Hey, everyone. Yeah, one of those posts; one that I feel like is gonna fall to the wayside as soon as I get started. It’s like…….. I know I WANT to talk about this series in a format like this- not just a million chapter reviews with small scale theories, but a larger scale MEGA theory on one of the lingering mysteries in this Massive Story. The topic of TODAY’S discussion: Devil Fruit Awakenings. Or to be more specific: How they are achieved.
This is a theory I came up with in the lead up to chapter 1,094 when Saturn revealed his Awakened form. And yes, I do believe that that’s something indicative of Zoan Awakenings. I believe that was said somewhere in the story, but I can’t for the life of me find out where. But in the lead up to the fan release of the chapter, my brothers talked about Awakenings- specifically how vague Oda has kept them in the story so far. They even brought up the point of being “close to death” now being debunked because of the St Saturn having that form.
We(my brothers and I) were under the assumption that Awakenings were achieved through near Death, and the reason why Kaido in specific wasn’t Awakened was because he- as the “Strongest Creature” had never felt the “press of death” in his life. Same with Linlin. But from there, my youngest brother Malik told me his theory on Awakenings: That it’s the user of the fruit and the desire that spawned it aligning well that allows you to awaken quicker than others; that Luffy’s desire for freedom and the Sun God’s role align really well, thus allowing him to Awaken. And while; he came up with that theory, I started to think about the theme of Egghead: “Desire And What it Can Spawn.” And I remember while making a post on one of the chapters(can’t remember which one), I had began speculating that the message this arc is trying to convey is that “Desire Without The Will To Work For It Is Little More Than Excessive Greed-” that a strong will is needed to keep “Desire” itself in check. Because York is the embodiment of what happens when “Desire” is left to run amok. This whole MESS at Egghead only happened because she let her desire to become a Celestial Dragon get the better of her.
Desire left unchecked becomes “Greed.” And what’s needed to keep desire in check is Will power- the willingness to keep trying no matter what stands in your way; the restraint to realize when the overall goal is more important than your own selfish desire; the ability to put the safety of everyone trying to help you reach that goal; the self awareness to know when you’re ready to reach that goal; the patience to take it “one step at a time” and reach your goal the right way. Luffy has this in spades– York just cheated. That’s the message we’re made to take from this arc. But in saying that, I got to thinking about Devil fruit Awakenings again, and realized: If these fruits are made from Desire, then the Awakening is the “Highest Form” of that desire- the full extent of what humanity could do with that power.
And then I thought about Haki- Willpower itself– and how we said earlier about it keeping desire in control. And it was then that it hit me: Devil Fruit Awakenings are achieved through Haki- the user must have the desire for more power and the “will” to control it. Haki is the key to Awakening a Devil fruit!!
Evidence
When I first started putting this theory together, I looked at all the Awakened Users in the series- give or take Crocodile and the Jailer Beasts. They’re the ones that throw a wrench in anything I could say. But I actually have a response for them, too. More on that later. Looking at the CONFIRMED Awakened users- Luffy; Katakuri, Doflamingo; Lucci; Kaku; Law; Kidd- all of these characters have Haki AND are Awakened. Though a counterpoint to this: We have no idea when everyone but Luffy awakened- they could have awakened prior to learning Haki. COUNTER TO THAT: Doflamingo used Conqueror’s prior to getting his Devil fruit from Trebol.
Katakuri has had his fruit since he was 5, but we don’t know when he acquired haki, nor do we have a time frame of when Law and Kidd Awakened. But Lucci and Kaku only awakened recently- and are shown to be able to use Haki. But are you seeing what I’m getting at? We haven’t seen an Awakened User without Haki……….. Debatably. There are 4 characters that are argued to be Awakened- and 4 that ARE, but look different from what’s being established. You know them all.
Yamato
She has the same Flame Ribbon and Flaming hair that Luffy, Lucci, and Kaku do– the PROBLEM is that we don’t know if that’s a confirmation of her Awakening, or if that’s something indicative of her fruit itself. Because we’ve seen her full Okuchi No Makami form, and it had the Flame Ribbon and hair, too. Looking it up online, you don’t see any kind of cloud around the Makami. And it’s not like we’ve seen Lucci and Kaku’s full transformations POST Awakening. And Luffy doesn’t get transformations like a Regular Zoan because he’s a Human who ate a Human Human fruit- he gets to be made of rubber but doesn’t transform until he reaches Awakening.
My humble opinion: She is Awakened. If for nothing more than she has the physical indicators of it, and it makes sense if she was in constant battles with her Dad that- at some point- she’d be pushed to Awaken. That’s just me, and I have a commonality between these Awakened users.
Crocodile
We don’t know what Logia Awakenings are capable of, but the running theory that we all accept is that it gives the user the ability to permanently alter the weather and landscape- a la Punk Hazard. And, another point for that: Akainu and Aokiji are CONFIRMED Haki users(especially as Admirals, since it was stated in chapter 594 that All Marines ranked Vice Admiral and HIGHER are capable of using Haki). But more on that in a little bit. If we treat that as the truth, then Crocodile’s Dehydration ability is not his Awakening. But that’s the thing: We have to assume. And the theory will fall apart the moment that Oda reveals a Logia Awakening. I have an idea, but it’s just another thing that we’ll get into later.
The Jailer Beasts
They don’t exhibit the Flame Ribbon or flaming hair. That- and they, you know- lack the capacity for thought- much akin to Chopper’s “Monster Point” pre time skip. Are there all connected? And in what way do these forms tie to the Zoan Awakening’s? I think I have an answer for that…………
The Criteria Of Awakening
Like I said: I believe that strong will- that tough Haki- is required to Awaken a Devil fruit. Because I believe that the Awakening is the “Highest Form” of whatever Desire created the fruit. And a strong Will is needed to control that desire- to keep it from getting out of control. This of course means that there’s a certain level of Haki required to awaken the fruit. We know what level awakened Luffy’s fruit, but not Lucci or Doffy or any of the others; we just know that they’re all very strong Haki users.
This part is where questions start cropping up; questions like “Does One Need To Be A Conqueror?” “Who Has the lowest haki level of all the Awakened we’ve discussed?” “Why does Haki matter so much?” “Why is Haki so important to the world building and lore?” These are all legitimate questions, I’ll admit. And while I’ve laid out what I think Oda is going for; I don’t know everything. Heck, we still don’t even know who has what types of Haki yet. I just know that all Conqueror’s probably have all 3, and if you have Armament- you probably have Observation.
This post is relying on a lo~t of assumptions, I’m seeing. Not as strong as I would have thought. And I have 1 explanation for 1 class of Devil fruits, but that only works because of what’s been revealed about it. Speaking of……
Zoan Awakenings
This one I feel is the Easiest to understand, based on what’s been revealed about Zoan’s from 1,044 onward. We learn in 1,044 that “Zoan’s have a ‘will of their own.’” From just that, you already get a bit of a picture: Your own will has to be stronger than the Zoan’s; a powerful Haki is needed to both “open the door” to more power, and “tame the beast within the fruit.” And by taming the beast and attaining this power, the individual is gifted the “hagaromo-” a flame ribbon; something typically associated with the “Tennin” in Japanese Buddhism. Effectively: A halo. Though it might also represent some form of “Enlightment,” a la that one SBS question Oda answered.
But should your will be overpowered by the Zoan- you become a mindless Beast of a person, such as the Jailer Beasts. You may in fact get all the abilities like accelerated healing, but you’ll lose your “sense of self,” and the Beast’s instincts will take over. And this is likely the case with Chopper’s Monster Point pre time skip: A Forced Failed Awakening Attained Through The Rumble balls. Chopper has the “Desire,” but attained it through “Alternative Means-” he didn’t have the “will” to overcome the fruit itself, and thus lost himself. POST Time Skip, however; he came back in Full Control. Although he’s unable to move after using it(and later on, through Caesar Clown’s modifications; he turns into a baby with a grandpa voice).
In the case of that, I think it might be a case of his “will” being stronger than before. Not enough to attain that full thing, but can at least control the Failed form. It might also have something to do with the “wavelength” idea. Oda brought up in a more recent SBS that Black Mariah uses a drug similar in nature to the Rumble ball to modify the forms she can take with her Ancient Zoan; the form we see in the manga proper depicts the lower half her body as a spider with an actual face- The Zoan fruit itself. So if you can mess with the Devil fruit’s “wavelength” to allow the Zoan itself to be active while still keeping control- you can likely modify it to where you’re in control of a Forced Awakening. That’s how I think about it, at least.
But when it comes to characters such as Luffy, Lucci, Kaku, and potentially even Yamato; they all had a “will” stronger than the fruit they possess. In the case of Luffy in specific; he had just spent his entire main fight in the previous arc improving his Observation– began training to learn the Ryuo technique with Hyogoro in Wano in prep for Kaido- and spent the duration of his 2nd bout with Kaido learning Advanced Conqueror’s. His Haki had been building up to that point. But it was only through being pushed to death that he was able to walk up to “the door.”
Luffy refining his Haki up to that point let him overpower the Will of a God. MAJOR FLEX on his part, although I don’t think he cares. But all of this brings me to the main point of contention when it comes to Awakening: Kaido. From what we’ve seen and how Oda has been setting this up, I’m thinking that Kaido knows how to Awaken- but actively chooses not to. He didn’t even want a Devil fruit; Linlin forced it on him to save his life. Which he didn’t want; he would have preferred to die in God Valley all those years ago, going out in a “Blaze Of Glory” like Roger and Whitebeard would years after the fact. Lilin took that from him. And now he’s even stronger with that Mythical Zoan. He knows this. And he knows about the stamina buff and recovery ability that would come with Awakening.
I think that Kaido knows that he’d be next to invincible if he ever awakened, so he refuses to let himself Awaken his fruit. He may never have been pushed to death like he was at God Valley- at least not until meeting Oden. And then never again until fighting with Luffy and the other Supernovas. But even in those periods of time- at death’s door and CERTAINLY having the haki for it- I doubt that he’ll take that power for himself. He doesn’t have the “Desire” for more strength. That may well change by the time we see him next in the story, but we’ll just have to wait and see when it comes to Kaido……………
Paramecia
This both IS and Is NOT easy to come up with. It still definitely requires a “strong will,” but maybe applied differently. Rather than using it to “overpower a creature,” it might be another variant of the Ryuo technique; using your Haki to apply your power to everything around you. A low level version for Ryuo- something maybe not even the user is fully aware of. Although there’s 1 problem in all of this: Kidd magnetizing Big Mom. Her Haki was WAY beyond his at that point, so I can’t necessarily justify that. I could cop out and say “She was prepared for that so she wasn’t using Haki in that moment,” and use her line in the very next chapter as evidence- but that would be forcing it.
It always comes together so well, and then 1 little problem comes about and the whole theory starts falling apart. Hm……………. Maybe the key is still haki, but affecting the environment is something intrinsic to the Devil fruit, rather than a Haki thing. ‘Showing the fruit that you have the will to master it allows you to master your environment-” not something connected to haki, but attained through it. Something to that effect………..
Logia
We have not seen a CONFIRMED Awakened Logia user; we can only speculate because of what Aokiji and Akainu did to Punk Hazard. They permanently changed the landscape- WHAT ELSE would you call that?! They would cancel each other out and it would just be a giant, blackened poke ball of an island otherwise. And they’re confirmed Haki users, so it fits with this theory. But in all honesty, I feel like they’re of a similar mechanic to Paramecia: “Show the fruit you have the will, and you will be able to control the very weather itself.” Something to that effect.
And while Crocodile had the desire for power, but he- like Chopper- sought it through “Alternative” measures. Chopper sought to become stronger himself, but used drugs to reach hgher- Crocodile honed the power he already had and reached a “ceiling” that he couldn’t overcome: Whitebeard. So in loo of trying to learn Haki and become stronger, Crocodile sought to amass Military Might- advanced weaponry; man power; influence- anything so that he wouldn’t have to fight against anyone ever again. Because he knows that he could never overcome Whitebeard and others like him in hand-to-hand combat. Desired power, but had no will to try and see what lied beyond what he already knew; someone like that is unworthy of the power to control the weather. That’s at least what I’m thinking Oda is trying to say with the Crocodile character, anyway………..
Closing Thoughts
Well…………. THAT was something. The longer I talked, the more I felt………… like the theory wasn’t working as much as I thought it would. And at some point in the post, you can see that I kind of lost what I was trying to say- be it because I stopped writing at some point for about a week or 2(I’m finishing this whole thing on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, with this beginning part being started at 12:12 pm), or because I started to look at it and see a few problems. I mean; heck; the rendition you’re seeing is another version of the Rough Draft- something I had to take apart and rewrite(here and there) to make the post a little more coherent.
The bit about Chopper’s Monster Point is something I added in in my second rough draft because I realized that I neglected to mention it. It’s not that I doubt what I’m saying– it’s more like…………… I forgot to bring it up. I had it in my notes, but at some point down the line it became more about explaining Kaido than anything else. I stand by what I said: Oda probably put more effort into Zoan Awakenings into the other 2, since the Zoan’s seem to be the most integral to the story. Especially considering…………… Recent Events. It’s honestly everything that’s been going on that made me come up with this theory in the first place.
That- and that Mega Theory that I’ve been hinting at. I just came up with an idea that I think is pretty cool in regards to it. But for you to understand that one, you’d have to have read this. At least- with my current mindset. It’ll all make sense…………. If and When I Make That theory. Time and other such things.
Conclusion
I’m picking this back up again Monday, October 30th, 2023, at 6:37 pm, and- in all honesty– I forgot a lot of what else I had to say in the “Closing Thoughts.” It’s not like I had a whole bunch of stuff to add on; I just wanted to get out some of the last things I was thinking about at the time before I ended the post. Ah……….. Nah, can’t think of anything else. Let me know what you guy’s thing in the comments, and until next time, everyone; Stay Safe- Stay Healthy- And Have A Magically Wonderful Day. Hope to see you again!!
