@Count:
lol I don't mind at all! If anything, it's entertaining and enriching to continue having informative discussions with people instead of only quick replies.
Gotcha. Honestly, this is the first forum I've been on, so I wasn't sure if it would annoy you or be bad "forum etiquette" XD if I continued this conversation when the thread topic had completely changed. Actually, now that I think about, this is the first thoughtful conversation I've been able to have about One Piece with another person since I don't know anyone in real life who reads it, so thanks for that.
I feel you lol. Although at leas Sanji gets moments even when he fails. I can't even remember anything that Robin did in Punk Hazard besides telling Franky in Chopper's body to shut up lol.
And to be fair, Sanji will be the one Straw Hat whose job actually acts as the climactic crux/solution of a One Piece arc instead of a typical "beat everybody up" or sometimes "run away" solution. Which I really like and wish would happen a bit more often if I'm being honest. Meanwhile, Robin can't even have the honor of finding the Road Poneglyph herself on Zou. It has to be given to her on a silver platter by the sheer luck that her teammates were saviors days ago.
I agree with you but…actually, you know what? I'm just completely in agreement with you. I think I'm trying to debate against myself on this Robin vs Sanji/how Oda writes women thing with what I know to be true from the evidence in the manga versus way I want to be true lol.
The fact that it seems like it works in random bursts is probably due to Oda only wanting the foresight to come into play wherever he conveniently wants it to happen. He flips it on and off whimsically. rather than consistently having Katakuri be able to predict and likely stop many things. See, the more you keep fictional concepts vague in how they are executed, the more you get the get away with making them work however you want without making it consistent. See Brook's Devil Fruit for example and its very loose definition of being tied to souls.
I mean, narrative-wise, Katakuri's Haki HAS to have some kind of limitation or everything the SHs did during the wedding would be a plot hole bigger than the one Akainu made in Ace. The real Luffy would get a mochi kick in the ribs right before revealing himself, Brook shouldn't have been able to get near the picture if super-Luffy could see him break it, Ceaser would've get manhandled and his mirror broken the second he showed up. A guy who could consistently and constantly see the future at will (and is more powerful than any of the present protagonists at the moment) wouldn't be Bleach "I can see every future and change it at will" levels of absurdly broken, but it'd still be really bad. Short bursts with the plus of always being active that way, unlike regular OH, makes the most sense to me based on what we've seen so far. Of course, there are other possible limitations that would make sense with the story. Kata might have to focus on one person/thing's future, which could explain how Brook got past him. Or maybe he can't control what content his visions focus on. That last one would be super annoying, actually. Imagine trying to see the future right before your opponent uses their ultimate attack/form and you get the surprised expressions some random grunts are going to make in a few seconds XP
Alright, now this Katakuri discussion is finally getting interesting! I like how you bring up those events. In my eyes, Jigra's hardly a big deal. Bege can get over it lol. Sanji kicking the priest would only replace how Katakuri accidentally shot the priest when Sanji dodged, if I am remembering correctly. Luffy breaking Carmel's picture earlier would get rid of of Jimbei officially severing ties with Big Mom and Brook smashing the portrait. But that can be remedied if the Big Mom Pirates, especially Smoothie, try surrounding or protecting the portrait at all.
You are right about how Katakuri doesn't seem to know how his actions seem to change the future. Although it's still a bit messy.
You know, I just realized I was mostly talking about my observations (lol) regarding Katakuri's Haki with the whole hypothetical reading ahead of the manga thing and left out my personal thoughts on it. Which are basically that I think Oda has been doing a decent enough job of showing us that Katakuri uses it while he fights (with commenting on Luffy's dragging him to the Mirror world or that Luffy was going to try power before their G3 clash), but I agree with you that it doesn't feel like Kata has done anything that absolutely required his OH, during or after the wedding. If you rewrote this arc with Katakuri having regular OH, the only thing that wouldn't be an easy fix would be keeping his Jojo-style line predictions, but even then that's a really minor thing and I feel like Oda could have just made that an OH-related "quirk" instead of giving him a completely new form of Haki.
@Woodstock:
To be fair, in both instances they were bewildered at the ridiculousness of Luffy's techniques aesthetically, and the name. At least the first intro of G3 and G4 anyways.
Call me stupid, but I actually had the exact same reaction as Lucci the first time I saw G3, if only for a few seconds. I guess the fact that it's activated by Luffy blowing air into himself and that he called it bone balloon gave me a mental image of a giant hollow fist filled with only air and not bones/muscles, which Luffy has.
@Hannibal:
Hello, I'm Hannibal Psyche, and I'm new to this forums. Been reading as a non-registered member, and I've found the discussions pretty stimulating to read and interesting. I hope I'm welcome here!
Welcome to the forums! I hope you enjoy it here! The admission cost is 50,000 berries if you're a kid and 100,000 if you're an adult. :P
I'll just like to add that regarding Observation Haki, there's a lot of ambivalence and confusion regarding why it seems to work sometimes and then other times, seems non-existent. It can even appear as though Oda is confused and uses it for the purposes of pure convenience rather than it having a fundamental mechanism regarding its workings.
Observation Haki has limitations, though not stated in the Manga, it's heavily implied. Anytime we see Observation Haki working, it's when characters are not attacking, but simply watching or observing; this is when we see those flashy and sleek feats of evasion.
However, when characters begin to fight, we literally can't tell if it's even playing a role. That's actually because it plays no role in the heat of battle. Observation Haki requires a lot of concentration, therefore, as soon as a character decides to commit to a fight or an attack, the ability to use Observation Haki is negated. This is why Katakuri despite how great his Observation Haki is surprised when Sanji dodges the bullet, and bare in mind at this point, Sanji is also not attacking. However, when a character commits to an attack, Observation Haki is non-functional. It's in a sense a defensive manoeuvre or pseudo-offensive one at best.
It's rather difficult to point out this mechanisms without using pictures and I don't want to hijack this page as I tend to ramble on a lot. If anyone is interested in detailed writing with references and pictures as to how I have come to this conclusion: Can read it on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePiece/comments/70bozz/misconception_regarding_observation_haki/
That's a really interesting and well-thought possibility, but Haki has intentionally be kept vague enough that we can't establish such things as fact. Even without your explanation, I believe it was established in Skypeia that you need to keep your concentration ion order to use Observation Haki, as Satori and Enel both lost it when they were freaked out, so lost concentration can be used as an excuse. Also, just Observation Haki doesn't guarantee you can counter whatever you're opponent is going to do. If I had OH and someone was going to shoot me with a gun, then I'd know where the bullet was going to hit me, but I couldn't really do much about it as a regular human that is neither fast nor strong enough to avoid getting hit by bullets.
Actually, since this seems like the right time and place to do it, I'm gonna spill out my overall thoughts on Haki real fast:
I don't really mind Conquerer's and Observation Haki, since the first is more like a badge of honor than a useful ability and the second can be hand-waved away easily enough if it seems like it's not be used. Be I really wish Armament Haki was done differently. It's just a flat constant that takes care of any devil fruit power without anything else needed. No creativity needed in the New World, just punch faster with stronger AH and you win! Ok, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but still. There's no drawback except it takes lots of training to learn and we literally skipped over that part. It would be more interesting, to me at least, if it only made logias solid instead of negating any df power upon contact, like others mentioned, or drained stamina when used, or something like those. One idea I thought could be interesting after re-reading the Zoro vs Mr. 1 fight, where I'm 99% sure Zoro used Observation and Armament Haki to win at the end after nearly getting shredded to pieces, would be to have Armament (and maybe also Observation) Haki work like a revenge mechanic in a fighting game, where you only have access to Haki when you're beaten down and closer to death, your Haki becomes stronger and easier to use the more you get injured, etc. That could possibly make fights more interesting with the losing side getting access to such an advantage, and Oda loves the good guys making comebacks after getting beaten up anyways. That would probably change a lot of post-timeskip situations, but I feel fights would get more interesting if Haki wasn't such a reliable constant. I welcome any and all criticism on this idea, as I didn't put a gigantic amount of thought into it and could easily be missing a reason that wouldn't make it work.