One Piece has finally revealed its most powerful haki user, and it isn’t Shanks or even Luffy for that matter, but Joyboy the mysterious first pirate. Joyboy, the enigmatic figure at the center of all of One Piece‘s mysteries, has finally made his debut in the series with a stunning display of haki that has deepened the intrigue surrounding his character.
In chapter #1122 of One Piece, Emet uses Joyboy’s haki that was sealed inside him in the form of a knotted rope. Upon pulling the knot free, Emet unleashes a wave of Joyboy’s Conqueror’s Haki which instantly knocks out countless Marines in the vicinity. In fact, the black sparks of Joyboy’s haki are seen emanating from Egghead, even from a great distance away.
More importantly, armed with Joyboy’s haki, Emet not only manages to force the Five Elders back into their human forms, which seemingly forces them to retreat to Mariejois. The fact that a single hit of Joyboy’s haki was able to subdue the Five Elders so easily especially given how much Luffy has been struggling against them all but proves that Joyboy might just be the strongest Haki user in all of One Piece.
One Piece Reveals Joyboy’s True Power and Haki
Created by Eiichiro Oda Chapter #1122, “Time Is Right“
Custom Image by Merlyn De Souza
Despite how crucial he is to the story, very little has been revealed about Joyboy and his identity or even his power and abilities for that matter until very recently. It was only towards the end of the Wano Arc that One Piece finally confirmed that Joyboy was the previous user of the Nika Fruit when Zunesha recognized the Drums of Liberation.
While the Nika Fruit alone was enough to cement Joyboy as a truly fearsome figure, the latest chapter of One Piecepaints him in an entirely new light, making him seem more formidable than ever before with the revelation of his powerful Conqueror’s Haki.
Interestingly, towards the end of chapter #1122, Joyboy himself describes the haki sealed inside Emet as “the greatest of haki,” a description his haki most certainly lives up to. It is a bit unclear if the Five Elders were forcefully sent back to Mariejois by the attack itself or if they hastily retreated of their own accord, though the fact that Saint Mars is seen already seated while the others are out of breath seems to suggest they willingly fled Egghead.
Regardless, the fact that Joyboy’s haki was able to strip the Five Elders of their demonic forms alone is quite a feat. Luffy has notoriously struggled to fight the Five Elders despite his own powerful Conqueror’s Haki.
This, of course, raises many interesting questions about whether Luffy will be able to acquire the same level of haki by the end of the series or whether there is some secret to it that Luffy is yet to discover. The revelation of Joyboy’s haki also begs the question of how he was defeated despite possessing such powerful haki and the ridiculous abilities of the Nika Fruit at his disposal.
The Revelation of Joyboy’s Haki Challenges the Current Understanding of Haki
Haki May Be Explored in Greater Detail in the Final Saga
It is still unclear how Joyboy was able to seal his haki away inside Emet using just a rope for 900 years after his death. While many have imbued their weapons with haki in One Piece before, the latest chapter is certainly an anomaly that challenged everything th series has established about haki so far.
Logically, the haki within Emet should have faded along with Joyboy’s death, but again, technology during the Void Century has been established to be much more advanced than fans can imagine, which means there could have been more to this “sealing” process than meets the eye. Seeing as Vegapunk was able to justify the existence of even devil fruits using scientific logic, it is possible that haki too can be explained by a very logical explanation.
Still, it is clear from chapter #1122 that there is still a lot about haki that fans are yet to discover and perhaps everything that One Piece has revealed thus far about haki has only scratched the surface of what the ability is truly capable of. Haki, as a power system, is still fairly new and is clearly still hiding many secrets. However, the revelation of Joyboy’s haki may have finally opened the door to exploring the ability in greater detail in the Final Saga of One Piece.
