User blog comment:Nobody700/The worst in the best/@comment-174.24.13.99-20131218042151

I think you're underestimating the Marines. They don't necessarily need a bunch of strong guys, they can use the threat of them to maintain control. In the Four Blues, no one above a captain is ever really needed (excluding Buster Calls and the like), and in the New World, Luffy, who was a considerably powerful pirate, could be quite easily handled by a Pacifista (whom they have tons of) or a Vice Admiral (and there's at least 20 of them). The admirals aren't really needed in the majority of Paradise or Four Blue problems. Even without some of the higher ranking officers, the Marines have the element of fear on their side. The admirals, while there are only three of them, command such great power that everyone is deathly afraid of them, which can be used for control purposes. Add in the Buster Call, which only requires a few Vice Admirals and a couple warships, and you've got yourself a nice reputation.

In the New World, the Marines don't have as much to do. The Yonko are the dominant force here, and they do pretty well at maintaining order. Therefore, the Marines have fewer petty problems and can allocate their resources to more dangerous problems. Taking all of this into account, the admirals seem to have a lot of spare time on their hands, which makes it a lot less surprising that there aren't a whole lot of them.

Finally, you're underestimating the Vice Admirals. While their powers certainly vary, I don't think that they can be considered weak, even in New World terms. Smoker was able to fight on par with Law, a Shichibukai, for a while, and Saul was able to trash a couple of warships at Ohara whilst being fired at.

As for the bounties, we saw someone bring in a guy with over 500 million on his head, so they aren't entirely useless. And what's wrong with them being a gauge for their danger? Great blog by the way, it's nice to see something not completely worshipping the series.