Charlotte Katakuri has shown how powerful a special paramecia and advanced observation haki are, individually and especially when used together. He can literally become invincible to anybody who cannot break his observation haki.
He cannot be hit and gains a significant advantage in knowing where his opponent will dodge to next.
The thoughts of this post were inspired by the joke that went around the One Piece community once Luffy vs Katakuri began: Luffy: ‘Who are you?’ Katakuri: ‘I’m you but stronger’ (or in some cases from the future).
This made me think about how else Luffy could use this battle against Katakuri to become a much stronger character.
I for one, would like to see Luffy have a power boost that greatly effects his base form. The increases in haki (especially armament), will have big effects on Gear Four, but this form is considerably stronger than his base (and rightly so).
The theory I propose is one that will affect Luffy’s base form to the point where it shouldn’t be considered as ‘fodder’ to more powerful enemies. It combines the potential use of devil fruit mastery, observation haki and armament haki.
Now, for this theory I’d like to assume that Katakuri being a special paramecia is no coincidence. As mentioned before, we know most paramecia devil fruits allow the user to generate and control a ‘substance’ such as strings, barriers, blades etc…, others are more random like Law’s Ope-Ope no mi. Katakuri’s fruit, however, directly effects his body, and in turn his mastery (assuming – not his awakening) of this fruit has allowed him to move his body accordingly to avoid attacks. In addition to this ability, he can foresee his opponents attacks for a more successful defence.
Luffy may be a special paramecia as well, as his fruit directly effects his body. Also it has been mentioned to be rather strange, even for a paramecia. But even if he is not, the potential mastery of his fruit and haki could have huge benefits to his base form.
As we see in Gear four vs Doflamingo, Luffy is able to be unharmed by Doflamingo’s kick due to his armament haki and fruit working in tandem to provide a rubbery, deflective exterior. Luffy could perhaps master this armament and rubber usage to allow for his base form to take it on. Meaning he could tank hits that he previously could not. Luffy can then take a page from Katakuri’s book and use the future sight to see how and where he will be hit and use this rubberised-armament combination to successfully block all incoming attacks.
*Theory by plahug
