@tigerlilly:
But it brought up a new question:
What the hell is up with Boa Hancock's Devil fruit?
It was all easy and fine.
Get into the Mero Mero Beam, get petrified.
Stay outside of it, you're fine.
All under the condition that you have a "sinful" heart of course.
But know we get to see her partially petrify pirates with a touch
(note that those guys were in the heat of the battle and probably didn't even give attention to her beauty).
And even inanimate objects, like swords and cannon-balls, got pertrified.
I'm of the opinion that this concept of wicked thoughts turning you to stone is not what's really up to it.
Your thoughts?
@Thousand:
Yeah I agree there, she can manipulate the power that petrifies people into a tangible form (you call them meromones). However meromones only work with an unsettled heart so I guess maybe that helps your theory?
I couldn't find the post, but I speculated back when we first met her and Luffy was immune to her mero mero merrow attack that it wasn't a "lustful" heart that causes you to turn to stone. And when Margaret, Sweetpea and Alphelandra were turned to stone, this made me quite sure that it definitely wasn't a lustful heart. When you look at this page http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/518/11/ it's quite clear that all three of them were caught by surprise with this attack. Also, back when Hancock used the mero mero merrow on Luffy, he thought it was the noro noro beam. But I doubt Luffy would have been affected either way.
So, my hypothesis is that while Hancock's powers are to make you fall in love with her and the side effect of that is that she can turn you into stone if you do. I believe it's just an easy way for Hancock to make her victims lose focus. I consider this to be similar to "ambition" and how it can render victims unconscious if they're not focused or prepared for it. I think this covers all the uses of Hancock's mero mero merrow so far.
In addition, she could be amplifying her powers with her "ambition". After all, Pistol Kiss did hurt Luffy. And this would also explain why she's able to turn the parts of her victims' bodies into stone when she touches them with her attack.
Anyways, this is my impression of her powers and this is all speculation.
@dreadcutlass:
Actually I think the name of that attack he does is Tsunotokage which the Binktopia scans translated as either horned-shadow blade or horned-lizard…. Why the hell he didn't use these attacks in TB I don't know?
Perhaps because Oars Jr is a massive giant and was already rendered motionless from Kuma and Dofla's attacks. He was essentially falling and was a prime target. Luffy on the other hand is quite agile, nimble and fast, not to mention very tiny, would you use an arrow to kill one ant?
@dreadcutlass:
Once again Hancock is underwhelming. We already know she can own mooks like nothing. At least it got more violent in a way. Really I'm thinking while she is strong she might not be comparable to the others. This is One Piece I don't want to see no damn attacks using hearts from someone purported to be strong. Then she does fanservice fighting. I'm hoping we some badass women instead of more lame.
While I agree that I felt as though Hancock's fighting was underwhelming. I believe you're missing some points about her abilities and how they work. For starters, Hancock does not want to fight, so she's halfassing her way through the battle. She's probably trying to do as little as possible and this is why she didn't pick a "named" target. In addition, the pirates are the ones who attacked her first because they thought she was distracted by Oars Jr, and she defended herself, so you can't blame her for this.
On the other hand, her attacks are actually quite gruesome. Can you imagine what will happen to all the people she's partially turned to stone? She could turn them back just to torture them. However you cut it? You're saying you don't see her strength, but she's not even trying and she is destroying the marines and pirates around her effortlessly.
This chapter was used to showcase the shichibukai, and that it did. They're all different but just as deadly as each other. However, I definitely still have my issues with Hancock and her lovey-dovey behaviour back on Amazon Lily when she was around Luffy, but she handled herself well on the marine ship to Impel Down, so I'd imagine even if she saw Luffy here she's be fine. However, I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up rescuing Luffy from one of the admirals or something.
@phoenix_fire:
Yes, maybe there was a discussion last year about that. But its odd, that nowaday all discussions focus on her skill development (how strong or weak she is usw.) and absolutly nothing about her character development. A lot of people are still complaing about the luffy-boa-relationship, but noone think about the future of this relationship.
I'm not sure if Oda will do another time skip, but I like I said earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if Hancock saved Luffy from some danger during this war. And there's no way Oda will kill her off, so she's here to stay. I also wouldn't be surprised if after Luffy becomes the PK or even before that they get married or something. I'm expecting a Goku-Chichi type encounter were Hancock shows up and says Luffy you promised me you'd return, blah blah etc.