Key Takeaways
- Some characters in One Piece should never eat Devil Fruits due to their established identities, skills, and weaknesses.
- Characters like Bepo, Dracule Mihawk, and Monkey D. Garp have unique strengths and abilities that would be negated by consuming a Devil Fruit.
- Eating a Devil Fruit would undermine the character growth, fighting style, and efficiency of characters like Koby, Shanks, and Franky.
Devil Fruits are the signature power system of One Piece, and anyone who eats one of them will automatically gain a strange but useful superpower. However, these mysterious fruits are very rare and not every important character in the series has had the opportunity to eat one. And some of them should never do so.
Several key figures in the One Piece world have built their entire identity around their mastery of another power system, like Haki or Rokushiki, and, thus, eating a Devil Fruit would go against their established character. On top of that, they also give their users a debilitating weakness to water, which may be a huge detriment in this huge semiaquatic world. The following characters should never consume one of these bizarre fruits.
8 Bepo
This Mink Has A Huge Advantage Over His Brethren
- First Appearance: Chapter 498 (Manga) Episode 392 (Anime)
Members of the Mink Tribe have two efficient weapons in their arsenal: their Electro ability and their Sulong transformation, so most of them don’t need to consume a Devil Fruit in order to fight their opponents. However, Sulong can be quite unreliable, as it only activates when there’s a full moon in the night sky. But one particular Mink, Bepo, doesn’t have this problem.
Thanks to Tony Tony Chopper, Bepo has access to a drug that can activate his Sulong form regardless of the moon’s position. When combined with his solid martial arts skills, this transformation is very effective, not to mention that it has let Bepo save his captain, Trafalgar Law, by swimming away into the sea. So a Devil Fruit would only nullify all of that.
7 Dracule Mihawk
What Would Be The Point Of Being The Strongest Swordsman?
- First Appearance: Chapter 49 (Manga) Episode 23 (Anime)
Dracule Mihawk has been established as the “Strongest Swordsman” of the entire One Piece world ever since the first story arcs of the series. He certainly stayed true to this prestigious title, because his skills with a sword are unparalleled, as he can slice through huge battleships or icebergs with no problems.
Mihawk can also use Haki, but he doesn’t depend on it when fighting, unlike Shanks and other similar swordfighters of near skill level. It’s evident that he worked hard to get there, so eating a Devil Fruit would completely undermine his efforts and make his title of Strongest Swordsman lose all of its meaning. It would feel like cheating.
6 Monkey D. Garp
He Became The Hero Of The Marines Without One
- First Appearance: Chapter 92 (Manga) Episode 68 (Anime)
There’s no doubt that Monkey D. Garp is one of the strongest figures in One Piece since he defeated the infamous Rocks D. Xebec (with the help of Gol D. Roger) and gained the title of “Hero of the Marines”. After that, he kept detaining dangerous pirates and even began mentoring younger marines, like Koby and Helmeppo.
With a combination of immense physical strength, Rokushiki techniques, and the three types of Haki, Garp is an absolute beast in battle and has managed to pull off impressive feats, like his powerful Galaxy Impact, which completely obliterated most of Hachinosu. Garp has come so far without even thinking about eating a Devil Fruit, so he certainly doesn’t need one now.
5 Koby
It Would Go Against His Inspiring Character Growth
- First Appearance: Chapter 2 (Manga) Episode 1 (Anime)
No character in One Piece has grown as much as Koby did: he went from a feeble kid who wanted to join the Marines to a heroic Marine Captain who is so strong that he can even destroy part of an island with his mighty Honesty Impact. It’s immediately evident that Koby is Garp’s protégé, and he shares a similar fighting style with his master.
What’s especially important about Koby is that he also worked extremely hard to get where he is at today, and eating Devil Fruit would diminish the impact of his character growth and development. Of course, Devil Fruit users still have to put a lot of effort in their fighting and training (with Monkey D. Luffy being a clear example of this), but Koby wouldn’t benefit from eating one at this point.
4 Shanks
He Is Already One Of The Most Skilled Haki Users In The Series
- First Appearance: Chapter 1 (Manga) Episode 4 (Anime)
“Red Hair” Shanks is the only Emperor in One Piece without any Devil Fruit powers, and he would never have been able to earn and keep this title if it wasn’t for his impeccable Haki skills, which have always been so powerful that even Whitebeard himself recognized him for them. This is all expected of someone who trained under Gol D. Roger himself.
After Luffy faced so many threatening foes with crazy Devil Fruit powers, like Big Mom or Kaido, Shanks’ main role in the story now is to prove how far a Haki master can get. His crushing victories over Ryokugyu and Kid revealed that he has complete mastery of the three types, and there’s arguably no one else alive in the world who is as efficient at using Haki as he is. This all means that Shanks not only shouldn’t eat a Devil Fruit but that he was practically written to never need one.
3 Franky
He Already Has His Advanced Cyborg Technology
- First Appearance: Chapter 329 (Manga) Episode 233 (Anime)
When it comes to the Straw Hat Pirates, Eiichiro Oda has managed to achieve an almost perfect balance, since only 4 out of 10 members of this crew have eaten a Devil Fruit. And while there’s an argument that could be made for some of them to eventually eat one, there are others who should never do so, with Franky being one of the most definite examples.
The point of Franky as a character is to introduce cyborgs to the story and to show everything that a smart and talented engineer can achieve with cutting-edge technology. He already has a resilient metal body, numerous weapons, and he can even pilot a giant mech, so he wouldn’t benefit from a Devil Fruit anyway. Curiously enough, Franky is one of the few characters who stated that he doesn’t want to eat a Devil Fruit since Luffy offered him the Mera Mera no Mi during the Dressrosa Arc, but he rejected it because he doesn’t want to lose the ability to swim.
2 Vinsmoke Sanji
He’s A Proficient Swimmer With Super Human Abilities
- First Appearance: Chapter 43 (Manga) Episode 20 (Anime)
It’s been established that Sanji is one of the best swimmers among the Straw Hat Pirates, and he was often the first member of the crew that would jump in the water in order to save Luffy or Chopper from drowning. It would be a shame if he ever ate a Devil Fruit since it would eliminate one of his most useful abilities.
Not to mention that the powers of a Devil Fruit won’t even give him an upper hand in battle, since Sanji can already perform a lot of impressive techniques without one: he was already a proficient martial artist, and he could even set his legs on fire with his deadly Diable Jiambe. On top of that, he recently awakened the genetic modifications in his body, which made him even faster, stronger, and more resistant.
1 Jinbe
It Would Literally Ruin His Entire Character And Fighting Style
- First Appearance: Chapter 528 (Manga) Episode 430 (Anime)
Fish-Men and Merfolk are all about their innate amphibian abilities and thus, any member of these races would be hindered by the prospect of eating Devil Fruit, as was proven with the only 2 examples in the series, Vander Decken IX and Jack. Jinbe is no exception, as he inevitably is the most skilled swimmer of the Straw Hat Pirates. He’s also the helmsman of the crew, meaning that his position always puts him too close to ocean water for this to be a major weakness.
On top of that, Jinbe is also a master of Fish-Man Karate and Fish-Man Jujutsu, two unique martial arts that rely on his abilities to swim and manipulate water. So, this weakness to water would completely invalidate the efficient fighting style that he has been using for many years. There would be zero benefits for Jinbe if he had Devil Fruit abilities, and it’s certain that he will reach the end of the series without eating one.
