Another incredibly long post I made at MangaHelpers. Again, I think it's a rather good post, so I figured I'd put it here too. One post for two forums, that's not laziness, that's efficiency!:ermm:
! A monumental chapter this week. With this chapter, One Piece has tied Dragon Ball in terms of number of chapters. And next week, One Piece will be longer then Dragon Ball. (Well, at least in terms of number of chapters. In terms of number of pages and number of volumes, One Piece has been ahead for years.) It certainly feels like a milestone.
! It seems as though the Kuja really don't know of Devil Fruits. It seemed as though they might, but just got confused because Luffy's a man, but if they don't know that Sandersonia and Marigold are Devil Fruit users, they almost definitely do not know of the existence of Devil Fruits. They probably figure that Hancock's abilities come from her great beauty, and since they are tied to love and lust, being the Love Love Fruit (I've got to find a better translation for this one. The Mero Mero Fruit and the Horo Horo are giving me a lot of trouble, translation-wise) that assumption makes sense. The "Gorgon" sisters have probably pinned it on the Gorgon's curse because their influence with the Kuja apparently stems from their having defeated the Gorgon, which they apparently didn't actually do. This also seems to make it sure that what's on Hancock's back isn't a Gorgon symbol, but rather, something else that she got some other way, perhaps as a byproduct of her Devil Fruit, although it really does seem to have the power to petrify, since Hancock and her sisters were shocked when Luffy wasn't petrified.
! The focuses this chapter were on two things. Firstly, Hancock's twisted rule and impunity among the Kuja. And secondly, the battle uses of Haki. From Sandersonia, it seems that Haki can be used to read attacks. This makes sense. If you're the type of person who walks around with an aura of strength, it figures that you'd be able to sense from someone else's emotional aura what they were going to do. It's sort of like the other side of Mantra. Mantra worked by sensing the noises and shifts made by the body. Haki-radar seems to work by sensing the shifts and disturbances of the emotions.
! Marigold's power is much more troubling. At first glance, it seems to imply that Haki can jam Devil Fruit powers, something that I cannot stomach. It is illogical, unbalanced, overpowered, cheapens other powers, cheapens Devil Fruits, and makes Haki too specific to fit the term and the story. I've been dreading and loathing statements to the effect of "Haki can jam Devil Fruit powers" ever since chapter 512. I refuse to believe that Oda would do something this foolish with Haki, and if he does, I may seriously hold that against him for the rest of the story. Which is something I don't want to happen, which is why I hope that's not what Oda's done. (I know he said sometimes he gives the fans what they want, but not over this. This is too major and has too many drawbacks for him to give, regardless of the fans.) Thankfully, there's hope.
! If Marigold could jam Devil Fruits with Haki, then why did Gum Gum Stamp bounce off of her? It should have jammed. It should have snapped straight back to Luffy, or he should have been a normal human with a grossly long leg. It seems as though Marigold wasn't so much able to jam Luffy's Devil Fruit as strengthen herself with Haki so should resist Luffy's attack, thus making it bounce back at him. Then she hit him with the butt of her glaive, which did affect Luffy, as did Sandersonia's subsequent crushing of his body in her coils. You could say that the butt of the glaive must be made of Seastone, but that doesn't seem to be the case, since Marigold's Snake Spike attack was done with her tail, not the glaive, and it did affect Luffy.
! But the thing is, we know that Luffy isn't immune to all blows. A hard enough punch can hurt him, whether it's because it's driven by emotion (the Fist of Love), or whether it's from a powerful fighter. (Foxy's punches. Not that Foxy was that powerful, but apparently, he could throw a decent punch. Other examples include Bellamy's blows. Luffy was bloody and battered after that.) It may be that with Haki, Marigold was able to strengthen her attacks to the point where they were able to hurt Luffy, which is quite an impressive feat, seeing as Luffy can withstand a cannonball. That also fits with my theory of how fighting with Haki works (which I was sure I'd posted somewhere, but I can't seem to find it, so I'll remention it here.) Haki is your ambition, your strength of will. Therefore, it makes sense that the way to fight with Haki is to put the strength of your will, in addition to the strength of your muscles, into your blows. I got this idea by seeing the Haki imbued arrow Marguerite fired. I think it worked by her just using Haki to fire the arrow extremely hard.
! That solves alot of problems, as then the usage seems to fit with the meaning of the term "Haki", Haki isn't so powerful it's practically an institutionalized Deus ex Machina, and the fighting styles don't change, everything just goes up a level (or more) because the characters are now fighting with something stronger then their muscles: Their "wills". I'm hoping that's how Haki works and that's what Marigold did. It also seems to make sense because Sandersonia, who seems to specialize in Haki-radar, was able to hurt Luffy when she crushed him, but not when she slammed him on the ground. If his Devil Fruit was jammed, then both should have hurt him, and he shouldn't have been able to kick her while she had him grabbed. Her snake muscles must be more powerful then slamming Luffy on the ground, which seems to make some sense. Snake muscles are extremely strong.
! And finally, the last thing we see is that Luffy, when he's aroused, has the Haki of a man who seems destined for greatness, which is quite fitting, since Luffy is a man who's destined for greatness. He can do what Shanks did, he can knock out a whole group of underlings with the mere strength of his presence. And now that Luffy's aroused, I think he may continue this fight with the force of his will, his ambition, his "Haki" behind his blows. Hopefully, he'll use Haki the way I think he will, and that mystery (and anxiety) will finally be put to rest. And once he does it this time, I think that he'll know to do it again. Just like Goku was able to become a Super Saiyan at will once he learned how to make himself angry enough to transform at will, Luffy will be able to stir himself into releasing his full strength of presence and using that to fuel his attacks. And once he's done that, he may finally be ready to take on the New World.