One Piece 1065 confirms that Franky is an underrated character

Understandably, One Piece fans can't stop focusing on major characters such as Shanks, Mihawk, and more. With their superior Haki and fighting capabilities, these characters often take the stage and steal the entire spotlight.

However, the One Piece world features some rather powerful individuals, even among those characters who don't get such clamor. A prime example of this is Franky, the shipwright of the Strawhat Pirates.

While Franky is clearly not even remotely comparable to Luffy, Zoro, and the others, he is still quite a powerful fighter in his own right. Due to his cyborg body and the many opponents he defeated, most One Piece fans consider Franky to be the fifth strongest member of the crew.

One Piece 1065, the latest installment of the series, stressed once more that Franky's strength should not be taken lightly. Follow this thread to find out more.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the One Piece manga up to Chapter 1065 and reflects the writer's personal views.

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Franky's powers were highlighted in One Piece 1065

Franky's abilities

The shipwright for the Strawhat Pirates, Franky, is a rather powerful individual within the crew. He is widely considered to be the fifth strongest member of the crew, below Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Jinbe, and above Nico Robin, Brook, Chopper, Nami, and Usopp.

Franky has superhuman strength, which he uses to perform powerful boxing and wrestling moves. His body has bionic enhancements that give him noticeable durability and allow him to use various special attacks, such as the Radical Beam, a highly destructive laser beam.

If needed, Franky can operate from inside the General, an enormous mecha with great defensive abilities and devastating attacking power. Being made of the special Wapometal, the General is especially tough and resilient to damage.

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Franky's accomplishments through the series

Despite Franky not being a top-tier fighter, he is very strong in his own right. Throughout the One Piece series, he has emerged victorious in many fights. In the Enies Lobby Arc, Franky was able to scuffle against Luffy. Later, he defeated Nero and Fukuro, two CP9 agents.

After the timeskip, Franky came back even stronger. He easily overwhelmed Ikaros Much from the New Fishman Pirates, and Baby 5 and Buffalo, two members of the Donquixote Pirates. In Dressrosa Arc, Franky faced and defeated Senor Pink, an officer of the same crew.

In the Wano arc, Franky defeated the ancient giant, Jaki, with a single blow. He further proved his strength by defeating Sasaki, one of the Beasts Pirates' Flying Six and a former New World pirate captain.

Thanks to the power of an Ancient Zoan, the Dragon-Dragon Fruit Model: Triceratops, Sasaki increased his physical strength, durability, and the toughness of his skin. He also obtained a Zoan transformation which allowed him to rotate his neck as a propeller, increasing the speed of his charges and gifting him some sort of flight ability.

The battle between Franky and Sasaki was fierce. The latter managed to destroy the former's mecha but ended up losing the fight after the shipwright discovered a weak spot in his belly and struck it with the Radical Beam.

After the end of the raid on Onigashima, Franky was awarded a bounty of 394000000 Berries. Unfortunately, such a bounty seems disrespectful to Franky's feats. He would deserve a much higher prize to be put on his head.

The World Government considers him to be no more than a mere side member of the Strawhats Pirates. Then again, most of the time bounties aren't awarded based on an accurate estimate of the criminal's feats, but merely depending on the general achievements of the group he is a member of. The bounties system has many flaws.

Bounties don't measure strength and should not be regarded as a sort of power level. In fact, most of the time, bounties are inconsistent with the strength of characters. However, it is clear that Franky would have deserved more credit.

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One Piece 1065 reminded readers that Franky must not be underestimated

The latest installment of the series featured Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Franky, and Nico Robin witnessing Egghead Island's technological wonders, with Lilith Vegapunk seemingly guiding them through the laboratory.

At one point, the group stumbled upon an individual with the same look as Jinbe. As the Jinbe-looking individual assumed a fighting stance and tried to attack them, Franky deduced that they were facing a Pacifista. In truth, it was a Seraphim, an upgraded version of the Pacifista.

The Seraphim Unit was created by Dr. Vegapunk with the intent of replacing the Seven Warlords as the allies of the Marines. Seraphims are cyborgs with their bodies further enhanced with Lunarian traits, allowing them to have incredible durability. Moreover, they possess the peculiar abilities of the former Seven Warlords.

With the Jinbe Seraphim attacking the group of Strawhats, they were forced to fight it. Despite being struck by Sanji, Nico Robin, and Usopp's attacks - with Sanji using his Diable Jambe and Robin performing her Gigante Fleur - the cyborg appeared to be completely undamaged.

With Usopp being caught by the Seraphim, Franky decided to step in to free his crewmate. Hence, he aimed for the opponent and unleashed his Radical Beam. While Vegapunk Edison, one of the scientist's six bodies who were watching the occurrence, had been very relaxed up until that point, he was suddenly worried at the sight of Franky attacking the Seraphim.

Admittedly, lasers are an advanced technology, meaning that Vegapunk's interest was captured by scientific curiosity. Moreover, the Vegapunk bodies addressed that the Jinbe Seraphim is still a kid prototype, whose resistance to lasers hasn't been tested yet.

Then again, the scene was pretty clear. While Vegapunk Edison was initially intrigued by the fact that Franky used a laser, he also textually stated that the situation for the Jinbe Seraphim was becoming "risky."

Hence, Vegapunk believed that Franky's Radical Beam could have seriously damaged the Seraphim.

The Seraphim easily endured Sanji and Nico Robin's attacks, coming out unscathed from them. Hence, the fact that the upgraded Pacifista would have been injured by Franky's Radical Beam implies that this move is even stronger than Sanji and Robin's techniques.

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Franky's Radical Beam is a very powerful attack

Of course, this feat must be contextualized. While Franky's Radical Beam may be stronger than Sanji's Diable Jambe - the Punk Hazard Arc suggested the same, after all - this should not be misinterpreted. Sanji possesses even better attacks than that, such as the Ifrit Jambe. He is clearly stronger than Franky overall.

Regarding Nico Robin, things are different. She was only able to defeat Black Maria of the Beasts Pirates' Tobi Roppo after an extremely difficult battle with Brook's fundamental support. Franky defeated Sasaki, an opponent as strong as Black Maria if not even stronger than her, without any help. Thus, Franky is likely stronger than Robin.

Nevertheless, for an attack to be less powerful than Radical Beam, that's nothing to be ashamed of. This attack has been consistently portrayed as a factual threat throughout the series. While the most powerful One Piece characters are definitely able to dodge or deflect it, it seems that not even the Strawhat crew can just underestimate it.

The Radical Beam is the post-time skip upgraded version of the previous Coup de Vent. Whereas the latter unleashed a blast of concentrated air with enough power to destroy entire building complexes, the former is an explosive laser beam.

During the Punk Hazard Arc, Franky used the Radical Beam to successfully destroy a wall that Sanji's kicks had failed to break. In the Wano Arc, Franky was about to use the same attack to strike Big Mom, one of the Four Emperors.

The moment he aimed his Radical Beam at her, she grabbed one of her Devil Fruit creatures, the homies, to shield herself from the shipwright's attack. The fact that, despite her status as Emperor and her naturally-born tough body, Big Mom didn't want to take the Radical Beam head-on, says a lot about the power of Franky's attack.

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Final Thoughts

Franky might not be a top fighter by any means, but he is still a character with potential, ranking as the fifth strongest member of the Strawhat Pirates. His cyborg enhancements make him a very flashy combatant, and some of his attacks, such as the Radical Beam, are not to be underestimated.

Unfortunately, Franky often doesn't get enough credit for his capabilities. Hopefully, before the One Piece series ends, he will have some great moments. The Egghead Arc seems like just the perfect occasion for this to happen.

With the major focus of the arc being Dr. Vegapunk and his technology, Franky should be constantly under the spotlight. To upgrade his cyborg body from his previous BF-37 to his current BF-37, the shipwright successfully merged his own technology with the science of the renowned genius.

Before returning to Sabaody Archipelago and reuniting with his crewmates, Franky spent the entire timeskip in one of Vegapunk's past labs. Moreover, Franky possessed Pluton's blueprints, meaning that he is the only person who could have recreated the fearsome Ancient Weapon of mass destruction.

With these being major points, especially with the latest chapter revealing that Vegapunk's technology is connected with the Ancient Kingdom's, Franky is bound to have some sort of confrontation with Vegapunk in the next chapters of One Piece.