User blog comment:Blackendedsoul/How much canon is LEGIT?/@comment-1595565-20120323204419

Interesting blog, but some of your examples are slightly misconstrued. What Pell meant by five flying fruits is fruits that allow for free, independent, uninterrupted flying. So Robin and Shiki would be out by that measure. Second, when Crocodile said he was the strongest when fighting in the desert, he meant when he was fighting in the desert, since he was literally in his element. Some of the things like you listed can simply be written off as hubris, like Krieg saying he's the strongest ever. I've said that about myself many times, but it doesn't mean I was serious about it. Gin agreeing with him could simply be support or admiration of his captain's abilities.

As for why Oda decided to make 5 characters able to fly, and interestingly enough, the exact translation was abilities that grant flight, so it might not just be fruits, I have a theory about why only 5. I think he didn't want to overuse flight as an ability, so he decided to make a cutoff for the number of characters who could fly. Otherwise, it would just become an overused plot device that would make the series dull.

One minor inconsistency I've noticed has to do with large numbers of thrown objects. The best example I can think of is Decken throwing arrows at Hachi. The number of arrows that ultimately hit him was about 2-5 less than the number thrown. I've seen it one or two other places in the series as well.