The pirate world of Oda's One Piece was recently shaken when a big change occurred within one of the franchise's major groups – Yonko, also known as the Four Emperors. Namely, Kaidou and Big Mom have been members of the Yonko for years until they both fell in recent chapters, allowing two now-pirates to replace them. In this article, we will reveal if Luffy is one of the two pirates who will replace Kaidou and Big Mom, and if he is strong enough to be a Yonko in the first place.

After his victory over Kaidou, Luffy freed up a spot among the Yonko, and quickly succeeded Kaidou among them. Big Mom also disappeared after this battle and was replaced by Buggy the Clown. This means that the current Yonko are Shanks, Blackbeard, Buggy the Clown, and the series' protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy.

In the rest of this article, we'll tell you what happened to the Yonko and how Luffy managed to replace Kaidou among them. In addition, you'll discover Luffy's current powers and abilities, which will answer the question of whether he's powerful enough to be a Yonko or not. Spoilers ahead!

Is Monkey D. Luffy a Yonko?

We don't want to give you any unnecessary details about the Four Emperors you already know; we'll just remind you that at the beginning of the Wano Country arc, the Four Emperors consisted of Shanks, Blackbeard, Kaidou, and Big Mom. At the end of the arc, these names will change.

In Wano Country, Luffy witnesses the dire consequences of Kaido's dual rule over the country, as well as the Shogun Kurozumi Orochi. Kaido appears shortly after Jack's introduction as a giant Eastern-type dragon with a destructive breath. The Emperor is drunk and invites Shutenmaru to join his crew.

After using his breath to violently destroy the ruins of Oden Castle, where the Straw Hat Pirates and their allies were staying, Luffy retaliated and attempted to defeat the beast, which took away each blow, forcing him back into human form. But even with the power of Gear 4, he was unable to cause any damage to the Emperor, who incapacitated him with a violent blow from his club. However, Kaido recognized Luffy's power and determination and wished to break his spirit in the hopes that he would rejoin his crew. He therefore made the decision to imprison the Straw Hat Pirates.

As she had announced over the phone, Big Mom arrives in Wano Country. Kaido, furious, orders his men to prevent the Empress and her crew from disembarking, but without success. Finally, it was not until the last moment that King intervened and repelled them with a powerful blow, causing the boat to fall from the top of the waterfall and propelling Big Mom to the bottom of the ocean in the process.

The Empress wakes up with amnesia on a beach in Kuri. She is rescued by Chopper, Tama, Kiku, and Momonosuke, then taken to Okobore Village, where Tsuru and the rest of the villagers care for her and offer her the little food they have: simple red bean soup. Unfortunately, it isn't enough.

Taking advantage of her hunger, Chopper and his friends take her to Udon, the prison where Monkey D. Luffy is imprisoned, telling her that soup is there. However, they had no idea that this lie was actually true and that Udon actually had red bean soup, Queen's. Queen tries to protect her food, but even with amnesia, it only takes Big Mom two hits to defeat Kaido's ally.

Then, Big Mom discovers to her horror that Luffy ate all the red bean soup last night. Disappointed that she can't bring it back to the village and share it with everyone as a thank you for their generosity, she attacks the Straw Hat Pirate and Hyogoro. In pursuit, Big Mom ransacks Udon Prison and ends up taking a violent blow to the head following a subterfuge from Queen.

It was then that she regained her memory and, as she was about to attack a paralyzed queen, she fell asleep. Kaido's men took advantage of this and administered several powerful tranquilizers, then bound her with several Sea Granite chains and took her to Onigashima, the hiding place of Kaido and his crew.

Kaido and Big Mom then begin a fight to the death that shakes the entire island, then decide to temporarily make peace and regroup their crews to conquer the world before continuing to fight.

However, news of their alliance also leads Marco and Izo of the Whitebeard Pirates to accompany Nekomamushi to Wano Country to aid the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance, with Marco preventing the Big Mom Pirates from entering Wano by causing them to fall into the waterfall again during their second attempt to enter the country, preventing them from joining Big Mom at Onigashima.

During the Onigashima Raid, both Emperors Big Mom and Kaidou are defeated by the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance and new Emperors are recognized in the world, Monkey D. Luffy, and Buggy the Clown.

How strong is Luffy now?

Recently, Luffy was able to activate Gear 5, becoming extremely powerful thanks to the divine properties of his Devil Fruit. Awakening the Gomu Gomu no Mi, whose real name is Hito Hito no Mi: Nika model, grants the user's rubbery body greater strength and freedom, limited only by the user's imagination. Because of this, the user is said to become "the embodiment of freedom," capable of bringing joy to those around them, making it "the most ridiculous power in the world."

The most notable physical characteristic of the awakened form is Luffy's complete bleaching (becoming entirely white), the conversion of his hair and eyebrows to a lighter shade and a flaming form, as well as granting anime-like effects not only to the user, but also to his opponent, an example being the googly eye effects.

Additionally, in this state, the user displays a remarkable degree of euphoria and confidence, and Luffy's heartbeat adopts a musical rhythm that has been described by Zunesha as the drum of liberation. In keeping with the mythical nature of this new form, Luffy's already rubbery body gains strength, freedom, and durability that surpass his previous forms, to the point where he is now even cartoonishly malleable.

Kaidou compares it to "something out of a comic book." An example of this is when Luffy took a direct hit from one of Kaidou's Bolo Breaths, from which he was barely injured, leaving his body charred (somewhat comically) and quickly recovering to resume fighting Kaidou. Another example is when he reactivated Gear 5 and took a blow to the head from Kaidou's Hassaikai, only for his head to deform and engulf the weapon and its spikes, or when Kaidou tried to slam him into the ground and his body was simply crushed out of place, only to revert back to its original form.

Gear 5 allows him to use both Gear 3's limb inflation and Gear 4's muscle inflation, but without physically pumping air into his body, while also giving him the ability to elasticize and stretch the ground around him. When Luffy first used it against Kaidou, he was able to enlarge his arm to an enormous size so he could grab Kaidou's transformed body and pull him out of the skull dome.

With his enlarged limbs, Luffy could handle Kaidou despite his enormous size, swinging him from side to side. Luffy's rubbery nature can spread to the environment around him, as seen when Luffy lifted a section of the ceiling and used it to repel Kaidou's Boro Breath. Interestingly, the altered floor, while elastic, was not burned or melted by the Boro Breath, although the attack was hot enough to destroy a castle.

This alteration of elastic properties can even be applied to living beings, seeing as how Luffy was able to stretch the inside of Kaidou's body and even his eyes. The greatest application of this form so far appears to be a combination of the user's malleable rubber body and the awakening's effect on organic matter, as the combined power allows the user an unorthodox method of attack, seemingly allowing them to stretch "through" anything or anyone.

An example of this is when Luffy appears to extend his arms through Kaidou's eyes in an attempt to escape his body, and another example is when Luffy spins his arms like a helicopter and then punches Kaidou in the face, with the punch seemingly going through Kaidou's head before knocking him to the ground, thus managing to get past Kaidou's extraordinary defenses.

Before this move, Kaidou noticed Luffy using Busoshoku and Haoshoku Haki at the same time. The full range of this ability, as well as the duration of its use, is currently unknown. This, coupled with Luffy's transformed state, was noted by Kaidou to be highly unusual, as it contains elements of both Paramecia and Zoan-type fruit awakenings.