"Devil Fruits & Logias
A lot of people don’t seem to understand Devil Fruits or how things work within One Piece so I thought I’d take to time to address some of these erroneous assumptions.
1) The abilities produces (Paramecia) are strange and not natural at all.
People seem to be under the impression that Devil Fruits in One Piece are somehow magical or mystical. This is false. People assume this because Devil Fruits are fruits that somehow give people superhuman abilities. They cannot think of an explanation for this so they go throughout the series labeling every ability they see as magic simply because they themselves do not deem this to be natural or cannot explain them. Everyone should really try to keep in mind that this is fiction and every little abnormal thing you see that wouldn’t exist in our world is not automatically magic or magic related. People have even tried to point out weird things like Lassoo or Funkfreed in an attempt to prove(and I’m using that term rather loosely here) that Devil Fruits are magic based. And the logic behind this is merely that something like this is so far from the norm that this can’t possibly be natural. However as I said earlier this is fiction and Natural=/=Normal.
The abilities are not natural by our world’s standard, but the OP world is vastly different from ours, creatures such as Dwarfs & Dragon’s are part of the natural world. Just because something isn’t normal, doesn’t mean it isn’t natural. This is also the same world in which people 1000 years before the current storyline had technology capable of building an electrically powered ancient city, robots and facilitated travel from their planet to the moon.
For people who still don’t completely comprehend that being natural IS NOT the same as being normal, instead of just reciting definitions let me just give a small example seeing as how this isn’t a difficult concept to grasp.
Take a look at these odd weather phenomena.
http://www.planetpals.com/weather_phenomena.html
You know that these things do not occur due to magic or anything supernatural because those things do not exist. They are phenomena that occur via perfectly natural laws. Yet how many of these could you consider to be normal? See the difference between the two terms? Good.
2) DF’s are magical/not natural
Devil Fruits aren’t understood by most of the population of the OP world, which is why some people call it magic. Devil Fruits naturally (as in, without human interference) re-spawn when a DF user dies in some location around the globe.
http://images.wikia.com/onepiece/images/d/dd/Lassoo_Manga_Infobox.png]Lassoo
Not once in any interview or SBS question involving Devil Fruits has Oda ever even referred to or implied Devil Fruits to be magic related. In fact he’s even stated that Luffy’s rubber is completely natural rubber[SBS Volume 8]. Now natural rubber does start off as a goo(though you could simply consider this as natural rubber that functions in a similar manner to processed rubber seeing as how this is fiction and Oda can do whatever he wants) but the main point here is that Oda does not consider this ability to be magical. If Devil Fruits were actually magic then Luffy’s fruit would be no exception. However we can see that this is clearly not the case. If Devil Fruits were magic Oda would have referred to them as such. Yet he did not.
Even further evidence of Devil Fruits not being magical is the fact that they are scientifically understood and can be scientifically reproduced via natural materials. These scientists aren’t going around waving magic wands around a cauldron and chanting magic words in order to make a Devil Fruit appear. Nor do they manipulate any magic or mystical energies. They simply go into the lab and reproduce a DF via scientific means. Seeing as how Devil Fruits have a scientific explanation then they can’t be considered magic regardless of ones opinion on the matter because magic and the supernatural are things that are defined as being mysterious and cannot be understood by science. If something has a scientific explanation then it is by definition not magical.
3) Logia’s
Oda stated[SBS Volume 30] that Logias are capable of changing their human bodies into something found within nature meaning that what they change into is the exact thing you can find anywhere within nature. Meaning they are natural. To someone with common sense the matter should have been settled right there. However there are those who try to base the context of Oda’s statement on the context of a completely different series. We’ve already established that he doesn’t consider these abilities to be magic. Nor do the abilities operate on supernatural/magic based principals. So why is that people try to equate the logia’s natural elemental manipulation with other series that require that element to be infused/altered with a supernatural/magic energy before they can be controlled? Such things clearly don’t apply to Logias who can control their element if it happens to be lying around even when they didnt produce said element.
They’ve been shown to manipulate their element outside of what they produce from their bodies, such as Crocodile, who states that he is stronger in the desert;
http://img.batoto.net/comics/2013/04/30/o/read51800ae8e36d3/img000008.jpg
Which is shown by how he is able to manipulate the sand around the area when he fights against Luffy and send a sandstorm to Yuba
http://img.batoto.net/comics/2013/04/30/o/read51800ae8e36d3/img000007.jpg
http://img.batoto.net/comics/2013/04/30/o/read51800ae8e36d3/img000015.jpg
http://img.batoto.net/comics/2013/01/29/o/read510834719bf6d/img000002.png
Enel causing lightning bolt to strike from the clouds by merely waving his hand.
http://www.onepiecebay.net/manga/mangas/One%20Piece/294%20-%20Raigoh/One%20Piece%20-%20294%20-%2004.png
http://www.onepiecebay.net/manga/mangas/One%20Piece/294%20-%20Raigoh/One%20Piece%20-%20294%20-%2005.png
Or Ceaser Clown manipulating oxygen in the atmosphere to prevent Luffy from breathing and stopping Usopp's fire based attack
http://www.onepiecebay.net/manga/mangas/One%20Piece/674%20-%20The%20Bystanders/07.jpg
http://www.onepiecebay.net/manga/mangas/One%20Piece/681%20-%20Luffy%20vs%20Master/06.png
http://www.onepiecebay.net/manga/mangas/One%20Piece/681%20-%20Luffy%20vs%20Master/07.png
Oda didn’t state that they mimic the element or produce a fake duplicate, and the context of the series has never presented logia’s as having produced fake forms of elements that appear in nature. Just the opposite. He even explicitly states that[SBS Volume 35] Logias turn their bodies into the element rather than merely copying or producing a fake.
4) Public Perception and superstition vs Reality and knowledge
The notion that superstition and magic are nonsense and that there is a natural scientific explanation for everything is a prevalent theme throughout One Piece.
Oda(as previously pointed out) does not consider these abilities to be magic nor does he refer to them as such. The idea that Devil Fruits are Magic is nothing more than superstition brought on by the ignorant populace who don’t understand what they are and can’t think of anything else to call them besides magic. An example of this would be Kinemon a Samurai from place thats pretty much ignorant from being independent and closed off from the rest of the world not knowing that he ate a Devil Fruit and thinking that he is able to use sorcery. It should be noted that he also mistakes Robin and Nami’s attacks/abilities as “Ninja techniques” and Usopp’s pop greens as “witchcraft”.
Blueno’s statement further implies that theres nothing “supernatural” about Devil Fruits. Rumors of magic or devils are viewed as nonsense to the grand line scientists when it comes to DFs.
http://www.onepiecebay.net/manga/mangas/One%20Piece/385%20-%20There%20is%20a%20Way/One_Piece-v40-149[Null].png
This gives more credence to the fact that the assumption of DFs being magical is just the result of common people making things up because they have no idea how they actually work. This notion of there being a natural scientific explanation for everything in their world is a reoccurring theme in One Piece as seen when Noland describes superstition, blood sacrifice rituals, and belief in gods as foolishness and continually perpetuates the idea that superstition is something that only exists in the minds of the ignorant.(Theres a myriad of examples of this in Skypeia)
http://www.onepiecebay.net/manga/mangas/One%20Piece/289%20-%20Full%20moon/One%20Piece%20-%20289%20-%2015.png
http://www.onepiecebay.net/manga/mangas/One%20Piece/289%20-%20Full%20moon/One%20Piece%20-%20289%20-%2016.png
This theme is seen yet again when members of the new Fishmen pirates confused Nami’s Sorcery Climatact for actual magic. Nami then corrects them by denouncing that and states that her ability is purely science.
http://www.onepiecebay.net/manga/mangas/One%20Piece/640%20-%20Fishman%20Island%20Rising/02.png
http://www.onepiecebay.net/manga/mangas/One%20Piece/640%20-%20Fishman%20Island%20Rising/03.png
It is clear that the people’s interpretation of these fruits and abilities is false hence why Oda states[SBS Volume 48] that Vegapunk the world’s greatest scientist in the series will explain what they really are. If these abilities were simply magic like everyone thinks then there would be no big mystery as to what they “really are” in the first place. Devil Fruits may give rise to some abnormal and seemingly logic defying abilities but that in and of itself does not inherently make them magical."
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