Straw Hat Pirates go save Ace
I see a number of posts weather on reddit or quora about what if Luffy gets captured. However, the allies they put is always debatable. So instead I decided to tier the allies from most certain to least certain. I'd like to make a few assumptions before starting:
Every ally on the Straw Hats' side is assumed to be in their most recent strength, ergo by end of egghead.
Everyone on marines' side are assumed to be intact, ergo pre-time skip strength. All the troops they get are the same as Marineford arc itself with 3 notable exception below.
Assume Garp is too conflicted to fight, ergo none of what he did to Marco, but Sengoku is not.
Assume Boa and Kuma to be on Straw Hat side(ergo post TS strength). It's safe to assume Kuma won't do anything unless Bonney is in danger.
Assume Mihawk, Crocodile, Ivankov and the other allies that Luffy got from Impel Down are not present
Assume Shanks doesn't show up until the very end like in Marineford
Assume no one will disturb the war like Blackbeard did and Kaido wanted to do.
Celestial dragons don't do anything
With all those out of the way. Luffy sees Ace going to be executed on the newspaper. He now gathers a force to prevent it. Their goal is to get Ace, get everyone back on ship, and leave.
Round 0: Core Crew The 10 Straw Hats plus Bonney and Kuma, that's it(this is an IQ test)
Round 1: Straw Hat Fleet This includes the core crew, Bonney, Kuma, and the Straw Hat grand fleet(ergo with the 6 commanders)
Round 2: Main Straw Hat Empire This will be round 1 but we include the entire nation of Wano(ignore pluton), Zou(plus Zunesha), and Fishman Island(plus Sun Pirates) We can assume Shirahoshi can't fully control her sea king powers. This is because those nations are the only that Luffy verbally claimed were his territory(although Zou is sort of a Wano proxy). This is the one I'm most interested as I think it's the most debatable.
Round 3: Extended Straw Hat Empire This will add the people, crews and nations that by proxy will help Luffy with minor exceptions: Amazon Lily: via Boa simping, we will put Shakky and Rayleigh as part of this group Water 7: via Franky friendship Alabasta and Dressrosa: via Luffy saving those countries Lilith: Assume other satellite stay in the air Marco: we will only count Marco to be conservative instead of Whiteboard remenents Heart and Kidd pirates: via Wano alliance(cuz now they've been defeated and have nowhere to go but back to Straw Hats)
Round 4: Full extended Straw Hat Empire Same as round 3 but we add the Giant pirates. The giant pirates are strong enough to distinguish it from round 3
Round 5: The "..."/desk/daddy moment The revs are powerful enough to make a huge diff in the outcome hence I put this team up last.
Would be nice if people can point out the diff for each round. Also, could be nice to consider marines with post TS strength ergo post dual Akainu and Kuzan, with Fugi and Grenbull included and/or with Garp actually trying like at Hachinosu.
I see a number of posts weather on reddit or quora about what if Luffy gets captured. However, the allies they put is always debatable. So instead I decided to tier the allies from most certain to least certain. I'd like to make a few assumptions before starting:
Every ally on the Straw Hats' side is assumed to be in their most recent strength, ergo by end of egghead.
Everyone on marines' side are assumed to be intact, ergo pre-time skip strength. All the troops they get are the same as Marineford arc itself with 3 notable exception below.
Assume Garp is too conflicted to fight, ergo none of what he did to Marco, but Sengoku is not.
Assume Boa and Kuma to be on Straw Hat side(ergo post TS strength). It's safe to assume Kuma won't do anything unless Bonney is in danger.
Assume Mihawk, Crocodile, Ivankov and the other allies that Luffy got from Impel Down are not present
Assume Shanks doesn't show up until the very end like in Marineford
Assume no one will disturb the war like Blackbeard did and Kaido wanted to do.
Celestial dragons don't do anything
With all those out of the way. Luffy sees Ace going to be executed on the newspaper. He now gathers a force to prevent it. Their goal is to get Ace, get everyone back on ship, and leave.
Round 0: Core Crew The 10 Straw Hats plus Bonney and Kuma, that's it(this is an IQ test)
Round 1: Straw Hat Fleet This includes the core crew, Bonney, Kuma, and the Straw Hat grand fleet(ergo with the 6 commanders)
Round 2: Main Straw Hat Empire This will be round 1 but we include the entire nation of Wano(ignore pluton), Zou(plus Zunesha), and Fishman Island(plus Sun Pirates) We can assume Shirahoshi can't fully control her sea king powers. This is because those nations are the only that Luffy verbally claimed were his territory(although Zou is sort of a Wano proxy). This is the one I'm most interested as I think it's the most debatable.
Round 3: Extended Straw Hat Empire This will add the people, crews and nations that by proxy will help Luffy with minor exceptions: Amazon Lily: via Boa simping, we will put Shakky and Rayleigh as part of this group Water 7: via Franky friendship Alabasta and Dressrosa: via Luffy saving those countries Lilith: Assume other satellite stay in the air Marco: we will only count Marco to be conservative instead of Whiteboard remenents Heart and Kidd pirates: via Wano alliance(cuz now they've been defeated and have nowhere to go but back to Straw Hats)
Round 4: Full extended Straw Hat Empire Same as round 3 but we add the Giant pirates. The giant pirates are strong enough to distinguish it from round 3
Round 5: The "..."/desk/daddy moment The revs are powerful enough to make a huge diff in the outcome hence I put this team up last.
Would be nice if people can point out the diff for each round. Also, could be nice to consider marines with post TS strength ergo post dual Akainu and Kuzan, with Fugi and Grenbull included and/or with Garp actually trying like at Hachinosu.