There have been many speculations about the Awakening of Gomu Gomu No Mi devil fruit and why it was heavily guarded by the World Government 12 years ago. Here’s my thought on Luffy’s Awakening and the reason why Gomu Gomu No Mi is special.
• We all know Luffy and Blackbeard are completely opposite characters in the story. Both belongs to the Clan of D. and both have many similarities. Blackbeard has Yami Yami No Mi which has ability to nullify any devil fruit. If Luffy is the complete opposite of him then it means Luffy must have something like that which can counter any devil fruit.
• We know that out of many properties of rubber, one is to use it as an eraser. Rubber is used to erase text in daily life. I think this ability would be similar to Yami Yami No Mi which nullify any devil fruit.
• Another feature of rubber is to absorb shock waves or endure pointy rocks/stones. So just imagine if an attack is launched towards Luffy and he absorbs it like nothing happened, then it is similar to Yami Yami No Mi as well. We have seen its foreshadowing few chapters ago when Luffy endures Kaido’s fire breathing attack and Kaido was surprised that beside lightning attacks Luffy can take fire attacks as well. To Kaido’s surprise, Luffy came out unscathed as well, claiming that it was his guts that protected hims”. I think this was a foreshadowing of Gomu Gomu No Mi ‘s Awakening.
• As we have seen, Paramecia Awakened Users are able to turn the surroundings according to their will. Doflamingo can extend his string creating ability, transmuting the ground and buildings into vast quantities of strings that he can manipulate without even the need to touch them. Katakuri affects the environment in a similar way with his Mochi Mochi no Mi. But we know this may not happen with Luffy’s Gomu Gomu No Mi. Luffy’s Awakening will be different and special. I think Luffy will let his surroundings absorb enemy attacks when he will awaken his fruit .i.e. people and buildings will not be destroyed when Kaido attacks because they will withstand it.
• We also know that Kaido is planning to drop Onigashima on Flower Capital for mass killings. But if Luffy awakens his devil fruit before the final clash with Kaido then he will be able to absorb the shock or damage created by the fall of Onigashima with his Gomu Gomu No Mi. I rather think Oda will use this chance to awaken Luffy’s devil fruit rather than make someone powerful appear to help the Alliance from Kaido.
• Now why the World Government was heavily guarding the Gomu Gomu No Mi? Because this ability of absorption of the gum-gum fruit is special and unique. Whitebeard was in good health 12 years ago and he had the tremor-tremor fruit. The only way to counter him was to use gum-gum fruit for its resilience and shock absorbing properties. But it was stolen by Shanks. By stealing it Shanks killed two birds with one stone.
One was to give Luffy a special Devil Fruit and the other was to help Whitebeard to maintain balance in the pirate world. If Whitebeard’s devil fruit was countered 12 years ago, I imagine Marines would have killed him way brefore and whole Golden Age of Piracy would have been ended. So I think Shanks played strategic move to not just help Whitebeard but also protect Roger’s will as well. Shanks knew that after 12 years someone would appear who will fulfill Roger’s will and bring the Dawn to the World.
*Theory by PhannayKhan
