Summary
In the world ofOne Piece, bounties are typically synonymous with how powerful and influential a character is, particularly for pirates. Because of this, Emperors of the Sea have the highest bounties in the world, which are worth billions of berries, as can be seen with Luffy, whose current bounty is 3 billion berries. As such, only the most important characters in the world tend to have bounties of that scale.
This is why the highest recorded bounties in the story have belonged toWhitebeard and Gol D. Roger. Both of these pirates were considered the greatest of their ages, with Whitebeard having a bounty of 5.04 billion berries and Roger having the highest in history with 5.5 billion. However, someOne Piecefans believe that there are two specific characters whose bounties should exceed even these pirate legends, so let’s see who they are.
Story Arc
Wano
Before the era of Gol D. Roger and Whitebeard, and far before the former became the King of the Pirates, the legendaryRocks D. Xebec ruled the seaswith an iron fist. Not only is he remembered as perhaps the most powerful pirate after Joyboy himself, but his crew, the aptly-named Rocks Pirates, is considered, to this day, as the strongest in history, with notable members like Whitebeard, Big Mom, and Kaido.
However, his inclusion here can be divisive, since it was explained by Commodore Brannew that the two highest pirate bounties of all time belonged to Roger and Whitebeard, which wouldn’t add up with Rocks, since he was also a pirate. However, it’s known that inflation exists within theOne Pieceworld, so he likely had the greatest bounty of his time 38 years ago, which was then capped off with his death in God Valley. Just as it was with Dorry and Brogy, Rocks' bounty would likely be greater than Roger’s if adjusted for inflation in the modern day.
The reason why he is such an infamous character was implied when Sengoku stated that he and his crew functioned more like a terrorist organization than a pirate crew,staging entire attacks on the World Governmentand taking the fight to their doorsteps rather than just being a crew that simply didn’t comply with the World Government’s rules. It makes sense for such a person to be considered the greatest threat to the organization, earning them the highest bounty.
Rocks is also most probably the strongest pirate from the old generation, which is truly saying something because that was the same time as legends like Whitebeard and Roger. Moreover, his ambition was also unique, in that he wanted to become the King of the World and would stop at nothing to achieve this goal, which would all definitely earn him the highest bounty in history.
Loguetown
On the other hand, Monkey D. Dragon has long been built up as one of the most powerful characters in the entire series and has also been one of the most important in the grand scheme of things. Although he spent an unspecified amount of time with the Navy, he never found the answer to justice he sought out, causing him to leave and form the Freedom Fighters, which was the template that eventuallyled to the Revolutionary Army.
Much like Rocks before him, Dragon has taken the fight to the World Government, destroying many of their important posts, and, recently in the manga, has likely outright launched an attack on Marijois. This has proven to be such a problem that Imu themselves have shown up on Elbaf to complete the mission of the Gods' Knights, stating that the Holy Land is burning, presumably due to the attack that Dragon and the Revolutionary Army have unleashed onto them.
Someday, I promise you, they will all watch as I change the world!
Surprisingly, Dragon had earned the title of the World’s Worst Criminal long before his attack on the Holy Land even commenced, which is the determining factor for why most fans believe his bounty to be the actual highest inOne Piece. Sure,Gol D. Roger was the Pirate King, but other than Rocks, there has never been a character since the Void Century who has directly antagonized the World Government, least of all to the point where Imu has felt the need to make an appearance in the overworld.
Dragon is also the father of Luffy and the son of Garp, which makes him part of the most important lineage of characters within the story as one of its central figures. Because of this, he is also incredibly powerful, as many fans have deduced him to be a user of Conqueror’s Haki and a potential user of a God Fruit. Taking everything into consideration, Dragon may just end up with the largest bounty in the entire franchise.
