For any Devil Fruit user in One Piece, the strongest aspect of his power is the awakening of his Devil Fruit. When a Devil Fruit user awakens his/her true powers, he/she unlocks a totally different scale of strength that is quite literally unmatchable. This is why the awakening of a Devil Fruit is considered to be a rare phenomenon within One Piece.
Out of the plethora of Devil Fruit users, only a handful of the characters have been able to awaken their Devil Fruits. The first character within the One Piece narrative to awaken his Devil Fruit was actually Donquixote Doflamingo during the Dressrosa arc. After that, other characters like Katakuri, Lucci, etc. were seen unlocking their true potential.
However, the shocking aspect of the Devil Fruit awakening plot in One Piece is that big league players like Kaido and Whitebeard were never able to awaken their Devil Fruits. As they were considered the strongest characters, it was confusing for fans to find out that they could not unlock the complete potential of their Devil Fruit. But a theory suggests that Eiichiro Oda had a valid reason behind it.
The Manifestation of Devil Fruits in One Piece
The origin of the Devil Fruits has always been a mystery for the One Piece characters and the fans. No one knows how they one day just appeared out of nowhere and became one of the main sources of power, especially in the pirate world of One Piece. The only character who had a slight understanding of Devil Fruits was Dr. Vegapunk.
During the Egghead Island arc, Vegapunk revealed that every Devil Fruit is a possibility of human evolution that someone desired or dreamed about. These dreams and desires became so powerful that they were manifested into Devil Fruits. While this is just a theory by Vegapunk, it gives a decent understanding of the mysterious One Piece power.
As the One Piece narrative moves forward, fans will get a deeper understanding of the origin of Devil Fruit. The final saga is bound to solve all the mysteries that Eiichiro Oda introduced in the storyline, including the ones related to the Devil Fruits and their abilities.
Real Reason Why Other Characters Couldn’t Awaken Their Devil Fruit Powers
According to a theory posted by u/blueontheradio on Reddit, Oda dropped a major hint when he gave an explanation of Devil Fruit’s manifestation through Vegapunk. As mentioned above, the Devil Fruits are the manifestations of someone’s desire to achieve the next phase of evolution. Therefore, these Devil Fruits would perfectly sync with the characters who manifested them.
The theory states that the Devil Fruit can only awaken (to full potential) when the mindset of its user aligns with the desire that led to the Devil Fruit’s manifestation. This is why characters like Kaido and Whitebeard couldn’t awaken their Devil Fruits. In Whitebeard’s case, his Gura Gura no Mi was manifested to destroy the world. However, Whitebeard’s dream was to create a family and live a peaceful life.
The same was the case with Kaido. He had the Mythical-Zoan fruit of the dragon Seiryu, known as the guardian of people. But Kaido’s goal was to embed fear and establish his rule on Wano. These examples perfectly explain why these strong One Piece characters couldn’t awaken their Devil Fruit.
Luffy’s case was a little different. Luffy awakened his Devil Fruit because he gave his life for the freedom of Wano, which aligned with the real reason behind the manifestation of the Nika fruit, which was to attain freedom and peace for the whole world. If this theory is actually true, it will prove that Oda really is a creative genius.
One Piece is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
