Summary
At this stage in theOne Piecestory, it’s clear that Haki has become a power that is necessary for those fighting in the New World to achieve. This has been proven by some of the strongest characters in the series, such as Kaido, who has explained that Haki is an outward and incredible force of will that is needed to conquer the seas, and the subsequent arcs from the time skip have only gone on to hammer this point home.
This power is so important that anyone who has even a little to do with combat inOne Piecemust have some kind of control over it to survive in the New World, especially for members of Yonko crews. While this is generally true for all Straw Hats as well,Nami is one character who fans believeshould never get the ability to use Haki, so let’s go over why this sentiment is quite popular within the community.
Story Arc
Orange Town
One Pieceis a series that places incredible importance on its supporting cast of characters. Of course, at the end of the day, Luffy remains the protagonist, but Oda has repeatedly made it clear that he would never have gotten to the stage where he is without his crew to help him on his way. This is both from a literal and figurative perspective, aseach Straw Hat serves an invaluable rolewithin the crew structure.
This is where Nami comes in. In terms of her significance within the crew, she is perhaps the most important member after Luffy himself as the navigator since she is the one responsible for taking the Straw Hats almost everywhere they’ve been. Due to this, and seeing how essential Scopper was to the Roger Pirates as their navigator, Nami will directly be the one credited with finally taking the crew to Laugh Tale where they will uncover the One Piece, which would be the greatest accolade just about anyone could possibly boast within the story.
However, Haki is a completely different ball game. In terms of how they are right now, there is no other Straw Hat who is less suited to combat in general than Nami, which is even evidenced by her being the weakest member of the Weakling Trio. Usopp and Chopper have always been more directly involved in combat situations throughout the arcs, so giving them Haki makes way more sense than Nami since they would need it far more, as was proven in Dressrosa whenUsopp briefly unlocked Observation Haki.
However, this isn’t to say Nami is completely inept in terms of combat, since she had gotten a substantial power-up during the Wholecake Island arc when she incorporated Zeus into her Clima-Tact. This much is fine since it does make her strong enough to hold her own against weaker foes and even enough to do damage to strong ones at times, but her true value lies in her smarts and her role within the Straw Hats.
I’m the best navigator around! I love the sea!
This speaks to a larger point withinOne Piece, which is that not every character needs to be strong or to be a fighter in order to be important. Throughout her journey, Nami has shown herself to be one of the most essential members of the Straw Hats and one of the most capable pirates in all ofOne Piece, so for her tohave any of the Haki typeswould just take away more from her strengths and would make her like any other character, which would be a wasted development.
Of course, this criticism could go to other Straw Hats too, but Nami is the only one who has never been involved in any of the massive fights within an arc. Robin is an archaeologist and scholar above all else but her evolution as a fighter has been very apparent since the beginning, so Haki for her makes a ton of sense. The same is true for the other Straw Hats who haven’t achieved this ability yet, but Nami remains an outlier who shouldn’t get this power.
Why It Makes More Sense For The Others To Get Haki
Haki Seems To Deal Directly With Combat
Within the entire Straw Hat crew, Zoro is perhaps the only one whose role directly deals with combat, showing that none of the others have the need for Haki in terms of their job descriptions. However, throughout the story, everyone hastaken part in massive battle sequencesin the many arcs against notably powerful enemies; all except for Nami.
This clearly shows that they all have a much greater need for Haki than she does, since Haki is almost essential at this point in the story. Now, since the series is in its Final Saga and the enemies are only going to get far stronger going forward, the combatants within the Straw Hats can only really do anything against them if they have Haki. This could go for Nami as well, but her true strengths lie elsewhere.
