Discussion Normal Zoan Awakenings: Is that all there is?

[zetsu banned]

Paramecia and Mythical Zoans get wild grab-bag abilities on awakening but Normal Zoans just get a flat stat boosts and regeneration. I figured that was just the case for an "imperfect awakening" like the Impel Down guards or (maybe) Chopper, but it seems like their "true awakening" is just the same thing. We got more creative ability writing out of Kaku first eating his fruit than we got during the short time we got to see the first confirmed true awakening Normal Zoan.

So... is that all there is? Were Lucci and Kaku just too green with their abilities to figure out how to use them creatively?

Auxillary complaint: furthermore, wtf Beasts Pirates?? What a bizarre amount of wasted potential to show off Normal and Ancient Zoan awakenings.

Tangential thought: Marco awakening the Phoenix fruit feels like the Chekov's Gun equivalent of Guy and the Eighth Gate, it has to happen... right?

 

[Hannibal Psyche]

Always thought it worked this way, Awakening just increase what the DF already does fundamentally.
Zoans are just physically strong, they get a boost in speed, physical attributes and Awakening should just enhance that exponentially.
Mythical Zoans on the other hand can have other magical powers which if enhanced would make them close to invincible like Kaido, Marco, etc.

ID Zoans just didn't have the mental fortitude to handle not being taken over by the looks of things.

 

[kkck]

Hmmm, to me normal zoan awakenings do look like plain stat boosts. I don't think they will new or more mythical like abilities. I think there's room for there to be more freedom with their transformations though since that is apparently something folk with zoan fruits can train to some extent. Like how black maria or jack were odd centaur like creatures in their hybrid forms. Yamato is a mythical zoan but she exhibited the gaseous scarf even in her animal form so perhaps zoan awakenings have applications in all of their transformations.

Marco is a very unusual zoan due to how he uses his transformations. We have seen his full animal form but his hybrid form appears to be his human form simply turning his arms into wings and his legs into claws. He hasn't shown any pell like transformation. I would assume some mythical zoans would also get the ability to affect the environment with their ability like luffy does but at least yamato didn't do that. I'd definitely be disappointed if we don't get marco's awakening. Awakenings so far seem to significantly drain an user's stamina and marco relies on stamina to heal himself. Awakenings can apparently be mastered to overcome that but marco getting more regeneration and perhaps being able to influence a larger battlefield than we saw seems almost too broken an ability to not have appeared. Maybe mythical zoans get the physical boost of zoan awakenings but the enhanced effects of their mythical abilities can have a lot more variety and limitations.

Kaido's crew is definitely a waste on the awakening end at least. Not one awakened dinosaur... You'd think at least king would get the benefit of an awakening. Or at least have the decency of explaining something like more dangerous animals having more dangerous awakenings. Kaido not having an awakening is a crime.

 

[HereNThere]

Yeah, seems to be the case. Stuff like Pasta Machine and Brachiohiss would make more sense as Awakened abilities, but the concept wasn't developed early enough. So they're stuck with basic stat increases as the benefit. Hell, he's just recently landed on a way to differentiate them visually with the cloud/flame wreaths.

In regards to the Beast Pirates, it was most certainly a missed opportunity. I can't imagine that Oda hadn't considered it at least. The Alliance was already fighting a major uphill battle, so he may have figured giving the Beast Pirates awakening on top of it was a step too far. We know he eased up on the whole Trick Weapon concept that was supposed to play a larger role in their power, so I wouldn't be surprised.

I don't think it's necessary at this point for Marco. Wano would've been the place to show it off. Chopper is more likely to show off a true awakening at this point.

 

[Hannibal Psyche]

Personally, I can't believe they aren't Awakened.
Awakening should really just be enhanced durability and other qualities, no necessarily requiring a different look, so I'd imagine the Beast Pirates top commanders were all awakened.

Even Marco is believed to not be Awakened, I find that hard to believe that these top-tier characters aren't.
I have to doubt having the cloud-cloak like Lucci, Luffy and other Zoans is the only thing that indicates Awakening, and we do have a precedence with the Impel Down Zoans who have no cloak.
We're just told they lost their will from being consumed by the DF from Awakening, and Croc still said they still had that enhanced durability and strength.

I feel it would be like saying Lucky Roo from the Red Hair Pirates doesn't have Armament just because he's not showcased it, or looks like he does. I will just give the benefit of the doubt, sometimes I feel benefit of the doubt just has to be given when it makes no sense.
There are quite a few people who think Kaido, an Emperor with Future Sight, King's Haki Cladding and every other pinnacle of skill isn't Awakened... I highly doubt it.
Oda just probably didn't mention it, he forgets a lot of things just like he forgot to mention wat Kid's DF was for over 1,000 chapters, haha.

 

[kkck]

Yeah, seems to be the case. Stuff like Pasta Machine and Brachiohiss would make more sense as Awakened abilities, but the concept wasn't developed early enough. So they're stuck with basic stat increases as the benefit. Hell, he's just recently landed on a way to differentiate them visually with the cloud/flame wreaths.

In regards to the Beast Pirates, it was most certainly a missed opportunity. I can't imagine that Oda hadn't considered it at least. The Alliance was already fighting a major uphill battle, so he may have figured giving the Beast Pirates awakening on top of it was a step too far. We know he eased up on the whole Trick Weapon concept that was supposed to play a larger role in their power, so I wouldn't be surprised.

I don't think it's necessary at this point for Marco. Wano would've been the place to show it off. Chopper is more likely to show off a true awakening at this point.

Hmm, marco didn't show his awakening even at marineford.. You'd think the awakening of a fire chicken that can mass heal folk would have been pretty useful there. I think the main reason that oda didn't give them awakening is that he was mostly saving it for luffy. Of course the calamities are obvious awakening candidates. It's even BS that at least 2 out of 3 didn't show it. It's BS that kaido didn't awaken his fruit considering he was a suicidal battle crazy monster. But if oda went with stuff that made sense then first it would have required extra pages in an arc which oda was already struggling to rush more and second luffy would have been the the 4th or further zoan awakening of the arc.