@Coruscation:
Which was to let the enemy forces past when they threaten to break through even though they're completely harmless to him? Sorry if I don't buy it.
K. If they blow him to pieces then disappear into the crowd before he reforms they got past him. We see this with Akainu.
To me that's simply him emphasizing the whole "Haki doesn't work 100%" thing by using the most powerful commanders (and Whitebeard) instead of having someone scream out Haki didn't work!! every time. If we see that Marco & Vista and even Newgate himself can sometimes fail to hit an Admiral then it suddenly becomes pretty easy to buy that and why Curiel failed.
Before you can even come to such a conclusion you have to assume some sort of defense exists at all. You're not even speculating now just guesswork. You have an assumption(DC's have Haki) and to defend it your using another assumption(Admirals defense must have negated the ability they aren't shown to have)?
Why should it be coming naturally to all of them though?
Why can't they be like Aisa? You're stating more assumptions without stating any reasons why your conclusion is the best. I don't want to hear about what sounds like OP to you but why you believe they can't be like Aisa?
It is very rare in Paradise. I've not denied that, have I? The Kuja are known for their Haki because they've all got it.
But Haki is Haki. Smoker line would have made more sense if he said "damn Kuja's with their Haki" not referring to Haki as some sort of ability especially associated with a particular tribe.
Here's what you said:
"I think being restricted to the best of the best and their closes comrades makes more sense."
That seems to wound up at 15-20 to me, there's the Emperor captains and their, oh, 3 top crewmates like Marco, Vista & Jozu. And there are 4 Emperors.
Well that is you making more assumptions(also forgetting Thatch) because you can add Level 6 inmates to that list, strong warriors on other Islands like Elbaf, Wano, and etc., Revolutionary commanders, Autonomous pirates similar to Squado and Doma, VAs, and more people affiliated with the Government.
I'm not saying it isn't pretty hard, man. I'm saying it shouldn't be restricted to "the best of the best and their closest" because it was never implied to be THAT rare. It's just a skill like any other. It can be very hard to bring out but with the proper training it should not be as difficult as you're purporting, to the point where extremely, extremely, extremely few people even in the New World are able to utilize it.
You're purporting. Maybe I could have worded it better but best of the best I didn't mean just top tiers but anybody VA level and up. And you're right it wasn't said to be that rare its only shown to be that rare.
It's not being a bastard exactly, I'm suggesting that maybe your mindset and the way you can "let go" or "not doubt" has something to do with it. Think One Power from WoT. We still know very little about real Haki training so I don't get why you're acting as if it's preposterous. It's obviously hard in SOME way, so why can't this be the way?
Not saying it can't asking why do you think its Teach's unique reason for possible not unlocking Haki? Could be a lot of people with the wrong mindset including commanders who aren't on Teach's level.
Perhaps there are, but there're probably reasons for it beyond "they weren't good enough to learn it". Like Magellan is a prison warden who has one of the strongest Devil Fruits we've seen and ID is full of seastone. Doflamingo may also be a victim of the "mindset" idea or his carefree nature didn't lend itself well to spending a lot of time learning Haki. But WB's division commanders don't use "haxed" DFs, they're just swordsmen, gunmen, ball-on-chainmen and so on. Haki is the perfect tool to strengthen such "simple" weapons as we saw with the Kuja's arrows. There's that part where #16 shoots a sword in half with his gun, that doesn't remind you of Haki strengthening the Kuja's arrows? I know it does to me.
By not good enough I only mean its not practical for them to train their DF, fighting styles, and Haki while maintaining their operations like Prison running, crime operations, or just sailing around. I already said if it makes sense they are on the list of possible haki users and simply pointed out there are absolutely no signs and even some contradicting the idea.
And No the Geisha doing that is not a sign of Haki. That is being a badass gunman and shooting a sword at close range. That is nothing like blowing up boulders and stone walls with arrows. Bullets beat thin blades of steel.
And I'd say that a lot of those guys probably have Haki, too. Take Doma for example, Oda used him to hype Ace by letting us know that Ace defeated him. Great feat on Ace's part if he could just loll around and Doma couldn't lay a finger on him, right?
I think Doma has a very high chance of having Haki. Mentioning Doma then telling us Ace got the 2nd division captain seat afterward seemed intentional by Oda. That sort of subtle build up really wasn't given to most of the DCs.
Like here?
http://www.mangareader.net/103-17409-14/one-piece/chapter-551.html
I'm sure far from everyone caught that on their own. Or that scene with the gun, which I interpret as a hint of Haki but I'm guessing you don't. And obviously the DCs threatening Kizaru is also something I read as they could do it because they've got Haki, the fact that you don't agree doesn't mean you can just say it wasn't a hint.
Nope. That to me was just Oda covering his bases dozens of chapters before Akainu burst from the ground to pursue Jinbei and Luffy.
There was no interpretation to be made in any example I gave you. Those scenes are either clear examples of Haki(Jozu,Admiral shield, Coby's Mantra) or direct mentions of Haki. Shooting a sword, extra-sensitive hearing, and having balls to go up against an Admiral are not. Taken at face value they are nothing but what they are. When has CoC ever been associated with ears?
With the DCs I'm very much content to think that he simply used the ones that were the strongest and most important (Marco, Jozu, Vista) to convey the main points surrounding it and used scenes like the Kizaru scene, Curiel being surprised that he can't stop Akainu and #16's shooting a sword in half scene as subtle hints at them having it.
The Geisha shooting a sword being a sign of Haki is dumb as fuck. That is like saying Iva's winks are Haki and Zoro used CoC to dodge Carlos bullets. Its actually dumber cuz I can see the logic in thinking there must be some magical reason for supersonic wink air blasts besides very strong eye muscles. I say we pretend you never mentioned such a thing.
Vista is a new character that Oda set a part from the rest of the commanders. Oda had Akainu mention him being a Haki user to tell us he is a Haki user. No questions about it. If Oda wanted us to understand they all had Haki all it would take is one single scene or comment and there would be no debate.