One Piece: Who Are The Seven Warlords Of The Sea?

Netflix's live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's manga classic "One Piece" does a great job with the first steps of Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) and the Straw Hat Pirates, but with just eight episodes, the show's Season 1 can barely scratch the surface of the long-running source material. As such, the characters often drop references to various names, concepts, and groups that will only make their appearances later down the line. This, of course, is part of the show's charm. The Straw Hat crew will sail again in "One Piece" Season 2, so viewers can expect to see more of the strange world they live in ... and meet some of the folks the show has only alluded to so far.   

One of the stranger groups of people the Straw Hats can expect to face is known as the Seven Warlords of the Sea. The membership of this loose alliance of pirates who work with the World Government consists of extremely powerful people, who often clash with the Straw Hats in one way or another. Many of the most memorable "One Piece" characters occupy a warlord position at some point in the story, and their power level is far beyond the likes of Arlong (McKinley Belcher III). 

The warlords aren't just some characters whom we'll meet at some distant point down the line, though. Season 1 of the Netflix show introduces no less than three of them. The swordsman Dracule Mihawk (Steven Ward) gets quite a bit of screen time, and Arlong's story arc also mentions the blue shark fishman Jinbe. Buggy the clown (Jeff Ward), of all people, will also eventually attain a warlord position. 

The Seven Warlords of the Sea are kind of a big deal, and while we've already met some of them, there are still surprisingly many waiting in the shadows. Membership in this group isn't for life, and as such, warlords have come and gone for various reasons. In the source material, the group has no less than 11 different members over time.  

If "One Piece" Season 2 adapts a similar chunk of the source material as Season 1 does, the next warlord we'll see in live action is likely Crocodile, a ruthless, hook-handed pirate with sand-themed devil fruit powers. His arc is connected to the Baroque Works organization introduced in Season 1. Another major warlord who'll likely make his appearance sooner rather than later is Marshall D. Teach, a dangerous and powerful man who's commonly known as Blackbeard and who plays an instrumental role in Luffy's story.

Other truly notable members of the Seven Warlords include the dangerous underground figure Donquixote Doflamingo and the leader of the Kuja tribe, Boa Hancock. There's also the horror-themed shadow manipulator Gecko Moria, the petty and violent Edward Weevil, the enigmatic powerhouse Bartholomew Kuma, and of course, Trafalgar D. Water Law. Like Blackbeard and Luffy, this mysterious swordsman is part of the mysterious and as-yet-unexplained Will of D – a strange destiny that affects all characters with the initial D in their name.

Considering they're dangerous pirates, it may be surprising to find out that the main function of the Seven Warlords of the Sea is world peace. They act as one of the Three Great Powers — a trifecta of oceanic might that ensures none of the three is able to truly take over. The relative peace created by this balance of terror is somewhat precarious, and like "One Piece" Season 1 makes clear, great changes are on the horizon. 

Apart from the Seven Warlords, the three powers in question consist of one that we've already seen — the Marines — and another that's yet to officially debut in the Netflix show: the Four Emperors, a quartet of especially strong pirate captains. Unfortunately, just like the Netflix show strongly suggests, the balance of power is destined to fall apart. Without going into spoiler territory, pirates are always pirates, so the Seven Warlords organization may not be as stable as the World Government would like.

One of the main tenets of the "One Piece" franchise is that the characters keep evolving. As such, a pirate who's just about powerful enough to be a member of the Seven Warlords may eventually grow strong or influential enough to snag a free spot among the Four Emperors when one of the incumbents dies or is defeated. 

There have been seven members of the Four Emperors in the manga so far, and as it happens, Netflix's live-action "One Piece" has already introduced three of them. Both Buggy and Luffy eventually gain the rank of Emperor, but they obviously still have a long way to go. That's not the case with the third live-action member of this elusive group, who's already an Emperor when we meet him: Luffy's pirate role model, Shanks (Peter Gadiot). "One Piece" Season 1 drops plenty of hints about Shanks' true power level, from the Haoshoku Haki mind control trick he pulls on the massive Lord of the Coast to the way he casually states he could beat Mihawk even after losing an arm. Shanks, then, is more or less the yardstick other characters in the show should be measured against ... at least, out of the characters we've met so far.

In the Netflix show, we'll have to wait for quite a while before meeting the next active Emperor — but when Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate arrives, everyone will definitely notice. With Kaidou and Big Mom still waiting on the sidelines, it's clear that Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates have plenty of powerful pirates in store even if they run out of warlords.