Speculations Why ACoC is not being spammed anymore
- Thread starter Ven437
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I see it that way too but to be fair the blame lies on Oda, pre-ACOC reveal he sometimes used long black ligthtnings to emphasize even more impactful attacks or clashes (King Punch, Sabo's dragon claws and Burgess elbow colliding, Scabbards Togen Totsuka) so I can understand why people don't think it's enough.
Funnily it's mostly side characters that makes haki overly complex visually. If we stick solely to Luffy, his haki pre-1010 never leaked black lightning against opponents that weren't conquerors (that back then was referred as conqueror collision by Trebol) so there was always a notion of COC even if aCOC wasn't a proper concept. Never leaked against Hody, Caesar, Cracker. None against Kaido in the first act or on the rooftop pre-1010 even after he significantly improved his COA either (Kaido is a conqueror but I think the difference in level was too big for "conqueror collision").
There was the Ulti's scene, but Ulti also leaked black lightning against Usopp so fair to assume it came from her. Hence side characters making haki an inconsistent mess visually as Ulti is frequently used as an example of "COA lightning".
Funnily it's mostly side characters that makes haki overly complex visually. If we stick solely to Luffy, his haki pre-1010 never leaked black lightning against opponents that weren't conquerors (that back then was referred as conqueror collision by Trebol) so there was always a notion of COC even if aCOC wasn't a proper concept. Never leaked against Hody, Caesar, Cracker. None against Kaido in the first act or on the rooftop pre-1010 even after he significantly improved his COA either (Kaido is a conqueror but I think the difference in level was too big for "conqueror collision").
There was the Ulti's scene, but Ulti also leaked black lightning against Usopp so fair to assume it came from her. Hence side characters making haki an inconsistent mess visually as Ulti is frequently used as an example of "COA lightning".
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He is trying not to powercreep Kaido and undermine acoc as a powerup, it’s a very obvious reasoning really.
Big Mom used acoc in her fight though, we saw her used it for defense twice. Once when her bones just got broken, and the other during Damned Punk. She was also leaking CoC through the main floor and there’s no reason to use basic CoC against Kidd/Law at any instance. Oda basically offscreened her using it but it was heavily implied that she did at some point.
Oda just wanted to have his cake and eat it too, he didn’t want to make BM look like a scrub even when she uses acoc on-panel. Makes no sense since narratively speaking, it was already understood that she had been going all-out. She even went as far as sacrificing her own lifespan to get an upperhand.
Big Mom used acoc in her fight though, we saw her used it for defense twice. Once when her bones just got broken, and the other during Damned Punk. She was also leaking CoC through the main floor and there’s no reason to use basic CoC against Kidd/Law at any instance. Oda basically offscreened her using it but it was heavily implied that she did at some point.
Oda just wanted to have his cake and eat it too, he didn’t want to make BM look like a scrub even when she uses acoc on-panel. Makes no sense since narratively speaking, it was already understood that she had been going all-out. She even went as far as sacrificing her own lifespan to get an upperhand.
What about Koby? You think he used ACoC before CoC reveal?
This how I see it too since Oda likes to maintain a balance. But Shanks also breaks that pattern with Kamusari Oda made it very clear he was using ACoC not just a regular CoA here
Luffy spams haki so much not using ACoC in base is OOC without good reason. Like not even one panel of him having curved haki trails. I don’t think we’ve also seen him knocking out fodder since Wano
This how I see it too since Oda likes to maintain a balance. But Shanks also breaks that pattern with Kamusari Oda made it very clear he was using ACoC not just a regular CoA here
Luffy spams haki so much not using ACoC in base is OOC without good reason. Like not even one panel of him having curved haki trails. I don’t think we’ve also seen him knocking out fodder since Wano
Also I forgot to mention this in general but when Whitebeard tried to use his CoC, this happened
Most people chalk it up to coincidence or bad timing but maybe Oda was trynna tell us something more here, like his throbbing scars when he saw Shanks face (who is most likely GARLING not Roger)
This sounds way more cap than my theory ngl
I used to believe that but now I just think the black lightning around her is just CoC flex that comes out naturally during battle. She used no ACoC throughout the battle and defensive ACoC is still questionable
It is no different from a clash between two Conquerors. Oda likes to emphasize the heightened state of Haki users when they are in the heat of battle. That don’t mean it is CoC infusion
Most people chalk it up to coincidence or bad timing but maybe Oda was trynna tell us something more here, like his throbbing scars when he saw Shanks face (who is most likely GARLING not Roger)
This sounds way more cap than my theory ngl
I used to believe that but now I just think the black lightning around her is just CoC flex that comes out naturally during battle. She used no ACoC throughout the battle and defensive ACoC is still questionable
It is no different from a clash between two Conquerors. Oda likes to emphasize the heightened state of Haki users when they are in the heat of battle. That don’t mean it is CoC infusion
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This sounds way more cap than my theory ngl
I used to believe that but now I just think the black lightning around her is just CoC flex that comes out naturally during battle. She used no ACoC throughout the battle and defensive ACoC is still questionable
It is no different from a clash between two Conquerors. Oda likes to emphasize the heightened state of Haki users when they are in the heat of battle. That don’t mean it is CoC infusion
Also I forgot to mention this in general but when Whitebeard tried to use his CoC, this happened
Most people chalk it up to coincidence or bad timing but maybe Oda was trynna tell us something more here, like his throbbing scars when he saw Shanks face (who we know now to be GARLING not Roger)
I used to believe that but now I just think the black lightning around her is just CoC flex that comes out naturally during battle. She used no ACoC throughout the battle and defensive ACoC is still questionable
It is no different from a clash between two Conquerors. Oda likes to emphasize the heightened state of Haki users when they are in the heat of battle. That don’t mean it is CoC infusion
Also I forgot to mention this in general but when Whitebeard tried to use his CoC, this happened
Most people chalk it up to coincidence or bad timing but maybe Oda was trynna tell us something more here, like his throbbing scars when he saw Shanks face (who we know now to be GARLING not Roger)
The Damned Punk part is also very distinct from just regular CoC, those are very thick brushes that was coming from her body. If that wasn’t acoc then Rayleigh making an entrance against Blackbeard is far from a showcase of acoc.
She also had no reason to release such strong CoC during damned punk without a purpose. Remember that she was trying to extract souls, using CoC at the time could have knocked out the fodders that she needed souls from lol. My interpretation is that she briefly tried to deflect Kidd’s attack instead.
But even I’m not convinced, there’s really no way to prove these acoc arguments accurately.
Again I’m saying it’s just a heat of the moment or emotional thing, no different from Kaido crying releasing his CoC when BM lost
Knocking out fodder is relative some get dropped some don’t. That can be easily explained
The only absolute sure ways we know ACoC is being used:
1. Blatant curved Haki lightning trails
2. Haki lightning + ACoA emission (Oda likes to emphasize ACoC with ACoA)
3. Fodders are knocked out in the vicinity of the attack
4. Someone says CoC is being infused
Since Wano there has been no conclusive evidence that Luffy or Zoro used ACoC. Only Shanks we knew for sure cuz Kidd’s crew was getting KOd in the same panel as Kamusari. So Oda didn’t just turn ACoC into a filler invisible or handwavy thing he still considers it major power up
Knocking out fodder is relative some get dropped some don’t. That can be easily explained
The only absolute sure ways we know ACoC is being used:
1. Blatant curved Haki lightning trails
2. Haki lightning + ACoA emission (Oda likes to emphasize ACoC with ACoA)
3. Fodders are knocked out in the vicinity of the attack
4. Someone says CoC is being infused
Since Wano there has been no conclusive evidence that Luffy or Zoro used ACoC. Only Shanks we knew for sure cuz Kidd’s crew was getting KOd in the same panel as Kamusari. So Oda didn’t just turn ACoC into a filler invisible or handwavy thing he still considers it major power up
ACoC is being used, just sparingly.
It was revealed to be the power of the strongest. There is no specific drawback to it, it's simply too strong for the protagonists to use all the time.
Since its reveal, it's been used only once characters have gotten serious, and that's how it will always be moving forward. The reason is that the protagonists will simply be too strong for the vast majority of their enemies so Oda will hold this in reserve until characters get serious, otherwise, he'll kill all tension.
Does it make narrative sense? No, but it doesn't have to. It's human nature to play with your food and challenge yourself - anyone who competes in anything will know that there's levels to seriousness and how much you're trying. You can be playing w your opponent, you can be semi-serious where you're trying but not going all-out, then you can be super serious where you're actively trying to surpass your limits.
It's like olympic sprinters during warm-up vs heats vs finals. During warm-up you're going easy, during heats you're serious or else you won't qualify but you need to keep some speed in reserve, then in finals you go all-out and throw caution to the wind.
The problem is, powerscalers will watch these characters fight and assume that people are fighting like they're in the finals all the time when that's not the case lol. Not everything needs to be so logical - take Zoro vs Lucci for example, it's not like Zoro was fucking around not trying for all that time, but he wasn't super serious either. Once he got angry and got serious, the fight was over in 2 pages. He did the same thing to Apoo. Characters aren't using ACoC all the time because they don't yet feel the need to, simple as that. Once they get super serious and it's time for the finals, they'll pull out all the stops which will include ACoC.
It was revealed to be the power of the strongest. There is no specific drawback to it, it's simply too strong for the protagonists to use all the time.
Since its reveal, it's been used only once characters have gotten serious, and that's how it will always be moving forward. The reason is that the protagonists will simply be too strong for the vast majority of their enemies so Oda will hold this in reserve until characters get serious, otherwise, he'll kill all tension.
Does it make narrative sense? No, but it doesn't have to. It's human nature to play with your food and challenge yourself - anyone who competes in anything will know that there's levels to seriousness and how much you're trying. You can be playing w your opponent, you can be semi-serious where you're trying but not going all-out, then you can be super serious where you're actively trying to surpass your limits.
It's like olympic sprinters during warm-up vs heats vs finals. During warm-up you're going easy, during heats you're serious or else you won't qualify but you need to keep some speed in reserve, then in finals you go all-out and throw caution to the wind.
The problem is, powerscalers will watch these characters fight and assume that people are fighting like they're in the finals all the time when that's not the case lol. Not everything needs to be so logical - take Zoro vs Lucci for example, it's not like Zoro was fucking around not trying for all that time, but he wasn't super serious either. Once he got angry and got serious, the fight was over in 2 pages. He did the same thing to Apoo. Characters aren't using ACoC all the time because they don't yet feel the need to, simple as that. Once they get super serious and it's time for the finals, they'll pull out all the stops which will include ACoC.
So why wasn't Luffy using ACoC against Gorosei who were letting off CoC like it was nothing?
Law and Kidd opted to use Awakening off the bat, abilities they gained more experience with in Wano against strong opponents, and we know they have stamina drawbacks
G5 has a major drawback with stamina too. Why would Luffy not use a power that massively boosts his AP and supposedly has no “drawbacks,” esp against an Admiral?
So Kizaru is not worth using ACoC then?
Luffy is in general retarded yes but I highly doubt Oda made Luffy intentionally forget he can't use same ability that his enemies the Gorosei spammed casually on Egghead. It is very very sus
Law and Kidd opted to use Awakening off the bat, abilities they gained more experience with in Wano against strong opponents, and we know they have stamina drawbacks
G5 has a major drawback with stamina too. Why would Luffy not use a power that massively boosts his AP and supposedly has no “drawbacks,” esp against an Admiral?
So Kizaru is not worth using ACoC then?
Luffy is in general retarded yes but I highly doubt Oda made Luffy intentionally forget he can't use same ability that his enemies the Gorosei spammed casually on Egghead. It is very very sus
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