Saint Saturn might not have lived up to the fans’ expectations and here’s why.

One Piece’s Final Saga advanced the plot in quite a lot of incredible ways, and one of the most exciting aspects of the story was the World Government getting more involved in the ongoing events. Of course, the likes of the Five Elders were characters that fans always had their eyes on. At some point in the story, they expected these powerful individuals to get involved in the story, and showcase their worth. Finally, the Final Saga answered the prayers of the fans, and the Five Elders became an integral part of the story, revealing their strength at the Reverie, first of all.

With that, Saint Saturn, one of the Elders, quickly followed suit as he joined the Egghead Island arc as its main antagonist. While fans were incredibly excited for Saturn’s performance on Egghead, a lot of them now have mixed feelings in regards to the strength of this character.

Saturn’s Arrival On Egghead

Saint Saturn was surprisingly revealed to be on one of the ships that was heading to Egghead Island. While this was a surprise to the fans at first, the reasoning behind this surprise visit to Egghead made a lot of sense. Vegapunk, the genius Navy scientist, had an army of 50 Mark 3 Pacifistas, along with four Seraphims, with him on egghead. Given that Vegapunk himself was the highest authority for all of these Pacifistas, it makes a lot of sense why he believed that he could survive the Egghead Incident. However, to counter that, Saturn decided to head to the island himself. Given that the Five Elders hold the highest authority when it comes to the Pacifistas, he would simply be able to turn the tides on Vegapunk easily, and then Kizaru and the Marines would be able to do their job properly.

As such, while this was initially a surprise to the fans, it made quite a lot of sense, when looking at things from a broader perspective. When Saturn arrived on Egghead, he did not engage in combat immediately. In fact, quite a lot of the fans did not even expect him to join battle. However, later on the line, he decided to take things into his own hands and enter the war himself.

Saturn’s Powers

Saint Saturn revealed his powers to the fans around midway through the Egghead Island arc. Shortly before Kuma’s flashback began, Saturn summoned himself onto the island, when he realized that things were going out of control for the Marines. By using a strange and demonic summoning circle, Saturn arrived on the island, and then he immediately took the form of his giant Devil Fruit appearance. While a proper name for his Devil Fruit form was not given to the fans, it was made quite clear that Saint Saturn possessed the ability of the Ushi Oni, Yokai from Japanese folklore. The Ushi Oni has the upper half of an ox, and the lower half of a spider. That is precisely what Saturn looks like. At the same time, Saturn also had other powerful abilities up his sleeve.

Saint Saturn’s most dangerous power was the ability to cause great damage to his enemies simply by looking at them. When Saturn gleamed at his enemies, they immediately looked like they were hit by something very powerful, and started bleeding. In fact, even the likes of Luffy and Sanji were made to bleed with this powerful attack of his, which goes to show its incredible potency. Saturn could also use another invisible force to hold down his enemies in one place. Using the power of this invisible force, even someone as strong as a Yonko Commander would be nailed to their places.

Above all, the most annoying ability that Saturn has up his sleeve is his incredible regeneration. Saturn appears to be capable of regenerating from anything and everything that is thrown at him. No matter how much he’s beaten or how much his body is destroyed, it simply regenerates itself as if he wasn’t even scratched, to begin with. These are very formidable abilities that Saturn has showcased in One Piece so far.

At the same time, Saturn also showcased his full spider transformation in One Piece chapter 1108. On top of the abilities that he already has, in the full spider transformation, Saturn can coat himself in a very highly venomous substance. This substance can simply burn through anything, and it is highly likely that taking a hit from this will be deadly and potentially kill in one shot. Saturn can also make his legs work like whips and try to hit his target at an incredibly fast speed, which is nothing short of impressive. Clearly, Saint Saturn is a powerful individual and one that holds tremendous strength up his sleeve. However, at this point, despite all the strength that Saturn has, fans have been somewhat disappointed by this character’s showing on Egghead Island.

Saturn’s Showing On Egghead Island

Saint Saturn has showcased quite a lot of incredible powers in the Egghead Island arc already, but his showing has been somewhat ll disappointing to look at. This is because when he was first introduced, he immediately started fighting against the likes of the Straw Hat Pirates and the others who were around him, such as Vegapunk. While he was able to hold them down efficiently in battle, Kuma arrived on a head shortly after, and he delivered a powerful punch to Saturn that dealt tremendous damage to him. This punch hurt Saturn grievously and sent him flying across the island. Later down the line, when Luffy joined the battle, he did something similar to Saturn, and once again, sent him flying. In One Piece chapter 1108, Luffy was able to hold Saturn in the grasp of his hand, preventing him from moving entirely. When one takes all this into consideration, it is easy to see why many think that Saturn has been somewhat disappointing.

However, one needs to broaden their perspective here to look at things. Both moments where Saturn was heavily damaged were highly situational. When Kuma injured Saturn, it was simply because Kuma absolutely had to do this for the narrative’s sake. At the same time, the power of love that was flowing through Kuma’s body made him much stronger as well. In the case of Luffy, once again, he had to showcase attacks to Bonney, and as such, it made narrative sense for him to send Saturn flying. Despite that, Saturn did injure Luffy before he was actually sent flying.

Clearly, both of the situations were situational and Saturn only took heavy damage because these moments were designed to serve the narrative purpose of Egghead. That said, Luffy still appears to be overwhelmingly stronger than Saturn, which puts into perspective how strong the Five Elders truly are. When compared to the likes of the Admirals, it appears that the five elders are stronger, however, when compared to the likes of the Yonko, the Five Elders might not be stronger than them, after all. For now, Saturn does not look like he’s stronger than Luffy, or any other Yonko aside from Buggy, for that matter. However, he could still have some trump cards up his sleep that would push him above the level of the Yonko. Still, he does appear to be stronger than the likes of the Admirals, and that is impressive on its own.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus app. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1109, is set to be March 3, 2024.