Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist of One Piece, is quite close to accomplishing his dream and claiming the One Piece.
Over the years, he has gone from strength to strength and become an incredibly powerful pirate. Luffy’s growth is commendable, and the fact that he is among the Yonko right now is proof of that. He is easily one of the strongest individuals that fans have seen in the story so far, and for any other pirate, reaching the level that he has would have been the biggest achievement of their lives.
However, Luffy aims to go a step beyond and do the impossible by claiming the One Piece. Not just that, but he has even bigger goals to accomplish after that, given that fans know that he is the one to fulfill the promise that Joy Boy couldn’t. For all these reasons, fans know that Luffy’s standards are much higher and he will need to fulfill his potential and go beyond. How this translates to his Haki, or, in other words, his willpower, is very important.
Luffy’s Mastery Of All The Haki Types
User Of Three Haki Types
User Of Advanced Haki
When it comes to Luffy’s Haki, fans know he was trained in the ways of it by none other than Rayleigh. With Rayleigh, Luffy learned the basics of all three types of Haki in 18 months, after which he had six more months to train by himself. Luffy learned the basics of Observation Haki, using which he gained a sixth sense, Armament Haki, using which he could manifest his spirit for both offensive and defensive purposes, and of course, the Conqueror’s Haki, which meant that he could utilize his willpower to impose upon others and intimidate or knock them out, asserting his superiority. Luffy being born with all three types of Haki was proof of the fact that he had kingly ambition. This is something that fans do not need any confirmation about, however, and that is simply because he wants to become the Pirate King, a message that he has clearly stated right since the beginning of the story.
Only Haki can conquer all! – Kaido
After the time skip of One Piece, Luffy consistently kept growing in terms of power and, with that, his Haki improved as well. In the Wano Country Arc, Luffy’s Haki grew tremendously. In fact, two of his three Haki types advanced to a significant degree during this time period. Luffy was able to manifest the advanced versions of Armament Haki and Conqueror’s Haki. For the former, Luffy trained in the Prisoner Mine, and learned how to deal internal damage using Ryuo. For the latter, Luffy had to suffer another defeat at the hands of Kaido on the rooftop of Onigashima, and with that, he learned that Conqueror’s Haki could actually be infused. By infusing this incredibly powerful Haki, Luffy gained tremendous strength, and while his usage of it was rough at the beginning, by the Egghead Island Arc, Luffy seems to have become a very good user of this power.
Luffy Still Has A Lot To Improve Upon In Haki
While Great, Luffy Needs To Strengthen Himself Further
There is no denying the fact that Luffy is among the elites of the One Piece world, and that his Haki is certainly among the strongest that fans have seen in the series. After all, he is among the very few characters who managed to infuse Conqueror’s Haki in the first place. Luffy’s control over Conqueror’s Infusion also grew significantly with time. Luffy struggled to keep up with Kaido at first, but he was also able to match him with his infusion later, which suggested that as the fight dragged on, his control over it increased. In the end, Luffy managed to combine his Conqueror’s Haki with his devil fruit powers, dealing a telling blow to Kaido, and defeating him for good. But, this clearly was not enough because Luffy’s future enemies were even tougher than Kaido.
For instance, in the Egghead Island Arc, fans got to see the seemingly immortal Five Elders, who simply cannot die, no matter what damage is dealt to them. These Elders are incredibly powerful, and even though Luffy can match them when it comes to levels of strength, he cannot defeat them because they simply keep regenerating. Regardless of whether Luffy hits them with his strongest Gear 5 attacks or his strongest Haki-based attacks, he simply cannot win. This is precisely where fans realized that Luffy needs to go a step beyond if he is to defeat them, and that the key to beating the Elders is Haki.
Listen, Emet! I’ll store my strongest Haki inside you. – Joy Boy
In One Piece chapter 1122, fans got to see Emet utilize his trump card in the battle against the elders. He tugged on a rope that was present inside his body, within which was Joy Boy’s sealed Haki. When Emet unleashed this Haki, fans witnessed an astonishing scene, where this Haki knocked out all the Elders out of their Yokai transformations, essentially negating them. At the same time, it also canceled Saturn’s summoning, by negating his Yokai capability as well. This is clear proof of the fact that Joy Boy’s Haki is much greater than anything that fans have seen in the story, and this is the level that Luffy should aspire to be at. Unless Luffy gets to this level, he cannot defeat the Five Elders, and he absolutely cannot match up to Imu.
The Peak Of Luffy’s Haki In One Piece
Luffy Has To Get To Joy Boy’s Level And Grow Even Stronger
Clearly, Luffy and Joy Boy are similar characters. Fans know that because parallels have been drawn around them since long ago. More importantly, fans also know that Luffy has to accomplish what Joy Boy couldn’t. This essentially implies that Luffy will have to reach similar levels to Joy Boy if he is to put in a shift like him, and if he is to go beyond, then he is to do something even greater. This is a confirmation of the fact that Luffy’s Haki needs to grow much more. While Luffy is a great user of Conqueror’s Haki, he is nowhere close to what Joy Boy displayed recently. He has to work on his Haki quite a lot in order to reach the next level of strength, and display a feat similar to what Joy Boy did.
Still, fans know that eventually, Luffy will get there. This is simply down to the fact that he has to fight against the Elders, and potentially even Imu later down the line. The only way Luffy can pull that off is if he upgrades upon his Haki. Luffy has to put in effort starting now, and work on his Haki going forward. Perhaps, his fight against Shanks is where he will learn more about how to stabilize Haki, and how to bring out its very best. For now, Luffy is far from the strongest in One Piece, and, in many ways, this just makes the story even more interesting.
