Paramecia Awakenings: Superhumans and Bizarro Elements
I like to support my theories with concepts from common television tropes. The one I will focus on here is the concept of Bizarro Elements.
Bizarro Elements Trope
Everybody knows the four traditional Classical Elements of fire, water, earth, and air, which tend to serve as the basis of almost everything related to magic in almost any Fantasy setting. Throughout the years, many writers have pushed the concept, expanding to include other elements, like Element No. 5, Heart, Metal, Wood, and Lightning. But sometimes, it is just not enough. Bizarro Elements are Natural Elements with a weirdness factor.
Instead of the aforementioned standard elements, the basis of a work's universe revolves around unnatural, seemingly random, and very unusual elements, like say "Banana", "Cookie Dough", or "Cement". They either form their new elemental ensemble or are added atop the traditional four. These bizarro elements aren't limited to magical usage, as they could be on an atomic level and, thus, compose part of the very fabric of the universe. They are mostly Played for Laughs, but are as often taken very seriously In-Universe.
In a previous theory, I have speculated that Devil fruit ability users exist in different dimensions and supported this with dialogue from Dr. Vegapunk. Paramecia users seem to exist in bizarre dimensions, Logia users seem to exist in elemental dimensions, and Zoan users seem to use natural adaptations.
In comparison with the Logia Awakenings, who I think represent Gods or "Avatars", the Paramecia represent superhumans. The reason for this is because they do not command natural elements. What they do is command bizarro elements which focus on changing the rules of physics.
It is worth noting that the Paramecia and Zoan classes cannot change the state of their original physical forms. This is highlighted in characters like Trevor who must hide his body in the substance he produces with the exception of Katakuri who can shift between a solid and liquid state and belongs to a special class of Paramecia. The reason they cannot integrate with their substance seems to be because they are not true natural elements. For example, candles, stones, venom, kilograms, and heat are not considered natural elements. However, things like gas, light, swamps, forests, magma, and ice are.
To get to the point, this is what makes the Paramecia and Zoan awakenings different than the Logia awakenings; they can't have the same level of influence that a Logia does when they start to affect their surroundings. Specifically, they can't change the state of their original physical form, and therefore can't change the state of their surroundings either. They can, however, alter the rules of physics in them.
So what should a Paramecia Awakening do? To define the limits, I will examine some of the previously seen abilities and explain why they work the way they do.
1. Doflamingo's Awakened String String Fruit
- Doflamingo turned his surroundings into string and was able to control it.
2. Katakuri's Awakened Mochi Mochi Fruit
- Katakuri turned his surroundings into mochi and was able to control it.
3. Kidd's Awakened Magnet Magnet Fruit
- Kidd's fruit, unlike Doflamingo's or Katakuri's fruits, is the power of a force; magnetism. Therefore, it comes in the form of a technique called "Assign" which allows him to assign magnetic poles (north and south) to his surroundings.
4. Law's Awakened Operation Operation Fruit
- In the case of Law's fruit, his power relates to a place. Specifically, an operating room. He became able to create an R-Room and a K-Room. The R in R-Room stands for "ri" meaning separate or distant, and the K in K-Room stands for "Knife". These two abilities allowed him to apply Room to things other than himself by allowing him to make a room separated from his body and a room that applied to his sword.
Each ability manifested in a way that allowed the original power to be applied to the surroundings. The rules haven't changed; Paramecia users can't change their original physical forms, but the laws of physics were altered. In contrast, the Logia users can change their original physical forms, and they don't change the laws of physics.
Since the Paramecia class is theorized to use bizarre elements here, the unpredictable nature of them makes it challenging to determine how they would work in each case. For example, it is easy enough to make sense of Bege's Castle Castle Fruit being inverted allowing him to turn things other than his body into a castle that he can control, but it becomes challenging when you consider an ability such as Violet's Glare Glare Fruit. Her fruit allows her to use "Insight" by making a lens with her fingers or by closing them to extend her range. In other words, it's based on a sense. I am not sure how to apply a sense to something other than her body.
One idea for Violet's Glare Glare Fruit abilities include that she could gain the insight from things other than herself. Normally, she has to use her own eyes to do this. Think of it in a different way. If her eyes are one set of cameras, then if she gains the insight of other things, she can set up multiple cameras and gain insight from multiple sources. I think that's what hers does, and there should be a similar reasoning to all other Paramecia fruits.
I feel like it's a good practice to see how this would work with each fruit because they have to apply in their own unique ways often. You will notice that it's very clear how some awakened abilities should work, but it is less clear with others.
1. Kilo Kilo Fruit
- The basic fruit ability allows the user to change their weight within a range of kilograms. Additionally, as a result of being lightweight, the user can float (the logic is a 1 kilogram person can float with an umbrella). It is questionable if the user is resistant to impact damage.
- The awakened fruit ability should allow the user to change the weight of their surroundings within a range of kilograms. It should be assumed that as a result the user could make other things float and then suddenly change their weight and make them drop. Additionally, it is questionable if the other things are resistant to impact damage.
2. Ton Ton Fruit
- The basic fruit ability allows the user to change their weight within a range of tons. Additionally, despite not being a lightweight, the user can float. This is a case of a fruit breaking a rule to allow it to be used conveniently (there is no logic because 1 ton is too much weight and the user cannot float if they hold an umbrella, but it happens anyway). It is questionable if the user is resistant to impact damage (Machvise complained about a stomach ache after making impact before)
- The awakened fruit ability should allow the user to change the weight of their surroundings within a range of tons. It should be assumed that as a result the user could make other things float and then suddenly change their weight and make them drop. Additionally, it is questionable if the other things are resistant to impact damage.
3. Bomb Bomb Fruit
- The basic fruit ability allows the user to turn their body into a bomb. The user is resistant to explosive damage as a benefit.
- The awakened fruit ability should allow the user to turn their surroundings into a bomb. Their surroundings should also become resistant to explosive damage.
*Interestingly, the Bomb Bomb Fruit only works on the user's own body, yet the Rupture Rupture Fruit doesn't. This is because the Bomb Man's ability is a tangible thing. His body has changed into a bomb. However, a "Rupture" isn't a tangible thing. It is something that happens to tangible things (Nouns Vs. Verbs)*
4. Rupture Rupture Fruit
- The basic fruit ability allows the user to create ruptures with their body. The user can only affect non-living things. However, their body is excluded from this rule, so they may rupture themselves (while being resistant to the damage).
- The awakened fruit ability should allow the user to cause their surroundings to create ruptures. The surroundings can only affect non-living things. However, these things may also be excluded from this rule, so they may rupture themselves (while being resistant to the damage).
Note: I would like to argue here that I believe that a fallacy I'll call "the 8th color of the rainbow fallacy" may be occurring when people think of awakenings. For example, some people may be hoping that the awakened abilities are so mysterious and unique that it is like revealing a new color nobody has ever seen before. I don't believe they are that mysterious, and, in fact, what we know of the abilities already and how they've been described can teach us how they'll work in the future. I doubt we'll see things like the Sand Sand Fruit Awakening being an Iron Sand ability or Magma Magma Fruit Awakening being something weird like a Magma Space/Time Gravity Hell Hole of Doom or anything like this. It will be a natural extension of the abilities that makes sense if we just think about it rationally.
*Cook in progress*
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