@Clay:
I think what you're trying to say here is that cartooniness was responsible for Nami being able to change clothes.
Nope. She was not shown on panel in between "The Next Morning" panel and her appearance in the armor. She had plenty of time to change clothes.
She was actually shown in her armor AFTER the next morning caption. A lot of or no time passes between those panels (and it seems like no time) and its impossible, for now, to tell how much.
As for this haki debate, its something that interests me.
Like a lot of posters I don't think its outrageous to assume someone of Jinbe or Ace's caliber would use haki, but it IS a fact that it hasn't been shown. It just hasn't. And a lot of you are being way too dismissive of Don Freecs's posts. Don never said once that they absolutely don't know it, but just because they suggest that they don't, some posters are being quite rude.
While I think there is a chance that Oda intends us to assume that all the big names know haki, some that have never been shown to use haki like: Ace, Jinbe, and Crocodile are all interesting examples because none of them would really NEED it to be effective fighters.
Consider -
Crocodile would certainly benefit from observation, but most of his regular attacks are meant to be instant kills that wouldn't necessarily benefit from armament. Think about all his moves. Dude doesn't throw punches. He stabs, he poisons, he cuts, he dries out, he blows away. For all we know, logias can't imbue their element with armament. It would make sense if they COULD, but I can't think of a single example.
Ace too. Burning your opponents alive sort of trumps punching them. And Jinbe's form of karate is explicitly stated (not that this really needs repeating) to bypass DF defenses.
Now as someone said (essentially): How you gonna say scrubs like Boo and Bellamy have haki and Jinbe and Ace didn't? EH? EHHHH??? Good point…except - think about how THEY fight. For hand to hand fighters it WOULD be absolutely crazy to forgo learning armament in the New World. It's their bread and butter. To that end, even though we never saw it, I think Cavendish most likely has haki too. He'd really need it.
That said, MAN ITS INSANE THAT LUCCI DIDN'T KNOW THAT SHIT. Boy woulda whooped some Luffy ass with some haki. And as another hand to hand fighter - it sure wouldn't HURT for Jinbe to know it, even if he can bypass logia defenses with his karate.
I really don't think that Oda had the idea for haki the whole time (even considering the early Shanks scene), but since Oda went to the trouble to point out instances of haki early on in the story, we should assume its always been a thing in the story, officially speaking, and little "plot holes" like Lucci, Ace, or Croc not haki-ing up should be taken as somewhat gospel, that they just couldn't or didn't need to/think they need to.
To summarize:
- Its not clear how much time passed between "armor Nami" and "Dutch Nami" outfits. Look at the panel again.
- Don't be so dismissive of Don Freecs, even if your point that the big names PROBABLY know haki is true, because there are enough examples of reasons for not needing haki as well.