First, I’m not saying Cracker could beat Katakuri in a fight. Katakuri IS stronger than Cracker and would probably beat him.
But Katakuri isn’t stronger because of his Devil Fruit abilities. The impressive part about Katakuri is his Observation Haki, not his Mochi Mochi no Mi. Katakuri also has a far better mentality for fighting (Cracker is totally unhinged). However, when it comes to Devil Fruit abilities, I actually think Cracker has the more dangerous power set.
With that being said, let me go into a deeper explanation of what I mean. Why do I think Cracker has the stronger powers and why do I think Katakuri is the stronger fighter regardless. But in order to explain my opinion, I need to talk about the Big Mom Pirates thematically.
Big Mom and the Three Sweet Generals all share something in common. They all have extremely strong abilities but are handicapped by their mentality. Now this is a common theme in One Piece and the Big Mom Pirates aren’t unique in this regard, but I think they exemplify this better than anyone else.
Big Mom: Arguably the most terrifying combatant in the entire series besides probably Kaido and maybe Akainu. But she is crippled by her strange “hunger illness” on top of being completely unhinged.
Katakuri: The most composed and mentally sound of the Big Mom Pirates, which is what makes him so dangerous, but nonetheless, similar to his Mom, he can’t function without periodically indulging his gluttony (his Merienda).
Cracker: Whereas Katakuri has the gluttony of his Mom but none of her insanity, Cracker is kind of the opposite. As far as we know, he isn’t gluttonous like Big Mom or Katakuri. He is, however, completely insane and on top of that he’s reckless and extremely overconfident.
Smoothie: Smoothie hasn’t had nearly as impressive feats as the rest of her family, however, her Devil Fruit ability is one of the most frightening in the series. We don’t know the limits of her ability but it’s possible it can be used as basically a one-hit knockout and on top of that her ability has a lot of other utility (changing her size). She’s also a physical tank, like her Mom. However, Smoothie’s personality flaw is that she has very little initiative. She’s very calm, collected, and rational but she tends to rely on others to take the initiative. This may be the main reason we haven’t seen much of her power yet because she’s the last person to charge into battle.
So as we can see, Katakuri is by far the least impaired of the Big Mom Pirates by their mentality. He may lose composure if he doesn’t get to take his Merienda, but aside from that he is easily one of the most composed fighters in the series as evidenced by his incredible Observation Haki. This is why Katakuri is the most dangerous of the Sweet Commanders and the root of his power. He is a physical tank and the Mochi Mochi no Mi is actually one of the more versatile Devil Fruits in the series, having properties of both a Logia and a Paramecia type Devil Fruit. But it’s his Observation Haki that is truly incredible and what makes him so dangerous.
Cracker, on the other hand, is extremely impaired by his mentality. Like his mom, Cracker is one of the more unhinged characters in the series. He babbles constantly and reveals information he shouldn’t. He has a weird aversion to pain that greatly reduces his durability. He can change moods on a dime and his impatience is the main thing that cost him the battle with Luffy. In spite of these significant handicaps, Cracker is a huge threat. His Devil Fruit ability is obviously one of the most broken abilities in the entire series and turns him into, literally, a one man army (hence his title Thousand-Armed Cracker). He also has some of the most impressive Armament Haki in the series. Not only can he use his Haki to give incredible power to his sword but he can also imbue his Biscuit soldiers with Haki as well, making them extremely tough.
So basically my argument comes down to this, if Cracker had the same type of strong mentality as Katakuri I think he easily could have fought Luffy and Nami to a stalemate. Even after Nami used her weather to weaken Cracker’s soldiers, they were still fighting at a stalemate. It was only when Cracker lost his patience and personally went in for the kill that Luffy was able to defeat him.
In the Katakuri fight however, they were both fighting one on one at full strength. You can argue that Katakuri made a mistake by weakening himself but you could argue that if he had relied on Flampe’s wound to defeat Luffy it would prove even less about Katakuri’s abilities. In the end, both Luffy and Katakuri went all-out and Luffy barely managed to win. Katakuri didn’t get cocky or let his guard down, he just outright lost in a fair fight.
Again, I don’t think Cracker would beat Katakuri in a fight. Katakuri is just too mentally strong and not only that but he has one of the best power sets to fight someone like his little brother. With that being said, when you think about what Cracker actually did with his power and what its capabilities are, I think it’s obvious that he has one of the strongest power sets in the series. He can basically function as a one man army for Big Mom Pirates, and if Big Mom or Cracker himself were less insane, they would probably make better use of Cracker’s power in the same way that Doffy/Kaido used Ceasar’s power to essentially mass-produce an army for Kaido. If you think about it, Cracker can do the same type of thing for Big Mom. He can artificially produce a massive army entirely on his own. And individual Biscuit soldiers are really strong. Mad Monk Urouge destroyed a Pacifista with mid to low difficulty but he was defeated soundly by one of Cracker’s Biscuit Soldiers.
Katakuri is more like an assassin. He can kill almost anyone below Yonko/Admiral level in a one on one fight. But in terms of being an offensive powerhouse whose ability can turn the tide of a war, I actually think Katakuri’s power is far less impressive than Cracker’s. It’s comparable to the difference between Sugar and Doflamingo. Doflamingo and pretty much anyone could obviously destroy Sugar in a one on one fight but her ability is so insanely broken that it’s basically the foundation of the Donquixote Pirates power. Now Cracker’s ability isn’t as broken as Sugar’s, but the point is that even though he’s a worse fighter than Katakuri I think he actually has a much more dangerous ability.
*Theory by NinjaRealist
