Haki in Relation to the Rest of the Characters
Law, Kid and Killer – all confirmed to have Armament and Observation but never explicitly shown using it (Black Armament). Kid even has Color of Conqueror’s yet we never saw him use it. Instead these confirmed users of Armament and Observation are shown to focus on their Devil Fruits and scythe thingy rather than Haki. Law and Kid actually got their Awakenings before Luffy.
Kaido was never shown using Armament Hardening yet we know he uses Armament because he can damage Luffy and it seems like Oda is more focusing on his usage of Conqueror’s Coating.
Big Mom, someone who has said to be Kaido’s equal, on the other hand seems to be all in with her Devil Fruit Powers. Her Devil Fruit abilities give her countless of creative usages that it’s sad to see people trying to dumb it down to “Black Lightning Trail” that Adavnced Conqueror’s creates. It’s infinitely more interesting seeing her combine her 3 Homies into a laser sword rather than seeing a black trail leaking out of Napoleon and it’s infuriating to see people get hung up on Advanced Conqueror’s and miss the forest for the trees.
This image alone is about 5 times more interesting to look at than any Conqueror’s Coating Trail presented in the story so far.
Vergo and Pica got full-body armament and no one else did. There is a possibility Jinbe can do the same but it’s unclear.
Doflamingo was rarely seen using hardening and Katakuri got different shade of black as well as his blocky appearance.
Other Straw Hats who don’t have Haki seem to have their unique ways to get stronger. Franky is about machinery. Nami is about weather science. Robin is about her Devil Fruit. Brook about his Soul Powers and Chopper is all about D R U G S.
Even Top Tier Characters like Admirals seem to mostly rely on their Devil Fruit Powers. We have seen them use Haki grand total of 3 times. Armament once when they blocked Whitebeard’s attack and Akainu and Aokiji using Observation to dodge Haki attacks. Now this could be the collateral damage of the pre time-skip era before Haki was properly established but looking at Fujitora in Dressrosa nothing changed much. Admirals are still Devil Fruit users first and foremost.
Closing Argument
So stop overrating Haki. It’s not a Linear Power Level Progression. It’s not a linear scale with which you can scale character’s strength. Just because one character has Haki does not make them stronger than other character that doesn’t have it (Franky and Sasaki). Just because one character has Advanced Form of Haki does not make them stronger than the character that doesn’t have it (Katakuri and Kaido). The only Haki-related benchmark of Power seems to be Advanced Conqueror’s Haki as it’s said that only handful in the World are capable of doing it and even this seems to be less and less likely to be the case (Kid and Law versus Big Mom).
Oda first and foremost focuses on making the characters unique and interesting, be that with their design, their powers or their personality. He doesn’t care about sacrificing that for the sake of making a linear Power Scale. That’s why countless characters that have Armament Haki are not shown with Black Hardening, because it lessens their uniqueness. That’s why only two characters so far have shown Future Sight and neither of them is stronger because of it than the likes of Kaido and Big Mom who don’t have it.
So again, stop overrating Haki. Characters are as strong as the writer writes them to be strong, not because of how many advanced forms of Haki they have. It’s not the end-be-all for the strength of a Character and Law and Kid are the proof of that.
*by The_Biggest_Wheel
