Alright, folks, time to unravel the mystery of Mihawk’s “not-so-observant” Observation Haki. So, picture this: Zoro gets sent to Mihawk’s castle, all eager to become a better swordsman. Mihawk, the master himself, takes one look at Zoro and basically says, “You’re pathetic for getting beat up by baboons, my dude.”
Now, that’s where the fun begins. Zoro proudly claims that he’s actually whupped all those baboons. And Mihawk? Well, he’s as shocked as a cat who just met a cucumber. Now, here’s the thing – a top-tier Observation Haki user, like Rayleigh, Luffy, katakuri, or our one-armed wonder, Shanks, would have probably sniffed out the truth faster than you can say “Baboon Beatdown.”
So, what gives? Well, it’s possible that Mihawk’s Observation Haki isn’t up to par, or maybe he let his guard down, thinking he was in a safe zone (I mean, it’s not like the baboons could call for backup, right?). Or, and this is a long shot, Oda might not have totally ironed out the Haki system back then, but let’s be real, Oda usually knows what he’s doing.
Now, keep in mind, this was all pre-timeskip, and Oda was still figuring out the Haki rules.
So, we can’t judge someone’s Haki skills based on the “before” times. Maybe Mihawk was just following the predictive path of Observation, rather than the “I can see you from a mile away” path.
And let’s not forget that you’ve got to actively use long-range Observation Haki. Like, remember that time at the end of Fishman Island when Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji suddenly got all “Haki-tuned” and went after Caribou? That’s the good stuff.
But here’s the kicker – long-range Observation Haki is its own thing. For instance, during the Onigashima raid, Usopp sniped the watchtower lookouts, and even Jinbei had a moment of “Wait, I sensed something for a sec there.”
So, maybe Luffy’s got that Future Sight Haki on lock, but Usopp, the sniper extraordinaire, seems to be the long-range Haki champ. In that “Film Red” movie, it took both Usopp and Yasopp’s Observation Haki to pull off some dimension-piercing coordination.