Many Marines are shown to not just use extremism to enforce justice, but blatantly abusing their privilege to gain advantage of or oppress other people. Such examples are Captain Morgan who tyrannically ruled Shells Town by extorting the townspeople's taxes, not even having qualms to execute anyone such as Marine soldiers who show the slightest defiance against his orders, or Nezumi who accepted bribes from Arlong and attempted to extort Cocoyasi Village by taking Nami's accumulated money or stealing the credit from the Straw Hats, who defeated the Arlong Pirates. According to Monkey D. Dragon, the Marines don't actually contain justice.
Powers and abilities[]
While the lesser rankings of the Marines are weaker, incompetent and dimwitted in comparison as majority of them are only trained in basic combat and thus, reliant on strength in numbers, some of the higher-ranking Marines are significantly more powerful. Impressively, some of these Marines are Devil Fruit wielders, giving them versatile abilities such as Shu who can degrade metal into rust or Hina who can restrain opponents and create cages. Many of the high-ranking Marines are immensely powerful in terms of physical strength such as the Giant Squad.
In the Summit War, over a hundred thousand Marine troops and over fifty battleships have been deployed at Marineford in preparation against the Whitebeard Pirates to prepare the execution of Portgas D. Ace.
Marines that are Vice Admirals or higher are all capable of using Haki apart from their authority to lead the lesser ranks. Some such as Momonga and Dalmatian have been seen using Six Powers during the Summit War, which is an ability first seen being used by CP9 agents.
Admirals[]
“ | There are only three officers in the entire Navy who currently hold the position of Admiral: Akainu... Aokiji... and Kizaru... The only one who outranks them is Fleet Admiral Sengoku, the Navy's top official. The man you see standing before is one of the three men known as the World Government's ultimate powerhouses. | „ |
~ Nico Robin describing the Admirals. |
The Admirals perhaps are the most impressive out of the Marine ranks in terms of powers and abilities. They constitute as the World Government's "greatest military powers", meaning they are the strongest individual fighters that the government can bring. They are highly-feared and respected throughout the world, as such in Sabaody Archipelago where the mere presence of the Admiral alone is enough to cause mass panic in the island. When Akainu was summoned to deal with Marshall D. Teach, he immediately fled with his crew despite having two of the most powerful Devil Fruits in existence and his crew being bolstered by Impel Down's most dangerous inmates. The Admirals are considered to be the direct subordinates of the Celestial Dragons. If a Celestial Dragon was harmed, an Admiral goes to aid the attacked World Nobles and deal with their offenders. They once had authorities to revoke a Warlord's title if they allied themselves with the world's worst criminals. They have authority to fight one of the Four Emperors to aid either Vice-Admirals or CP0 to deal with an Emperor of the Sea.
The Admirals of the pre-timeskip are all shown to be capable fighters on their own rights. A testament to their immense physical strength is that they are all capable of fighting the Whitebeard Pirates on their own. Both Akainu and Kizaru are able to fight Whitebeard in equal terms, although Aokiji was distracted by Diamond Jozu. Another far more impressive feat with the pre-timeskip Admirals is that all of them are Logia-type Devil Fruit users and excel in using their own Devil Fruit abilities. When Akainu and Aokiji fought against each other for ten days straight at Punk Hazard, their Devil Fruit abilities permanently altered the climate of the island, resulting in the island being a blazing inferno on the firsthalf and a freezing hell in the second-half. The strength gap between an Admiral and Vice Admiral is tremendous; while Whitebeard can easily defeat a Vice Admiral Giant with a single Devil Fruit ability, Akainu is able to stop his naginata infused with his Devil Fruit ability with just a stomp while Kizaru easily defeated many of the pirates from the Worst Generation singlehandedly. The post-timeskip Admirals are shown to be immensely powerful, as they were stated to be monster by Doflamingo. When Ryokugyu arrived on Wano Country, he singlehandedly defeated Kaido's All-Stars (although they are still recovering from their previous battle) as well as Red Scabbards and Kozuki Momonosuke. He also defeated and arrested Edward Weevil, a former Warlord whom Kizaru compared to a younger Whitebeard. Fujitora on the other hand, is a powerful swordsman despite his blindness, could fairly go toe-to-toe against both Sabo and Roronoa Zoro. He is able to fare well in a combat thanks to being a skilled Observation Haki user. Not even unexpected surprise attack from Doflamingo easily caught him off-guard.
The Marines' most powerful offense comes in the form of Buster Call, the ultimate military attack carried out by a fleet of ten Marine battleships led by five Vice Admirals. According to Aokiji, a Buster Call's strength is equal to that of a nation's military. This attack indiscriminately destroys everything, even an allied force or another battleship. This was shown at Ohara's destruction when the then-Vice Admiral Sakazuki destroys a battleship full of refugees and Marines due to the fears that a stowaway scholar might be hiding inside, believing it will result in the mission's failure.
History[]
How long the Marines has been around remains a mystery, but it's assured that it has existed since over centuries ago.
When Gold Roger conquered the Grand Line and was dubbed the "Pirate King", he was given a bounty of 5,564,800,000 berries, the highest a pirate can earn in the series so far. During his reign, Kong was the Fleet Admiral. Both Roger and Garp would soon team up together to defeat Rocks D. Xebec in God Valley, who was planning to conquer the world. Many of Xebec's crew would form their own pirate crews, notably the Big Mom Pirates and Beast Pirates. The Pirate King soon surrendered himself (due to his incurable disease) to the World Government before getting executed to discourage piracy. However, his last words started the Golden Age of Piracy. Shiki the Golden Lion on the other hand decided to fight Sengoku and Garp, resulting in a battle that destroyed half of Marineford, resulting in his defeat and imprisonment at Impel Down. However, the Flying Pirate managed to escape at the cost of his legs, making him the first person in history to escape the supermax prison.
Monkey D. Dragon, the Revolutionary used to be a Marine officer at some point but he resigned due to finding no justice in the organization. The Marines are shown wary of Dragon when he and the Revolutionary Army were causing war against the World Government, which naturally infuriated them. They tried to find and arrest them but to no avail, labelling him as the "World's Worst Criminal".
As Monkey D. Luffy began his journey as a pirate, defeating other noteworthy pirates such as Buggy the Clown, Captain Kuro, Don Krieg, and Arlong, Captain Nezumi later requested Luffy to become a wanted criminal, eventually settling his starting bounty to 30,000,000 berries. The young rookie soon defeated an immensely powerful pirate and Warlord, Crocodile. However, his crimes were covered up by the World Government and increased Luffy's bounty to 100,000,000 berries, much to Smoker's dismay due to his subordinate, Tashigi becoming tearful for her powerlessness to stop Crocodile and the Baroque Works from taking over Arabasta.
When the Straw Hats alongside the Franky Family and Galley-La Company decided to raid Enies Lobby to rescue both Franky and Nico Robin, the island soon fell into ruins after Spandam accidentally initiated a Buster Call.
When Marshall D. Teach defeated Portgas D. Ace at Banaro Island, he was handed to the World Government to be tempoarily imprisoned at Impel Down, and then later on, transferred to Marineford for capital punishment. Luffy and the rest of the 240 escapees from Impel Down hijacked a Marine battleship to participate in the upcoming war. Aware that Whitebeard will appear to rescue one of his crew member, the Marines formed together in preparation of the Whitebeard Pirates. During the Summit War, the Marines and Whitebeard Pirates suffered heavy casualties, notably the deaths of Portgas D. Ace due to Akainu and Whitebeard due to the Blackbeard Pirates, while the Marineford itself was severely damaged due to Whitebeard's Devil Fruit ability. The war finally came to an end when Shanks arrived to call for a ceasefire. The Marines eventually won the war, however this did not stop piracy as Whitebeard's proclamation of the One Piece's existence ended the Golden Age of Piracy and started the New Age of Piracy, resulting in a power vacuum.
Afterwards, Sengoku retired as the Fleet Admiral, nominating Aokiji as his successor. However, many members of the World Government are in favor of Akainu instead. The two clashed together at Punk Hazard for ten days straight with Akainu emerging victorious, becoming the new Fleet Admiral of the Marines. Though both suffered severe injuries, Akainu spared Aokiji's life and the latter eventually resigned from the Marines as he refuses to work under him. The intense battle also resulted in Punk Hazard's climate being permanently altered; with the northeast being a freezing hell and the southwest being a blazing inferno. Aokiji's resignation led a lasting impact to the Marines. According to Jinbe, the Marines become more ruthless under Akainu's command as Fleet Admiral.
In response to Aokiji's resignation and Akainu's promotion, a world military draft took place, resulting in the promotion of two new Admirals; Ryokugyu and Fujitora.
Fleet Admiral Sakazuki's first step in preparing against the Four Emperors is to relocate the Marine Headquarters. The increasing threat of piracy as the aftermath of the Summit War resulted in a change in policy where Marines will prioritize destroying piracy over protecting citizens against their threats.
When Donquixote Doflamingo was defeated by Luffy and Trafalgar Law, Doflamingo was arrested by the Marines to be sentenced to prison at Impel Down's Level 6. To prevent a cover-up similarly to the ones in Arabasta, Fujitora recorded himself and his subordinates bowing down to King Riku Doldo III, apologizing due to the suffering the Warlord has caused to Dressrosa and its citizens due to the World Government's ignorance despite the citizen's cries for help. This infuriated Sakazuki and the Five Elders, resulting in a heated argument between Sakazuki and Fujitora, with the former disallowing the latter from ever entering any Marine base until he had Luffy arrested.
After the abolishment of Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Marines were sent a large fleet to capture the 5 remaining former warlords.
After the defeat of Kaido and Charlotte Linlin, Ryokugyu arrived at Wano attacking the Beast Pirates and Momonosuke and his followers in order to hunt down Luffy. As he wreaked havoc, he was then immobilized by Shanks' Supreme King Haki, forcing him to retreat.
The Marines tries to arrested Dracule Mihawk which fails but keep swarming. Their actions caused Hawk Eye to leave his castle and relocated himself as well joining Crocodile as his business partner to issue bounties on the Marines.
After becoming the new Emperor of the Sea, Buggy alongside Crocodile and Dracule Mihawk decided to establish Cross Guild, a Marine-hunting organization. One of the Marines eventually being killed for his bounty was Vice Admiral T-Bone, who was murdered by a civilian trying to make a living by collecting his bounty. The organization eventually led to concerns that the Marines who hunted pirates eventually becomes the hunted, and may lose morale due to the civilians' possible treachery.
The Marines invaded Amazon Lily to capture Boa Hancock as well using the Seraphims (S-Snake and S-Hawk) but also were confronted by the Blackbeard Pirates (who came to kill Boa Hancock to steal her Mero Mero no Mi). The Marines were too weak against Hancock when all but Koby were turned to stone. The Marines were forced to leave Amazon Lily when Silvers Rayleigh appears to drive the Marines and Blackbeard off. That said, the Marines are still persistent when they will come back to Amazon Lily again, causing Hancock to leave her home to reunite with Luffy so that the Marines won't be able to get to either Hancock or Luffy.
While Marco was off to Wano to help Luffy to defeat Kaido and Big Mom, the Marines (who are led by the Marine captain, Ratel) came to Sphinx to steal the villager's food but was attacked by Edward Weevil. They contacted Admiral Ryokugyu who successfully defeated and captured Weevil.
Due to the presence of Straw Hat Pirates and Dr. Vegapunk's defection, the Marines were tasked in assisting the Five Elders at Egghead to deal with Luffy, now crowned as an Emperor of the Sea after he defeated and usurped Kaido. Kizaru arrived with hundreds of battleships containing over 30,000 Marines onboard alongside nine Vice Admirals. Jaygarcia Saturn later requested a Buster Call on Egghead in order to eliminate Vegapunk, Bartholomew Kuma, and Luffy. As a result, Sentomaru defected as well and allied himself with the Straw Hats to protect Vegapunk. Later on Sakazuki was sent to deal with Bartholomew Kuma, who was rampaging at Mary Geoise. Sakazuki attacked him, severely damaging away parts of his body in the process. However, Kuma escaped. As the Celestial Dragons yelled for his failure, Sakazuki simply ignores their mockery and wondered what could Kuma be doing.
After a failed attempt to capture Boa Hancock, Koby was later captured by the Blackbeard Pirates, resulting in Vice Admiral Garp to come and rescue his former pupil. Garp alongside SWORD and Tashigi raided their base of operations, the Pirate Island in order to engage against Blackbeard's crew. Garp then encounters the now Blackbeard Pirate member and Titanic Captain, Kuzan who fought him in a vicious battle. As the Marines led by Garp left to save Koby, Garp decided to leave behind to fight the rest of the Titanic Captains, eventually resulting in his defeat and capture. Though Kuzan did made a fatal blow to Garp, his former mentor survived. So the Blackbeard Pirates detained Garp instead to use him as a bargaining chip to negotiate with the World Government.
The Buster Call at Egghead resulted in the Straw Hats' escape and Vegapunk's death at the hands of Kizaru, who was called by Sakazuki to brief the situation. As Sakazuki lashed out at him for his apparent laziness, Kizaru became infuriated for his lack of sympathy, demanding him if he has ever killed a close friend, berating him to come see it for himself to which Sakazuki then apologizes for it. The Marines intended to go to Elbaf to capture Luffy there, but Jaygarcia Saturn denied the proposition which is pure craziness to go to Elbaf. Saturn then injured Vice Admiral Doberman who was questioning, causing the Marines' medical staffs to rush to his condition. The Marines watched helplessly when Saturn got killed by Imu for his failure after the Straw Hats escape.
External links[]
- Marines on the One Piece Wiki
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Villains | ||
World Government Celestial Dragons Holy Knights Cipher Pol Marines Pacifista Impel Down Staff Four Emperors & Crews Big Mom Pirates Beast Pirates Cross Guild Seven Warlords of the Sea & Crews Thriller Bark Pirates Donquixote Pirates Others Other Pirate Crews Kid Pirates Alvida Pirates Black Cat Pirates Krieg Pirates Arlong Pirates Bellamy Pirates Foxy Pirates Macro Pirates Caribou Pirates New Fishman Pirates Flying Pirates Golden Lion Pirates Bluejam Pirates Fake Straw Hat Pirates Other Groups God's Army Franky Family Sea Kings Germa 66/Vinsmoke Family Kurozumi Family Others Non-Canoncial Neo-Marines Others |