Within the personal journey of Usopp, taking him from a lying coward to a brave warrior of the sea, one consistent thing we’ve seen from Oda is that the lies Ussop told early in the story have gradually been coming true, the most obvious example being Usopp finally gaining his 1000s of followers he always lied about when he became God Usopp in Dressrosa.
Usopp’s most consistent lie is that he is a feared and powerful Pirate Captain, it’s a lie he has told since Syrup Village and thus far the only one that hasn’t come true. The obvious conclusion of Usopp’s arc is him finally becoming a brave warrior of the sea like the giants of Elbaf and likely him achieving this lie and becoming a feared and powerful pirate captain. When we look at most of the feared and powerful captains in One Piece most of them have Conqueror’s Haki, look at the Yonko, Roger, and Luffy, so supposing this lie comes true, could the climax of Usopp’s character progression be him gaining Conqueror’s Haki?
Now I believe thematically this would work towards the progression of his character to becoming a Brave Warrior of the Sea, but would this work within the context of One Piece as a universe? This is more of a foggy area but I think there is reason for Usopp to have Conqueror’s Haki. Conqueror’s is essentially the user enforcing their strong will onto an opponent. All the users of Conqueror’s Haki have this very strong will, Luffy has an almost unbreakable will, as does Whitebeard, Big Mom, Shanks, Kaido, Kid, Zoro, Oden, Roger…
Usopp, whilst being a coward on the surface, has an incredibly strong will. Yes, Usopp is scared when he goes into a fight, yes, he has low self esteem and yes, he isn’t very strong, but in my opinion all of these things enforce how strong Usopp’s will is. He is terrified of fighting yet he does it anyway, he knows he is weak but he stands his ground like he is strong. This can be seen multiple times in the series to list some:
- He stands his ground against Mr 4 and Miss Merry Christmas after they diss Luffy’s dream
- He attempts on two occasions to either fight or distract Enel despite knowing he has no chance of ever beating him
- He goes to fight the Franky Family after being beaten down once already because he wants to get the money back for his friends
- He fights Luffy, again knowing he doesn’t stand a chance, but does it for his own honour and will to save the Merry
- He challenged Rob Lucci, who would have killed Usopp easily, but put his life on the line regardless to help Luffy
And those are just examples from the first 3 Sagas on the Grandline.
As we’ve seen, you don’t need to have motive to become something yourself to have Conqueror’s, you don’t even need to have pride in yourself to have Conqueror’s, these are both seen in Ace who wanted Whitebeard to be the Pirate King and loathed his own existence, all you need is a strong will, and I would argue that because of Usopp constantly overcoming his fear and walking into the face of death strongly all to help his friends, he has a real strong will. As well as that I think it would be a very fitting conclusion for the story of God Usopp for him to finally become a great warrior of the sea and have his unbreakable will shown throughout the story be rewarded with him awakening Conqueror’s Haki.
Of course this is all just speculation but I feel thematically it would be a great conclusion to Usopp’s progression as a character.
*Theory by GxdlikeInfant
