Summary
Ever since the Wano arc, the true power that Luffy possesses has finally been revealed. Across the entireOne Piecestory, there are perhaps no power-ups that can compare to Luffy’s Gear 5 state, as it allows him to manipulate reality in a sense by not only imparting his rubber properties externally, but also being able to summon random objects out of thin air.
However, withOne Pieceofficially having reached its Final Saga with the Elbaf arc, many fans believe that Luffy is still not ready to take on the forces ofImu and the World Government, and the recent chapters of the manga seem to prove this. Currently, the Gods' Knights and Imu themselves are the final villains of the arc who have a power that only Scopper knows how to counter, so let’s see why Luffy still has a lot to learn before the Final War.
Luffy Still Has A Lot To Learn Before The Final War
The Many Things He Needs To Learn
None can deny the sheer strength and world-changing powers that Gear 5 allows Luffy. In Wano, Kaido was the most formidable foe that fans had ever seen up to that point in the story due to his mastery of all forms ofHaki and the overwhelming power of his Devil Fruit ability, to the point where none were able to stand up to him. However, once Luffy unlocked Gear 5, he was able to defeat the World’s Strongest Creature quite convincingly.
Ever since then, most have believed that the powers granted to Luffy through Gear 5 were all that he needed going into the Final Saga. However, the subsequent arc proved that this isn’t the case, since the 5 Elders all made their appearance on Egghead, and while Luffy did manage to hold his own, it showed that he couldn’t do anything meaningful against them. No matter how much damage the Elders took, they were able to fully regenerate from it and, despite having body parts blown off, just shrugged it off.
One of the Elders, St. Topman Warcury, went a step beyond.With his powerful Fengxi Yokai form, he not only tanked a hit from Gear 5, but simply punching the Elder caused Luffy’s arm to hurt while doing nothing to Warcury at all, prompting everyone to consider him the most durable character in all ofOne Piece. Only something as powerful as Joyboy’s ancient Conqueror’s Haki was able to do any real damage to the Elders, disorienting them and sending them back to Marijoa.
Due to this incident on Egghead, fans were already convinced that Luffy has a lot to learn before the inevitable clash with Imu in the Final War, but Elbaf was the final nail in the coffin. Although the Gods' Knights are likely nowhere near as powerful as the Gorosei, they also have the ability to be summoned through the ‘Abyss’ as well as having strange regeneration powers. Currently, only Scopper has an answer to negate this ability.
How was he able to cut someone who’s immortal? This could be critical information!
Whether this is a new power-up entirely or a further form of mastering Haki is unclear, but it shows that Scopper is the only one who is able to do this. Although Luffy is likelystronger than any of the Gods' Knightson paper, he currently has no way to deal with their regenerative powers, meaning that none of his attacks will do any meaningful damage to them. With Scopper being the only one with such an answer, the Elbaf arc is likely heading toward Scopper imparting this knowledge to Luffy so he can be ready for the Final War.
In Chapter 1149, Nami even states that, despite their meteoric rise in power, Luffy and Zoro were outmatched by Scopper in their brief engagement in Elbaf’s underworld, clearly alluding to the fact that Scopper will likely train the Monster Trio in this special Haki type so they can be ready for the Final War. This also hints at a potential time skip awaiting fans once the current arc ends, but fans just have to wait to see how it will play out.
Story Arc
Orange Town
Scopper is known far and wide as the Left Wing of the Pirate King, serving as Roger’smost important ally next to Rayleighand is repeatedly stated as an equal to him. Because of this, Scopper’s strength is easily among the greatest that fans have ever seen, despite the character being far out of his prime. More importantly, his mentorship role in Elbaf is incredibly similar to Rayleigh’s on Sabaody. Before the time skip happened and Haki wasn’t as fleshed-out of a concept as it is now, Logia Devil Fruit powers were the most formidable in the series.
This is where Rayleigh came in as a mentor to Luffy, showing him that the only way to bypass the intangibility of Logia powers is through Haki, and the same thing seems to be happening right now with Scopper. In the Final War, the Gods' Knights and Gorosei are going to be the greatest enemies, especially with their regenerative powers. So, similar to how Rayleigh taught to bypass Logia intangibility, Scopper will teach them how to counter their regenerative powers, allowing the heroes to stand a chance against the greatest villains.
