This article contains spoilers for the One Piece manga.

Summary

  • The Holy Knights are powerful and guard the Holy Land of Marijoa, belonging to the World Government.
  • Vivi from the Nefertari Family could have been a Holy Knight if events had gone differently.
  • Vivi would have received special blessings, immortality, regeneration, and training if she had been a Holy Knight.

There are many interesting groups of villains in the One Piece story, one of the most recent being the Holy Knights. While a step below the Five Elders, this group is still terrifyingly strong and some of their members could annihilate half the Straw Hat Pirates crew in a minute. Had events in the One Piece story gone differently, a member of the Straw Hat Pirates could have become one of the Holy Knights.

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The Holy Knights Are A Powerful Group in One Piece

They Guard The Holy Land of Marijoa

The Holy Knights, sometimes also known as the God’s Knights, are one of the most recent groups introduced in One Piece. The Holy Knights are an elite group of fighters from the World Government that will be crucial in One Piece’s final saga.

The Holy Knights seem to have quite a lot of members, but so far, only a few have been revealed by Oda. These Holy Knights are Celestial Dragons belonging to 19 families. However, some people can also be made Celestial Dragons and are asked to join. Garling Figarland is one of the first Holy Knights to be revealed. Garling Figarland was known as the Supreme Leader of those Holy Knights - however, following Saturn’s death at the hands of Imu in Egghead, Garling was made into the new member of the Five Elders. Whether he’s still considered the leader of the Holy Knights or not following his promotion is unclear.

The first Holy Knight to ever be seen in the story is actually none other than Shamrock. However, back when he was first introduced, fans just assumed it was Shanks as these two are twins.

The other members introduced from this group are Gunko, Sommers, and Killingham. All three of these characters are incredibly powerful, and like many members of the elite forces of the World Government, have immortality and regeneration. Gunko is the strongest of the three, and seems to be the strongest Holy Knight in general due to her connection to Imu.

A Straw Hat Could Have Become A Holy Knight

Vivi is A Part of the 20 Royal Families

While there are still many members to be revealed, there was actually a Straw Hat that could have been a Holy Knight, had past events turned out differently. As fans know, 20 families were involved in creating the World Government and fighting the Ancient Kingdom. One of these families is the Nefertari Family. However, the Nefertari family left to stay in Arabasta, and thus gave up on the chance to be Celestial Dragons. As fans know, Holy Knights are usually from one of the Celestial Dragon families.

This means that, had the Nefertari family stayed in Marijoa, Vivi had the potential to be a member of the Holy Knights. Right now, Vivi is quite weak and has little fighting ability. Had she grown in Marijoa, however, she could have gotten the same training given to members of the Holy Knights. She could have been one of the strongest characters in One Piece.

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On top of that, Vivi would have gotten a special blessing from Imu which would have granted her immortality and infinite regeneration. Vivi is also very special to Imu, so this interesting connection could have added a whole other layer to how powerful she could’ve been, maybe even reaching the level of Five Elders or more.

Some might say that Vivi is not a Straw Hat Pirate, but Oda himself considers her an honorary member of the crew. Furthermore, it's almost a guarantee that she will join the others before the end of the story, one way or the other, especially since the death of her father in Marijoa. Vivi has nowhere else to go other than the Straw Hats. Even all that aside, pretty much everyone considers Vivi an honorary member of the crew.

Where to Read One Piece?

Available on Manga Plus

One Piece Chapter 1151 will be out today. As usual, One Piece is going to drop on Sunday. In Japan, One Piece drops at 12AM JST on Monday. However, the vast majority of international readers will see the chapter available on June 8. The official release date of One Piece Chapter 1151 is June 8, 2025. Fans can read the chapter for free on Manga Plus.

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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 Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
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  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Mayumi Tanaka
    Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Kazuya Nakai
    Roronoa Zoro (voice)

WHERE TO WATCH

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Studio
Toei Animation
Creator
Eiichiro Oda
Streaming Service(s)
Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu, Pluto TV