Why Smoker Needs A Power Up

Key Takeaways

• Despite being enemies, Smoker has helped the Straw Hats due to his values.
• Despite being a Vice Admiral who uses a Logia Devil Fruit, Smoker is not as strong as other top-tier characters.
• Smoker needs a power-up through mastering Haki to stay relevant in the final saga of One Piece.

One Piece is made up of various differing parties, with many fighting for global control. One such organization is the World Government, which is in direct opposition to the pirates, who are the primary focus of the story, and try to stop them from achieving their goals at every turn. However, despite being the enemies of the main characters, there exist a few characters within their ranks who have aided the Straw Hats due to their own values and codes of justice.

The biggest example of a character like this is Vice Admiral Smoker. Smoker was introduced very early on in One Piece in the brief Loguetown arc, where he was forced to let Luffy go due to Dragon’s sudden appearance. Since then, he has popped up to face the Straw Hats a few times but has ended up helping them. Despite his crucial role in the overall story, his strength isn’t on par with the strongest characters in the series.

Smoker’s Current Powers And Abilities

Just How Strong Is Smoker Right Now?

Ever since his very first appearance as a Marine Captain stationed at Loguetown, Smoker has been a fan-favorite character who has had many recurring appearances in the story. At this stage, he was a far greater threat to the Straw Hats owing to his Logia Devil Fruit; the Moku Moku no Mi, which allows him to transform into and fully control smoke.

Like all other Logia Fruits, it grants the user intangibility to non-Haki-infused attacks, making them impervious to anyone unable to use Haki at all. The early stages of One Piece essentially made Logia fruit users the toughest enemies to fight, since Haki was only properly established later on, so for quite a while, Smoker was one of the strongest characters in the series.

As long as humanity divides itself into factions, no organization in this world can be perfect.

Luffy was also unable to harm, or even touch, Smoker during his escape from Loguetown because of his Devil Fruit. However, he managed after Dragon’s intervention. After this, Smoker is seen in the Alabasta arc, where he follows the Straw Hats to the titular desert kingdom in the hopes of capturing them but is thrust into the battle against Crocodile. Here, he became an ally to Luffy and proceeded to let the Straw Hats go because he knew they were the best chance at defeating Crocodile and saving the kingdom.

Moreover, Smoker has a weapon called a jitte that he carries around with him at all times. This weapon has Seastone at its tip, which means that it can be used to great effect against Devil Fruit users, especially those with Logia powers. As per the Marineford War and the post-timeskip, Smoker has been promoted to Vice Admiral and can use at least Armament Haki now.

Why Smoker Needs A Power-Up

Smoker’s Current Power is Not Enough

Despite being a fan-favorite character, Smoker isn’t exactly known for his strength or track record. Although he possesses a Logia Devil Fruit, it can be seen as one of the weaker ones, since its elemental abilities aren’t even close to the fruits of the same category that belong to the Admirals or other notable characters like Blackbeard. Even though he seemingly uses the Moku Moku no Mi to its full capacity, smoke powers can only get him so far.

This is why, seeing as how the series is in its Final Saga, Smoker deserves to get a substantial power-up to keep up with other characters, be they friend or foe. This is something that can only really be obtained through mastery of Haki since any other Devil Fruit powers are off the table for him at this stage. Seeing as how Koby got a significant power boost seemingly out of nowhere that allowed him to destroy Avalo Pizzaro’s entire arm using his training of Haki, it’s reasonable to assume that Smoker can get this strong too.

Even if our enemies are criminals, this isn’t justice. Their wrongs don’t make us right.

The reason for this is that Smoker hasn’t been seen in action since the end of Punk Hazard, where he was almost killed by Doflamingo but was saved by Kuzan. During this time, he could have undergone rigorous training that could have improved his Haki by a great amount. As the final battles of the series approach closer and closer by the day, Smoker’s presence as an ally to the Straw Hats within the World Government and against the forces of Blackbeard is of vital importance.

Seeing as how Smoker is hinted at being a protégé to Kuzan the same way Kuzan himself was to Garp, it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to have undergone similar training procedures in this time. Smoker is one of the best characters in all of One Piece and he deserves, and needs, a power-up to be relevant in the final saga of the series, which just about every fan wants to see.

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