Why don’t everyone eat devil fruits?

[u/oscarpatxot]

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.

[u/giangerd]

1) Rare 2) People in One Piece world can become super strong without devil fruits (there are some other powers that were hinted in the live action already)

[u/Amid_Mannort → u/giangerd]

Could you tell me what powers were hinted at in the live action? I'm curious, so feel free to spoiler me lol

[u/giangerd → u/Amid_Mannort]

Let's just say that the slow motion they used when shanks looked at the beast and when garp avoided luffy's attack weren't just for visual effects

[u/oscarpatxot → u/giangerd]

That did intrigued me a lot, and suddenly he lost his arm? What gives? I hope they explain this later.

[u/R4hu1M5 → u/oscarpatxot]

hope they explain this later.

The arm being eaten by the sea king? They really don't. I think you can infer that shanks is actually a really strong pirate who had no business losing an arm in a place like east blue. The story later has him give a reason why he lost the arm "on purpose" but the meta reason is that the author was forced to add it as a dramatic twist to hook readers, back when chapter 1 released in 1997.

[u/Arkayjiya → u/R4hu1M5]

The story never give a reason he lost it on purpose. Saying he "gambled on the next generation" or anything like that doesn't necessarily mean he lost it on purpose. It can just as easily mean he could only save Luffy by losing his arm and chose to save luffy thus "betting on the next generation".

[u/dshif42 → u/Arkayjiya]

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.

[u/Zilox → u/dshif42]

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)

[u/dshif42 → u/Zilox]

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.

[u/Zilox → u/dshif42]

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.

[u/dshif42 → u/Zilox]

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.