Key Takeaways
- Haki in One Piece overshadows the original Devil Fruit system, providing a universal advantage to almost every character.
- Haki acts as a catch-all weakness for Devil Fruits, making fights less about strategy and more about brute force.
- The introduction of Haki makes fights against strong enemies in One Piece result in slugfests, diminishing the need for creative solutions.
One Piece has always had an interesting power system. Utilizing the strange and mysterious powers of the Devil Fruits fundamentally changes the consumer’s body, making for a series of interesting and strong abilities. Although not every character utilizes the powers alone, the Devil Fruits act as the main power system during the early stages of One Piece.
However, as the show grew, a new power system was eventually introduced to One Piece. The Haki system introduced a universal ability that increased the strength of almost any character in the series. This new staple power, despite being a more traditional “power-up,” has some interesting aspects, making it a fast favorite among fans. Sadly, there are some aspects of One Piece’s Haki system that overshadow some of the more interesting elements of the original Devil Fruit system.
Related
New One Piece Renders Make One Major Retcon
One Piece has changed Zunesha’s height for the third and likely the last time.
Haki and Devil Fruits: Two Power Systems in Unison
A Tale of Two Powers
Devil Fruits in One Piece has a very simple premise. If a person eats a Devil Fruit, their body changes in some way, giving them some ability. However, at the same time, they become hated by the sea, causing them to lose their ability to swim. Devil Fruits come in multiple different varieties and grant a wide assortment of abilities ranging from Buggy’s Chop-Chop Fruit to Chopper’s Human-Human Fruit.
Maybe nothing in this world happens by accident – Rayleigh
Haki, on the other hand, is an ability that most of the strongest characters in One Piece possess. Haki allows characters to harness their spiritual energy in order to perform superhuman feats. This power comes in three forms; Armament, allowing the user to utilize stronger attacks, Observation, giving the user a certain degree of extra sight and spatial awareness, and Conqueror’s, allowing the user to impose their will over others, potentially knocking them out. One Piece’s Armament Haki also has the additional effect of allowing the user to hit Devil Fruit powers, even if the power would prevent them from being hit originally.
Haki Makes Devil Fruit Users Too Easy to Deal With In One Piece
Every Weakness is Haki
While Haki was officially introduced to One Piece towards the halfway point of the series, the power itself has been around since the beginning of the series. Despite this, Haki still feels like a new system compared to Devil Fruits. With that being said, while the two systems work well together, Haki may just overshadow a few elements of Devil Fruits that made the first few major fights versus Devil Fruit Users so interesting.
Related
One Piece: 5 Important Artifacts That Aren’t The One Piece
The One Piece is just one of many artifacts with untold significance. Here are a few others that are important in this beloved anime.
Firstly, Haki in One Piece gives characters without Devil Fruits a much easier way to deal with Devil Fruit Users. For example, if Zoro were to fight a character like Akainu, it would be impossible for the swordsman to injure the Admiral at all, leaving the non-Devil Fruit User at a severe disadvantage. However, with the use of Haki, Zoro is able to bypass the intangibility granted by the Magma-Magma Fruit, evening the playing fields.
While from a power scaling standpoint, this makes sense, the use of Haki overshadows one of the former important weaknesses of Devil Fruits in One Piece. In the past, the only major way to overcome a Devil Fruit was to exploit its natural weakness. Rather than just attacking with Haki, characters had to outsmart Devil Fruit Users, creating interesting fights that truly explored all aspects of Devil Fruits.
Haki Creates a One-Note Solution in One Piece
No More Creative Solutions
Now with the advent of Haki, One Piece fights against strong enemies just result in slugfests that don’t fully explore the strengths and weaknesses of their Devil Fruit powers. In the past, Luffy needed to discover and exploit weaknesses, like using water to solidify and hit Crocodile to counter his Logia Devil Fruit, or tying up and removing parts of Buggy’s body, to emerge victorious. Now, it seems like every fight has the same solution; punch the target harder and harder until a victor emerges.
Haki is a power that lies dormant in all the world’s creatures. – Rayleigh
While these two power systems in One Piece work very well together, in this small way Haki does overshadow Devil Fruits. However, due to the nature of Devil Fruits, having Haki act as a catch-all weakness for Devil Fruits is probably a better decision in the long run. In the end, hopefully, Oda includes some interesting Devil Fruit weaknesses in the future of One Piece, without relying too much on Haki to be the solution to every problem.
