I think this arc (Whole Cake Island) has revealed so much about Haki without us noticing initially. Oda doesn’t usually have 1 chapter where he gives the entire scope of anything, he gives titbits of information here and there, and when we piece it together, we get the full picture. Without further ado…
- First thing we know about Haki in general is everyone has the power to use Haki; it’s a latent power as Rayleigh states.
Being that all people possess Haki, the Manga indicates the issue lies in being able to make use of it. One thing we learning concerning Haki is that Talent is what determines how quickly one can learn Haki as implied, but this doesn’t really tell us what determines how it awakens.
I think it’s necessary that we define the word talent, and talent is how adept one is at learning something as if it were intuitive.
On the topic of how Haki awakens, we learn through Coby that it can be awakened through traumatic experiences;
on the other hand, one can train to awaken it, but it is usually a slow process that takes year and this brings implies that how quickly it’s learnt is likely also due to talent.
Aisa was born able to use Haki; the question is, is it talent? I believe so, otherwise, everyone who has been involved in treacherous situations or from such environments would have awakened it too, therefore, it seems to be related to talent even when it’s forced out.
Is it that Aisa is more talented than Luffy for example? I’d say the answer is no because as the Navy doctor said, tumultuous situations can force it to awaken – Aisa is a Shandian, and the Shandians have been at war with the Skypieans and Birkans for 400 years; she was born into war.
Perhaps, all the turmoil and chaos triggered and forced her Observation to awaken. One could say Luffy too may have awakened Haki early had he been in similar setting.
Based on this, while everyone possesses Haki to a degree, it seems to be something hereditary, Why?
- Garp sees Luffy uses King’s Haki and points out his intuition on Luffy being born with it is spot on, therefore, this also implies Dragon may possess King’s Haki.
- There are more references to Haki being hereditary from Ivankov stating how the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
If Kings Haki is inherited, we can assume Haki in general is genetic and more so since Aisa was born with it.
Ivankov also mentions something about King’s Haki explaining why people are drawn to Luffy. This indicates that people who are born with King’s Haki have a penchant for being great leaders (which explains why Trebol decided to follow Joker even though he was just a kid), therefore, this is why King Haki users are associated as people aiming to be Pirate King or possess strong leadership qualities. This gives us an inkling on characters we can guess to possibly possess it e.g. Zoro.
One thing I’d like to also say regarding how quickly Haki develops is, talent is not something people possess equally. We see this in sports, people have a talent for sports, but there tends to be someone even more talented.
Furthermore (going off on a tangent), because of this natural talent people may have, it explains in my opinion why Grandma Nyon is surprised Luffy is so humble despite possessing such power/talent for King’s Haki.. most people tend to become arrogant when they have talent to do things others can’t do.
*Theory by HPsyche
