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Hey all,
I’m back with a new theory. This time it will be about Devil Fruit Awakening but to fully explain my thoughts on this particular subject I will have discuss some other things as well. Hope you enjoy nonetheless.
As always we’re starting off with a Franky Joke! Yes, I still have plenty of material!
So what exactly is Devil Fruit Awakening?
Our main source of information comes from Doflamingo.
He hinted that once you awaken your Devil Fruit a whole new world of possibilities becomes possible. Basically this means that characters will unlock new powers with their Devil Fruit that they didn’t have before the awakening.
If we take Doflamingo as an example then we only have to look at the new powers he showcased during his fight with Luffy.
Doflamingo was able to turn the streets and buildings of Dressrosa into strings and use those to attack Luffy. He even mentioned that his powers, once awakened, didn’t only affect him but his surroundings as well.
If we look at Doflamingo’s power before and after his awakened abilities then there are 3 things that have changed:
1. Doflamingo was able to change his surroundings to fit his Devil Fruit power.
2. Doflamingo seemed to break the Devil Fruit mode to which his power belong.
3. Doflamingo didn’t need to be in direct contact with his surroundings.
Let’s start with Doflamingo being able to change his surroundings to fit his Devil Fruit power since its the most obvious.
Where normally Doflamingo attacked trough shooting strings from his body, he was this time able to change his surroundings into strings and attack with them.
Second would be Doflamingo being able to break the normal rules of his Devil Fruit power. To explain this I want to talk shortly about the different forms of Paramecia abilities we have seen in the story. They can basically be divided into two categories: internal Paramecia powers and External paramecia powers.
Internal Paramecia powers fall into a category where the user’s body is changed to fit a certain power scheme. Examples of this are Luffy and Buggy. Luffy obtained a rubber body and Buggy obtained a splitting body.
External Paramecia powers fall into a category where the user can summon a certain power scheme. Examples of this are Doflamingo and Whitebeard. Doflamingo can shoot strings from his body and Whitebeard can summon quakes with his fist.
The external Paramecia are different from the internal where their body isn’t necessarily changed by their Devil Fruit ability. Doflamingo isn’t made out of strings and Whitebeard wasn’t made out of Quakes.
Doflamingo’s awakening seemed to break this rule however with his Awakening and obtaining a form of internal Paramecia. If we go by his normal Devil Fruit ability which is external, then Doflamingo, when using his awakened Devil Fruit to change his surroundings, should normally only be capable of shooting strings from his surroundings. He however was able to convert his surroundings into strings, what suggests that the internal/external rules don’t apply to the effects Awakening has on the surroundings (since Doflamingo didn’t dodge Luffy’s attacks by turning his own body into strings we can assume Awakening doesn’t change the users body into an internal ability).
That last thing that seems to have changed is the range with which Doflamingo was able to convert his surroundings.
He was able to change buildings that were far away from where he was fighting Luffy. This suggests he doesn’t need to be in direct contact with his surroundings to change them. This sets him apart from a Logia user like Aokiji, who needed a part of his body to touch the ocean to turn it into ice.
The only other Paramecia we have seen with an awakened fruit showcased similar abilities. This was Katakuri when he fought Luffy in the mirror world.
Similar to Doflamingo he was also able to change his surroundings into mochi which fits his Devil Fruit ability. What sets him apart from Doflamingo is that his ability already showcased both internal and external abilities. He could change his body into mochi when needed, which combined with his observation haki made him seem like a Logia. He also was able to summon mochi which showcased him being an external user on top of that. And while we haven’t seen the increased range that Doflamingo had, that could simply be contributed to him and Luffy fighting in close range. There is nothing that suggests he wouldn’t be able to change his surroundings without his body actually touching it.
As of right now they are the only 2 Paramecia users we have seen with awakened abilities. And while we haven’t seen any awakened Logia’s yet, we did get some examples of awakened Zoans. The awakened ability of Zoans is different from paramecias, which makes sense since it would be weird if Rob Lucci managed to turn buildings into cats. Instead Zoan Awakening seems to affect their transformation into their specific animal.
According to Crocodile, the Awakening of Zoans effects their toughness and resilience.
A blow that might knock out a normal Zoan will have a decreased effectiveness on an Awakened Zoan, who after some time will get up again and fight once more.
Something else that separates normal Zoans from Awakened Zoans seems to be their outer appearance in Hybrid form. This is best explained by the surprise shown on the prisoners when Crocodile explained the Jailer Beasts were actually Devil Fruit users.
It becomes more obvious if we look at the differences between a Awakened Zoan Hybrid form and the Hybrid form of a normal Zoan.
The picture above is the Hybrid form of an Awakened Zoan and the picture below is from Rob Lucci in his hybrid form as a normal Zoan user.
There are clearly differences in their facial features. Rob Lucci facial features still resemble a human but the Minotauros facial features have lost this and resemble an animal, in his case a cow (Yes I know cows don’t really look like that but you catch my meaning). The other Zoans we have seen in Hybrid form like Jabra, Kaku and Drake also show human facial features, although Kaki was a bit weird I must admit.
I think its best explained like this:
- a normal Zoan Hybrid is a Hybrid form where the human takes on an animal form, but still retains human features.
- an Awakened Zoan Hybrid form is a Hybrid form where the animal takes on a human form, but still retains animal features.
It is a bit confusing but hopefully the pictures help to show the differences I mentioned. Those differences could also explain why the prisoners of Impel Down didn’t realize they were Zoans and instead seemed to take them for monsters.
As of right now we haven’t seen any Logia Awakening but if I had to make a guess they are more likely to resemble Paramecia over Zoan. It would be weird to have a moving and talking Lightning Bolt for example. Instead it would make more sense if they were able to change their surroundings into their specific element.
People have speculated that Punk Hazard was the result of both Akainu and Aokiji awakening when they fought to determine the next Fleet Admiral. This could explain why half the Island is covered in snow/ice and the other half is covered in fire/magma.
With that I should have covered the new powers Awakening could give, determined by the Devil Fruit class. Next would be to speculate on what it is exactly.
I would like to stay on Zoans for the moment to speculate on this and I want to highlight a specific sort of Zoan user, the item Zoan user.
The picture above is from the first item/zoan the Strawhats encountered in the story, which was Lasso, a gun that ate the Dog-Dog Fruit. The picture below is from Funkfreed, a sword that ate the Elephant-Elephant Fruit, which was used by Spandam on Enies Lobby.
The technology to allow an item to eat a Devil Fruit was developed by Vegapunk but still hasn’t been explained in the story. We however can do some speculation with the small bits of information we have received. Let’s start with Usopp’s confusion when he fought Mr. 4 and Lasso in Alabasta.
Usopp found it strange that Lasso could move when it was a gun, since according to him Devil Fruits don’t have a mind of their own. Miss Merry Christmas avoided the question, likely because Oda hadn’t had any real plans to expand on this at that point in the story, but Usopp’s confusion is well placed.
Since an item like a gun or sword shouldn’t be able to move or attack on their own (as far as we know in One Piece) the most logical explanation is that it is the Devil Fruit that is doing the moving. Because of this we can at least assume that Devil Fruits, where the Zoans are concerned, seem to have some sort of mind of their own. This is best showcased by Franky being able to threaten Funkfreed to form his nose back to normal instead of sword form.
We can’t be sure about Paramecia and Logia but for Zoans it actually makes some sense, in a weird sort of way. An animal like a tiger has a mind of its own, which isn’t the case for rubber or perhaps magma.
If we link this to the changed appearance an Awakened Zoan has in their Hybrid forms then we could possibly consider the term ‘Awakening’ to be literal. It could be the animal’s mind in a Zoan Devil Fruit awakening and taking some form of control over the human’s body. It would explain why their Hybrid forms look more animal than human and possibly also why we haven’t seen the Jailer Beasts talk.
This is weird enough as it is but it’s going to get more crazy. If what I speculated above turns out to be correct then the first character we actually saw in a semi-awakened Zoan form was actually Chopper when he went into his Monster form after eating 3 Rumble Balls.
The reason I’m considering Chopper to have semi-awakened his Zoan Devil Fruit are based on 2 things:
- Chopper in Monster form facial features resemble his reindeer form more then an actual human, and since he ate the Human fruit it should be the other way around in an Awakened Hybrid form.
- Chopper used to loose control whenever he went into Monster Form.
Because of this I cant say the Rumble Balls allow him to awaken his Devil Fruit, but I do think it allowed him to enter a semi-awakened stage. My reasoning for this is that Kureha mentioned his Devil Fruit went into a rampage. This fits the Zoan Awakening scheme I speculated on earlier where the mind in the Zoan fruit takes control.
It also opens up interesting ways of looking at the information we have gotten about the Rumble Balls.
According to Chopper the Rumble Balls are a medicine that creates waves that disturb the frequencies emitted by the Devil Fruit. They were originally used by Chopper to go past the 3 form limitation other Zoan Devil Fruit users have, opening up 7 different forms that could use instead. If we consider that Zoan Devil Fruits could have a mind of their own, then Chopper used the Rumble Balls to change this ‘mind’ slightly so that he could change specific parts of his body like the arms or legs.
Now during and after the time-skip Chopper trained so that he could use the 7 transformations without needing a Rumble Ball, only needing 1 instead of 3 to enter his Monster form which I consider to be a semi-Awakened Hybrid form. It is interesting however that he manages to control himself now in this form instead of going on a rampage.
This more closely resembles the Awakened Jailer Beasts who have seem to be in control as well in that they obey Sadi’s orders and don’t go on indiscriminate rampages.
This form of control is a direct result of Choppers training however and likely would not work on other Zoan users if they managed to eat 3 Rumble Balls. This was showcased on Punk Hazard when Law put our main man Franky inside of Chopper’s body.
It’s likely because Chopper’s Devil Fruit was already semi-awakened that Franky only needed 1 Rumble Ball to go into Monster form. He however lacked Choppers training and the ‘mind’ inside of the Zoan Devil Fruit took control and went into a rampage.
I’m not trying to say that Chopper managed to fully awaken his Devil Fruit, since he still lacks the facial features, but it’s interesting to consider that his Rumble Balls might allow a Zoan to half awaken their abilities. If Chopper’s monster form was the basis for Oda creating Awakened Zoans then it could indicate that an Awakened Zoan must first establish control over the animal part and establishing their own personality as the dominant mind before they can use it normally.
For now keep in mind that Zoan Devil Fruits could very well have a mind of their own, since we could use that as an basis for Paramecias and Logias.
I want to start this by discussing Armament Haki allowing somebody to touch the body of a Logia type.
According to Rayleigh, Armament Haki can be used to ‘force’ a Logia’s body in solidity. What’s interesting here is the ‘forcing’ bit. What is exactly forced to become solid? Is it the Devil Fruit user him/herself or could it for example be their Devil Fruit that allows them to become intangible.
To explains this I want to use Katakuri and Ace as examples. Let’s start with Katakuri who was able to appear like a Logia in that attacks went right through him. He was able to do this by combining his Observation Haki to determine where the Opponent was going to hit and then change that part of his body into Mochi. In his case he was actively making his own body intangible, it was something he had under his own control.
This is different from actual Logia users who don’t seem to have to worry about making their body intangible. This was showcased by a couple but lets take Ace as an example.
When Ace fought Blackbeard + crew, Van Augur tried to snipe him while Ace was speaking to Blackbeard. All of Van Augurs shots went right trough him and Ace continued on talking. In this example Ace is different from Katakuri in that he didn’t have to directly control his body becoming intangible, it’s something that his Devil Fruit does for him without him actually controlling it. It seems more likely that the opposite of Katakuri’s case is shown here in that Ace has to actually control his body not to become intangible since his feet are not setting the roof on fire.
The best example for this is likely Kizaru when he kicks someone at the speed of light. If his body stays intangible then the kick would just pass trough his target, in which case he must force himself solid so he can actually do damage.
If we take this back to Zoan Devil Fruits that seems to have a mind of their own, then something similar can be said for Logias. While ‘mind’ might not be the best term to describe it, there could be something that controls specific parts of the ability, which controls the body becoming intangible.
So let me rewind back to my earlier question: Does Armament Haki force the user him/herself solid or is their Devil Fruit forced to become solid?
This might be best answered with another question: How would you go about forcing a Logia user him/herself to become solid?
Let’s say Marco and Vista were fighting Akainu at Marine Ford and tried to attack him with Armament Haki. Now in this example Akainu himself controls his intangibility and doesn’t want to become solid. If Akainu controls the the intangibility then it would become a clash between willpower vs willpower, and if Akainu had more willpower it could allow him to stay intangible whether Marco and Vista used Armament Haki or not.
In that scenario you would half suspect signs of Conquerors Haki flying all over the place and the moment of contact would have to last a decent amount of time for their to be estabished a winner before the attack would hit or pass trough.
It makes more sense if, like I speculated earlier, the Devil Fruit itself is responsible for the intangibility. In that case you would only need to force the Devil Fruit into becoming solid, and not directly the user. If this is correct then it suggest that Logias, similar to Zoans, have something that could be called a ‘mind’ of its own. And since this so called ‘mind’ is not directly in control of the Devil Fruit user you would likely not require as much willpower to force it solid.
It is a bit confusing at this point but maybe it becomes more clear when I trow the Paramecias into the mix since they, internal Paramecias at least, also have some sort of change happening to their body which they don’t seem to have directly control.
The best example here is the main character, Monkey D. Luffy with his rubber ability which changed his body into rubber. If we go way back to the beginning of the story when Luffy had only just eaten his Devil Fruit, he was grabbed on the arm by Shanks, which started to stretch because Luffy tried to walk away.
Similar to Logias, Luffy doesn’t seem to be in direct control of changing his body to rubber, as he was as shocked as Shanks by what was happening to his arm. It took him a long time training with Ace and Sabo to control this ability and use it in fights. It’s likely that similar to Logias, Luffy has to force his body / or parts of his body, to become unlike rubber in some scenario’s like fighting.
A good example of this is at the end of Water Seven when Luffy stretches his arm to get Usopp on the Thousand Sunny after Usopp apologized. Usopp was able to grab Luffy’s hand without Luffy’s fingers stretching, allowing Luffy to pull his arm back in bringing Usopp back with it.
Somebody that uses Armament Haki can still damage Luffy because, similar to the Logias, it is the ‘mind’ of the Devil Fruit that turns his body into Rubber. If this was not the case then that person would need to overpower Luffy’s will for which a large amount of Conquerors Haki would be needed.
I hope this makes some sense, even if it is confusing.
The point I was trying to establish is that similar to Zoans, Paramecias and Logias also have something that can be called the ‘mind’ or maybe ‘will’ of the Devil Fruits. The only exception at the moment could be external Paramacia’s but I hope to adres that in the next part.
This bring us back to Devil Fruit Awakening, what is it exactly?
I believe we can take it as literal, meaning that similar to the earlier discussed Awakening of Zoans, it is the ability to awaken the will of the Devil Fruit, allowing for more advanced versions of that specific ability.
To best explain this I want to use this picture of brain waves when a person is deep asleep, dreaming, or awake.
When a person is deep asleep the frequency of the waves is slow, it goes a bit faster when that person is dreaming, and very fast when that person is awake.
If we translate this into the earlier speculation of Devil Fruits having a ‘mind/will’ of their own then it should look something like this:
- The mind of the Devil Fruit is deep asleep when the user has fallen into the ocean or is cuffed with seastone.
- The mind of the Devil Fruit is dreaming when the user is in their normal state, allowing for use of the main abilities.
- The mind of the Devil Fruit becomes awake when the user managed to awaken it allowing for expanded forms of abilities upon the main abilities they already had when the Devil Fruit was dreaming.
Do you remember when I talked about Chopper’s Rumble Balls that disturbed the frequencies emitted by the Devil Fruits? My ideas about him semi-awakening his fruit comes from this. His multiple transformation and semi-awakened Hybrid form might be the result of his Devil Fruit not fully awakening but instead going into a meditation state (day-dreaming) instead of just normal dreaming.
Alright, that’s cool and all, but where do the extended abilities come from?
For this I want to go back to Franky being able to threaten Funkfreed to go into Elephant form and Chopper having trained to overcome his Devil Fruit going into rampage mode. It’s likely that when the mind/will of the Devil Fruit has awakened you can actually force it / overpower its will to do things it normally wouldn’t do.
Let’s go all the way back and take Doflamingo as example. He was not only able to affect his surroundings but also seemed to force his Devil Fruit into becoming internal instead of external. So instead of buildings shooting strings we got buildings that turned into strings. Doflamingo could have forced this Devil Fruit into seeing those buildings as part of Doflamingo’s body and this converting his ability onto them.
With this example we could speculate that external Paramecia Awakening is in some cases different from internal Paramecia Awakening but that's better left for later.
In the case of Zoans, Awakening likely results in the mind of the animal taking over the body, forcing it into more animal featured shape. If we go by Chopper as a rule then a users personality must first force it aside and become dominant over their body.
Logia’s are likely similar to Paramecia’s in being able to force their Devil Fruit to see their surroundings as part of their body.
So if Awakening results in having to overpower the will of the fruit, does Conquerors Haki play a role?
The answer should be no but maybe.
As mentioned earlier, there are characters that have awakened their Devil Fruits without having Conquerors Haki (most likely). These are the Jailer Beasts and maybe Chopper. While we can’t say for certain they don’t have Conquerors Haki but it seems highly unlikely.
If we go by my speculation on Logia/Paramecia fruits also having a will of their own, and characters can overpower it simply with Armament Haki then Conquerors Haki should not be needed.
But that doesn’t mean Conquerors Haki can’t play a role. I believe it could play 2 parts with Awakening:
It makes it easier to overpower the will of the fruit.
It might allow for extra benefits
What I mean with this is best explained with Doflamingo. I mentioned a couple of times that Doflamingo’s Awakening seems to bend more rules then others. There is his external fruit changing to internal when it comes to his surroundings and he also showcased a crazy amount of range when it comes to him affecting his surroundings.
Both of these things could be examples of a Devil Fruit user with Conquerors Haki Awakening their fruit.
Since Conquerors Haki deals with overpowering the will of characters I see no reason why it shouldn’t affect a Devil Fruit when it is awakened. We have seen that Conqueors Haki affects objects like the wooden planks on Whitebeard’s ship when Shanks showed up.
It should be easier for a character with Conquerors Haki to force its Devil Fruit to do certain things then for a person without. Hence Doflamingo’s fruit changing to internal when affecting his surroundings could be a result of this.
His incredible range could be a because of Conquerors Haki as well. A good example for this was the sky splitting when Shanks/Whitebeard clashed, or when Kaido clashed with Big Mom. If their Conquerors Haki can reach the clouds in the sky, it might also explain why Doflamingo’s Awakened Devil Fruit has such an incredible range where it affects buildings far away from Doflamingo’s body.
The same should count for Katakuri but since he and Luffy fought in a closed space there was no need for him to showcase such a large range.
Can anyone awaken their Devil Fruit?
Theoretically every Devil Fruit user should be capable of Awakening their fruit. However its unlikely Oda will go that far. This is mainly because for most Devil Fruit users it doesn’t really provide benefits to their power scheme.
Let’s take Luffy as an example with the Rubber Fruit. Since Luffy has Conqueors Haki he should be able to do similar things to Doflamingo. While its unlikely his ability would change to external (his surrounding shooting rubber) since that would just be weird, he should be able to change his surroundings to rubber if he wanted to. However this doesn’t really provide benefits to Luffy in combat, It’s not like rubber buildings would allow him to hop around fast like Bellamy could.
The only situation I can see this becoming handy for Luffy is when a crewmate would fall down or be launched at a building that can’t defend themselves from it like Usopp or Nami for example. Changing that building or the streets below it into rubber could stop them from receiving critical damage, it can also simply be avoided by having someone save them (Luffy stretching his hand to catch or Sanji/Brook appearing to catch them).
Because of this its unlikely that every Devil Fruit user in the story will awaken at some point. In most cases it’s likely Oda will choose characters that need a certain power-up. These will be either crewmates/friends that are lacking or enemies that need to become a greater threat.
If we take the Strawhats as basis than the Devil Fruit users are:
- Luffy
- Chopper
- Robin
- Brook
As mentioned before, Luffy won’t really benefit from an Awakening so I doubt Oda will have him do it. I don’t see Robin or Brook Awakening since their power schemes would just become weird (Robin sprouting buildings everywhere or Brook turning buildings into souls). The only likely candidate is Chopper, and since its likely he already semi-awakened his fruit, it won’t change much for his combat abilities. At most his Monster form will resemble a human a bit more and he would be to stay in it longer without receiving the damaging effects when he ends it.
If we look at the main enemies that are Devil Fruit users:
- Yonkou
- Admirals
- Worst Generation
For the Yonkou the only one I see having an Awakened Fruit is possible Kaido.
Just to make it even harder to take him down. Big Mom is very unlikely to be Awakened since her power scheme would just become strange (taking life from buildings etc). Shanks doesn’t have a Fruit as far as we know and Blackbeard doesn’t need an Awakening since he has multiple fruits and is already a big enough threat as it is.
For the Admirals I believe Akainu will likely have Awakened his fruit.
I could also throw Aokiji in that mix since the Awakening could have come from their battle on Punk Hazard. The main reason for this is that its likely Oda will showcase at least 1 Logia with an Awakened ability. Since Akainu is the most likely to serve as an fight for the Strawhats I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up as the Awakened Logia.
For the Worst Generation it’s likely to be Kidd.
The first reason is that Kidd is the most likely to end up as some sort of enemy near the end of the story. Law is already an ally, Drake/Apoo/Hawkins role will likely be minor after Wano, Bonney is at Mariejois and likely plays a role with Kuma/Revs, Capone’s role should be done after WCI, which leaves us with Urouge but I doubt he’ll be an major enemy and rather think he has some connection to Enel which he will reveal later on. That leaves Kidd, who might be an ally in Wano, but could turn into an enemy later.
The other reason is that Awakening suits his Devil Fruit power the most. His ability is to magnetize metal, either pulling it towards himself or shooting it away from him. One of the weaknesses with his ability is that he is the centre of the magnetization. If he was able to pull or push metal from his surroundings that would benefit him in certain ways. Examples would be to use the metal on his own body to be pulled towards buildings and then shooting himself away later on for faster travel.
And thats the theory, hope you enjoyed!
Franky out!
I’m back with a new theory. This time it will be about Devil Fruit Awakening but to fully explain my thoughts on this particular subject I will have discuss some other things as well. Hope you enjoy nonetheless.
As always we’re starting off with a Franky Joke! Yes, I still have plenty of material!
So what exactly is Devil Fruit Awakening?
Our main source of information comes from Doflamingo.
He hinted that once you awaken your Devil Fruit a whole new world of possibilities becomes possible. Basically this means that characters will unlock new powers with their Devil Fruit that they didn’t have before the awakening.
If we take Doflamingo as an example then we only have to look at the new powers he showcased during his fight with Luffy.
Doflamingo was able to turn the streets and buildings of Dressrosa into strings and use those to attack Luffy. He even mentioned that his powers, once awakened, didn’t only affect him but his surroundings as well.
If we look at Doflamingo’s power before and after his awakened abilities then there are 3 things that have changed:
1. Doflamingo was able to change his surroundings to fit his Devil Fruit power.
2. Doflamingo seemed to break the Devil Fruit mode to which his power belong.
3. Doflamingo didn’t need to be in direct contact with his surroundings.
Let’s start with Doflamingo being able to change his surroundings to fit his Devil Fruit power since its the most obvious.
Where normally Doflamingo attacked trough shooting strings from his body, he was this time able to change his surroundings into strings and attack with them.
Second would be Doflamingo being able to break the normal rules of his Devil Fruit power. To explain this I want to talk shortly about the different forms of Paramecia abilities we have seen in the story. They can basically be divided into two categories: internal Paramecia powers and External paramecia powers.
Internal Paramecia powers fall into a category where the user’s body is changed to fit a certain power scheme. Examples of this are Luffy and Buggy. Luffy obtained a rubber body and Buggy obtained a splitting body.
External Paramecia powers fall into a category where the user can summon a certain power scheme. Examples of this are Doflamingo and Whitebeard. Doflamingo can shoot strings from his body and Whitebeard can summon quakes with his fist.
The external Paramecia are different from the internal where their body isn’t necessarily changed by their Devil Fruit ability. Doflamingo isn’t made out of strings and Whitebeard wasn’t made out of Quakes.
Doflamingo’s awakening seemed to break this rule however with his Awakening and obtaining a form of internal Paramecia. If we go by his normal Devil Fruit ability which is external, then Doflamingo, when using his awakened Devil Fruit to change his surroundings, should normally only be capable of shooting strings from his surroundings. He however was able to convert his surroundings into strings, what suggests that the internal/external rules don’t apply to the effects Awakening has on the surroundings (since Doflamingo didn’t dodge Luffy’s attacks by turning his own body into strings we can assume Awakening doesn’t change the users body into an internal ability).
That last thing that seems to have changed is the range with which Doflamingo was able to convert his surroundings.
He was able to change buildings that were far away from where he was fighting Luffy. This suggests he doesn’t need to be in direct contact with his surroundings to change them. This sets him apart from a Logia user like Aokiji, who needed a part of his body to touch the ocean to turn it into ice.
The only other Paramecia we have seen with an awakened fruit showcased similar abilities. This was Katakuri when he fought Luffy in the mirror world.
Similar to Doflamingo he was also able to change his surroundings into mochi which fits his Devil Fruit ability. What sets him apart from Doflamingo is that his ability already showcased both internal and external abilities. He could change his body into mochi when needed, which combined with his observation haki made him seem like a Logia. He also was able to summon mochi which showcased him being an external user on top of that. And while we haven’t seen the increased range that Doflamingo had, that could simply be contributed to him and Luffy fighting in close range. There is nothing that suggests he wouldn’t be able to change his surroundings without his body actually touching it.
As of right now they are the only 2 Paramecia users we have seen with awakened abilities. And while we haven’t seen any awakened Logia’s yet, we did get some examples of awakened Zoans. The awakened ability of Zoans is different from paramecias, which makes sense since it would be weird if Rob Lucci managed to turn buildings into cats. Instead Zoan Awakening seems to affect their transformation into their specific animal.
According to Crocodile, the Awakening of Zoans effects their toughness and resilience.
A blow that might knock out a normal Zoan will have a decreased effectiveness on an Awakened Zoan, who after some time will get up again and fight once more.
Something else that separates normal Zoans from Awakened Zoans seems to be their outer appearance in Hybrid form. This is best explained by the surprise shown on the prisoners when Crocodile explained the Jailer Beasts were actually Devil Fruit users.
It becomes more obvious if we look at the differences between a Awakened Zoan Hybrid form and the Hybrid form of a normal Zoan.
The picture above is the Hybrid form of an Awakened Zoan and the picture below is from Rob Lucci in his hybrid form as a normal Zoan user.
There are clearly differences in their facial features. Rob Lucci facial features still resemble a human but the Minotauros facial features have lost this and resemble an animal, in his case a cow (Yes I know cows don’t really look like that but you catch my meaning). The other Zoans we have seen in Hybrid form like Jabra, Kaku and Drake also show human facial features, although Kaki was a bit weird I must admit.
I think its best explained like this:
- a normal Zoan Hybrid is a Hybrid form where the human takes on an animal form, but still retains human features.
- an Awakened Zoan Hybrid form is a Hybrid form where the animal takes on a human form, but still retains animal features.
It is a bit confusing but hopefully the pictures help to show the differences I mentioned. Those differences could also explain why the prisoners of Impel Down didn’t realize they were Zoans and instead seemed to take them for monsters.
As of right now we haven’t seen any Logia Awakening but if I had to make a guess they are more likely to resemble Paramecia over Zoan. It would be weird to have a moving and talking Lightning Bolt for example. Instead it would make more sense if they were able to change their surroundings into their specific element.
People have speculated that Punk Hazard was the result of both Akainu and Aokiji awakening when they fought to determine the next Fleet Admiral. This could explain why half the Island is covered in snow/ice and the other half is covered in fire/magma.
With that I should have covered the new powers Awakening could give, determined by the Devil Fruit class. Next would be to speculate on what it is exactly.
I would like to stay on Zoans for the moment to speculate on this and I want to highlight a specific sort of Zoan user, the item Zoan user.
The picture above is from the first item/zoan the Strawhats encountered in the story, which was Lasso, a gun that ate the Dog-Dog Fruit. The picture below is from Funkfreed, a sword that ate the Elephant-Elephant Fruit, which was used by Spandam on Enies Lobby.
The technology to allow an item to eat a Devil Fruit was developed by Vegapunk but still hasn’t been explained in the story. We however can do some speculation with the small bits of information we have received. Let’s start with Usopp’s confusion when he fought Mr. 4 and Lasso in Alabasta.
Usopp found it strange that Lasso could move when it was a gun, since according to him Devil Fruits don’t have a mind of their own. Miss Merry Christmas avoided the question, likely because Oda hadn’t had any real plans to expand on this at that point in the story, but Usopp’s confusion is well placed.
Since an item like a gun or sword shouldn’t be able to move or attack on their own (as far as we know in One Piece) the most logical explanation is that it is the Devil Fruit that is doing the moving. Because of this we can at least assume that Devil Fruits, where the Zoans are concerned, seem to have some sort of mind of their own. This is best showcased by Franky being able to threaten Funkfreed to form his nose back to normal instead of sword form.
We can’t be sure about Paramecia and Logia but for Zoans it actually makes some sense, in a weird sort of way. An animal like a tiger has a mind of its own, which isn’t the case for rubber or perhaps magma.
If we link this to the changed appearance an Awakened Zoan has in their Hybrid forms then we could possibly consider the term ‘Awakening’ to be literal. It could be the animal’s mind in a Zoan Devil Fruit awakening and taking some form of control over the human’s body. It would explain why their Hybrid forms look more animal than human and possibly also why we haven’t seen the Jailer Beasts talk.
This is weird enough as it is but it’s going to get more crazy. If what I speculated above turns out to be correct then the first character we actually saw in a semi-awakened Zoan form was actually Chopper when he went into his Monster form after eating 3 Rumble Balls.
The reason I’m considering Chopper to have semi-awakened his Zoan Devil Fruit are based on 2 things:
- Chopper in Monster form facial features resemble his reindeer form more then an actual human, and since he ate the Human fruit it should be the other way around in an Awakened Hybrid form.
- Chopper used to loose control whenever he went into Monster Form.
Because of this I cant say the Rumble Balls allow him to awaken his Devil Fruit, but I do think it allowed him to enter a semi-awakened stage. My reasoning for this is that Kureha mentioned his Devil Fruit went into a rampage. This fits the Zoan Awakening scheme I speculated on earlier where the mind in the Zoan fruit takes control.
It also opens up interesting ways of looking at the information we have gotten about the Rumble Balls.
According to Chopper the Rumble Balls are a medicine that creates waves that disturb the frequencies emitted by the Devil Fruit. They were originally used by Chopper to go past the 3 form limitation other Zoan Devil Fruit users have, opening up 7 different forms that could use instead. If we consider that Zoan Devil Fruits could have a mind of their own, then Chopper used the Rumble Balls to change this ‘mind’ slightly so that he could change specific parts of his body like the arms or legs.
Now during and after the time-skip Chopper trained so that he could use the 7 transformations without needing a Rumble Ball, only needing 1 instead of 3 to enter his Monster form which I consider to be a semi-Awakened Hybrid form. It is interesting however that he manages to control himself now in this form instead of going on a rampage.
This more closely resembles the Awakened Jailer Beasts who have seem to be in control as well in that they obey Sadi’s orders and don’t go on indiscriminate rampages.
This form of control is a direct result of Choppers training however and likely would not work on other Zoan users if they managed to eat 3 Rumble Balls. This was showcased on Punk Hazard when Law put our main man Franky inside of Chopper’s body.
It’s likely because Chopper’s Devil Fruit was already semi-awakened that Franky only needed 1 Rumble Ball to go into Monster form. He however lacked Choppers training and the ‘mind’ inside of the Zoan Devil Fruit took control and went into a rampage.
I’m not trying to say that Chopper managed to fully awaken his Devil Fruit, since he still lacks the facial features, but it’s interesting to consider that his Rumble Balls might allow a Zoan to half awaken their abilities. If Chopper’s monster form was the basis for Oda creating Awakened Zoans then it could indicate that an Awakened Zoan must first establish control over the animal part and establishing their own personality as the dominant mind before they can use it normally.
For now keep in mind that Zoan Devil Fruits could very well have a mind of their own, since we could use that as an basis for Paramecias and Logias.
I want to start this by discussing Armament Haki allowing somebody to touch the body of a Logia type.
According to Rayleigh, Armament Haki can be used to ‘force’ a Logia’s body in solidity. What’s interesting here is the ‘forcing’ bit. What is exactly forced to become solid? Is it the Devil Fruit user him/herself or could it for example be their Devil Fruit that allows them to become intangible.
To explains this I want to use Katakuri and Ace as examples. Let’s start with Katakuri who was able to appear like a Logia in that attacks went right through him. He was able to do this by combining his Observation Haki to determine where the Opponent was going to hit and then change that part of his body into Mochi. In his case he was actively making his own body intangible, it was something he had under his own control.
This is different from actual Logia users who don’t seem to have to worry about making their body intangible. This was showcased by a couple but lets take Ace as an example.
When Ace fought Blackbeard + crew, Van Augur tried to snipe him while Ace was speaking to Blackbeard. All of Van Augurs shots went right trough him and Ace continued on talking. In this example Ace is different from Katakuri in that he didn’t have to directly control his body becoming intangible, it’s something that his Devil Fruit does for him without him actually controlling it. It seems more likely that the opposite of Katakuri’s case is shown here in that Ace has to actually control his body not to become intangible since his feet are not setting the roof on fire.
The best example for this is likely Kizaru when he kicks someone at the speed of light. If his body stays intangible then the kick would just pass trough his target, in which case he must force himself solid so he can actually do damage.
If we take this back to Zoan Devil Fruits that seems to have a mind of their own, then something similar can be said for Logias. While ‘mind’ might not be the best term to describe it, there could be something that controls specific parts of the ability, which controls the body becoming intangible.
So let me rewind back to my earlier question: Does Armament Haki force the user him/herself solid or is their Devil Fruit forced to become solid?
This might be best answered with another question: How would you go about forcing a Logia user him/herself to become solid?
Let’s say Marco and Vista were fighting Akainu at Marine Ford and tried to attack him with Armament Haki. Now in this example Akainu himself controls his intangibility and doesn’t want to become solid. If Akainu controls the the intangibility then it would become a clash between willpower vs willpower, and if Akainu had more willpower it could allow him to stay intangible whether Marco and Vista used Armament Haki or not.
In that scenario you would half suspect signs of Conquerors Haki flying all over the place and the moment of contact would have to last a decent amount of time for their to be estabished a winner before the attack would hit or pass trough.
It makes more sense if, like I speculated earlier, the Devil Fruit itself is responsible for the intangibility. In that case you would only need to force the Devil Fruit into becoming solid, and not directly the user. If this is correct then it suggest that Logias, similar to Zoans, have something that could be called a ‘mind’ of its own. And since this so called ‘mind’ is not directly in control of the Devil Fruit user you would likely not require as much willpower to force it solid.
It is a bit confusing at this point but maybe it becomes more clear when I trow the Paramecias into the mix since they, internal Paramecias at least, also have some sort of change happening to their body which they don’t seem to have directly control.
The best example here is the main character, Monkey D. Luffy with his rubber ability which changed his body into rubber. If we go way back to the beginning of the story when Luffy had only just eaten his Devil Fruit, he was grabbed on the arm by Shanks, which started to stretch because Luffy tried to walk away.
Similar to Logias, Luffy doesn’t seem to be in direct control of changing his body to rubber, as he was as shocked as Shanks by what was happening to his arm. It took him a long time training with Ace and Sabo to control this ability and use it in fights. It’s likely that similar to Logias, Luffy has to force his body / or parts of his body, to become unlike rubber in some scenario’s like fighting.
A good example of this is at the end of Water Seven when Luffy stretches his arm to get Usopp on the Thousand Sunny after Usopp apologized. Usopp was able to grab Luffy’s hand without Luffy’s fingers stretching, allowing Luffy to pull his arm back in bringing Usopp back with it.
Somebody that uses Armament Haki can still damage Luffy because, similar to the Logias, it is the ‘mind’ of the Devil Fruit that turns his body into Rubber. If this was not the case then that person would need to overpower Luffy’s will for which a large amount of Conquerors Haki would be needed.
I hope this makes some sense, even if it is confusing.
The point I was trying to establish is that similar to Zoans, Paramecias and Logias also have something that can be called the ‘mind’ or maybe ‘will’ of the Devil Fruits. The only exception at the moment could be external Paramacia’s but I hope to adres that in the next part.
This bring us back to Devil Fruit Awakening, what is it exactly?
I believe we can take it as literal, meaning that similar to the earlier discussed Awakening of Zoans, it is the ability to awaken the will of the Devil Fruit, allowing for more advanced versions of that specific ability.
To best explain this I want to use this picture of brain waves when a person is deep asleep, dreaming, or awake.
When a person is deep asleep the frequency of the waves is slow, it goes a bit faster when that person is dreaming, and very fast when that person is awake.
If we translate this into the earlier speculation of Devil Fruits having a ‘mind/will’ of their own then it should look something like this:
- The mind of the Devil Fruit is deep asleep when the user has fallen into the ocean or is cuffed with seastone.
- The mind of the Devil Fruit is dreaming when the user is in their normal state, allowing for use of the main abilities.
- The mind of the Devil Fruit becomes awake when the user managed to awaken it allowing for expanded forms of abilities upon the main abilities they already had when the Devil Fruit was dreaming.
Do you remember when I talked about Chopper’s Rumble Balls that disturbed the frequencies emitted by the Devil Fruits? My ideas about him semi-awakening his fruit comes from this. His multiple transformation and semi-awakened Hybrid form might be the result of his Devil Fruit not fully awakening but instead going into a meditation state (day-dreaming) instead of just normal dreaming.
Alright, that’s cool and all, but where do the extended abilities come from?
For this I want to go back to Franky being able to threaten Funkfreed to go into Elephant form and Chopper having trained to overcome his Devil Fruit going into rampage mode. It’s likely that when the mind/will of the Devil Fruit has awakened you can actually force it / overpower its will to do things it normally wouldn’t do.
Let’s go all the way back and take Doflamingo as example. He was not only able to affect his surroundings but also seemed to force his Devil Fruit into becoming internal instead of external. So instead of buildings shooting strings we got buildings that turned into strings. Doflamingo could have forced this Devil Fruit into seeing those buildings as part of Doflamingo’s body and this converting his ability onto them.
With this example we could speculate that external Paramecia Awakening is in some cases different from internal Paramecia Awakening but that's better left for later.
In the case of Zoans, Awakening likely results in the mind of the animal taking over the body, forcing it into more animal featured shape. If we go by Chopper as a rule then a users personality must first force it aside and become dominant over their body.
Logia’s are likely similar to Paramecia’s in being able to force their Devil Fruit to see their surroundings as part of their body.
So if Awakening results in having to overpower the will of the fruit, does Conquerors Haki play a role?
The answer should be no but maybe.
As mentioned earlier, there are characters that have awakened their Devil Fruits without having Conquerors Haki (most likely). These are the Jailer Beasts and maybe Chopper. While we can’t say for certain they don’t have Conquerors Haki but it seems highly unlikely.
If we go by my speculation on Logia/Paramecia fruits also having a will of their own, and characters can overpower it simply with Armament Haki then Conquerors Haki should not be needed.
But that doesn’t mean Conquerors Haki can’t play a role. I believe it could play 2 parts with Awakening:
It makes it easier to overpower the will of the fruit.
It might allow for extra benefits
What I mean with this is best explained with Doflamingo. I mentioned a couple of times that Doflamingo’s Awakening seems to bend more rules then others. There is his external fruit changing to internal when it comes to his surroundings and he also showcased a crazy amount of range when it comes to him affecting his surroundings.
Both of these things could be examples of a Devil Fruit user with Conquerors Haki Awakening their fruit.
Since Conquerors Haki deals with overpowering the will of characters I see no reason why it shouldn’t affect a Devil Fruit when it is awakened. We have seen that Conqueors Haki affects objects like the wooden planks on Whitebeard’s ship when Shanks showed up.
It should be easier for a character with Conquerors Haki to force its Devil Fruit to do certain things then for a person without. Hence Doflamingo’s fruit changing to internal when affecting his surroundings could be a result of this.
His incredible range could be a because of Conquerors Haki as well. A good example for this was the sky splitting when Shanks/Whitebeard clashed, or when Kaido clashed with Big Mom. If their Conquerors Haki can reach the clouds in the sky, it might also explain why Doflamingo’s Awakened Devil Fruit has such an incredible range where it affects buildings far away from Doflamingo’s body.
The same should count for Katakuri but since he and Luffy fought in a closed space there was no need for him to showcase such a large range.
Can anyone awaken their Devil Fruit?
Theoretically every Devil Fruit user should be capable of Awakening their fruit. However its unlikely Oda will go that far. This is mainly because for most Devil Fruit users it doesn’t really provide benefits to their power scheme.
Let’s take Luffy as an example with the Rubber Fruit. Since Luffy has Conqueors Haki he should be able to do similar things to Doflamingo. While its unlikely his ability would change to external (his surrounding shooting rubber) since that would just be weird, he should be able to change his surroundings to rubber if he wanted to. However this doesn’t really provide benefits to Luffy in combat, It’s not like rubber buildings would allow him to hop around fast like Bellamy could.
The only situation I can see this becoming handy for Luffy is when a crewmate would fall down or be launched at a building that can’t defend themselves from it like Usopp or Nami for example. Changing that building or the streets below it into rubber could stop them from receiving critical damage, it can also simply be avoided by having someone save them (Luffy stretching his hand to catch or Sanji/Brook appearing to catch them).
Because of this its unlikely that every Devil Fruit user in the story will awaken at some point. In most cases it’s likely Oda will choose characters that need a certain power-up. These will be either crewmates/friends that are lacking or enemies that need to become a greater threat.
If we take the Strawhats as basis than the Devil Fruit users are:
- Luffy
- Chopper
- Robin
- Brook
As mentioned before, Luffy won’t really benefit from an Awakening so I doubt Oda will have him do it. I don’t see Robin or Brook Awakening since their power schemes would just become weird (Robin sprouting buildings everywhere or Brook turning buildings into souls). The only likely candidate is Chopper, and since its likely he already semi-awakened his fruit, it won’t change much for his combat abilities. At most his Monster form will resemble a human a bit more and he would be to stay in it longer without receiving the damaging effects when he ends it.
If we look at the main enemies that are Devil Fruit users:
- Yonkou
- Admirals
- Worst Generation
For the Yonkou the only one I see having an Awakened Fruit is possible Kaido.
Just to make it even harder to take him down. Big Mom is very unlikely to be Awakened since her power scheme would just become strange (taking life from buildings etc). Shanks doesn’t have a Fruit as far as we know and Blackbeard doesn’t need an Awakening since he has multiple fruits and is already a big enough threat as it is.
For the Admirals I believe Akainu will likely have Awakened his fruit.
I could also throw Aokiji in that mix since the Awakening could have come from their battle on Punk Hazard. The main reason for this is that its likely Oda will showcase at least 1 Logia with an Awakened ability. Since Akainu is the most likely to serve as an fight for the Strawhats I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up as the Awakened Logia.
For the Worst Generation it’s likely to be Kidd.
The first reason is that Kidd is the most likely to end up as some sort of enemy near the end of the story. Law is already an ally, Drake/Apoo/Hawkins role will likely be minor after Wano, Bonney is at Mariejois and likely plays a role with Kuma/Revs, Capone’s role should be done after WCI, which leaves us with Urouge but I doubt he’ll be an major enemy and rather think he has some connection to Enel which he will reveal later on. That leaves Kidd, who might be an ally in Wano, but could turn into an enemy later.
The other reason is that Awakening suits his Devil Fruit power the most. His ability is to magnetize metal, either pulling it towards himself or shooting it away from him. One of the weaknesses with his ability is that he is the centre of the magnetization. If he was able to pull or push metal from his surroundings that would benefit him in certain ways. Examples would be to use the metal on his own body to be pulled towards buildings and then shooting himself away later on for faster travel.
And thats the theory, hope you enjoyed!
Franky out!
Can't say I dont like it and its better that what I had in mind. I cut out the part where I speculate the Logia and Internal Paramecia(Luffy etc) would take over the ability to change their body, in which case Armament Haki wouldn't nessecarily work anymore. That would result in Logia's becoming all powerfull again so I had my doubts about that.
I will go trough it later to check if I missed other stuff besides the things you already described 
(I'll look them over later)
