Soluzar
January 17th, 2010, 11:20 AM
This thread may contain spoilers for up to Enies Lobby, although I'll try to tag the more crucial information from relatively late arcs. I think I can assume. Let me start out by saying that I am assuming Luffy will always continue to be the one who beats the strongest enemies, although that might not prove to be true. Since the enemies have consistently got stronger as the series has progressed, that means that Luffy needs to get stronger too. He's already started down that path, but how is he going to continue?
It's my personal opinion that Logia users are horrendously overpowered. I don't see any way that Luffy could possibly beat Ace or Smoker, for example. Fortunately he hasn't been required to, so far. The reason I bring them up is because it was precisely with the introduction of Smoker, the first Logia user of the series that we started to see Luffy was not the most powerful character in the series. Up to that point he was able to kick the *** of everyone else he'd come across, with the possible exception of Mihawk, who was never intended as his opponent anyway.
The series neatly sidestepped the issue by not directly putting Luffy against any of the Logia users for a while, until the Arabasta arc. Crocodile definitely seemed to be set up as a significant victory over a Logia user almost to make the point that they aren't all completely invulnerable like Smoker. The Suna-Suna no Mi has a weakness, one which Luffy was able to exploit.
God Enel was significantly more difficult to beat, but in the end it was still a type of elemental weakness that brought victory to Luffy. Perhaps it could even be said that only a Gomu-Gomu no Mi user could have defeated Enel.
Maybe the others Logia-type fruit powers have a weakness as well. That remains to be seen from where I am. Logia users do not come to the fore during the next two arcs, in which the strongest enemies have powers derived from Paramecia and Zoan type. Even so, this is when we see Luffy's first real increase in power, as necessitated by the Rokushiki fighting style.
This is where I get to the point, because Luffy's new techniques aren't ideal.
Gear Second is a big step forward for Luffy, but Rob Lucci said it is damaging to the user, and will eventually shorten Luffy's lifespan. I presume the same can be said of Gear Third, so... can Luffy afford to keep using these techniques and still live to become the Pirate King?
Do you think Luffy will be forced to come up with new techniques? After all, the manga is well ahead of where I've reached, and I have no doubt that new and even stronger enemies have presented themselves. How do you think he will deal with the other Logia users we know about, and any we (or I...) don't know about yet?
It's my personal opinion that Logia users are horrendously overpowered. I don't see any way that Luffy could possibly beat Ace or Smoker, for example. Fortunately he hasn't been required to, so far. The reason I bring them up is because it was precisely with the introduction of Smoker, the first Logia user of the series that we started to see Luffy was not the most powerful character in the series. Up to that point he was able to kick the *** of everyone else he'd come across, with the possible exception of Mihawk, who was never intended as his opponent anyway.
The series neatly sidestepped the issue by not directly putting Luffy against any of the Logia users for a while, until the Arabasta arc. Crocodile definitely seemed to be set up as a significant victory over a Logia user almost to make the point that they aren't all completely invulnerable like Smoker. The Suna-Suna no Mi has a weakness, one which Luffy was able to exploit.
God Enel was significantly more difficult to beat, but in the end it was still a type of elemental weakness that brought victory to Luffy. Perhaps it could even be said that only a Gomu-Gomu no Mi user could have defeated Enel.
Maybe the others Logia-type fruit powers have a weakness as well. That remains to be seen from where I am. Logia users do not come to the fore during the next two arcs, in which the strongest enemies have powers derived from Paramecia and Zoan type. Even so, this is when we see Luffy's first real increase in power, as necessitated by the Rokushiki fighting style.
This is where I get to the point, because Luffy's new techniques aren't ideal.
Gear Second is a big step forward for Luffy, but Rob Lucci said it is damaging to the user, and will eventually shorten Luffy's lifespan. I presume the same can be said of Gear Third, so... can Luffy afford to keep using these techniques and still live to become the Pirate King?
Do you think Luffy will be forced to come up with new techniques? After all, the manga is well ahead of where I've reached, and I have no doubt that new and even stronger enemies have presented themselves. How do you think he will deal with the other Logia users we know about, and any we (or I...) don't know about yet?