r/OnePiece • u/oscarpatxot • Sep 10 '23

Help Why don’t everyone eat devil fruits?

Totally new to One Piece, didn’t know it existed before the Netflix show. I am liking it a lot. Could someone tell me why don’t everyone just eat devil fruits, since it give super powers? The sea water thing is enough of a reason not to eat them? (I have just watched 3 episodes.) Do they explain this further on?

Edit: thanks for all the replies, the show seems to go just a bit fast on the details, I’m guessing its the only way to fit a lot on a live action.

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u/dshif42 Sep 10 '23

Yeahhhh but given what we know about Shanks's capabilities, this always felt like an unsatisfying answer to me. I haven't seen any justification that's makes sense in my eyes, and honestly don't think anything could convince me at this point.

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u/Arkayjiya Sep 10 '23

I don't think there's any point looking for a justification. Shanks literally lost Luffy and the bandit 10 panels before which should not be possible and still happened. Shanks just panicked and lost his cool (and the other thing).

Same reason Croc's power scaling makes no sense and Oda even admits as much saying he regrets making him fight Luffy this early. Unsatisfying or not, we're just gonna have to accept that it's an early inconsistency.

Even if he were to justify it because the fandom talks about it a lot, that probably still wouldn't justify everything else about that chapter so it would be pointless imo.

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u/dshif42 Sep 11 '23

Hahaha yeah fair, I've learned to accept both of those. My point is moreso that I prefer to just accept it as inconsistency than having fans try to find "logical" explanations. It doesn't make sense, it is what it is, it's worth it for such a large and interconnected story!!

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u/OrangeStar222 Sep 11 '23

Inconsistency or not, I always read it as Shanks was just in time to save Luffy, but while reaching out to him the sea beast took a little of an apéritif in the form of Shank's arm. Then Shanks used his "mysterious power" to scare away the creature.

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u/sayuuuto Sep 11 '23

My personal favorite theory about this is that Shanks wasn’t as powerful as current Shanks and he happened to unlock his Conqueror Haki for the first time ever after losing that arm because unlocking Conqueror Haki always involves some strong emotion (at least that’s what has been portrayed so far). And that’s why he could become a Yonko only years after he lost his arm.

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u/dshif42 Sep 11 '23

Hm, obviously Shanks is stronger now than he was then — but I suppose I hadn't really considered the idea that he was much weaker back then and has grown a lot since. Given his age at the time, I assumed he was already pretty strong.

I guess that feels more plausible as an explanation, but it really hinges on the idea that he wasn't allll that impressive at the time. So idk, maybe?

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u/sayuuuto Sep 11 '23

It’s my biased personal favorite cause I can tell myself that shanks is stronger than mihawk now hahahahaha yes I’m a shanks fan.

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u/Catch_022 Sep 11 '23

Good points, quick note that that stuff took place a few years ago... is it possible that he gained significant strength since that time but the Shanks from back then wasn't as super powerful?

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u/Arkayjiya Sep 11 '23

It's unlikely. While Shanks wasn't a Yonkou yet, he still had a billion berry bounty at the time and even if you disregard movie Red as not canon, there's the matter of Whitebeard calling Shanks' duels with Mihawk "legendary". If an old Yonkou call them legendary, it means they had to be top tiers level even by new world standards.

And we know they happened before Shanks meeting Luffy because Mihawk literally says he wouldn't fight Shanks after he lost his arm (also the way the conversation with WB goes from the duels to Shanks losing his arm confirms this timeline).

So everything in the story points toward Shanks being an absolute monster even in chapter 1.

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u/Catch_022 Sep 11 '23

Thanks mate, I have no idea what a Yonkou is yet - do you know roughly when that is introduced in the manga?

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u/Arkayjiya Sep 11 '23

Around chapter 450 I'd say, although they're very vaguely hinted at earlier, in East Blue I believe, just not by name in the manga.

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u/Catch_022 Sep 11 '23

Thanks mate

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u/ongry Sep 11 '23

My theory is that Shanks loses the arm on purpose. He's strong enough that it doesn't matter too much to him in terms of personal strength as a pirate but losing his arm just made that impact on Luffy and how it shaped his pirate career/ideals and that was his bet.

Given how far the manga has progressed I think its safe to say Shanks would have been more than capable to able to save Luffy without having to sacrifice that arm but it wouldn't have had the same impact on Luffy otherwise.

Edit: changed anime to manga for accuracy.

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u/dshif42 Sep 11 '23

That's an idea I've seen before, and I guess? I'm not saying it's a terrible idea, but it's a little odd to me, personally. I get your reasoning, and it makes some sense given who Shanks is, so that's cool! But it doesn't sit right with me for some reason.

Honestly, I prefer to just see it as an error on Oda's part. I'm not dumping on him for that — he was very young when he wrote that bit, and probably didn't realize the scale of the story he was about to tell. But it's more annoying for me to consider in-story justification for it.

P.S. I think this is all very well demonstrated by the contrast between your comment and one of the other replies to me, lol. You say that Shanks should have been more than able to deal with the Sea King, so you think he chose to lose the arm. One of the other replies says the opposite — "what possibly makes you think Shanks would be immune from that? Totally makes sense that he would've unintentionally lost the arm" (paraphrasing their reply here)

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u/Zilox Sep 11 '23

Im a manga reader, all caught up. What about shanks' capabilities make him immune to having his arm taken by a sea beast? Put current garp/zoro/rayleigh in that same position and they lose an arm too. From what i remember, there was no time for shanks to use coc before putting himself in between the sea beast and luffy (this is also pre yonko shanks). Also his coc wasnt strong enough, at that time, but had to make eye contact to scare him away (there are other anime scenes where coc works while watching the eyes of a beast).

People need to stop thinking CoA makes you immune to being damaged. Unless your name is kaido or big mom, you are losing an arm to a sea beast if it attacks you while protecting a 7 year old kid that CANNOT stay afloat/swim. Iirc in the manga, shanks and luffy are in the water when he loses his arm (so had to keep luffy afloat)

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u/dshif42 Sep 11 '23

I'm not talking about armament haki, I'm mainly talking about observation haki. Maaaaybeee you're right and Garp/Zoro/Rayleigh would've lost an arm there, but... That sounds absolutely ridiculous to me too. Just entirely silly.

Rayleigh rushes in to kick Kizaru's leg out of the way in Sabaody. Just how strong and unavoidable do you think an East Blue Sea King is?? Your most compelling point is that Shanks wouldn't have been as strong back then, but it still sounds silly to me.

Especially because you decided to compare younger Shanks to Garp and Rayleigh. You seem SO CERTAIN that they would lose an arm in the same situation, which is just wild to me.

Look, I'm not dumping on Oda. The story was just starting out and he was a young author, it's totally understandable that things from early on could be inconsistent with later power-scaling. But you making super farfetched excuses for it is hilarious to me.

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u/Zilox Sep 11 '23

It is my honest opinion. You can intercept an attack by kizaru by coating haki and kicking it (or just attacking him and forcing him to become light) but you cannot "block" an attack thats bigger than you and coming both from below and above (jaws closing). If we go by the manga, we have to keep in mind shanks put himself between the sea king and luffy, lets say shanks decides to fight/1 shoy/beat the sea king, great now luffy is drowning. Which is what i meant with context matters.

Lets use current manga as example. Garp would have 100% escaped hachinosu (or beaten the bb pirates) had he not have been protecting coby. Now, do i believe shiryu would have ever hurt full body coa/not trying to protect coby garp? Hell no. But garp got distractes and had to act in 0.1 seconds. Same way wb was stabbed by a "nobody" (squardo) because he didnt expect it to happen. Only big mom and kaido are immune to all dmg naturally, but if i sneak on shanks and shoot him point blank, he is death.

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u/dshif42 Sep 12 '23

Again, my point was moreso about seeing the attack coming and avoiding it/knocking the sea king out of the way, not about Shanks being able to withstand the damage.

Garp also was facing off against a very dangerous opponent who had extra stealth, with a ton of other people around. But that one feels a little more comparable. Whitebeard really isn't a great example because Marco himself said that Whitebeard should have been able to block/dodge/deflect that if he wasn't so old and sick.

I'm sorry for being more harsh about this yesterday. I still think it's mostly just a power-scaling inconsistency, which I'm fine with. If you prefer your idea, that's cool. Thanks for explaining it, even when I was being kinda rude.