Fans of One Piece have been waiting for this moment for six years, ever since the God Valley Incident was first mentioned by Sengoku in chapter #957. Now, in chapter #1165, the confrontation between Garp, Roger, and Rocks D. Xebec in the condemned island of God Valley has finally reached its end. Amidst the impressive battle, readers may have also caught a hint of another tier of Supreme King Haki — one that could help Luffy and his crew damage the seemingly invincible God’s Knights on Elbaph in the present day.
Although the flashback has been widely praised, a vocal group of fans has criticized author Eiichiro Oda’s choices, saying this fight isn’t long enough. Yet the reveal of a new way to use the strongest form of Haki shows how Oda has never been especially interested in the pure battle manga aspect of One Piece. Power-scaling, one of the manga and anime fandoms’ favorite pastimes, has always been largely irrelevant when applied to this story.
In a 2007 interview shared on X by @sandmap_AP, Oda explained that he prefers to draw “fights with dramatic stories.”
“If I had drawn a pure battle manga, it’d have been easily overwhelmed by Dragon Ball,” he said. “I had to avoid competing with DB that was so entertaining that I myself was addicted to.”
This statement confirms Oda’s reverence towards Akira Toriyama and his masterwork, but it also highlights how One Piece’s creator decided to make his story significantly different from that of the manga maestro.
Unlike many battle manga, One Piece doesn’t rely on power levels or sudden transformations (even if the latter happens at times, and when they do, it’s always spectacular). Oda’s approach to power is more nuanced, comparable to Nen from Hunter x Hunter, a system where users manipulate their life energy, or “aura,” to create supernatural effects. Haki may seem simpler, divided into Observation, Armament, and Supreme King, but its advanced forms make it far more intricate than it first appears. Crucially, these abilities don’t always develop through training. They emerge in moments of crisis, when characters reach emotional turning points and uncover something deeper within themselves. We’ve seen this pattern before, Zoro versus Mr. 1, Luffy against Katakuri, and Usopp’s desperate sniping during Dressrosa. Each power-up was tied to a defining moment of personal growth.
Before Super Saiyan transformations became commonplace, Goku first achieved the form by losing himself to rage after Krillin’s death. Future Trunks experienced the same awakening when he witnessed his mentor’s murder. These were not just power-ups but emotional peaks that carried meaning within their stories. Those are the kinds of moments Oda constantly strives for.
Unlike Yoshihiro Togashi with Nen, however, Oda doesn’t like to talk about his power system in the manga, with characters rarely having discussions on this topic. In the most recent chapter, however, One Piece delivers one of its most self-aware discussions of Haki yet. Faced with the overwhelming power of Rocks, who has been transformed into a devilish creature by Imu, Roger and Garp realize they’re not inflicting any damage, despite coating their attacks in Supreme King Haki, because Rocks is guarding himself with the same technique.
At that point, Roger tells Garp that the only counter is to strike with a “Critical Mass of Supreme Haki,” a new level of the ability. It’s unusually accurate language for the series, and having this revealed in a flashback with Garp and Roger, two of the strongest figures in the series, was no accident. It sets the stage for Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy to eventually tap into this power, which Scopper Gabban briefly mentioned earlier. This mirrors how Kidd and Law’s awakenings in Wano re-established the concept just before Luffy’s own breakthrough, ensuring that each new power-up serves a clear narrative purpose.
Some fans complained that the much-anticipated fight between Roger and Garp vs. Xebec was over in just one chapter, without the intricacies and detailed choreographies that other shonen series have become famous for. However, this merely proves that One Piece is different.
Even the way Devil Fruits operate ties back to character and willpower rather than training. Dr. Vegapunk explains that Devil Fruits are born from people’s wishes. Some even draw specific users to them, suggesting that consumption can be a matter of destiny rather than luck. Awakening a fruit requires complete harmony between user and ability, not just discipline or skill. For some, Luffy’s Devil Fruit awakening may have seemed to come out of nowhere, but it served a clear narrative purpose, bringing together all the Joy Boy lore revealed so far into a moment that unfolds at exactly the right place and time for the protagonist.
Although many characters, especially the Straw Hats, have turned out to be more significant than they first appeared, strength in One Piece is never easily earned. Every character’s power is shaped by their past, defined by their present, and guided by the future they seek.
Crucially, these abilities don’t always develop through training. They emerge in moments of crisis, when characters reach emotional turning points and uncover something deeper within themselves. This is one aspect where One Piece actually follows Dragon Ball’s example. Before Super Saiyan transformations became commonplace, Goku first achieved the form by losing himself to rage after Krillin’s death. Future Trunks experienced the same awakening when he witnessed his mentor’s murder. These were not just power-ups but emotional peaks that carried meaning within their stories. Those are the kinds of moments Oda constantly strives for.
While power-scaling is not uncommon at all in the genre (it’s actually one of the pillars of shonen), the difference is that One Piece’s fights are almost always a vehicle for the most appreciated aspect of the manga: its intricate, mysterious, and incredibly compelling story.
