User blog comment:Blackendedsoul/Difference/@comment-10543621-20150326055041

This is how I see it. Haoshoku enforces your will against your target's will. To a certain extend, a person will tends to reflect their strength and standing as well. In the scene when Rayleigh unleashes his Haki, that was a wide spread burst, meant to take out weak willed people. The crews present there obviously were not average people and would possess certain levels of willpower to get where they were.

Now if Rayleigh were to focus his Haki on any of the lesser members, probably in the same way as Luffy and Chinjao were going at each other, I expect he might be able to take them out. On Luffy himself, I highly doubt it. Even if Luffy is much weaker compared to Rayleigh, his determination and will power is obviously strong given how stubborn he is. Now the elephant though is a different matter. For animals and beasts, I believe their 'willpower' would be more closely tied to physical strength than for humans. Humans being irrational can be stubborn beyond their actual abilities. Beasts however, would possess the instinct to fear what is stronger than themselves, and likewise in converse bare confidence against what is weaker.

I see the beast's reaction to Haoshoku as an instinct sort of thing, where the beast instinctively knows that the said person is stronger from the Haki blast, and is thus subdued and cowers. If Luffy had tried to exert haki on one of the beasts before he was capable of defeating it, I expect the beast would be able to sense the bluff and obviously not succumb to it. When Luffy became obviously stronger than the beast, the beast knew as well and could then be subdued with haki.

In summary, I think the strength to exert Haoshoku is more linked to your actual abilities, but the ability to resist haoshoku can go beyond your actual abilities and would have more to do with the actual willpower aspect in the sense of a human, where only when faced with overwhelming power, would you actually succumb.