The key in understanding Haki is within its introduction.
“Haki can generally be divided into two main shades”
This is what has been bothering me for such a long time. Why is Conqueror’s Haki not in Rayleigh’s explanation immediately? If typically you can divide Haki into two shades why can’t you do the same with Conqueror’s Haki? Wouldn’t Haki typically be divided into three shades but one just has no access to it? Rayleigh is not stating “for most people Haki can be divided into two main shades” but says “Haki can generally be divided into two main shades”, which is wrong unless he is right but we just don’t understand yet how. Hear me out, this is going somewhere and this has been an observation I had for at least six months. The point is that Conqueror’s Haki is atypical. You cannot divide the Conqueror’s Haki like the other forms of Haki, it can interact with the other colors to create a new color, hence why the color metaphor is used in the first place. Its actually extremely fitting to the idea that Oda is going for. It’s a color pallet and go figure, the three main colors are green, red and blue, with which you can create the rest of the colors.
The only reason why Oda would use the color pallet metaphor in the first place is if the colors can mix. This is sorta the point of colors and that Oda picked the 3 main colors shows that he is going for this idea but what does this mean for Haki? We will soon see but first we have to recognize that the plan has changed and what started as Ryou being the only form of Armament Haki was altered after the time skip. I have talked about this issue already in my previous theory. The point being it’s a bit more complicated now, because the metaphor doesn’t perfectly apply any longer and we take some artistic creativity in illustrating the “new color pallet”. Before we do that we have to find out what the new colors are and why they exist in the first place.
Typical & Atypical Haki
Let’s think about Observation Haki as BLUE. But for Armament Haki it’s not that simple: for Ryou we take RED and for Hardening we take BLACK. These are the two colors of Haki you can typically divide. They are distinct in a certain sense but Conqueor’s Haki is different. For the Conqueror’s Haki let’s say it’s YELLOW but it can’t be typically divided like the rest. It has its own effect and usefulness but it has a certain property, it can mix with the other colors creating new forms of Haki that can’t be taught.
This is what Hyou is referring to. These forms of Haki can’t be thought because only a selected few have a access to this Haki. I know most people think Luffy showing his abilities was just to create hype but there was a purpose all along.
The point of Luffy showing off is to realize that Hyou doesn’t possess Conqueror’s Haki. There is a distinction between those two that explains what is the meaning of the current “Haki training” plot line in Udon and what people can reach.
Even though he used to be a big shot that Lord Oden(a Conqueror’s Haki master) idolized, he himself isn’t a Conqueror’s user.
Is this where the Haki story line is heading? We discover that you can only obtain certain colors of Haki only through the mixture of Conqueror’s Haki? Rayleigh already told us that it can’t be typically divided and that it can’t be trained. Hyou tells us that the form of implosion Haki goes beyond any Ryou that he can’t teach, which doesn’t make any sense. How can Hyou not teach Luffy the mastery of this level of Ryou if he himself is a Ryou master, who almost certainly even trained Rayleigh/Shanks/Roger/Oden himself?
People who possess this type of Haki seem to have the same take on how to improve your Haki as Hyou does. There were two Haki training arcs since the New World began. The first was with Rayleigh’s flashback/Katakuri fight and Luffy learning future sight, an ability that has only been mastered by Conqueror’s Haki users(Luffy, Katakuri, most likely Admirals like Aokiji/Akainu) solely. Rayleigh couldn’t teach Luffy future sight and Luffy has learned this ability through extreme conditions of battle. By experiencing extreme conditions in battle he grew and obtained this ability. Doesn’t this sound exactly how one trains his Conqueror’s Haki? The same is “coincidentally” also true for what is currently going on and mind you, Luffy again showed something else off.
Luffy is using this ability before Hyou, who seems to encounter the ability for the first time. Taking into account that Hyou doesn’t posses Conqueror’s Haki and he doesn’t know what future sight is it shows its relation to each other. If one doesn’t possess Conqueror’s Haki one isn’t able to learn these unique colors of Haki and it just makes sense why Conqueror’s Haki would be different. Conqueror’s Haki is the manifestation of its user’s spirit and hence why one can impose it onto others. That is why this color can “impose” itself on other forms of Haki to create new colors. For instance, we get the color of FUTURE SIGHT by mixing Observation Haki and Conqueror’s Haki, a form of Haki that can’t be learned by non-Conqueror-users. Especially, if we consider how the same is true for this “new” type of Haki that I call “implosion Ryou”.
By mixing Armament Haki(Ryou) and Conqueror’s Haki we get IMPLOSION RYOU, one imposes their Ryou onto the enemy and this leads to them being destroyed from the inside. This is the reason why this goes beyond “normal Ryou” and why it can’t be taught by someone who doesn’t posses Conqueror’s Haki. It is still a form of Ryou but it has a shade in it that can’t be progressed through teaching. Conqueror’s Haki can only be strengthened by ones personal growth. The descriptions are the same and the connections are all there. The truth about the Conqueror’s Haki is that it can mix with the other two shades to create new colors.
Flaming Haki
The reason why I think now this ability is related to Conqueror’s Haki is because all of the “Advanced Haki users”(Katakuri, Big Mom & Luffy) have it. The color pallet has changed and hardening having an advanced form therefore makes perfect sense. There is Ryou(flowing), which results ultimately in implosions and there is hardening. What would be the application of “hardening”, which is an internal ability with the Conqueror’s Haki? It would be the “flaming pattern”. You are imposing your will onto yourself, which enables you to remain with the properties of your devil fruit while using Haki.
This is why Doflamingo has never encountered this ability before. It’s only useful to people who need to use their devil fruit ability, Haki at the same time and have Conqueror’s Haki. We are taking a real case study “Law” to help illustrate this point. Someone like him would benefit by “Flaming Haki” greatly but he doesn’t have access to it for some reason, even though he knows the normal hardening.
Is it a coincidence that the one guy who is very strong and benefits probably the most on the planet by using the flaming pattern(it enables you to use your devil fruit ability while using your Haki at the same time. It also enables you to apply your devil fruit on the opponent, even if he uses Haki) doesn’t have the Conqueror’s Haki? It’s just perfect for Law and he would be able to apply his devil fruit on his enemy while using his room+sword. Though, he is forced to use an external ability like Ryou around his sword to cut people because he can’t apply his devil fruit with hardening within his blade(hardening changes the properties internally). Only super powerful people like Big Mom, Katakuri and Luffy obtained this stage of hardening. Needless to say, all of them again, Conqueror’s Haki users. To summarize, the color pallet looks something like this.
This entire stage of Haki is separate to swordsmanship and one can create black blades through the usage of Ryou and hardening at the same time.
If you apply this principle of creating a “barrier” around your sword and fill your sword with hardening this process seals the black inside it. This process isn’t important to the theory but just in case people are confused why this isn’t relevant to swordsmanship. The way of the sword is different than the way of the Conqueror and they don’t align.
Ultimate Haki
If you are a reader of mine you know what I believe the true form of Conqueror’s Haki to be, which is Black Lightning. I think I have finally figured out what it truly is. People obviously have realized it is related to the Conqueror’s Haki but at the same time it always had a strange relation to Armament Haki.
Sabo is one of the few people who seems to have perfect control over Black Lightning but at the same time has a lot of fighting to show for. To find the answer what Black Lightning is we have to figure out what kind of Haki Sabo is using. He uses hardening(obviously) and flowing…
There is no doubt that Sabo is a Conqueror’s Haki user because Luffy and Ace are. He seems to be even significantly stronger than current Luffy and deserves the number 2 spot in the Revolutionary Army. What is the point? Well, if hardening and flowing can be used at the same time as we have seen repeatedly…
…what would happen if you use “implosion” and the “Flaming Haki” at the same time?
Bingo, this is the one thing that makes Armament Haki unique to the other colors. It has two shades and both can be used at the same time. By having the advanced version of each through the possession of Conqueror’s Haki one obtains the ultimate form of Haki, Black Lightning(flowing black energy…yeah, it”s kinda obvious now that we think about it). I wouldn’t be surprised to get to know that Kaido’s club got blackened and the world just doesn’t know. Its technically not a blade either way. That Kaido took all these hits from Luffy without receiving any damage proves that he has the most terrifying Armament Haki we have ever seen.
I can’t even say that Big Mom would take these punches even half as good. She is able to create a barrier with Ryou but to resist Gear 4 without leaving any marks…this is the greatest show of defense in the entire series. Kaido is an absolute armament monster, who said this for some reason…
Clearly implying that they don’t need other Conqueror’s like him. Theses lines aren’t all dropped by accident. The truth about the Conqueror’s Haki is that it is atypical and it can mix with other colors. The manifestation of Black Lightning is the ultimate form of Haki because it uses “implosion Ryou”(flowing) and “Flaming”(hardening) to maximize the potency of his weapon and at the same time bypasses any defense. The attacks are so strong that they can one shot someone like Gear 4 Luffy, a 1.5 billion bounty man. The name of Kaido’s attack “Thunderclap” gives away that its named after the Black Lightning. This is where the story line we are currently on is leading towards and Luffy will have to learn the ultimate form of Haki to defeat Kaido.
*Theory by Donal D. Trump
