First and foremost, I used the word “retcon” since it helps shorten the title and simplify the ideas that I will be presenting. Whether or not Haki was retconned into the series is up for debate. Personally, I would like to think that Oda has had the idea of Haki in his head since the beginning but has not really fleshed the specifics regarding this ability. Also, I’m trying to avoid discussing power levels as much as possible. My main goal is to simply discuss the two types of abilities but if this does turn into a power level thing then I guess it can’t be helped.
To get started, let’s talk about the power of Devil Fruits and Haki and their respective role in the series.
If you think about it, Devil Fruits are pretty much a luck-based ability. If you’re lucky you can find one and if you’re even luckier it’s going to be a fruit that’s powerful like a Logia. Stronger crews or organizations do have better chances of getting powerful fruits, but this is more related towards the probability of getting a fruit than a character’s capacity to increase his/her own strength. Also, while it is certainly true that the power of a fruit depends on the user’s creativity, it’s hard to imagine a guy who was only lucky enough to find a rubber fruit go up against a guy who was lucky enough to find a fruit that lets him melt someone with a punch or kick someone in the speed of light.
Let’s equate it this way: Imagine two people being equal at every aspect relating to fighting ability. One gets the Candle fruit and the other gets the Magma fruit. The candle fruit user can certainly be as inventive as he wants but, in the end, Magma will always melt Candle. At that point, the Magma user has a bigger chance of winning over the Candle fruit user even when at their base non-DF forms they are equals.
Basically, Devil Fruits abilities is a type of Superpower Lottery. If you “lose” the lottery you can still make the most of whatever you get but that all depends on your own skill rather than the ability bestowed by the fruit. You can be as creative as you want with the types of outfits you make (Kinemon’s fruit) but IF that is ALL you have going for you then there’s no way you can beat a normie who can literally drop 1million volts of electricity on you. This idea of a “gamble” is even highlighted by the introduction of SMILEs wherein just 1 out of 10 will get abilities while the other 9 will suffer the consequence of not being able to swim along with an inability to feel other emotions.
Now, if we remove Devil Fruits out of the equation, how then do we represent a true pinnacle of power in the One Piece world? The answer of course is Haki.
Haki is an ability that can be achieved through training, experience or sheer force of will. Will power is one of the most persistent themes of the series. The intensity of the manga’s battles always seeks to highlight how to best portray the subject character’s will power. Even the theme of dreams helps remind us that only those with the strongest wills can realize their dreams. Remember what Zeff said when Luffy was facing Krieg? I’m paraphrasing but he said that in the Grand Line, the one who moves forward is the one with the strongest conviction/willpower. Haki and not Devil Fruits is pretty much the tangible representation of that exact statement. Devil Fruits, however colorful and varied they are, completely miss that theme.
“But if Devil Fruits don’t help represent Willpower, why did Oda come up with it in the first place?”
In-universe, only time will tell what their purpose are. In terms of storytelling, Devil Fruit abilities help make the world of One Piece out of this world. Think about the most ridiculous adventure story you could possibly hear. With the help of Devil Fruits, “ridiculous” and “outrageous” become a reality. This is the tone that Oda wants his series to have hence the feeling that as the story progresses, characters and storylines become more and more exaggerated. This series is meant to capture the essence of a myth, legend or epic and the diversity of Devil Fruit powers help achieve that tone.
Connecting everything I just said, it makes so much sense that in the second half of the series, there is a more prevailing focus on Haki, and that other non-devil fruit abilities introduced in both halves are “retconned” to somehow relate to it. Let’s talk about Rokushiki.
As most of us know, the main members of the CP9 have all been revealed to be Haki users in the latest Vivre card release and that Rob Lucci didn’t “learn” Haki during the timeskip but just “strengthened” it. This somewhat reveals to us that mastering Rokushiki could be related to awakening Haki. I say mastering since we know Nero, who was still not a master Rokushiki user wasn’t included in the list of CP9 members with Haki.
I’ve seen people have gripes with this development since the thought of “everything is about haki now”takes away with the uniqueness of Devil Fruits, Rokushiki and other abilities, but for me, this change is better when it comes to reconnecting the series as a whole. Oda did plan major story beats until the end but there are certain details in past arcs that I’m pretty sure he would’ve wished gel better with current arcs. The Vice Admirals basically putting Lucci on a pedestal during the CP9 arc kind of falls flat if you realize they are master Haki users while Lucci was not. Also, Oda likes to build up and scale ideas and themes introduced in past arcs. These patterns help enjoy the bigger picture of the series aside from the week-on-week, arc-to-arc storylines. Going back to what I said about Zeff’s line, having the second half of the Grand Line be full of Haki proficient fighters makes sense since only the people with the strongest wills are the ones who can get that far in the race for top. It’s a full circle of that pre-Grand Line statement.
Anyway, that’s it for my post. Sorry if at any point this started to feel like a stream of consciousness thing. For those who read this in its entirety thank you and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
To get started, let’s talk about the power of Devil Fruits and Haki and their respective role in the series.
If you think about it, Devil Fruits are pretty much a luck-based ability. If you’re lucky you can find one and if you’re even luckier it’s going to be a fruit that’s powerful like a Logia. Stronger crews or organizations do have better chances of getting powerful fruits, but this is more related towards the probability of getting a fruit than a character’s capacity to increase his/her own strength. Also, while it is certainly true that the power of a fruit depends on the user’s creativity, it’s hard to imagine a guy who was only lucky enough to find a rubber fruit go up against a guy who was lucky enough to find a fruit that lets him melt someone with a punch or kick someone in the speed of light.
Let’s equate it this way: Imagine two people being equal at every aspect relating to fighting ability. One gets the Candle fruit and the other gets the Magma fruit. The candle fruit user can certainly be as inventive as he wants but, in the end, Magma will always melt Candle. At that point, the Magma user has a bigger chance of winning over the Candle fruit user even when at their base non-DF forms they are equals.
Basically, Devil Fruits abilities is a type of Superpower Lottery. If you “lose” the lottery you can still make the most of whatever you get but that all depends on your own skill rather than the ability bestowed by the fruit. You can be as creative as you want with the types of outfits you make (Kinemon’s fruit) but IF that is ALL you have going for you then there’s no way you can beat a normie who can literally drop 1million volts of electricity on you. This idea of a “gamble” is even highlighted by the introduction of SMILEs wherein just 1 out of 10 will get abilities while the other 9 will suffer the consequence of not being able to swim along with an inability to feel other emotions.
Now, if we remove Devil Fruits out of the equation, how then do we represent a true pinnacle of power in the One Piece world? The answer of course is Haki.
Haki is an ability that can be achieved through training, experience or sheer force of will. Will power is one of the most persistent themes of the series. The intensity of the manga’s battles always seeks to highlight how to best portray the subject character’s will power. Even the theme of dreams helps remind us that only those with the strongest wills can realize their dreams. Remember what Zeff said when Luffy was facing Krieg? I’m paraphrasing but he said that in the Grand Line, the one who moves forward is the one with the strongest conviction/willpower. Haki and not Devil Fruits is pretty much the tangible representation of that exact statement. Devil Fruits, however colorful and varied they are, completely miss that theme.
“But if Devil Fruits don’t help represent Willpower, why did Oda come up with it in the first place?”
In-universe, only time will tell what their purpose are. In terms of storytelling, Devil Fruit abilities help make the world of One Piece out of this world. Think about the most ridiculous adventure story you could possibly hear. With the help of Devil Fruits, “ridiculous” and “outrageous” become a reality. This is the tone that Oda wants his series to have hence the feeling that as the story progresses, characters and storylines become more and more exaggerated. This series is meant to capture the essence of a myth, legend or epic and the diversity of Devil Fruit powers help achieve that tone.
Connecting everything I just said, it makes so much sense that in the second half of the series, there is a more prevailing focus on Haki, and that other non-devil fruit abilities introduced in both halves are “retconned” to somehow relate to it. Let’s talk about Rokushiki.
As most of us know, the main members of the CP9 have all been revealed to be Haki users in the latest Vivre card release and that Rob Lucci didn’t “learn” Haki during the timeskip but just “strengthened” it. This somewhat reveals to us that mastering Rokushiki could be related to awakening Haki. I say mastering since we know Nero, who was still not a master Rokushiki user wasn’t included in the list of CP9 members with Haki.
I’ve seen people have gripes with this development since the thought of “everything is about haki now”takes away with the uniqueness of Devil Fruits, Rokushiki and other abilities, but for me, this change is better when it comes to reconnecting the series as a whole. Oda did plan major story beats until the end but there are certain details in past arcs that I’m pretty sure he would’ve wished gel better with current arcs. The Vice Admirals basically putting Lucci on a pedestal during the CP9 arc kind of falls flat if you realize they are master Haki users while Lucci was not. Also, Oda likes to build up and scale ideas and themes introduced in past arcs. These patterns help enjoy the bigger picture of the series aside from the week-on-week, arc-to-arc storylines. Going back to what I said about Zeff’s line, having the second half of the Grand Line be full of Haki proficient fighters makes sense since only the people with the strongest wills are the ones who can get that far in the race for top. It’s a full circle of that pre-Grand Line statement.
Anyway, that’s it for my post. Sorry if at any point this started to feel like a stream of consciousness thing. For those who read this in its entirety thank you and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
