Official One Piece Anime & Manga Discussion Thread

[Ghoulish]

Gear Second: Blood speed increase, Alot faster movement

Gear Third: Increase Bone Size, May not nessecarily be stronger however extra size harder to avoid attacks.

Gear Fourth (Theory): Perhaps Muscle size increase? Increased strength and power put dirrct impact shot, area of damage focused in a small area of attack thereby increasing its effectiveness

 

Doflamingo menrioned Luffy had good speed but lacked power to damage him? This could be a valuable hint to us for luffy to prove him wrong in some way.

[Fusion X. Denver]

^That's not a bad idea. Maybe Gear Fourth will have Luffy use his powers the opposite of usual and contract his muscles to maximum density, and maybe even pull a Toriko with calories in his body serving as the fuel with the downside of being weakened/hungry after using it.

And it's possible Gear Fourth is similar to Ultra Super Saiyan where the trade-off in speed isn't worth the extra strength. But since Luffy has Haki now, that should give Gear Fourth coverage to justify using it.

 

Alright, I can get behind that idea.

[Ghoulish]

I love that idea! Tbh it fits so well.

[Northern Sage]

http://mangafox.me/manga/one_piece/vTBD/c784/2.html

*heavy breathing*

[Tentacruel]

I think I may need new trousers. 

[Shradow]

Well that was awesome. I'm reminded of Nightmare Luffy.

[D.A._Sakuyamon]

Looks like Gear Forth works like a tightned spring.

[Rodrigo]

[spoiler=Chapter 784]Guys...

 

Luffy probably learned this technique from Bellamy, seeing as his rubber works as springs now.

 

funking hell, Oda. Why do you make me cry so much?

 

Also, Law got his arm back. Bless Tontatta.

 

[Fusion X. Denver]

That was great. So ridiculous and awesome at the same time, this is why Oda's the man.

Gear Fourth is a very welcome addition to Luffy's arsenal, in my book.

[ZeRainbowDash]

Gear fourth is really cool. Inflation and elasticity to triple his power? I think yes.

[Shradow]

It's really awesome, but I'm wondering what the side effects are. To me it seems like it puts more strain on this body than either G2 or G3. Granted, he fought giant monsters on that island for 2 years so maybe there was plenty of time to work around any negative effects, like he did with G2 and G3.

 

I'm seeing a lot of mixed feelings about the design of G4, but I think it looks really cool and beastly. The tattoo/design thing from the Armament Haki is neat, too. G4 isn't just some standard power up form a la DBZ, it definitely has that unique One Piece feel, and it's another crazy way that Oda shows just how creative he can get with such simple abilities.

[Hallohallo]

It's really awesome, but I'm wondering what the side effects are. To me it seems like it puts more strain on this body than either G2 or G3. Granted, he fought giant monsters on that island for 2 years so maybe there was plenty of time to work around any negative effects, like he did with G2 and G3.

According to wiki:

 

As a side-effect he is incapable of standing still on the ground, and instead constantly bounces on the spot.

Although, this isn't really confirmed, but somehow sounds right to me.

 

Some people speculated that G4 will be similar to Nightmare Luffy and they were correct! At first I didn't know what to say about this form, but after I read some pages, Luffy looks like a beast! I'm starting to like this gear. I want to see other people's reactions to Luffy's new appearance.

[Shradow]

I'm talking like how G2 shortens his life span and overuses his body's nutrients if used too much, and how G3 used to make him go chibi after use. I'm wondering if there's something negative like that.

[Hallohallo]

I'm talking like how G2 shortens his life span and overuses his body's nutrients if used too much, and how G3 used to make him go chibi after use. I'm wondering if there's something negative like that.

I know, but I still wanted to point out that side-effect.

 

I'd say, he'll have some problems using his Gomu-Gomu no powers, since he's using a lot of elasticity, like Doflamingo pointed out many times in today's chapter. He might not be able to stretch back his arms and legs for a while.

 

Knowing Oda and his way of showing hints, this might be true, but it's still a speculation.

[Darj]

First time posting here but I follow the manga (I would like to watch the anime someday but with so many episodes I have been lazy to do that).

Anyway, this last chapter was so damn exciting; Luffy's appearance is amazing; one can even get an idea of his huge power just by looking at him. Also, the beating was sweet. It reminded me of super saiyan 4 for some reason. That aside, I guess if Bellamy was any stronger, he could have pulled something similar with his springs.

 

And yeah, I agree with Shradow that is amazing how someone can come up with all sorts of powers and things from "simple" abilities. Basically, every ability can become good if the user is creative enough to learn how to use it at its maximum potential, and basically there aren't, or shouldn't be, "bad" abilites out there.

[Fusion X. Denver]

First time posting here but I follow the manga (I would like to watch the anime someday but with so many episodes I have been lazy to do that).

Anyway, this last chapter was so damn exciting; Luffy's appearance is amazing; one can even get an idea of his huge power just by looking at him. Also, the beating was sweet. It reminded me of super saiyan 4 for some reason. That aside, I guess if Bellamy was any stronger, he could have pulled something similar with his springs.

 

And yeah, I agree with Shradow that is amazing how someone can come up with all sorts of powers and things from "simple" abilities. Basically, every ability can become good if the user is creative enough to learn how to use it at its maximum potential, and basically there aren't, or shouldn't be, "bad" abilites out there.

@Bold-I think it's the way his eyes are darkened. Thought that at the back of my mind too.

 

But that 2nd paragraph basically sums up why I love One Piece. You'll be hard-pressed to find creativity as inspiring as Oda's.

 

I wonder if Gear Fifth will ever be a thing? If so, probably at the very end of the series.

[Darj]

I wonder if Gear Fifth will ever be a thing? If so, probably at the very end of the series.

 

Hmm, since the series appears to still have a long way to go, I dare to say the last Gear may be the Seventh or Eighth.

 

[Shradow]

Gear Fourth is reminiscent of Nightmare Luffy, so Gear Fifth will obviously involve Afro Luffy.

[Northern Sage]

Gear Fourth is reminiscent of Nightmare Luffy, so Gear Fifth will obviously involve Afro Luffy.

Obviously going to inflate his brain to become smarter ::

Yeah, there's definitely room for upgrades story-wise…

[Progenitor]

In terms of the side effect, another theory of what gear 4 would be was the concept of Vulcanization.

 

When rubber is subjected rapidly to extreme temperature and pressure, it's Tensile Strength (basically a measure of hardness) skyrockets.  I won't go into the details, but it has to do with the polymer chains in rubber being re bound so as to prevent them from moving freely.

 

This makes rubber as a material exponentially stronger and more durable, but all but removes its elasticity.

 

With all the pressure Luffy puts on his limbs to attack while in Gear 4, I think it might be a reasonable conclusion that if he stays in that state long enough he will wind up Vulcanizing his body.  It will be a lot tougher and more durable yes, but he won't be able to stretch very far, if at all.  This would also be a very large risk, as De-Vulcanizing rubber is very, very difficult, as most of the time the Carbon-Sulfur linkages are not easily and readily broken once bonded, without additional regents, along with another process of heat and pressure.

 

I also want to point out that Gear 4 doesn't work exactly like Bellamy's devil fruit.  They both involve elasticity yes, but luffy's power goes beyond that by doing something a spring cannot: negative movement from the point of oscillation in order to increase potential energy.

 

In laymans terms, if you were to theoretically push a spring with enough force to lay it completely flat, that would be considered it's maximum potential energy due to elasticity.  Now lets say you could push even harder, so hard that the spring goes from flat to expanding in the opposite direction.  Does it's potential energy increase?  No.  You actually start to lose energy because of the compression on the system being removed in the opposite direction.  And this is the difference.

 

Luffy compresses his limbs inside of themselves, similar to how a spring builds tension, but he seems to be pushing them beyond  the point of oscillation; beyond the point of maximum potential energy due to compression.  How then?  How does this work?  Simple.  He moves the point of oscillation.  Rather than just compressing his body, he moves the point at which his limb can be completely flat backwards, and thus artificially increasing the distance in which his limbs can contract by adding the potential energy of the parts of the limbs that are being "hollowed out" by stretching inwards.

 

It's the same as if you attached rubber bands to the flat spring, put that system in a tube, tied the bands to the outside, and continued to push.  Not only would the spring go off, but the rubber bands would propel it forward.

 

But that's not all.  Remember that in Gear 4 Luffy's muscles are filled with air.  And what happens when you compress air?  You build pressure.  So not only do you have the Potential Energy of his compressed arm or lage, you also are adding the Potential Energy of the cavity being stretched inwards, AND the Potential Energy due to the pressure inside his body.

 

Bellamy cannot create cavities inside his own body (unless he makes a spring system, which could be possible but would be very weird), and he also does not gain additional energy due to pressure buildup inside his body.

[Shradow]

[Darj]

That was a really good explanation.

 

But couldn't Bellamy in a way do the same as Luffy? I mean, push the springs inside himself similar to how Luffy did, going "beyond the point of oscilation" (if I understood the concept correctly) and then release his spring-loaded fist? Of course, he cannot replicate the potential energy from the air pressure, but I think it would still pack quite the punch. Or he could stack several of these "reverse-compressed" springs in his arm, like a chain of springs, for a stronger punch? or is that not how physics works?

 

Bringing this up mostly because Bellamy became one of my favorite characters after this arc, and I would like to discuss the potential for him to become stronger and do awesome stuff.

[Progenitor]

That was a really good explanation.

 

But couldn't Bellamy in a way do the same as Luffy? I mean, push the springs inside himself similar to how Luffy did, going "beyond the point of oscilation" (if I understood the concept correctly) and then release his spring-loaded fist? Of course, he cannot replicate the potential energy from the air pressure, but I think it would still pack quite the punch. Or he could stack several of these "reverse-compressed" springs in his arm, like a chain of springs, for a stronger punch? or is that not how physics works?

 

Bringing this up mostly because Bellamy became one of my favorite characters after this arc, and I would like to discuss the potential for him to become stronger and do awesome stuff.

 

Basically, as far as I know, Bellamy can't create cavities inside his body, so there is nowhere for the spring to actually go beyond completely flat.

Now if he CAN, then he could do a spring system.  Basically 1 spring pushing into another spring.  the first spring moves backwards into his body, while the 2nd spring acts as it normally does.  When he releases the punch, he spring that was collapsed inside his bod would expand, along with the other spring in the same direction.  This would marginally, if not double, the Potential Energy of a punch.

 

But that all depends if he is able to contract springs within his own body.

[Darj]

I would think he can. The way I see it, he could simply push the spring beyond its limit, maybe using conical springs so the smaller end can be pushed and go through the wider end (or vice-versa, I don't know); it may distort the shape of the spring or even his body, but I bet he could make it work as long as the spring retains its ability of returning to its original shape.

[Progenitor]

I would think he can. The way I see it, he could simply push the spring beyond its limit, maybe using conical springs so the smaller end can be pushed and go through the wider end (or vice-versa, I don't know); it may distort the shape of the spring or even his body, but I bet he could make it work as long as the spring retains its ability of returning to its original shape.

 

You could be correct.  In such a circumstance it would be possible.  Very easily in fact.  The question then lies on whether or not Bellamy can, in a sense make springs within springs in order to establish a system. His power is very Logia-ish, so I don't see it being that unreasonable.

 

Who knows?  Maybe Bellamy will come back with the magic of plot and develop such a technique from watching Luffy in Gear 4.  Better yet, make it so that Bellamy actually delivers the killing blow, as poetic justice for how he was treated.  That would be 1 case of plot armor I would be ok with.