Hi, Worstgen people; this isn't a powerscaling thread, so to the usual suspects: please stay away.
I'll get straight to the point: Zoan awakening is conceptually disappointing. Whenever people theorize awakening, many make the mistake of thinking of a change that doesn't represent a qualitative but just a quantitative jump, such as Sabo awakening the Mera Mera and achieving a hotter fire. Paramecia awakening does represent such qualitative jump because there's no way the Ito Ito fruit's established arsenal, for example, would allow Doflamingo to turn things into strings and pretty much use his fruit beyond himself. In this case, awakening makes conceptual sense.
Zoan awakening was first mentioned back in Impel Down and has been currently explored with Luffy, Lucci and Kaku. Luffy is a weird case because his awakening still works as that of a Paramecia class plus a new transformation, but the problem comes with Lucci and Kaku: they simply got an additional form. Surely, stronger, more durable, quicker regeneration...; but it's just a form and for me doesn't feel like a serious qualitative jump. There's also the issue with the Impel Down beasts who look nothing alike Lucci and Kaku transformed: the former always had something strange going on since they looked more disproportionate and beastly than your average hybrid, making it feel like a more feral form, but such design wasn't kept for Lucci and Kaku and instead they were given black hair and divine ribbon. And I just don't see the point nor feel any threat from this significantly stronger and incredibly rare Zoan transformation that represents the next level of their animal powers: even Lucci's common hybrid looks more menacing than this rickety cat.
In my opinion, Oda should have kept the "expand your powers beyond yourself" mechanism and played with the sentient side of every Zoan, stated to have their own mind and being capable of infusing life into objects by feeding them with them. I believe a proper Zoan awakening should have followed this principle and, beyond an additional form, it should have allowed the user to infuse non-sentient things around them that somehow fit their fruit's nature with the sentient soul of their animal. For example, Lucci would be able to turn doors into fanged mouths; Marco give regenerative properties to common fires; Kaidou make serpentine creatures out of long objects (or even give life to his dragon statues); that kind of thing, mainly infusing stuff with life and/or the properties of the Zoan (which Luffy does, pretty much).
Am I the only one? Are you guys happy with how awakened Zoans turned?
I'll get straight to the point: Zoan awakening is conceptually disappointing. Whenever people theorize awakening, many make the mistake of thinking of a change that doesn't represent a qualitative but just a quantitative jump, such as Sabo awakening the Mera Mera and achieving a hotter fire. Paramecia awakening does represent such qualitative jump because there's no way the Ito Ito fruit's established arsenal, for example, would allow Doflamingo to turn things into strings and pretty much use his fruit beyond himself. In this case, awakening makes conceptual sense.
Zoan awakening was first mentioned back in Impel Down and has been currently explored with Luffy, Lucci and Kaku. Luffy is a weird case because his awakening still works as that of a Paramecia class plus a new transformation, but the problem comes with Lucci and Kaku: they simply got an additional form. Surely, stronger, more durable, quicker regeneration...; but it's just a form and for me doesn't feel like a serious qualitative jump. There's also the issue with the Impel Down beasts who look nothing alike Lucci and Kaku transformed: the former always had something strange going on since they looked more disproportionate and beastly than your average hybrid, making it feel like a more feral form, but such design wasn't kept for Lucci and Kaku and instead they were given black hair and divine ribbon. And I just don't see the point nor feel any threat from this significantly stronger and incredibly rare Zoan transformation that represents the next level of their animal powers: even Lucci's common hybrid looks more menacing than this rickety cat.
In my opinion, Oda should have kept the "expand your powers beyond yourself" mechanism and played with the sentient side of every Zoan, stated to have their own mind and being capable of infusing life into objects by feeding them with them. I believe a proper Zoan awakening should have followed this principle and, beyond an additional form, it should have allowed the user to infuse non-sentient things around them that somehow fit their fruit's nature with the sentient soul of their animal. For example, Lucci would be able to turn doors into fanged mouths; Marco give regenerative properties to common fires; Kaidou make serpentine creatures out of long objects (or even give life to his dragon statues); that kind of thing, mainly infusing stuff with life and/or the properties of the Zoan (which Luffy does, pretty much).
Am I the only one? Are you guys happy with how awakened Zoans turned?
