- Joined
- Nov 30, 2011
- Messages
- 2,001
- Reaction score
- 1,955
- Gender
- Male
- Country
-
Now that you mention Enel with his fruit + haki and Luffy.Thanks for the reply. I'll give my thoughts on how I see it and give my examples, but this is one where the smallest detail could be really cool, so if you have some counter example, please let me know.
Okay so I want to premise that there is a difference between being skilled and being powerful. It's why people commonly make the distinction of "weak but skilled" as a character archetype. So in that framework, here is why Caesar and Crocodile have their distinctions. Crocodile is the easiest.
Crocodile:
Only logia in existence that has demonstrated a unique ability locked to his right hand specifically. Moisture absorption. This ability doesnt make sense under current logia paradigms. It being locked to the hand doesnt make sense. it playing around with moisture doesnt super make sense in the sense that the actual heatbased fruits are unable to provoke a similar response. Where is the moisture going? It's not going to Crocodile, because even drops of blood hard counter him. It's not like he's putting his hand down and spreading sand, but that drawing in of water into his body is moving his fruit away from a sand fruit, and more a desertfication fruit, which itself begins to encroach on the biome logias that Aramaki and Caribo have.
Biome magnification, in where his power provokes the natural desert environment to become worse with sandstorms. Maybe this is an ability that is knocking on the door of a logia awakening. Maybe it's just getting smart with what he can stir up.
Caesar:
Gas synthesis to the point that he can synthesize any gas he wants and also its antidote, as an expression of his mastery over the subject matter. The only other logia that can demonstrate a wide range of expression on their field is Aramaki, since he can produce multiple expressions of plant life. That said, because caesar can produce even chemicals that he himself synthesized, he is in another league.
Meanwhile Ace and Sabo, for example, have never produced blue fire, which is the common upgrade for fire characters. This may be a case of not all logias are born equal.
Oxygen (and ambient gas) absorption
So, Caesar can remove the ambient element around him. To the best of my knowledge, we have not seen any other logia remove their logia element, that existed in a space without them generating it. Or in other words, we havent seen something like Ace go to a burning boat and draw the flames into their bodies, or Aokiji go to random ice and draw it into his body.
Caesar so far, is the only one (to the best of my knowledge) who will acitvely remove gas that he didnt produce. This power is maybe closer to Crocodile, though Crocodile still gets distinction for drawing in something that isnt his element.
Casual element production and control at all times--
this one depends on the reader, but generally in shonen, this sort of thing would be considered a focus exercise, such that the logic would be that if you're constantly engaging let's say the emission muscle, you're constantly training it. Under this rationale, the only other person who might constantly be engaging their power and a manifestation of it is Karasu.
The monster form--
I personally dont find this to be an expression of high skill, but I will put it here for fairness, while also pointing out that others have similar forms. (Enel, Aramkai.)
One could say that it took Luffy some time to figure out his altered modes, so we could say that the modes for the others have a equivalent level of difficulty and understanding of their bodies to pull off, with proper distinctions made for G2/G3 vs Luffy actual "monster" mode in Gear 4.
So, the synthesis aspect is by far the most busted. Because this one incorporates actual knowledge of chemistry, it qualifies for high skill. It is quite literally the most "I achieved mastery by studying" expression of high skill. In synthesis alone, Caesar is king.
In (ambient) element manipulation, Caesar is high up there.
Honorable mention for Enel, he is the only logia to have combined observation haki into his fruit to gain the unique ability to be aware of electro magnetic radiation. This is without a doubt a high-skill application, and the only person who can rival him in the category of "Devil Fruit-Haki integration, general" is Luffy, with the guys who coat their df emissions in haki very distant competitors.
Regarding your last thought on Awakenings, I think I would agree, and thats why I took care to say "his mastery of his casual element is the highest that we have seen."
I wasn't super confident on the awakenings since we've only seen maybe their consequences.
I would contend, however, that if the Logia awakenings are marked by the ability to permanently change an environment, then Crocodile is once more knocking on the door of that ability. It's possible that crocodile's explanation is the mechanical breakdown of how an awakening works on a more detailed level. I wouldnt call Croc's an awakening, but I would be very comfortable saying that right hand ability is an omen of the awakening being nearby. And because Croc is a new world level pirate, he is probably going to show that Awakening during final war.
Thanks again for the chat.
If we wanted to have fun, we could tabulate all the unique features the Logias have shown us. There's one category that Kizaru and Karasu are very good at, for example, that wasnt really covered here.
I wonder if that is the key for the final awakening of the fruit that Imu seems to have undergone.
Taking Luffy for example. His will + the Nika's will entwine/sync up to unleash a combined Haki.. Is this what Imu's "Maki" is?

